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Dick has been having this nightmare.
Well, technically he guesses it should be a dream, but it sure didn’t feel that way.
It’s only been 3 months since the death of his best friend. Wally West. Kid Flash. KF.
Gone.
No. Dead.
Anyway, all things considered, Dick had thought he was processing everything considerably well. He cut off the team, won’t respond to Batman, is only slightly more aggressive in missions.
It could be worse. He could’ve gone, like, vegan or something.
He’s whelmed.
Except maybe it is worse, because he’s started to have these dreams. He doesn’t dream often, usually they are subdued versions of events that actually happened. So the hyperrealistic dream that he had the other night and then again last night was incredibly concerning.
****************
Dick looks around. He’s in what looks like Wally’s house, except the lights are off. It’s dark outside too, but not quite night, just dark.
Then Wally runs into him. Except he doesn’t run into him rather than through him. It’s strange, because Wally tries his hardest not to use his speed inside the house, too many broken dishes. It’s also strange because usually Wally would’ve just smacked straight into him instead of through.
“Woah!” Wally yelps, sounding both extremely concerned and shocked.
“No,” Dick deadpans, “I can’t do this. I won’t do this.”
Wally looks at him, with a slight tilt of his head. Dick remembers the way Wally used to do that when he was confused about a mission or conversation. He wants to smile at the memory, but he can’t.
Wally’s dead, and now Dick is having dreams about him.
He turns to walk the other way, out of the house. Even if out of the house means into the weird darkness. Anything to get away from this nightmare.
As he turns, Wally calls out, “Wait! What’s going on? What can’t you do?”
Dick pauses, not facing the other boy. He shouldn’t entertain this. He should just wake up. He should walk away.
But.
“I can’t talk to you. This isn’t real.”
He can sense Wally frowning behind him. Dick turns around, hoping to just wave through the illusion of his best friend and be on with his dream.
When he brings his hands up to brush Wally away, his hands go straight through the other boy, but he doesn’t disappear. He fades a bit maybe, phases in and out, but then regains his whole body.
Wally sighs, “Yeah, you’re right. This isn’t real, you can’t possibly be here. But this is nice, I’ve missed you.”
“You don’t get to say that! You’re gone.”
“Dick, I had to, you know that.” Wally smiles apologeteically at him. Trying to put his hand on Dick’s arm. It phases through.
Wally sighs louder, “That keeps happening. I can’t touch anything and everything’s dark. Now if only I could figure out how to open the door, I could leave. I should be able to…But how long has it been? Would it even…” Wally continues to ramble half sentences, leaving Dick to just look at him.
He looks exactly the same, unchanged from the day he died.
Wally looks up suddenly, “Sorry, I forgot you were here. But I guess this isn’t real so it shouldn’t matter. Wait what’s wrong with you?”
Dick looks down to see himself phases in and out like Wally was earlier. He might be waking up.
Even if this was all a dream, Dick didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye.
He looks up from his hands to look directly into Wally’s green eyes, “I’m sorry, for not saving you. I miss you everyday. Bye Wally.”
The last thing he sees before he wakes up is the green of Wally’s eyes. Sad and teary, they look duller than usual. Maybe it’s Dick’s mind, misremembering.
****************
The first dream had put Dick in such a sour mood that he almost broke someone’s femur during an intel gathering operation. Batman would’ve chewed him out if he could reach him.
Good thing they haven’t really spoken since Wally’s death.
The thing about Wally dying was that everything became a before and after. His death was used as a marker for the past and present.
Before The Mission and after. Before, when everything was good and after when everything was bad.
Selfishly, Dick hopes to never see Wally’s face in his dreams again. It feels too real, too organic.
But it can’t be. Because Wally’s dead.
****************
Dick has never been a lucky guy.
Just one night after his first nightmare, he finds himself back in the West-Allen household.
Wally doesn’t run into him this time. Instead, Dick finds him just standing against a window, looking into the abyss of the outside. Dick tries to get his attention by taping his shoulder, but of course, just like last time, it phases through.
Wally doesn’t notice that his shoulder just became all fuzzy, so Dick tries to speak instead.
It’s stupid, Dick should just ignore dream-Wally. But he looks so sad. So dejected.
His Wally never really looked like that.
“Wally.” He calls out.
Wally jumps around, clearly shocked again by Dick’s pressence, even moreso than last time.
“Rob! You’re back. It’s been a while, or maybe it hasn’t. I still haven’t figured it out, but it’s not looking good if I keep hallucinating you…” he trails off again.
“I don’t know what’s going on but I’m sick and tired of this.” Dick says truthfully. He’s not used to wearing his emotions so freely, but he supposes it doesn’t matter if he’s just talking to his own subconscious.
Dick walks over to the kitchen table, with Wally following. Right as he’s sitting down on one of the chairs, Wally calls out, “yeah I wouldn’t do th–”
Dick falls through the chair and onto the floor.
At least he didn’t fall through the floor.
“I feel like you should’ve known not to do that, since you’re not really here but yeah I can’t touch anything in the house except for the floors and walls. Can’t even walk up the stairs.”
Wally takes a seat on the floor next to where Dick had collapsed.
“So not-Dick anything you’d like to tell me? Do you know how to get out of here?” Wally asks, almost humorlessly, like he’s asking an impossible question.
Dick responds to dream-Wally, “Well I’m not sure why I’m ‘not-Dick’ when really you should be ‘dream-Wally’ but whatever. I don’t really have anything, I can tell you about my day if you want, but it was kind of boring. And Wally would be kind of upset if he knew I wasn’t talking to the team.”
“You’re not talking to the team?” Wally shakes his head, muttering to himself, “Why… Dream?... Wait, whatever. I don’t see a reality where Dick goes solo so explain. Maybe poking holes in your explanation will help me keep my sanity.”
Dick stares at Wally curiously. He hasn’t been in contact with any villains who are particularly powerful when it comes to the mind, but this was strange. It felt like Wally was actually talking to him, like he was having thoughts independent from Dick’s subconsious. But that shouldn’t be possible. Why doesn’t Dick understand what’s going on?
And it almost hurts all over again. Like having to face the fact that he’ll never have this again, this banter and acknowledgement of Wally’s existence.
Because at the end of the day, Wally knew him the best. Wally was his best friend for a reason, and losing him felt like losing a sibling or partner. Like losing a part of himself.
He wasn’t here. He wasn’t coming back. No matter how hard Dick’s mind tried to conivince him otherwise.
“Well, if you must know, I left the team because I couldn’t see them without seeing you. It hurt too much. You being dead might be the single worst thing that’s ever happened to me, which is saying a lot. I know I hurt the team, but it hurt me more trying to pretend that nothing changed when you were gone.”
Dick stands up, noticing his leg phasing in and out, “As much as I miss you, I really don’t want to have this dream again. It feels like I’m losing you all over again every time I wake up.”
Wally looks at him, mumbling words under his breath that Dick couldn’t make out. He looked confused, but Dick supposes that would make sense. Dick leaving the team would confuse Wally, so his mind conjuring up dream-Wally’s reaction tracks.
He wakes up, cold and alone again. Feeling the loss of his best friend like it happened just yesterday. It was hell having to lose him again. Being so close to a dream version of him but not being able to touch him.
Even allowing himself to update dream-Wally on his life felt too personal, a hit too close to home.
After his death, everything went to shit. Dick tried taking time off, hoping that after everything cleared he could go back to working as though nothing happened. If no one brought up Wally, he could put his death neatly into a little box labeled ‘Do Not Open’.
But when Dick tried to come back, people just brought up Wally. He couldn’t do it. Couldn’t do the looks of sympathy the team gave him. Couldn’t do the way Kaldur would try to talk to him about their teammate.
He was weak. So he left.
Even just looking at the team felt incomplete, like a piece of the team was gone. Probably because it was gone.
****************
So Dick’s been having these dreams. Horrible dreams that aren’t quite nightmares and feel too real to even be dreams. But they were.
Dreams of his best friend. Dreams of Wally.
Nightmares really.
Dick had no real way of stopping them, no idea why they only started appearing three months after his death, two months after Dick tried to rejoin the team, over a month after Dick left again.
His only solution was to stop sleeping.
Surely he didn’t need to sleep for that long anyway.
****************
Apparently not sleeping could end up pretty poorly.
He was on a mission in Central. A solo mission really. Not one the league had to know about.
He hated being in Central, everything reminded him of Wally.
He was here to gather intel on a drug ring that had connections to Luther. He didn’t trust the man, no one did, really. But the league couldn’t really do any digging at the moment.
Dick, or rather, Nightwing could though.
He had changed his costume, just slightly, replacing the blue with a deep maroon, almost black. Everyone who knew him would know why, but they haven’t really seen him since the change.
The color was better for missions anyway, more discreet than the blue. He still kind of went by Nightwing, but it’s not like anyone really asks him if he goes by a different name when he’s in the middle of fighting them.
Central was a pretty big city, so for the most part, he could avoid Wally’s house and the Allen-West house too.
Incredibly sleep-deprived, Dick found himself walking towards Wally’s place after his mission, as though maybe he would be there, waiting for Dick to stop by.
It wasn’t until he got to the door that he’d realized his mistake.
Surely he could rest for a moment, just a bit.
He hadn’t slept in 72ish hours. He could take a nap.
Why wasn’t he letting himself sleep anyways?
Just a nap.
Dick slumped against the front porch, peacefully living in a reality where everything was okay. Where he wasn’t killing himself by hallucinating his best friend.
Just a nap.
****************
This time, Wally was waiting for him, like he knew he was coming.
“Dick, where have you been? It’s been getting lonely.” He said with too much enthusiasm for a dead person.
He sounded excited, not that that didn’t happen when he was alive, it sounded like he was waiting for Dick though. Like he had something important to say.
“Sorry, busy,” Dick replied, “Besides this doesn’t matter.”
Wally frowns, “It feels like it’s been longer than usual though, do you not come here every night?”
“Haven’t been sleeping,” Dick says with a renewed sense of knowledge. He was sleeping, he said he wouldn’t do that anymore. “Why?”
The inquiry didn’t make any sense. It shouldn’t. He shouldn’t be talking to, essentially, himself. Dream-Wally would just say whatever Dick wanted to hear.
“Haven’t been sleeping? Is it because of me?” Wally looked sad, like a kicked puppy.
“It hurts to see you because you’re gone.” Dick admitted. He wouldn’t lie. Not to himself.
It was safe to tell the truth here. Maybe this whole horrible, twisted, nightmare was a way for Dick to confront his own insecurities.
“That’s the thing though. I’ve decided I’m not. At least I don’t think so. Dick, look at me,” He waited until Dick would meet his eyes. Green to Blue. Earth to Moon. Except it was Wally who was forever orbiting just out of reach. “I know you’re dreaming, you mentioned it last time. But this isn’t a dream. Not really.”
Dick stares at him. Stupid dream and it’s stupid rules. He hated being here, he hated the false hope that was trying to be imposed onto him.
“No.” It’s all he could bring himself to say.
Wally groans, “I know, I know, it was hard to grasp. But I’m here. Just… not really. I’m stuck and I can’t leave and you’re the only person I ever see and I don’t know what that means yet and I was worried I was finally losing my mind but… I can’t. I think you’re real.”
It’s Dick’s turn to tilt his head in confusion, of course he was real. He said as much, “These are my dreams, of course I’m real. Now please, I can’t do this anymore.”
Wally scrambles, “Why do you have to be so stubborn? Dick. It’s me. What if… What if I tell you a secret? Something only I would know about you?”
“Wally, that’s dumb. What would you know about me that I don’t?” Dick rolled his eyes. It was so painful to be here, so painful to stifle every laugh and to quell the banter.
Wally was enticing, he was, no, is Dick’s best friend, even now. It’s almost like he can’t help it.
He could see dream-Wally trying to figure out a solution, he offered, “Why don’t you tell me a secret about someone else? Then I can go fact-check you and prove to myself that I’ve gone crazy.”
Wally laughs, “Dude you were crazy when you tried to make ‘whelmed’ a thing. But fine, yeah, let’s see… Connor still likes M’gann.”
Dick laughs, it’s painful, he’s out of practice, “Yeah, I know. They got back together the day you… you know.”
The silence stretched before Wally bounced back, “Fine!” Wally looked a bit nervous, like the secret he was about to share might be too much. “Is Bart still around?”
Dick nodded, questioning where this could possibly be going.
“He told me one night, well, you know, we don’t–didn’t get along very well, but it was because he told me that he was Barry’s grandson. The thing was, Uncle B told me that they couldn’t have kids, so I accused Bart of lying. It was a whole thing. But I think that’s my secret. Bart is my cousin, or second cousin? First cousin once removed? Whatever.”
Dick tried to think if any part of him would know that. He didn’t really talk to Bart, especially not after Wall’s death. He knew it wasn’t fair. But he couldn’t. Bart was too much like Wally. Too charismatic and childish.
After a bit, Dick finally spoke, “Okay fine. When I wake up I’ll ask Bart. And when you’re wrong, could you please stop showing up in my dreams, you’re making me go crazy.”
Dick sees his shoulder phase a bit before stopping. Weird.
“Deal, but when you find out I’m telling the truth, can you come back? I get a bit lonely when you’re not around.”
Dick smiles, truly smiles, for what feels like the first time in ages. He extends his hand and Wally moves to take it, before remembering they can’t touch each other. Awkwardly, Dick puts his hands down, and Wally shoots around the house and cheers, “Yes, Finally!”
He speeds around the house, but runs into the table and falls. He stays on the floor, like he’s confused. Like something weird happened.
Which wouldn’t make sense, because of course you’ll fall if you hit a table, unless…
Wait.
“Wally, what’s happening?”
Wally looks up from where the table, slowly puhing himself up and touching the table again.
He phases through it, like he never even fell in the first place. He touches the entire perimeter of the table, but then, suddenly, he can touch a part.
It’s the very end, the head of the table, and he can only touch a small section of it.
With more exploring, Wally notices he can touch the chair too. He sits down experimentally, as though the wrong movement would cause him to tumble. Dick supposes it probably would actually.
He sits.
“Woah, I swear I’ve tried to sit down in these seats for forever man! This is great, perfect even! I am definitely feeling the aster now.” He smirks up at Dick, acknowledging the small inside-ish joke.
Dick looks down at his hands, seeing them properly phase in and out now.
With one final look, he tells Wally, “I’m going to check. I promise.”
*****************
Dick wakes up and the first thing he notices is that he’s no longer outside.
He’s in a house. The same one he wass in just moments ago. This is bad. Really bad.
“Are you up?” A small voice comes from his left. Aunt Iris, Wally’s aunt.
He pushes himself up from the table, not willing to stay in this torture chamber any longer, he ha a mission afterall.
“I’m fine, sorry for coming here–”
“No!” Aunt I hurried to say, “It’s okay. Actually everyone is worried about you so I’m really glad–”
Dick cuts her off. He can’t do this right now, not when he might be close to something huge, “Do you know where Bart is?”
Aunt Iris looks taken aback. Everyone on the team and then some knows that Dick was avoiding the speedster in particular. That added to the fact that Dick sounds scared, a trait anyone barely sees him display, shocks Iris.
“I’m not sure, but I can call if you want?”
Dick knows she’s trying. Trying to be a steady presence, trying to reach out in whatever way she thinks Dick is ready for. He wants to tell her about his insane dreams, but he can’t. Not yet. Not when he could just be going crazy.
Holding onto hope wasn’t made for people like him. He wasn’t made to get attached to a memory, an amalgamation of everything he wished he could have.
He watches Aunt Iris step into the kitchen, likely to grab her phone. He stands in the room awkwardly waiting for her to return. He felt out of place, in her home without Wally. In her home when Wally could, maybe, possibly, likely not, be alive.
She came back a few moments later only responding with, “He’s at the Watchtower.”
Damn. He hadn’t been back there. He tried to even avoid the area.
But if that’s where Bart was then Dick would find him. He’d find him.
For Wally.
“Thank you.” He walked out, closing the door politely behind him. He was glad that Barry wasn’t home, it would’ve been significantly harder to leave the house then.
Besides, he couldn’t waste any time. He had a speedster to catch.
*****************
Getting to the Watchtower wassn’t that bad. Having to listen to the intercom as he zeta’d in was a bit difficult. The Watchtower was outdated. It had referred to him by Robin.
Everyone saw him come in. Even though he wasn’t the right Robin, everyone knew it was him.
B01.
He marched, walking through the main rooms, unwilling to listen to anyone’s whispers or questions. Luckily, even though some of the people were new, they knew not to mess with Dick on a mission.
Eventually he saw Bart talking to Blue Beetle. The banter was light and friendly, it reminded Dick of a different time, a time he might be able to get back to.
“Bart.” He called out.
Blue Beetle looked up and immediately stopped talking, Bart on the other hand.
“Woah, we’re in the Watchtower, that’s Impulse to–” he stumbled over his words, unable to finish his thought.
Dick refused to acknowledge the younger boy’s misstep. It was more important to uncover the truth than to get after some little kid.
“I have a question for you,” he continues to walk toward the other boy, it probably feels threatening. It probably is. “I need you to answer honestly, no tricks, no cop outs. Do you understand?”
He watches sweat trickle slowly down Bart’s temple. He nods once.
Dick glances at Blue Beetle, willing him to leave.
Once the room is clear, Dick asks, “Are you the grandson of Barry Allen?”
This is it. Make or break. If Dick is wrong, Bart will laugh and Dick will officially be insane. If Dick is correct and Bart answers honestly, well. Dick doesn’t know what he’d do.
Bart swallows, slowly.
“Yes.”
It’s silent. The only sound is a clock ticking in the next room over.
Bart said yes. Bart said yes and that means.
It means that Wally might actually be alive.
He might be alive.
But he’s still stuck.
He distantly hears Bart talk, “I don’t know how you know that… The only person I told was… Did he tell you before…?”
Dick looks at Bart. The boy might have answers. But he can’t put hope into the boy that feels responsible for it all. It’s not right.
“No.”
Technically the truth, yet wholly a lie.
Dick turns around and walks away. Straight through the common room, straight through the Zeta, straight all the way back to a safehouse he established, one without Bruce’s watchful eye.
He needed to sleep.
****************
Sleep took forever to find Dick. He felt like a child whose birthday was the next day. He kind of felt like Wally.
Drumming with excitement, giddy even. He couldn’t sleep.
He had gotten up at one point to make a list of all the questions he still had.
- Where was Wally?
- Why can’t he touch anything?
- Why can I only see him in my dreams?
- How come only I can see him?
- How to get him out?
The last question was underlined multiple times.
He decided it would be good to fight something, so he got up and made way to the second bedroom turned gym.
A couple hours of punching should do the trick.
****************
It was a couple hours into that that he got a call from an unknown number.
He shouldn’t answer it, but he was still waiting on some information from the drug ring the other day, so he picked it up.
On the other line was a rough voice he’d always recognize, “Heard you went to the Watchtower. Visiting an old friend?”
Roy’s voice rang out on the other line.
He really shouldn’t know that. Roy was still not technically involved with the league or the team. Roy always seemed to find a way to get into everyone’s business though.
“No. Goodbye Roy.”
“Wait. I just want to hear you say you’re good. Please?”
It was a rare show of compassion. Of worry.
“I can’t.”
Dick hung up the phone and got ready for bed.
****************
This time, sleep found him in a better condition.
So did Wally.
When Dick arrived in the not-quite-dream-house, Wally was sitting on the floor in the corner of the kitchen.
He was teary eyed, almost but not quite crying.
Dick walked closer to him and when Wally finally noticed he was there, he practically shouted, “Dick!”
“Wally,” Dick smiled fondly.
This might actually be him. His Wally. Kid Flash. Wallman. Walls.
Wally jumped up from his position on the floor and ran over to hug Dick before forgetting he couldn’t and running right through him.
“You came back,” Wally starts, “You’re so skeptical, but I’m glad you finally believe me. How was Bart? Was he shocked when you told him I was alive? I–”
“I didn’t tell him,” Dick looked remorsefully at Wally, “We still don’t know how to get you out. I can’t give anyone false hope.”
Wally nodded in agreement, “You’re right. Well I’ve had some time to think and I think you’re really important to all this. Last time we met, where were you actually?”
Dick answered both curiously and a bit sadly, “In Uncle B’s house. I was so tired that I went there without thinking.”
“And where were you sitting?”
“The chair in the kitchen, the head of the–”
Wait.
The chair. The one Wally could sit on that day…
“Perfect, I can see you following my train of thought exactly. Now, a couple seconds after you woke up, I fell through the chair. But for a moment. I was okay. I’m assuming it took you a couple moments to get up from the chair so I think that maybe, somehow, we’re connected.”
Dick shakes his head, “How could that even happen? I wasn’t even there when everything went down so I just…”
“I don’t know. But either way, I’m glad it’s you. Do you think you could talk to Barry or Bart and see if they know anything? Also maybe one day you could fall asleep somehow covering the stairs because I really want to see my room up there to see if they got rid of any of my stuff.” Wally laughed.
And Dick just kind of stared. He didn’t know how Wally could be in such a cheerful mood considering he’s been trapped in this weird abyss for 3 months…
“Have you really been here this whole time?” Dick asked. It didn’t make sense. Why was Dick only just now seeing Wally in his dreams, why not before?
“Well, no. I’ve been out there,” Wally points out to the weird dark but also not dark outside. It looks eerie, like the beginnings of a storm or the edge of the tunnel just before you see the light. “Then one day, I ran into the house. I haven’t really tried to leave because it’s kind of weird out there. That and the fact that I don’t know when you’ll show up again. Time works strangely here. Sometimes it felt like a month before you visit, other times just an hour or two. How long has it actually been?”
Dick wondered if he should tell Wally the truth, it might be weird, but he had to, “It’s been three months Wall,” He saw himself beginning to phase out, “I have so much more I want to ask and say, but I’ll have to wait. I’ll figure out a way to get you out I swear.”
Wally smiled at him, “You better. I can’t have you getting older than me!” He laughed, “Good luck Rob.”
“See you soon, KF.”
****************
Waking up brought back all the heart it did the last time, but it also brought a sense of renewed responsibility.
It didn’t matter that Dick had essentially cut off the League and the team. It was time to start asking questions. And maybe possibly revealing that Wally could get out, if they ever figured out how.
******************
The next time he found himself walking up to the West-Allen residence, it wawa actually on purpose.
It was just a couple days after his talk with Wally. Unfortunately preparing everything he needed got in the way of him sleeping, so he had only seen Wally one other time after that.
They didn’t talk about much, Dick filled him in on the laast he heard of M’gann and Connor, as well as anything he knew about Kaldur and the others. It was quiet and peaceful, something Dick hadn’t had in a long time.
He didn’t ask Wally any of his pressing questions, he didn’t tell Wally that he still wasn’t talking to Bruce. Wally didn’t need to know. Not yet.
Dick walked up to the door and knocked politely. He knew Barry was home, and Aunt Iris was definitely home. Bart wouldn’t be there, not today. He only really went to his grandfather’s house on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s for game night.
When Iris opened the door, Dick forgot what he was going to say. While trying to regather himself, Iris spoke, “Come in, I’m sure you have something for us.”
Dick followed her into the lviing room where they made themselves comfortable on the couches. Barry was there too, and Iris sat next to him, giving Dick one couch to himself. They may not have been expecting him at that moment, but they were expecting them eventually.
The last time Dick slept, he told Wally to watch out for the lviing room or the kitchen, hopefully he was enjoying himself right now.
Dick, wanting to give Wally as much room as possible, took off his shoes and rested his legs on the cushion next to him. He pulled out the backpack he brought with him and slid a folder to both Iris and Barrry, they were nearly identical copies of the same information Dick had gathered, except Barry’s included little questions or knowledge gaps that Dick needed to be filled.
“Well, I’m sorry I didn’t come to you sooner, but I really thought I was halliucinating and I just–”
“Son, what’s happening?” Barry interrupted, he looked concerned. Dick believes he probably has a right to be. Dick had been almost completely MIA for months, and now all of a sudden he shows up randomly to talk to his dead best friends Aunt and Uncle?
“Sorry, It’s good news. I just don’t know… I just don’t know if it will end up good and I– Ugh!” Dick hung his head before looking up through his long, outgrown locks of hair, “Wally’s not dead.”
Wally’s not dead.
It was the perfect half-truth. Dick didn’t really know if Wally was still alive, if this was just his soul or a piece of him floating through Dick’s mind. But he knew for sure that he wasn’t dead.
“What?” It was Iris who spoke. Barry just stared at the folder, now seemingly terrified to open it.
“I know it sounds weird, but I can go over everything I know so we can come up with an action plan,” he paused, considering his next words carefully, “I don’t actually know if we can save him, so if I can ask this of you, I don’t want anyone else to know except for maybe Bart until we know things for sure. I can’t flake on everyone just to crush them more. I won’t.”
He sighed and tilted his head back, relaxing a bit deeper into his part of the couch. The hard part was over.
He looked at Iris and Barry. She had tears in her eyes, while Barry gripped her hand. It was a lot, it was a lot for Dick too. But they deserved to know the truth and the whole truth.
Dick started off by explaining his first dream-not-dream to them. The folder had specific information such as the time he was asleep and the rough time he woke up. It had his location for each event and exactly what happened before and after.
Dick explained everything that happened almost verbatim. He explained the weird phasing in and out and Barry confirmed that it sounded identical to what happened in the Arctic.
After that, Dick re-explained the event directly before and during Wally’s death. Barry knew more of the gritty details, but Dick knew the facts and that was more than enough. He went through the schematics of the doomsday device and the exact type of power that flowed through it. Barry added that Bart coined the phrase Speed Force, as the phenomena that happened to KF.
Dick ended with the hypothesis that perhaps Dick couldd pull him out of the newly minted Speed Force. He just wasn’t sure how or where or well, anything else.
Then, he opened up the floor to questions.
“How do you know it’s actually Wally?”
“He told me a secret that I knew I couldn’t make up.” Dick didn’t want to spoil anything.
Iris and Barry both looked at each other before nodding and turning back to Dick. Barry asked, “So he told you he liked you?”
What?
“What?” Dick asked. That was definitely not what Wally told him.
Unfortunately there wasn’t much time to unpack that, Iris shook her head, “Nevermind, what did he tell you then?”
Dick smiled softly, “Spoliers.”
The questions went on for a bit after that, but eventually everything was settled. They weren’t going to tell Bart, they didn’t need him yet. They were going to run a little experiment of their own.
****************
“I think we’re going to try and get you out.”
Dick spoke suddenly after quickly falling asleep. He hoped he could get Wally out fast, because he really shouldn’t be reliant on melatonin to put him to sleep.
“What?” Wally spun around from where he was looking at the pictures on the wall. “How are you going to do that?”
They fell right back into conversation, despite not seeing eachother for almost 48 hours.
“First, sit on the couch, it’s where I’m sleeping right now,” Dick muses, “I tried to sleep on the stairs, but I couldn’t cover all of them. You’d be stuck.”
Wally laughed, “Sure, I’m sure you just don’t want me seeing the fact that they probably changed my room into an in-home gym or something.
On the inside, Dick knew his room remained unchanged. Wally could find that out for himself.
He let Wally lay on the couch, spreading out as much as he possibly could.
“So, I was talking with your family, and Barry has an idea as to why only I can see you.” Dick pauses a moment.
He had been really tired lately, so he wasn’t exactly expecting to wake up any time soon. He figured he had time to ask an out-of-place question instead.
“Wally, do you like me?”
Wally blushed before quickly answering, “Of course I do! I like all my friends. I like M’gann, Artemis, Zantanna–”
“Wally,” Dick waited for the other boy to stop rattling off names and actually focus, “Do you like me?”
Wally looked up meekly, “Maybe…? Fine, yes. I’m sorry I got you wrapped up into this. If I didn’t have a stupid childhood crush on you I’m sure–”
“I’d have stopped you with a kiss right now if I could.”
Dick looked at Wally with such intensity that he was sure Wally was going to crumble underneath it.
He didn’t see the way Wally’s leg shimmered just out of focus.
“Really?”
“Wally, you were my tether to the world. When you died, I left everyone. I couldn’t face them. Now Barry said I was probably your tether too. So let me pull you out so I can shut you up properly.”
They talked about their gameplan almost all night. They spent the other portion of their night regaling past missions and funny moments from the first days on the team.
Neither of them noticed that as they talked about the past, Wally could spread out on the couch, hanging off parts that Dick was most definitely not laying on.
It was probably the most at peace Dick has ever been with Wally’s not-death.
Hopefully soon they will reverse it.
****************
They had a plan. Dick was going to sleep.
That was kind of it.
Dick was going to sleep while Barry was running him around. Hopefully the speed would draw up some energy. Dick had to find a way to grab Wally and pull him out.
It sounded insane, and like it would never work.
But maybe.
Maybe Dick could hope for the best.
****************
72 hours of no sleep went by. Dick did everything to keep himself occupied.
He vowed never to drink coffee ever again.
(He knew it wouldn’t last)
So 72 hours of no sleep. And now he was situated nicely in a large wagon Barry could run around. They tried staying as close to their house as possible, it seemed like there was a connection there too.
*****************
“Wally, come here!” Dick stood at an open window. Niether had ever ventured out ther, and they weren’t going to. Dick did want to use it as a metaphorical escape though.
“Okay, I need you to grab me.”
Wally rolled his eyes fondly, “You know I can’t,” he made a weak gesture of trying before completely fading in-between Dick’s arm.
Dick looked up, “Try thinking about me.”
Wally laughed, “Self-centered much?”
“No!” Dick grumbled, “Uncle B said it would help. Now I’m going to think about you too.”
They both stood in silence for a minute, trying and retrying to grab eachother. After a bit of awkward reminiscence, Wally sighed, “Dude, I’m not sure this is going to work.”
Dick looked at Wally, but something wasn’t quite right. He was opaque, shimmering by the window.
He was phasing out.
“Walls, what’s going on?”
“Oh this?” He brought up his arm to show Dick, “I dunno, After you told Uncle B and Aunt I, it just started happening.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” They were running out of time.
Wally was running out of time.
“I just got you back. I didn’t want you to get all sad again if you knew it wasn’t going to work,” Wally let a single tear roll down his face, “Can we just talk instead? I don’t want to waste our last moments just staring at each other.”
Wally pleaded with Dick.
How was Dick supposed to say no?
They sat on the floor beneath the window, talking about everything under the moon.
They spoke about the beginning of the team, with Kaldur and then M’gann and Connor and Artemis too.
They talked about Dick’s younger brothers, about the new kids, about the Lanterns and the rest of the league.
They talked about eachother too.
Dick told Wally the story of when he fell off an elephant.
Wally told Dick about the time his parents kicked him out of the house.
(They both already knew eachother’s stories. But it was nice.)
Wally talked about his first impression of Dick all those years ago.
Dick did the same.
They talked about the night they snuck out of the house and met up in a shady corner of Gotham to watch a movie.
They talked about the time Dick was mad at Bruce and Wally took him to pierce his ears.
They talked about their favorite times together, the funny ones, the sad ones.
Eventually they were sitting flush up against each other.
Touching.
“Holy shit, look,” Wally motioned between them, “Quick grab me!”
He was fading out by the second, his hand almost completely gone.
Dick grabbed his wrist and pulled them both up.
They were in shock for a moment before realizing Dick’s hand was starting to slip.
“Wally, tell me a story about us!”
“Do you remember that one time we went to the circus, and you had to pretend that you had no idea what was going on?”
Dick laughed, “Remember when you ate a whole tub of icecream that M’gann had been saving for Connor to try for the first time?”
He hand tightened around Wally’s wrist again, but he didn’t lead them to the window.
He went to the door and successfully opened it.
The gripped slipped.
“Wally, do you remember when I first told the team about my identity and you made a joke that right before that I was some sort of weird nerd from Central?”
“Do you remember that time I was so hurt that you had to help me out of my suit? I think I fell in love with you then.”
“And that time you sped me out of that burning building after I said I had it handled?”
“And the time I mimicked your laugh for a full week?”
They looked eachother in the eyes and nodded.
Dick opened the door fully.
And then they stepped out.
****************
It was dark.
Then it was white.
Then green and blue.
Everything went really fast.
And then nothing moved at all.
****************
Dick woke slowly, all too aware that he was being watched.
He surveyed the room as slowly as possible, trying to regain the memory of what had happened that landed him somehow in the Watchtower medbay.
Batman was there, along with Flash and Aunt I.
Kaldur too, with the rest of the original team.
They weren’t really looking at him, well, M’gann looked at him for a moment and then blushed and looked away.
Why?
Oh.
Dick let his eyes open fully. Wally was lying next to him.
He looked weak, nothing like he did in Dick’s dreams.
He was missing a hand.
But he was here.
He was here and he was back and Dick was touching him. Actually truly touching him.
His eyes snapped towards Bruce, who always slightly shok his head in dismissal.
They would talk but not now.
Wally’s wrist, the one Dick was holding earlier, was covered in a wrap. Dick was sure that when he woke up he would be fitted with a new prosthetic.
It would take some getting used to for sure, but hey? He wasn’t complaining and neither was Wally.
Kaldur broke the silence,”Wally woke up a bit before you and basically said hello before passing out again,” he smiled fondly at the scene, “he also said that you’re really cold and to wake him when you finally decided to wake up.”
Dick laughed softly, whispering, “He can sleep for a bit longer,” he looked up at the team, “Sorry for not telling you anything.”
Artemis spoke, “I was really pissed at you when I found out but you made the right call. I don’t know what we’d do if this didn’t work.”
Bruce spoke next, “And we already have a hand in the making for Kid Flash, Tim’s working on it now.”
Wally stirred at Bruce’s thundering voice.
He put his wrist (the one with no hand) behind his head to scratch his hair, before remembering, “Awh, that’s going to take some getting used to. Anyway, what are we talkin’ about?”
“Just you, the usual.”
Dick laughed.
“Hey, you can’t laugh at me Rob, I’ll break up with you.”
Dick looked over at Wally, completely forgetting there were other people in the room, “Who said I would date you?”
Wally held his head in a mock-shame, “How could you? After everything I’ve done!”
Dick laughed again before closing his eyes, “I’m glad you’re back, but I’m tired.”
Wally shifted to allow Dick to huddle in closer, “Okay, I’ll see you in a bit then Rob.”
Wally was back.
He was home.