chapter thirty-one.
( when you know, you know. )

     Dick's question, Yue's answer, they had both turned Wally West's world upside down in a way he never wanted after leaving the life.

He was out. Things were supposed to be easier now. But then Dick had to bring them into the fold, he had to tell them about Kaldur's deep undercover mission, and how they needed another person on the inside to join him at the bottom of the sea floor. It was as if the life he and Yue spent years building away from the masks meant nothing because she was a hero before she would ever be anything else.

His gaze flickers from his breakfast to his girlfriend; Yue stands in the kitchen, the kettle in one hand as she pours the boiling water into her tea. She's humming, soft and a little off-key, but it still brings a smile to his face. He doesn't want to think about how they'd spend months away from one another, he just wants to bask in her presence for as long as he can. Preferably for the rest of their lives if she allowed him.

"I was thinking of heading into Star City before dinner tonight," she says, a frown etched across her face as she stares down at the water filling her mug. "With Roy out of town, I thought we could clean his place up a little. You know, make it look nicer, for when he gets back."

"Make it child-friendly you mean," he responds playfully, then leans back in his seat to watch her move around the kitchen. "Someone's gotta move all those weapons out of there before Jade teaches the baby how to use a sai before she says her first word."

"Wally," Yue warns with a laugh. She places the kettle back in its spot by the sink and opens the fridge for the carton of milk. As she walks back to her cup, she speaks up, "I still can't believe Roy and Jade have a child... I never thought they'd be the first to become parents, not after everything they've been through."

Jade reappeared sometime after the intervention and left her daughter in the arms of a very surprised and underprepared Artemis while she and Roy took off to Rhelasia in one last attempt to locate the original Speedy. Wally, much like Yue, still didn't understand how Jade managed to keep her pregnancy and the newborn baby a secret from everyone.

Unlike Yue however, Wally never put too much thought into who on the team would be the first to do anything. Sure, he had hopes for what would come, but there was no order to the thoughts running a million miles per hour in his mind. His fingers tap against the kitchen table in thought before he asks, "Who did you think would be first?"

"Oh, um–" Seemingly caught off-guard, Yue stutters over her words as she leans against the counter and distracts herself by taking a sip of her tea. "Megs, maybe. I don't know, she's always seemed like the type to want a big, happy family and a white picket fence. Or–"

He catches the faint blush painted across her cheeks as she cuts herself off, and he grins. Dating for six years, and being best friends for another two before that, Wally liked to think he knew everything about the woman standing in front of him. He knew about her habits, the way she liked her tea in the morning, and he knew when she was lost in thought. "Babe?"

Lifting her gaze to meet his knowing one, she groans at the sight of the large grin he wears. "You can't tell me you've never thought about it," she points out.

"M'gann's hypothetical family? Not really, babe." He laughs at the look she shoots his way.

"Shut up, you know I meant us," she explains. Her face reddens at her comment and, before he can say anything, she turns her back to him.

He falls silent in thought. Admittedly, this wasn't the first time the thought crossed his mind. Maybe a white picket fence wasn't anywhere in the near future for them, especially not with her upcoming mission and the degrees they still haven't finished. But he already knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. God, he had known it since they were sixteen and sitting on that rusty swing set in Happy Harbour where he promised he'd be in the red and gold by her side forever.

He couldn't keep that promise, he wouldn't , but there were so many others he still wanted to make. There were still so many others he knew he could keep.

"Marry me," he blurts out. It isn't the first time he finds his mouth running faster than his feet could ever hope but the words feel natural on his tongue.

Glancing over her shoulder, she meets his gaze with raised brows. Then, she shakes her head with a small laugh of disbelief, "What was that?" The bashful expression on her face lets him know that she heard him perfectly fine, but he still grins and repeats himself.

"Marry me."

"Shut up." Another laugh bubbles out of her throat, and he perks up at the sound. "Just because I mentioned the whole 'white picket fence' thing? It's nine a.m. You're not thinking straight, Wally."

"Maybe," he agrees, shifting in his seat to turn and face her with a grin. "But you're not saying no." In a matter of seconds, he disappears from the dining table and reappears beside her in the kitchen. His hands fall to her hips and he turns her toward him, kissing her softly before asking again, "Marry me."

"You don't want to get married yet." She loops her arms around his neck, her gaze softening as she stares into his green eyes. "We haven't even finished college, and what about the mission?"

"I couldn't care less about the mission," he scoffs. He snakes one of his hands around her back, resting at the base of her spine, as he pulls her in for another kiss. "We'll get married when you get back, when we finish college. I don't care when, I just want to spend the rest of my life with you, Yue." His thumb gently glides across her blushing cheek.

Despite her playful objections, she's wearing that bright smile he loves– the one that has his heart racing in his chest and butterflies fluttering in his stomach like he's fifteen and pining for her all over again. Even after six years together, he can't help the way she makes him feel like putty in her hands.

"You're crazy, you know that, right?" She laughs.

"Crazy for you," he says cheesily, then grunts quietly as her hand slaps his bicep and she pulls away from his embrace. "C'mon, babe. Marry me."

She crosses her arms over the sweatshirt she had stolen from him over two years ago, and if he didn't want to fall to his knees for her before then he surely did now. "You don't even have a ring," she points out, a playful tilt to her voice. He knows that she's baiting him, poking for holes in his admittedly not thought-out proposal. He also knows there's a box hiding in the pocket of a suit he had only worn once, and that she found it months ago when preparing him for the Gotham Charity Gala.

Faster than the eye could see, he sprints back to their bedroom and returns, this time he sits on one knee in front of her. "How about now?" He asks softly, the ring gently held between two fingers as he stares up at her with a hopeful, lovestruck look painted across his visage. "Will you marry me?"

He watches closely as her eyes scan over the gold band with a small ruby gem in the middle, before she's pulling him back to his feet by a fistful of his shirt. The hand not curled into the cream-coloured fabric snakes up his chest and around to the back of his neck, as she leans in to press their lips together in a passionate kiss.

Pulling away breathlessly, he rests his forehead against hers and grins. "I take it that's a yes?"

"Yes. Yes, you dummy!" She giggles, excitedly nodding her head as he removes her hand from his chest and carefully slides the ring past her knuckle. The second the ring is in place, she's throwing her arms back around him, almost knocking him off his feet as she peppers kisses across his freckled face.

"Are you sure you like it?" He questions sheepishly. "We can get a different ring if you don't, I mean there were so many other choices there, you should've seen it, babe. Aunt Iris said–"

"Wally." With one last kiss to his jaw, she swiftly cuts him off and leans back to glance up into his eyes. Any worries he has disappear the second he meets her lovesick gaze. "If you don't stop talking and take me back to bed..."

She laughs as he's quick to sweep her legs out from beneath her, easily cradling her bridal-style in his arms while stumbling in the direction of their bedroom.

In the back of Yue's mind, she knew that staying in bed till twelve in the afternoon wasn't the best thing, even if it was a Sunday. She still had a report to finish and she had hoped to stop by Roy's apartment before the Garrick's anniversary dinner; she also knew that Wally was supposed to be studying for a test tomorrow and yet she still couldn't bring herself to peel away from his warmth.

She lays on her stomach, her arm pressing into the mattress to keep herself somewhat propped up while the other hand gently draws shapes against Wally's bare shoulder as he lays half-beneath her. His arm is wrapped around her waist, his fingertips dancing up and down her spine as he stares up at her lovingly. With a hum, she leans down to kiss him softly. "We should really get up," she murmurs against his lips, kissing him a second time before pulling away just enough to glance over his face.

His auburn hair was a stark contrast to the white pillow beneath his head, and though his freckles had begun fading with the winter, she knew they'd return vibrantly in the summer-time like they always did. The realisation that she'd have the rest of her life to watch the seasons come and go at his side brings a smile to her face.

Noting that she was once again lost in thought, he laughs beneath her. "What're you thinking about this time? The future, again?"

"Of course," she admits with a dopey grin. Her left-hand stills against his shoulder as her eyes flicker down to it, the ring glimmers in the sunlit room and she finds herself glancing back at Wally. "I'm always thinking of our future, Wal."

"Yeah?" He breathes out.

She hums in response. "I think about our wedding a lot. Ever since I found the ring in your jacket," she says, watching with a giggle as Wally's brows knit together at the reminder he hadn't been too good at hiding it from her. "It's always a small wedding, with just our family and closest friends there to see it. Arty would be my maid of honour."

"And Dick would be my best man."

"Like he would let you choose anyone else," she comments. With Wally grinning up at her like he is, it's easy to imagine their wedding day like she had so many times in her dreams; Bruce would walk her down the aisle, of course, and Wally would be standing at the end with tears in his eyes while Dick and Conner snickered behind him.

"And a couple years after, when we're finished with our degrees, we'd have a kid." He leans up to kiss her, smiling against her lips. "We'd have to move first. This apartment is definitely not kid-friendly."

She swoons at the idea of growing a family with the man tangled up in the bed with her. A baby with his freckles and her eyes, briefly she wonders if their children would inherit his speed. A small apartment wouldn't be the best place to raise a speedster, and she's certain she'll have to retire the mask for good when it happens if she wants even the smallest hope of being able to keep up with a mini-Wally. "Where would we go?" She asks, her mind racing with all of the possibilities.

Wally moves his hand away from her back, slowly lifting it to cup her cheek. "I'd go anywhere you want," he offers in a whisper.

Overcome with love and adoration for the man, Yue leans in for another kiss, only for the sweet moment to be ruined by the loud sound of a ringing phone echoing through the apartment. With a groan, she rolls away from her fiancé and onto her back.

"Ignore it." Wally shuffles closer, trailing kiss after kiss against her shoulder and up her neck as his hand grabs her waist in an attempt to pull her closer to him again. "They can wait."

Yue's half-tempted to agree with him. If it were important, they would leave a message. But the familiar chime continues to echo from where they left their phones in the kitchen and she knows the person on the other end would keep calling until one of them answered. "Nice try," she mutters, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of Wally's head before kicking her legs over the side of the bed and sitting up. "That's Dick's ringtone, he isn't going to stop."

A whine falls from Wally's lips as Yue moves out of his grasp. "Aren't you off-duty today?" He questions. "If he's calling you on another mission–"

"Babe, that's your phone." Her words don't seem to motivate Wally to leave their bed, if anything they seem to do the opposite as he buries his face in the pillow with a scoff. Reluctantly rising to her feet, she pulls Wally's discarded t-shirt over her head and walks out into the kitchen.

She plucks the phone off the counter, frustratedly raking a hand through her messy hair as she hits the answer button. "Hello?" She raises the phone to her ear.

"Hey." Dick's voice answers from the other end, a sense of urgency in his tone that sends a shiver down Yue's spine. In the future she imagines with Wally, one where they're both out of the game and growing a family together far away from the life-or-death situations they grew up with, she wonders if she'll ever pick up a call from her brother and not be greeted with the fear of bad news. "Need your help."

A light snowfall trickles over Central City as Wally and Yue arrive at his uncle and aunt's house. They were three hours earlier than planned and, though she wished they were here to simply greet Jay and Joan early for their anniversary, they had a much more important mission than helping Iris with dinner.

"Are you sure he said time traveller?" Wally questions, keeping his voice to a whisper as he carefully places Yue back on her feet. Unwinding her arm from around his shoulders, she nods her head in response as she watches him slide his goggles off and drop them into the pocket of his jacket.

"If you're doubting my hearing now, it's not a good sign for when we're eighty and you're taking care of me, Wal." Yue playfully rolls her eyes, her arm knocking against his as she tucks her hands into her pockets and sets off around the corner of the alley he had carried her into. "Dick said the boy was claiming to be Barry's grandson. He knew their identities."

Time travel wasn't uncommon, though it was rare enough for both Yue and Wally to share their concerns over Bart's claims. But it wasn't every day that a time traveller appeared in the middle of the Cave claiming to be the grandson of the Flash while simultaneously revealing the secret identities of two of the world's most secret heroes, Yue had to admit she was excited to meet the kid.

"I guess it's possible," Wally huffs out, his breath visible in the cold air as he catches up to Yue's pace. Walking down the street toward Iris and Barry's house, a comfortable silence washes over them until he asks, "Did you tell Dick?"

"No," she shakes her head, her eyes flickering from the path to her fiancé. Absent-mindedly, she thumbs at the ring settled over finger. "Wasn't exactly easy to slip in an engagement reveal when he was struggling to understand how the kid knew their names. Besides," she walks up the three steps leading to the front porch, "Shouldn't your parents be the first to know?"

Ideally, she would want to tell Bruce as soon as possible, but he was still off-planet and with her mission coming up she didn't know how long it would be until she saw him again.

With a shrug of his shoulders, Wally steps in front of Yue and wraps his hand around the door-handle, before glancing back at her. "Remember, we can't ask any questions. Anything he says could risk–"

"Could risk the time- whatever." Yue shifts from one foot to the other, an excited grin tugging at her lips. "Just open the door, Wal. I wanna meet this self-proclaimed time traveller."

"Oops, spoilers!" They can hear a young voice call out from inside and, as Wally pushes the door open with a slight creak, he can't help but wince at the thought of what the boy was telling everybody.

"Careful, kid." He warns as he steps inside the house, holding the door open for Yue as she follows after him with a bright smile painted across her visage. "If you are what you say you are, revealing too much could crash the whole time stream."

"See?" She glances at her partner, "I knew you were going to love saying all this time-travel nonsense."

"Crash it. If only," Bart mumbles.

Behind the boy, Barry's brows furrow as he watches the couple enter the house. "Wally? Yue?" He calls out in surprise. "You're both early, what are you–?"

"Dick called us," Yue answers, her eyes flicking between Barry and Bart as if she was trying to piece together their so-called family resemblance with one look.

Noticing her distraction, Wally continues, "He thought we might be of some help with this mess." He waves a hand in Bart's direction. Before he can utter another word, the younger speedster rushes forward and pulls Wally into a tight hug, forcing him to let out a surprised groan.

"You're Wally West!" The boy exclaims. "My first cousin once removed."

Wincing at the tight hug, Wally manages to free his arms and place his hands on Bart's shoulders. Gently, he pushes the boy back. "The operative word being removed."

Yue beams at the interaction, then leans forward to take one of Wally's hands and tug it away from the kid's shoulders. "C'mon, babe. He's just a fan." Her eyes widen as the boy who had been hugging her fiance speeds over to her instead, his arms wrapping around her waist in an equally tight embrace.

"And you're Yue Harlow-West!" He grins excitedly, then pulls away to look her up and down before nodding his head. "Oh man, Dad was right, the twins really do look like their mother! On second thought, I think they got the West family genes with those freckles, Wal-man."

His shout has Yue turning to Wally, wide-eyed and red-faced, her heart pounding loudly in her chest. Sure, it was just half an hour ago that they were lying in bed talking about their wedding and the possibility of having kids but hearing it from the mouth of a time-traveller... Yue was suddenly feeling faint.

Bart glances around the room, his lips parting in surprise as he realises everyone is staring at him. "Oops... Spoilers again, right?" He smiles sheepishly. "Guess I got too carried away, can you blame me? I mean–"

A phone starts to ring, and Yue swears she's never been more thankful for an interruption than she is when everyone's attention turns to Barry as he holds his phone up to his ear. "Hello?"

Wally shuffles closer to Yue, his hand resting between her shoulder blades as he smiles down at her, his ears and cheeks tinted red after Bart's sudden announcement. Butterflies swirl in her stomach as she smiles back at him. Twins that look like her but carry Wally's signature freckles, she remembers gleefully, she really couldn't wait to meet them.

"It's mine, babe." Iris holds up her phone in her husband's direction.

"Don't answer that!" Bart shouts, quickly spinning on his heel to face Iris. "I mean–" His hands fall onto his hips as he clears his throat and, standing behind him, Yue and Wally share a mutual look of confusion. "Why interrupt the family reunion?"

"It's my boss at GBS," she tells the boy as she turns away from him and presses the phone against her ear. "What's up, Pete?" Her eyes widen and she lowers the phone to her chest as she glances over to her husband, "They're evacuating downtown. A new superpowered lunatic is calling for blood. Your blood."

Wally's hand drops from Yue's back, carefully wrapping around her own as he intertwines their fingers. Sparing him a quick glance, she doesn't miss the way his lips curl into a frown as he looks away from Barry, who – at a speed faster than Yue, Iris, or Joan could see – changes into the Flash costume that pops out of the small ring adorning his middle finger.

"Come on, Grandpa, let the League handle this guy," Bart pleads, staring up at Barry with a hopeful look in his eyes. "I mean, how often does a relative from the future show up at your door?"

"Look, I–" Barry sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose in mild frustration, before he rests his hand on the boy's shoulder. "I'll deal with you later, stay put," he decides. "I'll be back in a flash." In a blur of red, he speeds out of the house.

Bart blinks in surprise. "Back in a flash," he repeats as he glances around at the others. "Wow. Does he say that often?"

Everyone in the room sighs in unison, "Too often."

Wally takes a step forward, a knowing smile plastered across his face as he observes the younger speedster standing in front of him. "You're going, aren't you?"

"Uh, doy." With a grin, Bart takes off out the door to follow after The Flash.

Then, Wally turns to Yue and she can already sense what he's planning before the words have the chance to fall from his lips. "Go. Save the city," she says, leaning in to softly kiss him. "But come back to me, okay?"

He'd had slip ups over the last three years since his retirement, the once-in-a-blue-moon mission he just had to take because no one else was better for the job than him, but they were few and far between. Yue had almost forgotten the fear that came with being left behind while the love of her life ran off to save the world and, briefly, she wondered if he felt this way every time she stepped out of their apartment with her suit in a duffel bag.

"Hey–" Wally gently squeezes the hand he's still holding in his. "I'll always come running back to you, babe." He steals another kiss, his lips pressed against hers for a few moments longer before he's speeding off out the door.

Left behind in the doorway of the West-Allen house, Yue's gaze softens as she stares out into the snowy Central City street outside. She had never imagined a normal life for herself, but she was certainly beginning to see the appeal.

Later that night, Yue found herself at Mount Justice with Wally, Jay, Barry and the time-traveller, Bart. With the supervillain, dubbed Neutron by Bart, defeated and Central City saved, the four heroes offered to escort Bart back to the Cave. One less hassle for the team to figure out, and one less problem running circles around Joan after already ruining her seventieth anniversary dinner with Jay.

Dick stands off to the side of the room, still running Bart's DNA through the system to prove he was who he claimed to be, while Yue paces around the bulky time machine in amazement. "Impulse's DNA matches up with both Iris and you, Barry," he announces. "And this thing is giving off both zeta and chronotron radiation."

"Which is," Wally's eyes flick over to Yue as she walks back to his side with a grin, "Based on pure theory, what you'd expect to find radiating off a time machine."

"Oh that's so cool!" Turning to face the young speedster, Yue holds her hand up for a high-five, "You're one smart kid, huh?"

Hesitatingly, Bart reaches out to knock the palm of his hand against hers. "'Course I am!" He responds, a bright grin stretching across his lips. "It sorta runs in the family if you haven't noticed."

"This means you're exactly who you say you are." Barry, having taken a moment to truly let their words sink in, steps forward to place his hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Told ya! Anyway, it's been crash, but the future awaits! I gotta run." Bart says, then steps away from his grandfather as he walks backward toward the time machine. "Ha! See what I did there, with the run?" He laughs – Wally quietly groans, his head hanging low, while Yue snickers at the joke – and points toward Barry. "That was for you, Gramps!"

A playful smile tugs at Barry's lips as he follows his grandson toward the machine. "Bart, thanks for coming."

Yue can faintly hear Barry and Bart's conversation as her gaze drifts to her brother. The new ring burns on her finger and, though she knows matters with the time traveller are more urgent, she finds herself overcome with the need to tell somebody before things get hectic over the next few weeks.

Among all the tragedy that's to come, there has to be something good.

When Dick's eyes meet hers, she nods toward the side of the room, signalling for him to follow her away from the group of speedsters surrounding the time machine. "Sorry for calling you in on your day off," he apologises as they come to a stop near the entrance of the room. He glances back at the group, "I doubt Wally's happy about all of this."

Yue shrugs, a soft smile tugging at her lips. "I don't know, he was pretty eager to put the mask on when they needed him," she admits. "He... He proposed, you know. This morning." There's a grin on Dick's face, an annoyingly smug grin that has her brows pinching together and a sudden wave of realisation washing over her, "You knew!"

"I knew it would happen," he corrects her, "Not that it would happen now ."

She scoffs light-heartedly and glances back over to Wally who stands across the room at Barry's side. "We've never really nailed the whole timing thing, have we?" Sixteen and confessing their feelings during what they believed was the end of the world, twenty-two and getting engaged mere weeks before a deep-undercover mission. Some things never change, and the thought brings a smile to her face.

"If you want to back out..."

Instantly, her eyes flicker back to her brother. "I don't," she shakes her head. "This doesn't change what needs to happen. It just gives me more reason to finish it."

The loud clanging sound of the time-machine as Bart kicks the door open echoes through the Meeting Chamber, drawing Yue's attention away from her brother and over to the speedster, as he jumps out with a loud yell. "It's not working!" Bart kicks the machine angrily, "The whole thing's fried!"

Barry walks forward to examine the machine. "Can you fix it?"

"I'm a tourist, not a chronal expert!" The time traveller states, his voice raising in frustration. With one last look at his time machine, he sighs, "Look at me, I'm trapped in the stupid past!"

AUTHOR'S NOTES.

✶ I have had this chapter planned for so long, I'm so happy to finally share it with everyone. The proposal, though it's been in my mind since all the way back in act one, has been shuffled around so much before I finally settled on having it in this chapter. I just think it's adorable that they're thinking of the future as a time traveller literally comes to visit the past.

✶ But this is, sadly, the last happy chapter we will have for awhile. I won't spoil anything of course, but things are about to get very serious from here on out. Good luck everybody!

   ✶     Again, I just want to thank everybody who takes the time to vote/comment! Each of them make me so happy and continue to motivate me to write, I'm so excited to finish up the next few chapters just so I can sit back and enjoy everybody's reactions in the comment section.