A/N: Thank you to Daisy Jane for the beta! And thank you for the lovely reviews.

And I know you watched me grow up,

And only want what's best for me,

And I think I found the answer to your prayers,

And he is good,

So good,

He treats your little girl,

Like a real man should,

He is good,

So good

Mama's Song—Carrie Underwood

Chapter Twenty Seven

"How long?"

Alexa had prepared herself to feel entirely like a naughty schoolgirl being scolded by her teacher, but instead, she only felt...calm. She had done nothing wrong; neither had Kal. People fell in love all the time after all. "A while."

"Diana-"

Her mother held up a hand without looking at him, her voice hard. "I'll get to you in a moment, Kal."

He fell silent while Diana continued talking to her daughter. "And why haven't you told us? Is it just that you thought we wouldn't understand?"

"No, it wasn't that, it's just never been a good time. I meant to tell you months ago, but then a week turned into two and two turned into four and four turned into-"

"Ten," Kal finished with a soft smile in her direction. She smiled back.

Diana nodded slowly, but her face had not relaxed from its stern expression. Finally she leaned forward and took Alexa's hand – at least the one Kal wasn't holding. "And are you happy?"

"Completely."

The former Wonder Woman smiled finally, and nodded. "Good." Then she pointed at Kal. "You, me, outside. Now."

She wasn't sure why her mother had bothered; she could hear perfectly well through the glass doors. She watched as Diana paced up and down the balcony, alternately throwing accusations, protestations and pleas at Kal. It started off with, "Are there really no other women in the universe you find attractive, Kal, that you have to seduce my daughter?"

Alexa had to grin at how highly inaccurate that statement was on most points.

"It was a mutual attraction, Diana, and there are no women like Alexa. You of all people must know that. She's unique."

"I remember you saying that about another woman once."

"And I was right then too. Honestly, Diana, do you think we haven't talked about Lois?" he asked, the first tremor of frustration in his voice. "She isn't some elephant in the corner – Alexa is probably the only person I've actually opened up to completely about her, the only one I can."

Diana sighed, shaking her head. "I don't know. You loved her so much."

"I know," he said quietly. "I still do. But I love Alexa just as deeply. She knows she'll never replace Lois – but she also knows that she doesn't need to."

"You say that, but she's so young. Kal, she barely knows what love is, how can she understand the pain of losing a lover? It isn't fair to expect her to understand every nuance of it, it isn't fair to expect her to understand a general picture of it."

"As she pointed out," he replied, "we're ageless."

"For the time being." Diana looked at him for a moment, then shook her head. "I'm sorry. But I just can't see it. No one loves the way you loved, and then loves that way again. No one. I should know."

"Well Diana, I am not you. Honestly I don't know what I can say to make you see that I do love her that way."

Alexa watched her mother's shoulders sink, and then rise again suddenly. Uh-oh. That had always been the cue for an idea. Normally one she wasn't going to- "Prove it then. Show me you love her, truly."

"How?"

"If you love her, you'll think of a way. But that's the only way you'll get my blessing. I need you to prove that you are not going to break my daughter's heart."

"And Dad?" Alexa, now at the doorway, asked. "Will you tell him?"

"It's not my responsibility to tell Bruce. But you had better tell him soon, the pair of you. And he's going to need proof as well," she added warningly to Kal. Then she straightened. "It's Matthew's birthday in a week; you can both come down to the island and tackle your father then."

"Alright."

Diana kissed her daughter's cheek, glared at Kal, and left the way she'd come. Alexa turned immediately to her lover. "I don't need proof. It's all here," she added, touching his eyelids gently. "Whatever they think – I don't care."

He kissed her fingers. "Yes you do. They're your parents, Alexa."

"Then my parents apparently don't know me very well! I don't need to be told how I feel, I- I love you."

"I love you. And don't worry. I've no intention of dancing to anyone's tune."

Diana did not go to Isla Wayne. She couldn't – her mind and heart were in utter turmoil. Alexa and Kal. Like any mother, Diana would do anything to make her daughter happy. Or she had believed that she would, right up until this morning. There was no denying that Alexa was happy; joyful, even, in love and utterly blissful because of it. But Diana found it unbelievable – literally so – that Kal could be in love with her too. He'd been Diana's best friend for almost two hundred years, and it had greatly saddened her to lose him as she had after Lois' death. Hearing of his reunion with the League, speaking to him on the phone had been just like old times. He was happy, smiling … older, yes, and perhaps a little graver, but still the Kal she had known for decades. And it had never occurred to her that the reason for it could be a new relationship. Could be a relationship with her daughter.

Diana did not feel betrayed. Yes, there had been the initial burst of anger and disbelief, but she of all people could not call love a sin. Kal owed no duty of care toward Alexa, he never had—they had both met as adults, why wouldn't adult emotions have developed? She had a feeling that would hardly be how Bruce saw it, but she'd meant what she'd told them. It was not her responsibility to tell Bruce. And even if she had intended to, she needed to reconcile her own feelings about it first. Chief among them was worry. She was deeply, deeply concerned that Alexa was going to be rendered devastated and heartbroken when it all came crashing down. It clearly was not a purely physical relationship only—Alexa was in love. What made everything worse was that the fact that Kal thought he was too. Alexa would believe him, and the longer his self-deception lasted the more painful would its end be. For both of them. Kal would feel immensely guilty; Alexa would be destroyed. As much as she protested she was an ageless immortal, she was still so young. What happened now could mould her for the rest of her extraordinarily long life. For the first time, Diana bitterly regretted making that choice, almost thirty years ago now. She felt tears in her eyes at the thought that her beloved daughter would have to go through forever alone. In just a few short decades, Diana would leave her, perhaps for eternity—the gods only knew how long it would be before Alexa came to the Elysian Fields.

No, Diana decided, she did not believe this liaison with Kal would last forever. But equally she believed that Alexa would need a companion for the coming centuries. And she knew there was no better friend than Superman. So would, after their relationship had dissolved, Kal be able to bring himself to get over his guilt to simply support Alexa? Diana didn't know. There was no one living who did. But that wasn't necessarily a problem.

Wiping her cheeks free of the few tears that had crept there, Diana set a course for Themyscira, and the temple of Persephone. And then she would go and speak to her mother. Alexa told Hippolyta everything, she well knew. Which meant that the queen knew about Kal, probably. If she did, Diana was going to be intensely angry.

Landing on the island, Diana exchanged a few cursory greetings with her sisters. None of them questioned her—they all knew what their princess looking like when she was on a mission, and they also knew how foolish it was to bar her way. Even without her strength, Diana was still a formidable presence. Especially when she looked like that. She marched through the main square and past the Senate, heading directly to the temple of Persephone. It was darker inside than many of the other temples, split into two halves—one side was brightly lit, festooned with ever-blooming flowers, ever-fruitbearing trees. The other was dark, gloomy, withered branches and limp, dying plants. It was representative of the split year Persephone had—either in the Underworld or on Olympus. Diana headed to the dark side; she did not need the daughter of Demeter, but the wife of Hades now. She needed the power she wielded.

She knelt at the altar, closing her eyes and issuing the silent prayer. Time stretched on, minutes becoming hours as Diana remained perfectly still. As an immortal, she had needed tokens to prove her devotion; as a mortal, she needed only to prove her endurance. When it had grown dark outside, Diana felt the tingle of magic across her skin, which announced the goddess' presence.

"Speak, daughter of Hippolyta."

Diana glanced up to the goddess for a brief second. It was impossible to tell whether Persephone was disposed to grant her request or not. "My lady, I come to beg you to allow me to commune with the soul of one under your care. I-I have the greatest need."

"Have you?" Persephone raised a dark eyebrow, her slate-grey eyes remaining cool and aloof. "There is no war, Diana. No battle drives you. Whose life is at stake?"

"No one's life," the princess admitted.

"And you, princess though you are, are no longer Champion of the Amazons. What threat do they now face where Alexandra is incapable of defending them?"

"None," Diana replied, gritting her teeth. Persephone well knew why she was here; she was only reinforcing the balance between them.

"None?" Persephone repeated, all mock-astonishment.

"No, Great Queen. My concern is all for my daughter, and it is purely for her heart."

"I think you may be in the wrong temple, child, if it is love you wish to woo for her."

"It is love I fear," Diana said. "And there is only one soul I know of who could advise me. And but one way of reaching her."

"Through me. And what inducement could I have?"

"The knowledge of the pain of separating a mother and daughter. A departure that is inevitable, and that neither chooses."

There was a pause; Diana felt her whole being scanned by Persephone's ruthless perception. "Your heart is pure. And you speak the truth, I do know what that pain is. But allowing you to consult this soul will do little to ease Alexandra's anguish, when that time comes."

"As long as I knew that her anguish will eventually ease, one day."

"Very well. Name the soul you wish to speak with, and it will be so."

Diana swallowed, closed her eyes briefly and said, "Lois Lane-Kent."

"Any particular reason you've pulled me out of my cosy afterlife, Princess?"

Lois' voice was just as vibrant, sardonic, warm as it had ever been in life. And it made Diana immediately, and simultaneously, grin and burst into tears.

Lois rolled her eyes and pulled her into an insubstantial hug. She wasn't a ghost, but neither was she alive. More like…smoke made solid. She also looked younger and more radiant than Diana had ever seen her. "Ah, hell, Di, you're going to start me off. Well, you're not, but stop it! There's no need to cry."

"Sorry, I just … didn't realise how much I missed you."

"Ditto. I guess. But you still didn't answer my question."

Diana heaved a long sigh that held all of her troubles in it, even if she couldn't voice them yet. She turned to walk along the riverbank, Lois with her. "I need your advice about something. Something that it might be painful to hear, I'll warn you now, but there's no one else who could help me."

Lois raised an eyebrow. "I take it you mean about Clark and Alexa, then?"

Diana's feet stopped. "You know?"

"Of course I know. He finally moves on and finds happiness and you don't think I'd know?"

"How did you know? Can you- Can you see what happens on earth?"

"Not exactly. How do I explain this… You're mortal now, so maybe you'll understand. When you went back, to see Bruce, why did you go?"

"Because we…we had a bond, still. A tie that connected us. It weighed on me. I could not be free until it had been resolved, one way or the other."

"Similar thing. He loved me too much."

"Too much?"

"Yeah. Two mortals, it's not that bad. A few years between one and the other, before they can fully move on. But our bond remained too strong, even after my death. He didn't stick to his wedding vows; he loved me past the end of my life. And it tied me to him."."

"There's no way Kal could have known-"

"Oh, I know, and I don't blame him. Being loved and sharing love like that is wonderful, but feeling his aguish and not being able to anything to help him is extremely painful. So when he started to let me go it was such a relief because I knew he wasn't suffering anymore. And he was finally doing what I told him to do so long ago, living among the humanity he loves so much. And now I'm completely free."

Diana frowned. "So he doesn't still love you?"

"Of course he does but he doesn't cling to the past anymore. And that's how it should be. He loves her and she is good for him. There is enough of Bruce in her to keep him on his toes coupled with your infinite compassion and love. That's quite a girl you raised."

"But how…?"

"Through Clark obviously. She and I shared a brief connection as he finally finished his grieving," Lois stated calmly.

"Oh." The princess was silent for a long time, her feet unconsciously moving again and the two of them walking along again. Lois seemed content to let her work through it all, which she was grateful for. She had come here fully prepared to be told that her daughter's heart was about to be crushed. To be told that it was, in fact, entirely safe… "I suppose … that changes things."

"I should hope so."

Diana sat down on the grassy bank, running her hands through her hair. "He loves her!"

"Yep."

"And I've just spoken to him like some- some interloper who had no business interfering with my daughter's heart! Kal! He's been my best friend for the-gods-know-how-long, and I spoke to him like that! What must he think of me?"

Lois didn't answer, and when Diana looked, she was fading away, a regretful smile on her eternally-youthful features. Apparently, with Diana's question answered, Persephone was taking back the soul under her care. Lois waved once more, and then she was gone from Diana's sight. She was back in the temple, before an unseeing statue. Diana let out a long sigh, and then bowed once more. "My thanks, Lady."

When Tom got his sister's text message, he had the feeling it was definitely time to start thinking about which herbs and seasonings might be best with an Italian engine. Oregano maybe. It had been blunt: Mom knows. We need to talk NOW.

Shit. He hadn't meant for Mom to find out. And judging by how pissed off Alexa sounded even through emotionless text, she had probably found out in a very unexpected way. Not good.

Lexie came home to find her brother in a very persistent mood, and with a plan to placate her already in place. "Lexie, Mom, finding out was not in the plan, I swear."

"Not in the plan?" she snapped. "So you're telling me you didn't call her hoping she could do something about my relationship because it makes you uncomfortable?"

"No."

"Then please explain how this was not in the plan!"

"I'm sorry! I just meant to get her to talk to you, maybe-" he cut off. It still sounded bad.

"You thought I'd be emotionally manipulated into confessing everything to her? Great Hera, Thomas! I cannot believe you would-"

"I know, it's despicable. But it's also what I'm trying to make amends for now. I shouldn't have interfered, Alexa, and I'm sorry. It wasn't fair. You're my sister, and all I care about is that you're happy. Which is why I plan to move out."

She stopped. "You're what?"

"I'm moving out. It's- to give you—you two—some privacy. I mean, for a playboy of my status, living in a high-rise penthouse is more fitting than a dusty old mansion. And this way, you don't have to worry that you'll be snapped together. Until you're ready, anyway. It's…my way of apologising," he added awkwardly as his sister continued to stare.

"Apologising."

"Yes. Will you forgive me?"

The answer he got was for her to throw her arms around him in a hug that was decidedly painful—but obviously happy even if the words she whispered in his ear gave him a slight chill.

"If you ever try to interfere with my life again just know that the Ferrari is only going to be the first course."

A/N: I cannot take any credit for the last line or for its brilliance, that's all from Daisy! Review please! And yes, next chapter will be Bruce finding out!