Disclaimer: Everything belongs to DC et al. Except for the pseudo-science. That stuff is alllll me.
In the wake of the emergency founders' meeting, an air of dread seemed to hang over the Watchtower. Word had gotten out about the toxin, which was already being referred to by the shortened "TS Toxin," in reference to Mount Tai Shan, the only place they knew of the plant growing. The group of founders made an effort not to keep the rest of the League in the dark, even about the things they discussed in their closed-door meetings. Openness and honesty were the names of the game, both on the Tower and on Earth.
Diana had originally planned to spend her day in the Themysciran embassy on Earth, but she couldn't shake the feeling that leaving would be a bad idea. So she stayed. The trouble was, she wasn't actually on the schedule for the day, so she had nothing to do but wait, and lurk, and worry.
After the meeting, she had breakfast with Shayera. John actually was on the schedule, and Shayera had monitor duty later on, so she was hanging around without her usual company. It was nice, and briefly distracting, to indulge in a little girl talk with her teammate. As they chatted about the woman that Flash was currently unsubtlety mooning over, Vixen walked into the commissary. Shayera glanced at the other woman, but didn't react otherwise.
Vixen, whose day job was as a model, always seemed to look like she'd just walked off the runway, even in the heat of battle. Her appearance this morning made Diana especially conscious of the shower she'd skipped in her hurry to get to the meeting. She must have made some small noise, because Shayera shot her a curious look.
"What's wrong?"
Diana felt instantly foolish. "Oh, nothing. Just realizing I never combed my hair before putting my tiara on."
Shayera looked her over with a critical eye. "Diana, I think the fact that there's a tiara involved at all automatically grants you a pretty good measure of glamour."
"Sometimes I wish I could just go out in a ponytail."
"What's stopping you?"
Diana paused. "Well...it's my uniform. My armor. I can't just wear part of it."
"So it's a status thing?"
"I suppose so. I am not only Wonder Woman, after all. I have no secret identity to hide the rest of my life behind. I am only Diana, and that means I have to be both hero and ambassador at all times. It is the same for you, isn't it?"
"I shed the Hawkgirl thing, of course. But I can't get rid of my wings as easily as I did the mask. I've been spending a lot of time in Detroit with John. Some people get angry when they see me." She shrugged, but Diana could see it still bothered her. "But as long as I'm not, you know, trying to steal their planet they seem to be okay with me."
It was common ground that she and Shayera had never discussed, and it warmed Diana. Her teammate's betrayal had been a difficult one to forgive, but Shayera had been in an impossible situation. Diana now fully embraced Shayera's friendship and membership in the League, and to her knowledge, Batman-who, along with Diana, had voted to kick Hawkgirl out-did as well.
Vixen passed by their table on her way out the door, smoothie in hand. She nodded at Shayera, who returned the gesture. It was no friendly hug, but it was certainly more cordial than Diana had expected, considering that John had broken with Vixen in order to be with Shayera.
Diana looked at Shayera in surprise. "That was almost friendly."
"Yeah, we're okay."
"You are?"
Shayera shrugged. "I mean, I'm not her favourite person, but we set some ground rules a while back. I actually think I surprised her with how it went down."
It was presumably John's break-up with Vixen.
"She kept expecting me to make a move on him. But I decided I'd lay my cards on the table and let him make the move. Not my usual style."
Diana imaged not. But then, Shayera had waited 5 years for the Thanagarians to arrive, so clearly she was capable of patience.
"I'm glad it worked out, however it did. And that there's no additional friction in the League." The League had no guidelines regarding fraternization-beyond some people's personal rules-which meant that situations could sometimes get sticky.
"Yeah, we'll have each other's backs in a fight. I like her, actually. I can see why John went after her."
It was a more mature reaction than Diana would have expected from her friend, but Shayera seemed to have calmed considerably since shedding her Hawkgirl mantle. "She is certainly a formidable warrior."
"Yes, she is. Of course, we also bonded when we were battling you."
Diana felt herself blush. The incident where Roulette had used mind control to coerce the women of the Justice League into battling in cage matches had sent Batman into a frenzy creating an entirely new encryption protocol for their communications array. It wasn't one of Diana's prouder moments, though she was no more at fault than the other women had been. She'd simply been more destructive.
"I have apologized for that."
Shayera grinned. "Yes, you have. And someday I'll let you live it down."
"But not today."
"Nah."
Bruce started the day tugging on sources in an attempt to discover who had moved a large quantity of the toxin into his city and how. That he'd heard nothing about it when the substance was so unknown was especially disturbing. It spoke to a level of organization that was uncommon in Gotham, so beloved by petty criminals and crazy people. It made him give more credence to the Secret Society rumors.
He decided he had a better chance of running down those rumors than finding the toxin, so he focused on the Secret Society instead. Less than two hours later, and mainly thanks to social media, he had a series of reports indicating Society movement in a small town located roughly midway between New York and Gotham. Giganta wasn't big on subtlety, and even at her resting human size, she was noticeable. At least she was to the Twitter-using teenagers in the town of Riverton. Giganta alone wouldn't have set off alarms, but Bruce had reports from other sources of Killer Freeze being in the area, and if those two were willingly in the same vicinity, someone was pulling the strings.
If the group had anything to do with the toxin, it was more than worth pinging the Watchtower over. Bruce contacted Mr. Terrific, and advised him to loop J'onn in if he could. Once he'd used the official channels, he contacted Clark directly.
"Yes?" Clark was in Metropolis at work, so he would be as to-the-point and unrevealing as possible.
"Got a possibility. We should go tonight. Tower's got the details."
"Sounds good."
There was no click to indicate that Clark was gone from the line, but Bruce knew that, League business dispensed with, each of them had returned to their day lives. He checked the time. 4 o'clock. Alfred would be making tea.
Upstairs, he found his butler carrying the tea tray towards the cave's clock entrance and intercepted him.
"I'll take it up here, Alfred."
"Very good, Master Bruce."
Being out of the cave and amongst the fine things his parents and grandparents had so painstakingly collected helped him to shift his mind fully out of the Batman place it had been all day. Bruce stirred a single sugar cube into his tea.
"Any commitments tonight?"
"Yes, sir. The Children's Hospital is holding a gala. You are expected to attend."
"Am I?" Bruce sipped his tea.
"Indeed. You are, after all, their chief donor."
"Got me there." It had been a while since Bruce Wayne had made his last memorable public appearance. He could show up and still have plenty of time to meet the League in Riverton. "Very well. We'll leave at 9."
"Very good, Master Bruce. Will you be going into the office?"
"I don't think so, Alfred. I've got some tests to run."
"Canapé, Your Majesty?"
Diana smiled automatically at her hostess. "Please, I prefer Madame Ambassador," she said, for at least the third time that evening. But the new Mrs. Carlisle was desperate to make her mark in the Gotham social scene, and hungry enough to ignore Diana's own wishes in favor of impressing onto her peers the triumph of having royalty attending her first gala. It would not be the last time Diana would correct her that evening, she was sure.
"And yes, I would love a canapé." She took one of the delicate hors d'oeuvres from the proffered tray and smile kindly at the waiter holding it. "Thank you."
"Of course, Your Majesty," Mrs. Carlisle fluttered. Diana stifled the strong urge to roll her eyes at her, and nearly laughed aloud when the waiter did so instead.
Before Diana had the opportunity to correct her again, a small commotion at the far end of the ball room distracted the simpering woman. She quickly excused herself.
"It seems Bruce Wayne has arrived," she murmured.
The waiter, who had not moved away, overheard. "How do you know?"
"Attend enough fancy parties in Gotham City, and you learn to recognize the sound of a Wayne entrance." In the years since he had come to her rescue at the party in Paris, Diana had attended quite a few social events with charming cad Bruce Wayne. Sometimes they would go the whole night without even acknowledging one another (not that Bruce was ever present for more than an hour, unless he was the host), while on others, he would ask her to dance.
She wondered which one tonight would be.
Bruce knew she was there nearly as soon as he walked in, and not merely because the first words out of Mrs. Carlisle's mouth were boasting the royal presence. He could see her statuesque form across the room, clad in a deep red gown. After extricating himself from his clinging hostess, he snagged a glass of champagne and made his way down the room towards her.
He should have ignored her. When they interacted at these things, it got talked about. A lot. He spotted the recently divorced daughter of one of his competitors, and knew his time would be better spent making waves in that direction. But Diana drew him tonight, and he couldn't resist.
By the time he'd made his way through the morass of social obligations, dropping witticisms and smiles as he went, she was dancing with someone. He tensed up despite himself, then smiled when he realized it was Commissioner Gordon.
Up close, her dress was even more arresting. Radically simple in design, it was strapless, cut straight across the bust, and fitted to the waist. The floor-length skirt was a narrow a-line shape. On another woman, it would have been boxy. On Diana, it was sumptuous, her curves filling out the dress' straight lines until all a man could think about was filling his arms with her.
If there'd been any doubt left in his mind about pursuing her tonight, it was quickly gone.
"You have an admirer," Jim Gordon murmured as he led her through a turn.
"I wonder whoever that could be," Diana responded dryly. She caught Jim's smile out of the corner of her eye. "I don't know why he bothers, we don't even get along."
"And I suppose he asks you out to dinner after every dance?"
"Every one," Diana confirmed.
"If he bugs you so much, why come to Gotham at all?"
Diana drew back far enough to look Jim fully in the face. "Why, to dance with you, Commissioner Gordon! Why else?"
He laughed, and gave her hand a squeeze as the song came to an end and they drew apart. "If he gets too pushy, just toss him through a wall. I doubt if any of the men will mind."
She chuckled. "Ah, but Jim, you forget-I'm an Amazon. What use are the wishes of men to me?"
Jim joined her laughter. "None at all, Madame Ambassador."
"I don't suppose my wish to dance might be exempt from that statement, would it?"
Diana turned from Jim to greet the newcomer. "Mr. Wayne."
"Princess. Commissioner Gordon." Bruce grinned at her and Jim in turn.
"Mr. Wayne. I suppose you expect me to simply relinquish the hand of this lovely young lady to you?"
Diana refrained from pointing out that she was hundreds of years older than either of the two men.
"If you would be so kind," Bruce replied. "And if the lady in question is willing."
They both regarded her quizzically. She could hear the band starting back up. "Oh, alright."
Bruce smirked in triumph. Diana turned and gave Jim a quick hug.
"Thank you for the dance," she said.
"Right through the wall," he murmured in response. She laughed as he walked away.
The music started and the band's singer stepped up to the mic. "I'm a fool to want you," she crooned, and Diana nearly rolled her eyes for the second time that evening.
"Oh, boy," she said under her breath as Bruce drew her into his arms.
"What was that, Princess?"
"I was only expressing joy at the singular honor of being Bruce Wayne's first dance of the night."
"Were you really," he said, using that sardonic rumble that was almost his Bat-voice.
"Of course," she replied. "I'm positively on edge at these events, wondering if your eye will fall on me."
He smirked. "I'd say I've more than paid my debt, Princess."
"Yes, we have come a long way from Paris, haven't we?"
He met her eyes in a way that told her he'd understood her full meaning. "Yes," he said with a terseness better suited to Batman than Bruce, then covered it up by pulling her in closer as they continued the dance in silence. Now that he had his hands on her, the dress was even more seductive. He slowly dragged his hand from her back to her lower hip, loving the feel of the velvet under his skin.
He felt Diana stiffen, heard her quick indrawn breath. "Hell of a dress you're wearing, Princess."
"Bruce," she said in warning. They were teetering on the edge for her, and he knew it. She didn't play this game as well as he did, and he could hardly hold it against her. No one should play the game as well as he did.
He flashed her a cocky smile, tacitly indicating a return to their usual social banter. The song was coming slowly to an end. "So, what do you say? Dinner?"
"I know it's wrong; it must be wrong. But right or wrong, I can't get along without you."
Diana shook her head slowly. "No," she said. "I'm afraid not."
"I can't get along without you."
They came gradually to a stop. "That's too bad," he said.
"It is." She stepped back, felt his hands reluctantly fall away. "And I'm afraid I have another engagement this evening."
"Until next time, Princess."
"Until next time."
A/N: This whole thing came about because I was listening to Billie Holiday while I wrote, and I realized how perfect for Bruce & Diana "I'm A Fool to Want You" is (seriously, listen to it. It's on Youtube, easy peasy), and then realized that Billie had also done a version of "Am I Blue," and the Billie Holiday thing spiraled out from there. So every chapter in this story carries the name of a Billie Holiday song.
Diana's dress is basically the one Jennifer Aniston wore to the 2013 Academy Awards, if you're interested.