I do not own... blah, blah, blah. You know the drill by now.

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"Victor Lennox is Luthor's supplier?"

Even Bruce looked taken aback, his brows drew together in worry as he saw Wally start to shiver. A sudden realization dawned on him, "Wally. You need to calm down."

Now it was everyone else's turn to look shocked at Batman, his voice softer than his usual gravel timbre. Wally didn't seem to notice, he just kept clenching and unclenching his jaw, his entire body shook, fists tight at his sides.

"Bruce, don't."

BRUCE?! Everyone thought, disbelief registering on all their faces.

Bruce ignored all of them, his entire focus on the man he loved from across the room. He got up from his own seat and slowly moved towards Wally, hand up in a conceding gesture.

"Wally. We can go. We can go right now. You are clearly still upset—"

Wally's eyes widened, his body stilling for a moment before tearing off his cowl. The remaining founders sitting in pure shock and awe at the scene unfolding before their eyes, jaws on the floor.

"UPSET?! You think I'm still upset?!" His face flushed, realizing just how angry he was getting. He took a breath and squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to calm his frantic heartbeat. Eyes still shut, he could hear the soft footsteps from Bruce's boots as the usually silent man moved closer, opening his eyes he was a little surprised to find the Dark Knight so close to him. They were still keeping their relationship low key. He stumbled back; trying to catch his breath, the pain from last night returning, and his eyes started flooding with tears.

Yanking his cowl back over his head, Wally made to leave, but before he could, Batman grabbed his wrist, loose enough that if he wanted to he could wrench free, but tight enough to let him know Bruce wanted him to stay. "Bruce not here, I—"

Diana and Shayera shared a look, a sudden awareness started to hit the group. Shayera leaned over and whispered in Diana's ear, "Could it be that…?"

Diana nodded, "We were just joking, but it all makes sense now…if you really think about it…"

John, Superman, and J'onn just looked at one another and shrugged, waiting for someone to explain what the hell was gong on.

Bruce simply ignored all of them, his only focus on Wally who was clearly falling apart and desperately trying not to.

"Wally, when will you understand that I don't give a fuck about that anymore?" Wally had a second to register just what Bruce had said before he found himself wrapped in Bruce's strong arms, his face buried in his chest. "That doesn't matter. You do."

Everyone stopped breathing. Superman's face turned beet red. J'onn looked on, certain things now making more sense in hindsight. John's mouth fell open in disbelief, then settled into a smirk seeing his buddy wrapped in a clearly loving embrace. Shayera and Diana looked at one another before they both bit back the urge to squeal. They HAD been right! They thought simultaneously, silently high-fiving.

Wally let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding, no one was yelling or screaming and Bruce was holding him in front of their closest friends. It wasn't exactly how he wanted to tell the rest of the founders about he and Bruce's relationship, but he wasn't really concerned about that right now. Right now he was trying not to lose what little grip he had on his emotions.

Taking a deep breath, Wally unwrapped his arms from around Bruce's waist and glanced briefly up at him before turning to face everyone.

Shayera was grinning from ear-to-ear, Wonder Woman beside her smirking. "So."

"Something you two want to share with the class?" John asked, he too was grinning.

Beside him, Superman was still staring at them in shock, "How could I have missed that?" J'onn merely smiled at the Kryptonian, patting the bewildered man of steel on the shoulder. "It is rather unexpected, friend."

Bruce watched all of them, eyes narrowed, daring them to say something against their relationship. He wrapped a protective hand around Wally's waist, pulling the agitated man closer to him.

They stood together, naturally settling against one another. Wally's feet shuffled back and forth, his bottom lip between his teeth. "Umm. Well, guys…Bruce and I are—"

"In love." Bruce finished. He looked at Wally, surprise registering on his face before turning back to their team, a mega-watt grin lighting his previously sad face.

"We're together."

Bruce continued staring at his lover, affection leaking into his gaze for the rest of the team to stare at in awe.

"You know," Clark said, a smile settling on his face. "If anyone could do it.."

"It would be Wally." They all said in unison. Wally simply smiled back at them, quickly pecking Bruce's cheek causing the man to blush momentarily.

"Okay," Lantern said, happy for the newly discovered couple in front of them. "We can talk about this later, but I think we need to know what made you so upset earlier, Wally." John paused when he saw the speedster's grin disappear completely, replaced with an almost broken look.

The others saw the change as well, Bruce let go as Wally stepped up to the console and typed into the search bar, bringing up a screenshot of the Central City paper. The headline reading, "DECORATED COP COMMITS SUICIDE ATOP NEW LENNOX TOWER, CLAIMS CONSPIRACY"

Wally looked at all of them, confusion still evident on their faces, the empathy in Bruce's gaze prompted him to continue. "This morning at 2:42 am, Detective Blake Hayes committed suicide from atop the new Lennox Tower being built in Central City. Lennox has started funneling a lot of money into the city, he's made a lot of new jobs in his facilities and he's becoming the new 'it boy' for business in my city. But he's corrupt. He's invested heavily in the local gangs and mafia, so much so that he now makes the rules. They do his bidding and no one touches his shipments. We, meaning the CCPD, haven't been able to pin anything on him. Detective Hayes," Wally paused for a moment, hesitant, but he continued, "Blake was the lead detective assigned to his most recent crime, the murder of Livy Emerson. Evidence suggests…" Wally hesitated before continuing realizing he was breaking protocol, but they needed to know what kind of bastard they were up against. "Evidence suggests that Lennox kept Livy as his pet. There were signs of physical abuse and sexual assault on the body when we found her. He shot her up with drugs before raping and killing her. She was ten."

Everyone looked sick, Shayera actually reached for the nearest trashcan. Superman paled, Wonder Woman, threw her chair against the wall, John glowed green before growling low in his throat. J'onn looked down at the table, sadness in his eyes. Bruce glared at the picture of Lennox next to the newspaper headline. If looks could do harm, somewhere Lennox was writhing in pain. Wally took a deep breath and continued.

"I've heard that even Lex Luthor finds Lennox disturbing, which is why I was surprised when you said he was Luthor's kryptonite supplier. Lennox is heavily involved with the human trafficking trade and even Lex Luthor doesn't stoop that low."

"It's true. Every time I've come across something like that in Metropolis, it somehow managed to dismantle within weeks. Luthor is crazy, but he's not that crazy." Superman stated, sounding uncomfortable defending the biggest thorn in his side for much longer than he cared to think about.

"Yeah, well Lennox has no scruples. He's the scum of the Earth and the CCPD hasn't ben able to get anything to stick. I can't even find anyone willing to testify as the Flash and I've tried. Believe me I've tried." Bruce stood next to Wally, his hand grasping his as he saw his lover's shoulder's tense. "Blake was my best friend. My brother. And he's dead because of what Lennox did, Blake knew something that he wasn't saying and he died for it. I was called to the scene late last night as Blake stood on the ledge. I tried to talk him down. I couldn't run to him because I was Wally West. If I would have known I would have gone as the Flash, but it wouldn't have mattered because he planned to shoot himself anyway." A tear fell down his cheek, his last conversation with his friend running through his head.

The other founders stood, looking at Wally so sad made them want to murder whoever had made their friend cry. Wally was their heart, their conscience and they did not want their heart broken.

Superman placed a comforting hand on Wally's shoulder. "We'll get him Wally. He must be stopped."

Superman looked at Bruce, knowing that Bruce had to be pissed. He could see the Dark Knight's gears churning behind the cowl, he recognized that clenched jaw. Bruce saw Clark's gaze, Superman nodded in acknowledgment, knowing they would do whatever they could to help ease their friend's suffering and nab the son-of-a-bitch.

The other group members mumbled their sympathies as they all filtered out of the room, the meeting clearly drawn to a close so they could all disperse and figure out how to next proceed. It being Flash's city, they would follow his lead, they had his back no matter what, but each of them were worried at the hard glint in the younger man's eyes. They hadn't seen that look since they'd all woken up to the sound of Braniac's screams as Wally defeated Luthor/Brainiac. They'd almost lost him that time. They sure as hell weren't going to risk a second.

Diana looked back one last time at her friends. Bruce and Wally were holding each other, murmuring softly and she couldn't help but think about the Justice Lord's universe. How it had been Superman that went AWOL when the Flash died and how he'd almost done the same when they had thought Wally was dead after defeating Braniac and Luthor. But looking at Bruce, she knew, if they lost him again it wouldn't be Superman. It would be Batman.

Making it worse, she wasn't sure she or anyone else could stop him. Honestly, she didn't know if they would stop him.

A world without Wally…it wasn't worth thinking about.

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