Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice...

Warning: This story depicts a school shooting. If you find this subject too disturbing, please don't read.

Shooting

By Red Blaze 16

The library at Gotham Academy was a large space. Students could enter and exit the rectangular room through one door. When you first stepped into the room, a large "L" shaped desk was on your right. This was where either the librarian, Ms. Winters or, the assistant librarian, Mrs Hibbs, would check in and out books. But immediately on your left when you entered the library was a small office, with lots of windows. This office was shared by Ms Winters and Mrs Hibbs. The office was just large enough for two desk and a coat rack. So, between the office on one side and the large check out desk on the other, students were funneled into the library.

Of course, before you could step out of the funnel, you had to step through the detector. It looked a lot like a metal detector. There was a mostly flat piece of gray plastic that students walked across on the floor. The detector's sides were mostly transparent. The sides were edged a gray plastic casing, the same color that was on the floor. But its purpose wasn't for detecting metal. Its job was to detect books that hadn't been properly checked out. Once through the book detector, you entered the library at the school.

The long walls of the library ran parallel to the hallway outside the library, while the short walls provided a divider between the classrooms on either side of the library. On the far left, running parallel to the short walls ran the book shelves for the non-fiction section, while closer to the middle of the library, running perpendicular to the short walls ran shelves that contained the fiction. Tables of varying sizes were throughout the library, though most of the tables were in front of the check out desk. Against the far right wall, were computers, for those students who did not have a laptop to bring to school. Obviously, the computers were kept near the check out desk, so whichever librarian was at the desk could keep an close eye on what the students were doing on the computers.

On the same side of the library that held the computers, there was a small hallway tucked away. It lead to a few rooms that students could sign out if they needed a quiet space to work on a group project or watch something for class. At the very end of the hallway, was the Everything Room. Students had given it this nickname, as that's where Ms Winters or Mrs Hibbs could process and cover new books, or pull out old magazine, school yearbooks, and valuable books that were not kept on the regular shelves, or bring out extra computers and televisions. To the students, that room seemed to contain everything.

It was spring and students knew that final exams were just around the corner. A lot of students were coming to the library, before school, after school, and during study halls, to put the final touches on projects that were due or to start studying for the exams that would be held in early June.

At a small table that could comfortably fit four, sat Artemis Crock and Dick Grayson. Since they were at school, the teenagers wore their school uniforms, rather than the costume the two wore when they were Artemis and Robin. The blonde young woman was dressed in a knee length dark blue skirt, with white tights, a white button down shirt, a black vest, and a maroon tie. Dick wore tan pants, a white button down shirt, maroon tie, and dark blue suit jacket. His black hair was mostly tamed and lay flat against his head, while Artemis' hair was in a ponytail.

"I'll be so glad when school is done," mumbled Artemis, who was a senior and would exit school that June.

"School isn't that bad," said Dick, barely looking up from his calculus.

"Ha!" said Artemis.

Her comment drew the attention of Mrs Hibbs, who was behind the check out desk. The assistant librarian was neither an old woman nor a young woman. She appeared to be in her 40's. Her short brown hair was started to show a few grays. Mrs Hibbs wasn't a woman that anyone could call skinny, but she wasn't plus either.

The assistant librarian shushed Artemis, before returning her attention to the student who stood in front of the check out. The blonde archer ducked her head and looked down at her English assignment. The table that Dick and Artemis sat at was just to the left of the funnel and was more in front of the librarians' shared office than the check out counter. Dick smirked and continued on with his math.

"School isn't that bad for you," replied Artemis, her voice quieter than a minute earlier. "But some students in this school has a serious superiority complex."

"I know," replied the dark haired teenager.

"I don't know why I said that," said the blonde, with as sigh. "I know you know that."

Dick finally looked up and gave kind of a sad smile. "Don't worry about it."

While Dick was the adopted son of one of the richest men in Gotham, most of the more snobby students who attended Gotham Academy couldn't let it go that Dick had started his life as an acrobat in a circus. The first year Dick had been at the school was the worst. Dick didn't say anything, but Artemis thought it wasn't as bad now, though she knew he was still teased and bullied.

Nodding her head, Artemis looked down at the book before her. Her assignment was to write a ten page research paper on Queen Mary I. It was interesting material, but Artemis wished she had been assigned Queen Elizabeth I instead. Bloody Mary was a little too bloody for Artemis' tastes.

"Study Hall going to be done in a few minutes," said Dick.

Artemis nodded. Collecting the books she had taken out, she stood from her chair. Faintly, a popping sound could be heard from outside the library. Dick immediately looked up for his math and held his breath. By the time the second popping sound could heard, Dick turned to face the rest of the library.

"Lock the door!" he shouted.

"Mr Grayson!" said Mrs Hibbs, shocked that Dick would be yelling in the library.

Realizing that the assistant librarian didn't know what the sound meant, Dick raced away from the table and into the funnel. Reaching the door to the library, he slapped the lock that was in the door's handle just as a student appeared on the other side of the door. The student was a boy. He appeared to be around Dick's age, with light brown hair and brown eyes, wearing the same school uniform as Dick.

For a moment, Dick thought he pushed the lock too soon, as the student on the other side jerked on the handle. Dick started to raise his hand to put it back on the handle, thinking the other student was trying to escape the hallway, when the student stopped jerking at the handle. Instead, the boy raised his right hand and Dick was looking at the barrel of a semi-automatic gun.

While the door currently stopped the other student from entering the library, the glass window in the door wouldn't stopped the bullets. Quickly, Dick reacted. He turned and, planting his palms on the check out desk, he flipped himself over the desk and onto the other side.

"GET DOWN!" Dick shouted.

Dick had barely finished his command, when the glass window shattered as bullets came flying into the library. As the dark haired teenager landed, he pulled down Mrs Hibbs. He could hear the other students in the library screaming. The sound was nearly as loud as the gun.

The bullets seemed to rain into the library for what seemed like an eternity, before they stopped. As the bullets stop, Dick heard something from outside the library. It sounded like the cross between a grunt and a yell. The sound, whatever it was, was filled with frustration and anger. Dick took a chance and looked over the counter toward the door.

Though the glass was missing, the wire mesh that had been in the window had held. While the shooter could continue to fire into the library, he still couldn't enter. The mesh prevented him from putting his hand through and opening the door from the inside. The shooter slammed his fist against the door and turned away. Dick could hear the faint sound of running.

"Mrs Hibbs?" asked Dick.

For a moment, the woman stared, shocked.

"Mrs Hibbs!" said Dick, putting a little more force into his voice. The teenager wondered if he would need to slap her to get her attention. Though Dick wasn't the kind of guy to go around slapping people who were in shock, now was not the time to patiently wait for Mrs Hibbs to come to her senses.

"Richard?" said the assistant librarian. She blinked her eyes.

"Call the police," said Dick.

Nodding her head, she started to stand up, when Dick pulled her back down.

"Don't stand," said the teenager. "We don't know if he'll come back."

Nodding her head again, she crawled on her hands and knees over to the wall, where the phone was located. Dick waited until he could hear that she was speaking to someone before he left the safety of the check out counter.

Crawling on his forearms, sliding across the floor, Dick came out from behind the desk and stopped at the first table. Three students, two girls and a guy, were hiding under the table.

"Get behind the check out desk," said Dick. "Don't stand up. Crawl."

The guy, a senior, nodded his head and he helped the other two teenagers out from under the table and together, the three moved slowly toward the check out counter. Without a pause, Dick moved onto the next table and gave those students, four freshmen boys, the same instructions.

Dick slowly made his way to all the tables on right side of the door to the library. He knew, the moment he crossed in front of the door, he wouldn't have any protection if the shooter came back. By the time he was done, fifteen students were behind the check out counter with Mrs Hibbs.

Dick glanced at the wall opposite the door. He realized, though it wouldn't be much protection, if he crawled beside the wall, he could use the tables and chairs as protection. Though it wasn't the best, Dick wanted to get to the other side of the room to check on Artemis.

…...

On the other side of the library, Artemis was doing the same thing. She was crawling across the floor, though not as smoothly as Dick was on his side, and encouraging students to move further into the library, closer to where the non-fiction books were. Those students, mixture of sophomores and seniors, ten students in all, were pressing into the corner. Being in that area of the library meant, the only way the shooter could fire on them would be to exit the school and fire in through the windows from outside. As an extra precaution, Artemis had the students in a spot where the book stacks offered them covered from the windows.

Just as Artemis moved away from the last table, she could see movement, like someone crawling along the long wall, under the windows that that bright sun shined in through. Since the shooter hadn't gotten into the room, Artemis figured out who was using the tables to get onto her side of the room. A moment later, her theory was rewarded when she saw Dick crawling up where the non-fiction and fiction books met.

"Are you ok?" he immediately asked.

"Yeah. You?" she returned.

He nodded his head. "Everyone over there?" asked Dick, as he pointed his forefinger to the far corner.

"Yup," she said. "I thought that corner would provide the most protection."

"Good idea," replied Dick. "Mrs Hibbs is speaking with the police."

She nodded her head a second before a look of surprised crossed her face.

"Oh my god," said Artemis. Her gaze swung toward the small office. "I didn't check on Ms Winters!"

"I'll do it," said Dick, as he crawled passed her.

Dick slowly made his way over the office. He could see that the windows that looked into the funnel were shattered. As he got to the door, he nudged it open.

"Ms Winters?" Dick called into the office.

When he didn't hear anything, Dick crawled into the office. Going behind the first desk, which belonged to Mrs Hibbs, Dick crept around the outside of the room until he got behind the second desk.

"Ms Winters?" asked Dick again as he came around the desk.

But he knew, the moment he saw her, the librarian wouldn't be answering him. Ms. Winters was an older woman. She had allowed her blonde hair to go silvery gray and, for a woman of her age, it had looked good on her. But Dick knew, the moment he saw her, Ms Winters hadn't been as lucky as everyone else in the library.

The woman was laying flat on her back, but her limbs seemed to have landed in an awkward position. Her eyes, a beautiful blue pair of eyes, stared sightlessly off to the side. Her head was angled like she was looking toward the funnel between the office and check out counter. Blood covered her chest. Shards of glass lay around her body and on it.

"Dick?"

Closing his eyes, Dick slid back and crawled back to the entrance of the office. "I'm here, Artemis."

"Is she ok?" asked the blonde archer.

Dick could hear the noise of Artemis crawling into the room. He met her, just as Artemis started to move behind the first desk. Coming face to face, she took one look into Dick's eyes and knew.

"Damn," she whispered, as she sat. Raising a hand, she rubbed at her eyes.

"She probably stood up to find out what was going on," said Dick, as he glance toward her desk. Though he couldn't seen the body, he knew what lay on the other side of the desk. "She probably didn't have a chance to react."

Nodding her head, Artemis looked around. "Now what?"

"Now we wait," said Dick. "Let's sit in the doorway, so no one else accidentally comes in and sees her." Dick paused before he continued. "Let's give her some privacy."

Without a word, Artemis moved back. She slid until she reached the door and sat down just outside of the office. Dick sat just inside the office. They each leaned against the door frame and looked at each other.

"Should we..." asked Artemis, but stopped as she heard the sound of sirens. Faint at first, the sirens became louder and louder as the emergency personnel approached the school.

"I think," said Dick, "we've done all we can."

…...

An hour later, those students and staff who had been trapped in the school, like those in the library, were finally able to escape the nightmare. The shooting, which was caused by one student, ended when he took his own life. Along with his death, nine other people died that day at Gotham Academy. Of the nine, five were staff and four were students. The youngest victim had been a freshman. The oldest had been Ms Winters.

When Dick left the school, Artemis walking beside him, he immediately spotted his father. Bruce Wayne stood, in a dark gray suit, white shirt, and black tie, just behind the police barricade. Dick's blue eyes met Bruce's brown. As soon as the teenagers came across the line, Bruce rushed up to them. In a rare moment of affection, Bruce wrapped his arms around Dick and hugged him tight. No words were exchanged. In that moment, no words were needed.

Awkwardly, Artemis stood next to them. Just as she turned to walk away and give them their privacy, she was stopped by a hand on her arm. Turning back, she looked into the brown eyes of the owner of the hand. Bruce gently squeezed her arm and nodded at her. She nodded back once, as tears filled her eyes.

…...

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Please review. Thank you.