Artemis

"Hello? Anyone home?" Artemis called into the seemingly empty manor. She heard some noises from the direction of the study before Ollie tripped through the doorway.

"Artemis!" he exclaimed before pulling her into a hug, which she gladly returned. Since taking on the role of her mentor some six years before, Oliver had very much become like an actual uncle to her, and, at the moment, she relished the companionship of family. He pulled away, and gently put his hands on her shoulders. "How you doing, kid?"

She gave a shaky smile. This was going to be harder than she thought. "I've been better. I need to talk to you about something, actually. You busy right now? I can come back later, or-"

"No, no, I've got a teleconference in about an hour, but I can push that back. Anything to spend a little quality time with my 'niece,'" he winked and she grinned in return. "What's going on? You in trouble?"

"Of a sort," the young archer murmured under her breath, as she allowed the man to lead her to the den and onto the couch. He took the empty adjacent armchair and leaned forward in interest.

"Well, here I am. I'm all ears." Ollie gave an encouraging smile. "How can I help, Artemis?"

Artemis settled more comfortably into the couch. This was the first stop of the many she had to make to go into retirement once more, and it was probably going to be one of the more difficult ones. Ollie had been ceaseless in his concern since the end of the Reach invasion, calling her at least once every other day, but she had enveloped herself in her grief and blocked out any contact with him, with anyone that wanted to comfort her. His eagerness to help, Artemis thought, was completely understandable, because it was the first time that she had allowed him to in weeks. "There's really nothing you can do, it's just something you really need to know." She took a deep breath. "I'm retiring from the team again."

Ollie smiled softly. "I understand. It's times like these that it's best to step away from everything and get your bearings again."

"Er, no," Artemis fiddled with a loose tassel on one of the pillows, pulling it into her lap as a distraction. "That's not the reason…"

Now her mentor looked worried, his brow furrowed in thought. "What did you mean earlier, when you said you were in 'a sort' of trouble, Artemis?" His voice was stern, and he seemed more like a father to her than her own at that moment.

"Well…"

"Hello?"

"Hey, Dinah! It's Artemis." She looked uneasily to the side, almost embarrassed that she had to make this call. "Can you get over to Ollie's as fast as you can?"

"Why, what happened?"

The protégée glanced down at the man that she respected above almost any other. "He's fainted."

Artemis swore she could hear the smack of Black Canary's facepalm through the cell phone speaker.

Well, that's one group down, Artemis mused as she left the Queen Estate.

After being revived by a sweet smack to the face (courtesy of one Miss Dinah Lance) and Ollie recovered from his shock, the billionaire proceeded to insist on paying for any and all medical fees and to regale Artemis on how he would spoil her child rotten, which, judging by the flood of gifts he drops on Lian, was not a far off assessment.

Dinah promised to reign him in from telling everyone immediately, though she could not give Artemis a better estimate on how long she had before everyone in the League knew of her condition. The woman then engaged Ollie in discussions of setting up a room for her at the estate for "visits," giving Artemis the opportunity to slip out and get to the nearest zeta tube as fast as she could.

As she dematerialized at the Watchtower, she caught Batgirl's eye. Barbara turned from her position at the controls and gave her a look, glancing from her face to her stomach, to which Artemis nodded. The redhead smiled, before turning to the station's intercom.

"Aqualad to bridge. I repeat, Aqualad to bridge."

"Thanks."

Batgirl returned her attention to Artemis. "No problem. So the doc confirmed it?" A nod. "Oh, come're." The blonde fell into her friend's hold gratefully, taking the quick squeeze before backing away again. "Is this your first stop?"

She shook her head. "No, I just came from Star City."

Barbara gave an unladylike snort and leaned against the console. "You're kidding me. How'd he take it?"

"I'm pretty sure he's measuring out a nursery suite as we speak."

The other girl laughed for a moment before noticing the tired expression on Artemis' face. "You're serious." Artemis' stare pinned her.

"I am completely serious."

"Serious about what?" A new voice broke into their conversation, and the girls turned to the handsome Atlantean making his way towards them. "Hello, Artemis. I wasn't expecting to see you." He give her a light hug. Artemis was getting a bit sick of the hugs, but returned the gesture anyway.

"Hey there, Kal. We need to talk." She waved a goodbye to Batgirl, who gave an encouraging smile and sat back in her seat. Kaldur'ahm and Artemis strode away from the bridge and into the central corridor.

"Of course. Would a conference room be more comfortable?"

"Just somewhere private we can sit, I guess."

"The observation deck might be more suitable, then."

The pair made their way slowly, exchanging small talk and enjoying the comfortable silences that seemed to settle between them. At their destination, they chose a bench and sat, staring out the large window that separated them from the vacuum of space. The quiet continued to stretch as Artemis gathered herself to what she was about to say.

"You're going to resign from the team."

Artemis shook her head lightly, a small smile gracing her lips. "I don't know how you do that, Kaldur. It's like you're the one with the telepathy, not Miss M."

He smiled and replied softly, "Perhaps it is merely because I know my friends so well."

"Yeah," she murmured and leaned back against the wall behind her. The world turned below them, clouds swirling over the seas and landmasses. Her eyes never strayed above the Arctic Circle. "Yeah, you do."

"What I don't know, however, is why you are leaving us this time. You seem much more… grounded, than you have in the past couple of weeks." She nodded. She knew that her actions on the few missions were more than a little erratic. He turned his gaze away from the window and towards his teammate. "I would be happy to keep you on if it were merely a matter of your discomfort with the team, as you seem to be settling into yourself once more. However, the fact of the matter seems to be that you wish to leave for a reason other than an issue of demeanor. Tell me, Artemis. Why are you resigning?"

She chewed on her bottom lip, a habit that Wally had broken her from years ago. She shut her eyes against the memory and sighed. "I'm pregnant, Kal."

A beat of silence. Then another.

"I believe congratulations is in order, then," she opened her eyes to meet his, which held equal parts joy and sadness, "as well as my sympathies." He did not expand any more on the latter subject, but both he and Artemis knew that doing so was not necessary.

Artemis gave a wet sounding laugh and ran a hand through her unbound hair. "Not the explanation you were expecting, huh?"

"I've learned, in my years as your friend, to never expect a simple explanation," Kaldur'ahm smiled and patted her hand, "from either of you. Both of you have always been unpredictable, to say the least. I hardly expected that to change, now."

Artemis swallowed against the lump in her throat. "Will you," she coughed. "Will you tell the team, for me?"

"Of course. I expect that there may be others you must deliver this news to." She nodded. She had one more stop to make before returning to her mother's apartment in Gotham for the night. "Artemis, don't forget that you have us to support you if you require it. This team-"

"-Is a family. Yeah," the young woman gave a wan smile and dropped her gaze to her hands, "I knew that, consciously, before, but…" she hesitated, "I'm really starting to see that, now."