I Forgot to Mention

Around the Corner

Barry stared down at his phone, watching with rapt interest as the digital numbers rolled over to the next hour. Midnight, he sighed, and not one message from Wally all night. This was getting...well, Barry didn't know what to label it. Ridiculous? Strange?

Concerning. It was concerning.

Not just that Wally had missed out on the last several nights of patrol, but his nephew had also ignored all of Barry's recent phone calls. All he had received was a one word text message in response to a nearly thirty minute voicemail cache. 

Okay.

That was apparently all that Barry's growing concern amounted to. Was it a teenager thing? He shook his head. Barry didn't know why, but he felt that this was all just a bit above his pay grade as an uncle. Wally had two involved parents, as well as Iris, looking out for him. Barry cared about Wally, nobody could argue that. However, ever since taking Wally on as his protege, Barry couldn't help but worry that he had accidentally overstepped his role at some point. Maybe it was the hard looks that Rudolph gave him whenever Wally mentioned their latest acts as heroes, or all the times he agreed to let Wally stay at his and Iris's home after particularly long patrols? It honestly could have been anything.

Wally always seemed so eager to spend time with him, enough so that he recreated the accident in order to gain speed powers as well. Barry had been such a bag of emotions when that happened. He was terrified that Wally had been hurt, furious that he had done something so reckless, all the feelings shared by the rest of the West family. Yet, Barry couldn't deny the hint of pride that seeped through after the dust had settled. He was proud that Wally had wanted to be like him, not to mention impressed that he had managed to accomplish it. Perhaps that's why he immediately felt the need to take responsibility for his nephew afterwards.

Barry jumped when his phone suddenly began to vibrate, displaying Wally's name on the caller ID. He fumbled with it, before he answered the call.

"Hello? Wally?"

However, it wasn't his nephew's voice on the other line.

"No, it's Rudy."

"Oh," Barry tried not to let his disappointment show, "What's up, Rudy? How's Wally? I haven't heard from him in a few days—"

"Wally's fine," Rudolph sharply responded. "He's just grounded, is all. No electronics, and no leaving home for anything other than school."

"What exactly did he do to deserve prison rules like that?"

Barry immediately scolded himself for the remark. He had only meant it in jest. Alright, maybe there was some genuine interest behind the question, but Barry knew better than to criticize Rudolph's parenting style like that. At least, not where the man could actually hear him. He definitely would be bringing this up with Iris later, though.

"Maybe you can't see past his role as your little sidekick," Rudolph huffed into his phone, "but I'm actually trying to make a normal adult out of my son. He needs to learn that his actions have consequences, and that he can't go running off to you, or any of those other costumed freaks, whenever—"

"Excuse me?"

The line went quiet, as if Rudolph had just realized what sentiments exactly he had accidentally let slip.  Barry did his best to curb his rapidly rising anger.  It wasn't really a secret how Rudolph felt towards Barry's, and by extension Wally's, work as a hero.  However, there was only so much of a blatant insult that Barry could let slide.

"Give Wally back his phone and tell him to call me," Barry abruptly told Rudolph.  "I don't care if he's grounded.  It's just a check in with family, not like he's talking with his school friends or anything, so that shouldn't be a violation of his punishment."