Author's note: A (late) happy Thanksgiving to the American folks out there! I hope you all had a good one, that the family spats were kept to a minimum and that the turkey was yummy. Not having this holiday in France, it's always perplexed me a little, but we do have the family-gatherings (with all the complicated interaction that implies) and pig-out on holiday food covered with Christmas, so I can relate :o) Anyway, here's another snapshot, which I hope you like.

References are made to the episode of Superman: The Animated Series that had Supes and Flash do a charity race to determine who was the Fastest Man Alive, and it's set during Divided We Fall in JLU, after the battle against 'Brainthor' but before Superman's speech the next day.

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything … But I'm waiting for the new Ghost Rider book (the Danny Ketch 1990s version) I mail-ordered for my fiancé for Christmas (oops, I mean I asked Father Christmas for him :D) He never reads fanfictions, so I'm pretty safe. Still, in the DC department, I pretty much own zilch :o)

Snapshot Collection

9. Draw

"Tell me, Wally …"

"Yeah, Supes?"

"You know, that 'Fastest Man Alive' race …"

"The official one that Weather Wizard messed up, or the one we had after?"

"Well, both, actually. But mostly the second one." Superman hesitates. Now seems not the time to ask questions – especially a question that feels this stupid.

Wally almost died a few hours earlier. However he calls it – whatever this 'Speed Force' really was – he was lost for a few minutes, and would have been lost for good if Shayera, and then all of them hadn't pulled him back through.

And Superman knows that he would have been lost, too, if he had killed Luthor right here and now. But he didn't.

Anyway, after such a close call, after these world-shattering events – at least, that's how it feels like to him – he has to ask.

"Why did you make it a tie when you could have won easily?"

Wally stares at him, looking mighty tired and slightly bewildered. As usual when he's not wearing his mask, he reminds Clark of Jimmy. Both have vivid red hair, freckles and a pair of blue eyes that sometimes make them look even younger than they already are.

Except Wally does not actually look younger than his twenty-five right now, as he usually does after a rough fight. There's something on his face that actually makes him looks older, and it can't be just the exhaustion.

Clark can't help a fresh surge of anger at 'Brainthor' for that look on his face. Somehow, he knows the two are linked.

Wally finally gives a small smile.

"Clark … Think about it. When was that?"

The question takes Superman aback. "Let me see … A few years ago, I think – about – well, it was in –"

"Eight years, Supes. And a half, actually."

Clark's jaw almost drops open. Then he smiles. "Well, how time flies, huh?"

"Yup." Wally glances – in the usual blink-and-you-miss-it way – at the machine monitoring his life signs. It's not the first time he does this. Its beeps are slow, their regularity somewhat reassuring, but Clark can't prevent a cold, tight feeling in his stomach every time he remembers it's also regulating vibrations. To make sure he doesn't just disappear again.

"Anyway …"

Superman pointedly tries not to give a start. Wally pointedly does not grin.

"Think about it. I was a kid – yeah, I know you guys have a habit of calling me "kid", but back then I really was one. Just turned sixteen, just taken up the Flash costume – dude, I was small fry for most of my own Rogues Gallery! 'Course, that changed, but – well. And then, I'm in a race for the 'Fastest Man Alive' title. In Metropolis. With Superman!"

His eyes widen, his tone livens up, and to Clark's immense relief, the out-of-place old, haunted look fades away, slowly giving way to pure tired but excited Wally.

"You were my hero, Clark! I mean, you still are, but then I wallpapered my room with stuff about you! No funny business, though," he adds quickly with a wink, "that changed when I realised it was a little too ten-year-old to get a date to stay – but … gee, I don't know how to say this and not have it sound way too cheesy."

Clark waits, while Wally looks up at the ceiling of the medbay – probably the only wall that doesn't have scorch marks from the battle with the Ultimen – and back down at him.

"You gotta understand that – me and my father, we don't … get along so well. Never did, really. And Uncle Barry was way cool, but he didn't turn up till I was eleven or so. So …" Wally scratches the back of his head gingerly, making his hair stick up even more, and gives an embarrassed grin. "I was pretty much stuck with you for a role model. Big guy with a cape, flying around, doing good stuff. Well, Bats had a cape, too but he scared the snot out of me."

The familiar warmth creeps up Clark's cheeks. Even after years of being Superman, sincere praise like this always makes him react like a schoolboy being congratulated by his parents. Most of the time, he's able to push it down, but right now he hasn't slept in forty-eight hours, he's still on edge from the Binary Fusion Generator firing on Cadmus headquarters, the battle with Brainthor and its aftermath. The decision that he's going to have to make weighs heavily on his mind. So Wally's words go straight to the heart without coming up against any form of defence.

"Thanks," he finally says, his voice perfectly steady, but his cheeks still hot. "That's – it really means a lot."

"It better." Wally's smile loses its awkward quality and turns into his usual grin. "And I bet you think I've lost track of the question you asked by now."

"Not at all!" Clark protests, before backing down a little. "Okay. Maybe a bit."

"You hurt me, big guy. My attention span is not that short." He shifts position in his bed, and winces as a bruise calls attention to itself. "Ouch. Got to remember to stop doing that. Anyway. That race …"

He bites on his lip and shakes his head, still grinning. "God, when I think back on it, I was such a dork … Yeah. Well. Fact is, I found it easier – in a way – to make it a draw. Didn't know half of what I could actually do at that point, anyway. But I knew I was faster than you. So I … It's kinda difficult to explain."

Clark turns the idea over in his head. "You didn't want Superman to stop being your childhood hero, so you made it a tie on purpose?"

Wally stares at him for a few seconds, his mouth slightly open.

"O-kay," he finally ventures while Clark fights a grin that might be taken the wrong way, "maybe not that difficult to explain. Jeez, Supes, you know your way around words."

"I am a reporter, Wally," Clark reminds him with a bit of reproach in his tone. Why is it that so many of the Leaguers who are aware of that fact regularly forget it? "Putting simple words on complicated concepts is what I do for a living."

Come to think of it, he's never asked Wally what he does for a living. Just as the question rises in his throat, he sees Wally try to suppress a huge yawn, and fail. So he doesn't ask, and makes to leave.

"Hey, Clark …"

He stops at the door, and turns his head. Wally looks half-asleep, but he doggedly keeps his eyes open.

"All the times I said I was the 'fastest man alive' … And hadn't really proved it … You never said anything. Why?"

Clark smiles. "Did you really believe, even for a second, that you could have fooled me? Not a chance." He shakes his head. "Frankly, do I really appear that dense?"

This gets a tired grin. "Nah, that's just a nasty rumour."

"Heard a few others about you, then." Clark chuckles as he only hears an unintelligible mutter in response. "Good night, Wally."

"'Night, Supes. See ya tomorrow … or maybe next month …" The rest is lost into his pillow as he falls asleep. Clark closes the door behind him.

Thinking of the speech he will have to make tomorrow.

There's little chance that Superman will be able to sleep tonight.

So … In my brain, the Justice League time frame débuted around 2000/2001 and ended, well … about now (with JL lasting 5 years and JLU being unspecified, but I guess about three years – To Another Shore has Diana mention it's been two years since they expanded the League), with Speed Demons (the S:tAS episode with the Flash) happening maybe a couple of years before JL. I more or less base Wally's age on mine for reference (give or take a few months), so that makes him about 16 by the S:TAS episode and 18 when he starts off the League. Remember, we're talking about DCAU, so we don't know for sure whether he was Kid Flash or even if there was another Flash before him.

Anyway. The episode ended with the two starting another, genuine race, and didn't specify who won. However, later JL episodes (like Eclipsed) make it clear who is the Fastest Man Alive (whether or not Clark, being technically a Kryptonian, applies). But for some reason, I couldn't see Wally winning this race by a landslide, even if he was entirely capable of it. Hence the story. And the very long author's note :D

And Clark is a reporter, and a good one to boot. Which means that people who think Superman is thick or dense or something are obviously missing the point. The big guy may not be my favourite, but I'm very fond of his DCAU version :o)

Next up: The first time that Flash calls him 'Bats', they're in the middle of a fight, and Batman has other things on his mind. The second time is another matter.

:o]