A big thanks to everyone who reviewed Chapter 1 and started following the story. You're all fabulous and while the wicked side of me loved having that cliffhanger at the end of the chapter, I will be posting the story bit and bit over the next couple days. This is a short chapter but I promise the next chapter will be much meatier. Enjoy!
Still set in-between "Salvage" and "Beneath."
Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice. If I did, this would have happened already.
CHAPTER 2
September 30th, 2007 14:35 EST – Stately Wayne Manor
"Come on Barbara, you can do it!"
"Richard Grayson, what makes you think I can possibly do this?"
She was 10 and it was her first time at Wayne Manor, the home of Dick Grayson. They had just gotten out of the pool and for some reason Dick was eager to show her the gym. She had only known him for a month and while she didn't know how it happened, Barbara found herself about to use the uneven bars even though she had no idea what she was doing and had the perfectly rational fear of dying from internal bleeding.
"Barbara, you have nothing to worry about. Just stay tight, squeeze your core and stay focused. Have your mind set on the goal from step one. "
"Look, Grayson, I'm more of a ground person and I can't –"
Dick took her hands and rubbed them with chalk. His palms and fingertips were calloused from his many years in the circus. His blue eyes fixed on hers and she couldn't bear to look away. "Stay focused," he repeated, "Stay tight. You control how your body moves through the air. Once you understand that … you can do anything."
Anything…, she thought. As he gave her room, she took a deep breath. She only had to try it once, to prove she could do it. She never did like backing down from a challenge.
Tightening up, she jumped to the high bar, swinging once before letting go at just the right time. In that moment in the air, she felt utter joy. No, not joy … thrill! She was flying! She embraced the rush of adrenaline that filled her entire body and as she grabbed the lower bar, she only craved more. … Of course, she crashed hard on the mat after letting go of the second bar, but any bruises were worth what she just felt.
"Babs!" Dick jumped down to get to her.
Oh, great, she thought, he's going to rub the landing in my face.
"You were fantastic!"
She blinked. "Wait, what?"
"You did so much better than I did my first time … granted I was four, but still! How did it feel?"
She looked at Dick, looked at the bars and looked back to him. "Teach me how to land," she said with a huge grin.
February 16, 2016 4:03 EST – Gotham
"Hey Barbara!"
Barb's eyes snapped back into focus as Tim jumped into her car.
"Oh, hi Timbo. How was school?"
He unceremoniously threw his school bag into the back as she pulled out of the Gotham Academy parking lot. "Boring as usual. But I got an A in Spanish."
"Enhorabuena!" she said as she ruffled his gel slicked hair.
"Jeez, watch it!" he said as he batted away her hand and pushed his hair back in place. "Thanks for picking me up."
"No problem, kiddo. I figured Alfred really needed a day off."
"And Dick's out of town."
Babs' smile fell. "Oh, right."
Tim winced at the slip. "He didn't tell you, did he?"
"We … just haven't talked to each other in a couple days."
Tim paused before responding. "Since Valentine's Day?"
Babs whipped her head in his direction. "What did he tell you?"
"Nothing!" Tim put hands up, "He just didn't come back to town until that afternoon and he barely talked to me. Then he gave me the night off and went out in Bruce's suit. Did you guys have a fight?"
She sighed. "Honestly, I'm not sure what we had."
Silence as the car moved through the Gotham suburbs, where the snow was just beginning to melt away.
What was he hiding about Wally that he couldn't tell his best girl … friend. His best friend who happens to be a girl. And not Wally. Didn't she deserve that much respect – that much trust – after all they've been through? But maybe he had always kept secrets from her … after all, it took a lost bat for her to discover who he really was.
As the ride became bumpy on the country road, the vibrations of the car hit her in just the right place and she was sent back into the time right before their fight, when she was on top of him. She could feel his hard, toned torso beneath her pelvis and his hands on her waist again. She had been so turned on that all he would have had to do was pull her head down to his and she would have happily –
"Maybe she loved him enough to quit when he asked!" "So what? You wouldn't ask me to quit!" "You aren't my girlfriend!"
She winced thinking of that moment. And yet she kept replaying it, over and over in her head – it was making her sick. It's not like she could be his girlfriend anytime soon (too many responsibilities, she reminded herself), but for him to make it so clear that he wasn't interested? Yeah, that hurt, and the fact that she had moaned at a simple touch of her hip minutes before he said that just made her embarrassed. Maybe he felt like she crossed a line. Maybe their friendship was ruined. God, she was so confused.
"He cares about you a lot." Tim broke the silence and put his hand on her shoulder.
"… I know he does, Tim."
"And I do, too."
She looked at him with just a little surprise. It wasn't like any teenager to be this earnest to their elder… especially if their elder was only a few years older than them. But then again, Tim was always a sweetheart.
"Thanks, Tim."
Another block passed by.
"You know, I might just mention to your friend Stephanie what a sensitive guy you're becoming."
Tim's eyes went wide. "You wouldn't dare!"
Babs laughed as she turned onto the winding road leading to Wayne Manor.
1:31 PST – San Palo
Dick stood on the porch while Artemis locked the apartment.
"Thanks for walking with me, Rob," she said as she buttoned up her jacket. "Wally isn't back until 4, so I don't normally have company walking to this class."
"Please, I needed to stretch my legs anyway."
"Here," handing him a spare key, "You can let yourself in and hang out with Nelson until Wally gets back. I should be home around 5:30 and then we can test out everything."
Test out everything. Test out the capsule that will simulate her pulse stopping for two hours. Test out how Wally will handle seeing his skills in the chem lab put his girlfriend into a temporary coma. Test out if Wally will even talk to him this time. This is going to be a fun night, Dick thought to himself with a grimace.
While San Palo was certainly warmer than Gotham in February, there was a chill in the air as he and Artemis hit the sidewalk. Dick quickly put his hands in his coat pocket, but not before adjusting his sunglasses.
"Rob, it's been nearly six years. Are you ever going to show me who you are?"
"Need to know basis, archer. You'll have to figure it out for yourself if you're that interested," he said tapping his glasses.
"Well, what if I find out on my own and want to hear you tell me?" She said as she gave him a friendly push.
"Then we'll be at an impasse, friend." He was smiling. The world could be invaded at any time, the closest thing I have to a father is millions of miles away and I'm going to help fake kill one of my best friends, but somehow I'm smiling. Of course, there were only two people guaranteed to make him grin lately … one of them was faking her death within a few months and the other might never talked to him again. Great.
"Artemis, what happens when you find yourself attracted to your best friend?"
"No idea, I fell for my adversary," She stopped. "Wait, you aren't talking about Wall—"
"No!" he said. "I'm talking about a woman best friend."
She didn't move.
Dick sighed. "It's not you, either."
"OK, I going to take a shot in the dark and guess this woman best friend happens to fight the scourge of crime in fair Gotham City?"
"… Hypothetically that could be true." He could see her smirking out the corner of his eye. "It's also hypothetical that she started asking too many questions related to you and Wally and I yelled at her and when she yelled back I … sort of implied our relationship was just platonic. And this all happened on Valentine's Day."
His friend paused for a moment to comprehend the run-on sentence. "Wow … that is quite a hypothetical scenario you have going, Rob."
"And this was right after we almost made out."
She full out stopped at this point. "Rob, what are you doing?"
He sighed. "I don't know."
"Why are you messing with Barb's head?"
"I'm not trying to, Arty!"
"Well, is your relationship platonic?"
Palms on the crown of his head, Dick looked up to the hazy grey sky.
"No. And I really don't want it to be."
She continued walking. "Then you have your answer."
Thinking in place for a few moments, he remembered his devil's advocate and jogged to catch up with Artemis. "But it's not that simple! I can't afford to be serious with anyone. I'm already going to be lying to the whole team soon enough. It would be cruel to get close to anyone right now, especially her."
Artemis pondered his words. "I get that," she put her hand on his shoulder, "I really do, but you have to at least apologize for whatever you said to her. At the very least."
He rubbed the back of his neck in frustration, but Artemis wasn't done.
"And if you're willing to take some extra advice, here it is: When I first joined the team, I spent a lot of time pushing people away. If I had let myself be upfront about my secrets and my real feelings from the beginning, Wally and I would have probably been together much earlier. We wasted months of that first year that could have been spent together and now that –," she bit her lip, "Now that the plan is in motion, I'm going to spend every day I'm gone wishing I had all those moments back." After a small moment of quiet stillness, the pair continued walking.
They were close to the campus now and he thought about what he had said to Babs … what she had said to him.
"What I know is that Tula died, Kaldur went nuts and Wally in turn became an overprotective asshole. I used to think Artemis wanted to leave as much as Wally, but the way he's been acting, maybe he made her quit!"
"Did Wally make you quit?" The words came out of Dick's mouth before he even realized it.
Artemis' eyes flashed. "Rob, I left because I needed space," she said, "But that doesn't mean I won't miss it when I'm gone."
