"He isn't stable enough for that yet. We can't perform a skin graft, not until the drugs kick in at least," I hear someone say. Was it Barry?
"I don't want him to see himself like that if he wakes up," That sounds like Dick.
"Well, I'm sorry. I can't do anything, not until he is out," I know who that is. It's Dr. Mid-Nite. Not Barry.
I open my eyes slowly, taking in the bright infirmary lights. Looking around the room, I spot Dick and Mid-Nite near the door. I gasp in pain as I try to sit up and fall back to the bed. Dick looks over in shock.
"Wally!" He yells running over, "How long have you been awake?" Dick says inspecting me to see if I had opened up my wounds.
"Long enough to hear the end bits of your conversation, why do I need a skin graft?" I look at the board. It has messages like Get well soon! and ones like We miss you bud! But one catches his eye. Sorry for your loss. I raise my finger and point at it, "What does it mean? What loss?"
Dick glances to the board, to Mid-Nite, and back to me, "You don't remember? Wally. Barry is gone."
"No." That can't be true can it?
"Wal-" Please don't let it be true.
"Get out. Both of you get out."
Dick sighs, "You and I both know that's not going to happen."
"How do you manage?" Dick doesn't understand, "Your parents are gone. You watched it happen. But you act like nothing happened. My parents are gone because of how useless I am, but they're still alive. You don't have that luxury. Maybe I'm just weak like my dad said," I clarify.
And with that last bit I turn to the table and grab the handheld mirror before Dick can react. I look into it and see the burns, how did I not feel them there? And the eye patch. I don't remember anything happening to my eye. I point to it and look to Mid-Nite, "What's it from? Did Reece do it?"
"It happened when you vibrated your hand through his chest. The metal from his suit was shot out in various directions, almost killing you. Three slivers hit your right eye." He says turning around and washing his hands. He leaves them alone in the room.
I move to get up into a sitting position and before Dick can stop me I pull the eye patch down and look at the damage. Seems they fully removed the eye. I see puncture wounds around the eye, and the burns almost make it all the way to the eye.
"Hey, at least if you guys don't want me I have options! Joker or Two-Face!" I say rubbing the bandages covering the smile.
"Don't joke like that Wally," Dick says turning and walking to the door, "Who should I send in next? Three teams of superheroes out there. And they aren't just kids."
"Send in Oliver. Maybe he can answer some of my questions."
"Okay, see you later man." At that I start laughing. Dick turns around, "What's so funny?"
"See you later!" I yell through my laughter pointing to my eye, "See!"
Dick turns and leaves. I pull the eye patch back down. My smile fades as Ollie walks in. He throws me his signature smile but it's easy to tell how fake it is.
"What's wrong Wally?" Oliver says walking up to me. He sits on the bed next to me and I give him a small smile. It didn't occur to me earlier how much using the muscles in my face hurts.
"He isn't coming back is he? Barry I mean. Reece really did kill him?" I ask looking up at him. The man still towered over me somehow.
"He'll never be gone if you remember him, he'll always be with you," He says pulling me into a hug. I wince and he takes the hint and lets me go, "Sorry, didn't mean to hurt you."
"Everyone say that but its not true. Me and Barry are both men of Science Ollie, we don't believe in the afterlife."
"That doesn't mean he isn't still with you."
A realization hits me at that moment, "Ollie, where is Reece's body?" I ask.
He starts tapping his fingers off his leg, "The morgue on the Watchtower. Why?" Ollie asks faster than usual. He wont meet my gaze. For a superhero, it is way to easy to tell when Oliver is lying.
"No reason, but it never occurred to you of all people that someone might try putting him into the Lazarus pit?" I ask practically spitting venom, "If you don't mind I'd like to see Batman."
Oliver looks stunned and hesitantly stands and walks out. Minutes later Batman walks in. He remains standing unlike Ollie and just stares at me. We sit like that for about a minute before I motion for him to grab a chair. He glares at me but does anyway. Guess I'm more persuasive than I thought.
"Oliver Queen may not notice it himself but he just let slip that, if Reece is even dead, you aren't watching his body," I give him a glare to match his, it's the less seen but no less scary Flash glare, "What really happened to Reece? I remember shoving my hand through him but that's it. Remember, I will know if you aren't telling the truth Bruce," I say putting heavy emphasis on his name, he doesn't react. I remove the eye patch again.
He stares at me, eyes betraying nothing, "Is that a threat Flash?" I stare at him confused and a little bit hurt by the use of my mentor's alias, "Oh you forgot about that didn't you? You are old enough to be a full-fledged superhero. Your mentor is dead. The name gets passed to you now. I feel you'll be the scariest Flash yet. Emotionally scarred and all. You have already killed your first villain. Yes, we aren't watching his body because you destroyed his heart. Not even the Lazarus Pit can fix that. Now back to the subject of your new title. I assume you'll want to make the proper adjustments to Barry's outfit, personalize it. Every Flash is a bit different." Batman says dropping a note on the bed and leaving without another word.
The note reads 905689 it's your override code for features. It's also your room pass code but you are allowed to change that. Welcome, Flash. I stare at the note, waiting for something, anything to happen. Hearing the door open I turn and look, Bart is there awkwardly staring at the ground. I wave him over and he slowly walks over never taking his gaze of the ground.
"What's wrong Bart? Is it my face?" Right at that moment I realize I still have my eye patch off. Shit, must have scared the kid half to death. I know I'd be scared if I saw me. I put it back on, "Hey, it's just me kid, I know the burns and stuff might scare you, but you just have to remember who is behind them." I say pulling him in closer.
"Wally? What happened out there? No one will tell me where Barry is. I'm not stupid. I knows he's gone. But what happened? How did it happen?," Bart questions looking into my eye.
I pause, not sure if I should tell him the truth. I make a decision quickly and look him in the face, "It was a new villain. We didn't know what to expect so we weren't prepared. He grabbed Barry and we talked before he broke his arm. I made a move but he was too quick and I hesitated to long. Reece broke his neck. He kidnapped me and put me through some bad things. You guys were out on a mission when the league received the video. After about what I would guess to have been around eight hours later they found me. He almost killed Robin but this time I was fast enough. I vibrated my hand through his chest, destroying his heart. He's dead Bart, so don't get any ideas," I finish pulling the tearing up boy into my arms.
"Can I stay in here with you for the night? Please? Its been so long since we did something like that, for old times sake?" He asks.
"I'd have to ask Dr. Mid-Nite but I'm sure you can. And Bart you might not like this but I have to leave the team," He looks like he's about to say something but I interrupt him, "There's nothing I can do about it Bart. Someone has to be the new Flash. But I can tell you something you can do. You want to help design the costume?"
He waits a second, before answering, "Can I?"
"Sure buddy," I answer, "Come on up here," I say patting the spot next to me.
He pulls himself up and snuggles into my side. I'd never be able to tell him how much that hurts. And to hell with Dr. Mid-Nite's approval.
A/N: Another chapter out guys! The favorite and follows really helped. If anything seems rushed or slow just attribute it to Wally being a speedster. Please review, it really helps get the chapter going.
Edit: Okay, sorry guys. I really should have went through and edited both chapters. I made some adjustments and I hope you can forgive me. Should've put the phrase quality over quantity into play here. Sorry!