A/N: Rambling bambling goodness! :D Yeah! Er. *clears throat* This one is a little . . . elaborate than the others. And longer. At is a little more . . . well, rambling.

Forgive me?

Seriously. Most of this story is unnecessary. :P I hit the reason in a little more than 500 words. The other +1500 is just . . . story. xD


Why Guys Love Girls

Reason #12:
How their hand always seems to find ours
Recommended song: Such Great Heights - Postal Service


"Wally? Wally! Where are you?"

"Artemis? Artemis, is that you?"

"Of course it's me! Keep talking; I'm going to try and find you."

"Are you still you? Did he get you too?"

"No . . . I'm still me . . . I think. It's . . . it's kind of hard to think right now."

"What? Wally, are you hit?"

"N-no. Concussion, I think. That's it."

"Concussion?" She repeated, a bad feeling forming in the pit of her stomach and growing, "How bad?" There was silence and she panicked a little, "Wally!"

"I don't know! I can't think!"

"Okay! Easy, Wally. Breathe." She tried to soothe him, but to no avail.

"Crap. Crap crap crap. It wasn't supposed to end this way," he panicked, "I supposed to go out spectacularly. You know, blaze of glory and all that. Not," he hesitated briefly, and his voice became uncharacteristically timid, "In a dark metal box, running out of air every second . . ."

"Wally! Stop panicking and using up our oxygen! Help me find a way out of here!"

There was another silence, before he responded, sounding more confused than before, "Artemis? You're here too?"

He already asked me that. "Yeah genius. Been here the whole time."

"How was I supposed to know? It's dark!"

"Yeah, thanks for that Captain obvious." She waited again for a response, "Wally?"

"Actually, it's really dark. It's really, really dark . . ."

"Wally? Damn it, where are you?" She continued feeling along wall until she hit Wally's shaking form, upright and leaning against the wall. She rested her hand on shoulder and tried to spin him to face her. "Hey, you okay? Wally?"

"I'm not fond of the dark." He said simply, trying to be nonchalant and failing.

"Yeah, I can see that." She paused to see if he try to brush it off by making a joke, but he remained silent.

"So," she started hesitantly as she tried to casually lean against the wall, so she could be next to him, "Childhood fear, or . . .?"

She could feel him trying to still his trembling body, and failing as his shakes increased until he was practically vibrating, "Well . . . kind of . . . my dad . . ."

"Hey hey," she frantically tried to soothe him, thinking of her own father and finding that she understood his . . . fear. "I understand, okay? My dad . . ." she hesitated, but kept going, "Well, he was 'fond' of small spaces," she said vaguely, "Probably like your dad was 'fond' of dark spaces. Actually," she continued, her voice quieter, "Small spaces like this."

They sat in silence for a while, only sound of Wally's heavy breathing permeating the empty space. She heard him swallow and clear his throat as he seemingly regained control of his body again. "Thanks Artemis."

She nodded even though he couldn't see it, "Yeah."


They were quiet again, resting in companionable silence as breathing became harder. Wally tried desperately to push the thoughts of his father out of his head, just as he knew Artemis was trying to do the same. He hadn't expected her to spill anything about her past or her father, certainly not to comfort him, of all people. Considering she had already defied everything he had ever thought of about her, he was shocked when Artemis' hand slid into his (A/N: Right there!) The shock wore off quickly and he squeezed her hand gratefully, silently thanking her for her support in the dark.

After having been on their feet for what seemed like hours, Artemis slid to the floor and tugged Wally down with her.

"Artemis, hey, you okay?" He reached over in the dark, trying to touch her.

"Y-yeah. Just a bit dizzy."

They were quiet for a moment before Wally's serious voice broke the silence, "We're starting to run out of oxygen."

Artemis took a careful breath, "Looks like it."

There was a tense silence, and Wally contemplated this, trying to think of possible escape scenarios. After being so uncharacteristically silent for so long, Artemis decided it was time to bring him out of his musings.

"Wally?"

"Hm?"

"What're you thinking?"

He paused for a moment then answered slowly, as if he were thinking out loud, "I'm thinking I'm going to get us out of here."

Suddenly, he stood and pulled her up with him. She stumbled and he quickly threw an arm around her waist to steady her, not even thinking of their close proximity, though Artemis felt a blush rise up her cheeks and was thankful for the darkness. Wally used his free hand to feel the smooth metal of the wall next to them.

When Artemis could think again, she asked, "How?"

"I'm thinking that if I can vibrate through this wall – without it exploding," he added wryly, "Then I can go and open the door for you."

She was quiet for a moment, "You're going to leave me?"

"I don't want to," he emphasized softly, his voice slightly tinged with desperation, "But I can't think of another way to save you."

She was quiet for another moment before asking, "Can't you . . . can't you take me with you?"

He leaned closer to where her voice was, "You know I would if I could, but I don't even know if I'll get out unscathed." He paused, waiting for her response and slightly alarmed when he didn't get one, "Artemis?"

"That wasn't reassuring, Wally."

He let out a strained laugh, "Well . . . do you have any better ideas?"

She sighed, "No, not really."

He smiled slightly at the admission before becoming serious once more, "Okay, time to give this a shot." He let go of Artemis and pushed off the wall. He stumbled when a wave of dizziness hit him. He grunted and fell back against the wall with a thump.

"Wally?" He heard her panicked voice next to him. He felt her hand touch his shoulder, and once she confirmed it was his shoulder, it travels upwards, up his neck until it was tapping his face. "Wally! Wally, Wally can you hear me?"

He groaned and turned his face away from the hand and attempted to stand, "I'm fine. Help me up?"

Her hand slid down his neck and down his shoulder, down to his arm and hooked a hand under his elbow. He grunted and pushed up against the wall until he was standing again.

"I don't know about this Wally," she fretted*, "Maybe you should wait . . ."

"No!" he felt her startle at his outburst and softened his voice in response, "No, we can wait any longer. The longer we wait, the less air you have." He took a deep breath and gently uncurled her fingers, releasing his arm. He listened to her heavy breathing in the darkness for a moment, trying to steady his nerves.

The redhead pressed his palms and the soles of his feet against the metal lid, closing his eyes and praying this wouldn't be as painful as the last time. He took a deep breath and began to vibrate. He'd only ever had to vibrate through doors before, but not a wall made of solid steel. And the thinner doors had given him a terrible nosebleed. As his molecules began to separate, fear boiled up inside of him. He pushed through the wall of the container inch by inch until he couldn't feel the hot air of the enclosed metal box at his back. And damn, it hurt. It was like a thousand bullets ripping through his body, the pain level rising the further in he got. He wanted to stop, oh how badly he wanted to stop. But if he stopped now, he'd be stuck, squished into steel forever. And Artemis would die. She couldn't die.

She couldn't die.

When he felt cool hands on his hands, he wanted to cry out in relief, to gasp and breathe in the cool air, except that his face wasn't reassembled yet. He pushed a little harder and soon he slumped out of the wall and onto the tiled laboratory floor. Wally sucked in a gulp of air and he yelped, his whole body curling in with a spasm of pain with the action. Something was wrong. He coughed, spitting out a mouthful of blood onto the floor. Crap.

He lay there for a second, debating on the consequences of moving with his body screwed up the way it was. Except that she was waiting and . . . dying. He pushed away his pain as much as he could and focused on finding a way to get her out. He pushed himself to his knees and crawled towards the monitors not too far away from the box. He dragged himself up so that he was eyelevel with what looked to be the main one, smacking his palms against the keys desperately. An off switch, a hatch open button, something. Anything. He wasn't an experienced hacker, like Robin was, but he did know common sense. His bleary eyes studied the keyboard before noticing the large red button.

Villains. Not the brightest bunch.

With the last of his strength, he slammed his fist down on the button and slid to the floor.


She was alone.

He had left her alone in the dark.

Artemis sucked a breath in between her teeth and shut her eyes, trying to shake some sense back into herself.

"It's okay, it's okay . . . he's – he's coming back . . . it's okay, he's coming back . . . he's coming for me . . . it's okay, it's okay . . . I'm not alone, not alone . . . not alone, always alone . . . always alone, always . . ."

Maybe she wouldn't be getting out of this one.

Just when she had convinced herself that she wouldn't be surviving, the lid started to slide open. Slowly but surely it moved, revealing a sliver of light and a gust of air cool air. Artemis turned her head towards it and sucked in the fresh, cool air.

She crawled on her hands and knees towards the now open door, her eyes squinting at the bright light of the lab outside. As soon as she made it over the threshold of the door, she collapsed, her cheek pressed to the tile as she breathed, her eyes sliding shut.

After a moment, she rolled over onto her side as a nagging thought made its way to the forefront of her mind.

Where's Wally?

She sat up and scanned the room until her dark eyes spotted a splash of red and yellow. Red and yellow that wasn't moving.

She inhaled sharply, blood, too much blood, "Oh . . . God . . ."

Wally.


The Flash had said Wally was going to be fine. He had calmly explained that Kid Flash hadn't had enough training to pass through such thick objects, and he'd reassembled himself wrong. With Superman's X-ray vision, he quickly found the problem and was able to vibrate his own atoms, activating Wally's to do the same so he could put things back the way they should be. Everything else was fine, but Wally had twisted a few bones, including one in his arm, and when the Flash set them back in place he said they would probably feel sore for a few days.

So Wally's mentor had carried him to one of the guest rooms and tucked him in, reassuring the team that he'd wake up soon, suggesting they let him rest, and then running off to go meet up with the rest of the League for recon and to call his wife.

She slowly walked towards the hallway and down to the guest rooms.

She hesitated at the door, Flash said to let him rest . . .

She punched the code in carefully and winced when the door whooshed open. She walked in quietly and sat on the edge of his bed, her dark eyes solemn.

Hesitantly, she reach out, tracing strap of the sling Wally's arm, following the curve of his clavicle, just like she had in the box, to his throat and then his jaw, fingers lingering as she felt the steady flow of breath against his skin.

She sighed, relief flooding through him before she buried her face against the sleeping redhead's chest, letting out a soft sob. He's alive, he's alive, her heart thrummed just as her mind babbled, Oh God wow oh wow thank you Wally thank you thank you . . .

Wally sleepily grabbed her hand and squeezed it before falling back asleep with a smile for the shaking blonde draped over him.

You're welcome.


A/N: Why hello. :)

* Fretted? WTF? xD Since when does Artemis 'fret'. Good Lord.

'Kay. I'm done. My horse is still sick, so I'll try my hardest to get this up on Friday.

~Remmy:)