"No!" He slammed his fist against the wall beside me. "No! No!"
"Stop it Wally." I said calmly. It was hopeless, we already knew this.
"Shut up." He didn't turn to look at me. He hadn't spoken to me much since we'd fought in the Hall of Justice after the cave blew up. He pushed me down in a chair. I'd been getting pummeled by formed teammates all that day it seemed like. For some reason I found it hot when my back slammed against the soft fabric.
"Face it!" I stood up straighter. "They are not going to but in some secret exit. No one is going to come for us... At least not for a while."
"It's not set to go off for five minutes." He looked over at the rig set to detonate. His eyes flashed to him with hop as I shook my head. "We have time." He said frantically.
I walked to him and rested my palm on his shoulder.
"Wally. I'm sorry." I looked into his eyes, it didn't matter now. It didn't help now. Seeing me give up, it made him angry.
"Dick...no." He pleaded with me, "This can't be it."
I slumped down against the wall next to him while his mind worked through a solution. I could see the wheels in his head turning. It wouldn't do any good. We were as good as dead already.I didn't have any equipment with me, I was in my civvies. I couldn't disarm it. I'd already spent twenty minutes trying, it was too high-tech for me.
"Come here." I said, motioning for him to sit down next to me. He reluctantly sat down beside me, giving up. His eyes stayed trained on the bomb and the locked door.
"She'll be okay." He looked at me with tears in his eyes. "Artemis. She's strong. Everyone will be alright without us."
I though about Batman, the only real family I had. Alfred and he would be devastated. But they would be able to move on, the way they did with Jason. Wally had so much more. He had a family, a life.
"Yea." I muttered. "Yea they will."
He wiped his eyes. And looked at me. I hadn't shed any tears. I didn't need to. I was never afraid of death. At least, that's what I told myself. I tried to be strong, but I'd never been ina situation where death was...inevitable. I was more, numb.
He was silet as we watched the clock tick down.
"What do you think is on the other side?" He looked back at me with hope.
"Something good." I said, thinking about my parents, "Something better than this."
"Do you remember in M'gann's training exercise when we killed ourselves going after the aliens?" He looked at me, tears falling down. Before I really knew what I was doing, I was leaning forward and wiping them from his cheeks. He stopped mid-sentence before I nodded. "That's how I wanted to go out. With you, fighting."
I smiled. We had always been the best of friends. He had been more to me than anyone could ever have been. He kept me sane from the beginning. And the fact that it wasn't purely platonic scared me.
"Wally..." I stopped. I wanted to tell him everything. I wanted to tell him that he made me fell whole. He made me feel loved, like my family never died. He made me feel like the worlds wasn't as screwed up as I knew it was.
He didn't say anything. I didn't think he needed to. My silence conveyed much of what I wanted to say. I could feel the anger, the hardship and the strain that I had placed on our bond in the recent months. He knew that I was sorry. He knew that everything had gone wrong. He knew that we were family 'till the end.
The clock kept ticking down as we watched it. It hit the minute mark and took one of my last few breaths. It would all be over soon.
I looked over at him. He was watching me intently, tears falling. He nodded to me and smiled like he had in the exercise.
I couldn't leave it like it was. I knew I couldn't. I jumped him. I felt his surprise under me before he melted to me. His lips felt just the way that I imagined that they'd feel all these years, soft and warm. He wrapped his arms around me, dragging my body closer to his in the cramped confines on the cave.
Hi mouth opened with mine and his breath mingled with mine. We shared moment in this sweet agony. I clutched his neck and suddenly I was crying. I didn't want to go, I didn't want to leave.
"Wally, I love you." I hiccuped, looking into his eyes.
"I love you too." He smiled at me through his tears. "Dick, I've always loved-"
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