Chapter 11

The next hour Wally sat next to his best friend and waited impatiently for his first movements. It wasn´t easy for the Speedster to keep calm and quiet. The only reasons for his patience were the worries for his best buddy and the thought about a pissed Batman. Surly the Dark Knight would immediately banish Kid Flash from Robin if the boy would wake up his son no matter if deliberately or accidentally.

Wally tried to stay quiet by reading a new Comic book that he had found on the sideboard. That´s why he hadn´t realized, that the little ninja next to him woke up. Robin stirred for a few minutes randomly till he became totally aware of his surroundings. He was glad to find Wally safely next to him.

"I am so glad to see you, KF!"

It was only when Robin spoke to him that the redhead jerked and turned to face his best friend.

"Dude, don´t frighten me! You nearly gave me a heart attack! Glad to see you, too. How are you?"

The younger boy hesitated only a little moment to answer. Only another bat would have noticed it. Then he faked a small smile and repeated:

"I´m fine!"

Wally had learned over the years not to comment that statement. It would be to no avail. So he just ignored it and told Robin about the team and how concerned they were about him, especially since Batman had not allowed anyone near the infirmary. KF scared stiff when he remembered the last order from the Dark Knight:

"Oh, shit! I had promised to inform the big bad bat straight after you woke up. I have to do it this second!"

"Calm down, KF! I can hack the observation camera and show furthermore me sleeping and you reading. Just give me my gloves, please!"

"Are you sure you should use your gloves with your damaged shoulders?"

"Don´t worry! I told you I´m fine! The pain in my shoulders isn´t bad, believe me!"

This time Robin really meant it. The shot wounds were less painful than the memories which came to his mind again and again. But for the moment he was able to distinguish the memories from the reality. So he was glad to distract his mind with a small hacking task. Wally handed the gloves to Robin and after two minutes the camera was set to a loop.

"Why don´t you want me fetch B-Man?"

Dick thought about his answer for a few seconds. Honestly he was afraid of the images in his mind he saw when his father appeared. He could better suppress them with Wally by his side. He had a natural talent to distract the people around him. At the moment the young boy wasn´t in the mood to talk about his nightmarish experiences, so he answered:

"Oh, it´s nothing big! Just need some time without an overprotective DaddyBat!"

"I can understand, Batman is really scary when he´s worried for you! So what do you want to do now? Do you want to talk about, well, you know what?"

"No!"

KF noticed immediately that it was much too early for Rob to discuss his experiences, so he changed his tactic.

"Ok! What do you like to do?"

"Don´t really know. Could you just tell me some funny stories to distract my mind?"

"I do anything that helps you! Let me think for a while. Hmmmmm, last week I wanted to eat the last piece of Chocolate cake that was left in the kitchen. I opened the fridge, took the plate with the cake and placed it on the couch in the living room. Then I turned to make a delicious cup of hot chocolate as well. When I came back Kaldur was just sitting down with another book in his hands. He hadn´t noticed the cake and I was too late to warn him, so you know… "

Robin smirked a little bit and wanted to know:

"Why didn´t you leave the cake on our coffee table?"

"Well, you weren´t around, so I have to admit, the table was a big mess. How do you have enough time to keep our place here clean? Whatever! I wanted to avoid that somebody puts accidentally something on my cake and the only empty spot was the couch."

Robins smirk grew a bit wider. Wally noticed it happily and wanted to make his best friend to laugh lustily.

"Ok, one more. Megan tried a new cookie recipe and added a strange powder from mars."

"What´s the funny part?"

"Well, Superboy ate the first one and his skin turned red for five minutes. I made a picture for you. I fetch it for you. One sec."

True to his word, Wally left the infirmary just for one second and came back with a picture of a crimson red Superboy that looked even grumpier than normal.

First Robin laughed about the annoyed face in front of him, but then the red color brought the images of a bloody dead Superboy back to his mind. He faked a little smile and gave the picture back to Wally.

"Sorry Wally. Could you leave me on my own for a little while. I have to use the bathroom."

"Yeah, sure man."

Wally left without any thoughts about the sudden expulsion.

Of course Robin did not use the toilet, never intended to. He just needed time to think about the happenings of the last days on his own. One thing was clear in his mind – he would never be able to forget the impressions. He would never be able to look in the eyes of his friends and family without streams of blood and the sound of snapping bones inside his head.

But he had to! He could not live with the everlasting image of the death of all people he loved. It destroyed the young boy more and more.

Inside his head he always came to the same solution. A solution he had never thought he would ever be able think about. But now it looked like the only escape. After many endless discussions inside his head he finally concluded - he was ready!