Artemis spent a week trapped in the infirmary. No one wanted to help her into a wheelchair to leave. She guessed that someone, probably Batman, had threatened them all so that she would be stuck in the infirmary room until her casts had come off. Whilst she did spend a good part of her time sleeping her waking hours weren't particularly thrilling. The team, even Roy and Dick, wouldn't or couldn't talk to her. She had tried several times to start conversations with them. But not only were they unresponsive not one of them could look her in the eyes. Artemis didn't know why they all felt so guilty. It was the only explanation she could come up with for their behaviour. Well that wasn't exactly true... maybe they were disappointed with her, now that they knew about what had happened in her childhood. They pitied her. She refused to acknowledge this as a plausible explanation. Partly because they were her team and partly because the idea kept eating away at her when she even considered. So it must be the guilt thing. She wanted to yell at them but couldn't. She wasn't sure why but something buried in the dark recesses of her mind wouldn't let her. Bad things happened when people yelled.

It was worse when the team was called away for missions. It seemed impossible but they all seemed to release breaths they had been holding. They relaxed when they left the room. It made Artemis feel worse. Their reactions were her fault. She didn't know if she could make it better.

When the team left for missions or to go out together Artemis always ended up having a random Justice League member keep her company. It was strange at first but she got used to it fast. Almost all of them apologised to her which Artemis found weird. They didn't do anything wrong. She accepted anyway and apologised for causing them so much trouble. They gave her the same quizzical look that she must have given them. At least her time with the League members wasn't all that awkward. They could all look her in the eye and speak to her. Wonder Woman told her about her home and told stories about the gods and champions of the Amazons, John Stewart offered to redesign the buildings she inherited from her mother; he used his ring to show her possible designs, Captain Marvel took it as an excuse to eat junk food and tell her all about his summer, GA reassured her that even though he hadn't taken her in that he would still be a force in her life, Black Canary kept lecturing her about not telling people things and why she wouldn't be training for a very long time and Batman sat there and watched her sleep; when nobody was anywhere near the room he would hold her hand and just let her be lost inside her own head.

The day after her casts were removed the smooth run she was having ended. The day started out fairly normal. The team was all sitting in Artemis's room, not looking at her and not talking. She knew they were all waiting on Batman getting back. Commissioner Gordon had asked Bruce and Dinah to meet with him about the incidents surrounding Artemis's life. The silence however was starting to drive her nuts. At least Batman could look at her even if he wasn't going to talk. She was about to say something to them about it when the sounds of an argument reached the room. It sounded like Batman and Green Arrow were fighting. Roy and Dick walked over and opened the partly closed-door to the room. They couldn't discern all the words but it sounded like they were arguing about the meeting that Batman had just attended.

Everyone but Artemis got up to listen to the fight. Artemis was still supposed to be confined to bed rest but that wasn't what stopped her. She was trying to fight the feeling of terror that was washing over her. She was also fighting to stay grounded in reality. She kept flashing back to her dark bedroom on a night Jade had disappeared during a thunderstorm and as scary as that was it was nothing compared to the thundering of her parents down the hall. There words were lost in the thunder but Artemis was terrified. She managed to slip back to the present and noticed that most of the team were now out of the room. There was no one there, she was alone again. That fact was enough to send her crashing back towards her past. Artemis grabbed her head. Trying to make all the shouting both inside and out stop. Trying to hold the flood gates over her past closed. And then there were memories flying through her head. The dam she had built to keep her past locked away was broken and there was no going back now. The past and the present were fusing together inside Artemis's head. She was so confused.

There were images of her Dads training mixed with the now spinning room of the infirmary. There was an ongoing shouting match in her head. She couldn't discern the words but even with her hands over her ears she couldn't block the shouting out. The words seemed to sound like her father was speaking but then images of the team and the League would pop up and it looked like they were the ones shouting. As Artemis slipped back and forth between past and present her terror grew. She didn't know where she was any more or what was going on. All she could think about was that when Dad got angry bad things happened. Then the world started to spin. It was a vortex of images and noise.

At this point Artemis knew she had to get away but the door was blocked and the windows were too high up. So Artemis decided to hide. Without thinking or caring Artemis slipped off the side of the bed. Artemis had been unable to untangle her legs from blankets and fell to the floor. She was able to use her left arm to break her fall. Even as pain shot up her left arm she started moving. The bed she was on was a hospital bed and there wasn't a lot of room but she was able to wedge herself underneath the head of the bed. When she was sure she was in as far as she could go without hurting herself Artemis threw her hands over her ears and brought her knees up to her chest. She hadn't noticed it but she had started crying. She rocked herself ever so gently backwards and forwards eyes clenched shut, hands over her ears. Attempting to block out a past were a tiny child hid under her bed while her parents fought down the hall and trying to block out the present were everyone seemed to be disappointed in her and she was all alone. As she rocked she kept repeating a mantra to herself. It was an attempt to shake of the confusion and protect herself.

She whispered to herself, "It's just a dream. It's just a dream." Over and over whilst the rest of the world ignored her.

The first person to notice Artemis's distress was M'gann. She like everyone else had been so focused on trying to find out what the fight was about that she had forgotten temporarily about Artemis. When a wave of overwhelming terror washed over her she almost fell over. No one noticed because M'gann was in the doorway to the infirmary and thus at the back of the group. The terror shocked M'gann. She wasn't sure were the feeling was coming from so she reached out. She was absolutely horrified to find the terror was coming from Artemis. When she tried to link up with Artemis she was blasted back by the emotions and confusion. She had caught glimpses of a child and training and so many things she wasn't sure about. When she had been forced out of Artemis's head, M'gann had to grab the door jamb indoor to stay upright. As soon as she had caught her breath M'gann spun round to find an empty room. No Artemis.

M'gann was sure that Artemis was in the room. Even Artemis wasn't crazy enough to try to jump from the windows. So M'gann floated into the room. She flew over the bed and turned around. The sight of Artemis tightly bunched up rocking backwards and forwards underneath the bed instantly brought M'gann to the floor. She sat there beside Artemis watching her rock and trying to block the world out. Unable to help herself M'gann reached out towards Artemis to lay a hand on her shoulder. Before M'gann had even made contact with Artemis, the girl lurched away from her. Artemis hit her head on the bottom of the bed but both of the girls ignored it. Artemis was shaking with fear and words spilled out of her mouth before she jammed her hands over her ears again and scrunched her eyes back up.

"I'm sorry. I didn't do it. Please don't."

The rocking sped up. M'gann couldn't move. She was frozen in place by Artemis. The girl violently rocking before her was not the person she remembered meeting. For the first time M'gann understood what Artemis had meant when they first met about challenging people to survive. The thing that had caught M'gann the most though was Artemis's eyes. Usually Artemis's eyes were hard to read but this time they mirrored her feelings. The absolute terror they held was terrifying for M'gann. Seeing so much fear in Artemis's eyes wasn't right. Not only that but it was as if Artemis hadn't actually seen her. It looked like Artemis had gazed right through her, towards someone else in the room that was causing this terror. M'gann knew there was no one else here.

M'gann wasn't entirely sure of what to do for Artemis. She had never seen Artemis like this and it was obvious what that she didn't want to be touched. M'gann was contemplating her next move when the noise level of the fight briefly increased. When the noise level had gone up and directly after M'gann had noticed a noise that she was shocked to find coming from Artemis. The whimpering sound that came out of Artemis just wasn't right. The noise however told M'gann what had caused this whole situation.

"Guys you need to get in here. Now!" M'gann opened a mind link with the team plus Roy. All of them paused for a moment before Conner led the charge back into the room. The group glanced around for a second before spotting M'gann on the other side of the bed sitting on the floor.

"M'gann what's-"

Conner's query was cut off when he spotted Artemis. The rocking had continued to grow more violent and increase in speed. She had done her best to cram herself as far under the bed as possible. Her eyes looked painful and it looked as if she was trying to force her hands into her skull. The whole team was shocked. All of them moved forwards to kneel down near her.

"Don't touch her. It just seems to make it worse. I don't know why but that fight seems to have set this off. Somebody needs to stop them."

Most of the group stayed still. Entranced by their friends fear. Robin however tore out of the room towards the fight. A few minutes later a small explosion rocked the cave. Though the fight quickly ended the explosion had caused Artemis to let a small squeak of terror escape from her mouth. The rocking was starting to grow more erratic and was taking her head dangerously close to the underside of the bed. A few moments later the entire Justice League burst into the infirmary. All of them hurried around to where the team were. None of them moved and then Green Arrow and Batman continued the fight that had caused all this.

"This is all your fault Bruce-"

"I did not cause-"

"If you had just-"

"We both caused-"

The pair were cut off by a noise that only M'gann recognised. All of them looked at Artemis to see her shaking and whimpering. Both adults immediately shut up but it didn't stop.

By this time Conner had enough. He couldn't stand the sight before him, it was destroying him. Ignoring what M'gann had said Conner stood up and pushed the bed away from where Artemis sat. He then very carefully sat down next to Artemis and without warning scooped her up, pulled her on to his lap and held her against his chest. At first Artemis had struggled against his grip. Slowly though she had relaxed enough to allow him to hold her there. The whimpering and the free-flowing tears didn't stop and her eyes were still screwed up and her hands still covered her ears but Conner felt like he was at least doing something this way. Ever so slowly he began to rock her back and forth. The gentle motion eventually calmed Artemis down and she cried herself to sleep. Still Conner held her only when he was sure that she was alright did he even consider putting her back into the infirmary bed.

The League and the Team were unsure of what to do. On the one hand they all felt like they were intruding on a moment when Conner had pulled Artemis on to his lap but they were all rooted to the spot by Artemis. If the sight of her had broken their hearts a few weeks ago, the sight of her now shattered those broken pieces. No one, not even Conner who was holding on to her for dear life was sure on how to proceed from here. None of them were sure that even if they could come up with some sort of plan whether it would make it right, make it better.