[Chiraptora: For Bryce Wayne]

[serinusniger]

The book launch Dinah so much wanted to go to is taking place in the ballroom of the Gotham Hilton, and the guest list is long and illustrious enough to warrant a large media presence in front of the hotel lobby, parting occasionally to let cars arrive.

It's into this crowd that Dinah, dressed to impress in red, with impressive slits up both sides, pulls her matching red Ferrari. She grins at the snapping photographers, pulls on her heels while still sitting in the convertible, and offers the keys to the valet who opens the door.

Then she offers a hand to her passenger, because coming out of this door will still be easier than fighting the other side.

Comments

[serinusniger]

"Don't let him fool you," Dinah says. "That charming flirtatious act? Not an act."

Unlike with the other Bats, as they both know.

She's looking around the room, again, for Ms. Logan when she answers the next question.

"The Flying Graysons. Haley's circus. John and Mary - You'll keep an eye out, won't you?"

This is as much a favor for Bryce herself as for Dick or Dinah. She sometimes thinks that if Bruce could go back and save one set of parents, it would be those two.

[gothamsheiress]

"John and Mary Grayson." She nods. "Of course I will."

One more name to add to the list of alerts on her computer. She suspects there are going to be quite a few of those this evening.

"But honestly, Dinah -- five kids? Are they all in the family business?"

[serinusniger]

Dinah pulls a face, that's partly guilt and mostly defensiveness.

"I'd like to see you try to stop any of them," she says. "And for some, it was our business or our competitors."

[gothamsheiress]

"Well, we can't have that," Bryce says.

[serinusniger]

"It's complicated," Dinah tells her glass, from which shes yet to drink, despite raising it a few times.

"Not for Dick. Dick's as uncomplicated as he seems. But the younger ones? The kids? There's a couple of times I've thought about packing it all in so one of them could have a normal life."

But it's too late for Damien and Sin to have anything like that.

[gothamsheiress]

Bryce studies her for a long moment, then reaches out and touches her shoulder.

"I have no doubt at all that you've given them the best life possible," quietly. "Even if it wasn't normal."

[serinusniger]

Dinah exhales.

"I'm being defensive, aren't I? I didnj't have the easiest childhood..."

She trails off, glancing over at the entrance to the ballroom.

"Oh, looks like the guest of honor has arrived."

[gothamsheiress]

"It's okay," Bryce says with a quick smile, squeezing her shoulder. "Did any of us?"

Following Dinah's glance, she straightens and takes the tiniest sip of her champagne.

"Let's get over there, then, hm?"

[serinusniger]

Dinah smirks, and touches her hand under Bryce's elbow, as she sweeps in that direction, exchanging her glass for a copy of the book on the way.

Siobhan Logan is tall and pale, with brown hair curling expertly to the shoulders of her cocktail dress. She has a small entourage with her, which grows slightly as guests stop to greet her.

Dinah steps through the crowds without apparently noticing them, reaching out a hand to Siobhan.

"Ms. Logan, hi. Dinah Lance."

Siobhan glances up from the hand, and smiles as she finally takes it.

"Dinah... Oh! Bruce Wayne's wife."

"Ex."

"Of course. And your friend?"

[gothamsheiress]

(Hearing the name Bruce Wayne is never not going to be just a little strange.)

"Roberta Grey." She smiles broadly and offers a hand. "It's such a pleasure to meet you. Congratulations."

[serinusniger]

Siobhan's eyes glaze over at a name she doesn't recognize, but she shakes the hand anyway.

"Thank you! I'm so excited. Did you like it?"

Dinah grins.

"Honestly? I haven't read it yet. But the lady on E! said it was great, so I believe her."

Siobhan laughs. "Well, you're honest."

Dinah shrugs, helpless in the face of compulsive honesty.

"Listen, I hate talking about books over cocktails. Can we please do lunch? You're staying in town, right?"

The authoress laughs. "I'm sure I can fit you in."

Dinah attempts to clasp her hand together in gratitude, but is waylaid by her attempts to hold a purse and a book at once. Giving up, she fumbles in the clutch and hands over a card, just as Siobhan turns away to another, more impressed fan.

Letting the crowd push her out, Dinah puts the book right back on the table, and picks up someone else's half empty glass.

"What do you think?"

[gothamsheiress]

Bryce nods towards Siobhan and her entourage of unassuming people in suits.

"Lot of security for an author."

[serinusniger]

"Even an author whose father is a wealthy and moderately well known entrepreneur from Metropolis?"

Dinah nods slightly. "See the guy to her left? Fading bruise on his jawline?"

[gothamsheiress]

"You're Bruce Wayne's ex and I don't see you with a security detail, covert or otherwise. And he's got to be at least as paranoid as a doting father."

She herself clearly does not count as bodyguard, because she's a socialite.

"I see him."

[serinusniger]

"I had a bodyguard, once," Dinah muses. "She's now working for a secret Government agency."

But the case of her and security is complicated.

"Now, this might be nothing, but our mutual friend - my other son - had a late night a few nights ago in Metropolis, and he's a big fan of jabs to the jawline just like that."

[gothamsheiress]

Her eyebrows go up.

"He does get around, doesn't he?"

[serinusniger]

Dinah smirks. "We all do. Some of us get itchy feet if we're in Gotham for too long."

[gothamsheiress]

"It can be kind of an oppressive city," she admits. "But it's got so many opportunities. Interesting people. Authors."

[serinusniger]

"Who are also exciting young socialites," Dinah says brightly. She looks over, to where Dick is chatting to Siobhan, who turns away, bored.

"Guess he's not her type."

Whatever she has to say, it's lost, because someone screams in the hotel lobby,

[gothamsheiress]

Bryce turns instantly, her head up.

"That's not good."

[serinusniger]

"It's really not."

Everyone in the ballroom is staring at the doors to the lobby. Some of the older Gotham citizens are already hurrying to the fire escape.

Dinah glances quickly at Dick, who has drawn close to Siobhan Logan, but is the only man over there to have done so.

The others - the ones she had pegged as security for Ms Logan, are spreading out, moving around the ballroom, reaching for their pieces.

"Oh god, they are new in town," she says quietly. "This is going to be messy. O?"

The last word is kind of abstract, said at the same time that Dinah tucks her hair behind her ear, brushing a silver earring shaped like a small bird.

[gothamsheiress]

Bryce only spares a glance for Dinah; she's already heading for the edge of the room to work her way towards the doors.

[serinusniger]

Dinah watches Roberta go, and figures she can trust her not to give the game away. She's more concerned with preventing what she's worried is about to be a major shootout in a ballroom full of civilians.

She's heard no gunshots.

She whips off both her shoes and she starts running at exactly the same moment that the door opens and an arc of fir engulfs the first ten feet from the lobby.

It would have engulfed the bodyguard with a bruise on his face, except she hits him around the waist and tackles him to the floor.

All of it happens in about two seconds.
And then she's saying: "oh my god, you saved my life!"

[gothamsheiress]

The firestorm narrowly misses Bryce, too. She throws up a hand up to shield her face and narrows her eyes, looking for the source of the fire.

Around her, people are screaming in terror, and a security guard nearby is barking into his radio. "Get the cops on the line! Now, dammit!"

[serinusniger]

Dinah stays on the floor, holding Bruise to her in panic, which also stops ihm from getting up and making a bad situation worse, as a man dressed all in black, carrying a flamethrower steps in.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" he declares, "don't be scared, this is just a robbery!"

"Get off me, woman!" Bruise is complaining, trying to push Dinah away so he can get his gun up.