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Wally stood still in the shower. For all the time he spent running and moving fast it was nice at times to stand still. For as much as it tried to drive him out of his head, it was necessary. He thought too fast for his own good half the time but it had been a good few weeks. He got to relax and spend time with his family and friends. Missions had gone well. None of his major rogues were out and about. He had the city clean and cared for and he could afford himself some time to relax. he wanted to go see Dick soon. It had been a while since the two of them had gotten the chance to just simply hang out. The both of them had been so busy with everything going on in their lives that it had seemed like one bout of chaos after the last. They were best friends but they barely got to see each other anymore.
It sucked.
When they were kids things had been different. They had been on teams together and they’d run missions together. He would make fun of Dick for being a dick and they would laugh at each other. He’d been getting used to his speed and would run into things from time to time and Dick would make fun of him while he helped him up. They had told each other their secrets, their fears, their goals for the future. They knew everything about one another and Wally missed having that. It had been missions that brought them together when they were kids. Robin and Kid Flash. Another duo that could rival them and their heroes they partnered with. They were strong together. A dynamic that could lead any team and any mission. They questioned each other and they pushed each other and that was the point of it all. It was what best friends did.
He’d spent so many nights in the manor that Alfred knew what he liked to eat and simply asked for a courtesy call before he would make the run over to know what foods he should have prepared for his arrival. There had been nights where he’d sit on a console near the batcomputer and watched Dick work on things. How his fingers would fly over the keyboard and he would get this look of focus in his eyes. It was fun to watch him work. To know both the human and the hero side of the bats. Batman was always such an immovable object in the eyes of the League that it was nice to know a part into that life that was wholly human.
He had seen Dick get the same calculating look in his eyes and the same cold set in his voice when he would get into things for a mission. How stiffly he would hold himself when something was serious and he needed them all to make sure they knew or they could end up dead or worse. Dick was protective of all of them and he could be a hardass on the best of days, Wally knew that. But even though he fought with his friend, he also respected him. He had gone to Dick’s room in their bases over the years and he’d seen how he would sit on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands in the dark. He’d seen the poster of the old Circus he kept beside his bed to look at it. He’d seen how Dick would stare at pictures of his family when they were all together and performing in the air. He’d sat beside him and listened to him talk about what it was like back then. How it felt to be part of that life. The community and the lights and the laughter. The smells and the sounds he still heard sometimes when he could dream. Before it would turn into the Joker’s laughter or the sound of Two Face’s gun.
Wally had seen the pain he was in but Dick would still laugh on missions. He’d taught him a lot about strength over the years. he’d taught him what it really was to be resilient against the world. What it meant to stand up for himself. What it was for him to be brave and to be a hero.
He’d watched his Uncle Barry and he believed in everything he did. He mimed him to the best of his ability but his uncle could only teach him so much when it came to working with the team.
Even then he’d seen it.
Flash and Batman, working together on missions with the Justice League. Their team ups weren’t as famous or flashy, ironically enough, as Batman and Superman or Batman and Wonder Woman. They were some of his favorites to see. To watch how the two of them could rely on one another. Wally knew that his Uncle was a little scared of the Bat sometimes. He wasn’t sure there was anyone in the League that wasn’t if he was being honest. Batman was scary and all of the Robins that were trained over the years had picked up on that same image of fear. They were all quiet and hidden. Their mysteriousness they never seemed to outgrow. They were all smart and observant, they were all some of the bravest people he’d ever met.
Wally looked down at himself and the healing bruises and scrapes on his body. It was quiet now but that wasn’t without his work. He had super healing and despite the cautions he’d been given for his entire life, he still found himself throwing his body between others and danger if he couldn’t stop the danger from happening. He still found himself against weapons and enemies that knew the way his speed worked and had plans on how to take him down.
They didn’t know he’d grown up sparring against a Bat that knew all the ways to stop a Speedster in their tracks. They didn’t know he was ready for them.
He had super healing, he didn’t care if it would take him a night to heal up from everything. He would finish his patrol and go get food and take a nice long shower and go to bed. He would burn off his extra energy and he would sleep and maybe his own nightmares would leave him alone. He placed a hand against the tile and watched the water drip off his arm.
He missed just talking to people. Ones who understood all the details of his life and the history that he had. One who could look at him and just know what he was thinking. He missed getting to really and truly relax and all of that boiled down to one simple fact.
He missed his best friend.
Wally shut the shower off and grabbed a towel. He could vibrate for all of a second and shake himself free of the water but he was wanting a slow night tonight and that meant trying to do things the way he used to before he recreated the experiment. He was going to finish up here and then he was going to call Dick and ask if he wanted to hang out soon or do something. Maybe he would check what was going on in Bludhaven before calling him. Wally knew that Nightwing had been showing up in everything recently. Anything from Justice League missions that needed an extra hand, to robberies in other cities. If Wally wanted a break he was almost certain his friend did too. Dick didn’t have superspeed or superhealing. He was also never the best at asking for help when it came down to it. If it was for a mission then sure, he would get backup. But if it was for himself? For what he needed? To let himself be taken care of? That was almost always a fight.
Dick would probably answer the phone with some kind of an excuse for work he needed to do. It was going to be up to Wally to hear it in his voice if he needed help with something or not. If he was doing alright or if he was drowning himself in work to try to cover something up. It wouldn’t be the first time that happened and he could guarantee that it wasn’t going to be the last. They had all been through too much to pretend they were okay. They had suffered and hurt and they had seen things that no one would believe unless they were part of the life. That was one of the reasons it was so important for them to have friends within the hero community. Why teams were so important. They needed to be able to rely on each other and count on one another when they were having a bad night. They needed someone who could see them for who they were and for what their mask was. They needed someone who could be their backup on a mission and follow them home and help them clean up and tend to their wounds if they needed it.
Dick would do that for everyone else. He’d done it in a heartbeat for everyone else.
Wally couldn’t remember a time where his friend hadn’t gone the extra mile for someone else. It didn’t matter how busy his schedule was or how much he was hurting from his own stuff, if someone asked, Dick was there. Maybe that was how he should word it. He should ask Dick to come over and help him out or he should ask if he could go over to Bludhaven since he would travel faster. They could eat junk food together on the couch and they could talk until they fell asleep.
He changed and went over to his couch. It welcomed him in like a familiar lover and Wally relaxed as he leaned back against the cushions. It felt good to slow down on some nights. It was nice to be able to just sit and breathe. Nice to be able to just enjoy himself like he wasn’t a superhero.
He’d wanted this life. He would never change it. He would never say it wasn’t the life he wanted to live. He’d had nights where he thought about giving it up. Nights where he thought it was too much or that the cost was too high. Watching people he loved be hurt or killed fighting a fight no one wanted them in. Listening to the media paint them like they were monsters when really they were all just people trying to do the right thing. Wally had thought about it. But he’d chosen this life just as much as it chose him. He would contemplate the point of it all and then he would come face to face with something that drove his heart beating hard and his will to the front of his mind. He would see kids smiling at him and he would wave and listen to them say they wanted to be just like him. He would hear the people of Central cheer for him and he would know that it wasn’t all the negatives.
It was easy to forget that.
The TV clicked on and Wally flipped the channels to make it to a Bludhaven station just to see what the night might have been like for his friend. A few robberies, maybe some trouble with a rogue or two. Maybe Nightwing was in Gotham for the night helping out the rest of the bat family and fighting against one of his childhood villains. It wouldn’t surprise him.
What did surprise him was the colorful explosion playing on his screen.
The helicopter footage of a ring of explosions that looked like it tore apart half the city.
The screams and bodies he could see and hear through the cameras before they were switched to something else that had no better shots.
Carnage.
All of it was carnage.
His breath caught in his throat as the imagery moved to the top right of the screen and the news room filled the majority of it.
“Tonight’s fight through Bludhaven has left most of the city destroyed. Blockbuster’s attacks have brought the city to its knees tonight with an estimated casualty number in the hundreds. More are missing as rescue operations continue on. Any remaining citizens of Bludhaven are urged to evacuate. Gotham resources have been diverted to attempt to aid the city tonight but one question remains at the front of most people’s minds. Where are the heroes?”
Wally cursed. His phone was in his hand in seconds and he was already in front of his uniform before he even knew it. Dick needed help. Whatever was happening on the surface level, for as bad as it looked, wasn’t the worst of it. If Dick wasn’t there and fighting back and saving the people of the city it meant he was someplace else and couldn’t. Wherever he was the threat was worse. He needed help.
Bludhaven needed help.
He could figure out what the details were of what happened later, right now he just needed to get there.
Slow night be damned, his friend needed him.
There was a knock at his door. Unsteady and heavy in random places and normally Wally would ignore it. He would have pretended he wasn’t home and focus instead on getting to where he needed to be without any further delay. Normally that was what he would do. This didn’t feel normal.
He resisted the urge to use his superspeed to get to the door and pulled it open.
Wally wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting but it sure as hell wasn’t this.
It wasn’t Dick in filthy baggy clothes that hung off his frame from their oversizing. it wasn’t Dick leaning on the doorframe like he could barely hold himself up or the hood that shadowed his eyes and the blood on his face. It wasn’t his best friend wheezing and wiping blood from his mouth.
“Sorry for the…” He had to stop to breathe. “Short notice. I didn’t….I had nowhere else to go.”
“Jesus, Dick.”
“I’m sorry.”
Wally tucked himself under his arm. He could feel the way his friend leaned against him the moment after that. How Dick relied on him for help walking into his home as Wally kicked the door shut behind them and half dragged him over to the couch. He could feel the Nightwing uniform under the baggy clothes.
“What happened to you?”
Dick rolled his head back against the couch when he finally reached it. His breathing turned shallow and for a moment he worried his friend was passing out on him.
“Blockbuster.”
His voice scratched on the way out. He sounded like hell but he looked like it too. If Wally could keep him talking then he could figure out what happened and he could help him better.
“I saw the news. The explosions. What was that?”
“A trap.”
“You set it off?”
“No.” Wally could hear the tears in his voice. He looked up and found them there.
Dick looked so completely and utterly ruined by what happened that he didn’t know what to do. He’d never seen Dick at so much of a loss before. He’d seen him go through a lot of things but he wasn’t sure he’d seen so much guilt and heartache piled into the blue of his eyes.
“I outsmarted the trap. I got to him. He set it off anyway.”
Wally’s eyes went wide.
“What?”
“He was punishing me.”
“Dick—”
“All those people are dead because of me.”
He’d heard those thoughts from him before.
“It’s not your fault.”
“It is. I—”
He coughed. Hard to the point he was doubling forward on himself and wheezing as blood splattered into his palm. Wally took him by the shoulders to support him.
“You need a doctor.”
“I’m fine.”
“Dick—”
“No hospitals, please Wally?”
There was something in the way he said it. The plea that he almost never heard from his friend. Dick would ask things but very very rarely would something come out like he was about to beg. He couldn’t do it. Not when Dick looked three breaths of air from falling over and not when he had tears in his eyes and blood on his face.
“Let me look at you?”
He waited for Dick to nod before he grabbed the zipper on the oversized hoodie and pulled it away. The Nightwing uniform beneath was torn and tattered and streaked with blood. Despite the black of the fabric, Wally had been around long enough to know when it was soaked through with blood.
“God dude.”
“It’s not all mine.”
“What did he do to you?”
“Everyone I helped this week. All of them are dead.”
He sounded like he was barely keeping it together.
“He knows where I live. He knows everything. He knows everyone I come into contact with. If I try to get around him he kills them too. He kills everyone.”
“Is that why you didn’t get help before it got to this point?”
Dick nodded. Wally’s chest felt tight.
“So what changed tonight?”
Dick looked at him like a cornered animal looked at a loaded gun.
“I think I killed him.”
Wally barely breathed. Dick had said he had nowhere else to go. He’d assumed that meant that he was fighting with Bruce or that he had his resources cut down. He didn’t think it was that.
“What?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t…I didn’t stop to check…I should have checked.” His breaths were coming too short now. “I should go. He might find out about you. He’ll hurt you too. I can’t— I can go— I’ll go— I’m sorry—”
He tried to stand, Wally stopped him.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“Wally—”
“You can barely stand. I’m not letting you go out there and get yourself killed on a maybe. I know how to fight too, remember? And I’m faster than him. If he tries something I can always just run away.”
He tried for a smile, maybe even a laugh, he failed.
“I don’t know what to do.”
The bats always knew what to do. They were the strategists. They were the planners. They were the ones that everyone else in a mission turned to to see how things were going to play out. There was nothing they couldn’t face if they could figure out their enemy. Dick knew this enemy. Dick might have killed this enemy and he still didn’t know. He wasn’t sure. He was guessing and taking shots blindly and he was afraid.
“We’ll figure it out, Dude. We’ll figure things out. It’s okay.”
He wasn’t sure about that.
“Let’s get you cleaned up. Into bed so you can sleep.”
“I can’t—”
“When was the last time you got some sleep?”
He could see the circles under his eyes. The bruising that sat there like it had always been part of him. Dick had had his issues in the past with getting the proper amount of sleep but Wally had only seen it this bad in the wake of the second Robin’s death. He’d seen the pain and suffering in his friend reach this point only once before and even that was different. That was because of grief and his mind tormenting him with thousands of what ifs to the point he wasn’t able to rest. It wasn’t like this. It wasn’t like what he could see now where it was injury and exhaustion that piled up together so much that his friend could barely breathe.
“I mean actual sleep?” He rephrased it after another look over. “When’s the last time you felt safe?”
Dick opened his mouth and closed it again. His shoulders were hunched in on himself and he was trembling. He looked like he was a second away from having a complete breakdown there on the couch and the news came back louder in the silence.
“Batman and Red Hood have now been sighted fighting against the villain Blockbuster who appears to be heavily wounded. Red Robin and Robin are aiding victims to escape the wreckage. The only hero yet to appear on scene is Bludhaven’s own. Nightwing was last seen—”
Wally turned it off. Dick was shuddering on the couch.
“You don’t need to see that.”
“He’s alive.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“No, I…”
He trailed off. Wally saw the way he stared at the black of the screen. Whatever hell Blockbuster had put Dick through it was going to stop now. It was going to stop because it was going to kill his friend if it didn’t. Dick had always been steady on his morals and his code. Never once had he ever backed down from it in the past and now he was on the couch shaking and contemplating killing a man. He’d thought he’d killed a man. He sounded hurt because he didn’t.
“Your family will handle this.”
“I should be there.”
“You’re with me.”
He didn’t care what the other bats thought. Dick needed him right now. Dick needed a safety net that wasn’t going to pick him apart and fight with him for something stupid or over the top. He was alive and right now that was the one thing that mattered most.
“If anyone asks, I needed your help with something. I didn’t call. I just ran over to Bludhaven and picked you up and brought you back. You’ve been with me all night. Never even there.”
“That might be worse.”
“Nope. And if they disagree they can blame me.”
Wally felt around Dick’s body for broken bones. He felt his friend’s eyes on him.
“Thank you.”
“It’s what friends are for.”
To patch each other up. To keep each other calm. To be the blame when the other needed a way out. To give them a safe place to land when they had nowhere else to go.
“Let’s get you cleaned up and we can go to bed, okay?”
He watched Dick hesitate like he was mulling the idea of it over in his head. He stared behind him over to the black screen where the news had just been. He nodded.
“Okay.”