Disclaimer: I don't own Justice League Unlimited.

Complicated Simplicity

Chapter Ten: Getting By

The gentle hum of hospital activity surrounded them. Doctors being paged, patients being discussed, and the occasional squeak of new shoes rubbing against the floor.

It made Hunter's blank stare all the more haunting. The intense red glow of his eyes had faded – he resembled an albino more than a supervillain, now.

Supervillain… Wally was still having trouble grasping the concept that Hunter Zolomon… Hunter Zolomon… was Zoom. This was someone he had had beers with as Wally West. Someone who he talked to about case files and made jokes with at the expense of other co-workers.

And he was a supervillain. A supervillain who had tried to kill the woman he loved.

Linda was back at her apartment, although she admitted she didn't feel safe anywhere at the moment. It made Wally want to break down and cry, thinking of the danger he put her in just because he was who he was. It certainly wasn't easy. Wally West was The Flash. And The Flash was Wally West. He couldn't just stop. It would be like asking him to stop being able to loop his tongue or being able to tell what kind of beef was being used for his burger just by smelling the air.

Wally sat by his friend, afraid to do anything to pass the time. It somehow felt like he would be disrespecting his friend if he did so.

A friend who tried to kill him and those close to him…

Infectious rage built up in Wally, and threatened to overwhelm him. He fought it down. Hunter was his friend. He was sick.

He was frozen in time.

And it was Wally's fault.

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John peered through the window leading into Hunter's room. He turned to the Atom.

"What happened to him?"

He was quiet for a moment. "Zoom can slow down time, and, in a way, Flash's powers speed it up. When Flash's 'Speed Force' came into contact with Zoom's powers, it must've… cancelled Zoom's powers out."

"Is he all right?"

The Atom grimaced. "He's frozen. I'm not sure if he'll age, stay the same… he might drop dead in a few minutes, for all we know."

"What about brain activity? He looks pretty…"

"Flat line."

"So if he does come out of it?"

"There'll be nobody home. Of course," he said, looking through the window, "it's possible that his brainwaves are just moving so slowly that we can't register them. Or too fast." He shrugged helplessly. "We can't tell right now."

John nodded. "Well… thanks for the help, Doc." He pushed open the door.

"Ray."

Lantern looked at him. "Sorry?"

"Ray. Pretty much everyone calls me Ray."

"Oh. Okay. Thanks, Ray."

Atom nodded and smiled awkwardly. "Um… give him my regards, won't you?"

"Sure."

John gingerly put his head into the room. "Wally?" he asked softly.

Slower than the Lantern thought possible of him, Flash turned his head to face him.

"Yeah?" His voice was equally soft, as though they might wake up Hunter if they spoke too loudly.

The man who considered himself best friend to the Flash pulled up a chair and sat down beside him. The speedster was just staring at Hunter.

"How are you doing?"

"Well as expected, I guess."

John took in Hunter's frozen visage. "Do you need anything?"

"Nah, I'm okay." Pale blue eyes glanced at John's ring. "You found it?"

"Yeah. He put it on my display in the Flash Museum." He looked at Wally unsurely. "Speaking of which, since when did I have a display in your museum?"

The speedster shrugged.

Well, so much for cheering him up that way.

"Nightwing recovered. He's back at Bludhaven."

"Oh, good."

Lantern put a hand on his shoulder. "C'mon. I'll buy you a coffee."

Wally sighed. "A beer'd be better, the way I'm feeling…"

"Whatever you want. I'm buying."

"Look… John, I appreciate it, but-"

"But nothing. You're my friend. You'd do the same for me. Hell, you've tried, remember?"

"A little," he mumbled.

"Right. So what kind of a best friend would I be if I didn't help you out?"

Another sigh escaped the speedster. "A bad one, I guess…" he said dejectedly.

John nodded. "Right. So let's go. You can visit him later."

Moving achingly slow, Wally pulled himself out of his chair and tore his gaze from Hunter.

"Every day."

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The differences between Central City and Star City only became more apparent when in the police department of the two cities.

The clean walls, the neatly dressed officers, the quiet yet busy atmosphere… Green Arrow couldn't help but envy the Flash. He looked over to his right, and saw Elongated Man slowly melting away in his chair.

"Bored, Ralph?"

"No. I've a got a date."

"You melt when you're nervous? Is that another one of those publicity things?" He smiled and winked teasingly. "Like your nose twitching?"

The elastic man shot him a look. "Is it true that you wear the hat to hide a bald spot?"

"No." Ollie self consciously touched the back of his hat. "Why, who told you that? Dinah?"

Ralph smirked. "You'll never know."

The door to the room opened, and Detective Jared Morillo stepped through, flagged by his huge bear of a partner, Officer Fred Chyre. Wally had mentioned them from time to time, but never in any way but complimentary.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," the smaller of the two said, sliding into the chair opposite them. Chyre elected to stand, his arms crossed in front of his barrel chest.

"It's okay," Arrow said, waving a dismissive hand. "We were having a fun discussion."

"…right. Anyway, about Flash."

"Are there gonna be any charges raised?"

Morillo let out a heavy breath, as if he had been holding it for a day. "He did put Zolomon in a coma."

"It's not a coma."

"When we explain it to the court, it's going to sound like a coma."

The archer leant back in the chair, his arms folded. "Are there going to be any charges?"

The detective paused. "No. Not right now, anyway. Zolomon killed a lot of people with those sonic booms when he first appeared."

"How many?"

"We've counted twenty six so far. But a lot of buildings collapsed…"

"We're still finding bodies," Chyre finished, his low growl of a voice sounding uncharacteristically soft.

"Unless Zolomon's next of kin arrive and want to press charges… I don't think there's going to be anyone screaming for Flash's blood."

"Does he have any next of kin?"

"An ex-wife."

"That's all?"

Morillo just shrugged.

Arrow got to his feet, and Elongated Man sprang to his shortly after.

"Thanks for your time."

He shook hands with both police officers. Morillo put a hand on his shoulder as he was leaving.

"Give Flash the CCPD's best."

"Of course."

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"Of course, you're welcome to come and stay with us for awhile," Jay said, trying to get a read on his young friend from across the table. The elder Flash had decided he preferred the warm orange tones of the Metro Tower to the blue, militaristic tones of the Watchtower. Something about the place made him feel tense.

"It's okay, Jay. I really think I should be with Linda anyway."

"Bring her along. I'm sure Joan would love some female company." He nodded at Shayera, who was sat between them. "She did when Shayera came."

"Jay, it's not… that simple, y'know? Linda hasn't had this kind of thing before. At least," he idly poked at the scrambled egg on the tray before him. "Not before she met me."

"Don't think that way. I don't want you to throw this thing away just because you're feeling guilty, you hear me?"

"And if she leaves me?"

"Has she?"

"No, but-"

"Then don't start getting paranoid."

"How am I supposed to be, Jay? Linda… she…" He turned away from Jay, back down to his food. "… I don't want her to be in danger because of me. That's why I should just…"

Shayera took this moment to speak up. "No. It's up to her. If she leaves you because of this, fine. But don't you make that decision for her. That's something…"

"What?"

"That Batman would do."

Silence hung between them.

"This is amazing!"

Bart zipped in beside them, an amused Hawkman following him into the room.

"Those training robots are way harder than the ones wehave!"

"And that's a good thing?" Jay asked bemusedly.

"Yeah! Those things really make me stretch my legs, y'know?" He looked over at Wally's dour expression. "Oh. Oops. Sorry, Wally."

The speedster smiled weakly. "It's okay, buddy. It's kinda nice to have someone acting normally around me."

Shayera and Jay exchanged looks. "We're just trying to help, Wally."

"By butting in?"

Jay's frown turned into a scowl. "Now, hold on. That's not-"

In a move so fast and violent it even made Shayera jump, Wally got to his feet and slammed his hands down on the table.

"Just shut up, okay?!"

All noise from the commissary dropped away.

Carter put a hand on his shoulder. "Wally-"

The speedster coldly shrugged off the hand and disappeared in a blur of red and gold.

Jay closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead while Shayera stared blankly down at the pasta on her tray.

"Excuse me, I have to go and break something."

The Thanagarian upped and left.

Bart looked up at Carter, pointing after Shayera. "Shouldn't someone-?"

"Definitely not."

"Oh." He pointed in the direction Wally had left. "Then shouldn't someone, uh…?"

Hawkman paused at that. "I don't know."

Bart took that as a 'yes', and shot off after his elder cousin.

Carter looked down at Jay, and they exchanged friendly nods.

"I don't remember having these problems when I was his age."

Taking it as an invitation, Hawkman sat down opposite the elder Flash. "He's a different kind of person. He takes things… very personally."

Jay sighed and leant back in his chair. "He'll be all right. I just wish one of us could be the ones to do it."

"I know. But his bond with Linda is rather strong. Maybe she can help him more than any of us."

He was silent. "Or maybe they'll help each other." Jay's head snapped up to look at Carter. "Anyway. Let's move on to a different subject, shall we?"

"Um… all right."

"All this action has got me thinking." Jay leant forward on the table. "You think this floating superhero club of yours could use two speedsters?"

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Bart almost ran past Wally, and struggled to come to a stop once he spotted him. He was stood on an observation deck, overlooking the Earth as it spun below them.

"Wally?"

"…Hey, Bart." It was barely a murmur.

Kid Flash stood beside his would-be mentor, putting his hands behind his back in a way he thought looked intelligent.

"Nice view."

"Yeah."

"Wally?"

"Hm?"

"What's actually wrong? I mean, you beat the bad guy, right? I know that he's your friend and all, but y'know… he's still alive, and he might pull through later on."

"Mmm-hmm."

"Then why're you gettin' all angry with old Flash and Shayera?"

"Because…" Wally let out a breath. "It's complicated, Bart."

"What? Is it because Linda was put in danger just because you were the Flash?"

"…kinda."

"Because that sounds pretty simple to me."

Wally frowned briefly, and didn't reply straight away. "I guess."

"So it's not about that."

"Look, Bart, I-"

"Kid, let him be. I've gotta talk to him."

The two speedsters looked over to the approaching Green Arrow. Wally looked at his sidekick. "It's okay, Bart."

Reluctantly, he sped away, presumably back to the commissary.

Arrow stood beside Wally, looking out at the view in much the same way Bart had.

"Good kid."

"The best."

Ollie sighed. "I'm here to tell you that there won't be any charges pressed for what happened to Zolomon."

"Oh. Good."

The archer turned to Wally. "By the way… I just wanted to say that… I was wrong. What I said before about sometimes having to kill. You… proved that there's always another way."

"It's nothing."

"It's not nothing, it's-"

"It's nothing, Arrow, all right?"

Ollie grit his teeth. "Dammit, what's wrong with you? Is this because of Linda?"

"No."

"Then what is it? Why are you acting like this isn't a good thing?"

The speedster whirled to face him. "Because I WAStrying to kill him, all right?!"

Silence followed. Wally whirled back around to look out the window. The gentle thrum of the Watchtower's generator seemed to grow louder with every second that passed.

Arrow gingerly put a hand on his shoulder. "It… it was for all the right reasons, Flash. He was going to kill everyone you cared about, and then move on to anyone else who tried to stop him." He turned the speedster around so they were face to face. "You weren't wrong to try, you hear me?"

He didn't reply at first. He just stared out the window.

"You make it sound like I was trying it to save the world." Wally pulled off his cowl and looked at Arrow. "I wasn't. All I was thinking of was Linda. That's all. No noble intentions, no 'for the greater good' crap. I tried to kill him, and I did it just to save the woman I…" His head dropped. "Well… let's just say I wasn't really sticking to my own rules."

His gaze returned to the window. Arrow pulled off his own mask as he spoke.

"Wally."

No reply.

"Wally, look at me."

The speedster slothfully moved his pale blue eyes to Ollie.

"You did what you had to do. And even though you think what you did was selfish, believe me, it was anything but. Zolomon killed over twenty six people with those sonic booms of his. Twenty six."

"Oh, so it's okay because it's revenge, is that it?"

"Wally-"

"No, no." A determination that Arrow hadn't seen from Wally since Iron Heights powered his words. "You know what? You were still wrong. We shouldn't kill. I shouldn't have tried. And now that I've actually come close to doing it, I never want to try again, and I never will. You may be okay with taking the occasional life, but I'm not. Next time you look at one of those 'necessary killings', just think about this; it's someone's son, or daughter, or parent, or brother or sister that you're aiming that fancy arrow at. And you can call me naïve or stupid or whatever, but I can't deal with that."

The sudden barrage brought up the argumentative side of Ollie. "What about people like Murmur? He's going to be executed. You know that."

"Yeah, I do. And it's gonna be burned into me for the rest of my life." He put his face forward so that he and Ollie were practically nose to nose. "But I am never… never… gonna start accepting it as 'something we have to do'."

Wally prepared himself for a rebuttal. For a smart comeback. Something. He sure as hell wasn't expecting what he got.

"Good."

"I… what?"

"I said, good." He smiled, and put a hand on Wally's shoulder. "It's good that we have someone like you. We need someone like you." He pointed a thumb into his own chest. "I may be here to keep the League honest, but you? You're here to keep us right. And I'm glad."

He slipped his mask back on and adjusted it a few times before giving Wally a goodbye wave.

"I'll see you around, kid."

And with that, Oliver Queen left the observation room, leaving Wally West alone with himself.

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His date with Sue had gone surprisingly well, for him. The most fantastic thing was that when he stretched his hand over to grab a breadstick or tap a waiter on the shoulder, she wasn't at all freaked out. If anything, she was even more enamoured with him.

Ralph paused in mid-strut as he passed the Rumpus Room.

Clack… clack… clack… clunk.

He stretched his ear over the door.

His eyes widened. He recognised that noise. An elongated finger pressed a button, and Ralph stepped through.

Flash was sat by himself, idly tapping the buttons on his green Brawlin' Bot.

It was the saddest thing the detective had ever seen.

He slowly made his way in and sat down.

"Hey, buddy."

"Hm? Oh, hey."

"How's stuff?"

He shrugged. "It's okay."

"You want a game?"

"Okay."

Their game was nowhere near as frantic as it usually was. But Ralph could give Wally a little leeway, considering how he was feeling.

"Oh, uh…"

Wally looked up at him. Ralph was still looking down at the Brawlin' Bots, tapping away.

"I realise how wildly inappropriate, disrespectful, and generally distasteful this is, but… Hunter Zolomon being Zoom?" He put a hand up and did a small 'boo-yah' gesture. "Called it."

He didn't dare look up at his speedster friend.

Wally snorted and quickly burst out laughing. And it wasn't sarcastic, ironic, or forced. It was a genuine laugh. He slapped Ralph on the arm, shook his head, and got back to his game.

As usual, Wally won. The two leaned back in their respective chairs.

"Thanks, Ralph."

"What, for letting you win? No problem. I do it all the time."

"Yeah, but… thanks. For… y'know, not babying me or anything."

Ralph shrugged. "Ask me how my date went, and we're even."

"How'd your date go, Ralph?"

"Oh, it was great! First…"

Normality began to resume.

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Quietly, Wally knocked on the door of Linda's apartment. She had buzzed him in from downstairs, so she obviously wanted to talk face to face. That was good, right? Linda opened the door.

"…hi."

"Hi."

"Come in, come in."

Wally did. "Linda, I just… I wanted to say I'm so sorry for… everything."

She sighed and sat down on her sofa, inviting him to do the same. She didn't talk until he was sat down.

"Wally. You had nothing to do with what Hunter did. And if you start blaming yourself for something that wasn't anything to do with you, I swear to God I'll hit you."

He continued on nervously. "Well… I just… I'm sorry, is all. Not just for Hunter, but for how scared you were, and how I couldn't do anything to help you."

She cocked an eyebrow. "Are you blaming yourself for things that aren't your fault again? You heard what I said about hitting you, right?"

Wally looked at her incredulously. "Wait. You aren't… upset or anything?"

"Well…" she tucked some hair behind her ear as she considered her words. "…I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared by the whole thing. Actually, 'peeing and/or crapping my pants terrified' sounds more accurate. And… it's going to take me a long time to get over it."

A worried look was Wally's only response. She put her hand on his.

"But… that's all part and package of being with you. I've accepted that. It's not gonna be easy for either of us, but… I'm willing to do it. As soon as you took off that mask in the hospital and showed me who you really were, I knew that."

He still didn't seem convinced.

Linda cocked her head to the side. "But that's not all of it."

The speedster shook his head. "I… I was trying to kill him, Linda."

"But he's not dead."

"It doesn't matter. Not to me. As far as I knew, Hunter was gonna end up dead, and at that moment… I thought that was okay." His tortured gaze met hers. "I thought it was okay to kill somebody."

Reacting on instinct, Linda gently pulled Wally into her embrace. He fell into it easily.

"It's okay, Wally…" she soothed, stroking the back of his head.

"But it's not… I ruined it…"

"I know… and you're going to have to live with it. Just like I'm going to have to." She pulled away, and forced his ashamed gaze to meet hers. "From now on, we deal with these things together."

He slowly smiled. "Thanks, Linda."

She shrugged. "No problem. Tell you what. You save me from supervillains, and I'll take care of you afterwards. Fair trade?"

His smile grew. "I can live with that."

"I thought so."

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(A/N: The unmasked argument was inspired by a similar scene in the 'Identity Crisis' mini-series, where Arrow is justifying his questionable actions to Wally and talking about secret identities. Elongated Man's comment about Arrow's bald spot is also from that series.

I was originally going to have Linda leave Wally at the end of the story so she could have some 'time to think', as she did in the comics after an attack from Zoom caused her to have a miscarriage. That in turn would have lead into another story involving the Black Flash. But in the end, I like my stories to be their own entity and not have 'required reading' attached. And I was a getting a little tired of stories where it concludes with a super speed race/fight.

However, I do like to leave hints to future stories that don't force you to read up, e.g. the tension between the Justice League and the Teen Titans, and Jay's comment to Carter about joining the League.

But enough about my random thought patterns. Review!

P.S. Thanks muchly to hhgbh for beta duties.)