Thank you, thedancingcrown for letting me know part of this chapter had been cut off! Should be fixed now.
People were interesting. Weird, but definitely interesting. There was a psychology class that Artemis convinced him to take one semester that illustrated what Wally meant perfectly. The professor had everyone in the class read an experiment, one that showed how willing people were to forget all about their morals if someone authoritative told them what to do. It made Wally wonder how many of the henchmen he'd fought over the years were just too weak willed to say no when they were given their orders. That class opened a door for Wally, quipped his interest in other behavioral studies. Artemis spent more of the semester trying not to look too smug that her pick for elective class was such a hit.
Most of the studies Wally read were interesting, some of them were enlightening (but not in a "The Light" kind of way), but some of them were downright depressing. People were just so malleable, so changeable. That was what Wally told himself every time he wanted to punch Damian Wayne in his smug little face. Damian might have been raised in the same environment as Dick and Tim, but he was nothing at all like either of them.
Mostly because Damien was a…dick. Ha! Yeah, only it wasn't all that funny, because the Dick Grayson of this world was more relaxed and smiling and happy then the Dick Grayson of Wally's world, and that was just weird. Every time this new version of Dick smiled or made a joke it did nothing but remind Wally of how long it had been since his Dick did the same. And that made Wally start to think about how stressful the high stakes games Dick plaid as leader of the team had to be. And that made Wally start to question his decision to retire, because what kind of a friend was he to have left Dick in that kind of a situation?
The first night was the worst. Alfred and Jason stood on either side of Wally as he lied there on the medical table in the middle of the cave, which was dank and kind of cold but not as cold as the Arctic had been. Dick walked off out of sight and then there was suddenly Batman looming over Wally. Wally may have squeaked, in a completely manly and brave way. And then Batman smiled, wide and with teeth.
"I think this world is broken. Batman just smiled," Wally said, reaching out to grab the leather jacket Jason wore. He tried to pull himself further away from the laughing, happy Batman but Jason laughed too.
"Naw. We have a new sheriff in town, that's all," Jason said, patting Wally on the shoulder.
"Wha—" and then Batman pulled his cowl down and Dick winked.
"Why are you in the suit?"
Dick's smile turned tighter around the edges, more like the smiles that Dick from back home started to give. Alfred looked politely away and Jason said nothing but his expression was hard. Sad even. It was strange, watching this older version of Jason making the same sort of looks that the younger one used to. It was messing with Wally's head.
"My father died. Grayson is a pretender wearing his cloths until I'm ready to take the cowl," the boy that, at that point, was only known to Wally as not-Tim said from over near the computers. He was perched on the large swiveling chair like a black bird, glairing out from under his hood.
"Batman had a kid?"
The boy's eyes narrowed behind his mast.
"That's Damian. He's a bright, shining ray of sunshine and daisies," Jason chirped.
Wally thought about replying, but he couldn't find the words. How was he supposed to respond to learning that Bruce Wayne had a kid? That Bruce was dead? That Dick became the one thing that he'd never wanted to be; The Batman.
Dick smiled again, still with that tight edge to it. He pulled the cowl back up and nodded his head to Jason. With another firm pat that ended up with Wally flat on his back, Jason moved around the bed to stand beside Dick…Batman. It was weird.
"Alfred, I think he's going to need some food if Wally ran all the way from his dimension to this one. We'll be back by morning. Damian, stay here and keep an eye on Wally," Dick said, and it was freaky to hear that chipper voice coming from beneath the cowl.
The boy, Damian, jumped to his feet, fists clenched. "I am not a baby sitter!" he said angrily.
"No, but you're going to stay home and watch over the ally in our house like I told you to," Dick replied. Something in his tone made Wally tense. It wasn't a voice he'd ever heard Dick use before.
Damian stomped his way across the cave and stood toe to toe with Dick, scowling up into the face that Gotham criminals had nightmares about. "You are not my father, Grayson. I do not take orders from you."
"As long as you're in that outfit you do," Dick said just as firmly. And then he turned and walked away. He dismissed Damian and the cloying anger radiating off of the boy like a tangible thing.
Jason caught Wally's eyes and lifted his brows in a significant gesture towards Damian. Wally didn't get the chance to examine the expression for long before Jason pulled his red hood back on. Wally watched as they climbed into the batmobile and drove away.
Damian cursed, kicked the leg of Wally's hospital bed and stomped back over to his chair.
Wally remembered Alfred helping him upstairs, he remembered Damian walking behind them and scowling so pointedly it rose the hair on the back of his neck. Wally remembered the feel of strong old hands guiding him down onto soft sheets. He remembered how badly he wanted out of the sweat stained suit, and he remembered thinking how annoyed Artemis was going to be in the morning if he went to bed with his shoes still on.
Something smelt terrific. Awesome. Like his favorite food, which was anything staying still enough to wolf down and Wally was fast, so there wasn't much he wouldn't eat. He was starving. Holly crap. When was the last time he ate? The fridge was mostly empty, because what the heck was the point of filling it with good food when he was going to eat it all by himself? No one liked Wally's cooking as much as Artemis anyway.
"Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty."
Something bounced off of Wally's forehead and he opened his eyes to stare at sheets with a larger thread count with more zeros then his bank account. To be fare, that wasn't hard, but who was being fare? Jason lounged on a backwards chair beside the bad, a bag of pistachios still in their shell resting on his knees. Wally watched as he reached down, plucked up a nut and tossed it. This one hit almost the exact same spot on Wally's head as the last.
What ever expression Wally made had Jason laughing, leaning back in his chair and grinning with equal parts teasing and honest amusement. His smile turned crooked, his eyes crinkling at the corners so that his whole face seemed to open up with confidence.
It was the same look Wally used to see on another, younger face. The same look that he used to tease a Jason that barely reached his shoulders about, the same look he used to say would get the kid into trouble. It was weird seeing the expression on a face that, for Wally, didn't live long enough to get that old.
"You alright?" Jason asked. The smile was dying along the edges of his lips.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good," Wally replied, pushing himself upright. His arms shook. Definitely need to get some food soon.
"Anyone ever tell you you're a shit liar?"
That fact seemed debatable, considering Wally stood with his not-dead-girlfriend's mother over his-not-dead-girlfriend's empty grave and no one knew anything about the not being dead part for months, but this was different. This was creepy, actually. And relay unsettling, because he still remembered the way Dick cried at Jason's funeral.
"To each their own, but I got to get some food in me, buddy. I'm running on empty now."
As if to prove his point, Wally wobbled on his feet beside the bed and then dropped back down hard on the mattress. Jason looked unconvinced, but willing to let the subject drop for the time being. The other Jason never let anything drop when his curiosity was quipped.
"Get changed. I brought you some sweats and a shirt. Dick's not all that much taller then you, so they should fit fine." Jason pointed to a pile of folded cloths sitting unobtrusively at the end of the bed and then he walk out of the room. He left the pistachios on the chair.
Before even bothering to pull off the Kid Flash suit or put on the clean cloths, Wally shoved half the bag into his mouth, pausing long enough to peal the shells from the nuts but not long enough to taste anything on the way down. After the shacking calmed, he pulled off the suit (someone had removed his shoes which was all kinds of awkward because how did they know how to do that without taking off everything?) and pulled on the clean pants and shirt. Jason was right, they fit better than expected and were only a little long in the legs.
Jason and Damian were both waiting outside the door when Wally opened it. Jason at least looked satisfied now that Wally was upright and mobile, but Damian's upper lip curled back and he scoffed.
"You gave him Grayson's cloths? How typical." He stomped away before Wally got the chance to ask what was typical about wearing pants and a shirt, and maybe that was better because Wally was suddenly very acuity aware of why he didn't want kids.
Except for maybe Bart. Bart was house trained and family, and Artemis would be down with playing big sister-mentor figure for the kid, because he was cute in an annoying, hyper kind of way.
Alfred had breakfast ready for them down in the dining room. Jason stopped to say good morning and exchange pleasantries, but Damian plopped down into his chair like a little lord demanding tribute and Wally considered lobbing a fork full of scrambled eggs at the kid. Just to see what he would do. No one that young should be that uptight. Jason and Alfred ignored the attitude, so Wally figured it wasn't anything new and paid more attention to the large plates of food.
Alfred must have been up all night, because there were muffins (blueberry and poppy seed), there were pancakes, sausages, buttered English muffins, toast, hash browns, eggs (poached and scrambled), cut fruit, juice that looked fresh and the best smelling coffee in the word. Caffeine did very little for Wally, he metabolized it was too fast to get the kind of energy rush most people experienced, but Artemis was addicted. She was frugal in almost all things, except for coffee. Nothing but the best the grocery store had to offer would do, and always full beans that she ground herself with a little spice grinder at home. She was a master, and every cup of coffee Artemis made was the best coffee Wally ever tasted.
Alfred's was good, but Artemis' was better.
"No one could possibly eat this much food, Pennyworth," Damian said, one brow arched to gaze at the splendor before him.
"I believe Master West will prove you wrong," Alfred replied.
And Wally did. He let Jason and Damian help themselves, made sure there was enough set aside for Dick if and when he came down, and then Wally ate. He had five slices of bread, three of both types of muffins, a generous portion of eggs which he put on top of the pancakes and then rolled like a burrito to eat, two poached eggs and most of the cut fruit.
"That's repulsive," Damian declared once Wally came up for air.
Jason shrugged, but from the door way came, "That's how a speedster eats. They have high metabolisms in order to run that fast."
Dick's hair was rumpled, and there were bags under his eyes, but the smile he flashed in Wally's directions was strong and happy. He said good morning to Alfred and everyone seated at the table, poured himself a cup of coffee and flopped down into one of the vacant seats gracelessly. It happened to be the one next to Damian. The kid's eyes darted up to Dick's face, something moving behind them that Wally couldn't quite place, and then Damian glowered at his scrambled eggs.
"Patrol go well?" Wally asked at last, because the look on Damian's face was a little too close to the looks Bart gave Wally when he first showed up.
Dick nodded. He gulped down his coffee and waved the hand not holding his mug dismissively. "Yeah. Things always get a bit more energetic when the weather is bad, but it wasn't too bad. The important thing is; I think I figured out who to contact about getting you back home."
"Really? That's awesome!" And fast! Wally had only been here for a day. Talk about results.
"Who?" Damian barked.
Jason flicked a grape at him. Damian leaned to the side and the grape passed over his shoulder and bounced onto the floor.
Dick grinned wide and happy, and winked at Damian. The look earned him a raised brow from the kid and a pleased smile from Jason.
"You're going to reach out to the League?" Jason asked.
Dick nodded. "Yeah. They should have the tech to help. Between the Flash and Starfire, we'll find a way to get you home."
Damian gave a derisive snort and turned away from Dick. Wally watched him stab at his scrambled eggs with slight confusion. One second the kid looked like he was a forty year old man, the next he looked like a petulant child. There had to be a story behind the kid, more than just the bare bone facts that Wally had, for Damian to be so mercurial.
Jason gave a woop and toasted the air with his coffee mug. "Starfire? Good plan. Very good plan."
"Who's Starfire?"
"An airhead," Damian said at the same time Jason replied, "A warrior," and Dick chirped, "A friend."
Good. Informative. Cleared everything right up there.
"Who's the Flash here?" Wally asked, because that at least was something he might be able to get a clear answer about.
"You are," Jason said before slurping the dregs out of his coffee.
"Manners, Master Jason," Alfred said lightly before filling the mug up again.
Suddenly the food didn't look as appetizing anymore. Uncle Barry was the Flash and if he wasn't running in the red and yellow it was because he wasn't around to run anymore. It was a fear that used to keep Wally up at night, when he was younger and just found out that the cook guy dating his favorite aunt was also the amazing guy that kept his city safe.
"What happened to Barry Allen?" Wally asked his plate.
There was a moment of silence in the room. He didn't bother looking up to see what the others were doing. He could guess the condolence that would be on Dick's face, didn't know Damian well enough to know and didn't care, but Wally didn't want to look at Jason. What if, in light of this question, this bringing to the table those who were and were not alive in their respective world, Jason chose to ask the question he'd been hinting at earlier? Dick, the one from back home, told Wally about Jason's death in this world when their own Jason died. What the Joker did to the Jason sitting at the table right now was terrible, but Jason's death back in Wally's world was almost as bad.
"I'm not entirely sure. It happened back before we set up the League, back when everyone was wary about working together or giving up their privet identities," Dick said. Wally
glanced up at him, found the sympathy he'd expected in Dick's expression, and felt something in his stomach twist. "That was when I first met…well, I guess, you. It was the first time I ever worked together with the new Flash. But I didn't know who he was and he didn't know who I was."
"You know each other now?"
"Yeah. We formed a League here—Jason had the idea after being in your reality—and we've worked together a lot over the last few years." Dick said. He glanced at Jason, and there was pride there. Jason looked at Wally and rolled his eyes.
"Which was foolish. The likelihood of any one person in this joke of a League betraying the others is large," Damian snapped.
"It's a risk we're all aware of and a risk we're all willing to take. Friendships are important, and if we don't have those connections we've already lost the fight." Damian looked less then convinced by Dick's explanation, but he didn't argue the point further.
"In the mean time, Master Wally, you will stay with us," Alfred declared, and there was no arguing with that tone. Not that Wally would have, but he kind of got the feeling that an argument had been expected. Instead he shrugged, nodded, and took another sip of his coffee.
Now, hours latter and considering joining Dick, Damian, and Jason on patrol, all Wally could do was remind himself that Damian was a kid and hopefully he would grow out of the attitude problem soon. And, if he didn't, Wally wasn't going to be in this world too much longer.