Canary Cry

Chapter 2: Birthdays and Nightmares

Chapter 2: Birthdays and Nightmares

STAR CITY

The Lance Apartment

July 6, 02:34 PDT

It took a couple seconds for Dinah to process what had woken her up, but in a flash she recognized the sound of thrashing and quiet whimpers and all but leaped out of bed. The LED lights around the girl's ceiling radiating a soft orange. Acting as a night light and illuminating the small blonde tossing and turning, getting caught in her sheets.

"Kate, Kate. Hey, wake up, it's okay. It's okay. It's just a bad dream." Dinah, from experience knew that waking Kate up was not the most pleasant experience but a necessary one. Dinah wouldn't let her suffer either way but if left to wake up on her own then she'd start screaming and they had upstairs neighbors.

Icy blue eyes, warmed at the core with concern and love, met Kate's silvery hue as she gasped awake at Dinah's slight shaking. Her forehead gleaming in the low light of the room with cold sweat, eyes darting around in panic. A hitch in her breath indicating what was about to happen.

"Kate, it's me. You're safe. Breathe." Dinah pushed aside the knowledge of Kate's aversion to touch and held her cheeks in her hands. Making the teenager look at her, recognize her, and process. Kate's mouth snapped shut, her scream suffocated in her throat.

"Dinah-" It was moments like this that Kate was her most vulnerable. And while the teenager hated it, she couldn't lie and say that, deep down, she hated being taken care of like this. Treated like she was worth more than the checks the state sent out, a punching bag, or free child care.

The woman just shushed the girl and pulled her gently into her shoulder, holding her as long as Kate would let her as she shook. Dinah did her best to fight back the mist in her eyes, carding her fingers through Kate's hair, looking at the reflection in the window on the far wall across the bedroom. It was unfocused and blurry and Dinah, for a split second thought Kate was-

Dinah closed off that avenue instantly, she couldn't go there, not right now. Instead, the woman focused on the small house plants and succulents on the window sill and over the practically exploding bookshelf bedside the pane of glass and beside a desk Dinah had bought on Amazon for twenty bucks.

"The directions aren't even in English." Kate signed; her fingers clumsy with the new way of communication but sharp enough to show her annoyance. Punctuating her mood by tossing the unfolded instructions down by Dinah as the woman lifted a small screwdriver.

"That just makes it more fun," Dinah smirked, signing back to the teenager, her movements just as clumsy. They were learning together. "Think of it like an adventure."

"Sure. Whatever you say." Kate rolled her eyes and leaned back on her hands. Twisting the soft carpet of the area rug she and Dinah sat on between her fingers. Kate unable to fight the small smirk that came to her lips as she watched Dinah struggle for a couple minutes, relying on the poorly drawn picture examples of the construction steps to no avail.

Kate never made it know how grateful she was to Dinah for buying that stupid desk, no one had ever bought her anything like that before. Had ever taken the thought or time or money to try and make her life easier.

"You'll thank me later. This is gonna be a life saver when you start school and we get you a computer. It'll give you your own space."

That's what Dinah had told her, and Kate had to fight the stinging in her eyes. It was still early on in her time with Dinah, when the woman was jumping through major hoops to earn the girl's trust and prove that living with her wouldn't be anything like the places she had been before. And Dinah's efforts paid off. This moment proof of that.