I should have eaten more food. I should not have allowed my feelings to take the best of me like they had. My feelings had just grabbed a hold of me and not let me go... My reasoning had once again been pushed to the way side because I felt too strongly.

I was laying on my bed in Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry's house. I was on my back and I could tell I was facing the ceiling. I wasn't sure, but it felt as if there was only one person in the room with me, which was odd because I would have thought, under any other situation, my room would be filled with annoyed and confused teenagers wanting to know why I had fainted.

The answer was so simple that I knew it myself. I didn't need any doctor to tell me what had gone wrong with my body. The lack of food, the intense emotions, and the amazing ton of stress I had been under recently had all managed to get mixed together and affect me so terribly that I had fainted when I was forced to face an issue of great stress. A stressor, even.

My family and friends were stressors for me. Wasn't that just amazing? I couldn't even face them without being reminded of how worthless and vile I really was.

The life of Wally West was an amazing one indeed.

"Are you finally awake, kid? 'Cause I can hear the wheels in your head turning."

I really didn't want to open my eyes. Nor did I want to face my uncle because I knew something bad was going to happen... I didn't know what, exactly, but I just had this gut feeling that it was going to be bad.

"Let me sleep." I mumbled softly, turning over on my side while bringing the sheets tighter over my body. "Sleep is good."

"I will have none of that, Wallace."

Before I could completely understand what was going on, my uncle had brusquely taken the sheets and comforter that had once covered me and thrown them to the side of the bed, glaring down at me with blood shot eyes. Had he been crying?

"Why are you doing to yourself, Wally?" He asked me, looking directly into my eyes as he grasped my upper arms with his hands.

Flashes of my father grabbing at me in a rougher manner began to appear in my line of sight and my chest constricted and my breathing became shallow, but before I could start freaking out completely, my uncle growled and pushed off of me.

"Don't you dare start doing that, Wallace! I'm tired of this crap!" He yelled, facing away from me as he began to pace from the bed to the door and back. "Every time somebody confronts you; Bruce, Ollie, or me; you always pull this shit on us! You always begin to have a panic attack and force us to treat you with kid gloves..." Now he was beside the bed once more, eyes boring into my very soul. "I am tired of your theatrics, boy."

His hands slammed onto the sides of the bed, managing to make me gasp in shock, but my body didn't move at all. I was frozen.

"Every single time anyone tries to get anywhere with you; ever God damn time; you hide behind a panic attack! No matter what we try to do to help you, you always fucking choose to hide away like a coward! Aren't you supposed to be a superhero?" He growled now, lowering himself so his face was sneering right in front of my own.

I could feel the hate spewing out of his every pore. His blue eyes flamed with anger and his lips were drawn into the nastiest and deadliest sneer I had ever seen in my life. No one could beat that glare. Not any villain I had ever come across. Not any person that I would ever come across.

Without any warning, Uncle Barry suddenly jumped on the bed and his cold and calloused hands wrapped around my wrists. He seated himself on top of me and I could see that he was baring his teeth at me now. His sharp nails dug into my wrists so violently that I began to bleed.

Why wasn't I moving? Why was I paralyzed?

"Aren't you supposed to be a superhero?" He hissed mockingly down at me as I tried to struggle against his hold. "If you're such a big bad hero, Wally, why can't you free yourself? Why don't you try to break free?" He growled down at me, then leaned down so his nose was directly above my own. "Huh? Poor Widdle Wally..." He mocked, face twisting into a pout before he smiled wickedly down at me. "Can't even fight off his uncle..."

I closed my eyes tightly as I tried to will my body to move, then finally yelled out, "Let me go!" When I was finally able to gain some type of control of myself. "Get off of me, you bastard!" I shouted as I tried to buck my body up and down to force him to get off. But he was so heavy... And I felt so weak...

What the hell was going on? What was wrong with my uncle? Why was he doing this? Uncle Barry would never do something like this... Yet here he was, attacking me in a pure fit of rage. He was hurting me even though he was supposed to never hurt me... He was just like my father... All men were like my father! All adults are just on this earth to hurt children like me...

Well, know what? Fuck 'em.

"Get off of me, bastard!" I growled, trying to wriggle my wrists away from his hold.

But the man's grip only tightened around me and he growled down at me. And it wasn't some metaphorical growl, kiddies. It was a full on, deep throated, menacing as fuck growl that burst from his lips.

"I will show you how to be a man, Wallace." He hissed as he leaned down so his lips were right beside my ear. "You will learn to fear me, your father, everything. You will learn to respect your elders and how to keep your fucking worthless mouth shut!"

And without any reason or meaning, he was suddenly gone. My body now felt as heavy as lead and I couldn't move at all then the lights all around the room shut off.

The fuck?

I breathed in as deeply as I could, closed my eyes, then opened them again.

I had expected to face the darkness that had engulfed me once more. But now the room was lit up and to my right I could see Dick sleeping with his head on the bed, on top of his crossed arms, even though he was currently seated on one of my aunt and uncle's chairs.

Blinking in confusion, I looked around the room to find that it was the exact same one I had just been in before. But Ollie was standing at the door, holding the door close to his body while he whispered frantically with someone that was on the outside. To my left I found Roy sprawled out on yet another chair and he was fast asleep, just like Dick.

To say I was confused was an understatement, but luckily for me Oliver closed the door about ten seconds after the harsh whispers had ceased and turned to me. His blue eyes widened upon noticing me, but they softened as a soft smile overtook his face. He sighed as he made his way over to me, but kept his small smile when he patted my left hand softly.

"How are you holding up, buddy?" He asked me.

I looked up at him for a moment, then sighed, "Was I asleep, Ollie? Cause what I just experienced couldn't be anything otherthan a nightmare."

He nodded at me, but his smile was replaced by a soft frown, "Nightmare? What was it about?"

He sat down beside me on the bed, blue eyes speaking of worry and doubt that he held deep inside of himself. I didn't blame him for that. It was as if all the kids he cared about wound up getting into some type of trouble no matter how hard he tried to keep them out of it. First Roy, then me, who would be next? Dick? Even I wouldn't be able to stand something happening to the young bird.

"Nothing too bad..." I lied to him, smiling softly up at him. "Just a replay of the fight I just had down there... Can you tell me just what happened? Why I passed out?"

His eyes darkened at the mention of my passing out, then he sighed and shook his head, "It was a mixture of things, Walls. A certain red headed boy that is resting on a bed right now has not been eating the correct amount of food for his crazy fast metabolism, and that was a driving factor as to why he passed out." He frowned down at me, silently scolding me about that before continuing. "Then, added to your needy body, you had a ton of stress mount up. I don't know what you're going through right now, but... All of it culminated in you passing out as soon as you face heavy confrontation."

I maintained my silence after he had told me this, my mouth drawn tight.

What could I tell him? The truth? That was an inconceivable notion by this time. I was much too deep inside my own lies to try and get myself out of it. Besides, I wasn't in my parents' home anymore. I wasn't getting abused anymore so I basically had no reason to be acting out anymore. The truth was hidden away too deeply for me to try and drag it back out.

But what lie could I concoct that would make sense to him?

Ollie began to speak again before I could try to lie to him.

"Kiddo, I honestly have no idea what is going on with you." He sighed, blue eyes shining of honesty and hurt. "I don't have any idea what emotional things you're going through and it scares me to see what they're making you do. And..." He breathed out now, getting up from the bed to look away from me. "I've spoken with your Aunt and Uncle about all of this. They told me that you've only gotten marginally better after they removed you from your parents' house."

"Ollie, I'm-" I tried to explain myself with another set of lies, but Ollie shook his head.

"Let me finish up before you get to lying, kid."

I immediately shut my mouth at those words, even though they weren't spoken harshly. If anything, he sounded more tired than angry at this point.

"I don't want to hear anything you have to say at this point. Your uncle may still believe whatever you spew out, but I can't allow myself that luxury. I know you too well to think that you would ever do any of the things you are doing..." He drifted off, looking out the window to my right. "Maybe that's the problem, though... I don't think I know you anymore... I don't think anyone knows who you are."

To me it seemed as if he were voicing out his own, intimate thoughts, but I didn't dare say anything to stop him. Ollie was no fool. And he wasn't blinded by familial ties like Uncle Barry and Aunt Iris.

"Bruce and I know there's something wrong in your family, kid, we've known for some time. But you insist on lying to us and insisting there's nothing wrong."

"Because there's nothing wrong." I bit out almost unconsciously, by instinct.

"Don't you dare give me that bullshit, Wallace!" He growled at me, suddenly turning around and letting me see his angered face. "There's something wrong and you're not saying anything!"

I knew Ollie was hurting because I was hurting, but I couldn't care. I couldn't have him thinking I was a child of abuse. I couldn't let him know that my parents hurt me. I needed to keep my parents like my guardians and out of jail until my little brother or sister was born. I couldn't just abandon the little babe. He or she hadn't even been born yet.

"There's nothing for me to say because there's nothing wrong, Ollie! Why can't you understand that?"

"Because you keep lying to me, Wallace!" He yelled back, blue eyes ablaze, "You lie, and you lie, and you lie! Have you ever stopped to think that maybe someone has already been able to catch on to those lies and knows extremely well whenever you are telling your tall tales?"

After he had yelled that out, my breathing stopped. I had never thought of that possibility, honestly. I'd always thought I was too good of a liar to get caught so easily. Could I have been wrong?

But before he could tell me anything else, there was a knock at the door.

"Barry, I told you to let me speak calmly with the kid before you tried anything." Ollie called as he walked towards the door, even though he maintained his tense stance and angered state. "You very well know you'd only end up yelling at him for not eating right."

But just as Ollie said this, the door opened and a voice that certainly did not belong to my biological answer answered. Still, I did know it as one of my uncles.

"Oh, come on, Ollie, I just got back from a freaking month on Oa. The least you could do is let me see my favorite nephew without busting my balls about it."

Ollie's eyes were as wide as my own when we both suddenly found Hal Jordan smiling over at both of us, looking worse for wear but still happy. His clothes were disheveled and his usually perfect hair was out of its' gelled state, and he had some pretty big bags under his eyes while he held on to his ratty backpack, but he still managed to smile that mega-watt Hal Jordan smile at both of us.

"Now, where's that favorite kid of mine?" He asked, making his way into the room to bend over and hug me tightly.

I hugged him back in almost a daze, honestly surprised to see him now.

Uncle Hal had been sent back to Oa at the end of September because they had needed him for some reason or another I didn't really care for. During the whole time I was busy rebelling, not once had he come to my mind. But now that he was here I remembered that at least for a few years of my life before my fifteenth year, my three uncles had always been there to protect me, but Hal had always gone a step and above the other two. Because while Uncle Barry had Aunt Iris to care for and Ollie had to run around chasing after Roy, Uncle Hal had never really truly had to share his affections when it came to me.

"It's been a while, hasn't it, kid?" Hal asked, patting me on the shoulder softly. "Even missed your birthday. I'm sorry about that and you know it, right? Even brought you a birthday present to make up for my absence."

He reached into his army backpack now, leaning a bit back from the bed as he did so, then a-ha'd when he found what he had been searching for in the backpack. From there he pulled out a dog tag necklace and immediately pulled it over my head. He passed the necklace around my neck and finally let it rest at my chest, all the while he smiled down at the tags.

"A gift from all the Corps. Killowag says hi, by the way."

The necklace's metal was green and I could make out the Green Lanter's symbol, their energy battery, at the back of one of the tags. At the front I could see mine and Hal's names written in English, and below different types of alien languages. They were all incredibly small so all the different languages could fit, but I could still make out what they were supposed to be.

All the names from the people in Green Lantern Corps. that cared enough about me to give me such a beautiful gift.

"Th-thank you... Uncle Hal..." I mumbled softly, blinking back tears.

He smiled down at me with a glint in his eyes as he ruffled my hair, then he looked up at Ollie, "Think I can have some catch up time with Wally here before Barry gets back? He went to get food for the party down stairs and I would like to speak privately with the kid before he comes back in full mother hen mode."

Ollie glanced over at me for a moment, sighed, nodded, then walked out of the room. He was clearly hurt and it hurt me to see him like this, but it's not like I could tell him everything he wanted to know. I couldn't give my parents up like that. I couldn't give up on my unborn sibling like that.

A moment of silence passed between Uncle Hal and I, then he sat down beside me on the bed, leaned back on the chair, and said, "Now, kid, I know you're not too big on lying and you know I'm not too big on liars. So let's make this easy on both of us now and you tell me just why Barry looks like he could bite Ollie's head off and Ollie looks like he's about to murder your uncle without any embellishing."

So sorry for taking so long, but here's the chapter! Please review.