His Last Hope of Coming Home

Chapter 11: Soul Reattached to Vessel

Beep

Beep

Beep

Dick stared at the unconscious body of his redheaded speedster, softly brushing the coper colored locks out of his face.

Bruce was infuriated with his son, to say the least. But he let it go once he saw who Dick and Jason were carrying.

Jason had also decided to finally reveal himself to Bruce, not wanting to be separated from his brothers much longer. Dick knew he would die (again) before he admits that he actually cares about Tim and Damian. He only admits that he barely cares about his older brother, which Dick knew was that that was all he was going to get.

Dick knew that he had not fully escaped punishment. He had only managed to avoid it for a little while longer.

"Nightwing-"

Dick looked up to see Artemis standing in the doorway of the medical wing, wide eyes glued to Wally. No one else other than the Batfamily and Barry was aware of Wally's return.

Unshed tears starting to glisten in the former archers eyes.

"When?" She asked, looking back at the bird, whose gaze had also shifted back to the redheaded teen in the white bed. Her voice was barely audible.

Dick remained silent for a moment.

"About a day."

"You found a way, and you didn't tell us?" Artemis asked, anger subtly rising in her stomach. "We were in this together." Her voice rose slightly.

"I didn't tell you because it could have risked your life." He said lowly, as if ashamed. "I didn't want Wally to wake up and find out that his girlfriend had died while trying to get him back." He finally looked Artemis in the eyes, his mask covering his own.

The rising anger in the pit of Artemis's stomach immediately disappeared. She knew that Dick always had good intentions, but knowing that he had risked his life so he could save hers and Wally's so they could be happy, made her regret being angry with him almost instantly.

"I'm sorry." She murmured as she approached the white bed her boyfriend laid on.

The thing was, she knew that Wally and Dick had always been more than best friends. And sometimes that made her jealous. When she still loved him. She learned to move on because she knew that Wally was happier with Dick. Somehow, he matched with Wally better than she ever could. And she wanted that for him.

There was silence for a while before the bird spoke.

"I'll leave you alone with him." He got up, but Artemis reached across to him and grabbed his wrist. He looked at her quizzically.

"It's fine, I want you here." She turned her gaze to Wally.

"He would want you here."

Dick turned his gaze from Artemis to his wrist that her hand held, to his recovering best friend.

"Alright." Artemis looked back to her best friend to be greeted with a smile, but it was a small smile.

Dick returned the same smile.

They both k ew that Dick Grayson and Nightwing would not be the same or functional until Wally had woken up.

-----

It was now midnight, and Batman had forced Nightwing to turn in and get some sleep.

Artemis sat in the chair by Wally's bed that the oldest bat brother had sat in a few hours before. She was nearly positive that almost everyone was asleep or turning in for the night at the watchtower. It was now that she started to talk and ramble about her worries and missing Wally.

"I can't actually believe I'm doing this right now, I'm about to talk to an unconscious and an unaware body." She mumbled lowly to herself before giving an almost silent chuckle. She turned her gaze back to the sleeping boy with sad and pleading eyes. "Oh Wally. We've all missed you so much. But... I don't think anyone could have possibly missed you as much as Dick does. He never gave up on you. He was always hoping. And I didn't want to tell him to accept that you were really gone because even though it was barely there, he was still hoping, searching, that you were still out there. I left it alone, thinking that he would soon come to his senses and just accept you were just...gone. but he didn't. He never did. And I'm so glad he didn't, because he was right, you were still out there and he didn't give up, and he brought you back home."

Tears were staring to brim in her eyes.

"And he put himself in harms way to do it, we will all owe him for that."

She bit her lip, not sure if she wanted to say the next part.

"He needs you. He hasn't been the same even when he tries. He's never gonna be the same until you come back. If you don't come back for us, come back for him."

With that, she hesitantly stood up and stared at his sleeping figure for a few long moments before walking out of the medbay door. Leaving the unconscious boy and the beeping of the heart monitor in the room.

Hours passed in the silent room (aside from the obnoxious beeping of the heart monitor), and the boy had remained still. The lights were off, and the only light came from the lights from the various machines that surrounded the bed the boy lay on.

Soon, a strange glow faded into the room. Holographic feet paded silently up to the teenager's bedside.

The holograph chuckled almost silently.

"Man, this is weird." It murmured as it looked at its hands before looking back at the boy

" Staring at my own body, definitely not creepy at all." He murmured sarcastically.

The hologram placed its hands on both sides of the boy's head before it faded away. Nothing happened for many long moments.

Before, out of nowhere, Wally bolted upright in the hospital bed, several machines being ripped out of or off of his body, but his mind we set on one person.

Dick.