The Space Between

Chapter One: Drug Related Gang Stuff

If she wanted to be completely honest, charging in like she had done wasn't the best decision that she had ever made. Sure it didn't hold up against everything with the Joker but it was still in her top ten worst decisions, right after the whole line dancing incident.

As she held her hand against her injured side, hoping the pressure would slow the blood loss, she fished about with her free hand for her phone. In less than a second she was looking at her short list of contacts unsure of whom to get in contact with or rather who was going to hold this lapse in judgement above her head the least. Her thumb hovered above Roy's number and by association Kori's, while they were top of her list to call neither would be able to make to her before she bled out as they were currently gallivanting around somewhere in South America - their location not completely known. Tim Drake was another that she wouldn't be able to contact easily for help. His duties with the Teen Titans had taken him back to their headquarters and he, like Kori and Roy, wouldn't make it to her in time. The third Robin and her relationship was the best healed and more often than not whenever she was in Gotham she was with him, sometimes with Dick or Damian but most of the time not. As sure as Jacin was that they would try their hardest to make it back to her, the chance of a second death was not something that she was willing to chance so she looked at the next option.

Damien Wayne was instantly disqualified. The littlest resident of Wayne Manor was not her biggest fan ever since hearing about the first few bloody filled reunions between herself, Dick Grayson and to a lesser extent his father. A tiny part of her felt flattered that she had managed to piss off the tiny assassin to the extent that she had but the rest of her knew that it wasn't exactly a hard list to get onto. Tim Drake had managed to get into that list by merely existing plus whatever else had caused the rift between the two. Dick was slightly higher on the list than Damien but not by much. Her hug loving older brother and herself were on better terms then when she first arrived back in Gotham but she didn't think that he had completely forgiven her for all the shooting and she hasn't yet been pinned down long enough with the acrobat to fully have the heart to heart that would end in hugs and tears - all flowing from Dick no doubt. Even so she didn't feel like having the mother hen that was supposedly her older brother hovering and reprimanding her while she bled out over the warehouse floor.

Alfred was a possibility but she didn't want to risk the ex-especial forces trained butler, even if she was sure that he could handle any of the people that she had forgotten about or missed in the fire fight. Barbra Gordon was out as well as the former Batgirl turned all-knowing eye wouldn't be able mobilise herself although she could still get in contact with someone who was close to her.

That left only one person and she let her head fall back against the wall behind her before closing her eyes. Bruce would no doubt drop what he was doing in order to help her. She knew that but that didn't mean that she completely liked it. Her former guardian and her relationship was a little less rocky at best, despite attempts by Tim recently to try and fix the badly repaired bridge that connected Bruce and herself. But it was getting better even she had to admit that.

Opening her eyes and looking up at the ceiling she wondered whether or not she would be able to handle what was surely going to happen the moment she pressed that button and called for help. It would mean crossing a path that hadn't been crossed in a very long time, a path that was over grown and hazardous but would mean that she wouldn't be making friends with the Grim Reaper once again. She knew that it was mainly a pride thing; that living trumped whatever it was that was causing her the hesitate calling him, and for a split second she wondered if maybe this was just fates way of righting whatever caused her to return to the world of the living. However she couldn't understand why fate would have been so cruel to allow her to return to life only to take it from her so soon. She took a deep breath, her chest feeling tight as she did and pressed the call button without looking.