2

8 months later

I sit in my office with Emilie standing next to me, giving me document after document for me to sign, while simultaneously being on the phone, trying to fix a paperwork mix up with a Dutch gallery for the transportation of 3 Manet paintings from the Netherlands to the Louvre.

Turns out that the Dutch gallery that houses these paintings typed the wrong name for one of the paintings on the permits (how do you make such a mistake?) and now security won't allow the DHL team in charge of transporting said paintings to move anything. As a security measure, we always send former soldiers to protect the valuable art we transport and it's with one of them who I'm on the phone with.

"Madame Prince, what should we do?" A frustrated former capitaine asks me.

"Put the director on the phone, s'il vous plait, Alexandre."

I hear Alexandre calling Director Djikema and passing the phone to him.

"Ms. Prince, my sincerest apologies for the mistake. We take complete responsibility for this." His voice shakes and he is practically stumbling over his words. The gallery he helps run is a relatively small one and an important transaction as the one that's being done with the Louvre will definitely help bring attention to them. But also making such a terrible mistake shows clumsiness and potentially, unprofessionalism on their part. So I understand his nervousness.

I switch to Dutch to try and calm him down. "Director Djikema, the only thing I want is for those 3 paintings to find their way to the Louvre on time. How long do you think it will take you to get those permits corrected and ready for my team to start moving the paintings?"

He sighs in thought. "Three hours tops, Ms. Prince."

"Hm," In three hours those paintings should've been loaded up safely on the plane and ready to leave for Paris. I quickly try to find a solution to this. Moving the schedule will cost the Louvre thousands of euros, but telling Director Djikema this won't help anyone, especially him and his nerves. "Is it possible to allow my team to finish packing those paintings and move them to the truck while we wait for the permits?"

I hear silence and I feel slightly irritated at the fact that he seems to be thinking it over.

"Ms. Prince, our security protocol does not allow us to remove any paintings out of the gallery before having all the necessary paperwork."

Really? I pull the phone away from my ear and look up to the ceiling. Oh, Father give me the patience.

"Director Djikema, I'm trying to make this transaction succeed. I'm sure I don't have to remind you that there's a clause in the contract that very clearly states that if any violation upon the agreed terms were to occur, the contract immediately becomes invalid?"

I don't take pleasure in the unsaid threat, but a lot of resources were put into this transaction and I don't plan to waste any of it.

"Of course, Ms. Prince. I can allow your team to place the paintings in the truck until every permit is ready, then you can take them to their new home,"

I smile. "Thank you, Director Djikema. Could you please put Alexandre back on?"

"Of course. Once again I'm so very sorry for this mess,"

I try to end our conversation on good terms. "Mistakes happen. The important thing is to find the solution and I believe we just did."

He laughs in relief understanding that I don't mean to let everyone know about the problem we came across. "Thank you, Ms. Prince. Have a good day,"

"You too, Director."

I hear the shuffle of the phone as it is passed from one man to the other. "Madame Prince?"

"Alexandre, keep me updated and if in 3 hours those permits are nowhere in sight call me immediately, otherwise text messages will be fine,"

"Reçu, Madame Prince." He answers like the former capitaine that he is.

"Merci, Alexandre,"

I hung up the phone and sigh with partial relief. Hopefully I won't have to intervene any further. Emilie hands me a few more documents to sign and then she picks up the whole stack of papers.

"Once I take this up to legal, we should be able to proceed with the transportation of the sculptures for the auction. Anything else you need from me, Diana?"

"Non, Emilie. Merci,"

She nods and climbs the stairs of my office. When I hear the click of the door closing, I collapse on my chair with an overly dramatic groan. All morning I've been on and off the phone, coming in and out of my office making sure everything is ready for when the paintings arrive and I've spent most of the afternoon signing documents for the auction we're hosting and add on top of all that, a crisis in a Dutch gallery.

I close my eyes and try to relax for a sec-

Ding, ding, ding, ding

I open my eyes and quickly grab my phone. Amber alert. I quickly tap on the bubble on my screen and it takes me to a live feed of a hostage situation in the Banque National just a few blocks away from the museum.

"Nous sommes en direct de la Banque National where 5 armed robbers are holding approximately 10 people hostage demanding to be paid 4 million Euros within the next half hour or they'll start shooting people."

That familiar sense of protectiveness washes over me, and I quickly bring down the painting I have on the wall concealing the safe that hides my armour. I change into it, put the painting back on its place, lock my office door and leave through the window on the far right of my office. I leave my clothes on a neat pile by the window to change into when I come back. I climb all the way up to the roof and jump 3 streets over to land on top of a building that's right in front of the bank.

I stand there for a few minutes to try and find any entry points, but the robbers have positioned themselves in a way that won't allow me to come in unnoticed.

"You have cinq minutes left! Or he dies first! Tick tock!" One of the robbers grabs an elderly man by the collar, pushes him down on his knees and points, what looks like, an AK-47 to his chest.

Deciding to act now, I jump and lift my forearm to break through the round window on top of the main doors. I land on one knee and quickly whip out my lasso to throw it towards the ankle of the robber who's closest to me. I yank on the lasso and the robber lands hard on his back, hitting his head on the floor and losing consciousness. I look over my left shoulder to see a bullet flying off of the rifle's barrel of another robber. I turn fully and raise my right arm, blocking the bullet. I speed towards him, grabbing the rifle and snapping it in half. I grab him by the neck and send him flying towards the wall.

The other 3 robbers start to unload all their ammo at me. I block and deflect (making sure to move away from the hostages to avoid any of them getting hit by a stray bullet), until they run out of bullets. Once that happens, in a matter of seconds they're all unconscious and the police starts moving in.

"Is everyone okay?", I ask at the men and women staring at me.

"Merci a vous, we are. Merci beaucoup, Wonder Woman." The elderly man says.

I smile at them and turn towards the window I came in through and jump through it, towards the Louvre.

I land on the roof and climb down the side of the building. I jump, landing right outside my office window. I change out of my armour, taking my headband first, then my boots and finally, the armour itself. I put on my navy blue bodycon dress and fasten the golden belt around my waist. I step into my black pointed-toe pumps and lean down to pick up and fold the armour. I push open the window and listen for any signs of movement. When I don't hear anything, I climb in and quickly open the safe to put my armour inside. I close it and hang the painting back up. I climb the stairs and unlock the office door.

I walk back down to close the window, when I see I forgot to put away the lasso.

"Where's my head?"

I grab it and turn towards the painting when I hear the steps of someone coming down the stairs. I quickly try to decide where I can hide the lasso and not finding a better spot, I throw it under my desk.

"Barbara Ann! What are you doing here?"

I try to hide my surprise. I didn't even hear her open the door. I walk closer to my desk and see that the handle of the lasso didn't quite make it under the desk.

"I walked past Emilie on my way down from legal and I asked her if you were in your office and she said you were. I knocked and nobody answered and since the door was locked, I assumed you went somewhere, so I waited outside. But just now I heard some movement and now the door's unlocked…"

"I…", Think fast, Diana. "I got hot and couldn't stand wearing my spanx any longer. So I took them off and locked my door just to make sure nobody came in. I didn't hear you knock,"

She frowns. "Why do you wear spanx?"

"To keep everything in." I've never in my life worn spanx.

"To keep what in?! Your internal organs?", Barbara Ann asks quite scandalized.

I can't help but laugh at that. After witnessing Dr Barbara Ann Minerva at work, the Louvre offered her a permanent job at the museum. She refused at first, saying she never stays in one place and after talking to her and telling her that growing roots somewhere is not a bad thing, she decided to try it for year. Just a year, she emphasized.

It's been 8 months and we've become very close. At first, it was a little strange. I guess I had forgotten how to be friends with someone normal. Barbara Ann would come and eat her lunch in my office; she would ask me what I did for fun and turns out, she loves reading and watching plays just like I do. We overlapped in a lot of things.

After talking to Steve and sharing my doubts about befriending Barbara Ann, he told me it was okay to open up, to let people in. He specifically said,

"Your only friends are the members of the league and Alfred. You need to have some normal people around you. I'm not even normal anymore, with your Father doing his hocus pocus on me,"

I listened to him and the next day I offered Barbara Ann tickets to go see King Lear. Not too long after, I introduced her to Steve. They hit it off and the 3 of us started hanging out. Now she comes over to the apartment and has dinner with Steve and I, we text each other about everything. She has become a true friend.

Barbara Ann pulls a chair a sits down and I wince at her proximity to the lasso. I look up at her and notice her whole demeanour has changed.

"While I've been waiting for you, I've come to realize one of two things is about to happen. Either we are about to become the best of friends or I might find myself in danger of suffering a bit of bodily harm,"

I frown confused and I momentarily forget about the lasso… but only momentarily.

"Um, okay." I lean back on the shelf and cross my arms, curious. Discreetly I push the lasso under the desk with my foot, trying to keep it right where I can see it and out of Barbara Ann's sight.

She licks her lips and fixes her glasses. "I have an IQ of 160,"

I laugh a little at the way she says it. "Yes, I know. I w-"

"Ahnnn" – she wiggles her index finger at me – "I'm not done. Having the IQ that I have allows me to connect certain things faster than your average person. Things they would take a long time to connect if at all. At first I thought it was just a coincidence that every time there was some kind of emergency in Paris or anywhere really, you'd be nowhere to be found. I noticed this a couple of months ago, but I didn't really think much of it,"

My hearts starts pounding and I hope it's not going in the direction I think it's going.

She continues, "But then, two weeks ago, I asked you what the name of your nail polish was because I was in love with the colour. Remember?"

I nod, remembering when we were coming out of the event where we presented the artefacts we got from Norway to the Louvre's elite group of donors.

Barbara Ann nods slowly. "I bought that nail polish and I've worn it every single day since. I've worn it so much, that I could recognize it anywhere. And just now, there was a hostage situation in the Banque Nationale and right before it turned deadly – boom. Wonder Woman shows up to safe the day. I was right outside your office, watching the whole thing play out in my cell, while I was waiting for you, and then they showed a slo mo of Wonder Woman snapping someone's rifle in half and then grabbing the robber by the neck - and there, right there I paused it because that's My Sand-ity by O.P.I! You're her aren't you? You're Wonder Woman,"

I was trying to keep my poker face but it slowly morphed into total confusion because how in the name of Zeus, after more than a century of keeping my identity hidden and protected, did my stupid nail polish gave away who I am?!

I try to come up with something, anything to say to Barbara Ann that will make her think that she is totally wrong and that no, I'm not Wonder Woman. I'm about to tell her that a lot of people wear that colour and Wonder Woman could be one of them, but she shoots down that attempt even before I get a word out.

"If you're about to deny it, don't. I already saw the rope thingy you're trying so hard to hide."

I deflate at that and lean down to pick up the lasso and put it on the table.

"Oh my God. It's true. You're Wonder Woman!"

She practically yells it and I shush her.

"Yes, yes. I am. Don't yell it for the whole museum to hear!"

She puts her hand over her mouth. "Sorry. I'm sorry. It's just that… as a kid you were my absolute favourite! I used to make a sword and shield out of scraps of wood I would find around my estate and pretend I was you! This is absolutely mental!"

At her fangirling over me, I calm down a little. I've known Barbara Ann for 8 months, but she never strike me as the kind of person who would have a favourite superhero or anything that 'mainstream'.

I smile at her. "You know, I've been living in Man's World for more than a century and you're the first person to find out who I was by mere observation."

"Man's World. Is that what your people call Earth? Wait, you're making it sound like I'm not the first person to find out you're… her." She says looking around even though there's no one in my office.

"Man's World is what the Amazons call the civilized world, not Earth. I was born on Earth. We just call it Earth. And yes, you're the third person to figure out I'm… her. First woman though,"

She narrows her eyes at me. "Amazons as in the ones that were expelled of their district by Heracles so he could get Hippolyte's girdle?"

I chuckle, "It's Hippolyta and no. That's a myth. We live on an island called Themyscira. Upon its creation Zeus cloaked it, so we're protected. Nobody finds that island unless He allows them to."

She removes her glasses and rubs her eyes. "Di, you're making my brain melt. Is that even your real name? Diana is Roman not Greek."

"You're absolutely right, but that's my real name. Not the Prince though."

"So you just went by Diana at home? Just Diana?" She asks putting her glasses back on.

I smile mischievously, "You want me to really melt your brain?"

Her eyes get as big as saucers. "Dear God. What?"

I lean forward and say, "At home I was Diana, Princess of Themyscira. Daughter of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. And not too long after I left, I discovered I was also Zeus' daughter. I'm a demigod."

My smile grows wider and wider and her jaw drops lower and lower as she absorbs the information I just shared about myself. I'm not going to lie, talking about myself freely to someone who is a normal human being feels… liberating. I'm so incredibly grateful that I have Steve and someone I go home to who I can talk to about anything and everything, but once I leave the house it's just me again. Barry, Bruce, Clark, Arthur and Victor are not involved in my day-to-day life, so even though I have them and Steve, sometimes I still feel a little lonely. That's the cost of living a double life of sorts, I guess.

But what Barbara Ann said at the beginning of the conversation was right. One of two things was going to happen after she revealed she knew who I was and let's just say, I don't plan to cause her any bodily harm.