Hey Readers, long time no see. I have a bit of a life update that is going to impact the story. A few weeks ago, my little brother had a psychotic break (the doctors think it's schizophrenia, but an official diagnosis will take months) and has been in and out of hospitals since. That's why there have not been any new chapters lately. However, I'm going to return to writing From East to West because 1. I love it and 2. I hate when an author gets me invested in a story and then abandons it, so I don't want to do that to anyone else.
There are going to be a few changes though. I won't have as much time to write as I did previously, so I'm going to simplify the plot and cut out a few chapters and subplots I had planned/partially written. The story from here on out will probably look more like a series of connected one-shots than a traditional chapter narrative, but I'm not entirely sure. I appreciate everyone who favorites/follows/reviews/reads, and I'm committed to finishing the initial story, so don't worry. I'm just going to go one chapter at a time, and we'll see if my situation changes.
Enjoy the chapter,
TheDarkAbyss
Location: Mount Justice
Date: Oct 15th
Time: 21:43
Emmy had never felt so numb. She was huddled on the shore while the waves crashed toward her. Her fingers had been digging through the chilled sand before her feet for hours. The past two weeks had been chaotic. A few days after the 'Idiot League' was defeated, she got a call from the edge of her sector. The slave trading gang she helped hunt down during her training on Oa was active once more and specifically taunting her. Emmy warned Black Canary that the kids would need a Den Mother for a few days and left with her lantern.
The slavers had been nasty to deal with, but after a week of tracking and fighting, the biggest players were taken care of and in custody. Hal called from Oa and told her to take an extra day or two to meet with the council, so she had sent a message to the cave and gone with him. That was the wrong move. Emmy threw a handful of sand with a yell. The cloud of particles glistened in the moonlight as it dissipated and fell into the inky water. The council confirmed that she was her ring's Intended Wearer. This meant that the Corps would put more responsibility on her to be the face of their operations in her sector, and that she was eligible for practically any leadership position she wanted to hold. She would have to check-in a couple times a year for tests since they had not seen an Intended Wearer in so long, but Emmy felt like she could have gotten this information through a message without being on Oa. It was interesting, but it was a waste of two days. Emmy got back to the cave earlier this evening and disaster struck.
She hugged Megan and punched Connor as they welcomed her back to Earth. She asked where the kids were, they both avoided eye contact, Batman emerged from the shadows, and Emmy's stomach turned to lead and fell to the floor. When Emmy sent the message that she needed a little more time in space, Sage had gone ballistic. The middle East yelled about Emmy refusing to talk about their past and choosing a ring over them and how she didn't want her sister in charge when she was gone half the time. Part of Sage's rant mentioned that the lantern chose to stay on Oa a month longer than she technically had to during the summer. Hunter had not known that piece of information, and suddenly both East kids were livid with their older sister. They stomped away, and Megan and Connor had thought they were going to their rooms to calm down.
The next day, Connor heard a car engine start and ran toward the hangar. Sage had taken Emmy's keys, and the two youngest Easts were racing through the large Zeta Tube in the Camaro. By the time Megan and Connor figured out where they had gone, the car was totaled on the side of a mountain in Switzerland with the children inside. They were shaken and bruised but were both fine overall. The Martian and Kryptonian got them back to the mountain and Black Canary appeared to take the kids to the infirmary.
Emmy returned to the cave an hour after the crash. She demanded to see the kids. Batman told her that she was not their legal guardian so, because they said they did not want to see her yet, he had to respect their wishes. The lantern was torn between vomiting and hitting the Bat as hard as she could. He started lecturing her about guardianship. He claimed that they needed to enter the foster care system in Central City since Sparks' reach did not extend to Missouri.
Batman narrowed his eyes at Emmy, "It is very clear that they need a stable authority. You are only 16 years old, and you have responsibilities outside of your family. You were an acceptable caretaker when you lived in Bludhaven and were only gone two nights a week, but it is not viable for you to continue to be their main guardian when you are now often absent."
"Often absent? What am I supposed do take them on missions with me?" Emmy glowered, "You don't know anything about being an 'acceptable caretaker'. The first damn thing you did with your kid was stick him in neon tights and use him as bullet bait!"
Batman's left eye twitched almost imperceptibly. Megan and Connor looked at each other in panic, wondering if Emmy was about to start a fight with the Dark Knight.
"I have done everything for them! I-I-" Emmy started throwing her arms around, "I taught them how to read, to write, to sign, and tie their shoes. I'm more of a guardian to them than our parents ever were!"
Batman stood silently as Emmy yelled.
"I changed their diapers and warmed their bottles. I kept them from falling when they learned to walk. I learned to cook so they wouldn't starve and die. I kept them in school and helped with their homework and-and I got beat up every week for years to make enough money to keep them clothed and safe. I have done everything in my power to provide for them and-" Emmy halted. She stood silent, looking between the Bat's masked eyes.
Her eyes watered. Her voice cracked when she spoke, "And it's still not enough."
Emmy retreated to the beach without another word. She had been zoned out for hours. Wallowing in self-pity and sorrow, too desolate to notice the sky changing as the sun vanished and the water blackened in the darkness. Sage and Hunter had chaotic lives. Emmy always thought that she improved their lives when she got them away from their parents, but now she couldn't tell. They weren't in immediate danger from their father, but she brought all kinds of risk upon them. She had kept them hidden from her morally corrupt boss for four years only to steal from him and put them on the top of his kill list. They were in danger from their father (if he identified her in the field), a glorified mobster, and any villain she fought as a Lantern. In truth, Emmy wasn't sure if her kids had ever been in more danger than they were now.
Emmy slammed her face into her raised kneecaps and sighed. She was a horrible parent. She spent time protecting strangers instead of her kids, and, unfortunately, she absolutely loved it. She loved everything about being a Lantern. Everything from having alien baby goop stuck in her ear canal to stopping Poison Ivy from destroying skyscrapers full of people made her feel fantastic. For the first time in her life, she was fighting to help others instead of herself. The team, the Corps, the struggle between good and bad, she loved it more than she ever thought she could. It was unexpected, how content being a Lantern made her. She was able to be the kind of hero that she always wished would come for Sage and Hunter. She would die for her siblings without a second thought, but the feeling she got when she was on a mission or Code felt like basking in a sunbeam in the middle of a snowstorm. Emmy had not chosen to become a hero, but she would choose to be one every day for the rest of her life. Her eyes pricked with guilty tears. The ring made her the guardian of an entire sector of the universe, and she wondered if they felt like she was picking the sector instead of them. She was not choosing strangers over her siblings; she could protect both. Emmy sighed. Hell, maybe I am picking the ring over them. Maybe they'll be happier and safer with foster parents.
Location: Mount Justice
Date: Oct 15th
Time: 21:56
Wally laughed with Jacob and cheered as Brandon attempted a keg stand. Andre had been invited to some Senior's party and had taken his friends with him. Wally wasn't entirely sure whose house he was in right now, but he knew that it was a girl who happened to have a Frat boy brother in college who was more than happy to provide beer. The hero part of his brain was making sure that none of the underaged drinkers went overboard, but the stupid teenage part of his brain was more than happy to chug spiked punch and act like a moron with his friends. A flash of pink from the rainbow strobe lights hit his cast. The team had defeated the Injustice League almost two weeks ago, and he was still stuck with the cast. His super healing was unreliable in his hormonal, constantly changing body, and his bones kept healing too quickly and in the wrong spots. His ulna had to be rebroken five times in the past two weeks, but the League doctors were confident that the last break had fixed the problems and that he could have his cast off in a few days.
Emmy's name was at the very top of his cast. He wasn't even surprised when she claimed that spot before it got crowded with signatures and drawings. Of course, she would pick the one place that he always saw and was never hidden by shirts. She needed to get back to Earth soon; she would have loved this party. The music was bass boosted, the dancing was carefree and sporadic, small fights kept breaking out, and even the wallflowers were having fun. He chuckled at the intertwining letters on his cast. She had written "Emmy" in black, and the constant, bold presence of her name on his arm made him realize something. Emmy had really bad handwriting. It was loopy, and scrawled, and rushed, and hard to read, but was also kind of pretty. He figured the paradox stemmed from the fact that she was the only person in their age group he knew who wrote in cursive.
Wally's thoughts shifted from Emmy's abysmal handwriting to the girl herself. She had almost beaten the Joker to a pulp during their Injustice league fight. The second the clown made his presence known, the lantern's jaw had clenched, and she'd launched at him while the rest of the team suddenly remembered that Joker had almost gotten Hunter and Sage killed during the summer. Rob had gone after the green blur to, ironically, stop Joker from getting too injured, and the rest of the team had split up to deal with the other villains. Wally didn't see Emmy again until he was leaning against a tree and clutching his broken arm. She appeared without warning and made a sling for him with his souvenir fabric and two vines she'd snatched from Poison Ivy. Emmy said something but he had been too distracted by the smell of her hair and the obvious concern in her artificially green eyes to hear it. She was invading his personal space. He snapped back to reality.
"I would say thank you," Wally grinned down at the sling before winking at the lantern in front of him, "but given your preferences I think we both know you tied me up for your own benefit."
Emmy rolled her eyes, but her retort turned into a shriek as Wolf's giant body hit her and she went careening into the mud.
"Em-GL!" Wally's voice sounded desperate even to himself.
The speedster winced at the memory as he absentmindedly danced with the random girl who yanked him into the center of the packed living room. He almost said Emmy's name in the field which would have been incredibly dangerous for the entire team. It was confusing and embarrassing because he was coming up on three years of crime fighting, and he had never accidentally said someone's real name during a fight. Being one of the only people who knew Dick's real identity had helped him practice never making that mistake. No one else had noticed his slip-up, but it kept popping into Wally's head at undesirable moments. He had thought Emmy's absence would have made him think about it less but seeing her name every five seconds made him unwillingly think about her every five seconds. Emmy had gotten a Code off-world eight days ago, and she still wasn't back yet. The school thought she was on some "Wayne Industries Grief Recovery Trip", but she was actually flying through space fighting aliens.
The redhead sighed and glanced at her name again. He had not liked the panic that shot through him when Emmy slammed into the earth in slow-motion. Every organ in his torso had lurched in shocked concern. It was partially disconcerting because he couldn't quite pinpoint when Emmy's safety had started meaning so much to him. They were both heroes, and he wasn't overly concerned or anything, but he did feel a little uneasy each time he saw her name, and his mind shot to the fact that she was currently alone in an unknown location doing a mission which was somehow managing to last eight days. Hell, when she went to the Martian civil war it had only lasted two days or so. They had been getting along well recently, and it was weird going from seeing her every day to zero contact. He didn't 'miss' her, per se, he just noticed that she was gone. The rest of the team definitely missed her though. They had disobeyed orders to find Red Tornado with Zatanna, and each teammate had made at least one comment about how much Emmy would have enjoyed the impromptu, rebellious mission. Megan and Artemis were the main ones who mentioned their lantern, but the boys had all admitted that they wished she were there too. The buzz in his back pocket interrupted his thoughts. Wally ducked away from his tipsy dance partner and put a finger in the ear opposite the phone to block out the noise.
"Hey, Megalicious! Miss me?" He called jocularly into the phone.
His smile dropped as his teammate replied.
"Stay in the kitchen, Megs," Wally instructed while motioning to Brandon that he was leaving. "I'll be right there."
Location: Mount Justice
Date: Oct 15th
Time: 22:18
"You're looking awful dark and gloomy for a Sunrise."
Emmy jolted in surprise as Wally sat down next to her, wrapped in a gigantic navy blanket. She furrowed her brow in confusion at his sudden appearance but continued to stare at the ocean.
Wally bit the inside of his cheek for a second. Megan called him worried about Emmy, so he'd flashed to the nearest Zeta Tube. The Martian had tearily filled him in on the latest about the Easts. The car crash, the fight with Batman, the imminent foster care. He wasn't even sure where to begin when it came to talking to the girl beside him.
"No last name retort?" Wally probed lightly.
"You must be a sunset because girls always want you to last longer than you do," Emmy deadpanned.
He would have been happy to start a quip-off, but she lacked her usual fire.
"I, uh, heard about your…return to Earth," Wally started. Emmy sat unmoving and unblinking. He had no idea what to say, so he just went with what he was feeling. "I'm sorry about what happened."
Emmy followed a wave as it started twenty feet away and grew in its crescendo until slamming into the shoreline. She was sorry too. Sorry that her siblings wouldn't talk to her. Sorry that she wasn't a good enough parent to them. Sorry that she was picked for a Power Ring in the first place. Sorry that she became so honored to have the ring. Sorry that she had put her kids in perilous situations so many times. She was sorry about a lot of things. Maybe even sorry that she was the person she was.
"I really thought that taking the money would change our lives for the better," Emmy slumped her chin onto her knees. "It definitely changed things, but Sage and Hunter are more miserable than ever."
Wally looked at her carefully. The silence before she started talking had been interminable, and he was grateful she was speaking.
"It was supposed to make it where we could stop hiding in Bludhaven, but now we're just hiding somewhere else. You know, since Sage was born practically everything I've done was to protect my family, but this year I suddenly turned into this selfish asshole who keeps putting them in danger. I screwed Sparks over because I wanted to stop working for him. I barely thought it through before I did it! I thought that the money would let us start over." Emmy scraped her hands through the sand again. "Get a small house. Start two college funds. Get my ASL interpreter certification. I would have been able to support them legally for once. But then I abandoned them for four months, and even after coming back I keep abandoning them!" Emmy scrubbed her face with her hands. "Of course, they acted out when I wasn't there for eight days."
She laughed harshly, "I'm the worst fucking mom."
"Maybe," Wally started. Emmy whirled on him with a glower. He continued before she could retaliate, "But you are one hell of a sister."
His face was soft, full of sympathy and a little admiration. Emmy swallowed and shrugged half-heartedly before refocusing her gaze on the midnight waves.
Wally watched her turn. She wasn't convinced. "Look, East, you're playing the martyr again."
She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, unimpressed.
"You're not selfish. You didn't disappear for four months to go sip mimosas in the Maldives," Wally looked at her pointedly. "You were training to become a hero. And when you're not with them it's because you're on missions. You went from protecting Sage and Hunter to protecting an entire sector of space. That's a huge difference, Emmy. Growing pains are to be expected. They are proud of you even if they haven't figured out how they fit into your new life yet."
Emmy thought about the redhead's comments. It was technically true. She wasn't ditching her siblings because she wanted to, although she did like being a lantern more than she ever expected, she was leaving to go on missions. The problem was that she had chosen to protect Sage and Hunter, but she was chosen to protect the sector. Emmy was helping people, but what good was that if she was hurting her own family in the process. Her parents were a blend of negligent and violent. She wasn't violent toward her siblings, but she had been very negligent in the last eight months. She took a deep breath. She just couldn't shake the feeling that she was betraying her kids by choosing to wield the ring. They weren't supposed to 'fit into her life', they were supposed to be her life.
The speedster saw guilt cover Emmy's face after his supposed-to-be-helpful comments and tried to change the topic, "So, uhm, why did you want to stop working for Sparks?"
Emmy raised an eyebrow, "Because he's a horrible person?"
"Well, yeah," Wally rolled his eyes, "but that didn't stop you the first four years."
Emmy squinted at him. He sputtered, "Not that-that wasn't-I didn't mean to sound-"
A flicker of amusement crossed her face. She decided to answer honestly, "He was getting worse."
Wally relaxed once he realized she wasn't going to bite his head off, "Worse?"
"When I started working for him, Sparks was just the fight guy. He did some drug running, but his main deal was arranging and profiting off of matches," Emmy huddled a little tighter around her legs as a particularly frigid breeze prickled her skin. "There had been rumors for years that Sparks was going to branch out, but in January they got more specific. I think he was starting to get into human trafficking. I don't know for sure, but it was enough to get me out of there."
Wally nudged her, "See, somewhat gallant instead of selfish."
Emmy snorted. He saw her shiver and threw an edge of the large blanket around her. She blinked in surprise and raised an eyebrow at Wally. He was staring at the water and had scooted as far away from her as he could while still keeping the blanket wrapped around both their shoulders. It was an awkward position, but she appreciated the sentiment. It was a very simple gesture of support and companionship. She had felt completely alone for hours, and the blanket reminded her of all the times she huddled up with Sage and Hunter to keep them warm and read a story. Emmy had made a horrible mess this year. No wonder they refused to see her once she got back to Earth. She couldn't help but wonder if Batman had been the one to suggest foster care or if Sage had specifically asked for it. That thought made her heart ache. Batman told her she was old enough to choose if she wanted to join her younger siblings in the temporary home or not. Emmy didn't want to leave them again, but she just couldn't go back to a world where she answered to a 'mom and dad'. There was a list of possible parents cleared by the League that the Easts could look at. It made her sick, the idea of shopping for people to do the job she failed to do for her kids. The back of her throat burned, and she blinked quickly before any tears could form.
Emmy exhaled shakily and murmured, "I am selfish though."
If Wally heard her, he made no indication.
"I'm the reason they're living in a mountain in Rhode Island and going to school in Missouri to hide from a maniac who wants to kill us. I have always said that I want the best for them. That I want them safe, healthy, and happy above all else," Emmy bit her lip, nails digging into the palms of her fists. She had worked so hard to get them away from their parents. She was proud of how much she loved them and how different she was from their parents. "But I...I think the truth is that I wanted to be what was best for them."
Emmy's voice cracked and turned watery as her nails dug even deeper. "I know that I make mistakes, but I am nothing like our paren-" she cut herself off when she saw Wally shift in her peripheral. The crashing waves blurred as her vision drowned in unshed tears. "They don't want to see me at all. Not even Hunter and I'm the only mother he's ever known."
Emmy's wall fell and she jumped out of the blanket, rushing ankle deep into the black, icy waves. She was in a long sleeve dark green t-shirt with black exercise shorts, and she wished she had put on pants before retreating to the beach. Tears were streaming down her face and she didn't want the speedster to see. The shaking in her shoulders could be mistaken for shivering instead of repressed sobs. There was a splash as a Wally joined her in the water. He'd rolled his belted grey slacks around his ankles. He was wearing a light red vertical stripe button down with the sleeves pushed above his elbows. Emmy turned away from him with crossed arms even as another crying heave shook her. A warm hand grabbed her forearm, and she was crushed into a cinnamon hug.
Emmy stood still for a moment, but then Wally tightened his hold, and the dams broke. She clung to him as she cried for her damaged relationship with her kids. He whispered comforting platitudes into her hair and rubbed her back.
"Emmy, they love you too, okay?" Wally's voice was determined but soft. "They won't be mad forever, and I guarantee that they will want to see you soon. Anger is a secondary emotion that usually comes after feeling hurt. Once they're ready, you can talk to them, answer some questions, explain your side, and everything will be okay again."
After a minute of absorbing his words and warmth, Emmy sniffled in embarrassment. Her head was buried in Wally's right shoulder. There was no way the shirt would be dry when she pulled away. She haltingly pulled back from the speedster who slowly dropped his hands but remained close to her. Emmy wiped her hands under her eyes and glanced at the wet spot on the shirt while Wally stared at her.
She coughed in discomfort, "Sorry about that." Her voice was hoarse, and she nodded at the shoulder.
Wally smirked at the tear stains. "No biggie. I left a party to come here and not the other way around, so it really doesn't matter what I'm wearing anymore."
Emmy quirked an eyebrow and scanned his ensemble again. He looked good. She had the oddest notion to ask if there had been any cute girls at the party, but she killed it.
"Why would you leave a party to come here?" Emmy tilted her head uncertainly.
Wally faltered, and the moonlight was just bright enough to illuminate the pink tint on his cheeks. "When Megan calls saying that you need to get to the cave ASAP, you get to the cave ASAP," he shrugged. He left out the mischief that entered the Martian's countenance when she explained that she thought he was the only one Emmy would talk to right now.
Emmy frowned a little. Why would Megan call Wally to get to the cave then send him to the beach? A gust of wind interrupted them. Wally shrieked a little.
"For fucks sake can we get out of the water now?" His voice was higher than normal. Emmy laughed and nodded. Wally ran out at human speed chanting "cold, cold, cold" as he snatched up the blanket and wrapped it around himself. Emmy laughed again.
"Aren't you supposed to be hot all the time?"
He glared at her from underneath his layers of blanket, "Maybe Sage and Hunter just needed a break from your sass."
She winced and Wally panicked, "Shit! I'm sorry that was way too soon."
Emmy shrugged, "You're probably not wrong."
A breeze hit her wet feet, and she shivered. Wally spread the blanket on the ground and plopped onto his back before pulling the outermost left edge of the fabric on top of him. He nodded at the other half of the blanket.
"Get down here, and I'll make it up to you."
Emmy let out a sharp bark of laughter. "I think I'll take a pass on 7 seconds of unprotected beach sex."
Wally scowled up at her, "Just lie down!"
Emmy rolled her eyes and moved toward the blanket. She snickered when Wally grumbled '7 seconds my ass'. She rolled up in the unclaimed half of the blanket, her left ear pressed into the ground near the top edge of the cloth as she looked at Wally who was two feet away, "How exactly does this make anything up to me?"
"This doesn't," Wally rolled his eyes at her and pointed above them with his right hand. "That does."
Emmy followed his finger's trajectory and gasped. The sky was a swath of charred cobalt silk littered with glistening diamonds. She had watched the sun go down in a rage, keeping her eyeline on the horizon as she threw sand, rocks, and even her ring (it flew back to her quickly) into the raging ocean. The waves were loud and violent, and their crashes matched her yells as she released her anger and pain. Emmy had not looked up once, and she was staggered by the twinkling stillness above her. She suddenly felt insignificant in an indescribably comforting way. The lights shone in different sizes and intensities. It was stunning. Gotham and Bludhaven had too much pollution to see the stars; she had never seen the sky like this before.
"Wow," she managed to breathe.
Wally smiled at her profile. He loved watching people look at the stars. It almost always got the same reaction: dumbfounded appreciation. With her mouth agape and her eyes wide, she looked adorable. Wally cleared his throat and smirked as Emmy tilted her head toward him.
"I know. You'll be saying that a lot because you are about to be blessed with one of my amazing talents," Wally closed his eyes. "Say any constellation name, and I'll point to it."
Emmy blinked and looked back at the sky. It was drenched with stars in sporadic placements. She never understood how people could look at the overwhelming blob of glowing dots, see a few in a jaunty line, and think to themselves, 'Ah, yes, a dragon'.
"Uh," Emmy's eyes scanned the space blankly. "That might be difficult since I don't know any of the constellations."
Wally's eyes shot open in horror, and he leaned up on his right elbow.
"What do you mean you don't know any constellations?" He snapped down at her.
Emmy rolled her eyes. "I'm not a sailor in the 1400's. It just never came up."
Wally sputtered indignantly and a familiar figure caught her eye.
"Well, I know Orion," Emmy pointed at the stars making a large 'H' in the sky, "but that's just because young me liked that it was my-" She froze. She had almost revealed too much.
Emmy hazarded a glance at Wally when he was quiet for a couple seconds and mentally cursed when she saw the gears in his head turning. A large smile suddenly split his face and Emmy scowled.
"Your birthname starts with an H," Wally smiled at her mischievously, and Emmy growled under her breath. He took her displeasure as confirmation. "What is it? Hannah?"
Emmy rolled her eyes, "I was not given the most basic white girl name, no."
"Heather."
"Nope."
"Haley?"
"No, but I do like that one," Emmy admitted with a smirk as she kept her eyes on Orion.
It occurred to Wally that he didn't know that many 'H' names. "Hero?" He guessed uncertainly.
Emmy laughed loudly. The ludicrous idea of her criminal parents naming her 'Hero' of all things was enough to make her cry.
"Hey! That was a good guess," Wally frowned at her.
"No, it wasn't!" Emmy sputtered. "You might as well have asked if my name was Hammer."
Wally paused and squinted at her, "Was it?"
"NO!" Emmy shoved him with a snort.
He rubbed his shoulder with a pout, but his lips ticked upwards as the dark cloud above Emmy's head started to dissipate.
"Honey-Pooh-Bear?"
Emmy sent him an unamused look, "Weren't you going to show me your special talent?"
Wally plopped back onto the ground and turned to the stars. "Yeah," he huffed with fake annoyance, "but now I have to teach you the constellations first or else my skills will be wasted on you."
Before Emmy could say anything, his right pointer finger was in the air and tracing something that was allegedly 'Aquarius'. Emmy didn't mind the impromptu lesson. She liked learning new things, the sky was gorgeous, and Wally's passionate ramble about the name origins and placement of each star in the constellations made her feel warm in a way she couldn't blame on the blanket. She was having a hard time seeing what he was seeing though. He had gone through eight constellations so far, and all she knew was that Octans looked like a coat hanger. Wally was half-offended and half-amused every time she interrupted him to say what she thought the star patterns looked like.
"Cepheus the King?" Emmy squinted at the area at the end of Wally's finger incredulously. "It looks like a frog wearing a wizard hat."
Wally snorted. "It does not look…like a…" he frowned at Cepheus. He tilted his head further to the right. In the new position he could see a minimalistic outline of a frog with a pointy hat.
"Dammit," he said under his breath. He elbowed the girl next to him when she chortled at his admission. "Whatever, Glow Worm. You know enough to quiz me now."
Emmy huffed in amusement as Wally dramatically covered his eyes with his inner elbow. She bit her lip and tried to remember everything she had just learned. They stumbled their way through a handful of constellations before she decided to just call them out how she saw them.
"Okay, so, where's the lopsided bowtie?"
Wally somehow managed to send her an unamused look while keeping his left arm over the top half of his face, "Piscis Austrinus is 13 degrees above our heads right there."
He pointed upwards and Emmy hummed in agreement when she followed his finger.
"Where's the world's worst chair?"
"Is that supposed to be Pegasus?" Wally asked. He moved his finger. Emmy couldn't tell if that was the right constellation or not, but it probably was. "I always thought it looked like a Minecraft squid."
Emmy smirked at his comment, "I don't know what those look like, but I already know that it makes more sense than a horse with wings."
Wally started his rant about the mythological origins of the constellation, but she cut him off with a snort.
"Where is Cepheus, the frog wizard king?"
Wally pointed to the only constellation other than Orion Emmy could easily find in the sky.
"Yep," Emmy confirmed. She tried to find another grouping she knew. "Ah, so where is the stripper doing the middle splits?"
Wally took his arm off his face and raised an eyebrow at her, "What on earth are you talking about?"
Emmy moved a little closer; it was her turn to point out stars to him. "Right over there."
Wally followed her finger. "Grus the Crane?" His voice raised incredulously.
"Yeah," Emmy shrugged and traced the stars. "Those look like legs, so this part can be a torso, which makes this star right here between the legs the money-maker."
Wally threw his head back into the sand for a second and guffawed, "Something is very wrong with you, Em."
"What?" Emmy asked defensively. "It could totally be a stripper."
"You are so weird!" Wally's laughter made her roll her eyes, but she was suppressing a smile.
She turned to quip at him, and it struck her how close they were. Each time she had been unable to follow Wally's finger on a particular star, he had scooted toward her. They had gone from two feet apart to brushing shoulders without registering the shift. The flash of surprise in Wally's peridot eyes hinted that he was also recognizing the change in proximity. Even in the darkness, she could count each of his freckles and his dark red eyelashes. Emmy followed a trail of slightly darker speckles over the left side of his jaw, down his prominent sternocleidomastoid, and across his collarbone before the disappeared into the open collar of his shirt. Her bright eyes flickered up to his, and she was a little thrown by the kaleidoscope of emotions she saw. It felt like a precipice moment. She could press forward into the unknown, or she could fall back into the familiar.
"That was the last one you mentioned earlier, Starboy," Emmy interjected, choosing the latter and ignoring the part of her brain calling her a coward. Wally blinked and the moment broke.
"Impressed by my amazing skills?" He asked with exaggerated cockiness.
"You had twenty minutes to memorize where they were before your closed your eyes, and you had to open them for the last one, so I can't say I'm that impressed," Emmy replied with a haughty smirk.
In truth, his knowledge of the stars had been both extensive and remarkable, but he teased her after her geology rants, so she was going to return the favor.
"Excuse you," Wally scowled at her. "I had to point at them for twenty minutes first because you didn't know any of them, and I had to open my eyes because you thought a crane looked like a stripper. The extenuating circumstances of your incompetence do nothing to dull my astronomical brilliance."
"Oh, sure," Emmy raised a sarcastic eyebrow, "because looking at the sky is a brilliant skill. My bad, Kid Floccinaucinihilipilification."
They held glares in a challenging silence for a few seconds before dissolving into laughter.
"There is no way that that is a word," Wally insisted between gasps for air.
Emmy chuckled and the left side of her face pressed into the blanket. Wally elbowed her lightly.
"It's not funny," he said despite his smile. "Do you have any idea how many times I've had to look up words since you crashed our Cadmus mission? I have the f-section of my dictionary bookmarked."
Emmy was delighted. "You're welcome. Give it a few more months and you might have a good enough vocabulary for an A in English."
Wally scoffed and threw a pinch of sand into her hair. The laughter returned and when it subsided, they were side-by-side looking at the stars again.
"How do you know so many words anyway?" Wally eventually asked.
She shrugged, "Used to read the dictionary when I was a kid."
"That is so sad," Wally joked.
"I suppose," Emmy replied absentmindedly.
She didn't have tv for most of her childhood, so books were the main escape. The dilapidated library closest to their house had a few things on cooking and rocks, hence her two hobbies, but they had a lot of dictionaries and thesauruses. Sage had hated the book options Emmy had for them before the fire. Sage would flip through the geology pages to look at the crystal pictures, and after five minutes she was bored. Emmy sighed deeply as she thought about her sister. The majority of Sage's rage seemed to stem from Emmy's unwillingness to talk about the first six years of the girl's life. Emmy made that choice to protect her kids, and when their father was taken care of and the younger Easts turned 18, she would tell them anything they wanted to know. Almost. She was their older sister, and it was her responsibility to protect them even if they didn't want her to. Her life outside of this moment on the beach returned to her shoulders in an instant. Wally saw the change in her disposition out of the corner of his eye.
"I stopped talking to my parents for a week one time," he offered.
Emmy turned to him slightly.
"You know how I mentioned my honorary grandfather's birthday awhile back?" Wally didn't wait for her to confirm. "Well, his name is Jay, and back in March, he just kind of went into a coma."
Emmy's eyebrows raised a bit, but Wally's eyes were trained on a faraway planet.
"The doctors didn't know what was happening, but they thought it might be something related to his time as the Flash. He was the first Flash before Barry, by the way. There is still so much we don't know about the Speed Force, so Jay's wife was panicking, and that sent my family into chaos. Aunt Iris was worried Uncle Barry would have some horrible Speed Force complication, and then my parents freaked out about me." Wally sighed at the memory.
"We had a massive fight. Screaming, crying, broken dishes, the whole thing. They said that they were proud of me for wanting to help people, but that it wasn't worth it if I had to risk my own life," Wally ran a hand through his hair. "I said some…things I really regret and ran away to stay with Rob for a week. I was a wreck, worrying about Jay and that my parents just didn't understand me. They thought that Kid Flash was just some fast version of Wally West, but we're the same person, you know? There isn't a way to break us apart. The latex suit doesn't turn me into a different person. It just lets me show a part of myself that I usually can't."
Emmy nodded to herself. She understood that. She was the same person regardless of whether or not her ring was on her finger.
"Six days after Jay gets to the hospital, we get a phone call that he's awake, talking, and completely fine. It turns out that he had pancreatic cancer. His body was working overtime to heal him, so it had gone into a pseudo-coma. The whole thing had nothing to do with the Speed Force," Wally turned to her.
"My parents apologized, I apologized, and we had a long, hard talk that changed our relationship for the better. I am legally a kid, and I will always be their kid, but it's different because I have these powers. Powers that give me the ability to help people who need it, and I can't live in a world where my parents' attempts to protect me stop me from being who I am."
Emmy's gaze flickered across his face.
"You're always trying to protect Sage and Hunter," Wally continued quietly, "but maybe for them to be who they are, you have to be honest with them."
Sapphire and peridot eyes searched each other for a minute before Emmy sighed and rolled away. After an indeterminable length of silence, she spoke.
"It's a parent's job to protect their children…regardless of whether or not the parent wants to do it and whether or not the children want to be protected," her tone was guarded, voice almost a whisper.
Before Wally could ask his next question, his watch beeped. He looked at his left wrist. It was 1 am.
He frowned a little and noticed Emmy's curious expression, "It's the warning alarm for my weekend curfew."
"Oh," Emmy leaned onto her elbows, "well, you should go home then."
Wally ignored any disappointment he felt at her reaction and sat up, "Yeah."
They untangled from the blanket and got to their feet. He threw it around Emmy's shoulders without looking at her. They walked into the mountain in silence. He was about to head toward the Zeta Tube when Emmy stopped him.
"Hey, Wally?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you. For tonight."
He smiled at her, "No problem. It was your turn for a beach pep-talk anyway."
Emmy laughed a little, "We're an angsty duo, aren't we?"
"The angstiest," he winked comically.
Emmy huffed in mild amusement.
"Seriously, though, Em," Wally offered, "Sage and Hunter will want to talk to you soon, and they might change their mind about foster care, but it might not be a bad thing if they do go into it."
The lantern bristled, so he put a hand on her shoulder.
"Parents have a responsibility to protect their kids, but you're not their parent. You're their teenage sister, and maybe things would get better with them if you were able to be their sister and not their mom," Wally took his hand away sheepishly. "You deserve to have the relationship with them that you want, I mean."
Emmy blinked at him twice.
"Get home safe, Wally."
He was about to enter the Tube when he remembered something, "Hey, did anyone tell you that we got Red Tornado?"
"No," Emmy said with raised brows. "Text me about it?"
He nodded with a smile and zipped home with two minutes to spare. He spent the next hour relaying the events of their Tornado hunt to Emmy. She was a little too amused when he told her about the team looking to him for 'a truly dumb idea'. But then she said, 'Hey, it worked so it wasn't actually a dumb idea', and Wally couldn't explain the stupid smile on his face. They fell asleep around 3, and he didn't hear from her again until Sunday evening. The kids talked to her. They worked out a system with Batman where they would pick a foster home and stay there whenever Emmy was on missions or they wanted to have a playdate with friends from school. She used some of his advice, and he was happy to hear that it worked.
'I owe you one, Walmart'
He scoffed and typed.
'I'll make sure the favor makes you pay for that, Helen'
'Do your worst, Kid Folderol'
Wally rolled his eyes and grabbed his dictionary.
