As of the end of this chapter, we're now on the back nine. ;) Golf puns aside, it's time for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, so hold onto your seat belts boys and girls, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Chapter 20: Assassination Attempt:

New York City

March 30, 2014

7:30 P.M.

"He's finally asleep," Wally commented with a sigh of relief as he walked out of Jai's bedroom and into the living room of their small apartment. It had been a long day at work at S.H.I.E.L.D., between Artemis training a much larger class of recruits than normal and Wally having to do forensics for a mission involving the Centipede investigation. Now that they were done for the day, they were going to spend the night at home with some pizza, a little alcohol, and maybe a movie or two.

"We'll just have to keep the volume low so that we don't wake him up," Artemis added with a nod. While she was looking forward to tonight, she couldn't help but shake the feeling that they were being watched. Since nobody was supposed to know that they lived there, she just chalked it up to stress from the long day and pushed it aside to focus on spending time with Wally. He couldn't resist cracking a joke about their long day as he poured wine for he both of them, and Artemis smiled. Their lives had taken a turn for the crazy (or crazier) in the past year, but he still kept his enthusiasm and sense of humor.

As she set her wine glass down on the coffee table, the silent feeling that they were being watched grew into full-volume alarm bells inside her head as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. With instincts honed from years of her dad's "training" she noticed the glint of light reflecting off a small circle out of the corner of her eye through the open window. Immediately her blood ran cold as she recognized it for what it was: the scope of a sniper rifle. Two and two came together pretty quickly and she jumped up and showed her husband, sending him falling to the floor as the sounds of a gunshot and breaking glass rang out.

Artemis gasped for breath as the bullet pierced her skin. She nearly screamed in pain as her legs suddenly collapsed underneath her. Electricity sent her body into twitching spasms. Her senses were muted in shock, but she could hear the dulled sound of Jai loudly wailing, Wally screaming her name, and the thump of her own body hitting the ground as darkness encroached on her vision and consciousness left her.

"ARTEMIS!" Wally cried out as his wife's eyelids slid shut. He frantically checked her pulse and discovered it racing. Realizing that she had taken a shot meant for him, he quickly grabbed his cell phone and speed dialed the one person who could take care of Jai on short notice. "I need to drop Jai off at your place," he barked frantically when Clint Barton finally picked up the phone.

"Whoa, kid," Barton replied. "What's the rush?"

"Artemis has been shot," he snapped. "Someone tried to take a shot at me and she jumped in front of the bullet. I'm running her to Trauma Zentrum and I need someone to watch Jai." Barton didn't ask any more questions and promised to pass the message on to Laura as soon as the call ended. Wally thanked the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent before running around the house at superspeed. First grabbing supplies to slow the bleeding, and then to grab the harness so he could run with Jai strapped to his chest while carrying his wife at the same time. In less than a minute, he was ready to go and bolted out of the building as quickly as he could without banging Artemis' head into the walls.

Once he was outside he took off like a rocket heading westward. He dropped Jai off at the Barton family homestead where Laura took Jai without saying a word before he continued on towards the S.H.I.E.L.D. emergency medical facility in New Zealand. It was the best medical facility on the planet and that was exactly what Artemis needed. He ran faster than he had ever gone before, knowing that Artemis' life was on the line and every second counted. He reached S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Trauma Zentrum in just under five minutes, and the doctors quickly rushed Artemis inside for surgery.

Taking a deep breath to keep himself relatively calm, he sat in the waiting room as he pulled out his phone and fired off text messages to Nick Fury and the rest of the Avengers to let them all know what had happened. As he did, the reality of what had transpired hit him like a ton of bricks. Someone had tried to kill him. Only a select few people outside the Avengers even knew where he lived, let alone that he was from another universe. There were no documents on Nick Fury's computer relating to his past or where he and Artemis lived, so that meant only one thing. Someone in S.H.I.E.L.D who knew the truth of where he came from was a traitor.

The amount of electricity that knocked Artemis unconscious had been a high enough voltage to kill a speedster. Tonight hadn't been a bullet accidentally going through a wall because of a nearby gunfight. It had been an assassination attempt. Wally forced himself to calm down as he fought to avoid running circles around the waiting room. Dealing with the traitors in S.H.I.E.L.D. and finding out who tried to kill him could wait. Right now his only concern was making sure that Artemis would be alright. Tears slide down his cheeks as he resumed his pacing and waited for the doctors to bring him news of his wife's condition.

Put down your torches and pitchforks fellow Spitfire shippers, Artemis will live. But there will be consequences (inspired by the ending of the "Wally comes back" fanfic A Thousand Days Later), that will affect their lives.

Anyway, this chapter is basically the day before the beginning of The Winter Soldier, so no prizes for guessing who tried to shoot Wally. Things are about to heat up. Wally and Artemis aren't going to participate in all the battles in that movie since Artemis will be recovering from surgery (and keeping him away from Project Insight is why HYDRA tried to kill him in the first place), but they will be dealing with HYDRA's exposure in a different way.