Dinah Laurel Lance (![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
raptorcanaria) wrote2014-02-07 07:19 pm
raptorcanaria) wrote2014-02-07 07:19 pm
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It's really just a flying visit home: Dinah was going to check on the shop, run some errands, then go right back to the bar and check on Lucas.
And then there was a flash of green outside, and her doorbell rang.
And now - there's Hal, and a young man Dinah recognises - Speedy, Ollie's ward and one time partner, in his regular clothes, pale and bloodshot, and looking about ready to throw up on her doormat.
"Dinah," Hal says, "Speedy needs a place to stay. He'll explain."
And then - he's off.
"Right," says Speedy, "lady, get ready for a sob story."
It's 7pm.
He tries to tell her how: why he started taking heroin, how he felt when Ollie turned away, what he was thinking, but she doesn't really think it's important. What matters now is what he's going to do now, his choices tonight and from now on. He stops trying to explain himself away.
His name is Roy Harper. she tells him hers.
They make small talk: he talks about growing up on the Reservation, she tells him about the Justice Society, and her Mom, and especially her dad.
By 8pm they've lapsed into silence. Dinah orders Chinese food, he declines.
At 9pm, Roy is shaking, sitting on the floor, shying away from Dinah's touch so violently she can see him barely suppress the urge to lash out at her. He runs away to her kitchen, and she watches him run his head under the tap. Only when he is sitting on the linoleum, sopping wet, does he let her hug him, and he sobs into her shoulder.
At 10pm, he's sleeping fitfully on her couch, having refused the bed.
At 11pm, Dinah is napping in her armchair when a movement wakes her. Three seconds after opening her eyes she's pulling Roy away from her door, blocking a punch he throws at her and throwing him gently to the ground.
He stays down.
Quietly, he says: "Thank you."
And then there was a flash of green outside, and her doorbell rang.
And now - there's Hal, and a young man Dinah recognises - Speedy, Ollie's ward and one time partner, in his regular clothes, pale and bloodshot, and looking about ready to throw up on her doormat.
"Dinah," Hal says, "Speedy needs a place to stay. He'll explain."
And then - he's off.
"Right," says Speedy, "lady, get ready for a sob story."
It's 7pm.
He tries to tell her how: why he started taking heroin, how he felt when Ollie turned away, what he was thinking, but she doesn't really think it's important. What matters now is what he's going to do now, his choices tonight and from now on. He stops trying to explain himself away.
His name is Roy Harper. she tells him hers.
They make small talk: he talks about growing up on the Reservation, she tells him about the Justice Society, and her Mom, and especially her dad.
By 8pm they've lapsed into silence. Dinah orders Chinese food, he declines.
At 9pm, Roy is shaking, sitting on the floor, shying away from Dinah's touch so violently she can see him barely suppress the urge to lash out at her. He runs away to her kitchen, and she watches him run his head under the tap. Only when he is sitting on the linoleum, sopping wet, does he let her hug him, and he sobs into her shoulder.
At 10pm, he's sleeping fitfully on her couch, having refused the bed.
At 11pm, Dinah is napping in her armchair when a movement wakes her. Three seconds after opening her eyes she's pulling Roy away from her door, blocking a punch he throws at her and throwing him gently to the ground.
He stays down.
Quietly, he says: "Thank you."