Chapter 7: The Aftermath Part 1
A/N: DUN Da DUN Da DUN DUN DUH! An update! Thanks for the reviews everyone! And a heads up about this chapter, it's a bonding chapter! :) That starts off with some insults... Also, this ends in a random place, because it was getting too long and I decided to just cut it in half.
Warning: Language
See you on the other side.
"Wake up, sis." A masculine voice commanded, the last word spoken sarcastically. Artemis groaned in annoyance, her eyes still closed.
"Fuck off, Roy. Tell Dinah I'm not in the mood for pancakes, especially if Ollie made them." Artemis mumbled to her pillow. She could feel his glare through her haze of sleep.
"That would work if we were at home, but we're still at the watchtower, smart one." Roy quipped, his voice calm. Artemis stiffened, and felt her back flare up in dull pain in response. It all came rushing back to her, the gun, the pain, the watchtower, the fight with Wally and Batman's shocking talk. Artemis groaned again, this time in misery. She didn't want to get up now. She wanted to fall in a hole and stay there for a little bit until she could deal with this.
"Then take me home! And I'll give you my pancakes as a symbol of my everlasting thanks." Artemis snapped.
"Artemis, as great as that sounds..." He trailed off, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Artemis tensed slightly, waiting for the biting insults to fly like they did when he got this way. She didn't feel up to fighting with someone else she cared about, but she wasn't going to just sit and take it either.
"How about you just get up and we can talk about what actually happened? Instead of just trying to bribe me." Roy said, suddenly gentle. Artemis moaned.
"I can't. I'm in pain." Artemis whispered, hoping he would take pity on her. No such luck.
"Yeah, right." He snorted. Artemis glared and resisted the urge to throw her pillow at him. Roy seemed to sense her actual discomfort.
"If you at least start moving I can help you sit up." Roy said, back to gentle. Artemis sighed.
"Fine. But now you owe me pancakes." Artemis said grudgingly. Roy chuckled.
"Deal. So start moving." Roy ordered. Artemis opened her eyes and started shifting towards a sitting position. Roy grabbed her arms and he helped her sit up. Artemis noticed Roy looked a bit paler than usual and had an brace on his lower leg. She raised an eyebrow and asked,
"What happened, Red? Let me guess, you tripped chasing after my sister again?" She teased. It was a running inside joke between the two of them about Jade, so Roy didn't mind too much.
"No, I got hurt trying to help you which is why I don't do it too often." Roy said, a smile on his face.
"Help me? How did you get hurt helping me?" Artemis asked, a lot more serious than before. Both of the teen archers were out of action. That wasn't good.
"A better question would be why would I help you?" Roy responded, trying to keep up the playfulness.
"Roy..."Artemis warned. She didn't want to dance around the questions. Roy was one person who would be straight with her if she wanted him to be, and right now she didn't need anybody to sugarcoat things. That would just lead to more disappointment. Roy sighed and his face turned back to it's normal stoic look. He sat heavily in the vacant chair next to her bed. Artemis held back the urge to shake him to get him to start talking. But she let him take his time, analyzing and strategizing his talking points while she examined her nails. She didn't want to look around the room. It would make it all too real. It would make it too real that she might never be wholly better. It would make it painfully real that things were going to change, big time. Like the fact she'd be in a fucking wheelchair. It wasn't that being incapacitated was the worse thing in the world, it was just that wheelchairs were a bit hard for her to deal with. Especially because of how her mom ended up needing one. And she associated them with...a loss of independence. She was already out of commission and useless. Would she become a burden too? Artemis' breath came quick and fast, panicky.
She couldn't do that to the team, she wouldn't do that to her family, she can't be out of - Suddenly she couldn't take the previously comfortable silence.
"Roy, what do you want?" Artemis asked demanding. Roy shook himself out of his thoughts and looked down at her, his expression inscrutable. And Artemis thought for a second he would argue with her, insult her like he used to.
"Do you know your blood type?" He asked instead, unexpectedly. Artemis relaxed slightly. Of course he wouldn't yell at her. That had all changed.
"No, I think it's O something though." She answered after thinking for a beat. Roy nodded.
"O positive. You should have that memorized, by the way. That way people won't have to look through files or anything." He said annoyed. Artemis glared slightly at him.
"Well, I'm sorry." Artemis said, exaggerating the 'sorry'. Roy ignored her tone.
"My blood type is O positive too. It's pretty common actually. One in three people have it. Ollie is a match too." Roy said patiently, like he was leading up to something important, but wanted her to figure it out first. Artemis stared at him blankly, recounting what had happened since she had woken up. Wally had said- Oh. It all clicked now. She slightly tilted her head, puzzled.
"I needed a blood transfusion..."She started, glancing at Roy to see if she was on the right track. He nodded, signaling for her to go on.
"And you and Ollie fought over who should give the blood..." She paused piecing together his pale face and the fact that Robin had mentioned that he was also in the med-bay.
"And you gave me some of the blood I needed, because you're the same type." Artemis concluded. Roy smiled ironically.
"Ten points to Artemis!" He said sarcastically. Then his face morphed into thoughtful.
"Actually though, I gave you all of the blood you needed. Which was about...Let's see. Give me a minute to remember. I do know you lost a lot of blood, more than I thought when I agreed to it." Roy stated. Artemis' face was one of uneasiness, her problem with being more of a burden apparent. Roy noticed and said hastily,
" I still went through with it, even though it was more than I signed up for. I had decided I was going give all the blood, and I'd be damned before I let Ollie win." Artemis looked at him, incredulous. She opened her mouth to ask a question, but she didn't get a chance.
"Right. It was a lot of blood. You lost nearly four pints, Artemis. Everyone wasn't exaggerating to make you feel guilty when they said you nearly died." Roy said, eyes boring into hers. She stared at him stonily. Roy narrowed his eyes.
"Do you have any idea how much blood that is?" He asked rhetorically. She began to carefully nod her head but he just went on.
" That's forty percent of your blood. But luckily for both of us, it's only about thirty percent of my blood. And, since we did have some stores of blood up here, you got one pint from storage. I still had to give about three pints though, which is way over the average a regular person gives at a blood drive. Do you know what that means?" Roy asked her seriously, looking down at his blonde counterpart. Artemis raised an eyebrow.
"It means I owe you a lot more pancakes?" She answered hesitantly. Roy glared at her. Artemis exhaled and glared right back.
"I don't know what you want me to say, Roy. Is it, thank you for saving my life when I know you don't particularly like me and only did it to get in my sister's good graces and redeem yourself or whatever? Or thanks Roy, no biggie, next time you get shot, I'll totally do the same for you? Or maybe even, thanks, now what the hell do you want?" Artemis said bitterly, knowing she was walking a fine line and not caring. Did the very guy who had harassed her and hated her for the better part of a year of her life want her to be indebted to him? The look in Roy's enraged face gave her his answer. Yes. he did want her to feel like she owed him something.
"No, smart ass. You owe me some answers." Roy growled, intently staring at her.
