The Superman & Wonder Woman Fan Archive

CHAPTER TWO

'You requested to have time off for Christmas even though you knew it wasn't convenient or that you don’t even celebrate it,' he said, his eyes glittering angrily.

“You even persuaded the League into letting you leave for Themyscira in the middle of our annual retreat, stating that your sister, Donna, needed you. And then,' he breathed deeply, 'after only one night away instead of the week you had insisted upon, you arrived back here to give me this!' He slapped the letter angrily against the palm of his other hand.

'Let's just get the facts straight, shall we?' She straightened, her gaze unflinching—one thing: he had never managed to intimidate her, as he sometimes, unintentionally did to the other Leaguers. With the exception of perhaps, the Batman, which no one and nothing seemed to faze. And Superman wasn't about to start intimidating her now!

'It never seems to be convenient with you if I take a holiday, let alone want to spend a few days with my family. I do want a few days off, and I deserve it. And even though I know that you and Bruce feel that because we are the three strongest members of the team, we need to be always on call, I feel that I need time off to just renew myself.” Her voice softened, ‘Please, Kal, try and understand. I need to be alone, to introspect, to be with myself, to renew and to regenerate. And I can only do that on Themyscira. I need this time away from everyone.’

Superman’s jaw was clenched tightly at her words. 'I don't think—'

'All right, then, maybe it's just my wanting a holiday with my family that you find so difficult to accept,' she snapped irritably.

'You took your holiday, two days early, no matter what my feelings were,' he scowled. 'So what's the problem?'

'I haven't got to that yet,' she grated, eyes narrowed angrily. 'Secondly,' she said pointedly, 'I did not persuade you or the League into letting me take off during the annual retreat, you offered. Thirdly,' she continued determinedly as he would have in­terrupted, 'I went to Themyscira so suddenly not because of a trivial whim, which is what you seem to be implying, but because of an emergency!’

'An emergency that is obviously over now, or you wouldn't be back here,' said Superman impatiently. 'So I still don't see what the problem is.'

Oh, yes, the emergency was definitely over now. Diana smiled to herself as she thought of the ecstatic telephone call she had received from her friend Io, late the previous evening telling her of the success of the new parliament that Diana had helped to set up on the island. It could so easily have worked out unhappily for all concerned.

Donna, her sister, had been there too, and the sisters had spent time catching up on each other’s lives. Donna had found love with Terry Long and was planning her wedding.  But the joy Donna and Terry had un­doubtedly found in each other had only strengthened her own resolve where Superman was concerned, which was why she had come into the office at all today.

'Fourthly,' she told him firmly, 'I gave you that—' she indicated the letter he crushed so savagely in his hand '—because I no longer want to continue as a JLA member.'

He drew in a harsh breath. 'Just like that?' He was outraged.

No, not just like that. She no more wanted to leave than he seemed to want her to go. But their reasons for that were completely dif­ferent. She because just being close to him had to be better than nothing; he because, as they both knew, he didn't want to lose the best combat partner he had ever had.

But, after years of believing that being close to him was better than nothing, Diana knew that was no longer true. She loved him, would always love him, but she was wiser now than she had been when she had first left the island. If she wanted to make any sort of life for herself she knew she would have to make the break now. Had known it, and had difficulty accepting it, for some time.

She shrugged noncommittally, continuing to look around the conference room, the scene of so many battle plans and strategies. She would miss it.

‘I think it's time for a change, and I will be available to the League as a reserve member, just not a full time one. I need to do-

'To do what?' he interrupted, crushing even more the letter of resignation that had been the start of his fury.

'Maybe I'll focus on my efforts as my nation’s ambassador to this world, build up the centers that we’ve opened for the women, work more closely with human rights activists,' she shrugged after a moment's thought. She smiled mischievously, and continued in a lighter vein, ‘Maybe even take up modeling, everyone seems to believe I have the face and figure for it.'

'Modeling? You would be bored out of your mind within a week!' Superman dismissed quickly, making no comment about what 'everyone believed' concerning her looks and conveniently ignoring the other more noble tasks that she had set for herself.

'As long as that?' she returned consider­ingly, her head tilted to one side, her hair black and silkily curling to her shoulders, 'Maybe I should give an agency a ring.'

'Diana—'

'Yes, Kal?' she prompted smoothly, knowing that her own coolness in the face of his agitation was adding to his frustration with a situation that seemed out of his control; Superman liked to be in control at all times. Indeed, with his awesome powers, he needed to be in control at all times. He was like Bruce that way, Bruce hated to relinquish control and Kal needed to be in control.

Just now, Kal was glowering at her. 'If there's some sort of problem between us, couldn't you at least have come to me and talked about it instead of just leaving this on my desk for me to find when I went through my mail? 'Once again he slapped the crumpled paper against the palm of his hand.

'But there is no problem,' she told him dismissively. 'And where else would you have liked me to leave my letter of resignation? It wouldn't have done a lot of good sitting on my desk, now, would it?' she chided reasoningly.

His eyes narrowed warningly at her con­tinued flippancy. 'I would rather you hadn't left the damned thing anywhere.’

'But then you wouldn't have known I was leaving,' she pointed out practically, picking up the some artifacts from Egypt that she had been studying, in the hopes of giving the Bana-Mighdall some historical facts about themselves, and looking around for a box to pack them up in.

'Will you stop being so damned un­caring?' Superman exploded once again.

This show of temper was unusual in itself, Superman was known to be cool and calm in the toughest of situations. To Diana, these occasional lapses of temper just showed he was human after all!

'Oh, lighten up, Kal,' she advised him impatiently. '"It's Christmas Eve, and all's right with the world,"' she quoted drily.

'Not my world,' he rasped. 'God, Diana, no one gives immediate notice! At the very least, I thought that you would have at least had talked to me about it.’

She was aware of that; she also knew that her having written a letter, of giving immediate notice, of her insistence on leaving the League was because she had hoped to avoid actually meeting Kal face to face. She had really wanted to be gone by the time he was back from his own Christmas holiday with the Kents and Lois.  Deep down she knew that Kal would have been hurt by her refusal to meet him and discuss her reasons for leaving with him. How could she ever tell him that she loved him? Never to hear him say that he loved her back?

So she had made her decision to make the break and, having done so, she didn't want to be anywhere near Superman, where her resolve could so easily be weakened, until she felt strong enough to cope with seeing him again. Maybe in a hundred years or so!

'When we signed on to the League, we signed a pledge and a contract, Diana,' he reminded her now. 'It states that there should be three months' notice on either side. If you go ahead with leaving immediately, it would be a breach of that contract. I don’t think I want to take the next step, of telling J’onn, Wally, Dinah, Bruce, Ray and all the others that you bailed out, you know that will get them to cut you off.’

She winced, knowing that if he got angry enough he was as likely to do just that. 'At Christmas?' She shook her head disgustedly. 'I always wondered what symbol "S" stood for on your chest, and now I think I know: Scrooge could have taken lessons from you!'

Red colour stained his cheeks. 'I've always been fair with you—'

'Of course you have,' she cut in scornfully. 'And so have the others in the League. That's why I've never taken a break, never had holidays for the last eight years! Always on call, always on duty.’

His mouth tightened. 'You’ve never objected.'

'And its taken its toll on me, Kal' she snapped scathingly. 'Oh, I'll admit I never complained, and I always did what was expected of me, but I was trained as a warrior and warriors don’t complain.  And then, it didn’t really matter because we don’t have a tradition of celebrating Christmas or any other major festival, except for the Night of the Hunter’s Moon. And even that I’ve missed on more than one occasion. This year, its different. Hippolyta has adopted the festival of Christmas and has declared that Themyscira celebrate it to coincide with the new parliament that’s been set up. I can use the time to focus on Themysciran issues and help out on the island.   And I do need the rest. At the rate I'm going I'll be too exhausted to do anything very soon and will just collapse. I don’t want to be too tired to live a life of love and fulfillment.’

'Like me, you mean?' He met her gaze challengingly, his eyes as hard as sapphires.

'Not at all,' she returned coolly. 'You'll never be burnt out; you thrive on this sort of life.'

How is that he never really needed a woman? Superman had far more women hinting at their availability than any man could dream of, yet in actual fact, she knew that he had no one to share his life with. Yes, he was dating Lois, but it was Diana who was privy to his inner most thoughts, had seen both sides of the man – the Superman he was and the more human man he claimed to be. It was Diana who had protected him in battle and comforted him after. Yet, he seemed oblivious to it all – almost as if she was just another part of the furniture.

Perhaps, if he actually seemed to go out and enjoy himself, every now and then, Diana could accept the way he was, but, apart from his job at the Daily Planet, he spent very little time on himself; not for him the playboy lifestyle his powers could have afforded.

Not that Diana relished the idea of his be­having in that cavalier fashion, but the way he forged forward, giving more and more of himself to people, forgetting about others who cared about him, putting the needy first, seemed to her to stem more from a com­pulsion than from any real enjoyment in the act.

His mouth firmed as he continued the conversation. 'But apparently it no longer appeals to you?'

'No,' she confirmed flatly.

He looked for a moment as if he would like nothing more than to be alone with her in the training room, maybe indulge in some hard physical sparring, al­though as usual he managed to keep himself under control.

'Even so,' he bit out, 'you must see that you have to honor the three months' notice in the contract you signed when you joined on to the JLA. It’s only fair'

Her brows quirked. 'The same way that my own share of the contract has been honoured? The weeks' holidays I was supposed to have had each year, stated in that very same contract? Which every member of the League has taken, except for me?' she reminded him without malice. 'I'll tell you what, Kal, you forget about the three months' notice you say I owe the League, and I'll forget all those weeks' holiday that the League owes me. And you'll still come out very much a winner!'

His expression was grim as he looked down into her calm but determined face. 'I'm be­ginning to realize we made a mistake in giving you a duty roster that made you work so hard all these years,' he said slowly. 'You're obviously very much in need of a holiday; you seem to be suffering from a form of nervous exhaustion.'

'Because I handed in my resignation?' She smiled, her expression sad. 'You really don't know me very well at all, do you, Superman?' she added with sad stoicism.

'Of course I know you, Diana,' he rasped. 'I've spent almost every waking moment with you for the last few years!'

More than a lot of married couples, in fact, and yet Diana knew she was still far from knowing the real man that was Superman. Oh, she knew the basic things, such as his liking to be on her right side for battle, the way he scanned the environment first before he allowed her to enter the scene, the way he tucked his cape into his shoulders, that he preferred to drink milk instead of black coffee for breakfast, the fact that he liked to read The Daily Planet no matter what part of the world they happened to be in at the time. She was very familiar with all of his likes and dislikes in food, knew that he hated the farce of violence on the television, that he preferred to sleep rather than go to the opera; and she also knew that alcohol was something he rarely indulged in. On a day-to-day basis she probably knew as much, if not more, than the average wife who'd known her husband the same number of years. And yet Superman's real emotions he kept very low-key, and his life was a closed book.

Superman knew about her in just as much detail, but he was no more privileged with the in­formation than any of the others, he knew she was a Princess, the heir to the throne of Themyscira, that she had a sister called Donna, with a whole family of Amazon sisters on the island of Themyscira; and he also knew about her life before the two of them had met. As for her emotions towards him, he didn't seem to want to know about them!

'So you have,' she accepted lightly. 'Then you should know me well enough by now to realize that I haven't resigned lightly, without giving the whole thing serious thought.'

'Of course I realize that,' he grated tautly. 'Which is why I think it would be a good idea if you took the next week off, after all—two weeks, if you would prefer,' he amended hastily at her derisive expression. 'Take the time to rest yourself, to rethink your decision.'

'Two whole weeks, Kal?' Diana taunted. 'Are you sure you can spare them?'

'It has to be better than having you leave for good,' he rasped irritably.

Once again she smiled. 'Two weeks wouldn't be long enough.' She shook her head.

'Then take three weeks, a month. Think about it, Diana,' he scowled. 'Talk to me about this decision!'

Now he wanted to talk to her. Although she didn't delude herself into thinking he wanted to talk about anything other than persuading her into continuing to work for the JLA.

'My letter of resignation says it all, Kal,' She shrugged dismissively, looking around to see if there was anything she had forgotten, before moving across the room to the window-ledge where she had slowly nurtured Themysciran plants over the years into healthy adult plants; to leave them behind now would be like leaving part of herself behind. And she intended no part of her to remain here once she had physically left.

Superman followed her, and although Diana didn't acknowledge his presence next to her as she filled a box with the plants, she could feel his nervous energy.

'You say you want to move on to something different,' he quoted impatiently. 'But why? You know you love this job!'

The statement had nothing to do with egotism; she had never made any secret of her enjoyment of the work she did for the JLA and the closeness of working with Kal, which she had loved from the very first moment, and she would only be fooling herself if she didn't admit she was going to miss the constant excitement the work involved. But her ragged and bruised emotions knew best, re­alized when it was time to admit defeat in the face of indifference, and move on. Which was exactly what she intended doing.  Besides—and this was something Superman would never understand—it had never been just a job to her; it had been the only sort of part­nership she could ever have with him.

'So I'll learn to love a new job,' she told him with confident bravado, looking out of the window at the greying sky. 'It looks full of snow,' she murmured to herself.

'You were born a Princess, you won the right to be Wonder Woman,' Superman said frustratedly in the face of her ob­viously wandering attention. 'Why would you want to give it up now?' His eyes were nar­rowed to sapphire slits.

She laughed softly at the question. 'I’m not giving up being Wonder Woman,  Kal. But my name is Diana, and I need to take the time to find myself again.’

'So take the time off, but come back,' he snapped. 'Just think about it, what will the League do without you?’

'Thanks, but no, thanks,' she refused without the slightest hesitation, glancing up at the sky again; if only it didn't look that awful white-grey color that often preceded snow! 'Just hold off another five or six hours,' she requested of it pleadingly, turning with the box in her arms to knock Superman full in the chest where he stood so close to her.

'Sorry,' she grimaced, stepping aside to make sure she missed him this time.

'But think about it, what do I tell the others? Diana—'

'I don’t know, Kal. Tell them the truth. Tell them that I needed some time off,’ she said without turning. 'I know that they will understand. As I have, each time you or anyone else has needed to take a break.’

'Then—'

'I don’t really want to talk about it any more, just now,' she stated firmly, glancing worriedly at her watch; the day was quickly moving on, and she still had a lot to do.

'Am I keeping you?' Superman demanded ir­ritably as he saw that glance.

Diana looked up at him, answering him calmly, 'As a matter of fact, yes.'