A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Here's the next update, and Bruce finally tells Diana what really happened. Enjoy!

Chapter Eleven - The Truth

After a moment, Shayera got her larynx working again. "H- how? I mean…who's the father?!"

At this, John turned his head and shot a glare at Bruce. Bruce couldn't have cared less – she- she was- what?!

Diana shook her head. "There is no father. That's what I mean when I say the goddesses have blessed me."

Clark finally spoke. "Are you sure?" he asked, sounding a little dubious. "I mean-"

"Yeah," GL added, nodding. "There has to be have been a man involved somewhere, right, Batman?"

For once, the Batglare didn't seem to be having an effect, but luckily for Bruce, J'onn broke in. "Ordinarily I would agree, John, but there is no evidence of intercourse in Diana's memory."

Bruce winced.

"And there are no gaps in her memory either that indicate she may have been drugged and sexually assaulted."

Another wince.

J'onn summed up. "I can only come to the same conclusion as Diana – her goddesses have indeed placed a child within her."

"Just like that?" Wally asked, sounding sceptical.

Diana shrugged and nodded. "I can see no other explanation."

"And…you're ok with that?" Shayera asked. "I wouldn't be."

"Well they must have had a reason," the princess replied. "If they think I am ready to be a mother…then I accept that responsibility."

"As if you don't have enough responsibility?"

"Yes, but defending the world is not like raising a child," Diana smiled. "And truthfully…I did not think I would ever have the opportunity to become a mother, so I am grateful to Hera that I now have that chance. Obviously my involvement with the Justice League will have to be scaled back, but other Leaguers manage to balance this and young families, so I am certain I will be able to."

"Where will you live?" GL asked, giving up on Bruce saying anything.

"Well obviously I cannot raise a child up here," Diana admitted, "but I have some money saved-"

"From where?" Clark asked.

"A few years ago I created a false identity, with Batman's help, and wrote several 'fantasy' books – actually the truth behind Greek myths," she explained. "They sold well; there's enough money for a house and things…I should be able to give us both a comfortable life."

There didn't seem to be anything to say to that. "Have you got an doctor?" John finally asked. "You'll need one."

She nodded. "I know, and I'm looking at the moment. It'll be slightly difficult, obviously, since I imagine Wonder Woman being pregnant will cause a few headlines, but that can't be helped. Man's World has the advantage on medical care."

They all nodded, and somewhere in the part of his mind that was still working, Batman thought of Leslie. She'd be discreet - she always was when he needed her to be, and if she didn't want to take the pregnancy on then he was sure she'd be able to recommend someone who would.

He didn't say anything through the rest of the meeting, and didn't move once they'd all left - all, that is, except Diana. He couldn't look at her. He couldn't. "Bruce?" she asked in a very worried tone of voice. "I...Are you alright?"

He nodded.

"I wasn't sure you would be," she said, apparently galvanised by his lack of speech. "I mean...with me suddenly being pregnant...I thought you might not-"

Suddenly the doors opened again, and John stepped through. "Uh, Diana? Can you give us a minute? I need to talk to Batman about something."

She stood. "Of course, John." Her footsteps stopped again, and he knew she was looking at him, but he still couldn't move. Finally, Diana left the room without another word.

John came further in, and Bruce finally spoke.

"Don't say it."

GL only folded his arms. "So you are going to tell her."

"Of course I'm going to tell her," Batman snapped.

"Good. You should have told her before now anyway."

"What did I just say?" he growled.

"No, no way. I'm not backing off this time, Bruce," John replied. "You might be my friend, but so is Diana. And the way you've been treating her – even before we went to Oklahoma – it was low. Really low. I'm giving you twelve hours."

At this, Bruce froze. "You're what?"

"I'm giving you twelve hours to tell her, or I will."

"You don't have the right to-"

"You haven't had the right to keep it from her for the past five weeks and it hasn't stopped you," John pointed out.

There was another silence. There really was nothing to say to that – he was right. So Batman did what Batman always did when (on the very rare occasion) he was wrong. He glared, and left.

---

Twelve hours. For about an hour, he tried and failed to plan what he was going to say. But it only really brought one thing home. Trying to balance the factors made him think about the things that had happened between them, the things that he'd done – or not done – with Diana. Jesus. John was right, what the hell had given him the right to hide it?

She was going to kill him.

Ok, so no plan.

He took a deep breath and activated his com-link. "Batman to Wonder Woman."

There was a slight pause. "Go ahead."

"Can you come down to the Cave? I need to speak with you."

"Alright," she said, sounding surprised. "I just have one thing to take care of, I'll be down in about half an hour-"

"Now," he interrupted. "…please, Diana. It's important."

"Oh, ok. I'll transport down."

While he waited, he thought. The only explanation he could find was that the universe really did hate him. There was no way Diana should be pregnant. With the timeline restored they'd never slept together in the first place - it wasn't physically possible. Except...it obviously was. The shift in timelines had obviously only pressed the reset button psychologically with her, rather than physically too. It really wasn't fair.

He stopped and went the other way. Or it was exactly fair. Maybe Fate really was giving him a push in the right direction. He'd ignored Diana, Alfred, John...he couldn't ignore the fact that in about eight months he'd be a father. To a baby, not an already-formed adoptive child. Holy mother of God - I'm going to have a pregnant Amazon on my hands. Though, truth be told, if there was anyone he'd pick to be mother of his child...who better than Wonder Woman?

He forced himself to stop pacing before he eroded a rut into the rock floor, then looked around. He couldn't have this conversation in the Cave, for God's sake. She needed to be comfortable- and- have some of Alfred's tea and-

Dear God. What the hell was he going to tell Alfred?

The sound of the teleport made his stomach drop. He turned to find Diana standing a few feet away, a nervous smile on her face. "Hi."

"Hi." He suddenly realised that though it now looked as though he'd be forced to tell her in the Batcave, he certainly couldn't tell her as Batman. He'd taken the cowl off before he realised it.

"Bruce, I know this must be odd for you, and believe me it is for me, but..." She walked toward him, shaking her head. "...there is no one else, Bruce. I've never-"

"I know," he interrupted. "Believe me, I know."

She nodded. "Good." Then she cocked her head. "When you say you know...How? Other than the fact that I've told you? You never take anything on faith without hard evidence to back it up."

He nodded; that was true enough. Alright then. Cards on the table. Start from the beginning.

"Diana, I know you're telling the truth because...I'm…"

"You're what?" she asked. He gestured at her stomach, and comprehension dawned on her face, her blue eyes widening to an almost impossible size. "You mean you-" He nodded. "You are the child's father?" Her mouth dropped open. "How?" she demanded, and then, "When?" She shook her head to clear it of the confusion. It didn't look like it was working. "When did we-?"

He ran a hand over his face. Keep going. If he chickened out now, he'd never muster up the courage to start again. "Maybe…maybe you should sit down."

"Maybe you should not tell me what to do!" she snapped, pacing now. "How could you hide this from me?!"

Anger was in her face, but it was the hurt in her eyes that got to him. "I wasn't trying to hide it from you, I just…" He shrugged helplessly. "…had no idea how to explain what happened."

"What did happen? Now, Bruce!" she added sharply when he didn't say anything.

If he'd been any other man, he would have flinched then. He took a deep breath. "Alright. You seduced me."

Her jaw dropped open further, if that were possible. "I sed-"

"Yes. You did," he said quickly.

She narrowed her gaze, and he kept his face open, hiding nothing for once. "When?" she asked.

Swallowing, he began. "Six weeks ago, there was a break-in at the Watchtower," he started. Diana sat down, still looking very unimpressed. "You, John and I tracked the thief down, but he opened some sort of portal and escaped. We followed."

"Why don't I remember any of this?" she interrupted.

"I'm getting to that," he replied.

"Well where did we emerge?" she asked, folding her arms.

"Oklahoma," he said. "But in 1879." Seeing her opening her mouth to interrupt again, he ploughed on. "Anyway, the thief had been captured and his technology stolen by someone else. And we – along with some help – went to get it back." Now he hesitated, reacting to the memory. How would she react? Only one way to find out. "But the night before, you – we – had decided that since we were…in another time…there was nothing to lose if we…"

"If we had sex?" she finished bluntly.

He winced. 'Had sex' was a really…emotionless way of putting it. "I guess so."

"You still haven't answered my question," she pointed out. Leaning forward, her expression softened and her voice went quiet. "Bruce, if we decided we had nothing to lose, if we made love, then why don't I remember it?"

"Because of what happened the following day," he said heavily. "We tracked the stolen technology and we got it back, but…I underestimated the original thief, and he managed to take it off us, and escape to the future." She shifted, frowning now in curiosity. "To a future where he ruled the world. The Justice League was all but extinct, and increasing damage was being done to the very fabric of the universe." He looked up again, drinking in the sight of her, needing to remind himself that she was here, and she was alright. "You…faded. Right in front of my eyes."

"Faded?" she asked.

He nodded. "As if you never existed," he whispered, not trying to conceal the pain in his voice. After a moment of just looking at her, he cleared his throat. "Obviously Lantern and I fixed it. But you have no memory of what happened. What passed between us."

He was expecting her to take a minute to absorb all that, but she didn't. Instead anger crept back onto her features. "And you didn't think I deserved to know? You didn't think that- that this could happen?" she asked, gesturing at her abdomen. "Answer me!" she yelled, standing up. Her eyes closed, and after a few seconds her shoulders relaxed. "Bruce. Did you not think this was a possibility?" she asked, as if he had no idea what could result from unprotected sex.

He had known, but that didn't mean that knowledge had been anywhere near the forefront of his mind then. "Well of course I knew it was a possibility-"

Just like that, the thin crust of calm on top of her rage cracked again. It was mesmerising – like watching a volcano erupt ."So why the- the – fuck," she burst out, "didn't you tell me?!" He blinked, having no idea where on Earth she'd learned that word, but Diana wasn't done with berating him yet. "You know what," she exclaimed, fists clenched at her sides, "you didn't even need to tell me, you could have just slipped the morning-after pill into an iced mocha or something!"

"Do honestly think I could do that?" he demanded, aghast at the idea. "Diana, if I'd thought for even a second you might be pregnant, there is no way I could do that without your knowledge! That's my child too, how could I-"

"So you're just content to lie to and deceive its mother?! You know what, Bruce, I know why you didn't tell me! Because you're afraid," she spat. "Because if I knew what we'd done, you thought I might demand a relationship with you! Because you couldn't even comprehend the idea that maybe all I wanted from you was your body!"

"Is it?" he asked instinctively.

Her look of disgust said it all. "I'm leaving." She turned and stormed to the edge of the precipice, intending to fly up the tunnel for the Batwing.

He caught her wrist. "Diana-"

She wrenched it out of his grasp. "You know what hurts most, Bruce?" she said. "You shouldn't have told me because you were my lover. You should have told me because you were my friend." With that, she took off, flying up into the shadows and leaving him watch her, knowing that he had no right to call her back.

It was the last time he'd see her for seven months.

---

She didn't cry when she left the Batcave, she didn't cry when she offered a terse 'goodbye' without stopping to Kal and the others, she just got into her jet, pointed it toward the Atlantic Ocean and sped towards sanctuary. She landed just off the island and flew the rest of the way, alighting in the central forum and sprinting into the queen's audience chamber.

"Diana," her mother greeted, sounding surprised but pleased at the same time. With typical mother's intuition, she saw the expression on Diana's face and turned to her guards. "You may go."

The two warriors bowed. "Yes, my queen."

Once they were gone, Hippolyta turned to her daughter. "I was about to contact you anyway, but what brings you here?"

"I'm here to request asylum," Diana said simply, before elaborating. "I know that I am banished from Themyscira, which is why I intend to return to Man's World, eventually."

"Why do you seek such asylum?" Hippolyta asked, still on the queen side of her dual roles to Diana. The mother made her add, "What has happened?", a touch of concern in her voice.

"I..." Diana swallowed and then squared her shoulders. She had done nothing to be ashamed of. She had taken a man as a lover, yes, but a hero of Themyscira. "I am with child, Mother. And I wish to carry the baby to term here, on Themyscira." She bowed. "I humbly beg you to allow me to do so, my queen."

Hippolyta's expression had frozen in surprised, but she rose and took her daughter's shoulders. "As your mother every fibre in me grants your request." Diana didn't smile. The last time Hippolyta had said 'as your mother', it had been followed by her exile.

Her trepidation proved right as Hippolyta continued. "But I do not know if this may be possible. When Penelope and Andromache became pregnant in Man's World the gods forbade them from ever returning during their lifetimes."

Diana nodded. "I know, yet-"

"We will not do so now, Hippolyta," a voice interrupted.

Mother and daughter turned, and then immediately dropped to their knees before the glowing woman who had appeared in the chamber. "Great Hera."

"Rise, both of you," the goddess said softly. When they did so, she smiled gracefully in a maternal fashion that felt like a warm hug. She turned to the princess and stepped closer, touching her chin softly. "Diana, you may stay on Themyscira as long as your mother wishes it. Your exile is completely rescinded, as we have already told her."

Diana swallowed, feeling tears threaten again. "Thank you, great Hera. Thank you so much."

Hera nodded. "You are most welcome, child." Her warm hand settled on Diana's stomach, and a tingle shot through her. "The outcome of this pregnancy is of great interest to us."

Diana blinked in surprise, and bowed again with her mother. Hera acknowledged them with a nod. "Farewell, my children."

With a flash of white light, she was gone. Hippolyta turned to her daughter a drew her into an embrace. "Welcome home, my little sun and stars."

Diana promptly burst into tears. Again.

---

A/N: I know we all like to torture Bruce, but I feel like I'm taking it a little too far at this point...Review please! A/N: I know we all like to torture Bruce, but I feel like I'm taking it a little too far at this point...Review please!