In the special conference room, where only six people knew the passcode to, sat two of those two six. Wally West, the Flash, and his friend John Stewart, the Green Lantern. It was one of those days where his friend had come on to work late and hardly focused. The two were waiting for Superman. He told John that they needed to talk.

"He's going to make me take another leave."

His friend lightly punched his arm and leaned back in his seat, kicking his feet on the table. "You don't know that." He quickly zoomed over and grabbed a piece of fruit from the center of the table and went back to his original position in less than a second.

"I do. This is the second time that I've screwed up. If I don't fix this, someone will die."

Flash opened his mouth to say something but couldn't when Superman and Batman walked in. "Wally." Superman called out. "We need to talk to John. Privately." He added.

Flash stood up, but didn't walk away. "You know Supes, I'd rather stay in here."

"This isn't about you." Batman spoke quietly.

"Wally, just go." John said. For a moment, John felt a wave of regret as he saw the hurt in Wally. That same wave left as soon as it came as Flash stood up straighter and walked out of the room.

"I can tell when I'm not wanted."

John just wanted to cry. Flash had reminded him of Shayera. Before his memories could start playing, his focus was brought back as Superman sat in Flash's seat. "John, we need to talk about today."

John groaned and looked away. "I know. I know okay? It was my fault and I should've been paying attention."

Superman shook his head. "Someone almost died. A mother almost lost her child." He went on sadly. "When this happened the first time, I understood. It was a little over a month when we came back. The hurt was still alive. It distracted you once and I let it go." He sat closer to John. "Now, it's been almost 8 months and you're still distracted. John I can't say anything but this. Go home for a while or call an old friend who you can talk to about this. You can't help us here, and we can't help you here."

John looked at Superman in mute shock. Then anger. "Fine." He abruptly stood up. "Fine. I'll leave. It won't help and you know it." He made his way to the door but was stopped by Batman, who chose now to say add in his input.

"Don't be upset by this." He growled. "This is the right thing to do and you know it."

The two heroes glared at each other until John rudely shoved past the Dark Knight.

"Scarlet! Mr. Wayne called and said he needed you to grab him some dinner from Pete's Diner. He also said he wants it hot and here at 8."

"8? You've got to be kidding me." Shayera complained. Her friend laughed.

"I told you when you started here, you got the crap job." She laughed and walked out. "Have fun!"

Shayera groaned. It was about 7pm now so she had an hour to spare. She just wanted to go home. Grabbing her jacket and hat, she decided to face the rainy night and head towards the diner to have some dinner of her own.

At the diner, it was packed with people who wanted to meet dates, meet friends, or simply eat like she wanted to. She sat down by herself at a booth and picked up a menu. Quickly, she ordered and prepared for the wait. Across the diner, she could just make out a man who reminded her of John. She could see that he had been drinking. There were two empty bottles on the table and a half empty one in his hand. He reminded her of John because of his posture. Even drinking and on the way to becoming drunk, his back was still straight. Before she could let her mind wander and imagine herself walking up to him, seeing that is was John, and hurling herself into his arms as their lips would meet, she averted her gaze and walked over to the cashier. She would just eat at home and she'd have them deliver Bruce's meal.

At the counter, with her back purposely turned toward the John look alike, her fingers began to thump in a repetitive rhythm one finger at a time. As the wait became longer, her foot began to tap as well. Annoyed, she quietly mumbled to herself. "Geez. What is taking so long? By the time I get my food, I'll be dead!"

"They like to make you wait. It keeps you around longer. You know, make the diner stay full."

Her tapping stopped and she looked at the man she had been adamant about ignoring. He was tall and hers. Was hers. Quickly, she turned her head and avoided his eyes. She chuckled lightly and made her voice a bit deeper. "So far it's working. It seems like I've been waiting for an hour."

He reached in front of her and handed the cashier, who looked like she hated her job and life, some money and turned back to her. He gave her a tiny smile that she could see in her peripheral vision. It made her heart melt and her soul yearn. "I'm John." He reached a hand out towards her, but she made no move to accept it. His smile only faltered a bit before he tried again. "I saw you from across the diner and well," His right hand went up behind his neck. " I thought you were someone else. You reminded me of her. But I should've known better." He laughed with little humor.

Shayera continued to avoid his gaze. "I'm sorry to disappoint." Before he could say anything, the life hating cashier handed her her order. She turned towards John but kept her eyes down and let her hair cover most of her face. "It was nice talking to you." The she began to scurry away. As she practically ran out of the diner and into the rain, she heard John call out to her.

"Wait! I didn't get your name!"

Shayera barely glanced back. "You won't!" The she signaled for a cab and told them to drive away.

At her home, her sanctuary, Shayera paced. Her meal was long forgotten. She had seen John. 8 months had passed since that horrible, horrible goodbye. She had kept count. Each month was agonizing. She had been home for 30 minutes when the thought came to her. What was John doing in Gotham?

The thought brought her pacing to a halt. How could she have not thought about it? John wasn't a Gotham man. He was from Detroit. Plus, League members knew not to go into Gotham. It belonged to the Dark Knight. She sat down as a new thought began to form in her mind. If the rules were still the same as they were when she was in the league, a member would either need Batman's permission to be in Gotham, or the Dark Knight had let them come, begrudgingly of course.

She nodded to herself. It all made sense. Batman had planned this. He wanted her to see John.

"That son of a bitch!" Shayera looked towards the clock. Seeing that she had plenty of time to go back to the diner and rush it back to Batman's office, she grabbed her coat and ran outside.

Reaching the office, Shayera went straight into Bruce's office. As expected, he was sitting at his desk. What was unexpected was the fact that he had a guest. Before she could say the guest's name in shocked recognition, Bruce stood up.

"Scarlet! Finally." He laughed. "I thought you were going to ignore my message."

She let out a strangled laugh. "I uh… thought about it."

Batman looked towards his guest. "Diana, let me get situated real quick and then we can go."

Shayera remained by the door and focused her gaze towards the window behind Bruce. She could feel the hot gaze of Princess Diana, or as she had known her, Wonder Woman.

"Sure." She said, not looking away from Shayera. "What was your name again?" She asked Shayera.

Still, she refused to meet the Princess' gaze. "Scarlet."

Wonder Woman laughed. "Oh Batman, what have you done now?"

Both Batman and Shayera looked at her. She laughed again, this time it came with a sneer. "Even without the wings, you can tell it's her. Scarlet." Venom soaked her words. "What kind of name is that?" She looked at Batman. "If John finds out that you've known where she was, he's going to have your head."

Bruce changed into Batman and his voice became gruffer. As Diana heard the change, a small part of her became sad at the realization that she had lost that part of Bruce to the Bat. "He won't find out."

Shayera then snorted. "I ran into him today. And I know you planned it. Somehow, for some reason, you made it happen."

"What if I did?"

"There aren't any 'what ifs'."

The two stared the other out. Shayera made the first move. "You are a cold hearted bastard. You know that?"

"You needed to see what you had done to him."

"I know what I did! Don't you dare think that a day goes by without me thinking over the fucking mistakes that I made! God! You are such an asshole!"

"What happened?" Diana asked.

Shayera narrowed her eyes at Bruce. "He told me to go to some dumpy ass diner where he somehow knew that John was going to be there."

"Why would you do that, Bruce?"

"She needed to see him."

"What good does that do for anyone?"

"It lets her see that after all this time, he's still damaged. She's the only one that can fix this."

The two women looked at Bruce. Shayera looked sad. "I can't help him."

The trio of heroes was interrupted by soft knocking. A lady stuck her head in the room and addressed Bruce. "Mr. Wayne, there's a John Stewart here for you."

Shayera smacked her forehead with her hand. "As if I need this!"

Bruce looked at the lady. "Could you tell him to give me a few minutes?"

She shook her head. "He said it was very important."

Bruce sighed. "Tell him I'll-"

He was cut off as John entered the room. "Bruce! We need to talk."

Shayera took in a sharp breath and quickly walked over to the window she had been staring at earlier. Wonder Woman greeted him warmly. "John, welcome to the party."

He thanked the lady as she left the room. "Party?"

"Ignore her." Batman said. "What do you need?"

"Well, I came to Gotham like you said, went to that diner too. I don't really feel any different. I bumped into someone but I never got a name." He made a pained expression. "Anyway, I don't see why I'm here."

Diana laughed. "The answer could be closer than you think."

At John's confused face, Bruce explained. "She doesn't know what she's saying." He walked back to his desk and began to collect various papers. "Come on, let's get out of here. Now. I've been here way too long and I'd like to get home." He looked towards Shayera. "Scarlet, take these papers down to Lucius. Tell him that I send my sincere apologies at the delay and let him know that he can stop by the mansion anytime this week." His lips tilted up in a ghost of a smile. "The old man has been demanding his presence."

Shayera ducked her head and took the papers. "Yes, Mr. Wayne." Like a bat out of hell, Shayera quickly made her way across the office that seemed to have grown in the last 25 minutes. Right as she reached the door, she heard John's voice.

"Wait a minute. Weren't you just at Pete's Diner?"

Her hand rested on the door knob as she contemplated between two choices. The first one involved her making an escape and running like hell out of that office. The second choice was to answer him. Honestly, she preferred the first choice. Being Thanagarian, her decision was made.

Slowly, careful to avoid eye contact, she turned towards him.