"Come on, Uncle Barry. We've got to move quickly, or we're going to get there late!" An adorable five-year-old pushed his overgrown bangs out of his face, pulling his amused uncle along after him with all the force of a three-foot tall child.

Barry Allen chuckled, pulled out of his thoughts and finally agreeing to move faster to accommodate his nephew's wishes. Turning the corner, Barry was nearly knocked over by the speed that Wally threw himself behind his leg. The answer to Wally's sudden change in character was made clear as a raucous group of interns passed by, still shouting in faux-anger at each other as they play-fought. Barry sighed as he looked down at the shaking form of his favorite nephew. Sighing, he supposed that Wally's slight increase in confidence was only when he was in the presence of the Allens. Making a mental note to talk to Rudolph and Mary about kids possibly teasing him in school, Barry knelt down to eye-level with Wally, whispering soft reassurances that "Everything's okay" and "they're gone now". When Wally had finally stopped shaking and looked at Barry with a shaky smile, Barry gently picked him up and set him onto his waist. With a "You ready, Bright Eyes?" and an answering timid nod, the duo set off to the conference room where Barry was supposed to be meeting with Dr. Stone and several other renowned scientists regarding the newest serial killer plaguing the Midwest.

Opening the door, Barry Allen fixed a sheepish smile on his face and started with his near-signature line: "Sorry I'm la-"

Looking around the room, he realized that it wasn't nearly as full as it should have been if he were the last arrival. There were only two other people in the room. "Umm..."

A stocky man with stress wrinkles creasing his brow and a pair of thick glasses tucked into the neckline of his button-down stood, and a little girl about the same size as Wally jumped off her chair and attached herself to the man's leg. Looking exasperated, the man looked down at the girl, seemed to consider asking the little girl to detach herself from his person, then gave up on the idea and returned his attention to Barry. Extending a hand in welcome, the man smiled. "I'm Silas Stone. I'm sorry, but you're not late."

Barry's free hand scratched sheepishly at the nape of his neck. "Hehe, sorry. Force of habit, I guess. I'm Barry Allen." As Barry leaned in to shake Dr. Stone's hand, Wally leaned even farther backwards in Barry's arms, burying his face in Barry's neck to get away from the hand reaching, grabbing, angry, screaming-

"Hey, little man, you ok?" Wally didn't answer, and at Stone's questioning gaze, Barry quickly introduced Wally to the good Doctor. "My in-laws left him with me for the week while my wife is out of the country and they're away." Somehow, Barry doubted that telling Stone that Rudolph and Mary had practically dumped Wally on him and Iris in a mad dash to catch a break from parenthood was too personal for having just met the guy a minute ago. Even for a speedster, that was moving a bit too fast. "I don't really know anyone in the city, so I can't just leave him anywhere. And," here, Barry lowered his voice, "he's a bit shy. Not too good with people. I would never just leave him alone."

Stone's eyebrow rose, and what looked to be a relieved smile appeared on his face. "Well, it would be nice for Dominique to have someone to play with," he said, with a sidelong glance to where the little girl was still clutching Stone's pants-leg. Barry's momentarily confused expression cleared right up.

Crouching to the floor again, Barry set Wally down and smoothed the kid's blazing red hair back from his face. Wally had finally stopped shaking, and Barry gently took him by the shoulders trying to remove him from where he was now trying to attach himself to Barry's chest. After a few tries, and the whispered promise of a trip to get ice cream, Wally faced the Stones with a nervous expression and a hand that refused to let go of Barry's shoulder. At the same time, Silas coaxed Dominique out from behind his leg, but was similarly unable to get her to let go of him.

The two children shifted nervously for a few seconds before finally Wally looked her in the eyes and mumbled to Barry, still loud enough that everyone could hear, "She has pretty eyes."

Barry and Silas shot each other amused looks over the kids' heads, but then Silas averted his gaze to where Dominique, blue eyes bright, was making a series of hand gestures. Silas quickly translated for Dominique: "Thank you. His hair is fiery."

Wally absently touched his hair, and a small, timid smile appeared on his face. Dominique gave a near-replica of the smile back to Wally, accompanied by a shy wave.

Slowly, Wally turned back to Barry and made sure to really whisper his question this time. "What were those things she was doing with her hands?"

Making sure to keep his voice low, Barry glanced back over at the Stones, who seemed to be waiting for something big to happen, and then turned his full attention back to Wally. "That was sign language. I don't think that Dominique can speak," here, he looked to Silas for a silent confirmation, "so she uses her hands to communicate."

Wally's eyes lit up in the way that they always did when he heard new information, then dimmed in the way that they tended to when he expected a negative to the questions that he would ask. "Can... Is it ok for me to talk to her?"

Barry barely repressed the urge to throw a huge grin in Silas's direction and managed to give Wally a soft grin instead. "Of course. I have to talk to Dr. Stone about some boring stuff, anyway. You go have fun." Wally gave him a shaky grin and slowly let go of Barry's shirt. Silas, who seemed to be saying something to Dominique as well, saw that Wally was ready to take over and stood, missing Wally's badly suppressed flinch at the sudden movement.

Wally stared at Dominique for a few seconds, then went over to the long table and climbed onto a chair, Dominique following suit. Looking at the table, he noticed that there was a pen there, and there were a few spare pieces of paper. Slowly, he picked up the pen and slowly wrote out the beginnings of a beautiful friendship.
'Hi, my name's Wally.'
'My name's Dominique.'
'That's my Uncle Barry. He's a scientist.'
'My dad, too.' Here they exchanged a smile, and that was all she wrote.

'Are you still coming over?' The text message was from twenty minutes ago, and Wally finally closed his comic book to pick up his phone. Looking down at the id tag, a small smile worked its way onto his face, and he texted back a quick, 'There in a flash.'

Blurring into the kitchen, he quickly grabbed a snack (or five) while pocketing his goggles. "Hey guys, I'm leaving!" The words echoed through the cave much longer than the time it took for Wally to get halfway to his destination. Wolf, though disturbed by Fastpaw's sudden appearance and disappearance, made nothing of it and settled back down for a nap.

Not two minutes later, Robin, Kaldur, M'gann and Connor re-entered the cave, laden with groceries. "Wally, we're back with the food!"

"Yeah, come on out, Kid Stomach!" Robin taunted, waiting for their personal bottomless pit to appear to do what he did best: seriously call the non-bankruptcy of Young Justice into question.

When Wally didn't appear, Robin ran off to check the rooms, coming back with a frown. "He left, after he made us go and get food! I don't believe him!"

Kaldur looked at all the bags that Superboy was carrying, then tried to quell Robin's irritation. "Well, we will at least be safe when Kid next decides that he wants something to eat."

Robin crossed his arms huffily. "Yeah, whatever."

"Min?" Wally opened the door and entered the Stone house, waiting for Dominique to answer him. His call was soon answered as she waved him up the stairs from over the banister.

"Nothing on your dad?"

She shook her head and started to sign quickly. It's been 3 days, and he hasn't come home. No one from work has seen him either, and you know about those incidents that have been happening at his job, recently. I'm worried. What if someone took him?

Wally's brow furrowed. "What incidents?"

People said he'd been kind of clumsy, knocking things over, falling a lot. Disoriented, or paranoid. I think someone's threatening him.

"But why did you wait three days? I thought you said it had been hours since you heard from him. Min, you know how long that is in- he could be anywhere by now." Wally immediately started for the study, where all of the Stone paperwork was. On the way, he passed a picture of Elinore Stone. He stopped, taking note of the date and wrapping an arm around Dominique's shoulders when she stopped beside him to stare at the photo. "Sorry. I should have known there was a reason."

Not making eye contact, Dominique started to sign. I didn't really worry about him when he didn't come home Tuesday. You know he does that sometimes. Wednesday, I just thought that he was avoiding me because it was Mom's death-day. Then yesterday was the anniversary of Vic's disappearance, and he always holes himself up in the study.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were alone for 3 days? I would have stayed over or something! You know Uncle Barry and Aunt Iris won't care. Plus, I can be anywhere I need to be in less than 10 minutes," Wally's grip on Dominique tightened, and she gave him a smile.

You had more important things to worry about anyway. Do you want to head out now? She raised an eyebrow, pulling on Wally's hand as she led him to the front hallway to find her Converse.

"Yeah, sure." When she stood up again and had grabbed her purse from the table, he pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "Happy birthday, sis."

So, this is something new. Basically, I said, "Aqualad, your Cyborg is showing." one too many times and then this idea punched me in the brain. I hope you liked the first part.

Please review!