I Can't Tell You Why

Chapter One

It was about 7:30 in the morning, and the shifts had changed about half an hour ago, leaving Diana in the hall by herself. She walked to the conference room deep in thought and didn't notice someone fall into stride right next to her.

"Diana." She whipped her head around and was face to face with none other than Batman himself. She smirked and said "Hello, Bruce. Or is it Batman now?" A smile played on the edge of his lips, not sure if he wanted it to show or not. "Batman, at least while the mask is on. Is everything okay?" he asked, looking straight ahead again and continued walking. She caught up with him and said "Yeah, everything's fine. Why?" "I can tell when you have a lot on your mind. Like now." he said, showing no emotion whatsoever. She looked forward, confident in her ability to hide what she was truly feeling. He could tell that she had put her shields up and she wasn't going to tell him anything.

They walked the rest of the way to the conference room in a strange silence neither of them wanted to disturb. To them, the silence was the calm before the storm. It was the warmth of another person beside them. Constantly learning and adapting when something went horribly wrong or absolutely right. Becoming closer than husband and wife. Dealing with anything and everything this world or any other could throw at them.

It was the comfort no one else could give.

Upon arriving, she sat down and looked over some of the paper work she would have to complete. He was pulled away by Superman and The Flash. No matter how short or long the meeting was, it was a tedious matter, assigning the new heroes to shifts and schedules and training them to listen to others. Most of then were renegades that came from other planets and few were from Earth. Those from Earth were victims of lab accidents or simply born with their powers. A few didn't have superpowers; they were technicians working on fixing and improving the watchtower. They helped file out reports and tend to the sick and the wounded. The tower would literally not be able to run without them. She scanned the faces of all the new heroes they had picked up in the last two weeks. Some looked promising, others...not so much. She sighed and continued the paperwork.

When the meeting was done, Diana stayed to finish the paperwork. She looked around at the remaining superheros and when she didn't see Bruce, she thought Probably went back to the Bat cave to brood. She smiled to herself and stood up, collecting her things and preparing to leave.

As she was walking through the hall, she felt a hand on her arm. When she turned around, she was met with a face that she has seen only a moment ago. He was one of the new recruits. Matter Man. she thought, putting on her fake smile. He smiled back and said "Hey, Wonder Woman. How's it going?" "Its okay. Did you have a question about your assignment schedule?" she asked, trying to be polite. "Uh, no. I was wondering if you would want to go get some coffee with me?" "Oh, um....." she stammered, trying to come up with a polite way to let him down.

"Sorry, but Wonder Woman has other matters to attend to." She felt a hand on her back and out of the corner of her eye she saw Batman. His hand slid down to the small of her back as he guided her away from Matter Man. She turned back and mouthed "Sorry."

As they rounded the corner and were out of sight of everyone else, she spun around to face him. His hands rested at her waist, making no move to pull them away. "Thank you for the impromptu rescue." she said, flashing one of her real smiles, just for him to see. He huffed in response. "I'm sorry. I have to get going." She floated a couple inches off the ground so she was eye level with him. Lightly pressing her lips to his, she didn't want to pull away. When she did, his face hadn't changed at all; same dark expression, same scowl, same everything.

She felt tears well up and backed away from him. His hands fell from her waist and down to his sides. Either he was stunned or he was not-so-politely rejecting her. She turned around and flew away from him towards her room.

When she got there, she locked the door behind her and changed into yoga pants and a sweatshirt. She then laid down onto her bed and stared at the wall. She didn't know if she felt relieved that she wouldn't be distracted with thought of Bruce, sad that he rejected her, or any other emotion. If felt like she had just gone through an emotional blender and couldn't pull the original emotions away from one another.

After about an hour of laying there, she got up and walked to the cafeteria and grabbed breakfast. She wasn't expecting Bruce to be there, and thankfully he wasn't. He doesn't like staying at the watchtower for longer than he has to. She walked back to her room, somehow avoiding everyone on board. Even the Martain Manhunter, J'ohn J'ones. He usually found out about anything that happened at the watchtower right after it went down.

She all but ran into her room and locked the door, grabbing the remote to the TV and flipping through the channels until she found something she liked. Just as she settled down, the phone rang. She grabbed it to see the caller ID.

Superman.

She muted the TV and let it ring a couple more times then answered with her best sick voice. "Diana, are you okay? You seemed fine at the meeting earlier." "Yeah," she lied through her teeth. "I got back to my room and wasn't feeling too well. I laid down and fell asleep. I meant to call J'ohn and tell him I was sick. Can you tell him?" She tried not to break down crying. "Yeah, I'll go do that right now. Just focus on getting better, okay?" he responded. She felt a tear slip down her cheek and said "Thanks so much. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye."

She hung the phone up and buried her face in her pillow, letting all the built up tears come out, not even trying to stop them. There was a knock on her door. It was sharp, precise. She stopped for a second, letting whoever it was go away. Another knock came, same as the first one. Two more identical knocks came and she still didn't move; she didn't even dare breath. "Diana?" Knock. "Diana? I know you're in there. Please come out." She still didn't move. She heard him sigh and say "I know you won't come out. I just wanted to tell you that.... I don't like you in that way. I'm sorry. I hope we can still be friends." She heard his footsteps fade away and stared at the door.

She lost it. She absolutely lost it. She grabbed a pillow and screamed into it. Then she unmuted the TV and screamed her heart out. She screamed until her voice gave out; then she cried. She cried until her eyes were red and puffy and she couldn't breath right. She dragged herself to the bathroom and looked into the mirror. She had done a complete 180 from the morning only a couple hours ago. Her black hair was a mess, her blue eyes were now cloudy and red, her usually straight and confident posture was now bent and shaky.

How could one man do this to her? Her mother taught her that she didn't need a man to be happy. What would her mother think of her now? What happened to the Diana she knew?