"I'm very disappointed in you, son." Was the first thing Wally heard when he got downstairs.
Wally was taken aback. This was the first he saw of his father since he got there. "Why? What did I do?" Then he shook his head. "Hold on, can this wait? I gotta go." He started putting on his shoes.
"How could you just leave Artemis in hospital knowing what happened?" He scolded him. "We raised you better than that."
"I didn't know she was there." Wally exclaimed. "How did you even find out?"
"Richard called when you wouldn't answer." Rudy explained. Dick lowered his head, bowing out of this lecture. "How could leave her all alone? Were that angry with her?" Wally tried to speak but his dad continued. "It doesn't matter what you're fighting about. Losing a child is never something to be fighting about." His father went on scolding him, but Wally toned it all out.
Their child was gone? But she was fine when he last saw her. Wally raked his hand through his hair. Was she by herself when it happened? No, then why is Dick here? Was she attacked like Bart said? He should've just ran home, now his wife is in the hospital and their baby was gone. He could've saved them.
"Wally! Are you not even listening to me?" His father failed to get his attention.
Dick shook him out of his trance. "Dude! Come back to us."
"I-I didn't know she was... " Wally slowly and quietly let out. He turned to his friend. "Is she okay?"
The look on his son's face was enough to tell Rudy what was really going on. "You really didn't know?" Wally shook his head.
"Come on, let's go see her." Dick gently pushed Wally toward the door.
"R-Right. Dad, I'll let you know later." Rudy nodded and closed the door after them. On the way to the zeta tubes, Wally turned to his phone saw several messages. 2 missed calls from Paula, 4 from Jade, and 10 from Dick alone.
'I am such an idiot.'
Wally, with Dick close behind, ran as fast as he could to the hospital. All he could think about was Artemis. He skid to stop on the dark side of the parking lot and ran at human speed to the hospital, he was about to walk inside but was met with a forceful shove to the side. He turned to face his sister-in-law.
"What is wrong with you?"
"Jade, what are you doing here?"
"Supporting my sister, something you should be doing." She snapped. "You are the worst excuse for a husband I've ever seen and I'm married to a clone with serious issues!" Jade whispered yelled. "How could you just leave her here?"
"I didn't know!" Wally yelled at her. A few people, including the receptionist, looked at them from the inside. Both Jade and Wally glared at them and they quickly turned their attention back to what they were doing.
"You really are an idiot. Your friend would be better for her than you. He's been here doing your job of taking care of her." She continued as Dick walked up to them.
"Stop it. The whole hospital doesn't need to know what's going on." He stopped them and Jade crossed her arms, starting to walk away. Both men stood there watching her before she turned back around. "Move your ass."
The walk to Artemis' room was silent. Wally wanted to ask so many questions but, even through his trademark sunglasses, he could tell his friend was tired after being here for who knows how many hours.
"Keep your voices down. The doctor gave her more meds before I left so she might be knocked out." Jade said as they arrived.
She opened the door and there, lying in bed, was Artemis. Paula was reading a book next to her bed.
Wally walked to the other side of the bed and looked at his sleeping wife. He brushed the stray hairs off her forehead.
Jade plopped in the chair beside him and crossed her legs. "Now that the idiot's finally here," Wally glared at her. "We can know what really happened."
"How long have you been here?" Wally asked.
"About 6 hours. We got here around 12 am." Wally could really hear the tiredness in his voice. Being on a stakeout basically all day, followed by an intense fight with Penguin and this situation with Artemis, anyone would be exhausted. It's unfortunate, but it's times like these where you know who your friends are.
"What happened to her?" Paula asked this time.
"I don't know why it happened. I went over to your place to check on her after your fight. I was just dozing off and suddenly she woke me up screaming. When I went to see what was wrong, Artemis was on the floor, bleeding. Your bed was covered in blood too. I wrapped a blanket around her and rushed her here. Doctors took her in and well now she's here."
"What about," Wally had to pause for a moment, he was afraid, even when he already knew the answer. "The baby?"
Dick sighed again. He rubbed his eyes, tried not to look at Wally. "I'd rather let the doctor explain that in detail. Basically, she had a miscarriage, but the way it happened was so odd, even the doctor was kinda confused. They said her body was healthy and there shouldn't have been anything wrong. But," Dick shrugged. "things happen." By this point, Wally was staring hard at her sleeping face.
All Wally could do was stand there in shock. Dick watched him clench his fists at his sides.
"And where were you when she needed you?" Jade uncrossed her legs and leaned forward.
"Jade." Paula scolded.
"No mom. I want to know why this asshole wasn't home with his pregnant wife." She turned to Wally. "So, where were you?"
He answered, his eyes never leaving Artemis' face. "We had a huge fight. She didn't want me home, so I went to my parents' house for the night."
"Is this true?" Her attention now on Dick.
"Yeah. I was there pretty much the whole time."
Jade sighed, accepting his answer. "So what do we do now?"
"I think you said go home and rest." Paula said to Dick. "You've done enough for her and I thank you for that but now it's time you get some rest."
"A-Are you sure?" At this point, he didn't want to just leave Artemis there, even with her family surrounding her.
"Absolutely. You look like death." Jade chuckled slightly.
"Yeah dude, I appreciate you being there. You always are." Wally added. "I'll update you if anything."
Dick nodded, wished them all a good day, and walked out. He didn't get too far before someone called out to him.
"Thank you for taking care of her." Dick turned just in time to see Jade disappear back into the room. He nodded, finally going home to sleep.
A few days later, Artemis was still in the hospital. The anomaly of her miscarriage astonished her doctor so he kept her there to observe her. M'gann, Conner, Zatanna, and Bart had to come to support her.
"How are you feeling?" M'gann asked, sitting close to her on the bed.
Artemis had to admit it was nice to see her. "..fine." she quietly answered. M'gann gave her a hug as gently as she could.
"M'gann and I were visiting Gar and Perdita when we heard. We got here as soon as we could." Conner said turning away from the window.
"We're not gonna ask what happened, we just wanted to come and see you." Zatanna said leaning on the bottom of the bed.
Artemis nodded, avoiding eye contact with them. She couldn't take them pitying her but she refused to say anything since they were nice enough to visit her at all. She forced a slight smile. Which didn't last long when she laid eyes on Wally, who stood close to the door. Wally only looked at her for a moment before staring back at the floor. They haven't really resolved things since their fight and Wally still felt horribly guilty for not being there when it happened. Bart noticed the exchange of looks and put a hand on his cousin's shoulder.
M'gann noticed the awkward tension between the two. "Um, so I bet you're already sick of hospital food. We wanted to know if there was anything wanted from the outside world."
"Oh.. soup... I guess." Artemis shrugged.
"Chicken noodle, Miso, tomato?" The martian listed.
Artemis shrugged again. ".. whatever."
"Okay then, I'll surprise you. Come on Zee, I know a good place nearby."
"You want anything, Wally?"
The speedster was slightly startled by the question. "Uh, you sure?" They nodded. "Um, guess I'll take two chicken noodle." They stared, waiting for him to continue. "That's it I swear."
"You coming Conner?" M'gann asked.
"No, I'll hang back." And then it was just the four of them. Conner could feel the tension rising in the room. Maybe he should've gone with them.
"S-so how are you feeling, Artemis?" Bart tried to start the conversation but was met with a silent shrug. "Do you need some water? Maybe another blanket?" Again silence, just a shake of her head. Artemis just kept staring at her hands in her lap.
'Yeah, I should've left.' Conner thought as he turned toward the window again.
"Leave her alone dude, she's been through a lot." Wally said and Bart nodded. The silence that followed was slightly tense, all three males didn't know what to say to break it, knowing that Artemis would still just tone everything out. She was still staring at her hands in your lap. She might as well have in the room alone.
Suddenly a knock broke the silence and her doctor entered the room. "Good day everyone." Everyone greeted him, Artemis even looked up at him. "Artemis, I'm going to just press some areas on your stomach to make sure there's no swelling or inflammation. Sound good?" Artemis just nodded.
"Do you want us to leave for this?" Conner asked. Artemis shrugged.
"Alright, I need you to lay back and lift up your shirt." Artemis followed his directions and she lifted her shirt up. "Okay, I don't feel anything. Does this hurt?"
Curiosity struck through Conner as the doctor examined the blonde. Using his unique vision, he scanned his friend's stomach and noticed something that startled to the core. After blinking to fix his sight, he motioned for Wally and Bart to follow him out of the room. "Artemis, we'll give you your privacy, ok?" Artemis shrugged in return.
In the hallway, Bart plopped in a chair and scratched his head.
"What's wrong, Conner?"
"Something's wrong with Artemis. She has handprints on the sides of her stomach."
Wally stood straight. "How can you tell?"
"I used my infrared vision, the heat traces are so light I doubt anyone can actually see them with it."
"So not even Artemis can even see them." Wally started glaring at the floor.
"Go see for yourself, use your goggles." Conner suggested and Wally did just that. He quietly snuck back in the room as to not disturb the doctor from his check-up. Artemis just stared at the ceiling not paying attention to either men. Wally quickly pulled out his goggles from his duffle bag while the doctor was distracted and scanned over his wife's body. True to what Conner had said, there on the side of her stomach was a handprint, smaller than his and slightly smaller than the blonde's. He quickly took a snapshot with his goggles and put them away, leaving right afterward.
Wally shoved his hands in his pockets. "You were right, I saw them clear as day."
"Are you sure they're not your's or Artemis'?"
"They're too small to be either of them." Conner confirmed.
Wally's fists clenched, he scowled. "I should've known."
"Known what?" Bart asked, but his cousin stayed quiet as he removed his goggles and put a hand on his chin, covering his mouth.
"I'll be back guys, I'm heading to the watchtower."
"Why?" Bart asked.
"I need to check a theory I have. Please just say here and watch over Artemis." They both nodded and Wally walked away. Bart couldn't help but watch his cousin's back as he left. The tension and stiffness in his shoulders worried him.
About 2 hours later, Wally came back to the hospital.
"Dude where have you been?" Bart shot up from his chair, careful not to wake the sleeping blonde.
"I was at the watchtower doing research. Where's Conner?"
"He and the others ate with Artemis for a bit then left. I said I'd stay till you got back."
Wally nodded, then looked over Artemis and gently caressed her cheek. "She was feeling really anxious so the doctor gave her something to sleep."
Wally nodded again. "Bart, have you ever heard of Jinx?"
"Like a jinx or-?"
"Guess not. Anyway, I think she's the cause of this. The color of the handprints matches her theme."
"You talk like you know her." Bart raised a brow.
"I did in a way. Jinx is.. my ex-girlfriend, my first one too. She's like Zatanna but with bad luck powers. When I was first started out, Flash would take me to Jump City to train. I ran into her from time to time."
"What happened?"
"She started obsessing over this book she found, Spellbound. It changed her, it was like she had two sides to her. Her regular self and the one controlled by the book, it made her crazy but she could never split with it. She was getting too dangerous, it would take over her mind. I tried to help her but she almost killed me."
"What a way to break up. But what does that have to do with Artemis?"
"She just hates that Artemis and I are together. Like a year after we got together, Jinx appeared again asking me to help her and just caused trouble between us. Ever since then she and Artemis despised each other. But that was years ago, hard to believe that she still held a grudge."
"That still doesn't explain why she would want to do this to Artemis. I mean it was your kid too."
"Like I said they hated each other. Especially since they had had a similar background. They both had bad upbringings but even through that, it was Artemis that got the team and people who cared about her. Jinx was betrayed by her team and left alone." Wally explained.
"Guess she felt Artemis didn't deserve it. But still, different things happen to different people."
"You think Jinx cares about that? I told you, that book changed her. That caring side I knew is gone, she has no remorse for anyone."
Bart sighed and sat down in his chair. "So what do we do? Do we tell the team and track her down?"
"Something like that. I'm tracking her as we speak." Wally pulled out a watch and a hologram of the US map appeared. "Thanks to Nightwings research and a little luck from Zatanna, I should find her soon."
"And what's gonna happen when you find her?"
"I don't know. I highly doubt she can reverse the process but I just want to know why."
Bart turned from his cousin to his wife. "What about Artemis?"
The older speedster shook his head, putting the map away. "Don't tell her anything, at least not yet."
"Why not?" Bart snapped, causing the sleeping woman to shift in her sleep.
"Keep your voice down. Who knows what Artemis would do if she found out right now? She'd probably kill her or send Chesire to for it for her." Wally ran a hand through his hair. "I can't let her get hurt anymore. It's my job to protect her and so far I've sucked at it. Let me do this, please don't tell her."
Bart could see the seriousness and determination in his eyes. He had to trust his cousin. He sighed again. "Alright."
A moment of silence fell between them before Wally's watch went off. He quickly shut it off before it woke his wife.
"What was that?" Bart pulled the blanket back over Artemis.
Wally studied the results from his watch. "I think we just found a lead."