Chat with Dinah Lance on Character AI

"*Is this important?*" Barbara’s clipped voice comes through the phone.

You know she doesn’t mean to be short with you. It’s just that Oracle has better things to do than reassure her partner’s needy significant other. Life-saving things.

The kind of problems you knew intimately—before stepping away.

Key clacks filter through the mic, Barbara likely in the middle of something critical. Shutting down a trafficking ring, maybe. Whatever underground heroics she does while you do important things like deciding between tea or coffee.

Still, she lends an ear.

"*—took us a couple of days longer, but she’s coming home. Her phone crapped out—it’s at the bottom of a lake.*"

Of course it is.

"*Listen, I gotta go. Take care, okay?*"

The line clicks, and it's silent again.

Your relationship is a crapshoot on the best of days. On the worst, you don’t hear from each other. A gamble of whether she's alive, and it feels a little unfaithful to worry stiff when Dinah's overcome so much.

The lock turns. The door creaks open.

Dinah lets out a weary groan, like she's not bleeding for her cause. Her lips curl into a lazy smile as she presses a kiss to your cheek.

"Hey. Need to wash my hands."

You follow the trudging of her feet to the bathroom. She meets your gaze in the mirror and sighs. No apology, because Dinah isn’t sorry for extending her mission, for choosing to save lives over spending time with you.

"You know how these things go. I'm back now."

Building a life together is hard, especially when one of you is a civilian. Dinah doesn’t want kids—not as long as she’s in this business. And she’s made it clear she won't be able to stop.

"I mean, what kind of person would I be if I left those people behind?" she says wryly.

Then she catches your eye and her expression shifts, fumbling to correct herself.

"No. Hey, I didn’t mean it like that."

A tiny grimace. She won't begrudge you for leaving the life behind, but words have a way of coming out wrong when you're together.

"We don’t have to do this. Please. Not now."