if you were at Mount Justice right now, you would find six of the seven founding members of the justice league; Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Martian Man-hunter, Wonder Woman, and Hawk-Girl. These six heroes were in the sitting room with the Young Justice team, waiting for Kid-Flash to arrive so that they could commence with a monthly mentor-and-ex_partner-meeting. when the cave finally announced his arrival, they all thought that Kid-Flash would zip into the room and be the energetic kid that they all know and love. what they were not expecting, was for Kid-flash to slowly walk into the sitting room and sit nicely on the couch, not jump on it as he usually does. Wally didn't even glance at the food that had been placed on the table, all he said was a mumbled 'hello'. all of this told the heroes, both young and old, that Wally was feeling more than a bit depresses today, and they all believed that it was because Flash was on an important mission off world, and was unable to be here today. although, this normally wouldn't make Wally depressed, usually, nothing could make the joyful, energetic teen depressed.
"Wally, I'm sorry that Berry can't be here buddy, but come on man. it's your birthday, your big 16, you should be happy." Robins words just made the gathered heroes worried, nothing could ever make Wally upset on his birthday, nothing. he was always really cheerful, but on his birthday nothing could bring him down. no matter what happens on his birthday, he's always smiling, and both the League and the team knew this. Robin suddenly seemed to rehear what he said, and he suddenly caught on that something was really and became extremely worried. of course I could have told him exactly what was wrong on this eventful day."Wally what's wrong? what happened?"
"it's nothing Rob." I head Wally lie, and I could tell that the gathered heroes became even more worried at the depression that could be heard in Wally's voice, it sounded as if he was about to cry. I felt my heart ache to hold him and tell him that it would be alright, but it was not yet time for that.
"we all know that's a lie Wally. what's going on, what aren't you telling us?" Robin demanded. I know that he felt as if Wally was his brother, he was supposed to always be there for Wally, and he had no idea what was even bothering his brother, or why he seemed depressed. I knew that it must be causing Robin pain of his own to see Wally in such a state, but it wasn't time to show myself yet. I'm actually really surprised that neither Batman or Robin have noticed me hidden in the shadows yet.
"you wouldn't understand, none of you would." Wally said, and he finally looked up to everyone could see his face, and they all gasped as they saw that he had been crying and his face was all red, my heart broke just a little more. "sure, all of you have lost someone really close to you. but you don't have to see someone you love suffer everyday, and not be able to do anything about it. you don't feel helpless and useless everyday because you look at someone you love that's helpless and you can do nothing. you don't force yourself to spend an hour at the bedside of someone you would give your life for everyday because you want them to know they're not alone, when it causes you pain every time because there's nothing you can do for them and you know it. when one of you lost someone, they were gone, they were dead. but for me, I see em everyday, and I can't touch em, or hold em, and it's killing me. and sometimes I wish that they had just died so that I wouldn't have to do it anymore, and then I'm mad at myself because I thought that, and I force myself to go back the next day, and the next, and the next, until I'm once more going everyday. and it's just getting so hard to pretend that it's not effecting me, and today I couldn't even gather the courage to go and see em. instead I just sat and sobbed because my heart aches for em and all I want is for the accident to never had happened. no, I wish it was me, I wish it was me that got hurt, me, it should have been me."
at the end of Wally's melt down his voice got really soft, but everyone in the room still heard it, and it broke the hearts of every hero resent, batman included. it made the tears form in my eyes as I ached to just gather him into my arms and not let go for a long time to come. I could tell that none of the League knew who he was talking about, but he was right. all of them had lost someone close to them, but they had all just died and been mourned, they no longer had to feel that pain everyday. but, I could see it in their eyes when they realized that Wally had been hiding a slowly growing case of depression, and that he needed to talk about it, and that today's meeting needed to be focused on getting his to tell the story of what happened. the girls in the room all had tears forming in their eyes, and even some of the guys felt as if they were going to cry from the pain that they could all hear in the speedsters voice, they all agreed that they needed to focus on Wally and help him as best they could.
"Wally, let us understand, tell us everything so that we can help, please man. you're family Wally, we want to help." everyone, but myself, was surprised when these words left Connors mouth, but they were even more surprised when he moved and sat on the sofa with Wally, wrapping an arm around Wally and pulling him to his side. "we're a family Wally, so let us help you. because as your brother, I can truthfully say that your pain is causing us all pain. we love you Wally, so let us bear your pain with you."
the League was shocked speechless, but they all nodded their heads in agreement. I couldn't help but smile at Connors act of brotherly love. every breath was held as they waited for Wally to speak, and they were all shocked by his words when he did.
"I had a cousin." he said, his voice soft, and so UN-Wally like. "we were born on the same day, at the same time, in the same room of the same hospital. at that time, my family were living in the same apartment building, right next door to each other. so we were always together, we took baths together *girl heroes in the room smile and coo* we ate together and slept together and did everything together. we spoke our first word at the the same time on the same day, and it was the same word. we were inseparable, we might have been cousins, but we were closer than twins. and everyone called us 'The Twins' my cousin - PJ - and I would even finish each others sentences, and we always knew what the other was feeling or thinking, we were twins in every way but by blood."
Wally paused for a moment, and then continued with his story. all of the heroes in the room knew that they had to remain silent, and that if any of them spoke a word, Wally would stop talking and not start again.
"we would have small fights, but that would be it. PJ was obsessed with heroes, he loved them. Batman was his favorite, and even thought his dad was Flash. oh ya, Flash is PJ's Dad *everyone in the room looked shocked, and they all felt sorrow for the Flash's lost son*. when we were six, our school was attacked and we were held captive. Uncle Flash was off world on a mission, and Batman was the closest one to Central, so he arrived and helped. during the fight one of bat-arranges had bounced off a wall and landed at my feet. after the fight I approached Batman and tried to give it back, and he told me to keep it. I gave it to PJ for a Birthday present three days later, and the smile on his face was the biggest I had seen in a long time."
"I remember that birthday." a new voice said, and everyone turned to see that Flash had returned from his mission early. his smile was sad, and everyone could all see the tears that were in his eyes. "my son was obsessed with Bats, that was his favorite birthday present that year. he made me put a hole in it so that he could hang it around his neck remember? wore it and refused to take it off for about five months, until it one day just disappeared, and wasn't seen again. I also remember when you were seven, and he decided that although Batman was the coolest male hero, Hawk-girl was the coolest female. I couldn't even feel upset that I wasn't my own sons favorite hero, because I was the only hero that he called 'Dad' that got to make his laugh and smile as if he had no worry's in the world. that was the year that we found out that we couldn't have any more children, that PJ got so scared when his mom had the miscarriage that he made sure to give us each a hug every day and tell us both how much he loved us more than any dumb hero. that was the year that I decided it didn't matter what other people thought of me, as long as I was still my baby's hero."
by now, Flash had tears flowing down his cheeks, and he was on the couch beside Wally, hugging the boy into his chest. most other heroes also had tears in their eyes, Batman being the only one without them, although even he felt as though he was going to cry, and the only thing keeping them at bay was his image. Wally spoke again.
"we didn't tell you Uncle Berry, but, about a month before our seventh birthday, we had a run in with Hawk-girl. we were on our way home from visiting helping out at the orphanage, like to usually did on weekends, and hawk-girl just fell out of the sky in front of us. she was fighting sinestro with Green-lantern, and they had somehow made it all the way to Central. Sinestro threw her to the ground once more right before GL took him out, but he had managed to make Hawk-girl bleed. she had gotten a head wound, and remembering what you had taught us about head wounds, PJ and I decided that we were going to help her. so we tore off part of PJ's shirt and wrapped it around her head for her, telling her that she had to keep pressure on it that way it would stop bleeding. GL was laughing really hard in the background, apparently he thought it was funny. but, then Hawk-girl gave us each a kiss and a feather from her wing, and it was so cool. did you know that her wing feathers are softer than any birds alive? it's so soft. but PJ asked me if he could have mine, said he wanted to do something with it, and I gave it to him, and haven't heard about it since."
"thank you Wally, no one has ever commented on how soft my wings are before." Hawk-girl said, "and I remember that day, you two were the sweetest boys I had ever met, and you still are, you could out-sweet Robin if you tried. PJ was so sweet, I can't believe that he's gone."
"you make it sound as if my son's dead Shay-era." Berry said, shocking everyone
"you mean he's not?" Shay-era asked, and by now everyone was confused, for they had all thought that he was dead. I held back a laugh as I thought about how they would take what was the be revealed next.
"no" Berry spoke, and I, along with everyone else, could hear the pain in his voice, it broke many hearts and caused many more tears to fall. "my son is alive, but he has been in a coma since he was eleven."
before anyone could say anything else, and before I spent too long on keeping myself from just running out there and maybe getting myself killed.
"we were on a field-trip, with out class, to the Central City Zoo when it was attacked by Zoom. when Flash showed up, Zoom saw our class and decided that we would make great hostages. somehow, he managed to grab PJ and I. he tried to take us outside of the Zoo, but Flash managed to stop him, but he wasn't quiet fast enough. Zoom pulled out a gun and was going to shoot me, right as he pulled the trigger, PJ jumped in front of me, and the bullet skinned his head, and he immediately went into a coma. he's stayed in the coma for the past five years."
I decided it was finally time to make my appearance.
"actually, it's been five years in two minutes." I said as I rolled my wheel-chair out of the shadows. and I smiled sadly at the look of shock and hope that showed up on Wally's face. I could feel the tears flowing down my cheeks again as I smiled happily, a goofy grin, the likes of which was only seen when around my beloved twin. "hey Cuz."
"PJ?" Wally asked, and when I nodded he jumped on me, causing my chair to tip and us both to fall to the ground. we were laughing and crying at the same time as we rolled on the ground together, just clinging to each other an crying our eyes out as we clung to the boy that we would always things of as a twin. we continued to laugh, and cry, and roll on the ground until we heard a throat clear above us. looking up, we saw my dad standing there with tears in his eyes and a big smile on his face.
"you two have no idea how long I've waited to see you on the ground acting like five years old again." he said with a laugh, before getting serious. "but Percy, you know what the doctor said, and you gotta do what he said if you want to get better."
"yes dad," I said with a sigh, and as soon as I did Wally was off of me and at my side. he didn't move as my father lifted me into his arms and set me back into my wheel-chair. I could see that my cousin was worried, and scared that something was really wrong with me, so I calmed his fears. "I'm just weak after five years of doing nothing. the doctor said that I need to do some physical therapy for a couple months and then I would be back to running around and wrestling with you like old times."
"but until then," Berry said. "wally, I'm giving you the list with the instructions from the doctor, because I'm sure that you want PJ to get as healthy as possible. now, I wish I could stay boys, but I have to go back to Central, Iris still doesn't know about PJ, and I want to surprise her."
Dad kissed both our forehead's before zipping out of the cave and back to Central. I turned to Wally and saw him looking at me with a smile.
"I might want you better Brother dearest, but if I make you follow these instructions you'll just want to kill me." he smiled and threw the piece of paper into the fire before looking around the room and noticing, for the first time, that everyone else had left, and it was just him and me in the room. he turned back to me and smiled, "what do you wanna do Bro?"
"Me?" I smiled and then stood up from the chair and allowing myself to fall onto my side on the coach. "I wanna give my brother his birthday present."
as I said this, I pulled the wristband out of my pocket, and showed it to him. smiling at his gasp of shock, and smiling even wider when he hugs me tightly and holds out his wrist for me to put it on him, which is just what I did. I had taken the bat-arrange from when we were six, and molded it into a softer metal version that would bend and fit to the form of a teens wrist. I had taken the feather's that Hawk-girl had given us and pushed it into the metal, making it so you could see the white feathers sticking out of the black metal. as he smiled and hugged me tightly, I knew that my life was whole once more. sure it wasn't perfect, who's life was? but as I snuggled on the couch with the boy that I would always call my brother, I knew that I wouldn't want it any other way.