Thanks Jenn for all your help and encouragement, You still rock.

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A short time after leaving Jim Gordon alone and slightly befuddled in the alley next to the Natural History Museum, Batman landed on the roof of the Wayne Enterprises building. He moved to the blind spot he had built there, somewhere he could rest if he needed to and stock up on any items he might need, like batarangs. He didn't need to retool, and he no longer felt tired enough to want to rest, despite the fact that it was after three in the morning and it had been a long day. He did however, need to think.

"Diana", he whispered into the night sky.

Harley's loyalty to the Joker was as deranged as the maniac himself. Yet, if he took her at her word, she loved the criminal. Time after time, the Joker hurt, abandoned, sacrificed and abused Harley Quinn, and she still loved him. It either made her a fool or a very loving person.

Harley wasn't a fool…she was intelligent enough in her own right. Unstable, certainly, and slightly psychotic, maybe, but definitely intelligent.

Loving?

The thought unsettled him like very few things did. After all, if Harley was a loving person and refused to give up on that love no matter what was thrown against it, what did that make him for all but abandoning his love for Diana?

Diana was everything the Joker wasn't, besides the obvious anatomical differences of course. She was beautiful in every sense of the word…inside and out. Intelligent, caring, loyal to a fault…he could go on and on.

And he loved her, more than he had ever loved anyone in his life. In their years together he let her get closer than anyone ever had…and he accepted it with a willingness and ease that surprised him. Not only did he trust her with his life on a regular basis, but he also trusted her with most of his deepest secrets, feelings and even hopes. She was the only person he ever felt comfortable enough with doing so. She managed to find levels in him that no one had ever explored before, that he never even knew he had.

Yet he was willing to throw it all away without a fight. Over five years of painstakingly building a relationship, seemingly brick by brick, with the most wondrous of women and he was giving it up without a fight. What did that make him?

Batman shook his pointy-eared head and almost laughed at himself. He never gave up on anything in his life, yet he was willing to give up on what amounted to the most important thing he had ever obtained and achieved. Was he a weak fool?

Diana loved him in spite of his eccentricity, in spite of his aloofness and in spite of everything else that caused the others in his life to eventually run for the hills, including Batman. He was flushing her love down the proverbial toilet. Would he become a lonely fool?

Then, of course, there was the off chance that he was wrong. What if Diana was just being a friend to Clark…something he surely needed in this world that had changed so much in the time he was gone? His arrogance hadn't allowed him to talk to her about Clark, so what if there was nothing there? What if his mistrustful mind was making something of nothing and he lost that which he loved because of it? Was he nothing more than a proud fool?

He knew Alfred could tell what was bothering him and he remembered what Alfred said before he left the cave. "I would suggest that if you want the criminals of Gotham to feel the wrath of Batman tonight, you should stop worrying needlessly about Miss Diana and go terrorize them."

Worrying needlessly? Is that what he was doing?

He thought back to every memory of Diana that he had catalogued in his own internal memory banks. The amount of memories he had of her was extensive to put it mildly. For nearly thirty minutes he remembered her…the way she looked at various times and during certain occasions; certain things she said that, whether she was aware of it or not touched him, like the first time she told him she loved him; battles they fought together; the times he woke up in the infirmary and saw her worried face looking back at him as well as the times he watched over her as she healed from injuries; and a plethora of other memories.

During those times, he realized with an honest and somewhat unfamiliar pang of regret, not once in their history did she ever give him a reason to doubt her as a colleague, partner or lover. Not when Clark was gone. Not when he was around either.

Batman sighed and realized that he was in deep, very deep trouble.

He looked to the sky and saw a multitude of stars and a thought occurred to him. He wasn't particularly sure that Diana would be receptive to seeing him any time soon. The next best thing would be a message…an apologetic message. He tapped his communicator and called the Watchtower. Batman was slightly relieved when J'onn answered as opposed to someone like Flash. J'onn would be discreet about what he was about to do, and right now that was definitely a good thing for him.

"J'onn", began Batman. "I want to leave a message for Dia…for Wonder Woman." He thought for a moment and added a little more hastily than he meant, "A personal message."

"Of course, Batman", replied J'onn as though what Batman was doing was perfectly normal. "The recorders are active."

Batman thought for a moment about what to say and perhaps more importantly how to say it. When he finally spoke, it was in the voice that only she got to hear. It was the voice that he used when he told her his secrets, when he told her his plans and when he told her he loved her. It was the voice that told her it was really him speaking not one of the masks. It was his essence speaking…his very soul.

"Diana. I know you're angry." He paused for a second and swallowed the lump in his throat that he assumed was his pride. "I understand why you're angry. I've behaved badly tonight and I just wanted to say ", he sighed and as sincerely as he could added, "I'm sorry, Diana. When you get this call me." Before he knew it his mouth fell open of its own accord and uttered the word he seldom sincerely used. "Please."

Slipping back into Bat mode he added for J'onn's benefit, "Message complete. Batman out."

Batman looked to the stars again and wondered how he had screwed things up so badly. Not finding any answers in the dancing specks of light he reached for his grapple but stopped when he heard footsteps behind him and whirled around, producing a batarang instead of the grapple in his right hand and holding it up high at the ready as he searched for the intruder.

She was standing there with her arms folded across her chest. The wind was causing her hair to blow around her and the moonlight was glinting off her crystal blue eyes like diamonds.

"Beautiful", his mind said even as he finally lowered the batarang and took a long look at the vision of heavenly beauty standing before him. The dark hue in her usually bright eyes told him everything he needed to know. "Very deep trouble." He had to fight down his sizable instinct for self-preservation and stand his ground, though he pulled his cape in tight around him out of personal comfort more than anything else.

Diana's eyes avoided his, settling on the rooftop near his boots. "Have these last five years meant nothing to you, Bruce?"

He fought down the urge to scold her for using his name in an unsecured area…that was the least of his concerns at the moment. "Straight to the point", he thought morbidly. He was surprised to hear her voice so soft, not full of anger as he suspected it would be but full of sadness and resignation. He had expected her to rip into him about his behavior and his rapid departure from the cave without so much as a word. He expected her to be upset…very upset.

"All these years I thought I managed to prove to you that my heart belongs to you." She looked up and found the white slits of the cowl. "Only to you."

The way she emphasized 'only to you' told him just how wrong he had been and he felt his shoulders automatically slump before he could stop it. "She's figured it out", he realized and closed his eyes. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or upset about it, though it certainly eliminated some of the explaining he thought he had to do.

As if to confirm his observation she whispered softly, "The fourth reason."

His eyes opened and locked onto hers. The pain he now saw in her eyes rendered him speechless. There was nothing he could say. He was wrong about what he thought, his own insightful ruminations along with the obvious anguish in Diana's eyes more than verified that, and for the first time in a very long time Batman could summon neither the desire nor wherewithal to offer a justification of any kind.

"Have you always believed that I have feelings for him?" Diana shook her head as she whispered as though she couldn't believe that she was saying it, "Other than feelings of friendship?"

It was a simple enough question with an answer she obviously knew, though for the life of him he couldn't answer it.

"We've been through a lot, you and I." Diana took three steps toward him to bring her close enough for him to easily see the rapid pumping of her carotid artery. "I have never felt about anyone else the way I feel about you." Her voice and eyes pleaded with him when she asked, "You believe that don't you?"

"Of course I do!" shouted his mind, though once again his mouth failed him and didn't repeat the message.

"Stop being so childish about this, Bruce!" Diana yelled as she let anger into her voice for the first time since finding him. She wanted to get some sort of reaction from him, anything to show her that he cared enough to be listening. She could tell that his eyebrow had lifted as a sign of disbelief. "Yes, Bruce…childish." She took a small step towards him, daring him to move away and to stay still at the same time, locking him in the classic no-win situation. "It's childish…" She had to stop when the giant clock on the next building began to chime…loudly given their proximity to it. She looked over and absently noted the time, and when the bells finished ringing she tried again. "It's childish to believe that I have any feelings for Kal. You're behavior tonight was childish, and you're being childish now by not talking to me."

"If getting upset over the fact that the woman I love more than my own life is…constantly fawning over someone who all but abandoned us is childish, so be it." Damn his defense mechanism! He hadn't meant for that to come out, and he only minimally believed it in the first place, even less so now. He had been around enough and gone through enough issues of his own to appreciate Clark's need for answers and some solitude…some soul searching. He didn't agree with how Clark did it, but that was rapidly becoming beside the point.

It was when her eyes opened wide and her mouth opened without saying anything that Bruce realized he had gone farther, much farther, than he had intended to. It was time to tone it down and reel in the freight train that his frustration, paranoia and regret had become.

"Diana", he began softly only to be interrupted by her quiet voice.

"I love you, Bruce." She took a quick ragged breath that nearly tore his heart from his chest before she spoke again. "Hera help me, I do." Her right hand slipped over her hip and moved up to hold her let forearm. "Even now, after finding out that you think that I would so easily discard everything that I have worked so hard to build with you, I still love you."

The raw emotion coming from Diana was staggering, and unfortunately for Batman it had the devastating result of negating every word he tried to say. He wanted to say he was sorry for hurting her, that he loved her and that he no longer believed that Clark was a threat to them.

He just physically couldn't.

"I don't know what to do, Bruce." Diana lowered her arms to let them rest against her sides. "I've done everything I could to show you that I love you and that I want to be with you." She shrugged her bare, moonlit shoulders and gently shook her head. "But it's all laid to waste by something as simple as the return of our friend." Her arms moved and folded across her stomach, which felt increasingly like it was being torn to shreds and her eyes begged for an answer. "What does that say about you?" Her voice dropped to a whisper as she added almost painfully, "About us?"

When he hesitated she turned and began to walk away from him, her posture sure and her steps confident. His body, vocal cords, muscles, everything refused to work. He wanted…he needed to stop her from leaving but he just couldn't. He watched helplessly as she lifted gracefully off the rooftop and slipped into the black Gotham night.

As she faded into the distance, his mouth finally opened to reveal to the world at large the cold hard truth. "It says I'm a fool."

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Diana left the roof of Wayne Enterprises and flew away from Bruce, wishing with all of her soul that he would call out to her, to tell her what she needed to hear to give her the hope she needed to know that everything would be alright.

He didn't call out to her.

Her pride wouldn't let her look back to the rooftop, much less turn around and try again. She made her plea, which was more of an action than she would have thought possible five years ago. He just stood there and looked at her without a word, except for that idiotic comment defending his childishness behavior.

It was a bittersweet moment for her to be sure. In one breath he managed to lift her spirits to the heights of Olympus by calling her the woman he loved, then sent those same spirits crashing to Earth by implying that she was - what was his word? Fawning? Fawning over Kal. It was enough to give her a headache.

And the headache is what she blamed for the steady stream of tears as she flew around the skies of his city, not the pain and heartache of it all. She had been flying for nearly ten minutes when she realized that she was almost to the manor and she stopped in mid-air, hovering as she contemplated whether to go to what had essentially been her home for the past five years and talk to Alfred.

Diana thought about that for a moment. Alfred would be most willing to render any assistance he could, and with his relationship to Bruce being as fundamentally solid as it was, that assistance would be helpful, as it had been on numerous occasions.

She sighed tiredly and turned away from Wayne Manor, flying at a relaxed pace to nowhere in particular. She refused to drag Alfred into this crisis. It was late and Alfred, though young at heart and as sharp of mind as anyone she knew, was too…mature to be bothered with Bruce's attitude.

She could fly to New York, but she knew that the late hour was catching up to her. She could call the Watchtower to teleport her to New York, or up to the tower for that matter, but that would give the rumor mill, AKA Wally, something to talk about. No, a place in Gotham was the preferred choice at the moment.

Then she remembered the League's visitor's suite. She changed her course and headed to the apartment complex that Bruce owned, and in which he kept a suite available for League members when they visited Gotham. It was originally setup as a place for her to stay in the initial stages of their relationship.

She had thought that it was his way of keeping her at a distance, of not letting her get too close and she was pissed about it. She smiled as she remembered storming into the Batcave to tell Bruce where to shove the apartment, only to find Alfred dusting the Batcomputer with one of those funny looking feather dusters.

Alfred managed to calm her down and they had a long talk about Bruce and his actions. With Alfred's help, Diana realized the suite was Bruce's way of giving her the option of not staying at the manor; of not putting any pressure on her and not pushing her into something she may not have been ready for; of showing her that if she didn't feel comfortable in the manor he was okay with it; that she was under no obligations of any kind.

After Diana told Bruce in no uncertain terms that the apartment was not necessary, he kept it as a League apartment. It was always dangerous when League members stayed at the manor when they were in Gotham, not that that happened often. Bruce was always concerned that any visitors could be followed to the manor, or be seen entering or exiting, thereby compromising his identity.

Diana found the suite and landed on the balcony with less grace than usual and had to reach out with her hand and steady herself against the door. The certainty she showed to Bruce as she left the roof of Wayne Enterprises was a sham, and she knew it. It took all of her strength to keep from faltering and now it was catching up to her. She took a few minutes to regain her composure, and after finding the secret access panel and entering the proper code, she entered the suite. It was luxurious by any standards, and Bruce always kept it well stocked and ready to be used in case of emergency. She gave the suite a cursory glance and headed straight for the bedroom.

Some Leaguers kept some spare clothes and uniforms in the apartment. Unfortunately, she didn't, opting instead to keep her belongings at the manor. She approached a dresser and opened a drawer that she knew that Shayera had appropriated as her own, much to the chagrin of some of the others. In it she found several nightdresses, all of which naturally had wide-open backs.

Diana smiled and picked out a short, silver silk nightdress. She changed into it, leaving her bracelets on and laying her uniform on a nearby chair. Her stomach growled and she realized she couldn't remember the last time she ate anything, but her heart just wasn't in it. She went to the bed, and got in, laying down on her back with the sheet pulled up past her waist. She stared at the ceiling, remembering the events of the evening, and trying to figure out how to make Bruce see, once and for all, that he was the only man she loved.

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As Diana tried to discover a way to show Bruce her love, the object of her thoughts was arriving home. The Batmobile rumbled to a stop on its turntable-resting place in the Batcave. Batman deftly jumped out of the vehicle and immediately noticed the sight of Alfred in the chair in front of the computer. It was obvious that he had been asleep, though Alfred would hardly admit to it.

"You told her", he ground out as he approached the older man. He was certain that Alfred had realized the nature of Bruce's fool mood of late, and catching him looking at the picture of Diana and Clark earlier probably verified it for him. It was also a certainty that Alfred heard his remark about the fourth reason. Alfred then told Diana who put two and two together, ironically enough to come up with the fourth reason. Simple deduction.

Alfred fixed Batman with a steely look. "Yes, Master Bruce, I did. For her sake…and yours." He shuffled in the chair trying without being obvious to stretch out the kinks he was feeling from sitting in a chair. Bruce couldn't be certain, but as Alfred stretched he thought he heard him mutter under his breath, "And mine."

Batman watched with some concern as Alfred tried unsuccessfully to get up out of the oversized chair. He reached forward to help the man who was old enough to be his father, and in many ways was exactly that. As his gauntleted hand fell upon Alfred's arm he muttered, "You're getting too old for this, Alfred."

Alfred's eyes burned with fury as he pushed Batman's hand away from him and all but sprang up out of the chair. He came within inches of Batman and nearly shook with barely contained anger born of Bruce's brutish behavior towards Diana, and the disrespectful tone that came with his offer of assistance. "I have never lamented over my advanced years, Master Bruce. I have considered my age an asset and not a detriment." He tugged on his butler's jacket to straighten out a wrinkle obtained from his crumpled position in the chair. "I do however, lament the fact that I am too old to take you over my knee and tan your posterior for your ill-mannered behavior of late, as you most certainly deserve."

Bruce was astonished by the brutality of Alfred's outburst and the split second widening of the white eyes of his cowl was more than enough to show it to Alfred.

Pleased that he had been able to elicit some semblance of an emotional reaction from Bruce, Alfred took a moment to compose himself and added, "Your treatment tonight of Miss Diana was atrocious, Master Bruce." He bowed and shook his head as he continued. "I am saddened and ashamed that I have so failed in my duty if I raised you to be such a man."

Batman reached up with his right hand and removed the cowl that kept the concern and regret in his eyes from reaching Alfred's vision. "You mean such a fool."

Alfred looked up into the blue eyes of the man he raised as he would have his own son. He agreed with him of course, but he hoped that Bruce would continue on…that perhaps he had an epiphany of sorts. He stayed silent and watched the younger man struggle to find the right words.

Bruce looked beyond Alfred's left shoulder to a blank point on the far wall of the cave, unable to meet Alfred's expectant gaze. "I realized that I've been a fool, Alfred. I was willing to let her go…to push her away without a fight." His mouth twitched in a resigned smile. "All because I couldn't believe that her love for me is complete."

"As yours is for her", prompted Alfred.

Bruce nodded eagerly, relieved that Alfred understood. "Yes. I let myself get caught up in the public perception of Diana and Superman as a couple, let my paranoia enhance the intensity and assumed that they couldn't have feelings for each other that didn't cross the line of friendship." Bruce looked to Alfred. "I allowed my jealousy and insecurity to break through and suffocate the trust and…and the love that we've built up." His eyes turned cold. "Never again. I let it hurt her tonight. Never again"

Alfred straightened up and smiled at his charge. "Perhaps my efforts have not been completely wasted after all." One gray eyebrow rose up. "Did you explain that to her and apologize, young man?"

Bruce's miniscule jaw clench told Alfred that he hadn't, but before he could further admonish him Bruce added, "She wouldn't let me." There was no malice or regret in his voice…only understanding. "I was fairly certain she was angry when I left, so I left a message for her telling her I was sorry and asking her to call me. I doubt she'll ever listen to it because she found me and let me have it just as I finished it." Bruce took a deep breath and let out a very loud sigh. "I've made a mess of it, Alfred."

Alfred cleared his throat and lifted his chin a quarter of an inch. "Yes, well, it was a virtual inevitability, Master Bruce." At Bruce's questioning look Alfred merely stated, "I believe Master Dick wins the pool."

Bruce couldn't tell if Alfred was joking or not, and deciding that he might not like the answer, he didn't ask. "I have to fix this, Alfred."

"Go to her, Master Bruce." It wasn't a plea. It wasn't an order. It wasn't even a suggestion. It sounded to Bruce like a combination of those things. One thing was for certain...no matter what label he put on it, the course of action was the same: go see her.

Bruce nodded. "I assume given the events of this evening Diana has opted not to stay in the manor?"

Alfred nodded morbidly. "That would be a safe assumption, Master Bruce." He nodded towards the Batcomputer and added, "Though I have taken the liberty of checking on her location. She is staying in the visitor's suite."

Bruce didn't quite smile at Alfred's foresight. It was Alfred, after all. "Thank you, Alfred", he said as he pulled his cowl back on and started towards the Batmobile. He was almost to it when Alfred's voice stopped him.

"Please tread carefully, Master Bruce. Her heart is wounded and she may not want to listen." Alfred clasped his hands behind his back. "You must do your best to get her to listen." His mouth didn't quite form a smile. "Besides, I picked three years from now in the pool."

This time Batman couldn't keep the smile from his lips, and despite the joy it gave to Alfred, all he did was stoically observe the younger man as he spoke.

"Thank you, old friend." Batman pointed to the stairs and said in the tone of a son talking to his father, "Good night, Alfred. And take tomorrow off."

As the Batmobile sped out the tunnel a minute later, Alfred Pennyworth gingerly walked to the stairs and muttered under his breath, "Children."

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It didn't take long to get to the apartment and get inside. He found Diana in the bed covered only by a thin sheet. Her eyes were still open and looking up at the ceiling. Her hands rested on her stomach, one on top of the other. She looked very deep in thought and didn't seem to notice him enter through the patio doors.

Or so he thought.

"What do you want, Bruce?" Her voice was soft and sweet even behind the bitterness he heard in it. She turned her head to look at him and didn't even attempt to hide the anger her eyes mirrored from within her.

He pulled off his cowl and held it in his right hand. He looked at it for a moment and then turned his gaze to her. "Did you get my message?" The question hung in the air for several moments without either of them speaking. Finally Diana broke the silence.

"It's late, Bruce", she said tiredly as she closed her eyes. "Go home and let me get some sleep."

"I'll take that as a 'no' then."

"Take it as you wish", Diana bitterly told him, "as you do with everything else."

The comment stung, but it was deserved and he knew it. He decided to ignore it. "Messages vetted through the Watchtower have an audio time stamp embedded in them two seconds after the end of the message."

Diana's frustrated groan stopped him from proceeding. She sat up on the bed, letting her hands rest on either side of her and just behind to help keep her upright. The sheet she had over her pooled across her hips as they slid down her flat belly, and she was pleased to see his naked eyes glance at her with a hint of desire. "I'm really tired, Bruce. What does time have…?"

"Do you remember what time it was when you found me on the roof of Wayne Enterprises?"

The question was bizarre enough to make her think about it. Her eyes narrowed as she thought. "I don't know…three o'clock."

Batman's head tilted to the left and the left side of his mouth moved upward for a millisecond. "Think, Princess. The clock on the next building sounded as you were berating me for my childishness. What time was it?"

Diana closed her eyes for a second, chiding herself for being sucked into this little game of his. She was telling him he was being childish and the clock interrupted her, which only aggravated her more. She remembered the bell ringing once, twice, three times, and four times…

Her eyes flew open and found his across the room as she announced triumphantly, "Four o'clock." To her surprise she noticed something like pride shining in his blue eyes. "It was four o'clock."

His nod was accompanied by a slight smile. "Very good, Princess."

He turned and walked back to the patio doors that he had left open. He could sense Diana tensing behind him, fighting to keep herself from calling out to him and probably resisting the urge to get up and literally pummel some sense into him.

He passed the threshold out onto the patio and pulled the cowl back up over his head, once again turning the all too human Bruce Wayne into the legendary Batman.

He took out his grapple and pointed it upwards. He turned his head so that she could see his left cheek. "Listen to the message", he said in his best bat voice. He fired the grapple without turning his head, not at all worried about whether or not it would find its target. "And pay attention to the time stamp."

Batman turned and lifted his right foot up to the balcony rail in preparation for one of his patented rapid departures, but then he turned back towards Diana.

"Good night, Princess", he said with as much warmth as he ever had. Before she could do or say anything he activated the high-speed grapple and flew off the balcony into the night. By the time Diana got up to close the doors he was long gone.

She walked back and sat on the edge of the bed mentally cataloguing all the information she had been given. "Message, time, time stamp…what does it all mean? 'Listen to the message' he said."

She activated her comm. unit and asked J'onn to play the message from Batman. It was pretty much what she expected in terms of the actual apology…but his voice. There was an honest and humble quality to it that touched her soul. She had heard that voice before, though only when it was just the two of them and she always knew that when he used that voice something important was being said to her. Finally the message ended and the audio time stamp played.

Tears stung her eyes as the implications of the time stamp filtered through the fog of emotions clouding her usually sharp mind. He sent the message before she found him…he apologized to her before she let him have it on the rooftop. It was then that she realized that that's what he was doing when she found him. Her eyes opened wide and her mouth followed suit, and despite her best efforts she couldn't close either of them.

That is until she muttered out of reflex, "Oh Hera."