A/N: I suck so hard at guesstimating the length of stories. Seriously. I sat down to write this "last chapter" and it kept getting longer and longer, so I cut it short and you'll get the rest in chapter five WHICH IS SRSLY THE LAST CHAPTER THIS TIME. Sorry I'm awful at predictions. :'C

One of the great things about Barry was that he didn't ask questions when he knew there weren't answers. He was there in the morning when Wally woke up- in the room Uncle B and Aunt Iris had given him in their house in Central City- and when Wally only blinked blearily at him, the man smiled ruefully and ruffled his hair.

Barry wasn't angry that Wally had run off when he was in no condition to do so, or that he'd risked his own safety for Megan- when push came to shove, things like that happened and he understood. He did, though, assure Wally that no matter what it was, Wally could tell him what had him so upset- he didn't have to tell him, the choice was all his, but Barry wished he would.

"You know I'll love you no matter what, Kid."

"I know Uncle B." And he really did.

But it was time to cut his losses. Saying it out loud made it real.

Barry somehow talked Batman into giving Wally a day off of, sort of; Batman agreed less reluctantly than either speedster expected, on the condition that Wally could be sort of paged into work in the case of an emergency.

He felt bad taking the offer as quickly as he did, but- he wasn't ready to face Conner. If Batman and his uncle needed to think it was a mental health day, then they could. It sort of was anyway.

I have to drop this. Get him off my mind.

Because it was just a stupid one-sided crush and in the end it was only going to hurt someone.

Wally sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets. He regretted his meltdown more than he'd ever regretted anything. If Supes didn't think there was something wrong with him before, he definitely did now.

But it was okay. It was.

Wally just had to repeat that a couple thousand more times and he'd get used to the idea.

Wally would go and apologize to him. Make something up- he was good at that. Convince him that nothing was wrong, he was just being stupid, lingering affects of the concussion whatever worked, he'd use it.

Robin had been there for the show- he'd be the harder of the two to blindside. But Wally was going to do it. He was going to make everything okay.

No more freezing up, no more too-big smiles, no more blushing and sidelong glancing- You're not a girl, Wally, and you're not getting anywhere with this.

He could make this be okay, no matter how much it killed him on the inside. And one day, if he kept at it, acting would stop being acting and become the way it was.

Until then, Wally would just have to cope.

He really didn't know why things like this happened to him. Honestly, he was just walking. In civvies. He hadn't been asking for it or anything close.

He'd been strolling across a pretty busy bridge, nothing to do really and energy to burn, and then bam, right there, a car accident. He didn't even see how it happened, his head whipped around in the direction he'd come at the sound of crunching metal, all thoughts of Conner blissfully evaporating. He turned and ran closer, a quick assessment proving that three vehicles were involved- as he neared, one of them careened right off the side of the bridge, plowing through the railing and into the murky water forty feet below.

There were too many people there screaming and pointing, and whipping out phones to call the police but too slow, for him to risk super-speed. He knew that, for the moment at least, he was any other fifteen year old boy standing in the way with no way to help.

Wally wasn't thinking as he rushed to the hole in the railing, shoving his way through people to get there. He did some quick mental math, and figured it'd be about thirteen minutes before help arrived, and a few minutes more before rescue was underway.

Plenty of time for someone to drown.

He stripped off his jacket, ignoring the shiver that ran down his spine, and fished his goggles out of his pocket. He shoved his jacket at someone near him and snapped the goggles into place over his eyes, didn't stop to adjust them, felt someone grab his arm and a few voices rising as it became clear what he was about to do-

But come on. He couldn't let someone die.

He jumped.

Cries followed him for an instant before he hit the water and went under, and all sound was muted but for strange, echoing noises- the full and hollow ambiance of the dark and dirty river.

Saving someone from drowning in a car fully submerged in a body of water sounds a lot easier than it is. But he focused on the step-by-step, never really having done this before, and wouldn't let himself panic.

If he hadn't had his goggles, he might very well have been screwed. Finding the car wasn't much of a problem since the brake lights were on, gleaming in a sorta spooky way through the really gross water, but opening the door took a lot of pull, and the girl behind the wheel was barely conscious- her long brown hair clouded around her face like a messed-up halo, and Wally reached across her to struggle with her seat belt.

She reacted to that, glancing at him slowly, and he took advantage of that brief moment, catching her eyes and holding them in what he hoped was a look of reassurance as he vibrated his hand through the seat belt buckle.

Hopefully no one asks about that if they ever drag this car out of here. He untangled her from the seat, feeling his lungs start aching for air and thought it wasn't fair, really, he hadn't even been down here that long. He put an arm around her waist, bearing her up out of the car. Her hands gripped his shirt tightly; she was trembling.

It'll be okay, he wished he could tell her, glancing up at where sunlight was refracting on the surface of the water. We're nearly there.

Four seconds later they broke the surface, both of them coughing and gasping and it took Wally a minute to realize she was crying, too. He moved in the direction of the shore, relieved- and surprised- that there were medics on the scene already and people rushing out into the water to help him, and when it was shallow enough to stand, he braced her- too worn out to walk, but the engrained instinct of any hero had him supporting her weight and telling her in a voice as low and comforting as he could make it that she would be okay. He sort of brushed the hair out of her face, because she was shaking and holding onto him like he was her lifeline, and it felt like the thing to do.

He didn't expect the kiss that followed- a soft press of her lips against the corner of his mouth, a beautiful smile and a lingering look as she was led away.

And he didn't expect to look up and see Conner on the bank watching him, fists clenched so tightly it looked painful, too blue eyes narrowed as Wally stood there dumbly in the cold water and stared back.

No, he didn't expect that at all.