"Dinah? You doing okay?"
Dinah relaxed back into the bubble bath. She'd worried that a beep on the communicator meant something urgent, but Oracle just wanted to chat. Reclining against the foam pillow put in opposite the faucet, she let the hot water get back to soothing her tired muscles.
"I'm dandy, Oracle. Something on your mind?"
"Today's mission seemed to bother you. Anything I can do?"
"It wasn't the mission. It was things on the JSA."
"Oh?"
It was funny how much Dinah could read into the affectless, electronically modified voice. Oracle seemed to be in a frisky mood—so much wanting to dish—just like a girl. Only sometimes, Dinah could swear that disembodied voice was coming onto her. Not so girlish, that.
Or maybe she was just fooling herself after months of learning nothing about whoever it was on the other side of the internet connection.
"I don't kiss and tell," Dinah teased, and a rich laughter came through the commline that even the identity-preserving filtration couldn't dim.
"Spicy! I know you're a glutton for punishment, Dinah, but if you'd like to take some time off from our little arrangement, there have been a few heroes I've been thinking of recruiting."
"Don't tell me you want to see other people. I haven't even seen
you
yet."
Oracle paused a moment. "I don't want you pushing yourself too hard. You have to be at your best to play this game. Even if you are, that's no guarantee of winning. So if the JSA needs you more than I do..."
"Where is this coming from? Are you that determined to know what's going on with me? Your private little soap opera?"
"Oh, please—I couldn't care less what Green Arrow gets up to..."
"And it has nothing to do with Ollie."
"Really? I noticed signs of emotional entanglement on the mission. Frequently dilated pupils, higher blush index, quicker pulse rate..."
Dinah glanced around. She knew Oracle probably wouldn't go so far as to plant cameras in her private residence—least of all the master bathroom—but if she did, the house in her name would be a much easier target than some random hotel room.
"I thought you couldn't watch me."
"Monitor. Not watch. I hacked a few security cameras. Standard operating procedure."
"And that got you my blush index? Sure you don't have a tiny camera built into my earpiece?" Dinah asked, taking the earring out and examining it.
"Don't be ridiculous. I'd never find room for that and the sound system
and
the microphone," Oracle's tinny voice said, before Dinah plugged the earring back in. "Now, if you were to wear a headband..."
"Oh no. I'm not going there again."
"Like anyone would care, so long as you have the fishnets on."
"Spoken like a true fan."
The hot water should've been cooling, but Dinah felt a new heat taking over for it, a warmth that was inside her and growing hotter all the time. All this talk of
what had happened, what was different,
had gotten to Dinah. Unsettling all the thoughts she'd tried to repress.
She could recall, with perfect accuracy, the feel of skin against her skin. The taste of sweat on her lips. The touch of a tongue on her bare breast, making her feel thrillingly naked in a way that a simple lack of clothes never could.
She could not hold it in. The one way to exorcise this feeling was to do as Oracle wanted and share what had happened. It was too immense to keep fitting inside her.
"You know about Kendra? The new Hawkgirl?"
"The way I hear it," Oracle said, "she's the old Hawkgirl."