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A/N: Some much needed "family" time with Ollie and Artemis. This is just how I think Artemis could have ended up at Stanford. It starts about six months after season 1 ends. It won't be too long, maybe three or four chapters in total.

Acceptance

When the police finished loading the would-be criminals into the back of the squad car, Green Arrow turned to look at her. "Nice shooting, Artemis," he praised. "I can see you're improving." The older archer gave her a genuine smile. There was pride in his expression. Artemis felt her cheeks warm.

"Thanks," she replied. "Anything I should work on before next week?" Despite her mentor always having words of encouragement for her, Artemis had always dealt better with criticism. It came from her father's training.

Green Arrow continued to grin at his protégé. "You're doing just great, kiddo," he answered. "Keep up with your training regimen and you'll be in good shape." In the distance, the Star City clock tower struck midnight. "It's late," he said. "I don't feel comfortable letting you walk through Gotham at this hour. You should come back with me."

Artemis was surprised at the older archer's offer. It wasn't one that came along a whole lot. She was fine with that. She figured being able to follow in his footsteps was enough and if he wanted to keep his personal life separate, that was completely understandable.

On the other hand, it was late and it would be even later in Gotham. Artemis didn't relish the idea of walking the streets of her hometown at this time of night. Who knew what might be lurking on the streets of Gotham? It wasn't that Artemis couldn't handle herself. She knew she could. But it was nice of her fake uncle to be concerned for her. "Okay," she agreed at last. "I'll need to call my mom though."

"Not a problem," the hero said cheerfully. He led the younger archer through the city to where the car was parked. Artemis had once heard him call it the "Arrowcar" but she wasn't sure if he had been kidding or not.

As Ollie maneuvered the car through the now peaceful streets of Star City, Artemis called her mother and told her the plan. Paula was happy to hear about Green Arrow's considerate offer and lectured her daughter about making sure to thank him for it. "I will, Mom," Artemis promised. "I'll see you tomorrow. Love you."

The young heroine hung up the phone and glanced up at her mentor. "She said I'm supposed to thank you."

Ollie grinned. "No problem, Arty."

Artemis groaned. "Please don't call me that," she said. "I just got Wally to stop saying it."

"And how is that boyfriend of yours?" the Emerald Archer questioned. "He's treating you right, I hope." There was a bit of a subtle growl to his voice that Artemis didn't miss.

"He's good," the teenager replied. "And he is treating me right. I'd kick his ass if he didn't."

Green Arrow chuckled as he turned the car through the gates of his mansion. "That's my girl," he said. Instead of a growl, now the younger blonde could detect a hint of pride. There was no denying that it was nice to have someone be proud of her.

Ollie parked the car in the garage and led her into the house. "The bed has clean sheets," he told her as she followed him up the winding staircase to the second storey landing. "Night, kiddo," he continued. "See you in the morning."

"Night, Ollie," Artemis replied. She turned to the pristine white door at the far end of the hallway and twisted the knob. She dumped her gear on the floor and helped herself to a pair of pajamas from the bottom dresser drawer. She shook out her long blonde hair from its ponytail and went to brush her teeth.

The archer had just settled into the massive bed with her phone when there was a knock on her door. Ollie poked his head in. He cleared his throat, causing his protégé to look up from the text she had been writing to Wally. "Hey, Artemis," he began. He sounded a little nervous. "Do you want to go to breakfast later? I want to talk to you about something."

The teenager definitely hadn't been expecting that. She briefly wondered if she was in some kind of trouble. "Sure," she said finally. It wasn't often that he requested to talk to her outside of heroing. Artemis had to admit that she was curious.

The Emerald Archer grinned. "Great," he said. "See you then." He stepped out of the room and shut the door behind him once more.

Artemis looked down at her phone and erased the half-finished message. Instead she wrote, 'Have to meet later than we planned. GA wants to talk. He's taking me to breakfast.'

Wally's reply came about five second after Artemis hit the send button. 'Warn me if he wants to kill me, please. I'm too young to die.'

Artemis rolled her eyes. 'I don't think it's about you.' She smiled slightly to herself and added, 'Go to sleep, Baywatch.'

'Will do. Love you babe.'

She set her phone aside and closed her eyes. She fell asleep wondering what Ollie wanted to talk to her about so about so badly.

0o0o0o0

Later that morning, Artemis took a long shower and dressed in more of the clothes from the fully stocked wardrobe. She briefly wondered why she didn't take advantage of the clothes Ollie had bought for her more often.

Downstairs, she found Black Canary sitting at the table in the kitchen sipping coffee. It was common knowledge that Green Arrow and Black Canary had been a couple for awhile, but it was kind of strange for Artemis to see her combat instructor outside of the training room at the cave. It was like the equivalent of having a teacher date your parent.

"Hello, Artemis," the older blonde woman greeted. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, I did. Thanks." She leaned against the counter awkwardly. She wasn't sure what to do with herself.

"Coffee's good," Black Canary told her finally. "And I think Ollie has tea."

Artemis rummaged in the cabinet and found the tea. She prepared a cup for herself and sat down next to the older hero. "So…Black Canary," Artemis began. She was stopped by the other woman holding up a hand.

"I think you can call me Dinah outside of training," she interrupted in a gentle tone.

"Okay," Artemis agreed. "Dinah, do you know what Ollie wants to talk to me about? He didn't tell me last night and I thought it must be important if he wants to set aside time for it specially. I just want to know if I should be expecting anything bad."

Dinah smiled at the younger girl. "Don't worry so much, Artemis," she said as she got up from the table. "Everything will be fine. Have a good time. I'll see you tomorrow for training." Black Canary made her way through the kitchen and disappeared down the corridor.

When people told Artemis that everything would be fine, nothing ever turned out fine. So there was only one explanation for Ollie wanted to take her out and have a discussion with her.

Green Arrow didn't want her as his sidekick anymore.

She swallowed hard. All of the pieces were there. He hadn't had any tips or pointers for her the night before. He had said she was in good shape. It had seemed like an innocent enough comment at the time, but now Artemis wasn't sure. Maybe Ollie had found someone better to train.

A voice that sounded suspiciously like her father's spoke up inside her head. 'You should have known this was coming,' it said maliciously. 'Why would he want to train you? There's nothing special about you.'

"Stop it," the blonde said quietly to herself. The archer forced herself to unclench the fists her hands had made of their own accord. She smoothed down her T-shirt and tightened her ponytail to give herself something else to focus on.

"Ready to go, Artemis?" Green Arrow asked in his cheerful tone as he walked into the kitchen. He was grinning. It didn't seem like the kind of expression someone who wanted to break up a partnership wore.

'But this is Ollie,' the girl reminded herself. 'He's always in a good mood.' But she had been trained to not let herself get attached to anyone or anything. Artemis put on her very best blank mask and looked up at the hero. "Yes."

The billionaire led the way out to the garage. He was still beaming happily as he opened the car door for her. The younger blonde kind of wished he would stop being so damn cheerful. It was kind of insulting that he could be so exuberant when he was planning to stop working with her.

He turned the key in the ignition and carefully backed the car out of the garage. Ollie chattered away as he drove through Star City toward a pancake house he had taken her to once before. Artemis couldn't force herself to pay attention to what the older archer was saying, but she did smile or nod whenever he glanced at her.

They were seated almost immediately. Ollie ordered coffee to start with and didn't speak again until the waitress came back to take their orders. He looked almost thoughtful as he looked at his protégé. He was probably trying to think of the kindest way to break it to her. Above all else, Ollie was a decent guy. She was sure he would never be excessively cruel about anything.

The waitress came back with the mountain of food Artemis had ordered. She knew there was no way she'd finish it all, but she wanted to be a little petty. It wasn't like Ollie couldn't afford to treat her to a Wally-sized meal.

"So, Artemis, I've been thinking…" Ollie started. He looked kind of excited, which was the last straw for Artemis.

"Don't make me quit," she interrupted. "I know there's more you can teach me. I don't want to quit this partnership. I'll do anything. I'll work twice as hard and I'll-"

The Emerald Archer frowned at the girl opposite him. "What are you talking about? Who said anything about you not being my partner?" His expression was genuinely concerned, and it left Artemis feeling stupid.

"Dinah said everything would be fine," Artemis answered in a small voice. "Nothing ever turns out fine when someone says it will. I thought she was trying to comfort me. It made sense. You didn't tell me what to work on and I thought it meant you wanted to be done with me."

"Sweetheart, no," Ollie said. Normally she would not have felt comfortable with the pet name, but it sounded kind of natural coming from him. "I have plenty to teach you. You have tons of raw potential and you'll be able to do a lot with it. What I wanted to talk to you about was college."

Artemis blinked in surprise. That was definitely not what she had been expecting. "College?" she repeated. "What about it?"

"One thing my father always told me was that having a good education was one of the best investments you could make. And I know I'm not your father, but I'm going to tell you the same thing anyway. You're going to be a junior in the fall, right?"

The blonde teenager nodded. She still didn't get where her mentor was going with this. Despite everyone in her grade at Gotham Academy being obsessed with schools and majors and everything, Artemis had never really thought about college before. Mostly because before last summer, it had never really been an option for her. She had figured she'd be with the Shadows until she was no longer useful to them.

Ollie smiled again. "Junior year is important," he told her. "I'm not saying you won't have a lot to do to catch up with kids who have been planning their applications since middle school. But you're smart and determined. Plus there's one other thing you have going for you."

"What's that?"

"You have me in your corner."

It was maybe the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her. But she was still confused. "So you want me to go to college," Artemis said to clarify. "What decent school would look twice at me? I mean, look at where I come from."

And then Green Arrow did something she had rarely seen him do. He frowned again and his brows knit themselves together. "You're a special case, Artemis. Maybe you come from a rough place. So what? You're a fighter. You haven't given into that life. You go to Gotham Academy, which is a great school."

"I'm on a scholarship," Artemis pointed out.

He ignored her. "I looked at your transcripts. Since you transferred from Gotham North, there are improvements in your grades clear across the board. Prep school is a big transition and you nailed it. Keep that up and every school you apply to will be offering you a spot."

Artemis still wasn't convinced of the older archer's decidedly insane plan. "It's more than grades though, isn't it?" she questioned. "Don't they want a ton of community service and volunteering?" She glanced around and then added in a lower voice, "It's not like I can put 'Green Arrow's sidekick' on my applications."

"Partner," he corrected. "And it is more than grades. You'll need a good SAT score and an essay that sets you apart. Volunteer work is good, but having a prestigious internship at Queen Industries is better."

"Can you do that? It's not fair to just go around handing out internships to people you know personally."

Ollie shrugged. "I'm the boss," he said. "Plus, you did apply for it. I filled out the paperwork for you."

Artemis was reminded of what her mother had said when she got her acceptance letter to Gotham Academy. Now she was being handed another chance to better her life. And Ollie looked so happy that he could help her and like he genuinely wanted to. She had to at least try now that he had handed her all the tools she needed. "That sounds like a great opportunity," the blonde teenager replied. She was parroting Bette Kane, but he didn't need to know that. "Thank you."

The Emerald Archer looked pleased at her acceptance. "You're welcome. It's a paid internship by the way. I thought we could open a college fund for you. I know you want to do things for yourself, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's a good quality to have. But there's nothing wrong with needing a little bit of help. That's what I'm here for, right?"

"Yeah," Artemis agreed. "I guess it is."