Most young children were afraid of monsters being in their closets. For Wally, the closet was safe, and the monsters were in the rest of the house. Barry couldn't even drag him out to eat. He'd found a little nest made of blankets and Iris' favorite shirts at the back of his bedroom closet that Wally was sleeping in at night.
It broke Barry's heart to see his son so terrified for this long. He didn't know what to do. Captain Frye had given him a list of therapists to call if things got really bad, but Barry felt like he needed to take care of this himself.
After all, he was the one who brought the monster in the first place.
Barry decided to give Wally some more time before calling one of the child therapists; it had only been a week since the funeral. Wally couldn't tell him anything about the attack, but maybe he was remembering it on a subconscious level. That was the only explanation Barry could come up with for his behavior.
He wished he could call Hal about it. Hal was the expert on how to be fearless, but he wasn't back yet from his Lantern mission. He didn't know yet about…Iris.
Barry dug the heels of his palms into his eyes and focused on counting to a thousand as slowly as he could. Ever since that night, he was extra careful not to let his perception of time get away from him. He couldn't afford to be weak like that again – not when Wally needed him.
He sighed and rolled onto his back, staring up at the ceiling helplessly as he lay in the dark. Barry just wanted Hal here period. There wasn't anyone he could talk to who didn't act like something was seriously wrong with him. His coworkers at the police station tip-toed around him with their nonstop sympathy phone calls. Superman and Wonder Woman made frequent fly bys over his house every day. Even Ralph and Sue watched him like hawks when they came over.
It set Barry's nerves screaming, but he tolerated it all in silence. His friends only cared about him, and Sue seemed to have a gift for calming Wally down. When the Dibnys came by to check on him, Sue spent most of the visit hunkered down in the closet with Wally curled up in her arms. Barry was unspeakably grateful for her.
But he still just needed his best friend. He didn't know why, but it felt like this all wouldn't be so impossible if Hal was here.
Barry heard a shuffling sound from the closet, and he felt his heart sink. Wally was still awake. He got out of bed with a grunt of effort and padded across the carpet to the closet.
"Wally?" he dropped to his knees and eased the door open. Wally's little foot was the only visible bit of him sticking out from his cocoon.
The lump shifted a little, and Barry could hear soft hiccups coming from it. He reached out and gently closed his hand around Wally's toes, "I'm right here, little man. Don't be scared."
The hiccups stopped.
"Everything's gonna be alright. I won't let the monsters get you," Barry tugged one of his heavier winter coats from its hanger and wadded it up behind his head. Well, that was a good enough pillow. He tried to make himself comfortable as he settled in to sleep, his legs stretched out and sticking out of the closet. Barry closed his eyes and continued rubbing his thumb along the bottom of Wally's foot. It really did smell like Iris in here. His heart ached from the reminder, but it was still comforting. "We'll be alright; we'll get through this together."