The Flash

The clacking of the keys was all that was keeping Linda West from falling asleep in her chair. It was now nearing three in the afternoon, and Linda had been awake since the morning of the previous day. This normally wouldn’t be a problem for her, as a healthy regiment of coffee, donuts, and more coffee was enough to keep her going for days on end. With a baby coming, however, she had stopped drinking coffee. Needless to say, she was paying for it now.

She typed fervently, on a sort of sleep-deprived ‘auto-pilot.’ She hadn’t planned to stay up all night writing; it had just sort of happened. At one point during the previous day, she had found herself in a sort of zone, one she couldn’t pass up. It was rare that the West house was quiet for very long – Wally’s impatience, while endearing, was also rather obnoxious at some points – so when the opportunity presented itself to get some work done without having to go into the office – a place lined with cubicles that Linda loathed only slightly more than she loathed emergency root canal surgery – she had to take advantage.

She came to the end of a paragraph and vehemently struck the ‘enter’ key. Writing copy required a conciseness that most people couldn’t get around, but Linda found it enjoyable. Sure, the station had a writing staff, but she would rather read her own work than someone else’s. There was something about it that she couldn’t share it with anyone – she had tried to explain it to Wally once, but she knew he was just humoring her. It was just reporting the news, but it was important in its own way, and there was, she liked to think, a certain element of art behind it.

Linda rubbed her eyes and let out a long yawn, leaning back in the leather chair. She suddenly felt a burst of heat on her back, followed by a rush of cool air. She paid it no attention, though. She was too tired to care about climate control.

“Hello, Linda.”

A rush of adrenaline caused Linda’s eyes to shoot wide open at the sound of the chill voice from behind. She did not need to turn to look; she already knew the intruder.

“I cannot tell you how sick I am of people just coming into my house,” she said, a strong note of contempt in her voice. As she spoke, she noticed thin smoke waft past her. She put together that this, combined with the climate change, had signaled the intruder’s arrival. She sighed heavily and, swiveling in the chair, turned to face him slowly. “What do you want?”

Before her, a tall, muscular figure stood. He wore a billowing green cloak over body armor of a similar color. The skin on his bare arms and face was a stark white color, his hair a thick blonde mane. His eyes shone a dark red.

Neron smiled grotesquely. “How’re you feeling?”

The Flash took a deep breath. His arms folded across his chest, he stood still. It wasn’t something he did often, taking time to stop and look around and just move at normal speed. If he didn’t slow down every now and then, he had found, he might miss something important. With the baby coming, though, he knew he was going to have to get used to slowing down all the time.

It was that which worried him right now. He stared forward, through the foot-thick glass of one of the JLA Watchtower Observation Deck’s many windows. Whenever he walked around the structure, Wally couldn’t help but notice how many windows it had, for a building on the moon. He had mentioned it to Wonder Woman once, when they had been on monitor duty together. She had stopped him in his tracks and pointed him at one of the windows. His eyes had been met by a clear view of the planet Earth. ‘Look at that,’ Diana had said. ‘That’s why we’re up here.’ She didn’t say anything more, but it was enough to answer his question.

As he looked out at the planet below him, Wally thought of Linda. He knew exactly why he was there, even without all of the windows to remind him. He was there for her.

“Wally?”

The fastest man alive turned at the sound of his name. A black-haired man in a white, black, and green costume stepped towards him slowly. He wore a blocky green mask that matched his green boots and gauntlets, and the small ring on his right hand glowed a dim green. Green Lantern spoke again, his voice shaking slightly with concern. “You alright, man?”

Wally exhaled a deep breath. “Yeah. Just…I dunno. Collecting myself.”

Kyle Rayner smiled. “If you need a minute…”

“No, I’m good,” Wally replied nervously. “Is everyone here?”

“We’re just waiting for you.” The young man paused for a moment. “Kind of wondering why you called us all up here, too. Is everything alright?”

Wally nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know why I’m nervous. I think…” He looked at his friend and smiled weakly. “Kyle, Linda’s pregnant, I’m retiring, and Jesse Chambers is taking over as The Flash.”

Kyle’s eyes widened beneath his mask, his mouth hanging open slightly. “Holy crap,” was all he could muster.

“Yeah,” Wally said with a smile. “And I’m going to go into this room of heroes that I’ve worshipped since I was ten, and I’m going to tell them that I’m leaving, and…I don’t know. I think it’s just…the last thing in the world that I want to do is to disappoint Superman. Y’know?”

“I know,” Kyle said. The empathy was evident in his voice, and it made Wally feel a little better. “He’s not going to be mad at you,” he added.

Wally laughed slightly. “I know. I just…I dunno. I needed to hear it, I guess. Thanks, Kyle.”

Kyle smiled, and the two men began walking down the long hallway from the observation deck to the Watchtower’s main meeting hall. After a moment, Kyle turned to his friend. “It’s gonna suck not having you up here, ya know.”

“You’ll manage,” he replied. “You’ll like Jesse, once you get to know her.”

“Oh, I’ll get to know here, alright…”

Wally smiled. “Y’know, something tells me the old ‘Rayner charm’ won’t work on her.”

Kyle’s shoulders sagged slightly. “Oh.” He paused for a moment before asking. “Is she a—”

“No,” Wally interrupted, again smiling. “Y’know, hard as it may be to believe, just because a woman isn’t interested in you, she is not automatically a lesbian.”

“Hey, whatever helps you sleep at night, man,” Kyle replied with a smile of his own. The end of the hall was fast approaching, and Kyle took a deep breath. “Try to relax,” he said to Wally. “And don’t mind Batman. He’s in one of his moods.”

Green Lantern kept walking into the meeting hall, leaving Wally, who had stopped in his tracks at his friend’s comment, standing alone in the hallway. “Great,” he said quietly to himself. Taking and exhaling a deep breath, The Flash strode as confidently as he could into the meeting hall.

“I’ll ask again,” Linda said. “What do you want?”

“There’s no point in pleasantries with you, is there?” Neron smirked, crossing the room, his cape billowing behind him. He dragged a chair towards where Linda sat and plopped down in it. He crossed his legs and folded his hands in his lap. “I’m honestly just wondering how you’re feeling, Linda.”

“Yeah, I absolutely believe that,” she said dryly. She clicked ‘Save’ on the document she had been working on and closed it. She did not look directly at him.

“You could just tell me,” he said, “and we can go from there.”

Linda sighed. Finally she glanced towards him. “I’m fine,” she said.

“Good,” Neron said with a nod. “Wouldn’t want anything to happen to the baby.”

She had been waiting for it since he’d arrived, but the demon’s mention of her unborn child still infuriated her. She grasped the armrests of the desk chair and glared at Neron with narrowed eyes. “I swear to God, if you threaten my child, I won’t have to tell Wally about it. I will destroy you.”

Neron sat back in his chair with a slight smile. “That’s why I like you, Linda. You don’t dance around things.”

“What do you want,” she said flatly. She noticed a viciousness in her tone which surprised even her.

“It sounds like I want what you want, Linda.”

“You want you to get the hell out of my house, too?”

“Nice choice of words,” Neron said with a chuckle. “No, I’m talking about that other thing you want. The one about your baby?”

“My baby will have nothing to do with anything even remotely resembling you.”

“I find that hard to believe, given the world that you and your husband inhabit.”

“No?,” Linda said, without hesitation but with a slight quiver in her voice. She knew Neron wasn’t going to give up just because she said ‘no’ once.

Neron sighed, looking around the room as he did. “You have a lovely home. Weren’t you saying earlier how sick you were of people coming into it?”

Linda remained silent, and Neron smiled. “Three months ago, a man in black and grey entered the house while you were sleeping. He came in through the window and he came right into your bedroom. Now, of course, you were lucky this time, because it was just Batman coming and going as he pleases, as he is, of course, wont to do, but still, that shook you up pretty badly, didn’t it? Especially when, I think Wally even said it at the time, he could’ve just called?.”

Linda shifted in her seat. The thought that Neron had been spying on them made her uncomfortable, and she at the realization that he must have been watching them at all times.

The demon continued. “A month after that, on the day you found out you were pregnant, even, Frances Kane came into your house. Just walked right in the front door. Sure, she must’ve picked the lock, but still. At least Batman used a window, Fran wasn’t even trying. She walked right in the front door and she basically held you hostage. Didn’t she? Hostage in your own house. What did that feel like? Wally was even here for that, wasn’t he? He just stood there. If any other serial killers come to your house, is he going to just stand there while they attack you?”

“Okay,” she said quickly, collecting herself. “Fran is a special situation—“

“Ahhh, right,” He interrupted her. “Special situation. Because she’s Wally’s ex-girlfriend.”

“She’s unstable.”

“She’d have to be to have dated your husband,” Neron replied with a snark. “Honestly, though, tell me, if any other exes of Wally’s come along, and they’re unstable, and they just decide to walk into your house and threaten you, you would be okay with that.”

“Of course not, but—”

“Then what makes Fran ‘a special situation’? Your words, not mine.”

He stared at Linda for a moment. She did not look in his direction.

“I can stop it from ever happening again, Linda. Just say the word. Like I said, I want what you want. I want your baby to be safe.”

Linda shook her head. “No,” she said weakly. “Wally and I are all the protection the baby will need.”

“Ahhhhh,” Neron said, standing as he did. He folded his hands behind his back and began to pace around the room. “That’s right, your husband is a ‘superhero,’ that must’ve slipped my mind somehow. Tell me, Linda – where is Wally right now?”

Wally hadn’t prepared a speech for this moment. He had planned to stand before the rest of the League and just tell them what was going on, but he hadn’t thought of any sort of remarks he should have ready for them. He was the first to admit that he wasn’t big on planning as it was, and the thought had occurred to him that lining Jesse up as his replacement once the baby arrived was probably the most planning he had ever done for anything in his entire life. The thought almost made him laugh as he finished telling the other members of the Justice League of America that he was planning to retire.

Superman was, as Wally had almost expected despite his trepidation, the first to congratulate the young man on the news of Linda’s pregnancy. Most of the other leaguers joined the man of steel in his well-wishes, with Diana, J’onn, and Plastic Man all volunteering to baby-sit when necessary. Wally accepted the offers as graciously as he could, saying that he planned to spend as much time with the baby as possible, omitting the fact that the idea of leaving his child in the care of the often-hyper Plastic Man was somewhat terrifying.

General relief crept into Wally’s chest, the knot in his stomach loosening slightly, when he finally noticed the one person who had been silent throughout the meeting. Kyle had warned him before they got there. But then, Wally had found from experience, one can never fully be warned about one of what Kyle had called The Batman’s ‘moods’.

The dark knight sat silently, elbows resting on the armrests of his chair, his hands folded in front of the lower half of his face. Only his eyes were visible, if it could be said that they were visible at all, hidden as they were by the blank white lenses that he wore in his cowl. Wally tried not to look at him for too long, while also trying to gauge his reaction to the news. Finally, once the other leaguers were through with their hand-shakes and congratulations, The Batman cleared his throat. They all seemed to turn to him in unison.

“Bruce?” Diana spoke to him in a way that only she could, a mixture of the deepest respect with an understanding of his methods and an unwillingness to be completely taken in by them. In other words, as Wally liked to think of it, she didn’t buy his ‘tough guy’ act. She smiled at him. “Is everything alright?”

The Batman lowered his hands, resting them on the table. “She’ll have to be vetted,” he said, and while he couldn’t see the man’s eyes, Wally was sure he was looking straight at him.

“Of course,” Wally replied. “Screen her, put her through whatever tests you need to. Jesse knows what to expect, and I’m sure she can handle it.”

“Of course,” Batman said, almost mimicking Wally’s use of the phrase. “We’ll just need to ensure her abilities. As well as her competency for the job.”

It was then that Wally realized exactly what this was about. The Captain Cold situation had been one that had been weighing on his mind for several weeks. He had spoken with his best friend about what had happened, looking for advice on whether or not letting Cold go due to the circumstances was the right thing to do. Perhaps Dick Grayson had mentioned the incident to his former mentor. Or perhaps Impulse, who had been present for the incident, had told Robin about it, who had then told Batman. Regardless of how he had found out about it, though, he knew. The Batman, it seemed to Wally, had a way of always knowing just about everything.

“Bruce,” Wally said with enough confidence that even he almost believed he wasn’t extremely intimidated by the man who was essentially his best friend’s father. “If there’s something you’d like to say to me, please go ahead and say it."

“Okay,” he replied flatly. “You allowed an armed felon to escape. You did not fail in capturing him. You stepped aside for him and you let him walk away from you. Forgive me for calling your competency into question, but in this instance, I believe it’s necessary.”

The room was silent. It was obvious to Wally that the rest of the team had also heard about the incident. He swallowed hard. “The circumstances of the situation—”

“—have no bearing on the fact,” Batman interrupted, “That Leonard Snart is a career criminal and, while he may not have killed anyone during the particular instance in question, he has killed before and will kill again.”

“I must admit,” Superman said, “That I’m curious as to why you let him go.”

“He hadn’t hurt anyone,” the speedster explained, “and he wasn’t stealing anything. He was retrieving his sister’s body.” He looked at the faces of his teammates. “He didn’t want S.T.A.R. Labs running any experiments on her, Clark. Surely you can understand that.”

Superman smirked knowingly at Wally’s reference to incidents that had followed his own death “Point taken,” the man of steel said.

The Batman continued to stare straight at Wally. “Cadmus desecrated Superman’s grave. Lois was simply righting their wrong.”

“And Lisa Snart was never even buried before S.T.A.R. Labs snatched her up. Does that make what they were doing to her remains any less wrong than Cadmus experimenting on Superman?” Wally paused briefly, his mind racing, his stomach tighter now than before. He hadn’t called this meeting so that he could fight with his teammates, though most were remaining silent, neither defending nor accusing the scarlet speedster. He wasn’t sure what to make of their silence. Perhaps they just felt that this was the wrong time to be having the discussion. But Wally had known it would come up at some point, and if they weren’t going to do it then, than when? He tried to slow down his speeding thoughts as he continued. “He just wanted to say goodbye to her, and to give her a proper send-off. Lisa was his sister. I think we can all appreciate the importance of family.”

This last statement was pointed right back at The Batman, who grimaced slightly. “Barry would never have let Cold go.”

This was a low blow, and everyone in the room knew it. Martian Manhunter, who had stayed silent once the argument had started, felt compelled to speak. “Bruce, I believe that is enough.”

“My uncle,” Wally said, doing his best to control the seething anger that had bubbled up within him, “Had a stronger sense of right and wrong than anyone I have ever known. And I think – or I hope, anyway – that he would agree with my choice. Nothing was more important to Barry than family.”

Neron stepped towards Linda and cupped a hand to his ear playfully. “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite hear that, did you say ‘He’s on the moon’?”

“You heard me,” Linda snapped back.

“So he’s up…what, he’s up there hanging out with his superbuddies?”

“It’s important,” she said.

“More important than protecting his family?”

“Wally’s a hero,” Linda said. “He has responsibilities.”

“But he’s also a man,” Neron countered. “Isn’t he? Wally has always prided himself on being the man before he’s the costume, hasn’t he? Even if the two go hand-in-hand, doesn’t his responsibility to you and to your unborn child supercede going into space and making sure Martians don’t attack?”

“He is protecting us. He’s protecting the whole world right now.”

“And yet, here I am. In your living room,” the white demon said. He paused before adding, “Looks like he kind of dropped the ball, didn’t he?”

“He’s giving it up.” Linda’s mouth was dry, her palms clammy. She wanted to get out of there. She knew she couldn’t. “When the baby comes,” she continued, “He’s giving up being The Flash.”

“Right,” Neron replied incredulously. “How many times did he tell Fran he was retiring to be with her? Shall we call her and ask?” There was silence for a moment, and Neron stepped away from Linda. “Alright,” he said. “You don’t want my help, that’s fine. This is a no-strings attached deal, though, I don’t do this often. But if you don’t want it, that’s fine. Wally’s a good guy, he can cover you. But, just, consider this for me, if you would: What happens if Wally dies?”

After a long moment she stood slowly from her seat. She folded her arms across her chest, walking away from Neron. She stopped, as far across the room from him as possible, and closed her eyes. It was nearly two minutes before she realized that she was forgetting to breathe. She inhaled deeply. She was shaking. She couldn’t stop shaking. She exhaled slowly and in as controlled a way as she could.

“What do you want?”

“To protect your baby. In a way that neither you nor Wally ever could.”

She opened her eyes weakly. She began to shake a little harder.

“Go on.”

Wally emerged heavily from the basement of the house. It was mostly unfinished – it was really only there to house his JLA transporter tube – and, as such, felt really dank and musty. He had always meant to finish it. Saving the world took precedence, though.

He closed the basement door and walked into the kitchen. Grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, he made his way down the hall into the living room.

Linda was watching a movie. She was curled in a ball on the couch, her arms wrapped around a pillow. She squeezed it as Wally came into the room. He smiled at her. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she said as he plopped down onto the couch next to her. He leaned towards her and she winced slightly as he kissed the side of her head. “How was it,” she asked, looking over at him.

Wally sighed. “It was. Everyone was very congratulatory. Clark sends his love, as usual. He wants to have dinner, he and Lois and you and I, I told him I’d talk to you about it.” He paused for a moment before adding, “Bruce is pissed at me about the Captain Cold thing.”

“What happened?”

“There was…I guess it was an argument, I’m not sure what exactly it was. I don’t know. Nothing’s resolved, he’s still pissed, so. He said that Barry would never have let Cold go.” He looked his wife in the eyes. “Do you think that’s true?”

“I don’t know,” Linda replied. “I mean, I never met him, so I couldn’t say for sure, but from what you’ve told me, even…I’m not sure.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure, either. I hope…”

He trailed off, and Linda smiled at him. “I know” was all she said.

“I mean, I try to do the right thing. It’s all I can do, is try. Right?”

“Right,” she said, still smiling, but turning away from him. “It’s all anyone can do.”

“Right,” he said, sighing as the word escaped from him. “I guess a year from now it won’t even matter, will it? No more JLA meetings, no more disapproving looks from Batman. No more Flash.” He stopped for a moment, his expression going blank. “Wow. I’m going to retire.” He looked at Linda. “Y’know, I’d said it before, but…I don’t know, I hadn’t really thought about it. It just hit me, right there. Wow,” he said with a stunned smile.

Linda shifted on the couch, moving closer to her husband. “Are you still okay about it?”

“Yeah, absolutely,” he replied. “I’ll do whatever I have to for the baby. I’m sure I’ll miss it a little, but this is so much more important.”

He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into him. “How was your day?”

“I finished that copy,” she said.

“Good,” he said excitedly. “Good for you.” He smiled down at her. “Anything else of interest happen?”

She looked up at him, her expression flat, her eyes finding his. She paused for a moment before looking away.

“Not really,” she said with a shrug.

Next: Closure

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