Connect

"Hmm...where the hell am I?"

"You're in the hospital."

"Wha-?"

Roy opened his eyes and found a pair of bright brown ones staring back at him. It was the same kid from the other day. Joseph, right?

"You sure took a hard hit. I thought you were going to die."

Joseph was laughing. Why was he laughing?

"You...you saved me," Roy whispered; it was a pain to get even the simplest words out. "How did you-"

"You hungry?" The kid asked, cutting him off.

"Yeah...a little."

Joseph smiled brightly. "I know the food here sucks so I brought you some Oreos. Well, and some Chips Ahoy and skittles because I didn't know what kind of snack food you liked."

Joseph fumbled around in his backpack and pulled out the cookies and candy before frowning.

"Oh crap! I knew I should have brought some ice cream too! Hold on."

Before Roy could stop him the kid was already out the door. He sat up to try to get his head straight when he found a hand pushing him back down.

"Hey, the doctors said you shouldn't move around so much," Joseph warned. "Here. I got you some Blue Bell. It's vanilla 'cus I wasn't sure what your favorite was, you look like a strawberry guy and that wasn't a reference to you being a ginger, although you can't be a ginger technically because you don't have freckles how to you get your skin so flawless?"

How did he get back so fast? Roy thought.

"Um...was that all one sentence?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I need to introduce myself."

Joseph held out his hand. "Joseph Ivanov," he greeted.

Roy shook the kid's hand. He had to stop himself from saying "We've met" because that would be an extremely dumb thing to do seeing as the kid didn't know his secret identity.

"Are you, like, Flash's kid or something?" Roy asked implying to Joseph's talkativeness, but what he didn't expect was the kid's answer.

"No. I'm the sidekick to this new hero Dr. Quantum. I'm Quantum-Kid."

Roy frowned. Was he serious?

"Never heard of him," Roy replied bluntly, tearing through the bag of Oreos.

Joseph looked a little hurt but didn't look surprised.

"He likes to keep a low profile," he explained later.

"So what are you and Dr. Quantum doing here? SHouldn't you be out in Angel City fighting Vixxen or something?"

Joseph lit up. For a kid who was quick to give away his secret identity, he sure got excited easily.

"So you do know? That's awesome! And here I thought no one outside of Louisiana knew about us."

Roy smiled. "Yeah, I do my homework. So tell me about you. What are you doing here in Star City? Does your mentor know, kid?"

Joseph looked down. Roy knew he was going to lie about something. He just didn't know what. But still, half of the truth is better than none.

"He...he sent me here to find my place on my own. I'm supposed to bring down a guy who specializes in human traficking and selling sex slaves."

"Adam Corvin," Roy said, nodding as he stuffed a cookie in his mouth.

He pointed at the chair as a sign that Joseph should sit because he'd been leaning by Roy's bed in such an awkward position that he was afraid the kid would end up getting cramps. Joseph nodded too and brought the chair closer to Roy's bed (much to the man's discomfort).

"Yeah, that guy," Joseph sighed.

He looked a little scared, but Roy could see him trying to hide that behind a smile.

"Why would he send you out all alone?" The red-head asked with a mouth full of skittles.

Joseph shrugged. "I guess he just wanted me to lure him out. Then he'd swoop in and save the day just like he always does."

There was something about this kid that was off. Roy could see it, but he didn't know how to address it. Was it the look on his face every time he mentioned his mentor or was it more than that. He couldn't tell why he felt this a connection with Joseph.

Then it hit him. It hit him like...like that truck that nearly squashed him yesterday.

"Dr. Quantum abuses you, doesn't he? As his sidekick."

Joseph nodded. He looked a little sad too. "How...how did you know?"

Roy shrugged and smiled. "Instinct."

He knew how the kid must have felt like his mentor only used him for his own personal benefit. He knew this because he was the ex-sidekick to Green Arrow. Roy knew also that eventually, Dr. Quantum would leave Joseph behind to fend for himself. Roy was left alone when he was sixteen and he and Oliver could never look at each other again after those horrifying nights.

"Thanks for being here," Roy sighed. "But you don't have to stay."

"Oh," Joseph said. "Okay. I guess I'll just leave you to yourself. Call me if you need anything else."

"Thank you, it won't take long."

Kaldur ran down the hall and searched the top of each room until he found it.

"Roy!" he shouted getting the attention of his boyfriend and the kid who nearly got hit square in the face when Kaldur threw the door open.

Then Roy remembered the thing he was supposed to do. And Kaldur worrying about him was just going to make things worse.

A/N: Sorry, this chapter was just explaining who Joseph was and why he's important at the beginning of the story

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN JOSEPH IVANOV/QUANTUM-KID, DR. JASON , Q-FORCE OR ANY OF THE NXTGEN COMICS.

Just wanted to get that off my chest.

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~Maxx