Chapter 3: Artemis Lian Queen

Artemis woke the next morning to Roy yelling at her from his bathroom for her to get up and get ready for school. She didn't bother moving. She was tired and his bed was comfortable. It had been a late night and right now she wanted nothing more than to be wrapped up in his blankets and hide away from the world. Here, nothing could get to her. Here, she was safe.

Normally Roy would have cut her some slack and allowed her to sleep in a bit longer. After all she had gotten in late last night and he had gotten in after her so he could relate to the sleep deprivation she was feeling, but apparantly today he was in no mood because when she didn't budge, he emerged from the bathroom wearing nothing but his boxers and a toothbrush hanging from his mouth and proceeded to throw a pillow at her.

"Get out," Roy garbled hitting her again with the pillow. "You're going to be late for school."

Artemis groaned and rolled out of the bed theatrically, her golden mane falling into her face. Roy rolled his eyes and tossed another pillow at her.

Returning to her room the teen was relieved to find her father gone and her bed empty. A cold shudder ran down her spine as she thought about the events of the previous night and she did her best to shake it off as she opened her closet and pulled out her uniform for school.

She climbed into the shower turning up the water as hot as it would go not caring that it burned her skin. She needed the pain. She deserved it. She reached for her soap and cloth scrubbing at her skin until it was raw.

It had been a mistake. A drunken mistake that her father had made several times before but still it shook her. She told herself that nothing had happened. That the old man was just confused. But that didn't help. None of it helped her feel better. None of it washed away the shame she felt everytime he came into her room.

She stepped out of the shower and quickly wrapped her towel around herself. She had resigned long ago to never tell Roy. It was the one thing that she kept secret from him. He tried so hard to protect her, she didn't need him knowing about this. Not now, not when he was trying so hard to get better.

Things between Roy and Oliver weren't so great either as of late and she didn't want to add fuel to the fire by telling him what had been going on when it was something that she could handle. Especially something as nothing as this. Nothing had happened. She just had to keep telling herself that.

Artemis looked in the mirror. She had scrubbed her arms and legs to the point where they were starting to bruise a bit. She grabbed the cover up, she used to hide bruises from missions and got to work before quickly getting dressed.

Roy was already dressed and in the kitchen when she came downstairs fifteen minutes later. He was pouring himself a cup off coffee and grabbing two poptarts from the toaster and sticking them on a plate. "Made you breakfast." he said setting the plate down on the table.

Artemis smiled and thanked him. He offered her the pot of coffee as he took a seat.

"No thanks," she said grabbing the orange juice and pouring herself a glass. "You okay? What happened to your shoulder?"

Roy frowned as he replaced the pot back on the stand and unconsciously rubbed at his injured shoulder. "Hazards of going on patrol with a drunken Green Arrow." he told her. "Mom patched it up before she left last night. Left us a message saying she'll be back late tonight or early tomorrow morning."

Artemis nodded as she bit into her poptart. "League trouble?"

Roy shrugged wincing slightly. "More than likely, but she sounded like she had it under control. Dad didn't give you any trouble while I was out last night did he?"

Artemis made a face. "Why do you ask?"

Roy sipped his coffee. "Because you were asleep in my bed when I got in last night. Not much of a leap on the why."

Artemis didn't say anything for a minute, choosing instead to focus on her breakfast. "Can you give me a ride to school?" she asked after a minute.

Roy could tell the girl was hiding something, but a glance at his watch told him that they needed to get moving. It was a forty minute ride to her school in Gotham and Roy realized that Artemis had never actually answered his question. He decided to try a different approach once they were in the car and already on the road.

"Want to tell me about those nightmares you've been having?" Roy began. "I know something's going on Art." he leveled with her.

Artemis shrugged looking out the window. "We watched a scary move at the cave the other day. I guess it bothered me more than I thought."

Roy gave the girl a sideways glance before turning his attention back to the road. She was kidding right? She didn't actually expect him to buy that bull. "Seriously? That's the best you could come up with?" Roy asked after a minute.

He was looking dead ahead as he spoke. "Wow, that was awful. I hope you lie better than that when you're out on undercover ops with your team."

It took Artemis a moment, but the older girl realized that her brother was teasing her. She rolled eyes and playfully punched the older teen in the arm.

"You okay?" Artemis asked after a few minutes. Roy's fingers seemed to be shaking and he was tapping on the steering wheel as he drove, but there was no music playing on the radio. He was even doing that thing where he pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head like he was having trouble focusing on what he was doing.

"Fine," the elder archer answered barely glancing at his sister.

"You're all jittery." Artemis noted with a frown.

Roy smirked. "Too much caffeine and not enough sleep. I'll be fine." he lied convincingly.

Artemis nodded and turned her attention back to the window as they neared her school. Gotham Academy High School wasn't too bad as far as private academy's went. Sure, there were a few stuck up rich snobs, but for the most part everyone was pretty cool.

She spotted a small group of her friends gathered in the quad not too far away and hesitated. She still wasn't feeling too well. In fact, she really didn't feel well. She started walking in the opposite direction towards the roundabout path that led to the back of the school, picking up her pace as she felt her heartbeat quicken. She was beginning to panick. She walked faster, keeping her head down and avoiding all eye contact with the the other students.

By the time she reached the hidden hideway behind the school, she was full on freaking out and she didn't know why. She set her bag down on the small bench and raised her hands above her head trying to calm herself down. She was hyperventilating. She felt like she was drowning and there just wasn't enough oxygen in the air to help her.

She shook her head and closed her eyes, remebering the breathing techniques that she had been taught. Within a minute she had calmed down enough to inhale slower than a few quick gasps of air. Within five minutes she had managed to relax enough so that her breathing was almost normal. Tears stung at her eyes, she was losing it.

She took a seat on the bench and grabbed her bag, pulling it closer to her as she rummaged inside. She found the small case she was looking for and her fingers trembled slightly as she opened it. Inside the case she had hidden a small razor behind some of her feminine products. It was the safest place she could think of. She knew no one would bother messing with it once they saw what was inside.

She sighed deeply and relaxed a bit as her fingers held the blade. Somehow, even just holding it managed to comfort her just a bit. But she knew the only way that she would truly feel better was for her to use it. She pulled up part of her skirt exposing her inner thigh and made three uniform lines in her skin.

"I was afraid, that's what you'd be doing when I found you."

Artemis jumped slightly, startled at the new voice behind her causing the blade to fall into her lap as she turned to see who was there.

Dick Grayson, of course. He was frowning slightly as he held out a tissue for her and she took it as he sat down beside her on the bench.

"You're going to be late for class boy wonder," Artemis muttered as she wiped at the cuts with the tissue.

Dick shrugged. "I had to check on a friend." He watched silently as Artemis removed a small packet of vaseline from her case and sealed the cuts stopping them from bleeding. She pulled her skirt back down and turned to look at him as she put her things away.

"I'm fine." She told him. "Better now."

Dick simply nodded, not saying anything. She hated when he got like that. A worried Dick Grayson at school, was completely different from the happy go-lucky Robin she was used to at the cave. She knew that he wasn't judging her. He wouldn't do that, after all he cut too.

She caught him in the act nearly six months ago, and they had talked then. She helped him clean himself up and explained that she understood and told him that she wouldn't say anything. He had found out exactly what she meant a few months later when he had spent the night at Roy's place while Bruce was out of town. He wasn't the only one who self harmed.

"Trouble in the kingdom?" he said with a smirk after a moment.

Artemis smiled at her friend. "Yeah, something like that."

Dick nodded and stood up. "Then I propose we take a mental health day. Clear our heads, make sure that we're actually feeling the aster before we delve into a full day of education and learning."

Artemis shook her head still smiling. "And what about school, mr. mental health? If our folks found out we ditched then I'm pretty sure, both of us will be grounded from missions and patrol until further notice."

Dick cocked that ever too familiar grin, the one that she and everyone on the team loved to see because it meant that the little bat had a scheme in the works. "I'll just hack into the school's mainframe and alter the attendance logs to say that we're present. I've done it tons of times."

Artemis gave him a look. "Oh, come on. You can't mean to tell me you've never wondered why the school cut us so much slack for missing classes when we were away on missions. They never knew we were actually gone because there's no record of us actually missing class."

Artemis shrugged. She had to admit that made sense and it was the perfect plan. Why not? She didn't really feel like going to school anyway.

Dick had suggested they see a movie. When they got to the theatre they couldn't decide on what to see, so they ended sitting through two of them. The first one was a chick flick that Artemis picked and that Dick had cried through along with her while watching. The second was an action comedy since Dick said he needed to see something upbeat after bawling his eyes out like a girl. Artemis had punched in the shoulder for that comment.

After the movie, they decided to grab lunch at one of the restaurants nearby, Artemis' treat since Dick had paid for their movie tickets and sprung for a large popcorn for the two of them too share.

It was a few minutes after one and they still had a couple of hours to hang before school let out at three so the duo decided to head to one of Roy's not so secret safe houses.

Well, it was still secret, Artemis concluded. To her parents and the rest of the League, but the entire team knew about the safehouse in Gotham. Plus it was the perfect spot for her and Dick to unwind before heading back to school since there was a zeta tube a few blocks away that would get them back to the academy before the last bell.

They were on the roof of the apartment building where the safehouse was located. On the far side there was a roost where an elderly woman was tending to a flock of pigeon. She had smiled and waved to them when she arrived carrying a paperbag few of birdseed for her friends. She didn't seem to mind the two young teenagers sitting on the edge of the building talking. It was one of the few things Artemis actually did like about attending Gotham Academy, the school uniform was disarming. People never felt threatened by two students in uniform. Had they been wearing regular street clothes people would have been yelling at them all day no matter how polite or charming they'd tried to be. Automatically assuming that they were up to no good.

It felt good good to just be out and relax for a bit and not think about anything too stressful for a while. She was enjoying that bliss when Dick spoke causing the feeling to crumble.

"Are you going to tell me what was bothering you?" he asked still looking out over the city. "That was our agreement right? One of us gets caught by the other, we have to spill why we decided it was a good idea to make the hurt stop that way."

Artemis sighed. Yeah, that was the agreement they had made. She had thought had forgetten seeing as how he hadn't mentioned it once since they started their mental health day. Yes, they had talked at the restaurant and on the walk to the safehouse, but that was about the movie or school or the team. He hadn't asked her why she had cut and she assumed, wrongfully, that he was just going to give her a pass. No such luck.

"Dad's drinking again." Was all she said for a moment. Dick was patient and waited for her to continue knowing that there was more to the explanation.

"He was there when I got home last night after our mission." she continued. "Roy was still out on patrol and I was tired so I wasn't paying attention and I didn't realize he was drunk so I didn't think to lock my door."

Dick nodded. She didn't need to say the rest. He knew. He was the only other person who knew. The only person she had confided in.

"Does Roy know?" Dick already knew the answer to the question but had asked in anyway. He always asked.

Artemis shook her head. "No, and he can't." her answer was the same as it always was. Dick sighed.

They had had this conversation before and it always turned out the same way. Artemis would try not to cry and remind Dick of his promise not to tell a soul. Dick would regret ever swearing to her that he would keep the secret.

"Nothing happened." Artemis reminded him.

Dick tried to control his anger, "Yeah, this time! What about the next time? Artemis he has a problem."

Dick didn't want to point out the obvious, that situations like this usually escalate, but it was what he was worried about. He wnated to help Artemis but at the same time he would feel awful betraying her trust.

"I know." Artemis said quietly. "I know."

"At least let me tell Bruce," Dick tried. "He can talk to Ollie. They're friends. He'll know what to do."

Artemis shook her head. "Mom doesn't want that and you know it." Dick looked defeated. "He's not always like that. Come on, you know how great he can be." Artemis defended.

Dick frowned. "I also know how bad he can get too, remember?"

Artemis looked down. She remembered. How could she forget. It was the first time that Dick had caught her cutting herself. Oliver had come home drunk after a bad meeting at the office. Roy had tried to protect them from it, but none of them had seen it coming.

Oliver had been so angry. He had been yelling and screaming at all of them. Dinah hadn't been home at the time so of course Roy felt the need to play peacemaker and try to calm his father down. It hadn't worked. By the end of the night, Oliver had cursed all of them and struck each of them at least once.

Roy had thrown a punch knocking his father out as the only way of subduing the older man. Both he and Artemis had apologized to the confused Dick Grayson who was seeing his "Uncle Ollie" in a moment of weakness and certainly not at the man's best.

Dick had agreed not to say anything to Bruce or Alfred about what had happened that weekend. They had even kept the incident from Dinah. Dick had grown quiet for a few weeks after that incident. Artemis had been M.I.A. from the cave too embarrassed to face her friend.

When they finally talked at school a few weeks and returned things back to normal, they had made a pact to always tell each other what was going on whenever they needed to harm or they caught each other in the act. Dick realized that Artemis needed an outlet and someone to confide in and she felt better knowing that she had a friend whp could shoulder the burden with her.

Dick's watched beeped twice telling them that they had half an hour to get back to school before the last bell rang. They were fifteen minutes away at most.

"Hey," Artemis called pulling on the sleeve of Dick's blazer as they walked. "Don't tell your dad, okay?"

Dick nodded. "Fine, but I think you should tell someone. Roy or Wally-"

"No!" Artemis put a hand on his chest halting him. "They can never know, alright? No one finds out."

Dick sighed and continued walking. Sure, Oliver hadn't done anything yet, but wasn't scaring her enough. They could see the school building and the two picked up their pace changing the subject to something lighter as they walked. Both of them just rambling on about classes, neither of them actually paying much attention to the conversation, just trying to appear casual.

They parted ways at the quad when the bell rang. Artemis waited for her ride and talked with her friends, catching up and getting the assignments, while Dick went back inside. He had a Mathlete training session today. It also allowed him the perfect excuse to be on his laptop and hack into the school's system and update their attendance.

Artemis donned a fake small waving to her friends as she got into the car and left to go home.

"Good day?" Roy asked as he drove. He looked better to her.

She smiled. "Yeah, nothing beats a day of higher learning." she quipped reaching for the radio.

To Be Continued...