Paula Crock sat in the living room of her Gotham apartment, anxiously waiting for her daughter to return. Artemis had her first mission with the 'Team' today, and Paula didn't know how it went, but she did have a first aid kit at the ready.
After what seemed like hours of waiting Artemis finally crawled through the window.
"Artemis." Paula yelped.
Artemis jumped and knocked an arrow aimed at her mother, but then she relaxed, seeing that it was just her mom.
"Mom, you almost scared me half to death!''
But Paula ignored her, "So, how was it?"
"It was fine." Artemis muttered unconvincingly, before starting to head to her room.
"Artemis! Get back here right now!" Paula yelled
Artemis slowly trudged back into the room
"Yes?" Artemis asked sarcastically
"Wait here." Paula commanded.
She wheel into the kitchen, and grabbed two mugs of hot chocolate, that were waiting on the stove. Paula had figured that her daughter might need a pick me up after the mission.
"What happened?" Paula asked when she got back into the room. She handed Artemis a mug of hot chocolate and motioned for Artemis to take a seat on the floor.
Artemis sat down on the floor and put her head in her hands, but not before taking a quick sip of her hot chocolate.
"They hate me." Artemis mumbled.
"I'm sure they don't hate you."
"Yes, they obviously do." Artemis replied
"But why? You're such—"
Artemis interrupted her, "They think I stole 'Red Arrow's' position on the team, they think that with me there, he won't come back. But it's not like he was going to come back anyway he's such a—"
"Artemis!" Her mother warned
"Jerk…I was going to say 'such a jerk'." Artemis defended
"Sure you were, honey."
"And then we had this mission, to protect some science chick. And it was just us waiting there with her, protecting her from the league of shadows, while she creates a cure to killer micro-bots."
Artemis took a deep breath
"I was on guard duty, with M'gann, and the assassins got in. Of course 'Kid Mouth' blames me, even though his precious M'gann was also on guard duty."
"Kid Mouth?" Paula questioned
"Kid Flash, an idiotic, brash, flirty, speedster."
"First impressions don't mean everything, Artemis."
Artemis just shrugged
"The other members of the team are fine I guess. Aqualad's a pretty good leader, M'gann truly is the nicest person I've ever met, Superboy is really cute, and Robin is…definitely Batman's sidekick."
"But Wally is just the worst! He's also impulsive and doesn't look before he leaps!"
"he sounds like just you, sometimes." Paula whispered to herself.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing honey."
"So then we moved science chick, and the assassins attacked again, but what they didn't expect was us to have moved the scientist to an internet cafe, and to have had M'gann pose as the science chick, to draw the assassins out. But their leader went in pursuit of her, so of course I followed."
"That's my girl."
"But in the end I wish I didn't follow, because the assassin's mask fell off, and guess who Cheshire was?"
"Wait, it wasn't your sister, was it?"
Artemis simply nodded, and Paula gasped.
"I can't believe she would do that," Paula sighed, "I should've been able too…" She got a far off look in her eyes, imagining what could've been.
"It's not your fault mom, it was dad's."
"I know honey, but if I would've been here, maybe I could've stopped him."
"No you couldn't have, not even Jade could."
But Paula just shook her head, "Enough about my problems."
Artemis looked at her mom an sighed,
"Mom, I can't do this. I'm on a team with the future members of the justice league, and I'm practically a villain."
Paula but her hand on Artemis's cheek.
"Artemis Crock, you are many things. You are strong-willed, arrogant, opinionated, rude, brash—"
"Wow this is really helpful." Artemis bit sarcastically, but Paula continued
"But you are also smart, caring, brave, generous, and too selfless for your own good. Artemis, you are many things, but I know for a fact that you are not a villain! I've seen villains, my husband, Jade, even I was once a villain. But you aren't! I see it in your eyes every time I look at you, I see that desire to help people. And that's what is going to make you such a great hero!
"Thanks mom." Artemis smiled sadly, tears threatening to fall down her face
"You have nothing to thank me for, I just told you the truth." Paula whispered.
Artemis jumped up and hugged her mother, and Paula hugged her back.
Maybe the hero life would be good for her daughter after all,
"What about that Kid Flash character?" Paula asked jokingly Artemis groaned
"I hate him, so much!"
"Of course you do honey." Paula said unconvincingly
"Oh please mom, I'd be more likely to go to some preppy private school, than date that idiot, I'll probably just try and ignore him." Artemis laughed, and Paula laughed too.
But it was mothers intuition, the Kid Flash character wasn't going away any time soon.