ER
Author: Erika
Feedback: [email protected]

Pairing: None
Disc: The characters are property of DC comics and their associated companies. Wonder Woman was created by William Moulton Marston.
Rating: PG

Summary: Dswynne put up a challenge/request on the Wonder Woman's message board. This is challenge number 3: A quiet moment between Diana and Artemis right after Diana's would-be foe has checked into an ER room (and is listed in critical condition).

Beta-reader: Adrian.

~oo00oo~

They had been here, staying in the waiting room, for the past two hours. Both of them were still covered in grim. They stood slightly apart. Waiting. The critically injured man they had brought with them was still in surgery.

"Diana." Artemis called to her Amazon sister, who stood by the doorway. Diana had her arms wrap around herself and was deep in thought. "Diana." Artemis repeated.

"Artemis," Diana said in a hushed voice. "If that man dies ..."

Artemis sighed. They were back to this again. "You had to decide whom to save. There wasn't enough time." Her voice was cold, clinical. A simple statement of fact.

"No. I had deemed him unworthy."

"No." Artemis denied, shaking her head. She refused to let Diana believe otherwise. "I know you little sister."

"Do you?" Asked Diana questioning how Artemis could know her, when she felt as though she did not know herself. The events of the afternoon unfolded before her.

They had been in Boston visiting Julia and Vanessa, when they heard over the radio how a man had made his way inside a Women's Shelter. He was holding women and children hostages in exchange for information to where his ex-wife and kids were now residing. 

Both she and Artemis had gone into an explosive situation prepared for the worst but hoping negotiations would make the man give himself up. But things had unraveled. 

Explosives had been put in the children's play room, brought in by the hostage taker. 

They needed to get the women and children out safely, so as Artemis protected the back of the building waiting for Diana's signal to enter, Diana had tried to reason with the man but she had failed.

There hadn't been enough time, from the moment the explosives were set off to the moment she had send Artemis the signal to go in and rescue the hostages. There hadn't been enough time, she kept repeating to herself, but a part of her wondered whether she was using that as an excuse. The last person they had rescued had been the hostage taker. First the women and children had been safely accounted for and then she had worried about the man responsible for the damage, and it now pained her to realize she had put some lives before others.

As an Amazon she had been taught to value all life, but she deep down she had been angry about the man's action against her fellow sisters. 

Did it affect my judgement? 

"Diana." Artemis called to her in exasperation. "You did ... we did all we could."

"Did we?"

"He was the person closest to the explosion ..."

"Then I should have rescued him first ..." Diana answered.

" ... and let the innocent die?" 

As Diana processed the concept, Artemis pressed her advantage. "If you were Cassie and she asked you those questions, what would you advise her?"

Diana briefly paused. "I know you're right ..."

"You feel it in your mind but not your heart." Artemis finished for her.

"When did you get so wised, oh dear sister." Diana gently teased her.

"Sometimes teachers must become students and sometimes if a student is lucky, they get the best teachers. Come on little sister, it is time we visited the other patients."

They move away from the emergency rooms and headed toward the children's ward, were those whom they had rescued that day waited for them.

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