CHAPTER 17
Long way

After a hard battle that she nearly lost, Artemis all covered in blood and with a sai in her back, is making her way to a place where she and Rose were spending a day off, where they could not think about all killers they see every day. The blonde ex-archer started to feel weaker, she could feel she was losing lots of blood. In fact, she was impressed that she was able to walk for so long. Before she sat, Artemis had made a fire so Rose and Peter could see a smoke and come help her.

"It's not far from a village, I hope Rose will know what do to..."

"I can't believe we left her all ALONE!" Peter yelled.

He and Rose were in a small village, far from Nanda Parbat. It was 24 hours since their escape. Rose was calm but Peter couldn't stop talking about how stupid they were, leaving Artemis all by herself to fight some of the world's greatest assassins.

"Parker! If you won't shut that mouth of yours I'm going to kill you!"

"How can I shut up when my girlfriend that I once lost is probably dying or already dead!"

Rose took few deep breaths to calm down.

"Peter, I'm sure that Artemis isn't 'dying' or 'dead already', she's probably near our location so, SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY!"

"How can she be near our location?!"

"We were visiting this village every second Sunday, to get away from, all of this..."

Peter was quiet. He has known that Rose and Artemis are close but he never knew about them going out to get away from Nysa.

"I'm sorry Rose, I just... She's my soulmate, I can't image my life without her."

"It's funny you know,"

"What's funny?" Peter asked a little bit angry.

"She was saying the same thing about you. Once I asked if she was thinking about her future..."

"What did she say?"

Rose looked at Peter. She saw a smoke coming from a little forest near the village.

"Let's ask her, shall we?" She said and started to run towards the forest.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Peter cried and followed Rose.

"Come on Parker! It one good hour ahead running!"

"We don't have a time for this!"

Peter took off his backpack and grab his old web shooters. He put them on and grabbed Rose by her waist.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Trying to get us there faster!"

Peter jumped and shot his web at the nearest tree to swing himself and rose to Artemis' location.

"I think I'm gonna throw up..." Rose said with a hand on her mouth.

"Hey! Don't aim at me!"

Artemis was losing conscious, she used all strength she had to rip a piece of her shirt and wrap it around cuts on her left arm. Right arm had some cuts too but not so deep. she was trying her best to stay awake, it was getting harder and harder by every minute.

"Where are you guys?"

She had waited few more minutes and finally heard Rose yelling at Peter to put her down. She opened her eyes a little wider to see Peter who was placing Rose on the ground.

"My God, Artemis are you alright?" Peter said running to Artemis.

"Yeah, I'm alright... I'm very comfortable with... a sai in my back... you should try it sometimes..."

"Artemis this is not funny!" Peter screamed at her while taking care of her wounds.

"I figure it out... by now... thanks.."

"Rose for fuck's sakes! Come here and help me!"

Rose got up from the ground and walked up to her friends.

"Next time... I'm running..."

She looked at Artemis and kneeled next to her.

"They did a number on you, didn't they?" Rose said grabbing a sai.

"Don't move that! It can do more damage than-"

"We've done this before Parker, you don't know how training without superpowers looks like!"

"Rose..."

"Artemis, don't move, Peter I need you to help me with this."

Peter stood up and kneeled next to Rose with his backpack in his hands.

"I'll get the sai out and you'll stitch up the wound. Ready?"

Peter took stitches out of his backpack and nodded. Rose grabbed sai and took it out with one fast move.

"Jesus Artemis, I hope you won't bleed to death before we make it to the village."

"Told you to not taking this sai out!"

"Parker can you show me, one doctor. Just one!"

"We're going back to civilization Wilson! I'm sure we could-"

"Oh, and she was supposed to go back to civilization with a sai in her back! She would have serious muscle damage by then!"

"Guys... I'm not feeling too good here..."

Rose sighed.

"There's an airport, long way but it'll be faster than waiting for you to recover here around Mr Panick and shitty medics."

"We need... to move... I took care of most of Nysa's assassins but... she'll be searching for us... herself..."

"Baby... You're in no condition to travel..." Peter said picking Artemis up in his arms.

She lied down her head on his chest.

"I'll be fine... don't worry..."

"Come on lovebirds, we have about good four hours of walking. We better start now if we don't want Nysa and Batman's son to find us with half-dead Artemis." Rose said smirking.

"Fuck you too..."

The trio was walking for an hour now, it was getting dark so they took a break. They cleared a little space of rocks and put their mats on the ground. Rose was already asleep but Peter was sitting with Artemis in his arms.

"Don't you dare to do something like that ever again."

"Peter, stop it, it all turned up fine. I'm feeling better now."

"I know but... I can't lose you."

"You won't, don't worry. Now if you don't want to put me down to sleep, can we change the subject?"

Peter was silent so Artemis took it as an end of the conversation. She placed her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around him.

"Rose told me that once she asked you about how you want your future to look like..."

"So?"

"Before she said that I... I told her that I can't image my life without you in it..."

Artemis opened her eyes and looked at Peter.

"What did you tell her?"

She smiled and kissed his cheek.

"A house with a big garden where a little boy with blue eyes and blonde hair would run around and play..."

Peter smiled at her.

"Well, we're gonna have some arguing."

Artemis frowned at him.

"Why?"

He kissed her forehead.

"I prefer mini you to run around."