10. Mystic Intervention

"Diana" came the equally startled reply as Zatanna withdrew from the embrace of J'onn Jones.

Diana walked towards the shorter woman, who hurried towards her while waving to Batman, who just nodded his head and got back to his work.

"Diana" exclaimed Zatanna, hugging the younger looking Amazon. "When did you get here?"

Diana had tears in her eyes. It had been so long since she had been hugged like that and by a sister no less. "Today" she managed to say, tears overflowing in her eyes.

"Hey…." said Zatanna drawing back, her own eyes wet with tears. "See you are going to make me cry too."

Diana smiled a watery smile before reaching up and wiping her tears away.

"Come let's go," said Zatanna, pulling Diana alone with her. "J'onn see you in bed and goodnight Bruce. We girls are going to have a nice long pillow talk."

J'onn nodded his head while Batman gave no intimation of even hearing them.

"No" tried Diana. "I have work. I have to get up to speed, we can talk later."

"No way" "I am not leaving you here with these two gossipmongers on your first night back. Between the two of them, they will say ten whole words the entire night. And they don't even use telepathy or magic to communicate, just one look at their emotionless faces and they each know what the other wants." "I swear sometimes it looks as if these two are married and not me and J'onn.'

"Married," blurted Diana, turning to look at J'onn, then back at Zatanna and then at J'onn.

J'onn merely gave a small smile, his yellow eyes glowing a little.

"See what I meant," pointed out Zatanna. "I bet he didn't even tell you about me," she said narrowing her eyes at J'onn. "I bet none of them did," she added for good measure, including Batman too.

"So come on, let me tell you every single detail" said Zatanna. Noticing the longing look Diana gave the back of Batman' chair, "He won't mind," she whispered to Diana.

"Diana, please go," stressed J'onn. "You can continue tomorrow. You should rest now."

"Thank you" expressed Diana. "Goodnight" she said getting the same response as Zatanna.

-----

Soon both of them were seated in a comfortable couch; Zatanna had changed her clothes and was now busy digging into the delicious dinner Alfred had laid out for her.

Diana silently watched the spunky magician as she ate. She looked surprising young for someone her age. 'Probably magic' she thought, her thoughts once again going to the 'young' Bruce Wayne.

Bringing herself back to the present, she continued her observations. Zatanna still had the same long black hair she always had, although they were pinned up in a lazy bun right now. She wore a t-shirt and shorts, her small body still as lithe as ever. Even her face didn't show any sign of wrinkles. However, it was her eyes, which relayed her maturity. Although they were as mischievous as ever, there was something deeper in them, a hardness, from the past years.

From the corner of her eye Diana noticed Shaye walking down the stairs, rubbing her sleep filled eyes. Her eyes followed the young girl as she made her way to the cave entrance and disappeared from sight.

"Going to Bruce" said Zatanna, answering Diana's unspoken question. Zatanna knew about Diana's feelings towards Batman and had been worried about Diana's reaction to Shaye, to Batman marrying and having a child with Shayera – her best friend, of all people. However, she was relieved to see that there was no bitterness from Diana either towards Batman or Shaye.

"So how did you get here?" asked Zatanna.

Diana told her everything. How she tracked down Batman, them going to meet J'onn and then rescuing Wally.

Zatanna was happy with the news that the rescue had gone without a hitch. "Wally had been looking for Linda when he was captured. He had heard rumors that she was alive. It turned out to be a trap" she explained the circumstances leading to his capture and subsequent imprisonment.

"So you and J'onn….How did that happen?" Diana asked, unable to contain her curiosity any further. "I always thought….." she trailed off.

"That it would be me and Bruce" Zatanna completed with a smile, getting a slight nod from Diana.

"Well it all sort of came together after Shayera…you know" she looked at Diana who understood what she was implying. "We were all hurt and turned to each other for comfort. All except Bruce who closed in on himself. He didn't come out of the cave for days and didn't talk to anyone. Anyone, except Shaye. She had suddenly lost her mother and to her it seemed even her father. We all tried to soothe her pain, but she wanted her 'dada'. One day I woke up to find her gone from my bed. We searched all over and when I finally found her, she was sleeping contentedly on Bruce's chest, who was lying on a bed in the cave infirmary. Both were asleep and although their faces had dried tear marks, they looked a little less hurt, and a little more peaceful."

"Like I said, we turned to each other for comfort. I had been with the guys for a couple of years. J'onn and I had grown friendly over the two years and there were a couple of times where I thought how would it be like for us to be like Bruce and Shayera, well except for the brooding contests, which they seemed to have once in a while." "I knew about his past life and family and didn't know how to approach him. After Shayera, we found strength in one and other. He was like a pillar of strength foe me. One to which I could grab onto whenever the pain and tears threatened to pull me under. I was his outlet for emotions he couldn't express himself. That's what he told me later on." "Somewhere along the line we moved from teammates providing comfort to each other to friends to lovers and then finally to husband and wife" ended Zatanna with a smile. "We were married a couple of years back. It was a magical wedding as there are no working churches or courts anymore."

"When we decided to be together, I wasn't sure how to break it to Bruce. I didn't know how he would react to me with J'onn and that too within a year of Shayera's passing away." "However, all my fears were unfounded. When I told him, he seemed pleased and said that if J'onn and I wanted we could move into the larger room he had Alfred prepare for us." "Should've known. He probably knew it even before either of us did."

"Yes, he knows people well," said Diana, her thoughts going back to the night on Gotham Towers when Shayera had told her that Bruce knew what her decision would be. 'But he gave himself hope, a hope that I squashed.'

-----

They were interrupted by steps coming up the stairs and soon Shaye came into view, with Batman close behind her. Reaching up, Shaye looked up to her father who just gave her a silent nod and pushed a little towards the two women, before walking away from them.

As Diana watched, Shaye took uneasy steps towards them, her eyes brightening in recognition of Zatanna but the new woman unsettled her.

"Hey Shy," said Zatanna opening her arms as she came closer.

"Hey Aunty Zee," muttered Shaye happily, hugging Zatanna tightly before withdrawing and standing silently in front of Diana.

"This is Diana," said Zatanna softly, sensing the child's nervousness.

"I know" came the answer, Shaye's eyes never leaving Diana. Diana smiled a small smile, still unsure of how to react after their first meeting.

"My dad says you are Wonder Woman and that you were my mommy's best friend," asked the child.

Diana nodded her head, not knowing what to do with the information Batman had imparted to his daughter.

"He also says that my mom trusted you one hundred percent with her life and so maybe I could try trusting you too," the child continued, getting a slightly larger and easier smile from Diana.

"Ok," stated Shaye after a moment. "But not one hundred percent. Let us start from one percent, OK"

Diana had tears welling up in her eyes, her lips quivering from the newfound hope.

"OK," repeated Shaye, both to herself and to the strange woman. "Well then goodnight. I better get to my room, before dad calls for me," she said scurrying away, but not before stepping forward and giving Diana a quick but tight hug.

----

Diana sat like that, her arms held in open in an embrace, before closing in on her trying to retain the feeling of trust she had experienced from the child.

Zatanna sat next to her, silently waiting for her to gather herself.

"Zatanna," Diana finally found her words. "What happened to Shayera?"