Onto the next chapter!

Jade leapt soundlessly from roof to roof and, although he would never admit it, Roy was struggling to keep up with her. He had no idea where they were going, but Jade apparently did. She climbed up fire escapes and vaulted over chimneys and Roy was sure he had lost her a couple times. One of these times she turned up right next to him, crouched in the shadow of an air duct.

"How are you doing?"

Roy stumbled and almost fell at the sound of her voice. When he regained his balance, he whirled around and hissed. "Fine! Like I said, I'm in great shape. Never felt better." It would have been more believable if he hadn't been panting while he spoke, but Jade just shrugged.

"If you say so." And she took off again, this time faster, until she was just a dark blob in front of him, slipping further and further away. Trying and failing to pick up his pace, Roy scrambled along behind her. His breath came in gasps and sweat poured off his forehead despite the frosty air.

When they reached a large gap between buildings, Jade leapt off like a cat, Sai in one hand. By the time Roy reached the edge, she had hooked her weapon on a telephone line and was sliding towards the next dark building. Roy smirked, chest heaving from exertion. He had a foot up in this field. In a still-fluid motion, he pulled the bow from his back, knocked a rope-arrow, and shot it off into the darkness. When he felt it dig firmly into the opposite wall, he attached his end to the rooftop and used his bow to swing down the line. Because his line was more steeply slanted, he caught up to Jade.

"Ha!" He called out to her. "Just because you and your ninja training can sneak through the dark doesn't mean-" But the rest of his rant was cut off as, due to exhaustion, lack of attention, or just being unpracticed, Roy's grip wavered and he slipped off.

He would have made quite an unshaven pancake on the street below if a hand hadn't grabbed him by the back of the shirt. A muffled pop and a hiss sounded in the night as Roy flew through the air for a second before being unceremoniously dropped onto the landing of a fire escape. He landed hard on his side and rolled onto his back, gasping for air. A few seconds passed before he raised his head and Jade's face came into his line of vision, glowering down at him. Roy lay back down and groaned, staring up at the stars.

"Oh god, I need to work out." He moaned to the winter sky.

"Yes. Yes you do." In the dark, the woman scowling down at him looked more like Cheshire than Jade and Roy was almost scared. Instead, embarrassment burned white-hot in his face. He pushed himself up on his elbows, head throbbing and back bruised, and groaned anew. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he made a mental note to put more padding in the back of his uniform.

"Come on." Jade reached down a hand. Her right hand, Roy noticed with some surprise. Jade was ambidextrous through practice, but left-handed by nature. He took the hand and hauled himself to his feet. As soon as he was standing, Jade turned away from him. "Let's go." Again with her right hand, Jade started climbing up the fire escape. Roy followed, humiliated and still confused. When they reached the top, Jade turned and slipped into the shadows, forcing Roy to quickly scramble after her.

This time, Jade kept her pace slow enough that he could stay by her side and they ran across the rooftops together for a few minutes before Roy realized they were heading back the way they had come. He stopped at the edge of one building as Jade leaped to the next.

"We're going back?"

Pausing as well, Jade turned around and nodded. Her silhouette seemed slightly misshapen and Roy started to wonder how hard he had hit his head.

"Then why did we come-?" Roy answered his own question before he finished asking it. "Were we running around out here just to prove that I'm off my game?" He didn't need to see Jade's smile to feel it, even in the dark. "How long would you have kept leading me around, waiting for me to mess up?" Now he heard Jade's quiet laugh, echoing to him from the other rooftop.

"Well, we still had a few hours till dawn." She turned away. "But I figured it wouldn't take very long." And she dashed off into the night, leaving her husband to curse and follow.

Life with a speedster meant accepting a few facts of life. Like food disappears quickly, but the dishes always take longer.

When the dishes were finally done and in the drying rack, Wally turned back to the table, looking slightly embarrassed and Artemis was pretty sure she knew what he was about to ask before he did.

"Can I hold her again?"

Chuckling to herself, Artemis held Lian out to him.

"It's a good thing she is a deep sleeper or we'd wake her up with all this passing back and forth."

Wally frowned as he gathered the child into his arms. "Don't say that, you'll jinx it."

Artemis shook her head. "I still can't believe that 'science has the answer to everything' boy is afraid of jinxes." Wally probably would have had a sassy retort if Lian hadn't squirmed in his arms. Both ex-heroes stared as she opened her eyes.

"Told you." Wally whispered tauntingly. Artemis held her breath as Lian looked at Wally, looked to her, opened her mouth...and screamed.

Squeaking in surprise, Wally rushed towards Artemis, holding out the flailing child. Artemis raised her hands and backed away.

"I don't know what to do! Don't give her to me!"

"She's your niece!" Wally cried. "You take her."

"I just met her. I don't know anything."

"She's snotting all over the place!"

"Don't hold her like that!"

"I thought you said you didn't know anything!"

"Well, I know you aren't supposed to do that!" At some point during the fighting, Lian stopping screaming, but Wally and Artemis didn't notice.

"Then you take her if you know so much!"

"I don't!"

At Artemis' last shriek, Lian giggled. Archer and speedster both froze, staring at each other, then stared down at Lian. The child looked between them and laughed again. Wally drew her back to his chest and Artemis took a step towards them both.

"That's...?" Wally started.

"Weird." Artemis finished.

"Well, she is Jade's daughter. What did you expect?" Still watching the girl in case she started crying again, Wally shrugged as much as he could without upsetting her. "Hand me a towel, will you?" Artemis took a step back, grabbed a clean dishcloth, and handed it to him. Lian fussed a bit, but let Wally wipe her face off. She then stared at him, mouth working slowly open and closed. Wally blinked.

"Oh."

"What?" Artemis asked, caught between wariness and eagerness.

Wally looked up. "I think she is hungry."

"Oh." Artemis repeated

"Did Jade leave anything here?"

Artemis looked around the kitchen.

"Um, the sling-baby-holder-thing. And..." She grabbed the black bag from a chair. "This." When Artemis opened the bag, there was a bottle on top of everything and a note attached to it.

She is probably going to be hungry around midnight.

Artemis rolled her eyes and read the note aloud to Wally.

"Great." Wally said. "So we just, give it to her?"

Holding the bottle out in front of her, Artemis approached the baby the same way she would a ticking bomb. "I think so?"

I'm getting close to the end of what I've already written, so chapters are going to start coming out slower. But I'll try not to keep you guys waiting too long. A big thanks again for reading and reviewing!