She had fallen asleep during the voyage, truly exhausted, a strange phenomena as the speed of the hero would normally bring out adrenaline and excitement. Barry stops running at the end of his street and walks to rest of the way as to not draw attention to himself from any neighbors who might be awake. Iris opens the door for him, after pacing around the living room for half an hour, and gasps at the sight of her dear niece. Barry slowly and gently lays May onto the family room couch eliciting a pained moan from the slightly waking girl while Iris runs through the house gathering first aid and medical supplies.
"Ughhn…" May opens her emerald green eyes. "Uncle Barry? What's going on?"
Barry smoothly tucks a piece of red hair behind the girls ear. "Hey Mayflower, we're at my house. Do you remember what happened?" His voice was like a deep glass of milk that calmed the nerves and warmed the body.
"Yeah, kinda…I called you, didn't I?"
"That's right, well you called your Aunt Iris, but she sent me to pick you up and bring you here."
"Oh, ok." May wanted nothing but to close her eyes and fall into a blissful sleep yet again, unfortunately her uncle wouldn't allow it.
"Hey, Mayflower, I need you to stay awake for a bit, ok? Can you tell me what happened? Before I found you at the park?"
A quiet moment passed before May answered. "I can." Another moment of silence.
"But you don't want to. Huh?" Barry knew that this little girl was scared of something, traumatized, and he didn't want to push to hard and scare her off. May shakes her head. "That's okay. You don't have to tell me now." Barry kept his hand on the top of her head, brushing and petting her hair, allowing May a moment of relaxation and peace.
Iris returns with the kit normally used on an injured Barry when he comes home from being The Flash. Her mind tells her to worry and fret over the battered form, but her instincts tell her otherwise, forcing her into a serious mode of adrenaline and professionalism, focusing on treating her wounds.
"Barry get me a damp, warm cloth will you?" While Iris absolutely hated seeing May like this and wanted to scream and rant, she kept her voice soft and slow, aware of her niece now being awake.
"Sure." Barry walks quickly to the kitchen while Iris lifts up May's foot to gently dab away the blood with a cotton pad. Noticing the glass and not wanting to push it in further Iris abandons the gauze and instead lifts May's shirt to her ribs, curious as to why May was slowly curling in on herself, and gasps at the awful discoloration across her abdomen. Barry returns to the room to see tears welling up Iris' eyes. She could not longer stifle her motherly instincts to love and dote on the child. "May, sweetheart, what happened? Were you walking around with your feet like this?" Iris lifted her hand to May's face, careful of the bruises, to rub her finger on her cheek, offering whatever relief she could.
May curled into the comforting hand caressing her face. "I guess I kinda forgot about the glass until now, but that's okay, it doesn't really hurt."
May was always stronger than she gave herself credit for, braving through pain and working through hardships. Iris made it her responsibility to allow May to open up and release whatever emotions she was feeling. "Why were you at the park? Did you run away from home?"
Barry returned and saw May's internal struggle to answer the question. He hands Iris the damp warm cloth which she used to wipe tears and sweat from May's face. "For now let's just get her better. We'll keep her here and she'll tell us what happened when she's ready. Either way I'm not sending her back there." He hated to say it, but Barry never got a good feel from Rudolph. He never thought Wally or May were in any danger, but he wouldn't put it past him to be cruel to the children. This incident, unfortunately, proves that he was wrong to doubt Rudolphs ability to harm the kids. However, Wally never showed any injuries outside from his heroing business. Maybe May was the only target. After all, he never wanted a girl.
"Back there? What is that supposed to mean? Do you think something is going on at home?" Intentionally avoiding the question Barry moves onto the next topic.
"We should take her to the hospital." While they both knew something was not right inside the West's home, neither of them really wanted to accept that poor May was taking the brunt of the situation, but they had a silent agreement to not go into it in front of May. Iris let out a shaky sigh then sits May up to wrap her in a knitted blanket.
"Put her in the car. I'll go grab some clean clothes for her, and she'll probably want her pillow. Should I get her stuffed rabbit too? It's still at her house but maybe you can run ov—"
"Iris." Barry softly lays his hand on her shoulder. "She'll be alright." A caring smile appears on her husbands face as she calms her breathing.
"Alright. I'll meet you in the car." Iris runs up stairs as Barry carefully lifts May into his loving and strong arms.
"Uncle Barry?"
"Yeah, Mayflower?"
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For this, for everything, I didn't mean to bother you guys." Barry was gentle about sitting May in the car and showing her as much love as possible at that moment.
"Oh, Mayflower, you could never bother us. We love you and would do anything for you."
"I love you guys, too." Barry lay a simple kiss on her forehead.
A few short minutes later as Barry is buckling into the drivers seat Iris appears out of the house. Iris gets into the back seat with May, snuggling her in her arms while Barry starts the car. It's a 30 minute drive to the hospital and each minute makes the couples hearts beat faster and faster. Iris' heart was breaking at the sight of her bruised and bleeding niece who was falling asleep in her arms. At the same time Barry was thinking of the one man he thought capable of this. All the evidence pointed to him, her father, Rudolph West. There was a clear tension between the two and a character change within May occurred whenever she was around her father. Then slowly it changed her and the happy little girl Barry and Iris once knew was a past dream. The one thing he couldn't help but wonder is, did Wally know?
Finally the family arrived at the hospital and had to linger in the waiting room for a while before May could be checked out. The couple was asked to stay in the waiting room while May was being taken care of. While the Allen's waited a doctor appeared before them to question them about the incident. Answering all the questions to the best of their knowledge the couple looked at each other with the same thoughts in their heads, was this a case of abuse? Well, the doctor must have thought the same thing.
"So, let me get this straight, May called you from the park in Blue Alley, Nebraska and Mr Allen you somehow got in contact with the Flash and had him bring her to you here in Ohio." Questioned the doctor.
"I know it sounds strange, but I work with the police and he happened to owe me a favor so, ya know, and she told me not to call the police, not at the time anyway."
"Well, May told the same story," The story they all agreed upon in the car, "so this brings up a question she refuses to answer. Who did this to her? Aside from the fact that she is covered in bruises, some weeks old, she also has evidence of past broken bones. Medical records say they were accidents, but I'm starting to doubt that." Just before Iris or Barry could insert an opinion a police officer entered the conversation. "Sorry but I'm required to inform the police of any suspected abuse."
"Good." Iris was tired of teetering around the subject and decided to take a firm stand. While May had been asleep in the car Iris and Barry talked about what they thought was going on inside the West household, and came to a conclusion they weren't very happy with but needed to accept in order to help their little niece. "We think something is going on with her parents." Barry didn't think Iris would be the first to say it, it was her family after all.
The officer took out a pen and notebook. "What do you mean?"
"Recently we've noticed her wanting to get out of her house as much as possible. She avoids her father and has been really withdrawn for almost a year."
"Is that abnormal for her?"
"Completely. As a child she was so outgoing and spirited. I feel like she's a different person now." Barry voiced.
"Has she said anything to either of you?" Questioned the officer.
"No. She never says anything. Not about school, not about friends… not about home." Barry thought about how May never wanted to talk about other people, or about her life. She wanted to listen to Barry's stories and Iris' interesting happenings as a reporter. When she was younger she would tell everyone everything, sometimes making up fun stories to entertain the family, now she only ever wanted to listen, she never wanted to talk.
"He's right. May's emotional state has been going downhill for years now, it's concerning, and I hate to say it, but I really think it's her fathers fault. I love my brother, I do, but something's been off about him and May."
The officer continued to write in his pad. "What about Mrs West? How's her relationship with May?"
Iris thought back to when Mary showed her love for her only daughter. "Mary used to dote on May, she bought her all the latest fashions and toys and spent nearly every weekend doing something fun, but while Rudolph seems to get angry at her Mary just seems to ignore her all together."
"I see. Well I have no doubts of your honesty, but as far as I can tell we have no actual proof of this abuse coming from Mr West. Your niece refuses to tell us who did it and until she does we can't make any arrests, or acquire any warrants. We will question him of course but until we can find satisfactory evidence to show the court there is not much we can do. I'm sorry." Iris' eyes began to build with furry and Barry was quick to hold her in his arms. "Don't worry we will not let this go. Someone will be punished for this eventually. Right now we just have to find proof, but I'm sure after a thorough investigation and questioning I have no doubts this will be solved quickly, and you can help by talking to your niece and convincing her to tell us the truth of what happened, and what's been happening."
"Thank you officer." Barry says as he holds his wife.
Iris turns to the doctor. "Can we see her now?"
"Of course. She's awake and I'm sure she could use some love right now." The doctor, while at first very serious, smiles a bit with the comfort of knowing this small girl is not alone, something this poor doctor has seen all to often.
May is panicking. Everyone knows. Her father's gonna get in trouble…she's ruined the family. The happy picture everyone saw is broken. Wally is going to hate her. Her best friend. Her brother. May curls herself into a ball on the white hospital bed. The stitches on her feet stretch as she pulls her legs to her chest. She let's out a soft sniffle as the door to her private room opens. Not wanting to see anyone right now May closes her eyes and refuses to look up at the visitors. A soft and motherly hand rests gently on her back.
"May? Sweetheart? Are you awake?" Knowing that voice anywhere May remains silent hoping her aunt will see her discomfort and leave.
"May." Her uncle is here too. "We know you're scared, and we only want to help. Tell us what happened." More silence as Barry places his hand softly on her red hair. "How long has this been going on?" More sniffling and silence. "Was it your father? Did he hurt you?" The stifled hiccup let's Barry and Iris know the truth.
"My poor baby." Iris' voice shakes as she climbs into the bed to pull May into her lap and cradles her head in her arms. "Please tell us exactly what happened. You need to tell the police so he can never do this to you again." May's crying got slightly louder. Barry walks over to the side May is facing and kneels down to look into her blushed face. He brushes the delicate strands of hair out of her face and speaks in a soft voice.
"May. Look at me." Nothing. "Come on Mayflower." The nickname gets her attention and May slowly looks up from her aunts chest. Her fear slowly dissipates as she sees the loving and small smile from her uncle.
"I'm sorry." Whatever smile Barry had on his face vanished as Iris looks up with tears in her eyes and mouth agape at Mays words. "It's my fault. If I did what he said he wouldn't have gotten mad. I was being bad." Iris took May's face in her hands and turned her to look Iris in the eye.
"No. There is no reasoning behind this. He did it because he's a monster. No father should ever do this. Disciplining your child is sending them to their room or taking away their toys not beating them, not hurting them." From the look on May's face the couple could tell she didn't believe her aunt. "May West, you are a beautiful, kind, loving and wonderful little girl. Nothing you could do would ever justify this. Do you understand?" After a few moments of silence May slowly nods her head. Iris pulls her niece back to her chest and smooths the top of her head.
"Mayflower, can you tell the police who did this to you?" Silence. "If you want things to change. to stop, you have to tell them. They're going to find out eventually, so if you're afraid of your fathers reaction, don't be, we'll protect you." Barry offers a small smile of assurance. Silence. Then another small nod. "Okay." Barry slowly stands and leaves to bring the cop back. Once he returns with the officer May tells him every detail, every punch every slap, every burn from the age of 9 to the moment she ran from the house that night. Each word was harder and harder to say. The only way she was able to continue was the constant squeeze from Uncle Barry's hand and Aunt Iris' warm hugging. At this point she wasn't doing it for her, she was doing it for them.
After May was done talking the doctor came in and took pictures of her injuries as evidence. Barry left the room, but Iris was allowed to stay to keep May calm and comforted during the photos. The scars from cigarette burns were something that Iris didn't notice. They were on her back mostly and were few enough to look like moles or birthmarks at a quick glance. The cop left satisfied and determined to make the arrest that morning.