Taking In The View (Wally)

[BARBARA GORDON]

A school trip to the botanical gardens was not exactly the adventure that Barbara had been looking for when she rose from her bed that morning, hoping to find something mentally stimulating that might otherwise distract her. After her encounter with Catwoman and a couple of thugs in a dark alley the night before, many of the muscles in Barbara's body were aching from the amount of abuse that they had taken. For the most part she was still in one piece, save for a lovely bruise to her chest and a strain in her right wrist. The woman who they had cornered had gotten away without a scratch, and that was the only thing that truly mattered to the red-head. And thanks to the rather sudden appearance of the thief known on the streets as "Catwoman," Barbara hadn't had nearly the issue in dealing with those men as she had originally thought she would.



Returning home without being heard or spotted by Jim Gordon, though, had been another matter entirely.



But now her suit was quietly tucked away in a shoebox and hidden beneath a mountain of clothes in her closet. There was a bit of a hole that would need to be patched up from where she had nearly been nicked with the tip of a knife, but otherwise the spandex ensemble had held up rather well considering the fact that she had been forced to make it herself. It certainly wasn't the same heavy duty material that Batman was likely to use. If someone had pulled a gun on her last night and fired, there would have been nothing that she could have done to save herself from suffering the effects of having a hot piece of metal push its way through her skin. That was something she was definitely going to have to consider though, if she wanted to maintain the appearance of the Bat through the streets of Gotham at night.



Somewhere in the distance Babs could hear the voice of her teacher droning on about the expectations of this field trip, expressing how disappointed she would be if they returned without having learned something from the many hours they were going to spend in the gardens. Sighing softly to herself from the back of the group, the young woman quietly shifted her body until she was able to hide behind a few pieces of shrubbery and slip away unnoticed by the rest of her peers. She was all too familiar with the gardens, having spent a great deal of time sitting alone in them when she had first been forced to come to Gotham City and live with her uncle after the death of her parents. It hadn't really been all that long ago, she mused to herself, passing a few brightly coloured flowers as she wandered a little deeper into the gardens. What was it now, just over a year since Jim Gordon had opened his home to her? And while she had been very recluse at first, having as little to do with him as possible, Barbara had come to eventually accept her situation and love the man more than she had ever loved her actual father. It wasn't that Roger had been abusive but, well...with his drinking problem, he had played the part of the absent parent well.



Only when she felt that she was a safe distance from the others did Barbara allow herself to sit slowly onto a bench in a secluded area, taking comforting in the soft smell of the white roses that sat next to her. This had become a favourite spot for the girl, who enjoyed the comfort of live roses in their various shades. Once picked, the poor things never lasted very long. But here, in the gardens where they were allowed to thrive, they were some of the most beautiful things that she had ever seen in Gotham City.