Barry
He felt awkward as he rapped on the door. Since the end of the invasion, he had seen less and less of his brother-in-law and his wife, a fact that he took no pride in. He knew it was the coward's way, but he just could not bring himself to face the parents of his former protégé. Running was a natural response, after all, and whether it be towards trouble or away from his problems, he was good at it.
When Rudy opened the door, Barry let a small smile flit across his face. "Hey, there. Did you get a call, too?" he asked as he warmly shook the older man's hand.
Rudy stepped aside, allowing the speedster into the living area. "Yeah, though I don't know what about. She wouldn't mention anything on the phone, only that it was important that we get together tonight for dinner. She says she has something she needs to tell us."
"Is that Barry I hear in my house?" A voice called from the kitchen. The middle aged woman stuck her head out from around the corner. "Or do my ears deceive me?"
"Good evening, Mary," he grinned and gave the woman a bear hug. "What seems to be on the menu tonight?" He reached towards a pot lid, curious as to what contents were secreted away beneath it, before his hand was rapped with a flick of Mary's wrist. He rubbed his knuckles, quietly admiring the damage the woman could do with a wooden spoon.
"Spaghetti carbonara, now keep your grubby hands away from it until it's on the table, Mister Allen," she scolded. She paused, and Barry could tell that she was thinking of another speedster trying to sneak snacks, so he rushed to distract her.
"Do you know what this is about, tonight?"
"No," Mary admitted lowly, stirring the noodles in the pot before turning back to preparing a salad. "But she should be here any-" The doorbell rang, and Mary practically tossed a tomato in Barry's face in her excitement. "I'll get it!" She called to her husband, who watched her bemusedly as he continued to set the table for four.
Even from the kitchen, where Barry continued prepping the salad, he could hear the woman's enthusiastic welcomes and the door closing behind the last member of their party. As the two women rounded the corner, the man got his first look at Artemis since that day in the Arctic Circle.
She looked better than what he had heard others describe, more centered than the loose cannon that had been going on the League missions. She still seemed far more delicate than the girl he had known before who wore confidence like a cloak and who seemed to be made of forged steel; there was something in the way that she carried herself, however, that belied that she was working back into becoming that person once more.
When she met his eyes, she tensed like a tightly-wound coil, like the tigress that she took her new name from, and Barry blinked confusedly. She distracted herself once more with Mary and moved to greet Rudy at the table. He watched he mannerisms, noting how she angled herself to have an eye on him at all times.
She perceived him as a threat.
She perceived him as a threat.
He threw the chopped tomato into the bowl, but not before snagging a slice for himself and popping it into his mouth. Why would she ask him to a dinner when she was so completely uncomfortable around him? He frowned.
Mary hurried back to the stove, shoving a red onion at the speedster as she did so. "Finish cutting that up and toss the salad, would you, Barry? Now that she's here I can finish this off, and we can eat. So stop stealing pieces out of the salad." The pair worked in tandem to finish off the dinner and moved the food into the dining area.
"Oh, Mary, this looks wonderful," Artemis practically cooed as she took her spot at the table. Keeping in mind her discomfort, Barry took the chair across from her. A look of relief seemed to cross her face before she turned to the eldest man. "Rudy, how are things at the office? Please tell me you caught whoever it was stealing the lunches out of the break room."
Rudy entertained the table with the tales of the Break Room Bandit, and the dinner, all-in-all, seemed to be a success. After they had all polished off the last of their salads, Mary coughed a little into her napkin.
"Artemis, sweetie, you still haven't told us why you wanted to call this dinner. Not that we don't love your company, of course," she smiled comfortingly and grasped the young woman's hand where it rested on the tabletop, "but you seemed to have something specific in mind when you called us."
"I did," the blonde admitted, suddenly looking much more tired than she had scant seconds before, "I do. I have something very important to tell you all, and, even though I've had all day to figure out how to do it, I'm still tongue-tied. So I guess I'll just have to be straight forward about it, because you all really need to know." Mary squeezed her hand and gave her an encouraging smile, and Rudy leaned further forward in his seat in attention. Barry himself tried not to fidget in his seat at the anxiety began to eat at him. "I'm pregnant."
Wow.
He was not expecting that.
Mary gasped lightly, bring her free hand to her lips as tears sprang to her eyes. Rudy seemed to be frozen in time, eyes wide and mouth slightly-agape.
"Oh, honey, come here!" Mary stood and practically pulled Artemis into her arms, squeezing tighter than Barry thought possible for her petite frame. The younger woman, however, relaxed in the woman's grasp. "You know I've always thought of you as a daughter, right? Even before Wally gave you the ring- you still have that, oh don't you?" Artemis wriggled free enough to pull a necklace from her collar, displaying the jewelry to the crying woman. "Oh good oh good. A grandmother! Can you believe it, Rudy?" Mention of his name seemed to snap the man from his stupor, and he rounded the table to save his would-be daughter-in-law from his wife's grasp before pulling her into a bear hug of his own. Barry soon joined them, placing a light hand on her shoulder and smiling.
"Congratulations, Artemis."
She gave him his first smile of the night from the girl, although she still seemed tight with tension. "Thank you, Barry. I wanted to tell you myself instead of you having to hear it from Ollie, although Dinah's running interference on that front."
The blond man laughed. "Yeah, I can see that happening."
Mary interrupted them as she drew the younger woman's attention again. "Artemis! Honey, tell me what you're going to do about school in the fall…"
The night had mostly wound down by nine o'clock, with Mary and Rudy discussing future plans in the living room as Barry munched on an apple by the fridge. A few moments before, he had spied Artemis stepping outside for some fresh air, and he gave her a few minute's privacy before joining her on the back porch.
"So, Arty," he announced his presence as he come through the sliding doors, shutting them behind him against the early August heat, "are you going to tell me why you've looked like you wanted to stick an arrow in me since you got here?"
She laughed a little to herself as she sat on the wooden porch swing, and it sounded a bit too self-deprecating for Barry's comfort. "Sorry about that. I really don't want to, I promise."
"It's okay. So will you tell me?"
"You're not going to like it."
"Probably not."
They let the silence hang between them, and it was soon filled with the chirping of the cicadas that permeated the night.
"I kind of hate you a little," she quietly admitted, and Barry took the seat next to her on the swing. "Sometimes, I hate you a lot."
"Why do you feel that way, Artemis?" he asked, even though he thought her already knew the answer. It was probably for the same reasons that ran through his mind every night as he tried to sleep.
She drew her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on top of them. "The reasons change. Sometimes it's because you were there to hear those words from him, and I wasn't. Sometimes it's because I wish that you had died instead, and that he was here next to me; those thoughts make me hate myself, too, because I don't mean them," she reassured, "I don't. Not consciously. But subconsciously, Barry, I guess I still blame you a little for what happened," the woman looked down at her hands. "I know it's not right, but I do."
"I blame myself, too," Barry confessed. "So don't feel bad about it." Artemis looked like she was about to protest, but he held up a finger. "Wait. Just know that, even though you believe, on whatever subconscious level, that I'm the reason Wally's gone, I will do everything in my power to make sure that your child will never be without you. I'm not going to take your child away from you."
She relaxed entirely next to him, looking well past her twenty-one years. "I know that, Barry. I guess I just… needed to hear you say it? It's completely irrational." Artemis shook her head. "I'm sorry, I just have a lot of trust-issues, as I'm sure you know."
"It's okay. Believe me, a lot of all this is baby-hormones… I've been going through this with Iris for the past couple of months, so I speak 'irrational' fluently." His words drew a small chuckle from the woman, and he smirked. "Now come're so I can give you a hug that'll put Rudy's grizzly grip to shame." She smiled and accepted his embrace. "I'm happy for you, hon."
Her grasp on the back on his shirt tightened, and she tucked her head further into his chest. "I just wish he were here to be happy, too."
"Oh, he would be so happy, Artemis. He'd be so proud." He rubbed her back in gentle circles and kept himself from imagining what it would have been like if his nephew were just inside.
Once he closed the door to his home just past ten, he leaned against it and sunk to the ground. He held his head in his hands and curled in on himself.
"Wally, you'd be so happy," Barry murmured against the quiet sobs that wracked his chest. "You'd be so proud."