Brian Moore was not known for his patience. In fact, his near-legendary temper had led him to buy his own space for a gym. More specifically, a boxing ring. And over the years, he had gotten monumentally better at not blowing his already rather short fuse.

But as he looked up at the clock, which showed that time was fast approaching 15 past 10, he could feel himself start to twitch, stretching his fingers in an attempt to approach the situation calmly.

Moore made his way from behind the reception counter past the various weights stations and the cycles to the walled off boxing room at the back of the gym. The teenager, who at this point had been wailing on the punching bag for the better part of 5 hours, was still going at it like the thing had personally insulted her or something.

"Oi, kid," Moore called out, but her grunts of exertion as she continued to hit the bag were the only answer he got. "KID."

Letting out an exasperated and grounding sigh, he walked around the bag and stopped the rattling himself. The girl started and tugged her headset from her ears, still looking pissed. Moore felt himself soften the tiniest bit as he saw her red eyes and the tear tracks on her cheeks.

"Listen, kid, I should have closed up shop 15 minutes ago. You gotta go," he explained, watching her steel her face and wipe away the last of her tears. She nodded stiffly and although she eyed the punching bag, she wiped down with a towel and tugged on her hoodie. Shouldering past him with her bag, she made to leave without a word.

Watching her back move farther away, Moore felt something twist in his stomach. "Hey, kid. You ok?"

She stopped walking and was so still that Moore could have sworn that she wasn't breathing. After a few moments, she unfroze, shrugging, and continued on her way. Moore kept his eyes on her until she was no longer in his sight, but soon forgot her. He had asked, and that was enough for him to be able to get a good night's sleep.


As she rolled up to the house, a feeling of dread washed over her. Quiet, Dominique took out her keys and unlocked the door. The house was cold as she shucked off her sneakers, dropped her bag, and slowly made her way up the stairs. Exhausted, she flopped onto her bed, curled up and tried to go to sleep.

She was woken up several hours later by the sound of someone throwing a stone at her window. Creakily she unraveled herself from the ball she had curled into and padded over. When she looked, no one was in the yard, but not by any stretch of the imagination was she ready to deal with anyone who may have been there, so Dominique made her way back to bed. As she went to sit, the doorbell rang.

Upon first seeing her, Wally knocked Min back into the house with the force of his hug. Definitely not having anticipated the teen, Dominique was a statue in Wally's arms, as he whispered how sorry he was, how he wished that he could have gotten to the pier in time, how he was there for her now. Dominique wasn't aware of how hard she was holding him until Wally made a move to let go and she found herself unable to let her death grip go. He lifted her into his arms, toeing off his shoes at the bottom of the stairs, and with Minnie still clinging to him, he laid her on the bed, dropping his backpack and curling in behind her. Uneasy, but slightly more secure now that the other was within reach, the teenagers slept.

When Wally woke up, the sun was up, the bed was empty, and he could hear the kettle shrieking. Rubbing his eyes and letting loose a bout of satisfying cracks in his spine, the redhead made his way downstairs. Dominique stood by the stove, a mug filled with tea gripped in bone-white fingers. Wally seated himself on the counter top in front of her and pulled the mug to his mouth for a sip. It was silent for a few moments before Minnie held up a few pieces of mail, offering them to Wally.

Thumbing through the envelopes, Wally noted that all the envelopes came from STARR Labs, marked by people mainly in the same department but also those who had worked in close proximity to the late Dr. Stone. The ginger sighed.

"It's been two days," Wally reminded her gently, but Min gave no indication of having heard him. At least not until a disembodied voice spoke from seemingly nowhere, Min's lips not moving. "I guess that I was waiting for the condolence parade to start, but..."

Wally stared at Min who stared at her mug of tea, eyes startlingly blank. Wally waited for her to finish speaking, knowing that there was more. (When Minnie spoke, it was deliberate and thought out. Every sentence was a complete thought, and no words were wasted.)

Sure enough, she looked up at him, eyes still flat. "What do I say to them? To anyone?" A shudder raged through her body, and she tried to continue. "I haven't- I can't- I don't..."

As Wally was about to ask for clarification on Minnie's fragmented statements, 2 short beeps rang out through the kitchen. Both teens stopped, and then Minnie's eyes found her mug again as Wally raised a hand to his ear. "Kid Flash."

A grimace ran over Wally's face but he said, "Fine. Be there soon. KF out." Running a hand down his face, he met Dominique's eyes. She said and signed nothing, but looked pointedly at the door.

Wally gathered his sneakers and stopped by the door that Dominique was holding open. Hesitating, he pulled her into a hug and again reassured her that he would be back later. She nodded and watched as Wally ran around the corner, presumably heading off to do heroic things. Dominique let the door shut and made her way to the den couch, mug of tea again in hand. Folding her legs up under her, she turned on the TV to watch the news.

"-Labs has announced that there are plans being set in action to build a bronze statue dedicated to the late Dr. Silas Sto-"

Just as quickly, Dominique turned off the TV. Leaning forward and digging the heels of her hands into her eyes, she tried very hard not to scream.


"I'm here. What did you wanna talk about?" Wally asked Batman as he trailed through the Mountain after the detective.

Batman glanced back at Wally but said nothing as of yet, taking in the rather exhausted demeanor of his nephew for all intents and purposes. But first things first. "How is she?" He rasped, knowing exactly where Wally had spent the night.

The redhead in question sighed, running a hand through already unruly hair and crossing his arms over his chest. "Honestly? She's awful. The "sorry" letters started coming in, and the news probably isn't running anything other than mini-documentaries of Silas Stone's life, and she's hardly taking care of herself, considering that there was no indication that the stove had even been turned on in the past few days. She won't look me in the eye, more often than not, and the house is damn well freezing because she barely lives in i- and pretty soon she's going to have to start worrying about the house because of course she's a minor who has lost both her parents and her brother's missing and it's not like she's had enough to worry about in the past week but now you have to lump a mortgage on top of all that and I don't kn-"

"Wally." The redhead, who now recognized that he'd been speaking what Uncle Barry affectionately called Speedspeak, looked up from his rambles and sucked in a large breath at Batman's next question: "How are you doing?"

The boy shook his head stubbornly. "I'm better than she is because at least I still have a family and a secure roof over my head."

Behind the cowl, Bruce's eyes narrowed. "And your other... friend, Sonic?"

Wally stiffened. Directly lying to Batman was a trick that still gave even Robin trouble. So, remembering what Robin had told him to do to lessen the chances of his getting caught, he told a half-truth. "She saw Dr. Stone's death herself. Was there to hear his last words. She's pretty much my age, and she hasn't been doing this for very long. How do you think she's doing?"

There was a pause, and then Batman acquiesced. "Understood."

They walked in silence down the length of the corridor for a little while longer, but Wally internally was kicking himself. Of course Bats is gonna know about watching your parents die. Jeez, Wally, way to reopen an old wound like a champ.

The speedster murmured, "Sorry," and Batman grunted in response. Wally then remembered that there had never been a time to tell Bruce Wayne, as Wally knew him to be, that he knew of his double life via Robin, so he just hit himself in the face mentally and kept rambling: "About being snippy, I mean. Because that's the issue here. And not anything personal. Uhh, yeah..."

Taking a moment to compose himself and stop the smirk that was threatening to break free, Bruce allowed his voice to soften the tiniest bit. "Wally, there isn't much that Robin can hide from me. And there is even less that you are capable of hiding from me. I know."

Every possible red light in Wally's head was going off. So he did what he evidently did not do best: lied. "Bats, what are you talking about? I'll have you know that I am an amazing liar. It kind of comes with the suit, if you know what I me-"

"Robin told you on April 1st of his secret identity, thus revealing my own. I have chosen to do nothing about the situation, believing you to be trustworthy and a good friend of Robin's. Just like you decided that Dominique Stone was trustworthy enough to know your secret identity, and vice versa."

Wally, frozen even before Batman had revealed that he evidently trusted him, let out a very attractive gurgling noise from the back of his throat. Bruce allowed himself a raspy chuckle, then sobered up. "Now again: How is Sonic doing?"


-6 Hours Later-

"Minnie? Minnie, I'm back. You still here?" Wally opened the door with the spare key and searched the house in a matter of seconds. Frowning when he realized that she had evidently gone out sometime in his absence, the teen caught sight of an envelope and card that were sitting on the counter.

Wally recognized the barely legible script.

"To Ms. Dominique Stone, I am truly sorry that you must endure such loss. I understand if you wish to be left alone, but know that I am always willing to listen, if you wish to write. Again, my condolences. Most sincerely-"

"AQUALAD?!" Wally stared perplexedly at the note as Dominique walked through the door, hoodie drawn over her head and hands shoved deep into her pockets. She looked up at Wally's less-than-manly shriek and saw the note in his hand. She steeled herself for the conversation she was sure was about to take place.

Attempting to collect himself, Wally stared hard at Minnie in the awkward silence before asking slowly, "Where were you?" Minnie blinked twice before signing, "Somewhere near Nevada."

Wally's brow furrowed. "What were you doing there?" Dominique, unwilling to say that she had spent the better part of 3 hours screaming herself hoarse where no one could hear her or worry about the amount of damage done to the desert there, did not answer, eyes flickering to Aqualad's note still clenched in the redhead's hand. Of course, the speedster caught the movement and resumed his freakout. "No, better yet, what's this?"

Dominique kept her face carefully blank and held up another card for Wally to see. The contents were basically the same, but instead this card had been signed-

"Robin. Who knows." A disembodied voice deadpanned as Dominique stared at Wally, waiting for him to explain himself. Wally's eyes stayed trained on the card in her hand as he racked his brains for something to say. The silence dragged on for a while longer until finally Wally sighed, running a hand down his face.

"Ok, so, I screwed that up. Royally. So really, because I screwed up so badly, the only real course of action that we have is to make good choices in the future and hope that nothing awful comes back to bite us in the ass. Which means that you never ever talk to Aqualad if you don't want the League involved," Wally gravely intoned.

Dominique stared blankly at Wally, and then scoffed, a bitter smile taking over her face. The disembodied voice she was controlling sounded again: "So it's that simple, huh? Just move forward?"

Wally frowned. "I just said that I was sorry. And that I did screw up more than I think anyone had really anticipated. I can't go back and change anything that I already did, and I can't make Robin take back his sudden realization, so the only real option we have here is to-"

"Just move on? Wally, I watched my father die, and I can't even throw him a funeral because there is nothing left of his body to salvage. The Justice League of America is now aware of the fact that there is an unknown meta half-working with your team and is probably going to look into the matter, destroying what little amount of privacy that I thought I had left. And then there's Robin, sidekick of Batman, who knows who I am both with and without the mask. How long do you think it will take until some cape shows up at my- emphasis on "my," because I am now the only person living in a house built for at least four- at my door trying to pry even more into my life?" Dominique's message momentarily stopped as she let out a silent, violent sob that broke her concentration. Wally reached out a hand to help her, but she stepped back to the threshold, effectively out of his reach. There was a tense silence that hung heavy between the two, and then Dominique asked, avoiding Wally's eyes, "Could you please just... give me some time alone?"

Wally frowned, but tried to save what was left of the conversation: "I don't think that's such-"

"Wally. Please. Just... just go." At Dominique's insistent plea, Wally huffed and walked past her, bumping his shoulder against hers as he left. As the door shut, Dominique opened the cabinet immediately on her left and took out one of the many bottles of Jack Daniels whiskey that her father had kept specifically for the anniversary of her mother's death. She contemplated it for a moment, and then grabbed a glass. She poured herself about a quarter of the glass, and then attempted to down it.

As soon as she swallowed the first bit, Min coughed and spat the rest all over the place. Bracing herself on the counter against the burn in her throat, she waited for the feeling to pass. She looked at the bottle in her hands and just started to laugh soundlessly, first a few chuckles, and then almost hysterically as she turned and slid to the floor. This would happen to me. Her head hit the wall, and later on she couldn't tell you if that was the moment that she started to cry.


"This was not the smartest of ideas you've ever had, Ra-"

"Well... that escalated quickly..."

"C''mon, I'm goin' for pizza at that hole in the wall. Shut up, I don't need a Supernatural ref-"

The college-town side of Chicago had no real problems that Sonic could pick up from where she was situated on the roof of Willis Tower. She pressed down the edges of her mask for the fourth time in the past 2 minutes as she took a deep breath and once again opened her ears to the north side of the city.

The headache that immediately hit her still hurt, even after using her powers a countless number of times before, but she still managed to hold onto the railing and not fall off the roof. Now that everything was blaring at an equal volume, she had to sift through the unimportant stuff and look for anything that might have sounded like crime happening around the nei-

"With a headache like the one it looks like you're sporting, I wouldn't be so close to the edge."

Sonic flailed and nearly threw herself off the rooftop in surprise. Before she could overbalance in the wrong direction, two hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled her backwards to safety.

Whirling around, Sonic was met by Black Canary's smirk. Her mouth was suddenly startlingly dry.

"Hello, Sonic," Canary said casually, as though she and Sonic always met up on rooftops in the middle of the night. Sonic got to her feet and managed a "Hello."

Sonic dialed down the sound of the rest of the city until the only thing that she was focused on was the fact that one of the Justice League was here in her city for no reason that she could readily ascertain.

Canary's smirk inched a little more into smile territory. "I bet you're wondering why I'm here."

Quickly, Sonic plastered a smile onto her face. "Well actually, I'm wondering why you said that if you even knew why I was wondering."

Canary chuckled wryly after a moment. "Yeah, I can see the Kid Flash in you."

Sonic twitched, but said nothing, smile still intact.

Black Canary nodded once to herself, then spoke again. "But different than Kid Flash, you don't really have a mentor. Someone who could keep you... grounded, for lack of a better term, and make sure that you don't do anything too rash."

Sonic's smile faded minimally. "You're such a good samaritan. What, was this the community service portion of your Justice League membership?" Black Canary said nothing in reply. "Look, I don't really need anyone to get involved. I'm doing perfectly fine on my own." Her right hand came up to flatten the edge of her mask.

Black Canary could recognize a tell when she saw one. "And the textbook definition of fine includes destroying the Nevada desert for the better part of three hours?"

Sonic's face went blank, and she didn't answer.

"Look, you've obviously got some history with Kid Flash, but not nearly as much experience as he does in the field. I just wanted to extend the helping hand that every-"

"Do I look like I need help?" Sonic snapped, immediately wanting to take back the words because it seemed like snapping at any cape was a horrible idea, let alone a member of the Justice League. Black Canary considered her for a very twitchy moment. "No," the blonde relented with a wry tone, "I suppose you don't."

Sonic huffed, not knowing whether to call the comment a win or a loss. "Well, good then," she said unsteadily, and Black Canary watched her silently. Then, after allowing Sonic to sweat out the lull in conversation a bit, she turned around to leave.

"I hope then that we don't see too much of each other. Good luck, Sonic."

Sonic scratched at her nose. "Yeah, you too, I guess." Just as Black Canary was about to leave, Sonic called out, "WAIT!"

Canary turned around, one eyebrow quirked. Sonic swallowed ostensibly, and then blurted: "Did Batman have anything to do with this visit?"

Black Canary smiled a little condescendingly, and said, "No."

Ba-bump-bump-bumpbumpbumpbump-ba-bump-ba-bump-ba-b ump-

Sonic managed a small smile. "Good." Black Canary smiled companionably, and then leapt off the side of the building into one of the League's jets. In two seconds, it had zoomed off into the night.

Sonic's smile dropped. "Liar."


"She didn't take the bait." Black Canary said upon entering the Mountain.

"But?"

"But she's picked up on your trail, knows that you're onto her." Black Canary paused as she went to walk out of the room. "She's faking her way through everything."

Batman nodded minutely. "She's only 15. Teenagers are notorious for lying to everyone, including themselves."

Black Canary chuckled. "I really shouldn't be surprised that you already know who she is." Batman grunted in response. "So, what do you plan to do with her, then? The press will continue to ask questions."

Batman gruffly replied, "I have something in mind."


Sonic finally dragged herself into bed a little before 6 in the morning. Her head hurt beyond comparison, and she planned to sleep for 24 hours or more after changing into an old sweatshirt and a pair of sophies.

Two minutes after lying down, Min sat bolt upright again, hearing a window opening downstairs and two pairs of footsteps slowly thudding up from the basement. Ducking out into the hall and into Victor's old room, she brushed off a baseball bat that had lain under his bed since before the accident. Slowly, she stretched her head into the hallway and listened for more footsteps.

She couldn't hear anything.

Heart pounding deafeningly in her ears, she readjusted her grip on the baseball bat, her stomach turning queasily as she recognized the fact that she had lost her only advantage over the intruders.

Slowly making her way down the stairs and willing them with all her might not to creak, she made her way to the main floor.

The second to last step groaned loudly.

Cursing and also catching sight of a shadow disappearing into the kitchen, she quickly hurled the baseball bat in the general direction and tried to race back up the stairs. A bulky figure leapt from the main floor to the step right in front of her, and she struggled not to scream.

"DOMINIQUE, CALM DOWN. IT'S ME."

Keeping her hands firmly in place over her mouth so as not to suddenly out herself as a meta-human, Dominique realized that her option of lashing out and hitting everything within reach was now void. So instead, at the same time that she realized that a cloth was being pressed to her face, she kicked backwards as hard as she could and, having incapacitated some unknown female, she turned around and ran out the door, breathing harshly and managing not to shatter every glass in the area as she ran south.


Barry couldn't say he startled easily, not with his job description and his abilities. He could usually see everything coming from miles away, having worked out a situation's outcome seemingly hours before in speedster time.

But he could be surprised every now and then, as he was when his doorbell rang an hour before his alarm was set to go off at 8.30 and Dominique was standing shivering on his doorstep.

"Please let me in," a disembodied voice asked. The fact that the pitch was lower and the tone nearly robotic gave away his niece's current state of mind, and Barry ushered Min inside.

She wiped off her bare feet on the welcome mat, and Barry went to fetch her a blanket. When he returned less than a second later, Min had laid down on the sofa and was hiccuping violently. The shaking hadn't stopped, and as far as Barry could tell, Min was barely getting air into her lungs.

"Min? Minnie, I need you to look at me, ok? I need you to listen to my voice and try to get your breathing like mine, alright? Minnie, sweetheart, can you do that for me?"

Min didn't show any sign of having heard him. In fact, tear-filled eyes fixed blankly on the table in front of her, Min's gasps for breath only got worse. Barry, for all his heroic experience, was quickly losing his head as well, knowing that nothing was helping.

"DOMINIQUE!"

Three more hiccups for air rattled her small frame, and then Dominique fainted.


Sorry for the long wait! Review please!