Disclaimer- Do not own Young Justice or any of it's characters.

Sorry for the delay.

Have some Bart.

o.o.o.o

Chapter Length: 6,703 words

o.o.o.o

Wally West was on lunch break.

When the redhead had first started working at the lab, he had always gotten the most scrutinizing looks when his fellow employees saw the heaps of food he regularly hauled in. It astonished everyone that he could find a way to stash a triple decker sandwich for break, or somehow have 3 extra large pizzas delivered by the exact moment he was due to the break room.

Then proceed to scarf down all three by himself.

By now, however, everyone was largely used to his unusual eating tendencies, and Wally was able to enjoy his meals in relative peace without having to answer the questions about how or why he ate so damn much. He couldn't even explain it himself anyway, he was just always super hungry no matter what he ate and he had chalked it up to a super crazy metabolism that couldn't be controlled.

"It's genetic," he'd said through a mouthful of loaded baked potato from Bibbo's one day. "I think. "

And that was the explanation he stuck with.

Today's lunch was several cheeseburgers from Bibbo's of course. Wally had bought them the previous day and had no qualms about reheating them.

He'd been far too chipper at work today, thinking up so many more scientific things he could share with Artemis if she so chose to visit him again. He tried not to let himself get too hopeful about it, but something about sharing stuff about himself, as well as hearing about her, had made the last two days very nice ones for the redhead.

So it was with a content air and thoughts of a mysterious blonde that Wally entered the break room with his lunch bag in tow. He immediately registered the sounds of a commotion within as his plams pressed against the doors.

"Woah, man, I'm so sorry! I am so not moded today."

Oh boy. Wally felt his eyes roll to the ceiling for guidance.

He loved his cousin dearly but the kid was even klutzier than he was. It seemed like every other day Bart Allen was causing a disaster in one of the departments where he was interning. Wally was surprised he hadn't been banned from ever touching anything again with the very large record he had of breaking expensive equipment. Bart was just too hyper for his own good.

Fully pushing his way inside, Wally saw Bart frantically trying to grab for some paper towels to help the man he had obviously just bumped into and dumped coke all over. The guy was big, bald, and livid, so Wally promptly deposited his food on the nearest empty table and ran to his cousin's rescue.

"Bart!" he called to the brunette, sidestepping a table. Bart looked up at him with pleading eyes, his fingers fumbling over the napkins. The unfortunate victim, a guy Wally recognized as a fellow scientist named Greg, looked over as well, face slightly red.

"West!" he barked, jerking the napkins from Bart's hands and pressing them against his previously white shirt. "Come get your cousin in line!"

Wally skidded to his cousin's side, putting an arm around his shoulders and starting to steer him away. He gave Greg a cheesy smirk, pushing Bart by the shoulders so that he stumbled over to a table with a yelp.

"Sorry about your shirt, I'm sure it was just an accident, you know how he is! I'll keep an eye on him, have a good day, Greg!"

Greg mumbled something murderously to himself, but Wally was already moving away from the disgruntled man. Bart slumped at the table where Wally had deposited his burgers, and the poor kid looked so dejected that Wally, with a major sigh, slid one of the greasy wax papered sandwiches to him. That immediately lit his demeanor up.

"Hey, thanks cuz! You never share, lucky me," he chirped, folding the paper down and taking a bite.

"You looked like a kicked puppy, it ruins my appetite," Wally said, situating himself in the chair next to Bart."You really need to get a handle on yourself before you get strangled by someone, you know that right?"

"M'sorry!" Bart exclaimed through his food. "S'just sometimes my brain thinks faster than my body can move!"

Wally thumped his back, smirking.

"So you say, kid. You just had to follow me when I tried to get away from you, didn't you?"

"You're just my favorite cuz, I had too!" Bart crooned, flakes of burger bun spraying onto the table from his laughter. "Besides, I think Barry was glad to have me out of his hair for a while."

"I bet he cried when you left," the redhead retorted, popping his own can of soda from home. He eyed Bart, sliding the drink farther away from his elbow to prevent a repeat of what had just happened. "Seriously."

"No, Wally, you should have seen him after you told him your were leaving for Star Labs in Gotham. He was an absolute wreck— HEY, hey hey hey turn that up!" Bart exclaimed on a sudden impulse, startling Wally. The brunette was gesturing very frantically at the tv suspended in one corner of the room, which was currently displaying some news on a murder. Wally took one look at the headline slapped across the screen and snorted viciously, going back to his sandwich while Bart scrambled to jog across the room. He jumped up several times to reach the volume button.

"—third murder in the past week and a half. Much like the other two murders, the victim was found on the outskirts of the slums, and appeared to have been mauled by a dog. Authorities say several witnesses claim they saw very large animals resembling wolves in the area around the time of the murder. Could these be the so-called 'werewolves' that so many Gothamites have been outcrying about?"

"Oh please," Wally spat as Bart rejoined him, looking enthralled by the story. "Werewolves. What is wrong with people? That's highly illogical, about as dumb as magic!"

"I don't know," Bart said, eyes glued to the tv set. "All the signs—"

"Signs!?" Wally interjected, putting his burger down. He ignored the several groans that reached his ears from the other people in the break room; all of them knew Wally West's very vocal feelings on how stupid the idea of werewolves was. "What signs! The only thing being pointed to is feral dogs on the loose, not like it's never happened before."

"But it's all just too weird! Maybe you should see the website, it'll convince you tha—"

"There's a website," Wally choked, nearly spitting out coke. Bart was buzzing with a kind of excitement as he reached for the bag he had deposited beside his chair. He dug around inside of it, causing crumpled protein bar wrappers and discarded sheets of notebook paper to tumble to the floor around him. Wally watched him with worry; his cousin was about to go off the deep end with this wolf crap if he was visiting websites about freaking lycanthropy.

A fictional illness, Wally would like to stress. It would be one thing if Bart was interested in them for fun, but as he whipped out his tablet and found the website in his favourites, Wally suspected he was fully on the crazy train. He thrust the device in Wally's face, pointing to the webpage with it's pulsing red words and black background. A picture of a wolf head silhouetted by the moon stood as the websites banner, proclaiming in loud neon green text that the website was known as "The Werewolves of Gotham".

"See?" Bart said, scooting his chair closer so they could both peer at the device. "My friend Jaime showed me this place, it's all about the murders in the slums and dedicated to 'spreading the awareness of the werewolves of Gotham City'. There's topics on every single one of them, all of them comparing the evidence! And then there's just all this general information on werewolves, and it's just all so crash! Uh, y'know, for something so obviously illogical, I mean."

Wally bit his tongue and humoured the guy, watching him click on topics willynilly, his green eyes scanning over words here and there. It mostly looked like it was the kind of site that would be full of edgy teenagers that were into vampires and werewolves and gargoyles. In fact Wally wouldn't have been surprised if this place were some sort of social hub for the edgy teen underground of Gotham.

"Oh, here's one of my favorite topics, the signs of a werewolf," Bart said, clicking and pointing to the list. "I'm thinking of pulling one off this Halloween," he added, laughing.

"Oh, come on," Wally groaned, but read the list off none-the-less. "Hairier than normal humans? 'Beastly' iris color when angry; whatever the hell that means! Mysteriously absent during the full moon? Sharp canines? Circle the bed several times before lying down to sleep? Bury bones in the back yard? Allergic to salt? Who wrote this crap?"

"Okay, so some of it's a little off the charts, but me? I personally think werewolves are from the future," Bart said sagely, nodding his head several times. He looked at Wally with a maniacal grin after that statement though, which gave Wally's incoming cardiac arrest cause for pause. It was good to know that Bart was still able to have a sense of humour about the asinine accusations. He thumbed through another forum and found a thread titled "Werewolf Sightings- share your accounts!" and the thing had well over fifty pages. "This one has videos!"

Wally sighed, glancing at his wrist watch. Fifteen minutes left of lunch; time to start shoving cheeseburgers down his throat while Bart showed him what would no doubt be grainy videos and blurred pictures. Dinner and show, at least.

Bart found the first video and clicked the play button. It was, of course, grainy, as if it had been shot from a dingy old cell phone. There was botched sound as the holder and his friends laughed loudly in front of an apartment complex Wally realized he had seen multiple times, because it was across the street from Bibbo's. The kids appeared to be mildly intoxicated, one of the guys even yelling across the street to harass a female on the other side. Then, suddenly, a loud scream could be heard from the distance, followed by what sounded like the deep, harsh growl of an animal. Every single one of the young adults stopped to look into the darkness of the slums. Another scream sounded, followed by glass breaking, then a second later something large and gray looking darted from one alley to another so quickly it was impossible to make out. It jolted the group into screams, and the video ended right as they turned to run in fear.

"It was a dog, probably set loose by a criminal," Wally reasoned through a mouthful of beef. "That explains the growling and screaming."

The video was followed by comments like "Wow!", "So totally a werewolf, look at the size of that thing!", "It was probably hunting for hearts, they always eat the hearts of their victims", and "Nice video skillz, dude, lrn 2 hold the camera rite, no wunder no one blieves us when tihs shit's all blured".

"Or maybe no one believes you because you're all psychotic?" Wally suggested sweetly as his cousin scrolled to the end of the first page and went to the next. There, he found a post full of blurry as hell pictures, just as Wally had anticipated. He was pretty damn positive some of the photos were of the guy's own dog in his backyard, still others looked photoshopped, and the last one was a mocked up computerized and shopped up photo of a girl on the street with a wolf head. Wally almost lost his lunch.

Page after page, another grainy video, some more blurred pictures. Wally had lost any sort of interest ages ago, but there was a picture on the tenth page that caught his interest. He tapped Bart's shoulder and told him to scroll back up for a second.

There was a picture of a dog. Well, it looked like a giant version of a huskie or some other wolf-like breed. As per requirement the photo was barely legible, but it was plain enough that it was a larger than average canine. It looked to be in the motion of moving it's head away from whoever took the photo, so little of it's face could be seen, but what captured Wally's attention was the obvious golden color of it's long fur. Even in the picture it stood out, vaguely reminding him of something.

The text below the photo was rather interesting, a far cry from the usual blathering accounts. It read, "This weird looking dog helped me find a hurt friend of mine about a week ago. It was the strangest thing, it just found me and started tugging on my shirt, I was pretty alarmed at first but then I realized it wanted me to follow it. It kind of stayed out of my reach the whole time, and I wanted a picture of it because it was just such a gorgeous looking wolf-dog as far as I could make out, but the damn thing kind of flitted in and out of building shadows. It took me to an alley near some old abandoned apartments and I found my friend there, needing some help (I'll keep the details to myself for security reasons; the slums are a dangerous place, you all understand). I couldn't believe some random animal just knew that I was the one to come get. Animals are amazing. Or, as it could be, werewolves are amazing. I guess this means they're not all vicious monsters like in the stories, hmm? Have a good evening, all."

Wally's brows furrowed as he observed the photo for several long moments. He was in a sort of trance when the screen went abruptly black, causing him to jolt back into reality. Bart was bending over, packing his tablet back up. Wally checked his watch, eyes widening.

"Shit, don't want to be late back to shift again!" he yelped, shoving the last of his burger into his mouth. "Nice talking to you Bart, stay out of trouble and stay off that crazy forum!" he said, packing up his own things. "I'm already losing Dick to the masses, I can't lose my own blood, too!"

Yet, that last picture and the story attached to it plagued the redhead's mind for the rest of his evening.

o.o.o.o

Dick:

Hey have you watched the news today?

That was the text that Wally found when he finally managed to yank his vibrating cell phone out of his pocket. He squinted at the text, covering the screen with his hand to try and block out the waning sun.

It was from Dick, of course; who else knew his schedule well enough to text him at the exact moment of his departure from the labs?

Wallman:

A little during lunch break. Why?

Wally shrugged his bag up higher onto his shoulder. He pressed his cell phone back into his pocket long enough to roll the sleeves of his shirt up the elbow, and sure enough by the time he'd situated himself and set off at a brisk pace for home he was receiving yet another vibration.

Dick:

That happened this morning. We've had two more victims reported since then. This whole thing is getting out of control.

Wally frowned. Two more murders? He had a very deep feeling that both of them had been animal related maulings as well. The redhead had almost forgotten what it was like to hear of a murder or accident that didn't involve something with teeth. In a morbid way it sort of made him miss the few murders over drugs and domestic issues that occasionally popped up back in Central.

Yeah, it was that bad.

Wallman:

Damn, rough day, huh?

Dick:

Pretty much. One of the victims survived, but they're in critical condition at the GCH.

Wallman:

That's great! Well, not the critical condition part, but maybe if they wake up they can finally put a stop to all these werewolf rumours!

Dick:

OR they could prove the rumours right and the police force can really get somewhere about it. Just a thought.

Wally groaned aloud.

It wasn't bad enough that Bart had bothered him with a werewolf website at work today, but now he was going to get into another argument about the impossible existence of the creatures with Dick again? It seemed here lately that at least once a week their text conversations consisted of the worn topic in some form or other.

Wally supposed it was rather inevitable when Dick was right in the center of it all; it was enough to drive most men to believe the werewolf rumour was true if only for an explanation to so many unresolved murders.

Not Wally West though. No way, no how. Men could not turn into beastial humanoid wolves, that just did not happen except for in novels and really, really awesome old movies.

Wallman:

How about we change the subject? Bart's already shoved werewolves down my throat today, the redhead typed.

Dick:

Fine. Have you had any more contact with Artemis?

That gave Wally pause. Right there in the middle of the busy Gotham sidewalk. He was nearly knocked onto the rough concrete by a very impatient man in a suit, then cussed out with the most colorful language he'd ever heard from a teenage girl who looked to be on her way home from some after school activity. Yeesh, kids these days had terrible mouths.

Wally muttered hasty apologies and scrambled to compose himself, blending himself into the homeward traffic once more. He read the text Dick had sent him again, and bit at his lip in uncertainty. He remembered how the man had reacted to the news of Artemis the very first time Wally had met her, how he had warned Wally to be cautious around her, that he shouldn't associate with her anymore and that if he did he should notify him about her.

Wally couldn't do that, he had no idea what Dick even planned to do about her; take her down the station and interrogate her for a crime he thought she might be involved in?

He could imagine how well that would go, considering how adamant the blonde had been to avoid even the ambulance.

Wally didn't care what Dick thought, it was pretty clear to him that Artemis was not a criminal, reserved as she might be about some things.

So what if he'd found her shot and bleeding in a Gotham slum… that didn't mean anything, she was probably an innocent victim; Dick should know that, he'd seen it again and again, innocent people gunned down in the street because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Wallman:

Uh, not as of yet, no.

Wally felt only minor guilt for the small lie. The redhead figured it was in Dick's best interest not to have his stress level skyrocket because his best friend was seeing the woman he thought might be involved in some sort of gang war or crime.

Dick:

You say that as if you're planning to.

"Shit," Wally breathed.

Wallman:

I so am not, how did you get that from a text confirming that I in fact have not seen Artemis a third time?

Dick:

A third time?!

Wally let out a frustrated groan and slammed his palm into his forehead to hard it hurt. How was it that his inability to properly filter his big mouth also bled into his written word?

Wallman:

Second. I meant second!

Dick:

Dude, you really need to work on your communication skills, Kid Flash.

Wallman:

My communication skills are in fine condition, Troll Wonder!

Back when they were attending college together they'd called each other by those names quite frequently. Dick had been, and still very much was, the world's biggest troll Wally had ever had the misfortune of becoming best pals with. He had always been hacking into school systems without getting caught, and dragging Wally unwillingly into trouble.

Wally on the other hand had procured his nickname from his more amazing and impressive attributes, like his star status as the fastest man to run for the Gotham University track team in over three decades. Then of course, as Dick always reminded him, the name also foretold of the redhead's tendency to blab excessively and get himself into trouble.

Kind of like he was doing right now.

Dick:

Are you with her right now? You were supposed to let me know if you saw her again, she could be involved with something for all either of us know.

Sometimes Wally really wanted to strangle his best pal. He supposed it came from years of living with Bruce, or just from being a cop, but the man had a great way of tending to jump straight to the worst (and unfortunately usually correct) conclusions.

Except in this case he was mostly wrong because Wally wasn't with anyone but angry people on the street.

Wallman:

No, I'm on my way home from work dude, einstein, what are you, my mom?

Dick:

No, but I am your best friend who happens to also be a po-po. I'm just looking out for you.

Wallman:

And I appreciate that, but I can look out for myself. Besides, Artemis isn't dangerous, she's just... a little reserved. And kind of hostile. And stubborn. But she's actually kind of cool if you choose the right topic; science for instance, and feeding her. That worked great.

Dick:

Oh no.

Wallman:

...what now?

Dick:

Hostile? Food and science appreciation? Aren't those last two very important qualities to the Wally West dating resumé? Are you trying to score, Wall-man?"

Wally's face flushed crimson; he could practically imagine the huge shit-eating grin spreading across Dick's face right at that exact moment. With Barbara probably hovering right over his shoulder, reading the text while both of them had a good laugh at his expense.

Wally furiously mashed a response back, nearly walking himself straight into a pole in his frustration. It was so totally none of Dick's business who Wally thought about getting himself romantically involved in, or what qualities he looked for!

Not that he was even thinking about Artemis that way. He barely even knew her!

Wallman:

NO! What!? That is so not... what!?

Dick:

Wally, I know you, we went to college together remember?

Wallman:

I remember you dated like twenty girls to my every one!

Dick:

That's not even relevant to this conversation.

Wallman:

And neither are the girls I dated in college, or the traits they may or may not have had!

Dick:

Fine, fine, just let me know when you show her your home lab, cause I'll really know you're in trouble then.

Wallman:

Uh…

Dick:

You didn't.

Wallman:

She likes science okay! And not just the textbook stuff from highschool, so I got excited and I showed her the lab. How is that a crime?

Dick:

It's not, but now I'm just hoping you haven't already given her a key to your apartment, too.

Wallman:

Yeah right, Dick, I just ran right out and had a key made for her! You caught me!

Better send the whole squad out here she's got a knife.

Oh god Dick she's advancing toward me.

Dick send the police stop eating donuts and get your shit together.

It's too late I'm dead, thought you'd like to know.

Alas, if only I had listened to my best bud's advice on love life *sigh*.

Dick:

...are you done?

Wallman:

Only if you are.

Dick:

Just get home already. And just promise you'll be careful around her at least, she's obviously been involved in something at the slums, innocent or not. I'd rather not see my best friend dragged into a world of gang violence.

Wallman:

Fair enough, Dick, I'll be careful. But I'm standing by what I said earlier, I don't think she's dangerous. I think maybe she just needs a friend. Or a pizza. No wait, I'm the one that needs a pizza. So I'll talk to you later, bro?

Dick:

Definitely.

With that, Wally snapped his phone shut and slipped it back into his pocket. His back was warm from the fading light and he was pretty sure he had stepped in a big wad of freshly spit gum. Yet he was feeling a little lighter as he walked down the last block and turned sharply into a pizza parlour for some well deserved dinner.

As Wally walked home with three piping hot boxes of freshly made pepperoni pizzas in tow, he couldn't help but ponder the text conversation.

On the one hand he was glad that Dick knew he had seen Artemis again and might possibly see her more (if she decided to grace him with her presence again, it was entirely on her), but on the other he felt embarrassed that the man automatically assumed he was going in for a score with her.

It wasn't like Wally hadn't noticed how very hot she was when she had been, you know, naked in his apartment that night, but that didn't mean he had the intention of getting to a point where he could jump her bones.

There was just something about her that intrigued him, and no matter how hard he tried he could not place his finger on it. He supposed it could just be part of the very bizarre way in which he'd met her; it wasn't really traditional to meet a girl by finding her nude and hurt out in the rain.

He still wondered what kind of woman got herself into a mess like that.

And hey, she likes science so who knows what else we might have in common, Wally reasoned with himself, munching away on a slice of pizza while he walked. A few passersby gave him looks when a big string of cheese remained attached to the crust and he moved his lips in the most comical ways to try and catch it before it could be lost to the sidewalk.

In his concentration to save the precious food, he nearly stepped on a woman's dog.

"Oh, shorry!" Wally yelped, cheese dangling against his chin. The woman looked affronted by his actions, and her dog barked roughly at the redhead causing him to skip back a step in surprise. He looked down at the animal, and nearly choked.

It was a golden furred huskie mix of some kind, easily the tips of it's pointed ears reached above Wally's belt buckle. It barked and gnashed its teeth one last time before the woman and her pet moved right along, leaving Wally with a mouthful of pizza and the memory of the blurred image of a startlingly golden furred wolf dog.

Wally stared blankly for some time where the dog and it's owner had disappeared into the throng, then shook his head, wiping the sauce from his chin with a backward swipe of his palm.

I need to get home, where logic prevails, he thought firmly, and picked up the pace.

o.o.o.o

When Wally West arrived at his home, he was carrying two empty pizza boxes and had to fumble for his keys with greasy fingers. His stomach was almost full and he had it in mind to either spend some time in his lab messing around with a few experiments he'd thought up, or else relax on the couch with his last box of cheese coated crust while he watched the Science Channel til bedtime.

No better way to spend the weekend, after all.

He pushed his door open after several curses from dropping the key. Upon shouldering it open the sound of soft speaking reached his ears, causing him to pause in the doorway and twist his head to the sound. The living room tv set was on a news station, which of fucking course was blabbing away about two mauling murder cases, no doubt the ones Dick had texted Wally about earlier.

And just when he was frowning to himself, trying to remember if he'd accidentally left the house with his TV still on, a very blonde something popped up over the back of the couch.

"Woah!" Wally cried, dropping his pizza boxes; for one heart-pounding moment he'd remembered the image of the blurry golden wolf and thought it was in his house.

Completely illogical of course, but his brain had been working at that particular mystery since Bart had showed it to him. He had wolves and dogs on the brain, much despite himself.

"Easy there, fire head," came a husky voice. It was Artemis Crock that was on his couch, her long blonde locks catching the waning light through his window in a very endearing way. He breathed a huge sigh of relief, mentally berating himself for panicking. Then he realized how out of place she was, and he looked around his apartment wildly.

"Artemis!? What… how did you get in my house?" he rasped. Einstein, he remembered vividly how Dick had teased him about giving her a key to his house, and that made him all the more concerned with her presence.

She rolled her eyes at him, standing up slowly. She jammed a thumb in the direction of a window in his living area, which held a fire escape outside of it.

"You left the window latch unlocked, calm down," Artemis said, smirking in amusement.

"Oh…" he said awkwardly. They looked at each other for a few seconds, before he cleared his throat and kneeled down to collect his thankfully spared third pizza box. "How long have you, uh, been waiting here?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, about an hour? I didn't know your schedule so I just dropped by and decided to wait."

"Oh," Wally said, smiling at her. His heart felt very light all of a sudden; Artemis had come back to his place for a third time. It seemed like a really good indication to him, that maybe she was interested in a friendship with him… or at least eating his food and talking about science with him. Wally wasn't really too picky about the details, he was just glad she was here again. "Well, if, uh, you keep coming here I might have to write that down for you. My schedule, that is."

"That would… be good," Artemis said, looking down at the ground. The redhead cleared his throat, popping the box open and showing her it's contents.

"Would you like a slice of pizza? It's kind of cold so… I wasn't gonna… eat it…" he trailed off, staring at the pieces left, his stomach gently reminding him that yeah, he still had a few spaces of empty air to fill up inside of his seemingly endless gut. Artemis obviously caught on to the reverent expression he was giving the food, and snorted a little.

"No thanks, I ate. How many boxes of those have you gone through?" she prodded, one hand on her hip while the other gestured to the two empty boxes still lying on the ground near the front door. Wally glanced at them with a sniff.

"Would you believe me if I lied and told you someone's dog ate my pizza?" he joked, making a noise of satisfaction as he bit into a lukewarm slice.

"I think in this town the only believable excuse would be a werewolf ate my pizza," Artemis responded. As soon as the sentence was out of her mouth, Wally nearly choked on his food with laughter, and the blonde went rigid in her body language, lips curling into a thin line as if she highly regretted making such a joke. Wally was confused by the reaction, but she unclenched her fists and let out an airy chuckle, swiping some of her hair over her shoulder. "Uh, sorry, that was…"

"That was hilarious, and so true," Wally interjected, his freckles spraying up with a smile. "Look, if there's one thing you need to know about me besides the food and the science, it's that this man doesn't do magic or mythical creatures except for in the classics, where they belong. So I'm not going to take offense at werewolf jokes."

Artemis locked her grey eyes on him, and the scientist felt as if he were being scanned for something very important. He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze for a moment, but then her features shifted into what he would've called a wry sort of smile.

"So you don't think it's werewolves?" she asked in a tone Wally couldn't describe; it seemed almost happy, among other things. Maybe she hated the werewolf talk as much as he did and she was excited to have another like minded human being in her existence.

"Of course not. Werewolves are a myth, a story. I think it's ludicrous that people are even considering it as a viable option for murder, it's pretty insulting if you ask me," he said, wiping sauce off on his pants. Artemis wrinkled her nose at that.

"Yeah, you're right," the blonde agreed, moving over to nab the second to last slice of pizza from the box. Wally frowned deeply at her, grabbing the last one quickly as though he expected her to snatch that away from him too. "How can people be so… gullible. Imagine all the people that have had family members killed and get told by the masses that werewolves did it?" Her voiced cracked marginally, and her gaze shifted to him, her irises darker than usual. "You haven't had anyone… you know? ...Have you?"

It took him a moment to realize what she was asking, and he hastily swallowed to answer. "No, no, thank einstein. It's just me here in Gotham, I guess I've just been lucky."

Artemis became quite tense. "Good, and if you stay away from the slums you'll keep it that way. Just… stay away from the slums." Her fists clenched by her sides, her face contorted mildly like she was internally battling with herself. Then she laughed. "I mean, it's just, look what happened to me, being out there like that. Do yourself a favor, fire head."

Wally finished the last slice and threw the box to the floor with the others. He stared at Artemis with his brows furrowed, wondering what on earth she could possibly know about the slums; the tone in her voice suggested to him that she was almost intimately familiar with the area. In fact, until now he hadn't thought of the possibility that she could live somewhere in the slums herself, or at the very least have a relative there that she visited often; or… something worse. He could see the tv still playing right behind Artemis's bicep, and the news was doing it's recap now, showing a video of a shaky camera filming a body lying on the ground with a cover over it and blood smeared into the concrete.

And there, in the crowd as the camera panned over the angry and sad yells about rabid dogs and werewolves and a police force that needed to have it's hand held on the murder matters, Wally was sure he caught a glimpse of a blonde haired woman at the forefront of the crowd, her face quite distraught as she stared at the grisly scene.

And then Wally felt his heart clench.

Artemis knew something. She knew something about the slums, about the violence there. Or… no. No he couldn't entertain the idea that Dick was right about her, that she was involved in something so heinous as murder. Wally had only spoken with Artemis a total of three times, but there was something in her eyes that just told him there was no way she'd ever be involved in that level of crime.

But what if… what if she had? What if Artemis was a good person that had been caught up in some kind of mess bigger than either of them? What if she was stuck somewhere she couldn't get out, and she was trying to keep him safe by warning him away from the slums? It would certainly explain why Wally had found her that night, side grazed from a bullet and her body left in the alley to expire and rot.

He swallowed thickly, and his words came out in a rush to her.

"Artemis, I just want to let you know that you're welcome here any time you want," he said, catching her attention where it seemed to have strayed to his vibrant red hair while he was silent and thinking. Her gray eyes snapped back to his, her expression turning to confusion.

"Really?" she asked, hesitantly. "I mean, I came here because I wanted…" she trailed off, scrunching her face up. Wally was reminded of how she had seemed to swallow her pride to thank him the morning she left; he got the feeling she was swallowing either pride or something else that prevented her from expressing feelings. She sighed and gave in, even giving him a tiny smile that extended to just one end of her full lip. "I wanted to tell you I enjoyed our conversation the other day. And I'm very interested in your lab. So I thought maybe we could be… friends."

The word sounded foreign on her lips. It made Wally feel sad for her, if she was as lonely as she sounded. For all he knew he was misreading and she had a large group of loving friends and family, just all caught up in the wrong things. But he wanted to provide her with something outside of strife and misconduct. If that was indeed what was going on here. Wally could only ever guess, at least for now; he had no illusion that Artemis Crock would tell him anything about where she came from and who she knew. He had guessed that much from how tedious their game of twenty questions had been.

But he was just fine with that, he could deal. Maybe science could be a bridge between them, and maybe, just maybe in baby steps he could unravel her story.

He smiled deeply at her.

"Of course we can be!" he said happily, trying to lighten the situation a bit. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone with some enthusiasm, flipping it open and navigating to new contacts. "If you don't mind, you could give me your cell number, that way we could have some contact with each other outside of you, uh, sneaking in through my window when I'm not home."

Artemis stared at the device, her eyebrows coming together.

"I don't have a cell phone," she said, crossing her arms beneath her chest.

"Who doesn't have a cell phone?" Wally squawked, indignantly. Seriously, he didn't know of anyone who didn't have a cell phone in this day and age. He looked wildly around his apartment, taking in the sight of precious technology and his various advanced science trophies and his degree on the wall, trying to assure himself he hadn't dropped into a time less advanced. He would never survive. Artemis caught his gaze and raised an eyebrow at him.

"People that have no need for one or can't afford one. Crazy, I know."

"Well… I'll get you kind that you buy at the store and activate, that should work," Wally said decisively. nodding.

"Mmm, I guess."

"Now, how about we grab some snacks and hang in the lab for a while? I know it sounds really weird but science relaxes me. I was just thinking on the way home it might be fun to test out some experimental ideas I have."

Artemis looked intrigued. "What kind of experiments?"

Wally grinned.