#the eulogy

https://archiveofourown.org/works/80833326

Summary:

"Bart Allen really could do anything. If there was anyone, anything, that could find a way to cheat death, and come back, it would be Bart Allen. Because he had done it so many times before, Preston resolved hopefully. "Bart Allen, he's our man, if he can't do it, no one can," he mumbled to himself softly, his vision getting lost in the paused memory of shimmering pixels. "You hated that so much, asshole." The silence of the room choked him and Preston hit play on his tape again and got lost in the memory from over two years ago. "Asshole. Come back. You always came back."" When Bart Allen died his identity was revealed to the whole world, and in response the town of Manchester decided to host a memorial of its own for the hero that made it his home. Preston Lindsay being well known as Impulse's friend is invited to deliver his eulogy. There's only one problem...

... We just had 20,000-some people die in this city, and already the crowds are lining back up outside restaurants and jamming into bars. This virus is still out there. We respond to 911 calls for covid every day. I’ve been on the scene at more than 200 of these deaths — trying to revive people, consoling their families — but you can’t even be bothered to stay six feet apart and wear a mask, because why? You’re a tough guy? It makes you look weak? You’d rather ignore the whole thing and pretend you’re invincible?

...

Do you know how much EMTs make in New York City? We start at $35,000. We top out at $48,000 after five years. That’s nothing. That’s a middle finger. It’s about 40 percent less than fire, police and corrections — and those guys deserve what they get. But we have three times the call volume of fire. There are EMTs on my team who’ve been pulling double shifts in a pandemic and performing life support for 16 hours, and then they go home and they have to drive Uber to pay their rent. I’m more than 15 years on the job, and I still work two side gigs. One of my guys does part-time at a grocery store.

Heroes, right? The anger is blinding.

One thing this pandemic has made clear to me is that our country has become a joke in terms of how it disregards working people and poor people. The rampant inequality. The racism. Mistakes were made at the very top in terms of how we prepared for this virus, and we paid down here at the bottom.

...

It got so quiet sometimes that all you could hear were our sirens. The most 911 calls we’d ever had was back on September 11th, and we broke that record every day for two weeks straight.

Like nothing I had seen...

Like no one I've ever met...

She was funny, and smart, and moody, and.....and maddening, and beautiful, and i loved her....

I loved her so much...."