Chapter Seven

Kiss me, out of the bearded barley

Nightly, beside the green, green grass

Swing, swing, swing the spinning step

You wear those shoes and I will wear that dress

Farmer's Grove, Wisconsin. September 21st 2015. 11:09 p.m.

"... Then we went down the toilet bowl and oh my God, Artemis. It was the absolute best!" Zatanna gushed, bringing a smile to Artemis's face. It was nice to see her best friend so happy.

"Sounds like it," The arched responded, lifting a napkin dispenser and washing the table under it, "So… You gonna tell me who this guy is yet?"

"Only if you tell me who has you coming home late every night,"

A wild red painted Artemis's cheeks, "Zatanna!"

"What? It's just the truth," The magician smirked, "Hey, I'm gonna grab a beer from the back,"

"Go for it,"

It was way past closing time at Rocket's and it was Artemis's turn to clean up. However, this time Zatanna had chosen to tag along with her roommate. They had decreed tonight a sort of girls night. Once Artemis finished cleaning up the bar, they were going to find the worst free horror movie on demand and stay up until the early hours of the morning watching it. Zatanna had bought tons of soda, candies, and McDonalds for the night to make sure that they stayed up. It truly was going to be, in every sense of the word, a girl's night.

All Artemis had left to do was close up the bar, which involved turning off all of the tap's, storing all of the alcohol in the back, and cleaning the counter. It sounded like more work than it actually was. Augustus had put most of the alcohol in the back beforehand and all of the tap's turned off automatically at 11:30. That just left stocking whatever was left and cleaning the counter, which was no problem at all.

As she got out a new rag to clean the counter with, the air conditioning came to a stop. After her encounter with Nightwing, Artemis had been more alert when it came to any sort of systematic fails and this certainly caught her attention. A few moments later, the light's flickered and a bulb exploded before all of them blew out.

Ducking behind the counter, the blonde tucked herself into a shelf. She counted to ten as she held her breath, mind jumping to the worst conclusion.

Oh fuck, oh God, Jade was right. I should have listened to her. I should have-

"Baby girl-"

No please no

"Come out and greet your-"

"Eit mih!" Zatanna yelled, coming out from the storage room.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Artemis emerged from behind the counter, "Sorry-" But she was cut off as Sportsmaster dodged the ropes flying at him, instead grabbing Artemis and using her as a shield.

"Now, now," He threatened, taking a knife and dragging it across his daughter's collarbone, "You wouldn't want to hurt your friend, now would you?" He said, addressing Zatanna.

"Get out of here, Z," Artemis said, struggling in her father's grasp, "Go! I can handle this!"

"If you think I'm leaving you with him, you're insane," Zatanna answered before turning to Sportsmaster, "Listen to me, if you don't let her go, I will have two of the biggest sidekick's on your ass before you can scream,"

"No need," Artemis said, grabbing the hand holding the knife to her collarbone. She gripped it hard and quickly spun out from under it. Using a side kick, she knocked the knife out of his hand and watched it clatter onto the floor. With some of Zatanna's assistance, Artemis was out of her binds in a second. Diving at him, Artemis landed a few punches before being thrown to the side by her father.

"I taught you well… But not well enough to beat me," He hissed, standing above his daughter, "I thought I taught you better than to disrespect me,"

Diving for his ankles, Artemis pulled them out from under him, grabbing a wooden barstool and smashing it on his head, "I thought I taught you better than to underestimate me," She looked for Zatanna but the girl was long gone. Glancing at Sportsmaster, she knew that her only option was to run but before she could get even a foot away, Sportsmaster latched onto her foot and pulled her down.

"You're not getting away this time, baby girl,"

"Actually… I think you're the one not getting away this time,"

Artemis's head snapped up at the familiar voice. Zatanna! She was back!

The brunette stood in the middle of the room, looking positively livid. Her hair was blowing around her and her eyes had a dangerous gleam to them.

"And how are you going to do that?" Sportsmaster asked, rising from the ground.

Zatanna smirked, "Like this," With one fluid motion, she pulled the fire alarm down, "This is connected directly to the fire station. When they get here, they'll drag your ass to jail,"

"Sorry. Not today," Sportsmaster said, throwing some sort of smoke bomb in Zatanna's direction. It exploded around her and Artemis watched as she fainted, hitting the ground with a small 'thud'.

"Another day, baby girl," Lawrence said, throwing one in his daughter's direction as he ran for the exits.

Artemis tried to get up and chase after him but the smoke hit her immediately. The archer dropped to the ground, hitting her head on the side of a table. As her vision clouded and sirens blared in the distance, she heard her mother's voice in her ears.

"Run,"

Farmer's Grove, Wisconsin. September 22nd 2015. 12:10 a.m.

"So… Cheshire appeared and attacked you?" Dick asked, walking around the small cabin, "What happened then?"

"I don't know…" Wally shrugged, sitting up on the couch, "She knocked me out. When I came to, Artemis said that they had fought and then Cheshire had run off,"

Dick pondered this silently. He knew that Artemis was Tigress (Obviously, he was the one that had tracked her down for Wally) but he didn't really know if Artemis was trustworthy… Who was she anyways? He had run a search on her and found out the basic information. She was the daughter of Lawrence and Paula Crock with an older sister named Jade but that was it. No moves, no arrests, no high school awards or any activity whatsoever… Not to mention that she changed her name to Artemis Hunt. It seemed like she didn't want to be found. Why?

"So? No girlfriend tonight?" Wally asked with a smirk, teasing Dick, "Are you going to tell me her name yet or am I going to have to ask Batman to figure that out for me,"

Rolling his eyes, Nightwing responded, "Nope and if you tell Batman, I'll tell Flash about that one time you almost drowned Bart,"

There was silence as Wally regarded his loss, "Damn it. Fine but don't think-"

He was cut off as Dick's ringer went off. The two looked at each other. The screen read 'Z' and suddenly Dick was relieved that he didn't put Zatanna's full name into his phone.

"Z?" Wally asked, smirking, "Zoey?"

"Shut up," Dick grumbled, picking up the phone and walking into the other room, "Hello?"

"Dick! Thank God. There was an attack. I was at Rocket's with Artemis and Sportsmaster, he was calling her something and he threw a-"

"Zatanna? Zatanna?" Dick asked, trying to calm her down, "Okay, Zatanna, calm down. What happened?"

There was silence on the other end as she caught her breath. It took her a while to calm herself enough to speak, which only made Dick more worried. What was wrong? He had heard something about an attack but… By who? What happened?

"Artemis was closing Rocket's, you met her, right? She's my roommate,"

"We've met,"

"Well, she was closing and I was keeping her company, right? I went into the back to grab a beer and Sportsmaster broke in. It seemed like he was attacking Artemis, he said something about biotech and chips, I don't know. Anyways, I pulled the fire alarm in the back because it's connected to the police but before they could come, he knocked us out with some bomb thing. I'm okay but… Artemis isn't,"

Farmer's Grove, Wisconsin. September 22nd 2015. 2:30 a.m.

Everything seemed to move in extra slow motion for Wally.

He remembered Dick telling him about Artemis ("She was attacked and is in the hospital right now"), he remembered the nurse telling him what was wrong with her ("The gas he used on her paralyzed her but only momentarily. She'll be fine in a few hours,"), he remembered Dick asking him to come back to the cabin and shaking his head no. He had to stay here until she was better.

Of course this happened the one night that they weren't together. He kept beating himself up over it. If he had just swung by Rocket's after work to make sure that she was okay, if he had just called her, maybe Sportsmaster wouldn't have attacked her tonight. Maybe she'd be okay right now. He knew that in a few hours, she'd be up and moving but he didn't want to have to wait a few hours. He wanted her to be okay right now.

"Sir?" An elderly nurse with a kind face was tapping his shoulder.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"I'm not really supposed to do this but…" She fumbled around for a second before grabbing a set of keys, "You just look so sad. Do you want to go into her room?"

"Yes please!" He piped up, standing up, "Thank you so much… Uh?" He searched for a name tag but to no avail, "What's your name?"

"Inza," She answered, "And it's no problem. I know that if my Kent was injured that I'd want someone to do the same for me," Before Wally could say anything else, she unlocked the door and opened it, "If you run into any trouble, I'm right around the corner. Let's see them try to take me on,"

Wally laughed. He liked Inza, she was really funny and sounded kickass, "Thanks Inza. I'm Wally, by the way," He headed in, "I'll find you if anyone gives me a hard time,"

"You do that. They won't be getting past me,"

He laughed quietly and shut the door, gently walking towards the hospital bed. The monitor said that he heartbeat was steady but Artemis just looked so still… Seeing her made Wally so scared, so desperate. He just wanted her to be okay and looking at her, seeing her all hooked up to the hospital tubes, only made him all the more desperate for it.

Pulling up a chair, he sat down beside her and watched her breathing, all kinds of emotions running through him. Desperation… Guilt… Sadness… He didn't even know why he was feeling all of this for her. After all, Wally had only known Artemis less than a month and he was so affected by her albeit temporary paralyzation.

The thought shocked him. Less than a month? It seemed like he'd known her so much longer than that.

"Artemis…" He began, looking at her as he talked, "I know that they said that this paralyzation was temporary, that you'd be able to move by sunrise but it is just so scary seeing you like this. Please. You need to wake up now,"

The thought that he would never hear her laugh again or see her roll her eyes at him… It damn near broke his heart. He wanted her to be okay. He'd give anything for her to be okay. Hell… He'd take a few hours of paralyzation if it meant that she could wake up and walk away from this hospital right now.

As the thought ran through his head, Wally stiffened. He stiffened because he suddenly knew why he had been so affected by her hospitalization. He stiffened because he had done one of the most dangerous things a superhero could do.

He liked someone.

He liked her.

That was why he felt like the world has dropped out from under him when he had heard about her injury, that was why his thoughts had seemed to revolve solely around her. He liked her and that was why he was so worried.

"Listen, Artemis…" Wally began, uncertain of whether this was a good idea, "You have to pull through this. You have to pull through this because I don't know if I can handle a day without you. Please. Wake up. Wake up and I promise to be less annoying and to listen to you. You have to because… I really like you, Artemis," He confessed to her sleeping form, "And you have to pull through. You have to for me,"

Farmer's Grove, Wisconsin. September 22nd 2015. 8:00 a.m.

The only thing that kept Artemis going through the entire terrifying night was Wally.

She woke up sometime around two a.m. and wanted to scream, only she couldn't. She couldn't do anything. Artemis was confined to her body and it was one of the scariest things she had ever experienced.

She wanted to scream, move, hell… Blink but she couldn't. She was certain that she would have gone insane had Wally not come into her words and given her the words that she had held onto all night.

I really like you, Artemis

The thought elated her in a way that nothing ever had before. She, too, had not realized her feelings for the speedster until this critical moment; until she was paralyzed in a hospital bed and hearing his confession of interest. It wasn't until she had to wonder why those words made her so happy that she realized that she returned the feeling.

I really like you too, Wally.

Wally had grown on her. His bad jokes, his terrible pick up lines… All of the sweet things that he did on her. They had grown on her and made her all the more attached. She liked him too and only when she heard him saying it did she realized that she returned the thoughts.

As light flooded the room, Artemis strained to open her eyes. She knew the paralyzation was temporary and was only waiting now. After a few tries, her eyes opened, inciting a feeling of relief within the archer. If her eyes were opening, then everything was going to be absolutely okay. It took a few minutes before her limbs began responding again but once they did, Artemis knew exactly what she had to do.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Artemis shakily rose. Wally was fast asleep in his chair but that wouldn't change her plan at all. If anything, it would make it even better.

"Just for the record," She said, her voice quiet as she regained control of it, "I like you too,"

With those words, Artemis pressed a kiss down on Wally's lips, only drawn deeper into it when he awoke.

THEY DID IT

THEY GOT TOGETHER

Sorry if this chapter is kind of shitty. I had to write a paper for my dual enrollment class and ungh it was bad. I wanted to get them together this chapter bc that is how my plan is (*evil laughter*)

Also, I promise that we will ACTUALLY find out what happened to Zatara in Chapter Eight.

Review? :)