Not Fast Enough

[[ WARNING ]]
This chapter might not be AS dark as the first, but to understand it, you might want to check out the other one. Although if you don't want to that's completely understandable.

Basically, bad things happened. Flash was humiliated through the internet and to the eyes of his very comrades, and then was left with drugs and strong aphrodisiacs still in his system when the league finally located and retrieved him.

I did promise some comfort in this chapter (the revenge will come later ~wink~), but I don't want to abruptly switch tones, so bare with me. I changed it up a bit from what I initially had planned, but hopefully this will work out more smoothly, I don't want to cram too much into one chapter again.

Chapter 2

The tower was eerily quiet. That's not to say that with Flash up to full capacity it was normally noisy, but every member had fallen into a quiet routine that allowed their minds to either dwell on what had happened, or allowed them to distract themselves. That, or they had to leave completely to blow off steam.

Hawkgirl for instance, had taken to testing the somewhat new training simulator. It was something that the whole team had wanted, but she was most adamant about it. Her method could have been used to distract her, or to develop the many concepts of revenge she was entertaining in her violent mind.

Superman too seemed to seek out a distraction. He was doing typical flying around in the cities, performing his good deeds like he used to when they weren't so busy.

Wonder Woman had disappeared for the most part. She was last seen in her own room, reading. In fact, there was a pile of books before her. It was unclear as to what she was reading, but she was left alone.

Green Lantern had left to investigate several leads he'd found through Batman. Human trafficking was huge outside the States, and he hoped to see three familiar faces again.

J'onn had dragged himself away from the med bay. He wasn't as easily distracted as Wally, but his mind ended up wandering into the speedster's subconscious and he was forced to leave the boy's presence.

With as much of a loner as Batman was, he stayed at the tower. He did what he could with the evidence they found without his high tech bat cave, but with Green Lantern out of the tower, and no other appropriate candidate, J'onn only had Batman to turn to.

The Martian had a fatigued look on his face, which may have been somewhat greener, Batman couldn't tell.

"Even as he's unconscious..." J'onn began, but fell silent, grasping the side of his head. "I want to help him but I can't focus, it's reaching out to me almost." He sighed.

Batman's head drooped a bit, and he finished up what he was working on. "I was worried about that." He admitted, even the stonewall Batman sounded fatigued from all of this. "It's not your fault, J'onn. I'll go look after him." He told the other, and stood up after clearing the large computer screen that took up half the wall.

"Thank you, Batman. Keep an eye on his blood pressure, it worries me." J'onn said drearily as he headed off to meditate the tormenting images from his mind.


Wally was tucked in tightly to a bed that came equipped with an IV stand protruding from the side, and a monitor with wires hooked up to the hero. Each stick-on electrode corresponded to a reading on the screen. On either temple, the wires fed Flash's brain activity to a 3D model of an MRI brain scan. Another one displayed his heart rate with his blood pressure reading right next to it. The numbers read 170 systolic over 98 diastolic.

When Batman closed the door quietly behind him, he saw the reading and understood why J'onn was concerned. It was rather high.

He seated himself before another monitor, and scrolled in on the 3D MRI scan of his brain. Layers of the brain disappeared the further in he went. What Batman found baffled him. There was a lot of activity going on close to the center of Flash's brain, near the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. That was all he knew, he didn't have the convenience of chemical readings with this machine, he may need to take the hero back to the bat cave.

With that thought, he saw Flash's oxygen reading change, and he looked over to him. He was waking up finally.

It was nothing like the silence and occasional beeping of the heart oxygen machine inside Wally's head. He always had this static hum in his mind that he was used to. It's the noise in everyone's head due to their bodies and what goes on inside them but his body was different, and so was the sound.

This time though, the sound was busier, something was different. His body felt so heavy and noisy inside. He began to hear his own quick shallow breaths, the familiar hum, and a soft beeping began to pull through to him. This beeping was outside of his head. His eyelids clenched for a moment, and then opened only a little.

The light was blinding and it seemed to wake him up more now, but the first thing he noticed were images racing back into his mind. He sat up quickly with a gasp. The IV supplying him with water and electrolytes snagged and he winced but only looked around the room in a panic.

"Wally, lay down." Batman ordered him, coming to his side to steady the boy. He used the hero's name so that he knew he was among friends, or at least colleagues that he could trust.

Wally's body slumped back down. He was still avoiding eye contact, but let Batman reattach the stick-on electrodes to his temples.

They went ahead and bathed him while he was out, and simply neglected to put his cowl back on. Some how it was comforting. Not only did all of that happen to the Flash instead of Wally, but if ever anyone saw him without it, they'd never know it was him.

All except for Batman and the others.

"how long?" he said softly, his voice groggy.

"A day." Batman told him calmly.

That couldn't be right. Wally strained his head a bit to glance down over himself. Something was very wrong if that were the case. "Why the...." He didn't finish that thought. The Speedster had half a mind to slam his fist down over his own erection, and grimaced at the welcoming thought.

"We're trying to figure that out." Batman reassured him. He grabbed an extra pillow and offered to set it over Wally's lap. It wasn't a raging boner, but it was noticeable enough.

"The drugs though... they wore off, right?" He asked.

"They did." Batman placed his hand over Wally's chest as if to make a point. There was a soft constant tremor radiating through out the hero's body, it was familiar to them all.

Yeah, that didn't make any sense. Of course, Wally could focus now. He wasn't writhing wantonly, mewling at every little touch. He frowned and stopped thinking like that.

"So... is that something different?" He asked.

"It has to be."

"How'd you... ya know. The whole four-hours thing..." He gestured towards his own groin dismissively.

"You don't need to know." Batman told him, not a smart move.

"You mean... wait a minute!!" That time Flash did look at him, mortified.

The calm calculated Batman hadn't thought that one through. "No, no. Calm down. We were constantly drawing blood out."

"Oh.. better... safe I guess." He laid back down and shut his eyes. Normally that would have made him sick, but he felt like his stomach hadn't anything in it to be sick with. "So..." he said softly.

"I don't want you to talk about it now. You should rest." Batman sounded stern yet concerned.

"I was just out for a day, I don't wanna rest anymore." Flash complained.

Normally Batman would have reprimanded him in some way, but this really wasn't the time for that. What's more, he wasn't really the Let's talk about it. type, although this was Flash. Not only was he concerned for a comrade, but they've already seen what happens when their Flash isn't himself, or there at all. "If you... want to talk about it, I'll listen."

"I... was just gonna say that I'm hungry." He said. Wally could tell Batman was trying, and that was saying a lot. Batman uncharacteristically smiled at that. It was a familiar reaction from the boy, reassuring. "Man... I..." the hero fell silent at that point.

The dark knight found what he could that was high in proteins and sugars. He grabbed some orange juice and last but not least, a few soda crackers to make sure Flash could keep everything down in the first place. This was an odd sight to see, but realistically, any of the league members would have paid this much care to preparing food for Flash after... what happened. Anything to make sure he wasn't suffering anymore than he needed to.

Batman was stuck in an odd position. He'd known Wally since he was best-friends with Dick. He was older than his side kick but still, at that age, was the best way to put it. Batman was used to it now, but when a child grows up into an adult, there's this awkward barrier that you have to pass in order to see them as an adult. It comes easier with age.

Wally was one of them now. Now when something happens to those who you knew as a child, they some how revert back to being young and innocent in your eyes.

Wally was far from innocent, but he had a certain naivety about him. It wasn't ignorance so much as vulnerability. One that Bruce tried to push aside, knowing that the man was just that, a man, but this had brought it all back.

Another aspect of this was that Bruce and Wally had a closer relationship now, and somehow, mingling with the somewhat intimate parental relationship he shared with young Wally had turned into something he couldn't recognize. It was all in a giant vat and he couldn't see what was brewing inside.

Batman returned to the room, walking in just as Flash gave a half sobbed-moan followed by a "Damnit."

Batman caught the hero sitting up in bed again, trying his hand at relieving the nuisance between his legs.

It seems the man had no shame left. He saw Batman enter from the corner of his eye, and all he did was pull the pillow into his lap. He looked more focused on his frustration than being caught with his hands in his pants.

"Damn... thing won't go away." Flash growled, trying to hold back any possible tears that might just taunt him further.

"Enough, just eat. We'll figure something out." Batman tried to ignore the man's flushed face. He pushed a table on wheels over and pivoted the top of it so that it reach over the bed. He had been balancing two trays on his arms. They had beans and rice, a complete protein. Fish with good proteins and fats, plenty of fruit, and a lot of orange juice. Most of the foods were high in calories, which Flash needed right now.

He was turned away from Batman for the most part, hiding the dark frown plaguing his features.

Batman's mind started to panic. This was a bad direction for Flash. The guy needed to escape this room. He needed to be distracted. He was easily distracted, but obviously not right now.

The future Batman would slap Bruce to snap him out of it. Is that what happened? They didn't do anything, and he just faded away? No, he knew what happened.

"you're quiet..." Flash said with a mouthful, chewing slowly, much too slow for the Flash. "I mean, I know you're quiet, but you're like..." he sighed.

Batman felt like he should leave Flash alone, allow him some privacy. But that wouldn't happen.

"I'm used to you being quiet when you're busy or something..." Wally pointed out. Batman caught on at that point, Wally wanted to be around familiar comforting things. He went back to the monitor, but wheeled back to Flash to fix one of the electrodes, which was loosing its stick, and then back to reexamine the MRI some more.

That was it. That was the distraction he needed. And according to the blood pressure, Wally had relaxed a bit too, although it was still a hypternsive reading. Wally's blood pressure shouldn't have been off that much, the ratio was proportionally unhealthy, even for him.

There was a laptop beside him and he was able to pull up some research, but it wasn't helping much. He really did need his own equipment.

"Wally, would you be ok with coming home with me for a while." He asked the speedster.

"... sure..." That tone, it just wasn't him. It actually pained Batman to hear him like that.

"Dick should be there this weekend." He tried. He hadn't planned on it, but he could persuade Nightwing to come cheer up his old friend.

No response. He looked over his shoulder, finding him eating slower than before. It dawned on him that his metabolism had taken a beating in the last twenty four hours. Hopefully that explained why he was so sluggish.

"How's your speed?" He asked blatantly.

Wally turned to him, a somewhat surprised look on his face, his mouth full and covered with rice. ".... Good?" He said, unsure of his answer obviously.

"I can't tell if you're simply... down, or if it's your metabolism." Batman explained.

"Oh... don't worry about it."

"It's my job to worry about it." Batman said coldly, but his expression stayed soft when Flash looked to see if he was angry.

"it's kinda both...." He admitted, reaching a hand up to scratch at his hairline a bit, his frock a red mess of bed head.

At that Batman saw a little irritated area on Flash's neck. The syringe.

He didn't want to upset him and make the situation more uncomfortable, but he didn't want the injection sight to get infected with Flash's weakened body still on the mend.

He grabbed the minimal cleaning supplies and wheeled the chair over to the bedside. Flash's neck was a bright red where the syringe had injected his drug. Batman leaned in close, motioning for Flash to hold still.

The Speedster gasped when he felt a cold alcohol swab wipe over his skin. That was his sweet spot, Batman knew. Flash dropped the fork he was eating grape fruit with and stiffened.

This was expected, but it needed to happen. He worked quickly with the wipe and then applied an antiseptic ointment to the surface, covering it with a bandage quickly.

When he pulled away Wally reached out for his arm, gripping it with a trembling hand. "Wait...." He told the Bat.

"that... do that again..." He whispered, an odd look of want on his face.

Batman instantly knew what he'd done, and he pushed the hand away gently. "Wally.." he said, telling the man that enough was enough.

"No, please..." He tried again, turning towards Batman and wiping his mouth clean on a sleeve.

Batman sighed, indulging Flash by brushing his finger down the side of his neck. Wally leaned into the touch and let his eyes close softly, moaning from the gesture.

His eyes quickly opened a little and looked at Batman, and then closed again, scooting himself closer to the edge of the bed.

Batman was afraid he would fall off, so he did what he could to press up against the bed for Wally. This wasn't supposed to be happening though.

"Wally..." he began, the stroking slowly stopped just under his ear.

Flash opened his eyes again. "Wait, that thing that was blocking me...." Flash began, but then stopped.

That didn't make any sense to Batman, so he checked the boy for a fever that was unusual for him. "What thing?" He asked Flash.

"There's this... like something that I can't get passed, but you pushed me over a little, not all the way... Bats please..." He began to sit up a bit, his hands sliding up over Batman's stomach timidly. He always imagined that Flash would have been bolder, perhaps not in this situation though.

"Your arousal won't progress any further without assistance?" Batman made sure he understood what he'd heard.

Wally paused for a moment, "or you could talk it to death with your big words." That was a typical funny Flash moment, but the way he'd delivered it almost made Batman grimace. They really did need Flash back. A recent rage had built up in Bruce just then, just thinking about... About what had been taken from Wally. He cleared his mind of that and took a deep discrete breath. "I... I need help, please." Wally said, looking up at him with something in his eyes that, by all rights, should not have been there.

But Batman felt his cup tighten a bit, regardless. Was that it? Was that what's been brewing in that vat? Oh God no. Something that primal would simply harm the boy further. The man, not the boy. Batman had to stop thinking of him as a boy all over again, especially with these new feelings rearing their ugly heads.

"I think that's a bad idea, Wally." Batman warned him, trying to pull Flash's hands away from him.

"Please just try it,." he wined. "I'd rather have that than be drained again." A valid point.

Batman sighed. "I think it's too soon." He warned Wally as he drew closer to him, but he ignored Batman's concern for now. He ached, and not in a good way. He ached in a frustrating, defeated way. His situation was adding insult to injury.

Wally slid forward more, his legs hanging off the edge of the bed on either side of Batman's.

They'd never been close like this, and Wally was, although a little ironically slow, at least able to read into a person's body language. Right now, Batman assumed that Flash was doing what he could for himself, which Batman thought was good for him. Right now, he was the one who needed healing, not the Dark Knight. But he at least expected a is this ok? Or are you sure?

"I don't know what you want me to do." He told him, his voice donning its usual cold fa�ade. Thank goodness for his cup. He was no super human and he needed it extra durable in battle. The stiffness helped to hide him from Wally. The last thing he wanted the boy to notice was that the Bat had an apparent appetite for him, the same one those men had.

Flash was quiet, but he had the courage to take Batman's hand, turning it palm outward, and slide it down his stomach and to his groin. Wally was paying close attention to Batman's face, and every time his vibrant green eyes would roll back a little and close, they would snap open again to find him still there. Bruce understood what he was doing now. He wondered if Wally could still see, them, and needed to make sure it was him instead.

"It's me..." he whispered against Flash's forehead, reassuring him. The red head relaxed against him and gave a satisfied sigh, his head tipping up a bit to nuzzle a lightly freckled nose up under Bruce's chin. When Wally did that he could feel the light tremor again. Batman closed his eyes tightly, as though the tremor would fade away at any moment.

When they'd found him it was gone. The repressors were so strong that Wally's natural heat, his metabolism and vibrating energy were so utterly destroyed. His eyes had looked empty. Not that. Those thoughts were useless, and he waved them away with a gesture of his hand. He masked the movement by wrapping it gently around Wally's back.

He felt the bit of ice around his heart crack when he heard Wally's breath hitch a little, when he felt the hero through the sweats they'd given him. He didn't want this to be any more awkward than what it was and so he took a hold of him, squeezing at first, slowly stroking.

It was enough to make Flash shiver and he brought his arms up to Batman's shoulders burying his nose against the Dark Knight's neck and inhaling. He had to pull at his cowl a little to reach bare musky skin, the mask part slipping just a bit.

At this, Batman stiffened a little, but he kept going, sliding his hand inside the hem.

"s-sorry..." Flash moaned. "I was... Making sure..."

"I'm still here..." Batman's voice betrayed him a little, sounding more rugged.

Wally moaned as he nodded and the hand on the other side of Batman's head began to feel up and over his face. He didn't want to think about it, but those men had soft, pretty faces, his own was hard and rough with day old stubble, and he knew that that was what Wally wanted to feel. He couldn't help turning his head slightly, letting soft fingertips brush across his lips while he breathed on them, wondering if he could get away with kissing one or two digits.

"Can you keep your eyes closed?" He asked, hoping the boy wouldn't begin to see images.

Wally paused for a moment, and then nodded to him, his hand slipping up under Batman's mask hesitantly.

He wanted to risk further contact. Batman took a gentle handful of fiery red hair and combed through it. Not quite his style, but that's ok.

He felt Flash starting to pant against his neck, the sweet smell of that tangy grape fruit wafting around them. To help him along, Batman's fingers began to tickle softly over his neck, and Wally moaned hard against him. Small lightning quick surges raced through him and Batman could tell he would have to wash that glove off.

He moved his mask back into place before Wally pulled away. The boy looked astounded. "it's gone..." He breathed, relieved. "the feeling's gone."

"It's completely gone?" Batman couldn't help but lean forward to examine the hero's penis, limp. "you couldn't bring yourself to climax on your own?"

"no.... and that's not a hard thing to do. I really think something's different, Ya know?" Flash breathed embarrassed, falling back down across the width of the bed.

Batman didn't want to ask this, but it needed to be done. "So you don't think that it could be trauma?" He asked him.

"Why would I be hard in the first place if it were?" Flash countered softly. He had a point, but in some odd situation Batman could see how it could still be the trauma.

"How does it feel now?"

"uh.... Actually... I feel weird."

"How so?"

Flash sat his head up a bit, looking down over himself. "Well... not only did I have... that, but I was totally.... Ya know. And I couldn't tell why, uh." He tried, and failed. "Ok... you know how when you're... like that, and feeling like that too, how it seems like you're a different person?" He asked.

Batman tried to wrap his mind around what he'd just said. "When your aroused, mind and body, you feel like a different person?"

"Yeah." Flash nodded.

"Ok, go on." Batman said, pulling his glove off and setting it in the sink.

"I was that different person, and now I feel normal..." he said, tapping the side of his head. "But this whole time... even though you'd think I'd feel completely different, like traumatized and what not, I couldn't stop feeling like that..."

Flash's cognitive roller coaster was so hard to hold onto, but Batman did his best. "I want to take you back home with me." He sighed. "I can do more in depth studies there."

"Yeah, something's gotta be off." Flash agreed. "Hey... uh." The boy stopped, his face still red, and his eyes looking somewhat more normal, almost mortified. "thanks..." was all he managed. He closed his eyes heavily and they didn't open again. Batman smiled a little, thankful that he seemed to be asleep once more.

He moved the table a bit so that he could move Wally back onto the bed properly, making quick work of the boy's dirty sweats and his own glove in the sink. Batman didn't want to notice, but Wally smelled sweet when he came, it must have been all of the sugar in his diet. I bet it would give me diabetes. He joked to himself, something only he would ever hear.

Wally was going to be pissed when he found out just how much they'd babied him. One: he didn't like being inactive, he's the Flash after all, and two: there are times when he notices just how much of a nuisance he can be, and as such, being weak and inactive like this makes him feel like a burden.

Batman had expected more of a Hey man, if, ya know, you don't want to, that's totally fine! Or even a Woah, I can't believe we just did that... but none of that came out of the red head. Batman couldn't tell if Wally had expected it, or simply accepted it as a freebie, or if he was just entirely out of it still.

The Dark Knight sighed. He'd mastered the art of thinking away an erection, and did just that. It was a good thing too, he felt the shame creeping up his spine from even thinking of seeking out solitude, even for a second. Not while someone needed to keep an eye on Wally's stats. He had to stay there, and protect the boy. That was his job.

Author's comments:
* I'll go a little more in depth in the next one, I promise. So it might be a bit confusing now.
* Yes, I stuck with the green eyes. I LOVE green eyes...
* If you couldn't handle the first chapter, first of all, I'm so sorry I traumatized you, I really am, but secondly, I wish that people who can't handle the first chapter would... well, not continue. I'll be going back and forth between comfort and distress. It's like me forcing myself to read a story about women as low class and sex slaves/breeding machines. That's what I can't handle, and I know it, so I avoid it. It's too much for me and upsets me.
* PS: ..... I might have abruptly changed tones a bit more than I wanted to... but ended up liking the much-needed comfort/mush.... I could say that Wally's mood is so unlike him that it gives us insight into how that affected him, and hopefully kept much of the same tone as the first chapter.