Every once in a while, people step up. They rise above themselves. Sometimes they surprise you. And sometimes...they fall short. -OTH
"Do you know what killed him?"
Silence, thick and uncomfortable saturated the hall.
"A broken heart, Dick Grayson, the boy wonder—dead of a broken heart."
Tim laughed, the sound like grating glass, broken and hollow.
"Do you know how it happens, how agonizingly slow the process is, DO YOU?!"
"There's only so much rejection a person's heart can take. There's only so much pain they can bear before their body starts manifesting that agony into physical pain. And when the rejection, and loneliness, and want for acceptance becomes too much the body decides that it isn't worth it, that death would be a mercy."
A smile, faint and pained pulled at Tim's lips. He hoped against hope that it had been a mercy, that wherever Dick was he was with his family and that he was happy. His voice grew quiet, as thoughts about what his brother's last moments had been like flooded his thoughts.
"Even if they don't have it in them to end their own lives, the choice isn't always theirs. Eventually there comes a point when the nightmares and the pain of being unwanted becomes too much for the heart to bear. The body will shut down one system at a time, trying to divert energy to the heart, trying to convince it that the agony is temporary that it will pass and life will be worth living."
"Tim, stop it." Artemis was begging, honest to god begging for the teen to leave them be, her grip on Wally's hand so tight that the skin across her knuckles was washed white with tension.
"It didn't stop for Dick. Not until he pulled in his last gasping breath in that god damn gutter, when his heart finally decided it couldn't take it anymore. There wasn't anything in his world that was worth living for, nothing to make the agony bearable!"
He was shouting by the end, his screams echoing viciously around the conference hall, where his brother had essentially been condemned to die—cold and alone and in pain.
"You were his teammates. You were his friends."
Red rimmed blue eyes glared accusingly around the room, settling on the redheaded speedster.
"It's your fault."
Emerald depths met power blue and, the first void of emotion, the latter brimming with tears.
"You threw him out, shoved him away when he needed you most—and for what for?! Because his best wasn't good enough, because you needed more from him?"
Tim shoved back his chair, slamming his hands down against the table, tears rolling down his cheeks. He waited but the speedster offered no answer, he just stared at him, green eyes devastatingly blank.
"He didn't owe you anything, yet he gave you everything…and you couldn't possibly care less, could you?"
Wally pulled free of Artemis, standing so abruptly that his chair fell to the ground behind him with a sharp clatter. He looked at Tim, chest heaving with barely suppressed rage.
"He was my best friend." Wally breathed, his fingers flexing into fists and relaxing again in a slow, deliberate motion.
"Then why didn't you save him?" The little robin questioned miserably, his tensed shoulders dropping as the fight bled out of him.
His only answer was a slamming door.
*Whispers* Happy New Year.
