Disclaimer: I don't pull my punches.

This takes place after "Ultimatum" and right before "The Once and Future Thing-Part 1." I own nothing!

-Immortal-

-Diana's POV-

"Beep…Beep…Beep…" sang the heart monitor's constant rhythm.

Its sharp tone cut at her heart with every note.

Diana had been sitting at the boy's bedside for days now….listening to that sound.

But as much as it hurt her…she still prayed to Hera that it wouldn't stop.

Gently, Diana lifted her hand from her lap and touched the boy's hand.

It took all Long Shadow's remaining strength to crack open his eyes ….and give her a small smile. He lightly grasped her hand as he drifted back to sleep.

Long Shadow was one of the Ultimen, a group of superheroes created by Cadmus to help take down the Justice League if something went wrong. But before that could happen, the genetic codes of the Ultimen began to break down, driving them insane. Only Long Shadow, who had befriended Diana, chose to live out his final days with the Justice League.

The League had tried everything to find a cure. But in the end, the disease had finally caught up with him.

Long Shadow was dying. And there was nothing she or anyone else could do about it.

All she could offer was to be there beside him.

….She had never felt so helpless.

Diana slowly rubbed her thumb against his hand.

Her eyes traveled up the IV tubes stuck into his bruised hand to the bag of pain relieving drugs that made his final days bearable.

Her blue eyes then drifted to Long Shadow's pale and sunken in face. The boy looked nothing like the shy, tall, young man she had known. His long dark hair now was plastered to his face drenched with sweat, his normally kind and loving eyes were now filled with sorrow and pain, and his normally bronze Adonis like figure, seemed to shrink before her eyes.

She couldn't stand it. No one really close to her had ever died before. Well except for that one time when she thought Clark had been killed, and she had not handled that well at all.

She was immortal after all. Her mother and sisters were as well. Death to her had been nothing more then a story. A fate that only happened to her enemies, but not those she loved. She remembered when her mother told her and her sisters stories of death around a bonfire. After which the Amazons would praise Hera for sparing them such a fate …to have grow old, wither away, and die.

But she was no longer on her island, and here death was not a fairy tale, but a harsh reality. One that she found quite painful to deal with.

A creaking sound on her right made her turn towards the wooden door. It opened to reveal an unexpected visitor.

"Flash?" whispered Diana as the red speedster walked quietly into the room.

"Yup, the one and only," said the normally enthusiastic hero in a subdued tone as he quickly went over to the window of the hospital room and closed the blinds.

"Flash…what are you-" asked a startled Diana as Wally removed his mask and nervously rubbed a hand through his vibrant red hair.

"Doing here?" said Wally as he finished her sentence for her. He then grabbed a chair and placed it beside Diana.

As he sat down, Diana gave him a sharp appraising look. She did not like others to see her in pain. She was not some weak weepy woman that needed sympathy or comfort.

Loss was a part of mortal life, and she had to learn how to deal with it, alone.

Wally met her glare with a gentle glance.

"Oh please don't give me that look, Princess. I just thought you might need a friend, all right?" he stated with a small smile. Diana's hard expression faltered. She looked down sadly at her left hand, still clasped to Long Shadow.

She knew it was wrong to take her chaotic feelings out on Wally….It was just….that he wasn't the one she wanted next to her right now….

As she thought this, she felt Wally's hand caress the one that still rested in her lap.

The Amazonian Princess smiled slightly as she took his hand in hers.

And so they sat there for a while, listening to the repetitious beep of the monitor, taking solace in the fact that the other was there.

After several minutes Wally said, "You know he'd be here if he could, Di."

This statement made her dig her nails into the flesh of Wally's right hand.

She was not going to talk about HIM right now, on top of everything else.

"He sent you here," said Diana coldly, as if stating a fact.

"No. I came because I'm your friend, and you need me….whether you'll admit to it or not," answered Wally simply as he tried to get Diana to loosen her grip on his hand.

When she gave him no reply, he continued, "You said it yourself at Clark's funeral…he doesn't handle death well."

Diana's retort was a cynical, "And you do?" as she looked at the happy go lucky speedster as if he was joking.

The one thing she did not expect was for him to turn away from her, and grip her hand as tightly as she had before.

"Wall-"

Her friend let out a self-deprecating laugh as he said, "No, not really…but I've had enough experience to deal with it somewhat."

Diana looked at her friend stunned. She had never seen him act like this before. Wally, to her, was always joy and happiness.

But the weight of his words hung heavy on her already strained heart.

"Just what the Hades did he mean by that?" thought Diana as Wally seemed to regain his composer and glance at her again. This time, his usual smirk was back in full swing, "I know you'd rather have him here than me, Princess."

Diana sighed and looked at Long Shadow lying there with all the tubes and electronic equipment stuck into him. And she knew deep down in her heart how painful it would be for Bruce to sit there and watch the boy slip away.

Bruce always felt more than he let on, she knew that.

She only wished he could have found enough strength in himself to face it… for her.

"It would hurt him a lot," said Diana as she stared at Long Shadow's face.

"Yes," replied Wally simply.

"But yet…"

"I know."

And so, the two sat in silence with only the beeping noise of the heart monitor to keep them company.

-Wally's POV-

The speedster had been sitting at Long Shadow's bedside for nearly an hour and a half by now, and he felt completely drained.

Quietly, Wally excused himself to Diana, saying he needed a caffeine break. She gave him a quick nod and turned back to watch Long Shadow's still form. Wally pulled his mask back on and went down to the soda machine to get a Coke.

After pressing the button repeatedly, a nice, refreshing soda popped out of the slot.

"Finally," thought Wally, "Sweet, sweet caffeine."

With the Coke can in hand, Wally sped up the hospital stairs to the roof to get some fresh air.

"God I hate hospitals," thought Wally as he leaned onto the ledge of the roof and popped to top of can open, "So many people in pain…I can only take it for so long."

With that thought, he ripped off his mask and took a long swig of his drink.

"Yeah that's the stuff," thought Wally as the caffeine rush started to perk him up again.

The subdued speedster had a lot of sorrow in his heart as he sadly looked out at the vast city's twinkling lights and condensed traffic bellow.

"So…. are you just going to hide up here all night?" asked Wally out loud to the night sky in front of him.

Wally laughed to himself when he got no response, "I know you're there, Bats."

Still, no response came.

"Fine then," called Wally, "I'll talk you'll listen."

With a sigh the speedster said, "I can only comfort her so much, Bats…She doesn't want it from me…."

He smiled as a faint grunt like sound came from the disembodied shadows behind him.

Wally then quickly whirled around with his arms folded across his chest and glared at the darkness.

"I'm not the one she's in love with! SHE LOVES YOU!" yelled Wally angrily at the shadows.

"You sound disappointed about that," came the simple reply from the darkness.

That was IT.

Wally had had ENOUGH of this STUPID game!

He lashed out at the shadows, pointing at a spot as if he knew exactly were Bruce was, "Don't you EVEN GO THERE! Diana is my FRIEND and she will always be THAT and ONLYthat! I do love her, Bats. Just not in the way you do. AND SHE IS IN PAIN! Bruce, the only person who can help her through this is you!! But you're too caught up in your own SHITto go down there and HELP her!"

"I AM NOT!" growled the darkness.

"P-LEASE! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! You're hiding on the roof of a HOSPITAL, Bats! If that doesn't scream coward, I don't know what does!" yelled Wally as he threw his hands up in frustration.

Huffs of Wally's spent anger filled the night air as the shadows in front of him failed to respond.

"You know what? You want to be like that? FINE! I'm going back downstairs to Diana. At least she'll know that her pain and the kid's means something to somebody!" growled Wally as he threw his Coke can down onto the roof and pulled on his mask.

He had just reached the handle of the door when he heard from behind, "Kid…I just can't."

Without turning around, Wally blew out a sorrowful breath and said, "For her? Yeah you can…You can do anything."

And with that, Wally pushed open the door. As he walked down the stairs, he started to sing, "Am I bluuuue? Am I bluuuue? Ain't these tears in my eyes, telling youuu?"

The lyrics of the song echoed in the stairway long after he had gone.

-Diana's POV-

In a way, she was now very glad that Bruce wasn't there.

In the time that Wally had left, Long Shadow's condition had taken a turn for the worse.

His heart beat was erratic, and there was nothing more for the doctors to do than to wait it out.

But the most horrible thing of all, was the fact that Diana wasn't thinking about the boy lying in front of her, because all she could do was picture Bruce being in his place.

Now she understood why he was so hesitant to be with her.

The reality of it was staring her right in the face.

With every throw Long Shadow's body made, she saw an ancient Bruce Wayne in his place. He was hooked up to oxygen, tubes all stuck into his body, his beautiful dark hair had gone from gray to white.

And she sat there, like she did with Long Shadow… exactly the same as she had always been.

How many times would she have to endure this?

Would she have to watch everyone she loved in this world leave while she stayed?

Even Clark and Jónn weren't immortal. They, too, would die.

But it wouldn't stop there, Wally and John's grandchildren would come and go, and she'd still be here.

Immortal as ever…for all time.

And for the first time in her life….she saw her immortality not as a blessing, but as the ultimate curse.

It was as if the very foundation of her life had shattered beneath her as she held onto Long Shadow's hand with closed eyes. The beeping of the heart monitor went wild in her ear as she prayed to Hera to send her some form of relief.

And then…she felt the warmth of a familiar hand on her shoulder.

But it wasn't Wally… it was him.

"Oh Bruce-" said Diana, her voice breaking with unsuppressed sorrow as she reached up with her free hand to touch his.

His deep voice rang in her ear, "I know."

And with that, the heart monitor flat lined, and the tight grasp Long Shadow had on Diana's hand went lax…as if thanking her for being there and releasing her from the burden.

Beep…………

The sound broke down every last defense she had, and Diana began to cry into her hands.

Bruce knelt next to her and hugged the grieving woman to his chest.

"It's okay. It'll be all right, you'll see," he whispered softly.

But Diana knew it would never be okay, and yet… at that moment she didn't care.

Bruce was there with her…and that was all that mattered right now.

Author's Notes: Hope you all liked the BM/WW! I thought it turned out really sweet.

Update: A lot of people have been asking me who Long Shadow is and since he was only in one episode,I can really understand why this confuses people. Long Shadow is introduced in the episode "Ultimatum." He was one of the Ultimen, the superheroes created by Cadmus to help take down the Justice League if something went wrong. (He can grow really tall.) But before that could happen, their genetic codes began to break down driving them insane. Only Long Shadow, who befriended Diana, chose to live out his final days with the Justice League. We see him and his friends again as the mindless clones that attacked the Watchtower in "Panic in the Sky." Their clones are the ones that Galatea controls. There are two clones of Long Shadow in that episode. Since we never see him, the original Long Shadow, again I guessed he died somewhere between the two episodes. And since it didn't seem like he had long to live after "Ultimatum" so I set it here. He was a tragic character like Ace, except he didn't get a proper end, so I gave him one. Hope that helps everyone out.

More wonderful Christmas updates to come soon!

Next Time: "The Darkness in a Heart"

Yes, one more dramatic chapter before the funny comes back.

You'll just have to see what it's about!

Thank you all for reading! Please remember to read and review!