Off the Deep End

Crossing Wires

By the time Dick emerged from the bathroom, having cleaned out the gross-ness of his mouth, Artemis had set the sub on auto-pilot. He guessed that she'd probably sent word to Manta that they would be on their way to his sub, whether she'd told him why was another story. She was pacing back and forth in front of the stretcher Kaldur was lying on.

Once he walked down the hall she looked up, eyes still angry. However, everything else in her body language clearly portrayed her worry over Kaldur.

Dick took a deep breath and stood by the foot of the stretcher. He crossed his arms.

"I guess I'll get through your questions one at a time," Dick said, Artemis glared, "I left because of teenage angst, but also because my family history is a shit show. I went to the league of assassins because my dad used to work for Ra's-"

"wait, that's real?" Artemis frowned, "I thought that must have been a cover story," Artemis was staring with narrowed and confused eyes.

Dick shook his head, "it's real. Alex is also really my sister."

Artemis stuck her tongue out in disgust, "I hate her."

"hey," Dick defended, "don't be so judgmental."

Artemis wrinkled her nose, "she's full of herself, I met her when I was a kid."

"okay, yeah, well," Dick shrugged, "you do have a point."

Artemis snorted. Dick almost felt hopeful.

"look..." Dick sighed and pinched the bride of his nose, "it's kind hard to condense a six year apology into a couple minutes-"

"then I'll shorten it," Artemis said, "I don't care about the assassin shit, okay, it's bad but I'll interrogate you about it later," she grunted, "are you coming back?"

"I..." Dick hesitated, "I don't know if I can, I didn't leave on the best of terms. I didn't lie to Kaldur about working with you guys, though. The league wants out of the light and... I want out of the league," Dick sighed, "but I don't think I can go back to the team as if nothing happened."

Artemis sighed, "that is so typical."

"what?"

Artemis rolled her eyes, "Dick, as annoyingly fun and sarcastic as you could be when you were a kid you were also still a fucking bat kid." she poked him in the chest, "people can forgive and move on, you dummy."

Dick blinked, "I'm a professional assassin, I think that goes a bit further than forgiving and moving on."

"what do you think I was doing before Oliver took me in?" she dead panned.

"it's a bit different."

"how so?"

"you didn't have a choice, your dad made you," Dick frowned, "I had every chance at not being a horrible person and I threw in the towel just because my poor life was hard."

Artemis sighed, seemingly giving up on fixing everything with one conversation.

"okay," she rubbed her eyes, "everything that happened to Wally wasn't your fault, I'm sorry for saying that."

Dick blinked, "but it kinda is my fault."

"don't make me slap you again."

Dick sighed, "okay, look, Kaldur is mentally comatose and we have to tell his father about that at some point, so..." he held out a hand, "truce? At least until Kaldur's okay?"

Artemis shook her head with a smile, "you are ridiculous sometimes, boy wonder," she shook his hand regardless, pretending not to notice Dick's wince at the name.