Chapter 3

A/N: Wow! Another abundance of reviews! You are all such champions! Thankyou all very, very much! Now once again, I don't think I'm allowed to respond to you all individually :( so, a bit shout out of thanks to all of you, I really appreciate all your feedback, and it just spurs me on to write more!

Anyway, on with the story!

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"Thanks for running off on me," Diana said sarcastically as she rounded the corner in the hallway of the apartment building to find Maia waiting at the door.

"Did he kiss you?" Maia asked excitedly.

"Excuse me!" Diana questioned, her eyes widening and a small chuckle escaping her lips at Maia's blatant asking.

"Did he kiss you?"

Diana shook her head with a chuckle and a sigh as she put the key in the door and opened it. "If you knew we were going to bump into him today, shouldn't you already know the answer to your own question?"

"So that's a yes!" Maia asked with a grin.

"That's a no. And I don't think I would have wanted him to, anyway," Diana lied. Maia pouted as they walked inside, Diana a few steps ahead of her.

"Well why not?" she asked.

"Because… because it's Tom," Diana tried to reason.

"I thought that would've been a good thing," Maia replied.

Diana let out a deep sigh, and placed the keys on the table before sitting down. "I dunno," she said. Maia came and joined her. "So did you enjoy today?"

"Very much," the girl replied.

"Well that's good then," Diana commented. They sat quietly for a moment, both just mulling over their own thoughts.

"Look, I've been meaning to ask you," Diana said, "about that bad dream you had last night. Did you maybe wanna talk about it? About what made you so upset?"

Maia looked down at her hands sadly.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Diana added.

"I dreamt about my mother. Not you, my old mom," Maia said quietly. Diana smiled at the sentiment that Maia may consider her as her mother.

"And my dad too. I dreamt that they forgot about me and had a whole other family, and I came back to them and they didn't want me," she continued. Diana sighed and knelt down in front of Maia.

"Is that what's been bothering you lately? You miss your parents?" she asked. Maia nodded in reply.

"I'm sure they never forgot about you. I bet they thought about you everyday and thought about how much they love you. I mean, how could they not? You're the most wonderful little girl in the world," Diana said, running her hand lovingly over Maia's hair. Her sad frown slowly began to disappear and Diana smiled, pulling Maia into a tight hug.

When they pulled away, Diana decided it was time to broach a subject she had been considering for a while.

"Look, I've been thinking," she started, "how would you like to be a real family?"

"What do you mean?" Maia asked.

"Well… what if I was your mom, for real?"

A smile crept onto Maia's face, "you mean you'd adopt me?"

"That's exactly what I mean."

"I would love that more than anything," Maia grinned. Diana let out a deep sigh she didn't even realise she was holding and smiled right back. Maia threw her arms around her neck and squeezed Diana tightly. She was getting a family back.

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The doorbell rang as Diana and Maia were eating dinner that night.

"I'll get it!" Maia said, jumping up quickly.

"No, I'll… oh alright," Diana said, Maia already halfway towards the door. She opened it a tiny amount, sticking her head through the door, so Diana couldn't see who it was.

"I'm sorry, you have the wrong address," she said quickly. The person on the other side said something else, but Diana couldn't make out what it was. So she got up, and headed over to the door curiously.

"Maia, who is it?" she asked.

"It's no one," she quickly replied.

"Maia?" Diana walked closer to the door and opened it further, despite Maia trying to push it closed. Diana smiled when she saw what was on the other side.

"Hi," she said giddily. Standing in front of her was an extremely handsome, tall man, with middle brown hair and stunning blue eyes.

"Hi, I'm Peter," he said. Diana swooned.

"I… I'm…"

"She's Diana," Maia said slightly bitterly.

"Well hello Diana," he replied. "I'm guessing by the fact that you and this darling little girl answered the door, that I have the wrong address."

"Oh," Diana managed to say.

"I'm looking for my sister, Lucy Gordon?" he said.

"Oh, ah," Diana started, regaining her composure, "she lives two doors down."

"I apologise. Thankyou for your assistance," he said with a gorgeous smile.

"It's no trouble, really…" Diana replied.

"Well I'm just gonna go… see my sister then…" he said. "It was nice meeting you Diana."

"You too," she replied, before closing the door and leaning against it, letting out a deep sigh. Maia pouted and walked heavily back to the table. Diana took a minute to compose herself. She was never usually this ditzy and completely mindless around a man before, in fact, she'd never been, but he was just so polite and so attractive – she'd lost all control over her brain.

"Are you going to finish your dinner?" Maia said, breaking Diana out of her reverie.

"Ah, yeah," she replied, walking over to the table. She sat down and began eating, staring out into space. Maia sighed and frowned, then continued eating her mashed potatoes.

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Diana crept into Maia's room later that night in her pyjamas, to check the girl was asleep. As she approached the bed she could see Maia had her eyes closed and was breathing deeply and slowly, obviously asleep. She planted a soft kiss on her forehead before exiting the room as quickly as she'd came, pulling the door almost closed on her way. She grabbed the trash and made her way out into the hallway, quickly looking around to make sure no one would see her creeping about in her pyjamas. She walked down the hall to the trash disposal, and when she was almost there, a door opened and someone came out. Just Diana's luck, it was –

"Peter!" she said in surprise, embarrassed that he'd caught her sneaking around in her pjs.

"Diana, hi," he replied with a smile, "we meet again."

"That we do. I'm just… taking out the trash," she said nervously.

"So I noticed. Do you want some -"

"Oh no, I'm fine -"

"Are you sure, cos I can -"

"No I'm fine, really," she said, both of them fumbling with the trash, Peter trying to help. She quickly put the trash down the chute, which was only a few steps away. "See, easy."

"So, um… fancy seeing you again out here in… pyjamas," he pointed out. Diana blushed a little.

"Oh well, it's late, I was just taking out the trash before I went to bed," she replied.

"Understandable," he said.

"Ok, well, I better get back inside, before anyone else sees me," Diana said, taking a step towards Peter to get past. But he didn't move. Instead they stood only centimetres apart.

"I better get home too," he said, not doing anything about it, instead leaning in closer.

"I just, need to…" but Diana didn't get to finish her thought, instead Peter's lips met hers, cutting her off. She immediately reciprocated, eagerly kissing him back. By the time they broke away they were both breathing quickly.

"So, umm… I'm coming back tomorrow afternoon to visit my sister… maybe we could go out for dinner?" he said, still holding her closely, her face close to his.

"That would be… great," Diana smiled, looking into his eyes. She shyly pulled out of his arms and backed away towards her door, a giddy grin on her face.

"So tomorrow then," Peter said, "seven?"

"Seven's perfect," she replied, leaning against her doorway.

"Seven it is," he said with a smile, and Diana quickly retreated into her apartment and closed the door with a happy sigh.

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A/N: Soooo… a new love interest for Diana! What will happen? What will Tom say when he finds out? Will he be jealous? Let's hope so! Let me know what you think dears, I'm a bit of a feedback junkie!