You get two chapters because this one is so short. It felt like it was a standalone chapter.


In Gotham City it was raining. Artemis picked her way slowly across the rooftops before slipping through her window. Very quietly she moved through the apartment. Scrounging something for dinner and showering. When she was finally done she headed for her room. Just inside the door to her bedroom she finally let go. She slipped to the floor from the pain. Her bruises were really starting to come out now. She had been right about the shapes of some of them. They ranged from black through to blue and covered her from head to toe.

The pain from her bruises was nothing compared to the pain in her heart. Wally hadn't known it but she had allowed him much closer than anyone else. Now she was regretting that decision. Even though she couldn't blame them for what had happened, right now she wanted to hate them because maybe it wouldn't hurt so much. She knew it wouldn't work but there was nothing else. She couldn't talk to anyone because they wouldn't understand it all. Conner would understand what she was feeling about Wally. Hurt. Betrayed. Angry. Guilty. But everything else. No one would understand that. They couldn't because they hadn't been there.

As memories started to play through her mind Artemis let herself give in to what she had wanted to do all day. She cried. Her first kiss with Wally. The beating. Her Mum. Her Dad. Jade leaving. It was all there and she let it out. The tears were flowing thick and fast. Her sobs were loud but it didn't matter. She was alone. Just like when she was younger. She was sitting on the bedroom floor whilst it stormed. Terrified and hurt. Alone in an empty apartment.