-Requested by For3sight . Artemis angst.-

"So, you know Arrow well?"

"More than I wish I did," the Lantern replied.

"Same," Artemis groaned. A couple of the leaguers had stopped by the watchtower on business, Ollie being one of them, and obviously he'd brought his sidekick since they'd been following a lead. "He's such a dad! I mean he even falls asleep with the TV on and the remote on his stomach so no one can change the channel!"

"Clearly you see a side of him many don't," Hal joked. "But watch it, princess, he's not your average washed up rich guy, he can be scary."

Artemis felt as though she'd been shot backwards out of her body, the hairs on her arms prickling erect and her spine arching slightly as she stood, stiff as a board, staring at the man.

"What?"

"I was just saying, Arrow isn't exactly--"

"Fuck you."

"Artemis?!" Her mentor exclaimed, snapping out of his conversation with Hawkman.

"Fuck you!" she spat, lunging into the man's space and shoving him back into his chair. "Don't call me princess."

Green Arrow darted forwards, grabbing Artemis around the middle and literally hauling her off. "What's gotten into you?!"

"That BASTARD called me princess!"

"Okay, it was a joke!" Hal said defensively.

"You have no right to be calling me that!" She shouted. "Fuck you!"

"ARTEMIS!" Oliver grabbed her around the arm. "That's it, go home."

"What?! No!"

"Yes, these people are your coworkers-- your higherups-- and if you can't act polite and professional with them--"

"Fuck do you know about polite and professional Mr.-sent-nudes-to-the-wrong-woman-coworker!" She ripped her arm free and stormed towards the zeta. "But fine! hell if I care!"

And with that the teen made a spectacularly confusing exit.

"Oh my god," Hal said, "Who did you send nudes to?"

Artemis staved off the tears the best she could as she walked home. She didn't have time to get changed, and would normally feel uncomfortable walking around Gotham in her costume, but she was too fired up to care.

'Don't cry, princess, only weak girls cry.'

She wiped her nose on the back of her hand.

'Come on princess, harder, you want to hurt them!'

Her father's words echoed around each chasm of her skull, reverberating louder and louder.

"Fancy seeing you here." She heard his voice, but she didn't stop walking, a technique she'd originally developed to avoid cat callers. "Uh, Bats wants to know if you're here on business." She still kept walking, but so did he, and soon Robin jogged past and overtook her. "Hey, what's up?" He asked gently, reading her distress.

"Just leave me alone."

"Okay... do you want an escort home?"

"No."

"Okay..." Robin trailed off. "Well, see you on Monday."

"See ya." She muttered, turning down a shortcut, and leaving the boy wonder on the sidewalk.

Her mom was home, but Artemis didn't have the energy to acknowledge her. She knew she'd get a lecture for blasting music at night and tuning out her mother,but she honestly couldn't handle it right now.

So she pumped up the indie rock and tried not to feel.

She wasn't successful, and soon she finally lost the battle; hot tears streaking down her temples as she lay on her back, staring at where the glow-in-the-dark stars used to sit; they'd been removed years ago, but still there were little star-shaped blotches of paler landlord white that showed where they'd once been.

She blinked slowly, tears flowing steadily now. Suddenly her body convulsed with a sob, then another, then another, she tried to stuff them down and muffle the sound, but that just added violent, teary hiccups into the equation.

She heard her mother calling through the door, asking i she was okay, but she ignored her.

'Come, princess, don't cry. Daddy's taken care of them.'

Was that memory real?

She'd forgotten. How could she have forgotten? The memory was crystal clear now; crying about something to her parents, her father bending down to her height where she sat on the rug and saying those words.

Did he really...

She shuddered at the implications.

'We Are the good guys, princess.' he'd said as the four-year-old helped him load boxes of 'leftovers' from the second freezer to the car. 'When people do things they shouldn't, people let us know, and then we fix it.'

Artemis felt suddenly as though her hands were foreign, stained and corrupted. She stared down in horror at her scarred palms and calloused fingers.

She'd done it, hadn't she?

Suddenly it was as if her entire childhood was crumbling for a second time.

Yes. The freezer where he hid popsicles from the kids did get really full with bags and boxes occasionally, and it did get cleaned a lot.

She could remember crawling out of her crib and finding her mother, dressed in lacy underwear, and a dressing gown, scrubbing what she claimed was red paint out of the bathtub.

Artemis felt sick. She'd always known, but she hadn't really known. She'd been so young, at such an age your view of life and death is so simplistic.

Still, she was as guilty as the rest of them, even if she didn't know it at the time. She'd eaten food that had been stored with bodies, she'd handled them, she'd witnessed everything and done nothing. She'd been groomed to join the family business, and try as she might, that kind of indoctrination would never fully leave her.

'You're part of the family, Princess'

She sobbed harder, losing her last stings of strength to keep it in.

That's what she was. She was a killer, born and bred, and try as she might to fix herself, she would always be tainted by her past.

'Latest edition to the family!'

She was shocked by the words that broke through the drone of her father's voice. Who had said that? The voice was familiar, but eluded her. It was one of the team, shortly after she'd joined-- before she and Wally made their peace, and before they'd all become super close-- someone had said that. Someone had referred to her as that.

Her breathing slowed, only interrupted by the occasional hiccup.

Yeah, had that been M'gann? Or was it Robin? Someone had welcomed her to the team by calling her the 'latest edition to the family'.

Who had it been?

Suddenly there was a knock, but unlike her mother's knocking, this was quite gentle-- and came from the window.

Hesitantly, face reddened and lips cracked, Artemis rolled out of bed, and swayed under the rhythm of the music as she crossed to the window.

On the fire escape outside her window sat a plastic grocery bag. A note on top read 'get well soon', a little doodle of Robin in the lower right hand corner.

 Hesitantly, she peaked inside, revealing a pack of Choccos and a box of tampons.

She smiled slightly. He'd missed the mark, but he appreciated it anyways.

Artemis fell back onto her bed, turned the music down slightly, and tore into the Choccos.