Maybe one little bitty word or so . . .

"So, do you think we'll get another mission soon?" Wally walked next to Robin into Happy Harbor.

"You know it," Robin told him. "We still need to find and retrieve the Red Sun Laser."

"I thought Batman said it was taking a back seat to the MoD?"

Robin looked at his friend curiously. "MoD?"

"Machine O'Doom," Wally announced.

Robin laughed. "But it's not a machine of doom if it has given me the ability to heal practically everything."

They cut through the park that lay in the center of town. The hospital lay on one side of it; two sides were lined with shops and restaurants; and one side bordered a quiet neighborhood and an elementary school.

"The Machine of I Can Heal Practically Everything doesn't flow off the tongue as easily," Wally explained. "And we found it in the lab of some evil scientists, so then there must be some aspect of it that is bad news. Thus we have a Machine O'Doom."

Robin turned his face away. He didn't want Wally to see that his prediction troubled him. "Then you think something bad can still come of it?"

Wally looked at Robin and realized his mistake. "Oh! Uh . . . No, no, not really. I mean, if it were going to be evil, we'd have seen evidence of it by now, right?"

"Yeah, sure," Robin sighed. Then he put on a smile and turned back to Wally. "Nothing bad has happened yet, after all."

They were walking toward a mother carrying a little girl of five in the direction of the hospital. The child sneezed in between coughs. "But I don't want to see the doctor, Mommy! He'll give me a shot!"

"We don't know that he'll have to give you a shot, Mandy. Maybe he'll just look in your throat and ears and prescribe a cough medicine," the mother said in an attempt to ease her daughter's worry.

Mandy's face was flushed with fever, and she laid her head on her mother's shoulder, too weak to hold it up anymore. The mother's face was worried as she comforted the young girl by rubbing circles on her back.

"I don't feel good," the child whined again and then coughed hard.

As the boys stepped to the side to give the mother and daughter room to pass on the sidewalk, Robin reached out and rubbed his hand on the young girl's back below that of the mother's.

They hadn't taken but a few steps when they heard the child chirp. "I don't feel bad anymore, Mommy!"

"What?" The mother stopped and looked at her daughter in shock and awe.

The girl's coloring was glowing and her eyes sparkled vibrantly with good health. Even her hair, which had been lank and dull, look lustrous and shiny suddenly. The child giggled and squirmed to get down. As her little feet touched the ground, Mandy twirled and danced around her mother with energy to spare.

Wally spun around to watch the happy child and awestruck mother. "You didn't have anything to do with that, did you, Rob," he asked suspiciously.

"Of course not," Robin sneezed. "What gave you that idea," he gasped before falling into a paroxysm of coughs.

Wally's eyes widened at the fever-flushed face of his best friend.

"You did," he accused and set a supporting hand under Robin's elbow. The younger boy looked as if he were going to collapse any minute.

But before he could lead Robin over to a nearby park bench, the reddened cheeks cleared and Robin pulled away from Wally's helpful arm. He smiled.

"I'm fine," he assured the speedster. "Are you up for a pizza? I'm starved," he said.

"Like you had to ask," Wally grinned. He looked back over at the now-ecstatic mother and her healthy, little girl. "That was really nice of you, you know?"

Robin shrugged. "I don't like shots either," he quipped.

"You recover faster now, I think," Wally mused.

"I doubt it takes as long to heal the flu as it does having one's entire chest wall caved in," Robin smirked.

"Still, it makes you wonder about your limitations, doesn't it?"

Robin frowned. "You know, I haven't really thought about possible limitations yet."

Wally stopped to gape at him. "Are you kidding me? Didn't you know if you could heal yourself from my injuries before you did it?"

Robin hesitated. Admitting he didn't think about the ramifications of taking on Wally's injuries would likely made his friend mad. It was like he told Batman; the moment he realized he could save his friend, he knew he had to try. He didn't even stop to consider that he might not be able to heal himself. In fact, healing himself hadn't even cross his mind at the time.

"You didn't? What the hell, Rob?" Wally yelped.

"I didn't say that," he hedged.

"You didn't have to," the older boy snapped. "Your hesitation said it all for you."

"Why are you mad all of a sudden? Everything came out all right, didn't it?"

"I appreciate what you did for me. Really, I do! But how do you think I would feel to be healed only to have my best friend die in my place?" Wally threw up his hands.

"Probably the same way I'd feel like having to watch my best friend die when I knew I could do something to stop it," Robin retorted.

"I can't believe we are even arguing about this," Wally sighed.

Robin rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "Yeah, it seems kind of ridiculous."

Wally shot him a look. "No, it isn't ridiculous at all. But it serves no purpose now; after the fact. But you need to have a care with your own life, Rob."

"Batman's already given me that talk, thanks. I got the message."

The two of them had arrived at The Pizza Station. They entered and made their way to an empty booth. As they passed a bus boy with a loading bin of dirty dishes, Robin brushed his hand lightly along his arm. The young man gasped and straightened. He smiled and picked up his load easily; carting it off to the kitchen with new energy.

Robin winced and rubbed a hand along his lower back. The pain eased almost immediately, however, and by the time Wally had turned around to face him, Robin was grinning again. He slid into the seat and grabbed a menu. Healing gave him an appetite.

An hour later, the two of them left the restaurant, their waitress grinning hugely at them. She had been exhausted just an hour ago, but now she seemed to have caught her second wind. she thought she might even be willing to pick up that second shift her boss had been begging her for.

"Ready to head back to the mountain," Wally asked.

"Actually, if you don't mind going on without me, I kind of want to run a few errands first," Robin shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. Fall weather was turning the leaves red and gold and the air was beginning to get a bit nippy even in mid-afternoon.

"You want some company? I don't mind staying with you," Wally offered.

"No, that's okay," Robin waved as he turned to go in the opposite direction. "I won't be long. You should go find Artemis and talk to her," he said, knowing it would embarrass his friend just enough to get him to leave. Robin didn't want to hurt his feelings, but he had something he wanted to try, and he wasn't sure that Wally wouldn't accidentally rat him out. Artemis didn't call him Kid Mouth for nothing.

As predicted, Wally's face turned as red as his hair. "Whatever, dude. See you in a bit."

"Later," Robin said, walking away before his friend changed his mind and decided to join him after all. The next time Robin looked over his shoulder, Wally wasn't anywhere to be found. He smiled and crossed the street; heading back to the park and onto the path that led to the hospital.

He had his own brand of testing he wanted to do.

REACTIONS? Let's hear them . . .

I have to admit, I always kind of wanted to do something like this.