After a cold-weather mission leaves Artemis under the weather, the team takes care of her. Pure fluff.
Heading out on another mission, the team was headed for the Himalayas in Megan's bioship. Reports of hikers and tourists going missing as well of sightings of Yeti were sending them to investigate if it was related to the Venom cases on Isla Santa Prisca.
-Some time later-
Artemis was in trouble. The team was ambushed by what one could only call Yetis. They were huge, snarling beasts, 10 feet tall with shaggy white fur and very long, sharp fangs and claws. Maybe they were actually White Mountain apes hyped up on Venom or some kind of Cadmus experiment but whatever they were, they barreled down on the young heroes forcing them to separate. The Himalayas were treacherous and as each went their own way, they lost sight of each other. Artemis was going downhill, turned into a valley, only to jump up onto a ledge before shooting at her target. Fortunately only one of the beasts had followed her and its momentary confusion over losing sight of her gave her enough time to line up her shot. She wasn't supposed to kill them but taking them down without full force was difficult unless you were able to surprise them. The arrow held true and shocked the animal with enough voltage to take out an elephant. She hoped. It snarled and thrashed, but when the charge was done, it stood there smoking before falling over, unconscious. Breathing a sigh of relief, she took stock of her surroundings. She could hear shouts and roars but the sounds echoed off the mountains and she couldn't tell where they were coming from or how far away they were. Her com link was nothing but static, the mountains most likely blocking the signal. Next she tried the mental link she shared with her teammates but received no response. She wondered if something had happened to Megan. Her best course, she decided, was to head back the way she came or until she could find a higher vantage point.
As she passed the beast, which took up most of the space in the narrow valley floor, a residual charge caused it to twitch. Ever cautious, Artemis noticed and jumped back to aim her weapon at it. However, her foot landed at the edge of a creek flowing between the peaks. The frozen water cracked and her foot sinking was enough to cause her to lose her balance and she fell through the thin layer of ice into the freezing water. Fortunately the water wasn't very deep but her clothes were soaked and she was chilled to the bone. She had no choice but to stay in her wet things as there was no place to offer her shelter and certainly nothing to change into. She convinced herself if she kept moving it would be enough to keep her warm. Using a net arrow to keep the monster prone so they could pick it up later for testing she hoofed it double time back the way she had come, planning on helping her teammates and making it back to the bioship.
She ran into two more of the beasts but they seemed slow and her volt arrows took care of them and similarly tied up with a net arrow. She thought she was getting close to where they had landed but the mountain makes its own weather. Once, sunny and clear skies were now dark and cloudy. A cold wind picked up and snow began to fell. It wasn't enough to limit her visibility much but the wind would have been chilling had she been dry. Being wet, the wind felt like it was freezing the very blood in her veins. By the time she did make it back to the bioship, her hair really was frozen and her teeth were chattering. Her clothes were mostly dry at least. The other members were waiting for her and Superboy had one of the beasts trussed up, draped over his shoulder like a sack of flour. She was relieved to see no one was hurt, though Superboy's shirt was ripped to shreds, as usual. Wally was sitting on a snow-covered rock and piling snow into a tiny snowman. His costume had a few scratches but nothing too serious. Aqualad was presumably on the lookout for anymore of the creatures.
"Megan, what happened? I couldn't get in contact with anyone," Artemis questioned, just barely keeping her teeth from chattering.
"I'm sorry," Megan apologized. "I think between the high mountain peaks and the heavy snow, there was too much interference, not to mention being busy with those monsters."
"Well I'm glad everyone's alright. I ran into a few of those beasts and tied them up. Do we retrieve them now or later?"
Robin, who looked no worse for wear, answered her, "It's too dangerous for us to take them if they were to wake in transport. We'll leave them for the League to pick up." She nodded and they all boarded, ready to return back to base.
Once they returned and Megan docked the ship, they all got up to leave, but when Artemis stood, a sudden wave of dizziness overcame her and her knees buckled. Fortunately Wally noticed and was at her side in an instant to catch her.
"Artemis, what's wrong?" He held onto her waist as it was apparent she couldn't stand on her own. He noticed her hair was wet and there were still a few ice crystals in the golden strands. Her face was flushed more than he thought it should be as well.
"I feel so dizzy," Artemis moaned. He lifted one of her arms to lay it on top of his shoulders as Robin came back toward them. Artemis gratefully clung to Wally as he seemed to be the only thing not spinning. Robin put up his arm with the scanner on it and checked her vitals.
"She's got a pretty high fever. We should probably get her to the sick bay." So Wally scooped her easily up into his arms, carrying her out of the ship. Artemis closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against Wally's shoulder, tightening her arms around his neck and hoping she wouldn't get anymore sick because she really didn't want to throw up all over the front of his costume. She would never hear the end of it.
After a moment she was gently deposited on a bed. She opened her eyes enough to see Wally leaning over her. The light was behind his head giving him a halo which threw his face into darkness but made his emerald eyes seemingly glow. He looked almost angelic. Then Artemis mentally snorted at the idea of Wally being angelic. She heard voices around her as she passed out.
When she awoke, someone had changed her into flannel pajamas and blankets were heaped up on top of her. She felt sweltering but was still shivering. She looked to her side to see Wally, now in his street clothes, sitting in the chair beside her bed. When he noticed her gaze, he moved over to the side of the bed and sat, careful not to crush her arm. He leaned over with an uncharacteristically tender expression on his face and brushed some sweat-damp hair out of her face.
"How're you feeling?" he inquired. The blonde tried to speak but nothing came out. Wally grabbed a cup of water off a nearby table and brought it to her. After she'd had enough, he put it back.
"I'm hot. Do I really need so many blankets?" she croaked.
"You were just this side of catching pneumonia so, yes, you do. What happened? The rest of us were fighting in the snow and wind just like you but none of us got sick."
She gave him a long-suffering look. "For one thing, most of you have superpowers. You've probably never been sick a day in your life. For another, I fell into a creek and got soaking wet."
It was his turn to give her a look. "What were you doing falling into a creek? That's not like our agile archer."
"Everyone can mess up and with all the snow I didn't see it and the beast startled me, I thought it would start attacking again, and I keep babbling. I must be sick to be talking this much." Wally chuckled.
"Well, whatever happened you're safe now. Come on, it's time for your medicine." He helped her sit up; propping up some pillows, then picked some pills off the side table along with the glass of water again. Finishing that, he tucked her back into bed, try as she might to push some of the heavy comforters off. He told her to get some more sleep and she gratefully obliged.
When she awoke again, she was disoriented about where she was and what time it was. It took a moment for the memories to come back and then she noticed that Kaldur was now seated in the chair beside her bed. When he noticed her gaze he answered her unspoken questions.
"You are in the sick bay, still with fever, though not as high and it is about 10 o'clock in the morning." The blonde didn't even question how he knew what she wanted to ask, but focused on what he was doing.
"Is that sudoku?"
"Yes, I find that it helps exercise my cognitive abilities and helps me to focus my mind. It's fun too," he smiled at the last part. Artemis smiled back. After a moment she found herself dozing off at the rhythmic scritch-scritch of his pencil on the paper.
A smell awoke the archer this time. She opened her eyes sleepily, then turned her head to see who sat in the chair this time. It was Megan and she was peeling apples. When the Martian observed she was no longer asleep she smiled big and offered one of the slices from a plate. It was then Artemis saw that the slices were weirdly shaped. She looked questioningly at the red head who began to explain.
"I saw this cartoon on TV and it showed someone in the hospital and the person who visited them cut the apple into shapes like these. They're supposed to be bunnies, see?" The blonde nodded, understanding. She ate a few slices while listening to Megan chatter about school and the cheerleading team she was on. It wasn't long before she fell asleep once again.
Artemis kept hearing a clicking noise. She finally roused herself enough to open her eyes and see what it was. Robin was the first thing she saw, in his civvies. Connor was seated across from him. They had brought in another chair and a table where they had a game of chess going on. The pieces clinking on the board was the noise she'd heard. Superboy had a look of intense concentration on his face while Robin looked right as rain. Robin was obviously winning and the boy of steel wasn't happy at the prospect of losing. Seeing Artemis watching them he pointed her out to Robin. They both faced her, Robin starting to tell a joke about his teammates, which was cut short by Superboy. They asked how she was and she realized she felt so much better. Sitting up, she took a deep breath. Her head felt clear and she felt refreshed.
"How long did I sleep?"
Oh, about two days. Don't worry, we informed your school and your mom," Robin answered her. Surprised at having slept two days and only waking up a few times, she stood up so she could stretch. Right about then, Megan walked in with a change of clothes for her, with Wally close on her heels.
"Good, you're awake! You kept sleeping so long but everyone said that was best for you. I brought you some clothes since I figured you'd want to change once you got up." Artemis took the clothes, grateful, then looked around at them for a moment, remembering how whenever she woke up there had been someone there.
"Did you all watch over me?"
"Yep! We all wanted to take care of you so we took turns. Do you feel well enough to walk around? Maybe a walk on the beach would be good," Megan suggested.
Artemis nodded. She warmed at the thought that she had such friends who would take care of her while sick, especially when it was just a cold. Perhaps a very bad cold, according to what Wally had said, but still. She'd never had that luxury before and couldn't quite believe how lucky she was. She impulsively hugged the nearest person who happened to be Wally. She wasn't sure when that happened but it didn't bother her. He was the person who had carried her and the first person she woke up to. He blushed and stammered, unsure how to take this sudden affection on her part in front of the others, but patting her on the back just the same. The others were at first shocked then laughing at his reaction. The archer pulled away and smirked. Now she knew how to shut him up! She smiled at all of them then, proud to have every one as a friend and teammate, and happy to know they had her back.