It was now the middle of July and Artemis was gone most days with Wally, trying to find an apartment out in California. Thankfully the zeta tubes allowed her to remain living in Gotham while they looked. Wally came over one night for dinner, and judging by the fact that he was reasonably friendly towards Jade and made absolutely no comment on the fact that she was obviously seven months pregnant, Jade figured that Artemis had told him something, maybe not everything because she swore that she wouldn't, but she had to have warned him.

"So Wally, what exactly did Artemis tell you about me moving back in?" She questioned him during dinner, she was normally a very subtle person but tonight she just didn't have the patients to beat around the bush with the speedster, besides the sight of Artemis pinching the bridge of her nose always gave Jade just a little joy.

"Uh just that you needed a place to crash for a little bit, congrats on getting out of the life by the way" Wally answered, squirming in his seat as he did so.

"You didn't tell him?" Jade asked Artemis

"No I didn't tell him!" Artemis shouted back, almost seeming to forget her boyfriend was sitting right there.

"Artemis keep your voice down," Paula scolded

"I didn't think you would want me to." She said to Jade, in a much more calm voice.

At this point Wally was completely lost but he figured it was for the better that he didn't ask. Normally he wouldn't like to hear that Artemis was keeping something from him but he figured that in this case whatever it was, it was part of Jade's personal life, and that was something which he knew better than to ask about.

"Can you keep a secret Wally?" Jade asked, her signature smirk on her face.

"Why?" Wally questioned, praying that she wasn't about to tell him that she hadn't really left the life. He may not be very close to Jade but he and Artemis had been together for four years now and he loved her family the way he loved his own, unconditionally. Every once in a awhile he would call Paula 'mom' by accident, sometimes he even did it on purpose just to see the smile it brought to her face. He never knew what to think of Jade and Sportsmaster, but now that Jade had returned he just instantly felt like losing her would be like losing a sister.

"I don't want to force Artemis to keep secrets from you, but you can't repeat what I'm about to tell you to anyone, especially anyone with ties to the Justice League" she warned, now Wally was really worried.

"Cheshire I swear if you-" he began but abruptly shut up when she pointed her fork right at him.

"No need for that name West, I'm not going back to crime." She admitted, smiling in satisfaction when his accusing expression faded into embarrassment.

"Then why?" He started

"Wally just don't tell anyone, please." Artemis asked and trusting that Artemis would never keep secrets important to the league he nodded.

"Ok" he agreed, though he was still a little bit skeptical.

"Artemis what did you tell him?" She asked and Artemis sighed

"Just that you got married in Vegas on whim one night and your husband has no idea where you are, or that you're pregnant." She confessed; Jade frowned in response.

"I don't know what's more upsetting, how pathetic you made that sound or the fact that it is a very stripped down version of the truth," she commented before turning her attention back to Wally. "Anyway I did get married in Vegas on whim but it was to my boyfriend of two years, not to mention this was two years ago." She shot a glare at Artemis as if to prove to her that it hadn't been a stupid decision, which Artemis never said it was. "But he's got some problems and the way he is now… he wouldn't have been able to handle a baby" she confessed, trying to find the nicest way to put that.

"Right, listen Chesh- I mean Jade, I'm sorry to hear that but what does this have to do with the league?" Wally asked and Jade sighed

"It's Roy," she said quietly, but that was all she had to say.

A part of Wally didn't believe it; another part of him saw it coming. It was no secret to anyone who had ever worked with Red Arrow that he and Cheshire often flirted in battle. But for whatever reason no one ever put it together that the two of them had faded off the radar around the same time.

"He's that bad?" The still stunned speedster finally managed to ask after a minute of just sitting there with his mouth open.

Solemnly Jade nodded "I've seen him once since I left, he's only gotten worse" she admitted.

"Green Arrow's been looking for him, I promise I won't say anything about you or the baby to him but do you know maybe where he could find Roy?" Wally asked

"We tried that, GA staked out the address Jade gave him every night for a month, Roy never showed" Artemis confessed.

"But don't worry about Green Arrow, he knows too" Jade admitted

"Then who, besides Roy, doesn't know?" Wally asked, becoming frustrated that Jade and Artemis had repeatedly warned him not to tell anybody yet another member of the league already knew.

"Everyone apart from Black Canary" Jade answered him. She hadn't been too keen on letting anyone from the Justice League find out, especially Roy's mentor and his girlfriend. But in the time that she was gone those two had taken Artemis in and become as much a part of her life as they had her mother's, they had become family and Jade wouldn't keep secrets from her little sister's family.

Wally nodded, he understood why Jade had told those two specific league members, and it has nothing to do with Roy. Even though he and Artemis had left the life she was still very close with those two and they often visited each other, he supposed Jade figured if Ollie and Dinah would be at the apartment visiting as often as they do then she may as well tell them the truth.

"You didn't have to tell Wally" Artemis said to her sister later that night, as the two of them were lying awake in their beds.

"He's like family to you and mom" Jade responded, arching an eyebrow Artemis rolled onto her side, a new question in her mind.

"Does dad know?" She asked, as far as she was concerned family had never counted for anything when it came to the judgment of her older sister, unless it was life or death. But clearly something had changed; recently judging by how unsure of herself Jade seemed lately.

"He knows I'm pregnant, we had a run in when I was four months along and he figured it out. I just hope he doesn't know its Roy's" Jade answered

"I doubt he does, if he did Roy would've died long before that night you ran into him" Artemis joked and Jade gave about half a laugh in response before it was silent again. "Is that why you told Ollie and Dinah?" Artemis asked but when she turned her head she saw Jade's eyes were closed.

"Hmmhm" the older girl murmured as she drifted off into sleep.

Artemis smiled softly "thanks sis" she whispered before rolling back over and falling asleep herself.

Considering how afraid Jade was that she would be early she couldn't really blame Artemis and Wally for all the jokes they made when she was late. It was mostly Wally and at first Artemis tried to discourage him but in the past two months he and Jade had come to be something close to friends, at the very least they were comfortable around each other. So because of this Artemis figured that Jade could use a friend cracking jokes at her expense and let Wally have his fun, she even joined in on a few.

"I'm glad you two are getting some enjoyment out of my torture" Jade remarked on the night two days past her due date. The four of them were sitting in the living room watching a movie; well Paula, Jade, and Wally were sitting. Artemis was lying on the couch with her head in Wally's lap. At first Wally and Artemis had told Jade she could have the couch but considering that at this point she spent most of the days lying in her bed she insisted that she wanted to sit in the fold out chair which seemed to have become a permanent addition to the living room, a decision she immediately regretted but was too stubborn to admit.

So out of pure stubbornness Jade sat there for a good hour, and it was an hour because she kept watching the clock to determine when she could get up without the others knowing she had been desperately waiting to.

"Hey I'm sure you'll be able to pay me back for it at some point" Artemis joked, she knew what kind of joke she was handing her sister but she figured that she deserved it, besides it probably wasn't a lie.

Jade smirked "You hear that West, you two are next" she commented and even her mother laughed when Wally's face turned a bright red color.

"Uh… I mean we're probably going to wait a couple years but…" The redhead began stuttering and at this point Jade was laughing hysterically not because of him, but because of how uncomfortable he was making Artemis. By now she had sat up and the look on her face was just begging for him to shut up, but at the same time she still found he's awkward stuttering funny and so she was also trying not to laugh.

"Wait, you're probably going to wait a coupe years?" Jade asked through her laughter, realizing that one key word in Wally's defense was probably.

"We ARE going to wait a couple years," Artemis said before her boyfriend could dig himself into a deeper hole.

"But you are going to have children together?" Paula asked, a teasing smirk on her own face.

"Mom!" Artemis exclaimed in horror, her mother's involvement only made Jade laugh harder.

Considering that tomorrow she would be three days overdue Jade had already looked up ways of naturally inducing labor, laughter was not on the list she found. But despite that one minute she was laughing harder than she had in a long time, and the next her face was frozen in fear because she felt the trickle of liquid between her thighs, her water broke.

"Hey, you ok?" Wally asked; Paula and Artemis were so wrapped up in their argument that neither of them had noticed Jade's sudden silence and expression of panic.

"My water broke" even though she practically whispered the sentence her bickering family members heard her loud and clear and immediately stopped their argument cold.

For a moment nobody in the room made a move, not even Jade. They all just sat there processing what was happening.

"Let's get going" Paula finally ordered.

"What's wrong?" Wally asked as he and Artemis sat in the waiting room of the hospital. It had been only ten o'clock when they admitted Jade but now it was nearing four in the morning. Wally had contacted his parents to say that he wouldn't be coming home until tomorrow, which now was today. He and Artemis had kept Jade company during most of her labor, along with Paula, but the two of them had been ushered out roughly a half hour ago by a doctor, and that was not going over well with Artemis whom Wally had never seen this worried.

It was kind of funny, they way she was reminding him of himself. She sat hunched over in her chair, a grip on her coffee so tight that if it got any tighter she would probably break the cup. Not to mention that her right leg was moving up and down at a speed that Wally would never admit rivaled his own.

"I have seen Jade shot, electrocuted, and beaten to a pulp. But I have never seen her show as much pain as she was in there" Artemis admitted and Wally chuckled.

"Yeah, I've heard childbirth can hurt even the strongest of women" he said as he sat down next to his girlfriend.

"This isn't a joke Wally, both my mother and Jade almost died when she was born, what if something goes wrong?" She asked, fear in her eyes.

"Babe, your sister is one of the strongest people I've ever met. In fact the only person I know just as strong is you. She's going to be fine and as for the baby, well it's a mix of Jade and Roy Harper, the kid's got some good genes." He assured the blond, putting his arm around her for comfort.

Artemis smiled softly at her boyfriend, and hoped that he was right. About fifteen minutes or so later a doctor came to get them.

"Artemis Crock?" He asked so both she and Wally stood up.

"Yes?" Artemis asked and all the fear she had was washed away when the doctor cracked a smile.

"Your sister wanted me to tell you that you can go meet your niece," he said.

When Artemis and Wally walked in the room any doctors or nurses who had been in there were gone and now it was just Paula, a large smile spread across her face, and an exhausted looking Jade holding tight to a pink bundle in her arms.

"Hey" Artemis said softly

"You don't have to whisper, she's wide awake" Jade chuckled as she gently shifted the bundle in her arms so her visitors could see the baby's face.

Her skin was still a rosy pink color, as it probably would remain for another day or two. She didn't have much hair that they could see but what they could see was thin bangs of an auburn color sweeping across her little forehead. She had Jade's eyes; there was no doubt about that. Overall Artemis thought her niece looked perfect.

"What's her name?" The blond finally asked

"Lian Nguyen Harper" Jade responded with a small but proud smile, looking down at the little girl like she was the most precious thing in the world.

"I thought you hated hyphenated names?" Artemis somewhat mocked

"I do. Nguyen is her middle name" Jade clarified and Artemis nodded, this wasn't the first time she had heard of a mother using her maiden name for her baby's middle name.

"Wait you gave her Roy's last name?" Wally questioned and everyone in the room, minus Lian, shot the speedster a death glare which said wait to go Wally.

"Of course I did" Jade said and with that she handed her daughter over to Artemis, which proved to be effective in silencing the archer's red headed boyfriend.

"I still don't like the idea of you taking her with you" Artemis said, sitting on her old bed with five month old Lian on her lap, happily amusing herself with some teething rings that she didn't actually need just yet.

"I worked more dangerous jobs until I was nearly six months pregnant with her, if anything she'll be easier to manage now" Jade responded as she packed the side compartments of her backpack. "Besides if your friends can talk some sense into Roy then there's no need to worry," she continued.

Ollie had finally had some luck locating Roy and so tonight he along with anyone he thought could help were supposed to hunt him down and intervene. As far as Jade knew five people were participating in this last attempt to help her husband, and three of them know about Lian. Actually four if Nightwing had somehow found out and with his record Jade wouldn't doubt it. But the three were Ollie, Dinah, and Wally and all three of them had agreed that it was not their place to tell Roy he was a father; that was Jade's job.

"You know him Jade, what are the chances of that?" Artemis asked, already knowing the answer.

"Slim to none" Jade admitted with a sigh as she turned around and leaned against her bed, "but that's why it has to be this way. If I had gone with them then he would know I had reformed but he wouldn't believe me when I told him it was because of him, and he'd just say that Lian is best off without him." She explained but Artemis still glared at her disapprovingly.

"I get that, but you can't bring your daughter with you to Tibet when you could be facing dad's 'friends'." She argued, raising her voice enough to make Lian cry.

Rolling her eyes Jade took her daughter from Artemis and rocked her gently back in forth to calm her.

"Try and understand Artemis. Roy is one of the most obsessive and stubborn human beings I've ever met. He's been driving himself insane for the past five years trying to find Speedy, it's killing him and he knows it. That's why he would never let Lian get hurt, he knows if he does he'll never let himself forget it." She explained and Artemis clearly still didn't like the idea but she didn't protest anymore.

Two hours later after Artemis had gone home to her new apartment in California and Lian had fallen asleep Jade got a call from Green Arrow.

"It didn't work" his gruff and disappointed voice told her

"Ok, my turn" she responded

"Good luck, and Jade" the man on the other end added quickly before she could hang up.

"Yeah?" She asked

"Even if you can't get him to come around, you'll always have family in me." He said to her. Her voice was calm as ever when she told him "thank you" and "goodbye" but had he been in the room he would've seen the tear rolling down her cheek.

Hanging up the phone Jade turned to her bed where Lian was already in the backpack and out like a light. Careful not to wake her, Jade strapped the bag onto her back.

"Ok baby, let's go say hi to daddy," he whispered.