Have You Ever Been in Love?

1984

"Dr. Minerva?" Diana approached the blonde woman with glasses sitting in the museum lobby.

"Ms. Prince! Hi, so great to meet you!" Barbara leapt to her feet to shake Diana's hand.

Diana smiled back. "Hello, Dr. Minerva, lovely to meet you too. And please, call me Diana."

"Diana. Call me Barbara."

"Barbara. So, tell me, on the phone you said you were interested in doing some research on Greek Mythology?"

"Yes, yes! I'm absolutely fascinated by all mythology."

Diana smiled at her obvious enthusiasm. "Wonderful. Here, let's head to my office where we can discuss things further."

"LIES!"

Crash!

They rushed into the office to find that Aikaterine had launched a thick, heavy, leather-bound book across the room. The Amazon-Goddess straightened up when she saw them.

"Aikaterine, you're not destroying my office are you?" said Diana, going and picking up the book that now lay sprawled out on the floor.

"It lies. It says Hades stole Persephone away and held her in the Underworld against her will. This isn't true, they are very happy and in love, thank you very much." She was living proof of that.

"I prefer the more romantic version too," said the blonde woman who Aikaterine only just noticed was with Diana. "Though there are some really dark versions of the myth. I guess we'll never really know the truth though, right?"

Only I do know the truth. "Who's this?" She nodded to the blonde.

"This is Dr. Minerva. We will be doing some research together," Diana explained.

"Hi, I'm Barbara." The woman approached Aikaterine with her arm outstretched.

Aikaterine had taken many handshakes the wrong way many times before, thinking it was an attack, and becoming defensive. But now, she was finally getting the hang of it. Still, she hesitated before she took the woman's hand in her own and shook it - though not too hard, as Diana had advised. She had made that mistake many times too.

In fact, this handshake seemed to go very well. "Aikaterine." Diana had also advised her to leave her introductions to just that, her name. Not 'Aiketerine, Daughter of Hades and Persephone' or 'Lady Legacy', either of which she preferred to say.

"Beautiful name!"

"Thank you."

"Are you from Greece?"

"Yes..." She heard Diana chuckling.

"Are you a part of the exhibit?" Barbara asked.

Aikaterine frowned. "I'm sorry?"

"Sorry, it was a joke. I just meant cause you look like you stepped out of a history book. Love the outfit by the way." The woman - Barbara - gestured to Aikaterine's armour and cloak.

"Yes, my friend is also fascinated by Greek Mythology," Diana explained to Barbara. "I think you two will get along very well."

"Me too!" said Barbara with a smile, her eyes big behind her glasses in excitement. Aikaterine didn't know what to say.

"Wait, I've seen you before - in the newspaper," Barbara said. "You're that mysterious woman who walks around in Ancient Greek costume. They say Washington D.C. has its own Greek Goddess watching over it."

Mortals were so foolish. "Hmm. Well I'm not the one watching over it." She looked to Diana.

It seemed like only after a few hours together, Diana and Barbara were best friends. Aikaterine tried not to be jealous, but she had to listen to them laughing and chatting all afternoon.

It was sort of bearable - all until they eventually brought up the topic of romance.

"Have you ever been in love?" Barbara asked.

"Yes, a long, long time ago..." Diana smiled at the memory. "You?"

"Yeah, so many times. All the time." Barbara nodded.

Diana chuckled.

"What about you?" Barbara asked, turning to Aikaterine. She had been trying to include her in the conversation the whole time.

Part of her was tempted to say no, but there was no point in lying. "Yes," she answered truthfully, not meeting Diana's eyes.


"Aikaterine!"

Aikaterine was striding through the park between museums, perfectly aware of the stares she was getting from nearby mortals, when she heard someone calling her name.

This threw her off, for the voice wasn't Diana's and she knew no one else in this place.

But then she saw the blonde curls.

"Dr. Minerva."

"Barbara, please." The woman caught up to her.

"How can I help you?"

"I was wondering if we could meet to discuss work."

"I don't follow."

"Well Diana said that you're really interested in Greek Mythology as well, so I thought, if you wanted, we could meet and discuss it. I'm particularly interested in your story."

"Why?"

"Well clearly it's impacted you if you dress that way."

Aikaterine sighed. There's so much you don't understand.

She fished around in her bag. "I picked up some books from the library to start doing some research."

"I thought you were working with Diana on this project."

"Oh, I am, but I was also under the impression that you'd be working with us too. Are you heading to the museum, can I join you?"

The two women were now crossing the street towards the main museum building.

Before Aikaterine could answer, a near-deafening screeching of tires drew their attention to a bus that was speeding right towards them, showing no sign of stopping.

Acting fast, Aikaterine shoved Barbara out of the way - Barb landed hard on the pavement and looked up just in time to see the bus strike the redhead.

A scream caught in Barbara's throat at the scene.

The bus had stopped now, traffic stopping all around it and people rushing to the scene.

There was a flash of red, blue, and silver and Aikaterine appeared - she had stopped the bus. Her hand prints were now dented into the front of the bus.

She came around the side and wrenched the door open to find many shaken passengers and an equally shaken bus driver. "What happened here?" she demanded.

"I-I don't know," cried the driver, his eyes wide and his hands clutching the wheel so tightly his knuckles were white. "It just spun out of control, I couldn't get it to stop..."

"I'll call an ambulance," one man who had gotten out of his car to check in on everyone called, rushing off to the nearest payphone.

Barbara shakily got to her feet, Aikaterine coming to help steady her. "Are you alright, Dr. Minerva?"

"I-I, um, I think so..." She didn't even ask her to call her 'Barbara'. She stared wide-eyed at the red-haired woman, not even really sure what had happened. "I thought you were dead. You saved my life - you saved their lives."

"Mortal lives are fleeting. You must take more care." And with that, D.C.'s goddess vanished.

A little action here! ;) So excited that these three have met! I can't wait to see Barbara in the movie, her story from the comics sounds so cool!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)