There's a slight warning for abuse in this chapter. I'll put linebreaks around the section so you can skip if you need to.

Roy had been having an average day, though it contained a small amount of worry about his upcoming meeting with Cass. (He wasn't sure if he should call it a date since he was pretty sure she just wanted to end things.) He had spent it though with Dick playing video games at the manor and eating cookies Alfred supplied. They had lost track of the time and it was almost noon when Roy remembered his meeting with Cass. He gave Dick a rushed explanation and a goodbye before bolting out the door. He quickly slipped onto his motorcycle that was parked outside the manor and drove off towards the coffee shop. He was almost there when a taxi nearly ran him off the road with its crazy driving. He had lost control of the bike enough though that he wrecked. It went skidding into the middle lane of traffic and was quickly crushed as Roy used his fast reflexes to minimize the damage to himself. He frowned at the bike, but didn't wait around to deal with the angry drivers that were now in a traffic jam due to his accident. Roy simply turned tail and ran towards the coffee shop. He had no idea why this was so important to him; she already knew he was running late. Why was he so convinced that he had to make it to the coffee shop ASAP? Roy had finally made it to the street before the coffee shop when he slowed down. He quickly glanced at the window and was surprised to see Cass watching him. He was even more surprised to see her give him a smile. Maybe he had misunderstood the text? Maybe Cass had just made a mistake when writing it. A little hope surged through him and he started to cross the street. That was when the coffee shop exploded. Roy quickly backed up to the sidewalk and put his arm over his head. The next few hours were a blur. He vaguely remembered finding her on the sidewalk and checking for a pulse. He also remembered flashing lights and sirens and the unquenchable panic when they started to take Cass away from him. Somehow in all the confusion he had ended up in the hospital waiting room with dozens of other families waiting for news on their loved ones. Thankfully the blast hadn't been that strong. There were quite a few survivors. Roy just didn't know if Cass was one of them. He was a little surprised though (and had returned enough to himself that he could think again) to see Artemis rushing in and looking positively frantic. Her hair was a mess in its ponytail and her clothes were askew as if she had just pulled them on. Roy wondered if she was wearing her costume underneath them. She spoke briefly with the nurse behind the counter before turning around and scanning the room. The moment she saw Roy she started towards him.

"Roy?" She questioned. At a closer look, Roy could see that her eyes were darting around the room so fast she looked like Wally. He vaguely recognized it as a nervous tick. "What are you doing here?" She questioned.

"I was meeting a friend at the coffee shop." Artemis paused and he could see the gears shifting in her head.

"Cass! Of course!" Roy was more than surprised. How had Artemis known he was meeting Cass? Before he could get that question out the blonde archer continued with questions of her own. "Is she okay? I mean is she alive? Or was she when you got there?" Despite how much he disliked Artemis, Roy found himself unable to press for his own answers when he saw the pure fear in her eyes.

"She was alive when I got there. She's been on the operating table since." Artemis gave a small sigh of relief and collapsed in the chair next to him. Cass wasn't dead yet.

"How'd you know that I was meeting Cass?" Artemis stayed quiet for a moment.

"She's my best friend. She told me she had a date with you and that she was meeting you again today at noon. I was actually the friend who answered her phone when you called." Roy was again surprised at that. He chose to ignore the fact that Artemis and Cass were best friends and that she might know what Cass was going to say at the coffee shop, in favor for the lighter route.

"Wait. You're 'Gotham's Arkahm Asylum Girl'?" Artemis gave a small chuckle, though it was clearly forced.

"Yeah, that was me. I didn't know it was you calling until later."

"Huh. I knew I recognized your voice! I just could think of where from!"

"Family of Cassandra Blake?" A doctor called out into the waiting room. Artemis quickly stood up.

"That's me." The doctor worked his way through the people until he reached Artemis. Roy had stood up to stand beside her.

"I'm Doctor Matthews I worked on Cass in the operating room."

"Right, how is she." Artemis questioned with a blank face.

"She's stable for now. The next twenty-four hours are going to determine how we proceed, but for now she's on a vent and hooked up for a blood transfusion. There was a large amount of shrapnel in her leg and I'm not sure if she'll ever be able to walk on it, but there is a chance. We're also worried about a head injury she received. We'll have to wait till she wakes up to see if there's any lasting damage." Artemis, took the news in stride, as if it was something she heard everyday.

"Can we see her?" Doctor Matthews looked down at his clipboard.

"You may. Your friend though isn't family so he can't be allowed back." Before Roy could protest Artemis stepped in.

"He's my cousin. He's family." The doctor glanced at her dubiously but accepted it with a small frown.

"Go right down that hall, take the second left and her room number is 17 B." The doctor quickly disappeared behind the two double doors that separated the staff area and the waiting room. Artemis quickly grabbed her bag from the chair and set off towards Cass's room. (Roy idly wondered how he had missed the bag during his first scan of her, though he had no doubt that her bow and quiver were stashed inside it.)

They both had told hold back the gasps when they entered Cass's hospital room. Despite the doctor telling them all about it, it was still unnerving to see her hooked up to various machines and monitors that were basically forcing her body to work. Artemis took one of the chairs next to Cass's bed while Roy took the one on the other side.

"So family?" Roy questioned. He wasn't sure if he was asking about her and Cass or him and her. As if sensing this, Artemis answered both questions.

"Her Uncle was an a******, and we were practically sisters anyway. We just made it official so that I could visit her in hospitals if anything ever happened. Also I really didn't feel like putting up with the 'no one other than family' argument at the moment so I said the first thing I could think of. Technically you are my cousin because of Ollie." Roy scoffed.

"I am not your cousin. You aren't related to Oliver." Artemis gave a deep sigh. She seemed to debate with herself for a moment before giving in.

"No, I'm not. But Ollie trusts me and the team trusts me. That should be enough for now." She looked at him with a small glare, though it was slightly damped by the numerous emotions rolling around in her eyes. Roy decided to leave it for now. He and Artemis could bicker later, but not besides Cass's hospital bed. Artemis dug around in the bag at the end of the bed. He vaguely recognized it as Cass's.

"What are you doing?"

"None of your business." She pulled out a phone and started scrolling through something. Roy decided to ignore her for now and flicked the TV on.

"Hey, Trav it's Mis."

Mis? Really? And who's Trav? There was a long pause as she listened to whoever was on the other side.

"She's alive, though you might want to head towards Gotham if you aren't hiding somewhere in the city." Roy raised an eyebrow and glanced at Mis. What kind of person was she talking to?

"Yeah, she's in the hospital. There was an explosion at this coffee shop; she was caught in the blast. It was small so she should be fine." Roy wasn't sure that Cass would be 'fine' as Artemis put it. Last he checked she might not walk again and there was a possibility of brain damage. He flipped through channels and tried to ignore the rest of the conversation. As curious as he was about Artemis, the conversation was about Cass. He didn't want to pry into her personal life. It was only when Artemis hung up that he turned towards her again.

"Who's Trav?" He asked. Artemis groaned.

"Trav is one of Cass's friends. He's like her older, overprotective brother. He also is really big on computers. He and Rob could probably have a field day discussing hacking techniques. Though it would probably be the apocalypse if Trav and Rob ever got together to discuss such things." Roy nodded.

"Then we will keep them far, far away from one another. I don't think the world could handle another apocalypse." Artemis smiled and Roy dimly realized that she was losing some of the tension she had previously held. It wasn't all the way gone, and he doubted it would be with him there, but she looked more relaxed than he had ever seen her. He considered asking the question that had been on his mind since he found out that Artemis knew Cass. After a brief mental debate he decided he might as well.

"Do you know what Cass wanted to talk to me about?" Artemis gave him a flat glare.

"You really want to talk about this now?"

"When else would I want to talk about it?" Artemis gave a little huff. She could name dozens of other times when this topic could be discussed. Preferably during a time when Cass was awake and coherent. She would talk about it anyways, 'cause she knew Roy would just push the issue.

"Yes. I do know what Cass wanted to talk to you about." Roy gave her a 'go ahead' look. "She was going to stop things between you." Roy gave out a long sigh.

"I thought so. Her texts weren't exactly encouraging. Can you give me a clue why?" Artemis bit her lip.

"You scared her." She finally blurted out.

"I scared her?" Roy mentally reviewed everything that went on that night. There were only two possible times where he scared her. The attempted mugging and the kiss.

"Was it the mugging?" Artemis's head snapped to look at him.

"What mugging!" It sounded more like a demand than a question.

"I was walking her back from the movie when someone attempted to mug us. She was just about to comply with his demands when I stopped her. He demanded her purse again and I again stopped her. I was just about to pull out some moves when Robin jumped down and arrested the guy." Artemis leaned back into her chair and resumed watching the TV with a careless air.

"That was not something she told me. Remind me to thank Robin next time I see him. But no, it wasn't the mugging. Something like that wouldn't really scare Cass. It was the kiss that scared her." Roy groaned and slouched in his chair.

"The kiss scared her! What did she think would happen when I walked her home after a date? I thought I was being pretty clear!"

"Cass is kinda dense. She has trouble understanding social interaction and participating in it herself. Your kiss startled her and probably reminded her of something else." Roy groaned again.

"I'm an idiot. I knew she was having trouble with social skills but the night went so well that I just forgot she might not be expecting a kiss. If she was going to stop seeing me then I should probably leave, shouldn't I?" Artemis shook her head and pushed him back down into his seat.

"No. She'll be happy you're here. I can't go into much detail, but she still likes you. And I doubt that she would have actually gone through with ending things when she saw you. Cass is odd like that." Roy took Artemis's words to heart and slowly sat back down again. There was a comfortable silence for a minute.

"Does this mean I get to call you Mis now?" Roy smirked as Artemis glared heavily at him.

"Not in your dreams."

~~Linebreak~~ (You can skip here)

Cass was confused. Wasn't she supposed to meet Roy at the coffee shop? In fact, she was sure that she had been at the coffee shop. So why was she here in her childhood room? Everything was exactly the same as it used to be. Everything was cleaned with military precision. Her little sketch book still rested on the nightstand. Her pencils were lined up in an orderly fashion on her desk. Cass walked over to the closet and opened it. Her clothes were even the same as they had been back then. Cass would almost think this was real if it weren't for the fact that she hadn't entered this room since she was twelve. That was six years ago. She continued to walk around the room, observing.

"Cassandra! Downstairs, now!" Her head snapped towards the door as she heard the voice call. That wasn't right. That was the voice of Uncle Remy. But Uncle Remy was in prison. Central City High Security Prison, to be exact. There was no way he was downstairs. Still, the habits that her uncle had drilled into her head were present as she made her way downstairs. He was standing in the middle of the living room. Cass warily took notice of the clenched hands and throbbing vein in his arm. Her uncle was angry, and an angry Remy led to a very unhappy Cass.

"Y-yes?" Cass mentally cursed at her small stutter. While the normal person wouldn't notice it, she had no such delusions about her uncle. And notice it he did.

"Don't stutter it's unbecoming." He demanded.

"Okay." Her voice was stronger this time. Uncle Remy thrust a folder into her hands. She glanced down at it, then back up to him.

"Open it." His voice was cold and hard. Cass didn't hesitate. She flipped the folder open to show pictures of… herself? Why did Uncle Remy have pictures of her? She looked closer and realized that there was someone else in the picture with her. She suddenly understood what was going on. Her eyes widened and she took half a step back. These were pictures of her and Peter. These were pictures of her first kiss. These were pictures of her Meta abilities. These were pictures of her first kill. Cass looked up at her uncle. This time the stutter was painfully obvious.

"S-so wh-what?" Her uncle took a threatening step forwards. Cass took an instinctual step back.

"So what!" He bellowed. "So what! So what is the fact that you have Meta abilities and didn't tell me! So what is that you have been keeping things from me. So what is that you lied to me!" He grabbed her short, blonde hair before she could run. Cass didn't remember much about the next couple of hours.

~~Linebreak~~ (Here's where you can start reading again)

The pull to awareness was more of a snap. One moment Cass is deep in the memories of her mind, the next all her senses are awake. She closes her eyes against the bright light and groans as she hears the beeping next to her. Cass recognizes the pain next, but doesn't pay it much mind. She slowly opens her eyes again and is pleasantly surprised to see that there was no one in her hospital room.

Where am I? This isn't the infirmary room in the house. Cass sits up quietly. The last thing she remembered was accepting a job in Coast City. A simple assassination of a forging dignitary. Cass is getting more than a little panicked now. She quietly pulls over her heart monitor and places a hand on it. She knows enough about these in order to trick the wiring that she's still there. After that's done she pulls off the sticky tabs and proceeds to expertly remove her IV. She quickly reaches down the side of the hospital bed and types a few things on the screen. The last thing she needs is alarms going off because she got up. Cass pushes the sheets back and goes to stand when she sees her leg and frowns.

That's going to be a problem.

It normally wouldn't stop her from walking but it looks bad as it is, and she doesn't want to permanently damage it. So she grabs the back of the chair and stands up while putting as little pressure on her leg as possible. Using various items for support she grabs the bag at the end of the bed and quickly changes into some clothes she found there. It's odd, the clothes in the bag fit her perfectly and are something she would wear, but she doesn't remember buying either the bag or the clothes. Her cell phone is missing and so are several other important items such as her gun, pepper spray, and several knives. She concludes that the hospital must have removed them. This isn't a problem. Cass doesn't have anyone she could call anyways. She hasn't heard from Mis in months and Travis is away and undercover. This is when she notices that her hair is red. A bright, eye-catching red. That is a problem. Her hair draws entirely too much attention. She resolves to dye it as soon as possible. Cass walks as smoothly as she can out the door. No one questions her. She continues walking/limping down the hallways until she comes to a lobby. Somewhere along the way she managed to snag a crutch and suddenly her getaway is much easier. Plus, she now has a weapon. A couple of seconds later and Cass is gone. She disappears like the creature she was named after.

Sorry this chapter is a day late! The cliffhanger is no longer a cliffhanger. :) Thank you all for your reviews, follows and favorites! :)