A/N: This is a one-shot that I wrote for a Tumblr prompt. The prompt was as follows: "I'm gonna be cliche and unoriginal; teenpreg/20s preg spitfire? Like, not like season 1-young, but young enough to like make Wally freak the hell out." I kind of deviated a bit, but I hope you all like it. :-)
Title: The Test
Characters: Artemis Crock, Wally West
Rated: T
Summary: Artemis is about to take the most important test of her life. Takes place about a year before the episode Salvage. Minor spoilers for Salvage if you haven't seen it yet.
The Test
When she woke up that morning, something was…off. She couldn't quite put her finger on it. All was right in her and Wally's little corner of Palo Alto. It was Saturday, so she didn't have any homework to do; she had talked to her mother on the phone yesterday, so she was fine; and she and Wally had never been better, so that couldn't have been it. Her stomach made a funny noise and she put her hand over it. Maybe she was just hungry. She hadn't eaten since last night when Wally had taken her out to dinner. Desert had commenced back at the apartment.
Her stomach made a weird noise again so she decided to stop stalling and get up. She wasn't surprised to find her boyfriend of 4 years in the kitchen cooking up a storm. Tucker, their 1-year-old boxer/pit-bull mix, trotted over to her happily, and she reached down to scratch him behind the ears before honing in on Wally Crocker.
"Hey, Sleeping Beauty!" Wally said when he saw her leave their bedroom. He was standing in front of the stove clad in only a pair of hip hugging sleep shorts and an apron. He pressed a quick kiss to her lips before turning back to the stove, spatula in hand.
"What's for breakfast?" she asked, surveying the full stove. Each of the burners had some sort of pot or pan on it, and a pile of toast had accumulated on the counter. Artemis' stomach gurgled, and she couldn't shake the feeling again that something was wrong.
"I'm making your favorite!" Wally told her obliviously, flipping something over in one of the pans. "Fluffer-nutter French toast with home fries and bacon!"
And just like that the nausea hit her stomach. She could feel the bile rising in her throat and it was all she could do to keep from barfing right then and there. Ignoring Wally's worried voice calling her name, she quickly ran to the bathroom, threw herself down in front of the toilet, and heaved out the entire contents of her stomach. Vaguely, she felt one hand pulling her hair out of her face and another rubbing her back in soothing circular motions.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, all she was throwing up was bile. She flushed the toilet and groaned, struggling to get up.
"Easy there, babe," Wally whispered, helping her stand. "What was that all about?"
"I don't know," Artemis huskily replied, steadying herself against the sink. She looked at herself in the mirror, startled to see how pale and shaken she looked. Wally's concerned green eyes connected with hers in the mirror and she attempted a reassuring smile. "Maybe it was something I ate last night."
She opened the medicine cabinet, intent on ridding herself of the horrible taste in her mouth, when her hand encountered something else. A box of her tampons.
Artemis froze.
What day is it? She immediately thought. What was the last time I had my period? She struggled to count backwards, remembered that she was on it during midterms. But that was over a month and a half ago…
I'm late, she realized. She may have even gasped out loud. I'm late I'm late I'm late I'm late I'm late I'm late.
"Artemis?" Wally's voice echoed throughout the bathroom. Hastily, she reached inside and grabbed the toothpaste, slamming the door to the medicine cabinet shut. She squirted a glob of toothpaste on her toothbrush and jammed it in her mouth so she didn't have to say anything. She began brushing frantically, her mind racing. Wally looked at her with wide eyes.
"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked urgently.
I'm late, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late, Artemis wanted to cry out at him, but she couldn't process the thought herself, let alone him knowing too. She spit out the toothpaste, and rinsed with water.
"It's probably nothing," she told him, turning around and reaching up to kiss him on the cheek. "Umm, I have to run to the store," she said, walking out of the bathroom and into their bedroom at a rapid pace. "Need anything?"
"But what about breakfast?" he asked, following her, a pout on his face.
"You can have my portion," Artemis reasoned, quickly throwing on some pants and running a brush through her hair. "I'm not hungry."
"Well, do you want me to come with you?" he asked, scratching the back of his head uncertainly.
"Nope, nope, that's all right," she said hastily, sitting down on the bed to put some sneakers on. She felt another wave of nausea and clutched her stomach. She felt Wally kneel down on the floor in front of her.
"Artemis, at least wait until you feel better."
"No," she snapped, instantly feeling guilty at the hurt look on his face. "No," she said softly. She gently pushed him aside and got up off the bed. "I'll be right back," she told him, grabbing her purse and hurrying out of the bedroom. "Enjoy your breakfast!"
She was relieved that he didn't try to stop her using his super speed, but the feeling was short-lived when she remembered what she had to do now.
She had to buy a pregnancy test.
The generic chain pharmacy down the street from their apartment had never seemed so intimidating to Artemis. Each dark aisle held the possibility of running into one of her Stanford classmates, or even worse, one of her teammates on the archery team. All too soon she came to the correct aisle. Coincidently, the pregnancy tests were on the shelf next to the condoms. Not wanting to linger for too long, Artemis grabbed three different brands before hightailing it to the register.
It was just her luck that the self-check out station was down, so she was forced to suffer through the judgmental stare of the older woman cashier. Artemis matched her stare with a glare of her own, daring the woman to say something. She had softened over the years, but her glare was still potent and luckily the woman backed down. Artemis grabbed her plastic bag and was out the door before you could say, "Thank you, come again."
Her walk home consisted of coherent thoughts interspersed with tirades of mental swearing. She and Wally had been so careful! Especially when they'd decided to move in with each other at the beginning of their sophomore year. She was on the pill and took it almost obsessively. She still made Wally wear a condom, but that was only sometimes. God, how stupid were they? The pill wasn't foolproof, after all.
Her stomach gurgled ominously and Artemis stopped and put her hand against it. There could be a baby in there; a baby that would grow into a child who would need care and love and a stable environment. And she was a 19-year-old ex-superhero, college student with a screwed up childhood. Sure, she had an amazing, funny boyfriend, but Wally could barely take care of a dog let alone a crying, needy child. They couldn't be parents. It was unthinkable!
She continued walking, trying not to get ahead of herself. Just because her period was late was no reason to jump to conclusions, overlooking the fact that it was usually horribly on time. Hers and Wally's apartment came into view and she mentally grimaced. If she knew him at all, he was probably in a right state after her abrupt departure; although, she was sure all the food was gone.
As she climbed the stairs, she heard his panicky voice through an open window.
"Dude, I told you, I don't know what happened," he was saying. "One second she was fine and the next she was blowing chunks! And after she brushed her teeth, she rushed out of here like a madwoman!"
Artemis was at the top of the steps at this point, and there was a pause before Wally said indignantly, "Why do you always assume that it was something I did?"
Artemis sighed and took a deep breath before turning the knob of their door and letting herself in.
"Dick, Igottagoshe'sback," Wally said incoherently, before hanging up the phone and speeding over to her. "Artemis, what the hell was that all about?"
"I had to go to the store," she told him simply, not wanting them to get into a fight when all she wanted was to fall into his arms and have him tell her that everything would be okay.
"What was so important that it couldn't wait until you were feeling better?" Wally asked her, looking genuinely concerned.
And she hated to drop the bomb on him like this, but there wouldn't be a good time to do it. Wordlessly she handed him the bag from the store.
Curiously, he reached in and took out one of the tests. He flipped it over and looked at it before doing a double take.
"Oh. Oh."
"Oh?" she repeated. "That's all you have to say?"
He didn't respond because he was still staring at the pregnancy test in his hand with wide eyes. He finally looked at her and when their eyes connected, she was taken aback by the fear she saw in his. Wally, her fearless-to-the-point-of-stupidity boyfriend was afraid. And that made her stomach even queasier.
"H-how did this, I mean, I know how it happened, but you're on the pill," Wally stuttered.
"The pill isn't infallible," Artemis whispered. "And you and I both know we don't always enforce the condom rule."
He nodded slowly, looking away from her eyes, down to her stomach, and then back again. "Is that why you were throwing up? M-m-m—"
"Morning sickness?" she finished for him. Any other time and she would have teased him for his stuttering; but not now, not today. "Could be. I guess we'll have to wait and see." She took the bag and the test out of his hands and headed towards the bathroom with certain dread.
"Artemis," Wally said softly, stopping her in her tracks. She turned to look at him. He opened and closed his mouth a couple times, but no words would come out. Finally, he simply put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her tenderly on the forehead. In his own way, he'd told her that he loved her; that this wouldn't change anything. She nodded at him in response, feeling a tiny bit better before retreating into the bathroom.
10 minutes. 10 minutes that would decide their entire futures. Wally had set the kitchen timer on the coffee table, and the two of them sat on the couch watching it tick away the seconds. There was a sliver of space between them that normally wouldn't have been there in any other situation. Wally was hunched over, arms resting on his thighs, while Artemis was curled up into a protective ball, knees against her chest.
"What are we going to…if it's positive?" Artemis finally asked.
"What if its not?" Wally stubbornly retorted.
"But what if it is, Wally?" Artemis insisted. "We can't just pretend that it's not a possibility."
"Then we'll have to deal with the fact that we're going to be…" Big gulp. "Parents."
"I'm not even old enough to drink legally, how am I supposed to take care of a baby?" Artemis asked, dropping her head into her knees.
"We'll do it together," Wally told her, sitting up and pulling her to his side. She sagged against him gratefully.
"How would we even afford it?" Artemis asked, her panic rising. "We can barely afford this apartment as it is."
"I'll get a job," Wally said, as if it was so simple. "I'll get two jobs. As many as it takes."
Artemis looked up at him, wary of how calm he seemed to be. She had expected him to freak out like she was pathetically doing. "Why do I get the feeling that you're okay with this?" she asked, sitting so that they were eye level.
He had the decency to look sheepish at least and ran a hand through his hair. "Well, granted, it could have come at a better time—"
"A better time?" she repeated incredulously. "Wally, we have no money! We don't have out diplomas yet! We're barely out of our teens!"
"Babe, calm down," Wally said, and she had the very familiar urge to hit him upside the head. He turned to her and took her by the shoulders. "Maybe I haven't made it clear to you in the last 4 years, but let me set the record straight: I'm in this for the long haul. I love you, Artemis; in the, terrifying, want to marry you and have kids with you kind of way."
His eyes were gazing into hers and she didn't think of looking away for one second. He always knew the right things to say, she thought, thinking of that moment on the bioship all those years ago when he'd told her exactly what she needed to hear. And here he was, doing it again. His words were unexpected, but not exactly surprising. She'd known when she was 17-years-old that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Wally West.
"So yeah, the timing is a bit off," he continued. "But if the test is positive, if you are pregnant, we'll figure it out. Okay?"
She nodded, too speechless to say anything else. When had he grown into this mature, young man? Maybe it was when he'd pulled the pregnancy test out of the bag, but she liked to think it was before then. She settled against him, and he put his arms around her, and then, they waited. Wally ran his fingers through her blonde locks comfortingly as they both stared at the timer. All too soon it went off.
"Moment of truth," Wally said, getting up and helping her stand. Together, they walked to the bathroom where each test sat atop of its respective box.
Wally gave her hand a squeeze and she squeezed back before advancing to the first test. Picking it up and holding it away from her, she studied the key on its box. One pink line meant you weren't pregnant; two pink lines meant you were. Artemis took a deep breath, counted to three in her head, and then quickly looked at the test.
One pink line.
"Oh my god," Artemis breathed, laying the test back down. She closed her eyes in relief and used her arms to steady herself against the sink.
"What? What is it?" Wally asked, coming to her side.
She pointed at the test. "Not pregnant," she said. She quickly surveyed the other two tests and they confirmed the results. She pointed to each one in turn. "Not pregnant, not pregnant. I'm not pregnant!" she cried, feeling a wave of relief so strong that her knees threatened to give out.
Lucky for her, Wally was there to pick her up. He hugged her to his chest and twirled them around in a circle.
"Thank god," Wally said, putting her back down. "I'm too young to be a DILF."
And Artemis laughed; maybe it was because she was delirious with relief, but she laughed until her stomach hurt and tears streamed down her cheeks.
Wally wiped away her tears and kissed her forehead again, his hands cupping her cheeks. "So, maybe not today, beautiful, but someday…" he trailed off, looking at her with those green, green eyes of his, and for a second she imagined a little girl with the same eyes and a head full of blonde hair.
"Someday," she agreed, laying her hands over his.
A/N: A little bit cheesy and over dramatic and definitely not my best work, but I hope you guys like it! Please review! XD