Luna

Chapter Two - Sickness

"You do this every weekend in the summer?" Tara asked as they started to walk up the hill with Artemis by her side. The older blonde shook her head before looking down at Brucely, who was on the leash connected to her wrist.

"Only once a year," Artemis answered, "On a good day summer's day." Every year, all of Wally's friends and family would go up to the cemetery and have a picnic. There was no better way to celebrate his life than to do what he loved best: Eat.

Tara didn't know Wally, but even the new members of the Outsider's were coming to celebrate. Plus, Tara wanted to be there for Artemis since she had always been there for her. And without Wally, none of them would be here. Even if she didn't know him, she was grateful for him.

Once they were up the hill they could see a crowd of people sitting and eating on blankets. Brucely immediately recognized the crowd and started to wag his tail and bark. Tara laughed at the happy dog.

"How about you take him and I'll catch up?" Artemis suggested as she slide the leash onto the younger girl's arm. Tara looked up at the older one and frowned. Artemis wasn't the one to 'catch up'. However, Tara didn't think much of it. Visiting someone's grave wasn't always a happy moment, so Tara just started walking up with Brucely.

It took awhile for Artemis to reach everyone. For some reason, she was walking much slower than average. And she was extremely exhausted, more so than usual. Moving fast would take too much energy out of her.

She reached Wally's parents first. They were seated next to Iris, Barry, the twins, and Bart. Jay was next to them, too. And Bart was distracted by a small golden retriever, who was rolling on his belly.

"Hi, guys," Artemis greeted everyone. Rudy and Mary looked up from their family and smiled when they saw her. Both of Wally's parents smiled when they saw her and stood up to hug her. Mary kissed her check before they both said hello.

They started to spark up small talk when the golden puppy walked up to her leg. He started to sniff her. He barked at her too, or at least tried. The blonde smiled before she bent down to pet the puppy.

"Hi, little man."

"His name's Physic, after Wally," Rudy chuckled when Physic started to chew on the archer's fingers. Artemis smiled again, but she felt her heart twinge a little bit. Even after she saw Wally in limbo, it still hurt a little bit to think about the fact that Wally was really gone. She knew that she wasn't ready to move on. She didn't think she could anytime soon. They had been together for five years. That was something the goddess couldn't forget.

Eventually Artemis went around saying hi to everyone. When it came time to eat, she was seated with Will, Lian, Tara, Violet, and Dick and Barbara. Brucely was spending time with Physic.

Dick was recalling times where Will, Wally, Kaldur, and him would goof off. In that moment, he was mimicking Will's voice and pretending to throw  a speedy hat onto the floor, just like how Will did eight years ago. Lian, who was seated in Artemis' lap, giggled with food in her mouth. Artemis frowned at the three year old and wiped her mouth with a napkin.

The archer scolded her niece, "Don't laugh with your mouth full, Lian."

Barbara noticed this and smiled, "Well, aren't you such a mom."

"I'm not a mo-

-Yes you are," Tara snorted. Violet giggled slightly as she took a bite out of a peanut butter jelly sandwich.

"Your children disagree, Mis'," Dick pitched in after he stopped making fun of Will.

"I have to agree, Artemis," Will added, "You don't have a un-maternal bone in your body."

"I think my knuckles aren't maternal in the slightest," Artemis slurred slightly. The slur wasn't strong, but she caught it and so did everyone else but Lian, who was happily snacking on gold fish.

Will furrowed her brows at his sister-in-law, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, you look a bit pale," Barbara pitched in.

"Yeah, I'm fine . . . I think. No, I am fine," She answered.

Soon enough, the conversations keep going. Dick and Barbara were asking the girls about school, and the girls were telling them about all the people the liked. In Tara's case, she was telling them about all the people she didn't like, which was understandable since American public high schools were something else.

Artemis seemed to be doing fine from the outside, but she felt as if she was going insane. She felt confused, almost fuzzy. And her head was pounding from all the smells of food floating around Wally's grave. It was as if she could smell every meal around her. All the scents made her want to puke.  Plus, her eyes felt fuzzy. Her vision wasn't as sharp as it should've been.

"Aunty Mouse, you're falling on me," Lian complained. The blonde hadn't realized, but she was slowly falling on top of her niece. The blonde tried to mutter an apology, but she was too tired. Besides all the other things going, on she was very tired.

Will reached over to grab Lian and Dick leaned over the blanket to catch Artemis. She fell against his shoulder, but she was still awake.

"Artemis, are you okay?" The acrobat asked.

She slurred, "I'm tired. I'm fine," Artemis tired to push herself up, but that's when her eyes close and she fell unconscious. Dick caught her again and Will and Tara leaned over to help. It wasn't soon after that her body started to jolt, then relax, then jolt again.

"She's having a seizure."

A/N: Cliffhanger! Oops.