Location: Star City

Date: Nov 20th

Time: 09:32

Emmy smirked when her arrow hit the center of the target with a satisfying thunk. She turned to Artemis with a smug grin.

"Not bad," Artemis shrugged approvingly. She walked toward Emmy's lane, faced the lantern, notched an arrow, and sent it toward Emmy's target without removing her eyes from the other girl's face. "But not the best."

Emmy raised an eyebrow and looked at the target. Artemis's arrow had split hers right down the center of the shaft. Emmy yanked off her protective glasses and cried, "Oh, come on! How do you keep doing that?"

The archer cackled at the lantern's exaggerated indignation.

They were in Green Arrow's personal archery range. They had been practicing for an hour, and Artemis had split every single one of Emmy's wooden arrows in half. Even when Emmy had been unable to get them anywhere near the bullseye. Emmy's first arrow had gone into the wall two feet above the target, (it had been a while since she used a bow, and her father clearly had a favorite kid when it came to teaching archery), and Artemis had divided that one in half too.

"So," Artemis let the edge of her bow sit on her right hipbone, "now that you've been sufficiently humiliated," Artemis glared at Emmy's derisive snort and continued. "You ready to have our little chat?"

Emmy shrugged and put her bow on the counter. She had meant to talk to Artemis about her mystery issue much sooner, but they had not had another mission since they came back from Tijuana, and their Canary sparring sessions weren't exactly conducive to heart-to-hearts. Plus, she had used their one good moment to talk last week to apologize for the mission. She was surprised when Artemis texted her about Zeta-ing to Star City this morning, but she agreed to come automatically.

Artemis pursed her lips and squinted, debating how she wanted to approach the issue. Perhaps subtly?

"I know you made out with Wally."

Or maybe not subtly.

"What?" Emmy's voice sounded a smidgen too strangled to be innocent.

Artemis pushed forward, "Zatanna told me on Halloween. Turns out Megs and Connor are a couple, and you and Wally were flirting even more than them."

She glanced at the lantern's unmoved face, "And you clearly knew about Megan and Connor, which means they told you and not me, so when exactly did I get put back on the outside?"

Artemis had a blank, blasé look on her face, but Emmy could see the insecurity flickering underneath. The older girl rubbed a hand down her face and sighed, "No one was trying to exclude you. I figured out that Meg and Connor were dating when they came back from the Belle Reve UC mission-"

"That long?" Artemis frowned.

"They asked me to keep it a secret. No one else knows," Emmy held her palms up. "They just wanted some time for it to be the two of them."

"And you." The archer quirked an eyebrow.

"We're not a thruple," Emmy rolled her eyes. "Is this about your crush on Connor because I thought that wasn't serious."

"It's not and it wasn't," Artemis snapped. "What about you and Wally? I get why Megan might not tell me something since she's known you longer, and I wasn't exactly subtle about my attraction to Connor, but I thought that you and I…"

Emmy sighed as the archer trailed off uncertainly. She knew exactly what the moon goddess was referencing. She had done a poor job of hiding her instinctive protectiveness of her half-sister, and the archer had recognized that as a gesture of friendship. Artemis opened up to Emmy after the Reds invaded the cave, not mentioning their father, but showing trust in other ways, and was clearly hurt that Emmy had not really reciprocated.

"I know. We are," Emmy shifted on her feet. "But it wasn't my secret to tell. And for the record, I trust and like you just as much as I trust and like Megan."

Artemis nodded once at that, spinning her bow to her other hip, "What about you and Wally? That somehow not your secret to tell either?"

Emmy groaned, "There is no 'me and Wally'."

"Really?" Artemis smirked skeptically. "Because he was the only one you talked to about the foster parent deal."

"Alright." Emmy grunted. "Fine. We…" her stomach twisted slightly, and she crossed her arms. "We kissed in Bialya. Happy?"

The archer's mouth fell open in a rare display of surprise.

"And then our memories came back, and we fought about it, and then we decided to be friends, and then we went on some weird quasi-dates, but then fucking Akio and Tijuana happened, and I don't even think Wally could handle being in the same room as me right now, and I don't want to talk about it," Emmy snapped.

"Oh," Artemis made a small noise of realization as her eyes softened. "You got it bad."

"I do not," Emmy shouted a little too loud.

Artemis sent her a pointed look, but the lantern just rolled her eyes again.

"What happened after the last mission?" Artemis sounded curious, any previous anger absent from her tone.

Emmy shrugged, "Didn't I just say I didn't want to talk about it?"

Artemis sent her another look that somehow reminded Emmy of her mother and she winced. Akio's words had been circling the drain in her mind for two weeks, refusing to finally exit.

She sighed, "We fought about a few things. You know, me cutting off the mental link to deal with Bobby alone, him fighting Akio when I can do it myself, that sort of thing."

Emmy's voiced hitched ever-so-slightly on Akio's name and unfortunately, the archer caught it.

"What happened with you and Akio? He didn't seem like the type of guy you'd cry over," Artemis scanned Emmy's blank face.

The lantern scratched the side of her neck twice, over her scar, and decided she owed Artemis a little honesty, "He said some things to me after he got shot."

"What kind of things?" Artemis frowned.

Emmy shrugged noncommittally, "The kids are better off without me. I'll never be a hero. My parents died to get away from me. That sort of deal."

A calloused hand hit her left shoulder and blue eyes met stormy grey, "He isn't even worth the time it takes to say his name. He doesn't know what he's talking about, Emmy." A small smile flickered onto Artemis's lips, "You make people's lives better, and you're a hero if I've ever seen one."

Emmy blinked away the pricking sensation in the corners of her eyes and cleared her throat, "I feel the same way about you, Moon Goddess."

The archer had her own twinkling of emotion and the girls coughed loudly and ignored the watery moment.

"Ready to go again?" Artemis notched another arrow.

"Best 17 out of 35," Emmy matched her stance.

Location: Mount Justice

Date: Nov 20th

Time: 18:55

Emmy rolled her sore shoulders and walked toward the meeting room. She would die before admitting it out loud, but the archer had stronger arms than she did, and Emmy was struggling to even notch the arrows correctly by the time Artemis said they should head to the cave.

She'd passed Wally in the kitchen when she was grabbing lunch before her shower, and the cold silence and averted eye contact left her with a dull ache. It had been two weeks since their fight, and they had not said a single word to each other. Each member of the team had required their own version of an apology after the stunt she pulled during their last mission. Kaldur had thoroughly reamed her the day after Tijuana. The team leader reiterated that while she had the right to work alone as a lantern, when she was on a team mission, the only options were be a team player or not be on the team at all. Emmy relayed that she understood, and the cold look on Kaldur's face thawed when she asked if he wanted a cup of raspberry hibiscus tea.

Megan forgave her halfway through their second attempt at a new recipe for toffee pecan cookies. Connor grunted his pardon two seconds after he flipped her onto her back using a new move Emmy taught him. The lantern's pained yet approving groan sent an infrequent, for anyone other than Megan, smile across the Kryptonian's face and the friction disappeared. Emmy tried to talk to Robin when she ran into him on a patrol that took her a little too close to Gotham. He just laughed, slapped her shoulder, and asked if she wanted to help him track a pyromaniac who had been burning firework factories (She did, and they may have let the girl set off a few hundred dollars of merchandise before stopping her. Don't tell Batman). Artemis, for her part, merely shrugged and admitted that she would have done the same thing if she were in Emmy's position. Her comment led to the abrupt realization that the cat lady they fought during Artemis' first mission must have been Jade, the other half-sister Emmy had never officially met, but Emmy promptly pushed away that new detail. There was only one person left to apologize to: Wally. But she hadn't talked to him since their argument after the mission.

They avoided each other in class, went to opposite sides of the cafeteria at lunch, and made sure they didn't spar with each other during the two sessions they'd had with Canary. Batman had not given them a new mission yet, and she didn't even see Wally hanging around the cave like normal. Her phone had essentially stopped buzzing which left her with the uncomfortable realization that 95% of her text messages went to Wally. Whether they were competing for the best Chemistry puns, sending funny cartoon gifs, or instigating a quippy argument to pass the time in a particularly boring class, Emmy and Wally had developed a habit of near constant contact. The last couple weeks Emmy had heard every painstaking detail about Zara's relationship with Jason, been on more runs than she would have liked with Jessie, assisted the kids with their homework every night and even joined them for dinner at the Todd's a few times, managed to have three normal conversations with Trent, and even made her first 'A' on a history assignment after swallowing her pride and asking Mr. Taylor for help. Despite keeping herself busy and happy, Emmy was still hyperaware of Wally's absence in her daily life, and she was a little stunned by how deafening it felt.

She hadn't even realized how often they talked until they adopted the abrupt radio silence. Wally reminded her of a plant, bright blossoms blooming above the surface, hidden roots growing deeper than she realized until they were suddenly gone, leaving a pile of misplaced earth behind. She missed him, and she wasn't even that mad about it. Somewhere in between the missions, study sessions, shared snacks, beach discussions, and arguments, Wally had become her best friend. Emmy cared about the rest of her teammates dearly, and she considered all of them, especially Megan and Artemis, to be close friends. But she saw the speedster every day, and she liked that. He easily kept up with her more scientifically and mathematically inclined comments, and she had never met anyone who could maintain a verbal volley with her as well as he could.

Emmy didn't consider herself to be a talker, but it was difficult not to talk around Wally. Maybe it was because he talked so much himself, or maybe it was because he engaged the more competitive parts of her personality, but for whatever reason, talking to Wally was as natural as breathing. Breathing certainly pissed her off a lot less than he did, but the point remained. In a span of a few minutes, they could go from debating the merits of nuclear power, to competing over who got the highest score on the latest AP Chem homework, to Emmy telling him about having to change a diaper for the first time or Wally relaying his disastrous first attempt at using a soldering iron. Despite his tendency for the obnoxious, Wally was one of the kindest and funniest people she knew, and Emmy really hoped that she wouldn't have to confess that just to get him talking to her again.

The uncomfortable gnawing in her gut let Emmy know that she needed to apologize to Wally on day three. She'd had two weeks to ruminate over their argument at this point, and he was right. If their roles were reversed, she would have been just as pissed as he was. But she was a stubborn person, and so was he, and she had no idea how to just walk up to him and say sorry. It was easier with the rest of the team because they weren't that upset with her in the first place. For some reason, Wally was the iratest, and the longer the quiet stretched with the speedster, the harder it was for Emmy to break.

Her commlink watch dinged, signaling that it was time for her to meet the team. Martian Manhunter and Batman had some secret training exercise for them to do. A small breeze hit her back. Emmy bit the inside of her cheek as Wally popped next to her. The wordless trek to the meeting room maintained their new status quo.

I should talk to him, right?

No, what would I even say at this point?

Why did he have to walk next to me? He could've kept zipping to the room.

Wait. Does that mean he wants to talk now? He's not saying anything.

Come on, East. Suck it up and speak first.

Emmy opened her mouth, the small motion instantly attracting Wally's attention, but she closed it the second she met his cautiously hopeful green eyes. Dammit. Fuck me. Why is this so hard? Just say sorry. It's not that big a deal.

She sighed softly. It felt like a big deal. They reached the desired hallway. Wally sped up to reach the door. She was running out of time.

"Wait," Emmy grabbed Wally's wrist before he hit the open button.

He turned his head toward her, the hope from earlier replaced with a single raised eyebrow, "Yeah?"

Her well-thought-out apology evaporated from her mind instantly.

She dropped his wrist and used that hand to rub the back of her neck, "Never mind. It can wait."

Wally stared at her for a moment before entering the room, "Okay."

Location: Mount Justice Infirmary

Date: Nov 21st

Time: 04:17

Wally hadn't thrown up since July 4th, 2006, when he entered a hotdog eating contest at the local fair and brazenly competed against a group comprised solely of adults, one of whom happened to be Uncle Barry. Yeah, that Uncle Barry. The secretly the Flash, Uncle Barry. One of the few people on Earth capable of still being hungry after eating four times his weight in hotdogs, Uncle Barry. The fair took place 15 months before Wally learned Barry's secret and became Kid Flash, so as you can imagine, Younger Wally never even stood a chance. He had been determined to match his uncle's pace, and promptly projectile vomited into the shrieking crowd 4 seconds after choking down hotdog number 18.

The last time he had a stomach bug or flu was the winter prior to The Hotdog Incident of '06, as Barry affectionately referred to it, and since getting his powers, his accelerated immune system prevented viruses and other illnesses from sending him running toward a trash can. But now, sitting in an uncomfortable chair next to Emmy's pallid, unconscious form, Wally felt like he was 11 again and trying to shove hotdog 18 down his throat.

The training exercise was a nightmare. It started off fine. When he heard the report of Flash dying, it was like he was in a dream, he knew what was happening, but in the corner of his mind, he also knew that it wasn't real. He knew that he would wake up. All he had focused on was Emmy's cold hand clutching his shoulder in a comforting embrace.

He couldn't stop thinking about that moment. Wally would have thought that his mind would be preoccupied by replaying the instant Emmy pushed Artemis out of the way of the alien beam. The strangulated way he screamed her name as the beam killed her. The way Megan's subconscious turned the nightmare into a reality after Emmy's 'death'. The curses he threw at the aliens when the team returned to the bioship, one chair excruciatingly empty. The tears in Artemis' guilty eyes as he watched the stoic archer fall apart for the first time. The manic desperation he felt as he deluded himself into believing the traces of zeta radiation could mean that Emmy was still alive. The way his teammates and closest friends died one by one until it was just him and Dick, nodding at each other resolutely as they detonated the bombs that cemented the death of their hope and subsequently themselves. Of all the horrible details of the failsafe exercise for his brain to fixate upon, it had chosen the comforting hand.

They weren't speaking to each other, the training drill had just started so no one had been tricked into thinking it was real yet, and Emmy still put her hand on his shoulder in a gesture of support just in case the news of Barry's imaginary death shook him. Wally wished he had made her say what she was going to say before they joined the others in that damned room. Emmy grabbed his arm at the last minute, the end of their quarrel on the tip of her tongue, chickened out, and he let her. Wally let her cut off their first interaction in two weeks because he was hurt, and jealous, and annoyed, and stubborn and, like her, he had assumed that the conversation could wait. It had waited two weeks, what would a few more hours be in the grand scheme of things?

He warily eyed her chest move with each shallow breath. Everyone else was physically fine. Martian Manhunter had invaded the mental landscape just in time to make cracks in Megan's stronghold and keep them all from dying in real life. When the drill ended, everyone woke up quickly. Traumatized, gasping for breath, incredibly confused, panicked eyes darting around the room. Everyone except Emmy, because of course she would be the one to get physically injured from a mental event. If he weren't so fucking concerned, he would have found it a little funny.

Emmy died first, and she was the reason Batman sent Martian Manhunter into the team scenario. Initially, Emmy just entered a state of unconscious sleep, but Artemis died next, and Megan's control over the scene started to convince the sleeping girls that they were actually dying. This sent Emmy's ring into a state of disarray. The ring, dedicated to its wearer and keeping them alive, had flown to Emmy, knocking her off the table, thrown a healing pod around her, and tried to shock her heart into a normal rhythm. Unfortunately, since her heart was already beating normally, the ring was just hurting Emmy even more.

That was the sight the team woke up to: Emmy on the floor, covered in a green corona, twitching uncontrollably as Batman attempted to remove the ring's grasp. After ten horror-inducing seconds, the convulsing stopped, but Emmy remained unconscious and glowing. The still-disoriented team stumbled behind Batman as he carried her to the infirmary, scarcely breathing while he deftly hooked her to various machines, only panting for oxygen and demanding answers about what the hell just happened to them when they confirmed that the ring was no longer harming her.

They stood there in abject horror as the Dark Knight and Martian Manhunter explained how Megan's trauma hijacked the exercise and told them that all they could do now was wait for if and when Emmy woke up on her own. A quick call to Hal confirmed that the ring was most likely confused and would keep her in the pod until it decided she was no longer at risk. Megan's mortified sobs broke Wally's heart, but they made Emmy's heart monitor spike again, and Batman kicked everyone out. The team protested until he said that they could stay by her side one at a time, and no one argued when Wally insisted on taking the first shift.

The speedster's left leg had been jittering since the moment his turn started. He'd paced around the room until his sneakers started to smoke, done 9,000 jumping jacks, and then slumped into the world's worst chair. His teammates had sent the periodic check-in text to the group chat, and each one had stopped by to stare at Emmy, but none of them stayed for more than a few minutes. The only one who did more than say a few, sullen words to him was Artemis. She brought him a smoothie and a protein bar, scratched his back for a few seconds, and sent him such a sympathetic look that he got a little choked up and couldn't help but relay that he was really glad she was alive too. The archer sent Emmy another strained look, clearly feeling like it was her fault the lantern 'died' and left the room a minute later with a twisted expression. Other than the brief visits from the team, Wally had no distractions and nothing to do. It was like waiting for Jay to wake up from his coma all over again, except that he hadn't been in the middle of a ridiculous argument with Jay.

Wally had almost apologized for yelling at Emmy a hundred times since their fight. He had deleted twenty texts, and he stopped himself from talking to Emmy at least twelve times a day at school. Every chemistry meme, witty retort, funny story, and calculus problem he didn't quite understand had him wanting to talk to her, but he hadn't let himself. His pride was hurt. He knew that she was apologizing her way through the entire team, and he didn't like that he was clearly going to be last. He didn't like that she needed to apologize at all. So, like a moron convinced he was made of time, he waited and waited and ignored and denied. And now he was watching her heart monitor tick like it was an article proving String Theory and praying to any deity that would listen that she would wake up like Jay had.

Location: Mount Justice Infirmary

Date: Nov 21st

Time: 06:11

The familiar twinge of pain in the right side of her ribs pulled Emmy from the darkness. She returned to reality in a haze and rubbed at the offending area. There was an ache behind both eyes, and she had to blink twelve times before her vision returned. White tile walls and floor. Thin mattress underneath her. A few electrodes scattered across her chest over her uniform. A steady electronic beep to her left. A heavy warmth on her shins. Emmy frowned and looked down. Wally was asleep, body in a flimsy, plastic chair, his head and upper limbs strewn across her lower body cutting off circulation to her feet. What the hell is going on?

She was about to kick him and ask when a flashback hit her.

There was snow everywhere. Emmy's green uniform stuck out against the insipid backdrop. She hid behind a snowbank while her teammates, all of whom had shifted to white versions of their uniforms, crept forward.

Wolf had just been hit with a beam. He was gone, like so many others. Connor didn't even react as Megan offered her condolences. They were too focused on completing the mission, and Emmy had an inkling that everything would be fine in the end.

"Rerouting systems to integrate the weapon into Ship's bio-matrix," Megan informed the group. "I'll need to de-camouflage for a few minutes."

"We may not have a few minutes," Robin's frowned.

They had tracked the alien invaders to Superman's Fortress of Solitude. The Justice League was dead. They were Earth's heroes now.

"Miss Martian, open fire," Kaldur commanded.

"Can't. Weapon systems are off-line to incorporate the new cannon," Megan paused. "And that's not fully integrated yet either!"

"Got you covered," Artemis said into the link.

Emmy checked for the return of the aliens. It had been too long since their last attack. They were somewhere. Waiting.

She saw the invaders descend from the sky a half-second before Artemis did. Emmy threw a giant fist to destroy one of the ships, Artemis shot three arrows at the other.

"Get inside!" The archer screamed. "I'm almost there."

Emmy flew toward the rest of the team as the ship that Artemis shot fell to the ground, skittering across the snow. She saw the red light of the cannon begin to glow as Megan screamed, "Artemis! Behind you!"

Emmy flew faster than she ever had, knocked Artemis to the side, and created a shield structure in front of herself right as the cannon fired. It didn't matter. Her shield broke instantly.

Emmy entered the darkness with the shock of her structure shattering so easily pinching her gut and Wally's tormented scream of her name ringing in her ears.

Emmy shook her head and returned to the present. Her memories reemerged slowly. They had started a training exercise with Martian Manhunter. Batman wanted them to practice how to behave when there was no way to win. Emmy thought it was pointless. You don't need to dry-run the end of the world. You practice fighting to win, not to lose. But she wasn't the team leader, and she was not about to cause another issue so soon after Tijuana, so she shut her mouth, laid on the slab of concrete, and let her mind get pulled into Armageddon.

I died first. Emmy frowned grumpily. That explains why her structure didn't hold against the laser. It wasn't real. The scenario was made to exploit their weaknesses, to kill them no matter how well they persevered. They were never going to win. It was a rigged match. I could totally hold off the canon blast from an actual alien ship. There's no way that would kill me.

Her feet tingled, and her moody eyes relaxed as they fell to Wally. His cheek was smooshed against her shin, left arm thrown over her ankles and right one over her knees at angles that couldn't possibly be comfortable. She smirked. If only she had her phone with her to take a photo. The tingling turned from mild discomfort to legitimate soreness and Emmy pulled her legs away, lightly kicking at the speedster.

"Wally, wake up. You're cutting off my circulation here, Kid Frowsy."

"Huh?" Green eyes blearily blinked at her. A floppy forearm wiped the remnants of drool from the corner of his mouth.

Emmy snorted in mild disgust, "Did you drool on my uniform?"

"Wha-?" Awareness clicked into Wally's face in an instant. He jumped to his feet, hands shooting out to her shoulders, eyes scanning her quickly from various angles. "You're awake! Are you okay?"

"Uh," Emmy raised an eyebrow. "My right side feels like I've been hit by a truck, but other than that I'm fine. What the hell happened? How did I get hurt from a mental workout? Did you guys manage to win?"

Wally's elated smile shifted into a distressed grimace. Emmy once again regretted her choice of words.

"After you…" He paused and frowned, taking a step away and dropping his hands from her shoulders to fiddle with the edge of the sheets underneath her. "After you di-…anyway after that, Megan's subconscious accidentally took over the dreamscape and convinced us that we were all actually dying. Your ring freaked out. Knocked you off the table and put you in some healing pod. Martian Manhunter managed to get us back to reality, but your ring was confused about whether or not you were dying it kept you in a fugue state."

"Oh," Emmy looked at her uniform. She would have powered down, but Wally was still in his with the cowl bunched around the nape of his neck. "Well, that explains why I didn't see a light at the end of a tunnel. That was a real let-down."

Wally's jaw twitched and his eyes raged at her bad joke. "Not funny," he spit out between gritted teeth.

Emmy blinked in surprise. His words caught up with her. 'Megan's subconscious accidentally took over the dreamscape and convinced us all that we were actually dying'. Oh. He thought that I…

Wally watched recognition slide onto Emmy's face and winced. He should have just tried to smile at the horrible joke, be he'd gotten so close to losing her, and he hadn't even apologized for their asinine fight. Seeing her vanish in that beam while his throat went raw with how loudly he screamed her name-

"I'm sorry," he blurted.

"Oh," Emmy blinked. "No, I'm sorry I didn't realize that you actually thought I-"

"No, not about that," Wally ran a hand down his face. "I'm sorry about what I said to you. You're nothing like the criminals we fight. You're selfless and dedicated, and I really think that even if the ring hadn't picked you, you would have ended up in tights kicking bad guy ass one way or another. And it's…it's really none of my business what you do or don't feel for, you know…him."

Emmy's heart stuttered at his words, and she sat up straighter, "You don't need to apologize. You were right. I acted like an asshole, and I pushed you all away, and then I lashed out at you when things didn't go exactly how I wanted them to. This team is my family, and I shouldn't have said anything different."

She lightly touched the back of his hand, and he immediately flipped his palm up to intertwine their fingers.

She flicked her eyes between his intentionally, "I'm sorry, Wally."

He grinned a ray of sunshine at her. Emmy glowed a little from the warmth. The end of his apology came to mind, and she grimaced.

"Also, for the record, I don't feel anything even remotely positive for Akio." She glared at the blanket slightly. "He knew that, and he made sure to use his last few seconds as a free man to say stuff that opened an old wound. I should have known better than to let it get to me."

Wally frowned, "Stuff about the kids?"

Emmy paused and turned her gaze to the chair he vacated, "And my parents. And me in general."

The redhead's frown deepened; I should have hit that asswipe harder.

"Anyway," Emmy deflected, "Point is, I was being a bad hero and a worse teammate. And, uh, I'm sorry about what I said to you. About acting like," she waved her free hand in a circle in the air, "you know, a jealous boyfriend."

Wally became instantly aware of their entwined hands, and they both retreated into their own personal space bubbles and became interested in different spots on the wall. He put his hands on his hips.

"Well, in all fairness to you," Emmy glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and five minutes ago he wasn't sure if she would ever do that again, so he decided to be a little bold, "I was."

Emmy's lips twitched upward, and he smirked.

"Then again, I didn't smash a cake in his face so how jealous could I have really been?"

Emmy dramatically rolled her eyes and groaned despite the faint blush on her cheeks, "Are you ever going to let me live that down?"

"Hell no," Wally scoffed. "We'll be 95 in a nursing home somewhere, and I'll still bring it up every morning as soon as I pop my dentures in."

He froze when he realized what he'd just implied, but thankfully Emmy just snorted. He bit the inside of his cheek and decided to promptly deny he ever said what he just said. He scanned his brain for something to add before she had a chance to read into the subtext.

"So, why did you shut us out anyway? I know I accused you of it in the heat of the moment, but you're not someone who would push us away just to get an ego boost by bringing people in on your own," Wally mentally high-fived himself. Nice recovery, Wallman.

Emmy sighed and ran a hand through her hair, "I didn't really want any of you to see that part of my past. Bobby had gotten so much worse than when I worked for him, not that he was great when I did, and well, I really could have done without any of you ever seeing Akio."

"Why?" Wally tilted his head at her, instantly wondering if she had some kind of territorial attitude toward the older, tattooed delinquent.

Emmy sent him a look, "You met the guy. Being with him at all let alone for a couple years doesn't exactly make me out to be a good judge of character."

She suddenly found the edge of the white blanket very interesting as she waited for Wally's next comment, completing missing the relieved look on his face when it finally clicked that Emmy really didn't have any residual feelings for Akio.

"Hey," he smiled at her, "when it comes to people making you look like a terrible judge of character, I put the ex in expert."

Emmy let out an amused huff, and he beamed at her, "So, in case the verbal part of my apology didn't go over well, I got you a present."

He tossed a small box onto her lap before putting his hands behind his back and rocking on his heels. Emmy looked at him in astonishment. His voice sounded confident, but he was avoiding eye contact again.

"You mentioned that you and the kids were celebrating your birthdays late since you all had a crazy June and missed them," he shrugged with his hand in his back pockets.

Emmy was staring at the boy like he'd grown four extra arms and those four arms had given her a present.

"It's not actually my birthday. You didn't have to get me anything," Emmy looked so confused that Wally actually blushed.

He waved her off, "Hey, my birthday is in a month and this way you'll feel obligated to get me something too. Just open it wouldya?"

Emmy turned to the present with rapt curiosity. It was a small box, maybe three by four inches. It had lime green wrapping paper and was tied with a small aqua ribbon. She carefully unraveled the bow and slid her finger underneath the tape to remove the paper in a smooth motion without tearing it.

Wally watched with conflicting emotions. He was worried that she wouldn't like it, and it felt weird to watch her open it even though he didn't not want to watch her open it, and she was going so devastatingly slow that the only upside was the noticeable sparkle of excitement in her eyes.

Emmy removed the lid and examined the contents. It was a necklace. There was a thin silver chain connected to a thicker line of silver that encircled a half green and half blue tetragonal crystal two or three inches long. Emmy recognized it immediately and jerked up to look at Wally in disbelief.

"Is this-?" she blinked at him, and Wally rubbed the back of his neck and looked away again.

"Uh, yeah, it's from the fluorite cave," he cleared his throat a little. "I thought you might like to always have a piece of your happy place with you."

Emmy's mouth was agape as she stared at Wally like she had never seen him before. Her brain was having trouble comprehending what was happening. This was undoubtedly the most thoughtful thing anyone had ever given her and maybe even ever done for her, and it was coming from the paradoxical enigma that was Wally West, and she had no idea how to process. Wally blushed under the intensity of her stunned silence.

He coughed and scratched at the back of his neck, "I thought that was a good one since, uh, you like green, and you know, you look good in blue. But, uhm, if you don't like it-"

"I love it," Emmy snapped quickly.

If either of them noticed the slight tick in her heartrate on the monitor they didn't show it. She tried to put it on, but her hands were still a little shaky and fumbling from her ring's accidental attack, and nothing else, so Wally interceded with a chuckle and put it on for her.

They locked eyes when he was moving her hair back into place after hooking the clasp. Wally almost felt like he was getting struck by lightning for the first time since the accident.

"Thank you," Emmy said, quiet and sincere. He backed away quickly with a forced casual smile before he did something he would regret.

"No problem," he shifted.

"This is the first time I've gotten a gift from someone who wasn't my sibling," Emmy chuckled a little mystified and despite her best efforts, a little giddy.

"Oh, well this is the first time I've-" Wally stuttered to a stop partially unsure of and partially terrified by where that sentence was heading.

Emmy's blue eyes were looking at him with vivid inquisitiveness, wordlessly imploring him to continue, but he cleared his throat and changed topics.

"This is the first time I've gone into the frozen winter ocean to mine a crystal," he wiggled his eyebrows. "I almost got frostbite and hypothermia getting that thing even with my elevated body temperature. The bar has been set, and I am expecting something amazing for my birthday. I think the Hope diamond would do nicely."

Emmy actually giggled. It was far too high-pitched to be considered a chuckle or her usual scoffing laugh. He couldn't stave off his soft smile.

"You do have a knack for raising the bar, don't you?" Her smirk could only be described as gentle, and Wally thanked his lucky stars that he wasn't the one attached to a heart monitor.

He had already taken a half-step closer to her, drawn like an electron to fluorine, when the patter of feet sounded behind him, and Sage and Hunter clambered onto Emmy's hospital bed. It was her weekend to have them stay with her at the mountain, and Wally realized with a start that there must be security cameras in the infirmary because of course there were security cameras in the infirmary and Sage was saying that Batman said they could see her now that she was awake, so Batman had been watching them and Wally had been about to-

Emmy hissed as Hunter knocked into her right side, signing with her left hand as she spoke, "Careful, Buddy. I'm still a little bruised."

Wally smirked a little, "Yeah, now that you mention it, how do you even know what it feels like to get hit by a truck?"

Emmy shrugged slightly with her arms around the kids on each side of her, "A thunderstorm, expired bacon, and a gal with no respect for pedestrians."

Wally blanched, "Wait. You were actually hit by a truck?"

Emmy pursed her lips contemplatively, "It was more of a glancing blow."

"A glanc-" Wally stuttered, aghast, and sent her a look that clearly said, 'We will be talking about this when the kids aren't here'.

Emmy rolled her eyes but smirked mischievously.

"So, good timing, guys," Wally put his hands on his hips and grinned at the kids. He had one more question that he hadn't quite figured out how to ask Emmy, and if the kids got on board, it would be a breeze. "I was just about to invite you all to come to my house for Thanksgiving dinner."

Emmy's eyebrows went up into her hairline while Sage and Hunter started barraging him with questions.

"A real thanksgiving dinner?"

"Will there be pie?"

"At your house?"

"Do you have any cute brothers my age?"

"Will there be pie?"

"Do you have a dog?"

"Can we eat as much as we want?"

"Does your family chase a turkey around the yard and kill it first or do you buy one?"

"Do we have to dress up as pilgrims and Native Americans?"

Wally hummed for a second before replying, "Yes, yes, yes, no, yes again, unfortunately no, of course, we buy one, and not unless you want to for some reason."

The three Easts looked mildly impressed by his ability to answer the onslaught, which should not have pleased him as much as it did, and Hunter and Sage turned to Emmy in unison.

"Please can we go, Emmy?" Sage pouted. "The Todd's are going to Delilah's parents' house, and we don't want to go."

"Yeah, they're vegans, and we already told them we want to spend the week with you," Hunter batted his obscenely long eyelashes.

Emmy shifted in discomfort. The Easts had never celebrated Thanksgiving before. She knew that they had the week off school starting tomorrow, but she wasn't even sure which day Thanksgiving was, "Uh, well, that's a nice offer, Wally, but I'm sure that your parents want it to be just family and-"

"Actually," Wally smirked and folded his arms, "my mom asked me to invite you."

Blue eyes blinked rapidly, before Emmy bit the inside of her cheek. She couldn't think of a single instance where she had been surprised by the same person more times in a row, and she spent the summer on an alien planet learning to wield an arguably magic ring. Wait, how did his mom even know about her? Does that mean he-

"And," Wally smirked again, "as you just recently conceded, our team is a family, so there's really no reason for you three to not come to the West Extravaganza Semi-Annual Thanksgiving."

Emmy made a face and deadpanned, "Did you just erroneously say Thanksgiving is twice a year so that acronym would spell out 'WEST'?"

Wally's jaunty smile never left his face, "Yes. Yes, I did."

Emmy grinned, "Well, now we have to go."

Hunter and Sage cheered and high-fived. Wally said he'd text them the details, which made him realize he hadn't updated the team group chat yet, and he whipped out his phone. He had two voicemails from his mom asking where he was, and he cursed mentally.

"Uh, I gotta run," he gave Emmy another once over, "See you Thursday?"

"Yeah," she nodded with poorly repressed happiness.

He pulled on his goggles and flashed home.

But not before he heard Sage ask, "Hey, where did you get that necklace?

Emmy's blush colored his peripheral vision.

Thanks for reading, hopefully this makes up for the weekend's drama, lol.

-TheDarkAbyss

-xarcadiax- Yeah, no one's perfect, and she's just a 16-year-old kid, at the end of the day. She can't be right all the time. Glad you love it :)

-KirikaAndo- Miss you too. Angst is great, but here's a little bit of fluff for you.

-orangeporqupine- I have my moments

-Cozy Owl- Lol I always get flashbacks when a character messes up in ways I have too. I'm happy you made your stop at the last minute, but that's such a great compliment for me haha