Chapter 9: Dark Side

There is a place that I know,

It's not pretty there and few have ever gone

If I show it to you now will it make you run away?

Or will you stay? Even if it hurts,

Even if I try to push you out will you return?

Dark Side, Kelly Clarkson

Day 27

Okay, so I didn't run today either. But it's okay. I'm okay.

Artemis had been trying how to gather up the courage to do this all morning. While she watched Wally eat, she promised herself she'd do it. But then she thought it wasn't really an appropriate moment, so she thought she'd do it when they went out for lunch. But there were too many people around. And so now it was 9 o' clock in the night and after spending all day with Wally she still hadn't said those very important things that were on her mind. So as she showered, after telling an insistent Wally that no, he couldn't join her, she decided that she'd do it then, without thinking about it.

She wrapped the white towel around her and walked out of the bathroom trying not to tremble. Wally was sprawled across his couch watching TV in his small, old screen. He looked at her when he heard the door close and she beckoned at him to come in the room. She didn't have to say anything for him to know that she had something serious to talk to him about. He lay himself in the bed, grabbing her after she was done putting on one of his larger T-Shirts to cover herself (her newly decided favorite article of clothing), and laying her next to him.

"What's up?" he asked curiously after a while of silence. He started running his hands up and down her arms to encourage her.

"Wally… I haven't been completely honest with you. About myself. I don't know exactly what you think of me" -she ignored the raised brows sent at her- "but I think you've got a wrong idea of who I am. If you hate me afterwards I'll understand and I'll leave and I'll have no problem with it."

Wally just looked at her with eyes she couldn't decipher, so she went on, looking at the freckles in his neck instead of him.

"My father… he was a very bad influence. He was a thief, a liar, a dick, a traitor… Well, if I go on I'll never finish. When I was still a little girl, he trained me to go and steal with him, saying that a child was believed to be innocent, that nobody would suspect me. He was the one that corrupted my innocence."

"That isn't the worst part. One time, we were robbing this bank. I remember it like it was yesterday…"

"Move, Artemis! The cops are coming!" he yelled at her daughter, not caring that she was trembling with fear because of her father's actions. Why did he have to burn the bank after they robbed it?

As they made their way out of the bank in their frantic hurry, a man came crawling out of a room. He was a security guard, and his face and hands were already burned red, his clothes singed and falling off of his body.

"Help me… please…" he panted, and he grabbed Artemis's hand, the one that was in reach.

Artemis's eyes widened at the man's utter helplessness. If she didn't do something, he would die.

Just before she gathered the necessary strength (physical and of mind) to help him up, her father ripped the man's hand out of hers and kicked his face.

"Disgusting. This is the kind of weakness you can never show, little girl. When you die, you die proud. Not groveling in the ground like a filthy dog."

Artemis could still remember the man's face, his eyes full of tears, pleading for her help. It was something that would haunt her forever, how she didn't go back for the man, just let her father drag her away, leaving the man to die without a hint of remorse.

"It's my fault… I'm a monster. He turned me into a monster," Artemis said with a choked up throat, and she turned her face away from Wally, half expecting him to push her away.

For a few seconds Wally did nothing. He had never expected to see Artemis like this. Of course, he knew that she couldn't be all badass and strong all the time, but he couldn't believe he was seeing this side of her so soon. Seeing her this broken, it made him want to crumble into tears too.

"Artemis…" he started, and he crossed to the other side of the bed when she didn't turn to him. Her face was hidden in the sheets and she was completely still.

Wally stretched out his arm and ran his fingers through her hair. Artemis's face instantly lifted; her eyes looking startled. She had expected Wally to be repulsed by her, to kick her out of his home the second he regained his composure. But here he was… showing affection towards her?

"It was not your fault. And you are not a monster," he said simply, his green eyes looking directly to hers so seriously, maybe right into her soul.

Wally had snuck into her heart. And she seriously doubted he'd lose his place there.

Not being able to help herself, Artemis ravished his mouth with hers, not being able to do anything else with the escalating emotions she didn't want to name yet. She already knew what it was, this foreign feeling to her, but she still wasn't ready. It was too soon. Even though it didn't feel like it.

Wally and her… They really were sort of perfect for each other. She could easily imagine spending the rest of her life with him; playfully fighting every day (sometimes not so playfully), going on morning runs with him, turning everything into a competition, having him sweep her off his feet with his words (maybe sometimes his mouth)…

The thought of this, of maybe the first thing that she felt so sure and so happy about in her life, made her smile against Wally's mouth.

He didn't have to ask, because somehow their minds were running the same track; his right beside hers.

Day 28, 3 a.m.

Artemis didn't even bother to look at the phone caller I.D., she just picked the damn thing up so she could give whoever it was a piece of her mind because, Jesus Christ, who called at three o' clock in the morning?!

"Where the fuck are you, Artemis!? Barbara and I have been worried sick!"

Of course it was Dick.

"You'd sound like my father… if he gave a shit," Artemis grumbled into the phone, realizing she did not have the strength to chew her best friend off at this time.

"Who is it?" came Wally's sleepy voice next to her. Loud enough for Dick to hear.

"…" came from Dick's end.

"…" came from Artemis's end.

And then:

"OHMYGOD ARTEMIS WALLY'S THERE WITH YOU! BABS I CAN'T BELIEVE IT ARTEMIS FINALLY GOT LAID! CONGRATS ARTY-"

"Dick! Lower your voice, for Christ's sake!" Artemis said into the phone, her face getting redder by the second. She could feel Wally's curious eyes on her back.

"I AM SO PROUD OF Y-" she never finished hearing his statement because, obviously, she hung up on him.

"What was that for?" Wally asked her when she finally turned to face him (as in, after all the red in her cheeks had vanished).

"Nothing. You'll probably receive a congratulations text any second now."

"For what?"

"For screwing the unscrewable, Wally."