Fic: Stained Glass I: Shattered (10/10)
Title: Stained Glass I: Shattered (10/10)
Author: BradyGirl_12
Pairings/Characters (this chapter): Steve/Diana, Clark/Bruce, Hal Jordan, J’onn J’onzz, Dinah Lance
Genres: Angst, Drama, Hurt/Comfort
Rating (this chapter): PG-13
Warnings: (this chapter): None
Spoilers: References in various chapters to events in "Until The Yellow Sun Blesses You Again...".
General Summary: Diana and Steve’s love has always been strong, and they have always had each other’s back. Now they need that strength and teamwork when they are captured during a war on an alien planet.
Summary: Diana waits for Steve to return to her.
Date Of Completion: January 27, 2008
Date Of Posting: February 9, 2008
Disclaimer: I don’t own ‘em, DC does, more’s the pity.
Word Count: 1850
Feedback welcome and appreciated.
Author’s Notes: Further Notes here.
All chapters can be found here.
I decided to use the aliens from "Until The Yellow Sun Blesses You Again...". Why waste good bad guys and their vicious winged pets? ;)
Yeah, I labelled this "One" as in first-in-a-series, because I think a sequel might be in order. If I don’t write one, I’ll just knock off the Roman numeral.
In an aside, I’m glad that we were taught Roman numerals in grade school, otherwise how could we know which Super Bowl it is? ;)
X
SUN’S WARMTH
Comes the sun,
Warm and gold,
Chasing away
The empty cold.
Here is peace
No pain,
No sorrow.
Should I stay
Or face
Tomorrow?
Emily Adams Cutler
“Yellow Roses And Other Poems”
1859 C.E.
“I’m sorry it took so long, Diana. The signal was so faint that it was difficult to trace…”
Diana touched Clark’s hand. “It’s all right, Clark. The important thing is that you found us.”
He nodded. They were sitting in the small waiting room in the Watchtower. J’onn was operating on Steve. Usually Diana assisted but she was far too close to this situation. Dinah was helping this time.
Bruce was sitting on the other side of Diana, silent but close. Suddenly he spoke.
“You should get checked out, you know. That drug…”
Diana shook her head. “Not until after the operation.”
Bruce fell silent again in understanding.
Clark gripped her hand and asked, “Did the Toronians really think they could get away with kidnapping the two of you?”
“It worked for the first few battles,” Diana said with a sigh. She looped and un-looped her golden lasso. “Thank you for getting this back for me, Clark.”
He nodded. “I think that the Bat scared them into realizing they’d done a bad thing.” He smiled as Diana laughed a little, Bruce’s mouth quirking under his cowl.
Clark squeezed her hand. “Please eat something, Princess.”
She shook her head.
“You should at least drink something.”
“Ginger ale would help settle my stomach.”
Clark nodded and left to get the drink.
Diana sat with Bruce, glad of his silence. Her whole being was focused on the operating room and J’onn and Dinah’s medical skills. She thought of how much blood Steve had lost, how much pain he had suffered and would continue to suffer if he survived this surgery…
Bruce’s hand slid over hers and she calmed.
His lover returned with the drink and she sipped gratefully, her mouth dry. She prayed silently to the Goddesses, trying to achieve a measure of serenity.
She had left her Warrior self behind on the accursed planet and now desperately needed to be calm.
Beloved, stay with me. I will always love you. You are my heart, my soul.
Hal suddenly appeared, going straight to her.
“How is he?”
Clark gave the details and Hal paled. He took off his mask and knelt before Diana. “He’s strong, Princess. I trained with him and he was one of the best pilots in the bunch. He’s a survivor, as you learned when he crashed off the Island.”
Diana nodded. Hal patted her hand and sat next to Clark.
Time slipped away, then suddenly the doors to the medical center opened and J’onn and Dinah walked out.
Diana stood, heart pounding, gripping both Bruce and Clark’s hands, Hal’s hand on her shoulder.
“He survived.”
Relief cascaded through her.
“He lost a lot of blood, Princess. He’s very weak.” J’onn’s voice was sympathetic. “He’s still not ‘out-of-the-woods’, as they say.” Diana nodded. She squeezed her friends’ hands and J’onn continued, “That head injury has complicated things. We’ll have to keep a close watch on him.”
“Thank you, J’onn.” She followed Dinah into the medical center.
Steve lay, attached to machines, and his Medal winked in the starlight from outside the Watchtower windows.
Diana reached out a trembling hand and touched sun-bright hair.
& & & & & &
Diana remained at her Beloved’s side, the hours turning to days, falling into a routine. She was on a leave of absence from active duty with the JLA but remained here at the Tower, speaking softly as she held Steve’s hand.
The damage had been extensive but J’onn’s considerable skills had repaired it, and now it was up to Steve to come back from a deep twilight of the soul.
The knowledge that he might never want to come back to the pain that awaited him was unspoken.
When she did take a break to stretch her legs, she wandered down the hall, sometimes with a coffee cup in hand, pausing outside the meeting room while the routine business of the League was conducted, her ears always attuned to the Intensive Care area. A cot had been brought into Steve’s room because she refused to leave him to sleep anywhere else.
It reminded her of the first days that she had known him, waiting and praying that he would wake up, the sun-blond Warrior from the sky who had fallen to earth and into her life. She had been enthralled with his beauty, feeling irresistibly drawn to him while she waited for him to awaken.
And when he did, his look of adoration and love as he spoke the word, “Angel” had won her heart.
Her fingers curled around the cup tightly. She had not seen the attack itself but she could guess how it had unfurled. The evidence on his body had been quite explicit, and she had no doubt that his mind had been bruised and bloodied as well.
If only she could have saved him…!
Her breath ended in a half-sob and she turned away from the meeting room to head back to the medical center.
& & & & & &
Steve walked along the beach, watching the sparkling waves and tilting his face up to the sun. He felt strong and healthy, clad in white and wearing golden Amazon bracelets. He touched the Medal of Athena at his throat and felt at peace.
He swam and drifted, but through his serenity, he felt an unease skittering along the edges of his mind.
“Beloved.”
He heard the warm, loving voice one moment, the wind the next. He heard the voice more than once.
I should go back.
If you go back, you will know pain. And not just pain of the body.
He drifted on the sea, just like the day his plane had crashed off Paradise Island.
And his Angel rescued him.
She can’t love a man who allowed himself to be hurt that way.
She can. She does.
Here you can be at peace.
Steve closed his eyes.
& & & & & &
Dinah entered the room quietly. “Diana?”
Diana looked up. Weariness etched her beautiful features. “Yes, Dinah?”
“Bruce, Hal, and Ollie are ready to give blood again.”
Diana nodded. “Thank them for me, will you? It was very generous to give Steve their blood for the operation and to give again in case he needs it.”
“Well, they match, and we should stock up on that type.” Dinah did not say that they had gone through quite a bit of Steve’s blood type during the operation.
Diana looked sad as she rested her hand on Steve’s arm.
“Please come with me to the cafeteria.”
“I can’t…”
“You need to eat something. Please. Hal is coming to sit with Steve.”
Diana reluctantly left Steve’s side, but she was feeling weak and needed food.
The cafeteria was empty for which Diana was grateful. She didn’t want to answer a bunch of questions right now.
They took their trays of food over to their favorite corner table and Dinah said, “Your mother left a message. She’s praying for Steve’s recovery.”
“That’s good, since she disapproves of him so strongly.”
Dinah appeared shocked at the bitter tone but said, “I think whether or not she approves, she doesn’t want to see him hurt.”
Diana sighed. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“I understand.”
Diana pushed her food around her plate. “He’s been at my side since I met him. He takes…what’s the word…’flack’ for it. The men of your world can’t understand why he would feel comfortable around a woman far superior to him in strength, but he trusts me.” She laughed a little. “He said that when he was falling out of the sky or off a building, he really didn’t care if the person saving him was male or female.” Her smile faded as she set her fork down blinking back tears. “He was hurt very badly, Dinah.”
Dinah put a hand on her arm. “I know.” Diana looked up. Of course Dinah knew the truth. She had been the nurse during the operation. “He’s strong, Diana.” She smiled affectionately. “Even with that pretty face, he’s got steel underneath.”
Diana wiped her eyes and laughed. “I suppose that makes me shallow, loving a man with such beautiful looks?”
“Makes you human, I suspect.” Dinah grinned. “It’s the blond hair, you know.”
“What?”
“The blond hair.” Dinah’s eyes sparkled. “Our blond boys do all right for themselves in the pretty department.” She squeezed Diana’s hand and winked. “Never hurts to appreciate beauty.”
Diana looked at her old friend and Dinah gathered her into a hug.
& & & & & &
The women returned to the medical center and Hal was saying, “Now, Stevie, remember that time we had to bail out over the desert? What a piece of junk that test plane was! Pretty on the outside but nothing on the inside.” His voice grew quiet. “Good description of you, except that you have a lot on the inside.” His hand rested lightly on his friend’s hand and he didn’t remove it when Diana entered. He stood up when she came to the bedside and hugged her.
“Stay,” she whispered, and he nodded.
Dinah checked Steve’s vitals, then left to give them privacy.
Hal brought over another chair and sat next to Diana. They sat in a silence that wasn’t uncomfortable.
Diana understood the past that Steve and Hal shared. She had enjoyed her share of lovers before leaving the Island, and considering her own same-sex experiences, there was no shock at Steve’s first lover. Hal Jordan was a good man and a genuine hero. He was worthy of her Beloved.
“He wants to do the right thing by you.” She looked at Hal quizzically. “He doesn’t want to insult you even inadvertently. He’s sensitive to what men must seem like to you sometimes in this world, considering your Amazon history.”
“He doesn’t insult me.” She took Hal’s hand and squeezed it. “Or disappoint me.”
They kept their vigil, and Hal spoke lightly of good times during training and their hard work in becoming the best test and fighter pilots in the U.S. Air Force.
Diana listened and watched as the sun’s rays brought in golden light…
& & & & & &
Steve drifted on the sea, enjoying serenity, and then he heard a new voice.
“Stevie, we’re waiting for you to come back.”
A warm voice, and one he knew well.
He closed his eyes and kept drifting, the sun warm on his face.
He was calm, but felt lonely.
He wasn’t ready for this place.
“Please, Beloved, come back to us.”
Not yet.
He touched his Medal and the sun grew even brighter…
& & & & & &
Steve opened his eyes.
A gasp of breath, two anxious faces coming into view…
“Not ready…to leave…yet…”
Diana gently kissed him and Hal squeezed his hand as the Watchtower welcomed Earth’s sunlight to begin a new day.
this counter installed 11/19/09
Author: BradyGirl_12
Pairings/Characters (this chapter): Steve/Diana, Clark/Bruce, Hal Jordan, J’onn J’onzz, Dinah Lance
Genres: Angst, Drama, Hurt/Comfort
Rating (this chapter): PG-13
Warnings: (this chapter): None
Spoilers: References in various chapters to events in "Until The Yellow Sun Blesses You Again...".
General Summary: Diana and Steve’s love has always been strong, and they have always had each other’s back. Now they need that strength and teamwork when they are captured during a war on an alien planet.
Summary: Diana waits for Steve to return to her.
Date Of Completion: January 27, 2008
Date Of Posting: February 9, 2008
Disclaimer: I don’t own ‘em, DC does, more’s the pity.
Word Count: 1850
Feedback welcome and appreciated.
Author’s Notes: Further Notes here.
All chapters can be found here.
I decided to use the aliens from "Until The Yellow Sun Blesses You Again...". Why waste good bad guys and their vicious winged pets? ;)
Yeah, I labelled this "One" as in first-in-a-series, because I think a sequel might be in order. If I don’t write one, I’ll just knock off the Roman numeral.
In an aside, I’m glad that we were taught Roman numerals in grade school, otherwise how could we know which Super Bowl it is? ;)
X
SUN’S WARMTH
Comes the sun,
Warm and gold,
Chasing away
The empty cold.
Here is peace
No pain,
No sorrow.
Should I stay
Or face
Tomorrow?
Emily Adams Cutler
“Yellow Roses And Other Poems”
1859 C.E.
“I’m sorry it took so long, Diana. The signal was so faint that it was difficult to trace…”
Diana touched Clark’s hand. “It’s all right, Clark. The important thing is that you found us.”
He nodded. They were sitting in the small waiting room in the Watchtower. J’onn was operating on Steve. Usually Diana assisted but she was far too close to this situation. Dinah was helping this time.
Bruce was sitting on the other side of Diana, silent but close. Suddenly he spoke.
“You should get checked out, you know. That drug…”
Diana shook her head. “Not until after the operation.”
Bruce fell silent again in understanding.
Clark gripped her hand and asked, “Did the Toronians really think they could get away with kidnapping the two of you?”
“It worked for the first few battles,” Diana said with a sigh. She looped and un-looped her golden lasso. “Thank you for getting this back for me, Clark.”
He nodded. “I think that the Bat scared them into realizing they’d done a bad thing.” He smiled as Diana laughed a little, Bruce’s mouth quirking under his cowl.
Clark squeezed her hand. “Please eat something, Princess.”
She shook her head.
“You should at least drink something.”
“Ginger ale would help settle my stomach.”
Clark nodded and left to get the drink.
Diana sat with Bruce, glad of his silence. Her whole being was focused on the operating room and J’onn and Dinah’s medical skills. She thought of how much blood Steve had lost, how much pain he had suffered and would continue to suffer if he survived this surgery…
Bruce’s hand slid over hers and she calmed.
His lover returned with the drink and she sipped gratefully, her mouth dry. She prayed silently to the Goddesses, trying to achieve a measure of serenity.
She had left her Warrior self behind on the accursed planet and now desperately needed to be calm.
Beloved, stay with me. I will always love you. You are my heart, my soul.
Hal suddenly appeared, going straight to her.
“How is he?”
Clark gave the details and Hal paled. He took off his mask and knelt before Diana. “He’s strong, Princess. I trained with him and he was one of the best pilots in the bunch. He’s a survivor, as you learned when he crashed off the Island.”
Diana nodded. Hal patted her hand and sat next to Clark.
Time slipped away, then suddenly the doors to the medical center opened and J’onn and Dinah walked out.
Diana stood, heart pounding, gripping both Bruce and Clark’s hands, Hal’s hand on her shoulder.
“He survived.”
Relief cascaded through her.
“He lost a lot of blood, Princess. He’s very weak.” J’onn’s voice was sympathetic. “He’s still not ‘out-of-the-woods’, as they say.” Diana nodded. She squeezed her friends’ hands and J’onn continued, “That head injury has complicated things. We’ll have to keep a close watch on him.”
“Thank you, J’onn.” She followed Dinah into the medical center.
Steve lay, attached to machines, and his Medal winked in the starlight from outside the Watchtower windows.
Diana reached out a trembling hand and touched sun-bright hair.
& & & & & &
Diana remained at her Beloved’s side, the hours turning to days, falling into a routine. She was on a leave of absence from active duty with the JLA but remained here at the Tower, speaking softly as she held Steve’s hand.
The damage had been extensive but J’onn’s considerable skills had repaired it, and now it was up to Steve to come back from a deep twilight of the soul.
The knowledge that he might never want to come back to the pain that awaited him was unspoken.
When she did take a break to stretch her legs, she wandered down the hall, sometimes with a coffee cup in hand, pausing outside the meeting room while the routine business of the League was conducted, her ears always attuned to the Intensive Care area. A cot had been brought into Steve’s room because she refused to leave him to sleep anywhere else.
It reminded her of the first days that she had known him, waiting and praying that he would wake up, the sun-blond Warrior from the sky who had fallen to earth and into her life. She had been enthralled with his beauty, feeling irresistibly drawn to him while she waited for him to awaken.
And when he did, his look of adoration and love as he spoke the word, “Angel” had won her heart.
Her fingers curled around the cup tightly. She had not seen the attack itself but she could guess how it had unfurled. The evidence on his body had been quite explicit, and she had no doubt that his mind had been bruised and bloodied as well.
If only she could have saved him…!
Her breath ended in a half-sob and she turned away from the meeting room to head back to the medical center.
& & & & & &
Steve walked along the beach, watching the sparkling waves and tilting his face up to the sun. He felt strong and healthy, clad in white and wearing golden Amazon bracelets. He touched the Medal of Athena at his throat and felt at peace.
He swam and drifted, but through his serenity, he felt an unease skittering along the edges of his mind.
“Beloved.”
He heard the warm, loving voice one moment, the wind the next. He heard the voice more than once.
I should go back.
If you go back, you will know pain. And not just pain of the body.
He drifted on the sea, just like the day his plane had crashed off Paradise Island.
And his Angel rescued him.
She can’t love a man who allowed himself to be hurt that way.
She can. She does.
Here you can be at peace.
Steve closed his eyes.
& & & & & &
Dinah entered the room quietly. “Diana?”
Diana looked up. Weariness etched her beautiful features. “Yes, Dinah?”
“Bruce, Hal, and Ollie are ready to give blood again.”
Diana nodded. “Thank them for me, will you? It was very generous to give Steve their blood for the operation and to give again in case he needs it.”
“Well, they match, and we should stock up on that type.” Dinah did not say that they had gone through quite a bit of Steve’s blood type during the operation.
Diana looked sad as she rested her hand on Steve’s arm.
“Please come with me to the cafeteria.”
“I can’t…”
“You need to eat something. Please. Hal is coming to sit with Steve.”
Diana reluctantly left Steve’s side, but she was feeling weak and needed food.
The cafeteria was empty for which Diana was grateful. She didn’t want to answer a bunch of questions right now.
They took their trays of food over to their favorite corner table and Dinah said, “Your mother left a message. She’s praying for Steve’s recovery.”
“That’s good, since she disapproves of him so strongly.”
Dinah appeared shocked at the bitter tone but said, “I think whether or not she approves, she doesn’t want to see him hurt.”
Diana sighed. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“I understand.”
Diana pushed her food around her plate. “He’s been at my side since I met him. He takes…what’s the word…’flack’ for it. The men of your world can’t understand why he would feel comfortable around a woman far superior to him in strength, but he trusts me.” She laughed a little. “He said that when he was falling out of the sky or off a building, he really didn’t care if the person saving him was male or female.” Her smile faded as she set her fork down blinking back tears. “He was hurt very badly, Dinah.”
Dinah put a hand on her arm. “I know.” Diana looked up. Of course Dinah knew the truth. She had been the nurse during the operation. “He’s strong, Diana.” She smiled affectionately. “Even with that pretty face, he’s got steel underneath.”
Diana wiped her eyes and laughed. “I suppose that makes me shallow, loving a man with such beautiful looks?”
“Makes you human, I suspect.” Dinah grinned. “It’s the blond hair, you know.”
“What?”
“The blond hair.” Dinah’s eyes sparkled. “Our blond boys do all right for themselves in the pretty department.” She squeezed Diana’s hand and winked. “Never hurts to appreciate beauty.”
Diana looked at her old friend and Dinah gathered her into a hug.
& & & & & &
The women returned to the medical center and Hal was saying, “Now, Stevie, remember that time we had to bail out over the desert? What a piece of junk that test plane was! Pretty on the outside but nothing on the inside.” His voice grew quiet. “Good description of you, except that you have a lot on the inside.” His hand rested lightly on his friend’s hand and he didn’t remove it when Diana entered. He stood up when she came to the bedside and hugged her.
“Stay,” she whispered, and he nodded.
Dinah checked Steve’s vitals, then left to give them privacy.
Hal brought over another chair and sat next to Diana. They sat in a silence that wasn’t uncomfortable.
Diana understood the past that Steve and Hal shared. She had enjoyed her share of lovers before leaving the Island, and considering her own same-sex experiences, there was no shock at Steve’s first lover. Hal Jordan was a good man and a genuine hero. He was worthy of her Beloved.
“He wants to do the right thing by you.” She looked at Hal quizzically. “He doesn’t want to insult you even inadvertently. He’s sensitive to what men must seem like to you sometimes in this world, considering your Amazon history.”
“He doesn’t insult me.” She took Hal’s hand and squeezed it. “Or disappoint me.”
They kept their vigil, and Hal spoke lightly of good times during training and their hard work in becoming the best test and fighter pilots in the U.S. Air Force.
Diana listened and watched as the sun’s rays brought in golden light…
& & & & & &
Steve drifted on the sea, enjoying serenity, and then he heard a new voice.
“Stevie, we’re waiting for you to come back.”
A warm voice, and one he knew well.
He closed his eyes and kept drifting, the sun warm on his face.
He was calm, but felt lonely.
He wasn’t ready for this place.
“Please, Beloved, come back to us.”
Not yet.
He touched his Medal and the sun grew even brighter…
& & & & & &
Steve opened his eyes.
A gasp of breath, two anxious faces coming into view…
“Not ready…to leave…yet…”
Diana gently kissed him and Hal squeezed his hand as the Watchtower welcomed Earth’s sunlight to begin a new day.
this counter installed 11/19/09