A/N: Thanks for the reviews! And thank you to the beta of all betas, DaisyJane :) I believe some people have been mourning the lack of Bruce/Diana, so here they are!

I'm a bitch, I'm a lover,

I'm a child, I'm a mother,

I'm a sinner, I'm a saint,

I do not feel ashamed,

I'm your hell, I'm your dream,

I'm nothing in between,

You know you wouldn't want it any other way,

So take me as I am,

This may mean you'll have to be a stronger man,

Rest assured that when I start to make you nervous,

And I'm going to extremes,

Tomorrow I will change,

And today won't mean a thing.

Bitch—Meredith Brooks

Chapter Four

Thomas looked impressed when Alexa arrived back five seconds earlier than planned. "Twenty four point seven seconds. You're getting faster."

"Sparring with Kal's paying off, I guess," she shrugged, and then winced at the pain in her shoulder.

Thomas noticed her expression. "You've been shot?"

She nodded. "Grazed."

"You should still dress it. Hang on, I'll get some gauze." He applied it for her, and then looked at his watch. "Better get some sleep. It's three a.m."

"You go up. I'm going to write the logs up and call Matt, make sure they've got everything they need."

"Alright. Night, Lexie."

"See you in the morning, Tommy."

He kissed her cheek and went upstairs, leaving Alexa alone in the Cave. She spent a moment with her eyes closed, running through everything else on the to do list. Logs first, then sleep, then possibly gathering more evidence for Matt—and she'd promised her parents a visit this weekend … She was looking forward to getting away for a bit—next week she had a fundraising gala for a new presidential candidate, and that would require her to be endlessly charming and effortless and the magnet for everyone's eye. While Thomas sought out the best-looking girl in the place and made her flame of the week. It would take energy, and a lot of it, to make it look like it took none at all. Having a few days off with her parents, where she had to be no one except herself, would be perfect. If she had time then maybe she could even go and see her grandmother, Alexa thought with a sudden smile.

With that happy thought in mind, she quickly ran through the rest of what she had to do. Within an hour the logs were updated, Matt had been called—they had all they needed, and forensics were combing through Ozzie's hideout right now—and then she headed to bed. Her sleep was dreamless.

The next day she and Kal had scheduled yet another training session together, but she arrived a little bit late, having run into a legal hitch with her project to build a shelter for domestic violence victims—something about planning permission being stalled by the city, and it was pushing everything back.

She arrived seriously needing to blow off some steam, and her usual smile was replaced with, "Don't you just love lawyers?"

"Don't really know any. What's wrong?"

"It's these shelters I want to build—apparently the application for planning permission wasn't filed correctly at city hall. So despite the fact that they approved the building, it all has to be done again, and it's taken almost a year to get this far." She sighed, pulling off the top half of her suit. "Would it be wrong of me to sneak in and put a 'correct' copy in?"

He laughed. "Probably."

"I was afraid you were going to say that," she sighed. She took her mask off and then turned around to find a hair tie for her mass of black hair.

She heard Kal give a sharp intake of breath. "Are you injured?"

"Huh? Oh, my shoulder. No. Well, I got shot."

"You got shot and you're not injured?"

"It was just a graze. It's probably healed by now."

"Are you sure? If you want to give training a miss today –"

"Kal, please. It's gone by now. Take the gauze off if you don't believe me."

She turned back around to let him get to the gauze, then couldn't stop her heart rate from increasing at the knowledge he was going to touch her. He had touched her before, but that was only her hands, and this felt more … intimate.

His fingers were gentle, and he barely touched her at all as he peeled the gauze off. When he ran the pad of his thumb over the skin previously covered up, a warm shiver raced over her.

"Well?"

"Nothing," he murmured. "You're perfect."

Then he pulled his hand away quickly, and Alexa's hope of any progress being made today faded. Oh well—back to flirting it was then. She turned around with a grin. "Perfect, huh?"

"No sign you were ever hurt at all," he said quickly. "How did it happen anyway?"

"Drug dealer. Decided he didn't want to be arrested, for some reason."

"Criminals resisting arrest, imagine that."

"I know, it's shocking," she grinned. "Ready?"

"Ready."

An hour later—Alexa won—the two of them exited the sparring suite. At this point there were normally showers, with Alexa's imagination conjuring up images of how much more fun it would be if they just took the same shower. Then it was normally coffee before Alexa went back to Gotham and Kal went out to Metropolis. Not today, though.

Today, Kal stopped her before they headed to the commissary. "Alexa, are you busy for the rest of the night?"

"No." She raised an eyebrow. "What did you have in mind?"

'I might need your help with something. There's been a spate of kidnappings recently—I think purely for making money. The families are always rich and the children are always released, unharmed, once a ransom has been paid. But it's still not a pattern I want repeating."

"Alright. Any suspects?"

He led her to his quarters, Alexa trying to hold back a slight chuckle as it occurred to her that maybe anyone walking past might assume something other than partnership was going on. No such luck, she thought with a rueful smile.

Kal's quarters were larger than the average League member's, because of his very long history with it and because of his status on the council. Even though he hadn't been at council meetings for about ten years (though that was changing), no one had ever suggested that he lose his place, or that his quarters might be reassigned. Alexa's rarely used quarters were much the same size, but very different inside. The decoration was as Themysciran as she could make it, and there was a large altar for worship of the gods at one end—but she only ever really used them for those times when extreme fatigue meant she needed sleep then and there, and only sleep. Until now there hadn't been anyone in the League she'd felt the least bit of desire. Kal's quarters seemed to be in an odd flux of transit—there were few possessions on the surfaces, and nothing in the closet, which was slightly open. Apart from raising the delicious possibility that he slept naked, it made Alexa frown. At the bottom of the closet there appeared to be a box, another one in the left-hand corner and another one by the bed.

"Are you moving somewhere, Kal?"

"I'm sorry? Oh, the boxes. Yeah, kinda. I've moved some of my things down from the Fortress—easier that way. Now I don't have to keep disappearing for thirty seconds at a time."

Alexa's frown didn't fade. It actually made perfect sense; how could she not have realised? He didn't have civilian clothing, why would he have a civilian home? Unless he just didn't consider himself a civilian ever, or didn't have a civilian part of his life. Goddesses, when did he take any time off?

"Alexa?"

She blinked. "Sorry. I drifted off."

"Didn't realise I was that boring."

She smiled, moving forwards to look at the screen, and squeezed his shoulder. "Quite the opposite, Kal. Is this what you needed help with?" she asked, not moving her face, which now happened to be a few inches from his.

"Uh, yeah."

She nodded and looked carefully at the screen, schooling her expression. She did not wish to force his hand, and she didn't want to play with him either—not unless he was playing too—but there was no harm in enjoying herself for the time being. Besides, she was confident that she new him well enough by now that she would recognised it if he was truly made uncomfortable by her, and she would stop immediately if that was the case.

With half her attention on Kal, there was only half of her mind left to work on the file on-screen. But even half of Alexa's mind was brilliant, and within a minute she had finished reading through all of the information. It was very well compiled, and all the statistics of each crime and even an image of a masked man, captured on CCTV of the potential suspect.

She leaned back and sat on the desk facing Kal, not missing the way his eyes flicked to her legs and back up again, like he couldn't help it. "I don't see what you need my help with, Kal. You seem to have evidence in abundance."

"But I haven't found him. There's never been any DNA, and according to the children he has set free, he wears white, with this mask over his face. I'd like you to help me find him. I don't even know what I'm looking for, apart from he's a man, and that narrows it down to about ten million people in the inner city alone."

She nodded thoughtfully. "I see the problem, but I'm not a profiler, Kal."

"You're Batwoman," he countered.

"Alright." She didn't need to look back at the file—it was already committed to memory. "The fact that he does it for money indicates he's not particularly vicious; the children aren't mistreated, so he's not apathetic or totally lacking in compassion. He's essentially a mercenary."

"So am I looking for someone with military experience?"

"Not necessarily … in fact, no. The children have said he gave them candy, let them watch TV—it's almost apologetic. A military man would treat it like a mission. He'd give them what they needed but nothing they liked. No, you're looking for a civilian. And no DNA, and he wears pure white …"

"What are you thinking?"

She wasn't listening. "Was there a high profile kidnapping in Metropolis, within the last two years? One that didn't go well?"

Kal considered. "There was one—a little girl from an upper class family; she died during a rescue attempt. Even though the family was going to pay the ransom, the police decided to try a SWAT-team anyway."

Alexa clapped her hands together. "That's it! Alright, what you're looking for is probably a forensic scientist. Or a former one, rather—who helped with the clean up of that case. He'll have been fired a couple of months before the first of these kidnappings started, and he'll probably own some property somewhere, a warehouse or something. That's where he'll be keeping the children."

She'd scarcely finished the sentence before Kal's fingers had finished flying over the touch-pad keyboard. It was only another half-second before the computer caught up with him.

"Got it. George Harrington—fired from the Metropolis Forensic Service eleven months ago, and he worked on the Emily Davies case. And he has a list of properties to his name, most of which are pretty remote and rarely visited."

"Home address?" she asked eagerly, leaning forwards.

"Elizabeth Tower. Alexa, you're brilliant!" He grinned, kissed her cheek apparently without thinking about it, and then blurred to the door, only then pausing. "You coming?"

"Do you want me to?"

"I might need backup."

She laughed and flew after him at top speed. Apparently he didn't expect her to shoot past time before they'd gone a hundred yards from the Metrotower. "Come on, old man! Thought you were supposed to be fast or something!"

He caught up to her, naturally, but it was definitely fun, zooming through the skyline of Metropolis, while it lasted. And it meant more desire so thick she could taste it, but she managed to swallow it back by the time they arrived at Elizabeth Tower.

Alexa scanned Harrington's apartment with the x-ray vision in her mask. "He's alone."

Kal nodded, of course not needing the help of any kind of mask. "Why did you specifically ask if the kidnapping of Emily Davies had gone badly?"

"Because it explains why he's trying so hard with his kidnappings. Why none of the children are harmed at all."

Kal nodded in understanding, and they both returned to observing Harrington. "Doesn't look like he's going to bed though. Odd, considering it's three a.m., don't you think?"

"Just a little. Not as odd as the soda and Twinkies he's packing into that bag though."

They both burst in at once, Alexa hanging back a little bit. She didn't want to intrude, after all, this was Kal's city, and she was sure he would do the same if it was Gotham. Harrington didn't seem to want to talk, though. And as much as she admired Kal, Alexa couldn't help thinking it really would be much quicker to let her do it. She delicately cleared her throat, a few minutes into the interrogation. Both Kal and Harrington glanced over to her.

She smiled sweetly at her teammate. "May I?"

He smirked, and then bodily threw Harrington at her. She caught him by the lapels of his cheap jacket. He didn't seem fazed. "Look, lady, if Superman –"

Alexa dropped him out of the window. He screamed, solidly, for fifty stories. And then abruptly stopped when she caught him casually by the ankle. She pulled him back up to the apartment. Kal was standing by the window, looking both impressed and more than a bit shocked. Alexa did not look at him, her attention all on Harrington.

"Now," she said, her voice still chillingly pleasant. "Where is Matthew Saxon? And try not to lie to me. Deception upsets me so much I might forget to catch you."

"You – You're crazy!"

She sighed. "They never come up with anything more original," she commented to Kal. Then she dropped Harrington again. Having her mother's lasso would probably save her a lot of trouble but probably wouldn't be as much fun. When he came back up, he was barely conscious. Alexa helped with that by slapping him across the face, then slamming him into a wall. "No one goes out at three a.m. with a bag of fucking Twinkies unless they're up to something they shouldn't be, do they, Georgie? Or maybe you're on the prowl, huh? Trawling for more victims, are we? Maybe just taking them isn't enough anymore, Georgie, maybe all the candy, all those cartoons, maybe they're lures now. 'Come back to my place, little one, and you'll find a whole room full of puppies.'," she mocked.

"No, no I swear I never –"

"No? Then prove it! Where is Matthew Saxon?"

"He's at Baker's Yard! The depot there, under the dispatch room!"

There was a whoosh of air, and then Kal was gone. Batwoman knocked Harrington out and then handcuffed him. Then she pulled out the memory card she'd recorded Harrington's confession onto, and laid it onto his chest.

"Batwoman to Superman."

"I've got Matthew Saxon. He's pretty shaken but he's okay."

"Good. Harrington's confession just needs lifting off his chest."

"You don't sound like you're staying."

"Can't. Early flight to Isla Wayne tomorrow."

"Alright." Was that disappointment she heard in his voice? "Give them my best."

"I will. See you next week, Kal."

"Of course. I really appreciate your help, Alexa. Couldn't have done it without you."

"I think you and I both know that's not true," she smiled, though she let the point lie there. "But I was certainly glad to help."

"Take care. See you soon."

"Bye."

Her parents' island was a welcome sight to Alexa when it came into sight, early the next morning. She had crossed the Atlantic early, flying into the oncoming dawn. The island didn't have an official name, as far as her parents were concerned, so as children Thomas and Alexandra had nicknamed it Isla Wayne, and the name had stuck. Legally, the land didn't belong to her parents at all, but it had never crossed her mind to think of it as anything but their home. Gotham and Wayne Manor were now her home. Man's World, as strange as it was to think of it in the terms of her Amazon sisters.

Isla Wayne was located in the Mediterranean, about twenty miles from the Greek coast. Bruce had bought it, wholesale, from the Greek government in about 2080, and had lived there happily with his wife and children, until Thomas and Alexandra had grown up and moved to Gotham. Bruce and Diana lived there still. Themyscira was only seventy-six miles away, a comfortable distance for Diana to travel to see her mother and sisters—as it had been for Alexa to see them regularly as she grew up.

A little warning flashed up on the heads-up display in front of her, warning her that she was nearing the sovereign nation of Themyscira, and that attempting a landing without permission from Her Majesty Queen Hippolyta was inadvisable. To say the least, Alexa thought with a smile. She was one of the very privileged few that could come and go and she pleased—being the Queen's granddaughter had its perks. She would definitely go see her grandmother if she could. From seeing her every few weeks, and living on Themyscira during her sixteenth year, her visits had dropped to once every few months, and it could be miserable at times. But Hippolyta would have to wait a little longer—Alexa's heart was singing at the prospect of seeing her parents, so she adjusted her course slightly, and a few moments later touched down in their olive grove. She hopped lightly out of the invisible plane (inherited from her mother), grabbing her weekend bag from the cockpit and flying up to the house.

It was perched on top of the only hill on the island, on the southern end and overlooking the sea. It was a large, classical-style villa, newly built with modern plumbing, electricity and a swimming pool. It had white washed walls, red tiled flooring and a blue painted roof, and inside was furnished elegantly but not ostentatiously. Everything was wonderfully Mediterranean. Was it any wonder Gotham had taken so much adjusting to, she wondered?

There were no locks on the doors—what would be the point?—but she knew her approach and arrival would have been noted. Sure enough, when she pushed open the door and put her bag down, her mother's voice rang out.

"We're on the terrace, darling!"

Alexa grinned and made her way through the cool dimness of the house. She found both her parents eating breakfast, and neither of them properly dressed yet. "Nine in the morning and you're still in your pyjamas! Slackers."

Both of them stood and greeted her with tight hugs. "Retirement, what can I say?" Bruce grinned.

"Did you come straight from Gotham, Alexa?" Diana asked.

Alexa grinned and gestured at the batsuit. "No, I thought I'd just go shopping like this. It's amazing the fashions those crazy kids are wearing at the moment."

"You must have flown through the night to get here so early," Diana replied, absorbing the sarcasm. "You look tired."

Alexa shrugged. "Goes with the lifestyle."

Bruce gestured to an empty chair. "Come and have some breakfast, honey."

Alexa helped herself to coffee and some fresh bread, dipping it into a little bowl of olive oil. "Thanks, Daddy. I'm starving I have to admit. And yes, Mom, tired too."

"Are you working too hard?"

"No," Alexa replied briefly, still stuffing her face with food, now moving on to fruit and yogurt. "Just working. Yesterday was long though—if successful. Is it okay if I sleep for a bit later on?"

"Of course. It's what sensible people do during the heat of the day anyway."

Alexa nodded. It was going to be a hot day here in Greece, the kind that baked the stones in the walls and made the air dance with heat. But right now it was still just warm, with the breeze fresh off the sea and the birds singing. She stretched languidly. "Hera, I've missed this place. And you two, of course," she added to her parents. "So what's new? Did you get your roses sorted out, Mom?"

"Yes, the curse of the aphid has departed these shores! We can go down and see the roses now, if you like. It's your father's turn to do the dishes, so it's probably safer for us to be out of the house for a little while."

Bruce narrowed his eyes, but still kissed Diana as he collected up the plates. "You know, Princess, if I didn't love you so much …"

"But you do," she stated with great assurance.

"But I do."

Alexa went inside to change into some cooler, lighter clothes that she'd brought with her, better adapted to the warmer weather. Once attired in miniskirt and a sleeveless top, she went back out to the terrace and rejoined Diana, who smiled and engulfed her daughter in another hug.

"Oh, it is so good to see you. I've missed you."

"I miss you too, Mitera. Are you sure you want to stay all the way out here? It's been almost twenty five years since Dad 'died', I'm sure people will have forgotten his face by now."

"Ah, but history has a much longer memory," Diana said apologetically. She wrapped an arm around her daughter's shoulders as they walked down the winding path to the gardens. "Besides, you know your father. If he did come back then he might very well find Gotham too hard to resist, and I've a notion you rather enjoy being its protector. Don't you?"

Alexa smiled and nodded. "I love it."

"Then believe me, you don't want us back in America with you. You and Thomas need your independence."

"You could still visit a little more often."

"We will then," Diana promised gently. "Sweetheart, are you still feeling lonely?"

"No," Alexa said. It was the automatic response, to prevent her mother worrying, but now she found it was actually true. She hadn't felt lonely since – She was suddenly made too warm, blushing, even. Since Kal had come into her life.

A/N: Review please!