Chapter 10; August 11th, 2004

= = = ( My Magic Kiss ) = = =

"Dinah?' Helena asked in disbelief. The blonde nodded, running a gentle hand through the brunette's short, unkempt hair. The older girl reached up and touched the hand to make sure it wasn't a dream. She felt the soft warm skin of a hand she'd missed holding. She couldn't help the emotions that suddenly surged through her, and before she even really stopped to think about it, she dived forward and claimed the younger woman's lips in a deep, needing kiss.

They were warm, soft, and giving; perfectly molded to the brunette's mouth as though they were the key to a lock that was dying to be opened. She'd found the match, and like a wave of wants - passion seemed to overtake her every sense. She could feel the soft skin of the cheek under her hand, the slightly fruity taste of the blonde lips and tongue, the sound of her hart as it hammered in the younger girl's chest, but it was the girl's scent that made her realize.

She smelled the way she always had; clean, and fresh. Someone that'd been laying, unmoving, in a hospital bed for half a week did not smell that way. And although Helena's smile and tears of joy were nothing compared to the overwhelming feeling of gratitude she'd felt for whoever has returned her angel to her, she felt ten times worse when the truth came crashing down around her. {This can't be real,} she thought, {But I don't want to wake from this dream}. Pulling back from the kiss, she kept her eyes closed, unwilling to believe.

"No Helena," Dinah said, smiling sadly, "This isn't real." Helena finally opened her eyes with a look of confusion and the blonde sighed, trying to figure out how to explain it. "Think 'The Matrix'; all your senses are electrical impulses interpreted by your brain . . . I just figured out how to send you the right kind of signals."

"So this isn't a dream?" She asked, not sure what was going on. Dinah gave her a small smile, and shook her head. "But it's so real . . . everything, the room – " She said, pointing around to the atmosphere around them. "– How is this . . . ?" she trailed of, not quite sure what she was asking or if she wanted to know.

"We mind jumped." Dinah said gently. "The moment you touched me, the second you first held my hand after what the doctors told you . . . you mind was reaching out to me. I got wave after wave of memories and thoughts. I couldn't shut it off, I've seen everything you've seen the entire time you've been holding my hand, Helena." Half her mouth climbed into a lop-sided grin, and she looked down at the hand in her lap.

"I would have mind-warped you sooner, but I needed a little something more . . . your kisses." She said, blushing, but looking back into those blue eyes, "Your kisses are the key." She said even more quietly. "All the things you feel, see, taste, hear, smell . . . all of them were yours; your memories. Seems I've been on your mind a lot these past few days. I just wanted to make you feel comfortable." Helena smiled, and sat closer to her on the bed, taking both the girls hands in hers, unable to help the sadness within her when the truth struck her.

This wouldn't be when their connection was broken. When she let go, Dinah would still be in a coma, and Helena would have to see the frail body in the bed rather than this beautiful pink-cheeked girl with her now. She didn't want to wake up, not ever. She wanted this, she wanted the lie, even if she knew that's what it was. It was better than the reality and the truth that came with it.

"Helena, stop thinking like that." Dinah told her softly, making the brunette look at her a bit side-ways. "We're still linked. I'm trying to block your thoughts to give you a bit more privacy but . . . the pain you're in, the thoughts you're latching on to . . . they're hard to ignore; they seem to be the only things on your mind." She said with a sad laugh.

"Can you blame me?" Helena asked back defensively. Dinah laced the fingers of their hands together, and sighed deeply.

"There is good here, Helena. Can't you see that?" Silence, and a blank stair fixated on their hands was all she got in return. "Helena, do you remember what the doctors told you? What Barbara told you?"

"About what? They all said a lot . . . most of which I still don't understand."

"Hel; do I look brain-dead to you?" At that the woman looked up at her, a glimmer of confusion the only emotion evident on her gaunt face. "Helena I couldn't be here, in your mind with you, if I was brain-dead. In fact, I'm far from it. Do you remember when I first arrived in New Gothem and you and Barbara ran those meta tests on me to see if I was lying about my abilities?" the brunette's eye narrowed as she remembered.

"The kind of tests the doctors are running on my brain aren't working, Hel. My brain works differently than human ones. In fact; that's why they think I'm brain dead. As my powers got stronger, my body had to adjust, do you understand?" After a second, Helena cracked and shook her head.

"Well, when a person does weight training, their body has to adjust - - change physically - - to transform to better accommodate the new abilities the person's body is developing. It's the exact same with my brain. All my strength from telepathy comes from my brain, Helena. So when I really needed more strength then my brain could handle, it had to change - - adjust."

"But Dinah," Helena said haltingly, interrupting her, "You brain was liquefied inside your skull. Not only that but the doctors said that your brain was swelling inside your head . . . there are so many reasons why you should be long dead by now." She said it as though she was almost scared that the blonde wasn't. Not that she wanted it, but the idea that she might be in terrible suffering and there was nothing she could do to stop it scared her more than anything.

"Sweet-heart," Dinah said affectionately, placing a calming hand against the older woman's cheek. "Look at us; think about where we are! I made the trip all the way into your head from my body, absorbed all your thoughts and memories from the past four days, I can make you hear and feel and taste and see things as though they were real . . . do you honestly think I could do that if I were dead? Or even close to dying?" While Helena tried to absorb this information the younger girl continued on.

"Helena, Liquid can absorb more pressure than a gel can. In order to stop the bullets, that's the change I had to make. Now, there were some less than pleasant side-effects to the alteration, but I wouldn't change my decision." She said it solidly, but Helena's face still looked guilty as she heard it. "Hel." She stated firmly, forcing the girl to face her, "Even if the change would have killed me, I still would have done it. But I got lucky - - I'm still alive. Now, what I need for you to do is to tell Barbara what I told you."

"What?' Helena asked, a little lost again.

"Tell her everything I've explained to you. She'll be able to formulate some new tests, and maybe she can help me figure out how to get out of here."

"What?" Helena asked quickly, "You're trapped?!" Dinah blushed, looking down at her lap.

"Sort of." She muttered. Just as the brunette looked like she was about to go on a verbal tirade, Dinah continued, "Look! Sleep is the body's natural method to healing the brain. A Coma is just forcing the body to stay in the deepest level of sleep so that maximum progress can be made . . . if this is how I have to get better then I can wait. But if there's a way to figure out how to safely speed up the process, I'll gladly consider it."

"Dinah, listen – "

"No, Helena; you listen." She stated, sounding a lot more mature and in-charge than she usually did on the out-side, "You want me out of here, then I'm going to need your help. I need you to act as the messenger between Barbara and myself, I can't mind-warp with her."

"Why not?" at that the blonde seemed to get a little huffy and sighed.

"Where's the coat?" she asked, sounding annoyed.

"What coat?"

"Your coat! The one your mother gave you - - I was wearing it the night you almost got shot. . . Do you remember when I told you I got a vibe from your duster?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, the vibe turned into a full-on upper-cut to my central nerves-system." She ground out, trying to control some of her anger. "I tried to link with my doctors, I tried to link with Barbara, even Alfred. Seems the only way I can get into a person's head is if they kiss me." She smiled sarcastically, "And no; I will not kiss Barbara. Besides I doubt it'd work."

"Why do you say that?" Helena asked, not liking the idea of the blonde kissing Barbara either.

"Ask your mother." She said flatly, "I think this is her way of forcing us to work out our issues."

"My mother?" Helena asked quietly, hesitant.

"Yeah. It was her essence I felt when I picked up the coat that first time; it was her that told me to wear it that night, and it was her that allowed my brain to make the change fast enough to not only save you, but also to survive." She smiled at that though, "I think she saw in me the same things she liked about herself. We were both raised poorly, but came out of it as morally forward people . . . and we would both give our lives to save you; in so many ways." She ran her hand down the brunette's cheek, wiping away a tear that'd suddenly fallen from the older woman's eye. Then Dinah chuckled darkly.

"But, I think this whole link-through-kisses thing is over-stepping her motherly bounds. Besides, I think she knows that even if I kissed some one else . . . My heart still belongs to you, Hel." With that she smiled and ran her hands through the brunette's hair again. {How did I get this lucky?} Helena wondered, {Where did I go right?}

"Just born with it in your heart, babe. Can't be helped." With that the blonde sighed, pulling the older woman's face closer. "Ready to go?" she asked, her warm breath feeling so good against Helena's lips. But it wasn't enough. The internal panic that coursed through the brunette at the thought of leaving was enough to make her almost lash-out at the blonde.

"What? Go?! Now?!" she asked, almost frantic, "I can't go now! I just got here! What if this was all just a dream, and when I wake up I have to go back to watching you get thinner and paler by the day? Or - - even worse! - - what if this is real, and after I leave, I can't get back in again, and Barbara can't help you get better – "

"HELENA!" Dinah practically yelled, pulling her back in again. "Can you feel this?" she said, adding a little pressure to the hand she had at the woman's cheek, "Can you feel this?" she asked, running her other hand down the brunette's back slowly, causing her to shiver, "Do you want to feel me kiss you again?" she asked softly, breathlessly, leaning so close their lips were centimeters apart. Helena nodded.

"Yes . . . I can feel it . . . and I want it." she said, made breathless and dizzy by the powers contained in the blonde's head. {But they feel so real! . . . and they feel so good . . .} Unable to stand it any longer, her body betraying her, she found herself leaning in, and her lips tenitively reaching out to grasp those of the young woman she'd come to love so much in such a short period of time. As she felt the soft sigh against her lips as they came together, she nearly swooned. Even if everything she was feeling was dreamed up in the girl's head . . . she certainly knew how to spoil a girl!

But almost as soon as she'd started to fall into that thought, and begin to indulge in the feeling of the lips under hers, she noticed them slowly grown colder; she silent sound of the room fading, slowly replaced by the beep-beep of the heart monitor as it droned away; it seemed all that remained was the soft and supple feeling of the lips under her, though the smell she'd not missed one bit can along with it – of overly-sterile floors, heavy-starched sheets, and hospitals. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw that she had been dumped back into reality; her worst nightmare.

"Helena!" She heard Barbara's voice calling from behind her, sounding shocked, "What are you doing?!" Lifting her head up and away from the girl's, she spun on her heals to face Barbara. She had stopped in the doorway, looking stunned to find the brunette doing what she was doing, a large stack of papers in her lap. But Helena couldn't help the smile that broke out over her face as tears came down her cheeks again - - this time in reality.

"Barbara!" She choked, "She's alive... and she's awake!"

.

( To Be Continued . . .)

VixenRaign

Author's Note: Sorry this up-date took me so long, I can't even begin to explain the myriad of shit that went on and that got in the way... so tragic. But the point is – Learn To Fly Free still lives on, and I plan to keep up-dating it now that I have a bit more time to do so. But that does not mean I will be up-dating this thing every week; oh no! But it means I won't wait over 9 months either. Hope that's somewhat to your liking.

To Dallas: I decided that I had to at least try and up-date this fic as both Roman Holiday and Lazy August were not going to be completed by you're b-day. For that I am terribly sorry, but I hope this chapter is a small consolation. Enjoy. Vixie