Dany moved her hands to cover her mouth, eyes wide in shock, but tears were in her eyes. Mary picked up the phone, and asked what had happened.
"Ma'am, please let me talk ta Danielle." A western accent answered, almost pleadingly.
Dany now had tears falling, but not one sound came out of her. Mary moved to give her the phone, and Dany took it after a minute of it being there.
"How?" Was all she managed to choke out, worried about the answer.
Now the whole family was in the kitchen, wondering what was making her cry. But Barry had an idea.
"Bugsy Siegel. This girl, Stacy, she an' Stuff fell in love, then she went missin', an' Ah went searchin'. Ah told Stuff ta stay still, but he wouldn't listen, an' went ta get the answers from Bugsy Siegel. Brained him." The man's voice was heavy with hurt, and if you did know him, you could tell he was kicking himself over it.
"Oh God. Vig, the jerk brained Stuff?" She asked, never had she thought she would use those two words in the same sentence.
Now the family was completely intrigued. What did she mean by brained? Who was Stuff? And who was Vig?
"Yeah, look, Danielle, Ah have ta start lookin' for the bastard now, Ah'll call yuh when Ah get the chance." Vig told her, ready to hang up.
"Wait, Vig, what do you mean?" She asked, scared for the answer.
Vig sighed, then answered, "Ah'm gonna kill 'im." The the line went dead.
Danielle's eyes were wide, her hand covering her open mouth, tears falling. What was he doing? He's going to throw everything away just because of Stuff's killer! He shouldn't be this stupid!
Wally ran over to her, gingerly plucked the phone out of her hand, and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. He gave it to his mother, who put it on it's stand, then walked over to her other side and hugged her. Danielle didn't do anything, she was too numb to do something. Stuff was the equivalent of her older brother, and Vigilante her father, and now one is dead and the other is on the road to become just that.
She broke down crying, falling on her knees, but Wally and Mary catched her before any harm came to her. She cried on her mother's shoulder, finally breaking down. She consoled her the best she could, even though she didn't know what was the problem. Barry had a frown on his face, something very foreign to him, and was thinking.
"Danielle, what happened?" Iris asked, putting a her hand on Dany's, trying to comfort her.
Dany looked up at her, brown eyes wide in fear and sadness, then choked out. "Stuff's dead, and now Vigilante's on the road to die." She then cried again, again on Mary's shoulder.
Whatever warmth in the room left as soon as those words left her mouth, making a chill take it's place. The West's and Allen's looked at her in shock, but she only cried, feeling like she lost her family. Barry frowned even deeper, then snapped his fingers, and ran out of the kitchen, then came back with a sad smile.
"Hey, Dany, I got something for you." he told her, holding a piece of paper behind his back.
She hiccuped, and looked up, Mary and Wally looking at him in curiousity too. He smiled brightly, then 'Ta-da'ed, showing her her birth certificate, and a picture that a doctor had taken of the whole family before they gave her away. Barry and Iris were on Mary's right, Rudy on her left, with Mary on the bed, with a new born Dany, and a one year old in her lap.
"Just so you know you always a have a family with you." He told her cheerfully, then gave her the things.
She took them with wide eyes, the tears gone and replaced by curiousity, then looked at the picture and birth certificate, examining them. She looked at them, then at Mary, who was smiling but looked on the verge of tears.
"Y-you kept this?" She asked, shock showing.
Mary nodded, then smiled at her. "Of course I did. I always thought that you would come back to us." Then, Mary and Dany embraced, Dany feeling complete.
She thought it was kind of stupid, really. Finding her real family because she was arrested, then meeting her aunt and uncle, then finding out horrible news, and now feeling like she belonged because of two pieces of paper. She shouldn't feel like this, she has been let down too many times before, but maybe now... Maybe now she'll be able to find her own place.
A month after Dany came into their lives, the West's and Allen's lives seemed to have brightened up. She was now Danielle West, and she had found out about Kid Flash in a less than awesome way. Let's just say, Grandpa Jay's 60th birthday, Wally stealing all the ice cream, which made her chase him, which made her almost catch him, until he used his superspeed.
A lot of explaining and warnings later, she was allowed to meet the team. When she arrived at the mountain along with Wally and Barry, the other heroes were wondering if they had a new recruit, because she was dressed in a makeshift costume. She was wearing a red mask that only covered her mouth and nose, making her have a ninja kind of look, with a red shirt, and black pants.
She was not a speedster; which was something good in her point of view; and she really wasn't thinking of getting into the business. It's just that her parents were out, Aunt Iris was at her job, and Grandpa and Grandma were having their 'them' time, and it was either that or stay home alone.
That day ended with her going on an actual mission with the team, getting herself what Wally called a 'Superboy like pet', which just so happened to be a speedster horse, and befriending Robin, Artemis, and Superboy. She still thinks that Superboy only likes her because she managed to form a link with the horse while she was screaming her lungs off, hanging on to a horse going at the speed of sound.
When they arrived at the cave, instead of going to a debriefing with Batman, she, Superboy, and Kid Flash went outside, and raced until Flash and Superman were called to catch them.
"Wally, get back here with your sister!" Flash yelled, trying to catch the boy that had Danielle in his arms, Dany screaming her lungs off for the second time in the day.
"Never!" Wally yelled back, then threw Dany at the horse, which took off running, with Dany sitting backwards.
"WHY ME?" Dany yelled at the skies, as her horse ran around, her hanging on to its' back, seeing as if she didn't she would fall of and hurt herself.
Flash grabbed Kid Flash by the scruff of his costume, while Superman tried to catch the speedy horse, with Superboy only laughing at the curses that Dany spewed at Kid Flash. Wally scratched the back of his neck, chuckling nervously.
"Oops... Heh-heh." He said, then yelled when Flash dropped him on his bum.
"Wally, if your mom or Iris kill me because of this, you're so dead." Barry threatened, then ran behind Superman and the horse.
Wally sped over to Superboy, who now had popcorn in his hands, and was smiling at the trouble this caused Superman.
"Hey Supey." Wally greeted, plopping onto the ground next to him.
Superboy silently offered him the popcorn, which he took gratefully. Then, the boys turned as an explosion rang out. A giant cloud of dust appeared in front of them, which made them worry because that was where the three were running in. Then, out of the cloud ran the horse, Dany clutching his neck; now sitting in the right position; and the horse seeming to have a devilish smirk.
When they arrived where the two boys were, the whole team and the mentors had arrived, only to see two people sitting down lazily, a horse and a girl full of dust and ash, and two superheroes missing.
"Where are Flash and Superman?" Batman growled, directing his anger towards Wally.
He stuttered in fright, but didn't get to answer because Flash ran out of the smoke cloud at insane speeds, heading towards the horse. The horse neighed in fright, and took off running, poor Dany still on his back. And the chase continued. At the end of the day, Kid Flash and Superboy were given a punishment, the horse was put on punishment too, Dany was mentally scarred, and the two adults would never look at horses the same way again.
Dany finally felt like she belonged somewhere, especially with the way the team greeted her with open arms, and that Batman now is making her take classes with him so she would get better at hand to hand combat.
"Too bad it will never last!"
I know I posted this before, but I wanted to add something, and my little sister somehow erased this chapter from the public domain. So, I took that as something good, did a new ending, and now posted it. Three reviews and I'll update tomorrow.