Thank you for reading and reviewing the last chapter! IMPORTANT This chapter is a little different, and it's going to be going back in time. So I know that I've just finished writing the Wedding thing, and there's still going to be more after that, but these next few chapters are going to be when Artemis and Wally first start dating, and they're going to bridge the five-year gap.
Thanks, and I hope you like it!
Rule Number 10: First dates must always be perfect, no matter what happens.
Artemis Crock was not really the nervous type.
Seriously, she didn't really get the whole point of 'dreading' something. Things just happened, good or bad, so there really wasn't any need to get all worked up about it. Not to get all philosophical or anything, but Artemis was a firm believer of things just happening for a reason, so in the end, there was never anything to feel scared or nervous about.
Except, well, now, Artemis Crock was seriously nervous.
She gave herself another look in the mirror, smoothing out an imaginary wrinkle on her dark green top. She didn't want to look over the top dressy, but she didn't want to look like she had put no effort into picking out the outfit either. Artemis hoped that her green dress top, black jeans and boots were perfect; she had spent almost an hour ransacking her closet looking for them.
It felt weird to be freaking out about what clothes she was wearing, seeing as she paraded around in a midriff-bearing latex suit in front of him anyway. And anyway, she was never really the type of girl to put a lot of effort into what she wore anyway, mainly due to her laziness, but for this event, Zatanna and M'gnn had helped her ransack her closest to find this outfit.
Artemis took a deep breath and put her silver hoops in her ears. She glanced at the clock -7'05, late as usual. At least something's hadn't changed. Tonight was going to be the first time she had seen him since the WatchTower, which was like, two weeks ago. When he called her yesterday, asking her out on their first official date, Artemis had literally felt like she had been floating ever since.
The doorbell rung and Artemis hurried downstairs, partially out of excitement, partially because she didn't want her Mom to get to the door first and tell him any embarrassing baby stories. She sidestepped her Mom and practically wrenched the door open.
In front of her, instead of the gangly-limbed red-headed Wally she had expected, a sheepish looking Robin stood in front of her, holding a huge bunch of flowers out awkwardly.
"Um, 'sup 'Mis. You, uh, look good," he stammered nervously.
Artemis crossed her hands over her chest and started breathing heavily, "This better not be Wally's insane idea of a prank," she said harshly.
"No! It's not like that! He, uh, couldn't make it, so he asked me to fill in for him," Robin said.
"What the hell could have been more important than our first date?" Artemis yelled angrily while Robin practically shrunk away from her.
"Artemis, why are you yelling at this poor boy?" her mother said, wheeling over to the front door. She gave Robin a warm smile, "Is this your date?"
"Apparently so," Artemis snarled, grabbing Robin's arm and pulling him of the door. She dragged him half-way down her street, her Mom's "have fun!" echoing behind them.
"Alright Bird-Boy, spill," Artemis said roughly, stopping in the middle of the street.
Robin rubbed his sore arm where Artemis had pulled him, "Something seriously urgent came up so Wally couldn't be here tonight. He asked me to fill in for him and take you out because he didn't want to cancel."
"What could have possibly been more important than our first date?" Artemis seethed.
"Uh, he had an, um, science project due?" Robin said, slightly scared of the angry looking Artemis.
"A science project? His stupid science project was more important than me? Oh, great, there goes my self-esteem," Artemis muttered to herself.
"Look, he's really sorry, but I have everything planned. We're going to meet up with the team at Happy Harbour and go to the carnival, okay?" Robin told her.
Artemis glared at him, but nodded curtly anyway, and stalked off towards the zeta-beam. Robin sighed in relief and was secretly happy that she didn't have any arrows with her. He ran after her, briefly thinking that he finally understood what Bruce meant when he said hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Putting it very simply, Artemis was pissed.
She had spent ages picking out this outfit, doing up her hair and even applying make-up, and what happens? Oh, that's right, the very guy she did all this for bailed on her. When she saw Wally next, she was probably going to stick an arrow in him.
Artemis didn't really mind hanging with her or anything, but right now, she was literally the seventh wheel. M'gnn and Conner were being all – M'gnn and Conner-y, while Zatanna and Robin were obviously having fun trying to beat each other at every game at the carnival. And then Raquel was busy trying to get Kaldur to loosen up and have fun. So that just left Artemis, eating her ice-cream, watching her friends in their relationships and wondering why her favourite red-head wasn't with her.
Maybe it was something she'd done; maybe this was Wally's way of saying that he didn't really want a relationship with her. They had only kissed once at the WatchTower, and maybe for him, it didn't really mean as much. Artemis had probably read too much into things, and maybe Wally didn't want a relationship with her after all.
Artemis sighed heavily, yeah, she had probably read too much into things. She probably scared him off with the whole 'being Sportsmaster's daughter' thing. Wouldn't exactly have been the first time that's happened.
Artemis was staring moodily at the dark night sky above her, when she suddenly heard a massive explosion that had the ground shaking beneath her feet. Startled, she gripped the railing she was leaning onto tighter and glanced around to see her friends.
M'gnn and Conner were barely floating above the ground (thanks to M'gnn's telekinesis) and Zatanna had obviously set a spell that protected both her and Robin from the earthquake. Artemis took a quick look around to see many people were as unsteady as she was.
The earthquake quietened down, and Artemis had just started to relax when she heard a huge screaming noise of metal being pulled apart. She looked up to see the huge Ferris wheel come apart and start to fall down. She then felt the metal railing she was holding onto break apart in her hands, and she lost her balance and started falling into the water below.
The force of hitting the water from such a height hurt like hell, and then the water was so icy cold Artemis couldn't even move her arms. As she slowly sunk to the bottom, she could really only think, why was it always water?
Suddenly, the water started to lift her upwards, and she was dumped onto the beach by a huge wave. Coughing out water, Artemis looked up to see Kaldur, already in his Aqualad costume, helping all the citizens who were already in the water.
Artemis ran up to the deck, where the carnival was in disarray. She shucked off her ruined top and appeared in her costume that she was wearing underneath. She mentally cursed herself for forgetting her bow, so she just had to settle for her mini crossbow instead.
Artemis could see M'gnn and Conner try to keep the Ferris wheel from falling, but the strain looked like too much for them. Raquel was helping the other citizens, and Robin and Zatanna looked like they were battling someone. She ran up to them, and hid behind the ice-cream truck, where they were standing.
"What's going on?" she yelled.
"Dr Polaris. He's the one who caused the earthquake and the Ferris wheel to collapse!" Robin yelled back at her.
"Great. I'm going to put an arrow in him now!" Artemis yelled back.
She heard Zatanna scream at her, but Artemis had already vaulted herself in front of Dr Polaris. She took her crossbow and aimed straight for his arm. The arrow zinged through the air, and just when it was about to hit him Polaris put up his hand.
And the arrow just stopped in mid-air.
"Aw, shit," Artemis muttered.
The Dr turned to look at her, an evil smile creeping across his face, "You think you're metal arrow can defeat me?" he asked, in a loud booming voice, "foolish girl! I am the Master of Magnetism!" With a flick of his wrist he sent her arrow hurtling towards her.
Artemis ducked out of the way, but she looked up only to see a huge, metal car zoom straight through to her.
"Simerta dnoura dliehs!" Zatanna yelled, and a green barrier came up between Artemis and the car.
Artemis sent a grateful nod to Zatanna and scurried to where she and Robin where hiding.
"Okay, now what do we do?" she asked.
Robin looked around, scanning the area for Kaldur, "Zatanna, you go and help M'gnn and Conner keep up the Ferris wheel. Artemis and I will distract Polaris."
"How? He can control metal!"
"I can take care of that," Zatanna said, "Citsalp ot latem!"
The arrows Artemis was carrying became plastic, as did Robin's birdarangs. Zatanna hugged Robin and then went off to help the others.
"Um, Robin? I hate to break it to you, but I don't think we're going to be able to stop him," Artemis said.
"I know. On the count of three. One, two, go!" Robin ran out out to face Polaris, and Artemis followed his example.
She fired off arrows at Dr Polaris, and then ducked and dodged all of the metal he kept hurtling towards them.
"We can't keep this up for much longer!" Artemis yelled.
"Don't have to!" Robin replied, pointing up at the sky.
There was a green glow, and both the Green Lantern's appeared from the sky. Hal Jordan went straight for Polaris, while Guy Gardener righted the Ferris wheel in an instant. The battled was short; both Green Lanterns made quick work of Dr Polaris. Kaldur, Raquel and Zatanna said all the civilians were fine, while Conner carried an exhausted M'gnn in his arms.
Soon, the Lanterns landed in front of them.
"Good work, team. We'll take it from here. But we should send you to the Cave's infirmary, just in case, okay?" Hal said.
The team didn't have much choice but to agree, so GL created a huge car and took them to the mountain.
After insisting to a paranoid Green Arrow, that yes, she was fine, and no, she didn't need any further medical assistance, Artemis was finally free to go home. She waved the other's goodbye, and was about to leave the Cave when she heard Flash's voice.
"- he's totally fine, right?"
"Yes, Barry. Stop worrying. We're only keeping him here overnight because we just want to check up on him."
"But he will be able to go home tomorrow?"
"I am certain, that because of his healing factor, he will make a full recovery. No go home and get some rest!"
Artemis quickly hid in the shadows as Flash came speeding past, and then she slipped through the medical doors. She walked down the narrow passage, until she finally came to the room right at the end. Artemis opened the door slowly and almost choked.
"Wally?!" she asked.
Wally, who was sitting up on the hospital bed in a gown, munching on various snacks and flipping through the T.V. channels, nearly shrieked as he saw Artemis standing at the door.
"Artemis? What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing! Robin said you were at home, doing a science poject!"
Wally groaned, "I told him to come up with a good excuse!"
"Wally," Artemis said sternly, "What. Happened."
"I was helping Flash on patrol and things got a bit rough. I hit my head pretty bad and I think I broke a couple of ribs," Wally sighed.
"And you couldn't have just, you know, told me!?"
"I didn't want you to worry. This was meant to be our first date, our special night. I didn't want to ruin it."
Artemis laughed lightly and smacked him on the head.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"I was worried that you didn't want a relationship anymore, Kid Idiot. You should have just told me!"
Wally grabbed her by the arms and pulled her down so they were eye to eye, "Artemis, babe, going out with you has been my dream since I first met you. Trust me, I want this relationship."
He pulled her closer into a soft kiss. They broke apart slowly, a slow smile forming on Artemis's lips. Suddenly, she clambered on top of the of the hospital bed, being careful not to jostle Wally around too much. She snuggled down beside Wally and snagged a chip from his plate.
"So, what are we watching?"