#057a

She's sitting at her desk, staring at her computer, but not really seeing anything. He's gone. A glance around the room. Her study. With books, documents, furniture. He's gone. How can everything be the same, when her world is crumbling around her. He's gone. How can the books, the documents, the furniture, still just...be there, while she feels like she's stuck inside a hurricane and everything is breaking apart and she is broken. She's so broken. He's still gone. Warm arms circle around her and break her out from her trance and she finally notices she's crying. She's crying and the tears are falling down and smearing the ink of the documents on her desk. The moment she looks down, the tears obscure her vision. The arms around her tighten. "He's gone." She stutters out, saying the one thought that has been whirling around her head ever since she heard the news and the denial passed. "I know." Her husband mutters back, gently running his hand through her hair. He swallows tears on his own. "He's gone." She repeats. Her sunshine, her best friend, her partner in crime, her kid. She can't bring herself to say anything else, even though she wants to scream, to yell, to break something. How can she be so numb, and hurt so much at the same time.   Her husband takes a deep breath that hitches about halfway in. "I know." He answers, unmoving. She rests her head on his stomach and her tears create wet spots on his shirt. He could've been anything he wanted. He was so smart, so kind, so brave, so beautifull, so funny, so perfect. He was so perfect and he was hers. And now he's gone. Her shoulders start shaking. "He's gone." She tries in vain to swallow the bile in her throat. "Barry. He's gone." Her husband just holds her tighter. "I know, Iris. I know."

Wally's gone.

___

A lightning bolt hit the shed where Wally was playing around with his science kit. Everything - every...one - found inside has been burned beyond recognition.

___

Wally's parents decided to clear out his room. And Iris was angry - of course she was angry - that they did not care about their son anymore, and how could they just give away their son's possesions, like they meant nothing. Barry quietly reminded her, that it's been four months, and it's good that Rudolph and Mary are moving on. But Barry didn't understand. Barry didn't really get to know Wally. Didn't have the chance to. They only met a handful of times, when Iris first introduced them, the few times Wally was over, and during the wedding, when Wally held their rings with an excited smile on his face, happy for them. She had to blink away tears, her throat closing up again the moment she started thinking about him. How could she just move on when Wally was gone.

They let her go to his room and take whatever she wanted. She passed them on her way upstairs, barely saying anything. Rudolph seemed angry; That's how he coped with grief, and she understood - she could sometimes be like that too.

Everything looked exactly the same as he left it four months ago. She forced herself not to break down again. Taking a deep breath, she took a look around. The same light blue walls, full of posters of superheroes, famous sciencists, and family photos. The bookshelf full of action figures and his favourite books. She gave a watery smile at the messily made bed, knowing that Wally always loved to have everything tidied up except his bed and his desk - they were always in a complete disarray. An "organised chaos" he called it.

In the mess of papers, notebooks and writting supplies, she found the book she was looking for. One of his favourites, that Iris got him on his seventh birthday. 'Flowers and their meanings' was written on the well used cover and inside she knew she'll find her own birthday wishes. She didn't dare opening the book.

Iris put it close to her chest, as she looked around once more and after a second of hesitation, took Wally's photos with her off the walls. She had her own copies at home, but the thought of Rudolph and Mary throwing these ones away made her cringe.

When she was at the door, she remebered about the last item she wanted but was not able to find. Downstairs, Mary, Rudolph, and Barry were waiting for her. Mary refusing to meet her eyes, Rudolph staring at the stuff in her hands with distaste, as if the thought of a flower book in his son's room was unthinkable.

Barry smiled at her encouragingly. "You ready to go?" He asked her softly, and she tried not to grimace. The atmosphere in the house making everyone act as if they were walking on glass. "There's one more thing." She turned toward her brother, noting how guarded he suddenly became. Even more so than normal. He always hated sharing. "Wal-" It was too painful. "Um. There was a computer? H-he had a notebook." She swallowed nervously. "I can pay you for it, don't worry-" "It got destroyed." Rudolph grunted, crossing his arms over his chest. "In the explosion. It melted." Barry couldn't hide the wince as well as Iris did. Mary excused herself and left the room. "O-oh." She cleared her throat. "Could I at least get what was left of it? Maybe we could get some of it's memory back-" "No." She took a deep breath. "Alright." They left after that. Iris wasn't sure if they would ever talk again.

___

The first time she opened the book after his death, was on his birthday.

She bought him his favourites- irises- and put them on his grave next to the regular, market bought, red roses that his parents brought. She remembered the first time he learned about them, and how excited he was, in his 6 year old glory. 'Flowers named after my aunt!' He used to say, immediately interested in learning the flowers' meaning, and promised her to give her at least one of those for her every birthday. She took it all with good humor, feeling charmed by the little, lively redhead, and his big promises. Imagine her surprise when he appeared on her doorstep on her 24th birthday, holding a bouquette with a single iris in the middle- obviously bought at some small florist shop- and a bunch of tiny daisies that he probably picked himself from his own lawn. "Best birthday wishes for the best aunt ever!" He said. She loved it, picking both him and the flowers up, and spinning around with a delighted laugh. Then he brought over his book, and watched as she checked for the flowers' meaning. Daisies symbolised cheerfulness and loyal love. Each birthday after that she could count on him being there on her doorstep with a new bouquette, same birthday wishes, and a wide grin. She remembered the way he used to laugh, all giddy and cheerful.

Barry told her that it was a good thing that she started reffering to Wally in past tense. To her there was nothing more tragic. ___

They were in the middle of watching a movie when the doorbell rang. She moved to sit up but Barry stopped her immediately, planting a kiss on her temple before standing himself. "I'll take it. It's your special day." He told her with a grin before moving toward the door. She couldn't help but smile. Her 30th birthday was today and they were taking a break before the 'surprise' party over at the Garrick's house later that afternoon. Wally would've loved it. Her smile wavered a bit at the thought. She let her head drop back onto the couch, the space previously occupied by Barry now empty. She felt uneasy.

She heard Barry open the doors. "Best birthday wishes for the best aunt ever!" Came the cheerful voice and Iris didn't remember standing up but she was suddenly there, right next to Barry and staring at the young man holding a bouquette with an iris in it. The man smiled up at her presenting the flowers, before bringing out his tablet. "I'll just need your signature here and-" "What's this." Her tone almost made the poor man drop what he was holding. He blinked at her. "Um. A special delivery for Iris West-Allen, um." He checked and repeated the adress out loud, along with the note. "To be delivered today with the message 'Best birthday wishes for the best aunt ever'. " He blinked at the two of them, furrowing his dark brows. "Is this not the right adress?" "It's the right adress." "Who is this from?!" Barry reassured at the same time Iris demanded an answer. The man looked really nervous. He took a glance into his tablet again. "Um. Wally West." He read out loud, before glancing up at the two of them, nervously. "Pre-paid for the next five years."

Iris felt her throat clench up. She didn't notice she was trembling until Barry put his hand on her shoulder trying to console her. He signed the tablet for her, before taking the flowers from the delivery man. He carefully helped her back into the living room, before placing the flowers in the vase in front of her. "I didn't think he'd do it." Barry finally said, causing her to look at him. She frowned, confused. "Do what?" Her husband gave a small laugh, but it was a small, hopeless sound. He ran a hand through his hair. "He came up to me, a little bit before your 29th birthday." He explained. "Asked if I could help him make a membership card at the flower shop near our place, because they said he needed to be with an adult to make it." He swallowed. "We never finished that talk, because I had an emergency as the Flash. He never brought it up again and I honestly forgot about it."He winced a little. "I kind of just left him hanging, giving him some hasty excuse. Do you think he though I was trying to ditch him?" Iris walked over to him, and grabbed his face in her hands, before resting her forehead on his. "I'm sure he knew that you didn't mean to just /run off/ like that." He smiled at her weak attempt of a joke. "And you are sweet for worrying." She closed her eyes for a moment, trying not to think about the bouquette behind her. Barry hummed, before carefully wrapping his arms around her, and sitting her in his lap. They sat like that, in comfortable silence for a while before Barry chimmed in. "Looks like he managed to get the membership anyway." He smiled with his eyes closed. "Maybe he convinced Mary to take him." She hummed in reply, but didn't say anything else. She wrapped his arms around him and just held him close.

The lone iris stood proudly in the middle of the bouquette, surrounded from every side by blue and purple Hydrangea plants.

___

She was sitting at her work station in the CCPN, just about to finish writing the article. It was nothing too interesting, the past week seemed to pass by pretty calmly, with no major happenings. She furrowed her brows at the thought. Well, there was one thing. A small illegal meeting that apparently ended with a brawl, which resulted in a hospitalisation of a not well-known politican from Central City- who actually tried to buy drugs on a street corner. No matter how much she wanted though, she could not write the article about it. Why?

There was no actual proof. The politican did not agree to an interview, denying buying drugs and all. According to his official claims he had been robbed. The dealer who stabbed him is nowhere to be found. And, curiously, no security camera on the entire street has the recording of that exact moment. Well, that's not exactly true. All recordings from that hour are suddenly missing. It's disgusting what policians can do just to save their face.

She sighed, saved her finished article, and moved to send it to the editor. But the moment she wrote her name and logged in, something happened.

The screen blacked out for a second, before coming back. Then the entire thing started glitching. A window popped up and walls of text started appearing.

01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000 01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000 01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000

01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000 01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000 01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000 01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000 01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000

01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000 01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000 01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000

She frowned, trying to close the window. It opened again, on it's own.

01001001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 01101111 01101011 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01100001 01100111 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100110 01101001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101   01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000

She tried reseting the whole thing, holding the power button for a solid minute, with no results.

01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000 01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000 01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000 01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000

She decided to just leave it alone and called the IT technician.

01010111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 00111111 01010111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 00111111 01010111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 00111111 01010111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 00111111

The guy took one look at the screen and blinked confused at the apparent chaos that her computer had become. Asked her if she downloaded anything recently.

She did not. He obviously didn't believe her, rolling his eyes and muttering under his nose, as he went about resetting the entire thing. The computer finally turned off. And whirred back to life a second later.

01010111 01101000 01111001 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011

The IT technician -with a very confused look on his face - said that it was probably unsavagable. Iris asked about her articles and drafts - she did not have the second copy of some of them. She will lose 60% of her work, if the computer was broken.

The man said it's probably all gone now, as he reached for the power cable. Then, the screen suddenly switched back to normal.

Everything was just like she left it. The screen was not glitching anymore. It all seemed fine.

Then, the window appeared again, and left one final message, before disappearing.

01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110011 01110100 00101100 00100000 01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011

___

The IT technician was just as perturbed as she was. The computer was working perfectly well now. He took it with him anyway, and she got a replacement. He managed to save all her files on an external drive, thankfully. She didn't lose any of her drafts.

The man said that it might just be some sort of a computer virus. Or maybe some kid hacker, playing pranks.

She decided to double check all her files, in case any of them were corrupted. The only difference she found, was in one of her newest drafts. The one about the politican and the drug deal, that was in her 'on hold' folder.

Inside it, words she herself wrote were bolded. PROOF NEEDED

She frowned, confused, but left the file as it was, and just went back to what she was doing before all this chaos began. She logged in to sent her other article to the editor.

The moment her screen loaded, a '1 new message' window popped up. She did not recognize the sender. The name had more numbers in it than actual letters.

The message itself consisted of nothing but a single video file. It's name consisted only of a date. The date that Iris recognized as the day of the drug deal that she wanted to write about.

And inside was exactly what she needed. The screen dividing into four smaller ones, each with a recording from a different point of view. All zoomed in on the alley. In the first video the politican could be seen glancing around 'nonchalantly' before entering the alley. The view on the second screen- from a different shop - showed it from a different angle. Another, showing the politican exchanging money for drugs, and the argument that broke off soon after when the dealer finished counting the cash. The last shop and the last camera angle showed the scuffle and the moment the dealer ran from the alley. Her face could be seen quite clearly.

This was it.

How, or why someone sent this to Iris, she had no idea. But she had a proof. She called her boss.

___

The story made the news very quickly. It was too big to just be left as an article, and soon enough she was reporting the discovery, along with showing the video to the world.

Turned out the adress she got the video from belongs to a hacker that took it away in the first place. They were payed by the politican to get rid of the evidence, and they had an email cofirming that. The video was taken away from their file and sent to her, through their own email, without the hacker knowing.

Her friends at the station congratulated her, but among the pats on the back and congratulations, there was also confusion. Who sent her the file, if it wasn't the hacker? Someone /hacked/ the hacker and sent the needed information to Iris.

Why to her? And how did they know? ___ Over the course of the next weeks, videos and photos started appearing on her email. Mysterious emails and cryptic messages composed mostly from numbers, coming from various senders.

She started getting suspicious immediately. She showed her laptop to Barry, but he was not that good with computers either so he couldn't really offer any helpful advice. Iris dismissed the idea of getting a new computer. The messages seemed to follow after her, wherever she was, paying no attention if it was the computer at work, her personal laptop or even her phone. Changing her email adress didn't help either.

The whole situation worried her. If she got emails with threats, it would've been better. Well, not /better/. But at least she'd have known what to expect. Whoever sent these new messages didn't seem to mean her any harm. At least for now.

She was not happy about the situation and neither was Barry. He would've loved to just ask his friend from the League for advice. But Bruce would probably mop the floor with him. Treating Batman as an IT guy could only end one way - badly.

____

It was a few days later, when she was sitting at home tired after a hard day of work, simply waiting for Barry to come back from patrol. Iris was just checking her email when something new happened. She had logged in on her private computer, once again writing her name down to access it when the screen glitched. She blinked surprised, then narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Except for the tiny glitch at the begining, nothing seemed to be out of order. Then, a chat window popped up again.

01010111 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001: 01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000

She blinked at it, surprised. She quickly sent a reply.

Iris: Who is this?

01010111 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001: 01001001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01101101 01100101 00101100 00100000 01010111 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001 00100001 01001001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 01101111 01101011 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01100001 01100111 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100110 01101001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101

She just frowned. Iris: What does it mean?

No reply. She did not understand a word. She checked her antivirus, just to be safe, and to her surprise it was turned off. She quickly switched it back on, and soon a warning poped up about a dangerous problem that the computer encountered. The virus' name was '01010111 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001' - the same name as the one in her chat window. The window that poped up started glitching for a second, before the antivirus turned off again, on it's own.

01010111 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001: 01001001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01101110 01101111 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101111 01100100 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101111 01101111 00100000 01110011 01110100 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00101110 00100000

01010111 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001: 01010111 01101000 01111001 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110100 01110010 01111001 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100111 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110010 01101001 01100100 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101101 01100101 00111111

She felt uneasy, but decided not to answer

01010111 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001: 01000100 01101001 01100100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 00111111

the text stated appearing over and over.

01010111 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001: 01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01110011 01101111 01110010 01110010 01111001

01001001 00100111 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100111 01101111

01010111 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001: 01010011 01101111 01110010 01110010 01111001

Then the window just disappeared. Everything went back to normal. Iris was worried.

___

Next time the message popped up, Barry was sitting next to her. They were both looking over the bills, when the laptop screen glitched.

01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000

Barry skimmed over the numbers in confusion. "That's binary." He said finally, glancing at his wife for confirmation. Iris nodded. "I wanted to try using some online translator on it." She said, glancing at the growing wall of text. "But it doesn't allow me to copy the messages. And then, they disappear without a trace. I can't find them on the computer again." Her husband zipped away for a second, before returning with a notebook and a pencil. He used his speed to quickly write down the numbers. It wasn't long before the window disappeared from view again, leaving the computer just as it was mere minutes before. Iris found out that if she ignored the messages, they would stop quicker. Barry had two pages worth of notes on it. "I would've used my laptop to write them down." He commented, as he looked over the numbers. "-But it's too slow and I wouldn't've been able to write as quickly." Iris nodded in understanding. The paper itself had a few tears in it and the pencil was broken from the speed that her husband was writting at. "Can you translate this?" He nodded again, this time zipping away for his laptop, not trusting the computer Iris was holding. The search for binary code soon followed, and Barry had the key for translating the script opened in front of him. He ripped the page from the notebook, and set it next to the computer, so he could switch between the two easier. He started translating. He didn't even finish the first sentence, when he suddenly stopped, whole body tensing.

His fingers clasped tighter around the pen, as he stared at the lone sentence he wrote down, then at the screen. Confirming multiple times during a single second, that he was not wrong. "Barry?" He twitched in surprise at his wife's voice. She hasn't seen the translation yet. "Iris." He swallowed nervously, glancing at the note again. Then shook his head. Went over the sentence again. Stared at the rest of the text. Started translating again. Next sentence made him pause again. "Barry." Not a question this time. Iris carefully reached out for the notebook, but he didn't let her. "Don't-" He spoke up suddenly, glancing over at her. She was worried. "Let me-" He swallowed. "-I think it's some sort of prank." She blinked at him, before slowly nodding her head. "What does it say?" Barry didn't know what to say. "Let me finish the rest, first." He said finally. He glanced at the translated text and took a shaky breath, before going back to it. It didn't take long. Even, with the constant pauses he took, it didn't take nearly long enough. Soon it was finished. But all he wanted to do is just to take the paper, run off with it, and destroy it until nothing was left. Until there was no trace of the message.   But Iris was waiting for answers. And he could not keep them away from her. No one ever could. "It must be a prank." He repeated, as he sat back in the sofa, running a hand through his hair. He glanced at her. "A cruel prank. I think we should inform someone." "But what does it say?" She pressed on, holding her hand out for the notebook. And Barry, with a heavy heart, handed it over.

Iris read the first sentence. /'Aunt Iris'/ The notebook slipped from her fingers and fell on the floor with a dull thud. She stared ahead for a second, before turing to look at Barry. Before the blond could get a word in, she swiftly bent down and picked the notes up again. /'Aunt Iris

Aunt Iris

Aunt Iris

Aunt Iris

Aunt Iris

Aunt Iris

Aunt Iris

Aunt Iris

Aunt Iris

Aunt Iris'/ It went on and on and on for the first half of the page. /'Aunt Iris Why do you keep ignoring me? Was it something I did? I need help, Aunt Iris. I'm lost.'/ She swallowed the bile in her throat. /'I'm lost

I'm lost

I'm lost

I'm lost

I'm lost

I'm lost

I'm lost'/

It took her a while to notice that the notebook was not in front of her anymore. It was placed safely on the table, as Barry put his arm around her. "Iris-" She shook her head. She grabbed her laptop again, and opened the browser. 'who are you?' She typed in quickly, before pressing enter. Google results for: who are you? popped up. And that was it. Nothing glitched, no messages appeared. Iris grit her teeth. "Iris-" Barry began, but she was already typing something else.

Google results for: Wally West She was breathing a bit heavier than normal, her eyes searching for that glitch that she grew familiar with. And after what felt like enternity, here it was again. A chat window popped up.

01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000

"Aunt Iris." Barry muttered, from next to her, still having the binary code in front of him and being able to translate on the spot. She swallowed, before turning back to the screen.

'Who are you?' She wrote again,  hands shaking a little, but she wasn't  sure if it was from anger or something else.

01010111 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001

"Wally." Barry muttered again, grimacing. She grit her teeth angrily.

'How dare you?!' She couldn't bring herself to write anything else. She rarely was at loss of words like this.

01010111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 01000001 01110101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100001 00100000 00111111

It took Barry a second. "What's wrong Aunt Iris?' he translated finally.

She did not answer.

The question 'what's wrong?' popped up again. a few second later an 'are you ok?' followed.

Iris just shook her head, before typing in "Why are you doing this?"

There was no reply.

Then, a wall of text appeared again. Judging by Barry's confused expression, it was something new. He grabbed the notepad again, and started writing. When he was done, he seemed just as confused as when he started. "I don't understand." He said finally, glancing at the translation. She took the notebook from him.

" Flowers and their meanings. Page: 34 The flower symbolism associated with the iris is faith, cherished friendship, hope, valor, my compliments, promise in love, wisdom. Iris symbolizes eloquence."

Her eyes widdened in recognition. She glanced at the bookshelf, quickly locating Wally's favourite. Laying untouched, ever since she put it there a few months ago.

There was only one person she knew who would have that book memorised. She broke off into a sob.

"Where are you??" Her fingers shook. There was silence on the other end. A few numbers appeared and Barry started writting them down, before they suddenly halted and deleted themselves. A few broken sentences later, there still was no clear reply. "Here." Barry read the options he translated. "Right her-" "I don't know" "I'm lost-" "RIGHT HERE I'M RIGHT HERE-" "the web?" "Computer-" "I'm inside-" "I'm here" "I'm lost in-" "I'm lost."

"I'm lost" ___

After a while the messages stopped, after the lack of answers from Iris and Barry. But the window remained open, and she knew the person on the other side was still there. Waiting.

After her barrage of questions, and the entire notebook covered in numbers, she wasn't sure if she had too many questions to ask, or if she had none. One thing they didn't have for sure, were answers.

But this was Wally and Wally was here but he wasn't and he was lost and there was a body, she remembers a body that she saw at the morgue and the closed coffin at the funeral several months ago and her Wally was dead, he was dead and the person here couldn't possibly be Wally. But it was. This sounded like her Wally. Exactly like her Wally. With his concern for her, with his knowledge, with his wit, with his need to help, help people, help her, help everyone. Wally was dead but he wasn't. Wally was here but he wasn't.

Wally was here.

___

It took them a while to invent a good system. Convince Wally to leave for a couple of seconds while she turned on the binary code translator.

They could make this work for now. They could make this work for now, while they searched for a solution. There was no way to bring Wally's body back. Wally was stuck as a computer virus.

But Wally was here and that's what mattered.