Ch 7: Consternation

AN:

I'm back, baby! Thanks to everyone that wished me well on exams and in Japan. Both were great! I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not that I had extra time to work on this chapter. I struggled with it for weeks, then finally got inspiration just this morning, so yay deadlines. I hope y'all like this. At least it's the last of the 'explanation/immediate reaction' chapters. Then stuff gets to happen again! Yay! I have a good chunk of story planned out/half written for the next set of events, too. So, without further ado, Chapter 7 everybody!

XxXxX

They are silent for a long time when Artemis finishes. Her face is buried in Wally's chest; he's rubbing circles on her back. J'onn finally speaks.

"As trying as this night – and the ones before it – have been, may I suggest you break from our discussion for now?"

"Please. I- I think we're going to go back to my room. If you guys don't mind." Artemis shifts out of his embrace, sliding to his side and putting her arm around his waist. He slings his arm over Artemis's shoulders, and pulls her around to leave. Batman's voice stops them at the door.

"We'll need to tell the rest of the League something. They've been asking questions."

He looks back at them over his shoulder. "I don't care what you tell them, Bats… No. Tell them everything. They deserve to know, and it doesn't matter." He glances down at Artemis. "Not anymore." He tries to leave again.

"Hot Shot!" John calls out to him. He looks back towards the table and John hesitantly comes over to him. He's looking at the floor as he murmurs, "We- I need to talk to you about this. Eventually."

"Yeah."

"I… You… I'll see you in the morning." Wally doesn't know what he was going to say, but he can guess. He won't leave GL so anxious.

"John. You're still one of my best friends."

"You too, Hot Shot." He claps his hand on Wally's shoulder. They smile weakly at each other. "You too."

Artemis leans into his side, and he can't wait anymore. He scoops her up, nods to his friends, and runs. In moments, they're in his room on the Watchtower and finally alone.

"I'm sorry, I've missed you, I'm sorry." He's not sure which one of them is saying it, but they both mean it. Because he's watched her die three times. Because she's watched him die sixteen. Because they've lost so much that they didn't have to.

Artemis pulls him down to her level and just touches her forehead to his. He looks into her eyes. He's missed her eyes; grey shouldn't be that deep and expressive. It definitely shouldn't be that pained.

"I love you," he breathes and closes the distance between their lips. He pulls her down onto his bed, because standing is taking effort away from getting close to her. They're alive, together, and alone and that all that matter to right now.

He doesn't know how much later it is when they speak again. It doesn't matter, not when he has her in his arms.

"Do you want to talk about it? About… everything?"

"Do you?" She shoots right back.

"You know I don't. Canary would be so disappointed."

He chuckles. "She would, wouldn't she? Though she probably wouldn't be surprised. We were never good at the whole 'sharing our feelings' thing."

They're silent again, until she says, "We should go to Paris."

"Mm?" She rolls to lean over him at his confused sound.

"Paris." She kisses the base of his ear. "You're on leave from the League," She adds a kiss to his jaw. "Your job, if you still have one, won't care that you're gone a couple extra days at this point," Her lips brush his cheek. "And most importantly, the world's not ending." She kisses his nose, and stares down into his eyes. "You owe me a trip to Paris."

"I do, don't I? You are far too persuasive for your own good, 'Missy." He leans up to catch her mouth with his.

When they break apart, she hesitates for a moment. "Just remember this in the morning."

"Why?"

She worries her lip, but decides to play it straight. They've had enough secrets and lies for one lifetime. "Because I'd bet money they have – or will – make plans with the data I acquired, and they'll probably exclude you. I've gotten very used to working with Batmen. They don't mess around with these kinds of things."

"What! They can't! Not without me! I'm a founding member of the League!" He starts to get up, but she pushes him back down.

"Wally! Listen to me." And he knows better than to argue with that tone. "I'm here because the Anomaly is close. Given everything that's happened lately, it might already be here. Batman will have figured this out already, and the rest of the League will agree with him. There's no need for you to take unnecessary risks. With the intel I've given to Batman, it won't be difficult for the League to take the Legion down. Please don't risk yourself. Not now. You're not... you're not needed for this."

He watches her die behind his eyelids, and realizes he has to get used to considering his loved ones again when he makes these decisions.

"I'm sorry, Beautiful. I won't fight them on this. But… I can't sit on the sidelines forever."

"I know. I'm not asking you to. I won't ask you to. It's too late to leave the life completely. I mean… Don't think I'm not trying to figure out how to get my hands on a new costume…"

"We'll figure something out. The Flash needs his partner back, yeah? But… In the morning. It's late."

He reaches over her to flip the light off and she leans back into his arms. Again, they're silent. He plays with her hair, hoping she will sleep peacefully after everything she's endured.

"What are you thinking about?" She murmurs after a while.

"I'm wondering what your new costume will look like. I hope it's like your old one. I liked the bare midriff." He pokes her belly and she snorts, slapping his hand away.

"You never change. Go to sleep, you silly dork."

"As you wish."

XxXxX

No one moves to continue their discussion after Wally and Artemis's exit. He finds that... unfortunate. He finds he's doing slightly better without the young couple's painsadnessguiltrelief, but his fellow founder's emotional backlash still has him reeling. He'd prefer to finish this discussion and retreat for some meditation time. He never wanted to handle this kind of grief again. He definitely didn't want to handle it coming from Wally. (Because Wally should never have those feelings.)

He tries to center himself on one of the other Founders rather than his own thoughts.

Batman's – Bruce's feelings are carefully blank. He would use that as his anchor, if it weren't for the sudden jolts of emotion that break through the Bat's walls every few minutes. They're quickly and efficiently tamped down, but even so, they're a shock to his mindscape, much like a bucket of ice water to a human, and unpredictable enough that he can't shield himself from them. He turns his focus to his other teammates.

Clark and Diana are all compassion, so he is not surprised that their emotions churn with hurt and sorrow. He understands these. Wally trusts them with everything… except that he apparently doesn't. Even with Wally's explanation, it hurts that he couldn't share this with them. As for the sorrow… well. Wally's their light. He's not supposed to know sadness like that. It was an unspoken rule that he and the other Leaguers would protect him from that, so that he wouldn't. Ever. Then to hear his lover's tale. Well. J'onn knows that Clark fears failing his loved ones. Of course he would feel for the woman who had done just that, over and over again. Diana is compassionate towards all creatures. This had to hurt her, to see a sister, a fellow warrior, in such pain.

The emotions of his last to companions are more mystifying. Shayera and John are angry. It's hard to pinpoint what they're angry at. The world, for its cruelty? Wally, for lying to them? Artemis, for shattering the happy illusion they had of the Scarlet Speedster? No. If he knows them, (and his mind whispers that he does) then they're angry with themselves. While all seven of them are close, John and Shayera are the closest to Wally. John's his best friend. Shayera's his sister. How could they not know? More than that though, this isn't something they can just fix. Yelling, smashing, those things will do no good here. He imagines that is the most frustrating thing of all for them.

It is frustrating for him as well. With no one calm (and no Wally here and happy) J'onn is actually going to have to face his own emotions. He does not like this. While the others are hurt or angry over Wally's revelations and Artemis's warnings, he finds himself preoccupied with another piece of information.

He has a niece.

No. He would have had a niece.

A beautiful, kind, heroic niece. A girl he would have mentored. Who would have anchored him to both his old and new homes. Who would have loved him.

He feels for all that Wally went through; the kind, generous, joyful speedster should never have had to do that. He feels, too, for Artemis's troubles. But.

He would have had a niece.

And that's what it just keeps coming back to, isn't it? He had long since stopped picturing what his family would have been like. If his wife, his daughter, his brothers and sisters had survived. But now he knows, at least partially, what he could have had, and that one fact had irreparably burst through the walls of don't lose yourself to what-if's.

Because he would have had a niece.

She would have been wonderful enough that Wallythought she was worthy of courting, that Artemis would call her earth-sister. She would have embraced earth culture (and he is glad for that. This is a lonely world when you don't feel you belong) and made a life they would both be proud of.

He can picture he passion, her curiosity, her love. He can picture the most important thing about her: she would have been alive.

She would have been his niece.

He needs to stop this, like he needed to get away from Wally's pain. He speaks up, before he can lose this moment of clarity to more rumination. "I was not simply trying to get rid of Flash and Artemis when I suggested rest. We are all tired. Is there more we need to discuss?"

"We need to go over the plans to take on the Legion of Doom," Batman growls out immediately. J'onn notices that 'talking shop,' as Wally sometimes puts it, is smoothing Bruce's emotions, losing them to the Bat's clinical views.

"What we need is to talk about Wally."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with John." Shayera cuts in before Batman can respond.

The Dark Knight simply stares and laces his fingers together in front of his chin. "Deal with your emotional responses on your own time. We have a closing window of opportunity to act on Tigress' data and take down dozens of villains simultaneously."

"Now listen here you emotionally constipated cave dweller-" J'onn leans back at the anger behind the outburst, even as John moves half out of his seat, half-lunging across the table towards Batman.

"Do you really want to start this fight, Lantern?"

"Bruce! John!" Diana slaps her palm on the table; the two heroes dare not ignore her. "We are all tired. We are all distressed by what we have learned today. We have all been frantic for the past few weeks. Taking our frustration out on each other will not help us. John, I know you're hurting. We all are. But discussing Wally's revelations in his absence will not bring us to a meaningful resolution. Bruce, antagonizing us is counter-productive. Shayera, Bruce is also right. We need to take advantage of Artemis's sacrifices and use this data for a counter strike.

Shayera frowns and crosses her arms, but doesn't protest. John merely grumbles, "Fine, what's the plan?"

Bruce explains quickly and efficiently, as always. They all trust his tactical abilities, despite his recently revealed deceptions, so there is little discussion, just the fine-tuning of the minute details.

"Flash isn't on any of these teams." Clark points out as they're finishing up.

"Does anyone have a problem with that?" Batman practically growls at them.

"Wally will." Shayera says quietly. She's twiddling her thumbs together in a very… human gesture.

"Undoubtedly. I meant anyone else?" J'onn can feel that they're shocked – almost affronted – at Bruce's disregard for their teammate's opinion. Even so, nobody speaks up.

XxXxX

Diana gazes down at the crowd assembled in the main bay of the Watch Tower. When she asked for everyone onboard the satellite to assemble for some announcements, she expected only the few "night" watchmen and regular inhabitants to appear. Apparently, she underestimated the power of a rumor. Data logs showed that nearly every member of the Justice League was here. There hadn't been this many people on board since the initiation of new members during the expansion of the League. She supposed this meant she would only have to do this once then.

"Thank you all for being here. I know it's the middle of the night for most of us, so I appreciate your promptness and attention. I'll be brief, so we can all get some sleep. Many of you probably have questions about the recent events surround Flash."

There's a murmur of agreement, acknowledging that this is something of an understatement; everyone's dying to know what's going on.

"I want to start off by assuring you that Flash is going to make a full recovery, he's already cracking jokes and asking to be returned to duty."

"Not to mention shacking up with villains."

"Oliver!" There's a slapping sound; Black Canary smacked the back of Green Arrow's head.

"If you cannot keep your thoughts to yourself, Arrow, you can leave." Diana is stern. She knows what they're all thinking right now. That's part of the reason they decided to go ahead and do this. "But thank you for leading me into my next point. Tigress – now Artemis – is allowed to roam here freely. Anyone who accosts her will face disciplinary action appropriate for harassing another League member."

There's another murmur of disapproval. Diana notices Hawk trying to make a scene form the back, but Dove is quietly stopping his attempts to call out. Thank Hera for people like him and Dinah; she refuses to lose control of this situation because of a couple hotheads inciting a mob's frustration. Diana's spent years dealing with John, Kal, Shayera and Bruce. She can handle the rest of the League. She ignores the fact that she usually has Wally to help her diffuse the situation, and continues.

"Artemis is not our enemy. She has been acting as an undercover agent, passing information on the Legion to Batman. She's on our side and we should all be grateful she is. It was she that organized Flash's rescue, after all."

She pauses before continuing. She wants to savor this brief moment while everyone is pacified, willing to accept what she's telling them – that's going to change after her next words. "There's more. I know it's going to be hard to believe, but I assure you, everything I'm about to tell you is the truth." There's an undercurrent of amusement in the crowd; no one in the League has ever doubted her words. She's the Spirit of Truth, after all. Even so, she knows what she's about to say is unbelievable. Diana herself doubted it at first, didn't she? "The Flash – and Artemis – are from another dimension."

That's when she loses control of the situation.

XxXxX

"Mari!" John has finally found Vixen amongst the angry, confused Leaguers assembled in the main bay. Diana's trying to explain the things Wally and Artemis told them, so the outbursts are beginning to settle down, but it's still hectic. John identifies a few leading troublemakers amongst the skeptics, including Green Arrow and Hawk, and hopes they won't be causing any problems in the near future. They have enough things to deal with as it is.

"John!" She sees him, and follows him to the back of the crowd, where they can actually talk and not just fight to hear each other. "Are you okay?" She asks as soon as she reaches him. Wally's his best friend other than Rex, and he's been stressed out these past few weeks over everything that's been happening.

"I don't know." He really doesn't. He doesn't know if he can be okay until he and Wally can work this out. Because Wally was is one of his closest friends, and he had no idea.

"So all this is true then? Wally's from another dimension? He was a part of another League?"

"Their covert ops group, can you believe it?"

"Yeah, that was more the sticking point for me than the 'alternate universe' thing."

John can't help how his lips twitch up into a half-smile. "I know. It's pretty amazing. I never would have guessed the Hot Shot could be quiet, much less stealthy."

She gives him an odd look, before hesitantly saying, "It seems like, from what Wonder Woman is saying, he had good reasons to keep quiet. It's not personal John. I know he considers you a good friend."

She knows him so well. "I know. I don't blame him for it. Really. It's just… how did I not notice that? How can he really consider me a friend when I don't know him? How many times have we ignored his suggestions, derided his intelligence? He's a genius, Vix, and we never took him seriously. That had to hurt. How does that not bother him? How can he not hold that against us?" John realizes the problem as he says it. That's really what the biggest issue is here, isn't it?

They're superheroes. They keep secrets from each other. Hell, they didn't even know each other's real names for the first two years they knew each other! Wally keeping his past a secret is hardly a cardinal sin. No. It's how they've always treated Flash that has this knot of guilt twisting up into a ball of fear and anger in John's gut. John has struggled against prejudice his whole life. He's been judged for his skin color, for being from a bad neighborhood, for being human, and even for being a superhero. Wally, at least, was playing the idiot to protect them, and they mocked him for it. How can Wally not resent that?

"John." He was so lost in his own thoughts that he flinches in surprise when his lover reaches out to cup his face. "So what if Wally is smarter or more serious that we thought? You can't fake the extent of his forgiveness, his kindness. I'm sure Wally doesn't hold anything against you."

"He... he did said I was still one of his best friends."

"There you go. Wally wouldn't lie to you. Well, not about that."

"Yeah." She's right. Wally's still Wally. His Hot Shot, even if they have to remove the word 'idiot' before they call him a goofball. That knot of guiltsadnessanger is still there, but it's less pressing than it was a few minutes ago. "You know, it's completely unfair that Wally gets to spend the night with his girl, and here we are just standing here talking…"

"You're reading my mind, Handsome." She pulls him down for a kiss. He slings his arm around her waist and pulls her close as they head towards her quarters.

"Let me tell you about the big mission we're gonna have while we head back to your room, mm? You're gonna kick so much villain ass."

XxXxX

AN 2:

Okay, so you all know the 'cover art' for this was provided by the amazing IronicVeghead over on Deviant art (Seriously, go check out her stuff. It's awesome! It gives me the feels!).

Anyways, I stumbled across this: art/Spitfire-AU-361954455, way after I had already written ruminations. It's another JLU-style spitfire. That's basically exactly what I'm picturing. I think he might be psychic, too, because some of the other pictures have definitely already been pictured/planned so… mental images for everyone!