How Can We

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

"Oliver, I need your help."

"That's always a sentence I want to hear first thing in the morning." Oliver responded sipping his coffee. "Shoot, Artemis." She ignored that bad pun and moved forward with her agenda.

"What do you know about Roy?" She asked him.

"Roy, as in my assistant coach?" Artemis nodded. "He's a hell of an archer, I can tell you that." Artemis tried To hold back a sigh, he wasn't giving her anything. It wasn't a secret that he was good at archery. Half of the school's trophies were from him anyway.

"Do you have anything more than that?"

"What exactly are you asking me?" Ollie questioned setting down his cup. He had an eyebrow raised curiously, but he and Artemis knew exactly what she was asking. She thought she was being quite clear.

Still, she decided to humor him. "Do you know anything about his personal life?"

"Not much, I try not to get sucked up in the drama of your personal lives. It helped that Roy mostly keeps to himself. The only thing I know for sure is that he had a girlfriend, but I never met her. He didn't really mention her by name."

"I need to know where he lives."

"I can't give out that information. It's confidential and he is an employee here." Oliver denied her request.

"An employee who hasn't been here for a week? Do you even know when he's going to be back?" She's been trying to track that little red-headed weasel for a week with no luck. Everyday she just hopes that he would be at work so she could rip into him for answers.

She deserved answers.

"Roy has been avoiding me too Artemis. He sent me an email saying he was going to be out this whole week. I'm not sure when he'll be back, but he has accumulated a lot of vacation days." Artemis resisted the urge to punch the wall in frustration.

"Can you try contacting him?"

"I've tried Artemis I tried, he doesn't respond." Oliver pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Please I need to talk to him Ollie, it's urgent." She couldn't keep the desperation out of her voice. Oliver could sense her slight hysteria.

He sighed. "Fine, but you have to be discrete. I can get fired for this."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She did something that surprised both of them. She reached over and hugged him. He patted her shoulder in response.

"Wait, before I give it to you, I want to know what you are going to use it for." He said as soon as they pulled apart.

Artemis tried to come up with a quick lie on the top of her head, but stopped herself almost immediately. With the help he was giving her, Oliver deserved the truth, just not now. "I want to tell you soon enough. It'll just take me too long to explain now."

"I expect an explanation first thing tomorrow morning." Oliver wrote down the address on a piece of paper and held it up as a hostage.

"First thing tomorrow." She agreed, eager to get the little slip of paper. He lowered it gently onto her palm.

"Good luck Artemis."

*******

Artemis' first instincts told her to find Wally. She was too caught up in getting the address to realize what implications that had.

He was busy talking to Betty when she grabbed him by the back of his shirt and dragged him away. Wally sent an apology over his shoulder but didn't fight the blonde dragging him away.

"I found Roy." She couldn't contain it any longer.

"How?" Wally asked amazed, looking at the piece of paper in her hand. His eyes quickly scanned over the paper as her eyes observed him.

"Ollie, I promised to tell him what I needed it for because today I'm going to confront him after school. I would want to skip but the school would immediately tell my mom and I'm still in some hot water with her." She had no idea why she was explaining herself much. She didn't need to give an explanation.

"What are you going to do when he opens the door?"

"Ask him all the questions that have been etched in my mind. I'll tell him I won't leave until I get the answers I need." She felt confident with her plan, and felt she was determined enough to not let him get away with anything.

"There's one situation you've overlooked." Wally began prompting Artemis to cross her arms over her chest. "What are you going to do if he lives with Jade?"

"That's a risk I'm willing to take. It's been days, weeks since I first started to look for her. I'm in dire need of answers and I will stop at nothing to get what I deserve!" Artemis waited too long for a moment just like this. She was ready for someone to own up to their decisions.

"I'll go with you then, for emotional support."

"That's unnecessary." She replied, trying to deny that fact that she needed him. She's gotten pretty good at suppressing her feelings.

"It's settled, we'll go after school." Wally smiled at her. "We'll even take my bike, I can tell you've been dying to get back on it." He joked trying to lighten the mood. She appreciated the effort.

She rolled her eyes at him, with a hint of a smile on her face.

*******

Artemis spent the rest of her day looking forward to confronting Roy. She came up with a bunch of scenarios in her head, complete with dialogue on both sides. That was how she got through her classes for the day.

She met with Wally and hopped on the back of his bike. One of these days, she was going to be the one driving.

She yelled the directions out loud for him to follow since their voices were muffled from the helmets. The address Oliver gave her was to an moderapte apartment building, just on the outskirts of the Narrows. She hoped this was it, she wasn't in the mood for any surprises.

Artemis couldn't help but notice that it was relatively close to her own apartment, a little over 20 minutes away. If Jade was there, she would have been so close.

Artemis walked in through the main entrance to the apartment number listed on the paper. Apartment 2B.

She became more unnerved and less confident with each passing second. The one thing that gave her comfort was knowing that Wally was behind her. He gave her an encouraging nod, and with a deep sigh she knocked on the door.

Out of all the possibilities she could have foreseen, facing Roy with a small toddler in his arms completely threw her off guard.

A/N: Sorry for the long delay, I've been super busy. I can only do another chapter this week because I have a big presentation on Thursday that I need to prepare for. Next week I am going to have a bit more time and I am going to do 3 updates next week. 

Now let's get to the actual chapter. What did you guys think about the chapter, more specifically the cliff hanger ending? I don't really like leaving things off at a cliff hanger but the next chapter will pick up where this one let off. 

Don't forget to vote, comment and share this story! Let's try to get to 100 votes, we are almost there :))