Young Justice: My Own Worst Enemy Pt. 2
Title: My Own Worst Enemy Pt. 2
Author: Reyn
Rating: T
Pairing: Artemis/Wally
Universe: originally written during the first half of season one
Word Count: 2840
Warnings: I took some liberties with Wally since the only reference I had at the time was Impulse.
My Own Worst Enemy - Pt. 2
Wally’s eyes were fluttering as he tried to open them. At least, Artemis thought he was trying to open his eyes until she realized he was vibrating as well. What the hell? Was he going into shock or something?
“You’re making it a little hard for me to breathe…Please get off of me.”
“Wally!” Rather than obeying the request, Artemis leaned heavily against him as she brought her face closer to his. A sharp hiss of discomfort had her backing off moments later. “Wally, listen, stay with me, okay? You’ve been shot, but help is on the way. So just-” She wiped away a stray tear, “-just hang in there.”
An arm was brought up and weakly pushed at the jacket bunched up on his chest. “I’m fine.” When Artemis gave absolutely no indication of believing him, Wally drew in a deep breath and repeated himself. “I’m fine.”
Dark eyes narrowed in suspicion at the strength in Wally’s voice. “What do you mean you’re fine? You’ve been shot in the chest, you idiot. Even if a lung isn’t collapsing, a major artery might have been hit and you could be bleeding to death!”
Much to Artemis’ shock, Wally brought himself up on his elbows and successfully batted her away. “Geez, you really don’t believe in sugarcoating the truth, do you?” he asked as he pulled off his goggles.
“W-what?”
Peeling away the jacket that had been acting as a compressor, Wally grimaced at the squelching noise it made as it separated from his shirt. Artemis was pretty sure her heart stopped beating at the amount of blood that was soaked into all the clothing. Eyes trailing up to Wally’s face, she noticed that while he was pale, he wasn’t exactly deathly pale. That was a good sign, right?
Her worry and confusion must have been apparent because suddenly Wally was looking guilty and his hands were reaching out in a reassuring gesture. “I promise I’m okay! See? Look.” He fumbled around for the bullet hole in his shirt before deciding to just take the whole thing off. “Ta-da!”
Artemis’ eyes silently scanned the runner’s torso. She frowned as she realized Wally was flexing his muscles in a feeble attempt to impress her, but didn’t bother calling him out on it. She was too busy noticing how, despite the drying patches of blood stains, Wally was unmarred.
No, that was impossible. She leaned closer, focusing this time on the skin and not the contour of muscles. Within seconds, she spotted it - an angry, circular scar on Wally’s chest, far too close to where his heart was located for comfort.
“You’re fine…” As she continued to stare, the scar’s coloring faded from an infected red to a bright pink.
“Er, surprise,” Wally offered lamely, moving back slightly as Artemis brought her face even closer.
“You’re fine.”
“Yes?”
“You’re fine?!” Snapping out of her shock, Artemis roughly pinched Wally’s thigh.
“Ow! What the hell was that for?”
“You’re fine!”
Wally fully sat up so he could yell back in Artemis’ face. “Yes! We’ve been over this! Why is it an issue?”
“Why are you fine?” Artemis demanded. “You should be lying there dying as I pray for both the ambulance and the Justice League to show up in time to save your sorry ass!”
Wally blinked. “You’re a fan of romance novels, aren’t you?”
A second sharp pinch to his leg had him scrambling away.
“I shed a tear over you!” Artemis snarled.
“Okay! Okay! I’m sorry!” Wally howled over the sirens that could be heard approaching in the distance. “My high metabolism makes for a fast recovery time. I figured you knew!”
Artemis could feel her cheeks heating as the knowledge sunk in. “You just figured I knew? Why would I know something like that?” Aside from it being common sense considering what Wally was.
“Be…cause Green Arrow tends to tell his sidekicks everything?” Wally’s eyes suddenly narrowed in suspicion. “Unless that was just with Speedy. Are you sure you’re Green Arrow’s sidekick-niece?”
Rather than answer, Artemis dropped her forehead to the speedster’s shoulder. “You’re really okay?”
The tension immediately drained from Wally and he loosely wrapped his arms around the girl to comfort her. “Sorry I scared you. But, yes, I’m fine. Aside from the blood loss, anyways. I should probably eat something…” he trailed off as Artemis brought her head up to glare at him. “What? Oh no, don’t tell me you lost the food.”
“Ugh!” Artemis smacked him a few more times for good measure before getting to her feet. “For the record, if the groceries aren’t where I dropped them, I’m not sorry.”
“You dropped the groceries?!” Wally rolled around to stand, grabbing his bloodied clothes in the process. “What were you thinking? Blood loss is serious! I could still die!”
“I was thinking about you, dumbass!” Artemis waited long enough for a police car to screech by before storming across the street, muttering to herself about idiot heroes with hero complexes who do stupid heroic things.
Wally wanted to speed after her, but the arrival of several more police cars convinced him to stick to a normal pace as he looked both ways before jogging after her. He made it about halfway across the street before a sharp pang in his chest caused his pace to falter. When the pain continued to pulse, he placed a hand over it and slowed himself down even further to a lethargic walk. Whatever was going on couldn’t be good.
By the time he caught up to Artemis, the girl had already finished sifting through the bags - thank God they were still there - and had several choices of snacks in her hand.
“There’s your Pringles, granola bars, nuts, a bag of - Wally?”
Wincing at the sudden concern in her tone, Wally tried not to imagine whatever look she was seeing on his face as he met her eyes. “I should probably sit down.”
A part of him wept as the food was dropped to the ground so Artemis could help direct him to the edge of the planter.
“What happened? What is it? You said you were fine! Why aren’t you fine?”
Wally allowed his hand to be pried away from his chest as Artemis rechecked him for damage. The pain seemed to be throbbing in time with his heart, so he shut his eyes, took a deep breath and willed his body to calm down as he tried to figure out what was wrong.
The conclusion he came to sucked.
“Wally?”
Green eyes snapped open as he felt a cool hand cup his cheek. He stared at Artemis for a moment before trying to straighten, immediately aborting the movement when the sting shot straight to his back. Resting his elbows on his legs, he tried to think of the best way to explain things to her without freaking her out.
“I might have healed around the bullet,” he began.
“Might have?”
“Okay, I did heal around the bullet.” He took another calming breath to stop himself from growing any more defensive. “Judging from the entry wound, I’d say it almost hit my heart.”
“Almost?”
“Almost, did, I don’t know!” He flinched and brought his hand back to his chest, using his fingers to massage against the pain. “Point is, wherever it’s lodged, my heart isn’t agreeing with it. And if it’s as close as I think it is, it’s probably agitating the muscle with each heartbeat.”
“Or piercing it.”
Wally frowned. “I don’t know if I would go that far…” He trailed off as he noticed Artemis staring at his chest and looked down.
Dropping his hand, he blinked in surprise as he noticed a dark bruise slowly spreading from the pink scar of the entry wound.
“Well, crap.”
+
According to the tale-tell ‘whoosh’ of a cape, Superman was the first to arrive on the scene. Opening his eyes and staring at an old gum stain on the sidewalk, Wally did his best to focus on the man’s words as he continued his slow, measured breathing.
“Shouldn’t he be lying down?”
“With all due respect, sir, that would draw attention and we’re currently trying to avoid the authorities.”
Wally snickered. Artemis called Superman ‘sir’. What a noob.
“How is he?”
Wally wanted to answer that question for himself, but was stuck closing his eyes and gritting his teeth as his chest began protesting once more.
“Hey, Kid.”
A breeze followed the soft greeting and Wally opened his eyes before his uncle’s gloved hand could touch his chin. The relief that flooded through him was nearly tangible. Flash was here. Everything would be alright.
“Don’t worry, kiddo," Flash reassured as he kneeled before Wally. "We’re getting you back to base and J'onn will be performing a little close-heart surgery.”
Hair plastered to his forehead, Wally allowed himself to rest on Flash’s shoulder as he let out a groan. “Uncle Barry, there’s no such thing as close-” his breath hitched as a fresh wave of pain swept through him.
Flash’s hand immediately went up to the back of his nephew’s neck, carding his fingers through the red hair in a soothing manner. “There is now. Besides,” he added lightly, “I figured I’d make up the term this time around and beat your BFF to the punch.”
Wally groaned again, this time for a different reason. “We’re dudes, Uncle Barry. We don’t say ‘BFF’s.”
“No?” The slightly crestfallen look on the Flash’s face left Artemis torn between rolling her eyes in exasperation and giggling with a slight bout of hysteria. “Man, and I thought I was on top of all the hip slang…”
“Robin and I are b-bros..” Wally managed through a shuddering breath as he struggled not to curl up in himself. “F-for li-ife.”
“So…BFL?”
Artemis winced on Wally’s behalf. “Don’t abbreviate it,” she pleaded, squinting her eyes as dust and debris was kicked up in a slight whirlwind, announcing the arrival of an airship.
“Looks like your ride is here,” Superman announced, placing a hand on Flash’s shoulder.
Artemis watched as Flash scooped up Wally with ease and stood so that he could pass the boy off to Superman. No reassuring words or final goodbyes were exchanged as the Man of Steel took off, flying Wally up into the ship before it turned and headed for the coastline, leaving Artemis alone with the Flash.
“He’ll…be okay, right?”
The small, worried frown on Flash’s face was quick to disappear as he looked away from the airship and down at Wally’s teammate. “Of course! The kid willingly created and survived a close-ranged explosion a few years back. It’ll take more than a bullet to the heart to stop him now.”
Looking down at the ground, Artemis bit her lip. He had taken that bullet to the heart for her, meaning she could easily be dead right now.
A sob was stifled as she suddenly found her face mashed into a very hard chest. Turning her head to the side so she could breathe, she returned the hug in full and allowed herself to be comforted by an equally worried uncle.
If Wally died because of her, she was going to kill him.
+
Wally was being stared at by a very large, multi-colored teddy bear. Now if that wasn't the most disturbing thing to wake up to…
Blinking the sleep from his eyes, Wally propped himself up on his elbow, only to let out a soft hiss at the twinge in chest, causing him to roll onto his back and wince at the ceiling. Okay, so whatever he had done was not something he wanted to do again. He was…there was a fight with Robin…and…food shopping…Artemis was there…looking beautiful, but that had to be wrong, because he was usually too annoyed with her to bother noticing what she looked like…and ringing…the robbery…bullets…Wally's eyes widened. Holy shit, he had been shot!
His hand flew up to his upper torso, where all he could feel was heavy bandaging beneath his fingertips. He frowned, wondering if he should be worried that he couldn't actually feel his chest.
Looking back to the side, he stared at the teddy bear that was accompanying him. Blinking, his field of vision widened and he noticed the brightly-colored array of flowers, cards, food baskets, and other get well gifts piled up on the long table sitting beside his bed. Jesus, just how close had he been to dying?
"Hey."
Wally's head whipped around at the familiar voice and he scrambled for a moment to try and sit up before giving up and simply collapsing back on his pillow.
"I could get up if I wanted to. I just don't feel like it right now."
"I'm sure you could, Wall-man." Artemis straightened from her position leaning against the door frame and headed into the room, adjusting the gift bag that was slung over her shoulder. "How are you feeling?"
"I can't actually feel anything, which is a pretty big improvement from earlier." He sent the girl a large grin. "Considering my current location, I'm going to assume it's a good thing."
"You're such an idiot. Do you have any idea how close you came to dying?" Despite the harsh words, Artemis' voice was soft as she propped her hip against Wally's bed, careful to avoid the various tubes and IV drips that were hanging over the side.
"No closer than you almost did." The heavy silence quickly grew to be too much for Wally and he averted his eyes. "Can you pass me a food basket?"
There was a soft rustling as Artemis set her bag down on the far corner of the bed to free up both hands. "Which one?"
Wally shrugged and figured it was high time to try that sitting up thing again. "I don't know. Whichever looks easiest to get into and requires the least amount of prep time."
When a basket failed to appear in his lap within three seconds, Wally considered pointing out that most fruit fell under his qualifications. Instead, he settled for drumming his fingers against his stomach.
"So…is Rob still mad at me? Considering the fact I almost died, I'm surprised he wasn't sleeping by my bed, tear tracks down his face, hoping and praying I'd wake up all so he could get the chance to - oof!"
"You're unbelievable, you know that?" Artemis snarled, holding the basket down against Wally a bit harder than necessary. "God, every time I-" Abruptly letting go, she balled her hands into fists and glared at him before visibly forcing herself to relax. "For your information, he's been inconsolable this whole time. Batman even refused to let him in here when they were done with the surgery because he was in hysterics. Had to give him a tranquilizer and carry him off to his room to sleep it off."
Food basket completely forgotten, Wally stared at Artemis in open-mouthed shock, even as a smirk spread over her features.
"Just kidding, he told me to tell you that as I was on my way up here." She leaned forward to help unwrap the basket.
"Wait. You mean you were lying?"
"It's called a joke, Wally. Something you're usually pretty quick to catch onto." Artemis sent him an almost pitying look as she peeled open a banana and handed it to him. "Obviously you're still extremely out of it if you're not finding it funny."
Wally frowned at the banana in hand. "So…Robin isn't crying over me?"
Rolling her eyes, Artemis straightened and reached for the bag at the corner of the bed. "I'm taking that as my cue to go. Here." She set the gift beside him. "Get better soon and all that jazz."
After taking a large bite of the banana, Wally craned his neck to the side and peered into the bag. "What is it?" he asked thickly, making quick work of the fruit.
Walking backwards towards the door, Artemis waited until Wally's hands were free to reach inside the bag and pull out its contents. "One of my bath towels."
Wally's jaw dropped for a second time and as he turned his head to stare at Artemis, a look of almost unholy glee entered his eyes.
"But if anyone asks, I'm telling them you stole it, so don't you dare go getting any ideas!"
Wally shook head in silent agreement as he brought the pale pink towel to his face and inhaled deeply. It smelled of lightly scented dryer sheets. Oh, it was heaven.
When he looked back at Artemis, she seemed mildly disturbed. "For the record, I share a bathroom with my mom."
Wally was quite sure he could feel heaven shattering all around him. "And there go all my good feelings," he lamented sadly, dropping the towel into his lap as Artemis left the room cackling.
He sent an amused glance towards the doorway as he reached for a pear, deciding maybe the female archer wasn't so bad after all.
THE END
Author: Reyn
Rating: T
Pairing: Artemis/Wally
Universe: originally written during the first half of season one
Word Count: 2840
Warnings: I took some liberties with Wally since the only reference I had at the time was Impulse.
My Own Worst Enemy - Pt. 2
Wally’s eyes were fluttering as he tried to open them. At least, Artemis thought he was trying to open his eyes until she realized he was vibrating as well. What the hell? Was he going into shock or something?
“You’re making it a little hard for me to breathe…Please get off of me.”
“Wally!” Rather than obeying the request, Artemis leaned heavily against him as she brought her face closer to his. A sharp hiss of discomfort had her backing off moments later. “Wally, listen, stay with me, okay? You’ve been shot, but help is on the way. So just-” She wiped away a stray tear, “-just hang in there.”
An arm was brought up and weakly pushed at the jacket bunched up on his chest. “I’m fine.” When Artemis gave absolutely no indication of believing him, Wally drew in a deep breath and repeated himself. “I’m fine.”
Dark eyes narrowed in suspicion at the strength in Wally’s voice. “What do you mean you’re fine? You’ve been shot in the chest, you idiot. Even if a lung isn’t collapsing, a major artery might have been hit and you could be bleeding to death!”
Much to Artemis’ shock, Wally brought himself up on his elbows and successfully batted her away. “Geez, you really don’t believe in sugarcoating the truth, do you?” he asked as he pulled off his goggles.
“W-what?”
Peeling away the jacket that had been acting as a compressor, Wally grimaced at the squelching noise it made as it separated from his shirt. Artemis was pretty sure her heart stopped beating at the amount of blood that was soaked into all the clothing. Eyes trailing up to Wally’s face, she noticed that while he was pale, he wasn’t exactly deathly pale. That was a good sign, right?
Her worry and confusion must have been apparent because suddenly Wally was looking guilty and his hands were reaching out in a reassuring gesture. “I promise I’m okay! See? Look.” He fumbled around for the bullet hole in his shirt before deciding to just take the whole thing off. “Ta-da!”
Artemis’ eyes silently scanned the runner’s torso. She frowned as she realized Wally was flexing his muscles in a feeble attempt to impress her, but didn’t bother calling him out on it. She was too busy noticing how, despite the drying patches of blood stains, Wally was unmarred.
No, that was impossible. She leaned closer, focusing this time on the skin and not the contour of muscles. Within seconds, she spotted it - an angry, circular scar on Wally’s chest, far too close to where his heart was located for comfort.
“You’re fine…” As she continued to stare, the scar’s coloring faded from an infected red to a bright pink.
“Er, surprise,” Wally offered lamely, moving back slightly as Artemis brought her face even closer.
“You’re fine.”
“Yes?”
“You’re fine?!” Snapping out of her shock, Artemis roughly pinched Wally’s thigh.
“Ow! What the hell was that for?”
“You’re fine!”
Wally fully sat up so he could yell back in Artemis’ face. “Yes! We’ve been over this! Why is it an issue?”
“Why are you fine?” Artemis demanded. “You should be lying there dying as I pray for both the ambulance and the Justice League to show up in time to save your sorry ass!”
Wally blinked. “You’re a fan of romance novels, aren’t you?”
A second sharp pinch to his leg had him scrambling away.
“I shed a tear over you!” Artemis snarled.
“Okay! Okay! I’m sorry!” Wally howled over the sirens that could be heard approaching in the distance. “My high metabolism makes for a fast recovery time. I figured you knew!”
Artemis could feel her cheeks heating as the knowledge sunk in. “You just figured I knew? Why would I know something like that?” Aside from it being common sense considering what Wally was.
“Be…cause Green Arrow tends to tell his sidekicks everything?” Wally’s eyes suddenly narrowed in suspicion. “Unless that was just with Speedy. Are you sure you’re Green Arrow’s sidekick-niece?”
Rather than answer, Artemis dropped her forehead to the speedster’s shoulder. “You’re really okay?”
The tension immediately drained from Wally and he loosely wrapped his arms around the girl to comfort her. “Sorry I scared you. But, yes, I’m fine. Aside from the blood loss, anyways. I should probably eat something…” he trailed off as Artemis brought her head up to glare at him. “What? Oh no, don’t tell me you lost the food.”
“Ugh!” Artemis smacked him a few more times for good measure before getting to her feet. “For the record, if the groceries aren’t where I dropped them, I’m not sorry.”
“You dropped the groceries?!” Wally rolled around to stand, grabbing his bloodied clothes in the process. “What were you thinking? Blood loss is serious! I could still die!”
“I was thinking about you, dumbass!” Artemis waited long enough for a police car to screech by before storming across the street, muttering to herself about idiot heroes with hero complexes who do stupid heroic things.
Wally wanted to speed after her, but the arrival of several more police cars convinced him to stick to a normal pace as he looked both ways before jogging after her. He made it about halfway across the street before a sharp pang in his chest caused his pace to falter. When the pain continued to pulse, he placed a hand over it and slowed himself down even further to a lethargic walk. Whatever was going on couldn’t be good.
By the time he caught up to Artemis, the girl had already finished sifting through the bags - thank God they were still there - and had several choices of snacks in her hand.
“There’s your Pringles, granola bars, nuts, a bag of - Wally?”
Wincing at the sudden concern in her tone, Wally tried not to imagine whatever look she was seeing on his face as he met her eyes. “I should probably sit down.”
A part of him wept as the food was dropped to the ground so Artemis could help direct him to the edge of the planter.
“What happened? What is it? You said you were fine! Why aren’t you fine?”
Wally allowed his hand to be pried away from his chest as Artemis rechecked him for damage. The pain seemed to be throbbing in time with his heart, so he shut his eyes, took a deep breath and willed his body to calm down as he tried to figure out what was wrong.
The conclusion he came to sucked.
“Wally?”
Green eyes snapped open as he felt a cool hand cup his cheek. He stared at Artemis for a moment before trying to straighten, immediately aborting the movement when the sting shot straight to his back. Resting his elbows on his legs, he tried to think of the best way to explain things to her without freaking her out.
“I might have healed around the bullet,” he began.
“Might have?”
“Okay, I did heal around the bullet.” He took another calming breath to stop himself from growing any more defensive. “Judging from the entry wound, I’d say it almost hit my heart.”
“Almost?”
“Almost, did, I don’t know!” He flinched and brought his hand back to his chest, using his fingers to massage against the pain. “Point is, wherever it’s lodged, my heart isn’t agreeing with it. And if it’s as close as I think it is, it’s probably agitating the muscle with each heartbeat.”
“Or piercing it.”
Wally frowned. “I don’t know if I would go that far…” He trailed off as he noticed Artemis staring at his chest and looked down.
Dropping his hand, he blinked in surprise as he noticed a dark bruise slowly spreading from the pink scar of the entry wound.
“Well, crap.”
+
According to the tale-tell ‘whoosh’ of a cape, Superman was the first to arrive on the scene. Opening his eyes and staring at an old gum stain on the sidewalk, Wally did his best to focus on the man’s words as he continued his slow, measured breathing.
“Shouldn’t he be lying down?”
“With all due respect, sir, that would draw attention and we’re currently trying to avoid the authorities.”
Wally snickered. Artemis called Superman ‘sir’. What a noob.
“How is he?”
Wally wanted to answer that question for himself, but was stuck closing his eyes and gritting his teeth as his chest began protesting once more.
“Hey, Kid.”
A breeze followed the soft greeting and Wally opened his eyes before his uncle’s gloved hand could touch his chin. The relief that flooded through him was nearly tangible. Flash was here. Everything would be alright.
“Don’t worry, kiddo," Flash reassured as he kneeled before Wally. "We’re getting you back to base and J'onn will be performing a little close-heart surgery.”
Hair plastered to his forehead, Wally allowed himself to rest on Flash’s shoulder as he let out a groan. “Uncle Barry, there’s no such thing as close-” his breath hitched as a fresh wave of pain swept through him.
Flash’s hand immediately went up to the back of his nephew’s neck, carding his fingers through the red hair in a soothing manner. “There is now. Besides,” he added lightly, “I figured I’d make up the term this time around and beat your BFF to the punch.”
Wally groaned again, this time for a different reason. “We’re dudes, Uncle Barry. We don’t say ‘BFF’s.”
“No?” The slightly crestfallen look on the Flash’s face left Artemis torn between rolling her eyes in exasperation and giggling with a slight bout of hysteria. “Man, and I thought I was on top of all the hip slang…”
“Robin and I are b-bros..” Wally managed through a shuddering breath as he struggled not to curl up in himself. “F-for li-ife.”
“So…BFL?”
Artemis winced on Wally’s behalf. “Don’t abbreviate it,” she pleaded, squinting her eyes as dust and debris was kicked up in a slight whirlwind, announcing the arrival of an airship.
“Looks like your ride is here,” Superman announced, placing a hand on Flash’s shoulder.
Artemis watched as Flash scooped up Wally with ease and stood so that he could pass the boy off to Superman. No reassuring words or final goodbyes were exchanged as the Man of Steel took off, flying Wally up into the ship before it turned and headed for the coastline, leaving Artemis alone with the Flash.
“He’ll…be okay, right?”
The small, worried frown on Flash’s face was quick to disappear as he looked away from the airship and down at Wally’s teammate. “Of course! The kid willingly created and survived a close-ranged explosion a few years back. It’ll take more than a bullet to the heart to stop him now.”
Looking down at the ground, Artemis bit her lip. He had taken that bullet to the heart for her, meaning she could easily be dead right now.
A sob was stifled as she suddenly found her face mashed into a very hard chest. Turning her head to the side so she could breathe, she returned the hug in full and allowed herself to be comforted by an equally worried uncle.
If Wally died because of her, she was going to kill him.
+
Wally was being stared at by a very large, multi-colored teddy bear. Now if that wasn't the most disturbing thing to wake up to…
Blinking the sleep from his eyes, Wally propped himself up on his elbow, only to let out a soft hiss at the twinge in chest, causing him to roll onto his back and wince at the ceiling. Okay, so whatever he had done was not something he wanted to do again. He was…there was a fight with Robin…and…food shopping…Artemis was there…looking beautiful, but that had to be wrong, because he was usually too annoyed with her to bother noticing what she looked like…and ringing…the robbery…bullets…Wally's eyes widened. Holy shit, he had been shot!
His hand flew up to his upper torso, where all he could feel was heavy bandaging beneath his fingertips. He frowned, wondering if he should be worried that he couldn't actually feel his chest.
Looking back to the side, he stared at the teddy bear that was accompanying him. Blinking, his field of vision widened and he noticed the brightly-colored array of flowers, cards, food baskets, and other get well gifts piled up on the long table sitting beside his bed. Jesus, just how close had he been to dying?
"Hey."
Wally's head whipped around at the familiar voice and he scrambled for a moment to try and sit up before giving up and simply collapsing back on his pillow.
"I could get up if I wanted to. I just don't feel like it right now."
"I'm sure you could, Wall-man." Artemis straightened from her position leaning against the door frame and headed into the room, adjusting the gift bag that was slung over her shoulder. "How are you feeling?"
"I can't actually feel anything, which is a pretty big improvement from earlier." He sent the girl a large grin. "Considering my current location, I'm going to assume it's a good thing."
"You're such an idiot. Do you have any idea how close you came to dying?" Despite the harsh words, Artemis' voice was soft as she propped her hip against Wally's bed, careful to avoid the various tubes and IV drips that were hanging over the side.
"No closer than you almost did." The heavy silence quickly grew to be too much for Wally and he averted his eyes. "Can you pass me a food basket?"
There was a soft rustling as Artemis set her bag down on the far corner of the bed to free up both hands. "Which one?"
Wally shrugged and figured it was high time to try that sitting up thing again. "I don't know. Whichever looks easiest to get into and requires the least amount of prep time."
When a basket failed to appear in his lap within three seconds, Wally considered pointing out that most fruit fell under his qualifications. Instead, he settled for drumming his fingers against his stomach.
"So…is Rob still mad at me? Considering the fact I almost died, I'm surprised he wasn't sleeping by my bed, tear tracks down his face, hoping and praying I'd wake up all so he could get the chance to - oof!"
"You're unbelievable, you know that?" Artemis snarled, holding the basket down against Wally a bit harder than necessary. "God, every time I-" Abruptly letting go, she balled her hands into fists and glared at him before visibly forcing herself to relax. "For your information, he's been inconsolable this whole time. Batman even refused to let him in here when they were done with the surgery because he was in hysterics. Had to give him a tranquilizer and carry him off to his room to sleep it off."
Food basket completely forgotten, Wally stared at Artemis in open-mouthed shock, even as a smirk spread over her features.
"Just kidding, he told me to tell you that as I was on my way up here." She leaned forward to help unwrap the basket.
"Wait. You mean you were lying?"
"It's called a joke, Wally. Something you're usually pretty quick to catch onto." Artemis sent him an almost pitying look as she peeled open a banana and handed it to him. "Obviously you're still extremely out of it if you're not finding it funny."
Wally frowned at the banana in hand. "So…Robin isn't crying over me?"
Rolling her eyes, Artemis straightened and reached for the bag at the corner of the bed. "I'm taking that as my cue to go. Here." She set the gift beside him. "Get better soon and all that jazz."
After taking a large bite of the banana, Wally craned his neck to the side and peered into the bag. "What is it?" he asked thickly, making quick work of the fruit.
Walking backwards towards the door, Artemis waited until Wally's hands were free to reach inside the bag and pull out its contents. "One of my bath towels."
Wally's jaw dropped for a second time and as he turned his head to stare at Artemis, a look of almost unholy glee entered his eyes.
"But if anyone asks, I'm telling them you stole it, so don't you dare go getting any ideas!"
Wally shook head in silent agreement as he brought the pale pink towel to his face and inhaled deeply. It smelled of lightly scented dryer sheets. Oh, it was heaven.
When he looked back at Artemis, she seemed mildly disturbed. "For the record, I share a bathroom with my mom."
Wally was quite sure he could feel heaven shattering all around him. "And there go all my good feelings," he lamented sadly, dropping the towel into his lap as Artemis left the room cackling.
He sent an amused glance towards the doorway as he reached for a pear, deciding maybe the female archer wasn't so bad after all.
THE END