Chapter 4: So Sorry…
He awoke with a gasp, beads of sweat dripping down his face.
What's going on? He thought slowly, swinging his legs over the table he was lying on. Am I dead? His feet slowly touch the ground and he collapses as he tries to stand. A pain going through his broken arm as somebody catches him and he puts a hand to his head. Alright. Not dead, but then that means! His eyes widen and he looks around ignoring, Robin, Aqualad, Wolf, Superboy, and M'gann until finally his eyes fall upon Artemis.
She's no dead. She's not gone. She's alive! He would've rushed over and hugged her except Captain Marvel is keeping him in his arms to steady him, and he can barely stand, much less run.
"Training exercise?" Robin suddenly asks, he looks about as bad as Wally, and his eyebrows and arched in confusion. Beads of sweat still visible on his face.
"Try to remember," Batman growls, but the growl is different. Softer and full of concern. "What you experienced was a training exercise." He listened closely as Batman explained and he felt disgust rise in his throat.
"But all that changed when Artemis died," Manhunter picked up after Batman and begun to explain, but that was all Wally cared about.
He looked over at Artemis who had her head down and looked like she was trying not to cry. Wally's eyes widened and he felt guilt stab through him. He should've been there for her, should've saved her. He was the fastest boy on Earth, and the second fastest being, second only to Flash, he was the nephew of the man who could out run death, who could go back in time, and yet he hadn't been able to save the blond archer.
He listened as Manhunter continued to explain about M'gann and he glared down at the floor. The madness was gone from his mind, the blame, the guilt, the grief, but the fear was still there. The hurt was still there.
"I-I'm so sorry," M'gann stammered.
"This isn't her fault!" Superboy yelled loudly daring anybody to argue. "Why didn't you stop the exercise."
It wasn't her fault, he reminded himself. She didn't mean to. But it had hurt so much, to watch hope disappear, reappear and then disappear again. To feel death brush up against him, to watch death brush up against everyone. To watch Artemis die. He half listened to Manhunter explained, but he was lost in his own confusion and guilt.
The words Artemis and coma reached his ears and he felt his nails did into his palm and a warm liquid reach his finger tips. It wasn't M'gann's fault, he tried again to reminded himself. But it was so hard not to blame her for his troubles. He wanted someone to blame, someone besides himself, besides Arty, but he couldn't blame M'gann. Could me?
He watched as M'gann turned to cry and Superboy and Captain Marvel turned to comfort her. Captain Marvel got there first, he watched as she cried into his chest and Wally forgot all about his doubts and anger, about his madness, about his hate and saw M'gann for the confused and frightened girl she was.
He watched Artemis run out of the room her head down, hiding the tears he was sure her eyes were filling up with.
Finally he stood up and left rubbing his arm, tears streaking down his cheeks, and slowly followed her out. He found her curled up in a ball on the couch her head in her knees her body shaking and he lost it. Running he grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug. He had to make sure she was really there, that she wasn't gone and he grabbed onto her scared that the second he let go, she would disappear.
She tensed in shock, before relaxing and he broke down.
"Wally?" She said uncertainly. "Wally are you-are you okay?"
His body shook with sobs and he hugged her tighter, "I am so sorry. I am so sorry." He sobbed loudly, he didn't care right now that he was crying in front of his worst enemy (so to speak) he didn't care that he looked weak, all he cared about was proving to himself that she wasn't gone.
She's lost. She's gone. She's dead. The words echoed into his mind again and he tensed sobbing harder. Squeezing her harder, as if he let go she would disappear again.
"I should've been there; I should've been able to get to you faster. If Flash had been—" He hiccupped and pulled away from her, but still held onto her arms. "I wasn't good enough. I'm never fast enough. I thought you were gone. I went crazy. I—I…."
He dropped to the couch, and pulled his knees up to his chest. "I wasn't good enough and because of that you died. Flash died, my whole family died. Rob died." He sobbed and buried his face in his arms.
Artemis stood there in confusion her own tears forgotten, here was Wally the jokester of the group, breaking down right in front of her, because of her. It wasn't right.
Slowly she lifted him up and pulled him into a tight hug, "its okay." She whispered softly to him and he cried mutter "I'm sorry." Over and over.
"Wally, I'm right here. I'm okay. Perfectly fine. See Wally look at me." His green eyes arose to meet hers and she smiled, "see I'm okay."
"You were dead." He said bluntly. "You died and I couldn't do anything. This is all my fault. Flash can out run death if he had to, and I couldn't even save you from it…" His nose was now red and his eyes were bloodshot. No one noticed Robin walk in silently, but then again when the Boy Wonder wanted to walk around unnoticed he did a good job of it.
"Wally!" Artemis said harshly. "Snap out of it! Or I swear I will give you something to cry about!" His eyes looked shocked and he blinked several times. Taking a shaky breath she continued, "I was the one who died. I was the one who should've looked back to make sure I had taken down the ship complete. I died because of me and only me if anyone should be crying it's me got it!"
Wally's mouth opened and a soft but came out, but she cut him off.
"But nothing! Wallace West, will you stop feeling sorry for yourself! Now I am going to close my eyes for ten seconds and when I open them I want my annoying, self-centered, jokester teammate back! Do you understand?"
Humor slowly returned to Wally's eyes and he smiled softly as Artemis closed her eyes tightly. Pulling away from her he wiped his nose with his sleeve, rubbed his eyes, and muttering a yes ma'am just to humor her. Ran to get a movie, back before she could even reach three he popped the disk inside the DVD Player. Smiling he grabbed some popcorn and sat down, just as the opening credits played, guiding her slowly to the couch he helped her sit down, just in time to watch her eyes opened.
"What the?" She asked in confusion, and turned to Wally. "Wally! What do you think you're doing?"
Wally smiled at her and said simply, "finding my own little Spitfire." With that he leaned in and kissed her softly and to his surprise she kissed him back. It was short, but sweet and with a smile Artemis asked,
"So what movie is this?" She turned to the screen, and watched scenes from the movie play.
Wally smiled goofily, "well considering we just got back from a not-so-real-life-threatening mission I thought we could watch others do it."
Artemis glared, "Wally what are we watching?"
Wally smile widened, "Ironman." He said simply; then asked, "Popcorn?"
Artemis rolled her eyes, "geek!" She exclaimed, but settled back into the couch anyways, grabbing some popcorn on the way.
Robin just smiled and left, something told him that the two wanted to be alone.
So what did you guys think? Was it as good as Cave In? (my other YJ fanfiction)
REVIEW REPLIES
LadyMysteri: Thanks :D
Ashley West: *arches eyebrow* You related to Wally? XD Anywas thanks glad you liked it
KTrevo: Ya same here except I just didn't like it, I mean I love Arty and so I thought cool! An episode about her, and then it was just a fail-ish episode.
Blank, no really there was nothing there…: Huh? Blue? Um okay fine by me I love the color blue
Aoiro no neko: Lol speechless is good, unless it's from stage fright…..
KFArtyLover: Ya me too, all during Failsafe
DeathDealer1997: Lol for the sake of the next chapter I like that
Okay guys this was the final chapter, but I have a very important question for you…
What should I do next? Here are my Rules I guess you could say
I will not do Slash
I will not do anything M rated and would prefer it to be able to at least be low T
Thank You and now I am Open for requests :D
~Ghosty Out
PLEASE REVIEW EVEN A SMILEY WILL DO! (it only takes 10 seconds)