If any of you have been reading from the beginning I thank you for putting up with some terrible writing.
It was hard for speedsters to get drunk, not impossible, but difficult. At least at home it was. This place was practically made for speedsters, despite the people living here mostly being scientists. I didn't really know where this place was, nor did I care, it wasn't home. The only good thing was I could forget easier here. I climbed out of the bed that was too soft, my feet hitting the metal floor that never seemed to warm. The ceiling gave a soft glow as I shakily made my way down the hall to the kitchen.
It was dark but I knew where the booze were. My hands blindly searched the pantry for my favorite bottle, but it was nowhere to be found. I wasn't even startled when I heard Wally's voice. I had gotten used to our impromptu midnight kitchen meet ups. I walked over to the island in the center of the kitchen and sat in the only other stool there. We didn't get many visitors, or any for that matter. We didn't even use the kitchen, not when the replicator was so much easier.
He passed me the bottle. The liquid swirled and shimmered in its unnatural pink color but it tasted like water, the water here didn't taste like water but this did, and it got me drunk.
"Same dream?" I ask.
"Yeah." Wally replies before taking the bottle back for another drink.
I felt a bit lucky; Wally always had the same dream, the same terrible dream. One of the first nights we were in this house I had heard screaming sobbing echoing throughout the house, and found Wally in the corner of his room desperately crying, apologizing to Artemis. He didn't talk to me for a while after that but a week later he told me what the dream was about. Artemis was in trouble, she screamed for his help but he couldn't reach her, and she died.
Mine were more varied, last week I relived the night we "died", the week before that it was Dick calling out my name, blind, wandering, and I was pulled away, through space to here. Tonight I dreamed of when I woke up on this planet.
We had been in glass tubes, like science experiments. The aliens who greeted us didn't look quite alien, a strange tint to their skin, yellow eyes but mostly humanoid. They told us how they had pulled us through the speed force, how we weren't disappearing just melding with the speed force which gave us our powers. They said they healed us, in the physical sense they did, but we both still felt empty. They told us they could get us back to Earth, but it would take a long time to find the trajectory and we may not end up in the right time period. Savoth was in a different dimension. This part didn't scare me, what came next did.
My scar was gone. I stared into the mirror for a long time willing it to reappear on my face, but it was gone. Tears began to run down my smooth face; I shattered all the glass with my scream; I broke the sink with my arms. The scientists came running in.
"What is wrong?" one of them said.
"My scar is gone. MY SCAR IS GONE. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? THAT WAS A PART OF ME! THAT WAS MY SCAR!"
"It did not fit the template of a human female. I do not understand your anger." They said again, reaching their hand out to me.
"OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS THINK WE ARE DEAD AND YOU TAKE THE ONE THING I COULD BRING WITH ME TO REMIND ME WE WERE HUMAN AT ALL." I scream swatting the hand away from me. Then I just sob and sob and fill the room with tears, drowning the scientists and myself, at least it tastes like the ocean.
The sloshing of the bottle jolts me from my memories and I take the glass from Wally and begin to drink greedily. Some spills out the sides of the mouth of the bottle and runs down my smooth face, mixing with tears before the drops fall on the counter. Wally is the one to break the silence.
"They say they've almost found Earth."
"They said that 3 months ago, and 6 months before that." I say in between drinks. "How long have we been here anyway?" I sigh as I slide the bottle back to him.
I can see him doing the math in his head, factoring the longer days here on Savoth. "Ummm, closest I can say is 2 years and about 4 moths. How long has passed on Earth? Your guess is as good as mine Hal. Probably 1,000 years, everyone we ever knew is dead." He said raising his hands in the air limply before flopping them back on the table and drinking more.
I'd be lying if I said Wally and I had never done anything. It was on the year anniversary, we tried to make it a happy occasion. We tried to invite the one scientist we liked, but she was busy. I tried to make M'gann's cookies, but they burned. Wally made colorful party hats and we sat eating replicated Christmas dinner and reminiscing. We ended up sitting on the couch, passing the bottle back and forth like we were doing tonight.
"We did good, didn't we? They'll remember us, won't they?" I had asked.
"Yeah," Wally replied a moment later, grabbing my hand. "Artemis and Dick, they'll be okay, without us, I mean, they'll move on?"
"I hope so; I want them to be happy, even without us."
I don't remember what else was said but I remember us kissing, it wasn't right but it wasn't as wrong as everything else that past year had felt. It only lasted a moment but when I looked in his eyes and he looked in mine, we both knew it had felt like cheating. Our hearts had been left on Earth.
"Want the last sip?" Wally says, holding out the bottle in his shaky, drunk, hand.
"Sure." Grabbing the bottle I finish it in one gulp. Licking my lips I slide the glass bottle across the smooth counter top and into the trash chute built into the island.
"We probably look like hell. We need to stop drinking so much." I say, half sarcastically.
"What are you talkin' about? I, Wally West, Savior of the Earth, have always looked magnificent." Wally began trying to stand up on his stool but he began to shake so violently I had to help him down.
"Need help back to your room, Oh majestic savior?"
"I'm…I'm not majestic. I am magnificent! Only Unicorns are majestic, with their long flowing golden manes….Artemis had a long flowing golden mane. She was sooooo beautiful, never seen prettier in my life!" Wally kept mumbling as he staggered down the hallway leading toward his room and I wobbled toward mine.
The next day I took my own advice. Breakfast wasn't a cocktail. The scientists had made a garden for us, it was the beginning of spring on Savoth and I made Wally help me plant, and plan. As the vines of our plants grew, so did the cracks in our hearts, they grew back together.
There had been many more nightmares, and drunken nights, but one cool Savothian day, they found it. They found Earth. While Wally and I were over joyed to be going back home, we had begun to create a life here, a simple, calm, beautiful life I was sad to let go of. That night I slept in that too soft bed for the last time, at dawn I left it all behind, nothing could pass through the speed force with us.
As we were about to step back into the force that had almost taken our lives a little over four years ago, a scientist, the first scientist, slipped a necklace around my neck, made of that too cold metal that was apparently only found on this planet.
"To remind you that you were here." She said and I smiled.
I grabbed Wally's hand and we finished the journey like we started it. Together.
It's a warm night in Budapest. The streets are lousy with people, and where there's people, there's crime, and where there's crime, there's him.
On top of this building a wind blows whipping my dress around my ankles. I almost missed the distinct sound of him landing behind me; he really is as graceful as a bird.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Turn.
"Didn't think you'd be seeing me again, did you?"
His arms are around me before I can finish speaking. He holds me like an egg, if he squeezes too tight I'll break and he'll lose me again. I wrap my arms around him and he sighs.
"I love you. I have always loved you. Present tense."
"Present tense." I sigh in agreement.
A/n. I didnt really mean to write this, it just sort of came out. I may or may not add more drabbles to the story but probably only will once an idea has built up in my head so much i cant hold it in anymore.