Ch 10: Adaptation

AN: You all can celebrate. I have a beta now. Introducing, the wonderful FlopsyTheStingyDingo. She's been awesome this week, making me write stuff in a decent time frame and giving me ideas when I got stuck. Thank her, everybody! I wouldn't have been able to do the Ollie/Artemis challenge without her. (P.S, thank you guys for asking me to do that. It didn't turn out how I wanted, but I'm glad I got a shot at it. Y'all make me so happy.)

XxXxX

Artemis hangs up the call and turns around to see her boyfriend staring sadly at the communication system.

"You okay, Baywatch?"

He blinks a few times and then looks at her. His eyes are shining.

"Of course. I'm just… you're… they…" He sinks to his knees and puts his face in his hands.

"Wally! Shh! Shh, shh shh. It's okay!" She sinks down next to him and rubs circles on his back. He just shakes his head, face still in his hands.

"I know. I'm… I'm fine." She continues rubbing his back while he breathes. "I haven't heard their voices in so long." He finally whispers. "They don't exist here! Believe me, I looked. I know you're alive! You're here! And it still keeps hitting me every three seconds that you're really you. And they're really them, after all this time… I shouldn't have chickened out. I should have talked to them…"

"No, Wally, you're fine. You didn't chicken out. You're right that they'll want to see you in person." He doesn't speak, so eventually she adds, "C'mon, Baywatch. We just need to get through this week. We'll have to cut our trip to Paris short, but this time next week, everyone's going to be here. M'gann's probably going to cry, and then try to make you cookies, and, and Conner might try to punch you, and Kaldur will probably stand in the corner trying not to be emotional, and Dick is totally going to tackle you – actually, twenty bucks he's actually speechless for a minute."

Her rambling does the trick. Wally sniffles, wipes his eye, and gives her a half smile. "Dick, speechless? Never. I'll raise you thirty-five against."

"You're on." She grins back.

"What… what then? I definitely want the team to know first, but after? When can I go back and, and see everyone?"

"Once everyone is willing to let you out of their sight, we can borrow one of their transporter beacons and visit home right away, if you want."

"Yeah… that sounds nice." He's contemplative for a minute, before suddenly seeming to remember something. "Oh! We better check out if they have a Mipsy's here, because if they don't we better find another cute café that M'gann will approve of. Maybe get some lunch while we're at it?"

"Sounds like a date."

…

XxXxX

Monday:

Keystone's Sunnyside Apartment Complex

"And the best part is they have a laundry room down the hall, on the same floor!" Wally's excitement is adorable. The run-down flat is hardly the awesome pad he's been describing, but it's cute. Definitely masculine, though. Artemis will definitely have to add a few of her own touches, though. Make it a little less bachelor and a little more them.

"Babe, you have super speed. That is literally of zero concern to you." Of course, if she's able to get a job, they might be able to afford to move into something a little bigger in a couple months… and she should know better than to plan for the long term by now.

"Yeah, but I know how much you hated going down to the laundry mat and carrying laundry up the stairs in our old home, so I thought you'd care."

"That's… really sweet. Thanks." As he continues his 'grand tour' she begins to notice a pattern, especially over the feature's he's excited about. She can't help but blurt out, "This place is the exact opposite of ours…"

He stills. "Yeah… that's kind of what I liked about it. It doesn't remind me of you." She pulls him into a hug when he tries to look away in chagrin.

"Wally, I-" She's interrupted by a knock.

"Wallace, dear! Is that you?" Wally pulls back.

"Yes ma'am! I'm coming!" He rushes over to throw open the door. "Mrs. Robertson! It's good to see you!" He throws his arms around the gray-haired woman in the doorway. She's a short, thin little thing, but Artemis can see the steel in her eyes. It's the same look she's seen on her mother, Wally's Aunt Iris, and Ma Kent. It's the look that says, 'You may be more physically able than I am, but you are my child and you will listen to me.'

"It's good to see you too, dear. I was so worried! Mr. Malone called to let me know that you got sick at your conference, and asked me to water your plant. Honestly, dear, it's just rude for your boss to keep sending you to these last minute conferences. It's not good for the body to be under such sudden stress. No wonder you got so sick! Did they get you to a good hospital? Treat you right?" Wally must be used to her mothering, as he merely steps aside, allowing the woman to barge into the apartment and begin inspecting the place with a practiced eye. It seems to meet her approval, because she nods and turns back to them, waiting sweetly for his answer.

"Yes ma'am. Really, I promise I'm fine." She looks at him critically, so he continues. "Look, I even met one of my old friends from Happy Harbor! She stayed with me though my whole… ordeal."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Robertson." Artemis shakes the woman's hand.

"Oh, you're such a polite girl. You must be Megan. Wally's told me all about how kind you are. Didn't exaggerate what a pretty girl you are, either."

"Um, actually, I'm Artemis."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Wally's told me lots about you, too."

Wally's looking nervous now, and Artemis glares at him. "What exactly has he been saying about me?" She asks as politely as she can. The older woman just laughs.

"You were right on the money, Wallace. She's exactly the little spitfire you described."

"Don't I know it." Wally grins at them, but remains out of Artemis' swatting range.

"I'm glad to finally meet you, Artemis. Wally's told me all about you and your other friends from high school. Megan, Dick, Kal and Conner? The way Wally tells it, you six sure got into a lot of trouble for a comic book club."

Artemis snorts and mutters. "That's an understatement." Mrs. Robertson smiles knowingly at the two.

"Well. I won't take any more of your time. Artemis – take care of this one. He's an ornery one."

"Don't worry. I'll watch out for him."

"Good." She turns to Wally. "You're looking thin, dear. Come over later. I have some extra pot roast you two can share with me. I'll make some cookies too, and we can get some meat on those bones." She pokes his ribs. "You really ought to eat more, dear."

She turns and heads right back out the door, not allowing either of them a chance to protest. Artemis follows her to the doorway, and watches her return to her own apartment down the hall. Wally comes up behind her and throws his arm over her shoulder.

"So, what do you think?

"I like this place. We should stay here."

XxXxX

Tuesday:

Central City Animal Shelter

"Please?"

"No."

"But he's so cute!"

"No."

"But I-"

"No."

"C'mon, Babe! I'll feed him and walk him and he doesn't have to sleep in the bed with us."

"You and I both know I'm going to be the one doing most of the work."

"Hey! I'm super responsible! I volunteer here all the time, and I help at out the orphanage every weekend."

"And yet I can't get you to unload the dishwasher."

"That's because my dishwasher is evil."

"It's not evil. You just weren't patient enough to wait for the silverware to cool down after it finished running."

"You're deflecting me!"

"Fine, let's talk about the real issue here. Nelson's too old to want to hang out with a puppy. We can't put him through that."

"You still have Nelson? Where is he? Who's taking care of him while you've been… y'know? Are they giving him enough love?"

"Don't worry, Wally. The Harpers are taking care of him."

"Oh, good, I- wait. You left our dog with Roy and your psycho sister!?"

XxXxX

Wednesday:

The Watchtower

"Twenty on Artemis."

"Fifty on Green Arrow"

"A hundred says they tie."

"One fifty says they murder us for betting on them."

"No bet."

Artemis smirks at the murmured words from the heroes that line the wall of the Watchtower's largest training room. When she and Wally had invaded his cave ("Told you I knew his passcodes, Wally. And you wanted to knock."), Oliver had presented her with a bow, a set of arrows, and even a new uniform, but had suggested they compete for her to have the right to keep them. Artemis was more than happy to accept. Somehow, between teleporting up to the Watchtower and actually arriving in the gym, they had picked up a crowd of followers. Seriously, did nobody in the League have anything better to do than watch drama play out and gossip about it?

"All right, everybody. Calm down." As things began to spiral out of control, Black Canary volunteered to referee. Artemis didn't have a problem with that, and Ollie was more than happy to show off for his sorta-maybe-girlfriend. "This is going to be a good clean competition between allies," she stresses. "We'll have three challenges today, winner takes best two out of three. Green Arrow, you get to choose the first challenge."

"Archery. Points for distance, accuracy and movement," he calls without hesitation. Artemis didn't expect any less, but she's still nervous. It's been too long since she held a bow, and the warm up time they were given earlier wasn't nearly enough to get back into her game.

"All right. There's going to be two stages to this one. You each get thirty seconds and five arrows to rack up as many points as you can from the middle line. Then you get three shots and unlimited time at the back line to show off your sniping skills. Moving targets are double points. Archers to the line."

Ollie is cool as a cucumber. She'd done enough of these drills under Green Arrow's tutelage in her teenage years to guess that this version of him practiced this regularly.

"Draw!"

She takes a breath to calm her nerves and still her fingers. She's supposed to be Wally's partner. Artemis, the Archer. She could do this.

"Aaaannnd….. Begin!"

She flinches when she sees her first shot went wide. Her grip on the bow must have been too tight, and it pulled. She needs to get her head in the game. Ollie's already gotten two off, both in the bulls-eye of the stationary target in front of him.

She fumbles with the second one even as he gets another stationary bulls-eye, and an 18-point hit on one of the swiftly moving targets above them. Painfully aware of the seconds ticking down, she lets her mind drift back, back to before…. She visualizes her old favorite trick shot, and her fingers drift down to brush her remaining arrows. She swiftly nocks and fires, releasing all three arrows simultaneously. They're not dead center, but they're close. Ollie's look of shock is worth it; his final arrow is buried in the wall, aim thrown off by his surprise at her trick.

"And… time. Current score's 48-34, to Green Arrow. Archers, retrieve your arrows, return to the farthest line."

It could be worse. She's not as far behind as she could be, and Artemis wasn't really expecting to win the shooting portion anyways. Plus, she's in the zone now.

"Archers to the line. Ready. Fire at will." Artemis forces herself to relax her stance, letting her eyes follow the moving target she's chosen. She pictures the Anomaly, a black swirling nothing, the cause of her pain and heartbreak. In her minds eye, she can see herself running it through with her arrows, giving it a permanent end. She releases the bowstring. Then she does it again. And again.

Ollie's eyeing her. They both hit the bulls-eye of the moving targets for all three shots, even if his are closer to the actual center. She can tell he's raising his eyebrow under the mask. He's wearing his favorite smirk. She knows what that smirk means.

So that's how you want to play?

Bring it on.

"First event scores, 108-94, to Green Arrow."

"That was some sweet shooting, girlie, but I think I might need to give you a few more lessons." Artemis huffs at Green Arrow's condescension.

"Artemis chooses the second event." Black Canary continues as if she hadn't been interrupted.

"Swordsmanship would be grossly unfair, so let's go with hand-to-hand combat." She says, fixing the bow to her back.

"Don't sound so smug. You're not going to catch me by surprise like you did the other day."

"Keep telling yourself that, Arrow." They take their places on the mat.

"First one pinned for ten seconds loses. On my mark."

"Whenever you're ready, sweetheart."

"Alright, but remember, you asked for it."

"Go!"

Ollie falls into a defensive stance, and right away she can see three openings. Tch. He really needs to get on Canary's good side and get some help already.

She comes in with a feigned kick to the knee, taking advantage of his too-high guard. He's forced to step back to avoid it, but because his back foot was turned too far out, this leaves his stance weak. She tries not to give it away when he catches her follow though punch, only to be yanked to the side as she twists her body and brings her other arm around to strike his shoulder instead. As she did the last time, she takes advantage of this kneeing him in the stomach and kicking out his front ankle. He goes down in a heap, and she plants a foot on his neck.

"You really make this too easy."

"Second round goes to Artemis," Black Canary calls out after Ollie's few struggles to get up fail, and time ticks down. "Green Arrow, choose the third competition."

He's quiet for a moment, thinking, but finally says, "Agility."

"You sure about that old man?"

"Positive, little girl. No way you can keep up with my katas."

"Tch. Try saying that after you've seen what I can do." She spent years training with an aerialist and an Olympic-class gymnast after all.

Black Canary agrees that they can each lead a kata, increasing the difficulty until one or the other of them is unable to complete a move, in accordance with her judgment.

Ollie chose the competition, so Artemis leads the first kata; a simple flowing exercise that nevertheless loosens her up.

He's clearly unimpressed. She recognizes the stance he shifts into for his exercise. It's a faster kata that requires more dexterity than the one she chose. It's also one of her favorites.

Just to show off, she mirrors him as he dives into a roll, her muscles doing an even better job of remembering this kata than her mind. They push out of the roll together, spin and fire off a shot at one of the targets, almost completely in sync. Ollie hit the nine-ring. She only hit the eight.

She grits her teeth, ignoring their shots and reminding herself that this set is about agility, not accuracy. When he looks over at her with a smug expression, though, she loses it. She charges at him, enjoying his expression of surprise. At the last moment, she skips around him and jumps against the wall, using it as leverage to jump into a series of back handsprings, rolling the last one into a back flip. Thank you, Nightwing.

He doesn't even try. If anything, he's trying not to look impressed. When she crosses her arms and tilts her head, inviting him to try, he throws his hands in the air. "Fine! I concede! You're decent enough meet Arrow standards."

"Thanks for that glowing praise, Ollie." She rolls her eyes. Suddenly, Wally's there, throwing his arms around her from behind.

"Yay! I knew you could do it! And you get a cool new costume!"

"No stealth tech though," she bemoans.

"Hm. I guess. At least it shows your midriff."

She elbows him in the stomach. "You're incorrigible."

XxXxX

Thursday:

First National Bank of Keystone City

"And that's why it keeps coming back, mate." Captain Boomerang says, brandishing his signature weapon toward one of the hostage bank tellers.

"Quit with the puns so we can get out of here, Digger. If we get busted for this, my wife's going to kill me." Captain Cold admonishes.

"Why the rush? Flash's gone. I can stand here and think up puns as long as I want, and there's no one that can stop me." Sam Scudder rolls his eyes, but opts to continue helping Mirror Master 'liberate' the money in the bank vault rather than continue arguing with the Australian rogue.

"You're wrong on both counts, Boomer!"

"Flash!" The red blur that had just arrived on the scene is suddenly obscured by the colors of the Trickster on a hugging warpath. "You're alive!"

"Missed you too, Tricks, but I'm back now. We'll play darts, yeah? I'll bring my friend – she has awesome aim – but right now I'm gonna have to take down you and your buddies though, okay?"

"Aw, Flash! Not again!" The rogue draws back from the hug.

"No, you're right. Not again," a voice emanates from behind the Flash. His reflexes are quick – he wheels around to face the Pied Piper and takes a step back... Only to find himself surrounded by the Top's namesake weapons, and brought to his knees by the high-pitched screech emanating from them.

Wally's vision swims, though he's hyper aware that his rogue's gallery has encircled him, and that they're closing in on him.

Captain Boomerang sneers, "Hypersonic tops, Mate. Piper and Top put them together. Teamwork's a bitch when you're on the other side of it, eh?"

"Oh, how I do appreciate irony," a voice cuts in from the back corner. Something flies past the rogues, and lands just in front of Wally's knees. The screeching stops with a crackle, and his vision clears enough for him to see the object was one of Artemis's trick arrows.

"Wha-?" Mirror Master starts as he steps out of a mirror, but is cut off with a taser-arrow to the chest.

"Miniature EMP arrows, mate." She smirks at Captain Boomerang's flabbergasted expression.

"Oh yeah, guys. Did I mention I got a new partner?" Wally moves in for a knock-out punch.

"Well, shi-" Is all any of them have time to say.

XxXxX

Friday:

Somewhere on The Atlantic Ocean

"Just once, I'm going to actually fly to Europe."

"C'mon, Babe! It's fine! I promise I won't drop you!"