Author's Note. Not my best chapter, sorry in advance. Setting the stage is taking longer than I planned. Hoping I didn't veer too far off-course, but I'm a details guy, what can I say? Welcome aboard all you new followers out there. Please drop a review if you can, and thanks to everyone who already has, it's very rewarding and motivating. Enjoy.

Distraught

Artemis was asleep when Zatanna arrived. Paula had been convinced by her two daughters to finally go home for the night to sleep in her own bed. As expected, Lawrence Crock was long gone. He had made sure his youngest child was going to survive, but that had been the extent of it. Despite his parole status, it was widely assumed by people in the know that he was still a very viable gun for hire, and by now had retreated back into the darkness awaiting his next victim.

Z had been watching her friend for weeks, listening to doctors who feared the coma and damage might have become permanent, but she had beat the odds, she usually did. Despite the progress she was making, watching her slumber made Zatanna uncomfortable, fearful once again she would not wake up. Zatanna wanted to be so mad at the archer, so upset at her for the lies, but when magician looked at the scars and staples adorning the side of her shaved head, none of that seemed important anymore. Artemis began to stir when Zatanna sat down and held her hand as she slowly awoke with a pained smile.

The two women had both bonded years ago, discovering the same father issues and rebellious streaks they both shared. The same people that would not have paired the archer with the speedster as a couple, would also have laid money against the magician and the ex-shadow ever becoming close friends, but whoever said opposites attack could not have been more right.

Zatanna had been born into the hero life. Her father, a long standing member of the Justice League, had known all along this path was inevitable, but had fought her to the very end before finally accepting his only daughter choice. The group of extraordinary young people she had been introduced too had convinced her to join them, to fight for their cause, and despite his objections, he had never been more proud.

Much like her fellow teammates, she accepted the risks that came with the job, but was never truly prepared to deal with the loss or more specifically the death of her best friend that now sat before her alive and awake.

An hour later when Paula entered the hospital room, Zatanna and Artemis were deep in quiet conversation. Both had puffy eyes and red faces and it was hard to tell if they had been crying or fighting, perhaps both. Paula cleared her voice directing their attention to her ,when the magician respectfully stood and prepared to leave and give the room back to her mother.

Zatanna bent down and kissed her friend on the forehead. It was a simple act, but one that carried deep meaning.

"Rest up, I'll see you soon ok?"

"I will. I want you to come get me before Kaldur leaves. I'm ….ready to talk to them, all of them," she said firmly.

Zatanna nodded and left the room, giving Paula a respectful nod as she closed the door behind her.

Paula was irritated that Artemis had taken a visitor outside of her family, she could not have been clearer with her instructions, but decided not to chastise her daughter when she saw the archer's angry expression directed toward her. Paula had been dreading the inedible conversation since Artemis had awoken, but it was time to face it head on.

"I know everything Mom, Everything. Banished? Excommunicated? Are you freaking kidding me? After all we did, after all we sacrificed? Zatanna tells me the League wants to turn this case over to the civilian authorities to prosecute them for the loss of life and violations of the National Security Act. Where do they get the balls?"

She rubbed her fingers in her eyes disbelievingly, trying to put into words what has been running through her mind since she awoke.

"I don't know why he took the blame. I don't know why he told you those things, but it was a group decision. You really piss me off when you make me sound weak and gullible. You know how I was raised; you know trust was never in our vocabulary. Do you honestly think I wouldn't have been able to read if I was being played from someone as bad a liar as he is?"

"He did a fairly good job at it Artemis. He hit me when I was the most vulnerable, like a master storyteller."

"He did it for me!" she screamed. "Don't you see what he had to turn into to protect me! My god he would never had left my side if he had had the chance. He has taken a bullet for me before, and you fucking dare to tell me I was played, to make everything we have together a lie. How fucking dare you!"

Silence claimed the room for minutes as the two women calmed themselves. "They had to lie Mom, the Light would have killed Kaldur and me if they had found out who we were. He's not like us and you know it, neither of them are. God I can't believe I have to defend him to you after all he has done for me."

"Did you know dad told us you were dead when you were put in that prison in Hanoi? You remember that stretch don't you? This wasn't some black op, some super-secret covert mission, you got sloppy and you paid the price, end of story. My god Mom, I was six and Jade was nine. Do you have any idea what that did to us? That piece of shit only came clean after you got released. He said it was because he didn't want us to hope, because hope makes you weak. "

"That's all Wally had was hope. We both were afraid we wouldn't see each other again. This mission was righteous Mom, not some Shadow bullshit you and dad pulled. Z told me how destroyed he was, how much he comforted you. Don't you get it? This was real to him; he didn't think I'd make it back."

Paula began to protest when Artemis cut her off.

"I know you threatened him, I know what Jade did to him. You lied when you said he hadn't come by, hadn't tried. Did you actually send the Shadows after them? You know they're not hiding right? Their punishing themselves, when all we did was save everyone. Pretty fair huh?"

Paula wanted to intercede, wanted her side to be known, but all she could do is listen and witness her daughter's sorrow, feel and understand the pain she had been holding inside for months.

Artemis wiped the beginning of a tear from her. "Mom he begged me not to do it. He tried so hard to convince Dick to let him go, but I was the only one with the skills thanks to the stellar childhood and training you all gave Jade and I. I pulled his heart out and stepped on it. He was scared I'd get caught up in the rush, and he was right, it swallowed me. Before I knew it I was attacking friends, blowing up our base, and snuggling up to that fucking one eyed mercenary like his love slave.

Her eyes were burning, but she refused to cry, the anger and resentment now flowing both ways.

"Four months ago it was just so perfect, he and just being students, just the two of us in a new life. You were so happy for us remember? That's all you could talk about. The first Crock to go to college. The first one to leave the life behind. Look at me now," she frowned, running her fingers across her shaved head.

She reached to her bedside table and grasped the amulet.

"You know what this is right?"

Paula nodded.

"Then you know what it can do."

Imagine watching the person you are in love with, hanging all over this human garbage for months in some twisted mentor-creepy old geezer boyfriend. Taunting and teasing you, making you think all you had together was a lie. Then imagine that bastard rushing at you with his sword blared, about to take your damn head off. What would you do mom if you had the chance? You don't even have to answer."

"I love him so much Mom, more than I ever felt was possible. Wally believed in me when no one else would. Now you and everyone else has turned against him, when it was my decision. I have spent my whole life trying to make you proud. I know what you sacrificed for Jade and I and I will never ever forget it, but if something happens to either one of them, I swear to god whoever, and I mean whoever does it will never see me coming."

Dick had blended right in with the staff of the Dendrick Circus. After a glowing recommendation from Jack Haley, Schultz had been kind enough to offer Dick a job, one which he promptly refused. He just wanted to be of service, volunteer wherever he was needed, but not take a penny of money that could be going to the performers or staff. He sat in the stands encouraging the two young acrobats as they danced around the sky. Through Dick tutelage, they both had worked through flaws they didn't even know they had. At this rate if they continued to improve, the girls might be good enough to join some of the bigger acts, but he doubted they would ever leave Schultz, loyalty and family were too strong a bond.

The girls were taking a break when Dick phone went off. He and Wally had begun to contact each other more often. True locations had finally been revealed, and neither one were really surprised where the other had landed. Their texts had become warmer and each could begin to see the person the once knew returning.

Dick prepared himself for the next absurd message his friend would send when the words appeared. There was no name or number associated with the message, and with the level of security Dick had placed on his and Wally's phones, it perplexed him how the message might have gotten through without a sender. He just stared at the message.

They are both awake and it's hoped they can make a full recovery Thought you'd like to know.

Dick furrowed his brow absorbing the information. Concern and relief battled each other in his mind, with relief winning out. He didn't know who had gotten his number, but if the message was true, this was the best news he heard in months.

Who is this? he replied

A friend was his only answer. He stepped away from his pessimism for a moment and allowed himself a brief smile at the thought there were still friends out there who cared, and one in particular who needed this news as bad as he did, if not more. As he promised the message was immediately sent thousands of miles across the ocean.

Wally was asleep when the text arrived. Another long day had worn him into the slumber his body craved, but it was never restful, not without her by his side. As the words lit up on the display, he sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, trying to determine if this was a dream or not.

He looked over at the picture he kept on his bedside table of him and Artemis and smiled, feeling for the first time a peace that had eluded him since that day on the battlefield. He desperately wanted to see her, to beg for her forgiveness, but that was miles ahead. For now he would take the relief the news had brought him and finally fall asleep with something in his heart besides pain, tonight he would dream of her smile, one that he planned on seeing again somehow.