Clark parked his mother's car in the driveway and stepped back into the house. He closed the door behind him and took a deep breath. It had been a difficult week, but things were looking up as far as he was concerned. Diana was alive and well. She might be without her powers for a time but she was safe, that was all that mattered to him.
He gazed through the house and saw that his father was in the barn, milking one of their cows. Clark strode out to help. "Hey, Pa. I dropped the girls off in town. Here, let me help you with that." Clark said, reaching for the full metal milk jug. Their cows were strong and fertile, ready to be milked after the past two days.
"Thanks, Clark. So where'd you drop 'em?"
"Lindy's Salon. I figure Ma could show Diana the human woman's ritual of a Saturday manicure."
John smiled. "More like she wants to show off her new friend. You must have forgotten how the women are in Smallville, Clark. A new woman in town is all they'll talk about for he next month."
Clark shrugged. "She might not be here that long."
"Don't tell your mother that, she's already gotten attached and wants to keep Diana."
Clark laughed. "Like a stray cat, I saw that too. It might be good for Diana to learn about women from Ma while she's here. I know she's always wanted to learn more about the world but with the League there just hasn't been very much time."
"Well, she has the time now, and so do you. The world isn't ending again any time soon, is it?"
Clark shrugged. "Not that I'm aware of. I hope not. Every time I have to fight I usually end up bringing down half the buildings in Metropolis."
John wiped his hands on a rag and the men started toward the house. The day before, while Diana had still been laid up in his room, Clark had gone over every inch of the farm in an effort to keep his mind occupied on something other than worrying for his friend. After milking the cows, John's day was finished at 11:30. "You know, Clark, sometimes it takes a bull in a china shop to get things done. We've seen the news coverage, you know. I'm not sure your friend the Batman could have gone twelve rounds with Darkseid, but you sure mopped the floor with him."
"I just...I wish I didn't have to fight all the time." Clark said. Truly, he wished there was no need for Superman. He just wanted to write for the Daily Planet and retire back to the farm. He just wanted a normal life.
The men stepped into the house and into the kitchen. John tossed Clark an apple and then took one for himself. "That's what I'm saying, Clark. It doesn't seem that there are any disasters to take care of, so try to enjoy the peace while it lasts. Your mother wants you to stick around for a while and help to introduce Diana to Smallville."
Clark raised a brow. "She never said that."
"Not with words she didn't, but I've known your mother a good long while. After so many years, you start to figure out how a woman's mind works. Martha wants you and Diana to stay in Smallville at least until Diana gets her powers back, maybe even afterwards."
"I was planning to come home sooner, but with all that's happened lately...but you're right, Pa. I was considering coming back to Smallville before Diana's...situation." He thought to himself for a few moments. "You know, I saw a notice at the diner that the fair will be starting up in a few weeks. And there's plenty to be done before that. You're right. Diana's always wanted to know what it's like to be human, and now is an ideal time for her to learn. I'd be happy to teach her."
The unspoken thoughts of what Clark had already taught Diana flitted through his mind. He knew that the subject would come up between them, and soon.
Clark only wished that he could be as certain about what on earth he would say to her.
Diana stared down at her newly polished nails. Martha had called it "manicure", the practice of one woman filing and painting another's. Apparently men could perform the ritual and have it done to themselves, but these occasions were rare. She paged through a magazine as she waited for Martha to finish having her hair set. That ritual was somewhat familiar, at least. While the Amazons usually wore simple cotton tunics or robes, they had always held a private vanity for their hair, styling it elaborately for rituals and knotting it for battle.
Glancing up, Diana saw that several other women were looking in her direction.
"All right, are you ready to pick out some new clothes?"
Diana smiled to see that Martha's hair was shinier than it had been before, and her curls were more defined. "Yes, I am. But why are they staring at me?"
Martha glanced over her shoulder as they left the salon to see several of the women watching after them. "Oh, don't you worry about that. They're just curious, that's all. Not every day that Smallville is visited by royalty. Now, there aren't many clothing stores for the women here, but believe me, the shops that cater to ladies all have quality goods. We'll have you out of this get-up and into something sensational in no time."
Human women were very busy. They had so many things to consider. Their husbands, their house chores, their children, their own parents and occupations.
If Aphrodite did not return her gifts, Diana would have no choice but to live as a mortal woman. She did not keep a secret identity, but she did have an apartment in Washington D.C. where she resided when not working with the League. There were clothes there that she wore, and books lining every shelf. She would sometimes venture out to explore the city and attempt to blend in with humanity, but Diana had never felt much of a genuine connection with the people of Man's World. Not even the women.
But if she had no choice, could she do everything that these women did? Find that balance of life to share with with so many others?
Diana wasn't sure.
She looked at Martha Kent as she sorted through a pile of folded shirts. Wife, mother, farmer, friend. This woman had so many responsibilities, yet she was serene, joyful. She was also married. Diana knew what it meant, of course. She had sometimes wondered about it after she'd left Themyscira and seen couples. Most of the Amazons were indifferent to the idea of marriage and even of men at all. They were not hostile, just uninterested.
"You have not lived past lives as we have," Charka had once told her. Charka had been taken from her tribe in Kenya as a child and used as a slave until her fifteenth year, where the Romans had placed her in a brothel. Her soul had been resurrected on Themyscira after a particularly gruesome death at the hand of a customer. "You are innocent, your whole life spent here. Not all men are evil and not all men are good. I gave many men my body but I loved one. He was just a servant of the brothel, but I loved him. Still, if given the chance to live in Man's World again, even with him, I would not wish to lose the purity of spirit I have gained here."
Charka had had her points to make: Diana had never experienced the outside world that so many of her sisters had.
But I have gone through a hell that they had never dreamed of. And as punishment for that sacrifice they have taken my power, leaving me banished from my home, alone in the world as a moral.
Diana frowned. She could not sink into despair or anger. Not when she had a wonderful family that had taken her in, offered her shelter and guidance. The moment of darkness passed. Diana calmed herself and resolved to pray to Aphrodite that night.
But first she had to choose the clothing that wold help her to blend in and learn what it meant to be a woman in Man's World.
The light rumble of the truck's engine making its way up the hill toward the house didn't have Clark running to greet the women at the door. After he and his father had had lunch together, Clark had gone off to the barn attic. As a boy, he'd climbed up to the hayloft and thought of the space as a sort of treehouse. As a young man he'd cleared the hay and made a space for himself to hang out, either alone or with Lana.
He wasn't sure if he wanted to go forward with the scenario of Diana living with him at the farm. After the night they'd shared, he feared he might make some mistake, or say the wrong thing to upset her. It was impossible not to relive that night in his thoughts, his mind loved to wander back to that scene. Her hands grazing over him, her lips so open and eager, her smile...Clark wanted her again. She'd made him feel like a man, something he'd never experienced with any of the others.
Curiosity was also preying on him, driving him up the wall with the constant question: what if?
What if Diana gets her powers back? What then? Will we just pretend that it never happened? What if she doesn't even want to acknowledge it? What if she hates me for wanting her?
But...
What if Diana doesn'tget her powers back? Where would she live? Here, in Smallville with my parents? With me, in Metropolis? Could we be together if she became a full human?
Clark wanted to talk to her, but he decided to hold off on bringing up the conversation. There was no need to rush things. After all that she'd been through, Clark knew when to put his feelings aside to maintain a relative peace. He could hear her with his mother and father, they were somewhere in the kitchen now, talking happily. He could hear Diana laughing at something his father had said. She had a beautiful laugh.
Clark sighed.
He stepped out of the open hayloft window and drifted to the soft earth outside of the barn. As he headed into the house, Clark decided that he would make dinner that night.