March 19th

Gotham City

0857 EST

Deke awoke to the sun in his face and a still cool breeze coming in through the window he'd forgotten to shut after he and Barbara had gone to bed. There was a smell of coffee in the air though, which brought his green eyes more into focus. There was something else though, and it took a moment to suss it out. There were two distinct female voices in the other room.

Ok, no wandering out into the apartment naked, and probably no wandering out into the apartment in just a pair of shorts. Deke looked around for the shirt Barbara had borrowed from him, but didn't see it. He did see a pair of his sweats laying on the floor though, so he pulled those on commando, which to be real felt a lot nicer than he'd expected. He then brought his bag to him, and dug out another tee shirt, this one a lot looser fit. His back still felt a bit raw and he didn't want something snug rubbing on them.

Finally, he exited the bedroom, running his hand through his hair. "Mornin' sleepyhead." He heard his girlfriend call out in a chipper voice. She was in his tee shirt again (ok, it was hers now apparently) and loose pajama pants which still seemed engineered specifically to make her behind look amazing.

"About time you woke up." The other woman said. Deke finally looked at her. Slender, really long blonde hair, vaguely Asian features, dressed in jeans, and a white shirt. She was pretty in her own way, but looked in no way familiar.

"Artemis, this is Deke. Deke, Artemis." Barbara said, introducing them quickly. She sauntered into the kitchen and grabbed the coffee pot, topping their cups off and pouring him one as well.

"Howdy," Deke muttered. "I'd be all pleasant and stuff, but just woke up and all. Thank you darlin'"

"Don't bother," Artemis said. "I don't want to be awake this early either."

"She got used to sleeping in when she retired from the life." Barbara said. "I was on the team with her for a while."

After taking a sip of coffee, Deke was able to put two and two together. "You're the Artemis that Batman had following Babs, right?"

"Yep, that's me, and uhm, nice butt." She said, winking at him. An icy feeling gripped him. Had she been watching when he and Babs had gotten intimate?

"Relax, I looked away." She said "After a few minutes anyway."

Deke was trying to form words but he couldn't. He felt heat crawling up his face and was convinced he was as red as his girlfriend's hair.

"Don't mind her," Barbara said, putting a hand on his arm. "You should have heard what she said to me."

"Talk about blushing." Artemis said offhandedly. "So, seriously, Babs says you're really into her?"

Deke nodded, still mortified. "Yeah," he finally managed to say. "Very much so."

"I can tell, and I'm happy for her, so keep that up, alright?" Artemis said. She could have threatened him, but she felt like she'd already shut him completely down, so considered the point moot.

"I plan to." Deke replied, and remembered his manners. "I was going to take Babs to breakfast, would you like to join us?"

Barbara seemed pleased at this revelation, and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, come to breakfast with us. It's what, six in the morning in Palo Alto? Wally can't be expecting you that early."

Artemis pondered for a moment. "He's not expecting me until the day after tomorrow actually. I don't want to interrupt you two though."

"I think we can survive. Besides, Deke and I talked last night…" Artemis snickered at that, interrupting Barbara, but waved her on to keep talking. "We talked last night, and I'm going to ask Nightwing if there's a place on the team for him. Artemis, what's so damn funny?"

"I'm sorry big guy." Artemis said, patting Deke on the arm. "But if you call that talking, I don't know what to tell you." She could barely keep a straight face through it all. Deke just took another sip of coffee and decided he needed to get dressed in proper clothing, which, he realized, was just putting on underwear and jeans. Hardly enough time to regain his composure.

After a moment, Barbara peeked in to make sure he was decent, then slipped in with him. "Artemis means well," She began, trying to explain her friend's very forward attitude.

"I'm the touchy one, I know. I'm trying." He said. Barbara didn't need to explain anyone to him. The fact that he hadn't just ran away out of crippling shyness was a testament to her patience and attention. "I'll get over it, I promise."

"I know you will Cowboy." Barbara said, and peeled out of her pajamas quickly. She didn't want to give him any ideas, and she also hurried before she got any ideas of her own. Not to be rude, Deke slipped out of the bedroom, pulling the door behind him.

"Oh, if you think there's anything in there I haven't seen, you're mistaken." Artemis said, teasing at Barbara. She leaned her head out the door and showed Artemis the tip of her tongue before going back to dressing.

"Promises, promises Red, but what would Wally say?" Artemis quipped.

"Plenty of things I don't want to hear." Barbara called out from the bedroom. Deke could feel the friendship between them though, it was quite palpable, and certainly helped him feel at ease.

Artemis stood up and stepped in front of Deke as he was slipping his feet into his boots. "Hey, between you and me, a lot of people were worried she'd never get out of her own head long enough to share her life with someone. Seriously, thank you for just being a good guy for her."

"I promise you, it's mutual." Deke said, taking a knee to tie his boots. "She really does mean the world to me."

"I can tell." Artemis said, and walked over to the bedroom. She threw the door open and just stood there.

"What Artemis?" Barbara said, trying to get her bra on.

"Nice rack. Now hurry up, you mentioned breakfast and now I'm hungry." Artemis said, just having fun with her friend. Since she'd retired from the life, she'd missed being able to just goof off like this.

Barbara tossed something at her, and walked out of the bedroom. Deke looked over and saw her, and just shook his head. She was gorgeous in whatever she wore. Today it was just jeans and a tee shirt and she was just beautiful. Barbara caught him looking and smiled at him with a blush.

She quickly did a bit of makeup, mostly eyeliner and some lipstick, and then grabbed her shoes as she headed towards the door. "We having breakfast or what?"

They made their way to a small diner not far away, someplace Barbara and Artemis seemed to know quite well. Once again, Barbara didn't bother to look at the menu, and neither did Artemis. To drive the point home, the waitress, and middle aged woman named Luanne, simply set two mugs in front of them and began to pour.

"Morning ladies. The usual?" the waitress asked, wiping up the bit of coffee that had dribbled out when she poured.

"Yes please." Artemis said

"Me too." Barbara added.

"What about pretty boy?" She asked, looking at Deke with a wink.

"Do you trust me?" Barbara asked. She knew he'd say yes, but she still needed to ask.

"Always." He replied simply. He was blushing again, but not so bad this time.

"Three egg ham and cheese, bacon on the side, and toast." Barbara said. Deke could only give a proud look. She just got him.

"She get you right?" Their server asked.

"Yes ma'am, and orange juice with the food please." Deke added. When their server walked away, Deke put his hand on Barbara's knee and gave it a squeeze. She turned and looked at him with a warm smile, then kissed him on the nose.

"Okay you two." Artemis said. "I haven't seen mine in almost a week, and we're not to the stage of needing weeks apart yet."

"I'm seriously sorry you were asked to keep an eye on me." Barbara said. "That wasn't fair of him to ask."

"It's cool Babs, it really is. When you two went to Metropolis, I was able to spend some time with mom. You know how much I miss that." Artemis said. "Yeah, it was a lot of nagging about grandchildren, but I think she only does that to get a rise out of me."

"Dad doesn't touch the topic at all with me." Barbara said, sounding very relieved. "I think he thinks he's too young, and I'm perfectly okay with that."

"Have you introduced him yet?" Artemis asked. Deke could feel mischief rolling off of her in waves, but she kept a straight face the whole time.

Barbara made a face at her friend. "I was going to wait actually. The details of our meeting were, unique after all, and I don't want to lie to my dad." She turned to face her boy. "Were you like, dead set on meeting my dad already?"

"Whenever you're cool with it. I figured it'd be a while before you could meet Otra Mami and Otra Papi too. I'd love for you to meet them eventually though." Deke replied, and he began to realize what Artemis was doing.

"I want to." She said and leaned into her boy. Artemis' goal was plain to Barbara too. She'd realized that both Babs and Deke were too busy physically, to work out some of the more normal details of a relationship.

"Food's here!" Artemis said, confident she'd put them on the right track. She and Wally had ignored some of the big relationship conversations in lieu of just spending more time in bed. It was fun, but it left them lacking later. Getting these two thinking about things would be helpful in the long run.