Strangers in the Night
A little earlier than usual this week, because I won't be able to update my usual time. Enjoy!
Beta: knottedblonde
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Artemis wakes up feeling like a million daggers are piercing into her upper back. She curls up into a ball, twitching from the pain that shoots up her spine and down her arms. Her head is sore, and she hears a strange series of whispers echoing in the recesses of her mind. Artemis screams. The back of her throat strains against her vocal chords.
A warm pair of hands are suddenly running down her arms, she hears a gentle cooing from somewhere, and the pain and voices start to ebb away. She sighs in relief before unravelling herself.
"You sure have it rough." It's Iris' voice. Artemis cracks an eyelid open and peers up at a red-headed woman hovering above her. Iris wipes her sweat away with a wet cloth, and smiles gently. "How are you feeling?"
"Been better," she grumbles out a response. It's only then that she notices the sterile white walls around them, and the weird material of a hospital gown covering her body. She leaps up. "What the hell?"
"Shh," Iris presses her back down to the bed, gently, "Calm down." Artemis gnashes her teeth together, then winces from the pain that immediately attacks her forehead. Iris looks on in pity. "Do you remember what happened?"
"N-" she starts to say, but realises that she does. Cam. Icicle Junior. The scumbag. "Yeah," she mumbles back. The artefact. Artemis gasps; her job. "I need to get out of here. Regina's going to slaughter me for this." Iris presses her down again, this time a little more firmly, until Artemis stops struggling.
"I've already talked to her about it, sweetheart," Iris gives her another reassuring smile, "She's agreed to fill in for you for now. And," she adds, reluctantly, "Icicle Junior's robbery was all over the news last night, and this morning. That helped."
"So," she draws out the 'o', realising that she did crash through the glass last night, and there was a huge fight inside the Exhibition. The same exhibition she's been working on for months now and oh god, where's that necklace? Artemis starts to panic, because she clearly remembers making a grab for the necklace while Cam was fighting with the Flash, or whoever that was.
It doesn't matter to her as much as it should, that she owes him her life and a huge thank you, because then she sees a massive line of black characters running along her arms and up to the tips of her fingers. Her right hand has a nasty, menacing little symbol on it that looks a little familiar to her; she can't seem to place it. Her mouth starts to open and close like a fish out of water, gasping for air fruitlessly. "Wh-What the fuck is this?"
Iris looks confused, "What happened?" When Artemis pulls her sleeves up and throws her arms out, Iris takes them gently. "Your arms look fine, Artemis, don't worry about the cuts. All wounds will heal."
She starts to panic again. "I don't care about the damn cuts! Look at the markings!" Artemis can tell that her eyes are starting to take on a crazed edge, because Iris widens her eyes for a bit before trying to settle her down again. It hits her like a tonne of bricks. "You can't see it. Why?"
If her words shock the red headed woman, it doesn't show, because Iris clasps Artemis' hands in hers and gives her yet another kind smile before settling her down into the mattress again. "What's happening?"
"You're just tired, honey. I'm sure it's the shock from yesterday's events."
After the woman refills her water jug and mutters something that Artemis just nods to, she leaves. Artemis grits her teeth through a round of bed-ridden examinations from the nurses and doesn't tear her eyes away from the markings that seem to travel all the way up to her shoulders. They turn on the overhead TV for her, not that she watches anything on it except the news.
Even then, Artemis promptly decides to tune out when they repeat the same story over and over again: Icicle Jr attacked the museum last night, left a mess of glass shards and the Curator's blood in his wake, and gets arrested for his crimes. Seeing her childhood friend as a notorious villain is starting to sink in. Honestly, Artemis isn't that surprised, she's more upset that it took her seeing him transform in real life to connect the dots. They used to have play dates together with Jade when their parents went on 'business trips' together, and he'd even alluded his secret identity to her a few times over the years as well, if the 'ice-cold' puns weren't obvious enough.
Maybe she's not as sharp and quick-witted as she likes to think she is.
The only new stories that pop up are interviews with Iris just outside the hospital, where she reassures the press that 'Yes, Artemis Crock is fine, she just needs rest', and a few brief chats with Kid Flash about the incident. As it turns out, he's her life saver.
She really isn't sure how she feels about that, mainly because the vivid green eyes that peek out from behind his yellow mask are strangely familiar (why is everything so familiar, and why can't she place her finger on anything these days) and disconcerting at the same time.
At exactly 3:41PM, there's a knock at the door. It opens up when the person behind it realises the pointlessness of knocking on a hospital door, and reveals Wally. Wally, clad in a bright red hoodie and scruffy denim jeans, stands less than five metres in front of her with a strange look on his face.
"Hey," he says.
"Hi," she says back, bluntly. She really isn't sure why he's here, other than to check up on her for Iris, probably. "How are you?"
He scoffs. "Don't ask me that. You're the one in the bed."
"Right," she blinks slowly. He walks towards her with a bag in his hand. "Don't you have work?"
"Yeah," he shrugs nonchalantly, "Flexible working hours. And, Iris gave me some time off to check up on you." Right guess, then.
"You really didn't have to," she replies. The last thing Artemis wants to do is burden Iris and her family again. She hates feeling indebted to people, especially those who genuinely care about her.
Then, Wally pulls out a tub of pasta and a bouquet of roses out of thin air before wordlessly placing his items on the bedside table.
Red roses. Artemis' face slackens as she makes a strangled sound. Wally looks up at her, green eyes quizzical.
"Not to sound ungrateful or anything, and I really appreciate everything you're doing," not that she's sure why he's doing it, "But isn't this a bit too much? I'm still forbidden to eat anything other than soup and fruit slices. And, uh-"
He stares blankly at the items when her hands gesture towards the roses. "Wha-oh." Something clicks in his mind that makes him blush like crazy. "These-these aren't for you."
She nods compliantly when he starts to ramble on at the speed of light.
"I mean, they are. Sorry. These aren't mine. They're from Zatanna. She made the pasta too. Mentioned something about staging a rebellion against hospital food." He mumbles something else under his breath that she doesn't quite catch.
Wait. "You know Zatanna?"
He nods, pulling out a chair to sit in when she sits up straight in her bed. "We're friends."
"Oh. From?"
"School," he winces. "She is Dick's fiancé, so naturally..." Wally trails off. She lets out an understanding hum. Way to connect the dots again, Artemis, you fool.
"So," she coughs, feeling mucus travel up her throat from the action, "Are you going to their wedding, too?"
"Yeah, I mean, I did get an invitation, so- I guess it'd be rude not to go. Right?" His mouth starts yammering off again; Artemis gets the distinct impression that she's not the only one who has no idea how to talk to him. "Yeah. Yeah, I am." His ears turn a bright, bright red as he meets her amused gaze shyly.
"Guess I'll see you there, then."
He chuckles, then looks down at her resting arms. Artemis' first reaction is to pull them away to hide the markings, then realises that he probably can't see them anyway, so relaxes into her pillow instead. She doesn't miss the curious glint of recognition in his eyes, but doesn't have time to ask him if he can see them because, of course, given her track record of bad luck as of late, the markings start scratching their way up her arms like tiny spiders.
Artemis clamps her mouth shut to avoid freaking out in the same way she did around Iris. She hears Wally swear and ignores it; he probably can't see the things anyway. "Why are they moving again?"
Not hearing the string of curses that follow, Artemis bolts out of her blankets and looks at him desperately, imploringly. "You can see them? These...things?" They're halfway up to her elbows when Wally completely ignores her question and lifts up the sleeve of her gown.
It takes a moment for her to register what he's actually doing, but this is the first person who's acknowledged the weird, creepy marks on her body all day, so she lets it go until he's ready to fill her in on what exactly is happening because he seems to have some idea already.
Emerald eyes meet hers after a few moments of silence. "Are you in pain?"
"What? Why would I be?"
"It's just..." He trails off when he notices how close they are, and releases her gown immediately.
The pain in her back flares up again. She screams when fire starts searing into her shoulder bones and edges it's way downwards, tearing through her skin viciously, ferociously, and she swears she feels a trail of blood tricking down her back. Distantly, she hears the sound of doors being slammed open and frantic voices around her, then she's being pulled off her bed and carried off to who knows where, she doesn't know.
There's a brief flash of blue, and green, and red, then everything turns black.
"The painkillers are in here," the nurse from earlier presses a bottle of pills into his open hand, "and the bandages and ointments are here, should you need to reapply them. Of course, you'll have to, to avoid an infection," she grabs a bag for him to place all the items in. Wally feels a little overwhelmed, "If anything unusual happens that we haven't told you about already, give us a ring or run right in." Her brown eyes soften, "Your girlfriend will be fine."
He doesn't have the heart to correct her (sadly, it gives him a sense of happiness) and thanks her before walking away to where Artemis is sitting next to Aunt Iris. There hasn't been another flare since the engravings acted up three days ago, thankfully. The bandages are hidden beneath the thick jacket and the loose pants Iris brought over from Artemis' apartment, but her face is still gaunt and pale, even though the doctors have already replenished the blood she's lost.
"Ready to go?" Wally reaches them within seconds. Iris helps Artemis stand up, and they walk outside to Wally's (typically dirty, but now clean) car that's parked just outside the entrance.
"Thanks for doing this for me," Artemis says lifelessly. They pretend not to notice how deadened she appears, a huge contrast against the sparkly-eyed Curator from a few days ago. His aunt throws him a 'take good care of her' look before they both ease into the back seat. Wally takes the wheel, and punches in the address that Artemis drawls out slowly.
Twenty minutes later, it's almost sunset. They crawl out, help Artemis into the elevator, and back out, and after a few minutes of fumbling around, finally open the door to her dusty abode.
Wally silently starts to air out the place, which doesn't take him long because he's Kid Flash, and starts to set up microscopic, League-issued security cameras all around the studio as Iris takes Artemis into the bathroom - he'll fix up that room layer. Per Batman's orders, Wally fixes the alarm systems, replaces the locks on her doors and windows, then speeds down to tack on more microscopic cameras to the lobby area. He races over to the local Chinese restaurant, and orders take out for them. It takes him less than ten minutes, nine of which were spent in the elevator going down, and waiting for the food.
He walks back into the elevator, calmly, and calls Dick. "It's hooked up, you online?" He hears a cup of coffee being slurped down.
"Yeah, everything's perfect, save for the bathroom. You gonna do that later?"
He hums in agreement. "Do we still need so many people for this mission? Our objective's already changed considerably, and I doubt the Shadows even know about her...situation."
Wally hears Dick chuckling, then remembers to place a camera in the corner of the elevator. "Far from it. I've been looking around," translate: stalking, "The Shadows are moving in, more so than before, and they're increasing their numbers around the Museum. They want that necklace, desperately. We need to keep Artemis safe for now, until we figure out what to do."
The metal doors slide open when he reaches the fourth floor. "Well, do that soon. She can't stay in here forever. Central City's crazy about its Museums."
"Whatever, Lover Boy. Give us an update soon." His comm fizzles out as soon as he reaches the door to Artemis' apartment, which is opened by none other than Artemis herself.
She's changed into a loose singlet, and a pair of flannel pants, and greets him with a half-hearted scowl. "I promised Iris I'd be cooperative, letting a stranger into my house." Ouch, he thinks. And, when did his aunt leave? "But," her expression shifts, "I guess I owe you my thanks, for being there for me."
Artemis leans against the doorframe lightly. "Come on in." He ambles in after her, locking the door behind him and lowering the take out onto her small coffee table. She pulls on a blue jumper and takes a while to sit down on her couch. "So, ground rules."
She pats the seat beside her on the couch, gesturing for him to take a seat – which he does, gladly, but not too gladly, because he's not that eager – and extracts a pen and piece of paper from underneath the table. "Cool." His leg bobs up and down impatiently, which she slaps to make him stop. He starts whistling instead when she jots down a few notes.
"One, sex occurs outside of a twenty-mile radius of my apartment." Wally's whistling is quickly replaced by sputtering noises. She tilts her head up slightly, "That includes any other…activities. Oh, come on. Sex isn't a taboo anymore. Calm down."
"Yeah, but- I would've thought that was a given."
She shrugs. "You'd be surprised. I don't room with a lot of people for a reason."
He doesn't meet her gaze, and thankfully she moves on. "Why the excessive food?"
Wally takes a moment to look up from his container, then realises that he'd subconsciously ordered his usual amount of food without thinking about the normal folk. He shrugs, "I'm starved. This bod doesn't look good all on its own, you know."
Artemis meets his flirty gaze with another eye-roll. "Mazel Tov."
His smile widens. "I try."
"Alright, well," she coughs, "The rest are pretty straightforward. We clean our own messes, split the rent until you're gone, and I don't know," she eyes the empty boxes of take-out sitting on the table. "Alright, if you buy dinner, I'll do most of the rent."
Wally nods. "That's fair."
They keep eating in silence - well, almost. Wally's infamous for not eating silently, but she doesn't seem to mind. The take-out takes less than twenty minutes to clear out, during which Artemis leaves to make a phone call to her boss before coming back to finish off the meal.
"Do you need a tour?"
"Sure," he shrugs amenably, even though he's already introduced himself à la security protocol. There isn't much to see. She has a small kitchenette next to the living room, a simple, dilapidated bed is raised up on a platform, and a single door separates the bathroom from everything else. Everything's unsurprisingly bare and utilitarian, in comparison to his own room's constant state of tornado-like disaster.
"Well, that's that. If you need the bathroom, just walk in - I'll trust that you won't violate me. And, there's a laundromat downstairs." He helps her pick up the last of the containers for the recycling bin. "How long will you be here?" She finishes bluntly.
He feels a little confronted by that, but brushes it off. "Until you've healed."
"That could take ages."
He shrugs. "I'd rather not have my aunt kill me for leaving you alone."
Artemis opens her mouth to protest, but seems to remember something that clamps it shut again. "Well, there're some blankets in the top shelf of my wardrobe. I'll lend you some of my pillows, and uh- you'll have to sleep on the couch. Sorry."
"No problem," Wally smiles briefly. He's had worse to sleep on, and Artemis' couch feels like a cloud compared to the stone floors of his earlier mission hideouts. "How's your back?"
"Hurting like a bitch," she winces, "I'm heading to bed before I start screaming my head off again. Night."
He can't say he's not affronted by how straightforward Artemis is, but he has managed to have a full-fledged conversation with Batman before, so there's no particular feelings of hurt edging its way up his mind. Wally isn't the sensitive little boy he used to be, and he isn't the guy who fakes his confidence to hide his insecurities anymore, so he can safely say that Artemis Crock's blunt and direct manner of speaking doesn't really affect him as much as it did ten years ago.
And, the fact that she's covered from head to toe in bandages does give her some leeway for being super grouchy. Wally's jaw slackens when he realises he's being a complete ass for thinking her mannerisms revolve around his feelings. Be a gentleman, Wally.
Wally wordlessly leaves the pile of boxes in the kitchen area, then pulls out a bunch of blankets from Artemis' closet. He throws them on the couch, then changes his clothes in the bathroom, folding up the dirty ones for the laundromat tomorrow and sticking the final camera onto the corner of the room.
Crawling into the blankets, he scrolls his way through his phone, coming across a few text messages from M'gann and Superboy, and about thirty from Dick and Zatanna, each. There's one that makes his heart stop for a bit, from Linda, asking to meet up for some coffee.
He shakes his head, and laughs a bitter laugh. Delete, out of sight, out of mind.
Artemis is cruelly awakened, hours later, by an agonising, terrifying crushing noise coming from her back. She screeches, feeling her bones crunching together and constrict, then start to jut out of her shoulder blades as they pierce through her skin. She bends over backwards, then heaves forward and holds on to the blankets, the bed posts, scratches her way to her back, which gets heavier and heavier by the minute.
Someone's shouting her name loudly; she wishes she didn't live alone. The voices are back, muttering to her in a language she can't understand, couldn't for the life of her even if she tried. They're ear-piercing, shrill, and relentless. The louder they get, the worse the pain in her back becomes.
There's a crashing noise somewhere. More bones start digging into her skin, digging who knows where, until finally, it stops. The pain stops, and she sobs in relief. The voices fade into whispers, then nothingness.
"It's okay, it's okay," a tentative hand rests on her shaking shoulders as she weeps from the pain. There's something strange. She feels it, thrumming through her body, down her spine, down to the ends of her toes.
Artemis looks up, and sees bright green eyes staring at something behind her. "Wally? What's wrong?" She manages to croak out.
"You-"
She peers behind her, trying to see what's terrifying him so much. The sight that greets her makes her freeze.
They're bloody.
There are bloody wings sticking out of her back, stretching to the other side of her flat and brushing up against the paintings she hung there a year ago. They leave a large red streak across the canvas, but that's the least of her worries. The feathers, whatever they are, how did feathers even happen, are dripping in blood, and stuck to the bones of the wings.
She wants to vomit. "Are those-me?" Artemis watches Wally tilt his head down to look at her, slowly.
He looks pale, his bright features are even more vivid than usual. "No, no. There has to be some logical explanation for this. I'm sure this is just a dream," he continues to ramble as his legs shakily make their way towards the outstretched wings. Wally's hand is shaking. She watches him touch the wings, trembling when she feels his hand moving down the length of the big bone.
Oh god, they're real. It's not a dream. Fucking shit-bags. She has wings.
Fuck.
Fret not! The wings hath arrived!
KitsuneGirl1994, happyguest, and nerd, thanks for reviewing!