Chapter Twenty

"Know when to walk away, know when to run"

Metropolis

Clark arrived back at his apartment rather late Saturday night. His time with Karen seemed to fly by. They had spent most of the time in each other's arms, never wanting to let the other go. Finally they'd parted and promised to not wait so long before the next time. Worn out in the best way, Clark managed to fly back to Metropolis and walk the few blocks to his apartment.

Kara had relented and given him back his room. He was afraid if he slept on the couch one more night he would be a permanent hunchback. Clark collapsed on the bed and fell right to sleep. His had rather erotic and sultry dreams of Karen.

The alarm started buzzing much too early. Still exhausted, Clark felt like he'd just gone to bed. It was Sunday, so he really didn't have to get up. His eyes closed he reached over to hit the snooze button, but the clock wasn't where it always was. His hand fumbled around the nightstand for the alarm, but couldn't seem to find it. Somehow the alarm stopped on it's own.

"Thank you," Clark mumbled and then rolled back over to get some more sleep. Just as he was about to drift back off, the wonderful smell of coffee filled his nostrils. His mouth watered and he licked his lips, as the aroma seemed almost tantalizingly close. One eye reluctantly opened to the sight of a steaming cup of coffee a few inches away from him. Kara was standing there smiling down at him.

"Wakie-wakie, cousin, can't have you sleep the whole day away," she whispered to him.

"Got in late, tired,' he mumbled, rolling back over and pulling the covered around his neck. The aroma of the coffee seemed to follow him. As exhausted as he was, it smelled so wonderful it kept him from falling back to sleep.

"Yes, I know," whispered Kara. She silently moved around the other side of the bed and gently waved the coffee cup under his nose. "But now it's time to get up."

"Don't want to."

"Get up, Clark,' Kara said a little louder.

"Ten minutes."

"Now, Clark."

"Five minutes."

"You know what I like in the morning, Clark," she asked him. "I mean besides a delicious cup of fresh coffee? Music. Music is a real eye-opener."

"That's nice," Clark mumbled, not opening his eyes.

"I especially like speed metal for those days it's hard to get out of bed." With a smile, Kara touched the screen on her iPod and Metallica's Master of Puppets came blaring through the iPod dock.

"What the hell," Clark gasped. His eyes were wide open as the wall of sound hit him. Kara reached over and turned the music off with a smile. She stood there looking at him with the cup of coffee in her hand.

"See? Works every time," Kara smirked.

"You're evil, you realize that, don't you," Clark said. She waved the coffee under his nose.

"Well, maybe not pure evil," he reconsidered. "Must be part angel, cause that coffee smells heavenly."

"It does, doesn't it?"

"Yes," he replied and reached for the coffee. She pulled it back out of his reach.

"Oh, did you want some? This is my cup."

"Definitely pure evil," he moaned as he moved over and sat on the side of the bed.

"Maybe you should get your girlfriend to make you coffee, Clark," she snidely replied. "Oh, right that would call for you two to get out of bed long enough to make coffee."

"How did you know I was with Karen," Clark asked.

"How could I not? Everyone knows, Clark," she sarcastically said. He looked up at her and she tossed the morning paper in his face.

"God, it's bad enough you're with her at all, but couldn't you two wait until you were in private? Pair of perverts!"

Kara shouted this last part as she stormed out of his room and slammed the door behind her. Clark rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he picked up the paper from the floor. On the front was a full-page picture of him and Karen kissing. The headline screamed, "Super couple!"

"This is going to be a long day," Clark groaned and then dropped back on the bed. Just as his eyes were about the close, the music came blaring again.

"She has a remote," he lamented. He slowly reached over and pulled the iPod from dock and pushed his finger through it. The music stopped and he dropped back on the bed.

Kara sat on the couch flipping through the channels. She was angry with Clark and his girlfriend. She refused to even say her name. The newspaper only reminded her of how much she didn't like them together. Now each channel she turned to seemed to have the news as well. Kara made faces of disgust as she listened to the entertainment reports gush about how wonderful and romantic it was. It seemed even the cable news channels couldn't help themselves and ran with the story. Kara finally turned on one of the Sunday morning news round table shows. Not because she was interested in whatever dull topic they were yammering about, but just to get away from seeing the picture. Talk about dry, she thought, who watches this stuff? Shut-ins?

She was just about to change the channel, when the picture came up again. Kara stuck out her tongue at it, but before she could change the channel one of the guest commentators stopped her with two words, alien and Kryptonian. She sat there stunned as the man went on to say that while it may just be young love to most people, those in the know, were already thinking about the possible ramifications. The moderator objected, but the man said who knows what kind of threat this could mean for humans down the road. The others panelists dismissed it and then the show when to commercial.

Kara turned off the television. She had a bad feeling about this. Glancing at Clark's bedroom door, she was suddenly much more worried about him than she was before.

The Watchtower

Several days had passed and the news was everywhere. Five of the members were gathered in one of the small conference rooms, but the last thing on their mind was who was dating whom.

"Look, sooner or later, we have to confront her," Dinah said. "I say were do it now as a united front."

"Couldn't we let her cool off a little longer," Zee suggested.

"How much longer?"

"I don't know, a year?"

"And what do we do in the mean time? Run whenever we see her," Shayera asked.

"That works for me," Wally replied. "I'm on board with that plan."

"That wasn't a plan, you idiot," Shayera shouted.

"It certainly sounded like one."

"It wasn't," Dinah cut in. "Look, if we present a united from, she'll be less likely to doing anything. We can apologize and tell her how sorry we are."

"What if she doesn't accept it," Mari asked. "What if she punches first and asks questions later?"

"She won't," Dinah replied. "We're on the station, she's not going to make a sense in front of everyone."

"How do you know that," Zee asked. "She's like a warrior woman, after all. Shayera, you're always spouting off about being a warrior, what would you do if you were her?"

Shayera turned and looked at Zee. She was clearly not happy at her remarks.

"I would definitely punch you," she replied. She then proceeded to do just that.

"Ow! What the hell was that for," Zee gasped.

"Oh, I don't know, I guess I was just spouting off again."

"Hctib," Zee said under her breath, as she rubbed her sore shoulder

"What was that? I hate when you do that backwards thing, I can never figure it out," Shayera replied.

"I think she called you a …" Wally started, but Dinah cut him off.

"This isn't helping! Let's stick to the main problem, okay?"

The others reluctantly nodded.

"Since someone has to be a leader here," Dinah started. 'Which I think I proved, I am, I'll take the lead. We go out there and confront her and get this over with."

"I don't want to," Zee objected.

"Why?"

"Diana scares me a little," she admitted.

"Yeah, me too," Mari agreed.

"Look, she scares all of us, that's why we go out there together," Dinah replied.

"She doesn't scare me," Wally announced. The others turned and looked at him. He looked from one incredulous face to the next, trying to back up his words.

"Okay, yeah, maybe a little bit," Wally finally admitted.

"Look, we're supposed to be heroes, remember? Let's show some guts," Dinah said. "Now let's march out there and show ourselves proud! Let's do this!"

"Jeez, she's kind of laying it on thick, isn't she," Zee whispered to Wally.

"I think she watched all the Rocky movies last night or something," he replied.

Dinah glared at both of them. They took a step back and flinched a little.

"Unless anyone has anything else constructive to say," Dinah said. She continued to glare at Zee and Wally. "I say let's get this over with."

She turned and started for the door, as the others reluctantly followed.

Diana had just returned from a mission and was getting a cup of coffee in the cafeteria. She was still hurt by what they had done to her and a little frustrated she hadn't been able to corner any of them yet.

'Diana, can we talk to you," a voice said behind her. She turned to see the five of them nervously standing ten feet away from her. Anger flashed through Diana and without thinking she crushed the cup in her hand. The five took a step back as they saw how pissed she was.

"It was all Wally's idea," Zee suddenly blurted out and pushed him forward.

"Hey! What the hell, Zee," Wally protested.

"Sorry," Zee blushed. "I told you she scares me a little."

"So you throw me under the bus? Thanks!"

Dinah smacked him and Shayera smacked Zee. Trying to stay calm and defuse the situation, Dinah started again.

"We know you're angry at us, Diana, and we just wanted to apologize for everything. We didn't mean for, well, most of it to happen, it just sort of got out of hand. We're truly sorry."

"Yeah, Diana, I apologize," Maria said.

"I'm sorry as well, Diana," Shayera added.

"Really, really sorry, Diana," Zee said.

"Me too, Princess, I'm sorry," Wally stated.

"Is that supposed to make everything better, "Diana asked.

"We were kind of hoping it would," Wally offered.

"You use me and think a simple 'I'm sorry' is going to make it all better," Diana replied. "How do you think it makes me feel knowing people I thought were my friends would do something like that?"

"Um, ah, not good," Mari offered.

"No, it doesn't feel good."

"Diana, I feel terrible about this," Dinah, spoke up. "We never had any intention of using you or embarrassing you, I swear. It was just one of those dumb things that happens some times. I promise you I will never kiss you again."

"Me neither," Shayera added quickly.

"Never ever ever," Zee said.

"Never happen again," Mari stated.

"I can't say never," Wally started, but the look on Diana's face made him change this thought. "Never without your permission, ever."

"Why should I believe you," Diana asked.

"Cause you scared the hell out of us," Zee offered.

The others looked at Zatanna and she just shrugged.

"Because we are your friends, Diana," Shayera said. "Unfortunately, friends do stupid things some times. A challenge is made and you just get caught up in it. I'm sorry."

Diana seemed to consider this for a moment.

"So the challenge was to kiss me? Who's brilliant idea was that," she asked.

Everyone looked at Wally. He gave Diana a nervous smile and raised his hand.

"Mine," he whispered.

"Why?"

"Well, they were all pressuring me to tell them something I promised not to tell. I was desperate. I needed something I thought they would never ever do," Wally explained.

"And kissing me was what you came up with," Diana said with more than a hint of irritation.

"Um, yeah," Wally admitted. "Like I said, it was a desperate, spur of the moment thing, which will never happen again."

"So if I understand you right, I'm so intimidating that the very thought of kissing me scares people," Diana replied. She was getting angrier by the minute. Crossing her arms in front of her, Diana glared at all of them.

"Yes, absolutely," Zee quickly said. When Diana turned her steely gaze on Zee she gulped.

"Well, what I meant it you don't seem like the type that would take it in the spirit of fun. Not that you're not fun, no, no, I'm sure you're a riot when you let your hair down, it's just that when you think of Wonder Woman the words fun and hijinks don't leap to mind. Not that I'm saying you're a prude or buzz kill, it's just that, you know…"

"You're rambling," Shayera said. "Stop before you dig a deeper hole for yourself."

Zatanna nodded and then pantomimed locking her lips and dropped the keep down her top.

"I'll help you find that key later, if you want," Wally smiled suggestively.

Shayera hit him for this.

"Again, Diana, we're so sorry," said Dinah. "We never had any intention of embarrassing you or using you. We'll do anything to make it up to you."

They all nodded at this. Diana looked from one to the other, seeing they did seem to be truly sorry. As much as she hated doing it, she knew she would forgive them.

"I will accept your apologies this time," Diana finally said. "I emphasis, this time!"

"Thank you, thank you," the all quickly said. Relief washed over all of them.

"I think I have a right to know, what was so important that you felt you had to take such drastic measures," Diana asked.

They all looked at her in stunned silence for a moment. They couldn't believe she didn't know. How could she not know, she was in the room when Wally blurted it out?

"Um, ah, well, you know, about Superman," Mari replied.

"Kal? What about him," Diana asked.

"Are you serious," Dinah said.

"Yes, what am I missing?"

Wally disappeared and then the next moment he was back with the paper. He held up the front page with the huge picture of Superman and Power Girl on it.

"Superman's got a girlfriend, Princess," Wally said.

Diana took the paper from his hands and stared at the picture. Somehow in her anger at these five this detail slipped her mind. She looked up from the paper with a stunned and confused look on her face.

"That-That's not good," Zee offered. "The last time she had that look was right before she wanted to kill us. I'm so out of here!"

As Diana stood in shock, the five seemed to melt away before her eyes.