I will honestly attempt to post an update every day, but I can't promise there will be one. Suggestions are still always welcome and every question will be answered if it's possible for you to receive PMs. I hope you enjoy this one.

Dick's POV:

I felt as if I had just been through a gang initiation without any previous warning to it, now a part of some so-called 'League' of kids with pasts nastier than the straight black coffee dad used to leave in his Dennis the Menace coffee cup on the counter in our family's trailer.

Upon asking though, I was assured that there wasn't any sort of ritual I had to go through, and just having my name on a door in the B Ward was all it took. I was more relieved than I should've been.

Wally teased me plenty for it, going as far as to make up a surprisingly realistic story of the time they actually had an initiation where the newest member had to sneak down the stairs without being noticed and bring back something from the warden's office. I had believed him, wondering who the warden could possibly be in a place like this, up until he burst into giggles at telling me that the member had brought back lace panties and a clown costume.

"Don't take everything so seriously, kid," he tousled my hair with a grin wide on his lips, "You're in a nuthouse! We're all insane in here."

Our laughter, mine a bit more timid, had drawn Artemis' attention and she came over to sit on the floor in front of us with a small grin.

"He means he's insane. The rest of us are fine as wine," she stuck her tongue out towards the teen beside me and I couldn't help but grin with her, "but there was this one time when the nurse came up to give us vaccines and, I swear to God, I just about popped her tit."

Wally's eyes lit up and he almost doubled over with laughter, hitting my arm to make sure he had my attention as he gasped for air and tried to speak coherently.

"W-Wonder tits!" he gasped out before doubling back over as Artemis covered her mouth to hide her little shrieks.

I didn't get the joke, so I just sat there and smiled at them. The blonde recovered first and sat up, wiping at her cheeks before trying to explain.

"I hit the needle, right? It stabbed all the way into her damn implant and she just shucked that sucker out and jabbed me! She should have popped or deflated or something, but the chick has some serious wonder tits," she made an arc around her own chest indicating a pretty heavy duty rack and I couldn't help but grin.

Maybe it was time for me to get immunized.

"And then—you've met John, right? The guy with the jacked face?" Wally was wiping the tears from his eyes and I gave a nod, "Guy's like a robot!"

Artemis looked up at him with furrowed brows.

"You weren't here when it happened, Wally. Conner could've just been kidding," she argued, but Wally hushed her with a quick wave of his hand.

"It was like, a month maybe before I got here, but Conner didn't know about fish boy back there and thought he was drowning in the showers, so he went out to get John. On the way in, dude tripped on the water and Conner swears that he, well, short-circuited," his green eyes were wide with excitement and he gave a mocking seizure to imitate it.

A grin spread wider over my lips and I couldn't help but laugh in amazement.

"Dude's got practically no emotion! I mean, even his laugh is like a machine! Creepy," I scratched at my neck from the memory and Wally's eyebrows shot up in an 'I know, right?!' gesture.

"The whole staff around here's pretty weird. I mean, they're all a lot stronger than they look… and I swear, that Hal guy down in the kitchen..." Artemis looked both ways and lowered her voice with a small grin, "his ring is alive."

I looked to Wally for confirmation, but he was nodding to her. "It's so weird! I mean, guy's not married or anything. It's just a random ring and it… glows… like, green. It throbs, kind of like a heart, when he's cooking stuff. Scares the crap out of me."

"You still eat the food though," the blonde gave a little smirk and Wally gave a shrug.

"Dude's gotta eat."

They kept their attention on each other and started talking about the kinds of food they missed, stuff like real pizza and pie, and I took to tuning them out. My attention was on something Artemis had said a bit earlier. What had it been..?

"You weren't here when it happened."

And then after that, Wally saying it was a month before he had showed. How long had they all been there?

Kaldur had been there longer than Conner, who had been there longer Wally. I wasn't sure where Artemis and Megan fit in, but I knew I was the newest. From their banter, I wanted to assume Artemis showed up a bit later, meaning Wally had adjusted to asylum life.

A part of me assumed his cockiness was a cover for that brief bitterness in his tone at saying he wasn't in prison. Another part of me hit the first part with a chair for trying to chick flick my experience here. The last thing I needed to do was overanalyze this.

"When did you all get here?" I seized their silence as an opportunity, smiling apologetically for catching them off guard, "I-If you don't mind. I just…"

Wally put an arm around me with a little chuckle and shook his head, "Don't sweat it, kid. You're curious, we get that. We were all like this when we showed up, too. Ah… lemme think… Well, Kaldur was here first…. and then… ah…"

Artemis had to stop and think for a moment too, combing her hair back as if to prep it for a ponytail before letting it fall flat and getting up to her knees.

"Megsy—was it you or Conner that got here first?" she called casually, tearing the red haired girl from her little fantasy with a dazed smile.

Megan paused for a moment and frowned, looking over to Conner for confirmation before giving a short nod.

"We both got here about the same time, I think. I came out to the common room and he was just sitting down. Right?"

The ebony had to think a moment too, but he gave a nod before gently catching her hand and leading her to get to her feet.

"You're the new boy, right?" his voice was a bit deeper than I had expected, but his smile was gentle.

I gave a brief nod, scooting unconsciously closer to Wally.

"My name's Dick. I just wanted to know how long you've all been here," I shyly managed out, eyes flitting away from him for a moment to see that Kaldur was coming over as well.

Might as well get a feel for all the League now, eh?

They all sat back on the couch that Artemis had been on before, adjusting comfortably with surprisingly warm smiles.

"As you may have noticed, there is not a calendar anywhere in this place, the same for a clock. Time is beyond us," Kaldur bowed his head apologetically, interlacing his hands on his lap.

Alright. No feel for time. That's terrific.

"Tuesdays are pizza night, though, and I've been keeping track of the Tuesdays. I've been here almost thirteen pizza nights," Megan beamed proudly and I couldn't help but grin at her.

Crazy, maybe, but I had a feeling she had some brilliant potential. Or maybe that was M'Gann.

Wait. Thirteen weeks. That's… about 91 days… so about three months. She had been here three months. Kaldur had been here before them. I had no idea when the shower incident happened, but a month after, Wally showed up. It was safe to assume he had at least a month to adjust before Artemis showed up, and then my own arrival.

I looked to Kaldur, to see if he had an estimate, but he shook his head. "I did not think to keep track. I prefer it in here. The fish are kind to me."

Wally snickered at that, but it didn't make me feel any better. They had been here a long time. Who was to say how long I'd be here?

"And then… ah… let's see… Kaldur first, then our happy couple over there… Artemis showed up a bit before me," Wally frowned delicately, still thinking hard.

Artemis came first? That surprised me a bit. Maybe that's why they were so close. Or maybe Wally had always had that giant façade up. I didn't get why he was still thinking on it.

"And then me, right?" I stared at him, tensing as he shook his head.

I glanced over the others and they shook their heads as well.

"Zatanna came before you," Kaldur recalled, and Wally straightened with a little 'Oh, yeah!' expression.

It was like he had forgotten her. Wait. I hadn't met a Zatanna.

"Where is she?" I got a bit up and looked around, trying to see if I had missed someone.

Their silence wasn't very comforting. I sat back down and stared at them closely, trying to read their faces. It was like a distant dialect of Romani, a few words easily picked up, but the rest had my head throbbing again.

It was easy to tell something had happened to her, and something bad, because they looked a lot like the first responders before they had told me my parents hadn't survived the fall. Their eyes wouldn't meet mine and had the slightest of a shadow cast over them, their lips parted just a ghost as if in horror at even the thought of my reaction as they struggled to form it into words.

When Wally raised his eyes, I knew she was dead.

"A uh…" Artemis tried to begin it delicately, but she couldn't find quite the right words.

The teen to my left tried to explain, fumbling with his hands in the empty air. It was Megan who explained for me, in a voice a bit deeper that made it seem like she was actually inside of my head when she was speaking.

"Zatanna believed she didn't belong here and she couldn't remember what had happened to her. One night… she tried to escape. We all watched from the windows. A quick moving guard caught her just as she got to the trees and slipped a golden bag over her head," the girl had to stop, her voice breaking and tears hard on her eyes. "They suffocated her."

-F.J. III