Beep Beep Zip Tang.

[fleet-feet.livejournal.com]

The Flash is on the job - pondering a vacation from said job.

He's feeling a bit burned out lately, but he has no idea what he'd do if he took time off.

He's heard a few reports about some funky orb going around, so he's trying to find it and corral it for study.

He comes across it sooner than he expected, and he's not quite ready for what it's going to show him...

Comments

[mary-grayson.livejournal.com]

"I don't think it. I know it. I'm not interested. Leave me alone."

[fleet-feet.livejournal.com]

Christ, Dick, good job.

"Seriously, Mary, what crawled up you and died?"

[mary-grayson.livejournal.com]

"Batgirl," she corrects. The response is cutting, resentful. "What business is it of yours how I feel?"

She still thinks Wally could've saved him. He was there, wasn't he? He should've saved him, and he didn't. It's his fault.

Five years, and it's still his fault.

[fleet-feet.livejournal.com]

Wally's not budging.

"I'm your uncle, that's what business it is. And i'm surprised you haven't puffed your fur out and called yourself Batwoman by now."

[mary-grayson.livejournal.com]

"You must have me mistaken for Catwoman." The name is uttered with thinly-veiled disgust. "Say your piece, whatever it is. Get it over with."

[fleet-feet.livejournal.com]

"Your mother's worried. I'm worried. Even Bruce is worried, and he doesn't worry."

Something in the back of his brain might know why she's this chilly... it's the same reason Babs has a bit of an edge to her these days. He just reminds them of what they've lost. He couldn't stop it.

They know he couldn't stop it, right?

[mary-grayson.livejournal.com]

She looks away from him, a dismissive gesture. "Tell them not to bother. It's a waste of their time." There's a storm front coming in. She can smell it on the breeze.

[fleet-feet.livejournal.com]

"Wrong answer. None of us are about to let your father down by letting you turn into something you're not. He strove all his life NOT to be what you're becoming."

[mary-grayson.livejournal.com]

Something snaps, deep and dangerous.

"I'm not my father, and I'm tired of being clung to like some last biological relic of his existence."

[fleet-feet.livejournal.com]

"You're not, Little Miss Self-Centered. Every child borne to every person he saved in his life are testament to his life. You're just a violent, angry white girl acting out."

If she won't calm down, let's push the anger until it burns out.

[mary-grayson.livejournal.com]

Ice coats her response. "You'll be threatening to spank me next. Please. Don't think I haven't had that lecture before."

[fleet-feet.livejournal.com]

Instantly, she's on a mountaintop in the Rockies.

"I can do a lot worse than spank you. Now what the hell is the problem?"

[mary-grayson.livejournal.com]

The shock of cold is enough to make her gasp sharply, but it does nothing to disseminate her fury. She glares at him for a long moment, the snow casing her boots, the cold wind snapping at her exposed skin. She steps back from him.

"You mean she's never bothered to tell you? She sent you on this wild goose chase on her behalf and didn't see fit to give you a full briefing?"

[fleet-feet.livejournal.com]

She isn't all that forthcoming anymore. He's still trying to get past all that.

"Give me your version."

[mary-grayson.livejournal.com]

Now she stalks closer once more. "Tell me, Wallace Rudolph West ... what is it like to see the light leave a man's eyes?"

It's a deliberate needle, designed to incite reaction.

[fleet-feet.livejournal.com]

His jaw clenches.

"The worst feeling in the world."

[mary-grayson.livejournal.com]

Despite the cold, and the pink taint of her cheeks in reaction to the bitter winds, she maintains her angry stare. "And you'd know it so well, wouldn't you?"

[fleet-feet.livejournal.com]

His eyes widen as it dawns on him.

"You think it's MY fault. You think it's MY FAULT that my BEST FRIEND IN THE ENTIRE WORLD died!"

Now the anger is matched.

[mary-grayson.livejournal.com]

Now she raises her voice in kind. "You were THERE! You! The fastest goddamn man on the EARTH!"

[fleet-feet.livejournal.com]

"Encased in ice and getting struck by lightning every ten seconds! You want to blame someone for this, blame TWO-FACE - oh, but he's DEAD, and you're still ANGRY, so you need another target to blame!"

[mary-grayson.livejournal.com]

"And yet you're still here!" She lashes out at him then; but it's not with the blind attack of an enraged teenager. It's with the precise motions and reflexes taught to her over the course of a decade. From both her parents.

[fleet-feet.livejournal.com]

She gets that one for free, because he wasn't expecting it, and he staggers backwards.

Gripping his head, he snaps back.

"Do you think I WANT to be?!"

[mary-grayson.livejournal.com]

"Then die already!" she yells, her hot breath clouding in the frigid air as she lashes out again with a booted foot.

[fleet-feet.livejournal.com]

The temptation is there, since he can't really sleep at night without seeing it anymore. It'll make her feel better, it'll make HIM feel better and...

NO. Dick's kid isn't going to be a murderer.

He rolls with the kick, but reaches out to snag her ankle and cinch it into an armlock.

"Christ, woman, did you even LIKE your father?"

[mary-grayson.livejournal.com]

There's a grunt from her as she's pulled off-balance, but her other hand reaches for a razor-sharp batarang, flinging it at his head with every ounce of rage and fury she can muster. "More than you'd ever know!" The movements are controlled, but her words are unfettered by discipline.