Disclaimer- I don't own Young Justice nor Taylor Swift's song "If This Was a Movie".
It had only been a couple of hours since I posted "The Last Promise" when its sequel hit me. This song seemed to fit this one-shot sequel better than any depressing songs I know. I hope you all like it . . . Please review!
Note- As before, the song's lyrics are in bold italics.
If This Was a Movie
Last night I heard my own heart beating.
Sounded like footsteps on my stairs.
Wally didn't sleep much anymore and when he did, his dreams would be tormented by Artemis' dying form with her blood staining his hands. Then he would wake up with his screams vibrating his pillow. If he didn't know better, he would think he was subconsciously trying to kill himself . . . But he knew he wouldn't. He wouldn't hurt his family and friends like that . . .
Not like Artemis had.
That was the difference between him and Artemis. He cared too much for his family and friends to not take the easy way out and Artemis . . . hadn't cared enough. She had only thought of her own feelings and not how it would affect everyone. She hadn't cared for the team, Green Arrow and . . .
She hadn't cared about him.
Six months gone and I'm still reaching.
Even though I know you're not there.
Sometimes, when Wally did sleep, he would wake up with his hand reaching for his ceiling as if he were trying to catch something. But what? What could he possibly want so badly?
. . . Answers, he wanted answers. He wanted to know if his traitorous thoughts about Artemis were true or if they were just false thoughts. He wanted to know if the one he loved ever felt the same way about him or if she had only saw him as a friend. He wanted to know if she had cared enough to second guess herself when she slit her wrists and regretted her actions. He wanted to know so much but he knew it was useless to ask the empty air that haunted her grave. What was the point of asking when he knew that silence would be his only answer?
I was playing back a thousand memories, baby.
Thinking about everything we've been through.
He couldn't tell you how many memories he had played in his head these past six months. He couldn't tell you how many times they had fought over something petty and stupid. Honestly, the only thing he could tell you was how much he regretted wasting what time he had with her. He could have told her his feelings months ago! He could have built a trusting relationship where she would have confided in him about her suicidal thoughts!
He could have stopped her!
But those times were gone and there was nothing he could do about it. He had made his choices and she had made hers. They just happened to make the wrong ones. But wasn't the nature of humans? To choose the less painful choice and then end up regretting it? Wasn't that why you would see elderly people all alone with no one to talk with? Wasn't that why people talked of the power of your decisions?
Wasn't that why?
Maybe I've been going back too much lately . . .
When time stood still and I had you.
Wally knew it wasn't healthy to constantly think of the if's and when's and the time he had shared with Artemis. He knew that yet he couldn't help but think if he continued, she would somehow appear at his window, saying her death had been faked. He couldn't help but think that . . . He just couldn't. No, he wasn't in denial. He just couldn't let go of her yet. He couldn't let go of all his bittersweet memories of her and her snappy comebacks.
He just couldn't.
Come back, come back, come back to me like you would (you would) if this was a movie.
Stand in the rain outside till I came out.
If this was a movie, Wally knew that he, the main character, would find some way to bring her back from the dead. He knew that it would require a sacrifice and it would probably be something important like his super speed. But he didn't care. If that's what it would take, he would offer it in a heartbeat.
But this wasn't a movie where the rules of the universe could be bended and broken. This was his harsh reality where rules could never be broken or end bended in the slightest direction. The reality was that Artemis Crock, the girl he had fallen hard for, was in a place that science could never take him. She was in a place where no living person could ever reach her even with magic, the thing that Wally could never accept.
But if magic could do that, he would use it even though he didn't believe it to be real. He would finally accept magic as a real thing if that was what it took to get Artemis back. But it couldn't.
Nothing could.
Come back, come back, come back to me like you could (you could) if you just said you're sorry.
I know that we could work it out somehow.
But if this was a movie, you'd be here by now.
Wally wondered if his reality were a movie, wouldn't she have come back by now? Would she have come back as her human self? Would she have come back as a ghost, something he could never touch or see? If that were to happen, Wally would never know that she was with him . . . He would never see her face again.
If that were to happen, Wally would rather have Artemis stay among the dead. It would better than knowing she was with him but he couldn't touch nor see her. That would be like torturing a dog with a bone that was just mere inches above where he could reach. Then the dog would know the bone was there but he couldn't get to it.
No, Wally didn't want that. It was too just cruel to live with.
I know people change and these things happen but I remember how it was back then.
Locked up in your arms and our friends laughing because nothing like this ever happened to them.
He remembered too often of the life he lived with her, the laughing and the fighting. He remembered too clearly of the way they bickered and their friends laughed and enjoyed their humorous battles of the voice. He remembered too fondly of the way Artemis would slide her plate of M'gann's cooking over to him to finish off and the disgusted look she would give him for how much he ate. He remembered too sadly of the way she could never see the love in his eyes.
He remembered too much of her.
Now I'm pacing up the hall, chasing down your street.
Flashback to a night when you said to me, "Nothing's gonna change. Not for me and you."
Not before I knew how much I had to lose.
Wally had lost count of all the times he had raced up and down Artemis' street in hope of finding her alive. That had been just days after her death and he had been deep in denial. But after a few days, he gave up and the fact of her passing had finally sunk into his torn heart. After that, he grieved for all he had lost and wasted.
But when he slept, one memory had played over and over as if tormenting him. It was about the time she had told him her secret identity and Wally had worried over the fact that she would uncomfortable around him since he knew. Artemis had smoothed over that worry with words that had made Wally feel as if he would never have a chance with her.
"Nothing's gonna change . . . Not for me and you."
But she had lied. Everything had changed and not in the ways that Wally had dreamed of countless times. She ended up committing suicide and he was left behind with heartfelt feelings that were never spoken out loud to her. He ended up a broken person who was lost in his grief and was falling deeper into his mourning.
All because she hadn't considered what her death would do to him . . . to all of them.
Come back, come back, come back to me like you would (you would) if this was a movie.
Stand in the rain outside till I came out.
Come back, come back to me like you could (you could) if you just said you're sorry.
I know that we could work it out somehow . . .
But if this was a movie, you'd be here by now.
If you're out there . . .
If you're somewhere . . .
If you're moving on, I've be waiting for you since you've been gone.
Even though Artemis was dead, Wally still held a bit of denial in his heart and felt that if he waited, she'd come back. Yes, he had been sent to spend time with a therapist to get rid of this hope but he had lied and faked progress. So his friends and family were in ignorant bliss of how he truly felt. Sure, maybe Wally shouldn't have lied but he didn't care. He just couldn't shake this hope and honestly, he could stand to be alive with this hope lingering in his heart.
So, till he managed to shake himself out of this denial, he would continue to wait for Artemis to appear before him once again.
I just want it back to the way it was before.
And I just want to see you back at my front door.
Wally had a few close calls of losing his remaining sanity these past six months. The first time he had sworn up and down that he saw Artemis outside his window with blood running down her arms. The second time he thought he heard her say his name after knocking on the front door a few times but that turned out to be the mailman. The third time his sleep had been disturbed by his phone ringing with what he thought was a phone call from Artemis. That turned out to Dick checking up on him. Then the last time he could have sworn he caught Artemis from falling out of the weeping willow that shaded her grave.
But as the months past, Wally had realized that it was just his brain showing him what he wanted so desperately. By realizing this, Wally was able to accept the fact that he would never be able to get over Artemis. Therapy obviously wouldn't be of a help and time certainty never favored him. So all he was left with was this unfading grief that would always haunt him for as long as he walked upon the earth.
He didn't mind.
And I say, "Come back, come back, come back to me like you would before you say it's not that easy."
Before the fight, before I locked you out . . .
But I take it all back now!
If there was something that Wally would never forgive himself for, it was the decision to wait awhile before asking Artemis out. If he hadn't told himself that it wouldn't be easy to get her to like him, Artemis would be in his arms right now! If he hadn't gotten scared, SHE WOULD BE ALIVE!
That was something he would never forgive himself for.
Not ever.
Come back, come back, come back to me like you would (you would) if this was a movie.
Stand in the rain outside till I came out.
Come back, come back, come back to me like you could (you could) if you just said you're sorry.
I know that we could work it out somehow.
But if this was a movie, you'd be here by now . . .
You'd be here by now.
Even though Wally would wait for Artemis for the rest of his life, he knew that Artemis wasn't that cruel. She wouldn't make him go through this much pain if she were truly alive . . . No, she would be crashing through his window and smacking him across the face as an apology flooded from her mouth.
But if Wally accepted that, he wouldn't be able to live his life. His dark grief would overwhelm him and would confuse him. He would end up either insane or dead.
He wouldn't be himself.
It's not the kind of ending you wanna see now.
Baby, I don't like the ending . . .
Wally shook his head as he rolled over and pulled his covers up to his shoulders. He couldn't think of these things now . . . He just had to focus on making sure his friends and family knew for certain that he didn't intend on taking the easy path like Artemis had. Instead, he was going to focus on living and school. Then after that, he would enjoy college with Dick and the partying they would surely do. Once he had the right education, he would go on to be a scientist like his uncle and live the life he was born to have.
. . . But as his life would be lived, the ending of him and Artemis' unlived love would haunt him in his sleep. Because no matter how he looked at it, he didn't like the ending.
Not at all.
But there was nothing that could be done nor could it be erased . . .
Nothing at all.
Oh, I thought you'd be here by now.
Thought you'd be here by now . . .
A/N- So was that sequel good? Please tell me by reviewing! This was 2,366 words.