A/N: In Chapter 4 Wally mentions that he's been with the Allen family for two months. Chapters 5-7 all take place during those two months. He wasn't allowed to go and live with them for about twenty eight days, so this is about three months after his mother's death. I thought up all that stuff after posting Chapter 4 and never bothered rearranging them. I'm busy OK. Chapters 8-10 take place at about the same time as this chapter.

A/N2: You may notice that I'm beginning to integrate some stuff from various continuities into this AU, such as things from cartoons and live-action shows/movies. This is to give the characters more depth.


Wally remembered the first time he'd seen his new room. It had originally been a guest room that either Dawn or Don's friends would stay if they spent the night, but they had given it to him. The boxes of his things were strewn about in the room, unopened. He sighed in discontent. It was a surprisingly large room which was nice, he guessed. The paint was an ugly green which he knew he'd have to get used to. The room also smelt of cleaning products, evidence that his relatives had been forced to rush in order to make it presentable.

He was startled from his examination when Iris put a warm hand on his shoulder, "You ready to unpack?"

Wally looked at her, warm smile, rust red hair, and pity in her eyes. He didn't like that combination. He also didn't like that he was here. More than anything he wanted to be back in Blue Valley, in his little two story wood house with it's large backyard and purple front door rather than this three story brick house that lacked a yard, and was surrounded with houses that looked just like it on the awkward slope of a hill. He wanted to yell at these strangers who were trying to say that they were his family, but hadn't even made their existence known until after tragedy struck.

Wally had known about Iris. His Uncle Danny never shut up about the woman. He always went on and on about how wonderful she was and how much he hated the man she married, Barry. Danny's stories were the only real reason Wally knew this woman existed. She never visited, or wrote any letters, or even called. For his entire life Iris West-Allen had been nothing but a ghost. Except now she wasn't. She was here and she kept looking at him with that expression, and using a voice that a mother would use to soothe a toddler. Not only was it patronizing but it unsettled him because it reminded Wally so much of his mother, but she wasn't his mother and he hated her for it and he just wanted to… go to sleep.

"Can we do this tomorrow," he sighed, "I really just want to go to sleep."

She kept the same warm, fake, smile and nodded in understanding.


The eleven year old Wally had begrudgingly agreed to another session. This, he was sure, would lead to him attending many other sessions. He stared up at the ceiling of the dim room, the sunlight that seeped through the cracks of the window blinds making the little specks of dust floating in the air visible. There was also a notable stench that hung in the air. Not a bad one, but he found the fact that he couldn't identify it annoying nonetheless. Wally waited for the woman to say something. To start the meeting so that he could get it over with. It's not that he didn't like Ms. Lance - It's just that he really didn't like this whole process.

"Would you say you've started adjusting yet?"

Wally squinted his eyes, feeling that that was a weird question. The pause he took to do this wasn't long. Just a second in fact.

"I'm going on my third month," he said plainly.

"Time doesn't always factor into these kinds of things," Ms. Lance noted as she finished tying her hair back into a bun. Wally just gave her another look, this one devoid of emotion.


"C'mon baby cuz, can't I see your smile?"

Dawn was trying to cheer him up. She was always trying to cheer him up. Trying to help him pretend nothing was wrong even though everything was. She had good intentions, but sometimes good intentions make things worse.

"Please, can't you smile for me?"

So Wally did. He tried anyway. If anything he had given her a faux stretch of the lips. Dawn was unaccustomed to such a sight, and understandably misread it. How could she not? She hadn't lost what he had.


The three year old squealed with laughter as his uncle tried to catch him. The little boy dove under the table, crawling on his belly towards his mother. The woman laughed into her coffee as the boys played. Her little one began to tugged on her slipper clad feet while demanding help though giggles. The man let out a boisterous laugh as he pulled the chair away from the table so it no longer created a barrier between himself and his nephew.

Crouching he grabbed the small boy by the waist and started wiggling his fingers, "No one evades the tickle monster!"


Wally looked out the window of the guest room, because this wasn't his room no matter how much Iris and Barry insisted, and sighed. Iris and Barry were at work. Dawn went to her baseball summer group. Don was in summer school… of his own volition. It wasn't that Wally didn't like school it was just that he never thought of summer as a time where you should be doing traditional learning. Summer was the type of time where you hang out with your best friends and a new kid shows up because he's spending the summer with his or her grandpa and he or she teaches you and your friends some kind of life lesson you can't learn in school. Except this wasn't some early 90's family flick. No matter how much Wally wished it was.

He banged his head against the windowsill lightly. He did that a lot when they weren't home. Their home, not his. He was hoping that if he hit his head hard enough he would wake up from this nightmare. Wally stopped in his efforts when he heard laughter below him. Running up the slanted sidewalk was a girl about his age. She had dirty blonde hair that were tied back in pigtails. Chasing after her was a black-haired boy wearing a baseball cap. Just two friends playing with each other.


"Wally, why are you holding a soup can?"

Francis was giving him an odd look. They were eight, and as usual both had snuck out their bedroom windows and snuck out into the woods. A short distance away from their houses there was a treehouse. It was an old creaky thing, but they had made it theirs. They brought toys, and trinkets, and other household objects. It was their own house away from their parents and his Uncle Danny. It wasn't that they disliked their adult family members, far from it. It just so happened that said adults didn't exactly like each other. So, when they weren't at school and couldn't just say that they were forced to be around together they came here. Away from prying eyes. This had more uses than just being able to play together.

"It's empty," he explained. The look on her face just grew more confused. He shook his head, "We can use it to play catch… with your brain."

"Oh," she nodded, her violet eyes lighting up with excitement. Wally made a false motion to throw the can. Then another, and another, watching her head bob up and down to match his movements. Assured that she was paying attention he finally tossed it into the air. Francis extended her hand to catch the can, except it never came to her. Within the matter of second she had changed. Strand by strand her hair began glowing a bright, magenta color, her violet eyes glazed over into a monochrome sky blue. The can stayed there, floating in the air as it was covered in a plasma looking magenta viel. Giggling she moved her hands forward, and tossed the can back to Wally.


Ms. Lance opened a notepad, "Let's do some word association."

Wally just shrugged in reply as he continued to lay on the chaise longue. She smiled at him sadly as she spoke once more, "Apple."

"Tree," he shrugged.

She quirked an eye at this, clearly not getting the reference. She continued on after a short pause, "Blue."

"Francis," he said before he could stop himself.

Ms. Lance tapped her pen against the edge of the clipboard, "That's your friend right? What about blue reminds you of her?"

"Um… we're both from Blue Valley, she always wore blue. I don't know, a lot of things," he shrugged.

"Right… Hmm, time?"

Wally chuckled, "Wasted."

"Very funny," the blonde grinned before continuing, "Star?"

"Moon?"

"Dream?"

Wally flinched a little. The brief movement most notable in his narrowed eyes. He took a few moments to think before he shyly spoke, "... Nightmares." Ms. Lance nodded before scribbling on the paper. As she continued to write she continued to say more words for him to respond to.

"Comics?"

"Distraction."

They continued to do this for some time, Wally really wasn't sure for how long.


He sneaks away from the Allen family sometimes. He never goes far, mostly because there isn't anywhere for him to go. No one for him to go to. He's alone now, after all. He had to borrow Don's raincoat and boots tonight, it was raining to hard for him to go without any outer wear. As usual he found himself in the park, a little area just down the hill. The street lamps were on, since the sun hadn't risen just yet. They hadn't been cleaned in a long time so instead of a white glow they all had an orange glow, making the area unintentionally eerie. The equipment was to slick to climb on so instead he settled for stomping around in the puddles, something most kids his age wouldn't be caught doing even if they still found it fun.

Wally heard a yawn from up the road. He didn't look up, he knew it was Iris. She seemed to be just as much an insomniac as he was, and after only a few days their sleep schedules seemed to have synced together. That or Iris had super powerful mom instinct and instantly knew when her kids were doing something she didn't agree with. Whatever the case he didn't mind that she followed him, nor did he mind that she chose to stand there and watch him from under her zebra striped umbrella. Wally thought Iris looked funny before her morning coffee. If ever there was a caffeine zombie it was Iris. Besides… it was kind of comforting to have her there.


It was a fall day when Emmaline was called to come to the school. She'd been afraid. It was uncommon for her to need to do this. Wally was a good boy. He fussed sometimes but never to the point where he got into any massive trouble, thankfully. When she walked into the principal's office she watched him color on a notepad with a little stub of crayon. When he was in kindergarten he drew near relentlessly. For a while she had thought he would grow up to be an artist. However after noticing that he was drawing scientists (he had to tell her himself, she had thought her son was either drawing a detective or a triangle) and realizing that he much preferred Bill Nye over Blue's Clues at the tender age of three she began to wonder if he'd be a doctor. He was only nine now and she could have sworn that the boy was about twelve times smarter than his uncle.

She sat down next to her son, who mumbled a 'Hi' in acknowledgement. Emmaline smiled at him before turning to the principal. She held her purse in her hands, practically ripping the fabric with her nails. She only grew more anxious as the man took the time of her entrance to clean his glasses. Her eyes began darting wildly around the room as she waited for him to speak.

"Thank you for coming here today Miss West."

"Mmm-hmm, no problem," she said in a strained voice. Her fingers began to drum against her purse. Her smile was stretched almost impossibly wide. The elderly man noticed.

"Don't worry Miss West, your boy isn't in any trouble."

Emmaline wanted to sigh, but logic told her that she wouldn't be here if something wasn't going on with Wally. She clenched her purse even tighter and leaned forward a little, "Buuuuut?"

"Well, you see… We had your son take a test of sorts after we noticed him being…"

"Being?"

The elderly man intertwined his fingers together, "Different. Not in a bad way, I assure you. After we received the score for the test back we realized that he's smart." She nodded, not sure if she was appreciative of the man for acknowledging her son's intelligence, or to be offended by the implication that they may have thought of her son as dumb before.

The man continued, seemingly not noticing the apprehension he had caused the woman, "He's very intelligent for a boy his age in fact. We think you might have a bit of a young genius on your hands."

She blinked a few times, processing what was just said to her. Then a genuine smile spread across her face.


Emmaline's funeral was small. Three months after she died they had gotten everything in order. Wally thought taking that long would have assured there was more people. Maybe his mom was lonelier than he had thought…

"Hello, Cub."

Wally startled before turning away from his mother and towards the owner of the voice, "Granny Elliot?" The elderly woman smiled at her grandson and held out an open arm, the other firmly grasping her walking stick cane. Wally opened his mouth to say something, to shout but instead what came out was a high pitched, half finished noise that died in his throat. The bottoms of his eyelids just barely held the tears that had started to form as he rocketed towards his grandmother.

"I thought I'd never see you again!"

Elliot simply rubbed the boy's back with a sad smile, "I'd never put you through that, not willingly my precious boy." Wally's grasp around his grandmother's waist tightened, "She's gone." The woman hummed in response as she steered her grandchild over to some chairs that lined the walls. The few people that were there let them do this without question. As they sat down Wally began to shake as the tears rolled down his face.

"Are you OK," he choked.

"I'm suppose to be asking you that."

"But she was more than just my mom to you."

Elliot rested her chin atop the boy's head, "Yes, she was."

Wally grabbed her hand, "Is this the last time that I'll see you? I know the doctor's think you're not well enough to live without a nurse." Wally looked around, and as he expected there was a man in pale blue scrubs standing in the corner, doing his best not to intrude. He blinked through some tears as he continued to speak, "Are you going back to Nebraska."

"No, I've convinced them to let me move here."

Wally inhaled sharply as he moved away enough so that they could look at each other, "Really?"

Elliot nodded, "I still won't be able to take care of you, but you can come visit still." She squeezed her nephew's hand as a serious look crossed her face, "Have these Allen people been good to you?"

Wally thought about it for a moment. Then he looked over to Barry and Iris. The couple were speaking to Wally's old English teacher now, all three wearing sad looks. Don and Dawn sat in a different row of seats, close to their parents. They looked upon her with contemplative looks, seemingly unsure of what to think of the funeral. Wally breathed through his nose as he watched them, a gross wet sound making itself known due to his crying. After this brief moment Wally nodded, and his grandmother seemed to relax a little. Wally let himself look at her for a bit, taking in how different she looked. She wasn't covered in paint like usual, he hair was unkempt, and she had bags under her eyes. Wally wondered if he looked the same, he hadn't ever bothered to look at himself in the mirror… Actually the Allen household didn't have any mirrors, except for the little hand mirror that Iris carried in her purse, now that Wally thought about it. When Elliot wrapped an arm around him Wally leaned against her. They sat in silence as the people around them spoke in hushed tones.

After a few moments Wally finally spoke, "It's all my fault."

"What?"

"If I hadn't let Danny convince me to go with him, or if I hadn't gone to the comic store when she told me to I could've… Maybe I could have… All of this is my fault."

Elliot cooed and squeezed his shoulder, "No. This isn't your fault. It's not your mother's fault. It's that bastard's fault. You're little, even if you had stayed you probably wouldn't have been able to do anything. You might have ended up dead as well for all we know. My old heart wouldn't be able to take it, losing both of you, and I know she wouldn't want you to get hurt for her. Now you pay attention the Granny."

"Yeah," Wally choked with a nod.

"Everyone… is their own book, and each book is connected to all the others. Some are short and some are very long, because of that our stories don't always end in the same place. But you see we'll all eventually be together again, as long as we live out our stories."

Wally's eyes were red now, "What do we do, when we miss her and we're not together?"

She sighed, "Well, when your grandpa died I tried my best to remember all the good things about him. If I felt particularly blue I did my best to remember things he did that made me laugh. Like the time when he got a pancake stuck to the ceiling."

Wally chuckled a bit before leaning more against her shoulder with a sad hiccup as she continued, "The way I see it is that if we keep all the good times close to our hearts, then we're helping the best version of them alive in a way. And if we do that, then they're always with us. Even if we can't see them."

"I… think I can do that."

The boy sobbed into Elliot's shoulder. Elliot was crying as well. She didn't make much sound, and her tears were much less apparent. Although barely anything could hurt as much losing a child she had lived many many years and had plenty of experience when it came to losing people. So despite the hurt she no doubt felt she also knew how to handle it. More than her grandson who had never lost a thing in his life before now. Everything had been taken from him, so although she was very, very pained she knew she had to be strong for him.

She smiled sadly though her tears, "It really is a beautiful urn."


They were paying Jumanji which, as it turned out, was nowhere near as cool as the movie made it seem. It was distracting enough that Wally found himself unintentionally opening up to Ms. Lance.

"So, you feel lonely?"

"I don't know. I guess," he paused, "Sometimes when I can't visit Granny," he shrugged as he glared at the card in his hands.


Dinah had told them that they needed a meeting practically the second they'd walked in. So now Wally sat in the waiting room and while Barry and Iris made stood in her office. Waiting.

"You two need to take some vacation time."

"Why?" They asked in unison.

Dinah looked away from her notepad to make eye contact, "You're not making enough time for him, and from what little I'm getting out from him so far Dawn is making it worse."

Iris eyes went wide, "What did she do?"

Dinah sighed, "I doubt that she meant any harm by it but from what he said it seems that she's just saying all the wrong things." The blonde turned to Barry, "You've gone through this kind of loss before, Scarlett. Pay attention to what she's saying and I'm sure you'll begin to see it. If she tries to hard to make him happy, tell her to turn it down when you think it's necessary. Stuff like that."

"Most of all I think you both should take some time off of work, if you can. I know both of your jobs can be high demanding but Wally needs people around him more than what's currently being given to him. Alone time to let this sort of thing process is great, but in the end you also need people to fall back on. I'm not saying taking months off but a few days, at the least."

"I take it the break from work goes double for me," Barry asked as he slid a thoughtful hand over his mouth.

"Yeah. Since you and Ralph cycle between who's with the League and who's protecting Central and Keystone I'd suggest that you ask him to stay here while you take a break."

"And the League?"

She shrugged, "Let's just ask Francisco to cover for you."

Barry's stare turned hard, "You know he doesn't like the idea of a team of Supers. He was always against the idea of the League, especially after it expanded."

Dinah narrowed her eyes, "Ollie isn't too keen on the idea either, yet he's a part of it. Look, Vibe is a good friend of yours, given the circumstances I'm sure he'd be more than willing. For a while at least." Barry nodded.


Wally never knew anyone who would go to summer school willingly before he had met his cousin Don. While Wally himself loved to learn new things he never thought anyone would go to the extent as to waste their summer. Don was that person.

Wally almost wished he was that person as well. He needed something to do. A distraction from the truth in his life. One night Wally had enough and borrowed Don's chemistry textbook. What the older boy was learning was a few levels above what Wally himself had last touched upon when he was at school, yet he found himself understanding it well enough. The problem came when Wally started doing his cousins Chem homework for him.

"OK, boy genius we need to talk."

Wally, who had been laying on his bed, let the comic he'd been reading fall to his stomach as he looked up at his older cousin. Don, seeing the boy's confusion sighed and made his way over to the bed and sat down criss cross at the foot. With a pout the older boy put his hands in a prayer like gesture in thought, the tips of his middle and index fingers touching his lips slightly.

After mulling over how to say what needed to be said he finally spoke, "You," moving his connected hands in Wally's direction for emphasis, "need to stop doing my Chem homework for me."

"Why would you ask that, aren't I making things easier for you?"

"You are, but it counts as cheating, and it makes me feel bad that the grades aren't mine. Especially since they're A's." He looked at Wally skeptically for a moment, "Which I have no clue how you're doing that when you're, like, eleven."

"You say that like being smart is a bad thing," Wally grumbled.

Don waved his hands in front of himself defensively, "It most certainly is not. It is just that you seem well beyond your age level when it comes to chemistry, which is odd."

"Like how it's weird that you sometimes talk like a robot," Wally noted with a quirked eyebrow.

"Stop trying to distract me with quips," he said as he wrapped his index finger and thumb around his chin in thought, "I know you do it because you're bored and you don't want to think about… things, but it's making me feel dishonest. Besides, you'll start school in about a month since summer is almost over." Don frowned when the younger boy pouted, "Do you think you can deal with it until then?"

Wally folded his arms up in mock-defiance, "I guess."

Don let out a relieved sigh, glad to have a clean conscience. As he got up to leave however as he turned slightly to wave goodbye he saw the almost destitute expression on Wally's face he found a frown forming on his face.

Scratching the back of his head Don queried, "Would you like to play video games with me?"

Wally's face brightened considerably at that.


"Maniac!, Maniac, he's so cool!"

Wally was very much an only child. It had just been him, Daniel, and his mother for as long as he could remember. Now it was him and the Allens, which of course included the twins. Having little experience in the department Wally wasn't sure if their relationship with him could be defined as sibling-like. He'd like to think that they had become friends at the very least. He knew he was on good terms with Dawn. It was hard to tell with Don though. Don was weird in both extreme and minor ways. For example, the older boy was the only male that Wally knew that would willingly play double dutch. In fact Don was rather enthusiastic about it, which in itself was odd since the older boy was stoic about most things. Then again Wally came from a town that was very gender-specific on what should and shouldn't be done.

"Maniac, Maniac, don't got to school!"

Wally punched the tetherball to Dawn, who high kicked it back. Wally had been walking to the park when the twins had suddenly appeared, or in Dawn's case had tackled him to the ground. Turns out their friend Angela Margolin had just came back from summer camp and they had the idea to hang out at the park, which apparently justified tackling Wally upon seeing him headed in the same direction. Yeah, Wally probably wasn't going to let that go for a few days. That had hurt dammit! Anyway, upon getting to the playground there was already a girl there and since she looked particularly lonely Dawn had told her she could hang out with them. Wally had seen this girl several times now, knew her on sight as the girl with pigtails. Despite seeing her many times he'd never spoken to her, so today was the day that he learned her name was Nathalia.

"Runs all night! Runs all right!"

Wally glanced to the side at Don and the two girls before hitting the ball again. He watched Dawn kick it again before noting offhandedly, "I've never heard this rhyme. Did he make it up or something?"

Dawn shook her head as she lifted her foot up to kick again, "Nah, it's just from some book he likes."

"Maniac, Maniac, kissed a bull!"

As Don sang the last lyric Dawn's foot once again connected the tether ball. This time however it punctured. As the ball deflated it made a sound similar to the noise a balloon makes when blown up and then let got with being knotted. It swung rapidly around its pole, almost hitting Wally in the process. He was thankfully able to duck in time. As it slowed all five kids watched it with wide eyes, all silent. The silence continued for a few moments after it stopped until Nathalia started laughing.


While Barry was able to get Vibe and Elongated Man to help out with his side job a of being a superhero he was unfortunately unable to get time from his paying job. However after Dawn and Don had bought Wally the small chemistry set Barry realized he finally had a way to reach out to his nephew. Central had two different Take Your Child To Work days, one in the summer and another in the fall. When the day finally came Barry jumped at the chance and brought Wally with him to the crime lab.

"It's safe to assume it's not like how it is one TV, right?"

Barry laughed at that and shook his head.

Wally scrunched his nose up in confusion, "So what do you do?"

He'd been happy to show Wally. For a few hours they stayed in the lab, and Barry had shown the beginnings of how to examine various substances. After this Barry explained how the science and art of fingerprinting worked, but decided to skipped the report writing process, believing it would bore Wally to death. Much to Barry's internal joy Wally had seemed incredibly interested in the whole thing. The boy's eyes had watched with enthusiasm with each new tidbit and he was asking questions every few moments. The boy's enthusiasm seemed to dissipate when they got to the shooting range.

"It's part of your job to test weapons," he had asked in disbelief.

Barry nodded, "Do you want to learn how? We don't have to if guns make you uncomfortable."

Wally shifted from foot to foot, "I don't know."

Just as Barry opened his mouth to assure the boy that it was perfectly okay if he didn't want to, the door to the shooting range opened. In walked a cop dressed in uniform, his daughter hot on his tail.

"C'mon, Papa! Hurry so I can kick your butt at this," the girl laughed.

The man chuckled, "Calm down, Sweetpea. Let me talk to my friend for a minute."

Barry shook the man's extended hand, "Good to see you again, seems like it's been awhile."

"Well, considering you don't get sent down to crime scenes nearly as often," the man pointed out.

Wally looked between the two men for a moment before tugging on the sleeve of the blonde's labcoat, "Um… Uncle B?"

"Hmm? Oh," he remembered and put a hand on Wally's shoulder, "Alex, this is my nephew Wally. Wally, this is Officer Alex Rose and his daughter, Iridiana."

The girl let out a bubbly giggle of excitement as she jumped forward and put her hand out expectantly. Wally, surprised by her hyperactive reaction shrunk behind Barry a little. The girl giggled again and looked to her father, "He seems really bashful doesn't he, Papa?"

"Well maybe he'd be a bit less shy if you actually said 'Hello' first instead of hopping all around like ferret," the man reasoned.

"Oh," the girl nodded before turning back to Wally with a big smile, "Hello!" When Wally backed further behind Barry and refused to look anywhere but the ground she simply peered around white-clad man and tried again, "I said, 'Hello!'"

Barry put his hand on Wally's shoulder again, hoping that it was a reassuring gesture, "Well, aren't you going to say anything?" Wally looked up at his uncle and shook his head nervously. Barry smiled teasingly, "You're not afraid are you?" At this Wally scrunched up his face in embarrassment and irritation and shook his head again. Barry chuckled softly, "Well if that's the case," he said as he pushed the boy out from his hiding spot and nose to nose with the girl.

Wally gulped before looking back at the man whose only reply to the pensive look was a simple, "Go on."

Wally gulped once more before returning his gaze to the floor, "Hello."

Iridiana broke into another fit of giggles before grabbing Wally's hand and dragging him off towards the booths. Both parents allowed themselves to laugh at the girl's antics.

"They certainly became good friends quickly," Alex said merrily.

"First friend he's made since coming to Central to be honest," Barry whispered sadly, "Honestly it's been hard to get him out of the house and do anything with us."

"That's to be expected given what you said he's been through."

As this conversation went on the two kids obliviously went about their own conversation.

"Paintball?"

"Yup," Iridiana nodded, "My dad taught me how to shoot last time he got to bring me here and I had a blast, literally. Ever since then we've played paintball together."

Wally hummed in thought before running back to Barry, "I decided I want to."

"Really," the man asked with genuine surprise. When the boy nodded Barry said, "Alright," before going to the gun rack and grabbing a pistol and a magazine, passing Alex on the way as the man brought one over to his daughter. Wally watched them put the plastic earmuff-looking-things on after flipping a switch to make the targets move. Soon enough the noise of gunshots were bombarding the room.

Wally jumped a bit when Barry tapped his shoulder. He turned around and smiled at the man until Barry held the gun out. Barry noticed how the boy began fidgeting and assured him that the gun was on safety. Wally nodded before gingerly taking the pistol from his uncle. Barry sighed.

"You don't need to be afraid of it, the pistol is just a thing. Like a kitchen knife."

"Right, it's the people behind the gun I need to worry about at the worst of times, isn't it," he asked with big eyes.

"That's right," Barry nodded as he walked them over to an empty booth. He snatched a pair of earmuffs from the booth next to them and put them on before helping Wally put his on.

"We're going to keep it stationary, OK?"

"Alright, can we aim for the shoulders only though? I know it's only foam but I don't feel comfortable shooting anywhere else."

Barry had to suppress a laugh as he nodded and continued to explain the gun, "To aim look right through the top, through that notch. Line up the side of the end with your target."

"Anything else?"

"Nothing I can think of other than me turning the safety off."

Wally nodded and turned towards the dummy. He let Barry reach over and flip the switch so that the boy could give it a go. He put his hands on Wally's shoulders to keep the boy steady before nodding. Wally nodded back and raised the gun. Doing as his uncle said he took aim and fired. Unfortunately he clipped the dummies neck. Barry patted Wally on the head when the boy made a rather displeased noise at where he'd hit it.

"Aim lower this time," he instructed, to which Wally nodded. With a loud bang the bullet passed through where the left side of the collarbone would have been had the dummy had one. Another displeased grumble escaped Wally's throat just a moment before Barry continued his instructions, "Now aim further to the left and just a little lower."

Wally nodded again before taking aim. He took in a deep breath as he pressed the trigger. To his surprise he actually hit the dummies left shoulder. He turned and smiled up at Barry, who smiled back before saying, "Now try to hit the right shoulder."

To Wally's joy, he did it. He let out a short a laugh and Barry clapped his hands in congregation. As they celebrated Barry's watch began to beep.

"Well would you look at that, it's already time to go home."

"Wait, you mean we won't be able to go back to the lab?"

" 'Fraid so. Sorry, kiddo."

Barry let out a laugh as Wally grumbled under his breath.


It had taken awhile but Wally had finally started to open up towards Iris, much to her relief. She was also extremely thankful that Dinah had told her that he was feeling lonely. Now she knew that more time would need to be given to him, and she was going to do everything in her power to make sure that happened.

First she and Barry had sent their children to the mall, which proved to be disastrous thanks to a guest appearance from Abra Kadabra. The twins had been able to stop him before he caused any real damage but in the confusion Wally had found himself in The Flash Museum... Somehow. The day had had one good turn out at least. Since Dawn and Don had bought him a chemistry set that led to Barry realizing he and the boy had something in common. Now that left her. She and Wally had played a lot of board games when he first came to live with them, but she felt like she hadn't truly bonded with him. Sure, Wally's reception of her had improved at some point, but there still wasn't a real connection. This bothered her.

She tried simple things, like playing Mario Kart with him and her other two babies. During days where Barry was away on League business and the twins were out she'd have movie marathons with him. She'd organized a picnic, but that only seemed to cause him to fall into a foul mood afterwards. She wasn't sure why exactly that had happened, but it did and she couldn't help but feel bad over it afterwards. She'd ask him to help make dinner and had been sure to hug him whenever he seemed like he'd be receptive.

Absolutely none of it was working.

Iris thought of this as she drove to the prison. It was visitation day, and Wally was excited to see his Uncle Danny. Iris on the other hand, wasn't. She didn't think fondly of the man. While she didn't hate him nearly as much as she hated Robert, she still hated Daniel nonetheless. He'd proven time and time again that he wasn't a good person. From stealing cars, to getting in shootouts, and perpetuating the rivalry with the Kane family, he'd shown time and time again that he was rotten. Then of course there was the possibility that he had been a dealer back in high school. It had never been proven but Iris honestly wouldn't put it past him. Yet sometime between her absence and now the man had convinced this kid that he wasn't a bad person. Maybe he'd turned over a new leaf, maybe he hadn't...

"You OK, Iris," Wally asked as she pulled the car into the parking lot.

"Huh? Oh I'm fine," she said with a smile. A fake smile. Iris almost frowned at the look Wally was giving her. It was clear that if she wasn't an authority figure he'd be calling her out on her bullshit there and then.


They'd been lead to the visitation room not to long ago. Iris and Wally sat in the chairs that lined the walls, waiting for a booth to open up. Iris let out a sigh as she squeezed her nephew's hand tighter. For the first time in a long time this room made her feel incredibly anxious. Yes, she'd been here many times before. With Barry in fact. She still remembered the first time the man had brought her to meet his father. They'd been dating for about four months when he'd asked her if she'd wanted to come. Iris, of course, had agreed. The anxiousness she felt then wasn't because she was about to meet a criminal though. No, Henry Allen was sent to jail unfairly. The system had failed him. The anxiousness she felt was because she was meeting her boyfriend's father. Today was different. Today she had to let her nephew speak to a legitimate criminal that just happened to be her brother and his uncle.

...That and Captain Cold was currently on the other side of the glass, speaking to his sister with the help of the corded phones on either side. Cold seemed to be yelling about The Flash and how his recent criminal act had been foiled by the scarlet clad speedster and Vibe. The blond woman nodded in disinterest, clearly sick of these stories. The Captain currently wore a rather nasty black-eye thanks to Vibe kicking the villain in the face. According to Barry, Francisco had been having a bad day and seeing Cold endanger innocents had been the last straw, causing the usually laid-back vigilante to be a little rougher than usual. A guard eventually walked over to Captain Cold and tapped him on the shoulder to let him know his time was up. The Captain turned to glare at the guard before slamming the phone back on it's mantel. As the villain angrily left the room he roughly bumped shoulders with the man entering the room, Danny.

As soon as Cold's sister got up to leave Wally rushed over to the booth. The blonde woman turned around to watch Wally for and moment before sighing sadly. The frown quickly disappeared from the woman's face as her usual stony demeanor took hold once more. By this point Iris stood up and leaned against wall, arms crossed in a defensive gesture. Both because she didn't want Lisa Snart to go anywhere near her nephew and also so that Daniel would know she didn't want to be anywhere near him. Thankfully the woman chose to continue on her way out. Lisa stopped as she approached Iris and gave the other woman a good long look. Iris would be lying if she said she didn't feel a little intimidated by the blonde. Lisa was an unusually tall woman, almost Amazon level tall.

Finally Lisa spoke, "Ah, you're one of the reporters he held hostage a few months back. My honest apologies," she finished as she continued to the door. Iris' shoulders slumped in relief once the woman was gone.

Wally had missed the whole confrontation as he chatted to his uncle, "You were right about Iris, she's really nice. Barry isn't as bad as you made him sound, and the twins are fun, but…"

He paused for a moment as his eyes started to burn and his throat started to hurt. Wally shook his head quickly, trying to prevent himself from crying in front of the man as he continued, "I miss you, and Mom. At least I can see you sometimes… I wish I was there. Maybe I could have-"

"Let me talk to your Aunt," Danny's voice sounded through the receiver.

"Huh?"

"I said, 'Let. Me. Talk. To Iris," he repeated with a crueler tone.

Wally flinched back a bit, hurt. Why would he want to talk to her more than him? Why did he sound so angry? Shouldn't he be saying things like 'I'm sorry I was an idiot that did things to get locked up' or 'Everything will be alright.' Couldn't he at least say 'Hello' before throwing him to side like that. Wally was used to Danny being a little dismissive… But not like this. It was like the man couldn't even stand to look at him. Wally swallowed air as he felt his eyes burn up again. His hands shook as he pulled the phone away from ear. Finally he looked to his Aunt Iris and called her over. She looked shocked at first, then angry as her gaze went down to her shoes. Finally she huffed and marched over to the booth with a neutral expression. When she finally got there Wally handed her the phone with shaky hands. The boy stood abruptly, knocking the plastic chair down in the process.

"Wally," Iris called as he ran out of the room.

"Well, aren't you going to give a 'Hello' to your baby bro," his voice questioned through the phone.

Enraged Iris turned around and pounder her fist against the side of the booth, "The hell is wrong with you!"

"What, not like he's mine?"

"Bastard! How can you say that when you're the one who helped raise him?"

The man sighed and leaned back in his chair, "Not like Mary would get rid of him. If I wanted to be with her I had to deal with him. I did my part, made sure he didn't end up like me. Now he's not my problem anymore so why bother, right?"

The hand that wasn't holding the phone had clenched into a fist, trembling with rage. She wanted to punch him, or strangle him, or just pummel him into a pile of meat that no one would be able to recognize. How could anyone talk so lowly of a child they'd help raise. How could a smug, unfeeling, little prick like this be considered human. She's met aliens with more humanity for fucks sake!

Then the man had the audacity to smile lovingly at her, "It's been a long time, hasn't it? Tell me about yourself."

"Go straight to hell," she screamed as she slammed the phone back on it's pedestal.


She took Wally to the lakefront after this. Parked the car so it was facing out towards the water and convinced the boy to lay on the hood of the car with her. They stayed in silence there for what felt like hours but in reality was only a few minutes before Wally spoke up.

"Did you know about me?"

"No."

"How come," he wondered aloud.

"I left right after high school. Our family was… bad. Our big sister abandoned us a few years earlier, Daniel was already knee deep in crime and no one ever knew what your dad-"

"He's not my dad," Wally interrupted.

"OK, the bastard… well like I said no one knew what he was up to. I just wanted to get away. So one day I packed my bag and got on the next train out of town. I hitched hiked for… a few days maybe. When I got to Central I found a newspaper that said it wanted pictures of this new vigilante that just showed up."

"The Flash?"

"Yeah," she smiled, "I got a disposable camera from some dollar store and started taking pictures. I did some crazy things to get those pictures. They weren't high quality but they were the clearest pictures my boss had ever seen."

She turned to look at him with a smirk, "She hired me on the spot, said she liked my spunk. Gave me a real professional camera and everything. I met Barry a few weeks later."

Iris slung an arm around Wally's shoulders, "You know, one of the only bad things about my story is that I wasn't there to meet you or your mom. You know, I bet that since you're such a nice kid that your mom was a really nice lady."

She felt Wally curl into her side, "I miss her."

Iris squeezed his shoulder, "I know, baby. I know."


Iris was relieved that Wally's visitations with his Grandma Elliot were happy at the least. Unlike Daniel who had brushed the boy off in favor of Iris, Wally was the apple of his Elliot's eye. Despite her old age and the fact that she needed a cane Elliott was a very lively woman. Currently the boy and woman were playing a rather intense game of table tennis. Iris sat and watched them with several of the residence at the retirement home. A smile on her face the whole time.


A/N3: I have no idea if Wally's grandmother on his mom's side even ever showed up in the comics or if she even has a name. I literally just asked a friend of mine to list a few names that they stereotypically associated with grandmas and one of the first things she said was Eleanor and Elliot, and I decided to go with the later. As for Wally's characterization in this chapter I was trying to accurately depict how children tend to cope with this kind of thing. To put it as simply as possible, kids are mood whiplash-y about this kind of stuff. Their emotions aren't fully developed and they don't tend to dwell as much as adults. They can go from being sunshine and rainbows and forgetting what has happened to having reality smack them upside the head in the matter of seconds. It's way more complicated than how I'm putting it but that's the bare basics.

A/N4: Sorry for the overall lack of Dawn and Don (especially Dawn), I've been trying to establish their characters but the story has been pretty Wally, Iris and Barry centric so far, and it's been hard to work them in. Once Wally changes I'll try and give them individual chapters so we can learn more about them.

So far their characterizations have been more tell than show, which I'm hating myself for. It's just that writing them is kinda hard, since there isn't much continuity to go off of in terms of personality. I'm honestly surprised more people don't know about Don at the very least since he's Bart Allen's father in the comics. Anyway, like I was saying they're rarely used as characters in the comics so it's hard to get a good grip on their characterizations. Because of this I'm practically writing OC's, which as I'm sure some of you know is hard when you're working with pre-established characters. If you guys could give feedback on the twins and what you think that would be cool.

A/N5: Speaking of OC's I guess I should explain the Rose family. I finally started watching the new live-action version of The Flash (I got into it really late) a few chapters in and was pleasantly surprised to find the actors for Iris and her father are Candice Patton, and Jesse L. Martin respectively, both of whom are Black. Since I already was well into this continuity depicting Iris and her siblings as Caucasian I decided to make some OC's in response. Making them has actually proved useful in terms of a certain character who will be appearing next chapter. This character almost got exiled from this continuity due to me not being able to work them in, however after I came up with the Rose family I realized I had a way to include them. That and I've got a storyline revolving around Iridiana planned for some point in the future.

The Rose family's names all have meanings. Their surname for one is taken from the compass rose, as a reference to direction and who they're inspired by. Iridiana's name is actually a variant of Iris' name, and like Iris, it means rainbow. I gave her father the name Alex, because it means defender of mankind, and I felt the name suited a fictional detective. Iridiana's currently unseen mother is named Anise, which is both a people name and the name of a spice. She owns a restaurant, which is going to be a hangout for Wally and his future friends. Alex and Iridiana are both only very loosely based on Iris and her father in the Arrow-verse and are largely their own characters, while Anise is entirely an OC,.

A/N6: (OMG so many this is the last one for this chapter-so sorry for so many!): So i'm going to be perfectly honest here, I've stopped reading New 52 sometime ago. Like a year ago, at least. They just weren't making any stories that caught my interest. I don't know if they've made anything I would have liked since then but I'm not all too interested to be perfectly honest. This means I haven't been paying a too awful lot of attention to how they've been portraying Wally. I only know what I know from scans of a page or two from when he first debuted in New 52. According to a friend they haven't really done anything with his character yet. I know there's a lot of debate about the new Wally from fans. One friend told me that in terms of stereotypes it was a bit iffy but not tremendously bad. Another friend was insisting that it was full on White Man's Burden levels of bad. I haven't seen enough of New 52 Wally so I really can't judge. When he first showed up and proved to be an angry kid (Coinciding to the "Angry Black Man" stereotype unfortunately) I shrugged. Not because I thought it was okay but because I've seen characters of African descent be introduced with that personality, only for it to later change under writers (sometimes writers getting outright swapped) into a much more complex, three dimensional personality. A good example of this happening would be John Stewart (Green Lantern). He followed the stereotype to a T when he was introduced in the comics, but when Bruce Timm and Paul Dini got a hold of him John became a fantastic character. I figured if I waited it would get better, but then I got bored with New 52 and again, according to my friends, Wally's character hasn't really gone much anywhere since his introduction. Meaning he's still… meh, as far as a character goes, but can also be interpreted as horribly stereotypical depending on the comic-reader. Or not all that stereotypical at all, considering I've seen many varying opinions on just how stereotypical he is. Again I haven't been reading so I have no way to form my own opinion on the subject anymore.

When I started this fic I had the entire story arc surrounding his family planned out before I decided my version would be biracial as well. His story is a mix of pre-New 52 continuities and several fan stories I've read throughout the years. The only elements of New-52 in this story is the existence of his Uncle Daniel (who was originally going to be called Uncle William before Daniel's actual character was made canon) and the fact that he's biracial. I decided to make him biracial because I honest to God believe there is a lack of representation of people of mixed race and ancestry in media.

Unlike New 52 Wally, whom I'm told had a shitty life for most of his existence, my version of Wally had a normal, happy life until Rudy West returned and everything very suddenly went down hill in the worst ways possible. His life now has a chance of going somewhere good once again with the Allens and his grandma, whereas if Daniel had managed to keep him and stay away from police he would have been constantly on the run whether he wanted to be or not.