I know I said I'd post my other story's chapter, but this is currently on my mind. I promise, I'll update soon.

The moment Diana walked in she heard the dull churn of the power limiter automatically turn on. She felt her power, her strength shrink down to nearly nothing. Her demigoddess half was quelled down to the point she was almost completely human.

The darkness of the house surrounded her like a blanket, its silence disturbing her greatly. Steve was home, she knew. She still had her superhearing and could detect his heartbeat, which was slowly speeding up from the door opening.

Her own heart raced in fear. She listened as Steve came down the steps and was aware of something leathery bouncing around in his hand. Fear struck her harder as she realized what it was: a whip.

Diana's hand flew up to her arm again as she furiously started to rub. Her last beating was still painfully evident on her arms and legs, as well as her abdomen. She was grateful when she went out on missions and the others saw her bruises, for she could blame it on the villains then. She absolutely refused to tell them of what was going on between her and Steve.

Finally, after what seemed like years, Steve entered the room. He switched on the light, a snarl already on his face. Diana's deep blue eyes came in contact with Steve's cold grey ones and felt a new wave of fright come over her.

"Where have you been?" he demanded, taking a step towards her. "You know I want you home no later than ten, and it's nearly one in the morning!"

"Sorry," she said timidly, inching towards the door. "The mission we had took us all day and I wanted to rest at the Watchtower…"

"You know I don't want you there," Steve growled, taking another step. "How many times have I told you to come straight home after a mission, no matter what?"

"Many," Diana nearly whispered. By then her back was pressed against the door. She could feel the bruise on her arm even though the sleeve, dreading the one that would be added to it soon.

In her moment of thoughts, Steve crossed the space between them and struck Diana with his hand. The force of the swing was so strong that she fell to the floor, skidding a few feet. Before she even had time to recover she felt his steel-tipped boot make contact with her stomach, shooting pain throughout her body. She weakly wrapped her arms around her stomach, struggling to keep from crying out in pain. Hearing her weakness only made Steve angrier with her, and that was something she was desperate to avoid.

"You worthless bitch," Steve hissed, grabbing Diana by the neck and lifting her up so that she was directly in his face. She could detect the faint smell of alcohol on his breath. "You were with that Superman friend of yours, weren't you?"

"It…it wasn't only him," she squeaked. Steve was cutting off her air supply. "We all had a mission, so I was around everyone."

He gripped harder. "Lies! I know you were with him! He's all you ever talk about!"

That was the lie. Diana never talked about Clark to him since the day she, apparently, said so much that Steve just had to put his hands on her. She ended up lying to the team how she'd managed to get a black eye.

"I swear I was with the entire team, not just him!"

Saying nothing, Steve threw Diana to the ground. Her head collided with the wooden floor, making her briefly see stars. The second they passed she was barely able to dodge another kick from him. However, just as she got to her feet, his fist struck her across the cheek. She stumbled backwards but managed to stay on her feet, her hand over the bruise already to form.

"You're useless," Steve ranted on, pulling the hand that held the whip back. "You're nothing. You're the dirt I walk on. And…" He struck her with the whip. "…you're my bitch."

The whip had clashed over the bruise already forming on Diana's arm. It cut through the sleeve, blood dripping from the new wound. I'm starting to have regrets about that, she thought ruefully.

The whip cracked against her arm again, and she couldn't hold back the scream of pain that erupted from her, hot tears springing into her eyes. But the mere fact of knowing that her scream was the eruption of his anger kept the tears at bay.

"You little…!" The whip struck her again, causing another howl of agony to escape Diana. Her head was pounding now, and every single part of her body, newly bruised and not, was throbbing. She felt Steve's hand tangle into her hair as he continuously whipped her, using his feet as well.

Several minutes passed before the whip was a mere stump in his hand, but to Diana it felt like hours. Her body burned like fire, and she was dangerously close to bursting into tears from the pain. She felt Steve shove her to the ground and heard him toss the remains of the whip aside. Warily, she opened an eye, fearing more of Steve's wrath. Thankfully, he was done. "Clean yourself up and come to bed," he said, walking back up the steps. "You have twenty minutes. If you're even a second late, I'm coming back."

"Yes, Steve," Diana whispered, slowly picking herself up. She hastily brushed the tears out of her eyes, hissing sharply when the pain in her arm stung worse. Looking, she saw her entire arm covered in leaking cuts and sighed, making her way to the bathroom.

She removed the remnants of her clothes and jumped into the shower, gritting her teeth in pain as she cleaned herself of her blood. In addition to the cuts she also had deep, dark bruises all over her body, especially on her arms. She was careful to not scrub over it too much.

Coming into the bedroom only in a towel Diana spotted Steve sitting on the bed. "Nineteen minutes," he grunted, giving her a sickening smile. "Well done. You actually listened to me for once."

"Thanks," she whispered again, looking away. She began to change into her nightclothes, but before she could open the drawer that held them she felt Steve's arms wrap around her tightly. Too tightly. So tightly that it painfully pressed against her wounds.

"Come to bed now," he said, nuzzling her neck. "Like this. Just like this. Your body doesn't need to be protected by a flimsy nightgown."

Whimpering slightly, Diana followed Steve to the bed, letting him wrap an arm around her again when they were settled in. He fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

It was hours before she could even close her eyes.

"Sheesh, Sis, you don't look too good."

Diana glared at Donna, once again rubbing her arm. "Hush, I'm perfectly fine. That mission yesterday took a lot out of me. I guess I was more injured than I thought."

"I'd suppose so." Diana noticed her younger sister staring at the bruise on her cheek. Every other wound or bruise was covered up by her clothing, but she was so used to natural looks that using makeup to cover it wasn't even a thought in her mind.

"You should get something for that," Donna said. "Whoever it was that struck you yesterday was good. I didn't know you could even bruise like that. Don't you have a healing factor?"

Diana froze. "Er…I'm still going through that stage, remember?"

"What does that have to do with it?"

"My healing factor is haywire. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."

"Oh." Donna was frowning. "Well, that sucks. That means that you can be injured more likely and easily."

"Not exactly. My healing factor may be gone, but my strength isn't. If I can take a punch from Superman than I can take just about anything else."

She didn't want to tell Donna how Steve had implanted a chip inside of her that caused her healing factor to diminish to shockingly low levels. A mere paper cut would heal in moments. Bigger wounds, however, would take nearly as long as they usually did.

"How long does it take for it to act right?"

"I don't know exactly. It can last from days to weeks. I'm not certain when it stopped or when it will come back. It just does." That was a lie. She knew how long it would last—until that chip was out and away from her.

She studied Donna's frowning face, looking to see if her sister didn't believe her. When she saw no doubt she sighed internally, thanking the gods that the mission went as it did. If it hadn't, she would have had to really explain how she'd gotten the bruise, and that would only lead to something horrible.

Before Diana could say anything else, Donna pulled her into a hug. A tight hug. She had to bite her lip to keep from groaning. Her eyes closed at all of the pressure being put on her wounds at once. Just when her body was about to betray her, Donna let go. "Oh, well. That sucks. I hope it works soon. I know how painful a wound can be."

I beg to differ, Diana thought, forcing a smile. "Thanks for worrying. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." I hope.

"Oh, I forgot to ask, what's with the new outfit? I mean, I like it, but…" Donna waved her hand.

Diana started rubbing her arm on instinct. "Oh, Steve suggested I wear it. I know it's different from what I normally wear, but it's not permanent. Trust me, I'll go back to my old outfit soon enough."

"Okay. But I'm just not used to seeing you so…"

"…So?"

"…modest." There was a hint of a smirk in Donna's eyes. "What, did Steve tell you how beautiful you looked to him and how every single man in the country was ogling your funbags?"

"I am not…" Diana raised an eyebrow. "Funbags?"

"You know, marshmallow hell? Gonzagas? Double mountains?"

Diana was obviously confused.

Donna's jaw dropped. "…Wow, you really need to get out more. What do men like about a woman on their body?"

She started laughing when Diana's eyes lit up. "Oh, I'm telling Shayera about this. Your naivety is to die for sometimes."

"I am not naïve!"

"Yes you are, and it's adorable."

Diana sighed. "Whatever." She looked at the clock in the room. "It's six now. If we don't have any missions soon, I'm going home."

Donna gasped comically. "You, the great and almighty powerful Wonder Woman, is going home early? What, did hell freeze over during the last ten seconds?"

"Hush. I just enjoy Steve's company. You don't know what he does to me when he's happy."

Now Donna gagged mockingly. "Please, I don't want to know. I want to keep the little purity I have left."

"Donna!"

Diana watched Donna leave, sticking her tongue out in a teasing manner. "Some things are meant to never leave the house, you know."

The moment Donna was out of sight, Diana let out a shaky breath. You have no clue, Baby Sister…

"Goddamn, Di. What the hell happened to you?"

Diana dropped her pen in frustration. The last thing she wanted to do was explain to Shayera, who was currently standing next to her with a bewildered look on her face, how the bruise had made its way onto her face.

"To make a long story short, I got it from the mission yesterday."

"But doesn't your healing factor…?"

"My changing form corrupts it, and for now it's off. It's haywire and I don't know when it'll return. I'm not like a human, but cuts and bruises show more easily and longer than it normally did."

"I'm just not used to seeing you like that," Shayera said, frowning. "Your skin is normally flawless. And now there's a huge bruise covering the right side of your face."

Diana shrugged. To her dismay, she was used to bruises. "I know, but it'll go away soon. It's just a mark on my face. My healing factor may kick in and restore its appearance before tomorrow."

"Okay." Shayera smiled. "Hey, do you want to go spy on Bruce and see what he's doing? I'm sure he's in Gotham by now with Damian…"

"Sorry, but I have to go." Diana stood up and gathered together her report, evening it out against the table. "I miss Steve. We're going out tonight."

"Oh." Now there was a smirk on Shayera's face. Diana sighed, knowing she was about to see a repeat of Donna. "When are we going to personally meet the man, anyway? We've seen him several times, but it was for business with the League only. I want to get past that and accept as a friend. Besides," her smirk grew, "I want to know just how he managed to get you."

"He's a good man," Diana offered meekly. At least, when we first got together.

"He must be good if he managed to get you. You're like a lovesick puppy, always leaving work to be with him. Well, I don't want to keep you waiting." Shayera waved a hand to the doorway. "By all means, go be with the luckiest man on Earth."

Diana grinned, and as soon as she walked out, it turned into one of the saddest frowns she'd ever made.

She didn't even notice the look Clark gave her when she walked past him.

Yeah, I know, she's Wonder Woman and shouldn't be like this. Please, just work with me, okay? It's something I want to try.

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