Waiting
by Anonymous

Steve Trevor poured himself a cup of coffee, then paused and placed the cup back on the table. Somehow he didn't feel much like drinking. Slowly, he turned to face Diana. "Well, it would seem you have some explaining to do, Diana."

Diana shot Steve a nervous smile. "I always knew it might come to this. There are certain disadvantages to being who I am. I'm not sure where to begin..."

Steve's expression was unchanged. "Well, you can start by explaining what you are doing here". It had been twenty five years since he first met Diana Prince while on a mission for the IADC. Now in his sixties, his hair was thin and grey, and his face no longer quite the clean-cut square-jawed profile he used to sport—but his mind was just as quick.

"I'm helping your son. You know that. I'm right-hand in new the detective agency he's just started."

Steve was unimpressed. "That's not what I meant."

He paused for a moment, and glanced around the humble kitchen of his small retirement homestead out in the middle of nowhere. He was uncertain how to continue. Then finally, "after all this time. Now. Suddenly you turn up. And your looks, Diana?"

"Steve, I...." Diana paused and looked down at the floor. "It was for your own protection. I couldn't let you know. I'm sorry."

The two stood there, at opposite sides of the small compartment. Not knowing where to go next. Finally Steve broke the silence. "Does my son know?" he quizzed.

"No. And you must not tell him. Not only would it complicate things, but it would put his life in danger..."

There was another long and very awkward pause. Finally Diana looked up, directly into the brown eyes of her former boss and friend. "Steve, I wanted to tell you after I read of your retirement from the IADC... but I just never found the right time."

"But this?" he blasted, "You walk into my home with my son without a word of warning? Not even a phone call in advance to warn me?"

"Steve... I... I don't know what to say... I...."

Silence again.

"I wanted to tell you. But there never was a right time. I thought about telling you. Even when we worked together I considered..."

Diana paused again. "This is not the way I would have wanted it Steve..."

"Hell, woman, I almost had a heart attack!" Steve snapped.

Silence.

Then, slowly, a smile began to form. His hard eyes softened. Then finally a broad grin filled his face.

Diana sighed. "Oh thank Hera—for a moment there I thought you were really mad at me!"

Steve chuckled, and crossed the small floor to embrace Diana in a hug. "Mad at you, Princess? How could I be?"

As Diana wrapped her arms around his body, still just as strong even after all these years, she heard him whisper in her ear. "Hell, you always were a strange one, Diana Prince. I knew that from the moment I met you."

Diana smiled. After a few moments the two separated.

"So, you and Wonder Woman...?" he prompted.

Diana smiled. "Yes!" she said, relieved that the moment she had dreaded since agreeing to meet her new employer's father was now finally out of the way.

Steve sighed. "Well, well, well. It explains a few things, I suppose. Like why you always vanished whenever there was a fight."

Diana chuckled. "You noticed, huh?" she jested.

"Oooooh yeah. Even Joe noticed. We just figured you weren't up for the rough stuff. Leave that to the boys..."

Diana laughed. "If only Joe knew."

Steve joined her laughter. The two of them stood there, in the pokey little kitchen, enjoying the joke and the memories. As their laughter died down, Steve ventured a new thread, "You've... well, you've hardly changed a bit, Diana."

"Correction—I haven't changed at all. I'm an Amazon, Steve, I don't age." retorted Diana with a smile.

"Hmmm—if you could bottle that I know a few thousand rich widows who would gladly spend their entire inheritance on it."

Diana chuckled again. "It's not for sale Steve. It really is not for sale."

"I know" he whispered with a grin.

Suddenly their discussion was interrupted. From another room came a cry of "Dad, come on! What's keeping you?"

"Just a moment!" bellowed Steve. "I have to check out my only son's partner in crime, don't I?"

Diana smiled. "At first I thought he might realise who I was."

"I didn't tell him much," responded Steve. "He was never one for sitting by the fireside, letting his old man recount his tales of daring-do at the IADC."

"He's just as impatient as you," Diana joked.

"Me? Impatient? Where did you hear that? I want to know and I want to know right now!" joked Steve.

Diana flashed one of her trademark smiles. "He is a lot like you. And your father."

"You knew my father as well? How? Is this some kind of family curse?" Steve kidded.

"Yes, I knew your father. And as for how... well that's a long story. For another time, perhaps..."

"Yes, perhaps..." Steve said softly as he began to examine the beautiful woman in front of him, and tried to reconcile her image with the partner he thought he knew so well, over twenty years earlier at the IADC. "My son," he tested the waters, "are you and he... well, you know... close?"

A mild look of shock twitched across Diana's face, soon replaced with one of her trademark smiles. "Steve Trevor Jr.—just listen to yourself! Who do you think you are talking to? In the entire time I worked with you—side by side through some of the roughest cases you ever had—did I ever let you get, ahem, close...?"

Steve smiled. "No, no you didn't. Always the perfect lady. Not that I didn't want to... well..."

Diana laughed out loud. "Ohhhh boy. And I always thought you only had eyes for Wonder Woman!"

Steve looked a little embarrassed. "Hell no, well, I mean... erm... well."

Diana continued to laugh at his awkwardness.

"I... well... that costume was awfully low cut Diana. And those shorts..."

Diana laughed even louder. "Just like your father. Women's Lib was just something that happened to everyone else, huh, Steve?"

Steve looked a little offended.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." she calmed down. "Your father was a real gentleman, unlike the Nazi's that he fought. And you were always a real gentleman, too."

Steve let out a sigh of relief.

"But both of you always an eye for a beautiful lady," she joked.

Steve looked skywards. "Don't let my wife hear you say that. She'll be up there now looking down, studying this conversation for any signs that I had a fling with you!"

"Your wife was a lovely trusting woman, Steve. She knew you would never cheat on her. And you never did!"

"You know that, huh?"

"Oh, yes... we Amazons have a talent for finding the truth, don't you know" she smiled.

"Do the Amazons believe in heaven?"

Diana looked deep into his eyes. "Steve, she's up there now, waiting. And she'll still be there, ready to greet you, when the time is right."

"That the truth? Is she really waiting?"

"Oh yeah—would an Amazon tell you a lie?"

Steve turned and looked skywards out of the window. Outside was a perfect blue Summer sky. As he looked into the clouds, he turned over what Diana had just said in his mind.

"When I go there..." he tried.

"Yes?"

"When I go there... should I wait for you?"

There was a long pause.

"Steve... I am an Amazon. I cannot die by any natural means. My life will go on for as long as I am needed."

"But, you can die?"

"Sooner or later, I suppose, I will... yes."

"Then I will wait for you Diana... I will be there with my wife to greet you."

Diana moved over to him, placing herself against his back and slowly wrapped her arms around his waist. "I'd like that, Steve" she whispered. "I'd really like that..."

The two stood there for a moment, silhouetted against the bright light from the small window. And suddenly all the years apart didn't matter. The little white lies and the barriers which had prevented them from becoming close all that time ago seemed no longer to make any sense. And as she held him tight, Steve began to experience a new memory—something he had forgotten long ago. Of a princess, and an island, and a young and enthusiastic outsider who was desperately in need of some help. Steve had always wondered just HOW he had met Diana. One moment she wasn't there, the next she was an everyday part of his life. Now, for the first time, he remembered... He remembered it all.

There was a sharp rap on the door.

"Dad! Hey! What are you guys up to in there? I'm beginning to get suspicious!"

"Will you tell him or shall I?" Diana whispered into Steve's ear.

"He's a smart kid. Why don't we just go out there like nothing happened and see if he can figure it out for himself?" mused Steve.

Diana smiled. "It may take some time. Maybe years..."

"I'm not in any hurry..."

He gently released himself from her hold, and turned to face her. Reaching up, he put his hand against her soft cheek, and stroked it. She moved closer, and their lips met for a moment.

"I've waited a quarter of a century to do that" Steve said softly.

"Was it worth the wait?"

"I could have waited a thousand years and it would still have been worth it."

She turned towards the door. "We'd better make a move. It doesn't take this long to make three cups of coffee."

Diana plucked two more cups from the rack on the wall, and reached for the coffee jug.

"Will you look after him, like you looked after me?" Steve asked.

"That's the general idea" replied Diana.

"A shining white guardian angel, I guess."

"Oh no—a red gold and blue guardian angel, please!" she jokingly corrected.

Steve picked up the coffee cup he had placed on the table all that time ago, and took a sip.

"No milk? Since when did you start drinking your coffee neat?" Diana joked.

Steve didn't respond at first. He just starred into space... "I have so many questions to ask you Diana. About yourself. About your upbringing. About my father."

"Steve, we have plenty of time for all that..."

"We do?"

"Sure—I'm not going anywhere. I'll always be around, somewhere. For you. For your son. And your grandson. And your great grandson..." she smiled.

"Do you not get lonely, seeing the rest of the world grow old and die?"

"Yes. Yes, I do. Put it is a part of what I am. I am an Amazon, and I have to accept all that comes with that," she whispered. "I don't know if I will ever find rest..."

"Well I'll still be waiting for you Diana" he said softly, "If I have to wait twenty five or a thousand years, I will..." He turned to look deep into her eyes.

Diana smiled. "I'd like that."