Author's Note: So, GirlWonder2020 and AnonymousBooklover55 suggested titles for the series name and I really liked them, but I tweaked them a little bit (I just changed the world Love to Life because I, ironically, hadn't thought of keeping the series name to the same pattern as my titles; apparently GirlWonder2020 is more intelligent than I am) and merged them. The series name on AO3 is going to be 'In the Life (When Running Blind)'. Thank you so much also to Snowtiger21 and Guest and HI for their fantastic series name! Here's the next chapter! Read, review, and enjoy! This chapter is dedicated to GirlWonder2020 and AnonymousBooklover55!

Responses to Guest Reviews:

Cheesy cheese – Yeah, Wally is probably going to be faster than Barry, but he might end up just being as fast as. Thanks for the review!

Theawesomeflash – It has been a while! I am not going to be continuing after this story. This is the last installment in the Blind!Wally verse that I'm planning to write. I'm leaning towards not following the plot line of season two, just throwing in little bits of it because, well, this is AU and I haven't seen all of season two yet either. That would be a great story! Thanks for the wonderful review!

Guestz – There's definitely going to be more of Flash TV-verse Barry's opinion on Wally and the whole dimension thing in this chapter. Thanks for the fantastic review!

Zatannagurl – I'm glad you don't think it's boring! I was kind of going off of the show when Barry put Wally in the pipeline. Based on Barry's (Grant Gustin) actions in the show, I felt like he'd put poor Wally in his little prison. Thank you so much for the amazing review as per usual!

Joe – They do need some chastising. I'll be sure to give them some just for you. Thanks for reviewing!

Guest – Unfortunately, I don't watch Queen's Blade because otherwise, that sounds awesome! Thanks for the review!

Guest – That's a really good suggestion! Plus, I love The Who. Thanks for the review and the suggestion!

HI – I think that actually quite a good series name. I am totally going to write stories those stories (with due credit to you, of course) after I finish this one and get going on all my Merlin ones. Thanks for the amazing review!

WWWWWW

Wally was bored. Okay, that was an understatement. He was practically dying of boredom. And stress, but mainly boredom. It had been, like, days since they'd put him in their little version of a prison (alright, he'd admit that it probably hadn't been days, but as a speedster it felt like that long). They had put him in there without giving him a chance to properly explain but, honestly, that didn't even bother him that much. What bothered him was that he didn't have a lot of stuff to see anymore. It hadn't taken him long to memorize the details of the cell (six foot wide, six foot long, ten foot tall, metal, metahuman abilities suppresser, glass outer door, built not quite square, oranges and blues and blacks and silvers, inescapable) and now he was bored. Wally rested his head against the back of the cell and slid to the floor, tucking his knees up to his chin. He rested his head there and slowly (for a speedster) put his hand out in front of him, just looking at it. His hand was bare, just pale skin showing through. There were a couple of freckles dotted across the knuckles and the back of the hand and his nails were starting to grow a little long. Just like with his hair, his nails grew inordinately fast and he had to cut them on a pretty regular basis. It had taken him a while to get used to it, but Lizzy (his physical therapy person from Gotham) had taught him that upfront, telling him that it was the little things that he needed to know how to do on his own first.

Wally nestled his chin further into his knees and put up his other hand, comparing the two. They were almost identical, the only difference being slight shifts of the freckles and a little crook to one finger that had healed really crooked and hadn't been able to be exactly fixed, like his nose. Letting out a tired breath, Wally shut his eyes and massaged his temples. Being able to see hurt. It gave him the wickedest headaches. It made sense, of course, because he'd relied on everything else and now all of a sudden there was this strange, unused muscle that was suddenly sending messages to the brain, receiving images like it hadn't done in over a decade. And that frustrated him. It made him feel so… so… worthless. How bad does he have to be to finally get his sight back and then not jump at the opportunity, instead complaining about the headaches it gives him? It was pitiful!

It also wasn't his fault, Wally reasoned, trying to wrestle control of his whirlwind of emotions. It wasn't easy. His mind was skipping from self-hatred, to frustration, to optimism, to anger, to hope, to joy, to sadness and he just couldn't keep up and that stupid headache wouldn't go away.

Wally paused. He forced his heart rate to slow down, breathing deeply and stopping his thoughts for a moment. He just needed a moment to not think. He'd been non-stop thinking since, well, since Loki captured him, weeks ago. From then on he'd been thinking about being tortured, meeting Savage again, being rescued, telling people his secrets, Matt getting mad, finding a way home, saying goodbye, ending up in yet another dimension, getting stuck in this pipeline. All he'd been doing is thinking, thinking, thinking and it was wearing him out. He'd have plenty of time later. For now, all he needed to do was relax. He deserved it. He was a speedster; he could afford it.

He'd just gotten settled into a comfortable position to meditate in (Batman had demanded it and Daredevil had enforced it. Even Artemis made him do it) when the door to the pipeline opened, a great mechanical whirring noise that he hadn't been prepared for, making him wince, his eyes still resolutely shut.

He slowly, carefully, opened his eyes, mentally preparing himself for the barrage of sights. He blinked owlishly, seeing the one they'd called Cisco standing in front of the door, an awkward expression on his face and a large bag of what looked like food in his hand. As the man pressed a few more buttons and sent the tray of food into the cell, Wally really looked at him like he hadn't had the state of mind to do earlier. Cisco was kind of short and not muscly, but not that out of shape either. He had shoulder length black hair and a tan complexion with dark brown eyes that were trying their hardest to be intimidating. He wore a nerdy t-shirt and slightly ratty jeans over his tennis shoes. A watch adorned one wrist and the other was hidden within his pocket where he was fiddling with something or another.

The food finally made its way into the cell and Wally cautiously stood to grab it. He opened it up and was surprised to see the amount of food there. This was actually a legitimate amount of food for a speedster. They were actually going to feed him the right amount of food. The shock must have shown on his face because Cisco chuckled a little bit and said, "Yeah, we've got a speedster and we know how much he needs to eat. We figured it'd be the same with you." There was a pause where Wally immediately started digging in (figuring that if there was poison, his metabolism would deal with it and conveniently forgetting that they worked with a speedster and would know how to poison a speedster to the point that it actually affected him) before Cisco spoke again, "You said your name was Wally, right?"

"Yeah." Wally answered around a mouthful of food, enjoying the sight of it almost as much as he enjoyed the taste.

Cisco nodded, apparently not prepared to deal with someone who ate like they were famished (which Wally was). The scientist then squared his t-shirt clad shoulders and raised his chin, going for intimidating again, "Prove that you're from another dimension."

"Okay." Wally swallowed, "What do you want me to do?"

"Uh…" Cisco frowned, putting his finger in the air before frowning and tilting his head again, "You know, I'm actually not quite sure. I hadn't thought that far." Wally grinned at him, smiled genuine. He got a small, almost smile in return before Cisco announced, "I'm going to go back to the Cortex and see if we can find a way to test if you're actually from another dimension."

"Wait!" Wally hated how panicked his voice sounded right then, but decided to ignore it for the time being. He ducked his head a little bit, feeling as well as hearing the blood rush to his cheeks, "Um, would you like to stay while I finish eating? Maybe we can share?" He was grasping at straws, but he hated being alone and this way he could have someone on his side if the time came where he'd need it. But mostly because he hated being alone, especially in this brand-new world that was almost his world, but not quite.

Luckily though, the look Cisco gave him said that he understood; that he knew the feeling. The two shared another small smile before Cisco walked a little back and grabbed his own meal, plopping down in front of the cell and taking a long draw of his slushie. Cisco spoke first, "So, dude, I totally believe that you're from another dimension and I think that's totally awesome. Are there doppelgangers? Like, is there a Cisco Ramon on your Earth?"

Wally's eyebrows shot up and he nodded, "I didn't recognize you because, well, I used to be blind, but now that you mention your whole name, I definitely know you! You do have a double on my Earth. Not on the last one I went to, though. The last one I was at didn't seem to have any doubles."

"Amazing. What am I like? I bet I'm awesome, right?" Cisco said, smile lighting up his face.

"Yeah," Wally said, smiling back, "you're pretty awesome. You're a superhero named Vibe. You're a metahuman who can create super powerful shockwaves. You can break concrete and steel. Someone once said that you could shake the world apart with your shock waves. I met you a couple of times. Especially when you were training under Batman, one of my mentors."

"So I've got crazy awesome fighting skills?" He was nodding in excitement, grin making him look so happy and Wally realized he'd been missing out on a huge part of conversation when he couldn't see the expressions other people were wearing.

Wally responded, "Yeah, you do. Although, you came in with some great break dancing moves and you use those when you fight a lot."

Cisco's face seemed to light up even more, which Wally had formerly thought to be impossible. Then the grin seemed to deflate a little bit, along with his posture. He leaned into himself a little bit, shoulder-length black hair falling over his face, "I think it would suck to have powers."

"You don't want to be a hero that helps people?" Wally asked curiously. He wasn't judging. It took a lot out of person to be a superhero. It was painful and it was lonely and a lot of friends die in the process. Every loved one is at risk and everything has to be a lie to those who don't live the life. He understands why people wouldn't want to take up the crime fighting life, but he also knows that he'd never give it up.

The scientist shook his head, idly playing with the straw of his drink, "I mean, I'm already helping people. I show Barry where to go and I help improve his suit and build him tech so he can catch more metas and so he doesn't get hurt while he's helping people. I helped build that cell you're in right now."

Wally smiled sardonically, "You'll pardon me if I don't fully appreciate that fact."

That startled a laugh out of Cisco who smiled up at Wally, some of his previous gloom gone. It wasn't all gone though, and Cisco soon became more serious again, practically mumbling, "I don't want powers though. I don't want to deal with them and I don't want them if it means that I got them because of the stupid particle accelerator explosion."

Wally tilted his head to the side, a habit he wasn't likely to ever grow out of, "What's the particle accelerator explosion?"

Cisco bit his lip, obviously conflicted about telling Wally this. Wally kept his expression neutral, letting the engineer decide for himself. Eventually Cisco sighed to himself and started to explain a little bit about the dimension that Wally found himself in. He told him about the great Dr. Harrison Wells and about getting a job at Star Labs with him. He told Wally about working day and night on the particle accelerator, meeting Hartley Rathaway and Caitlin Snow and Ronnie Raymond. He talked about the accelerator messing up and sending a shockwave across the city, creating metahumans left, right, and center and hitting one Barry Allen with a particle accelerator induced lightning bolt that sent him flying into a bunch of chemicals. He gave some brief details about Barry's time in a coma before the man woke up and became a hero.

Then it was Wally's turn to share. He talked about going with his mother to the chemical plant that day, about watching the lightning come towards him before striking him and sending him flying into the chemicals. He told Cisco about the four month coma and then losing his sight the next day (he didn't get into much detail about that, only mentioning that he ended up in an orphanage after that) and about hating his powers. He mentioned getting adopted and finding out his uncle was the Flash and learning to love and use his power and dealing with enhanced hearing and becoming a part of a group of superheroes. He skipped over a lot of the rest, going into a little detail about the mission that led to the MFD and his trip to the other dimension and then talking about that dimension a little bit before explaining his getting to this dimension.

Both were long stories and by the time they were done, the two were sitting close to the glass, smiles on their faces and a weight off their hearts. Sometimes it was good to just tell strangers about oneself. It was a relief, a way to get everything out without worrying about the repercussions that come from telling someone who knows you. But what neither of them had accounted for was Barry coming down to the cells because Cisco had been gone so long. And Barry didn't seem very happy. He dragged Cisco away and around the corner (obviously not knowing about Wally's super hearing) and started talking, "What are you doing? We thought you were going down to 'your room' to go tinker on some stuff and then when I got there to check up on you, you're not there. Instead I find you talking with this guy. What if he's dangerous?"

"He's trapped inside the cell. He can't get me. Besides, I don't think he's dangerous. I think we can trust him." Cisco announced.

"We thought we could trust Wells too and look how that turned out!" Barry hissed. Huh, Wally thought, apparently Cisco hadn't gotten that far yet in his story telling. He never mentioned Wells doing anything bad.

"Wally isn't Wells, Barry. Look, I know it's too soon and I know this is crazy – I'm living this stuff too – but I think we should give him a chance. He doesn't want to mess with your plans or screw anything up. He really just wants to get home." Cisco argued.

"He's probably lying." Barry countered.

"That's a pretty in depth lie then because he basically just told me his entire life story." Cisco pointed out.

"Wells had us fooled for how long? Months?" Barry responded bitterly.

Cisco sighed, "I know Wells was just here yesterday and you just watched your mom, you know, again and Eddie just, well, yeah. It's been a bad couple of weeks and everyone's just super stressed, but not everyone's Wells. I know that you trusted him and you thought that he was your friend, your mentor, another father figure and he turned out to be so, so evil, but that was him, this is someone else. I can get not trusting him completely. I get that. It's only logical, but keeping him from getting home? Keeping him locked up in that cage like some sort of criminal when the only thing he's done is help save Central City from a black hole and call you uncle? That's not fair to him. Just because you have trust issues doesn't mean that you have to take it out on him. Do you think I don't have trust issues? Do you think Caitlin doesn't have trust issues? That didn't stop Caitlin from patching him up and it didn't stop me from giving him food and company. I think you should give him a chance, Barry."

Wally, eyes closed again, listened for a long time to the sound of silence as Barry mulled over Cisco's words before he heard the speedster in question sigh and say quietly, "Alright, I'll go talk to him now. But this doesn't mean that I'm going to let him out. This just means that I'm willing to give him the chance to talk his way out."

"That's all I wanted to hear, man." Cisco responded with the sound of someone smacking fabric (probably Cisco's hand patting Barry's shoulder). The two older men came around the corner and Cisco winked at Wally, knowing about his enhanced hearing, before grabbing his garbage and leaving Wally alone with Barry (he had to force himself to think Barry and not Uncle Barry).

There was a terse silence before Barry said, "I don't trust you. I think you're most likely lying and I don't want to let you anywhere near my friends where you could hurt them."

"I don't want to hurt them." Wally replied honestly, wishing for a hint of his Barry there, but desperately hoping there wasn't at the same time.

Barry crossed his arms over his chest and leaned up against the wall, "Tell me about the me from… your dimension."

So Wally did, looking down at his lap as he did, "You were born to Henry and Nora Allen. Your mother was murdered when you were a kid and your dad went to prison for it. You always loved science, especially chemistry, so you got a scholarship to college and had a masters in chemistry and a minor in criminology after three years. You started working at the CCPD as a police scientist and you started dating reporter Iris West. You got struck by lightning and became the Flash. You married Iris and joined a team of heroes. One of those heroes – Batman – called you one day and said he wanted you to meet his newest adopted son, said he had the same powers as you. So you came and he told you that I was actually your nephew. Aunt Iris had a brother who'd emancipated himself from the family because he felt like Grandpa Ira was favoring Iris too much. A couple of weeks later, you and Aunt Iris finally told me that we were related. Eventually I became your sidekick. You were late to everything and you always pulled everyone together, making sure that they didn't just fall apart. You make the corniest puns all the time, especially with your villains. I'm pretty sure that you and Captain Cold have some sort of competition on who can say the most corny puns in a single battle."

When Wally finally looked up, Barry was frowning, not even looking at him anymore. Wally took the time to study this man who shared the same name and powers and heartbeat as his uncle. Barry had brown hair that sat atop his head in a fluffy little windswept pile, laugh lines spiraling out from the corners of his eyes and the space around his mouth. He had a freckle here or there and he was tall and lanky, bordering on scrawny although Wally wouldn't doubt that there were muscles underneath the sweater he was currently bundled up in. But then Barry's green (?) eyes had snapped up to his and were looking at him intently. He said, "You said you were blind how did that happen? How are you not blind anymore?"

Wally winced; he hated telling this story, "My father, Iris' brother, found out I had gotten super powers. He found out that I was a metahuman and he decided that the world would be better off if I couldn't use my powers. He didn't know how to take away my speed, so he did the next best thing and stabbed by eyes out with a kitchen knife." Wally resolutely ignored the sharp intake of breath from the speedster on the other side of the glass and continued, "I'm pretty sure the reason I'm not blind anymore in the actual trans-dimensional travel. When I went from my dimension to the last one I was on, my enhanced senses and my speed way increased. So I think when I went from that dimension to this one, I got my eyesight. We figured out that my going from one direction to the other ends up with my molecules basically disassociating and then coming back together again, so there's a chance that something happens during the rearranging that ends up benefitting me. I'm certainly not complaining."

Barry tried to speak, but his voice cracked. He tried again, "How long had you been blind for?"

Wally wrinkled his nose, "Well, I was blinded when I was seven. I got sent to the other dimension when I was eighteen, so that's eleven years. I was de-aged for about eight months, so… eleven years and eight months. Ish."

The brunette speedster shook his head, "I don't know how you do it. I wouldn't be able to function without sight."

"Eh," Wally shrugged, "The enhanced senses helped although they're almost a hindrance now."

"Hindrance?" Barry questioned, leaning forwards a little bit and examining Wally as if he could see what was wrong. There was a hint of his Uncle Barry. Uncle B always did that exact same thing when he was concerned (which was all the time because he was just a big mother hen). It was painful to see that same move in this Barry who still didn't seem to trust him.

Wally ignored that in favor of shrugging again, "It's no big deal. I'm just not used to being able to see, so now I'm using all of my senses to analyze the surroundings, but I'm also getting a bunch of info from my sight, which my brain is not used to and it's giving me a bit of a headache. But it's fine." He tried to add a convincing smile on at the end, but wasn't sure if it came off convincing or not.

Either way, Barry sighed before pressing a few buttons. The door slid open and Wally stared at the older speedster in amazement. Was he seriously letting him out? Just in case, Wally stayed back, hovering near the exit. Something in Barry's gaze softened and he moved his head to the side, indicating the exit, "Come on. Why don't you come formally meet the rest of the crew?"

Wally smiled, relief lowering his shoulders. He and Barry walked (aka ran ten times faster than an Olympic gold medalist sprinter) to the 'Cortex' as Cisco called it. Wally just hoped that they could figure this out and he would be able to finally, finally go home.

AAAAAA

Artemis struggled to fall asleep. All she wanted to do was close her eyes and drift into a dreamless night. She used to relish the dreams she had about Wally (romantic candle lit dinners and him sweetly proposing), but then he'd 'died' and suddenly dreams about him seemed more like some sort of exquisite torture. Even when he'd been a dimension away and able to talk to them, dreams about him still hurt because he wasn't there with her. And therein laid the problem. Wally wasn't there in bed with her, so she couldn't snuggle up to that human furnace and fall asleep cocooned in safety and warmth. Closing her eyes and resting her cool forearm against her forehead, Artemis let her mind wander. Unsurprisingly, it drifted back to that conversation a couple of weeks back.

Artemis had been in her room in the new base centered in Antarctica, brushing her hair and humming lightly to herself before a voice had spoke out from next to her, "Hey babe."

She'd startled so bad that she'd dropped the brush, the plastic thing making a weird clank-thud noise as it fell. She'd recognized the voice, though, and couldn't even be mad that he'd caused her to drop her brush. Artemis had exclaimed, "Wally!"

His chuckle had been rich and warm even if it was a little younger than she'd remembered it, "Did I startle you? I'm pretty sure I heard something drop."

"You're mistaken, then. I can't get startled." Artemis answered primly, sticking her nose in the air even though he could see her. That reminded her, "How are we doing this right now? I thought you were in jail or something right now."

"I am. It's a rather lovely cell with practically nothing in it. Super exciting. My guess? Loki knows how to work magic even in those magic-cancelling bonds of his. He probably did something that let us talk to each other directly even this far away from the hole." Wally answered. Artemis could drown in the sound of that voice. It was everything she ever dreamed of and she loved him so much and she wanted that voice to actually be next to her, not distorted through dimensions.

Artemis laughed quietly, "Well, tell him thank you from me. Actually, don't. He's the one who held you captive, right? Didn't he torture you?"

"No one's going to let him live that down, are they? He might have been the one who caught me, but he's also the one who noticed when I was getting sick. He was the one who took care of me and helped me escape. He's not all bad. He's getting better." Wally responded earnestly. She could practically see the puppy dog face he undoubtedly had on. When it was time for dinner, he and Brucely always wore the exact same expression and Artemis could never help but laugh and ruffle her boys' hair.

She rolled her eyes and responded, "Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. This is coming from the same person who plays darts with his mentally insane villain and learns how to play instruments from another one of his villains."

His voice was worryingly strained when he responded, "Maybe we could not talk about villains right about now?" He phrased it as a question, but Artemis knew that he was more begging her to not talk about villains. It was obvious he was still hurting over the whole Zoom, Speed Force thing. Now wasn't the time to confront him about it. He still needed time to mull it over.

So Artemis's voice took on a softer tone as she obliged, "Alright, what do you want to talk about?"

There was a moment of silence, which worried Artemis. Wally was never silent, especially around her. Then he spoke up, his voice nervous, "I don't know if we'll ever find a way to make it back to the dimension you're in. I don't know if the Council will even let me out to try to get back to my dimension. I don't know if I'll survive the trip back."

Artemis interrupted, "Don't talk like that, Wally. You're freaking me out."

He kept going, "With all those unknowns, with no way to know if this is the last time we'll ever get a moment alone together, I have to get this out. I love you, Artemis. I love you more than anything else in the world and I never want to lose you. Ever. I know you, so I know you found it. I want to marry you, Artemis. There's a chance that I won't make it back to you, so I want to say this now, I want to do this now. You are my everything and you are the most special person I've ever met. Everything about you is perfect for me and I'd run to Pluto and back for you. So, Artemis Lian Crock, will you marry me?"

It was as if the world stopped spinning beneath her feet. The air was sucked out of her and tears started gathering in her eyes. It took her less than a second to answer, "Yes. Yes, yes, yes!" Her giddy laughter was soon joined by his and she couldn't think anything other than: this was so much better than she ever dreamed of. She'd imagined romance and flourish, but this, this was perfection. There was something about the fact that they were a dimension away, that he was currently in jail and she was alone in her room, that made this that much more serious, that much more powerful. It proved to her that their love spanned dimensions and she wasn't going to let that go. Ever. So she'd said yes and she'd taken the ring from where she'd taken to wearing it around her neck and she'd put it on her ring finger, smiling. The two had talked the rest of the night away.

Artemis sighed as the memory faded. As sleep reached for her with its inky tendrils, she pictured Wally and smiled to herself, knowing that he would be home soon. Hopefully.

Author's Note: So I'm getting further and further with the second season of Flash, so hopefully I won't put anything horribly off in this story, but I would like to remind you that this is very AU and so there are going to be differences. Let me know if I did anything wrong and if you have any suggestions. Ten more reviews please and thank you for reading!