Hey Y'all!

So this is my first Young Justice fanfic! It takes place right after season 1 ends in the five year gap. I got this idea from the child development classes that are offered at my school and I just couldn't let it go. So I really hope you enjoy this one-shot and reviews are greatly appreciated!

XOXO

-JB11

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice.

YJ

"Team, report for mission briefing," Batman's voice crackled into the earpiece wedged in Wally's ear. He was just about to take a bite out of his favorite sandwich, peanut butter banana ham and mustard. He frowned down at his sandwich before sticking it in the fridge. It was best not to keep the Batman waiting.

Wally sped up next to Robin; Wally dressed in his signature yellow and red uniform. Robin elbowed Wally in his side. "Where's your girlfriend?" he asked with a grin plastered on his face.

Wally smiled and shrugged at him. When he and Artemis first started dating, Robin's constant teasing would make him furious, but now it just made him smile. But now that he thought about it, Artemis was never late for a mission briefing; it worried him.

"Artemis, B07." Wally let out a breath in relief as the zeta tubes announced the arrival of a very unhappy Artemis carrying…a baby car seat?

"Sorry, I'm late," Artemis huffed. "I got…held up." She glared down at the car seat.

It finally clicked in Wally's head; Artemis had a baby, but? "Is that a…what…I mean when…I mean we never…then whose?"

"It's not mine, Baywatch. It's not even a real baby. It's for my child development class," Artemis sighed.

"Oh, okay good." Robin cackled at Wally.

"A baby?!" M'gann squealed. "I love babies!" M'gann flew to Artemis and stuck her face in the car seat and cooed. The robot child promptly started to cry. M'gann looked hurt. "Oh no, I don't understand. What's wrong?"

"It's nothing you did, Megan. I just fed her, she probably needs to burp." Artemis waved the pink wristband clasped around her wrist in front of the baby. It chirped its reply and continued its wailing. Artemis set the car seat down and lifted the child up against her shoulder and patted its back gently.

Batman cleared his throat, "Black Canary got word that there will be a large arms deal tonight in Starling City. Your mission is to stop it." He pulled up a map of Starling City and a point flashed onto the screen. "Here is where the deal is to go down." Four more locations appeared around the central node. "Here is where you will be located. Miss Martian and Zatanna, you will be in disguise at one end of the street. Superboy and Robin, you will also be undercover on the other side. Artemis and Raquel, I want you on the roofs on opposite sides of the alley. Kid Flash and Aqualad, you'll be stationed in a building lining the street on look out. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Aqualad answered. The baby finally burped and stopped crying.

"Good. You deploy in fifteen minutes." Batman's cape swished behind him as he turned to the zeta tubes and departed for Gotham.

"So, what's her name?" Zatanna giggled.

"Her name is Alice," Artemis gritted out. Zatanna nodded trying to hide her smile.

"Artemis, you realize you will have to leave it behind," Kaldur said.

"I can't, Kaldur. The wristband has a censor on it. I can only get so far away from her. But, Robin can fix it, right?" Artemis pleaded.

"I can't, we don't have enough time. Plus, don't you fail the project if they find out you tampered with the mechanics?" Robin cackled. "And even if I could, I wouldn't. I'm having too much fun watching you struggle."

"I really hate you," Artemis spit at him. "How am I supposed to carry this thing all night?"

"Oh, I know!" Raquel jumped in. "You can put it in one of those blanket thingies around your shoulder, ya know?"

"That could work," Artemis said thoughtfully.

"I'll get a blanket!" Wally yelled enthusiastically. He sped off quickly and returned with a small black blanket in a blur. It may not be his baby but he was going to care for this robot as if it were his own, his and Artemis's surrogate child.

"It's lucky Batman put me on the roofs so I don't have to fight," Artemis said fumbling with the baby and the blanket. "If this thing gets hit or I drop her; I fail the class."

Wally stepped forward to help her tie the corner of the blanket over her shoulder. It was a little uncomfortable at first for Artemis, because her quiver also needed to be adjusted to accommodate for the bundle, but after more fiddling, Artemis finally got everything situated and the team trooped off to the Bioship.

They were ten minutes away from the first drop off point, when the baby started to cry again. "Shit," Artemis complained. Robin laughed at her like it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. She pulled out the diaper bag she had stowed under her seat.

"What's wrong with her now?" M'gann asked worriedly.

"She needs to be changed. But, hopefully this will mean she won't cry during the mission. Assuming everything goes well." Which it seems, it never actually does, she thought. Artemis glared down at the child and quickly changed her with practiced ease.

They soon arrived over the first drop sight on the roofs. Artemis clipped the carabiner onto her belt. Wally walked over and checked the baby and her quiver, making sure everything was in place before she descended. He gave her a quick kiss, as he always does. "Be careful, babe. Take care of little Alice."

Artemis scoffed, "I will. You know she's not real though, right?"

Zatanna and Robin, clad in their civvies, were bent over double laughing at Wally. "Good luck, you guys," Artemis called as she jumped through the hole M'gann had opened and Raquel flew after her. Zatanna and Robin wiped the tears from their eyes.

They had been there for three hours and nothing had happened. Wally had already eaten his emergency snacks and was now very much regretting it. He sighed and collapsed into a dusty green arm chair in the abandoned apartment building he and Kaldur were stationed in. Are we sure this tip from Black Canary is legit? He thought.

Batman said it came from a reliable source, Robin replied.

Quit whiney, Wally, something's bound to happen soon, Artemis chastised her boyfriend.

Wally huffed and sank lower in the armchair. He was quite sure he would die of boredom any moment now. It was a few more agonizing minutes later when Wally heard a quiet, Damn it, from Artemis.

Language, 'mis, Robin laughed. It was a few more minutes before:

Will you shut that baby up?! Superboy growled.

Can't. The baby has attracted some very unwanted attention. I could really use some back up right now, Artemis thought.

Kaldur called, Raquel, go help Artemis. Everyone else stay in position. The arms deal could still go down. Sure enough a few moments later, Zatanna's thoughts were heard, Three guys, two men and a women, just passed us. One had a brief case. Should we pursue?

Yes, but be careful. M'gann go into camouflage mode, Kaldur commanded.

Robin responded with, A truck just parked right in front of us. A man…it's Sportsmaster…got out. He's headed into the alley.

Pursue. When they reach the middle, we attack, ordered Kaldur.

A gunshot, one, two, rang through the alley. Artemis's pain could be felt through the mind link and the constant humming of Raquel's brain vanished. I've…I've lost Raquel, M'gann murmured. Wally looked at Kaldur with wide, scared eyes. "Kid…" Kaldur started, but Wally had already run off.

Wally doesn't even remember running that fast in his entire life. He doesn't care if he probably just blew his cover, he doesn't care that Batman will probably chew him out for this later. All he could think was that Artemis was in trouble, Artemis was in pain, and she needed him. He wasn't going to lose her again.

He screeched to a halt on the top of the roof. There were the bodies of five goons littering the roof top. The baby nestled against Artemis chest had stopped crying. Artemis was kneeling above Raquel's limp body. Her right bicep was bleeding profusely.

"She's breathing, just unconscious," Artemis was breathing heavily. She sat back on her heels and slumped over. "This stupid baby better be worth it."

Wally laughed and crouched down next to her and embraced her. "Don't squish her. I worked hard enough keeping her safe just now," Artemis laughed before returning his hug, still cradling her injured arm.

"Are you okay? I…I heard gunshots and I thought…" Wally trailed off, staring at Artemis with the saddest, most relieved eyes she's ever seen.

"I'm fine, Wally. The bullet just grazed my arm. The first shot missed though." Wally hugged her tightly once more. "We need to help the others," Artemis finally said into his neck. "But we can't leave Raquel."

"I'll get her to the Bioship fast then I'll join the others." Artemis nodded and headed for the edge of the building. As she passed an unconscious man, she ribbed a piece of cloth off his shirt and wrapped her arm tightly to slow the bleeding a little. She then preceded down the fire escape to the alley.

Wally watched her go before zooming off with Raquel in his arms. When he had returned to the middle of the alley, Sportsmaster had seen the baby. He saw Wally skid right next to her. He looked from him to the baby, then back to him, then to Artemis.

"You!" Sportsmaster rounded on Wally shouting and brandishing his fists, one of which was clenched around a very sharp spear Wally noted. "You did this to my daughter! I'll slaughter you!"

Wally does not get scared by many things easily, but this angry, very dangerous man who believed that he had knocked up his daughter did. And he was very much afraid.

Sportsmaster threw his spear with all of his strength at Wally. Artemis expertly shot it out of the air with an arrow. This time he lunged at Artemis. "My daughter, the whore; who would've thought? Aren't you supposed to be above all of that, being a hero and all? I sure as hell didn't raise my daughter to be a whore!" Artemis clenched her jaw tightly and dodged most of his punches, most of them. He clipped the side of her head with one meaty fist and sent her reeling back in pain.

Wally wasn't quite as composed as Artemis. His vision turned as red as his hair. No one got away with calling his girlfriend a whore, no one.

Sportsmaster's head was met with hard blows from Wally's fists and together, Artemis and Wally took him down. The rest of the team finished with the buyers and called in the League to come and get the perpetrators. Artemis glanced at a still fuming Wally. "Thanks," she said. "For, you know, having my back."

"Hey, what are boyfriends for?" he replied, grinning wholeheartedly.

The team returned to the cave covered in bruises. Wally led Artemis into the infirmary and Raquel leaned heavily on Kaldur.

"I need to make my report to Batman. You will be okay?" Kaldur asked Raquel after lying her down on one of the beds.

"Thanks. I'll be fine," Raquel whispered. Kaldur passed Artemis and Wally on his way out of the room. He patted Wally on the shoulder and nodded to Artemis.

Wally cradled Alice in his arms. He was rocking her gently and Artemis watched them fondly. She had no doubts that Wally would make a good dad some day. It was her that she worried about.

"That's why I did it," she said softly. Wally looked up at her quizzically. "I mean, I took the child development class to…well, to learn how to be a good mother. I knew, that well you would want them eventually, and I wanted to give our kids the family I never had," her throat got choked up and she struggled to say the last few words.

Wally smiled at his girlfriend. Artemis had never been good with talking about her feelings, and she basically had just revealed that she wanted to have a life together; to grow old together and have a family of their own. Wally smiled at her and said, "You'll be a good mom." Artemis smiled back gratefully.

By the end of the week the whole team was tired of hearing the baby wail. Even Robin and Zatanna, who thought the whole thing was quite hilarious, thought the joke had gotten old and were thankful that Artemis was taking her back the next day. Wally was spending as much time as he could with the little robot. He was honestly going to miss her, of course he would never tell anyone this, but he couldn't help but to be saddened. His and Artemis's fake child was going away forever and he would never see her again. He supposed this is what it must feel like to send your kid off to college. Artemis, on the other hand, was extremely grateful to be ridding herself of little Alice. She was a pain. All Alice ever did was cry when she was hungry or cry when she needed to be burped or cry when she needed to be changed or cry just to cry and get on Artemis's nerves. Artemis was already having second thoughts on having kids in the future. If this is what having a baby will be like in a few years, she wasn't sure if she wanted them anymore, but watching Wally coo at Alice and cradle her like she was worth a million dollars (which really the thing was only worth like one-fifty or something) made it all worth it in Artemis's mind.

Artemis returned to the cave a week later grinning from ear to ear. "I got an 'A!'" she cheered. "That little bundle of wires and electronics got me an 'A.'"

Wally laughed at her. "Congratulations, babe. You deserved it."

"Yeah and what do we get? I think I deserve a few goodnight sleeps and some Starbucks for not smashing that thing," Zatanna grumbled from the couch. Robin cackled at his girlfriend and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

"Oh, Oh! Do I get an award for best aunt?" M'gann asked eagerly.

"If anyone deserves an award it's me," Raquel answered with a hand on her cocked hip and pursued lips. "I was the one who changed that thing that time you two were busy." Wally smirked at her and Artemis blushed slightly.

"I think we all did well caring for the android," Kaldur said calmly.

"That's Kal, all right," Robin stated. "Always the arbitrator."

"Well, I for one hope we never have to have another baby in the cave, real or not," Zatanna laughed.

Just then the Zeta tubes announced the arrival of Green Arrow and Black Canary. The two walked towards each other and clasped hands. "We have some very exciting news for all of you," Canary started beaming. She placed a hand on her stomach gently. "I'm expecting!"

"Oh shit."