He's Gone
Characters: Mary and Rudolph West, Artemis Crock
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Pairings: Mary/Rudolph, Spitfire
Note: Mary and Rudolph are happily married and love their son

The knock came slowly and Mary West knew it wasn't Wally, he never knocked that slow, or at all for that matter, and for a moment she was worried, but she shook off the feeling. Her little Wally was fine; he'd just phoned her moments ago to tell her how he and Artemis had just helped save the world.

Sighing she called out, "Rudy honey will you get the door?"

"In second Mary let me just finish putting the TV together," her husband's gruff, yet kind, voice came soaring into her ears and she sighed and walked into the living room.

"You know you should just wait and get Wally to do it, he'd already have it up by now," she sighed looking at her husband struggle with the many wires.

"Hey I don't have superspeed I'm allowed be slow," Rudolph said defensively, his checks blushing red.

"Course you are," Mary bent over giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Now let's go get the door."

Her husband sighed and she helped him up off the floor and towards the door, opening it quickly, she wasn't prepared for who she saw.

Artemis was standing on their doorstep tears in her eyes as she stared up at them, mouth open, but no words coming out….Wally wasn't there.

But that's okay, Mary reminded herself. Wally's okay he just called, he probably just got hurt and can't come…yes that's got to be it.

Quickly she and Rudy ran out to hug the young blond and for a moment Artemis tensed, unused to comfort, before melting into the embrace.

"Shhh, sweetie," Mary said softly, rubbing her hair the way she used to with Wally. "It's okay, everything's okay."

"No it's not," Artemis sobbed into her shoulder. "He's gone, he's gone."

Mary's heart froze and her head whipped up staring into her husband's brown eyes, before she forced out the dreaded word.

"Who?"

Artemis's grey eyes looked up slowly into hers and for the longest time they stood there in silence, before Artemis's voice managed to split it.

"Wally."

Mary's world shattered.

"No, no, no," she muttered, grabbing Artemis tightly by the shoulders. "That can't be right he just phoned me, he told me he was okay, told me that you just came back from Paris he—" Tears burned at Mary's eyes and she collapsed into her husband's arms. "This isn't right, he can't be—he'd never—

Oh my gosh, my little Wally, my little Wallace." She sobbed loudly into her husband's chest, clutching to his shirt.

Rudolph's face was a mixture of shock and pain as he took everything in, staring at Artemis.

"How? He called us, he told us that—" His voice broke and tears threatened to fall from his eyes, as he tried to comfort his wife.

Artemis's eyes fell, "that was before, after we got back from Paris, we found out we missed a bomb, so Barry and Bart, you know the grandson from the future, tried to stop it….but they were too late and it went critical, started creating energy everywhere, that's what killed…that's what killed…." Artemis's voice hitched and she tried to stop the tears that were forming, clearing her throat she continued.

"Wally…Wally…He, he wanted to go help and they needed his help, and so he left. He didn't even tell anyone he just left!" She sobbed loudly and broke. "Why would he do that?! I thought we were a team and he just left me!"

She sobbed and hugged herself tightly, before Mary's hand shot and dragged her into a hug and for the longest time the trio just stood there, crying and mourning for their lost loved one.

If you watch Endgame you realize Artemis never says anything to the West's just starts to cry and that's when it hit me….at that point in time it's totally possibly they don't know why she's crying and thus this story was born

I hope you like it :D

I may do another aftermath story to this (With Wally coming back) but who knows

Review Please