[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]

Defensively:

"I didn't know that was who he was! And he can be very charming."

[gothamsheiress]

. . . Bryce is just going to shake her head and sip her coffee.

And see if she can avoid the subject of what her 25-year-old self thought of Henri Ducard at times.

[serinusniger]

Dinah shakes her head as well.

"Judge me all you want. I'm sure you've never fallen for someone on the other side."

She knows nothing about Bryce, she just knows who her own rivals have been.

[gothamsheiress]

"Not to the point of almost marrying them."

And the disastrous date with Jim Moriarty wasn't really a date with him. Just disastrous all around.

[serinusniger]

Dinah laughs, and rubs the back of her neck.

"Yes, well, when I do something stupid, I do it completely," is her answer.

Then something occurs to her.

"And you don't even know about Damien, do you?"

[gothamsheiress]

She shakes her head.

"Haven't heard the name."

[serinusniger]

"Yes you have," Dinah corrects her. "Dick mentioned him. His little brother, Bruce's son.

"And the grandson of Ra's Al Ghul."

So there.

[gothamsheiress]

. . . Bryce blinks at her, disconcerted. There is a lot to unpack there.

[serinusniger]

She offers a sympathetic smile for the suddenness of the bombshell, but it did amuse her.

"Does your world have a Talia?"

[gothamsheiress]

"Talia? That one I'm sure I don't know."

[serinusniger]

"Ra's' daughter."

Dinah tries to sound neutral when talking about her, at least. "Bruce and she had a thing a few years ago, during one of our many 'off' periods. Ten years later, she shows up with Damien in tow."

[gothamsheiress]

A daughter.

He has -- had -- a daughter.

And in this world, Bruce had a child with her.

"Did he know who she was?"

[serinusniger]

Dinah nods.

"Oh, yeah," she says. "He usually does."

[gothamsheiress]

Well. Note to self: schedule a follow-up about that IUD, just in case in her world, Ra's had a son.

"All due respect to my counterpart," wryly, "he might have you beat in the doing completely stupid things category."

[serinusniger]

Dinah smirks. "I knew you'd be on my side."

Sometimes people aren't.

She follows it up with a shrug. "Damien's life so far was much like Sin's, only his mother gave him material wealth while training him to be an assassin. Dick put him in the Robin outfit to give him something useful to do with the only thing he knows how to do."

[gothamsheiress]

Bryce frowns.

"That's horrific. They're kids. Training them as assassins--" She shakes her head, her fingers tightening on her cup.

[serinusniger]

The argument goes, that the earlier you train them, the better they are as adults.

Dinah agrees with Bryce, and doesn't feel like voicing that thought. Not does she feel like bringing up Cassandra.

"Yes," she says quietly. "I know."

[gothamsheiress]

"Sorry." She sighs. "Obviously you know."

[serinusniger]

Dinah shakes her head. "It's okay. It's a lot to take in."

Especially when dumped on by a woman who feels guilty about having kids in this life.

"They're doing better. Sin is doing really well at school."

[gothamsheiress]

"That's good."

Bryce knows how inescapable the League's training can be, though, and she can only imagine it's more intense for a child. What kind of lives they'll lead--

Well. They'll lead better lives here than there. That's the important thing.

[serinusniger]

Dinah nods. And suddenly brightens and looks about to change the subject when her expression freezes and then turns into a frown. She turns away from Bryce by a few degrees, not hiding, but also not talking to her.

"I'm busy right now."

[gothamsheiress]

--That must be how she looks when she's talking on the Suit's radio.

She raises her eyebrows, sips her coffee, and waits.

[serinusniger]

Dinah bites her lip, sending Bryce an apologetic look.

"I just sent Cassie home," she continues, and "Jason's not due back on this side of the country until tomorrow morning."

She waits a beat, and adds, "and I have company."

[gothamsheiress]

Bryce shakes her head.

"I'm the last person who'll stop you if you -- need to work," she says quietly.

[serinusniger]

"You are no help," Dinah tells her, then she sighs.

"Alright," she says, again not to Bryce. "But I'm only doing this because I love you. And you have to find me another babysitter."

After a second's silence, there's a PAFF sound from the living room, a cloud of purple smoke, and a redheaded teenage girl looking around curiously.

"Did someone call a babysitter?"