THE QUEEN´S DAUGHTER.
CHAPTER VI: THE PRINCESS AND THE REPORTER.
Artemis watched Diana pace nervously across the room and rolled her eyes. The Queen had never been this nervous before, not even in the toughest of times, and seriously, for her fellow Amazon, it didn´t make sense.
"Diana, calm down. It´s not the end of the world!"
"It´s not the end of the world? It´s not the end of the world? SHE IS OUT THERE, AWAY FROM ME, AND YOU WANT ME TO BELIEVE IT IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD?"
Artemis grimaced and took a step back. An enraged powerful amazon Queen wasn´t good at all.
"Okay, be cool. I was just saying. Stop shaking your arms."
Diana growled and fell onto the bed face up, staring at the ceiling. "She will find out everything that happened to me."
"Maybe she will be cool with it."
"Cool with it? Cool with it? You don´t know my daughter! This is going to be like a bombshell!"
"Woman, you´re the one going to burst if you don´t calm the fuck down!"
Diana sat straight up and pointed a finger to her best friend.
"Don´t curse."
"I surrender." She sighed, raising her palms in resignation.
Diana smirked boastingly. "You always do."
Artemis scoffed. "Don´t push me. Is there anything she doesn´t know anyway? She has a father, she meets him, she discovers it won´t change her life and she comes back. End of story. That´s all. I am the one you owe some explanations to right now…"
"No, it´s not. I´m starting to think that when my mother didn´t get me back here all those years ago she made a mistake. I´m not going to sit here and wait. She´s a baby. My baby."
"She´s a grown girl, Diana. Let her breathe. She will be fine."
"It´s dangerous…"
"Here we go again…"
Diana raised her watery eyes.
"I´m going to get her, Artemis. I have to go get her."
"If it makes you feel better, then go, with Phyllipus and Donna we can completely cover for you here." Diana smiled and hugged her very tightly.
"Thank you. I love you, Missy."
Artemis pulled away gently. "Good. I´m not a teddy bear… and don´t ever call me Missy again."
Diana laughed and grabbed a holdall. "True. I always forget you´re not the hugging type."
"Exactly."
"I´ll see you all soon then. Can you call Donna and Phyllipus? I want to leave as soon as possible."
The red haired woman crossed her arms. "Of course, but before I do so just tell me what is it exactly that secret you don´t want Sophia to find out?"
Diana blinked and bit her lower lip. "I don´t really think I should tell you…"
.-.-.-.-.-
Dumbfounded. Completely dumbfounded. That´s how Sophia, the Princess of Themyscira felt after what she had heard about her mother, the Queen. It wasn´t praiseworthy behavior. At all. And that even skipping the fact she was royalty. The disappointment got to her very core, so deeply she even forgot to ask about her father´s name.
Before she took off to find the man, Sophie strolled around to get a hold on her feelings and buy some things she needed, to get distracted. She changed her clothes and shoes so she would look more like the other girls her age she had seen around. She now wore a pair of jean shorts, a red shirt and flat shoes. She got something to drink too –it was black and tasted very sweet- and a new bag where she stuffed in everything she had on her holdall before. She threw it away after that. The princess also bought something called iPod. She didn´t know what was it for, but the store lady said every youngster needed one. The daylight was slowly growing feebler and the breeze was refreshing, but she was still glad she took a long, soothing bath before she left Bruce´s mansion. It wasn´t until she got into the tub that she burst down in tears, heartbroken. After what she knew, she would never, ever, get back to his house or ask for his help. If it was hard to look him in the eye, it was harder to think about her mother without feeling the pain. When she left her home, she wasn´t expecting what she found. Little did she know, not all the secrets were out in the open yet.
Sophie got onto the bus that they said would take her straight to the Daily Planet. It wasn´t that much of a long ride -even when it was a different city- and she would clearly see the big sphere over the entrance door once she got there.
It was a good thing she didn´t miss it.
The young Amazon fought relentlessly to break the habit of looking around in amazement, but it was hard to kill. So when she walked into the newspaper building, something she had never seen before, she gasped out loud. It was so crowded and noise that nobody "could possibly hear a thing over the din. Men and women were gusting up and down everywhere. For someone so unfamiliar with the way the place worked, it was completely chaotic. Nobody gave her a glance.
"Do you have the coffee? She´s going to come in soon! Get the damn coffee!"
"Why is the print not running? It´s late already!"
"Did you finish the report on the Pulitzer Prize?"
"Where´s Marty? I need him now!"
"We´re out of paper!"
"My laptop broke!"
"Get out!"
"Why is everybody yelling? I need help!"
Why, oh, why is everything so loud and noisy? I miss Themyscira so much… Sophia gulped and looked around, in an attempt to find someone that wasn´t yelling or running in all directions. Finally, she spotted a young woman sat on a desk. She was eagerly writing on her notebook and seemed oblivious to the upraising holocaust.
"Excuse me, do you know where can I find Mr. Kent?"
She looked up with a disgusted frown, a gesture that caused her upturned nose to wrinkle.
"He won´t be around this week. I have to finish this now because the Chief Editor, his wife, will come in soon. You can talk to her if you want. Sit and wait."
His wife. Sophie sighed. Fine, I guess that will do for now, I can´t spare a whole week.
A few minutes later the woman walked in. Bright reddish hair pulled back in a neat bun, white shirt, dapper navy blue skirt suit. She was tall and classy. Her presence was built up out of authority -something the princess had only seen before in her mother-, and she wasn´t pleased with the apocalypse she found. The boss was early, and they all cursed under their breath.
Lois removed her sunglasses and commanded to the same woman Sophia just addressed. "Caroline, I need that report on the factory incident now. Where´s Stellan? I need to send him to cover the accident involving Senator Sexton. Did anybody get my coffee? And why isn´t the print running?"
The woman stood and followed her promptly.
"I´ll let Mrs. Lane know you want a word with her. What´s your name?"
"Thanks. I am Sophia Prince."
Sophia bit her lower lip, trying to suppress the bad omen that was breaking havoc on her nerves. Suddenly talking to the dragon lady didn´t seem like a good idea at all. A dragon. That was what her shimmering hair color made her think of.
The young reporter didn´t linger before she came back to tell Sophie that Lois Lane was waiting for her. The Amazon decided to go for it… What would she be risking? Any information was too valuable to be dismissed. The youngster knocked at the door, opened it and walked in. The woman was frantically scribbling something on a piece of paper and she held the phone to her ear, waiting for someone to pick up. She was mastering the art of multitasking…
"Come in, Sophia. Caroline told me you´re looking for my husband. He´s not in right now. What do you need and how can I help you? If necessary, I´ll send you to him."
"Well, I..."
"Sit down." Lois said, and her voice was welcoming, but firm. The voice of a woman used to give orders and be obeyed. Just like Diana once again. Sophia did so as she saw her start writing in a different leaf of paper. Oh, this will be hard.
"Well, the thing is I'm... I don't really know how to start."
Lois sighed impatiently and removed her reading glasses. She looked up, ready to have a go off on the young girl for wasting her priceless time, but her words dissolved to dust on her throat when her jaw dropped in atonement. Her gaze fixed on the bracelets and then on the steel blue eyes under the wild ebony hair. The likeness was uncanny.
"Oh, Hera, you knew my mother too."
"You are Diana's daughter, aren´t you?"
"Yes, I am. And if I hear I look like her once more, I´ll scream."
Sophia had already decided that talking to the man´s wife wasn´t probably a good idea. She was making a mental excuse to claim to be a student who wanted some advice from Mr. Kent and an opinion about her work. Once she discovered Lois Lane knew Diana, she changed her mind.
"You do." She replied, raising an eyebrow.
"I know, I know." The princess replied slowly, with a sigh of resignation.
"Is she okay? Did she send you?"
"Not really. She doesn´t know I´m here." Sophia admitted reluctantly, fiddling with her hair.
"Gosh, she must be worried. How can we help you? Please, tell me."
It was good to know the woman seemed to have a fond memory of her mother.
"I'm looking for my father, and I was hoping you could give me a hand... on who he is."
Well, it made sense. It was logical the young girl would turn to the man she knew to be her mother's best friend for help. Because they have always been just friends, right? Lois remembered Clark mentioned Diana was madly in love with Bruce Wayne, the Gotham billionaire. It was very important data for the Man of Steel´s girlfriend, or else she would have gone mad with jealousy if she hadn´t known the beautiful amazon had such a crush on someone else and that her relationship with her man was purely platonic. She actually liked Diana after she learned that, even though it wouldn´t last for long.
She didn't get the chance to ask if Wayne was the man Sophia was looking for.
"Okay, so I take it you´re after..."
"I'm after him." Sophia completed, extending to the reporter the picture she had.
Lois stared at it for a whole minute without a single twitch of her features. The amazon waited as patiently as she could, but she was growing uneasy. The reporter didn't know who was she angrier with, her husband for lying or the amazon for messing with her husband. She crumpled the picture in her hand.
"Is this some kind of sick joke, young lady?"
"N-no. Why would I be joking about finding my father?" Sophie babbled confused.
Lois gritted her teeth. A fifteen year old amazon had just ruined her marriage and she was completely unaware of it.
"Because this is my husband you´re talking about! Your mother was beautiful, smart, funny, nice. I admit I was jealous. But I trusted my husband, I believed he loved me. And I trusted her, I thought she had morals. And now… you´re telling he was nothing but a cheating jerk and she was an easy whore. They both made a fool of me and I was too blind to see it."
Sophia gulped. She had messed it up, again. Badly.
"I didn´t say that! And don´t dare call my mother a whore!"
Why am I defending her? Yeah, because it hurts too much to admit she is completely right. My father is a lying bastard and my mother has no shame. Isn´t it just perfect?
"How shall I call her then? I can´t believe she had the guts to tell you. That bitch!"
"She didn´t! She didn´t tell me a thing!"
"Get out of here. You can´t be…"
"Don´t you dare judge me, or her for that matters. I am still an Amazon Princess, she is still the Queen, and we deserve respect."
Lois stood and hit the table with her fist, shaking with rage and making the young girl jolt.
"Then, go back to your fucking island and leave me and my family alone!"
An insulted Sophia opened her eyes wide as the ocean, but she didn´t retort since a third person joined their meeting, soaring gingerly through the window and showing an ironical happy smile. The princess looked at him up and down. She grabbed the chair´s back firmly with both hands, because otherwise she would have crashed down unconscious, fainted.
"Sorry to intrude, darling, I came here in a hurry to tell you…"
"Oh, you big fat liar!" she hissed with a voice full of contempt, looking away.
"What?" He asked with a quizzical look, still unaware of the third person´s presence.
"You can ask your daughter!". The woman extended her palm to point at the young girl.
Clark followed the direction she signaled and had to rub his eyes to make sure they weren´t playing games on him. He gasped. "This can´t be real."
"The one you had with that slut of an Amazon you said was just your friend!"
"You´re… Superman." Sophia mumbled in shock, suddenly realizing it. He´s Alex´s father. Alex is my brother.
"You´re such a smart ass." Lois said with bitter sarcasm.
"Okay, in the first place I won´t tolerate you calling Diana a slut. She didn´t do anything wrong. You are mistaken."
Lois´s jaw dropped a mile and she grabbed her bag to walk out: angry, offended, hurt and completely determined to get a divorce. "I am the victim here, but you are defending her? I can´t believe you! You are the worst bastard I have ever met…"
"Wait a minute, woman! Can you even listen to what I have to say? I think I have the right to defend myself. You are assuming a lot of things…"
Her fingers slid instead of grabbing the door knob and she turned around with a dangerous glint in her eyes. Her lips twitched into a defiant lop-sided smile.
"Actually, I would love to hear how the heck can you explain this and expect me to believe it."
A/N: Thanks for the reviews everyone :D Please keep them coming, every critic, question and opinion is much welcomed and needed :) Please let me know what you want to happen, or write, just anything :)
Well… wonder daughter keeps messing things up, doesn´t she? :O But I completely understand her disgust when people says once and again she looks like her mother :P Happens to me ALL the time!
And by the way, I made Lois red haired in honor of Amy Adams, who will be playing her in the upcoming movie :D She´s definitely one of my faves ^^ I hope that´s okay with you all! :)
Click the twinkling green button and I promise to update very soon :)