A review reminded me that I have yet to post this new chapter. Opps. Sorry for the delay but here's the my favorite chapter so far. I love Barry and Wally's found father-son relationship and the fact that we didn't get that in the show makes me so sad.

Also someone said they had trouble picking out where my time jumps were, so I'm doing something new for it. Hope it helps.

Dmhello

Barry flicked some red strands away from Wally's face. The steady dipping of his IV the only noise in the room.

He had taken the little speedster to S.T.A.R. shortly after Wally had passed out. According to him he was running for at least a few minutes without the ability to stop.

Barry guessed this was the first time his powers had manifested.

He wanted find out what had caused the powers to pick tonight to pop up. If Wally's speed had been dormant since the particle accelerator there had to be a reason they were just piping up tonight.

When Wally woke up and gave his story Barry was almost certain his eyes would be yellow by the end of it.

The reason, as it turned out, was named Rudy West. He had been hitting and abusing Wally for as long as he could remember, but tonight one of his teachers finally questioned it. Rudy came home furious, and Wally had never been so scared. He tried running away from home and that's when everything started to blur, and then Wally's little legs couldn't stop.

Barry sighed as he sat next to Wally, sleeping again after eating one of his calorie-packed speedster bars. He was still exhausted from his powers kicking in, so he conked out the minute he finished it. He only got out one complaint about the taste before he was out like a light.

Barry had fallen asleep in one of the computer chairs, waking up only when his phone alarm started blaring. He jerked awake, a twinge of pain going down his spine.

He rubbed his neck and stretched, hearing a few cracks in his back before getting up. He tipped toed over to the med area to check on Wally. He was still sleeping, snoring lightly.

"Wally" he said shaking him lightly "wake up."

Wally opened his eyes slowly, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Flash?" He muttered as he sat up.

"Yeah buddy, it's Barry." He said smiling affectionately "I need to get to work and I can't leave you here by yourself."

Wally was ready as he could be in a few minutes, band-aid replacing his IV and hair brushed. His clothes were the same as yesterday, so they were a bit wrinkled. Barry hoped he could slip him up to his lab without calling attention to anyone, Joe especially.

"I'll make some calls for a friend to watch you, but until then we can hang out in my lab. Help me solve some mysteries?" Barry said running him to Jitters for some actual food. He had a bagel sandwich stuffed into his mouth within a few minutes. Barry munched on a breakfast burrito, his coffee in hand.

"This is the best breakfast ever!" Wally squealed, gobbling down the last of his sandwich and orange juice. "I want to come here again. We never go out like this."

Barry smiled "well, I come here pretty often for coffee. Best in the city."

"Can we make those bars taste like that?" Wally asked "they taste like my mom's health food."

Barry laughed "We can certainly try." He glanced at his watch "We better go."

nnnn

Walking to work was a learning curve for Barry. He usually had a fast pace even without his speed, but Wally fell behind one too many times for him to do anything but walk slowly. He ended up being a few minutes late with Wally's hand in his.

"I'll have to remember you have tiny legs."

"I can still run fast though!" Wally countered "even before I got-"

Barry had to cut him off, putting a finger to his lips. "Not here okay? You're powers have to be a secret, or you might get hurt by other people."

"...okay Barry" Wally nodded.

"Allen!" Singh called, making Barry internally groan. "Nice to see you relatively on time-who's..."

He waved to Wally with scrunched eyebrows.

"Oh-babysitting, a friends picking him up. He won't be here long, promise. Actually I meant to talk to you, can I pop in once he's picked up?" Barry looked at Singh, eyes pleading.

"Sure Allen, just get that report from yesterday done." He turned around, heading to his office.

Barry carried Wally to his lab as quickly as he could, praying Joe didn't see him as he took the elevator. He snagged the LEGOs from the downstairs playroom, flashing back to his lab.

"Okay, Hal will be here at 11, but until then how about we do a little contest? I do my lab experiments, you build, and whoever does more gets to pick where we eat lunch. How's that sound?"

Wally's eyes lit up. He shook Barry's hand and grabbing the box of tiny blocks, getting to work on a miniature city.

"So McDonald's? Seems like an odd choice considering Central City's undying love for Big Belly Burger." Hal chuckled, walking along with Barry and Wally.

"Wally picked it" Barry chuckled, looking down at the little red head.

"We made a bet and he LOST!" Wally bragged, smiling up at Hal.

Wally was weary of Hal at first, ducking behind Barry's legs for a good half hour before Hal explained who he was. The little kid finally came out of his shell when Hal showed him he was Green Lantern, Wally's "second favorite superhero."

Hal just laughed, proud he beat out Superman and Batman in the rankings for once.

"Batman is cool, but he's scary" Wally explained as they walked toward the yellow acres of McDonald's. "Robin is cool though, all his flips and puns. I saw him on tv once, fighting with those two sticks. I've never seen anyone fight with those before...I'm rambling aren't I? I'll stop."

"No, Wally you're fine. If you have more to say keep going." Barry said squeezing Wally's hand.

"Yes kid, please, tell me more why Batman's son is more interesting than Batsie himself." Hal quipped, grin wild with mischief. "You're holding the hand of the king of rambling. If anyone can keep up with you, it's Barry Allen."

"You-you want me to talk?" Wally blinked "you're not bored?"

A ping of pain went through Barry. Wally's eyes were bright when he was talking, and more comfortable with them than he looked all day. Now all of that was gone, replaced with a timid demeanor. He knew all about people not wanting to hear anything you have to say about what you loved. Even with Joe and Iris he still felt like he was talking to a brick wall about his love of science. When Cisco and Caitlin came along and actually listened to him it was like someone was finally letting him say what he wanted. Tell them the reason he loved what he loved without people moving onto other topics immediately after opening up.

"Wally if you're interested in it I'd like to hear about it. Robin is very cool. I haven't met him yet, but he sounds it by the way Batman talks about him."

"You know Batman?!" Wally gasped.

"Yeah, met him a few times. He pops up at STAR labs every once in awhile, brings me scientific projects. First time he did it scared the sh-poop out of me."

Wally giggled "does that mean Robin will show up too eventually?"

"Oh, I'm sure he will" Barry muttered "probably scare me too."

"The Flash gets scared?" He whispered.

"Sometimes, things can be scary when you're out there fighting bad guys like the rouges or other metas that want to do bad things."

"But doesn't the fear stop you? Isn't it bad?"

"Wally, the fear doesn't mean you're weak or you can't do it. It just means you're human is all. What you do despite the fear is what matters. I don't let it stop me, but it's there, and that's okay." Barry squeezed Wally's hand as the red head nodded "I learned that from quite a few brave people in my life. This guy, he literally runs on bravery."

"That's right. Willpower is what powers my ring." Hal nodded holding up his fist, green lantern ring shining.

Barry looked up at the sky as Hal explained how his ring and constructs worked. He still couldn't get the image of the singularity out of his head, of Ronnie never coming out.

Wally's eyes twinkled with excitement "do you think I could do that? Help people like you guys do?"

"Maybe, it's a lot of work and it's very hard sometimes." Barry bit his lip "sometimes it feels like the things you've been through are too hard, like you've giving up more than you gave the world when you started."

"But it's worth it right? Saving people who wouldn't be saved without you?" Wally looked up at Barry, green eyes looking straight through the speedster's own.

"Yes," Barry nodded after staring at the little boy, admiration written all over him. He couldn't disappoint Wally. He couldn't let his fear disappoint anyone like him, or stop Barry from doing what he loved "yes it's worth it."

Wally ate his cheeseburger and chicken McNuggets happily before Barry had to leave, handing the little boy over to Hal's care for the rest of the day.

"He better be in the same shape as I left him in Jordan" Barry teased.

"We'll get ice cream and go to the park, do whatever kids like to do. He'll be fine." Hal waved "you just go do your police science-y stuff."

"Forensic science" Barry beamed "I'll see you at five!"

nnnn

"Singh, can I have a word?" Barry asked coming into Singh's office.

"What is it Allen?" He asked, eyes darting to one paper to another.

"I just came with yesterday's reports" Barry said setting the stack on the filling cabinet. He swallowed nervously "and...I have a case to call in."

Singh stopped to look up at Barry slightly "what kind?"

"An abuse case" Barry stated, hands nervously in his pockets "father and possibly a mother with a son."

"The kid" Singh stared, his shoulders slumping.

Barry nodded slowly "his name is Wally West, father is named Rudolph West. Wally ran away from them last night, ended up in STAR labs. He testified to me, but getting him to tell you or the other officers might be a challenge. He doesn't like big men."

Singh got up and closed the door tightly. "I'll inform some of the officers. I can send a female officer in, set up the play room. Just one question Allen, how did he get to trust you so fast? And why'd he run away to a scientific lab of all places?"

"Well..." Barry's heart started pounding in his chest "he said he liked science and it's the only place he knew other than school and his house and-"

"And it's where the Flash operates?"

Barry almost chocked on his spit. "Captain I-"

"You didn't think you leaving suddenly right as the Flash showed up would raise some eyebrows Allen?"

Barry sighed, hands running down his face before sitting down.

"Alright, Alright, I'm the Flash okay? I saved Wally when he was out at night on his own. His powers kicked in because of the stress of him running away. That's why he trusts me."

"He's a meta?"

"Speedster, but speed powers don't just show up like other meta powers. The speed force has to be triggered by something, for Wally that's running from his dad."

"God" Singh exclaimed sitting down next to Barry. "That's-thats some story."

Barry sighed, nodding. He let Singh take it all in. All he could hear was the white noise of the precinct and his own leg bouncing.

"I need to help Wally. I can't leave him with that family, and no one else is going to be able to help him with controlling his powers. I need to do this Singh."

"I believe you Allen, but there's a lot of red tape to cross."

"I know, but I'm willing, red tape or not."

Singh smiled slightly and stood up. "That's the right answer Barry. I'll see what I can do to speed this whole thing up."

"Thank you" Barry beamed.

"Just promise me something okay?"

"Anything."

"Get your shit together" Singh said "I don't know what happened with that Singularity mess but you've been running yourself ragged ever since. Stop it. This kid needs you and it's going to be a lot of work, so don't get distracted by your guilt trip of rebuilding the city by yourself."

"How-"

"Iris mentioned it very loudly to Joe." Barry blinked at him "its not your job to rebuild Allen, its the city's. These businesses have a chance to start over, let them do it on their own, alright?"

Barry nodded "Yeah...yeah okay."

"Also I'm pretty sure you breaking into a place and rebuilding without a permit could get you arrested and I'd rather not arrest the Flash for something so dumb."

Barry snickered. "As opposed to arresting the Flash for something else?" This was all so new to him. He'd heard Singh crack only a few jokes in his time here and most where when his husband was here. Barry smiled up at him.

"And I'd talk to Joe." Singh added "If anyone knows anything about red tape and sudden kids, it's him."

Barry swallowed thickly and nodded before getting up to leave. "I have a few friends that might be able to help with that too, but I have been meaning to talk with him. Thanks Singh, this means a lot."

"Seriously though, you have super speed how are you always late?"

"I just," Barry smiled "I always seem to be running into people to help along the way."

nnnn

Barry waited by the play room entrance as the two female officers talked to Wally. His foot was buzzing, tapping up and down so fast he was pretty sure he'd make a dip in the floor. He couldn't help it. Play room or not he remembered what talking to police was like when his mom was murdered. He couldn't wait until this was over.

"You're going to shock someone if you keep that up" Barry looked up, stilling his foot as Joe sat next to him. "Care to tell me why you're sitting here?"

"I know the kid that's in there. I want to be here when he gets out."

"Small red-headed boy? How do you know him?"

"It's a long story" Barry said "I'll tell you at the house."

"The house?"

"Yeah...there's some things I need to talk to you about. There's a lot I need to talk to you about."

"Like what?"

"How did you get me to the house so fast?"

nnnn

A few days later Barry was in STAR labs almost every day after work with Wally. When he wasn't knee deep in paperwork he was training with him. He was controlling his powers fairly well with Barry's help. Soon the little red head was keeping up with Barry's 'casual speed' when he ran around the city.

"Do you think I could get a suit?" Wally asked after about two weeks of training.

"Wally, we talked about this."

"I know hero work is super dangerous, and I'm not talking about that. I want to meet other heroes and I can't do that like this," he said pointing to his new shirt and jeans "it'll give away your identity."

"Wally, all the heroes you could meet already know my identity."

"But I can still help! Barry pleeeasee, no fighting even. I'll just get civilians out of the way. So you and Hunter can fight the bad guys without worrying about hurting anyone. It'll make it easier."

"Wally, this doesn't have anything to do with easy." Barry stared firmly "now look, I know you want to help, but if you get hurt things can get ugly really fast. Trust me on this one okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean if you get hurt frequently like I do your teachers might think you're getting hurt like how your dad hurt you. We can't have someone being suspicious of me like that, then I won't be able to adopt you. Things are already stacked against me as is, we can't add to that even if it's false."

Wally stared at Barry, nodding slowly "okay."

Barry kneeled down next to Wally. "I want to let you do more I really do, but we're in a bit of a transitional stage here. Hunter is coming home today, Bruce is helping me with your adoption, we're moving apartments, you're still learning the ropes of your powers. It's a mess, a happy mess, but a mess. We can talk about you helping me when all the dust has settled okay? Promise."

Wally softened, his whining expression turning to understanding "Okay."

"Alright, we have a few hours until I have to pick up Hunter from the airport. How's about we head back to the apartment and I cook up some dinner? I'll let you pick."

"Mac and cheese?"

"Alright, that sounds good. Do we make boxed or the fancy oven kind?"

"Fancy kind?" Wally asked, tilting his head as they walked into Barry's kitchen.

"Oh kid you are going to love this!"