Title: Patience

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or any of their characters.

Un-betaed version. If you notice any mistakes, please email or pm me. Thanks.

Thank you for all the reviews and I hope you continue to enjoy this story as it goes along!

"All we need is just a little patience"– Guns 'n' Roses

He wondered what lay so heavy on her mind, what memories were racing through her eyes and her heart as she stared so quietly out the window. They had come to know one another so well, come to grow so much closer as the days had gone by and what had for so lay between them had grown and flowered.

There were moments where he was still surprised that this woman had found her way so deeply into his heart and into his life, that things had changed so fundamentally between them. He had always known that she was important to his way of life, but now, she was also important to his life.

Looking back at that pivotal time in their coming together, he realized that it had been fear that had made him want to walk away from Diana and now, where that fear had been, there was only a sense of peace that had long been absent from his life. And when she touched his face in a caressing gesture he'd long ago grown accustomed to, a small part of him relaxed, warmed by the tough. Gazing into those blue eyes as they looked deep into his own, he smiled.

Flashback

Again, silence reigned in the early morning air for long moments. Finally, she heard Nightwing whisper, "Thank you," and once again, one of the Bat-clan left her for the shadows.

And for minutes, she stayed exactly where she was, sitting on that cold bench as the rays of sunlight burst over the courtyard, reminding her that grief was not just something for the darkness and the shadows, but for the daylight as well. But, she also knew that with each of these dawns, each burst of sunlight filling the embassy with light, that her grief would lessen and the ache in her heart would ease.

Donna would always be there, always be with her, but the sadness that plagued Diana today would diminish and in time, she would remember only happier days that the two of them had spent together. It was the way that the world worked, she knew, to lighten the burden of grief with love and happiness, after a fashion.

Today, she had mourned. Tomorrow, she would have her memories.

With a last glance at the walls of the courtyard, the formerly shadowy depths that had allowed the two members of the Bat-clan to leave in silence, the land around her now filling with sunlight, Diana decided to again find comfort in her bed, in the sleep that she had lost herself in earlier.

Slowly standing, she swept the courtyard with a last glance before walking back into the embassy, her hand trailing along the staircase railing as she thought about all that had passed this evening, all that had been said and done in the dark hours after the funeral of her sister. She had alleviated the guilt of a friend, found comfort in the arms of a man she now knew was a part of her heart, and helped ease the suffering of one of Donna's closest friends.

All in all, a busy night, she mused. No wonder the claws of sleep were suddenly dragging at her, she thought, yawning as she made her way up the stairs. Reaching her room, she lay down on her bed, not bothering to remove any of her clothes, just smoothing her wealth of curly black hair back as she pressed her head to her pillow, eyes closing in repletion and weariness as the sunbeams soaked her room, never noticing the dark presence that lurked on the balcony just outside her windows, his eyes tenderly watching the Amazon princess, his mouth set in a firm line as he considered all that she had said to him this evening.

It had been a day of mourning and a night of discoveries. He wasn't sure which had been harder on him. The grief seemed not only a part of his job, but a part of his soul. Donna Troy, Troia, had not been those he counted among his friends, but her sister was one of the few other heroes that he had allowed himself to get close to, to feel the stirrings of trust and the beginnings of hope.

He had realized long ago that Diana was his hope. He did not believe that that particular emotion lurked within the depths of his body, but he had always known that Diana was a creature of hope, of light and faith, all things of which he had none.

They had fought side-by-side often, their friendship beginning with mutual respect on the battlefield and stemming from that admiration. Each of them was a true warrior, fighting for the protection of their people and the beliefs that each of them held. But while Diana held a belief that crime could eventually be erased from Earth, Bruce had no such hope. He believed only in himself and his knowledge that he would do anything in order to stop crime from affecting the lives of others as it had affected his own.

And now, he sat outside the window of one of the few people that had ever given him reason to believe that things could ultimately be different, with the kind of faith and hope that Diana held in such high esteem and believed so firmly in. They came at things from such different viewpoints, from different histories, and yet they seemed to compliment each other so well, each stubbornly fighting and trying to persevere in the fight against crime, against violence and corruption.

He watched her there in her room, her blue eyes closed to him in sleep, her masses of curly locks drifting across the whiteness of the pillow. She looked at peace, content, and he almost couldn't equate this woman with the same who had, only hours ago, boldly told him that she had feelings for him that she wished to be returned. She had kissed him in the moonlight and looked at him with her heart in his eyes.

And for once in his life, he was confused about what to do. He knew that if he let himself, that he would develop feelings for Diana, that those feelings would grow over time and he wasn't entirely sure if he could handle that. But he also knew that he could shun those feelings and spurn her, that he could return to the darkness and cast her and the possibility of love aside, just as he had done so many times before.

But there was something about Diana that was different. She fed his soul, fed the possibility of hope that lurked deep inside him.

And he wasn't sure if that was for the best. He watched as she turned in her sleep, her face turning away from him. He studied the lines of her body, the wealth of curves and the strength that was there under the grace and femininity. Some called her the most beautiful woman in the world.

He, however, knew that to be fact. And it was more than the superficial beauty that stopped men in their tracks – it was something about Diana, that strength of hope and faith that transformed her into a being of beauty beyond which he could have ever imagined and had ever known.

Was what she had said true? Had she kissed him because of her feelings? Or had it simply been a gesture of comfort and need in the wake of her sister's death?

He wasn't sure that staring at her would provide him the answers and yet, he seemed unable to take a step away from her balcony, to retreat back into the shadows and away from her beauty that called to him.

He wasn't sure how to answer her, only knew surprise at the fact that he hadn't immediately turned away from her. Still hadn't, in fact. How was one to handle a woman like Diana? He knew that she possessed a will similar to his own: indomitable, and that she would continue to talk of her feelings for him without shame, without reserve, if indeed, she did care for him as she'd said tonight.

But a part of him was still leery, still wondering if he could ever trust not only those feelings, but himself. She was his embodiment of hope and he wondered what a relationship between them would do to that, to himself, and ultimately to her as well.

And a part of him believed her, believed in her feelings for him. Diana had never been one for lies or deceptions. As a former goddess of truth, he wasn't sure that Diana could even understand the word deception as he knew it, the cold and biting truth of that word and how it affected his life as Batman.

And that scared him, her feelings for him, scared him that there was even a kernel of truth in her words. Diana believed in hope and expectations and he couldn't possibly live up to that, couldn't possibly give her what she needed, be the person she would expect him to be: a person like herself.

Of all people in his life, he couldn't fail her. He couldn't put disappointment into those eyes, watch her effervescent smile fade when he failed once just as he had once failed his parents, failed Dick, failed Jason, failed himself. They came from different methods, different worlds, and he wasn't sure that they could ever mesh the two of them, that they could forge a life together from what they had now, separately, him in Gotham, and her everywhere someone needed her.

It was her faith that made her Wonder Woman.

And it was her faith that led him to indecision, to standing there on a balcony, simultaneously wanting to go to her, to join her as she slumbered, and wanting to return to Gotham, to the darkness and shadows that were such an integral part of his life.

So, mind tumbling with thoughts and oddly wracked with indecision, he stood where he was, watching her sleep as the sun made its way through the sky.

To be continued…A Breakfast Conversation…

Please review! I'm not sure about this chapter! Any suggestions for future chapters?

To Reviewer Lauren – I personally think that Nightwing is a lot like his adopter father whether he chooses to believe that or not. He's just more personable. And I think that Nightwing needed someone to talk to and who better than Diana? Who else has been closer to Donna than Diana and Dick? Thanks for the review!

To Reviewer T – So, where are you from? The best answer I can give you about the Titans is to go to wikipedia and look them up as Teen Titans. But the short answer is to tell you that there's also a comic called Teen Titans and mostly, through the years, they've consisted of the sidekicks of the adult heroes. So Nightwing (Former Robin), Troia (Former Wonder Girl), Arsenal (Former Speedy), Tempest (Former Aqualad), Kid Flash (now the Flash), and others among their ranks. Today, the group has people in it that aren't originally sidekicks either, like Starfire, Cyborg, and many others. It's, in some ways, like a younger Justice League. Hopefully that helps you understand that a little better. I'm glad that you liked the chapter, even if it was a little different. It was still emotional, just different emotions. Dick needed Diana to absolve him and Batman simply needed an escape so he could think about what had just passed between him and Diana. So I hope that interesting is good and thanks!