There's No I in Team!

The Final Truth-AU ending

For TripThreat's 'birthday'.
Happy 'birthday', and thanks for everything. You said you wanted to know my version of how Artemis told her friends and teammates about her family. I hope this is good enough!

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All was well. Their trust shared between them all was frayed and streached, and it would take time to heal, but... they had forgiven her. Connor gave her a large smile and told her 'don't ever do that again.' and Robin jumped on her back in a weird kind of hug, Kaldur rested his long fingered hand on her shoulder and Zatanna wrapped her arms around her along with M'gaan. Wally waited a moment before pulling her into a short, warm hug too.

She grinned into his shoulder, but a small part of her mind repeated what she had said.

No more secrets...

With a sigh, she pulled back.

"There's one more thing I haven't told you guys. About my family..."

Artemis paused again, revelling in the sweet bliss of ignorance. She could laugh, tell a joke, brush it off or just lie and say 'nothing'. But she knew better. Her mind flew back to Halloween. Harm and his sister, Greta.

Secrets don't stay buried.

Zatanna's voice rolled in her mind, her voice ghostly in Artemis's memory. Her own voice rang over the magician's.

Take a deep breath. It's not like you're telling your only friends a secret that could destroy your friendship o anything. Deep breath. Calm. Now, tell them the truth.

"I- my family, they're... complicated." Artemis turned away from her friends confused faces to pull up a screen. On it were pictures, pictures of her dad, her mom, her sister. Records, birth certificates, aliases, video footage, photos, everything.

"My mother, Paula Crock, was the assassin Huntress. After she was rendered paraplegic and spending a six years in jail, she retired from the assasin game and looked after me, a replacement for my pathetic excuse for a father."
Artemis paused for breath and chanced a glance at he teammates. Their expressions... she looked back to the screen and steeled herself to continue. Her hands shook as she swiped her mom's information to the side and brought up her father's.

"My father, Lawrence Crock, AKA Sportsmaster. Not much to say on him that you don't already know. He raised me to be the perfect little killer, virtully torturing me and Jade in an effort to be better, more efficient.

"That brings me to my sister, Jade, AKA Cheshire." A sharp intake of breath came from M'gaan. Artemis closed her eyes to stop the tears from spilling over. Her voice was raspy and uneven as she tried not to sob. You could hear a pin drop in the room, yet she plowed on, her voice steadying with a deep, calming breath.

"My sister left me with Lawrence after my mom got locked in prison. She became Cheshire and worked for the League of Shadows. She threatened to reveal to you that my family were -are- crimminals on my first mission, that's why I let her go. I couldn't -still can't- imagine how badly that would go down.

" I'm sorry. This was a really big secret, and you had the right to know. I felt like we should get it all out in the open. I did promise, no more secrets. That's why Sportsmaster was trying to recruit me again, and-"

Artemis's words were lost in a flurry of red hair and green skin. For a second, the archer thought M'gaan had attacked her and she tensed but quickly realised the Martian was... hugging her??

"Artemis, we don't care. Besides...we kind of already knew."

"What?!"

Robin stepped forward, slightly shamefaced, but not guilty.

"Batman and Green Arrow knew before they recruited you. Naturally, I hacked into Batman's security to get more info on you. The others, well. Kaldur?"
The Atlantean stepped forward.

"Connor, Red Arrow and I had our suspicians. The signs were all there, we just had to decipher them. We did not tell M'gaan and Zatanna due to certain... events," the problem with the mole, Artemis thought.

" ...and therefore they were only made aware a few weeks ago. We are sorry, but we were not sure how to put it to you." Kaldur expained, his calm voice soothing Artemis's frayed nerves.

"Wow. So I had secret, and you guys knew, but I didn't know you knew so I thought you didn't know, but the whole time you were clever little detectives and knew everything all along." Artemis marveled.

"Yeah... when you put it like that it sounds a lot more confusing than it actually was." M'gaan giggled. A comfortable silence filled the air.

"Group hug?" Zatanna asked, tone deadly serious but a grin spread across her face. Everyone laughed and grabbed each other in a happy, messy bundle of love and limbs. Artemis couldn't stop smiling, especially when Wally gave her a light peck on the cheek.

"Doesn't change anything between us." he breathed into her ear. Over his shoulder, M'gaan and Connor were kissing.

Suddenly reckless, she pulled him off of her shoulder and planted a big, sloppy kiss on his mouth. Their first kiss together. She smiled against his lips -their teammates catcalls (Robin) and 'awws' (Zatanna and M'gaan) and uncomfortable silences and shuffling (Connor and Kaldur) faded into the background and only one thought ran through her mind. The words that she could never previously apply to her life, but now, surrounded with her friends, all her secrets gone and kissing the boy she might possibly love, it fitted exactly.

Perfect.

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Ok. So cheesy, not very clever and VERY short, but c'mon... Spitfire! I hope you like it, and happy 'birthday'!!