Title: Cry Mercy
Rating: T
Word Count: 2,700+
Characters: Wally/Artemis, Barry/Iris
Summary: The static kind of cuts through their conversation and a voice announces an armed robbery at the city bank, and Wally's blood runs cold. Artemis and Aunt Iris were heading to that bank.
Prompt: Iris and Artemis go to a bank that gets robbed
For: IronicVeghead. I've never really read or watched a lot of robbery scenes, so this was a nice challenge and I'm really glad you prompted this (: I hope I did decently!
Cry Mercy
They're in the middle of washing Wally's grandmother's car, after having groomed her yard and washed her stone patio, when they hear about the robbery.
Nana West is sitting on the swinging bench of the porch talking with them as they scrub her car clean, and her portable radio is turned to the local police station because Barry asked if she minded and she didn't. She knows about him and Wally and she knows how important it is for them to be tuned in to any possible danger.
Then the static kind of cuts through their conversation and a voice announces an armed robbery at the city bank, and Wally's blood runs cold.
Artemis and Aunt Iris were heading to that bank.
They were just dropping by so that Iris could make a deposit before they started shopping, and that was supposed to be at least an hour ago, so there's a big chance that they're not there. But hell, they could've been held up and could still be there and…
He didn't even realize he'd dropped his sponge and started to dart away until he's being yanked back by the back of his shirt.
"Uncle Barry!"
Shouldn't he be worried too? His wife could very well be one of those dozens of hostages!
But Wally turns around to yell exactly this when he looks into the guy's eyes and, yeah, he can see the terror there.
And it's not like he doesn't think Artemis can take care of herself, or his Aunt Iris, for that matter. He knows they can both hold their own. (He witnesses it with Artemis at least once a day.) But Batman made them promise not to compromise their civilian identities, which means Artemis has to act helpless. And guns are dangerous to everyone, no matter how skilled or unskilled you are. All it takes in one second and a little pressure on that trigger and…
Yeah, he kind of wants to throw up right now.
"Nana West, we—"
But the woman is already yelling at them to get moving, saying she'll just get the boy next door to hose down her car and to hurry up and be heroes.
He'd stop to think about how amazing the women in his life are if he wasn't already worrying over the fact that Artemis and Aunt Iris may be…
Seriously, he's going to be sick.
... ...
This little girl's eyes are puffy and wet with tears and she's shaking, and Artemis feels more scared for this girl than she does for herself. She got separated from her parents because these idiot robbers decided that they'd round up all the little kids as leverage and stuck them behind the counters so they couldn't be seen.
The only reason why she and Iris are back here, too, is because they recognized Iris from the news, and then Iris refused to let Artemis leave her side.
They're not tied up or anything, because they must've figured the guns would convince people to cooperate. And they are. Everyone's on their knees on the floor and not moving at all, except for when two of the guys in the masks are coming around and telling them to put valuables in this sack. There are few actually dumping cash into sacks, too, and then the rest are just walking around and making sure people aren't trying to be sly or something.
One of the guys telling people to throw things in the sack comes towards them and the little girl whimpers when he looks at her.
"That's a pretty necklace. How much do you think it goes for?" She doesn't respond. "Hand it over." She shakes her head. "Hand it over," he orders, making a grab for it.
"No!" she shrieks, twisting her body away.
The guy puts his foot over her little ankle and starts pressing down, making her cry out, and Artemis knows Bats only allows them to risk breaking their cover if it's a matter of life or death but fuck, she can't just let him hurt this little girl.
... ...
When he and Barry get the bank, there's a crowd of people standing behind the yellow police line that's keeping them across the street from the bank. The police are in the cleared off section with gunmen at the front line facing the bank and there're officers everywhere trying to tame the chaos.
They get past the crowd in less than a second, and then the chief of police is explaining the situation to them. They don't know the number of hostages, but they've managed to make out about eight men, all armed, that are orchestrating everything. The robbers have the children separated and they're being held behind the counter, and then of course he has to tell them that Iris West-Allen is being held hostage, too, and wherever Iris is Artemis will be, too.
Shit.
They're told shots have already been fired, but they have no idea if people are injured or anything, which just makes him more anxious.
And they can't just go bursting in, because they can't risk the possibility that these guys won't go trigger-happy once they've been spotted. He just wants to go in there now and get Artemis and Aunt Iris the hell out, and he shouldn't be prioritizing hostages like this, but screw it, he's going to, at least for right now.
Barry has him use his goggles to get everyone's positions, and the robbers are all spread out.
Their best bet is to just speed in there and disarm everyone before they can react, because they're definitely fast enough to, otherwise they'll be taking bullets for people. Which of course they'll do if need be, but obviously they'd rather avoid more shooting altogether.
They're standing between police trucks to keep them hidden from the robbers and the crowd, because it's always an advantage to have the element of surprise.
It doesn't sound like the robbers even know they're there, even if they're probably expecting Flash and Kid Flash to come and save the day soon.
Barry goes in first, because he's faster than Wally so obviously it makes sense he should be the one to disarm everyone, but Wally is fractions of a second behind him and feels no guilt whatsoever about knocking these guys unconscious as soon as they're disarmed. When Wally skids to a stop beside his uncle, the guy has already finished literally ripping all of the guns apart. Barry hates guns with a passion ever since this no-name criminal aimed one at Aunt Iris.
And yeah, Wally's not exactly a fan of them, either.
"Is anyone injured?" is the first thing Barry asks, loud enough for everyone to hear.
There's kind of a cacophony or responses, but Wally hears what sounds like a little girl's voice shakily whimpering, "…here!"
Wally speeds behind the counter and looks to his left and then sweeps his eyes to his right, and the first thing he spots the little girl on her knees beside someone's body. She's shaking and her eyes are puffy and she's crying really, really hard.
But then the woman kneeling right across from the little girl turns around, and it's Aunt Iris, and she's teary, too, and this chill shoots through his veins.
For a whole second, it's impossible for him to make himself move.
Then he's skidding over and kneeling with them and his heart freaking stops when he sees that the person this little girl and Aunt Iris are fussing over is Artemis.
There's a pink jacket (probably the little girl's, because the only pink Artemis owns are bras and panties) wrapped tightly around Artemis's left thigh, but it's soaked through with blood. She got shot. Fuck, she got shot. Her complexion is pale and she's breathing heavily and sweating and some of her shorter hair that grew too long to be bangs anymore is sticking to her face. Her eyes are practically closed, and Aunt Iris pinches to make her jolt and keep her awake.
He swallows a hard lump to keep himself from yelling out her name, and his goggle lenses get a little blurry when he blinks and gets tears everywhere.
"You need to get her to a hospital now," Aunt Iris snaps, and he has to blink and look at her for a second. She always shouts when she's worried.
"I'll run her there myself," he says. The hospital is less than halfway across the city, but he can make it in less than a minute if he just pushes himself and—
"No." He stares at Artemis. "Just… just get me to an ambulance."
"You've lost a lot of blood!" It's in this pool on the tile around them, and crap, he's going to puke any second now.
"Get me to an ambulance," she whispers harshly. She slides her fingers over his wrist, which is always how he knows to pick her up, so he carefully lifts her into his arms. She pushes her face against his neck and uses her hair to hide the kiss she places against it. "I'll be fine. Go be the hero, Bay Watch."
He wonders, for less than a second, if Artemis and Nana West have been spending more time together than he thinks they do.
That thought leaves as soon as it comes, though, as he gets her outside and then all of these people are surrounding him. She gets pulled out of his arms way too quickly and is being taken away in an ambulance, and he honestly debates going with her. He knows he can't, though, and that he needs to be here.
He looks back inside the bank in time to see Barry set his hand on Aunt Iris's shoulder and squeeze subtly before ushering her outside.
He's never really talked with Barry or Aunt Iris about it, really, how it feels to go through this.
He knows they're both scared all the time about each other's safety and that Barry hates putting her through everything as much as she hates having to go through it. It's not the same for him and Artemis. He usually has Artemis right beside him on missions, and he can be right there and be with her all the time if she gets hurt. This is the first time he's gotten a taste of what Barry and Iris go through every single day and not being able to do anything just sucks.
He "runs into" Aunt Iris as he's heading back inside the bank, squeezes her forearm a little when he reports that Artemis is being brought to the hospital and a watches a tear slip down her cheek when she thanks him.
... ...
The nurses make her drink an entire pitcher of orange juice after she wakes up from her surgery, and Iris is brought in almost immediately after she gets moved to a hospital room. The woman gives her a tight hug and tells her that she's relieved that she's okay, and Artemis loves that she leaves it at that.
Her mom will probably have a billion questions for her, and Artemis knows it's because she cares, but still. It's tiring to have to be interrogated.
But that doesn't mean Iris isn't a smothering maternal figure in her own way, either. She combs through the knots in Artemis's hair and puts it into this braid over her shoulder, wipes up her face with a wet towel and tops off her cup with more orange juice before she even empties. When she asks, Iris informs that no one else got injured and the robbers were taken away, then tells not to worry and turns the TV onto The Bachelor because it's the only decent thing on right now.
She doesn't know when she falls asleep, or for how long, but Iris is nudging her awake and saying something about visitors, and she yawns and sits up.
When her vision is fully focused, the first thing she sees is Barry running (barely at a human speed) to Iris, taking her in his arms and sitting her on his knee when he leans forward to dip her, and she puts both hands on his face and kisses him.
Then suddenly Wally is in front of her, hands on her shoulders and talking way too quickly for her to catch anything he's actually saying.
She bursts into laughter for no reason at all, and he kind of just looks at her before he gives her this smile. "Right. Shutting up," he says, pressing their lips together, and she closes her eyes and pushes her fingers through his hair and hums against his lips as he kisses her slowly.
... ...
Paula and Ollie and Dinah are all there, too, when they get the announcement that they have another visitor. He's kind of surprised that they're letting this many people in at once, let alone allowing more, but whatever. He kicked off his shoes and laid down beside Artemis, their fingers laced between them, and so long as he doesn't have to move an inch from where he is, he won't be complaining.
The visitors end up being the little girl Artemis stood up for earlier, and her parents.
Her mother is teary, but the girl is actually smiling as soon as she sees Artemis, which Wally thinks is kind of amazing. The little girl's parents both hug Paula when Artemis introduces her to them, and then Wally lets her sit on his lap (because she obviously can't sit on Artemis's) when she asks to see Artemis.
"Thank you," she says in this soft voice, putting her arms around Artemis's neck and kind of squishing her face into Artemis's shoulder as she hugs her tightly.
Artemis's eyes are watering a little and he brushes his fingers through her ponytail, knowing she can feel it. "You're very welcome, sweetie. I wasn't about to let them hurt you, or take away your pretty necklace."
She says that her necklace was a gift from her parents given to her as a baby, and that's why she refused to give it up, and her voice shakes when she apologizes and says that it's all her fault that Artemis got shot. Artemis kisses her forehead and says that she's an angel, and Wally's kind of completely blown away at how mature this little girl. And he can tell by her tone that it's all sincere and that these thoughts came from her own head and she wasn't just told to say them.
"I'm sorry I ruined your sweater, though," Artemis adds.
"Don't worry about it," her father says. "Actually, Cissie wanted to give you something."
Cissie's mother pulls out a card and a small present topped with a bow from her purse, and hands it to Cissie to give to Artemis. "Can you open it now, please?" Cissie asks, suddenly a little shy, and Artemis smiles and tells her, "Sure thing, kiddo."
The card is made from purple construction paper, with stickers all over the front and a crayon drawing of what must be her and Artemis on the inside, and Artemis puts one arm around Cissie in another hug before proceeding to the present. Cissie giggles when Artemis pulls off the bow sticks it onto Wally's nose, and then she bites her lip a little as Artemis peels away the wrapping paper to reveal a long and thin black velvet box.
Inside is a charm bracelet, with the charms being different kinds of flowers in different colors, and reminds Wally of the buttons on the little girl's jacket (before they'd been turned red with blood) that she'd given to Aunt Iris to wrap Artemis's wound in.
Artemis looks like she's two seconds away from crying, and she smiles widely at Cissie and asks if she'd like to put it on her wrist for her.
When Cissie clasps it on, Wally presses a kiss Artemis's temple and lets his lips linger against her skin and, for the first time since hearing the loud static from the police channel on Nana West's radio, he lets himself breathe a sigh of relief.