Chapter 53

Rachel knocked on Barbara's door, it was late and she was dressed for bed,

"Come in" Barbara called, Rachel opened the door and stepped in, Barbara was wearing a pair of white panties and a white t-shirt with 'GCHS Gymnastics Team' printed in red faded letters,

"Is this a bad time?" Rachel asked,

"No, it's fine, just close the door" Barbara answered, "What's going on?" She asked, Rachel closed the door and stood awkwardly in silence for a second,

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you" She said quietly,

"You didn't have any obligation to tell me" Barbara knew that that would make Rachel feel feel worse, and for a second she had wanted that, but when she saw Rachel's eyes drop to the floor she wondered why she had ever wanted it, "I'm sorry, that was unnecessary, how about we sit down" She suggested, motioning to the bed.

Rachel took the invitation and sat on the edge of the mattress, Barbara sat beside her and took ahold of 1 of her hands,

"You never owe it to me, or anyone else to tell them about this kind of stuff, but I wish you had" Barbara said softly, "You know, I always wanted a little sister, I guess I saw you, and Kara, and Kori as the little sister I never got, I had hoped you'd all be comfortable confiding in me, I guess I pictured you bringing someone to the tower 1 day, maybe we'd embarrass you a little" She smiled at the thought,

"I wanted to tell you, but, there was so much happening at the time, and I didn't know what you'd think, especially not after Ruth, didn't react well" Rachel said,

"You told Ruth?" Barbara asked, clearly hurt,

"It just kinda came out, and I didn't really care what she thought at that point" Rachel explained, Barbara put a hand on her shoulder,

"I'm sorry about the way I reacted, there isn't anything wrong with the 2 of you dating" Rachel hugged Barbara tight,

"Thank you," She said.

"there is no problem with you 2 dating, but you're 15, so I better not catch you 2 having sex again, if I do, then the whole teams getting a sex education class, and neither of us want that" Rachel's face blushed deep red against her pale skin,

"Yeah, I don't think either of use really had any idea what we were doing anyway" She let a moment of silence pass between them before adding "I'm sorry I cursed at you this morning"
"Apology accepted, and I'm sorry too, you've worked just as hard as everyone else, it's not fair to have you work so hard only to sideline you because I'm insecure about my ability to protect you" Rachel was about to respond when Barbara's phone buzzed on her desk, near her laptop, she got up and walked to the desk and picked it up, she glanced at the screen and her brow furrowed,

"It's Artemis" She said, before answering the call, "Hello" She listened for a second, her face became even more confused,

"Who is this?" She asked, another couple seconds passed, "What happened? Who is this?"

Barbara began looking around, searching the room for something, she slid the phone between her shoulder and ear,

"Hand me my pants " She said, pointing to a pair of wadded up combat pants on the floor, Rachel scooped them up and handed them to Barbara, as she pulled a black t-shirt on,

"What's going on?" Rachel asked,

"I'm not sure, something's wrong with Artemis" Barbara answered, shaking a pair of underwear from the pants and pulling them on, "Hello" She said into the phone,

"Hello" She repeated "Shit" She pulled the phone from her ear and dropped it into a pocket after glancing at the screen, she pulled a leather jacket from the closet and put her hair up,

"Rachel, tell Dick to get dressed and follow me using the tracker on my bike" Rachel nodded, Barbara grabbed her keys and ran out the door.

Artemis stepped into the apartments living room, she took 2 steps in, she glanced briefly at Paula before her eyes fixed on Lawrence,

"Get out" She demanded,

"No, I'm here to deal with my daughter" He said, Artemis stepped closer, rage building behind her eyes,

"You don't get a say in what I do anymore" She said,

"I will always have a say, I'll always own you at least a little, and we both know why, or do you need reminding?" Lawrence closed the gap between them, he towered above her, Artemis flinched a little.

Artemis feigned a right punch, Lawrence threw his left hand up to block it but found only empty air, Artemis span out of the fake punch and ended up slightly behind him on his now unguarded right side, Lawrence realized what had happened and reacted by swinging his right arm back in a wide arch, but he was too late, Artemis used the momentum from her spin, leaping into the air and driving the toe of her left shoe into his side, his right arm continued towards her, but her kick had caused his weight to shift forward, meaning all Artemis would have had to do was take a single step back if she had been on standing, but she was still in the air, which meant she had to twist to avoid his arm, she barely caught herself as she fell to the floor.

The pain Artemis had caused Lawrence gave her enough time to scamper away, she moved quickly across the floor on her hands and knees, once she had made it a couple feet she pushed herself to her feet, she turned to face Lawrence, he had turned around as well and stared her down, a scowl on his face,

"I guess you do need a reminder" He said, reaching back he pulled out a baseball bat from its mount on his back,

"Stop" Paula yelled,

"It's way too late to start getting involved now" Artemis said, her eyes flickering to her mother for a second, Lawrence smirked and glanced back at her,

"Oh yeah, our kids love you" He mocked, Artemis took his moment of distraction to adjust her positioning, slowly stepping back and slightly left, knowing he would have already planned his strike before the distraction, so anything to make sure she wasn't exactly where he expected was an advantage.

She was right, he turned and charged across the room raising the bat above his head, Artemis held where she was until he swung the bat down towards her, she launched herself off her right foot, diving into the room to her left, she heard the bat splinter on the floor behind her, she landed hard on the fake wood floor, pain shot through her left shoulder and hip, she rolled out of the doorway, the room had a bare bed and a stack of cardboard boxes filled with her stuff.

Artemis pulled herself to her feet against the wall, Lawrence twisted through the doorway, the room was small, and Artemis was cornered, there were only 2 ways out of the room, a window next to the bed and the door, Lawrence lunged toward her, she tried to slid between him and the bed but he was prepared for this, his large right hand wrapped around her neck, he pulled back out of his charge and slammed her against the bed, she immediately tried pulling any of his fingers back, hoping to break 1, she wasted several seconds on this before realizing it was pointless, she was holding her breath but hadn't taken a breath before the hand had clamped her windpipe shut, so her lungs were already straining.

Artemis searched for something to use against him, spotted a knife sheathed on his belt, her fingers grasped the handle and pulled it out, Lawrence noticed immediately but was too late, Artemis slashed at his stomach, his grip loosened around her throat, she sucked in a breath, folded her legs up, and kicked out, Lawrence stumbled backward, Artemis lost a couple seconds as she caught her breath, her head span, she waited till her head had cleared a little, once it had she quickly stood up.

She was too late, Lawrence had already recovered and moved quickly toward her, 1 of his hands gripped her left shoulder tight, pain reignited from when it had hit the floor, his other hand went between her legs and lifted her off the floor, he tossed her into the window and it collapsed under her weight, her legs slammed into the frame as she flew through it, the rain had started back up and she was immediately soaked as she dropped through the air.

Artemis crashed down hard on the roof of the building next door, Oliver had chosen the apartment very carefully, he had ensured the exact floor and and side of the building to allow Artemis ease of access through her window, he had chosen the 13th floor because the roof next door was only 1 floor beneath, this choice had also stopped her from falling the other 12 floors to the concrete below, even so, nobody would have called the fall comfortable, pain rocketed through her body, her shoulders and butt had taken the main force of the impact, a second later it shot through the rest of her.

Artemis muscles screamed in protest as she tried to get up, she managed to get to her hands and knees but slipped on the slick roof, her right shoulder slammed into the wet cement causing her to cry out in pain,

"Look at you, this is embarrassing" Lawrence spat, Artemis hadn't even heard him approach, he continued, "Flopping on the ground like a barracuda on a baseball field" Artemis felt a adrenaline, she forced herself back into a standing position, her long blonde hair was matted down by the rain,

"Fuck you" She muttered through labored breaths and clenched teeth.

Lawrence cocked his head to 1 side and then the other, he pulled an extendable hockey stick out and flicked it too full extension, he span it in his hand a couple times as he stepped closer, he swung it over his head and brought it down, Artemis stumbled right, and was just able to get out of the way of the first strike, she heard the stick make contact with the roof with a (Clack) and knew in an instant that it wasn't loud enough, a second later her fear was confirmed when her feet were swept out from under her, she fell backwards right into the first hole of the fire escape, her back struck the rail on the next floor down, she bounced off it into the next hole, landing on the next floor landing.

Artemis eyes opened slowly, somehow she had ended up on the ground of the alley under the fire escape, though she didn't remember how, she heard Lawrence land somewhere around her with a loud splash, yet again she tried to push herself to her hands and knees, but was interrupted by a large, heavy shoe striking her stomach sending her sprawling on her back, before she could recover she was kicked again, and then again, she began spitting up blood, with each breath wads of blood went flying from her mouth, as the assault continued she rolled slowly to her side and began vomiting blood, and then, suddenly the attack stopped.

There was the sound of a struggle, muffled by the rain, Artemis was having a hard time keeping her eyes open, all sound began melding together, at some point she closed her eyes, letting the darkness wash over her, for a minute she felt relief from the pain, she didn't know how much time passed before she felt someone shaking her shoulders,

"Hey, stay with me" It wasn't a desperate plea, but a command, Artemis eyes flicked open, a new wave of pain hit her hard, her vision was blurry, but she knew exactly who was crotched next to her.

She was a young woman wearing a dark green Gi, her hands and feet were bound tightly with a black wrap, she was wearing a mask made of 2 parts, the top was a wooden mask half mask, painted white with ornate red circular patterns, it was carved to look like a cat, with ears and a protruding snout, and large eyes cut out, allowing a view of the almond shaped green eyes beneath, the lower half was a half face balaclava, with a wide grin printed on it, long black hair silhouette the face.

Artemis almost ignored her, she was ready to close her eyes and drift off, but the woman slid an arm under her and forced her up, first into a sitting position, and then to her feet, she half dragged Artemis out of the alley and down the street, with every step Artemis felt her stomach jolt, sending a wave of pain and nausea through her, eventually she was set down on a bench, the woman lightly slapped her face to keep her awake, she just groaned in response, and the woman started searching her pockets.

She found Artemis phone in 1 of her back pockets and pressed her thumb to the screen, she paused a second when the screen opened up and she saw a picture of the 2 from several years earlier, she began searching the contacts and found 1 of the most recently added ones and hit call, she put the phone to her ear and waited, eventually Batgirl answered,

"You need to get to Concord Road," The woman said, she listened before continuing, "She's injured, Artemis is" Another break,

"that doesn't matter, no more questions, just listen, Artemis will be sitting on a bench on the corner of Concord and J, don't bother trying to find the person who did it, he's long gone, her injuries are pretty bad, so hurry, she'll be alone when you get here, don't come looking for me either" With that she hung up the phone, she set it on the bench beside Artemis, and pressed an uncovered finger to her cheek, "You're getting pretty cold, I hope your friends get here fast" She stepped away before leaning in close to Artemis ear,

"Stop stepping in front of the firing squad, dumbass."