You've been coming here for three months, Helena. You've barely said a word. Talk therapy works better when you actually speak.
HelenaCourt sent me here for anger management, right? Observe the managing. I'm cured. You're a genius, Harleen.
You sideswiped two cars, flattened a stop sign, crushed a fire hydrant...
Helena
I was in a hurry.
...Knocked out a security guard...
Helena
I shoved him to get him out of the way, barely even touched the guy.
And why were you in such a hurry?
Helena
I don't know, I had things to do.
I understand that whatever it was seemed urgent to you-
Helena
No, you DON'T understand. You don't know me. You don't know anything about me. Let's just run the clock out here and call it good, Harleen.
I do know that on this day, seven years ago, you watched your mother die. And a few months later, Barbara Gordon became your legal guardian. There's no mention of your father.
Helena
Because at the time, I didn't know who he was.
Helena
...Bruce Wayne is my father.
[Suprised] Your father... is one of the wealthiest men in the country, and you move in with a schoolteacher?
Helena
Wasn't exactly Father Knows Best - He didn't know he HAD a kid. Clueless is a RADICAL understatement.
Sounds like your relationship with your father is conflicted.
Helena
[Snorts] What relationship? He didn't raise me, my mom did. I miss her. She... She was funny, crazy, and dangerous... and in that one moment, she was gone. That's when everything changed. I changed.
Helena
Into someone maybe I wasn't meant to be.
Helena
I'm telling you, word on the street are that these deaths are your garden-variety "goodbye, cruel world." Is there anything to eat in here?
The way they did it, it's almost as if they were RUNNING from something...
Helena
There's never any food. Gazillion dollars worth of computer equipment and not one jar of peanut butter!
This doesn't make any sense. If I were gonna kill myself-
Helena
You wouldn't.
Helena Kill yourself. You wouldn't. [Holds up some crackers] Do you know how old these are?
Barbara [Splutters] Wait, what do you mean, I wouldn't kill myself?
Helena It's just not your nature.
[Rolls away from her desk] I resent that. I'm as broody and romantically self-destructive as the next girl!
Helena Yeah, in a "Let's go get the bad guys, let nothing stand in the path of the mission" sort of way! You know, I'M the one that does all the night sweeps, I'M the one that does all the fieldwork, I'M the one with bruises in really embarrassing places - Would it KILL you to go to the grocery store every once in a while‽
...What is this obsession with food?
Helena
You try fighting the forces of evil when your blood sugar's low!
She knows how to get in. What if she knows who we are?
Helena
[Smirks] We could kill her.
...We're the good guys, we don't kill innocent people. We don't kill ANYONE.
Helena
Speak for yourself.
And how did she find us, hmm? [Dinah starts to stir] She must have followed you.
Helena
Nobody follows me!
Well, she's HERE! I mean, this place is supposed to be a secret; that's the whole point of a secret lair!
[Groaning] It's not her fault. [Sits up] I followed her. She didn't know.
[Dinah stares at her, flashing back to her nightmare of the Joker shooting Barbara]
[Grins] It's YOU! I should have known you two would be together! [Helena and Barbara stare at her] Look.... Sometimes when I touch people, I see things. Things that, um, that only they know. And sometimes, when I dream things, they come true.
So, um, what does this thing do exactly?
This machine will tell me if there's any biological evidence of the abilities. In other words, if you're metahuman.
In most people, less than 5% percent of neural cells are active. Your cerebral cortex activity is... [Surprised] over 50%.
So it's true. I'm officially a FREAK.
Helena
Hey, watch it with the f-word.
There are people in the world, Dinah a lot of people, with abilities beyond what we think of as human. No two metahumans have the same gifts. Don't ask me where the powers come from, no one knows. Natural mutations, biological experiments...
Helena
There's been weird stuff with meteor showers.
The point is, you're one of a long line of people who had to hide what they are.
Uh, like Helena, technically. I'm not metahuman.
But you're both heroes and you save people.
Barbara No.
Helena
[At the same time] WHAT?!
Dinah ...Why not‽
Helena
[Mocking] SORRY, we don't have an opening for Junior Supergirl!
You can't stay here, you have to go home.
...Do you think I'd get on a bus and come to a city where I didn't know a soul, with no money and no job... if I had a place to go back to? I mean, I came to New Gotham looking for something, and I didn't even know what it was, but now I DO!
Helena
After my mother's death, I learned more than just my father's identity - I learned he had a whole other life.
I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean another family?
Helena
More like a... REALLY AGGRESSIVE hobby.
Helena
Uh... YEAH. I guess a part of me I blamed him for what happened to my mother. If Barbara hadn't taken me in...
Helena
I've known her since I was kid. She was just trying to help.
Human beings are essentially selfish creatures, Helena. No matter how we try and mask it to the world or ourselves. You say Barbara rescued you. Did she do that for you? Or for herself?
Helena
It's hard for me to come here, Harleen.
Helena
I don't trust people.
Luckily for you, this is your last court-mandated session.
Helena
Then I must be officially sane. What a relief.
You don't have to come back, unless you want to. I know you think you can't trust anyone but I'd like to help you, if you'd let me. Why is it so difficult for you to let people in, Helena?
Helena
[Beat] After Mom was killed I found out about my dad, who he was.
Well, most people would be excited to discover that a billionaire philanthropist like Bruce Wayne was their father.
Helena
I only wanted one thing from him: That he find the man that killed my mother.
Helena
And then I wanted that man dead.
We can't just go around killing people, Helena.
Helena
Yeah, that's... That's what I hear. All I wanted from him was revenge, Harleen. If it had been the other way, Mom would've done it. They hadn't been together in years. She would've killed for him. And that's when I learned what my mom always knew: Rely on no one but yourself.
Helena
[About Dinah] I think she's evil.
You think she could be evil? If you would just take your clothes HOME once in a while, instead of leaving them all over the Clocktower, she wouldn't have found your sweater to begin with. You know what, this is not about clothing, and you know it.
Helena
Easy for YOU to say, she's not poaching your daywear!
Her parents didn't even report her missing; Sounds like she had a reason to run away.
Helena
Still don't know what that was.
She's got incredible potential. I just have this gut feeling that-
Helena
So do I. Like I'm about to get sucker-punched.
Helena, think about how we learned. How we ALL learned; Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Jason Todd, even YOU - It's more than a tradition, it's a LEGACY; Take in those like us, mentor and train them, never turn away someone with the hunger to become what we are. That's what your father would have done.
Helena Batman was YOUR role model, NOT mine.
[Beat] Yeah, you keep saying that...
Helena
I told you trust had to be earned and I was wrong: Trust is a gift. You were there for me when it mattered for both of us. And as for the rest of it, it's an act of faith believing in someone. I believe in you. Whatever your name is.
Redmond. My name is Dinah Redmond, and I have been lying to you about everything. My mother left me with foster parents when I was six, and they taught me to be ashamed of what I was, never to tell anyone, to hide it. Then, when I couldn't hide it anymore, they were gonna take me somewhere. Somewhere to make my powers stop. And I thought if I told you my real name that you'd call them, and they'd take me away.
Helena
Dinah, don't you ever wanna go home?
Being here, with you, it is the only place I have ever, ever felt at home in my entire life.
Helena! What can I do for you?
Helena
I've been rethinking this whole do-everything-by-myself thing, Harleen. And I've decided I want to continue therapy, even though I don't have to. Maybe a little help sometimes isn't... SO bad.
[Helena smiles and goes to sit on a chair, as Dr. Quinzel shuts the door]
Helena
I met a guy.
Why don't you tell me about him?
Helena
Yeah, give him time.
Hey, how'd the thing with Wade's folks go?
Short version? Complete and utter parental rejection.
Well, they just don't know you.
Helena
Not any more than Reese knows me.
And we can't really tell them, can we?
What do you think it's like for Morton? You know, to hate yourself so much?
Helena
He didn't understand. It's not WHAT you are, it's WHO.
Hey, what do you say we head down to Gibson's, the three of us misfits?
[Smiles] I think we deserve a night out. Helena?
Helena
[Grins] Damn straight. And I can't think of a better place to spend it. Gibson's it is.
Uh, What happened to wanting to be like other girls?
Helena
I got over it.
Helena
[To Dinah] You're the BLACK CANARY's daughter?
[To Carolyn] YOU have a daughter?
[To Carolyn] You're the BLACK CANARY?
This could mean you have the Canary Cry as well!
Helena
Hold on, she has mind-melding, telekinesis AND the Canary Cry‽
The life you think you want, Dinah, being a superhero is not what it's cracked up to be: [Dinah sighs in annoyance] It's DANGEROUS, it's UGLY, it is RELENTLESS, and it will WEAR YOU DOWN! I won't let you throw your future away.
[Angrily] Oh, YEAH? Well, you gave up the right to make decisions for me a long time ago! [To Helena and Barbara] I'm staying at Gabby's tonight. We're studying. [To Carolyn] You know, like NORMAL kids? [Leaves]
She'll be okay. She just needs to cool down.
I just don't understand how ORACLE, the source of all information, could have my daughter under her roof and not even know it.
She gave us her foster parents' last name. I ran a background check, okay? She was clearly having problems at home. My God, Caroline, this is what we do. We take in and mentor those like us-
Helena
How would you KNOW that? How would you know ANYTHING about her?
I'd appreciate it if you stayed out of this.
Helena
...You got a problem with ME?
I'm sure you're a nice enough person, but you ARE the daughter of a thief.
Helena
EXCUSE me?
Just stay away from my daughter. The last thing she needs right now is your influence.
[Carolyn walks away. Helena makes a move to go after her]
Helena, WAIT. [Grabs Helena's arm]
Helena
WHAT is HER problem‽
It's not about you. Canary and your mom never really got along. I think it was some sort of bird-cat thing. Just let it go. [Leaves]
Helena
Bird-cat thing. Right.
Birds of Prey · 61 quotes
