Hello friends. I know its been a while. I've been busy with school. Its nearly 3 in the morning here and I have a french study group in 8 hours and I had a panic attack and anxiety breakdown so I figured, might as well finish this chapter. Sorry it's so short, the next one will be longer. Leave some reviews, I need the smiles. Leave suggestions for future stories, they give me inspiration. Stay safe, stay happy, read on.

lil-fledgling

Chapter 7

The Bakers arrived home to find their children sound asleep and Artemis quietly loading the dishwasher. They made pleasant small talk for a few minutes and Artemis enjoyed the feeling of being around a normal family and the security of trustworthy adults. They paid her and she carefully tucked the precious bills into her wallet and then pushed the wallet into a rip between the liner of her backpack and the fabric, pinning the two sides together, making it look simply a bad patch job and not a secret hiding space.

Artemis considered ditching the boys and walking home her self like she always had, but as she stood outside Wayne Manor Artemis realized that she didn't want to walk home alone anymore than the boys didn't want to let her go by her self.

"You losers ready to see the real Gotham?" Dick scoffed, rolling his uncovered eyes. "This is my home town, I fight some of the worst criminals the world has ever seen. You can't surprise me." Artemis smirked and started down the street.

"We'll see Boy Wonder."

Artemis ignored the man who stared hungrily at her legs on the bus, focused on her AP science textbook, but the boys noticed and Wally casually put his arm around Artemis's shoulder, glaring so furiously at the man until he switched seats.

"You didn't have to do that." Artemis said, turning the page. "I've learned to ignore it."

"You shouldn't have to though." Dick said, shifting uncomfortably. "That's not something you, or anyone, should have to endure." Artemis slipped her textbook into her frayed backpack and stood, ready to exist at the next stop.

"Trust me, that's nothing." The two teenage superhero's, who had fought blood crazed villains and aliens hell bent on destroying the Earth, didn't want to know what Artemis considered bad.

As the three of them walked the neighborhood slowly got worse, houses turning from clean but old to un-kept and rundown before finally turning to shady apartment buildings with crumbling brick walls and fire escapes hanging precariously from the building, creaking and swaying with each gust of wind.

People moved in and out from the shadows, only illuminated by the flickering streetlights when they wanted to be seen, vacant eyes and gaunt cheekbones making them seem less than human.

Artemis stopped indiscreetly, appearing to bend to tie her shoe, but when she stood both Dick and Wally noticed the gleam of a steel blade that Artemis slid up her sleeve.

"Put down your head." Artemis instructed Dick, flipping up the collar on his expensive leather jacket. "Don't make eye contact," She continued, ruffling up his styled hair then turning to Wally. "And give you're best 'fuck off' vibe. With any luck no one will stop us." She pulled Wally's hood up so it covered his flaming hair and cast a dark shadow over most of his face. For just a second she let her hand rest against the nearly there tickling scruff on his cheeks. Wally thought he felt her thumb make a pass at the underside of his chin, but before he could say anything Artemis had turned and was already slinking down the street.

Surprisingly, the three of them made it to Artemis's apartment with out a hitch, only getting a strange look here or there, but mostly ignored by the tweaking crack addicts and drug dealers.

"Home sweet home." Artemis said as she unlocked the door to her group floor apartment. The top of the doorframe was rotting away and maybe once there had been apartment numbers, but after years of human abuse there was nothing to tell the difference between each home.

"Mom should be asleep, so try and be quiet." Artemis urged as she let the boys in, carful to lock the door behind them. "She's a light sleeper so-"

"Artemis?"

A dim kitchen light switched on, temporarily blinding Artemis and her friends. When the three of them stopped blinking like owls at noon they saw Paula Crock, once a fearful villainess, crippled and destroyed by time and sickness, just a shell of the woman she once was, looking at her youngest daughter and her friends with both concern and delight.

"You didn't tell me you were bringing friends over." Paula said weakly, giving both Wally and Dick thin, but warm smiles. "I would have made them something if you had." With much difficulty the woman rolled her wheelchair over to the bare kitchen and clicked on the single-burner hotplate. "How would you boys like some tea?"