AN: Chapter 2 is HERE! Hopefully you enjoy reading it. Re-wrote half of it begrudgingly before posting it here, but never the less.
January 1, 2017, 08:20, Watchtower
Artemis ran. She ran like never before, but it looked as if she was getting nowhere. Gunshots and explosions rang off in every which direction. Wooden huts and trees past as she ran, her pursuer didn't seem to be falling behind though. The sky was red, not like a sunset, but like blood. Suddenly, the ground rushed up to meet her as a foot got caught in the tree roots below her. 'What an amature mistake' she thought. The previously somewhat lit ground around her was now dark. A figure stood above her. She looked up at the person chasing her. The man had a black mask on, with red hair. A knife suddenly protruded from the head, blood dripping from the gleaming blade. The man with the black mask fell limp on the ground and disappeared. Behind him another man stood, the blade by his side. Just as she was about to be able to make out some facial features she was being shaken by a set of arms.
Jolting awake, Artemis was about to attack out of instinct until she saw the familiar ginger's face.
"Hey, you ok?" Wally asked. "With the amount of shaking you were doing I figured you were having a bad dream or something."
She looked at him a bit more, searching his eyes, making sure she wasn't still dreaming. She smiled.
"Yeah, but it's fine. I have those once in a while," she answered. More like all the time now. Ever since he died, terrible dreams haunted her. This one seemed more like a scary version of a memory though, or maybe it was that scary and she never realized it. The blonde held Wally a bit tighter. "When did you wake up?"
"Well I was half awake about 5 minutes ago, but you started to shake and tremble. Was my Arty scared?" he said teasingly.
She held him a little tighter, causing him to groan in pain, "Oh please, me scared? When have you ever seen that?"
"Auhh - That hurt! And I've seen it a few times," he exclaimed, pulling her even tighter to his side.
"Name one." Artemis was on the offensive now.
"When we first got Brucely. You weren't sure if you were actually capable of taking care of another being. Said something about, 'my father didn't teach me restraint or compassion', which he didn't need to teach you by the way, you have tons of both. Hell, I'd be dead loooong ago if you had no restraint," he babbled.
Her smile faltered for a split second, anyone besides Wally wouldn't have seen it. She changed the subject, "So do you know when you can come home?"
As if on queue, Black Canary walked in to answer her, "Actually, he can go home right now. We've done everything we can here, now he just needs time and bedrest."
Artemis unwrapped herself from the redhead and stood up, "Are you sure, I mean I don't wanna rush him home, only to have to bring him back a few days later."
"Oh trust me, you aren't rushing anything. Like I said, we've done everything we can, time is the only thing he needs now," Dinah said.
Artemis shot her a confused look, "What do you mean, not rushing anything?"
Dinah was about to answer her when Wally cut in, "Uh babe, I've been here for about 3 weeks."
The archer turned to face him, pure rage filled her eyes.
"Dinah help! She might kill me before I can explain!" Wally cried.
"I WAS COMPLETELY DEPRESSED, YESTERDAY ESPECIALLY! AND YOU'VE BEEN HERE FOR 3 WEEKS!" Artemis turned her head towards Black Canary, "AND YOU NEVER SAID ANYTHING!"
"Artemis, calm down, let me explain ok?" Wally said as calmly as one could with an angry Artemis in the room.
"WHAT POSSIBLE REASON COULD YOU HAVE?!" she turned her head towards him again, tears starting to form.
"BECAUSE, we didn't want you to see me when I first got here. I only caught a peek at myself in a mirror as they rushed me here, but it wasn't good," he said.
Dinah cut in, "We didn't bother with an injury list when he first got here, there was no point. So much was wrong we barely knew where to start. If he didn't have this strange increase in his healing factor... he would have been dead. He's been out basically up until 3 days ago. I'm the one that made the call to not tell you or your friends until the day before yesterday. I didn't want you, or anyone else to have to go through the grief of him dieing again. Richard found out about 2 weeks after Wally got here, M'gann only knew about 5 days ago because J'ohn had some other matters to attend to."
Artemis sat back down on the bed, processing all the information. She felt an arm snake its way around her waist.
"Babe, to be honest, I didn't even really know I was here. Like she said, the injury list was so long I don't even wanna know what was wrong with me. But I'm here now, so can we please go home? I've only been awake for 3 days and I already hate hospitals." He tried to inject some humor into the situation.
She let out a small laugh, it was the first time she had in a while. "Ok. I'm guessing you need a hand getting up."
"Yeah, probably need a bit of help walking too, that tumble last night really shook up my foot," the redhead exclaimed.
"Yeah, sorry, was kinda angry last night. They did that to me about 2 months ago, you don't wanna know what happened afterwards," she said, as she helped him sit upright.
Black Canary stood in the doorway and watched as Artemis helped Wally to his feet and smirked. 'They are such a cute couple, they should've listened to me ages ago,' she thought, and with that left the room. Artemis and Wally got to the teleporter, with much groaning, once there Artemis gave the location and they were off.
January 1, 2017, 17:30, Gotham
As they exited the building they teleported to, Wally took in his surroundings and was confused.
"Ummm babe, this is Gotham."
They hobbled to a bench near the street, it may have been 8:30am on the watchtower, but it was 9:30pm in Gotham. The sky was filled with dark clouds, partially lit by the glow of the city. Their breath came out as white smoke due to the cold. Trees lined the street they were sitting at.
"I'll explain in a second," she said as she took the phone out of her jean's pocket. Calling a cab, they said they would be there in about 2 minutes. She sat down beside Wally on the bench, shoving her phone back in the pocket it came from.
"So?" Wally said looking at her.
"A cab will be here in a couple minutes," she said, leaning in close to Wally because she stupidly forgot her coat and was only wearing a brown longsleeve shirt. His arm wrapped around her.
"No I mean why are we in Gotham, our place is in Palo… right"
"Yeah... I mean... it still is but… I moved in with Dick a few months after you… were gone," she answered shyly.
"Huh? Why'd you do that?"
"Because… it was hard living in our place without you."
He pulled her closer, bringing his other arm around her front, "Oh… sorry."
"Don't be sorry, if it wasn't for you, none of us would be here."
They sat in silence as the snow started to fall. The cab arrived about 5 minutes later and they climbed in.
"Take us to the corner of 93rd and North," Artemis said, a little bitter that she had to wait so long for the cab to get there.
"You got it miss," the cabby said, ignoring the rudeness.
The couple resumed their cuddling and silence until they reached their destination. Artemis paid the driver and they got out onto the freshly covered sidewalk.
"So Arty, where's this place of yours?" he asked, putting his arm around her shoulders both for support and to keep warming her.
"Damn, I should have taken us closer, this is where me and Dick usually stop, to make sure we aren't followed home," she answered. "Well, we'd better get moving, its gunna take us a while with your brokenness."
Wally snickered, "Yup, I'm pretty broken right. Its healing quite fast though. I can already put quite a bit of pressure on my foot. Being at a slow limp after what I was described is damn good."
The blonde wrapped her arm around the back of his chest, supporting him further so they could get moving.
"What is wrong with your foot anyways? I mean, I can tell you have broken ribs, but was your foot broken too?" She tried not to think about it too hard to keep the emotions out, at least for a little bit.
"Apparently it was completely shattered. I think, disfigured, was the word my uncle used. The fact that I have any mobility in it at all is amazing, nevermind the fact that its actually getting better. J'ohn thinks I should be able to properly stand in a few days."
She smiled, "Good because carrying you around like this forever would be a huge pain in the ass."
"Its strange, ever since I got back, J'ohn said I have been healing abnormally fast. I mean, for him to say something is abnormal, this must be, outta this world." He shot a smirk at Artemis.
She sighed, "Ugh, that was a terrible joke, so basically pretty normal for you."
He made a overdramatic frown at her, "That wasn't very nice."
"Wasn't trying to be, Wall-man." She laughed again. God it felt good to laugh sincerely again, not faking it like she had been for so long. The smile stuck with her the rest of the way home. She decided not to prod him for information until he was healed better.
She stopped infront of a discrete, grey, 6 story apartment building after about 10 minutes of walking/hobbling.
"So this is the place huh?" Wally said, looking up at the building.
"Yup." She replied as she brought him into a hug. "I'm so glad your back."
"Me too Artemis, me too," he said, as he leaned down a bit and kissed her. The snow continued to fall around the couple on the deserted street as they passionately made up for some of the time they spent apart.
AN: I'm happy, yet unhappy with this ending, oh well. Look out for chapter 3, I'm hoping to have it done in a few days. If it isn't, pester me and I'll git 'er dun!