Wally knew that this wouldn't be easy. He and Artemis had been together for five years. It was just wrong to imagine having to go to class and work and come home in the evening to an empty house where the only thing to do was sit and worry about what she was doing. Was she okay? Did someone figure her out and they just hadn't received word on it. He couldn't even talk to anyone about it. The only people who knew were either undercover or too paranoid that someone might be listening in. He knew that his parents would have no problem listening, but it was killing him to have to pretend that she was really gone.
Pretending was the hardest thing for him besides of course the worry. There were several times that he even convinced himself that she was really gone. At first he hated lying to everyone. The worst was when he had to tell Mrs. Crock that she had lost a second daughter and this one for good. He watched as the woman who was once Huntress sat silently and cried. That was the worst kind of crying, when you can't move to stop yourself, you're just numb and crying and it hurts more than the sobs that cause your entire body to shake, because you're so helpless that you can't even stop yourself, and Wally sat there just as frozen and was forced to watch her cry, after all what else could he do. Eventually she was able to take a few deep breaths. She looked Wally straight in the eyes and asked him who was responsible for her daughter's death. Not who killed her, who was responsible. That stopped Wally. Technically both in and out of this yarn ball of lies it was Dick's fault, but he didn't want Mrs. Crock to hate his best friend, so instead he told her it was Aqualad. She nodded her head quietly and then she asked him if the man responsible for her daughter's death knew what he had done, not just to Artemis but also to everyone who loved her. Wally didn't know how to answer that, so he just left.
Wally cried at the funeral. He knew that it wasn't real, and Artemis was still alive and hopefully healthy, but he couldn't help it, because what if this was real. What if Artemis did die and leave him alone to deal with everything that was happening in the world without her there to make sure that he didn't get into too much trouble. Mrs. Crock didn't cry. After the funeral she told him that she had done most of her crying years ago when she lost Jade to Sportsmaster. Then she cried for both of her daughters. For Jade, because she knew that her baby was going to be forced to do things that no one should ever have to do, and for Artemis because she was already too old for her age. She had been put through so much by her own family and despite all of that she was still standing there hugging her teddy bear that one of Jade's ex-boyfriends won for her at a carnival that had been tossed aside as soon as she got to their room. She looked at her mom with so much distrust and fear that scared Paula. She didn't want to have to think about everything her baby had been through. Of course she didn't know then that her daughter was going to become a superhero and risk her life on a daily basis. She only knew what she saw and that it scared her more than anything else.
Wally went home alone after the funeral he went to the bedroom and stared at the ceiling wishing for his life back.