Author's note: today is the best first day of Christmas holidays ever. It snowed, people! In Bordeaux! Where we only get a few flakes if we're lucky in February, which don't hold anyway, but is just enough to make people look around and go, "Ooh, pretty." Okay, it was for all of thirty seconds, but still. I'm dreamin' of a white Christmas because I don't know what it feels/looks like :o)

Anyway, here's the latest snapshot, and I'm in the process of writing a 14th (not finished yet). This one popped up in my mind because of Flash and Substance, which (unsurprisingly) is one of my favourite episodes; Wally mentions his uncle flying in, and I realised that's the only reference we ever get about Barry Allen. So I decided that, after the episode, Flash and Batman go to the airport (as Wally and Bruce) to pick him up. In this story, Wally is the only speedster. Just so it's clear :o)

Disclaimer: I'm running out of smart-arsed ways of saying this stuff isn't mine, so I'll just say everything belongs to DC and Warner and stop there. Yeah. I'll do that.

Snapshot Collection

13. Encounter

When Batman sees for the first time the man Wally introduces as his uncle, he looks into the smiling, open face, and he wonders where the faint feeling of déjà vu comes from.

Maybe it's just the way Wally barely refrains from running to his uncle at super speed (remembering in time that he's out of costume), or the way the older man just beams when he sees him, the memories of a thousand smiles and laughs spelled out between the two of them.

And Batman remembers guessing from what Wally didn't quite tell him that things got pretty lonely when his Uncle Barry wasn't around.

But then the man holds out a hand and says, "Hello, Mr … Wayne –" with a short but significant pause that tells Batman he knows about his 'other' identity' "– Wally's told me a lot about you." And the strange, slightly unsettling feeling comes back full force.

Barry Allen is perhaps an inch taller than Wally, and sports broad shoulders and a strong handshake; his blond hair is going grey around the temples, and there's little laughter lines around green eyes that are filled with quiet humour. He seems a good-natured individual, calm and composed – especially when compared to his adopted nephew – and there is nothing obviously extraordinary about him.

Batman is certain he has never seen this man in his life.

Yet he is struck with a no uncertain feeling of kinship.

"Have we met before?" he can't help but ask, and takes some relief from seeing the man in front of him hesitate ever so slightly. As though the same fleeting impression made its way around in his mind.

Then he settles on a slight smile, and there's something eerily familiar to it.

"Maybe in another life," he says.

Batman nods, and talks about something else, because Wally is giving them funny looks.

Maybe it's one of those alternate universes kinds of thing again.

For those who don't know, Wally's uncle is Barry Allen, and in the DC comics 'verse he was the second Flash – from 1956 to 1985! Talk about a long run :D So, I read Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier graphic novel, and although Wally's "my" Flash (like the 9th Doctor is "my" Doctor Who, etc.…) I've grown very fond of Mr. Allen – at least this interpretation. That's why I regret that we never got to meet him in the DCAU. So I filled in the blanks in my mind, and came up with this: first time Barry brought Iris' nephew to work was the time of the fated bolt of lightening. In another dimension, it could've hit Barry, but it hit Wally and gave him super speed. Wally didn't keep it a secret to his aunt and uncle. Oh, and since in the comics 'verse Wally has green eyes and Barry's got blue eyes, and in the DCAU Wally got the blue, I wrote green for Barry. Hope he doesn't mind :P

Next up: When people talk about the 'Big Three' – Superman, Batman and Diana – and the 'Less-Big Three' – John, Flash and Hawgirl – they always seem to leave out J'onn.

:o]