Always Traught Part II

How She Found the Light

Her world felt empty. And emptiness was lonely. No matter how many times M'gann called or Brucely tried to get her out of bed, it was this ever lasting feeling of nothing. The loneliness was numb. The numbness was darkness. And there was a point where she couldn't cry anymore. No tears would come out. No sobbed could escape.

She couldn't even fall apart anymore.

Her light was extinguished. Wally was gone. There was no one to hold her. There was no one to make sure she was okay. There wasn't even someone to read all the textbooks left in their shelves. No one was there to wear his clothes, create his smell, and produce his warmth. And there was no one to be the son to a set of grieving parents. No one to be a nephew to pair of mourning aunts and uncles. No one to be a friend to someone who needed it.

No one.

It was empty.

She was empty and alone. Now one was there for her. At least she thought so. It seemed so. But that was until Nightwing knocked on her door.

She hadn't seen him for months. She hadn't seen anyone but her mother in months, actually. M'gann, Raquel, and Zatanna had tried to come see her, but they never showed up. Why? Artemis didn't ask. By then Artemis had only expected the darkness. She was too numb to care. She was too numb to care when Nightwing showed up uninvited, too.

"What do you want?" The blonde snapped at the much taller man. He was starting to hold himself like Batman, she noticed. It freaked her out a little bit. She decided it was the brooding nature that made them look alike.

"I wanted to talk with you, Mai," Nightwing used the nickname he had given her five years ago. Artemis shrugged before she moved to let him in. He sat next to Brucely, who was sleeping on the couch. The dogs tail usually wagged when he saw visitors, but not any longer. He had changed, just like Artemis had. Maybe he was numb too.

Artemis scratched at her bed head, "Talk, Nightwing. It's three in morning and I have classes at eight. Also, you look fucking stupid with that mask on. You didn't bother to put on the sunglasses?"

"I want you to sit down," Nightwing patted down on next to him. The blonde didn't bother to question him. She sat down and grabbed the throw pillow that was in the corner. She cuddled it and waited for him to speak. He started with, "I'm not doing this to make you mad, Artemis. I never hid this to make you mad, either. But I think that's it time to tell you-

-Unless you're pregnant with my baby, I don't give a shit, Nightwing. Spit it out so I can go back to sleep," Artemis interrupted him.

"Take my mask off."

If she had cared, she would have questioned why he wanted to share his ID with her. Surely it broke some sort of bat-brat code. Plus, the timing was ridiculous. But instead of asking him why, she ripped off his domino mask like a bandaid.

She was met with two blue eyes. They were the same eyes she had seen during the circus mission. This time they practically had tears in them. But that's not what she paid attention to. The eyes were familiar and not only from the circus mission. Then again, Nightwing had always been familiar for some reason.

Her grey eyes moved down to his jaw, then to his lips, ears, nose, and almost every feature of his face. Then it clicked instantly, almost like a breath of relief.

"Dick," She whispered as she looked back into his two blue orbs. He smiled a teary smile at her.

"We'll laugh about this someday."

Artemis had know idea what happened, or why, but seeing his eyes made the world not so lonely anymore.

Dick continued to make her world not so lonely. They started to hang out a lot more. They would go out for coffee or other activities. He would go to her surf completions, which was something she had stopped when Wally died. He helped rebuild her friendships within the team, too. Dick helped her be human again. Within a year of Wally's death, life didn't quite feel like a dark cage anymore. In two years, he had helped her be a hero again and find her own place.

In five, Dick had been her light. He was there. Artemis felt joy every time he looked at her and every time she looked at him. And she couldn't envision a life without him. A life without him was darkness. A life without him was numb.

Artemis figured this out while at the circus. She had took him to see a local Haly show for his birthday. She had been saying up all her money for it. Dick insisted that she didn't need to, but Artemis insisted otherwise. He was her lifeline. She needed to do something special for him. But she didn't see the light until it was time for the trapeze act. Dick was clutching onto her hand and looking at the acrobats in amazement. Artemis already knew he was envisioning his family flying through the sky.

Artemis watched the acrobats every once in awhile, but she was mostly watching Dick. In the moment, she knew this is where she needed to be. She needed to be by his side. And the spark in his eye was childlike, it made her heart ache in the best possible way. He looked beautiful.

"I love you," She uttered without even thinking. Dick hadn't picked up on what she had said, but he had heard her talk.

"What did you say? I couldn't hear you," He smiled at her. Artemis' heart ached when she looked down at his lips then back into his sparkling eyes.

"I love you," She said a bit louder. The blonde gulped hard when he didn't say anything. But he didn't need to say anything. He kissed her lips for a few seconds. It shocked her so much she could even kiss back. Her heart was certainly mush now.

"I love you too, Artemis Crock."

They started to date after that day. Holding hands, hugging, kissing, and just loving someone so rawly felt brand new. It was something she hadn't felt in half a decade.

Dick and Artemis were both happy, but people were happier for them. When they announced their relationship, M'gann and Zatanna tackled Artemis to ground and yapped about how happy they were for her. The boys expressed their own excitement. In fact, Conner's verbal reaction was, "Okay, so when are you going to give me a niece?" It took everyone back.

"What? I want a niece," The clone shrugged.

Artemis and Dick bursted out laughing and held each other up.

This was light. This was feeling.

A/N: In honor of being #2 in Traught. :D Thank you guys so much! And thank you for still showing love on both parts of the Always Traught collection. Sometimes I feel like I kinda left my Traught readers in the dirt, but I appreciate everyone of you.

It's three in the morning. I'm too lazy to edit this. Hopefully it isn't so bad to read. I'll fix it soon.

Plus, this was going to be way over 2000 thousand words but I'm TIRED.