Spitfire/Hospitalized AU

Disclaimer: I own nothing, just an urge to write this. No hate, please.

Prologue

"Do you have anything to add?" The judge asked.

"I believe Miss Crock would benefit from Master Wayne's school for troubled youth and since Miss Crock has no guardian, Master when would like to adopt her into his care." 'So, I'm being spent off to a asylum? The kid version.' Artemis tuned out the rest of the judge and Mr. Pennyworth's conversation, seeing as they only need her as a visual aid. The judge seemed to have decided on what he was doing with her.

"Artemis Crock will go to Mr. Wayne's institution." So this was the beginning of Artemis's long car drive to the outer city where there was nothing but a road and fields and a large building where Artemis would be staying at.

Chapter 1

"Hi, Artemis, I'm Dinah Lance, your shrink." The woman was pretty, frustratingly pretty. Long blonde hair, nice figure, amazing blue/black eyes. She wore a yellow pencil skirt, a white blouse, and black blazer and ankle boots. "You can call me Dinah."

"Okay, Dinah..?" Artemis said awkwardly which was completely out of character. Normally, she would have said some sarcastic comment.

"I'll introduce you to the other kids." They walked to the end of a hallway and Dinah opened the door to seven other teenagers 13 to 17. (Roy is younger than he would actually be, because once he hits 18, he's out of there so it's better for the story if he's 17). There were two boys in a corner, talking to each other and being cute, a little past platonic friendship, seeing as the redhead had his hand on the definitely bleached blond's upper thigh. (His skin is too dark for a color that light to be natural)

"Hi!" A cheery voice belonging to an equally cheerful voice said excitedly. "I'm Megan Morse, what's your name?" The girl had auburn hair, big brown eyes, porcelain skin, and her clothes were a darker, but sorta lighter subtle pink. It was nice actually, even though Artemis would probably kill someone before she wore it.

"Artemis Crock," she said shaking the girl's hand.

"Artemis, I assume you can acquit yourself with others well enough, I have to go." Dinah disappeared. Artemis considered running after her screaming "NO!! DON'T LEAVE ME!! I DON'T KNOW YOU, BUT I CERTAINLY TRUST YOU MORE THAN THAT REDHEAD IN THE CORNER!!" A raven haired girl with cerulean blue eyes walked up to Megan and Artemis with a raven haired boy with beautiful blue eyes.

"Hi, I'm Zatanna Zatara and this is Richard Grayson, though we all call him Dick or Robin."

"The two inter tangled in the corner," Dick said. "Is Kaldur," he pointed to the bleach blond boy. "And Roy," he said shifting his finger to point at the redhead.

"Wally West, at your service, beautiful," another red headed boy said, he wasn't there a second ago, Artemis knew that for sure. His emerald green eyes never faltered from hers as he shook her hand.

"Artemis."

"Okay," he grinned. "Ya hungry, beautiful?" He asked, he poked her rib which was more visual than she would have liked in the snug Tee. "When was the last time you ate?" He said jokingly, Artemis shrugged. She lived on the street, you ate when there's food and there hadn't been for a few or more days.

"There's a brunch bar over there, then there's the actually lunch table over there. Whoever cooks makes great avocado sandwiches."

"I think it's some guy called RT," Zatanna said.

"That's sort of a stupid name," Roy said now in front of the group. Kaldur hung behind him.

"Yeah, but it tastes good so who cares?" Says Wally speeding back with a plate fill of fries, sandwiches, bbq chicken wings, a hamburger, strawberries, an orange, and a few apple slices.

"That's a lot of meat," Artemis muttered as Zatanna sort of gently shoved her into a chair. A few months back Artemis would have rejected what they were doing but right now, all she wanted was to greedily devour all the food on that plate. When she finished that plate-which was by the way delicious-Wally brought her another. "Oh God, I'm gonna throw up," she murmurs staring down at her third sandwich now half uneaten.

"Here, I'll show you the girls bathroom," Zatanna said, walking with the blonde girl to make sure she didn't fall over which was likely because of her wobbling knees. "So, why are you here?"

"Vertigo," Artemis said in a small voice.

"That crap is horrible, didn't it disappear a couple years back?"

"Not if you know how to find it," Artemis whispered clutching her stomach, Zatanna opened a door and Artemis ran inside, opening a stall and vomiting into the toilet. She was grateful her hairband hadn't broken since it was the only thing keeping her hair from being even dirtier.

"Are you okay?" Zatanna asked.

"Yeah fine," Artemis wheezed out.

"I know how you feel, it's a little better now, but a while back I couldn't eat anything without throwing it back up, it's annoying when you're trying to appear as if you've got everything under control but you end up hurling your insides out." Artemis fell on her butt when she finally let go of the toilet seat. Zatanna handed her a paper towel, she wiped the vomit off her mouth before thanking the other girl.

"I forgot the last time I ate anything half that big," Artemis said.

"It gets better, I know they feed you that crap line, but it does, eventually."

"I just hope sooner rather than later."

"Artemis..do you have anything to wear besides that?"

"I have a Batman T-shirt and a pair of shorts," Artemis shrugged.

"When was the last time you took a real shower?"

"Yesterday, at a police station."

"How long have you been on your own?"

"I don't know why I'm answering these questions," Artemis said, almost to herself. "A year, a year in a couple of weeks. Do you mind helping me find my room?"

"Yeah, I'll walk you to it, should be next to mine, there's a door conjoining three room where we sleep. It's so that if anything bad happens, someone knows and we can help." Zatanna giggled. "Roy and Kaldur don't even use the doors anymore." She stopped in front of a green door. "Alfred said it seemed more your color," she opens the door and Artemis almost gaped at the sheer size of it (not that it was by normal definition big, but because her last room had been less than half this size)

"There's a lot of unneeded space," Artemis said awkwardly.

"Yeah, Dinah said we can go shopping tomorrow, for you of course. Just, she thinks it's better for Megan and I to be there because we rarely leave the building if you don't count our P.E. that's not really required, but is taught all the same. You can borrow some clothes, you look about my size. Also, there's shampoo and conditioner in the showers, it's not great, but it does it's job, I'm rambling again. I'll see you later tonight. Oh crap, next door's my room, don't teach the magicians outfit." Artemis nodded, Zatanna turned to leave.

"Zatanna?"

"Yeah?" She said turning around.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome." She did leave then and Artemis opened the door connected to Zatanna's room. She pulled the wardrobe open. Artemis grabbed out a plain black Tee on top of the dresser, it was beaten and had definitely been washed more than Artemis cared to count. She found a pair of shorts too which she would have wore but her legs were too hodgepodged to wear so she put them back and took a pair of gray sweats instead. She scurried to the bathroom and opened a shower stall. Artemis stripped herself of the nearly destroyed clothes and sneakers then turned on the water. The steam was instant and so was the feeling of a slight happiness. Now where was this shampoo Zatanna had been talking about?