AN: Again, sorry for the wait. I had no idea how to write this chapter, and it's not as long as I wanted it to be, but the next chapter will be. Now I have a very IMMPORTANT announcement to make.

The whole Linda vs Artemis question in the sequel has not yet been resolved. I got a lot of votes, but they're fairly even. I WILL ONLY USE ONE OF THEM AS WALLY'S LOVE INTEREST! Instead of asking for your preference I want to know if anyone will be mad if I use one over the other. If you will only be disappointed by one choice, I don't want to know. I just care if someone will be seriously mad if, say, I wasn't true to the comics and used Artemis instead of Linda. If this helps, the romance will mainly be a side plot in the sequel, and both characters will work (with a few minor plot changes), but the story will pretty much be the same with either Artemis or Linda. (And I take back what I said earlier: Artemis would either be a hero and/or villain). Now on with the story!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Justice League.

Barbara's question stopped all the thoughts running through the leaguers' minds. Did they all trust Flash? Well yeah. Was it enough to overlook everything?

Yes.

It was the answer everyone came to.

Yes, they trusted Flash, and they would go along with what he said and did from that point on because of it.

Supergirl pouted, but turned her attention back to the overhead monitors.

Wally was dressed in a t-shirt and sweats and cooking a tower of pancakes in his kitchen. Galatea walked in wearing almost the exact same thing.

"Morning," Wally greeted with a smile. "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine," Galatea said stiffly as she sat at the table. She kept her head down, and her shoulders curved protectively.

Wally nodded, smiling. "That's good. Now, I've got to go to the lab in about an hour, so I can't show you around Central."

"You're leaving me here alone?" Galatea asked incredulously. "How do you know I won't run away?"

Wally smiled. "Well, I know a little something about running, and Galatea," Wally said looking at her, "you don't have anywhere to run to."

Galatea looked down sadly.

"But," Wally said, "if you had let me finish, I would have told you that just because I won't be around today, it doesn't mean you'll be alone."

At that moment there were a few knocks at the door. Wally shook his head and said, "Perfect timing as always. Come in!" he yelled.

A few seconds later, Joan Garrick walked into kitchen. "Hello, Wally," she said. Joan looked at Galatea. "Hello dear," she said with a warm smile. "You must be Galatea. Wally's told me all about you. I'm Joan, but you can call me Grammy; everyone does."

"H-Hi," Galatea said nervously. "Um, you can call me Teah."

Grammy nodded. "Here. Try some of my strawberry tarts," she said as she offered some of the pastries that she'd brought with her.

"Oo," Wally said with wide eyes from his position at the stove. "Can I have some?"

"I suppose you can have one or two," Grammy sighed, "but I brought them for Gala-for Teah."

"He can have them," Teah said quickly. "Really, I don't mind."

Wally and Grammy shared a look, and everyone knew that Galatea had just passed an unofficial test.

"Galatea," Grammy said. "Welcome to the Flash family."

Wally grinned widely at Galatea, who looked confused, but also a little hopeful.

"Now," said Grammy in a business-like voice. "I think the first thing we need to do is get you some decent clothes to wear. Then we can visit my stylist and see if he can't do something with your hair, after we find a way to cut it of course. Maybe he can give it a pixie cut," Joan said thoughtfully. "You're tall, too. You might need to shop at certain stores. What size do you wear?"

Teah shrugged one shoulder. "Everything I needed was always provided for me."

Grammy blinked. "You've never been to any store before?"

Teah shook her head.

Grammy Joan frowned. "What else haven't you done? Ridden a bike? Gone to the movies? Have you ever had a birthday party?" Grammy asked, and Wally frowned.

Galatea kept her lips firmly shut as she shook her head. "I was released from my fetus chamber on September 22 almost four years ago, and then moved to an acceleration pod for 42 weeks until my body was fully developed," she explained.

Wally tapped his chin with his finger. "It's said that the human body is finished growing by the age of twenty-one," he said thoughtfully. "That would make sense if they kept you there for 42 weeks; one year every two weeks. So you would be...twenty-four? Almost twenty-five, physically at least," he concluded.

Joan harrumphed. "If I ever meet this Waller woman or anyone involved with Cadmus I'm going to give them a piece of my mind!" she said angrily. "Teah," Grammy said seriously, "I am going to introduce you to an American pastime: shopping!"

She turned to Wally. "I'll take your card."

Wally stiffened. "Oh," he said chuckling. "I was hoping you'd forget to ask," he muttered. Wally slouched over to his wallet on the counter and pulled out his Visa card. He sighed sadly as he handed it over.

"Oh, Wally, stop pouting," Grammy admonished. "You told me last night that you'd taken responsibility for Galatea, and that includes paying for anything she needs. You didn't get like this when it was Jason or Roy."

"That's different!" Wally defended.

"How so?" Grammy demanded with her hands on her hips.

"Because they're guys!" Wally said, gesturing wildly. "They don't need stuff, but she's a girl. Girls need stuff! Stuff is expensive!"

"Wally!"

Wally bowed his head. "There's a two thousand dollar limit," he said in a resigned voice.

"Really?" Grammy asked surprised. "I would have thought it was only one thousand. This is perfect! Come on, Teah, we've got a whole day of shopping to get to."

Grammy proceeded to take Galatea's hand and pull her out of the kitchen.

"Ah, but-but-but," Wally said helplessly as the women left. He whimpered, and some of the watching heroes couldn't help but laugh at Wally's reaction, even though a lot of the guys empathized with him.

The scene changed into a blurry memory.

"The world needs the Justice League, and the Justice League needs you, Superman."

Applause briefly filled the Watchtower before it faded and the memories fast forwarded through the following two weeks in thirty seconds.

A new scene came on the monitors. Wally was in his Flash costume and was talking into his comm.

"I'm ready to be teleported up," he said. Then he caught sight of Galatea off to the side. She was wearing a blue tank top and artfully ripped jeans. Her hair had been fixed and was now lying flat in a layered pixie cut that showed off her heart-shaped face.

"Hold on a minute," Wally said, then turned off his comm. "Teah? You okay?"

Galatea nodded. She took a deep breath and then blurted out, "I'm sorry!"

She sighed as Flash looked at her confused. "Look, I know I've only been here two weeks and I've got a lot more to learn and there's no way I could ever thank you for what you've done but, I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry I wanted to hurt you, and the league," she added. "I-I wouldn't say I was wrong exactly, just misguided like you said. I really did just want to help, but I'm still sorry," she said.

Flash smiled and stepped toward her to pull her into a hug. Teah hugged back.

"I forgive you," Flash said. "You might want to tell the rest of the league that in time, but I forgive you."

Teah smiled. "And I was thinking…about my last name? You said I needed one, and…I thought…maybe I could use West? Or Allen or Garrick? Unless you don't want me to, that's fine-"

"I like it," Flash interrupted. "You're part of the family now. Whichever name you want to use is fine with me."

"So, Galatea West?" she asked with big eyes and an upward tilt of her lips.

Flash smiled. "It has a nice ring. I'll tell Batman to put it on the papers he's making for you. I'd say you could be my sister, but everyone knows I don't have a sister, so how about my long-lost cousin? You'd be surprised by how well that cover story works."

Galatea giggled – actually giggled! – and nodded in agreement.

Flash stepped back. "Time to go. See you in a few!"

The image morphed into a whirlwind of color for a second before it faded to black and a new scene appeared.

Flash was strapped down on a metal table with Gorilla Grodd looming over him.

The league members stirred as they knew that this was finally the last memory.

"You know that helmet you're wearing?" Grodd asked mockingly. "It detects brain waves. More specifically, it detects and activates neuron activity in your hippocampus. That is where your memories are stored. This device will read those memories and display them on this screen," he said, gesturing to a large screen behind him.

Flash put on a brave face. "And?" he asked.

"And I have programmed the device to display every memory that has a certain amount of brain cells and neurons dedicated to that memory, which will show the event's importance in your life. In short, I will know everything about you."

"Eh, whatever," said Flash as though he couldn't care less. The league all knew how wrong that was.

"It's too late for that Flash," said Grodd, and the league was confused, not knowing that Grodd was responding to Flash's thoughts. "Even if the League does come, your memories will still be exposed. There's a failsafe, you see. Once I push this little button," he held up a remote, "a microwave emitter will be activated. If anyone tries to remove the helmet, it will release a signal that will override your brain and turn it to mush. The only way it can be deactivated is if the helmet is allowed to run its course through all of your memories up until the present. Oh, and did I forget to mention that I will not be the only one to see your memories? I decided to take a page out of the Joker's book and give a try for the theatrical. In two minutes, your memories will be broadcast to the entire world."

Grodd pressed the button, and there was a loud crash that shook the building just a second later.

Superman had punched a hole through the ceiling and flown towards Grodd with Shayera behind him wielding her mace. Flash watched Batman come through the whole and shouted to him.

"Batman!" he said in relief. "Listen, if you try to remove this thing, it'll fry my brain, but Grodd says it'll display my memories to the whole world in less than two minutes unless you do something!"

Batman went to the computers while Flash took several deep breaths. "It's happening," he mumbled. "This is how they find out."

Shayera's worried face leaned over Flash's. "Don't worry. I'll get you out of this."

Flash opened his mouth, but Batman yelled at her not to touch him.

"Flash," said Batman in his gravelly voice. "That helmet is sending out a signal that will be picked up by television satellites around the world. I can't stop it; however, I can redirect it."

"How?" asked Flash.

"I can send the signal to the Watchtower instead. The feed will take over every device there, but your identity will be safe from the public."

"But you can't stop my memories from being shown," he stated.

"No." Batman paused. "You have sixteen seconds to decide."

"Do it," Flash said. His face was blank as Batman relayed a message to the Watchtower and then the monitor screens all went black. One by one, they rebooted, showing either news reports or live aerial views of major cities across the world.

The heroes in the main deck looked at each other blankly.

"Soooo," Green Arrow drawled. "What happens now?"

...

AN: Whoo! 50 chapters! And next time you get to see Wally's reaction!