Lay It All On Me

"Did you find it yet?" she asked him into her com-link.

"Nope, still looking." the speedster replied, holding out his phone.

"How you don't have them all already after the ground you can cover is sort of surprising." Chelsea teased him walking through the park, motioning her phone left to right in hopes that it would appear.

"Every time I try it asks if I'm a passenger! I'm not in a car!" Wally whined.

Chelsea giggled, "Guess they didn't take into account that The Flash would want to play with their app." she paused, hearing something spawn, "Ha, I got it!"

Suddenly, he was beside her, "Aww come on! No fair!" he watched over her shoulder as she tossed Pokeballs at the Slowpoke.

"Isn't it funny that the Pokemon you couldn't find was a Slowpoke?" she asked him. He gave her an irritated look that was masking an amused smirk. She looked around them. Central City had some beautiful parks. They had gotten up early the next morning after the Absinthe incident in Gotham to go out scouting for Pokemon in Central City. Wally figured she could use the fresh air. She seemed clearer headed today. Perhaps Batman was right about the fear toxin still having a hold on her before.

They made their way to a bench and sat down together. Nearby was a pathway and a couple of billboards for locals to post business or personal ads, "How're you feeling?" he asked.

She nodded her head, "I'm alright. Thank you for this." they always had fun together. She looked at him thoughtfully, her stare catching his attention, she looked away.

Looking over her shoulder he noticed the billboard, "Hey, no way!" he quickly got a closer look.

"What's up?" she asked.

"Central City always has this awesome carnival in the fall I used to go to with my aunt and uncle as a kid. I haven't been in so long." His voice trailed off, seemingly tripping on nostalgia.

"When is it?" she wondered, leaning forward, "Want to go? I've never been to a carnival before."

His shoulders slumped when he caught onto the date listed, "Tonight is their final night."

Chelsea pursed her lips and stood up. She came to his side and placed her hand on his shoulder, "I can leave work early this evening and we can go."

He blinked at her, watching the crisp autumn air toss her hair. He felt that feeling in the pit of his stomach again. The one that wanted to reach out and kiss her. He played off that feeling. He had a lot of practice, "Chels! You're going to have so much fun. It's a blast."

She started laughing at his sudden bubbling enthusiasm, "Can't wait." she felt her phone vibrate, "Let's go catch a few more Pokemon before I have to go to work."

Some time passed and she was back in Gotham City approaching the Wayne Designs building. She was in comfortable attire today, she didn't bother to change between frolicing with Wally to now. She had red converse on her feet, high waist jeans, a white tank top, and a yellow flannel shirt on overtop. Her hair was its usual mess of waves cascading down her back. It seemed like it had only gotten longer, reaching her lower back now.

She had a bag with supplies on her shoulder and a cup holder filled with coffees in her grasp. When she came in she began passing them out to the workers who requested she make a pit stop before coming in. She then disposed of the cup holder and went to her office. Spilling the contents of the bag onto her desk she quickly started on some sketches for one of her classes. Tonight was going to be the time she caught up on some classwork, but she hated seeing Wally disappointed. They had been spending a lot of time together. He stayed over nearly every night. Between that and Gotham's pest problem, she had fallen quite behind on school work.

She noticed herself drawing The Flash a lot in her sketches for upcoming projects. Pausing to reflect on this, she began flipping back through her sketchbook, noticing a slight transition from Batman to The Flash as of late. She swallowed, flipping back to her current page and started drawing again. Pulling a hair tie from one of the drawers at her desk, she held it between her lips and began gathering her hair to put it up in a messy bun to keep it from falling in her face, but there would always be a straggling strand or two falling from time to time. She'd blow one out of her face, just for it to come back down a few moments later.

"Miss-" a shy voice came from her doorway, "I mean, Chelsea," it was one of her workers, Josh. He was always shy around her, "I was wondering if we could talk for a moment?"

Chelsea's eyebrows raised with concern, "Sure, Josh. You can close the door if you want?"

He closed the door behind him quietly. She could tell he was more nervous than usual. Was he quitting? Had she done something to make him uncomfortable? He stood there and stared at her, trying to gather his words.

"Are you okay?" she asked, rising from her chair.

"Uh, yes ma'am- I mean… uh," he took a deep breath, "Well, it's just…" he rubbed the back of his head, "Chelsea, I was wondering…" he paused, "would you be willing to go on a date sometime? With me I mean?"

She blinked at him.

She opened her mouth to speak.

She walked through the door of her apartment. Her and Wally agreed to meet there before heading to the carnival. He was laying on the couch waiting for her watching some old Tom and Jerry cartoons, "Honey, I'm home." she joked.

He looked over the top of the couch and grinned at her. Turning the television off he hopped over the couch, "How was your day?" he asked, genuinely interested, as always.

"It was… interesting." she murmured, putting her stuff on the kitchen table, "How was the Watch Tower?"

"Man," he shook his head, "it was busy today. I helped Wonder Woman with a tsunami evac mission. Let's just say I won't need to shower for at least a week." he caught her staring at him thoughtfully again, "You okay?"

She blinked, looked at the floor and nodded, putting a smile on her face, "It feels like you've been asking me that multiple times a day lately. I'm sorry." she shook her head.

"Hey," he told her, coming up to her to close some distance between them and hold her hands in his, "you've been through a lot lately. You're allowed to not be okay. Okay? You're no trouble to me, Chels."

She squeezed his hands, "Let's go have some fun." she told him.

"Alright!" he said enthusiastically.

Wally took her on another one of his runs to get to Central City. He stopped a little before the gate to the carnival. Letting her down from his back she took her hair down from the bun and let it fall how it pleased, wearing the hair band on her wrist. As they walked through the gate Wally paid for their tickets and they kept moving.

"Where to first?" he asked her, looking over her shoulder at the map they were given.

Her stomach growled, "Food?"

He grinned at her, "I love you, Chels." he draped his arm around her shoulder and started for the food venders.

They told each other they loved each other all the time. Of course they did. They were best friends. A strange feeling struck Chelsea when he said that this time though. A feeling of butterflies she had been ignoring for so long around him.

Chelsea decided to have a cheeseburger and then bought a small bag of kettle corn to munch on while they walked around. Wally however had gotten half a dozen cheeseburgers, three corn dogs, two bags of cotton candy, and was currently working on his third bag as they wandered, "Want some?" she offered him the kettle corn.

"I see you eying my cotton candy," he teased her, pulling a wad of the sticky sweetness from the bag and feeding it to her. She tossed a piece of popcorn and bounced it off his nose.

They were smiling at each other when one of the games caught Wally's attention, "Come on, I loved this game as a kid." There were squirt guns on a counter and the goal was to shoot as many targets as possible for a prize. Wally with his speed, clearly had the upper hand, "You catch a Slowpoke this morning, and become one this evening. Come on, Chels. Keep up. You can't catch me!" he teased.

She pointed her squirt gun at him and sprayed him in the face, "How's that tsunami weather treating ya, Wal?" she quipped.

The man running the stand laughed at their interaction, "1,000 points for the lady."

"What?" Wally protested.

They looked at the possible stuffed animal prizes, "You want the big dog, don't you?" she said expectantly.

"I want the big dog." he confirmed.

They looked pretty silly with Wally carrying a giant stuffed dog on his back, wandering around the carnival. They proceeded to play some ski-ball games, the giant mallet with the bell game, and whatever else was around them at the time.

Wally had also managed to get a balloon hat made and put it on top of Chelsea's head. It was a good feeling to be completely silly and not be embarrassed about it. She could always be herself completely around him. Their friendship was always love in its most genuine form.

They decided to ride the ferris wheel to conclude their evening at the fair to watch the finale fireworks display. It was perfect, because the wheel stopped turning once they reached the top. They were sitting especially close, because Wally's dog was taking up a lot of the seat, "What did you decide to name him again?"

"Spot," he said simply.

She chuckled, "He doesn't have a single spot on him."

"That's why it's the perfect name." he told her.

They stared into each other's eyes quietly for a moment. Wally bit the inside of his cheek and rested his arm on the back of the seat. He leaned into her just a little bit, "Chels- I-" he breathed out of his nose, the warmth of it tickled her face, giving her goosebumps across her arms.

She leaned in a little bit more, her body aching to be closer to him. She tilted her head a bit, opposite of his, her hand on his knee. When the first firework clapped against the sky, she squeezed his knee and pulled back, rolling her lips inward. She turned to the display, trying to collect herself.

They almost kissed.

Something was willing her to want to. Her whole body was practically on fire and there was no putting it out.

"Hey," Wally said, "remember that time we got the bright idea to shoot off some left over Fourth of July fireworks in the Watch Tower?"

In that moment she burst into laughter. She was laughing so hard she was in tears, "Oh my God," she breathed, "Everyone was so mad at us."

He joined in on her laughter, "I thought Sups was gonna ground us for sure."

"He probably should have." she joked, smoothing the hair back from her face as she recovered from the laughing fit. The beautiful lights flickered in the darkness, creating intricate patterns in the sky, "I miss it." she said with a melancholy tone, "Just the eight of us… I feel like I barely see the others anymore… I miss Shayera. I hope she's doing alright." she sighed.

Wally's expression saddened, "Yeah." he agreed simply, "A lot has changed…" it was like he was admitting it to himself.

"I'm glad you haven't." she told him, squeezing his knee once more.

The fireworks booms and blasts echoed in his ears, "You too, Chels." he instinctively pulled her in and rested his head against hers, taking in the scent of her hair.

On the way home while Chelsea was getting a piggyback ride from Wally, she was in charge of holding onto Spot. When they got to the apartment she flopped the stuffed animal onto the couch as Wally raided the fridge. She sat down on the couch beside the dog and started fiddling with the the fur on its foot to have something to do with her hands, "Something weird happened at work today." she started to tell Wally.

"Yeah?" he asked, sitting down in the chair adjacent to the couch with some leftover pizza on his plate from a few nights ago.

"One of my coworkers asked me out." she told him.

He nearly choked on his bite and looked at her. His heart felt like it was being rung out like a rag.

She sat back, "I told him no." she said with some guilt, "He's a sweet kid and he's always been very respectful… I just.." she shook her head and raised her shoulders in a shrug, "I can't picture myself casually dating somebody I barely know, ya know? You have to get to know them. They have to get to know you. And once you know the real them and they know the real you…" she sighed, "And no one like that can truly know who I am, you know? The people I work with don't know my other job entails me to be surrounded by big dudes in spandex."

She arched her lip in disapproval, "And it's just too hard. My whole life has been like that. Just one difficult thing after another. I want just one thing in my life to be easy. And if it's who I spend the rest of my life with, I want it to be that." she was seemingly thinking out loud, "I don't want to date because it's just something to do. I want to date with the idea that there's a future there. I want it to be someone who knows me, you know? Who really knows me. Someone I don't have to start completely over with and it's comfortable and it's fun… and we…" another sigh escaped her full lips as she shook her head, looking into his eyes, "and we just fit, you know?"

Wally listened to every word she said. Again, he had an opening here. It was as clear as day. They both were made to be together. Yet somehow neither of them was willing to do it. Why?

Because the possible loss was too great.

And yet the possible gain was that much greater.

"And then I think…" she started to say and he slumped in his chair, "That I'm just not ready to get into another relationship yet…" she was shaking her head, this time at herself, "while what Bruce and I had wasn't… intimate or… toward the end there, far from romantic… it still feels like a life long… let down." she covered her face with her hands, "How do you get passed… how do you get over someone who's… been in your heart your whole life?"

There.

That right there.

That was why he hadn't made his move. He could feel it. He knew her.

She wasn't ready.

She wasn't over Bruce.

Wally set his plate on the coffee table in front of him and put his hand on top of both of hers, his fingers easily enclosing her small hands, "I don't know, Chels." he swallowed some saliva in his mouth, "Maybe you don't ever completely get over it… maybe one day," he took a long extended breath from his mouth, "Maybe one day you just wake up and… suddenly it doesn't hurt as bad anymore. Maybe the open wound in your chest becomes a scar… it's always still there but…" he rolled his lips into his mouth to wet them with his tongue, "But eventually it will just be a scar… and it won't hurt anymore."

She stood up and came over to him, sitting down across his lap she put her arms around him and started crying into his shoulder. She hadn't let herself do this since the break-up when she broke down in the Bat Cave before leaving. The flood gates had too much pressure and she couldn't hold back anymore. She just needed to cry. Wally held onto her tightly, rubbing her back and running his fingers through her hair.

He was honestly relieved.

Chelsea always had this philosophy of staying stone-faced in the face of pain. She just needed to let go and let her emotions go. This way she would be one step closer to that wound being a scar.

Author's Notes: A bit shorter than I'm used to, but the next chapter has some pretty significant stuff coming up so I expect it to be longer or maybe even come in parts possibly. I need to make a playlist for this story. If you need a good anthem to listen to for Wally and Chelsea look up "Lay It All On Me" from Rudimental Feat. Ed Sheeran. It's a song that describes them greatly and inspired the title of this chapter.