A/N: Thank you for the reviews! And to make up for the short chapter last time, I've got a long one for you. So here's Diana's return and Alfred's reaction. Enjoy!

Chapter Thirteen - Still Pregnant

This was torture. Everyone knew how much Flash hated to stay still for long. But extending the monitor duty shift to eight hours per shift? It was agony. Batman had apparently decided that since he'd spent the last six months acting like a bear with a sore head, everyone else deserved to suffer as well. If it had been anyone else, Wally would have simply refused. He was instead reduced to a string of bitter mutterings while on duty.

Everyone in the League knew exactly why Bats had been in such a foul mood, of course, and it came in the form of an Amazon princess. Wally had a theory that Bats was pissed that Wondy had a bun in the oven and he hadn't been the one to put it there. And to top that off, Diana had disappeared to Themyscira.

With a sigh, Wally collected up the cards in front of him, then stared moodily at the rapidly warming iced mocha in front of him. Without company, he didn't have light-hearted whirlwind of reputation to keep up, and at heart Wally only missed Diana. He wasn't allowed to express that to anyone else: Wally was very much aware that his role in the League, at least amongst the founders, was to keep the situation light. To keep everyone else from falling into depression over the fact that she was gone. It was true that though they'd needed to expand the League to cover the whole globe, but with the seven of them they basically had the whole package.

Supes brought the innocence to them.

Shayera the feminine cynicism.

GL the discipline.

J'onn the heart.

Wally the humour.

Bats the leadership, even if he didn't admit it.

Diana...Diana was their grace. Their princess.

And they all missed her. The whole League missed her.

Not for the first time, Wally pulled up a map of the Atlantic Ocean. Where the satellite photos said there was nothing, a tiny red dot pulsed gently. Themyscira. Wally looked at it and then exited the programme, going back to his duty. C'mon, Diana, he thought. Come home.

For once, it seemed like Diana's gods were listening to someone not of Amazon origin. Within five minutes, a call came in to the Watchtower. It was on a private frequency - with the passcode 003, it could only be one person. Wally's fingers flew across the keyboard.

"Diana? Oh-my-God-Diana-it's-really-you-I-can't-believe-it-I-really-miss-you-are-you-alright-are-you-still-on-Themyscira-how's-the-baby-"

The image of Diana's smiling face laughed onscreen. "Wally, slow down!"

"Sorry," he said quickly, "but I've really missed you and-"

"Still talking too fast, Flash."

Wally nodded and stopped talking altogether. Diana smiled. "I know, I've missed you too. But the good news is I'm coming back, later today in fact."

"What?! That's great news! When? Are you on your way back now? How long-"

"Wally!"

He shut his mouth and made a zipping motion with his fingers to indicate he was going to be quiet. Diana smiled. "I'm not on the way back yet, but I will be soon. I just called to make sure that my access codes still worked before I try and access the Watchtower."

He nodded. "Alright then," Diana said. "In that case I'll see you in about an hour, once I've said goodbye to Mother and my sisters."

"Hey, Wondy?"

"Yes?"

"Are you still pregnant?"

She nodded. "Yes, Wally, I'm still pregnant."

"I call dibs on godfather!"

She laughed and cut the connection. Wally's fingers flew into action, accessing the PA throughout the Watchtower. "Superman, J'onn, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and Batman to the monitor womb, faster than I could get here!"

They didn't get there as fast as he could. But they got there pretty damn quickly. Shayera arrived first, then J'onn and GL, with Superman coming in last. "Batman's in Gotham," he said. "Don't think he'll be coming back up for anything less than a class eight emergency."

"Well this is at least a class seven!" Wally said.

"What the hell's going on?" John asked.

"Diana's coming back!"

There was silence for a moment before they all erupted into various expressions of joy, asking the same questions Wally had to the princess earlier. He explained as best he could, and then frowned.

"We really should call Bats."

John nodded. "I'll go and do it." Considering he'd just been told one of his closest friends and allies was returning after months away, GL didn't seem all that joyful, Wally noted. Before he could question his friend, John had left the monitor womb.

---

"Bruce."

The growl that answered him was not happy. "What, Lantern."

"You need to come up to the Watchtower."

"Can't. Busy."

"It's important."

"Handle it."

"But it concerns-"

"Batman out."

"-Diana..."

John tried again, but there was no answer. Batman was gone, and he wasn't coming back in contact anytime soon. I should just have started the conversation with Diana's name. Well, if nothing else, then he was sure that Diana would have no problem telling Bruce. She wasn't exactly one to shirk from a challenge. Alright, so Bruce was on his own. Now he could just be happy that Diana was coming back.

He went back to the monitor womb and waited with the others. It was only about twenty minutes before the alert for an incoming shuttle came from the hanger bay. All five of them went down, and waited for the airlock to close before they went inside.

Diana's red jet sat there with the engines ticking down. With a pneumatic hiss, the ramp lowered, and the Amazon princess herself appeared. Since she was still pregnant, she'd forgone her usual uniform, wearing instead a plain white chiton that came to her knees and some leather sandals. She still carried the Lasso of Truth on her hip.

All of their mouths fell open as she stopped in front of them with a slightly nervous expression. None of them were smiling.

It was Shayera who spoke first. "Diana, you- You're-"

"Huge," Flash said bluntly.

Diana's face relaxed into a smile. "I know." She cleared her throat. "It's to be expected, though. I'm having twins."

There was the faint sound of five jaws dropping open. "Twins?" Clark spluttered.

She nodded. "Yes."

"When did you find out?" Shayera asked.

"Aphrodite came to me in a dream," Diana told them.

It was true, the goddess of love had come to her and told her she would be having twins - and also had commanded her to return to Man's World in order to give birth. Diana had obeyed, not least because giving birth to twins in an environment with no advanced medical care could prove very dangerous. The second reason was that she couldn't ignore the pricklings of her conscience anymore.

"And there've been no complications?" Clark asked anxiously.

She shook her head. "No, as far as I know. Odd cravings though, some of which I couldn't appease on Themyscira, so could we continue this in the commissary?"

They all nodded, and made their way through the corridors. Mercifully, they were fairly empty, but they all knew the commissary wasn't going to be. Diana walked next to J'onn for a while. Unlike the others, they'd been able to keep in contact telepathically during her absence, but it was good to see him anyway.

You may have a rival for the Oreos, she joked mentally.

J'onn smiled. I've made sure to stock up, he told her. And the commissary have plenty of mayonnaise as well.

She grinned. Do you think the others will be disgusted?

He shook his head. Chocolate cookies and mayonnaise does not seem too bad to me, but then I hardly follow normal human eating habits.

True.

Needless to say, the sight of a very heavily pregnant Wonder Woman entering the cafeteria caused more than a few stares. And a long, loud silence. Diana took it all in her stride. She smiled, and waved. "Hello, everyone."

Superman cleared his throat. "Obviously I don't have to tell you all that this doesn't leave the Watchtower. For any reason." The glare he finished up with wasn't as good as Batman could deliver. But the Man of Steel could still stare down most of the heroes there. Respect for Wonder Woman took care of the ones not intimidated by Superman, and they all nodded.

Slowly the chatter started again, and though the stares didn't stop, the talking filled the cafeteria once more. Diana went toward the food, and found herself before presented with a tray full of Oreos and mayonnaise. "J'onn told us you were coming back," the cafeteria lady said. "And congratulations, ma'am."

Diana took it with a smile. "Thank you."

It didn't take long to go through her pregnancy with the others, though she left out some of the cravings and hormonal changes she'd been going through. Like the increased libido. There had been so many times in the last seven months she'd been on the verge of flying to Gotham, screwing Bruce senseless and then knocking him out because she was still severely pissed off. The explanation did take slightly longer than it might have done though, mainly because Diana had to stop three times to go to the bathroom.

That had faded, though. Now she wasn't pissed off; she was only hurt. She understood why he'd waited so long to tell her, but that didn't make it right, and what she'd said to him still held true. He should have told her as a friend, not as a lover. They weren't ok yet, not by a long shot.

Eventually the others - except John - drifted away, all with hugs and expressing how glad they were about her being back. Diana felt tired about more than two hours of almost constant speaking, and got up as well to go nap.

"Uh, Diana? Can I talk to you?"

She smiled. "Of course, John." She sat down again. "Better make it quick though, because I peed fifteen minutes ago, and I'm going to have to do it again in a few moments."

He gave an uneasy laugh. "Right. Um, the thing is, I know."

"You know?"

"I know that Batman is…"

Her face fell. "Oh. How?" she asked shortly.

"Well, I was with you two remember? Was pretty obvious what had happened, and after you suddenly get pregnant…" John shifted in his seat awkwardly. "I'm sorry, Diana. About how long it took for him to tell you. I tried to persuade him for weeks, and I-"

She leaned forward and hugged him as best she could with an ever-expanding belly. "Thank you, John. Do the others still believe that there is no father?"

He nodded. "Yes, as far as I know."

She bit her lip. "Do you think I should go see him?"

"That's up to you," John said. "But they're his kids too, however much of a jackass he's been. Diana…what happened? Why'd you really take off?"

"If I hadn't gotten pregnant, he would never have told me what happened between us," she said unhappily. "And even if he was unprepared to offer me a relationship – even if I were willing to ask for one – he still should have told me."

"I know." He glanced at the clock. "Damn, I have monitor duty. Listen, Diana, before you make any decisions – look up Bruce Wayne's activities for the last six months will you? His social ones."

She frowned. "John-"

"Trust me," was all he said before leaving.

Diana leaned back in her seat and ran her hands over her rounded stomach. Come, little sun and little star. Let us go look up your father.

She made her way to her still-empty quarters, wrinkling her nose slightly at the stale air. Turning the air-conditioning on, she sat down on the bed, and picked up the laptop computer that she'd left there more than six months before.

A few moments later, she was on the wireless network of the Watchtower, looking on Google. Typing in 'Bruce Wayne' would undoubtedly bring up Wikipedia, which wouldn't tell her anything she didn't already know, so she tried National Enquirer, and then went through all the gossip magazines she could think of.

In the earlier ones, notice was taken of the fact that Bruce Wayne had suddenly disappeared from the social scene totally, wondering what had happened to their favourite playboy that he wasn't having cocaine-fuelled orgies anymore. Diana snorted when she read that one. Bruce didn't even drink.

As she read through the issues, it didn't take her long to pick up on something; Bruce - unless they were commenting on his absence - wasn't mentioned in any of them the longer time went on. He hadn't gone to any major fundraisers, he hadn't dated any movie stars, he had rarely left the manor apparently, apart from on business. He was currently in Hong Kong for a merger.

Was it possible that was because of her? Because he felt guilty? She pursed her lips. That sounded like Bruce. But... Diana sighed. It would take a lot for him not to uphold the playboy image, she knew that - or apparently it would take her. Was it because she was pregnant? Well...I have a goddess's command to obey. Whatever the reasons for his social disappearance, she needed to see him.

For a moment her stomach turned at the thought - she couldn't just pop back into his life after six months of being missing. She needed a way to Bruce. She smiled as an idea struck her, then moved to the phone that all Leaguers had installed in their rooms.

"Wayne residence."

Diana felt her face relax into a smile at just hearing the crisp English accent. "Alfred? It's Diana."

There was a tiny pause. "Miss Diana! How wonderful to hear from you! How have you been, my dear?"

"Well, thank you, Alfred. I hate to be an inconvenience but may I come and see you?"

"Of course," he answered, sounding genuinely delighted. "I'm afraid Master Bruce is in Hong Kong for the week-"

"I know," she replied. "But I want to see you."

"In that case I'll be only too thrilled to welcome you. Will you be arriving in the usual manner?"

The 'usual manner" was for her to transport down from the Watchtower to about a mile offshore from Wayne Manor, then fly the rest of the way, keeping close to the water. It was the least visible method she had of getting there, but in her current state, flying was extremely taxing on her body for some reason. As was using any of her powers, for that matter. She suspected it was possibly because either one or both of the children weren't metas, though she couldn't be sure until they were born.

"No," Diana said. "You'll understand when I get there. I'll see you in about twenty minutes."

"Alright. Take care, Your Highness."

"I will. Bye, Alfred."

She made her way to the hanger bay, then walked up the ramp onto her jet. Thank Hera for it being invisible. It didn't take her long to fly down to the east coast of America and then land on the immense back lawn of Wayne Manor. She didn't move from the cockpit for several minutes. Hera, she was more nervous about seeing him than she had been about telling her mother. She'd had decades of experience dealing with Hippolyta's wrath, but this was Alfred.

"No, Diana. You're a big girl. He's Alfred, he's not going to shout at you." A wry smile crossed her face. "If anything he's going to shout at Bruce."

She got out of the plane and made her way to the back door, then knocked, knowing that Alfred would probably be in the kitchen. Sure enough, the door opened within seconds. "Miss Di- Oh my goodness!"

Diana grinned while she felt her face heat up. "Hello, Alfred."

He recovered well. "I think you had better come in, my dear."

She nodded, but to her horror found herself bursting into tears instead. "I'm sorry, Alfred, I just- It's just- It's really good to see you!"

The Englishman made a gentle clucking sound with his tongue and embraced her, putting an arm around her shoulders and guiding her inside. Diana found herself seated at the kitchen island with a mug of tea and a handkerchief in her hand. She sniffed and wiped her eyes. "Thank you."

"Now, perhaps you should explain to me…your condition."

"Isn't it obvious?" Diana asked softly.

"Well, yes. But is…"

"Yes," she confirmed, knowing what his next question would be.

"Oh my. And he…"

"Knows, yes."

Alfred's fingers tightened convulsively around his teacup, but he had no other reaction. "Ah, the bloody fool."

"Maybe," Diana allowed. "But…in the end he did the right thing, and I was the one who ran back to Themyscira."

"Did he come after you?" Alfred asked sharply.

"No, but if he had I would have kicked him all the way across the Atlantic."

"Humph."

Diana had to crack a smile. "Don't be too hard on him, Alfred."

"I think perhaps you should start for the beginning."

Diana took a deep breath and began. Twenty minutes later, and after more tears, she was done, and Alfred's aloof façade had merged into the gentle father that she imagined he'd always been for Bruce. "Oh, you children do manage to make a bloody mess of things."

Diana snorted. "Yeah, I know."

"May I ask what you're going to do now?"

"Well…first aim is to give birth safely. Everything good that happens after that is a bonus."

Alfred nodded. "Good plan." He hesitated for a moment. "I believe he loves you," he said finally. "Now that I know the full picture, a lot of things make sense."

"Like the fact that he's been avoiding the spotlight for the last six months?" Diana asked, then explained how she knew. "I Googled it when I got back. At John's suggestion." She paused. "Do you think he felt guilty?"

Alfred fixed her with a look, one eyebrow raised. Diana caught his meaning and nodded. "Right. Bruce Wayne. Does nothing but feel guilty." She sighed. "I think I…Oh I don't know. I did love him, once. And I…still feel…something. But there are things that need to be said." Unconsciously, she stroked her abdomen. "They are his children. That's why I came to see you. No matter what happens between Bruce and I, I will not deprive my children of their father. Or you."

Alfred blinked several times, his eyes suddenly bright, but when he spoke his voice was perfectly steady. "Thank you, Miss Diana. That means a great deal to me – and I'm certain it will to Master Bruce as well."

Diana smiled. "I'm glad."

They lapsed into silence for a while while they both thought over what on Earth was going to happen now. Obviously Bruce needed to know she was back, but when? And how? She couldn't just turn up at the next founders' meeting without seeing him first. Of course if she did that then likely the Bat wouldn't allow him to completely lose his temper with her...

"Could you do me a favour, Alfred?"

"Of course."

"When Bruce gets back, could you...persuade him to come up to the Watchtower?"

Alfred's tiny smile could only be described as conspiratorial. "I'm sure I could manage that much."

---

A/N: Review please!