Title: Please Remember Me

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.

In answer to a previous question, there will be at least 14 or 15 chapters to this story. But it might be shorter. Depends on my mood! Enjoy!

Kind of a short one. Sorry 'bout that.

"When all our tears have reached the sea, a part of you will live in me" – Tim McGraw

Flashback

In the weeks that followed Donna's death, Diana found herself at peace, self-assured, as if her soul was filled with Donna's spirit. No matter that she refused to see her sister as gone. Logically, she knew that Donna had died, that the eye beams of the Superman robot had lanced through her chest, killing her instantly; that Donna had been welcomed into the realm of the afterlife with open arms.

But still, there was a part of Diana that simply couldn't accept the death of her sister, some feeling lodged deep in the recesses of her heart that recognized Donna's soul as alive.

And today, she was going to celebrate and embrace that soul, that spirit, by visiting the memorial they had erected in her honor.

There were so many things she wanted to say, so many words teasing her lips and burning her tongue as she gazed up at the image of her little sister, cast in marble with the loving expression that had so often graced Donna's face. In the end, all she could do was whisper, "I miss you."

Her eyes filled to the brim with tears, but she valiantly managed to stifle the sobs that rose in her throat. She leaned forward, pressing her forehead to the cold stone and pondering how much her life had changed since that fateful day when her sister had been taken from her. It had been in the first days after that Diana had realized that her heart lay in the hands of the Dark Knight.

Hands, she now knew, that weren't ready to accept the gift she had willing to bestow upon them.

Hands, she now considered, that might never be able to take what she was offering and appreciate the gift of her love.

It hadn't yet waned, hadn't only grown since the moments she had revealed to him that she cared so deeply. They had seen each other at odd moments during missions, at meetings, passing by one another in the hallway, but there had been no time to talk, no discussions between them of feelings or even of anything insignificant.

And yet, each of those fleeting meetings, those moments, had simply made her more secure, more confident in her feelings, in the knowledge that she did indeed care for this man, despite all of his obvious failings. She knew that he had them, even if he didn't understand that she didn't see him as perfect. Who could? He was a creature of the night who thrived on darkness and shadows, was often brusque and harsh to the point of brutality, and was scared of the slightest emotional commitment.

But there were other things to him that she loved – his unstinting need to protect his family and his city, anyone whom he loved, the way that tried to blend in with the shadows and yet never hesitated to lead, to help others along the path of the vigilante and the hero, the fact that he had known that she would need him after Donna's death, after her memorial service had commenced, and he had been the one man in whose arms she felt secure enough to release her feelings, to let fly the tears and the anguish that she had been hiding throughout the day.

He had been the only man to hold her, the only man to understand, and the only one she had let see her tears, her guilt, her recriminations.

He didn't understand that by changing him, she would change that part of him, that part of him that she cared so deeply for, the part that had made her fall in love with a cranky man who dressed in a bat-suit.

She let out a hiccupping laugh at that thought. What would Donna think of Batman, of Bruce? He was a difficult man to get close to, a difficult man to understand, but surprisingly, not a difficult man to love.

Just a difficult man to let love into his life, in the outward sense. He had no problems loving his city, loving the memory of his parents, even if it would take superhuman strength to pull either of those feelings from him. Bruce simply wasn't one to air his emotions, to let them guide him in his decisions and in the majority of his life. His cause, his mission, was one that stemmed from past emotions, and that had shunted him, that mission, made him focus on the analytical and the logical in order to protect himself, to keep himself alive as he sought to save for others what he himself had lost.

"Donna," she murmured, "What have I gotten myself into?" It had been, thus far in the lack of a relationship between her and Bruce, just as Nightwing had mentioned to her that night so many months ago, when he'd told her that loving Bruce was an uphill battle.

Still, Diana had yet to back away from a challenge and a man in a Bat-suit who had issues certainly posed one in this respect. Even if she didn't manage to wear him down in time, he would always have a piece of her heart, and she would always carry him in hers.

She wasn't uncomfortable or displeased with that idea simply because it was a fact. He was too strong of a person for her to simply move on and forget about him. After all, they worked together where she saw his strength on a regular basis – his mental strength, his physical prowess, and the confidence that he wore around him more visibly than his cloak.

It simply wasn't possible to just push a man like that out of a heart.

"I think that you'd like him, Donna," Diana said softly, pushing her curls behind her shoulder and removing her head from the cold stone of her sister's memorial. She instead moved to the ground, taking up residence on the ground beside the statue, where she couldn't see the light that was missing from her sister's smiling visage, but could feel the energy and the warmth that emanated from the spot, from the memories that enveloped her as she sat in the darkness, talking to Donna in her own fashion.

"He comes across as gruff and uncaring, but if you wait long enough, if you look hard enough, you can see that he's the first of us to really care about anything and anyone, even if he can't see that in himself. He transformed his life into protecting Gotham, into giving others the sense of security and hope that he lacks."

She sat on the ground, dry eyed now, hand on her chin as she considered the man that she had given her heart to, even knowing that it was a potential heartache in the making.

"I couldn't help myself, Donna. I still can't. He was there for me. Looking back, it seems that he was always there for me and I can't forget that. I won't forget that."

"When you died," Diana said softly, reaching out her fingers to touch that cold stone that embodied her sister, "I lost a part of myself. I found another part of myself in him."

"I wish that you were here, Donna, smiling at me, telling me the latest gossip. I wish that I could tell you face to face about Batman, Donna, about Bruce. I just wish that you were here…"

She trailed off, a rain of teardrops falling from her eyes as it hit her once again that her beloved sister was gone, that things were never going to be the same and that no one could make it better, make all the suffering go away.

But, she supposed, that's what she was fighting for in Man's World, to make the suffering of others go away. It just meant that she had to suffer alongside them. Wiping her cheeks, she stood, placing a hand on the cold cheek of her sister and smiling gently at the cheery statue that was Donna Troy.

"I love you, Donna. And I love him. I just have to convince him of that."

And, her words echoing in her own mind, she decided to do just that.

Next chapter: Can't We Try – Diana tries to convince Batman to at least try a relationship with her…

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