A Shot in the Dark (part 3)

She didn't really remember much after that. The only thing she distinctly knew was that someone had said a quick apology before she'd felt a pinch in her arm. Then... well... the next full thought she had was waking up in a panic in the medical bay of the Watchtower, which had sent her crashing out of the bed and cracking her elbow against the floor tiles.

Which, of course, brought in Nightwing.

"Art-!"

"Where's Wally?!" she demanded, batting him away as he tried to help her back to her feet.

"He's down the hall," he answered readily, knowing only too well that keeping the answer wouldn't calm her down any faster. "They had to fix him up and run some tests, but he looks like he's going to be fine. You, on the other hand, had to be treated for shock after you were sedated."

"Sedated?!" she snapped, now understanding why her head felt like it was pounding. "You didn't sedate me-You tranquilized me!"

"Yeah, same difference," Nightwing countered

Snorting in disbelief, Artemis started pulling the cords attached to her arms. The IV hurt, bringing a grimace a bit for that split second, but she was already ripping the heart monitors off.

"No. Stop it! Art-knock it off!" Nightwing reprimanded, grabbing hold of her and forcibly squashing her back into the pillow. "I also had to hit you up with a massive antibiotic. So for the sake of our all our sanity-stay put."

Artemis glared at him as the words sank in, which only made her ask warily, "How long have I been out?"

"Roughly two days," Nightwing answered, feeling she was sane enough that he could get off her to sit in the bedside chair. "You know, if you'd told us you had a cold-."

"It wouldn't have changed much," Artemis pointed out.

"No, but we'd at least have tried to keep you on the bioship," he said with a frown. "Or forced you to change your clothes... I'm sorry about that, by the way."

Artemis snorted. "It was my own stupidity for wearing what I had."

"Yeah, but I forgot you weren't in even under-armor," he groaned. "Let alone a uniform."

"Again, my fault," Artemis said firmly. "I knew where we were going and didn't think to change."

"But-."

"Okay, that's enough Mr Self-loathing," Artemis announced. "You can't control all aspects. Being a friend of Wally's you should know that just because it's science. So let me out of this bed before I beat that knowledge back into you."

It took a moment, but eventually she was getting that wry smirk to let her know her words had gotten through to him. So she smiled back briefly, before turning her expression determined again.

"Now take me to Wally."

.- .- .

Monitors beeped away in a merry little symphony, assuring Artemis that the man laying beneath the sheets was in fact real. Though, really, she wasn't sure if she'd put it past her imagination to show something like this just to torment her mind.

He looked awful. The uniform was gone, now he was dressed in some blue scrubs that just amplified how pale he was under his freckles. Even his freckles actually seemed like they were lacking.

Nightwing nudged her forward a couple steps, making her look back and glare at him as the color rose in her face. But the former boy-wonder merely grinned and walked away from the doorframe. Back down the hall, hopefully to troll someone else for a while.

As she turned back to Wally, Artemis found herself taking a shaky breath. Still terrified that this wouldn't be real. Those beeping sounds were her alarm clock or toaster oven or who knows what else, and they were telling her to snap out of it. But she really didn't want to.

It had been hard enough finding a way to go on without him. Harder still to take on an entirely new identity, without any friendly face to help her this time, just so certain enemies she'd created wouldn't get the chance to kill her. There had been many times, she realized as she sat next to the prone figure of the man she loved, when she'd wondered why she was putting up such a fight to live. It would have been so easy to give up, even after Nightwing and Green Arrow had stopped her from doing so. Until now she hadn't realized what was making her hold on. Making her fight.

"This was it," she mumbled to herself as she gingerly brushed the back of his hand with the tip of her finger. "I was waiting for him."

His skin was still soft and radiating warmth. The IV's must have had some form of nutrient in it, that was the only way he could be healing at all. Even at that point, though. It had been three years. She was surprised to realize that part of her half expected him to look something like Bart did when they first met-practically skin and bones and in dire need of being fed.

She moved away from his hands to reach for the chart hanging at the foot of his bed. She wasn't a doctor, but thanks to her little stay in the hospital so long ago followed by watching far too much of those medical dramas on TV she'd become fairly savvy. Or at least enough so that she could read a patient chart.

One of the first observations listed made her snort. "Malnourished, dehydrated," she read off, shaking her head. "Gee, you think? Multiple lacerations to head, neck, torso, arms, legs-in other words, everywhere... Dislocated shoulder... Broken patella and femur, which they had to rebrake because it didn't heal correctly... Bottom of feet-"

"Playing doctor?"

The question made her drop the clipboard, sending it clattering to the floor with a noise that nearly shut off her hearing for a moment. Of course, judging by the grimace, for him it must have been worse. She quickly stooped down to replace the board on the foot of the bed as Wally let out a small groan.

"H-how are you feeling?" she asked, sitting next to him again but suddenly too afraid to touch.

Wally gave her a wry smirk. "Like I got... sat on," he weezed. "By an elephant... Beast Boy's...not here, right?"

She laughed, even though she was sure that it sounded desperate through the tears that were threatening to spill over. His playful smirk softened to simply a loving smile and he moved his hand closer to hers, which took an effort she wouldn't have noticed if it hadn't been in his eyes, and gave what he could of a squeeze.

It killed her.

All she wanted to do was smile like he was. To imagine that the past three years hadn't existed-hell, include the year before that too! The year that ripped him from her side. But they had. And even if time hadn't mattered to Wally, far too many problems had filled the years for her.

"Toldja."

She blinked repeatedly in an effort to keep wiping her eyes. "W-what?"

"I toldja," he rasped, pausing to lick his dry lips. "Toldja... we're goin... to Paris."

Artemis stared at him, despite the sting as her eyes started to go glassy.

He gave her a shadow of his familiar cheeky smirk. "I couldn... couldn't let you think... I'm a liar."

She was at a loss. All sorts of emotions just sort of exploded at that and she did the only thing she could think of-she smacked his arm.

.- .- .

"Ow!" he gasped, but before he could even fathom what was happening, Artemis had wrapped her arms around him again and was crying into his collarbone.

Wally closed his eyes with a contented smile on his face as he did what he could to hold her too. Yeah, there was still pain and his throat felt as though someone had poured salt down it, but he'd rather be holding her through any agony his body could throw at him than not do it and be numb. And, really, the feel of her in his arms again was enough comfort to help him ignore all the pain there was.

Breathing words of comfort into her hair, Wally twirled a lock of the golden tresses around his fingers, savoring the feel he'd missed for so long. Honestly, he was surprised that he hadn't gone crazy for his time in the speed force. Not for lack of possibility, of course. It would have been very easy to just keep going, let himself be pulled apart and scattered through the universe. Maybe become part of the wind.

He remembered thinking about his home life. About happy memories with his Aunt and Uncle, Mom and Dad, his best friend Dick Grayson, the early days of the team, even Bart. Somehow that kid had built a little niche in Wally's heart in the short month or two they'd shared. But the strongest memories were bittersweet.

The memories of Artemis. How she could dance on his last nerve and hit him when he did something that she considered stupid, then practically read his mind when they were fighting an enemy. How her smile could light up her face when she laughed and how she barely cried. But she was beautiful when she did. Painstakingly.

It was her voice that called to him as he ran. He knew she'd been there, the only words she'd said echoed in the forces that guided him.

"Wait!... Where's Wally?... No... No. No. No. No!"

Each one of the heartbroken sobs that followed had wracked his body as much as those bolts of electricity. He'd felt her crying out his name, knowing that it would be Nightwing who'd eventually pull her away.

Day after day, her voice would find him. Not always the destroyed tears from his disappearance, though. Sometimes it'd just be her laugh, a little huff of breath through the nose when she thought his comment was too cheesy to be comment on. Or her saying his name. Mostly it was his name, just because she'd say it so many ways.

He'd actually been getting pretty good at understanding what each tone meant, before all this had happened. And now, with her curled next to him, all he wanted was to get back to that point again. Back to knowing her even better than he knew himself.

.- .- .

It was a good three to five hours later when Artemis disentangled herself from Wally's arms, nearly losing the battle when she saw how much of her hair he'd twined between his fingers. It wasn't that she'd wanted to, but more the extent that she knew she probably shouldn't aggravate his condition anymore. Speed healing or not, judging by his chart he might as well have been tossed into a blender and that was going to take some time to heal.

So she settled herself back into the visitors' chair and brushed his hair off his forehead before kicking her feet up onto the bed next to his. Fully over her initial shock and that bitterness for having had to suffer for so long, Artemis was completely content with staying here while he got better.

"I shoulda known to look in here first."

Artemis looked to the door at the sound of her mentor's voice and smiled as Green Arrow strolled to her side. He returned the smile, then looked to the redhead. "He's lookin good," he said. "Or, well, better than when we first got him."

She smiled, resting her chin on her arms against the bed and humming in agreement.

"So..." Green Arrow said slowly, rocking on his heels a little. "You two are moving back to the West Coast, right?"

"Oliver," she groaned good-nautredly.

"I know this great rental across the bay," the blonde man offered with a grin.

Artemis just laughed softly and shook her head. "Who knows?"

His green-gloved hand rested on her shoulder, gently giving a squeeze that showed how happy he was for them. Smiling, Artemis tilted her head so her ear was resting on his fingers. For the first time in her life, she let her thoughts run wild with thoughts of the future-a bright future with Oliver and Dinah and everyone stopping by and Wally smiling from the grill. And maybe even a couple of kids... you know, somewhere down the road. Just happy and exciting and-.

"Linda."

Just two syllables and they made her heart plummet.

Nightwing never called her that. Even in civvies, he always used something from the arsenal of nicknames he'd given her over time. Stinger, Hood, Queenie, Minx-Arty even! Any and all had slowly become acceptable to respond to, even if she was rolling her eyes as she did so. But "Linda." Her new name. That was something that had only graced his lips twice in their life time. And she knew what it meant.

It was time to get back to Keystone City.

Just like that it felt like her heart was being ripped from her chest again. But there was little choice left if it comes to an assassin being out for your blood. She hated it, hated him for it, but she'd be damned if she let Wally get hurt for it. And so she found herself rigidly pushing onto her feet, staggering a little as she met her former teammate at the door.

She paused when Nightwing gripped her shoulder, similar to how Green Arrow had, and granted herself one last look at the man she was losing again. Then started down the medical corridor of the Watchtower with a resolute stride.

"I don't see why she can't come to my place," Green Arrow grumbled, following along side the Bat-Brat. "We have top security-Hell, the president doesn't even have the security my estate does!"

"He'll look there," Nightwing affirmed. "He spent over a month with her-."

"Years ago!" Arrow pointed out, daftly stopping as they waited for the elevator. "And he wasn't at the big reveal. He might not even know she was Tigress!"

"And what?" the younger hero asked, folding his arms as they got onto the lift. "You're willing to risk it? To risk her?"

"It's not a risk if I'm the one protecting her," the archer insisted.

"Oh c'mon, GA," Nightwing groaned as the doors opened to the general lobby where three large zeta tubes waited for them. "She shouldn't even be going back to her current apartment! What are you gonna do? Lock her in the mansion and blow your own cover by staying there all day too?"

"If I have to," Green Arrow snapped, bristling that he had to defend himself. "She's my niece!"

"Honorary!" Nightwing shouted back. "You aren't actually related!"

"And since when has something like blood stopped you from claiming family?" the Emerald Archer demanded.

"Okay. Stop!"

Both men jolted at the voice, as though they'd forgotten that the subject of their debate was standing mere feet in front of them. Had she been looking, she'd have seen the sheepish blush that came to their faces as they both seemed to move away from each other like school children who'd been caught throwing mud. As it was, she had her back to them, far more focused on controlling her own emotions than theirs.

Still, at some point, if you can't hear your own thoughts it's a sign that you need to step in. So she turned to them even though there were still tears in her eyes, but she wore a glare that Batman might have been proud of. "Look," she said after a breath or two. "I know you both like being right and I wish I could agree with both of you. But, Oliver, I've got a life set up in Keystone already. And, Dick, I'm not moving to Alaska. So just...stop. Okay? I-I can't deal with you two on top of...of everything else."

The two masked men looked even more guilty as she looked from one to the other.

"I'm going back to Keystone City," she told them, her heartbreak seeping into her voice. "My name is Linda Park, I'm a radio show host, and, hopefully, I'll be getting that job with channel four. I've never met the Flash, Kid Flash, or Wally West. The only thing I know about heroes is that they saved the planet at some point."

As she spoke, Artemis slowly typed in her commands to activate the zeta portal. Feeling dismal, but wanting to savor what might be her last chance to actually use the pass codes."You'll, uh," she tried to hide the sniff and blinked rapidly. "You'll look after him, right?"

Nightwing's gloved hand covered her's, bringing her gaze up to see him and Green Arrow giving her what they could of encouraging smiles.

"We've got it," her former teammate promised before his hand gently combed away some of her blonde locks. "Change your hair this time."

Artemis found a way to give a small laugh, though it actually made the tears spring forward and she found herself being tightly hugged by the man who'd once told her to "get traught" when a situation went dire. He let go moments later and gave her another smile before Green Arrow stepped forward to embrace her, too.

"I'll drop by next Thursday," he informed her. "Find the best barbeque place in town, okay?"

She laughed again, wiping her eyes as she gave the man a lopsided smile. Then she pulled free to hit the activation button, sending the zeta streams swirling ahead of her.

"Artemis. B-07," a robotic voice announced, bringing with it a familiar tingling sensation as she was pulled into the swirl of colors.

With one last look back at two of the three men she loved most, Artemis kissed her past good-bye and turned to walk through the run-down arcade to her future.

A/N: Aaaaand I'm not sorry. :D But never fear, I ain't finished yet!