**Trigger warning for alcoholism and abusive themes.

A/N: hey y'all. This is a one shot that is part of my thank you. I plan on doing many more like this peppered in the story. Y'all said you wanted all kinds of things which is great and I am going to try and do as many as I can bc I really want to give you guys everything you want. There will be a much longer AN on this at the bottom, fully explaining everything I'm going to be doing. While reading this, PLEASE remember that I am always here for you if you want someone to vent to and if you feel like you or someone you know is unsafe, do not hesitate to reach out to the proper authorities. Thank you and please enjoy the story.
_________________________________

3rd P.O.V:

Percy's sea green eye raked critically over her students as they trained. It was standard training, she was giving them a light day. (All of the training she gave them were light days but they didn't have the right egos to handle that).

It was simple sparing. Basic conditioning. Stuff she had seen 8 year old demigods do with ease. Stuff that might have been a game. Like playing tag. The volleyball courts at Camp got more intense than this.

So why was Wally going slow?

To be fair, for these wimps Percy's light days were Hell. Her hard days were beyond the physical realm. But they had weeks to get used to it at this point. The lack stamina on these kids had nearly given her a stroke. How had they survived??

But that's besides the point.

The current point was that Wally was struggling. Really struggling. She glanced around the room.

All the other teens were preoccupied with their own training. She currently had them doing dead sprints with weight packs. None of them sparred each other a second glance. She sighed.

Another thing to work on then.

She turned her attention back towards Wally. She supposed, even if his teammates had taken a moment to asses him, they wouldn't really find anything unless they knew what they were looking for.

He favored his left side, shifting the pack across his body every few minutes, constantly adjusting it.

He hit the ground to hard when he reached the other side and had to lay back down before springing up and sprinting again.

His foot falls were heavy.

He swayed just slightly on his feet.

He hardly pumped his arms when he ran.

He had his goggles pulled securely over his eyes, despite not needing them.

Percy took a long, deep breath.

"Wally, meet me outside. The rest of you, keep running. Another 10 minutes then stretch and hit the showers" Percy called into the open gymnasium, her voice booming and echoing around the large cavern. While the groans of the other teens filled the room, Percy focused on the slight flinch Wally gave at the loud crack of her yell.

She started down the stairs from the observation platform to meet Wally outside.

"You need to see me, beautiful?" Wally painted, out of breath and drenched in sweat. Percy let her gaze soften, careful not to let her anger into her expression or eyes.

"Can you come with me please, Wally?" Percy asked, her voice soft and quiet; a stark contrast to her usually loud, boisterous tone. His face contorted into worry. It pained her to see a not so subtle touch of fear in his eyes.

"Did I do something wrong? Am I in trouble? Whatever it is, I garuntee Rob started it." Wally hastily spat out, holding up his hands in mock surrender. Percy shook her head.

"Just come with me."

Wally followed the dark haired woman through the cave, down familiar hallways and they came to a stop outside a familiar hydraulic door. Wally looked to her in question.

"Uh, why are we going to your room?" Wally asked. Percy stared ahead, face stoic.

"Because it isn't bugged." She replied in a flat tone. Sensing Wally tense beside her, she supposed it wasn't the best or most reassuring thing to say. She could practically hear his thoughts running rampant in his head. Thoughts she used to have. Thoughts she still had. Percy sniffed again, willing down her own fear. Now was not the time.

She pushed open the door and motioned Wally to her desk chair as she took up residency on the bean bag. Their position mirrored that of the late night conversation they had had a few weeks ago. Maybe if he had trusted her then, he could trust her now.

"How long?" Percy asked, blunt and to the point. Small talk wouldn't do any good. Not in this situation. It was best to be blunt. Gods how she wished someone had been blunt with her. Wally's head snapped up, eyes wide.

"W-what? How long what, what do you, what do you mean?" He stuttered, forcing himself to relax in his chair. Percy felt her chest grow heavy with pain and old memories. She looked down.

"You know what I'm asking you, Wally. If you wanna deny it, fine. I'll keep my mouth shut. I won't mention it again. I won't do anything. You can walk out that door right now. I won't stop you." Relief seemed to flood Wally's face. Percy wasn't done yet.

"But I want you know it doesn't get better. It doesn't go away. And it certainly doesn't stop. Not with out this. Not without facing this. Not without doing this. This horrible, bitter part that is terrifying and makes you feel so alone." Percy said. Fear, panic, and indecision played on Wally's face. He hovered over his chair, half standing, eyes drawn to the floor.

"How can you be sure?" He asked, his voice weak, cracking, breaking apart. Quiet. Percy kept her voice even. It had to be even. Gods how she wished someone had been even with her.

"Because when I was 3 years old I got my first broken rib." Wally looked up at Percy. Really looked. Tried to see past her hundreds of thousands of layers and cover ups and lies.

"You?" He asked. Percy nodded. Confusion seemed to spread across Wally's face like wildfire.

"But? But you're so...?" Wally trailed off, loosely gesturing at her with his hands. Percy sighed.

"I look strong. I act strong. But the truth is Wally, I never did this part. I never fixed it. I never told anyone. It stopped happening because the person who did it went away, out of my life. But it never, never, stopped hurting. It never went away. It probably never will. I didn't have someone to do this part with Wally. And I just want you to know you do. It doesn't have to be today. Tomorrow. Hell, it doesn't have to be this week. But I just want you to know, you have someone to do this part with, Wally." Percy kept her voice from cracking at the end, willing the tears gathering in the wells of her eyes from falling. Wally seemed to be processing, disassociating. That's fine. She began to stand, to leave the room, to let him process and think alone. To her surprise, his voice cut through the silence. Shaky, tired, scared, but stronger than she had ever heard it.

"He was always a little rough with me, when I was little. When he came over for holidays or at reunions." Percy slowly sat back down, eyes locked on Wally's rigid posture and stoic face, his eyes turned towards the floor. He folded his hands and pressed his elbows to his knees. Percy stayed silent.

"I didn't really think anything of it. I never really liked him because of it, but I only saw him once in a while and it's not like he really hurt me. Just made me feel like a little kid. He's my uncle, so I put up with him. He's family. You always just deal with family. It's how it is, it's what you do." Wally explained. Percy nodded in understanding. She knew what it was like. The helpless sense of obligation, of moral duty to just sit back and suck it up. The suffocating feeling of being trapped and feeling like there just isn't something you can do. The resignation. The acceptance. She gestured for Wally to continue.

"I'm supposed to stay with him. It's just a couple of months. It shouldn't be a big deal. I guess I never realized how much he held himself back. How much he was regulated by the other people in the room. But now, it's just me and him and I-" Wally stopped, seeming to choke on his words. Percy nodded again, shooting him a look, telling him he didn't have to continue. Wally shook his head, pressing on.

"It started off small. I thought he was just a bit rougher because I was bigger now, I could handle the play fighting. But then it stopped feeling like any form friendly and it started feeling mean. It started to hurt." Wally paused, lifing his goggles from his face to reveal a nasty black eye. Tears fell from his face now. Percy didn't blame him. She just focused on staying calm and not letting her rage show. The last thing she wanted was Wally thinking she was angry with him.

"It's so pathetic," Wally continued, a sob blurring his words. He tried for a laugh but it was raw, fractured. "I'm supposed to be a super hero. I'm Wally West, the Kid fucking Flash. I've gone toe to toe with some of the strongest criminals in the world. And I can't even do anything! I can't stop it!" Wally screamed, anger, shame,and self hatred pulsing through his mind and body. His head fell into his hands fingers tearing at his hair. He sniffed.

"I thought I could just wait it out, you know." He continued, his voice falling into a hushed whisper. "It's just for 4 months. 4 months and it's over and everything goes back to the way it was. And no one has to know. No one would ever know." Wally said, a silent cry causing him to trail off at the end. Percy remained quiet. The best thing she could do in this moment was stay calm and listen. Even if she wanted to scream and rage and kill the man that dared lay a hand on her favorite student she needed to be calm. Wally needed a rock. She had done it before she could do it again.

"But it's only been 5 weeks and I just can't handle it anymore." Wally emphasised, looking up at Percy, into her eyes. She did her best to soften them. Not with pity, but with understanding.

"What am I supposed to do?" He asked in a broken whisper, tears falling back down his face.

"What do you need?" Percy asked, he voice low. She knew what this felt like. How helpless it could feel when someone you were supposed to trust, someone who was supposed to love you hurt you. It wasn't just physical, the emotional strain and impact it had was suffocating. And she was so proud of Wally. He talked, he told her, he said something. That alone was more than she ever did. Not even her mother knew the full extent of what Gabe had done to her. She would treat Wally how she would have wanted someone to treat her.

Wally stopped. Really thought about her question. What did he need? What was it that he really, really needed right now? He looked at Percy. She seemed calm, collected. She didn't seem to hold any pity for him but a kind of understanding that made him wonder what she lived through. How much had she endured? He sniffed.

"I need it to stop." He said, forcing strength and confidence into his voice. Percy let her lips slide into a small smile.

"You're stronger than I ever was, Wally. And I want you to know I am very proud of you." Wally's face split into its own small smile. Percy stood.

"Do you wanna get cleaned up first?" She asked, glancing up and down st Wally's sweaty form from training. He smiled sheepishly.

"Yeah, I think that's a good idea." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Here," Percy said, gesturing to the small bathroom she had attached to her room. The team had to use the general showers. She didn't think Wally needed to be poked and prodded at by his teammates at the moment.

"You stay here, clean up. I'll get some clothes from your locker. Is there anything I need to bandage?" She asked, loosely gesturing to his torso and legs. Wally seemed to shift awkwardly. She gave him a pointed look. He sighed.

"A couple things, I guess." He looked away, ears red.

"Wally," Percy said softly, causing him to look at her. "It's okay. I got you." New tears seemed to well in Wally's eyes.

"Thank you." He shortly, giving her a sincere look before turning to her bathroom. She softly smiled and left to find Wally some clean clothes.
_________________________________

When she returned to her room with fresh clothes and a first aid kid (the one she had in her room was demigods only) she carefully laid the clothes on the floor in front of the bathroom door. After sliding a small note under the bathroom door, she left her room to make herself a sandwich. Wally would let her know when she was done.

Settling down in the hallway outside her bedroom door, she calmly ate her sandwich, pushing down her anger for Wally's uncle. She tried her best to fight off the memories of her own dark years.

-flashback, Percy is 8-

Percy walked into the small, New York apartment, skateboard clutched firmly in her hand. Her mother was working late tonight. After school had ended she had killed as much time as she could. Stayed out so she wouldn't have to go home. She had gone to the skate park, walked around lower Manhattan, made conversation with several interesting characters, bought a hotdog from a street vendor, knowing full well she probably wasn't having dinner tonight.

But it was dark now. The sun had set. She checked the cheap Superman wrist watch she had, and grimaced when she saw it was nearly 8 pm. Her curfew with Mom was dark, but Gabe didn't really care. He just wanted her home before her mother.

She debated staying out until morning. She could reverse her hoodie, wear it again tomorrow at school and no one would be the wiser. She could bunk at a homeless shelter or sleep in a tree in Central Park. She had done it before.

But she knew her mother would flip if she wasn't in her bed when she got home and since she just moved to a new school (again) she didn't exactly have friends yet. Besides, she had used the "last minute sleepover" excuse far too many times for it to be plausible anymore.

She let out a low sigh. The later she stayed out the worse she was making things for herself. With heavy, reluctant feet, she had trudged home.

Now she was slowly closing the front door behind her, wincing at the loud, drunken laugher that came from the living room. Poker night. How she hated poker night.

She walked slowly, one foot in front of the other. She kept her shoes on incase she needed to leave the house again. She prayed to every deity that might exist that she wouldn't be spotted.

It seemed that once again, God failed her.

"Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to slink home. Were you trying to come in without saying hi, you little slut?" Gabe barked from the corner of the room. Percy hissed lowly at her discovery. She set her shoulders.

"No, sir." She answered simply. She really didn't want to do this tonight. She made the mistake of looking at Eddie, one of Gabe's friends.

"Gabe! The little bitch looked at me!" Eddie cried out, his knees hitting the table, poker chips and cards flying. Gabe sneered.

"Now look what you did you little bitch! You've ruined our game!" Gabe snarled. Percy flinched. The rest of his friends jeered in agreement and Percy tried to keep the horror out of her face.

"But Eddie hit the table, not me!" She defended, arms waving in expression. This action was the wrong one as before she could blink, Gabe had her pinned against the wall by her throat. She choked.

"What have I fucking told you, ABOUT BACK TALK??!" Gabe raged. Percy felt her mind start to cloud from both fear and the lack of oxygen.

"I'm sorry-" She tried to choke out, but it was in vain as Gabe raised his fist, smashing it into her jaw.

20 minutes later, Percy sat in her room, chair wedged against the door, skateboard broken in half. She whipped tears out of her eyes as she began to slowly wrap her ribs, first aid kit open on her bed. She cleaned the blood from her mouth and sniffed. She fell asleep fully clothed, in her shoes, laying on top of the covers.

In the morning she hastily applied concealer and eyeshadow to the green and black bruise forming on her jaw, covering it perfectly. She left before her mother had a chance to ask her how her night was, her broken skateboard shoved under her bed, homework left on the kitchen table.

Today was going to be a long day.

--

Percy was snapped from her thoughts by a quiet knock on her bedroom door. Picking herself up off of the floor, she made her way back into her room.

Wally sat on the chair again, now dresses in clean clothes. His red hair lay wet around his head. He shifted his hands awkwardly.

Percy silently crossed the room, opening the first aid kit. She knelt in front of Wally, bandages in hand.

"Where?"

"You know, it's really not that bad, you don't have to-"

"Wally," Percy said pointedly, effectively cutting him off. "It's okay. Besides, if something heals wrong that's just going to cause yourself more problems. Best to just fix it now." Percy said calmly. Wally sighed. Carefully, he removed his shirt and Percy got to work on bandaging his torso.

For about 30 minutes, Percy went cleaning and bandaging Wally's injuries. They sat in silence, Percy focused on her task and trying not to think about just how much practice she had doing this, Wally simply not knowing what to say.

"There, all done. Feel better?" Percy asked, standing from her posting and closing the first aid kit. Wally nodded.

"Yeah, thanks, Percy." She smiled.

"Anytime, Wally." He shifted, seeming hesitant. Percy searched his face, her own falling when she recognised the look in his eyes. The hesitation to go home.

"Are there any guest bedrooms in the Cave?" She asked. He looked up.

"Um, I think there's one, it hasn't been cleaned out in a while though." Wally replied. Percy nodded.

"Well then we better get to cleaning." Wally seemed shocked at her declaration.

"Why?" He asked, confused. She gave him a look.

"If you think for a second that I'm letting you go home to that man, you're delusional, West. Come on. We have sheets to change." The smile Wally sent her way was one of the brightest she had ever seen. She couldn't help but smile back. She wondered if this is what if would feel like when Estelle was older. The same protective feelings she felt for Estelle were nearly identical to the ones she felt for her Kiddies. She had to admit it, she had gotten attached. She knew she would take a dagger for any of them. That thought scarred her. She had so many friends that had died too young. What in the world would she do if one of these kids was taken from her?

After helping Wally wipe down the surfaces in the guest room and changing the sheets to a much cleaner pair, she brought him a sandwich and a bowl of cereal from the kitchen. He wasn't ready to be around his team, afraid he would break down. Percy understood. She knew she hated being around people when she felt emotionally vulnerable. She was just glad he trusted her enough to let her help him.

"I'm going to go get your stuff from your house. Anything in particular you want me to grab?" Wally's head shot up at that, nearly launching his cereal all over the sheets they had painstakingly changed.

"You don't have to do that, it's-"

"Not a big deal," Percy finished, cutting him off. "You can stay here, at the Cave until your parents get home. You don't have to stay with him. I can talk to Batman. Nothing you've told me about will reach the ears of anyone you don't want to know. Let me go get you your clothes, posters, whatever. It's okay. You're safe now." With little warning, Wally crashed into Percy, nearly knocking her off balance with the force of his hug. His arms wrapped around her, crushing her, as if he held on any looser, both her and his new safety would slip away.

Percy reacted by wrapping her own arms around him, gently rubbing his back. She murmured softly in Greek, whispering words of reassurance just like Annabeth did for her when she had a panic attack. Wally couldn't understand what Percy was saying, but he took comfort in her voice, in simply knowing she was there.

"Thank you." Wally choked out, his voice breaking. Percy hugged him tighter.

"Anytime."
__________________________________

Percy walked through the dark streets of Central City, her converse silent on the slightly wet sidewalk. It was late, the stars blocked out by the clouds and light pollution of the city. Street lamps flickered as the faint buzz of the highway could be heard in the distance.

She stopped in front of a small, two story house, the dying yard wrapped in a waist length chicken wire fence. The lights in the house were out, but Percy could see the faintest flicker of light from the window. If she had to guess, probably a tv.

She easily hopped over the fence, not wanting to announce her presence with the gate that would drag against the concrete. She walked through the yard but instead of going to the front door, she walked around to the back of the house, locating the left window on the upper floor. Just like Wally said.

The back side of the house was flat brick, slightly slick from the rain that had blown through Central City not 20 minutes ago.

Getting a running start from the back of the yard, Percy planted her foot on the wall and after taking another step, was able to push herself up enough to grab onto the window sill.

Hanging off the wall from one hand, she slipped her other one into the pocket of her jeans, pulling out a small knife. With experience she wished she didn't have, she slid the knife between the bottom of the window frame and the sill, flipping up the latch on the bottom of the window, successfully unlocking it. After pocketing her knife, she managed to slide her fingers under the frame and push the window up. Once open, she put both hands on the will and easily pushed herself into Wally's room.

It was unexpectedly neat, although, that might have just been because she was so unbelievably messy. She walked to his dresser, practically dumping each draws' contents into one of the big black trash bags she had brought. After shoving all the clothes she could find into the bag, she tied it off and chucked it out the window. It landed on the soft, wet grass with a light smack.

She then went around chucking blankets, pictures, books, school-looking papers and anything she could find into another bag. Slinging the bag over her shoulder after collecting the rest of Wally's room, she began to make her way over to the window to begin her trek back to the Cave. She was beginning to feel like Santa Claus.

Her nearly completed trip was interrupted by a loud bang. Percy spun around, Riptide in hand, her finger ready to flip of the cap, as she faced the door.

The smell was what hit her first. The ugly sent of cheep beer and cigarettes wafted into the room and Percy had to hold back a gag. Wally's uncle was a fairly tall man, his hair a mousy brown, a thin wisp of a beard on his face. He had pale blue eyes and crooked nose, wearing a stained white T shirt and gym shorts. He didn't look much like Gabe, but Percy saw his heavy hands and glassy eyes and knee that they were similar enough for her to feel afraid.

"You're n't th' boy," the man in front of her slurred out. Percy steeled her face, her back straightening.

"No, I'm not. He isn't coming back." Drunken confusion seemed to cross the man's face.

"Of course 'e is. E' loves me. I'm 'is uncle. 'E'd never leave me." Percy drew in a sharp breath. Gabe had never pretended to care for her. He had made his hate painfully obvious. But Percy had dealt with enough shitty people (and gods) to know emotional manipulation when she saw it. She shook her head.

"No. He is not coming back." The man furrowed his brow.

"You're takin' 'im away from me?" He asked, anger seeping into his voice. Percy held her ground. She hadn't been strong enough to face her own monster. But she was different now. She could be strong enough to face Wally's.

"Yes. I am. And you can't stop me." Anger seemed to rise to the surface of the man in front of her as he let out a sharp yell and charged. For a moment Percy froze. She remembered being 6. 9. 11. She remembered bruises on her face and blood in her mouth and tears in her eyes and pain in her ribs. She remembered her mother's worried glances and Gabe's sick sneer and the look his friends would get on their faces when she came home.

She remembered being frozen. She remembered the panic. She remembered being afraid.

And then she forced herself to remember everything else.

Annabeth's smile.

The way the ocean looked from the Argo II.

The stars from Camp Half Blood.

Her mother's hugs and cookies.

Jason and his brotherly pecks on the cheek.

Leo and his sarcastic comments and his warm hugs.

Piper and her gentle fingers, braiding colored ribbons into Percy's hair.

Hazel sitting on the bow of the ship, sketching and laughing while Frank and Percy played cards. Frank never won.

She remembered Grover and his nervous bleats and terrible pipe playing but being her best friend in the whole world.

She remembered Reyna and her quiet smile as Percy stood up against Octavian in the New Rome Senate. 

She remembered Clarisse and her taunting jabs and cheap shots during capture the flag.

She remembered her brother Tyson and his gentle hands working on a delicate machine while Ella recited long forgotten poetry in the background.

She remembered the good things.

And for the first time, Percy moved.

Wally's uncle's fist sailed past her head. The lack of contact caused him to stumble forward, Percy easily spinning him around and pinning him to the floor. She leaned close to his ear, pulling his arm back farther, causing him to call out in pain.

"Wally is never coming back here. And you are never going to see him again." And with a sharp jab to his temple, the man on the ground fell completely unconscious.

Percy stood. Quietly making her way to the window, she didn't look back as she jumped down to the ground, scooping up the other trash bag and starting her journey back to the Cave.
___________________________________

Word count: 4588

A/N part 2: Wow i spent a solid week writing this. I hope you all enjoyed!! Like I said, I want to do a lot more things like this hence why it is One-Shot-ONE.  As you can tell, this is much, much longer than a normal chapter so they take a while longer to write but I think this one came out pretty good. As far as how canon this is to the story, since it obviously is not where we are plot wise, you can consider it however you like. It happened, it didn't, whatever. It won't really be talked about in the main plot, maybe just a passing comment, but nothing more.

Mostly unfun fact, in the comics, Wally's father WAS abusive, so it's not like I'm just pulling this out of nowhere here. However, in YJ, Wally's parents are fine so I just flipped it to an uncle that I made up. Cool? Cool.

This has been something I have wanted to write for awhile, it was even my original plan for chapter 37 but I scrapped it. Hopefully I did the amount of emotion here justice. Again, please feel free to reach out to me if you need help. I am not a therapist or a social worker, but if you just need someone to listen, I gotchu.

Anyway, you all suggested a lot of different things and I am going to try and get to as many of them as I can. A lot of people said one shot type stories and even more said Big Sister Percy moments so I figured I would kill two birds w one stone.

Key words here are BIG and SISTER. This is NOT, and i repeat for the ppl in the back, NOT going turn this into WallyxPercy or anything else. This is Percabeth ride or die, fools. I tried to keep this as platonic as possible so please don't go misinterpreting my intentions.

Anyway next chapter we will be back on track plot wise. Normal chapters will look how they always have, One shots will look like this one,One-Shot-One, One-Shot-Two, etc.

Thank you all for your amazing support and I will hopefully see you all in the next update.

Love,
hppjmxrgosg