Disclaimer: The Wonder Woman characters are not mine, just borrowed for this story.
Warnings: language and violence.
Reviews are always welcome and appreciated

**Because the movie just came out and not everyone may have had the chance to see it yet, be warned there are SPOILERS, huge, talks about the end of the movie spoilers.**

*For the purposes of this story, the other DC superheroes do not exist. The photo from Veld was not given to Diana by Bruce Wayne but by other means.*

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Maybe I Am to Blame

The room was dim to simulate the ambiance of candle light with gentle piano music playing softly in the background. The fine china had gold swirls dancing around the edges of the plates and glasses, echoed with the gold plated silverware. The napkins were pressed and neatly folded, set with precision on the stark white linen table cloth. The center pieces where beautiful round bouquets of deep red roses with drops of baby breath dotted throughout to break up the color. It was all designed to impress and accentuate the luxury the wealthy and upper echelon enjoyed in their dining experience.

It would probably make any other woman swoon with delight or feel like a princess but Diana barely paid it any attention. Her focus rather than her company or the ostentatious surrounds was on the couple a few tables over. The young woman had been sitting there by herself, casually drumming her manicured finger tips on the table while absently stirring her cup of tea that had long since grown cold over the hour she had been sitting. There was sadness in her eyes that spoke of disappointment and longing, something Diana could relate to, today of all days. It all melted away though when a shadow fell across the table shaking the woman out of her reverie and like a brilliant flash of light, her smile chased the despair away.

"Stefen," breathed the woman as she jumped out of her chair, wrapping her arms tightly around the young soldier that stood at her table, staring at her like a cool drink of water after an eternity in the desert. The couple embraced in a hug to end all hugs, sealing their love with a passionate kiss that made the time they had clearly spent apart disappear from memory.

The haunted look of war vanished from the soldier's eyes as he slipped into the embrace of the love of his life; all the horror and atrocities he must have faced becoming no more than ghosts of his past. This woman was his future and he now held her in his arms. "I never thought I'd get the chance to tell you how much I loved you again, Anna."

Young love, it was something Diana was always envious of. The possibilities of a future unwritten lay ahead them for them to conquer and enjoy. They had it all before them, they had a future. It looked like the kind of love that could save the world and she couldn't help but watch as it bloomed and grew before her eyes.

It was bitter sweet; a love that she fought for yet never got to experience for herself. All she had were memories of what might have been, had the day not needed saving. As much as it broke her heart she couldn't help the soft smile that slowly lit up her face at the thought of Steve.

It had been well over a century and the very thought of him still gave her a warm feeling and a bubble of joy that the sorrow of his loss couldn't diminish. She could still feel the rough calluses on his hand as he held her hand in his, the other wrapped around her waist, his face so close as they swayed gently in the night as snow began to fall. She could still hear the ache in his voice as he confessed to not knowing what it was like to live a life with someone but suddenly wanting to find out. She could still see pain in his eyes as confessed his probably short comings and place in a world that didn't deserve her in it, but his desperate need to find the strength to make it, him, worth it. Time was failing to take Steve away from her the way reality had viciously ripped him from her life.

"Diana, are you even listening to me?"

The forced romanticism of the restaurant crashed through her memory of Veld the night before the world lost one of its best examples of humanity. She turned her head back to the man sitting opposite her. "Of course I'm listening, Eric," said Diana piercing a carrot on her plate and taking a bite.

"It's a huge acquisition for Dayton Enterprises," continued Eric but Diana's eyes slid back over to the couple who was now holding hands and staring into each other's eyes instead of reading their menus.

"I mean can you imagine it? With this technology we'll never lose the greatest minds of our time. They'll be free to continue their work for forever without fear of death. Can you imagine what it would be like to live for forever? To see this form of reincarnation where you can be anyone you want? Think of all that you could accomplish, see...Diana?" Eric stopped but got no response; Diana's attention was clearly back on the couple. His fondness for her prevented any anger at her lack of attention and it wasn't the first time he found her enraptured by someone else's tender display of love.

There's love in her eyes that's hard to deny and never directed at anyone else with that kind of ferocity. It's hard not to be jealous of the person that put that beautiful smile on Diana's lips. "You're thinking about him again, aren't you?"

"Who?" said Diana, still enraptured with the live love story unfolding across from her.

Eric smiled fondly before thorwing his napkin over his plate, suddenly no longer hungry. They've worked together for years, collaborating between the auction house and Dayton Enterprises. They've seen the far reaches of the globe and touched artifacts lost to fro history together and through it all they've grown close. Much closer than friends, but not yet lovers. He's never been the cause for that smile of Diana's. It's like a private joke he's never gotten the punch line to. "Your soldier. You only ever smile like that when you're thinking of him."

Diana goes stiff for a moment. She didn't realize she was smiling like that, like the first time she saw snow. Her hand goes to cover he cheeks as she feels a blush start to creep up. Eric is the first person in more than a century that she mentioned Steve to and even then, the story was just the basic bones. Girl meets soldier, soldier dies heroically in battle, girl suffers heartbreak. She'd said his name to Eric once and never again; it felt too much like a betrayal to share him with anyone. She's never breathed his name to someone that didn't already know him, afraid that sharing his memory with an outsider might muddy and jade it. And of course any part she played in battling a god has been left to history to protect her crusade to help protect the world.

Of course she would be thinking of Steve tonight. It's their anniversary of the first time he said he loved her, of the time the day was saved with the heftiest price souls could pay. Captain Steven Trevor, the first man she ever laid eyes upon and the person who did more for her than she ever thought possible. Her smile faltered as the flickering candle light at their table grows in her mind until it resembles the fiery explosion that took Steve from this world and her life far too soon.

A hand settled over hers, warm and sure. She looked up at Eric like she had been caught in a lie. "It's alright," he assured her, a forced smile pulls his lips tight as he tried to hide his disappointment at the turn of mood tonight.

She knew it was a bad idea to go out tonight. Her misery started on November tenth and never faded until the eleventh when the world took a solitary moment to remember the sacrifices of so many for peace. Steve's name was never among the honored dead, his involvement classified and now those that new of his sacrifice all dead accept her.

"It's getting late. We should call it a night," offered Eric signalling the waiter for the cheque.

Diana nodded, giving Eric a smile that felt a little too forced. She was suddenly exhausted and the thought of being anywhere other than in bed dreaming of Steve in her arms at the exact moment the plane exploded all those decades ago is unbearable. Hopefully the world can look after itself for one night.

Always the gentleman, Eric paid for the meal and escorted her to her waiting car, telling her driver to take her straight home. He leaned through the back window of the expensive town car insisted upon by the auction house. "Don't forget about the interview with the museum tomorrow. I look forward to seeing your gorgeous face on TV, dazzling the world with your brilliance and ingenuity that unearthed those rare antiquities."

"I hate doing press," confessed Diana. "I don't know why the museum is insisting that I do the interview when they could have someone more charismatic like you. You should get the attention, Eric. It was your company that funded the venture and restoration."

"You're a knock out Diana. The camera will love you. Besides, I paid the museum a rather large sum to make sure you're the one in the spotlight. You're denying the world something special by staying in the shadows. Let them see you, see what I see in you." Eric's smile is genuine but his gaze lingered a little longer than Diana felt comfortable with. They were eyes that wanted something, something more than Diana could give him.

"You're without shame."

"Is it working?" asked Eric, standing up and straightening his coat, the late November night bringing on a chill.

Diana shook her head fondly. "Take me home please," she directed the driver. "Good night, Eric."

The car started to drive away, taking Diana with it. "Sweet dreams, Angel," called Eric.

Diana reached through the open window and waved goodbye. It was hard not to feel a little bad. Eric had offered to take her out to celebrate, not only her accomplishment in finding the painting for the museum but to celebrate Eric's companies latest acquisition and her mood had ended the night on a less than celebratory note.

Eric was one of those special friends that never questioned her disappearances or sudden cancelations. He never asked her to elaborate or explain her excuses when fighting the darkness took her way from the persona of antiquities dealer she had crafted for herself this time. It was a rare thing to find. She fought for world, to protect those who were innocent and those she cared for but that didn't leave a lot of room to foster and develop relationships that withstood the test of time. It made life lonely in a way she had never known in Themyscira or with people she shared her abilities with.

That was a hard lesson she learned with Steve, that telling people of her purpose, of what she could do, got them killed. Steve wasn't the only one that ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time believing in her and what she could accomplish. She vowed to keep Wonder Woman, as the press referred to the mysterious warrior as, away from anyone in her life.

She glanced at the clock over the fireplace as she entered her penthouse apartment. The hands slowly ticked away adding a pound of dread with each passing minute. As she changed out of her evening gown and into silk pajamas she kept her eyes fixed on the time. A hundred and twenty years since it happened and her heart still sped up as the moment drew close, like maybe this time it would play out differently and Steve would have survived; her past would be laced with memories of waking up and eating breakfast, reading the newspaper before going to work, of slow dancing to the radio at night after the children went to bed.

She turned on the TV hoping to drown out the tick tick tick of the clock. The thing that once governed Steve's life, now haunts her. It's the usual fare on, sin and vice showcased in a pretty package; all the temptation to make man stray from greatness and give into their dark nature. The news is the worst, a recap of all the tragedy that fills the world wrought by the hand of man while under the influence of no one but themselves.

"And in financial news, Dayton Enterprise stock has risen twenty points since the purchase of Reincarnation Inc which made headline last year with the first successful consciousness transfer making immortality a commercial venture."

Diana doesn't hear the words, just uses the voices to drown out the minutes that haunt her. They matter not. It will never be the words I love you, Diana, or the song that Charlie sang in Veld. If she could go back in time and live one moment over again... She smashed her hand down on her vanity, spilling the bottle of makeup remover she left open. Finishing getting ready for bed, Diana shuts the TV off before reports of the current war plaguing the planet start. A hundred twenty years and things are still the same. Part of her is glad Steve isn't here to see that his sacrifice didn't change a damn thing in the end. Even with Ares gone, man still chooses the darkness more than the light.

She turns out the lights before crawling into the sheets. Every year she makes the promise to herself to fall asleep before ten-fifty falls and she loses Steve all over again. This year, that promise comes true, and at ten-thirty, she falls asleep with Steve's watch clutched in her hand and dreams of gently falling snow and dancing.