Work Text:
Diane had never dirtied a blouse in her life. She had never had to complete physical labor, never even held a job that required her to lift more than a finger. Her mother had scolded her in her youth, telling her, “child, every man wants a proper woman.” And a proper woman she had been, with perfectly manicured nails and expensive dresses and curlers in her hair every night.
So, then what, she had to ask herself, had brought her to this? What brought her to rest herself on a stained cot in Hestia Chambers, with scuffed up heels and a torn-up skirt, with dirt under her chipping nails and a fire in her belly? When had she stopped craving cocktails and Friday night parties? When did she stop calling Andrew’s office, twenty minutes into a stood-up date?
All Diane can hear is her mother. Every man wants a proper woman, but Ryan hadn’t seemed to want her even then. Every man wants something to call his, and he did, he had a city and a business and he had her, but these things were not enough. Diane wanted to be angry – she had been, for months, hatred bubbling underneath her skin every time she looked in the mirror. She had ripped apart every “Atlas Lives” poster she passed, but nothing had subsided it. She bribed her way into Apollo Square, full intentions of raising hell…and she hadn’t. For the first time, she brought herself to listen. Not to ask.
And the Chambers echoed with stories, of families without homes, of mothers who’d lost daughters, of men and women who had lost everything to the corporate hand. Diane was not angry anymore. She was vexed and furious, head spinning and knuckles white. These people were not monsters. They were human, kindred spirits, who yearned for change even more than she did. And they followed the one man who could enforce it.
Every man wants a proper woman, but Diane is not proper anymore. She is weathered and tired, her pockets full of wadded up dollar bills and handgun ammunition, but she is the happiest she’s been in years. Not every man wanted a proper woman, Diane now knows, but a proper man wants a proud woman. She thinks she has found one.