A/N: In this chapter you will find, concerned!Wally, leftover Failsafe feels, ghost stories, and much much more! Thanks everyone for reviewing, putting me and/or this story on your alerts, and adding me and/or this story to your favorites! I'm reaching through my computer right now to hug you all :)

This chapter is set right after the events of Secrets.

DISCLAIMER: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me. If Wally West belonged to me, I would be the only one allowed to play with him ;-) Any dialogue or plot that looks familiar belongs to DC and Greg Weisman and other people who are not me.

Summary: This is the story of Artemis and Wally and their evolution from teammates, to friends, to boyfriend and girlfriend, to husband and wife, to soul mates and everything and anything in between. Please review! XD

Genre: Friendship, Romance, Action/Adventure, Humor

Rating: T (just to be safe, it might go up later if I'm feeling particularly ambitious)

Characters: Artemis Crock, Wally West

The EVOLUTION of SOUL MATES

Evolution: the gradual development of something, esp. from a simple to a more complex form.

Chapter 13: Problem

She was in the infirmary cleaning up the cut on her face when the double doors blew open with what seemed like a gust of wind. Suddenly, Wally was standing next to her, and from what she could tell looking at his reflection in the mirror, he had been in the middle of taking off his "teen werewolf" costume when he'd decided to make an impromptu visit to the infirmary. He was looking her over intently, but said nothing, so she rolled her eyes and continued putting some peroxide on her cut.

"Can I help you?" she asked impatiently, wincing at the sting of the peroxide.

"We ran into Zatanna as she was leaving," he explained in a rush. "She mentioned something about you two being kidnapped by a psychopath with a huge sword!" She still didn't answer him, busy pressing a bandage to her cut. "Ring any bells?" he pressed.

Finally, when she was convinced that the wound was merely superficial and would heal within a few days, she turned to the distressed speedster.

"A few," she replied coolly, looking at him expectantly. What was his deal? He'd been so cold around her lately, and since she knew why she'd been returning the favor.

"What were you two thinking, going off like that? In New York City, no less?" he snapped when he realized she wasn't going to say anything more. "You could've gotten seriously hurt!"

Taken aback by his concern, it took Artemis a moment to respond. "But we didn't," she said slowly.

"What's that then?" he persisted, pointing at her face.

She put her fingers to her bandage. "This? It's just a scratch. I'm fine."

"That's besides the point," he said. He had taken off the wig of his werewolf costume, but still had on the ridiculous facial hair. It would have been funny if his green eyes weren't blazing with anger. "You should have called for backup."

"We had the situation under control," she argued, his anger giving rise to hers. "What is your problem?"

"You!" he burst out, and she recoiled as if he had hit her. She saw his Adam's Apple bob as he swallowed hard, but he didn't stop. "You always think you have to take on everything by yourself, that you don't need anyone's help. You're, you're just so...reckless."

He had run out of steam too early, and she watched him deflate before her, eyes glued to the ground. She could feel her own anger dissipate, and decided to take pity on him.

"Wally, what's this really about?" she asked gently.

He was silent for a long moment, so long that she began to think that he hadn't heard her. But then she heard him whisper, "You died."

Her eyes widened in shock, those two words completely unexpected. She could feel herself sway, and steadied herself with a hand on the counter. Artemis never thought that he would willingly bring up the training simulation to her of all people. She said nothing though, waiting to see if he was going to add anything more. He didn't disappoint.

"You died, and I couldn't save you," he said, the anger back in his voice, though it seemed to be directed towards himself this time. His eyes were trained on his feet as if he couldn't bare to look her in the face.

She was shaking her head though, "No, Wally-"

"I just stood there and did nothing," he continued bitterly, ignoring her interjection. "I was useless and you just-"

"Wally." How could he blame himself for what happened to her in a the failsafe debacle? If it was anyone's fault it was hers, and only hers. Artemis laid both of her hands on his shoulders, and at her touch his eyes flew up to meet hers. His regretful stare burned into her fiercely and something inside of her shifted. How long had she lasted trying to resist her feelings? A week? Maybe? There was no helping it; she couldn't deny that there was a connection there. He could, and she would have to accept that, but she couldn't do it anymore. Her hands felt too comfortable grasping his shoulders, trying to comfort him.

"You can't blame yourself for what happened in the training exercise," she said slowly, making sure that his eyes were on hers, that he understood every word she was saying. "No one's to blame. It wasn't real."

"That doesn't mean it couldn't happen," he murmured, looking stricken at the thought.

"Any one of us, any day," Artemis agreed. "But we know the risks and we accept them. If we didn't, we wouldn't be doing this. Right?" Wally nodded and Artemis was glad she was getting through to him. "If I ever hear you blaming yourself again, I'll kick your butt, okay?"

Wally snorted as if what she said was far-fetched, but nodded again. She let go of his shoulders, allowing her hands to alight on her hips for lack of anything better to do with them.

"So, do you want to hear about our night, or not?"

Five minutes later they were both fully out of their costumes and in their civvies, parked in front of the Cave's big screen with a bowl of popcorn between them. On the TV, there was a horror movie marathon playing, but neither of them were paying much attention to it.

"There no such thing as ghosts," Wally was saying stubbornly, stuffing a handful of popcorn into his mouth.

"You wouldn't be saying that if you had seen her," Artemis persisted. "Greta was real."

"Or possibly a figment of your imagination," Wally argued. "I think maybe you and Zatanna are taking this holiday a bit too seriously."

"So, according to you, Zatanna was freed from her handcuffs completely on her own?"

"Maybe she used her own brand of hocus pocus to free herself, how should I know?" Wally suggested.

Artemis sat up with her legs tucked underneath her. "Wait, are you saying you don't believe in Zatanna's magic?" she asked incredulously. "Come on, you've seen her in action. You know what she's capable of. I thought you were coming around to the idea of magic."

"I'm a scientist," Wally told her. "I'll never fully come around to the idea of magic. Yeah, I know there are things that can't be explained by science, yet, but I draw the line at ghosts."

"Whatever, I know what I saw," Artemis said, grabbing a handful of popcorn. "Greta saved us tonight."

"Speaking of tonight," Wally said, sneaking a glance at her. "What made you and Zatanna ditch the Halloween party in the first place?"

Artemis swallowed harshly and thought back to earlier that night. She had entered the Cave genuinely excited for the dance, convinced that her costume was awesome and they were finally going to get to cut loose and have some fun. She was also looking forward, probably more than she should have been, to making Wally jealous by flirting with Conner, but then Zatanna had clued her into the fact that M'gann and Conner were together, thus ruining her plans for the evening. She had left the Cave incensed that once again she had been overlooked for M'gann. It was petty of her, but no girl liked to the constantly placed in the background in favor of their friend, not even her.

She realized Wally was still looking at her expectantly and sighed. "I, got into a fight with my mom earlier, so I wasn't really in the mood to party," she lied, avoiding his eyes and reaching down to snag some more popcorn.

He was silent for a moment. "You're lying," he said, and she whipped her head around so that she could see him. "Whenever you lie you always looking away from the person. I learned that in Bialya. And you get this little finger twitch thing, like you have to do something with your hands."

She opened her mouth to refute his claims, but he waved whatever she was going to say away. "I'm not gonna pry," he told her, a mischievous look on his face. "Although, color me mighty curious."

He rapidly changed the subject, which she was grateful for. She was, however, surprised that he'd noticed somewhere down the line how horrible a liar she was. She had never been that good at it, as Jade and her father had only been too happy to harp on, but she thought she had been improving a little bit. Apparently not if Wally, Kid Clueless, was calling her on her it. Then again, how close of attention was he paying to her?

"Well, now that I've heard all about your night, you have to hear about mine," Wally said eagerly.

He regaled her with tales of the Happy Harbour dance, including how most of the students had dressed as League members. The highlight of his story was without a doubt when he described the prank he, Conner, and M'gann had played on their friend Marvin. By the end of the story Artemis was actually clutched her sides, which were aching from her laughing so hard.

"And then Conner just showed up like nothing had happened?" she choked out.

"Yup," Wally answered, grinning widely. "It was classic! Best Halloween prank I've ever pulled."

Artemis chuckled, wiping a stray tear from her eye. It sounded like a fun night. "I'm kind of sad I missed it," she admitted to Wally.

"We'll just have to plan an even better prank for next year's Halloween," Wally assured her. He gave her a little half smile that she returned easily.

Suddenly she was more than aware of how close they were actually sitting to each other, the only thing between them was the now empty bowl of popcorn. Sometime during the conversation, Wally had slung his arm over the back of the couch so that it rested slightly behind her. He appeared to take notice as well, giving her a playful raised eyebrow. She made a quiet noise of amusement and licked her lips absentmindedly.

The action, however, drew Wally's eyes to them, perhaps bringing him back to himself. His smile faded and his eyes widened. Clearing his throat loudly, he leapt to his feet as if the couch was on fire. Artemis crossed her arms self-consciously. The moment had been broken. Again.

"I, uh, just remembered that my mom said I could have any candy that the trick-or-treaters didn't take," he told her, even as she looked down at her lap. "I better go and make sure my dad doesn't eat any of it."

"Yeah, you better," she echoed weakly. She chanced a look up at him and was slightly satisfied to see that he looked as conflicted as she felt.

He opened his mouth to say something but closed it immediately after. "Happy Halloween, Artemis," he said to her.

"You, too," she replied. He turned away from her and walked out of the living room towards the zeta tubes. She slouched back against the couch. This really wasn't going to work if he kept running away like this. Maybe she'd read all of the signs wrong. Maybe he just wasn't into her. She shook her head. It had been a very long night, and she didn't even want to begin to try and process what this meant for her and Wally. She was just glad that he was talking to her again.

She shut off the TV, collected her stuff, and followed Wally's path to the zeta tubes. All she wanted now was go home, take a nice hot shower and then slip into bed. She could think about her speedster problem tomorrow, when she had a clearer head.

A/N: As always, please let me know how I'm doing! I think I'm going to skip Misplaced and get right to Coldhearted :) Who's POV do we want to see for that? Wally's or Artemis'? Or both? Let me know and I'll try to accommodate! Please review!

Also, I'm thinking about changing this story's title to Between the Lines. Let me know what you think!