Artemis was startled awake by someone calling her name. She lifted her head to find that she'd fallen asleep on her algebra… again. Sighing, she traced some of the numbers that had been smudged. Even though she'd been getting help from a kid at school, a friend of Bette's named Dick Grayson, and help from Robin at the cave, she'd still been falling behind in school.

She was still attending Gotham Academy, commuting via zeta beam, but now she was unsure of whether this rigorous school was the best choice. With Ollie recovering from his injury, Artemis had been pulling longer, harder patrols along with team missions. Normally that wouldn't have been a problem but her nightmares still plagued her nights leaving her with little sleep and little patience. The domino effect began and she started falling asleep during class making it very hard to keep up with coursework.

At least she hadn't been bothered by anyone who might have been involved with her mother's murder since the explosion of the boat. And Ollie was alive, that was a plus too.

Her name was called again. Artemis pulled herself off her bed and opened the door. "Yes?" She yelled. Ollie never could simply walk up to her room and knock on the door. He always felt the need to yell through the whole manor just to get her attention. It was his way of filling up the empty rooms.

"Dinner," he answered. She padded down the hallway, surprised not to smell something cooking or, at least, the smells of take out. "I thought you could use a break from your homework," Ollie explained as she entered the kitchen. Her expression must have said it all because she was greeted with one of his trademark smirks.

Artemis raised an eyebrow, leaning against the doorway. "So, this is your idea of dinner?" The island counter was covered with several small bowls, flour, and three balls of dough. She stepped forward and examined the contents of some of the bowls. Cheese, mushrooms, pepperoni, olives, spinach… Artemis looked up at Ollie. "Homemade pizza?"

"I don't have much to do now that I can't train or go on missions." He shrugged and leaned on the counter lazily. "Besides, this is a great dinner. Although, I would've liked to let you taste some of my amazing chili but whenever I go to make it the ingredients go missing. I suspect Dinah. She doesn't think the chili's fit for human consumption." He frowned. "She told me it was delicious at the time but now she thinks it tastes like paint remover. At least, Batman likes it." Artemis tried to stifle a giggle, though it didn't work as well as she planned.

"Paint remover?"

"Her words, not mine." He turned his attention back to the pizza. "Come on. I'll let you roll out your own dough. I used to love doing rolling out my own dough as a kid." Ollie covered a rolling pin in flour and held it out to her. Hesitantly, she took it. She had never made pizza before and was unsure of what to do. The older blond picked up on her uncertainty and plucked the rolling pin from her hands. "Like this." He rolled out one of the dough balls slightly. "You can use the rolling pin or your hands," he explained, grabbing the dough and throwing it into the air. It flew up, rotating as it gained altitude, just barely missing the ceiling before coming down to land on his knuckles. "You pick the thickness of your crust, the amount of sauce, and the toppings. Whatever kind of pizza you want." He tossed the dough up a few more times and laid it on a pizza stone. Again, he offered her the rolling pin and a ball of dough.

Artemis tried to mimic his movements; hers were sloppier than his. "I didn't know you knew how to make this." Ollie only shrugged in reply. She tossed up the dough. It didn't rotate and she almost missed catching it. "It's harder than it looks." She glanced over as he shaped the crust and slathered some sauce on his dough. "Who's the third ball for?"

"Dinah," he answered. "She's on a league mission tonight but she's going to need dinner when she gets home." Artemis nodded and continued her attempt at throwing her dough up in the air. "How's school going?" Ollie asked after a moment of silence.

"Good I guess." She had finally given up on stretching the dough out any further and slapped it on a spare pizza stone. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Ollie glance at her in concern. She ladled sauce out onto her dough and spread it around, trying to ignore his questioning looks.

"You guess?" He passed her the bowl of cheese as he sprinkled mushrooms on his pizza.

"It's fine. Everything's fine." She could feel his skepticism as she added on her toppings. She had never been good at this whole 'normal' family talk. Her mother had tried talking to her like this but she hadn't gotten much more than Ollie was getting now. Besides, she could never tell Ollie that she'd been falling behind in school because of her increased responsibility in Star City. That just wasn't something you told an injured man, especially since he was injured because of her.

"And the team? How is everyone doing? Dinah told me she's seen a great improvement in your training."

Artemis stepped away from the counter, showing him that she was done. He placed her pizza in the oven, set the timer and began on Dinah's pizza. "The team's doing great. There haven't been any major injuries in a while and everyone's improving." She almost said 'I guess' again but stopped herself. Plopping down on a stool by the island, she rested her head on her arms and allowed her eyes to slide closed.

Ollie was silent for a while. She could feel herself falling asleep and tried desperately to stay awake. "Artemis," Ollie began, the sound of his voice startling her fully awake. She lifted her head to meet his eyes. "Is there anything you want to talk about?" She automatically dropped her eyes to the counter. Part of her wanted to answer yes and tell him everything, but the other part of her told her to keep quiet. The latter was much stronger and louder so she shook her head without looking up.

The timer on the oven went off, signaling that her pizza was done. She heard Ollie pull it out as she kept her head down. The two parts of her were waging war inside of her. The strong, bottle-up-your-feelings part of her was losing ground and tears threatened her eyes. "You know," Ollie said. He placed a plate with her personal pizza on it in front of her. "When I met Dinah, I couldn't stop thinking about how my mother would have loved to meet her. They would have gotten along so well. And when I officially adopted Roy, I asked my parents to help me figure out how to raise him. They would have done a much better job than I did."

He paused briefly before continuing. "Losing them at a young age, it still hurts. I still miss them. But you learn to live the way they'd want you to."

Even as he said this, Artemis knew her resolve was going to break followed by the floodgates holding back her tears. There was so much stress put on her at the moment that it had begun to break down her mental barriers, no matter how thick they were.

"I miss her so much," she finally sobbed. Her eyes stung as they began to overflow. "I said so many things that hurt her, did so many things that caused her pain. I should have told her I loved her more than I did. I should have…" She looked up to see him standing next to her, concern filling his eyes. "I miss her." Artemis flung her arms around Ollie as tears slid down her cheeks. She hated how weak she felt but there was no stopping now. "I've been nothing but trouble and pain to those around me."

Tentatively, Ollie returned her hug. "That's not true," he replied soothingly. "You're not trouble or pain to me, or Dinah, or anyone else. Everyone who knows you cares about you." She shook her head quickly.

"My dad always told me he wished I was a boy. He told me I could have been better, stronger if I had been a boy." Her whole body shook as she sobbed. "I could have been strong enough to save my mom or to stop you from getting hurt."

"That man doesn't deserve to be called your father," Ollie muttered. Artemis could hear the venom in his voice. It was true that Lawrence Crock had never acted fatherly in anyway but he was her father by blood. He had always used that fact against her. He reminded her enough that he would always be her father that she finally came to accept it. Ollie's words had reminded her of what Roy had said. I don't care whose blood's in her veins, she's one of the Queens now. She wondered if Ollie would have said the same thing if he'd been there.

Artemis pulled away with a smile that was only half fake and wiped her eyes. Ollie nodded slowly, still monitoring her actions. He went back to cooking his and Dinah's dinner. Nibbling her at her pizza, Artemis made up her mind about what Ollie would have said if he had been there instead of Roy. He would have said the same thing