Jade realized that she couldn't keep going on the way she had been in the middle of January. It was cold and the air smelled strongly of leftover Christmas trees. The smell permeated her senses and riled her stomach. As she hunched over and heaved into her weapons bag, Jade was struck with what loomed ahead.

"Hiya, sis." Jade smiled down at her sister, who was curled up against her speedster. Artemis woke quickly, hair flying around her as she sat up. There was a half second pause before Artemis dove for her older sister, but it was enough. Jade slipped out of the way easily.

"Calm down, Arty," the older girl chose the nickname carefully, one that had always bothered her younger sister. But Artemis shoved Jade into a chest of drawers, diving for something on the nearby floor.

"Look, I quit okay? I'm just a college kid, so leave me alone!" Artemis punctuated nearly every other word with an arrow, which Jade artfully dodged. She attempted to get near enough to Artemis to stop the other girl from throwing another arrow, but a pair of arms grasped her, halting her in place. Artemis froze, an arrow notched and pointed at Jade's chest.

"Why are you here?" Her words seemed to burn at her throat, as if the hate in them bubbled from her heart and into her speech. Jade, truthfully, was wounded by this.

"I'm in an awful mess and I don't mean maybe," Jade replied cleverly. Artemis's expression remained stony.

"Why should we care?" her boyfriend asked, his arms still encircling Jade. He was lean and smelled of barbecue. Jade didn't see the appeal.

"There's no 'we' about it, freckles. I need my sister, not her-"

"What do you need? Dad finally cut you loose and you don't know what to do without a puppeteer?"

"Ouch, Art, especially considering who was the real rule follower back in the day." Artemis's eyes narrowed at the words and Jade back pedaled. "I'm... This isn't what I came here for."

Artemis lowered the bow slightly at her sister's halting speech.

"I'm pregnant." The admission, so simple and honest, froze Artemis in place. The boyfriend's arms fall away, but neither sister gave this much notice. Artemis dropped the bow entirely after a moment.

"Shit," the younger sister replied.

Jade never liked to play with dolls or stuffed animals. She preferred to watch; watch the neighbors from their peephole as they walked down the faded hallway, watch the cars from their fire escape. Something in this memory struck Artemis now.

"Who's the... It's not Ro-Red Arrow?" The words stumbled out. Artemis was angry at this possibility, that Roy would do this to, or with, her sister and neither know more than the other's costume.

"Roy. I know his name, Artemis," Jade's voice sounded strained and she stared straight ahead. "But yes, it's his."

"How did he take it?" Artemis asked, looking up at Wally for assistance. Oblivious to her gaze, Wally glared steadily at her sister.

"She hasn't told him," Wally observed angrily and Jade's eyes moved from the wall to him. "Have you?"

"I can't track him down." Jade stared at him, a bloodthirsty look in her eyes. "My situation would look weak to my usual contacts. So I had to go with the second string. No offense, sis."

"You want us to track down your baby daddy?"

"This is the closest to normal family drama either of us have ever been in," Jade quipped. "Crazy isn't it?"

Jade was good at doctoring things. Artemis remembered being a kid and her sister sewing up a wound, still young herself. At the time, it had seemed fun, like a game. She'd gotten to hand Jade rubbing alcohol and pads, like a little nurse. Afterwards, Jade had kissed her forehead and promised to read her Harry Potter as a reward. Except, their father had walked in and Jade had provoked him and somehow Artemis never got to hear about the golden trio from her sister.

"Are you going to keep it?" Artemis asked, thinking of how her sister was so self-sufficient. The sisters were alone now, Wally had disappeared to try to find Roy after some convincing from Artemis.

"If it was you, you would, wouldn't you? That silly boy would marry you and you'd have the baby and raise it right. Hell, the kid would probably even have a curfew." Jade stirred a pot of noodles as she spoke. As soon as Wally had left, she'd declared she was hungry, assumedly to slow Artemis's attempts at conversation.

"Jade, that's not..." Artemis felt as though she was standing on a ledge. Say the wrong thing and Jade would shove her over the side. "You could do that too, if you wanted. You could do anything if you decided you wanted to. You're the top of the tops."

It was an old thing, some line from a movie that the pair had watched on their shitty television while their parents worked. Somehow it had become a comment that the girls would make to each other when times got tough. It was a joke, yet somehow it had become serious at the same time. When Artemis had a tough day at school, some young asshole plucking at her pigtails, Jade would smack her on the back of the head, tell her to dry those damn tears and remind her she was the top of the tops. Jade would come home too late one night, refusing to explain to Artemis why there was a bruise on her neck and she smelled of cigarettes, but Artemis would still remind her that she was the top of tops.

Jade ducked her head at the comment now and Artemis bit her lip, deciding whether to continue or let her sister think.

"If Roy wants to try and help me, I'd raise it. Wouldn't let the kid get away with shit either," Jade said this with a note of defiance in her voice. Artemis's heart warmed at that because she recognized the tone. It was the sound of Jade deciding something.

"Guess you'll have to think of a name then," Artemis said at length.
"Is that a hint I should name it after you?" Jade replied as she strained the now cooked pasta. Artemis shrugged, amusing Jade. "So what if it's a boy?"

"You could name it after Wally." Artemis said simply. Jade snorted.

"Hell could freeze over." Plucking a noodle from the strainer, Jade leaned against the counter.

"C'mon, you know it'd bug Roy to have the kid named after someone other than Kaldur." At Jade's confused look, Artemis explained. "Y'know, Aqualad... His name's Kal? He's the one with water and he's like Roy's best friend."

"Kal's a solid name," Jade responded, almost dreamily, as she continued to snack on pasta straight from the strainer.

"So if Roy doesn't... If he is stupid enough to not want to go with you on this, could you raise it? I mean, like with money?" Artemis stumbled over the words, but knew they must be asked. Jade shrugged in response.

"As much as if he was helping, at least with money. I'm entitled to half his shit, which is not much."

"Jade, you realize having a baby doesn't mean you get half his stuff, that's not how child support works."

"That's how marriage works, Arty." Jade countered. Off Artemis's shocked look, she continued. "It's true, he got me drunk enough to get hitched. We even got matching tattoos, which I'd show you but the placement isn't exactly family friendly."

Artemis wrinkled her nose and let out a noise of disgust. Before Jade could further comment, the door burst open. Wally stood with Kaldur, looks of concern etched across their features.

"There may be a problem," Wally said. Jade's posture had changed at the intrusion and her eyes narrowed at Kaldur, recognition washing over her. She did not know the boy himself, but she knew of him and his family.

"I'd say so. What's fish sticks doing here?" Jade moved away from the pair, blocking herself with Artemis's frame. If the boy's father was any indication, he was not to be trusted. She recognized that logically, her sister and herself were signs that this was not entirely true. But the boy's appearance still threw her for a loop, setting her off balance.

"I regret to inform you that Roy is not... He is not in any condition to be in the care of a child." Kaldur's expression was sad, as though he really was regretful.

"Drugs again?" Jade asked point-blank. Artemis's eyes bugged at the suggestion and Wally's jaw tensed, but the other boy remained calm. He nodded, almost bleakly. Jade swallowed, angry at herself for hoping and angry at Roy for giving up.

"However, I may have found a compromise." Kaldur held out his hand for Jade to shake and she stared at it dubiously.

"Off the suggestion, then offer the hand, gils."

"I will help you with your pregnancy, if you will help my best friend regain control of his life." Kaldur put it so simply, as if they were trading cookies at lunch in school. Jade liked that about him already.

"Deal."

Alright thanks to the ever lovely Dicey (thecivilunrest) for beta'ing and helping me figure out where I want to go with this in the next chapter (s). There will be at least one more part, maybe two.