15 NOVEMBER 1956 – WASHINGTON, DC

"I don't much like the look of that sky," the man observed as he got out of the taxi.

He held the door as his wife slid across the seat and extricated herself. As she unfolded long and shapely legs and eased out onto the street, he allowed himself a few moments of quiet admiration. He could be objective and recognize that, at 38 years of age, Selina Kyle Wayne was not, perhaps, the unimpeachable siren that she had been in her prime. Her past excesses as the Catwoman were behind her as she accepted the challenges of marriage and motherhood, and she was maybe a little thicker around the waist today, but – apart from special occasions like today – she'd never be your typical "lady who lunched", and a lazy smile from her would still shrink almost any woman whom she met into quivering and embarrassed girlhood.

Had he belled the cat, Bruce Wayne thought, or had she clipped the bat's wings? An old question that he would never answer.

"You're sure this is the place, Bruce?" Selina asked as her husband settled the cab fare. "I'd honestly thought that we'd be meeting Diana at the embassy."

"She was insistent on not doing that," he said. "She said very clearly that this was not a matter for Diana, Princess of Themyscira and ambassador. She was asking us as old friends whose advice she sought over something that she had never truly experienced."

"Well, now I am intrigued. Please lead on."

Bruce exchanged a few words with the maître d' as they entered, and he directed their attention to a table set for three at the rear right of the dining room. The change wasn't that drastic, but surprisingly effective against someone who knew only the glamour of the public face. Diana was wearing a simple dress in a subdued wine-red colour. Her long hair was drawn back into a tight bun on her head, with a stray ringlet falling to each side and her make-up limited enough to seem almost invisible. She wore black-framed spectacles – non-prescription, of course – with small oval lenses.

"That's quite a shift." Selina sounded complimentary. "The Amazon princess goes for the sexy librarian look. Except a librarian couldn't afford this place."

"And I thought that only Clark could make the glasses thing work." As they approached, Bruce raised a hand to draw Diana's attention. Just for a moment that million-watt princess' smile flashed across her face as she stood up.

"Thank you both so much for coming," Diana said as she hugged Bruce and exchanged air-kisses with Selina. "I feel so embarrassed coming to you for help like this."

Bruce shrugged. "Diana, we're your friends, we're very happy to help."

"Thank you. Please sit and let's order first. The food here is too good to dishonour by talking too much over it."

"Before you can see my quandary, I need to explain how it arose."

Diana took a long breath in through her nose, seeking to compose herself. "This all happened about three weeks ago. I and a small group from the embassy had travelled to Baltimore. We'd partnered with a local church to extend a community centre, allowing it to function also as a women's shelter, and there was a small ceremony to open the new facility. We've been active in encouraging steps like this and the city council was willing to speed the process along. Not everywhere is so helpful."

"That I well know," said Bruce.

"Gotham has the strength of the Wayne Foundation to push these actions, and we applaud them." Diana glanced for a moment out through the window; the rain was starting to beat on the glass. "As we were leaving, we heard the sirens of fire engines screaming past in the street. I made my excuses to the others and took to the air to follow the trucks."

"About two miles away there was a large building on fire. An old tenement block. From what I could see, it had been in poor condition even before this. A positive rat-trap. An accident waiting to happen – which it did; the fire department's analyst pinned it down to an exploding boiler in the building's basement."

"This was in the afternoon from what you're saying," Bruce observed. "But there were still people in the building?"

"Most of those living there were at work, thank Hera. I told the fire chief that I'd go through the part where the flames had worst hold while they set up their equipment. I'm not quite as resilient as Clark to fire, but I can handle it for a little while. There were some people on the lower floors – an old couple and a man of forty or so who was laid up with a badly broken leg in a cast – and I made an exit for them before I heard the squeal from upstairs. The woman I'd rescued said something about 'some funny stuff going on up there', but I have to admit that I didn't hang about to listen. I flew up the central stairwell, listening. Then I heard what was a very faint whimper from an apartment to my right, and I smashed the door open."

A faint shake of Diana's head sent the ringlets quivering. "Donna – I asked her name – was sitting on the living room carpet with the fire raging in the kitchen and bedroom. She was five years old; she looked well-tended to. No signs of physical injury that I could see; her clothing – a red T-shirt and blue shorts – looked fairly new. No adults were there, though. I'd have heard."

"The thing that stood out clearest to me at the time was her composure. She was afraid, yes – I could hear her heart racing, feel it pounding as I picked her up – but she didn't let it show in her face, I say to you. I've seen terror at close quarters. I know both of you have. You know what it looks like. Donna, even young as she was, knew that she was going to die and had decided that she was going to die with dignity."

"I took the quickest way out. I clutched Donna close and broke through the window before I could fly clear of the building. I left her with two policemen called to the scene and went back to make sure that Donna was the last. When I came back, she was actually smiling. One of the policemen – his name was Gardner, I remember seeing his badge – was making shadow pictures against a wall and Donna was laughing at them.

Diana fell silent – perhaps a little too long; Selina reached out a hand to place it on the back of the princess' own hand as it rested on the table. "We cannot remember all of the people whose lives we touch; that is one of the abiding sadnesses of the lives which we lead. But I could not cast Donna from my mind. She was taken into temporary care, of course, but I asked the child welfare department in Baltimore to keep us apprised."

"In the next few weeks, my thoughts kept coming back to Donna. She was barely old enough to have her own sense of identity but she saw death coming and stared it down like – like an Amazon would. I could not let courage such as that go unrecognized."

"Perhaps I was being foolhardy. Some of my staff thought so – Penelope certainly did, and told me very firmly why. It's our way, we're too small and too separate. If one of us seems to be blinded by misjudgment, the rest may be threatened; they have a duty to set her straight." Diana glanced up, and a flash of the princess' hauteur shone through, just for a moment. "When the Baltimore office told us that they could not trace any of Donna's family, I knew what I had to do. I requested permission to begin the process of adopting her."

Selina whistled softly. "Wow. There's a plot twist I hadn't expected."

"Bruce, you, more than anyone, must understand. You've told me in the past how Dick Grayson came into your life."

Bruce nodded. "I can hardly deny the similarities. But it wasn't an easy process. I was fairly young, and a single man. The Wayne name – and the Wayne money – mean a lot in Gotham, but I was still examined inside and out in terms of probity. You'd have to expect something similar."

"Like it or not, honey, this kind of thing goes easier for women. That's just the way things are." Selina smiled. "And even with your – issues, let's say – Dick turned out just fine."

"Dick was older, and his circumstances were different. And I had Alfred to help me. Gotham's excuse for foster services would have killed Dick – or he'd have killed someone else, lashing out."

"Diana has fame and recognition of her own, and the resources of a state behind her. And it may have been a long time ago, but I remember what can happen when these kids don't get the breaks." Selina looked enquiringly at Diana. "Have you talked to Steve about this, Di?"

"Yes, and he supports the idea. But I think some of that is simply because he thinks that this will make me happy."

"Trevor's an idiot. The two of you should have made it official years ago."

"Political considerations, Selina. Steve holds a high rank in your Air Force. To your government, I am the ambassador of a foreign power. You could see us both as being open to compromise – or worse – even as things are. And I will not hamper his career any more than that."

Bruce leaned forward, "Diana, I don't want to seem insensitive here, but have you really thought if this would be best for the girl, or for you? That she'd be in some way the daughter that you and Steve can't have? Because of politics."

"I am not a fool, Bruce. I have sat several nights now in prayer, in the hope that Artemis and Aphrodite would lend me their wisdom. At this time, they have held their silence."

Diana clasped her hands on the table before her. Her knuckles were blanched from the tension. "And so I seek the counsel of dear friends – people who have lived the kind of lives that we do and have raised families through it. Dick is a credit to you, Bruce; you held his spirit out of the abyss. Young Helena and Thomas are delights; their confidence and ambition shine like beacons. All of you give me hope that I may honour and inspire a child in the same way."

"A girl, yes." There was a slight smirk on Selina's lips. "Not sure how you'd handle raising a boy."

Bruce shrugged. Even with women like Diana, whom Selina liked and admired, his wife insisted on the last little jab. "If you really feel that you need our blessing, Diana, then go ahead and make the arrangements. With you behind her as a mother, I have no doubt that Donna will turn out to be a wonder girl."