Chapter 3

Disclaimer; I do not own any character from Young Justice

Things at home got worse. Her dad actually appeared at home.

"Hey little princess" he said in a sarcastic tone

"Hey dad" murmured Artemis while she was looking at her mother surprised to see her father. Artemis was a little shocked too; she didn't think he would ever come here again

"I need to talk to you" he said to Artemis "alone"

"Ok dad, let's go to my room" she responded

"Why? What do you need with Artemis?" her mom said rapidly while rolling on her wheel chair towards Artemis. She did not know anything, Artemis couldn't tell her, this would destroy her mom's heart and Artemis couldn't let that happen

"Mom everything is fine" Artemis said firmly

Artemis and her father went into her room

"When are you going to do it?"

"Dad just give me a little more time. I'm almost there. Please" she said almost scared

"You have 3 weeks. No longer"

"Okay thanks dad, I won't fail" she responded relieved

"You better not, or you know what will happen to your mother, right?" he said pointing outside where her mother was

"Yes dad, I know" she said almost cutting him off

When they got out of the room her mom was pissed. She was shaking. Artemis knew her mother so well even though her mom spent most of her Artemis' childhood in jail.

"What do you want?" she screamed at Sportsmaster "don't you dare try to hurt her!"

"What are you going to do? You useless bitch?" he snapped

At that moment her mom grabbed one of the knives on the table and threw it aiming to his heart, he dodged, but still the knife was so fast it cut his arm. When he saw/ felt the blood from his shoulder Artemis could see his eyes getting darker, he was pissed and it was not good, she knew her dad had anger management problems, she knew that too well living with him most of her life. At that moment Artemis stepped in front of the mother.

"Dad it's better if you go now, I will talk to you later" she said obviously scared. That was when she just felt a burning sensation on her temple, right below her eye, and she fell on the floor as soon as the impact hit her. Sportsmaster was about to hit her mom when Artemis yelled "stop! I'll do it in 2 weeks!"

Sportsmaster stopped at once, looked at her and shook his head.

"Your feelings and emotions will lead you to your death"

He said those words every time he saw her. That was the hardest lesson she wanted to learn, she didn't want to develop feelings for anybody, but she just couldn't, she was too damm soft. Then he was gone. The pain on her cheek was abundant. She could feel something wet dripping down her cheeks, but she knew it wasn't a tear. It was blood. Her mom rolled over to her and cleaned to wound with a tissue she had in her hands. Her mom was crying and shaking, but she was there quiet healing her daughter.

That night she couldn't sleep. She had a massive headache because of the punch she received. He actually had opened a wound on her temple, it wasn't large but it was deep, and almost her whole cheek was purple with some green parts around the large bruise.

The next morning she didn't know what she was going to do, she had to go to school and go to Mt. justice to train, she had to think about the lie she was going to tell her team mates.

At school she would say she fell off the stairs, people at her school were stupid anyways, but her team mates, they wouldn't buy just anything. She had to think of a lie that would be good enough for them to believe.

In the afternoon she had to go to the cave and train. When got there she saw that everyone was already sitting in the living room, 'fuck' even Red fucking Arrow was there too. Everyone turned around to see her when the computer announced her name, except Red Arrow of course, she could see the expressions in their faces changing as she got closer and they saw her bruise.

"Oh my god! Artemis what happened to your face?" Megan ran, well more like flew, over to her to see the bruise better. Now even Red Arrow was looking at her with his open mouth 'great' she thought

"Oh it's nothing I just had an accident back at home" Artemis said calmly "not a big deal"

"Are you kidding me? That bruise it's not a small deal" robin said as he made an expression of disgust looking at her swollen face

"How did it happen?" asked Kaldur and Wally at the same time, and then looked at each other awkwardly. Their faces were serious.

"umh….. I was walking to school when I heard someone scream, so I rushed over to see who it was , and then next thing I know a motorcycle comes towards me and well I didn't really see it because I was distracted with the screaming on the other side, I barely had time to dodge most of it, If didn't I wouldn't be here right now, but my face fell straight on the ground…and…yeah… that's how it happened" she said while looking at the floor, she was tired of lying to her friends, but she had no other option.

"Really? What kind of motorcycle was it?" asked Red Arrow looking directly at her

She lifted her gaze and looked pissed.

"Well how the hell was I supposed to look at the damm motorcycle when I was on the ground bleeding!"

"Well I don't believe a word you said" red arrow responded

"Well I don't care" she said imitating his tone of voice. Everyone was now staring at her. She could feel her blood boiling.

"If you don't believe me, then you shouldn't have asked! And besides this is none of your business! She yelled at everyone in the room then she was walking toward the infirmary. She couldn't see but she heard steps walking behind her, she wasn't in the mood for any of Wally's jokes or any of Megan's perkiness, but when she turned around she found Kaldur, she was surprised. They stayed there in the middle of the hall way looking at each other.

Until Kaldur finally spoke and said "let me see that" getting closer to Artemis

"Why?" she asked instantly

"I want to see if I can help you somehow" he responded. They were so close to each other, Kaldur bent down a bit to be at eye level with her and to see the wound clearly.

She could hear and feel his heavy breathing, she looked at his face and how concentrated he was on her face. He met her gaze and they locked their eyes for a couple of seconds before she looked away.

"C'mon lets go, I think I can help" he said

"Okay" she said walking in front of him and into the infirmary.

"Sit I'll get what I need" he said

"Do you know what you're doing?" she asked curious, living with her father she knew a lot about wounds and how to treat them.

"Yes I believe I do. I was a very…interesting kid when I was younger, I used to get hurt almost every day"

Wow that was the first time he said anything about his past, he had never said anything about it to her.

"Wow really? I almost can't believe it" she said smiling a bit now "I would've never thought that you were a pain in the ass like Wally when you were little"

"well I wasn't really a pain, I was independent and I loved to discover new things and I got hurt a lot but I almost never got in trouble" he responded while sitting down right in front of Artemis

"Well that's the opposite of me" she giggled "I remember I got into so much trouble it was sad" she said smiling. He felt good to know that, they were actually talking to each other about their personal lives, it wasn't much but still.

He touched the wound to clean it and she didn't even flinch, she was definitely a tough girl, he already knew that, but this was reassuring it.

"Doesn't it hurt?" he asked as he cleaned the wound

"no" she said looking down "not anymore" she was right, the pain she felt on her face was nothing compare with the pain she felt inside, and besides she got worse injuries "training" with her dad.

"Oh" he said looking at her attentively. He thought there was something wrong with Artemis for some reason, he didn't know what it was, but he had a bad feeling about all this.

After that they were quiet until he was done.

"Thanks" said Artemis breaking the silence and touching he cheek

"No don't touch it!" he said holding her hand. They were surprised at what he had just done. It was even quieter now, neither of them moved their hands away and they were looking into each other's eyes again. She could feel her face getting hot, and suddenly she forgot about everything, about her "job", her father, her family, her future, and she just focused on his grey, sweet eyes. He was very handsome now she that looked at him clearly, his face was rough and very masculine, he was also very muscular, his arms were huge, he was really tall, and the color of his skin was warm like chocolate, one if her favorite things in the world, she loved chocolate. At that moment Wally came in the room and saw them, he was shocked and she could see something else in his face 'anger?' at that moment they stopped holding hands and they both looked at Wally.

"Black Canary is here to begin the training" Wally said with an emotionless tone and face. But before they could answer he was gone

"What's up with him?" she asked looking at the door where he was standing just seconds ago

"I don't know" Kaldur responded "but we should go to training"

"oh yeah" she said standing up from the chair