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thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

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An Ever Persistent Past

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*Having finally started settling down and getting used to the idea she would be with Team Flash and on this particular Earth for a very long time, a remnant of her old life comes back dredging up everything that had left her alone and what she had left behind. Now Emily must stop this invader before he hurts her new family, or worse.*

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**Note: Emily is my own custom character that has her own story line she belongs to. I just like sticking her in random places and seeing where my mind wanters to with her. My headcanon for her back story here is she’s aware the people she’s met and have relationships with are all comic characters, similar to how Deadpool can break the fourth wall, and has tried to inform them. They don’t quite believe her but tend to just shrug it off whenever she mentions it even noting her scary accuracy about certain things. Anyway, Enjoy!! Feel free to ask questions if you need clarification.**

Word count: 7,816

Warnings: language

Pairings: oc x canon lite

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Central city was busy as usual, Nash had settled in well enough and was coming in regularly fitting his Dr. Wells role quite well, the rest of the team getting back into their routine smoothly, and Barry was back on his regular patrols of the city. Emily continued her semi-permanent residence at the lab acting as an overnight guard, though would spend some nights at Nash’s given their growing relationship, habitually starting her day with something to eat while or before making her way to the Cortex. This is how she arrived, with a small container of vanilla bean ice cream complete with mini-Reese’s cups and fudge swirls, just after Barry had wrapped up apprehending a few small time bank robbers. “That’s not how you make a withdrawal,” he quipped dropping the newly empty pistols on the ground, clip out and separated from the firearm. “And I’m pretty sure you need an account first.” He smiles to himself before turning to the officers and nodding. “All yours.”

“Thanks Flash,” the officers responded picking up the thieves. “We’ll take good care of them.”

“Nice, Barry,” Cisco compliments. “I think that may be a new record.”

“Nah,” Emily dismissed as she entered the lab before shoving a spoon full of ice-cream in her mouth. “Pretty sure he was faster last week.”

“What? Are you looking at the same readings I am?” Cisco asked defensively. “Because I think you may need your eyes checked.”

“My eyes have been tested to be 20/20 and I can see a candle a football field away. I am clearly seeing your readings and probably better than you are,” Emily humbly brags.

“Ok, alright. Whatever wonder girl,” Cisco relents. “No need to burn me that bad. Wait—“ Cisco does a double take having glanced at Emily and noticed the ice cream. “Ice cream? Really? Did you even have breakfast?”

“This is my breakfast,” Emily said glancing at Nash. He hadn’t noticed before now but was now very interested in the ice cream. “What, you got ice cream? I want some,” he almost pouted half reaching for hers. “No, this is mine. Go get your own,” Emily said slowly licking the back of the spoon with direct eye contact, Nash’s face flushing at the overt flirt, just as her drone GP appeared in the room. “Hey, I picked up something funky,” he chirped. “It’s that weird signal that would occasionally crop up.”

“Oh? We got that one again?” Emily asked turning her attention away and absentmindedly handing her ice cream over to Nash, who happily took and began eating it. “Lemme see...” GP displayed the most recent signal finding and she hummed looking it over. “It.... looks like this was the strongest and longest reading we’ve ever gotten. Interesting. Definitely keep an eye out for more of that.” Nash peeked over to nose into her business when Cisco’s instruments began going off with an alert. “Uhhh, Barry, looks like a few people over by jitters just sent out an alert at the same time.”

“What’s the situation?” Barry asked already heading over. “Looks like.... violent disturbance and disorderly,” Cisco answered pulling up more specific info. “Apparently there’s a guy in some kind of future looking suit angrily demanding to know where someone is and it’s freaking people out. Aaaand he’s breaking things in the process.”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Barry boasted. “Ok, I’m here,” he announced skidding to a stop in front of the café just as a large man, about 6 feet tall decked out in some kind of military grade suit and visor, stepped out immediately making eye contact. “Ah, so that’s where I am,” he mused to himself taking a few casual steps toward him. “Look, you can’t go around breaking into places and yelling at people,” Barry started. “If you need to locate someone, the police are more than willing to help out. There’s no need for this.”

“No no,” the man retorted. “No, the police can’t help me find who it is I’m looking for. This is a little above their pay grade, not that they’re much help anyway. But you can. I’ll bet the little bitch has already gotten her hooks into you too.”

“Who are you and what do you want?” Barry asked after a suspicious pause. The man just smiled and laughed. “You know who it is I’m talking about already, just think. You’re really very smart, after all, Flash. Or should I say, ‘Bartholomew Allan’?” Everyone froze at the revelation, including Barry. Here was someone who seemingly knew who he really was, someone none of them had seen before, and was convinced he could help him find someone for some reason. “Who is this guy?” Cisco asked no one specifically glancing around the room before his gaze landed on Emily. He went on full alert seeing her current body language; stiff, wide eyed, almost choked breathing, her heart was beating so hard he could see her veins. “Ooohhh, no,” she muttered to herself. “Oh no no, you have to be kidding me.”

“Hey, Barry, Emily is.... freaking out over here. Are you alright?” Cisco checked in nervously.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Barry answered holding his hand to his ear. The man perked up cocking his head to the side. “And who might that be whispering in your ear?” He asked.

“None of your concern,” Barry replied. “But I’ll have to ask you to stop your questioning methods.”

“I’ll stop when you bring the girl to me. And don’t ask who it is I’m talking about, you know very well who.” Barry took a defensive stance realizing the man wouldn’t stop what he was doing to get what he wanted. “Then I’ll have to bring you in. You can’t be hurting people and destroying things like that.” The man just laughed. “Son, I’ll do whatever it takes to get what I want, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

“Are you sure about that?” Barry asked confidently.“Deadly,” was the only response given with him already prepared to attack. Barry just smirked, he may have gone up against the likes of Zoom, Reverse Flash and Savatar, learning that over confidence can get him in trouble, but he couldn’t quash it completely.

“Cisco, tell him to get out of there. Now!” Emily said beginning to panic.

“What?” Cisco asked surprised by the outburst.

“Now!” Emily yelled, her panic rising at the thought of Barry actually attempting to stop him.

“Barry, Emily is really insistent on you getting out of there.” Cisco relayed.

“I’ve taken down more imposing metas before,” Barry dismissed before charging at the man. He started running around him creating a vortex in preparation to hit him with a lightning bolt. “Barry, no, you don’t understand,” Emily snapped. “He’s trained to be highly effective to take *ME* down! Think.... Eiling, but not opposed to bringing you to brain death. Seriously, Get. Out. Now!”

“I’ll just hit him with some lightning, cuff him, then take him in. It’ll be simple,” Barry assures. Before Emily could even respond he aims and releases a powerful bolt making a direct hit. It almost seemed like he didn’t even attempt to move out of the way, and what was more worrying was his smile. Barry could tell he was in immense pain but he smiled through the whole ordeal. “Well well,” he said once he recovered. “Talk about a power up.” He grinned wider almost sickeningly excited. “My turn.”

Before Barry could completely register what just happened and react, the man careened into him with a shoulder check bull rush sending him flying and gasping for air. He slid to a stop but the man stalked toward him. “Ooohhhh crap,” Cisco mutters in concern looking at Barry’s vitals setting off alarms and going haywire. “What’s going on? Are you alright?” They couldn’t hear much other than the beating he was enduring and the taunts being given by the man.

“You know, I used to read your comics when I was a kid,” the man said casually. “I thought you were pretty cool. Always thought it would be great to meet you, but now?” Stopping a few feet from Barry he looked down at him, now grunting in pain, with disinterested eyes. “You’re actually kind of pathetic.” Barry only had time to look up before he was kicked in the gut and sent a few more feet and rolled to a stop.

“Hey, wait, did he say comics?” Allegra asked. “Does that mean he’s from the same place Emily is?”

“Would explain why she freaked out so bad,” Cisco agreed. “She knows him better than any of us, and seeing as the collapse of the multiverse was the only thing to really scare her, he must be a bad dude. Also explains how he countered Barry, he knows his full power set, even stuff we may not know about.” Allegra frowned groaning thoughtfully. “This is really bad isn’t it?”

“Shit,” Emily mutters before quickly turning to her drones. “GP, I need you to monitor his movements yesterday. Get eyes on him.” GP whistles heading out immediately. “Medi, I’m gonna need you to monitor my vitals closely. And Tinker, you need to start fabrication of that special tool right away.”

“What are you doing?” Cisco asked, fear creeping in his voice.

“I’m going to get his dumbass back here before he gets seriously hurt,” Emily declared suiting up. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”

“Really, that your honest to God best?” The man asked mockingly walking over to Barry again. “Really? No wonder the Reverse Flash is so much better than you.” Barry glared up at him, eyes flashing with anger, and before the man could strike him again Emily came out of nowhere kicking him square in the gut sending him flying. She stood guard for a moment before turning to tend to Barry. “Are you ok?” She asked kneeling beside him helping him sit.

“Who.... who is that?” He coughed.

“Ascoll,” she answered glancing back over to the man. “He’s not an ordinary man. In fact, he’s not a man at all.”

“What....?”

“He’s a highly advanced adaptive android. He was modeled after a decorated ruthless military man and designed to mimic the human body but withstand a great amount more of what typical humans are capable of. It was in an effort to fool me and my compatriots so we would be more complicit and less likely to attack them. So, like I said,” she turned to look at Barry with a very serious look in her eye. “Highly effective taking me down.” He nodded in understanding realizing the full scope of her worry when both their attention was drawn to where he landed hearing loud almost frenzied laughing. “Ah, there you are!” He called getting to his feet. “See Flash? I knew you would help me after all.”

“How could you possibly know that?” Barry asked. “I’ve never met you nor do I know who you are.”

“But I do know her,” he responded pointing toward Emily. “And she just can’t help herself. Always has to help out somehow. Isn’t that right, little halfbreed?” Emily just furrowed her brow growling at the nickname and implied insult. “Barry, get back to the lab,” she directed with urgency. “I’ll take care of him.”

“Didn’t you just say he’s designed to take you down? No, no way. I’m not leaving you here by yourself.”

“And if you’re here neither of us will be able to do what needs to be done and we’ll both be in trouble. Seriously, it’s better if you hang back and coordinate an evacuation. If I fail, you’ll have to do damage control.”

“You’re not gonna fail,” Barry insisted defiantly.

“Would you shut up already?” Ascoll asked rolling his wrist before pointing his arm in their direction. Just as they both looked over again, something fired toward them and stuck to Emily’s forehead. Stunned, she quickly let go of Barry before a powerful shock assaulted her nervous system bringing out a choked pained cry. She fell backward frozen in pain, Ascoll grinning in victory enjoying the fact he finally had her firmly under his boot for once. “Ah, glorious silence,” he mewed as she gasped for air before he finally relented, unable to move with her nerves still on fire making fine motor function nigh impossible. “What was that? What did you do to her?!” Barry nearly screamed looking her over. “Oh, nothing she won’t recover from,” Ascoll dismissed. “May take a while but she’ll be fine. I would advise you not get too close, step away from her please.”

Suddenly Medi started alarming displaying Emily’s vitals going crazy. “Crap! Emily are you ok?” Cisco called over her relay. “She’s been hit with a strong electrical shock,” Medi responded, “I don’t think she’ll be able to answer you just yet. Everything seems to be ok though.”

“She got shocked, how is everything still ok??” Allegra asked concerned.

“It disrupted her motor functions but her heart is still beating and I’m still reading nominal brain functions. She’s probably dazed but she’s ok,” Medi assures.

“And you’re sure about that?”

“She’s been to space, she’ll be fine. Make no mistake, I’m not taking it lightly; the shock was still serious but she’s durable. I’ve gotten quite familiar with what she can and can’t withstand so she’s still within acceptable vital readings.” They all murmured nodding their heads in acceptance though still concerned for her well being, especially Nash who had been silently staring intensely at the monitors.

Emily lied in the road gritting her teeth and grunting trying to form words once Ascoll finally ceased talking. “Guh-Barry...” she stuttered out. “Don’t..... don’t listen... to him. I promise I’m ok, but you need to get back to the lab. Eva— cuate the area. Keep them…. safe.” He just shook his head. “No, I can’t. I won’t.”

“You... will,” she declared. “Please, make sure Nash doesn’t do anything rash.” Reluctantly he nodded making Emily smile in relief before she tensed up again from yet another electric shock. “Stop it! Stop!! I’m not even touching her!” He yelled lifting his hands in the air showing the lack of contact and backing off. Ascoll just smiled wickedly leaving her in pain for a moment before relenting. Gasping again she can only look at Barry, who after a concerned moment looks down at her again as she mouths ‘go’. He nods just as a voice comes over his headpiece. “Barry, you listen to me,” the voice says with a grave seriousness. “Do not leave her there.”

“Run along now,” Ascoll chides with a dismissive hand wave. “Can’t have you getting hurt now.” Barry glares at him before looking back to Emily, her eyes becoming watery as she silently pleads with him to leave. “Barry, you can’t leave without her,” the voice, now identified as Nash, demand again. “Don’t do it,” he said almost pleadingly. Emily nods encouragingly again before he finally takes off toward the Lab. “Don’t!” Nash yells the moment he retreats. “Barry!” A second later he arrives back at the Cortex, everyone silent and tense as they monitor the situation that was unfolding. “Are you ok?” Cisco asked finding his voice again.

“Is he ok?” Nash growled spinning around. “What about her? Where is she?”

“Nash, I didn’t—“ Barry started before being cut off. “You left her there, alone. Why?” He snapped.

“She didn’t want me there and wouldn’t let me stay,” Barry explained. “I tried Nash, but she insisted I fall back. Keep you guys safe, make preparations if things get out of hand.”

“If you hadn’t been a coward it wouldn’t even be a concern!”

“Hey! Ok, woah!” Cisco cut in. “Lets cool off and think. She obviously knows how capable Barry is so if she’s telling him to retreat this guy is seriously bad news.” Nash just glared at Barry before maneuvering around him. “Where are you going?” Barry asked stepping after him.

“I’m going to help her, where else?” He growled in response slinging his pack over his shoulder.

“No, you can’t,” Barry protested.

“And why not? You aren’t going to do anything.”

“Because she told me to keep you from doing anything that would get you hurt,” Barry near yelled finally showing some frustration. “She sent me away not just to keep me safe but to make sure you were. That we all were, and if things went bad she knew we could handle it.” Nash stared silently, lips pressed together in a frustrated frown before his concentration was broken by Allegra. “Hey uh, guys,” she said getting everyone’s attention. “There’s talking going on over Emily’s relay.” The mood of the room shifted as everyone now listened to the conversation being transmitted.

“You certainly have your new dogs well trained,” Ascoll commented strolling over in her direction, an air of confidence woven into his voice.

“Yeah well,” Emily grunts stiffly rolling over still on the ground. “Can’t help they actually like me, y’know?”

“You always were rather good at misdirection and manipulation,” Ascoll countered.

“Not manipulation,” Emily argued. “That just tends to be the case with mutual trust and understanding, not just fear.”

Ascoll just laughed. “Really now? So you’re telling me they know everything about you?” Emily sits up with another grunt before picking herself up off the pavement. “I’ve told them enough,” she dismisses brushing her hair out of her face, the team was rather surprised at how casual their conversation seemed to be. It sounded like they had a similar conversation a few times before, were they really enemies and was Ascoll really as bad as Emily claimed?

Ascoll laughed again. “You expect me to believe you have told them all about what you are? What you can do? You claim you told them enough, but do they know— really know— who you are? That you’re practically a god?”

“I told them enough!” Emily shouted, voice wavering as fear was becoming apparent. “How did you even get here anyway?” Ascoll just grinned stalking toward her. “As you may have guessed, our previous little liaisons weren’t just for pleasure.” She cringed with how he seemed to linger on that last part; as if she didn’t need another reason to keep as much distance from him as possible. “Since you refuse to come quietly, we’ve had to resort to combat observation. Not that I mind really, you do know how to keep a man busy after all.”

“Uugh, this guys a real creep,” Cisco commented sourly.

“When I get my hands on him...” Nash muttered. “Emily, what’s this guy’s deal anyway?” There was a brief silent pause before he clicked the button again. “Emily? Can you hear me?”

“Thaaat’s a really creepy for statement, you know,” Emily’s voice said over the intercom. “Especially since I stopped aging at 17. Major red flag if you ask me, I mean does your girlfriend know about this?”

“Cisco, why isn’t she responding?” Nash asked nervously. “Did that shock knock out her comms?”

“I don’t know, hold on,” he replied going through a communications check. “Everything seems ok, she’s still connected.”

“I don’t have a girlfriend,” Ascoll replied blandly. “Besides, speaking of creepy, with that argument in play wouldn’t whoever you date be just as if not more so?”

“You and I both know my dating life is complicated to say the least,” she defended. “One reason I don’t.”

“And yet, I can smell the scent of affection on you,” he sneered. “You’ve gotten close to someone, and more than just mere bonds of friendship. Disgusting thing, it’s a wonder you could ever catch anyone’s attention.”

“And still you have had your eye on me for quite some time. If it wasn’t already obvious, you’re just as disgusting.”

Ascoll smiled opening his arms in a grand theatrical fashion. “Then let us revel in filth before you inevitably succumb to my superior prowess!” Emily barely had time to brace herself before she was hit with a solid punch to the gut sending her flying. A near by streetlight stopped her momentum and she landed on the ground after spinning with loud pained coughs. Her vitals began alarming again registering a spike in adrenaline and a fair amount of blunt force trauma. “Guhhh, Medi? Is that bad?” Cisco shouted the question.

“Severe bruising, potential minor fractures. She’ll be sore but she’s still ok,” Medi responded bringing up detailed readings. “Emily always has a small amount of nanites in her system left over from previous repairs so she’ll be able to bounce back relatively easy. They dull pain and repair minor injuries such as fractures and small abrasions but have a short run time.”

“That’s pretty handy,” Allegra commented, she had taken to keeping close to Nash to act as a grounding presence in an effort to keep his panic minimal. “Hey, you alright Nash?”

“I’m no stranger to dangerous situations,” he said with eyes darting between Medi’s reading and the satellite feed of the fight. “Hell, I lost you- er- Maya to one, but….”

“Hey, you care, we get that,” Allegra assures. “We’re all concerned for her safety too.”

“Given her usual shenanigans, casually going into space and all, she’s more capable that she looks,” Cisco added. “Tough though this guy may be, I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

“I certainly hope so.”

“Damn, you really do fly don’t you?” Ascoll mocked stalking over to her. “I mean, yeah, kind of obvious given you’ve lost my people through the atmosphere, but damn girl. That was quite a lot of distance.”

“Probably could have gotten me further if you actually had a decent arm,” Emily spat. “All those upgrades and you still hit like a bitch.” Just as her eyes managed to meet his with a glare his boot caught her chin causing her to flip backwards. She landed with a cough and groan absorbing multiple kicks to the abdomen as she rolled to her side. “You just…. don’t know…. when. To. Shut. Up. Do you?” he asked between kicks. She rolled onto her stomach, holding it and groaning in pain once he stopped to inspect his handiwork. “Some… people… actually like my— my smart…. mouth…” she gasped out. Managing to prop herself up on her elbows and knees she gulped large quantities of air while he steeped in his disgust for her before his hand roughly and abruptly gripped her hair.

“Someone really aught to teach you how to speak to your superiors,” he hissed pulling her head back forcing her to kneel.

“Funny, aren’t you the one with the loosing streak?” Emily snarkily asked with a grin. Snarling, Ascoll pinned her head to the ground. “You little—“

“Bitch?” Emily cut off. “Jeeze, if you’re gonna…. call me names at least…. least be creative….. about it. Bitch just ain’t doing it anymore.” With another snarl Ascoll stood and, before she could even kneel again, he kicked her in the stomach sending her half a city block to a rolling stop. Taking the momentary opportunity to rest, she laid on her back groaning and panting in pain while he stalked over with an irritated but still proud smile. “You really do make a great punching bag, but I wish you fought back a bit more,” he lamented. “Honestly, where’s that fight I loved so much? I didn’t beat it out of you, did I?”

Staggering to her feet, she wiped some blood from her split lip glaring him down. “You can only give it your all for so long before things become routine,” she replied. “I’m the only one contributing any kind of spice to this relationship after all.”

“Then teach me something new.”

“If you were worth it, I would have by now.”

“Perhaps some incentive is in order then?” Giving another grin he charged at her, Emily deciding to take up the challenge and charged him as well. Their fists collided causing a loud noise ring out, similar to a heavy solid object falling down onto pavement. Wincing at the pain, she took her other hand and shoved his away, dodging a follow up left hook before throwing a few of her own. One, two, three mutual blocks or redirects passed between them before he made contact with her face. Taking the opportunity of her momentary stun, Acsoll planted three successive hits dropping her to her knees again. “You’re getting slow, almost…. predictable,” he lauded. “Pretty ironic given your previous statement.” Gritting her teeth she charged at him flinging him a few feet from a solid shoulder check before she stumbled. Managing to keep on her feet she watched as he righted himself and sighed. “A little weak,” he assessed. “But better than nothing I suppose.” With a grin he began singing a light song nonchalantly walking toward her, almost like someone casually strolling while listening to music.

*Everyday, it's a-gettin' closer*

*Goin' faster than a roller coaster*

*Love like yours will surely come my way*

*A-hey, a-hey, hey*

With a growl she charged again, landing a few solid hits she was able to drive him back a few steps before he back handed her spinning her around just enough for him to stick her with a shock device between her shoulders directly onto her spine. He so did love that method of subduing his targets. “What’s wrong? I thought you liked Buddy Holly,” He mockingly asked before a metal collar ejected from his arm and clamped itself onto her neck. “After all, you do sing quite a lot during our little dances.”

“Man, no wonder she had so many spikes in panic,” Caitlyn commented. “Not only does he like physical torture, but he’s psychologically doing so too.”

With a yell she forced herself through the shock after effects to try spinning around to kick him, only to have him intercept it and catch her by the ankle. With a grin he whirled her around by that same ankle throwing her a good distance away making her land a few feet away from some police cruisers. She lied on the ground for a moment breathing heavily before raising her head both to observe Ascoll and see who was in the cruiser. A small group of officers gathered behind Joe taking point behind the open door of his cruiser. “Emily?” He asked both confused and worried.

“Hey Joe,” he she greeted forcing a smile. “Fancy… meeting you here.”

“Are you alright? Who is this guy?” he asked looking from her to him while keeping his pistol trained on the latter. “Oh I’m peachy,” she replied shambling to her feet. “But he’s—“

“Bullets won’t work on me, captain,” Ascoll interrupted. “Just ask her.” An energy-like grapple appeared from the collar connecting it to his wrist allowing him to yank her toward him. The sudden force caused her to stumble into him, Joe waving his men to stand down when they attempted to intervene, and Ascoll pulled her face to his. “Go ahead and tell them,” he insisted. “Tell them, no matter how many holes are punched into me, limbs severed, or damage dealt, I can’t be stopped.” He grinned wickedly at her wide eyes. “You may be on a winning streak, but I just keep coming back. What’s a winning streak if you can’t keep someone down for good, huh?” He broke his stare to glare at Joe once his speech was done. “Listen closely, captain, because this is for you too. And I knoooowwwww Flash is listening in,” he hissed. “Before I drag her back to get ripped apart; once she can’t even lift her own head and just laying there; I’m going to take everything she has a connection to here away.” He leaned in close to her ear and growled. “And I’m going to make. You. Watch.”

Medi began alarming again pulling everyone’s attention. “What’s that one for?” Chester asked nervously.

“Adrenaline spike,” Medi responded mater-of-factly. “This makes three, of note anyway. There have been numerous smaller ones throughout the event.”

“Another adrenaline spike? Is that bad?”

“If it were in fear, perhaps.”

“If?” Caitlyn asked looking over the readings. “With the current levels displayed here, she should be incapacitated by a heart attack by now.”

“Given her particular genetic makeup, normal human limits don’t necessarily apply. While the levels are concerning, they are still within acceptable ranges. In fact, I’m surprised it took this long for her to reach this point. Quite an odd time to choose to exercise restraint.”

“Restraint? What to you mean by restraint?” Allegra asked suddenly concerned. “You mean to tell me she’s not been trying this whole time??”

“No, not what I said at all,” Medi corrected. “She’s been using restraint as to not hurt anyone near by while the evacuation was going on. Her fear is also well founded, given her accidental nature of arrival, there was no indication he would be capable of following. Seeing as she’s also been stranded for quite some time, it’s reasonable to believe he would be too and I don’t think you would want someone who had demonstrated such casual destruction to stick around very long. No, she’s been trying to keep her emotions in check to not only freeze up but needlessly destroy the surroundings.”

“Destroy….. how?” Barry asked staring at the monitor.

“NO!” Emily screamed whirling around shoving Ascoll off her. “You. Will. NOT!” Punching him square in the jaw sent him flying half a block backwards rolling to a stop. Emily stood defiantly as her hair transformed from red auburn to silvery white glistening in the light with brilliant holographic colors throughout.

“This adrenaline spike is indicative of not fear, but rage,” Medi continued. “Ascoll is only one of a handful to ever get her to this point.”

“Joe, take your men back to the evacuees,” Emily said with a level voice still staring at Ascoll. “It’s not going to be very safe here and they’re going to need reassurance.”

“What are you gonna do?” Joe asked with a tinge of fear in his voice.

“Exterminate a pest,” Emily replied matter-of-factly.

“What point is that?” Chester asked nervously.

“Berserk rage,” Medi replied.

“But, she’s not going crazy and just…. Breaking everything,” Cisco questioned. “Shouldn’t she be, I dunno, going out of control?”

“Contrary to popular belief, berserkers didn’t cause pointless havoc,” Medi explained. “They were just afforded more freedom, given the cocktail of alcohol and possibly certain forms of magic mushroom combined with the number of enemies they were tasked with destroying, being precise wasn’t high on their list.”

“So then, what is berserk mode,” Chester asked.

“Technically speaking, going berserk entails having a single one track mind, somewhat like tunnel vision, and little to no registration of pain or fatigue. While it traditionally is caused by substances, it can be achieved through mass quantities of anger derived adrenaline too.” Medi turns away from her screen to face the team. “Miss. Emily detests getting this angry and goes to great efforts to keep from reaching this point, so you can see why this is a very serious development.”

“Don’t get her angry, got it,” Allegra comments thoughtfully.

“Ah ha ha!” Ascoll laughed as he stood again. “Ah, I knew you were bullshitting me. I knew it!”

“You should really brush up on your reading; the Art of War. ‘Rouse him and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity. Force him to reveal himself, so as to find out his vulnerable spots.’” Emily took one step indicating her intention to attack, and in that moment, every window within a city block was shattered and their pieces suspended. Emily’s gaze never once left Ascoll.

“Holy mother,” Joe said to himself in awe seeing all the suspended glass shards hanging in the air. “Alright, everybody fall back,” he said turning to his squad mates. “Priority to the evacuees.”

“Ohh, fancy,” Ascoll mused looking around. “Learned a new trick did you?”

“Congratulations, Ascoll. You’ve managed to piss me off,” Emily snarled.

“Took long enough,” he dismissed.

“So, you want ‘fun’ huh?” Emily asked, hints of twisted amusement trickling onto her face. “Fine, science can be fun. Why don’t we do a little science experiment. Can you tell me what happens when super heated and condensed air suddenly explodes near a solid object?” Just as she finished her sentence, she sprang forward at incredible speed and, before Asoll could react, threw a punch. The resulting bang sounded like a canon went off and he was sent flying into a car with steam billowing out around him. Emily stood, fist steaming as well, ready for another attack and stared at where he landed.

“Ah, you’re getting stronger,” he groaned the compliment as he sat up. “Got a pretty good arm on you.”

“I didn’t even touch you,” she retorted.

“Hmm, pity. Not good enough for that, am I?” he asked charging her.

“Not even close,” she dismissed clasping her hands in front of her by her chest. He had only gotten a few steps closer when she moved them downward, as if to hit a post into the ground with folded hands, and flattened him into the ground again with a round depression imprinted around him. “Sit,” she commanded.

“I’m not one of your dogs!” He protested getting up again.

“Weird, you do an awful lot of barking for not being a canid,” she quipped back. Growling in growing frustration, Ascoll suddenly threw a small metal object at her, the device hitting its mark and embedding itself into her shoulder. She winced at the pain and reached over just as it administered a strong shock. Ignoring the pain, Emily grabbed hold of the small metal object and forcefully removed it; in the same motion of her ripping it out she returned it to Ascoll hitting him in the leg shocking him instead. “That hurt,” she growled as blood ran down her arm. “You should apologize.”

“I’m….. sorry….. that didn’t….. knock you on your ass,” he mockingly stated through the pain. “I’ll try harder next time.” Raising his arm and making a finger gun, multiple shots rang out. Emily didn’t even flinch as they stopped mere inches from her body. They hung there for a moment before they began to glow red hot and melt right before her. The glowing orbs elongated into knife-like forms taking up position behind her to look like wings.

“So, what was it you said? You weren’t one of my dogs?” she asked clenching her fists. “Good, because I don’t support animal cruelty.” She took a few steps before leaping high into the air and doing a few front flips using the momentum to power a rear heel kick into his back to send him sliding over the pavement on his stomach. “After all, you make a great…. What was it again? Punching bag?”

“Wasn’t… exactly a punch… just now…” Ascoll groaned rolling onto his back.

“I like to kick box occasionally, they use bags denser than you. Now, are you done?”

“Not a chance,” he denied standing again.

“Too bad, I am,” Emily stated taking pointed and deliberate steps toward him. The bladed ‘wings’ firing one ‘feather’ after another at him making small cuts all over and even through his body. Finally showing signs of the damage being dealt to him, Ascoll did the same albeit with moderate difficulty and a glare full of seething anger. As soon as he made a move to charger her, she kicked his legs out from under him sweeping him off his feet before quickly following with a high kick sending him flying vertically over head. Without giving him a moment of hang time, she brought her hand down in a chopping motion bringing a field down and Ascoll with it to the ground, finally dealing enough damage to his internal systems he was no longer able to get up. Giving a satisfied sigh of relief and rolling her shoulders, she strolled over to him; not quite casually but she now didn’t need to be so full on the attack.

As he laid there struggling to make even small movements, grunting a groaning demanding his body get up, he knew he was done. It was a scenario that had played out many times, 764 to be exact, with most resulting in him being utterly broken. He cursed his memory, a compilation of the other models before him in an effort for the next to do better, for reminding him of his near constant inferiority. The only solace he had in this play through was how submissive he managed to make her. *It never ends well when her loved ones are threatened,* he thought to himself. *When will I learn that?* He chuckled, painfully, to himself. It was a habit he fell into time and time again but he just could not help it. Straining to turn his head as Emily came into view, he smiled. Her eyes were cold, unlike the burning hatred that filled his, as she studied him. *Always cautious.*

“You’ve gotten quite strong,” he commented gritting his teeth.

“Curious you believe that,” she replied stepping over him. “Rather than realizing, it would be foolish to show the full scope right away.” His face dropped realizing everything he knew about her, even the maximum she could achieve, was all moot. She had been alive for a very long time, her abilities growing along with her. There was no telling what it was she could really do and he should consider himself lucky he’s gotten off with just beatings. “If you know your enemy and know yourself,” she continued, “your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete.” She paused looking down at him smirking as he took in this new information. “For as advanced as you say you are, you really are quite slow on the uptake.” Raising her hand toward the sky, Ascoll watched as a small object was dropped from high above them. “Good bye, Ascoll. Don’t come back.” Fear flashed on his face for a second when he recognized what she had caught just before her entire body fell to plunge it into his skull, just above the bridge of his nose and between the eyes.

A wave or relief came over her as she sat there, crouched over his chest as his processes shut down one by one. She stood, shakily, as Tinker flew down to her to oversee the disintegration of the body and information download. “Ah, sorry about that guys,” she said turning communication back on for her relay. “I needed to concentrate…. And there wasn’t…. Really any time to…. Explain….” She heaved heavy breaths as her body became flooded with serotonin and her adrenaline reserves began to deplete. “I hope I…. Didn’t worry you tuh—too much….”

“You,” Nash replied with a chuckle. “You really….. had us worried there. But, I’m sure I can speak for everyone when I say we’re glad you’re ok.”

“Oh, huh, man I— I don’t…. Feel so good…. Kinda… kinda dizzy….” she said taking a few staggered steps. Medi started alarming again as Emily’s stats suddenly started to drop. “Barry!” she called in alarm. “She’s crashing!” With just a nod Barry sped out of the lab and toward her last known location. She was stumbling around seemingly disoriented and muttered something about seeing a familiar man watching in the sidelines before she collapsed into Barry’s arms. He quickly returned to the lab putting her in the medical bay bed and hooked her up to monitoring equipment.

“What happened?” Nash asked as Caitlyn stepped in to stabilize Emily. Before she could answer, Medi flew in and began doing a comprehensive body scan. “It would seem she’s sustained a substantial amount of internal blunt force injuries,” she explained. “Tell me how to help,” Caitlyn offered putting on a pair of gloves.

“Keep a watch on her vitals while I mix a compound,” Medi instructed. With a nod, Caitlyn began monitoring the plummeting numbers giving her fluid to try to keep them up.

“How— when did this happen?” Barry asked. “She seemed to be doing fine before, she even seemed to brush off the attacks like nothing.”

“While it’s true she’s very durable, as she said before, we are unaware of exactly what Ascoll was capable of,” Medi explained. “This was the case for her as well, resulting in her fields not being complete enough to protect against the shock of the trauma. She’s not indestructible after all.”

“She’s most likely experiencing heavy internal bleeding,” Caitlyn added. “She had multiple center

-of-mass hits she needed to absorb.”

“She’ll be ok though, right?” Nash asked worriedly. “I mean, I know you said she’s durable but—“

“Hey, Nash,” Allegra said trying to distract him. “Why don’t we go wait over here and get out of the way?” Gently tugging on his arm, Nash was led away so Caitlyn and Medi could attend to the unconscious Emily. They wandered to the lounge and sat in relative silence for a while with Allegra trying to make small talk and offering him coffee in order to distract him. It was different, seeing him worry about someone other than her. She didn’t know why it bothered her but she would do what she could to calm his nerves. She liked her too after all.

——

A few hours had passed, though Emily couldn’t tell for sure how many, when she finally returned to the waking world. It was dark and quiet, the cortex empty as far as she could see, the soft glow of the monitoring equipment was all that lit her room. Medi hovered around monitoring her vitals as she laid there. She had an IV line in and a few different fluid bags connected with bruises covering her body, but that was the only thing to indicate anything had happened “Just in case you’re wondering,” Medi said just above her, “you had two broken ribs which caused moderate internal bleeding and severely bruised abdominal muscles. Minor neurological issues were present but went away rather quickly.” She stopped in fron of her face making what could be described as a sigh. “Not the worse shape you’ve been in but, it looks like you took your recovery slow this time.”

“Hmm, is that all?” Emily asked trying to lighten the news.

“Fortunately, yes,” Medi confirmed. “Though, you *did* make him rather nervous.” She bobbed down toward her side bringing Emily’s attention to the sleeping figure laying by her. She had vaguely registered a weight when she had first woken but didn’t realize it was the head of a slumped over and sleeping Nash. She smiled softly watching him breath with a slight bit of snoring too. She looked up hearing a shuffle from the cortex finding Barry peeking in to check on her. “Barry? What are you doing here so late?”

“Ah, just…. figured I’d check in,” he explained. “That was quite the impressive battle, and you did take a lot of damage. Just wanted to make sure you were alright.”

“She’s alright, she was given synthetic building blocks for her body to heal quickly while using nanites to get the major damage taken care of before all the little things,” Medi explained. “The process doesn’t really negate pain so, we had to give her something for it. It’s why she was sleeping for so long.”

“Ssoooo….?” Barry trailed not quite understanding the explanation.

“She’s fine, just exhausted. The serum I administered acts like your speed healing but she had to deal with a lot of pain.”

“And you’re sure she’s alright?”

“A little roughed up but yeah, nothing she can’t handle with time,” Medi assured. He smiled nodding his head. “Get a lot of rest then, alright?”

“Of course,” Emily assured returning the smile. Just as Barry began turning to leave, Emily piped up. “Uhm, Barry,” she called sitting up a little and he stopped, turning to face her again. “I uh, back there. I thought I saw someone watching everything.”

“Uh, yeah, I thought I heard you say a name but couldn’t quite make it out,” Barry confirmed. “Who did you see?”

“Well, it’s possible it was due to the sudden drop in adrenaline and, you know, all the beatings causing delirium but, I’m positive I saw… Eobard…. Watching….” Barry paused studying her face, she was confident in her statement though could tell she was hesitant in telling him due to his history with the famed Man in Yellow. “Emily, Thawn is… not here,” he said slowly trying to assure her. “He’s been erased from the timeline, he doesn’t exist physically anymore. He’s just tachyons.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I just…..” she trailed off. “I can’t shake the feeling that he…. somehow came back. You know how he is after all, steps ahead and all that.”

“Yeah, and I know what you’ve said. What you’ve proved to know, I trust your knowledge and input so… what does your experience tell you?” Emily stayed quiet thinking about the possibilities and collective 4th wall breaking knowledge. “It’s, difficult to to say but….. there is a possibility,” she finally admitted. “But I really can’t be sure. After the crisis and reforming of the multiverse into one, it’s become very difficult to tell which storyline we are on.” Barry stayed silent processing this information. “So there’s…. a possibility that he doesn’t, right?” he asked. She nodded in response. “Yes, it is possible.”

“Then, we’ll treat it as a story line where he’s gone for good going forward,” he determined. “And if it comes to pass, we’ll deal with it. But for right now, it’s not worth worrying about.” Emily nodded dropping her gaze to her hands. “No need in stressing about what might be when we have plenty of things happening now that we can worry about, right?” She nodded again before lifting her head to smile at him. “Yeah, doesn’t make much sense.”

“Now, seriously, get some rest,” he said smiling at her. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Ok,” she nodded as he finally left the room. She watched him leave for a minute before her eyes fell onto the sleeping Nash. Somehow he stayed asleep through the whole conversation snoring all the while. She chuckled to herself running her fingers through his hair. *I loose a lot, often,* she thought. *No telling when I’ll get pulled somewhere else, may as well live in the now for as long as I can. I’m tired of worrying so much, when I’m so lucky to have what I have now. I’ll worry about what comes next tomorrow but…. Who says tomorrow has to actually be tomorrow?* Smiling again, she settled down to sleep the rest if the night away. Tomorrow’s going to be the start of something new.

————————••••••••————————

~Fin~

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thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

Text

No More Distractions

Flash Fanfic

Word count: 1,399

Pairings: oc x canon

Warnings: none, lots of fluff, hint hinting 👀

**Note: Emily is my original character. She has her own story she belongs to but I like sticking her in random places and letting my mind wander to see what comes of things. This and other stories are made for fun. Enjoy!**

——

*Things seem to be getting rather intimate between Emily and Nash, but with the myriad of consciousnesses entwined within his own, will Nash be able to keep “on task”?*

—

Nash was smart, maybe not in the way the team was used to but, he was still quite ingenious. However, he also had a tendency to be incredibly oblivious to certain social cues. Emily found this out the hard way when she tried subtly flirting with him and everyone else seemed to get what she was trying to hint at. She had resigned herself to having to be more obvious and so set about planning how best to convey it.

On one of the nights Emily stayed over Nash’s for the night, he was sitting at the table in relative quiet while Emily mulled around. He didn’t realize she had disappeared into the bedroom for a while until she appeared a short while later wearing a very large oversized tee shirt. Sitting down at the table like nothing was out of the ordinary, she popped up a holoscreen and began looking through the days data that had been collected. Now, her wearing a shirt like that wasn’t unusual, she had done so before namely with one of his own. But he did notice there was something off, he just wasn’t able to put his finger on it. “Hey,” he said looking her over trying to figure out what it was.

“Hey,” she greeted back still looking through the various screens.

“Whaaaat cha doing?” He asked squinting.

“Oh, just sitting,” she said lazily. “Going over any new data from today. You?”

“Re— uh— research….” he trailed off.

“Research, huh?” Emily hummed.

“Yeah, yup,” Nash replied turning his attention back to his books and papers. “Lots of….. research.”

“Find anything interesting?”

“No, not uh…. Not yet.”

“Really?” Sherloque asked having appeared beside Emily. “You’re not going to inquire as to why she has decided to dress such a particular way?”

“Can’t fault him for bein oblivious,” Lothario reasoned sauntering around Nash and toward Emily. “She’s dressed as such on other occasions, how’s he t’know what she means?”

“What?” Nash asks instinctively forgetting Emily can’t see them. He didn’t notice her eyes momentarily focus on him through the screen she was looking at and smirk having understood he subconsciously summoned at least one Wells. He quizzically looked at Lothario causing both him and Sherloque to roll their eyes. Lothario continued around the table to stand behind her. “Oversized shirt hanging off one shoulder, no indication of a brassiere, no pants…. Nooo….. underweeearrr……” he trailed off tilting his entire torso to get a better look raising his eyebrows as he did so. “Leaning over the table in your direction, the smirking, the occasional glances,” Sherloque added. Nash scowled returning his attention to his book trying very hard to keep his mind from picturing what was being described. “Son, if you still not gettin what she’s obviously indicatin, there ain’t no hope for you. At all,” Lothario said disappointedly.

Fake yawning and exaggerating a stretch, Emily rubbed her eye sleepily closing her screen. “Hmm, well, I’m gonna go to bed. Don’t stay up too late,” she half winked before turning toward the door and disappearing inside. Nash, mildly panicking, darted his eyes from the door to Lothario a few times in disbelief. “She’s gettin away…” he said trying to urge him to move. Pausing for just a moment, he suddenly shot out of his seat and toward the room Emily entered nearly tripping on his own feet doing so. Half crashing into the doorframe he then used to brace himself, he was greeted by a sitting Emily who had taken up residence in the middle of the bed. “Well hi,” she said with a small amused chuckle. “Having a case of left feet are we?”

“I uh….. yeah….. maybe a little,” he stuttered cautiously walking closer to her.

“Theeennn….. perhaps it would be a good idea to….. turn in early….” Emily trailed leaning forward bracing herself with her hands on her thighs. “Don’t want to wait until you’re too tired to walk after all.”

“I’m…. Surprisingly wide…. a-awake,” he mumbled making his way onto the bed, not once did he break eye contact with her. If this was a dream, he didn’t want to wake up; not yet.

Emily raised an eyebrow quickly looking him over. “Does that mean you’re going to go back to your research?”

“Perhaps I’ve…. found a new…. topic to…. study….” he said with a smirk closing the distance between them. Emily smiled back inching away just enough to draw him closer to her. “Well, I’ll be happy to render my assistance in an way you might need…” she proffered before their lips met. His hands, rough from his many years of geological expeditions, ran their way over her soft thighs as he inched ever closer to her. As one moved to her hip the other wound its way around to her back sliding up under her shirt and moving it just enough he could, indeed, tell it was the only piece of clothing she was wearing. As she began pulling his shirt off, Lothario appeared off to the side to watch how the events would unfold and offer any helpful hint given his extensive experience.

“Don’t be too eager now,” he commented. “Ya gotta make her want yer touch, as much as ya want hers.” Nash glared at him as his shirt came up and over his head, an attempt at silently telling him to leave him alone. Of all times a Wells could appear, this was one that was least desirable. “‘Ey, if you wanna let this sensual experience t’come n’go so fast you cannat enjoy it, fine by me,” he scoffed.

As Emily pulled him into another kiss and her hands made their way to his belt to help remove the annoyance, Sherloque reappeared as well. “Leave the man alone,” he said attempting to pull Lothario away. “If he wants to make a buffoon of himself as he bumbles his way through such a thing, he should be able to do so in peace.”

“It pains me so, seein him throw such a beauty of a thing away,” Lothario lamented.

“I have to agree,” H. R. said observing the scene. “I mean, wow. Who would have thought she had that kind of figure under all those pieces of cloths, am I right guys? You are a lucky man, Nash. Really, I mean we had our casual flirtations but this? This is—“

“Will you shut up?!” Nash finally yelled turning his attention from Emily to the near by wall. The abrupt break in flow stunned her bringing about mild disappointment finding herself half pushed to the side. She sighed as his body turned fully away from her as he continued arguing with the empty space and the figures only he could see and hear.

“I don’t care about your advice,” he continued. “You guys don’t ever stop. Leave me alone!”

“You ain’t gonna get the most outta it if ya keep goin like that, son,” Lothario scolded.

“Hey, you think she’d like…. Ok hear me out. There was this one move where—“ H. R. tried inputting.

“Alright, alright,” Sherloque cut in. “You heard him, lets just leave him alone to blow this on his own.”

“Really, you’re not helping,” Nash complained.

“Look, stop payin so much attention to us, she’s loosin interest. Probably disappointed.”

“How, when you don’t —“ Nash began before Emily placed a hand on his cheek slowly turning his head to her and pulling his attention with it.

“Naaashh,” she said in a somewhat singsong tone. His face fell and became soft as everything melted away. “Say good-bye to your friends,” she instructed softly caressing his face. She couldn’t see but the other Wells’ were just as transfixed as he was. “Uh, ehm. Good-bye…?” He stammered. She smiled swinging a leg over to sit in his lap, pressing so close to him he was sure he’d pass out from the sudden unexpected presence, not to mention the possibility she’d feel how ready he was already. “Now, no more talking, no more them. No. More. Distractions.” He could only nod, and she smiled as their lips met again, his hands roaming again, and no distractions came up for the rest of their blissful night.

————————••••••••————————

~Fin~

#the flash #flash fiction #fan fiction #oc x canon #my oc shit #funny #nash wells #sherloque wells #writing

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thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

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I’ve spent so much time making an outline for a story that I haven’t finished the other one I started

👀👀

Oops

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thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

Text

I hot a few reblogs and honestly

It makes me happy knowing someone liked my stuff enough to share it

Thanks! ❤️🥔🎨

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thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

Text

It has come to my realization that no body really knows what Emily looks like

Besides maybe her eyes being turquoise

So allow me to introduce, properly....

Emily Struthers

Age: 122, looks 17-19

Height: 5’ 3”

Weight: 127lbs

Hair: long, medium thickness, just below shoulder blades, red/brown (auburn?) and wavy. Usually gets in her face.

Complexion: fair, light tan with occasional freckles and rosy cheeks. Skin is usually soft

Eye color: turquoise, sometimes more blue or green

Personality: shy, quiet, inquisitive and occasionally bold. Tends to be more creatively inclined, enjoys singing and dancing, can usually be found with a wandering mind somewhere on her own. Has basic technical background having decent comprehension of maths and sciences, anything she doesn’t know she will look up and is always curious. Hobby since childhood had been astronomy, wants to see the Prague astrological clock some day and maybe even the louvre. Has a soft heart and caring disposition thanks to her mother, tendencies to help others are strong.

Emily doesn’t like being in the spotlight and will more often than not be on her own doing her own thing. This makes it difficult for her to make friends and often a target of bullying but allows for the scholarly life to more or less thrive. Provided she get very comfortable with the company around her, she becomes flirty and more outgoing often getting into mock fights with them; like her mom.

Once I manage to get a wiki type explanation for her as if she was in the Flash, I’ll post it up. I also have this whole thing for her and Quinn and Co. but that’s another rat-nest all together. If I figure myself out i’ll post that up too. But for now enjoy this little blurb 😊

🎨 🥔

#the flash #my oc tag #my oc shit #art #fantasy #backstory #character profile

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thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

Text

Crossed Wires pt.4

Flash Fanfic

Warnings: None

Word Count: ~3,000

Pairings: Oc x Canon

——

“Hey uh, is Emily alright?” Ralph asked wandering into the room and gesturing to the hall behind him. “She seemed kinda... off....” He paused pointing to Harry. “Are you-?”

“Harry, again,” he replied finishing his thought.

“Again? Wha?” Ralph asked puzzled.

“Yeah, you missed Lothario, Wolfgang and H. P.,” Cisco said forcing a smile. Ralph only became more confused by the unfamiliar name list and scratched his head. “So, those are.....?”

“Other entangled consciousnesses, yes,” Harry answered. “It would seem that, due to recent circumstances, they essentially have free reign.”

“Well that can’t be good,” Ralph commented. “No, it isn’t,” Harry responded rather curtly. “Did you happen to see where she was going?” Ralph shook his head. “I’m not sure of the destination but she was walking pretty fast down the hall to the elevator. Didn’t even say hi.” Harry rubbed his chin as he sunk into thought. There were quite a lot of places the elevators lead to, certainly there was a more sure way of predicting where she went other than checking each floor. “Was there any particular place she spent a lot of time in the past? Other than her room that is.”

They all paused to consider the question scouring their memories for any kind of clue. It had been quite a few years now since she was first held at the lab under instructions from Thawn so there was a lot of information to sift through. “Well, she has been spending more time at Jitters lately. Specifically the loft area,” Ralph offered. “Maybe she needs the distraction of so many conversations.”

“Yeah, but even before Eddie erased Thawn from the timeline she seemed to really like the pipeline,” Cisco countered. “Even leading up to when he eventually showed himself she would be down there.”

“She did train in the bunker a fair bit,” Caitlyn said thoughtfully. “I’m not sure about when we all went home but Dr. Wells did find her down there quite often.”

After a brief pause in consideration, Harry straightened his back and started to leave. “I know where she is,” he said as he left leaving everyone rather curious. It was only when he stepped inside the elevator and pushed a button that he realized he had no idea what he wanted to say. He smiled to himself and decided, just this once, he would go with it and see what happened.

Once the elevator dinged, he took a breath and stepped out making his way toward the large door of the pipeline. It was closed as always, seeing as they weren’t keeping metas there anymore nor using it to accelerate particles, making him momentarily doubt his choice but went ahead and opened it anyway. Slipping his hands into his pockets he walked out onto the bridge just outside the door and stood quietly looking around. “I know your here,” he said after a short while still observing the surroundings. Slowly Emily peeked around from underneath and floated up bringing a smile to Harry’s face. “There you are.” She kept her distance continuing to hover off the ground, still not quite convinced and very much worried about his condition, watching him warily.

“It’s Harry,” he assured. “It’s ok.” He reached out a hand beaconing her over and after a brief pause she took it landing softly in front of him. “So, wanna tell me why you came down here?” he asked.

“It’s... uh..... it’s quiet,” Emily replied still not quite relaxed, though not wanting to let his hand go. Her gaze was fixed on their joined hands and her thumb slowly ran over his knuckles while she considered the rest of her response. Harry just stood quietly letting her compose herself. “It, uh.... it..... was the only place where, when all this.... started.... where I figured, I’d have the best chance of,” she took a breath not having noticed she had been holding it and took the opportunity to quickly iron out what she was rambling on about. “I figured it’d be the best place to get any kind of... I dunno, hint or, glimmer of progress to getting home to my Earth. It.... also gave to opportunity to.... get away from Eobard.” Her eyes were still glued to his hand and he got the feeling she really didn’t want to make eye contact.

“Did it work?” He asked attempting to catch her gaze. “Getting any hints I mean.”

Emily shook her head. “No, not really. Flukes here and there but, not enough to give definitive evidence. Kind of like the wow signal.” After a brief pause she finally looked up, Harry’s face softening a bit in response. “Now, that can’t be all you came down here for. So, why are you here?” she asked.

Harry froze for a second getting distracted by her eyes, they held so many emotions at once it was difficult to discern what her current one was. He smiled and cast his gaze down with a small chuckle. “Ok, you got me,” he said before meeting her gaze again. “When I came back to the front, you were gone. Aaaand, everyone was looking down an empty hall, and when Ralph said you didn’t say hi, I knew something must have been up. You always make a point of greeting the team.” Emily smiled a little, her worry lessening just a bit. “Sooo, I came to see if you were alright. That and, inform you of an idea me and the other subconscious Wells’ thought up.”

“Oh?” Emily remarked in surprise.

“Yup, though it wasn’t easy given Lothario and Wolfgang fighting. Mostly Wolfgang,” he replied a little sourly.

“I bet,” she mused relaxing a bit more. “I’m surprised Harrison the Gray didn’t come up, or Sony.”

“Oh, they did. They were actually surprisingly helpful.” Emily raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “Ok, maybe not so much the wizard,” Harry admitted, “but they did help get different perspectives, like with the DeVoe problem.”

“Good to know you still have your council friends,” Emily smiled. “So, what did they come up with?” Harry looked down at his feet trying to formulate his wording. “Well,” he began, “it involves you, being in the vicinity. Like an anchor point.” She looked at him somewhat confused. “Look, it’s a mess.... in there. And, given your relatively strong connection to him, especially recently, it should help aim him in the right direction at the very least.”

“You really think that’ll work?” Emily asked, hint of hopefulness in her question.

“Worked for me,” he said simply. Bemused, a small smile began to spread over Emily’s face before her features softened to her usual demeanor. “Is it.... selfish of me... to not want him to be successful?” he asked after a brief pause. She looked at him a little confused. “What?” she asked cocking her head to one side.

“Is it wrong I don’t want it to work?” he asked again. Emily frowned sympathetically at him and sighed. “Harry...”

“It’s just,” he continued, “I feel like..... I feel like I.... lost time. So much time. Time grieving, being bitter, being so focused in being overly protective of Jessie, throwing my all at Flash problems, being scared...” Emily pulled him into a hug and just held him; she listened to his heart beat and his breathing become heavy with him explaining himself and trying to keep his composure. “Do you.... blame me?” He asked softly. She stayed quiet but he didn’t really need her to answer out loud. He knew what she would say.

“Do you know.... what my mom, told me? When I left home?” Emily asked after a long pause. “She said, when I told her I wouldn’t be able to come home for a very long while, when I told her it was for her safety, she said it was ok. And, it would be ok because, because she would keep me in a special place in her heart.” She rubbed her cheek on his chest and sighed deeply, Harry engulfing her in a firm hug. “So, whenever she was sad, she would go to that special place and.... it wouldn’t be so bad. And I did the same.”

“So, are you saying I should just be ok with this?”

Emily looked up and shook her head. “No, not completely anyway. I don’t expect you to, but, maybe.... this can make it a little easier?” He sighed heavily placing a hand on her cheek to gently stroke it. “I suppose,” he relented as his face softened. “Though it’s going to be incredibly difficult to come to terms with not being able to touch you anymore.”Emily smiled cheekily. “I’m sure Nash can cover that front.” He frowned unamused making her stick her tongue out playfully. “Not. Helpful,” he said dryly. Emily grinned wide prompting Harry to squeeze her in a hug again. “I’m going to miss this,” he lamented. She buried her face into him squeezing back before he let go. “Alright, ready to go get Nash?” She nodded slipping her hand into his as they turned to head toward the elevator. They rode up in silence but Emily was still tense, her hand alternating between squeezing and a relaxed grip and sticking particularly close to his side.

As they exited the open steel doors and made their way down the hall, which felt like the longest ever hike to Emily, Harry could feel her pulse in her hand from how high her blood pressure had spiked due to worry and stress. He gave a gentle squeeze to distract her just enough to earn her gaze. “Hey,” he said with a low almost raspy voice. “You really think the brightest minds of the former multiverse and the most stubborn geologist treasure hunter can’t pull this off?” She paused, then smiled for a moment before worry took over her face again. “No, I suppose not,” she admitted. “You’re all too stubborn to fail.” Harry smirked as they rounded the corner, everyone in the medical bay waiting for their return. Cisco smiled gently in welcome and one by one, everyone else mirrored it.

“We’re sorry we didn’t realize how not ok you were with developments,” Caitlyn apologized.

“I think I did pretty well, all things considered,” Emily responded trying to mellow her nerves.

“Ready to put it all behind you?” Cisco asked holding up the neural device. Emily glanced up at Harry who smiled down at her. “Ready when you are,” he said resolute. She took a deep breath and nodded, Harry releasing her hand to approach Cisco giving him a half wink indicating he was ready. They all walked into the med bay, Harry sitting on the gurney to get the device affixed and Emily lingering outside the door a bit.

“Now, this isn’t quite synced to Nash’s brainwaves,” Cisco explained pointing to the thing in his hand before carefully attaching it to Harry’s forehead. “It will gradually get there, but it’s starting at one similar to yours in order to ease the transition.” Harry nodded in understanding before looking at Emily. “I’m ready,” he said to no one in particular before Cisco initiated the program. Harry’s body became rigid and his eyes dilated as he stared into nothing, Cisco and Caitlyn monitoring his brainwaves closely and Emily, now barely breathing, felt worry begin to bubble again. “How are you feeling?” Caitlyn asked flicking her eyes between her tablet and Harry.

“It’s.... strange,” Harry managed to grunt out. It seemed like he was experiencing a measure of discomfort, and Emily hoped it wasn’t accompanied by pain. “M-my body feels.... fuzzy,” he continued. “No.... not fuzzy..... like static.”

“Is that.... good?” Emily asked.

“Well, it’s not bad,” Caitlyn tried comforting. “All the readings are within safe measure, blood pressure and pulse a little elevated but nothing too concerning.”

“Device still working perfectly,” Cisco added. “And it looks like his brainwaves are beginning to iron themselves out.”

“Snow....” Harry grunted again. “I think.... I’m about to...” his sentence was cut short as his consciousness was pulled from the front. The room was tense as his eyes went blank, his head lulled forward a bit but his body continued to stay rather rigid. Caitlyn and Cisco continued vigilant monitoring of the readings as Emily held her breath not daring to drop her gaze. A few more tense seconds passed before Harry inhaled sharply becoming alert again startling the group. “Harry?” Cisco nearly shouted in question. “Ah, no,” his voice said in yet one more curious variation. “Sherloque, but don’t.....worry. I’m just..... a placeholder. Nash.... Nash got swept away. Don’t.... worry, I’m here to.... help him get.... settled again.” His head fell back and alarms started going off sending panic shooting through Emily as Cisco and Caitlyn began to scramble. Ralph stood close to her in order to act as a grounding presence, hoping to distract her even just slightly. “Guys, what’s going on?” He asked for her.

“Working on it,” Cisco responded in stress and annoyance as he started making adjustments, Caitlyn was doing the same as she began regretting what they were doing. Emily’s eyes began to swell with tears as her stress started hitting an all time high even making Ralph become uncharacteristically tense. Sherloque shuddered making a loud noise causing the whole room jump, the alarms still going off as he fought to catch his breath. He placed a hand on his head and leaned back, the alarms finally stopping after a moment, and everyone stared in anticipation.

“Ugh, my head,” he complained. “It’s killing me.”

“Sherloque?” Caitlyn asked tentatively.

He shook his head. “No, no. It’s Nash, I’m back. Has it always been this bright in here?” He looked around the room as everyone started laughing in relief and his gaze landed on Emily. “Hey,” he said with a smile, one eye still closed from the headache. “Hey...” Emily replies in a raspy voice, the wave of relief threatening to push the tears over the point of no return and start an ugly crying event. She shuffled over to him and wrapped him in a tight hug burying her face into his chest. “Hwa- hey. Hey, careful. I have to remember how to breathe again,” he chuckled. “I’m just glad you found your way back,” she said quietly. Nash smiled down at her placing his hand on her back trying to comfort and calm her strained breathing from fighting her impending breakdown.

“We’ll have to keep him for observation for a few days,” Caitlyn said finally pulling her attention away from the readings. “Just to be on the safe side.”

“Yeah, you know, make sure his brain is just on one track,” Cisco added. “And wont do any mental gymnastics.” Emily turned to face them and nodded still keeping hold of Nash. “Yeah, ok. Understandable.”

“You pretty much live here anyway,” Ralph chimed in from the doorway. “So you’ll get word immediately if he needs anything. Or, you know, somethin goes wrong. Which it won’t, not with Caitlyn, Frost and Cisco on the look out.” Having finally let go of Nash, Emily turned to Ralph and made a face though understood he was trying to reassure her in his own way. Shortly after, Barry walked in having become curious of the gathering. “Hey guys,” he said glancing at everyone before settling on Nash. “Everything ok, Harry?”

“Ah, yeah but, not Harry,” Nash replied. “I’m Nash again, the one and only. Good as new too.”

“So far,” Caitlyn followed. “We’re keeping an eye on him for a while just in case.”

“Oh, ok. Yeah, that makes sense. Good to have you back Nash,” Barry concludes with a smile. Nash smiled back before glancing over to Emily who resigned to gently lay her hand over one of his. “Yeah, good to be back. So, I guess I’ll be the one staying over your place for a change,” he said with a wink turning his full attention to Emily. She raises an eyebrow trying hard to keep an amused smile from appearing. “Yeah, I suppose you will.”

“Will make it a lot easier to make visiting hours too,” he said raising his eyebrows. Emily’s smirk spreads a little more as her battle to keep a straight face was beginning to fail. “Mhmm, yeah that’s true,” she agreed

“Aannnd, well, given Caitlyn, or should I say Frost, will be busy with.... you know.... Flash things..... she might need....”

“Help?” Emily cut off. “So what, you want me to play nurse?” Nash blinked for a moment and froze, silent smiles adorned the faces around the room. “I..... uh.... well....” he stuttered before Emily finally broke into a smile. “As much as I would love to do that for you, I don’t want to compromise your recovery.” Nash raised an eyebrow in confusion as she glanced behind him toward Caitlyn who was catching on to what she was getting at. “Such distractions could hinder progress,” she continued, “but I’ll be sure to visit often. Don’t worry.”

“It’s true,” Caitlyn added. “Considering the circumstances in which it happened, we don’t want to risk too much of the similar stimulus doing the same thing,” She concluded and winked at Emily.

“Wh- bu-“ he stuttered. She winked sticking her tongue out a little leaving him defeated before gently patting his cheek continuing to smile. “But seriously, Nash, I want you to rest so you can get better as fast as you can. Alright?” He huffed but relented, placing his hand over the one on his cheek. “Ok.”

“So!” Emily said suddenly surprising Nash, “I’m gonna go pop over to your place and make sure it’s all squared away while you’re recovering and then I’ll be right back. Ok?”

“Hurry back,” he replied contentedly with a smile. With one last grin Emily popped away through a wormhole leaving Nash to settle in. Frost, who had resumed control once again, had taken over setting up monitoring his recovery progress. Her bedside manners had improved though she still wasn’t much of a fan of his jokes. Mostly because she didn’t really get them. None-the-less, she kept pleasant conversation with him, pleasant for her anyway, during her setting up and he did his best to behave. When Emily returned about two hours later, she hung around him far more often that she teased she would; not that he minded. She did give him plenty of down time to just rest and let his mind be calm which, after a while, he was rather grateful for. Maybe she does know more of this science stuff than she thinks and has led everyone to believe.

After having awoken late that evening, not even realizing he dozed off in the first place, he found the lab was dark and quiet. Momentarily taking stock of his surroundings he was somewhat startled to hear breathing and light snoring near by, finding Emily had *somehow* managed to curl up on a near by chair and fall asleep. He still had no idea how she could bend the way she did and was always in awe of the new stretches she seemed to come up with in her sleep. He smiles amused before noticing someone in his peripheral startling him again. Only when he recognized his own face but on another body did he relax. “Jee-zus!” he nearly screeched. “Honestly, I know you’re in my head and all but do you *really* have to do that?”

The figure just stands quietly making it difficult which Wells personality has come up let alone where he’s looking. “I apologize,” he said taking a step forward. “It took quite a lot to get here.”

“Ah, Harry,” he recognized. “Nice to see your face again. Or, well, mine...” Harry just sighed not amused with his attempt at a joke. “How are you feeling?” He asked Nash though still not quite making eye contact. Nash scratches his head in brief thought. “Well, the headaches aren’t so bad, and my head doesn’t feel fuzzy anymore,” he attempted at small talk. “So, why are you....?” He began asking.

“Take care of her, alright?” Harry interrupted. Nash pauses finally realizing Harry is looking at the sleeping Emily in the chair. “Uh, yeah. Obviously,” Nash began. “No, I mean it,” Harry interrupted again. “Take good care of her, understand?” Nash paused again somewhat confused just looking at him. Harry had glared at him infusing his last sentence with command before it softened and drifted back to Emily. “She’s a good one, a really good one,” he said somberly. “So if you do anything to hurt her, or don’t protect her, or otherwise make her angry enough to leave, so help me I will—“

“Who, hey, relax!” Nash defended flinching at the sudden two step charge Harry made. He may be a projection of his mind but his reflexes still registered a potential punch to the face. Could mental punches even hurt? “I knooowww, alright!” he said bracing himself. Emily stirred at the raised voice making both of them freeze. Once she settled back down Nash let out his held breath turning his attention back to Harry. “I know, ok? You don’t think I do? That’s why it took me so long to even say anything.” Harry paused thoughtfully finally giving Nash attention and not just fleetingly. “Yeah, I know,” he agreed quietly. “We had a conversation about it, over brownies no less.”

Nash smiled. “Yeah, she makes some really good brownies doesn’t she?” Harry smiles in affirmation. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect her to my best ability.”

“Good,” Harry concludes. “Because, it’s not so much I’m worried about her getting seriously injured; she’s really quite capable of doing that even when not in dire situations; but rather, if she does wind up getting hurt even if not in a physical way, she’s more than capable of beating your ass for it.” Nash froze and his face fell having never really thought of that making Harry chuckle and smirk. “So yeah, don’t make her mad. Understand?” Nash nods. “Yeah, yeah sure thing.” Harry chuckles one last time before disappearing. “Be glad she likes you,” he says with a wave.

Nash sits quietly in his bed going over what Harry had said. While he was very well aware what a catch she was, he never really considered how lucky he was, as well as the team, that she had become so fond of them. Her abilities were still not fully explained or explored, even in her own words, and from what they had observed so far would make her quite the formidable enemy should she so choose. He looked over at the chair she was in again, once again observing a new and more strange contortion, and smiled. “Yeah, lucky me.”

————————••••••••————————

~Fin~

#killer frost #caitlyn snow #barry allen #nash wells #harrison wells #harry wells #ralph dibny #cisco ramon #fanfic #my oc tag #oc x canon #science fiction

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thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

Text

Hello~!

I just want to let you lovelies know that I have posted parts 2 and 3 of “Crossed Wires”, I was just a dummy and didn’t add part 2 and part 3 in the titles so it probably looks like I just reposted part 1. My apologies for the confusion and anyone waiting and wondering where they are.

MSB~🥔🎨

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thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

Text

Crossed Wires pt.3

Flash Fanfic

——

Warnings: None

Word Count: ~2,500

Pairings: Oc x Canon

***Note: Emily is my own creation, I just like sticking her in random places***

——

Emily woke early the next morning, Harry still sleeping sound beside her. She pondered if it would still be Harry or if Nash took control again before stretching and leaving the warm covers. With one last stretch she rummaged around for something to wear, picking up a pair of her pants before looking for a shirt. Not finding any of her spares that were clean, she instead opted for one of Nash’s. He wouldn’t miss one of his many white shirts nor would he really mind, in fact he seemed to stare a little bit longer whenever she borrowed one. Smiling to herself she slipped out of her sleep shirt and into his before turning to the bed after having heard the sheets ruffle. “Morning,” she said smiling.

“Mornin’,” the response came with a distinctive southern drawl. Emily froze studying the familiar yet unfamiliar face looking back at her. Where in the world did his shirt go? Harry certainly fell asleep with one on. “Whaaa....?” she started confused.

“My apologies,” he replied standing. “Lothario, at your whim and desire.” He bowed low looking her up and down once he righted himself with a half smirk. Emily cringed a bit recognizing who it was that had taken control. “Ah, right. You dropped trow at a council meeting.”

“Made an impression did I?” He asked somewhat smugly taking a few steps toward her. “If only because it was so unexpected,” Emily countered taking a step back. He chuckled having come to a stop a few feet in front of her. “Yes, well, I’m not just impressive to look at. Should you so choose, I’d be more than happy to demonstrate my skills.”

“Ah, no, no thank you. That won’t be necessary,” Emily dismissed stepping around him. “Worried little ole Nash won’t measure up after?” he asked cheekily. Emily spun around and looked him in the eye, something she suspected may have excited him a degree given his reactionary behavior. “Did you forget you’re just borrowing Nash’s body?” she asked.

“Are you implying you’re already, *intimately,* familiar with him?” He attempted at prying. Although she could feel her cheeks become red and ears begin to burn she held her glare. “I’m not gonna stay on this topic,” she declared bringing an intrigued raised eyebrow to the man’s face. “Doppelgängers is carbon copies of each other,” he calls after her as she turns to leave the room. “But that don’t mean he can do what I do.”

“That’s perfectly fine with me,” she called back continuing towards the kitchen. “If you want food you’ll drop it and follow me.” Lothario smirked and followed her keeping quiet about the previous topic like she asked. “Since I’ve only seen you in passing,” she said rounding a corner into the kitchen. “What did you want for breakfast?”

“You,” he said pointedly sauntering up to the table. Emily gave him a look and sighed somewhat annoyed. “I meant food.”

“You look appetizing, you tellin’ me you ain’t nowhere on the menu?” He asked trying his best at flashing a smolder look. Emily glared completely over his schtick. “You’re not the first person with such a mindset I’ve had to deal with,” she said with some authority. “I’m not afraid of enforcing boundaries.”

“Ohh, scary,” he dismissed still smirking.

“Fine, you will get toast and you will like it,” she said matter-of-factly before turning to place four slices of bread in a near by toaster. After pressing the button she spun back around to point at him having heard his steps coming up behind her. “Sit,” she ordered. Rolling his eyes he complied taking a seat near by continuing to watch her and she continued keeping her eye on him. When the toaster popped, and without breaking eye contact, she floated the bread out and a plate from a cupboard before placing the toast onto it floating it over to Lothario. “What, no butter? Honey? Maybe some sugar?” He asked wiggling his eyebrows. Keeping a deadpan face, she floated over butter setting it down next to his plate. “When you’re done I’m taking you to the lab,” she said. “So don’t dawdle.”

“Yes, of course,” he smiled buttering his toast. “Are you gettin’ somethin’ as well?”

“I basically run off cosmic radiation and as such don’t need much food,” she explained. “I’ll be fine.”

“Nonsense,” he dismissed holding up a piece of toast. “Even Superman needs breakfast. ‘Ave one at least.” Emily eyed him for a moment before accepting. “Alright, fine. One piece.” She floated over some brown sugar and cinnamon to sprinkle on top before taking a bite. Lothario watched her curiously. “What you doin’?”

“Hmm? Oh, you’ve never had brown sugar cinnamon toast?” Emily asked mid bite.

“Can’t say that I have,” he responded.

“My mom used to make that for a special breakfast whenever there wasn’t time for actual special breakfast like strawberry shortcake.” Emily explained.

“Sounds delicious,” Lothario replied interested. Emily smiled reflecting on the breakfast memory. “Started by my memere, it has dense biscuits, sliced strawberries and lots and lots of whipped cream.”

“Whipped cream you say?” Lothario asked with a smirk. Emily’s face dropped, her jaw slack and cocked to one side clearly not amused. “Uh huh,” she said before deciding to just play along. “Sometimes it gets all over, just really messy y’know?”

“Uh huh,” Lothario agreed too distracted to finish the piece of toast in his hand.

“‘Course, if you don’t wash it off right away, the cream and syrup from the strawberries just make things really..... really..... sticky.” Emily took slow careful steps toward the table where he was sitting and leaned over it. Lothario stared wide eyed and slack jawed at her, his mind swimming with images until he dropped his toast startling him. Emily smirked. “You done?”

“I uh.... yeah. S’pose so,” he said still dazed.

“Good, lets go then,” she said holding out her hand. Lothario took the opportunity to get up close pulling her right up against him as he held her hand, almost like he was preparing to dance. Emily blushed and felt rather uncomfortable, especially with the placement of his hand so low on her back, but kept her composure enough to form a wormhole and transported them both to the lab. “Caitlyn!” Emily called trying to pry herself away from Lothario who had pressed himself closer to her. It was still rather early in the morning but she had taken note she usually showed up first. Caitlyn rounded the corner into the cortex in time to hear Emily scolding him. “Let me go before your hands are broken,” she said sternly.

“Nash?” Caitlyn asks.

“Lothario,” they both answer simultaneously.

“Please tell me he has cloths on this time,” Cisco pleads from around the corner just as Caitlyn was about to ask what he meant. “Council of Wells, has little to no concept of pants,” Cisco explained seeing Caitlyn’s confusion. “Ah,” she responded in understanding eyeing him warily.

“I made sure he kept pants on,” Emily assured.

“Not for lack of trying,” Lothario teased still keeping uncomfortably close to her. Emily stuck her hand in his face to keep him from making eyes at her. “He’s not very convincing.”

“You didn’t give me an opportunity to,” he countered trying to get his face close again.

“Caitlyn, help, please,” Emily pleaded.

“Alright, ok,” she says heading over to break things up. “Lets see what the device readings are for last night. Maybe it can tell us how to reverse it seeing as its happened again.”

“Don’t feel you need to rush,” Lothario said nonchalantly walking to the exam room. “I’m happy hangin ‘round for a while.” He winked at Emily who huffed still somewhat flustered.

“I think we may have to rush that actually,” Caitlyn said studying the readings. “Why, what is it?” Emily asked concerned. “It would seem that, somehow, the neural device not only monitored but malfunctioned during the night and caused his brainwaves to become unstable.”

“So what does that mean exactly? Is it dangerous?”

“It’s hard to tell but, it’s possible he could suffer permanent brain damage if the instability goes unchecked effectively leaving him in a vegetative state,” she said pointing at the screen.

“So how do we fix that?” Lothario asked now worried himself.

“Well, perhaps we could make adjustments to the device in order to stabilize and prevent spontaneous jumps. Most importantly though, is getting Nash to the front and preventing as many jumps as possible. The more jumps, the more damage.”

“So, I could disappear for good?” Lothario asked. “Caput? Erased? No more?”

“You, and every other Wells entangled in there,” Caitlyn confirmed.

Hearing the news, Emily became restless and tried to keep herself calm. “Emily? Hey, are you alright?” Caitlyn asked concerned. “Yeah, I’ll.... I’ll be ok,” she said stiffly. “Just a bit of anxiety, that’s all. How many jumps happened last night?”

Caitlyn paused while hiding the tablet. “Emily....”

“How many?” She insisted. “Please, it’s gonna be worse if you don’t tell me.” Caitlyn pursed her lips and paused. “According to the data retrieved, it looks like.... maybe 5,” she explained hesitantly. Mild panic flashed over Emily’s face and her whole self seemed to fall. “How bad did that leave things?”

“I can’t say exactly,” Caitlyn admitted. “But, we really don’t want more than that to happen again. Considering he still seems coordinated and aware of what he is doing, if there is any damage it’s not serious and easily reversible.” Emily ran her hands over her face and took a deep breath. “Why don’t you go take a walk?” Cisco suggested. “You look like you could use some air.” Emily shook her head. “No, I’m fine,” she dismissed. Cisco and Caitlyn nodded after a reluctant pause, Lothario studied her curiously mentally noting her attempt at saving face. He could tell she wasn’t handling this as well as she wanted them to believe but didn’t say anything.

“Alright, what’s step one?” She asked crossing her arms and resolving to see a solution.

“First step would be to recalibrate the neural device to stabilize his brainwaves,” Caitlyn explained nodding to Cisco.

“The device is wired mostly to Caitlyn’s brain, which thinking about it now, may have contributed to the malfunction; it wasn’t calibrated to handle so many patterns,” Cisco chimed in. “So we’ll need a detailed recent scan to start things off.”

“We still have the scan from when Eobard was expelled, right?” Emily asked.

“Right!” Caitlyn said remembering the prior events. “We can use that as a ‘target’ for the device. So that just leaves programming it to re-merge the brainwaves and getting Nash back to the front.”

“I’ll see if I can get th’ other Wells’ t’talk,” Lothario offered keeping his attention on Emily. “Don’t worry, we’ll get ‘im back for ya.” He nodded with a genuine smile and not his usual leer. Emily returned it causing a glimmer to appear in his eye and his smile to widen a bit. “So you, go head off with Cisco there and deal with the programming and I’ll stay here with Miss Caitlyn, and work out how to get Nash back.” Emily nodded with a deep sigh before turning to Cisco who ushered her away. “You sure you’re alright?” Cisco asked once they got a few feet down the hall. “I’ll be better when things are sorted,” she muttered. Cisco nodded in agreement before they entered his lab to begin working.

After a bout two and a half hours, Cisco and Emily felt confident they were making good headway. Using the data from the expulsion of Thawn, they modified the device to alternate frequencies until the brainwaves merged back into stable position. All they needed now was for Nash to be in the forefront when everything fell into place. “This should keep jumps from happening,” Cisco explained holding the modified device. “Once Nash takes control, we can increase the frequency to start and hopefully complete the merging process.”

Emily smiles and sighs with some relief. “Alright, lets get this to Lothario and see if it helps stabilize things,” she suggested. Cisco nods in agreement and they both leave for the cortex. “When we see the results of this first test, we can tweak the settings to better resonate,” Cisco explains as they walk, more in an effort to break her unease than to clarify the functions. Emily nodded understanding what he was doing and suspected it was for his benefit as well as hers, he and Nash had grown into quite good friends since Earth Prime had been created and everyone settled into their new routines. She was sure he was just as worried as her about these developments. The closer they got, the louder a murmured voice became until they realized Caitlyn was having a very intense argument with Lothario. Although, Lothario didn’t quite sound like himself; it seemed to them that he donned a new accent. Emily’s face fell in concern at the immediate implication to such a development and quickened her pace. Hurrying into the room they both were at a near sprint when they arrived.

“Will you shut up!” Frost, who couldn’t take the arguing much longer and took over, nearly yelled. “And keep your voice down will you?”

“Jou can’t zeriously ve conzidering listening to zat oafs propozition,” a new Wells voice asked somewhat insulted. “He haz no idea vat he iz doing!”

“Wolfgang?” Cisco asked in surprise. The man turned and faced them having been shaken from his thoughts momentarily. “Jes, jes, of course,” he dismissed. “Ze only juan who knows vat to do apparently.”

“Yeah, that’s Wolfgang,” Cisco confirmed sourly glancing over at Emily. Wolfgang followed his gaze and his demeanor changed to a more friendly tone. “Ah, Emily,” he said with an actual smile. “So nice to meet jou again.” He breezed over and clasped his hands around one of hers, Emily staring blearily at him. “Vorry not,” he assured, “I am formulating ze perfect tactic to get jou jour Nash back.”

“Another jump?” was all Emily could mutter. “Well, at least it was one. It was only one, yes?” Her eyes pleaded more than she outwardly showed. Wolfgang paused tensing briefly while holding her gaze. “Ah, jes, vell.....” he started, gaze wavering as he struggled to hold it. “I...... I am ze..... only vun to appear.... if zat is vat jou mean,” he struggled. Emily didn’t say anything continuing to stare, Wolfgang began to feel uneasy under the unrelenting gaze and even Cisco became wary of her rigid demeanor. “Emily, dahlink.....” Wolfgang continued. “Lothario.... he’s not ze best at vorming coherent toughtz. Ezpecially zince he, well, can’t ‘tink properly’, if jou get vat I’m zaying.” His eyes and head rolled downward for a moment and he shuddered before looking at her again. “Don’t you listen to him none,” Lothario said assuming control again. “He’s just angry I have a diffnt way of doin things is all. Unorthodox he calls it.”

Emily felt her panic rise a degree witnessing a jump first hand. “No, no....” she said quietly to herself registering what he just went through. “Now, don’t worry,” Lothario tried reassuring. “I know just how to get ole Nash front n’center.”

“No, Lothario, did you just—“ Emily started before yet another Wells appeared pulling Lothario back into the recesses of Nash’s psyche. “They have no idea what they’re doing,” he said with yet another accent, this time sounding french. “They are neglecting how his emotional being is, how to calm him in order to ease the transition.”

“H.P.?” Emily asked trying to keep her freak out under wraps. “Yes, indeed,” he replied with a smile. “So good you remember me. Perhaps we could have a conversation sometime in the future. It seems something is always going on lately and prevents proper socializing.”

“Wh-Wait, you... you don’t..... You can’t......” Emily stuttered before yet another jump happened. It took him a moment to shake off the now sluggish delay before making eye contact again. “Can you b’lieve them?” Lothario said back in the lead. “I wasn’t nearly done with my-“

“No, STOP!” Emily nearly yelled, her hands now shaking as panic finally set in to full effect. Everyone froze and stared in surprise at her outburst. They knew she was worried but had no idea how much trouble she was having keeping her cool. “I think.... I think I’ll go take that.... that walk now,” she said, voice wavering a touch as she ran her hands through her hair. “I could use some air....”

“Yeah, go get some air...” Cisco agreed placing a hand on her shoulder as she walked away. He turned back to Lothario with an irritated and disapproving look. “What?” Lothario asked seemingly oblivious. “I say sum’n wrong?”

“Gee, I don’t know,” Cisco retorted sarcastically. “You were warned about brain jumps and what do you do? How many happened??”

“Now hold on, it wasn’t just me,” Lothario defended.

“I’m not talking to just you, I know the other Wells’ can hear too,” Cisco near snapped. Lothario stared after Emily for a moment before inhaling deeply and changing posture. “I’m going to go talk to her,” he said still looking past him. “No, I think you’ve done enough,” Cisco denied.

“It would help more if you stayed here,” Caitlyn added switching with Frost again now that Wolfgang had receded. “She’s really quite concerned with all this.”

“I know,” he said finally turning to make eye contact with someone other than an empty hallway. “I know. But, this is Harry. Please, I think I can put her at ease.”

“Not you too, Harry,” Cisco started to complain.

“No, I promise it wasn’t a jump or anything like that,” he assured. “I was permitted to ‘drive’, so to say, and I think that’s the key. Having Nash just close enough to the surface and then giving him permission to take control again.”

“But the question remains, how do we find him and bring him forward?” Caitlyn added.

“Well, I’ve been......I’ve been conversing, or as close to conversing as you can call it, with the other Wells’ and they’ve been trying to guide him forward. And let me tell you, it isn’t easy. Especially with Wolfgang and Lothario making so much noise.”

“I can imagine,” Cisco commented sourly.

“But I think it will help if she’s here too. Like a.... like a target or anchor point for him to aim for. But it would be best if she was on board with the idea,” Harry concluded. After a brief pause and moment of consideration, they both nodded in agreement. “So, anyone have any idea where she may have wandered off to?” He asked.

——

I must admit, my mind started rambling a bit at this point so I apologize if things get confusing. I couldn’t quite figure out how to articulate what it was I wanted to say.

#harrison wells #nash wells #the flash #fanfic #my oc tag #oc x canon #caitlyn snow #cisco ramon #science fiction

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thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

Text

Crossed Wires pt.2

Flash Fanfic

——

Warnings: None

Word Count: ~2,000

Pairings: Oc x Canon

***Note: Emily is my own creation, I just like sticking her in random places***

——

They popped back up in the living room of Nash’s place, Harry holding onto Emily for a moment when they touched ground again not really wanting to let her go. “You good?” she asked making sure his footing was stable. “Yup, I’m good,” Harry assured. “You sure?” She asked with a smirk lifting their still joined hands. “Mhmm,” he repeated still holding on. Her heart skipped when he smirked making her tense for a second. “Ok, good,” she said letting his hand go and moving to take her shoes off. “So, I’m assuming you may be hungry? Want anything?” She asked making her way to the kitchen. “No, I’m ok for now,” he dismissed shaking his head. After taking off his shoes and jacket he followed her to the kitchen. Her heart rate picked up as he got closer and she bit her lip trying to keep herself together. “Theeeeen what.... did you waaaaanna do?” Harry shrugged. “I dunno,” he stated casually somewhat amused at her discomfort. It was his turn to make her blush and he was going to have fun with it.

“Ok, well, I’m gonna go.... make a snack. Or something. Should probably calibrate and affix your neural scanner first though.”

“Oh right, yeah. Should probably... do that....” he said pulling out the device and handing it to her. He followed her into the kitchen and took a seat, Emily standing in front of him given he was so tall even on a chair. As she concentrated making sure everything was in order, Harry studied her with a smile that slowly got wider the longer she took. He saw her brows furrow, her eyes fixate on her task, pupils dilate, mouth pouted and even her tongue stuck out the side of her mouth a little. “Hmmkay... that should do it,” she said completing affixing the small device to his forehead. Smiling satisfied she caught him looking at her with soft eyes. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?” She asked.

“Just... watching you concentrate,” Harry said with a shrug. “You know, you stick your tongue out and your pupils dilate when you zone out?” He smiled leaning forward and pointing at her. Emily smiled embarrassedly putting her hand in his face to push him away. “Pfffff— stop... staring at meeee,” she whines with a giggle. “Das rude!”

“Maybe I don’t want to,” Harry teased grabbing her hand and removing it from impeding his vision. Emily squinted before licking her other palm and planting it square in the middle of his face prompting him to release her hand in order to wipe the saliva off. She took the opportunity to retreat away all the while giggling at his sounds of disgust. “Uuuugh, why!” He complained.

“I need my hand to make snacks, how else was I supposed to get you to let go?”

“You could have asked!”

“Were you really gonna let it go?”

Harry paused. “.....yes, I would have.”

“You hesitated!” Emily accused pointing at him from across the table squinting suspiciously.

“I would have! ...... Eventually.....” Harry admitted sheepishly. “Mhmm, yeah sure,” she said with a smirk. “Anyway, I’m gonna go change into comfy pj’s and then make a snack. Technically this is your place too so go get comfortable or something. I’ll be back.” She poked her head back out of the door she had just disappeared into after a brief pause. “Don’t worry, I’ll wear pants this time,” she assured and grinned. Harry grinned with a nervous chuckle still sitting at the table and she disappeared again. He sat steeping in uncertainty, his ears beginning to burn as he debated telling her what was on his mind the entire time she was gone today. When she wandered back into the kitchen muttering her nightly to-do list he decided to blurt it out. As she said, how often would he get this opportunity again?

“Hey Emily,” he said quickly standing nearly tipping over the chair. Emily’s head snapped over to him in surprise having been jolted from her thoughts by both his voice and the noise of the chair. “Ack! Oh, you ok?”

“Yeah, ah, I’m fine,” he dismissed righting the chair and breezing over to her. “I.... have spent a lot of time thinking. Today. W-while you were.... out....”

“Ok?” she said raising an eyebrow curiously and leaned against the table. “Whaaaaat was it you thought about and conclusion did you come to? If you came to one.” Harry paused before averting his gaze and scratched his face. “Well.... as you can imagine,” he started. “Things were, well quite a lot for me to take in. Today.”

“Mhmm, though you handled it rather well from what I understand.”

“Yeah, well, I guess..... I guess a few... wires, may have been crossed. So to say.”

“I would say so, yeah,” Emily affirmed.

“No, you don’t understand, it’s more than just me being front and center. I’m talking about......” he paused, his breath seeming to catch and he felt really rather warm now. “Harry?” Emily said concerned.

“Emily I.... I think.... I think I’ve been, feeling things.” Harry stuttered trying to explain himself. “And I spent a lot, and I mean a lot, of time thinking it over because I wanted to make sure it was not just carry over from Nash or....” he looked up at her making eye contact, eyes both apprehensive and anxious. “Or me....” Emily’s heart stopped and her cheeks became rosy. “Whaaaat do you mean?” she asked trying to keep her voice level.

“Well, I— as I’ve said— I was doing quite a lot of thinking today, and going over past memories and doing a bit of.... self reflection I.... I guess. And I came to the conclusion that..... that......” Emily’s eyes grew wide in anticipation and she barely breathed waiting for him to speak. Harry relaxed his shoulders and his face softened. “I love you.” Her breath caught and all she could do was stare at him. “I know, I know,” Harry said after the awkward silence, “this is a really bad time to be bringing that up but, I just..... I was afraid and then Earth 2 was destroyed by the Anti-Monitor and..... and I really regret not telling you sooner.”

A tiny smile cracked Emily’s face and she looked down at the floor scratching her head. “And here I was thinking I scared you off....” she muttered. “Wait, you....?” Harry asked. “Yeaahhh,” she said smiling at him shyly. “But, I mean, you took your wife’s death hard and I thought at some points in time I was over stepping soooo...... I did my best to quash them. The feelings, I mean.” Harry smiled and sighed. “Mixed signals, god I hate those...”

“Eh well, I was.... admittedly, a little scared too,” Emily explained. “Being ripped away at any point and all that doesn’t exactly make for eager relationship mentality.”

“You know people go through a similar fear, called death, right?” Harry asked.

“Yeah.... I know. I’ve been told the before believe it or not,” Emily followed, “But by that logic, I’ve been through that pain, and inflicted that same pain, half a dozen times at the least. Does that indicate someone who would want to make another connection only to hurt someone like that?”

“No, not really,” Harry admitted. “So then.... why Nash?” Emily pursed her lips and shifted very wide eyes to the sides. “I..... guess I have a type? I’m sure Sherloque could relate,” she smiled a cheesy smile. “Besides, in case you didn’t notice, he had to do an awful lot of convincing.”

“Yeah, I guess,” he sighed. “Didn’t hesitate like I did either.”

“No, no he was.... quite persistent. Took him a while to pluck up the courage though.” Emily smiled and Harry mirrored it. “Soooo, then I have a..... question. For you,” he said slowly walking over like he was embarrassed or too shy. “Can I kiss you?” He asked after a hesitated pause. Emily tensed at the question and chewed on her top lip trying to keep goosebumps from erupting all over. “Why don’t you, try and find out?” She asked smirking a little with hints of deviousness. Harry’s heart stopped, he half expected a yes but didn’t think it would come in the form of a challenge. Tentatively he leaned forward after shaking off his surprise and met her lips with his. They stayed like that for a moment letting the kiss linger between them as they absorbed the tingling feeling that came with it. “So that’s what I missed, hmm?” he commented after they parted. “You’re not half bad yourself,” Emily observed with a smile. Harry chuckled. “If Jessie saw me now. By the way, have you seen her? How is she?”

Emily’s smile dropped a bit. “I.... I uh....”

Harry’s entire face dropped noticing her change in body langue. “Jessie.....”

“I haven’t seen her since, uh, since the universes merged,” Emily admitted causing Harry to turn away, she thought he would pass out with how pale he became. “But! Buuuuut, that doesn’t meeeean she doesn’t exist anymore,” she said rubbing his shoulder, he leaned over the table and stared at the surface with a blank expression. “Cisco traveled around to study and catalog all the changes that have showed up including new metas. And we haven’t seen Wallie around in a while, it’s possible they’ve come across her.”

“Yeah, yeah I guess you’re right,” he muttered.

“Why don’t you, uhm, make a list of things you’d.... like me to ask her. When I do find her, hmm?” she asked trying to distract him.

“Yeah.... yeah I’ll.... I think I’ll do that.” Harry nodded. He slowly shuffled his way into the bedroom and sat on the bed. *Yet another thing to absorb,* he thought to himself.

“I’ll be out here if you need me. For anything,” Emily assured with a gentle smile. Harry nodded and she closed the door to give him quiet. *I think now would be an opportune time for brownies,* she thought to herself. *Not that there’s ever a wrong time for them.* She smiled to herself and headed off to raid the cupboards for ingredients.

——

Harry wasn’t sure how long he sat in the quiet room, but he knew it was an hour at the very least by the ringing now very pronounced in his ears. He had compiled a short list of things he wanted to know about Jessie, short for him anyway, mainly pertaining to how she was doing to making sure she was taking care of herself and he wished to tell her he loved her. He also wrote down a few things he wanted Emily to do for him occasionally in regard to keeping an eye on her. Rubbing his face with a hand he sighed deeply, too much thinking and digestion of information for one day had made him very tired and for once he really wanted to not think about anything. He decided to exit the room and find Emily to see what she had found to make for a snack, and what she considered a snack.

Peeking out of the door he first found a smell of chocolate wafting through the air, then heard humming coming from Emily and similar buzzing from a drone or two. Coming closer to the kitchen, he heard bare feet tapping on the floor and laughter every now and then. He stood in the doorway and leaned against the frame watching with a smile, and after a short while Emily happened to turn enough to catch him watching. “What are you doing waaay over there?” She asked with a giggle.

“Oh, you know. Watching,” he replied.

“Being a creeper, eh?” She smiled making her way over to him. “Creeper? What?” He responded in mock insult. She smiled a little wider. “Creeeeeep-errrrrr,” she said and poked his nose leaving a substance on it. Recoiling at the unknown, Harry touched it to find it was brown and smooth in texture. “Fudge?” He asked confused.

Emily grinned again making her way back over to the counter. “Fudge brownies! My favorite, and guaranteed to cheer anyone up,” she said gesturing dramatically to the still hot bake pan. Harry followed and inspected her handiwork. “Is it all done?” He asked. Emily nodded. “Yup, should be cooled enough t— hey wait, what are you doing?” she asked suddenly noticing Harry move to put his entire open hand right on top of the fudge icing she had finished spreading moments ago. Before she could stop him he firmly planted it in the middle of the pan thoroughly coating it. “Ahh! No, my brownies!!” She near screeched. “Why did y—“ her sentence was cut off by the sudden chocolatey hand plopped into the middle of her face. She froze in disbelief leaving Harry to just smile smugly. “For calling me a butthead earlier,” he explained noting her questioning look. “And the saliva handprint.” Emily’s shoulders dropped. “Fair,” she relented. “But did you really have to ruin such beautiful brownies?”

“I really had to ruin your beautiful brownies,” he confirmed. “But are they really ruined? I think they look better.”

“You know, this isn’t what is meant when the request for a hand is given,” Emily replied washing her face. “So I’ll not ask you for a hand in anything any time soon because of this.” She sighed when she turned and saw him proceed to lick all the icing off his hand. “You want a towel or something instead?”

Harry shook his head. “And waste all this fudge? Never,” he smirked. “Want some?” he asked holding his hand to her face. Emily gave him an unimpressed look fueling his smugness before gripping his wrist and licking from the base of his palm up to the end of his middle finger. Harry swore his heart stopped, he did not anticipate a reaction like that in the least. “Mmm, yum. I love fudge, so much. Good call,” she said with a wink. Harry just stared at her as she casually started cleaning her baking mess like nothing happened. “You’re dangerous,” he commented finding his voice again. “I dunno what you’re talking about,” she replied feigning innocence. He squinted at her with a pause before washing his hand, no way was he risking something like that again. *She seemed too confident doing that,* he thought. *I’ll bet Nash instigates that behavior a lot.*

“So, did you manage to make a list?” Emily asked after a brief silence. Harry paused letting the water run down his hands. “Yeah, I did.”

“Good,” Emily replied finishing wiping down the counter. Smiling she turned around. “Now, eat a feel good brownie, properly this time, and then we can go to bed. No more thinking today, sound good?” Harry nodded with a relieved smile. “Yes, very.” Emily stayed in the kitchen while Harry left to change, brownie in hand, and wandered around closing up for the night. When she made her way to the bedroom, she found him staring off into space sitting on one side of the bed. “Hey,” she said breaking his concentration. “I thought I said no more thinking?”

“Ah, right. Sorry, couldn’t help it I guess,” he said with a chuckle before settling into bed. Emily gave a sympathetic look and made her way to the other side. “Alright, tell me what’s on your mind,” she said sliding under the covers and settling in herself. He looked over making eye contact and his face softened almost immediately at her quiet concerned but attentive look. “Too much,” he says with a sigh. “But, I think mostly, I’m scared.”

“Why are you scared?” She asked scooting a bit closer to him. He sighed again turning on his side to face her. “I’m.... I’m afraid of being lost. I’m afraid to go to sleep because I don’t know if I’ll get the chance to manifest again. That never crossed my mind before today.” Emily sighed softly and gently place a hand on his cheek. “The stubborn and persistent Harry? You’re too assertive to ever disappear.” He chuckled sadly continuing to look at her, his mind calmed and he remembered how he felt the day his mind began to slip and she was there to assure him. “I’ll keep you safe,” she assured softly. “I know,” Harry replied.

“Hey, c’mere,” Emily said after a brief thoughtful pause and stretched out her arms. Harry looked at her quizzically but did as she asked. “What are....?”

“Nash sometimes has nightmares,” Emily explained pulling him close. “This never fails to keep him calm and get him back to sleep.” She wrapped her arms around him gently cradling his head close to her chest and rested her head on top his. Harry stiffened at the close proximity but soon relaxed feeling safe and wrapped his arms around her in return. It didn’t take long for him to drift off to sleep to the sound of her level heartbeat and Emily soon followed.

———

#harrison wells #nash wells #the flash #fanfic #writing #caitlyn snow #science fiction #entertainment #my oc tag #oc x canon

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thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

Text

Crossed Wires

Part 1

The Flash Fanfic

Warnings: None

Word Count: ~5,000

Pairings: Oc x Canon

***Note: Emily is my created character, I just like to put her in random places.***

———

*Emily wakes early in the morning to find Nash, isn’t really Nash. Harry has somehow taken the driver’s seat and is in control of Nash’s body*

-—-

Fluffy pillow, warm blanket, soft sunlight peeking through the blinds, Emily took a deep breath stirring from sleep. This wasn’t the first time she had spent the night at Nash’s, the lab wasn’t exactly home material after all, but it was the first morning he seemed restless. She turned to face him, eyes heavily clouded with lingering sleep, to see what was bothering him enough to fidget so much. “Nash...?” She asked with a half yawn. “You ok?” The body next to her seemed to freeze and the face she had become so familiar with turned to face her with eyes full of confusion. “Emily?” he asked in surprise. “Hmmyeah,” she responded with a stretch. “Who else were you expecting?” She rubbed her eyes attempting to break free from drowsiness and blinked to focus on him. She felt the blankets ruffle as he observed his surroundings. “Where... where are we??” Emily propped herself up becoming a little concerned about his growing panic. “Nash, it’s your place. Remember?” she said squinting her eyes as the last vestiges of sleep dissipated. “Seriously, are you ok?”

“I’m, not Nash,” he said, voice hushed and strained. “I’m Harry.” Emily’s eyes narrowed as sleep completely left her. “What? No, you’re—”

“Not Nash,” he completed.

“And.... instead you’re—“

“Harry, from Earth 2.” Emily froze processing the information. “How did you?”

“I don’t know!”

“So is Nash...?”

“Maybe?”

They both stared at each other in silence, Harry waiting for a reaction and Emily in complete confusion. “We... we need to get to the lab,” Emily finally said. “Maybe Caitlyn or Frost can help with this. Or at the very least provide answers.”

Harry nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.” Emily got up out of bed and her choice of bed cloths made Harry blush and turn away. She was wearing a tank top and underwear and Harry felt instantly embarrassed and uncomfortable as she looked around for her pants. “Are you gonna get out of bed?” she asked noticing him still sitting there with his head turned in the opposite direction. “Yeah, uh, yeah. I will,” Harry stuttered still averting his gaze. Emily wiggled on her pants turning to face him. “Doesn’t look like you’re moving very much,” she observed. Harry glanced over to see if she had dressed and relaxed seeing she was no longer in her underwear. “Need help getting dressed?” she asked.

“N-uh no, no I think I got it,” he said standing. He took a few steps before realizing what he was wearing. Apparently Nash slept in boxers and a t-shirt and Harry made a feeble attempt at covering himself. Emily smirked in amusement as she leaned over on the bed on her knees. “Harry,” she giggled. “Just go get dressed. I’ve seen all that before already.” She smiled gesturing to his pj’s. Harry cleared his throat before making his way to a near by dresser to find pants and a different shirt.

Emily left the room to give him some privacy before making her way to the kitchen to start on breakfast. *Just something quick, eggs and toast maybe?* she though to herself as she rifled through the fridge. She had just finished cooking when Harry appeared again. He lingered awkwardly in the doorway and watched as she set the table, toast popping in a near by toaster drawing her attention away. He heard her softly humming before noticing him. “Oh, there you are!” She smiled. “Just finished, Nash usually has pancakes. Or waffles,” she blabbed buttering the toast. “But I wasn’t sure what you wanted. That, and I figured we should get to the lab sooner rather than later.”

“Uhyeah, no. This is fine. Thanks,” Harry said sitting. “But I like pancakes too,” he muttered under is breath. “Hmm? What was that?” Emily asked sitting as well. “I said it looks good,” Harry blurted trying to back track. Emily smiled settling down to eat her food. Harry sat in awkward silence still trying to wrap his mind around what happened, that and having to relearn utensils. Were they always this difficult? After a few moments of silent eating Harry looked over at her. She had finished a few minutes ago and was waiting on him, having decided to flip through a few windows on her holo-headset to look over random pages of information. “You know,” he started, “you never really seemed like the domestic type.”

Emily smiled dismissing the screen to look at him. “Yeah, well, never really had much opportunity to express those tendencies.” She nodded her head toward his plate. “You done?” Harry shifted his gaze from her to his plate, which he had subconsciously finished clearing. “Oh, uh, yeah. Yeah I guess.” Emily floated the plate and his utensils over to her and placed them in the sink to be washed later. “Is there anything else you need to do before we leave?” she asked turning to him and leaning against the sink.

“No, I don’t think so,” Harry replied sitting awkwardly. Had she always looked that way?

“Alright, well, I’m gonna go brush my teeth and then we can leave. Ok?” Emily asked striding toward the doorway. Harry nodded in agreement and watched her leave. He decided to look for shoes while she was gone and headed toward the foyer where he found a small pair of black canvas shoes and a pair of really worn out boots. *Are my feet really that big?* he asked himself noting the difference between the two shoe sizes. Perhaps it’s because of her personality or the fact that she runs head long into danger with no regard for personal safety after Barry, but he never realized how petite she was. He smiled to himself as he grabbed the boots and pulled them on. He had just finished tying the second set of laces when Emily rounded the corner, grabbed her shoes as well and put them on rather quickly. “Ready?” she asked standing with a small bounce. He stood with a nod. “Yup.” She held out her hand to him causing a puzzled look on the latter’s face. “Why are you....?”

“Oh, I don’t, ehrm, I don’t have a car. And, Nash usually uses his smoke bombs to get to the lab so. I figured, the fastest method of travel would be..... a.... wormhole....?” Emily gave an awkward and seemingly innocent smile. Harry blinked at her wondering if he heard her right. “A..... wormhole?” he repeated. She nodded sheepishly drawing her extended hand back toward herself and wringing her hands together. “Uh huh, yeah.” He eyed her concerned making her plaster a cheesy smile on her face. “I promise it’s safe.”

“Can you?” He asked.

“I have brought other people through with me and they came out fine,” Emily near pouted. “I took Cisco through one. He said it felt weird but nothing wound up being wrong.”

“Yeah, but he was from Earth 1. I’m from a different Earth all together. Remember?”

“All Earths in the multiverse were combined into one though, remember?” Emily countered. “Besides, this is technically Nash’s body. And he’s from a far different Earth than you.”

Harry paused having forgot that last fact. Emily took a few steps toward him with a small smile. “Did you also forget I’m from a detached multiverse all together too?” He looked over at her with a thoughtful noise suggesting he had, in fact, forgot she shouldn’t exist here in the first place. Emily smiled a little holding out her hand again. “I’ll keep you safe.” Harry’s heart leapt in his chest and he momentarily got distracted by her turquoise eyes before taking her hand. She held it firmly pulling it toward her and him to his feet. “As long as you’re in physical contact with me, you’ll go where I go. So, don’t let go. Ok?” Harry nodded firmly gripping her hand as well, took a deep breath, and half winked indicating he was ready. A pitch black hole appeared beneath their feet in an instant and two seconds later they reappeared in the cortex. They floated for a second before coming into contact with tera firma once again. “Wow, that did feel weird....” Harry commented getting reacquainted with his feet again.

“Kinda feels like you’re getting pulled really hard and stretching in a way you shouldn’t, huh?” Cisco asked walking into the room. Harry nodded in agreement before releasing his surprisingly iron grip on Emily’s hand. “Sorry, didn’t mean to hold on so tight.” Emily smiled. “Oh, that’s ok. I guess it’s kind of scary until you get used to it.”

“I thought he was.” Frost commented joining the three. “You’ve whisked him away a few times like that now. I would think it wasn’t much of a shock anymore.”

“W-Welll....you seeeee......” Emily started awkwardly.

“....What...?” Frost asked already not liking where this was going.

“We, may have a.... a slight..... problem.....” Harry added hesitantly.

“What kind of problem?” Cisco asks warily.

“Weeellllll...... For starters.....”

“I’m not Nash,” Harry continues. “I’m Harry.”

“What?!” Cisco and Frost say in unison.

——

An hour and a few tests later, Caitlyn, who has taken temporary control, came back with some peculiar results. “It seems your brainwaves became unstable at some point,” she said. “This resulted in a temporary split or facilitated an opportunity for a different Wells’ brainwave to become dominant.”

“Sounds somewhat like Dissociative Identity Disorder,” Emily commented standing near by. “I wonder if it has anything to do with REM sleep or the theory behind why the body needs sleep in general.” The room was quiet as everyone looked at her quizzically, almost like they didn’t understand what she just said. “What? I google things, and I actually do like reading.”

“How do you figure?” Caitlyn asked seeming to agree with her thought process.

“Well,” Emily started, “REM sleep is usually when our brains dream and the leading theory about us needing sleep is that our brains use that time to compile information gathered from the day and sort it into long term memory. Or something like that anyway, I can’t remember word for word. But the point is, since Nash doesn’t have one single neural pathway imprinted, it can be theorized that REM sleep allowed for the other paths to intermingle. Kind of like how someone with a personality disorder can sometimes talk with their alters. So, with that being said, with all those paths floating around so to speak, when Nash wakes up it would be similar to a personality switch and whoever was closest to the forefront would be who we were dealing with. It’s just, a much less predictable process.”

“That makes sense,” Caitlyn agreed. “You bring up some valid points. I’ll see if I can find more information and use that to fix things, or at the very least slow down the jumps.”

“Is it permanent?” Harry asked, a tinge of hopefulness in his voice.

“It’s possible, but I think if we can figure out and recreate the conditions that led to the instability it can fix itself,” Caitlyn assured missing the undertone. Harry’s shoulders dropped a little but he accepted the diagnosis, it wasn’t his body after all. He would just have to enjoy walking around under his own power for however long he had.

“Is he gonna be ok until then you think?” Emily asked.

“He seems stable enough, though I would like to monitor him periodically throughout the day so. Confinement to Lab property is probably best.” Caitlyn prescribed. Harry sighed but relented agreeing with her recommendation. Emily smiles at him and he returns it when Ralph walks into the room. “Oh, hey Emily,” he greets in surprise. “I thought you had an astronomy thing to go to today.”

“Oh, uh. I did,” Emily replied hesitantly. “I explained to them that I had an emergency and was unable to assist.”

“Whaaaat emergency?” Ralph asked concerned. “Is everything ok?”

“Uhmm, for the most part. Yeah....” Ralph looks quizzically at her when Cisco barges into the room. “She woke up next to Harry instead of Nash,” he explained only confusing Ralph further. He held a device and approached Harry. “I made some adjustments to the neural splicer. It should be able to separate your brainwave from all the other Wells’ and let Nash take control again.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Caitlyn interjected. “His neural network is, very complicated. We’re not sure what it’ll do with so many different minds in one. With me and Frost it’s relatively safe, there’s only two possibilities in that scenario. But with Nash...” Cisco paused before realizing he hadn’t considered her points. “Huh, hadn’t thought if that....”

“I appreciate the offer,” Harry said with a smile before turning his attention to Emily. “Now what’s this about an astronomy appointment?”

Emily stiffened at the sudden pointed question. “Oh, well uh, NASA heard about what I’m capable of,” she explained. “Given my history with them on my Earth, I was very hesitant in even talking with them. They asked me to observe Jupiter and it’s moons and I eventually accepted. I was.... supposed to go today.”

“So why aren’t you going?”

Emily smiled awkwardly. “I kinda figured this was more pressing. Jupiter and the other celestial bodies have been around for centuries, they can wait a few more days. And since I can go in person to observe, there’s more lax time constraints.”

“You should go,” Harry encourages to Emily’s surprise.

“What?” She asked in confusion.

“You heard Caitlyn, I’m stable. And I’m sure she’ll make good on keeping a close observation on me throughout the day,” Harry smiled. “I’m in good hands, you can go.”

“No, Harry,” Emily protested. “I can’t go until I know everything is alright.”

“Everything is alright, for now,” Harry said sitting forward. “Emily, it’s alright for you to leave.”

“You do worry an awful lot about us,” Ralph observed. “Go ahead and do something for yourself for once.”

“Yeah, it’s not the first time we’ve had to babysit a Wells,” Cisco added with a cheeky smile much to Harry’s chagrin. “We’ll take good care of him,” Caitlyn assured with a smile. Emily sighed with a grumble as she pondered, eyes flitting from once face to another. “Alright, alright, I’ll... I’ll tell them everything is fine and I can go,” she relented. “But I’m leaving an open relay so if anything, anything at ALL, happens, you call. Understand?” Harry smiled and they all chuckled. Emily took a deep breath before leaving the room to make a call and prep the relay. After a short while Emily came back to the cortex, Harry having joined everyone in the familiar room after being given the ok, in preparation to leave. She was still hesitant on leaving and made an effort to procrastinate before Harry pointed it out. “What are you doing?” he asked somewhat accusatory.

“I’m..... making sure everything is..... good to... go....?” Emily made a poor attempt at dismissing his notice.

“You’re stalling,” he said matter-of-factly. “I recognize it from the many times Jessie would pull the same thing.” Emily squinted at him trying to think of a rebuttal but she had none. Her shoulder dropped in defeat as she eyed him. “Heck you,” she muttered eliciting a confused but amused raised eyebrow. “Alright,” she said with a deep breath. “I have set up a permanent open relay in the other room,” she pointed to one of the side labs connected directly to the cortex. “It will pick up any and all conversation made in that room and that room alone, so don’t worry about being loud in the cortex. Just.....please don’t yell in there? If you need me, yelling isn’t required to get me to hear you even if you are far away from the relay.” Everyone nodded in agreement, Emily hesitating one last time before manifesting her suit and telling NASA control she was departing. Swiping her holographic visor over her eyes she scans around to determine trajectory before giving one lass smile to Harry and disappearing into a wormhole.

After a brief pause, Harry quickly strode over to the computers where Cisco was sitting. “Ramon, could you–“

“Track where she’s going? Yeah, no sweat,” He said completing the thought. Harry stood by watching the monitors as Cisco typed away, using the old DNA sequence Emily provided early on as a means to find her location they found her over by Mars. “Wait, I thought she was supposed to be observing Jupiter,” Cisco questioned. Harry looked puzzled at the reading when Ralph poked his head into the room with the relay. “She just told NASA she was heading toward Jupiter from Mars,” he announced.

“Why?” Harry asked.

“Don’t know, lemme ask,” Ralph replied popping back in the room. A few minutes later he came back, face looking like he had trouble comprehending something. “Ok, I’m not all that great with this science stuff so bear with me,” he warned. “She said..... her wormholes are.... not very accurate over long distances, and get progressively inaccurate depending on the target size and distance. Jupiter, is a big target, but because it’s mostly gas it’s not suitable. I guess she needs a solid object for it to work.”

“So then why didn’t she use an asteroid or one of Jupiter’s moons?” Harry asked.

“Asteroids are small, even compared to planets. It would be like...... how’d she put it....” Ralph paused. “Diving into a swimming pool from the top of the Empire State Building. Feasable, but not 100% guaranteed. And I guess the moons are around the same size or smaller than Mercury and Mars, but the distance they’re at makes them just as unreliable as an asteroid.”

“So why did she wormhole her way to Mars?” Cisco asked. “Mars isn’t really close. I would think she would aim for Saturn.” Ralph scratched his head trying to remember everything Emily said. “She said somethin about ‘no wind resistance’ and ‘only taking a few hours to get there’. I don’t remember exactly. But, seeing as Saturn has rings it would probably have the same risks as the asteroid belt.”

Harry sighed. “Well, it sounds like she knows what she’s doing.”

“I would hope so,” Cisco commented. “Seeing as she’s constantly scanning around out there, she should know a thing or two. And didn’t she say she used to spend most of her time out there? That ‘not much makes her stay grounded’?” Caitlyn nods in confirmation.

“Did she say how long it would take to get to Jupiter?” Harry asked.

Ralph smirked. “Why don’t you go ask her?” He said nodding his head toward the relay room. Harry froze for a moment before shaking his head. “No, no I can.... ask her later.” Ralph and Cisco exchange looks while Caitlyn smirks returning to her lab. Over the next three hours, Harry spent his day wandering around, bothering Cisco, getting regular brain scans by Caitlyn, helping with Flash business like old times, and staring at the relay room before avoiding it. Eventually he wandered in and took a seat on an office stool by the door. He didn’t particularly do anything, resorting to staring at the floating red and blue static that would occasionally blink to the muttering of Emily or scarce NASA transmission and sitting in silent thought. He would smile whenever he heard her talk or hum to herself making him confused. He hadn’t remembered feeling this way about her, and found he actually quite liked it. Her voice snapped him out of his stupor and his gaze fell once again upon the red static as it blinked to her words.

“I’m coming upon it now,” he heard her say. “Man, I forgot how huge it was! I’ve got soooo many goosebumps, and it’s so much prettier than I remembered!” A couple voices chuckled and murmured to themselves. “Imagine everyone’s jealousy at you getting to see it in person,” one crackly voice spoke up. “Just, make sure you remember to keep on task ok?”

“Yeah, yeah!” Emily responded enthusiastically. “Don’t worry, I’ll revel in the majesty and then get to the boring stuff. But I’ll get the stuff done.” The other voice laughed again and Harry couldn’t help but smile. “Ok, alright, we’ve sent you a few things we really want you to look into but anything you can find would be great.”

“Alright, I’ll put your requests on priority and keep exploring on a back burner. But if I see anything interesting I’ll record that too.”

“Sounds good, over and out.” The feed from NASA went silent and Harry could only hear Emily now. She sighed, muttered a few things from her list, and started humming as she got to work. Harry didn’t realize it, but he had a lazy smile on his face and had been staring in space when she spoke up again. “How long are you gonna sit there?” she asked nonchalantly. He froze, not quite realizing she was talking to him. “Huh?” he mumbled somewhat dazed. Had he almost fallen asleep?

She giggled. “How long, are you, gonna sit there?” she repeated. “Hmmm.... should probably get closer.... to that....” she mumble to herself.

“I don’t, uhhh, don’t know what you mean,” Harry attempted to brush off the question. “How did you know I was here anyway?”

“Liiiiieeess,” Emily teased. “I could hear you grumble and breath deeply every now and then. But seriously, you’re borrowing a corporeal body. You really wanna spend however long just sitting?”

Harry paused before smiling again. “Yeah.”

“Really??” Emily asked not believing him. “Yeah, kinda like hearing you mumble,” he chuckled. She sighed, but he could tell she was smiling. “Harry, no. Go socialize.”

“I have,” he protested. “I even helped out with some Flash stuff. I’m social.” Emily chuckled again. “And what else— oh that’s interesting— what else would you call socializing? Hmm... what’s that.....”

“I bothered Cisco. In his lab,” he added. Emily muttered something in her jumbled-sounding language and went quiet for a moment hyper focusing on her task. “I wandered around the lab too,” he continued trying to get a response. “Harry, those don’t exactly count as socializing. Bothering Cisco? Maybe.” Another pause and what sounded like typing. “I’m going to be gone for the better part of 6 hours, and then I have to check in with NASA, so I’m looking at maybe 9 more hours. You’re really going to sit there for 9 hours??”

“Well.... I’ll probably... walk around a bit. Stretch my legs. Get something to eat maybe....” Harry said trying to sound convincing.

“Harry, no,” Emily objected. “No, go do something. You’re not sitting there all day.”

“What, you going to make me?” Harry challenged. Emily sighed. “Uugh, you’re a *chiiiii-yuld!*,” she complained causing Harry to chuckle. “No, I won’t *make* you leave. But you really should do something other than just sit there. I mean, how often do you think this sort of thing will happen in the future? Be silly to waste it like that.”

“But I’m not wasting it,” Harry insisted. “You may not be here in front of me but I’m using the opportunity to spend time with you. And you were gone so suddenly this morning it feels like I barely even got to say hello.” Emily was quiet for a while making Harry nervous he said something wrong, the only noise he heard was an occasional sigh and a drone coming close to her position. “GP, why does every iteration of Dr. Wells give me a headache?” she muttered to the drone. “Alright, fine. You can sit there,” she relented. “But I want you to eat and get your brain scan done first. I’ll not be the reason you starve or have an aneurysm.” Harry chuckled again. “Alright, alright. I concede to your terms.”

“Good, now I’m sure the lounge has some muffins at least, or maybe Cisco or Barry wouldn’t mind getting you some Big Belly Burgers if you really wanted,” she said still scanning away. Harry smiled but continued to sit in silence not really wanting to leave right then. After about 5 minutes Emily grumbled again. “I knoooow you’re still *theeere* Harry.”

“Wh— how?” He asked highly confused. “The relay has a very good microphone,” she replied. “So I didn’t hear the pleather of the stool move, I didn’t hear the wheels or the metal shaft, and I didn’t hear your shoes scuff the floor while you walk.” Harry sighed and smiled in defeat. “Ok, fine. I’m really going now,” he relented standing up. “See? Hear the stool?” He took a few steps toward the door. “Hear me walking?”

“I’ll hear you walk back into the room too, butthead,” she warned causing Harry to stop mid-stride. “Did you just call me a—“

“Butthead? Yeah, I sure did,” Emily confirmed with a bit of sass. He could tell she was amused with his reaction as he could hear her smile with her response. He rolled his eyes and continued walking out. “I’ll get you for that,” he declared over his shoulder. “I’m sure you will,” she dismissed in kind. Harry left the room smiling, making his way toward the lounge completely unaware of the looks he got as he left.

He wound up finding a cookie and called that good enough, oatmeal raisin has more nutrients than chocolate chip after all, and found some tea to make. As he made his way back to the cortex, his mind began to wander. He started becoming uncertain about how he was acting as it had been so long since he had one on one interaction with Emily, he wasn’t quite sure if this was his feelings or what he was perceiving of Nash’s lingering ones. Having become far more fond of her over the course of the day than he remembered, at least consciously, he became worried he would hurt her with any resulting mixed signals. He began dredging up any memories he could of the interactions they had to try and iron things out, and didn’t notice he made it back to the cortex already. It was only when Caitlyn called his name for another brain scan that he returned to reality.

“Harry!” Caitlyn repeated a little louder.

“Huh? Wh-oh, hey. Yeah, what is it?” Harry stuttered.

“Ready for another scan?” She asked motioning toward the CT Scanner. “Oh, yeah, yeah,” he said taking a sip of his tea. “Are you alright?” She asked somewhat concerned. Harry waved his hand dismissively. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just..... thinking. That’s all.” Caitlyn watched warily as Harry walked past her toward the scanner. She paused before following him, shooting a look over at Cisco who mirrored it, and affixed the neural device to his head to starting the test. Harry sat quietly drifting off into thought again, he was so lost he didn’t even realize the test had finished until he was given the ok. “Your scan is still within normal readings, given the circumstances,” Caitlyn reports. “Though it looks as though your particular wave is becoming more prominent, perhaps challenging another to keep control, are you.... feeling alright?”

“Yeah, I promise I’m fine,” Harry assured. “I’ll be sure to let you know if anything feels different.” Caitlyn nodded before clearing him to wander again. He wandered around the cortex eating his cookie before deciding to go back to the lounge in order to get his mind in order. There was quite a lot he had to sort through before Emily returned. After a few hours he made his way back into the relay room and sat quietly, smiling fondly whenever he heard her speak or hum. He was still sitting there when Emily returned to the Lab late that night. Caitlyn had stayed to continue monitoring him while everyone else went home.

“Hey Harry,” she greeted peeking into the relay room. It had been offline since she told him she was heading to NASA for the debrief but he continued to sit in the now rather dark room. “Why are you in the dark?”

“Just.... thinking,” he shrugged. “Been doing that a lot today.”

“Are you ok?” Emily asked sitting cross legged in the air in front of him. He smiled chuckling a little. “Everyone had been asking me that today it seems.”

“We’re all just worried, that’s all.”

“I know,” he said standing. “But I’m alright. Much better now, actually.” Emily smiled up at him. “Good.” Caitlyn was standing in the middle of the cortex holding the neural device when they left the room. “You’re ok to go home,” she started, “but I would like you to wear this tonight, just in case. Don’t worry, it’s set to monitor only.” Harry looked warily at the device before taking it. “I figured this would be more comfortable to sleep with rather than the ring we have been using,” Caitlyn explained. Harry nodded in agreement. “You’re sure it... you know.... won’t splice my consciousness in my sleep?”

“I tested it on myself while waiting for you to leave the relay room,” Caitlyn said. “Frost didn’t come out once, and I had constant readings from an hour and a half of wear. It’s safe.” Harry took a deep breath and nodded. “Ok, I trust you.”

“Ready to go home?” Emily asked holding out a hand. Harry’s brain short circuited and his heart fluttered as he turned to look at her with wide eyes. “What?” He choked out. “Well, unless you want to stay overnight at the lab.....” she counter offered.

“Oh, no. No, home is..... is good,” Harry stuttered. “Yes, lets..... go home.” Emily eyed him suspiciously but smirked amused at his flustered reaction. He smiled awkwardly and moved stiffly as he reached for her hand. She held his gently but securely and smiled softly up at him. His heart skipped but he decided to stand close by, placing an arm around her back he held her even closer. “Ok, ready,” he said with a smile. Emily blushed freezing for a moment before looking at Caitlyn. “Goodnight!” she said with a smile before wormholing away. Caitlyn stood in the cortex with a smirk before leaving for home herself.

***Just incase you’re wondering, since I stick Emily in random places I’ve created the narrative the she landed here accidentally and is aware of not really belonging. She’s also aware this universe is based off of comics similar to how Deadpool is aware he’s in a comic. She has tried to explain her situation and, while they don’t necessarily believe her, she’s provided helpful hints and go along with her ‘not belonging’ story.***

#harrison wells #nash wells #barry allen #the flash #fan fiction #cisco ramon #ralph dibny #oc x canon #my oc tag #science fiction #fun stuff #entertainment #writing

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thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

Text

Your Stupid Smile

Word count: ~6,100

Pairings: oc x canon

Warnings: fluff and shenanigans

Sup! I’m actually running out of stories to post. Didn’t think this through too well. Curses to writers block and the fact I write long stories. Even so, do hope you enjoy! 🥔🎨

**Note, Emily is my personal character. I just like to stick her places. I also still have no idea how to do a ‘short click for full’ post.

———

Irritating, simply irritating. Everyone was having a good time, sure, but Nash was having a hard time joining in on the fun. Every time he got close to truly relaxing and enjoying the company around him, he would hear it, that laugh. Of course, once he heard the laugh he had to see where it originated from, and it was always the same face. That stupid face and that stupid smile. He couldn’t stand that smile, and he didn’t want to admit to himself the reason why it bothered him so much.

The team was in the lounge enjoying the company of each other after a long day. Cisco was telling a story, Barry and Iris adding tidbits here and there, and the more elaborate and ridiculous it became the more laughs rang out. By the end of it everyone was rolling and roaring with laughter which only intensified after a stray loud squeak sounded. Emily covered her mouth in embarrassment before folding over the bar counter in laughter again. “I’m sorry!” She breathed trying to apologize between laughs. “I don’t know where that came from!” She covered her face in an attempt to wipe away the tears now rolling down her rosy face. “Oh no, my face sprung a leak!” Everyone continued giggling and Ralph stretched his hand over to her to deliver a tissue. She took it with a mousy thanks wiping her face. Nash was trying his hardest to keep from looking at her, he already made the mistake of just glancing over and he scowled to himself about the flush slowly spreading up his neck.

“Hey Estrata,” Cisco called after composing himself a degree. “You got any stories to share?”

“Yeah,” Ralph agreed. “You almost never share anything. Think you could drop the mysterious facade for a night?” Emily had one arm draped over her head and held her cheek with her other hand as she thought. “Hmmm..... I dunno,” she teased. “I’m not exactly good at sharing, things about me anyway.”

“There’s room for only one queen of ice,” Frost defended. “Quit giving the cold shoulder and fess up would ya?” Emily gave a growly sigh as she seriously considered the plethora of things buried within. “Ok fine,” she relented. “You make a good case, and Ralph has a point. I’m just, I’m really hesitant to share much. Seeing as I could find myself stranded somewhere else, it gets tiresome re-explaining.” Everyone gets quiet and Emily scratches her head realizing she killed the mood a little. “Eh, I think I have a solution though. Tell me,” she smiled. “What you wanna know? Besiiiides, my name,” she cut Ralph off before he could ask. Everyone chuckled and Nash just smirked.

Frost stared her down thinking intently, Emily actually got nervous with the holes being drilled into her soul with the stare, before she decided on a question. “You don’t look like the type to, but are obviously capable of, doing some not so desirable things. So have you?”

Emily squinted at her before straightening her back and clearing her throat. “Just, just gettin riiiiiiight into it huh?”

“I don’t make a habit of pussyfooting around,” Frost dismissed smirking. Emily patted her cheeks trying to think of a good story to tell while everyone turned 100% of their attention to her, excitedly waiting for whatever secret would come up. “Ok, ok, I got one,” she said smiling. “Believe it or not, but, I’ve had to break out of area 51.”

“You were taken to area 51?!” Barry asked shocked. “How? Why??” Emily flashed another, albeit awkward, smile. “Well, I am a wanted woman back where I come from.”

“Wanted huh?” Frost asked somewhat impressed. “What’d you do to earn that target on your back?”

“Exist,” she said plainly. “What I am, is a very valued product to a group of people. I’m one of a handful, if not the only person, with my genetic makeup.” She sighed making everyone become glum. “They really wanted to study me, poke and prod and see how they could use me and duplicate what I am.”

“Estrata, I didn’t—“ Frost started before Emily waved dismissively. “No, no, it’s fine,” she assured with a smile. “After learning that I decided to make myself the biggest most obnoxious target ever,” she waved her hands in front of her to illustrate as she giggled reminiscing. “I thought to myself, that if they wanted me that badly they’re gonna have to work for it. So I made it my mission to piss them off and kick their collective ass,” she flashed a big smile. “Besides, if they’re busy chasing me and my friends, they can’t go looking for anyone else.”

“Guess that explains all the injuries Caitlyn found,” Frost commented thoughtfully. “And the fact you gave Dr. Wells such a hard time about just coming to the lab in the beginning.”

“Yup! Broken ribs, arms, legs, fractured skull and fingers, I’ve had my stomach punctured straight through at least twice, and my shoulder. Think that one actually broke my shoulder blade to be honest.....” Emily rambled.

“Jeeze....” Ralph said stunned.

“And that’s not counting their penchant for causing neurological damage with all variations for shock collars and tasers,” she listed with a smirk. “I really shouldn’t be smiling but honestly, they’re some serious badges of honor so why not?” They all softened their faces though she could tell they still felt bad. “So anyway, “ she continued, “there I am in the bowels of area 51, strapped to a chair in some interrogation room when two guys in suits come in.” Everyone changed their tune as she gets back into the story, Nash admiring her resourcefulness and determination. As she rambled and gesticulated enhancing the story with her hands, complete with illusions and little animations, Nash couldn’t help but stare even when she smiled bright. Cisco noticed his staring and bumped his arm jostling him enough to break his gaze. He wiggled his eyebrows causing Nash to grumble and avert his gaze from everyone but still listened attentively.

“Soooo, there’s a whole facility underneath?” Barry asked once she finished. “And what we all think is area 51 is just a cover?” Emily nods with a smile. “There’s quite a lot buried underneath. I think the whole desert lot actually.”

“And no one knows about it?” Ralph asked.

“Lots of people know, but the government makes them seem crazy. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t like Eiling all that much, reminded me too much of them.”

“So this, Quazar, or Quinton, was there too?” Frost asked. “Why was he there again?”

Emily paused trying to formulate the sentence as coherently and short as possible without rambling again. “He was the one who gave me my powers. Well, not really gave but, reactivated dormant genes so I could do what I do. It’s how I got the monicker ‘half breed’.” She drifted off in her memories. “We grew close, and I must admit I didn’t handle learning he was an alien well but. We protected each other, and came to care a lot about each other.” She smiled thoughtfully. “He’s my anchor to home. Him and Oliver and Flaer and Jimmy.” Bringing herself back to the present she cleared her throat. “He was there for leverage I guess. Most likely for added study being a pure blood. As long as he was there I would be too, even if I got out I would come back to try and get him out. So I just broke him out right away and messed up their plans.” She flashed a smile lightening the mood of the room.

“Boy, you are just full of mysteries aren’t you?” Ralph asked with a smirk.

“Eeeyup! And I am 100% telling the truth too. I also gave yooouuuu..... three mysteries? Three mysteries an explanation,” she said standing with a stretch. “No more.”

“Just, one more question?” Cisco asked. “Do you miss him? Quinton?”

Emily paused looking at him. “Well yeah, ‘course I do. I get homesick sometimes. I miss everyone back home.” She sighed deeply as her mind wandered a bit. “Sometimes, my relay picks up messages he sends. Takes quite a long time to decompress the file because of barriers and reality changes but, he asks me how I’m doing, gives me updates on what’s going on, tells me to hurry home. But....” She rubs her cheek thinking. “He said..... he said if I ever get stuck somewhere, not to worry about them back home. He would keep everyone safe, and that he wanted me to be happy wherever I landed.” She smiled softly. “So... so I try. I try real hard, to be happy. And make other people happy. And, I guess I do a pretty good job.”

“You do,” Nash commented without thinking. Everyone turned their attention to him, Emily raising an eyebrow and smiling softly. “Huh?” Nash cleared his throat averting his gaze. “I-I mean I’ve noticed, that, everyone enjoys your—your company and. And they, like, having you around.”

“That include you?” She asked. Nash snaps his head to her and makes eye contact, his words momentarily caught in his throat as he begins to panic having been put on the spot. “Speak,” Harry says manifesting beside him. “You need to speak, say something.”

“I mean yeah, I guess,” Nash coughs out. “I certainly don’t find you all that annoying anyway.”

“Probably not the right response....” Harry comments.

Emily frowns a little. “Hmm, well I suppose that’s something.” Nash turns away from her again, Emily cocked an eyebrow noticing his ears turning rather red. She was sure he felt them burning but decided not to press him further.

“She noticed that you know,” Sherloque said manifesting by the bar behind her. Nash looked at him curiously. “What?” He asked.

“I didn’t say anything,” Emily responded taking her seat at the bar again. “Oh, sorry,” Nash apologized. “Thought I heard something. Guess it was nothing more than an auditory hallucination or something.”

“She’s not as oblivious as you think she is,” Sherloque continued. “I guarantee she already knows how you feel, and is just waiting on you to do something about it.” Nash turned away from the bar trying to ignore him, in addition to keep his flush from getting worse. He didn’t want to acknowledge it but it was rather difficult to keep from staring at her or subconsciously follow her around. He grumbled to himself trying to get his mind on something—anything—else. Cisco noticed and smiled mischievously having gotten an idea. “Hey, I remember you saying you attended a spontaneous karaoke session with Harry at one point,” he started. “Think you could sing something?”

“Wait, you sing?” Ralph asked in surprise.

“As a..... hobby.....” Emily said shyly. “I don’t really.... sing in— in public. Much....”

“Why not?” Barry asked. “Caitlyn said I sing pretty well and I never sing in public.”

“She gets carried away,” Nash says still not looking at her. “Least that’s what Harry said. Though, I’m not sure if it’s her or the crowd she sings in front of.”

“It’s, uh, it’s a little of both....” Emily half confirmed.

“How’s that?” Ralph asks intrigued.

“Uhhmmmm.... well.....” Emily fidgets a little. “I’m a bit on the theatrical side. I like my special effects, people like seeing all the flashy stuff and, well, I can get lost in the music. Sometimes.”

“All the time,” Harry comments. “Tell her to sing So Soft by that Carrie woman.”

“Why So Soft?” Nash asks out loud. Emily stiffens and blushes slightly. “What?” she squeaks. Harry smirks. “That’s why.” Nash looks over at her, smile threatening to crack onto his face as she sat there with her cheeks slowly getting rosy. Cisco notices her posture change as well and smiles wide. “I think we may have a winner for song choice.”

“Nu-no, not that,” Emily stammers. GP flies over to her whirring what seemed like a suggestion which only served to make Emily beat red. “I am NOT singing that one!” She near yells. “You should know better than to suggest that.” The drone whirrs again. “That one’s worse, no!”

“I kinda like the idea of worse,” Ralph teases. “What was suggested anyway?” Emily casts her gaze down making her hands into fits and pressing them into her knees. “GP always try to suggest two songs he knows will make me uncomfortable,” she explains. “They’re...... uhm..... they’re.....” Emily pauses before rolling her head and deciding to just get it over with. “They’re called ‘Do You Think I’m Sexy’ and...... ‘Sex bomb’......”

Everyone’s interest had been piqued with Cisco and Nash both staring at her with raised eyebrows. Emily covered her face in embarrassment floating above her seat a little. “I shouldn’t have said anything,” she near whines. “What about Talking Body?” GP whirrs in intelligible english tones. “Preferred over those, but still no.” Emily responds still red in the face. “No, I.... hmm.... I think I... h-have one. It’s called Collide.” Emily straightened her posture and cleared her throat. “Oh this is embarrassing......” she muttered under her breath after a pause and cringing. Taking a breath to calm herself she began, GP providing the background music.

*Lately, I feel like I’m pushing you away*

*Acting moody for no reason*

*And even though you know I'm always gonna stay*

*I've been talking like I'm leaving*

*I don't know why I keep playing these dumb games*

*Love is not a competition*

*And no one's winning when I'm pushing you away*

*Sometimes darkness is a prison*

The lights seem to dim a little before returning to the normal ambient light. Taking a breath to steady her nerves further, Emily continues.

* Turn the lights on, honey, honey, I don't wanna hide*

*Turn the lights on, honey, I'm surrendering tonight*

*Although I'm not perfect, I feel perfect in your eyes*

*Turn the lights on, honey, I don't really wanna hide, not tonight*

*Come and crash into me 'cause I want us to collide*

*Collide, collide, collide*

Emily smiles becoming more relaxed even beginning to move in rhythm with the music and providing small effects such as orbs of lights and dimming the actual lights at times.

*Look into my eyes and tell me we're okay*

*And we both can be forgiven*

*Kiss me gently, say the things you wanna say*

*You don't need to ask permission*

*I'm a stormy ocean, but you're steady*

*And I'm a commotion, but you get me*

*Too many emotions, but you let me*

*Let me blossom in the dark*

The lights dim and brighten to the beat of the song, the orbs of light change color and seem to twinkle and multiply. Emily smiles wide as she sings and looks around in amusement at the display going on. Everyone else is distracted by the lights but Nash was fixated on Emily. He smiled as she smiles happier than he’s ever seen feeling as though this was her unfiltered.

*Turn the lights on, honey, honey, I don't wanna hide*

*Turn the lights on, honey, I'm surrendering tonight*

*Although I'm not perfect, I feel perfect in your eyes*

*Turn the lights on, honey, I don't really wanna hide, not tonight*

*Come and crash into me 'cause I want us to collide*

*Collide, collide, collide*

The lights slowly begin to dim as Emily, having decided to stand, took slow strides toward the center of the group. She begins to float the closer she gets and takes a modest cross-legged ‘seat’ in the air. Everyone looks around curiously and Nash fixates on her again.

*I'm a stormy ocean, but you're steady*

*I'm like a commotion, but you get me*

*Too many emotions, but you let me*

*Let me blossom in the dark*

Emily darkens the whole room by creating a field that prevented any light to show through. She then made it look like she was glowing, her suit had appeared, her hair was snow white with the unique holographic shine, and she still kept the rest of them in utter darkness as she continued toward the song’s end.

* Turn the lights on, honey, honey, I don't wanna hide*

*Turn the lights on, honey, I'm surrendering tonight*

Emily snaps her fingers and flicks her wrist in front of her causing an explosion of stars appear in the room making it look like they were in the deep of space. Still glowing, albeit softer, she smiles wide. Nash watches noting she seemed to feel at home in such an environment almost looking free, maybe even exited to share the wonder of the void she knew so well with people she cared for. She looked dazzling in that moment.

*Although I'm not perfect, I feel perfect in your eyes*

*Turn the lights on, honey, I don't really wanna hide, not tonight*

*Come and crash into me 'cause I want us to collide*

*Collide, collide, collide*

The room fades back to black and Emily brings the normal light back into the room gradually so as not to blind everyone. They watch in stunned silence as she takes a few steps back toward her chair, suit disappearing and hair returning to her usual red tinted brunette, and she smiled shy and awkwardly. “So.....?” she asked.

“That was—“ Nash began.

“Amazing!” Cisco interrupted causing Nash to snap out of whatever trance he fell into. Emily smiled placing a hand on her cheek as she blushed. “Hobby my ass,” Ralph scolded. “You’ve put in some serious work to sound that good.”

“I’ve, had a few years of practice,” she teased.

“Well, whatever it is you just stunned us with, I wish I had a talent like that,” Iris commends. “That was..... wow!”

“Sing something else!” Wally said enthusiastically.

“Yeah, that was great!” Joe agrees enamored.

Emily laughs waving a hand. “No no, I would be singing all night. Do you know what I would sound like tomorrow if I did that?”

“C’mon, just one more?” Frost asks surprisingly invested. Emily sighs with a reluctant smile tilting her head toward Nash a little. “Again, Harry, this is why I don’t sing in front of people.”

Nash chuckled in amusement with Harry smiling next to him. “Three. Three ‘one more’ requests that night,” he explained. “I was worried she would kill me by the end of it. If it weren’t for Jessie changing the topic when we left she may well have.” Nash looked at him curiously. “I was......responsible for two. She wasn’t enthused when I got the whole room going,” he said reminiscing. “By the way, if that wasn’t an obvious tell, I don’t know what is.” Nash’s gaze fell upon Emily again as she grumbled placing both hands on her cheeks considering indulging their requests. “No, no. It’s going to turn into karaoke night all over again if I don’t stop now,” Emily determined. “Only one tonight, but maybe another some other time,” she smiled raising a finger with a wink.

Casual conversation carried for another hour or two before Emily began to yawn, followed by a few of the others present. Half an hour after the first yawn, everyone decided to call it a night. It was well into the evening at this point and no one wanted to risk sleeping in too late. Emily stretched winding up leaning all the way back, about 90°, over the bar. She stayed like that taking a deep breath and complained about not wanting to move. “I think I’m just gonna.... sleep here. Like this. Yeah, this is comfy....”

“Thaaaat doesn’t *look* comfortable.....” Cisco commented looking confused at how she could even *do* that.

“Must not be a fellow human rubber band,” she replied grabbing her elbows keeping her arms above her head. “Being super bendy sure comes in handy.” She smiled lazily and turned her head to face the person she heard moving to her side, seemingly tripping over a chair. Her eyes met Nash’s, who’s cheeks immediately turned rosy, and lifted her head. “You ok?” She asked.

“Yeah, no. I’m f-fine,” Nash coughed out. “Stupid chair, got tangled in my feet....” He kicked it nearly getting tangled in it again.

“Yeeeesaahhh,” Emily said tiredly. “They always seem to like ankles and toes, huh? Just.... always in the way, at the worst times.” Her eyes closed again and she sighed half falling asleep right there. Nash averted his gaze awkwardly and Cisco smirked at him, Nash gave him a face instigating a silent argument between the two about him saying something before GP flew over and whistled at her waking her again. “Hmmm?” she said tiredly. GP whistled again and Emily groaned. “Nooo, don’t waaaanna move,” she said with another stretch. GP bonked her head and she sighed. “Ok, ok. Fine. I’ll go to bed.” With a huff, she pulled herself into a sitting position before hopping off her seat and heading out. Various farewells and well wishes were exchanged as they left one by one leaving Emily alone with Nash and Cisco. They stood awkwardly at the elevator door waiting for it to come back up, Cisco flicking his eyes in the direction of Emily trying to encourage Nash to say something and Nash refusing.

“Good night guys,” Emily said with a yawn when the elevator dinged. “Travel safe, ok?”

“Make sure nothing blows up, alright?” Cisco joked. She smiled tiredly. “Aww, no fun. And I was gonna try to make a star tonight.” Nash smiled recognizing a similar joke he made with Cisco. “I’ll make sure to hold down the fort,” she assured rubbing her eye as they stepped in. “I’m pretty good at keeping people out of places.” They waved as the doors closed, Nash watched as she turned, flicking her finger like you would a switch, and the lights going out one by one as she advanced down the hall. Cisco turned to face Nash with a disappointed look. “What?” Nash asked doing a double take.

“You need to tell her you like her already,” Cisco scolded.

“I don’t... like her,” Nash said attempting to brush off the accusation. “Why would you even think that?” Cisco’s face dropped unamused. “Yeah, ok. You are literally dripping in tension when you’re in the same room as her.”

“I am not!” Nash protests. “I’m chill.”

“You stare at her, you follow her, you ears get red when she looks at you.”

“I.... do not... What?” He turned to face Cisco as the doors opened. He rolled his eyes as he left, Nash close behind. “Pretty sure everyone knows. Well, maybe not Barry. But Wally does, Joe asked if you two were a thing, Iris knows....” Nash went quiet still following him. “I think Ralph may have a thing for her too but so far hasn’t had any luck.” He spun to face him and pointed a finger in his face. “Say, something. Anything. The awkward is getting unbearable.”

Nash stared at Cisco for a minute before the latter turned to leave, Nash took a long look back at the lab with a sigh. *I really should,* he thought. *But what do I say?*

——

The next day was business as usual, Emily had decided to get some practice in before everyone came in and had just finished when she passed Nash in the hall on her way to change. “Oh, hey Nash!” she greeted with a smile. Nash felt that familiar flush start to run up his neck when he saw her. He closed his eyes and muttered the only word he could think of. “Don’t...”

“Hmm?” Emily asked tilting her head to look him in the face. He opened his eyes making eye contact and used as much self control as he could muster to speak. “Don’t.... smile. At me.”

Emily paused in confusion. “What?”

“Don’t smile at me,” he repeated slowly beginning to regret his sentence choice. Emily blinked a few times just staring at him as she tried to understand. “Why...?”

“Because it’s stupid and makes me uncomfortable. And it’s annoying. Remember when I said you weren’t all that annoying? I lied. You’re more annoying than Ramon,” Nash blurted everything out before he realized what it was he was saying but fought to keep a straight face. Emily’s face was blank, shoulders dropped a little, and she stared confused at him. “Oh.... well..... ok.” She said softly. Nash felt his heart constrict in his chest. What had he done? She took a breath and looked him in the eye again, her facial features betraying hints of mischief. “Alright Nash, I’m sorry. I had no idea my smile could do that to you.” She placed a hand on his shoulder in mock concern making Nash a little suspicious. “I’m so glad you told me.”

“....You are?” Nash asked.

“Yes, yes, I am. From now on I won’t smile at you.”

“You.... won’t?”

“Nope. I’ll just smile at everyone and everything else instead,” Emily said fighting a smile. “Rest assured you’ll never see my troublesome smile again.”

“Ah...... good.....” Nash said trying to sound satisfied.

“See you later then,” Emily said before continuing on her way. Nash watched her go mildly panicking. “What just happened?” He asked no one in particular.

“You messed up, big time,” Sherloque answered from behind him. “How so?” Nash asked spinning around.

“Well, you heard her. She’ll still smile, just not at you,” Sherloque smirked. “But oh, she knows what you said wasn’t true. Not all of it anyway. She still may be a little concerned you find her annoying.”

“So, what will she do?”

“Exactly what she told you she would. Clever woman,” Sherloque mused. He smiled at Nash who still looked concerned. “She will, continue to smile, at everyone and thing other than you. And in doing so, knowing you don’t really find it uncomfortable, she will frustrate you.” He stands close to his face continuing to smile. “My, what a mess you’ve made. I do wonder how you’ll fix it.” He disappeared leaving Nash alone in the hallway again, completely and utterly uncertain about what to do now. “Oohhhh no....” he muttered to himself.

The rest of the day went on as normal, no one but Nash really noticing her slightly altered behavior though they did note he seemed a bit more frustrated than usual. She really did keep her word, taking care to never smile directly at him though that didn’t stop him from getting the smallest of glimpses. He found himself staring at her more often, and after three days he had nearly had enough.

He had found himself in the cortex, Barry was out and about as the Flash leaving Cisco, and Ralph there with him. He was tense and on edge knowing Emily could come in at any moment. He was too preoccupied to remember where she said she was going which only served to amp his anxiety. He tensed when he heard the familiar light tapping of footsteps drawing closer.

“Hey, I’m back!” A familiar voice called out. Nash refused to turn to meet her even as she walked over. She was wearing an oversized tank top, sport shorts, knee high socks and sneakers with her hair tied up. *Training,* he thought to himself. *That’s right, she wanted to practice for a while.* “Hey Cisco, Ralph. Hi Nash....” She smiled at Cisco and Ralph before dropping the facade to look at Nash. He clenched his jaw but kept his composure. “So, what are you up to?” She asked.

Cisco’s eyes darted from her face to Nash’s, before giving Ralph a look. “Not much....” he said. “Barry’s just doing his patrols, hasn’t come up with anything yet,” Ralph added walking awkwardly away.

“Hey, uh, Estrata,” Cisco called from the control desk. “Could you do me a favor?”

“Yeah sure, what’s up?” She asked cheerfully.

“The, satellites could use some maintenance. I can do general software updates from here but it’s difficult to do physical repairs. Could yoouuuu.....”

“Go check it out?” She finished for him. “My pleasure. I’ll take Tinker with me in case they need specialty parts.” She said smiling at the small drone flying into view. “Good idea. Yeah. Take.... take what ever you need and stay however long to. Fix things...” Cisco replied trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. “Be back in a jiffy!” She said with a grin before dropping it to look at Nash as she walked by. “Later.” They all watched and waited for her to leave the room before the two shot daggers at Nash with glares. “What?” He asked when he turned and saw their faces.

“What do you mean ‘what’?” Cisco asked near shouting. “She has been acting weird for the last few days,” Ralph added. “I don’t .... know..... what you mean,” Nash tried to dismiss. “You said something to her, didn’t you!” Cisco accused. “What did you say?!”

“I—I.... didn’t ......” Nash stuttered trying to avoid the unwanted confrontation. They stared each other down for a while before he relented. “Alright fine. I..... I did.... say something.....” he said rubbing the back of his neck. “Probably not the.... greatest thing...... in hindsight.....”

Cisco took a few steps forward still glaring. “Spill it.”

“I.... may have told her that..... she, uh, was..... annoying.....” Nash answered sheepishly. “You.... you what?” Cisco asked in disbelief. “You said what to her!?”

“You told me to say something to her. Anything, actually,” Nash tried to defend.

“Not that! Oh my— guh...” Cisco yelled throwing his hands in the air. Nash scratched his head like a child might when in trouble, being under all that scrutiny made his scalp really itchy. Ralph just stood there shaking his head. “You messed up, so bad,” he said.

“You don’t think I know?” Nash snapped back. “I got a lecture from a Wells as soon as she walked away!”

“You need to fix this,” Cisco said pointing again.

“How, Ramon? How?”

“I don’t know! But you have to do something! Smart, this time,” he glared, Nash glaring back at the ‘smart’ comment. “Because this?” he gestured around him, “This tension, is worse than your repressed tension. It sucks!”

“Hey Cisco,” Emily called over the relay. “Hey Es,” Cisco called back. “What ya got for me?”

“I’ve fixed a few cosmetic things, just scratches and dings from space debris, aaaaand I gave you a few new toys.” Cisco’s face lit up with a smile. “Ohhhh, new toys? Estrata, you spoil me.”

“Only cuz I like ya!” She responded with a giggle.

“Can’t imagine what you’d do for a special someone in your life,” Ralph commented shooting a look over to Nash. Nash clenched his jaw glaring back unenthusiastically. “Hmm, yeah. I’ve been told I get scary when I get serious or protective. Like, Mama Bear mode on steroids. So probably break a mountain in half. Or bake, I like brownies,” Emily rambled.

“.....Wait..... can you do that?” Ralph asked concerned. “Break a mountain?” Emily paused. “You know, never tried. But I did obliterate an asteroid one time.”

“Really?” This time Cisco asked.

“Yeah, but it was a small one. Like, maybe half a football field. And it was made out of a material similar to sandstone.”

“Thaaaat’s still pretty impressive,” Ralph stated impressed and a bit wary. “I know I could never do that.”

“Sure you could, you just gotta put your back into it!” She giggled, Ralph chuckling in return.

“So you gonna come back now?” Cisco asked glancing at Nash.

“Nah, not right now,” Emily replied with a sigh. “Been a while since I’ve just hung out in the deep black of the void, think I’ll chill for a while.” Nash’s shoulders dropped a bit hearing the news. As if he needed another contributor to his tension, now he had to wait for who knows how long. “Ok, take as much time as you need,” Cisco said still looking at Nash. “We’ll be here when you come back.”

“Ok, see you later then,” Emily said before closing the connection. Cisco crossed his arms and Ralph gave him a look, Nash stood stiff lost in thought. “Well, least now you have plenty of time to think of what to say,” Ralph commented before leaving. “You better make it good too,” Cisco warned before exiting as well, leaving Nash to stew for a while in uncertainty. *What to say....* he said to himself.

——

It was well into the evening when Emily made her way back to the lab. She casually strode down the halls humming to herself when she came across Nash and nearly bumped into him. “Oh! Oh, hi Nash,” she said looking up at him.

“H-hi.... Estrata,” Nash smiled awkwardly. “What brings you skulking around here so late?” She asked putting a hand on her hip. “I uh, I.... have something...... I’ve been meaning to, tell you....” he said trying to figure out the words as he went. “Oh? You do?” She said sounding intrigued. He nodded his head looking at his feet. “Uh huh, yeah.” He paused still staring at the ground and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “I lied... earlier.... wheeeen I said you were..... annoying......” he started. “You did?” She asked relaxing a little. Nash nodded again. “I did. I actually don’t, find you annoying that is. I uh, really like your company. A lot.” He peeked up to look her in the eye, the flush building like before. “Well then, why did you say that?” Emily asked, face softening as he spoke.

“I don’t..... I don’t know..... I....” Nash ran his hands through his hair in frustration and started pacing around. “You..... don’t know?” she asked in confusion. “I..... I don’t, have the words...” Nash said pausing and rubbing his chin. He stood quiet for a moment before turning to look at her again. “Maybe.... I don’t need words.....” he muttered to himself.

“What was tha—“ Emily’s sentence was cut off by Nash, who took three quick strides toward her, cupped her face and nearly rammed his face into hers with a kiss. Emily stood stunned, clearly not expecting this turn of events at all, and could only stare wide eyed into space. Once he broke the kiss he looked her in the eyes, thumb gently running over her cheek. “Wha...?” Emily started to ask. “Truth is, you make it incredibly difficult not to do that,” he says with a smile. “Especially, when you smile.”

Emily’s lips slowly pulled into a soft smile before mischievous tones bled in. “Hmmm, I’m not sure I got all that.” Nash raised an eyebrow smirking at her before placing another kiss on her lips. Emily chuckled after he broke the kiss again. “Gee, I dunno.... if I understand..... you may have...... to repeat.... that......” she said with a giggle, Nash taking the obvious opportunity to kiss her over and over while she spoke. They stood for a moment, smiling at each other like idiots, when they heard someone walk around the corner.

“Oh my god, FINALLY!” a voice said loudly from behind them. Emily gripped Nash’s shirt pulling him close as she tried to bury herself into him in embarrassment. Her face was beat red and eyes wide as Cisco briskly walked by. “Now if you two could do something about the other obvious tension you have, that’d be perfect,” he said pointing a finger first at Nash, then Emily who was trying very hard to hide her face. Cisco smiled at Nash, who gave him a wink, before walking away to a lab somewhere. They stood quiet for a minute before he rubbed her back and drew her into a hug enveloping her petite frame. She relaxed nestling into him a bit with a deep sigh. “So....” she began looking up at him. “What’s this ‘other tension’ Cisco was on about?”

“Oh, uh, I uh....” Nash coughed. “Not sure, actually.” She pouted suspiciously at him raising an eyebrow, keeping the stare made his ears rather red. “Mhmm......” she smirked. “Then I guess there’s nothing to ‘take care of’ and no real reason for a sleepover or anything....” she said slipping away. “I’m tired anyway, should probably just go to be—“ her words were cut off by Nash grabbing her from behind in a tight hug causing her to squeak. “Ok ok! I’ll stop teasing” she giggled. “But you’re kinda cute when you’re frustrated.”

Nash raised an eyebrow. “So are you telling me, this was a bad idea?” He asked close to her ear. “Noooooo.....” she said trying to hide the goosebumps. “Just..... think of it as an adventure. You do like adventures, right?” She asked grinning at him. He paused looking thoughtfully at her. “You know, now that I think of it. This might be one of the better ones.”

————————••••••••————————

~Fin~

#the flash #flash fiction #my oc tag #nash wells #cisco ramon #ralph dibny #funny #science #barry allen #fluffy

3 notes · View notes

thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

Text

Movie Night

Wanting to spend more time with Emily but having no real reason, he settles on a movie night to explore the different ways they differ between Earths

Word count: 5,400

Pairing: cannon x oc

Warning: fluff everywhere

**Note: at this point in time, no one on team Flash know Estrata’s real name. Estrata = Emily. Also, Emily is my own creation. I just like sticking her in random things 😅 Enjoy! 🥔🎨

——

It was a mostly quiet day in Central City, Emily had been wandering around S.T.A.R Labs and gotten bored so she had resorted to tinkering in Cisco’s lab on a device of her own making when her earpiece chimed alerting her to an incoming call. “Hello~” she greeted in a semi-singsongy voice, “you’ve reached the interstellar traveler, how might I help thee?”

“Uh, hi,” the greeting choked out. “It’s Harrison.”

Emily smiled. “Hey Harry, to what do I owe this pleasure?” She giggled to herself when she heard him clear his throat.

“Well, uh, it’s been a few weeks since your— your last visit to, uh, to Earth 2,” he fumbled, “and, well, Jessie. Well, not really Jessie, but yes I suppose her too. Anyway, Jessie and me, I— we, were wondering—“

“Harry,” she interrupted, “Haaarryyyy,”

“What?” He asked abruptly having been pulled from his train of disorganized thoughts. Emily chuckled going back to concentrate on her project. “Breathe, take a second, compile your thoughts and then speak. Take all the time you need, I’m not going anywhere.” She heard him exhale, then inhale, and paused for a few seconds before starting again. “Seeing as it’s been a while since you were last here, I was wondering if you would be interested in a movie night. Here. With me.” She paused still tinkering as she pondered the proposition. “Well, I can’t remember the last time I had a movie night,” she said after thinking it over. “Sounds like fun, sure!” She swore she could hear a smile cross his face upon hearing her answer.

“Uh, great! That’s great, uhmm...” he paused and she heard shuffling on the other end. “H—how about tomorrow. Night. Tomorrow night at say 7?”

“Sure, sounds good to me,” she said. “I’ll make sure to let everyone know I’ll be unavailable for the evening.”

“Ok, good. Good. I’ll see you then, then.”

“Hey wait,” she called before he could hang up. “Should I bring anything? Like a snack or drinks?”

“No no, I have that covered. Just bring yourself.”

“Aaaand the dress code?”

“What do you mean ‘dress code’?” He asked confused. “Should I wear something comfy or is this a fancy affair?” she asked with an amused smile.

“Oh, oh that,” he said in realization.

“Yes, that,” she replied with a giggle.

“Comfortable should be fine.”

“Alright, oversized shirt and maybe pants then. Got it.” She smiled to herself mentally planning out her night. “See you tomorrow night.”

“Yes, yes. Tomorrow night.” Harrison confirmed to himself. “See you tomorrow night.” Harrison hung up leaving Emily smiling to herself and continued tinkering well into the late afternoon.

————

The next day went smooth though was disappointing given no leads in finding a way to stop Cicada leaving everyone rather frustrated. As 7 drew near Emily started getting antsy with anticipation and nervousness.

“Are you ok?” Cisco asked noticing her knee near constantly bouncing as she stared at the clock.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Why?” She asked pulled from her concentration.

“Your knee has been bouncing nonstop for the past half hour, that’s why.” Her knee stopped as she stared like a deer in headlights trying to think if an excuse. “Uhhhhh yeah. No, I do that sometimes when I’ve been sitting too long, that’s all. My mom does the same, family trait who knew?”

“I call malarky on that,” Cisco dismissed. “You’re impatient for something.”

“Mmmmnnooooooo.....?”

“Yeeaaahhhhh,” Frost chimes in. “You’re avoiding eye contact and drawing out words. And I can clearly see your veins pulsing in your neck with your raised heart rate and accompanying blood pressure.” Emily stayed silent drawing a blank on what to say next, panic flared for a moment as Barry, Iris and Ralph eyed her waiting for an answer before she decided to give up the ruse. “Alright fine. I have....a movie date. Well, not really a date, least I don’t *think* it’s a date, but I won’t be here tonight.”

“Oooohhhhhh,” Nora teased. “Is it Harry again?” Emily blushed diverting her gaze to the nearby wall. “......Maybe....” she muttered.

“Well this is getting kinda serious,” Cisco joined in. “This is what, second date this month not including calls?”

“Most of those calls were from Jessie,” Emily defended. “Only a few were initiated by me with the sole purpose of checking in on things. Harry kinda just, took over from the background. And she came with us to coffee and karaoke so that doesn’t count as a date. Besides, pretty sure she’ll be there for the movies too.”

“And where are the movies taking place?” Ralph asked skeptically. She drew another blank as she realized they never discussed location. “Uhhhhh actually I....didn’t..... hmmm. Didn’t catch that part, so I have no idea.” Ralph smirked throwing a glance over at Barry. “No location means it’s probably at his place,” he said. Emily swore her heart stopped dead with that realization, why didn’t she realize that was a possibility? “Ah, right,” she choked out. “Makes sense now that I think about it.”

“Don’t worry,” Barry reassured. “Harry’s a responsible guy. You’ll be fine.”

“Make sure you both behave though,” Cisco added cheekily. Emily made a face and Iris smacked his shoulder. “Be nice,” she scolded. “Anyway, what time was this Movie Night supposed to happen?”

“Seven tonight,” Emily said looking back at the clock before realizing how late it was already. “Crap! It’s already 6:30! I gotta go get ready!” She jumped up and hurried to the doorway out of the Cortex. “Get ready how?” Ralph asked teasingly.

“You’re crazy if you think I’m telling you any more about tonight,” she said wrinkling her nose.

“I’ve been called worse,” Ralph replied with a sly grin. Emily rolled her eyes before disappearing around the corner toward her accommodations to change. She had the perfect oversized forest green long-sleeved shirt and a pair of worn out jeans in mind wasting no time to get them on. Once she was sure she had everything she needed she made her way back to the cortex to find Cisco for a breach. On her way she received a message from Harry; coordinates and what looked like the numbers to a house address. Her heart skipped a beat again but she gathered her resolve. “Hey Cisco,” she called. “Think you could breach me to these coords on Earth 2?”

“Yeah sure,” he replied. “Anything for my boy Harry,” he smirked.

“I am turning my relay off when I get there just so you know,” she said hitting his shoulder. “I don’t need you asking thousands of questions and pestering me.” Cisco smiled cheekily raising an eyebrow. “Really, that’s it,” Emily defended. “No other reason. Nothing.”

“Mhmm.” Cisco hummed.

“I’m serious!” Emily said flustered. “I mean it.”

“Just be safe, alright,” he teased. Emily smacked the back of his head having had enough. “Hey hey,” he said swatting her hand away. “Who’s the one you need to get you there?” She sighed. “I’m sorry, alright? Just, please stop.” Cisco smirked. “Ok alright. I guess I’ve tortured you enough.” She breathed a sigh of relief as he opened a breach to the coordinates she was sent. “I’ll tell him you said hi at least,” she said with a smile before stepping through. He smiled back and waved as the breach closed leaving her on Earth 2 for the night.

Taking a breath she looked around to figure out where she was. *Uugh, this reminds me of going over someone’s house for the first time back in high school,* she thought to herself suddenly very nervous. Despite the time she was surprised how much light there was still hanging in the sky. Gaining her bearings she realized this house was very similar to the one Harrison Wells on Earth 1 originally had, though it leaned heavily toward 1920’s aesthetics. Double checking the address number she confirmed she was in the right place and tentatively approached the door. Pausing she stared at the large double metal doors, hand hanging in the air poised to knock but unable to do so. Taking a breath she knocked three times, too late to turn back now and cancel plans. Just enough time passed to let her wonder why in the world she was so nervous when the doors opened. To her surprise is was Jessie. “Oh, hey Es,” she greeted with a smile.

“Hey Jessie.” Emily replied forcing a smile.

“My dad is in the kitchen making popcorn. Come on in,” Jessie said stepping aside. Emily smiled walking into the spacious foyer and looked around as she took her shoes off. “He’s been buzzing around almost all day getting ready. ‘What do you normally eat for movie snacks?’, ‘what should we watch?’, ‘would a sweater vest be too much?’, ‘do you think she wants water or something sugary to drink?’, ‘is wine inappropriate?’. Just, questions all day.” She laughed. “I can’t remember the last time he was so, so...”

“Nervous?” Emily asked.

“Happily excited,” Jessie corrected. “Kinda reminds me of when you ask your crush out and they unexpectedly say yes or something.” Emily pursed her lips at the chosen comparison and glanced over. “Anyway, I hope he doesn’t get too much out of hand tonight,” she said pulling on a jacket and shoes.

“Wait, you’re not staying?” Emily asked nervously.

“Nope, I have plans with friends tonight so you two have the whole house to yourselves,” she smiled. Emily’s heart skipped a beat and she was sure her eyes would pop out of her head. Just as she was to respond Harry came out of the kitchen and smiled seeing her. “Ah, good, you found it ok,” he said happily as he strode over. “You sure you don’t want to stay Jessie?”

“No, no I’m sure. You two have fun though,” she smiled again a little wider. “Later, dad. Bye, Es.” She wiggled her eyebrows at Emily before leaving out the two doors behind her. Emily took a shaky breath staring at the door. *It’s just movies,* she assured herself. *Just movies, just movies...*

“So, I was going to pick out a movie,” Harry said heading toward the living room. “But I realized I have no idea what you like. So I decided to wait until you got here.” He placed the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table as Emily turned around rather stiffly and started toward him. “Harry, I can guarantee I haven’t seen any of your movies before.”

“R-right, different Earths,” he said mid realization.

“Technically, different multiverse altogether, but yeah. Different Earths,” she smiled sitting on the couch and crossing her legs. “Cisco says hi by the way. You really should touch base with him more often.”

“Ah, right. I’ve been meaning to do that. Anyway, pick a genre. I doubt you want to watch documentaries or scientific history.”

“Actually, my Earth had a few really fascinating nature documentaries. I loved the one about the deep dark oceans but I though the one about the animals was amazing. I never realized there were so many bugs in just the amazon.” Harry smiled as she trailed off. “Sooooo, documentary then?”

“Hmmmm, how ‘bout Science Fiction? Got anything about aliens?” she asked moving from the couch to kneel next to him. He shifted so she could better see the list of movies though she could tell the close proximity made him nervous. She smiled to herself as she leaned over the table and propped her head up with a hand. Harry cleared his throat. “Uh, I don’t. I don’t think we have, that kind of, o-of movie. I don’t think we have that one. No.”

“Lemme see,” she said scooting a bit closer. “What’s this one about?” she asked pointing to a video disk.

“Eyuh, that’s, uh. That’s, actually let me see,” he picked it up and looked it over. “I think this is an alien movie. Must be one of Jessies.” Emily took it from him and read the summary. “Looks like, alien sharks fight back against scientists who want to study them. They’re highly intelligent and even more deadly. Huh.” She held the disk in front of her face so only her eyes could be seen. “Aliens and animals, sounds like a winner to me.”

Harry smiled an awkward smile. “Are you sure? We have, uhm,” he rifled through the different disks and pulled out a random one. “A garden that holds dark secrets- no wait, not that one. A documentary on Howard Crane.” Emily raised an eyebrow. “No? Ok then how about— a trio of adventurers trying to find a lost city?”

“You mean like Indiana Jones and Nathan Drake?” she asked reaching for the disk. “Kinda like that one too.”

“I....don’t know who those people are,” he responded rather lost. “But sure, I guess?”

“Oh wait! Is that a dragon??” She reached for yet another resorting to just laying over the coffee table to better access the disks. “Dragons are so cool, they’re my mom’s go to fantasy creature. She’s even tried writing some dragon related stories.” She turned and showed him the disk. “I like this one too.”

He smiled again. “Ok, so three winners. What one should we put in first.” Emily sat back on her knees and thought for a minute. “Alien sharks first. That way if it’s bad, we have two others to watch instead.”

“What if they’re all bad?” Harry asked.

“How can they be all bad, you still have them?”

“Good point. Alien sharks it is,” he said and snatched the disk away from her to put it on. Emily hopped back up to the couch and settled in again. Harry sat next to her and started the movie when he remember the drinks. “Oh, I almost forgot about refreshments!” He went to move but Emily stopped him. “I got it,” she said getting up. “They on the table?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t sure what kind of, uh, soda you liked so I got a few different ones.” Emily came back with a glass bottle for two different kinds, one looked like a cola and the other a kind of orangette. “Which do you prefer?” she asked holding up the two. He paused and she could tell he had to stop himself from saying something else when he pointed to the cola looking one. “Th-that, uh that one. Please.” She raised and eyebrow amused before handing him the drink and plopping down again. He reached for the popcorn but she floated it over to them with a smile. “I told you, I got it.” He smiled nervously taking the bowl and started the movie.

Popcorn orbited her head and would stop every time she hyper focused on the movie. Harry thought it was funny whenever this happened because she would always lean forward a little, sometimes she would reflexively grab his nearby knee and make him jump. He eventually found himself paying more attention to her than the movie, not that alien sharks were in his interests in the first place. When the movie ended she made a face. “What’s that for?” He asked sitting up.

“Kinda.....kinda fell flat at the end,” she lamented.

“How so?” He asked turning to face her.

“Super intelligent alien sharks, super intelligent scientists, intellectual stand off, and they just agree to part ways after most of the scientists are eaten? What?!” Emily complained while gesturing wildly accidentally flinging some of her orbiting popcorn. “It’s so dumb!”

Harry chuckled. “It’s alien sharks, what were you expecting?”

“I dunno!” She slumped in her seat and sighed. “Well anyway, good thing we watched that one first.” She spun to face him crossing her legs and holding up the other two disks. “So, which one next?”

“You seemed pretty excited about the dragon one so how about that?”

Emily smiled wide, Harry thought he could even see a glow, before saying ok and float-rolling herself over to the player to pop out the other disk. Harry grabbed the now mostly empty bowl to make more popcorn and grab more sodas. She was still fidgeting with the player when he returned bringing a smirk to his face and a chuckle from his mouth. “Do you need help?” He asked observing her upside down position.

“No no, I think... Ah ha! I got it!” She declared switching out the movies and flipping herself right side up again. “Whoa, dizzy.” Harry was sat on the couch again with a fresh bowl of popcorn still piping hot and two more bottles of soda. He held one out for her as she floated back over and plopped on the couch again. “Thank you,” she said with a smile before popping the top off.

“Ready?”

“Yesss!”

Harry smiled and pressed play, hand already digging into the popcorn and Emily nestled further into the cushions sipping her soda. They were both pretty fixated on this one, though Emily found herself observing Harry a few times. Many times throughout the movie he would stop chewing his snack, have his hand in limbo mid bite or sip while totally engrossed in the movie. She found it amusing as he didn’t seem like the fantasy type and he had a tendency to leave his mouth hanging open. She even noted a little sparkle in his eyes whenever the dragon came on screen. Smiling she leaned on him a little and went back to enjoying the movie. When the movie ended they both sat quietly for a moment. “Wow, dragons are awesome,” Harry commented.

“Right?!” Emily asked enthusiastically turning her head to face him. “Can you imagine if they were able to exist?”

“I don’t think it’s scientifically or even biologically possible,” Harry responded dampening the mood a bit.

“Well, large reptiles have existed before,” Emily mused. “So, theoretically they could exist. Maybe not on a huge scale but given enough large mammals like cows, sheep, goats, to more exotic things like Elephants and hippos, a small community of large sized dragons could live.”

Harry smiled listening to her rattle on. “And by large size you mean?”

“Maybe nothing much bigger than a bus, possibly a little smaller.”

“Sounds reasonable, but how would you be able to explain their fire breath?”

“Many popular theories have it as a chemical reaction, kind of like some species of insect. And there’s the spitting cobra that can spit quite a few feet away. Scale that up a lot and voila! Dragon breath!”

Harry chucked rather impressed. “Seems you’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

“Not really, not just me anyway,” she replied with a stretch. “That’s mostly stuff I’ve read others come up with or have seen in movies or read in books. Like this one movie, a big bad aggressive male dragon took over a city and toward the end of it you get a really good shot of his mouth open before he breathes fire. Looked like gasoline to be honest.” Her arms hung lazily behind her over the couch back as she looked at him with a smile, eyes becoming a bit heavy with impending sleep. Harry stared for a moment before clearing his throat and standing up. “So, next movie then?” Emily nodded before jumping up. “Oh wait! I have to pee. What door is the bathroom?”

Harry laughed being caught off guard. “Down the hall, second door to your left. Light switch to the right.” Emily nodded before hurrying off down the dark hall sliding to a stop in front of the door. Harry smiled again as he switched the movies and then went to get a glass of water. As he was walking back Emily crashed into his back sending the glass flying out of his hand and threatened to spill everywhere. Reaching her arms around him in a half hug she caught the glass and water mid air with a field having subconsciously pressed herself into his back. “Did I catch it?” She asked peering around him. Harry was frozen, not only from the surprise impact and impending glass shattering sound that never came but the petite frame currently right up against him. “Y-yeah, yeah. You, uh. You got it. Got it all actually.” he assured fighting to speak.

Sliding out from behind him she put the water back in the cup and held it gingerly as she turned around to return it. “Sorry,” she apologized. “I didn’t see you in the dark.” He leaned against the nearby counter and waved dismissively. “No, no, no, it’s...it’s fine.” He reached for the glass keeping his eyes turned away and hurried toward the couch cup in hand. Emily cocked her head to the side pausing for a second before following and taking her seat.

The further into the movie they got the more sleepy Emily became, and the more she found herself leaning on Harry. He didn’t seem to mind, rather shifting position subtly to make his shoulder a bit more comfortable. After probably the 70th yawn, Emily couldn’t keep her eyes open and quickly found herself sound asleep.

——

Early the next morning Harry stirred awake. Groggily he looked around having heard someone in the kitchen. *Probably Estrata,* he thought as he stretched with a deep sigh. As his brain continued to wake he realized there was a weight on his side, and something rather warm. Lifting an arm so he could focus on what it was he realized it was Emily; sleeping soundly with one arm draped around his waist and her head on his chest. Instantly his grogginess left him as soon as it registered what the weight was. Due to his stretching Emily stirred, breathing a deep sigh she snuggled into him a little more causing his heart to skip. He smiled once the mild panic subsided and leaned his head back, closed his eyes and attempted to fall asleep again when he heard footsteps. Lifting his head he was greeted by Jessie, who was looking rather amused at the scene. “Morning, dad,” she smirked.

“Jessie!” he near yelped. “I— we— it’s not—“

“Long night?”

“Yes. But not, like that— we found three movies. Did you buy an alien shark movie?”

“What? No, stop deflecting.”

“I’m not!”

The voices and squirming from Harry caused Emily to stir again. Another deep sigh and a stretch, Emily started to wake up. Rubbing her eyes she squinted one open and saw Jessie standing near by. “Oh, hey Jessie,” she said mid yawn. “You have fun.....last night....?”

“Yeah, yeah I did,” she smirked again. “Looks like you two did as well.”

“Hmmm...?” Emily turned to see what she thought was a pillow was in fact Harry. He smiled with an embarrassed chuckle and Emily instantly shook off her drowsiness shoving herself away in surprise and landed at the other end if the couch. “Oh! Oh, I’m sorry. Woah too fast...”

“Wow, you are really warm,” Harry commented sitting up a little.

“Thank my mom,” Emily replied trying to stop her head spinning. “She does the same thing, we turn into space heaters in the winter. Oof...”

“Now, if you two are done cuddling, I made breakfast.” Jessie teased leaving the room. Emily and Harry just looked at each other heavy with embarrassment and laughed nervously. “Should weee.....?” she asked pointing toward the kitchen.

“Yeah, yup,” Harry agreed quickly standing. He ran his fingers through his hair as he shuffled out leaving Emily on the couch. She groaned rubbing her face before getting up and following him, how would she possibly write this off? She paused nervously in the doorway before taking her seat, Harry and her looking at each other sheepishly.

“Soooo, what did you guys watch last night?” Jessie asked placing a few plates on the table.

“Alien sharks,” Harry replied eating the pancakes Jessie had served.

“Giant dragon,” Emily added.

“Treasure explorers,” Harry continued.

“Stay up late?” Jessie asked attempting to get a conversation going.

“Mhmm, kinda,” Emily said picking up a glass of water. “Somewhere around 2 I think.”

Sighing frustratedly Jessie suddenly had an idea. “Sooooo, you guys kiss yet?” She asked sitting up straight and donning a sly smirk. Emily choked on her drink at the unexpected question spraying water all over the floor next to her coughing loudly. “Jessie!” Harry scolded setting his silverware down with a clank.

“What, I was just asking!” Jessie replied trying to sound innocent. “You guys were cuddling and make eyes at each other all the time so I had to know.”

“Aaaugh, my sinuses. They burn!” Emily whined. “I’ll be right back, excuse me,” she said making her way to the bathroom while Harry continued to glare at Jessie. Disappearing into the bathroom to get the rest of the water out of her sinuses and dry herself off, she took the opportunity to take a deep breath and calm her nerves. *Most definitely wasn’t expecting this rout to play out,* she said to herself. A few more breaths and she was just about to leave the room when her earpiece chimed for an incoming call. Letting out a surprised yelp she paused before answering. “Hello?”

“Heeeeey~” the voice on the other end crooned. “How was movie night?”

Emily sighed in relieved recognition. “Hey Cisco, movie night was alright. Found a total of three movies to watch. You would have liked the treasure hunter one, it was kinda like Indiana Jones. Least I think it was, fell asleep toward the beginning of it.”

“Ah, classic Indiana,” he agreed. “I didn’t realize harry was into that.”

“He really likes dragons too,” Emily informed with a smile. “His eyes would light up every time it came on screen.”

“Staring into his eyes were you?”

“It, was an observation, Cisco,” she defended.

“Riiiiigght,” he replied in disbelief.

“Why did you call me?” Emily asked annoyed.

“Need your help with a meta,” he replied matter-of-factly. “So give Harry a goodbye kiss and come back soon as possible, alright?”

“Ugh, shut up,” Emily responded still annoyed. “I’ll be there in a few.” She hung up and exited the bathroom before abruptly stopping having nearly collided with someone. “Wha— proximity,” she said in surprise before looking up. “Oh, Harry, hey.”

“Are you, alright?” He asked a bit concerned.

“Yeah, why?”

“I heard you yelp and got worried.”

“Oh, yeah, no I’m ok. That was just Cisco,” she responded dismissively. “They, need my help. Back home— back at the lab on Earth 1, for a meta.”

“Ah, I see,” Harry lamented.

“Mhmm,” Emily responded still looking at him and he looked back puzzled. “I uh, I kinda....need you to— to open a breach. Back to, the, lab....”

“Oh, OH! Oh right,” Harry recognized.

“Mhmm, yup,” Emily nodded.

“I’ll go, get a....jacket.....” Harry said before walking briskly away.

“Probably a, good idea...” Emily trailed behind him before placing her face in her palm and muttering ‘ugh God’ under her breath. Harry disappeared around a corner to pause, closing his eyes he huffed tilting his head back. He pursed his lips replaying the last minute and kicked himself before grabbing a jacket and meeting her back in the kitchen. Emily was in the middle of saying goodbye to Jessie, who was trying in vain to get her to stay, when he appeared again. She turned to face him with a smile. “Ready?”

“Yup,” he responded kissing Jessie goodbye. “I’ll be back.”

“Uh, ok,” Jessie responded half waving farewell as the both left. She smiled when she noticed Harry placed his arm around Emily ushering her out.

They both sat in relative silence as they rode to Earth 2’s S.T.A.R. Labs and it continued on their way to the breach room. They stood awkwardly in the elevator as it descended, Emily trying to muster up the nerve to say something, anything, but was unable to. She could tell by how the silence was hanging thick around them that Harry wanted to say something too but was also unable to. I may just be reading things wrong, she thought. Maybe he’s just uncomfortable, he did take his wife’s passing hard. Ugh, what did I do? What do I do? She was so distracted she didn’t notice when the elevator stopped and opened.

“Estrata,” Harry called.

“Hmm? Oh, sorry. Was lost in thought,” she said snapping to attention. “Coming.” She briskly walked by him and toward the breach room avoiding eye contact and keeping her head down. Harry followed her curiously noting her change in behavior and took larger steps to keep up with her. Once he caught up with her, he found her standing on the opposite side of the breach platform and the operating terminal. She seemed tense, distracted and overall set on getting back. He wanted to ask what was wrong but didn’t know what to say and so did the only thing he could think of walking over to the terminal. “It’ll take a minute to open a breach,” he stated starting the process. Emily nodded as her mind began to wander and she stared off into space. Harry kept glancing at her wondering about her behavior and hoping she would at least look at him. She didn’t move much until the breach was created and stabilized opting to stare aimlessly ahead of her.

“Hey,” Harry called as she made her way toward the swirling portal. “Everything alright with you?” Emily turned making eye contact for the first time since they left his house. She forced a smile and nodded. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.”

“Nooo, no you’re not,” he challenged. “You’re tense, avoiding eye contact, unusually quiet. What’s bothering you?” He slowly walked toward her until he was a few feet away from her holding eye contact the entire time. She looked up, eyes softening and she looked like she wanted to say something but shook her head instead. “Nothing, really. Just....thinking. That’s all.”

He squinted clearly not believing her answer completely but nodded deciding not to press further. “Ok.” He turned and walked back to the platform, Emily fought the desire to explain herself but turned away believing it better to just leave. What would she say anyway? “Hey, Estrata,” Harry called again from the top of the platform stairs causing her to face him once more. “I uh, I really enjoyed your company last night.” He smiled down at her. “We should do that again. Soon.”

Emily returned the smile and nodded. “Next time though, call me Emily.”

Harry’s face dropped in disbelief at the reveal of her name. She smiled a little wider placing her pointer finger to her lips with a wink before leaving through the breach. When it closed, Harry was left standing alone in bewilderment for a while before smiling and sauntering out the room.

As soon as she arrived back on Earth 1, Emily headed up to the cortex. “Hey, I’m back. What’s up?”

“Heeeyyy, welcome back,” Cisco said turning his chair around.

“So how did it go?” Frost asked.

“C’mon Frost, a lady doesn’t kiss and tell,” Ralph cut in. “Wait, did you? Kiss I mean.”

“If I did, I can’t say,” Emily teased. “Isn’t that the rule?”

“You totally did, didn’t you!” Ralph near accused. Emily just smiled innocently making a zipper motion over her mouth and then pretended to throw the key. He smirked with a sigh knowing full well this was a mystery he wouldn’t solve. “So,” Emily turned toward Cisco, “what are we dealing with on this lovely day?”

Barry walked into the room before he could respond. “We have a potential hit on some of Cicadas activities. We could use you for support should things go really off the rails.”

“I have full confidence in your abilities,” Emily replied. “But I am honored that you think I can help.”

“You obviously have strengths that can come in handy, even if we don’t make use of them often you are a valued member of the team.”

“Alright alright, you’re gonna make me emotional,” Emily said brushing off the compliments and making everyone chuckle. “Lets get this lead investigated so we can worry about other things, yeah?” Everyone murmured agreement and she smiled, she finally felt she belonged and cared deeply for everyone. As much as she wanted to find Cicada though, couldn’t wait for the next movie night. Until next time, she thought to herself before returning to the team. Next time.

————————••••••••————————

~Fin~

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thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

Text

Unexpected Karaoke

Part 2.

~~~

Emily laughed again, a bit louder than last time, when everyone began clapping once again. She covered her face in embarrassment but grinned wide. “Ok, alright. That’s it, I’m done. That was your last one,” she said still smiling as she stepped away from the mic amid the multitude of protests and complaints. “One more,” Harry called.

“What?” Emily asked.

“One more,” Harry repeated. “Just one more.”

Emily huffed a little annoyed. “I’ve already given you two ‘one more’s’,” she complained. “I was supposed to inspire someone else to come up too, not take the stage for myself.”

“Please,” Harry asked softly. Emily’s heart skipped hearing the pleading sincerity in his voice and seeing it in his eyes. Even Jessie was surprised at how genuinely insistent he sounded. The rest of the room started pleading as well, some even chanting ‘one more’ over and over. She puffed her cheeks and let out a long sigh before turning in her heels to return to the mic. “I’m too much of a pushover. That’s my problem,” she said playfully as the room clapped encouragingly. “Alright, last time GP,” she said as the little drone began playing happily again.

*Used to keep it cool*

*Used to be a fool*

*All about the bounce in my step*

*Watch it on the news*

*Whatcha gonna do?*

*I could hit refresh and forget*

*Used to keep it cool*

*Should I keep it light?*

*Stay out of the fight?*

*No one's gonna listen to me*

*If I write a song*

*Preaching what is wrong*

*Will they let me sing on TV?*

*Should I keep it light?*

*Is that right?*

Having completely given up, Emily puts her everything into this song, even creating minor illusions on the walls to enhance the atmosphere. Going along with the song, she makes it look like the room has suddenly levitated high into the air above the city while everyone stayed in their seats and treats everyone to a sensory trip.

*Way up, way up we go*

*Been up and down that road*

*Way up, way up, oh no*

*We gon' burn the whole house down*

*Watch me stand in the line*

*You're only serving lies*

*You've got something to hide*

*We gon' burn the whole house down*

Dropping the previous illusion, Emily brings everyone back to the room before giving the appearance the ceiling is on fire for a moment before ‘putting it out’ with a wave of her hand.

*Yeah, used to let it go*

*Walk into the show*

*Gawking at the tricks up your sleeve*

*Too good to be true*

*Fool, I'm in a room*

*Full of entertainers and thieves*

*Used to let it go*

*Woah, oh no*

The illusions cycle around again similar to the last set though rather than above the city, Emily makes it look as though they’re high in the atmosphere even going as far as to levitate everyone and thing in the room.

*Way up, way up we go*

*Been up and down that road*

*Way up, way up, oh no*

*We gon' burn the whole house down*

*Watch me stand in the line*

*You're only serving lies*

*You've got something to hide*

*We gon' burn the whole house down*

*Should I hang my head low?*

*Should I bite my tongue?*

*Or should I march with every stranger from Twitter to get shit done?*

*Used to hang my head low*

*Now I hear it loud*

*Every stranger from Twitter is gonna burn this down*

Lowering her voice, she gets close to the mic, voice trying to hide the anticipation of the final leg of the song, a mischievous smile on her face all the while. Harry and Jessie leaned over the table in excitement to see what it is she would do, everyone else in the room doing similar things though due to the lower volume.

*Way up, way up we go*

*Been up and down that road*

*Way up, way up, oh no*

*We gon' burn the whole house down*

*Watch me stand in the line (whoa oh)*

*You're only serving lies (yeah)*

*You've got something to hide*

*We gon' burn the whole house down*

The crowd, having been infected by her charisma, begin clapping in time to the beat of the song. After creating what looked like a fire ball in her hand, she snaps her fingers setting the whole room on fire including herself, her outfit changing from her green blouse and brown pants to a sleek black dress as she closed out the song.

*(Woah oh, yeah)*

*We gon' burn the whole house down*

Raising her arms with dramatic flair two large wings appear behind her wreathed in flame, even her eyes and hair seemed to glow from the display.

*We burn it down, we burn it down*

*We gon' burn the whole house down*

As quickly as it appeared, the illusions of her fire, dress and wings disappear leaving her and the room as they were before. Stunned silence followed and Emily just grinned. “How’s that for a finale?” She asked. After a brief pause a crescendo of applause filled the room lead by Harry and Jessie. Emily bowed and left the mic returning to the table Harry and Jessie were now standing at. “That was awesome!” Jessie exclaimed brandishing a bright smile. “How did you.....?”

“I made a field on the entire inside of the room and bent light to create the illusions,” Emily explained. Jessie mouthed the word ‘woah’ continuing to stare wide eyed at her. She smiled over at Harry and before he could say anything the young woman and her friends from before swarmed her with praises. “That was amazing!” One of the swooned. “Yeah, you were so good!” Fawned another. “Can’t you sing one more?” Pleaded the last one. “I.... uh.....” Emily stuttered in surprise unsure of how to answer. Jessie cut in and pulled her away by an arm putting her between her and Harry in order to put some protective distance between her and her now very enthusiastic groupies. “No, no, she’s done. Didn’t you hear?”

“Ugh, Jessie Wells,” scowled one. “Why do you always get to do everything cool?”

“Just lucky I guess,” she said smugly. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we have a date to get back to,” Jessie said pulling Emily toward the door with Harry following close behind. Before she left, the young woman managed to grab Emily’s other arm and stopped her. “Make sure you come back and sing for us again, ok?” she said hugging her arm making Emily really very uncomfortable especially with the eyes she was making at her. “I.... uh..... I can’t make any..... p-promises...” she stuttered slipping her arm free and pushing toward the door. Once they left and were a fair distance away Emily was finally able to breathe and took the opportunity to smack Harry’s arm. “Hey, ow!” He said in surprise rubbing his arm. “That’s for getting the whole place going, twice!” Emily scolded. Harry smiled innocently and shrugged. “You were really good!” He defended. Emily glared at him, slight smirk at the corner of her mouth as she tried not to laugh.

“Why don’t we head back to the lab?” Jessie asked trying to change the subject. “It’s getting kinda late and I’m sure she’ll be expected back soon.” Emily continued to glare at Harry, who had begun to get nervous, still trying not to laugh as Jessie slowly pushed her forward. “Yeah, suppose I should get back,” she agreed letting the smirk slip allowing Harry to relax a little. “You live another day, Harrison,” she teased. Harry chuckled following them with a relaxed pace, Emily and Jessie carrying on conversation all the way back to the lab. “I really appreciate you guys showing me around,” Emily said as they walked the empty halls. “I had a lot of fun.”

“I’m glad,” Harry said with a smile.

“We should do this again,” Jessie added. “Maybe we’ll run into your groupies again.” Emily cringed a little pushing her a bit. “No, I think I’m done with singing for a while. In public anyway,” Emily dismissed. “What about present company?” Jessie asked. She paused and pondered the question. “I dunno, might put me into an endless loop of ‘one more’” she teased. Harry sighed with a smile looking down at the floor. “Alright, lets get you back home before you beat me up some more,” Harry chuckled leading the way to the breach room. Emily and Jessie giggled following behind him and they made small talk all the way down. “Give me a minute and I’ll have you back safe and sound,” Harry said approaching the command terminal when they reached the room.

“Do you really have to go?” Jessie asked. “You really do make a great addition here.”

“I’ve been established on that Earth,” Emily replied. “I’m pretty attached and rooted there. Plus, someone has to play parent.” Jessie chuckled but sighed sadly. “You sure there isn’t anything, or anyone, that could convince you otherwise?” She asked hopefully. Harry coughed over hearing their conversation and tried to look busy to throw off suspicion. “Well, I do have a reason or two to come back again,” Emily said with a smirk. “Even if it is just for a short visit.”

“Yeah well, who knows,” Jessie shrugged. “Maybe one day you will stay.”

“Maybe, you never know,” Emily smiled.

“And, there we go,” Harry said clearing his throat as a breach opened. Emily and Jessie turned to see a swirling portal bloom before them, Earth 1 on the other side waiting to welcome Emily back. He stood up at the top of the stairs while Emily gave Jessie a hug goodbye. “Time for me to go,” she said sadly. “Yeah, even though you should reeeally stay,” Jessie tried pleading again but Emily just smiled. “Oh! Wait, before I go....” Emily said running to the stairs. “Harry, I have something for you!” Harry blinked surprised at her. “You do?”

“Yeah,” she smiled before pulling out a small device. “I brought you your own communication relay. And some replacement parts in case anything happens.” Harry smiled wide and laughed. “Ah, so you did!”

Emily nodded with a smile. “Now you don’t have to steal Jessie’s.”

“Yes, finally!” Jessie cheered from below. Emily glanced back with a smile before returning her attention to Harry. “I have a few frequencies already programmed in,” she explained. “Jessie is first and foremost. Then your Lab, then Earth 1’s lab, then Cisco....”

“Are you programmed in there somewhere?” Harry asked hopefully. Emily smiled raising an eyebrow. “After Cisco is me. You can get ahold of me even if I’m off world.”

“I can?” He asked

“You can,” she confirmed. “Just, try not to make midnight or later calls a regular or frequent thing? A girl needs her sleep.” Harry paused before laughing again. “That’s no fun,” he half whined. “But sure, I’ll try to do that only 5 times a week.” Emily pursed her lips crossing her arms and tapped a foot. “Kidding,” Harry recovered. “Not that often anyway.”

“Mhmm...” Emily muttered before turning around. Harry smiled innocently as she headed back down and gave Jessie one last hug goodbye. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he behaves,” Jessie said with a wink. Emily smiled and waved goodbye to Harry, turning on her heels she walked into the breach and back home.

The breach room on Earth 1 was dark when she arrived as it was quite late and everyone had long since left for home. Sighing deeply Emily made her way up to her accommodations, becoming aware of how tired she was as she got closer to her bed. Perhaps she would just sleep in her cloths tonight, it seemed like much too much work to change. As she rounded the corner with her room in sight she got a surprise call on her relay. Opening her holo-headset she was surprised to see Harry. “Harry, hey! What a surprise,” she said rubbing her eye.

He chuckled. “Hi, yeah, it’s me. Just wanted to.... test it out. You know, make sure it worked.”

“You doubt my engineering skills?”

“I— wha— no, I—“ he stuttered making Emily giggle. “I’m just teasing....” she said tiredly. “Was this a bad time?” He asked after a pause noting her sleepy voice. “No no, you’re fine,” she dismissed. “I just..... didn’t realized how ragged you ran me today. Haven’t gotten to bed yet.”

“Ah, I see. Ok....” he trailed off. Emily giggled tiredly. “Harry.... you still there....?” she asked after a long pause. “.....Yeah?” His voice cracked. “Yeah, I’m still here.”

“Ok.... well I have..... to get some sleep.....” she said in drawn out sleepy sections before yawning. “The team will be here in a few hours after all....”

“Ah...r-right....” Harry paused. “Goodnight then.”

“Goodniiiiiight Harry....” Emily trailed tiredly before flopping down on her bed. She fell asleep shortly after her head hit the mattress leaving her relay open, Harry stayed connected for a few minutes listening to her soft breathing. He hadn’t realized how long those few minutes were until Jessie walked by his door. “Hey, why are you still up?” She asked squinting from the light of the relay.

“Oh, uh, just.... testing the relay,” he stuttered. “Just making sure it works. That’s all.”

“C’mon dad, Estrata made it. You know it works.” Jessie said with a slight yawn.

“No, I did not,” Harry protested. “It’s new technology, something I didn’t make myself so I needed to test it.” Jessie just smirked mischievously at him. “You just wanted her to be your first call, didn’t you?”

“I— wha— no! That’s silly,” Harry tried denying. “Shouldn’t you be in bed??” Jessie rolled her eyes. “Sure dad, whatever you say. Goodnight, don’t stay up too late,” she said continuing on to her room. Harry sat in the dark trying to calm the embarrassment that was slowly trying to write itself over his face from having been caught. It honestly surprised him with how bothered being “caught” made him, had he really become that fond of her? He pondered the revelation and got butterflies, a smile appearing on his face. It had been a while since he felt remotely like this and it scared him. She had warned she could be ripped away at any moment through no intent of her own, if he did indeed feel the way he thought he did he wasn’t sure he could handle another loss like that. Still, he didn’t particularly dislike the feeling. He would have to take things slow and see, and under no circumstance let Jessie know. *She will never leave me alone about this,* he thought to himself. Pausing one last time he finally closed the connection and stood. “Maybe I’ll call her tomorrow,” he mused to himself shuffling to his room. “This will be interesting.....”

————————••••••••————————

~Fin~

Hope you enjoyed! Lemme know what you think! 🥔🎨

#harrison wells #harry wells #my ocs #oc x canon #the flash #flash fiction #fan fiction #fluffy #fun stuff

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thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

Text

Unexpected Karaoke

Word count: ~4,000

Warnings: none

Pairings: Oc x Cannon (lite)

Flash fanfic

**Note: at this point in time, none of team Flash know what Estrata’s real name is. Estrata = Emily. Also, Emily is my personal character. I just like to stick her in places 😅 Enjoy!! 🥔 🎨

——

Two weeks, only about two weeks had passed since the enlightenment was halted and Harrison was given his basic mind back. While he wasn’t the easiest person to deal with he cared deeply for the Team Flash of Earth 1, it just happened to be buried under layers of grump and grief and worry. It was so buried in fact, Emily couldn’t really believe she had taken a liking to him. Everyone was devastated when they heard what was happening to his mind because of the thinking cap, and everyone was equally ecstatic when Marlize was able to restore it, but Emily underestimated how much it affected her. Which is probably how she found herself in this predicament.

The last time Jessie had payed Earth 1 a visit, Emily gave her a subspace communication relay in order to contact the Lab on Earth 1 easier. It was able to link up to the coms to both her personal headset and the coms in the cortex, something she discovered was possible by accident when Thawn was masquerading as Dr. Wells. With this new avenue opened, they were able to keep tabs on the reconstruction of Earth 2 after Zoom and Jessie could ask Barry questions if needed without breaching. It also meant Emily could call Jessie and vice versa whenever the opportunity struck them, and the opportunity that presented itself to Emily had her debating wether or not to call.

Secluding herself in her accommodation room, she paced around. The constant mental back and forth had caused her heart rate to increase due to self imposed stress and indecision. It would be totally understandable to call and ask how he’s doing, given what he went through recently, she told herself. Besides, I’m sure the rest of the team would like a status update. We all got attached to him after all, I could even ask how the reconstruction was going, or how Jessie is doing. I’m sure it’s been hard on her too. She paused, turned on her heels, and reversed the circle she was walking in. No, no, I don’t want to bother her. I’m sure she’s busy with her own responsibilities. I don’t want to come off as clingy either, she contradicted herself. But I’m sure he’ll appreciate the fact we’re all thinking about him and checking in to see how he’s doing, she said reversing the circle again. Ugh, but what if.....what if the constant checks are irritating to him? It’s only been 11 days and he’s gotten 5 check in calls already. Then again, some of those check ins were about the reconstruction and Jessie, he just happened to be in the background. She smiled remembering one call where he managed to push Jessie out of frame a took it over, and another where he claimed to have borrowed the relay just to say hi. I’ll have to build him his own, that way Jessie won’t have to share, or at the very least have it stolen again. Yes, I think I’ll do that.

Having made up her mind and deciding not to call, she headed toward Cisco’s lab to see if she could find equivalent parts to the relay she already made for Jessie. She hadn’t even made it two steps toward the door when her earpiece chimed. Calling up the accompanying hud screen she was surprised to see Jessie calling. “Oh, Jessie hey! Believe it or not I was debating on if I should call you or not. What a coincidence.”

“Yeah, how ‘bout that,” Jessie replied with a smile. “I was just calling to see how things were going there. Anything exciting?”

“No, not really. Just, you know, meeting Barry and Iris’ daughter. Their future daughter.”

“Wait, what??” Jessie near yelled. “Future daughter? How??”

“Turns out she’s a little speedster herself,” Emily replied with a shrug.

“Wha— well actually that doesn’t surprise me, honestly.” They both laughed in unison before Emily paused. “Well, since you’re already on call,” she started, “how’s your dad? Is he still improving?”

“Uhhh, yeah,” Jessie replied looking around what looked like the living room behind her. “Yeah, he’s starting to be his old brainy self again.”

“Jessie? Is that you? Who are you talking to?” Emily heard a voice echo from somewhere behind the girl. “Yeah, it’s just me,” Jessie responded yelling off screen. “It’s Estrata, she was wondering how you were doing.”

“Estrata?” Harry repeated now sounding closer. “Hey, hey!” Harry greeted barging his way into frame. “Hi, what’s up?” Emily chuckled as Jessie groaned in protest at the intrusion. “Dad, c’mon really?”

“Harry, really. Give her some space, you’re practically melding your face into hers.”

“Oh come one, she loves this,” he teased rubbing his cheek against hers. “See?”

“Uuuugh, dad! Stop that!” Jessie complained pushing him away. “Honestly, I don’t know which version of you is more annoying.”

“Aww, he just loves you is all,” Emily teased with a chuckle.

“Oh not you too!” She whined with a laugh.

“So, you calling to check on me again?” Harry asked with a smile.

“Oh no, actually I was the one who called her,” Jessie replied. “Figured I’d be the one to check in for a change.”

“Oh, I see,” Harry said a little sad.

“She was debating on calling though,” she added with a smirk. Harry looked at her, then Emily. “Oh? You were? Why didn’t you?”

“I....didn’t want to seem like I was bothering you,” she explained. “It’s only been about 2 weeks and you’ve had so many calls already and—“

“Estrata,” he interjected, “it’s ok. Really. You guys are like family, and family makes sure everyone’s ok.”

*Yeah, family...* Emily thought to herself. *We’re family, not more.* “Well, since you seem to be well on your way to mending, and Jessie, you seem to be holding up pretty well along with Earth 2, I’m gonna go. I have a project planned and have yet to start.”

“Oh hey, wait!” Harry cut in nearly shoving Jessie out if the way again as he leaned over the back of the couch. “You had, wanted to, uh, see Earth 2 right?”

“Uh, yeah? Why?”

“Well, reconstruction is, as you said, going well, and while it may not look like— much like how it was before, it uh, it would be. Well it would be a good opportunity to come and, uh, see things. If-if you still wanted to, that is. I could even show you around, if yooouuu wanted.”

Emily paused with a small smile as he rambled and was amused with how he seemed to get flustered by the end of it. The pause seemed to make him more nervous as he darted his eyes toward Jessie. “Jessie could come too, if you wanted. You’re ok with that right?”

“Uh yeah, yeah sure. I, would actually love that.”

“See, she would love it. So, what do you think?” Harry asked with a hint of excitement.

“Ok, alright. You’ve convinced me,” Emily chuckled. “When would be a good day?”

Harry froze clearly not having thought this far, maybe not even thinking this conversation would even happen in the first place. “Toooooomorrow would probably be a good fit,” Jessie offered noting his brain freeze. “I can get the night off from being Jessie Quick, Dad’s taking fewer hours at the lab and by the sounds of things, you have one extra hand to help with whatever meta comes up. You should be able to get away for a night, right.”

Harry watched the screen in anticipation as Emily considered the points. “Yeah, ok.” She finally said with a smile. “I’ll tell them I’ll be gone tomorrow night. What time did you want to start the tour?”

“6:30?” Harry postulated looking at Jessie for confirmation. “That works for me,” she confirmed. “Hmmmm, yeah I think I can swing that,” Emily confirmed as well. “Please keep in mind though, it’s possible I’ll be late. We’re trying to find a particularly difficult meta, one that’s killing other metas. So it might get, well, a little dicey. I’ll call if I have to cancel, alright?” Harry and Jessie both stared at her with blank expressions. “You, uh, failed to mention that point of excitement,” Jessie said.

“Oh, I did?” Emily asked obliviously.

“Uh huh, yeah. You did. You only mentioned Barry and Iris’ daughter, by the way what was her name?”

“Wait, they have a daughter?” Harry asked with the news. “Future daughter,” Jessie answered. Harry sighed bowing his head. “Of course there’s time travel involved.....”

“Nora,” Emily answered. “Nora West-Alan after Barry’s mom. She also decided to follow in Barry’s footsteps by becoming a CSI.”

“I don’t think I could expect anything less,” Harry commented.

“Alright, so we’ll expect you by 6:30 but will plan for delays. Sound cool?” Jessie said getting the conversation back on track. Harry and Emily nodded in agreement. “Yes, that sounds like a plan,” Emily confirmed.

“Alright, I’ll— we’ll, see you tomorrow,” Harry said with an awkward smile. “Oh and, please. Be careful, with the, the murder, meta.” Emily smiled back with a wide grin. “I’m always careful, don’t you worry,” she said waving goodbye before Jessie ended the call. She stood dwelling on the conversation for a while before she continued toward Cisco’s lab, what better opportunity to deliver him his own relay than when she went to visit.

——

Shortly after Weather Witch was apprehended and her weather vein turned in, Emily hung around the cortex and waited for team to come back thinking of how to say what she needed to say. Once everyone was present she decided to just go for it. “Hey, guys?” They paused turning their attention to her. “I’m uh, I’m not gonna be available, tonight. I have plans.”

“What kind of plans?” Barry asked curiously. She never had plans and usually hung around the lab all the time. “I uhm, I am going to Earth 2.” Emily replied.

“Is everything ok over there?” Barry asked somewhat concerned.

“Oh yeah yeah,” Emily assured. “I was just invited to a tour around.”

“Really? A tour?” Barry asked sadly. Emily giggled. “Yeah, I had mentioned in passing that I wanted to see Earth 2 seeing as it’s so different and Harry said it was a pretty good time to see it since everything is relatively quiet now.”

“Harry invited you?” Cisco asked raising an eyebrow.

“Him and Jessie. She actually set up the time.” Cisco smiled. “Oh ok. She was the one who set up the time.”

Emily squinted at him. “....yes....? Anyway, I won’t be able to help with Cicada, but with Nora here I doubt you’ll miss me much.”

“You gonna need me to open a breach?” Cisco asked.

“No, Harry has that covered. Thanks though.” Cisco pouted having wanted to witness the potential awkwardness. “Alright, well, I’m gonna go get ready to leave. Behave and, don’t hurt yourselves too badly, alright?”

“Can’t promise you anything,” Barry said with a smile.

“We’ll make sure he’s safe. For the most part anyway,” Cisco adds. Emily smiles with a nod before exiting to start preparations to travel to Earth 2. As she was leaving Cisco’s lab having picked up some spare parts for Harry to repair his relay if needed, Nora came across her. “Oh, hey Estrata! What cha doin?”

“Oh, Nora!” she said in surprise. “Hey! I uh, I’m just. Uhhh.....” Emily paused trying to think of how to put it. “I’m going to Earth 2 for a tour with Harry and Jessie.”

“Like a date?” Nora asked.

“Erm, n-no. Not a date,” Emily stuttered suddenly nervous about such prospect. “No, with the reconstruction after Zoom well on its way, and I think near completion at this point, Harry said it was a good opportunity for me to get a good look around. I’ve wanted to see things since my first accidental visit.”

“Accidental visit?” Nora said quizzically. “What do you mean by accidental?”

“Well, you see, I’m able to make personalized wormholes to get to and from different points faster. Usually I’m able to use them without issue but, recently I’ve been ‘Earth hopping’ and somehow managing to travel to Earths in different multiverses. In this case I managed to stay in this particular one.” Nora stared at her trying to compute what she was just told. “Soooo, kinda like how my dad uses the speed force to go to other Earths?” Emily paused to consider the comparison. “Yeah, kinda. Just, with more room for unforeseen world travel. The way I do it can be wildly inaccurate.”

“Sounds pretty scary,” Nora commented.

Emily shrugged. “I was terrified the first time it happened, but now I’m pretty used to it, if not a little annoyed,” she sighed with a smile. “I’m ready to go home, but the places I’ve landed and people I’ve met have made me less homesick.”

“Hope I’m one of those people,” Nora smiled.

“Yes, yes you are,” Emily confirmed making her smile wider. “I can confidently say I’ve not met anyone like you in all my travels.”

“So how many other Earths have you gone to?”

Emily paused to think. “Hmmm, looks like......7 at the very least. Not including multiverse Earths.” Nora’s eyes grew wide in awe at the number. “Wow....” she whispered making Emily chuckle. “Ok, well, I have to finish getting ready. Could you try helping Cisco keep your father safe while I’m gone for the night?”

“Oh? All night?” Nora asked mischievously. Emily’s face dropped unenthusiastically and gave her a look. “No,” she said plainly. “Not for that.” Nora just smiled. “Ok, whatever you say.” Emily huffed before heading off to change. She wanted to see if she could blend in and not stand out so much and decided on straight brown pants, a green blouse, and some flats. She stood looking in the mirror wondering if this was too much before taking a breath deciding to forget thinking about it too deeply and left for the breach room.

On her way down one of her drones who were free roaming followed her whirring in curiosity asking what she was doing. “Oh, hey GP. Where? I’m going to Earth 2.” The drone whirred again in concern. “I’ll be ok. I promise. It’ll just be for a few hours,” she said only managing a few steps before the drone was in her face again rambling on about its concerns. She chuckled grabbing it gently with both hands, similar to cupping someone’s face, and smiled softly. “Is this your way of saying you wanna come too?” It made what sounded like a sheepish admittance sound making her giggle. “Ok, fine. You can come too. But we have to hurry, it’s almost time to go.” Just as she entered the breach room a connection forms and Harry appears. Emily smiled and waved, Harry returning the gesture with an awkward smile. “Ready?” He asked. Emily nodded enthusiastically. “Yes!”

He extended a hand toward the breach ushering her in first, Emily bowed with a smile before jumping through with Harry right behind. Jessie greeted them on the other side with a smile. “Hey Es!” She said with a wave. “Welcome back to Earth 2!”

“Hey Jessie!” Emily replied. “Long time no see! In person anyway.” Jessie laughed in agreement as Harry popped back through and the breach closed once again. “Alright, lets get going,” Harry said ushering them both out. “I suppose we’ll start with the Lab, it’s been refurbished since you last crashed in.”

“Alright,” Emily agreed. She had only seen the lobby last time and, while she didn’t expect many differences, she still wanted to see the rest of it. Since they were on one of the lowest levels, they stopped at the pipeline first. It wasn’t quite as repaired as on Earth 1, this Earth didn’t have an Eobard to repair it for his personal use, but it was a bit more than just run down. Walking onto the gangway inside, Emily was still filled with awe at the large structure even if it looked mostly like the one she was well aware of. “Can I take a look all the way around?” Emily asked already floating a few inches off the ground. Harry sighed recognizing she was asking out of courtesy and would investigate one way or another and nodded with a smile. “Sure, have at it.”

“I’ll race ya!” Jessie exclaimed before taking off. “No, wait, Jes—“ Harry began before cutting off his sentence as Emily took off after her. Jessie makes it back first with Emily close behind, the latter crashing into the former sending them to the bottom of the pipeline a few feet below. They erupt into laughter with Harry trying not to loose his cool resorting to just looking over the edge. “Are you two ok? Are you done?” He called down. Emily pops back up, Jessie in tow, with both confirming they were fine. Placing Jessie back onto the gangplank, Emily makes her way back around, albeit slower this time, and takes her time looking at the construction. It took 20 minutes but she eventually came back around, floating parallel to the ground facing the ceiling.

“Satisfied?” Harry asked when she stopped above the gangplank again. Still upside down, Emily looked over with a smile and nodded. “Yes, I think my curiosity is sated for now.” Harry’s heart fluttered for a moment at her smile and he couldn’t help mirroring it before reaching out a hand to her to escort her back in. Flipping around Emily landed and took his hand, Jessie watching the exchange with amused curiosity and following silently behind with a smirk playing at her lips.

Labs, offices, even just hallways, Emily looked over them all with wide hungry eyes. Harry didn’t understand but found it amusing how inquisitive she became. “This your office?” She asked after a while pointing into a relatively large room with a desk, chairs, coffee table and a medium sized couch. “Uh, yeah. Yeah that’s mine,” Harry responded as she wandered in. “Hmmm, you know. Come to think of it....” Emily said looking around. “I’m not sure Harrison Wells of Earth 1 had an office. None that I remember seeing anyway.” She paused. “Unless you count the time vault, but it looked like a futuristic closet more than an office. But who knows, maybe that’s how future offices look....” She turns and smiles wide. “I like the aesthetic of your office much better.”

“Aannnd what about it do you like?” He asked following her in. She shrugs looking around again. “I dunno, just pleasing to the eye.” Harry’s gaze lingered on her as she continued looking around before he realized what he was doing and snapped himself back. “Ahem, shall we see the rest of the city now then?” He asked trying to distract himself. “Yeah sure!” Emily says with a smile. Harry’s heart skipped but he kept his composure enough to turn around and lead her and Jessie out of the Lab. Jessie continued to watch amused, even more so at the fact Emily seemed oblivious. She trailed behind them as they continued walking around the city, watching in amusement at their interactions. Emily would pay close attention to what Harry was saying or point out, Harry seemed to get more expressive as he got more comfortable, they even seemed to walk closer to each other becoming more comfortable with each other’s presence.

“So, what do you think so far?” She asked Emily linking her arm around hers. Surprised, Emily paused before smiling at her and placing her free hand on Jessie’s. “This is amazing!”

“Yeah, my dad is pretty great huh?” Jessie asks with a grin. Emily trips having been caught off guard by the unexpected implication of the question. “I... wha...” She glances over at Harry, who had shot a look over at Jessie, and tries not to blush as she searches for what to say. “Well, I mean.... least he’s not grumpy anymore.” Jessie giggles and Harry huffs. “And he does know how to be very detailed,” she continued. “I’m honestly surprised how emotive he became explaining everything.”

“I can be enthusiastic,” Harry near pouted.

“Everyone *can* be enthusiastic, it’s just surprising *you* managed it. Given your past interactions, can you blame me for not believing?” Emily asked. Harry paused before shrugging. “Alright, I’ll give you that one,” he relented. Emily smiled before looking down at her feet while they walked, Harry doing the same, and they continued in awkward silence until Jessie spotted Jitters near by. How fortunate they were walking by at that moment, and it seemed they had a new venue featured. “Hey,” Jessie piped up, “why don’t we stop into Jitters for a bit? I could use a coffee or something.”

Harry looked over at the newly repaired bistro and nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. What do you think Estrata?” Emily noticed the ad for the featured venue and pursed her lips with a pause. She had a tingling that Jessie was trying to fenangle something sneaky but nodded in agreement anyway. “Yeah, sure. Good idea, Jessie,” she said emphasizing the name with a suspicious squint her way. Jessie just smiled and pulled her along with Harry following close behind. “Oh? Open mic?” Harry observed quickly reading the sign. “That’s different.”

“Yeah....” Emily said eyeing Jessie again. “Quite the coincidence we happened to walk by as they were featuring such a thing. Huh, Jessie?”

“Yeah, I mean what are the odds?” Jessie tried to dismiss. “Hey, didn’t you say you like to sing in your free time? You should sing something!” Emily crossed her arms looking unamused. “Subtle....”

“Hey yeah,” Harry agreed. “Yeah, that’s a good idea Jessie,” he grinned at her, Jessie doing the same. “I’ll go get some coffee,” she said briskly walking to the counter. “He—wha—“ Emily stuttered trying to counter. “Ok, c’mon,” Harry said ushering Emily toward the back of the shoppe to sign her up. “Wai— n— “ Emily protests trying to switch gears. “Harry, no, please, I don’t— I don’t sing in public. Harry no, do—“ she cut her protests short in an effort to act natural when they met with the open mic organizer. “Hey,” Harry said with a smile. “Hi,” Emily added trying to compose herself. “Hey folks,” the man said with a smile. “Can I help you with sumt’n?”

“Yes! Yes, you can,” Harry quickly answers cutting Emily off before she could try weaseling out. The man raised an eyebrow suspiciously noting Emily’s nervous face and Harry’s overzealous behavior. “And in what way?” He asked cautiously.

“She would..... like to.... to.... sign up for the op—en mic. Thing....” Harry said amid Emily trying to cover his face with her hand as he spoke. The man still didn’t look convinced and darted a look between them. “She sings,” Harry assured. “I sing as a hobby,” Emily clarified. “And not in front of people!”

“Well lucky for you we’re open to all skill levels,” the man said with a smile. “And it looks like you’re the only one who was interested so far. I’ll put you at the top of the list, I just need a name.” Emily gave a long sigh and stared at Harry, who just smiled tilting his head encouragingly at the man, before begrudgingly answering. “You can put down Estrata.”

“Ah, what a unique name,” he commented scribbling it down. “We’ll be calling you up momentarily. We’re just waiting to see if anyone else is interested, but it’s looking like you’re the only one. For now anyway.” Harry smiled at Emily who just resorted to glare at him. “Hey have fun,” Harry said turning and briskly walking away and toward Jessie. “I don’t like you anymore,” Emily teased. “You’ll do great,” Harry assured with a wink causing Emily to just roll her eyes. All she could do was watch as Harry met back up with Jessie and they both took a seat to wait for things to start. They both grinned over at her and Emily just half smiled and chuckled shaking her head. “Walking migraines, both of them,” she muttered.

After a few more minutes of anxious waiting, the man greeted Emily again. “Looks like it’s your lucky night,” he said cheerfully. “No one else has signed up so you get the floor all to yourself.” Emily puffed her cheeks and sighed. “Well, maybe after I sing once, someone else will come up,” she wondered aloud. “May well be the case,” the man agreed before walking over to the mic. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank y’all for coming out to C. C. Jitters. Tonight, we’re gonna be trying something a little different, just to see what y’all think.” He smiled waving his hand toward Emily who stiffened out of anxiety. “We have a lovely young lady by the name of Estrata who has graciously agreed to sing for y’all tonight to get this open mic going. So please, don’t leave her all alone up here. If you like what you hear and want to join in and try your hand at it, feel free to step on up.” The man turned and smiled at Emily motioning toward the mic indicating she was free to start. “Just so you’re aware, I’m not a lounge singer in any capacity.” Emily warned. The man just smiled figuring she was trying to find an excuse to leave. “Give ‘em whatever it is you’ve got.”

Emily gave a nervous smile and cautiously made her way to the mic, it had been quite a while since she had done something like this so she was worried she would mess up somehow. “Aaaand I’ve suddenly forgotten every song I ever knew....” she muttered to herself. She looked around in a mild panic before realizing no one was really paying her much mind, Harry and Jessie excluded. “Right, right, lounge singers were somewhat like background singers.” GP popped up next to her and buzzed quizzically. “I dunno what to sing,” Emily hoarsely whispered covering the mic. GP buzzed again with a suggestion and Emily smiled. “Ah, how could I forget that one?”

“Aww, she’s nervous,” Jessie smiled observing Emily standing awkwardly. “She always seems so care free, this is actually really..... adorable.”

“Yeah....” Harry agreed absentmindedly with a smile. Jessie raised an eyebrow peeking over at him. “What was that?” Harry paused before burying his face into his coffee and mumbled something trying to dismiss her inquiry. She just smirked going back to sipping her own coffee and turned her attention back to Emily.

Emily took a deep breath and looked into the audience. Most were still not paying attention but she didn’t care, she’d sing one song and go. Just one. “I.... apologize in advance,” she said to the handful of people watching. “I’m a little rusty, and not a lounge singer so, here goes nothing....” she nodded to GP who started playing the music part of the song and she tentatively started.

* You light the skies, up above me*

*A star, so bright, you blind me, yeah*

*Don't close your eyes*

*Don't fade away, don't fade away, oh*

*Yeah, you and me, we can ride on a star*

*If you stay with me, girl*

*We can rule the world*

*Yeah, you and me, we can light up the sky*

*If you stay by my side*

*We can rule the world*

Her voice cracked and wavered every now and then and her posture was stiff. She felt the same as when she sang at her high school talent show and kept her eyes closed to stave off the panic seeded in the pit of her stomach.

*If walls break down, I will comfort you*

*If angels cry, oh I'll be there for you*

*You've saved my soul*

*Don't leave me now, don't leave me now, oh*

*Yeah, you and me, we can ride on a star*

*If you stay with me, girl*

*We can rule the world*

*Yeah, you and me, we can light up the sky*

*If you stay by my side*

*We can rule the world*

*Oh, all the stars are coming out tonight*

*They're lighting up the sky tonight*

*For you, for you*

*All the stars are coming out tonight*

*They're lighting up the sky tonight*

*For you, for you, oh*

She was still stiff but Harry could tell she was getting more comfortable. He saw her becoming more emotive, even just a little, and started putting some emotion into the lyrics. He smiled nearly forgetting about his coffee, Jessie smirked over at him and continued to sip her coffee acting as though she didn’t see.

* Yeah, you and me, we can ride on a star*

*If you stay with me, girl*

*We can rule the world*

*Yeah, you and me, we can light up the sky*

*If you stay by my side*

*We can rule the world*

*All the stars are coming out tonight*

*They're lighting up the sky tonight*

*For you, for you*

Getting a bit braver, Emily opened her eyes and smiled awkwardly as the new number of people watching, her ears got red when she realized Harry was watching quite close making her voice crack again. She griped the microphone pole tight to ground her so she wouldn’t loose composure as she closed out the song.

*All the stars are coming out tonight*

*They're lighting up the sky tonight*

*For you, for you*

*All the stars are coming out tonight*

*They're lighting up the sky tonight*

*For you, for you*

*All the stars are coming out tonight*

*They're lighting up the sky tonight*

*For you, for you*

Emily let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding and bowed her head a little to signal the end of the song. A few people in the crowd clapped and praised her singing making her smile wide. “Oh, thank you!” she said bowing again. “I’m glad you liked it!”

“Sing another one!” Jessie yelled from the back.

“What?” Emily asked mildly panicking. It grew into a flush when she heard a few other people ask for another as well. “I.... uh...... hmmm....”

“C’mon, that was great! Pleeeease?” Jessie pleaded. Emily glanced over at Harry who had averted his gaze to closely examine a near by wall as he sipped his coffee that was somehow not yet empty. Emily sighed and rolled her head. “Ok, alright. Fine, one more. I’ll give you one more.”

“So, what would you little maniacs like to do first?” She asked after a pause to no one in particular placing her hands on her hips and wiggling her eyebrows as she started again. GP happily started the music moving in what could be interpreted as amusement.

*Watching through my fingers, watching through my fingers*

*Shut my eyes and count to ten*

*It goes in one ear out the other, one ear out the other*

*Burning bright right till the end*

*Now you'll be missing from the photographs, missing from the photographs*

* Watching through my fingers, watching through my fingers*

*In my thoughts you're far away*

*And you are whistling the melody, whistling the melody*

*Crystallizing clear as day*

*Oh, I can picture you so easily, picture you so easily*

*What’s gonna be left of the world if you’re not in it*

*What's gonna be left of the world, oh*

Feeling far more comfortable than before, she began acting out some of the lyrics and danced a bit in place. Harry even noticed she was smiling more, mainly at GP as he flew around her.

*Every minute and every hour*

*I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more*

*Every stumble and each misfire*

*I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more*

*Watching through my fingers, watching through my fingers*

*Caught off guard by your favourite song*

*I'll be dancing at a funeral, dancing at a funeral*

*Sleeping in the clothes you love*

*It's such a shame we had to see them burn, shame we had to see them burn*

*What's gonna be left of the world if you're not in it*

*What's gonna be left of the world, oh*

*Every minute and every hour*

*I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more*

*Every stumble and each misfire*

*I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more*

Emily paused and changed her posture to be a bit more composed. "If you want to be a party animal, you have to learn to live in the jungle. Now stop worrying and go get dressed,” she spoke, though somewhat exaggerated, before continuing singing.

*You might have to excuse me*

*I've lost control of all my senses*

*And you might have to excuse me*

*I've lost control of all my words*

*So get drunk, call me a fool*

*Put me in my place, put me in my place*

*Pick me up, up off the floor*

*Put me in my place, put me in my place*

A sudden small jolt of confidence and mischief prompted Emily to grip the mic and look into the crowd with a challenging look, amusement pulled at her lips every time she sang ‘put me in my place’ and her gaze swept the room ending in a wink.

*Every minute and every hour*

*I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more*

*Every stumble and each misfire*

*I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more*

*Watching through my fingers, watching through my fingers*

*'Cause every minute and every hour*

*I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more*

She smiled and giggled when the song ended, she had the attention of most of the room now and the applause was much louder this time around. She bowed again and attempted to leave when the crowd protested again. “No no,” Emily dismissed. “No, I’m— I was in the middle of.... something. I should get back to that. The.... thing....”

“Oh c’mon,” Harry called out. “You can do one more.” Jessie’s eyes grew wide in surprise as she looked over at her dad, his arms were crossed over his chest and he had a sly smirk threatening to spread over his face. She smiled and giggled turning to look at Emily, who was just as surprised, before chiming in. “Yeah, one more! Please?”

“Yeah, please?” a young woman called from another near by table. Emily recognized her and her two friends as the ones who hung around her table whenever she visited the shoppe on her accidental trip a while ago. She smiled awkwardly and chuckled nervously as her face became rather rosy. “Alright, alright. One more, but this is the last one!” The room cheered and clapped as they waited in anticipation. She gave a long sigh into the mic and gave a stern look at Harry. “You see, Harry, this is why I don’t sing in public,” she said with her mouth close to the mic. Harry just grinned with a chuckle. Emily sighed with a growl preparing for what she hoped to be her last number.

* Sometimes you need a reason*

*A little love you can't believe in*

*A little hug, a little day dreaming*

*Apparently there's some correlation*

*Between hearts and outer space*

*All I'm really trying to say is*

*That I'm just a Sagittarius and we're kind of spontaneous*

*So let's fly out to Vegas and find an Elvis to marry us*

*Don't try to argue with the moon*

*We can blame it on the stars*

*Oh, come on let your heart just breathe*

*Stars, oh, come one let your guard down*

*And we can blame it on the stars*

Having accepted the fact she wasn’t going anywhere any time soon, Emily decided to dance along while she sang as GP flew around adding to the up beat mood. Harry watched happily as she slid back into her carefree personality, Jessie also amused by the shift in behavior so quickly although more so with her father encouraging the events and enjoying himself.

* We'd like to think that we're waiting*

*On a previous reservation*

*It's all written in the constellations*

*Now I don't know, but neither do you*

*Truth is, it's a good excuse*

*For both our hearts to let loose*

*And I know that you're a Cancer*

*Which means you like holding hands*

*So show me how to do this dance*

*And spin me like a ceiling fan, oh*

*Don't try to argue with the moon*

*We can blame it on the stars*

*Oh, come on let your heart just breathe*

*Stars, oh come one let your guard down*

*And we can blame it on the stars*

* I read your horoscope*

*And baby you should know*

*Just what your future holds*

*Let your hips move*

*Let my fingers find you*

*Wrap my arms around you, here we go*

*Stars, oh, come on let your heart just breathe*

*Stars, the stars, stars*

*We can blame it on the stars*

*Oh, come on let your heart just breathe*

*Stars, oh, come one let your guard down*

And we can blame it on the stars*

*We can blame it on the stars*

~~~~

So I miss judged the length of this one and had to break it up. It’s juuuuust over the post limit. Stay tuned for part twwoooo 🥔🎨

#harry wells #harrison wells #the flash #flash fiction #fan fiction #oc x canon #my ocs #funny #nora west allen #barry allen

7 notes · View notes

thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

Text

Just Some Coffee

After finally getting her dad to open up about her mom, Jessie notes Emily seems to like his company and suggests he take her out for coffee or something to talk

Word count: 2,993

Warnings: none, just some fluff

Flash Fanfic

**Note: at this point in time, none of team Flash know what Estrata’s real name is. Estrata = Emily. Also, Emily is my personal character. I just like to stick her in places 😅 Enjoy!! 🥔 🎨

———

Harry didn’t want to do it. He was already on good terms with team Flash, he even became friends with Cecile. How much more socializing was he supposed to do anyway? This never would have happened on Earth 2, he had his lab he could hide in whenever he wanted. He was actually starting to miss the days where people left him alone because they were afraid of him. ’She seems to genuinely enjoy your company,’ Jessies voice repeated in his head. ’I think she might actually like you.’ Henry growled in irritation as the sentences played on loop. He didn’t want to admit it but, since she would often sit quietly in the corner of whatever lab he worked in, he didn’t mind her company either. At least she knew how to be quiet and her occasional inputs were actually pretty helpful. He growled to himself again, standing in the middle of Cisco’s lab having no where else to really wander to once Jessie left for Earth 3, trying to get back into the mindset of working on the Thinker problem but couldn’t quite do so. He couldn’t tell if it was from the mishap with the thinking cap he built or the suggestion Jessie made beginning to worm its way into ‘good idea’ territory. With a huff he decided to do something about it and nearly stormed out of the lab in frustration.

Making his way into the cortex he found everyone enjoying some down time doing mundane tasks on the computer or looking over data sheets. Emily was sitting at one of the desks with her usual holoscreen up reading something. He couldn’t tell what it was but it didn’t matter, he had a question and only she could answer it. So he strode over and stood awkwardly stiff just outside of her peripheral. Emily glanced up having felt his approach and smiled. “Oh, hey Harry,” she greeted before looking back to her screen. “Hey, hi,” he said rather forced. She continued looking at her screen for a moment, Harry still standing there, before she looked back at him with a curious face having not felt or heard him leave. “Can I.... help you?” She asked, Cisco and Ralph observing in curiosity and amusement.

“No, well, yes,” Harry stuttered. “I suppose, suppose it depends on your answer. Anyway...” Emily cocked an eyebrow turning her full attention to him sitting up straighter from her slouched position over the desk and now everyone else was beginning to quietly observe what was going on. Harry paused suddenly unsure if he should go through with his question or just bail to return to Cisco’s lab to sulk as usual. “Would you... want to go for some coffee?” he asked sounding somewhat constipated. Now it was Emily’s turn to freeze at the unexpected question. Cisco got a really amused smile on his face also not expecting this and eagerly anticipated the conclusion as did Iris, who had been sitting at a computer, and Ralph.

“What?” Emily asked with a confused chuckle.

“Coffee,” Harry repeated. “Did you want to get coffee?” She blinked still processing the question making him more uncomfortable than he already was. “Jessie.... suggested it....” he added. “For socializing purposes. I guess.”

“Yeah, ok,” she agrees with a smile. Harry continued standing stiffly for a moment not quite knowing what to do now. “Good. Great. Ok,” he said before turning and beginning to leave.

“Hey wait! Harry!” Emily called making him stop and turn around again. “You never told me when,” she said still smiling.

“When what?” Harry asked oblivious.

“When you wanted to get coffee,” she replied with a little sigh. “You wanna go now? Later? Tomorrow?”

“Now is fine. Does it work for you?” He asks.

She grins again, a little wider, reaching a hand toward the holoscreen still open on the desk and makes a fist closing it. “Yeah, that works,” she agrees standing. With out much of a nod he turns around again and briskly walks toward the exit, Emily trying to keep up, while everyone watches them leave with amused smiles. Her drones Medi and GP float behind talking amongst themselves.

“Are they going on a date or something?” Medi asks. “Looks like it?” GP confirms. “Should we follow to watch?” Medi asks uncharacteristically mischievously. “Definitely!” GP agrees enthusiastically.

“You will not,” Emily scolds turning around just before leaving and pointing at them.

“Can’t stop us,” GP taunts.

“Oh yeah? Steadfast Protocol,” she ordered. Medi and GP groan in disappointment as the protocol initiates preventing them from leaving S.T.A.R. Labs property. Emily smiles triumphantly turning back round to follow Harry to Jitters. She vaguely heard the drones trying to beg Tinker, her third drone who had moseyed over and was not under the protocol, to follow them on their date and Tinker refusing as he wasn’t interested in their stalking activities.

——

Unacceptable. Simply unacceptable, Harry thought to himself as they walked. How is she so amicable? We’ve been talking about nothing in particular and it’s been.... nice? Not in the least bit annoying? They opted to walk to Jitters and in their awkwardness, had begun making small talk about nothing really in particular. It only took a few minutes to arrive and Harry opened the door for Emily then chose a two seat table toward the back of the shop sitting awkwardly in silence. Emily was somewhat amused by his odd behavior, she had never seen him act like this before, and just studied him sitting in the seat directly across from him. Shortly after they seated themselves, a barista came over to take their order. “Hi,” she said with a smile. “Welcome to Jitters. What can I get you?” Harry’s head turned so fast to her out of surprise Emily thought he may have snapped his neck. “Just a regular coffee, black,” he said.

“And I think I’ll have a hot French Vanilla, small, just cream please,” Emily added with a smile. The girl nods before heading off to fulfill the requests. More silence with Harry staring everywhere but in front of him amusing Emily some more. “So....” she says trying to garner his attention, “what do you wanna talk about now?” Harry finally looks her in the eye looking like he suddenly became constipated and couldn’t talk. “I think you should pick the topic,” he deflected. “I invited you out after all.”

Emily got a mischievous idea and shook her head. “No, it’s ok. You pick.”

“No, I really think you should,” Harry insisted. “I don’t have anything interesting to talk about.”

“Well, what topics do you have to talk about?”

“Well.... mostly science stuff.... technical things.... You know, not interesting things.” Harry attempted deflecting. Just then the barista came back to deliver their drinks. “Oh, thank you!” Emily said with a bright smile. “No problem!” the barista smiled back. “Let us know if you need anything else alright?” Harry nodded and she walked off back behind the counter to help other customers.

“Oh, I don’t mind listening to those things,” Emily said getting back on topic. “Friend of mine would go on and on about the things he made and going into detail about his mechanical and engineering feats. Even discussed coding and programming.”

“Really?” Harry asked incredulously.

“Mhmm,” she confirmed nodding her head looking into her coffee. “You know my drones right?”

“Yeah?”

“He helped me make them,” she smiled. “I came up with the concept, he helped me fabricate the parts and program them and told me how to fix them if I ever needed to. Now I can do their maintenance and any upgrades blindfolded.” She leaned her head against her hand while leaning over her side of the table. Harry blinked in impressed disbelief. “I was also the one who programmed their personalities in,” Emily added running her finger around the rim of her cup.

“That.... doesn’t surprise me,” Harry commented.

“What’s that supposed to mean??”

“Just that, well, they seem like different parts of your core personality,” he explained casually before sipping his coffee. Emily squinted suspiciously at him. “Explain.”

“Well, Tinker is your creative, GP your inquisitive, and Medi your protective.” Emily looked at him thoughtfully and was surprised he picked up anything like that about anyone, least of all her. “That, and they’re a touch annoying,” he concluded.

“Yeah, they are huh?” Emily agreed staring off into space reminiscing about their usual hi-jinx. Harry raised his eyebrows curiously. “You’re... not going to protest that?”

“Nah,” she dismissed casually. “I’m fully aware I can be really very annoying. I just have a hard time turning it off sometimes,” she said sitting up and finally drinking some of her coffee. “Well at least you can acknowledge it,” he said amused.

“Of course! I did make it a mission of mine back home after all,” she grinned. Harry couldn’t help but chuckle and sipped his coffee again. “So, why don’t you choose a topic to change to,” Emily proposed. He shook is head in response. “No, I told you. I don’t have anything interesting to talk about. Jessie and even Cisco could tell you that I’m... well... long-winded.” Her face soften and she smiled thoughtfully. “Hmm, ok, theeeeeen.... tell me about quarks?” He looked at her puzzled. “You..... want to know about.... quarks? Really?”

“Well, maybe not but. You know about quarks, and I don’t really know about quarks, so talking about quarks would probably be a good place to start,” Emily half rambled before sipping her coffee and trying to look innocent. Harry just looked suspiciously at her trying to figure out if she was serious or not. “What?” She asked noticing his staring. “I may be primarily geared toward entertainment but I still like learning about this stuff too.” He just sighed in amusement. “Ok, alright. Fine. I’ll talk about quarks,” he relented lighting up Emily’s face in anticipation. He felt weird noting it had been a while since he felt something similar; back when Jessie was a kid he would sometimes talk about scientific principles to her even when she couldn’t understand what he was saying. He was pretty sure he explained atoms to her when he fed her that mush trying to pass as baby food. Whenever Jessie asked about something science related he was always happy to over explain. “So, a quark is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter,” he began. “Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, you probably know them better as protons and neutrons.” Emily settled in and sipped on her coffee quite invested in his epic monologue.

——

He had no idea how long he had been lecturing but eventually Harry became aware of how much time had passed. Their coffees had long since gotten cold or finished, the light outside was not as brilliant, and the place had gotten noticeably more quiet. Emily was still very much invested in what he was saying and would occasionally glance at passing customers, so when he wound down his topic she became a bit unhappy. “Eh, so nanotechnology can have more practical applications in medicine and general sciences than, well, making Barry’s suit more portable,” he concluded. Finally giving Emily more than a fleeting thought, he realized she was still waiting for him to say something else. “Ah, it’s getting late. I didn’t realize I rambled so long, sorry.” She smiled a little straightening her posture with a deep sigh.”oh no, no need to apologize. I really enjoyed listening to you.”

“Really?” Harry asked not really believing her. “Mhmm,” she nodded in confirmation. “You light up when you loose yourself in your knowledge and go head first into explaining you passion projects.” Harry just stared not sure how to respond. She stood grabbing her long empty cup and stretching. “You should smile more you know. You have a nice smile.” He stiffened at the unexpected compliment making Emily smile in amusement before she headed toward a near by trash can. “Should probably get back now, don’t you think?”

“Hem, yeah. Yeah we.... should,” Harry agreed standing quickly and grabbed his cup to toss out. Smiling awkwardly he ushers her out and back to the lab.

——

It was relatively late when they got back, sun was getting really low but twilight was still holding onto the sky in defiance of the night. They continued to make small talk, pauses between topics becoming longer and longer as they began running out of things to say, but Emily noticed a bit of difference in is speech patterns. He seemed to be deliberating on what to say next for longer periods than usual. Before she could ask about it, they rounded the corner into the cortex where Cisco and Caitlyn were still around. “Oh hey guys,” Caitlyn greeted with a smile.

“Soo,” Cisco stared turning around in his chair. Emily lifted an eyebrow in preparation for whatever he was about to say. She could tell by his tone it was going to be something tease-y too. “How was your coffee date?”

“It.... wasn’t a date...” Harry tried denying.

“It was... kind of a date,” Caitlyn agreed. Harry looked at Emily for help but she just nodded making the ‘little’ hand gesture. “It was very nice,” Emily continued looking around Harry to Cisco.

“It wasn’t a date!” Harry denied again a bit more frustratedly. “We just went for coffee! We socialized!”

“Coffee can be a date,” Cisco challenged.

“Well, doesn’t always have to be a date date,” Emily countered trying to defend Harry at least a little bit. “Coffee dates can be among friends and colleagues too just to talk or something.” Harry pointed at her turning to face Cisco as if to say ‘yeah see?’. “Besides, we talked about quarks, quantum mechanics, astrophysics.... he even went into detail about what the pipeline does.”

“Ok yeah, definitely not a date,” Cisco relented.

“That’s what— been trying to tell you!”

“Alright, we’re sorry Harry,” Caitlyn apologized. “Just teasing you a bit. That’s all.”

“Well, regardless, I had fun,” Emily semi-teased smiling up at Harry. He just looked down at her unamused and unable to think of a rebuttal. He just huffed and turned to leave. Turning her attention back to Cisco and Caitlyn, Emily just smiled cheekily. “You guys gonna head out?”

“Yeah, we were waiting for you guys to come back so you could tell us all about your experience,” Cisco said standing to stretch. “But it sounds like nothing happened really.”

“Well, he was pretty awkward, didn’t really have much to say other than going on and on about sciences,” Emily explained. “But, I didn’t mind.”

“You.... actually like that stuff?” Cisco asked. “You never really seemed like the science type. Not like us anyway.”

“Yeah, funny thing. Some of the things I can do require a basic knowledge of science. Haven’t had much opportunity to learn the more complicated stuff so it was nice to have someone talk enthusiastically about it.”

“Well I’m sure you made him very happy listening to him,” Caitlyn concluded picking up her things preparing to leave. “Have a good night, Estrata.”

“You too Caitlyn,” Emily returned.

“Sooo, Estrata,” Cisco started sauntering over to her. Emily sighed smiling a little at him wondering what he would go on about now. “Did you actually have a good time?” Emily just looked at him sighing again. “C’mon, you can tell me the truth. Was it really horrible?”

“Cisco...” Emily said placing a hand on his shoulder. “It was fun, honestly, I had a good time.”

“Hmmm, yeah. Ok,” he dismissed not fully believing her. “See you tomorrow. You and Harry behave now,” he teased pointing at her as he left. Emily just left him with a highly unamused look. “Goodniiiiight Cisco.” He just smiled smugly as he left leaving Emily in the cortex. Flicking her hand in a downward gesture, like one would do flipping off a light, the lights went out as she left the room herself. Wandering the halls making sure everything was set for the night, she found herself drifting off into thought and nearly collided with Harry. “Oh! I’m sorry!” She squeaked taking a quick step back. “Lost in my own head, didn’t see you.”

“What are you doing?” He asked kind of sternly.

“I’m.... uh.... locking up for the night? I was just about to go downstairs to check everything before heading to bed.”

“Ok,” he replied flatly. Emily stood there staring at him wondering if he would say something else, and he seemed to do the same before making a move to turn away. “Hey wait, I have a question,” she piped up. “What?” He asked turning around again. “I, uhm, noticed you seem to pause, a lot more often than you used to. Which was basically never.”

“....And?”

“You didn’t.... use dark matter with your thinking cap.... did you?” Emily asked nervously causing Harry to pause. “Because that would probably be a bad idea. Especially after you told Cisco you wo—“

“I didn’t,” Harry interjected. Emily paused studying his face. “Ok,” she said dropping the conversation. “Ok, I’m gonna go, do a once over downstairs and theeennnn.... go to bed.”

“Ok,” Harry said nodding.

“If you need anything you, know where to find me,” Emily stated turning away to head down the hall. “Yup,” Harry replied flatly again turning to go his separate way. “Oh, by the way!” Emily turned around walking backwards down the hall now. “Thanks for coffee!” She smiled wide turning around again disappearing around a corner. Harry stood for a moment watching her go before cracking a smirk. Dangerously charming, he thought continuing on his way. Not the worst thing I suppose.

————————••••••••————————

~Fin~

#flash fiction #the flash #harry wells #harrison wells #barry allen #fan fiction #my ocs #funny #cisco ramon #oc x canon

5 notes · View notes

thescatterbrainedwriter · 4 years

Text

The Long Bedtime Story

Word count: 5,000

Pairings: None

Warnings: None

Fanfic for Supernatural.

——

Chapter 1

Loud bar in a small town, that’s where Sam and Dean found themselves. Unwinding after a hunt they couldn’t help over hear a small group of people talk about strange goings on. Turning their attention to them and straining their ears they eavesdropped keeping as inconspicuous as possible.

“It’s really strange,” the one closest to them said. “They never show up this frequently. It’s kind of concerning if you ask me.”

“Nah, relax,” a stocky man on the opposite side of the table dismissed. “Nothing we can’t handle. ‘Sides, we were warned this may happen every now and then.”

“You boys still on that?” A young brunette woman asked striding over with two beers in hand. “Honestly, if it really bothers you we can bring it up when we get back. She’s gonna tell ya to relax and never mind it. They’re just demons, we’re more than qualified to keep them away.” She slid a beer to another young woman sitting at the table before taking a seat. “And we’ve checked around town, it’s fine.”

Dean looked to Sam raising an eyebrow. Sam mirrored the look before they not-so-tactfully made their way over to insert themselves in yet another conversation.

“Hey fellas,” Dean says with a grin. “Ladies,” he winks to the chagrin of the two women present.

“Can I help you?” One of the guys asked annoyed.

“Don’t, mind him,” Sam excused. “He gets nervous in crowds.” The whole table eyed them suspiciously. “I’m Sam, this is my brother Dean. We’re new in town and were just, wondering what kind of interesting things there were about the town.”

The table was silent contemplating how to respond. Finally one of the girls spoke up. “Put them away boys,” she smirked. “I’m Amanda, this is Tom, Braiden, James and Kristen.” The table relaxed a little, their hands still on their side arms. “Didn’t anyone tell you eavesdropping is rude?”

“We weren’t —“ Sam began.

“Save it,” Kristen interrupted. “You’re not exactly subtle.”

James continues to eye them. “Seeing as you don’t seem the least bit concerned with the topic at hand, I take it you’re hunters?”

“Or at the very least traveling exorcists,” Braiden chuckled.

“Nah, too cute and too good looking to be any kind of priest,” Kristen disagrees. Dean smirks glancing at Sam and then back to Kristen. Tom greets him with an ice cold stare causing Dean to clear his throat and avert his gaze. Sam smirked in amusement at the discomfort. “Yeah, we’re hunters,” he confirmed. “Look, we don’t mean to overstep, but if you need help we’re pretty good at the whole demon thing.”

They all looked at each other for a moment. “Yeah, why not?” James says with a smile. “We’re just about to head home. Why don’t you come along? I’m sure the matriarch would love to meet you.”

“Sounds great,” Dean says eagerly. Sam rolls his eyes as the group stands leaving their money on the table and putting their empty bottles together in a group. After saying farewell they exit and head out into the growing night to their cars. “Nice ride,” Amanda comments as they pass the impala. Dean grins, “Thanks, she’s a smooth ride too.” Amanda giggles continuing to walk.

“She’s 19 and bites,” Braiden warns walking by him with a smirk. Dean raises an eyebrow looking at Amanda again as she climbs into a jeep with Tom. Braiden, Kristen and James pile into a beat up truck as Sam and Dean load into the impala and follow behind.

A short ways away from town they come across a well wooded property with a large victorian style house set far back at the end of a long driveway. Glancing around Sam noticed a few other houses dotting the property and a fairly good sized farm. Pulling up to a car park, a short distance downhill, the group found their spots among the several other vehicles before heading up to the main house.

The porch light was on and a few windows on the main floor had a soft inviting glow, Dean almost didn’t hear the footsteps coming up behind them. Instinctively Dean whipped around, hand on his pistol, to confront the pursuers. He was surprised to find a group of 9 kids ranging in age from what looked like 6 to 13 all in jean or leather jackets and tee shirts.

“Got cha!!” One of them exclaimed triumphantly. The other kids giggled in unison as a very tired chaperone trudged behind them. “How..... many times..... must I say...... no running in....... groups!” He placed his hands on his knees and stood panting for a few minutes before standing up straight again. “Running in groups makes you a very obvious target. You’ll scare off whatever it is you’re hunting doing that.” He froze stiffening his back, Dean peeking around to see a girl of about 11 holding a knife to his back. “Obvious distraction, makes a surprise attack a lot easier.”

All the kids turn and point their weapons at the chaperone giggling. He sighed rolling his eyes. “Alright, alright, that was smart. Dumb, but smart. Just remember that sort of a tactic gets significantly harder if what you’re hunting is smart, especially if you’re in a small group. Alright?” A chorus of agreement arose as they all relaxed their weapons.

“Night training going well?” Amanda asked amused.

“Man, I wasn’t supposed to be on babysitter duty,” the man said annoyed. “I teach lore and history. I’m not the physical exertion type.” He pouted before sighing. “But yeah, they’re sharp. Managed to finish early even.”

“Impressive,” Amanda commends before looking over at the group and tilting her head. “Alright, that’s a wrap. Lets get you inside.” The kids cheer before filing toward the house, murmurs and chatter filling the once quiet air.

“What is this, a home for hunters-in-training?” Dean asked watching the procession.

“Not exactly, least not completely,” Kristen said pulling Tom along with her. “All the kids get basic self defense training, learn signs to be wary of, what to do if they find themselves in a worst case scenario. Some continue on to become hunters, others find researching lore more appealing or spell work being their thing. A lot of the time though? They come back to help out, take care of the place, teach the next generation. Things like that.”

“Not everyone though,” Tom added. “There’s a small handful that move out and away to do things other than hunt and magic. Pretty sure one little dude wound up working for NASA. I think his acceptance letter is framed somewhere inside.”

“That’s not including the ones who stay for a little.” The 11 year old said stopping on the porch. “We get a lot of kids and some grown ups that just stay for a night or two before heading out again. Mom doesn’t like leaving people on the street if she can help it.”

“Mom?” Sam asks.

“Yeah, though, she usually likes to go by Auntie. Most of the grown ups do actually.”

“You guys coming inside or what?” Braiden asks from the door.

“Uh yeah,” Dean says rousing from his stupor. “Got a magical menagerie here, takes a bit of getting used to.”

The last of the group make their way into a spacious foyer, what looks like a greeting desk to the right, an office behind it, and a large living area to the left. The far left wall had a large staircase leading up to a second floor balcony and numerous doors. The far wall in front of them had a doorway going further into the house and who knows what other room. The boys gaped at the architecture as the kids dispersed, some going upstairs and others into yet another side room.

“Staring with your mouths open is great way to catch flies,” a young african american woman came out of the room behind the desk. “I’m Lanai, and I don’t think I’ve seen you round here before.”

“They’re hunters passing through, heard about the demons and decided to come with us.” Tom said leaning against the counter. “Sam, Dean.”

Lanai raises an eyebrow. “*The* Sam and Dean?”

“You know who we are?” Dean asked.

“You know them?” Kristen asks from a nearby couch.

“Of course, Olivia speaks highly of them. Remember? Her hunter friends with a wayward angel who always seem to get in the worst trouble?” She smiles. “Was wondering when you’d wander over yonder.”

“Wait, Olivia?” Sam says surprised.

“Oh shit, that’s them?” Kristen says sitting upright. “Damn, you guys are legends.”

“That good or bad?” Dean asks.

“Mostly good. Though, we are aware you have some dirty laundry.” She smirks.

“So, where is Olivia?” Tom asks.

“Out, doing her rounds,” Lanai replies putting a few books away. “Should be back in a few. She never misses bedtime. As for me, I’m heading to bed. You guys are good to lock up right?”

“Wh-wha, wait, n—“ Braiden stammered.

“Great, night!” She waves and makes her way up the stairs with a smile. Shortly after she disappeared around the corner at the top, a flurry of feathers was heard causing Sam and Dean to turn and face the front door.

A young woman with rusty red hair looking to be about mid 20’s smiled wide at her surprise guests. “Sam! Dean!” She ran over and gave them both a tight hug. “What brings you way out here?”

“Finished a job near by, heard demons fancied this area and decided to check things out.” Dean said.

“So you eavesdropped?” She asked raising an eyebrow.

“Really very obviously too,” Amanda added.

The woman snickered patting his head. “You’re smooth Dean, I’ll give you that. But, your subtlety needs some work. And eavesdropping is rude man.”

“You think I’m smooth?” He asked raising an eyebrow.

She rolled her eyes. “To an extent.”

Sam chuckled in the background. “It’s good to see you again, Olivia.”

“Same to you,” she smiled warmly. “So, how long were you thinking of staying?”

“Figured we’d stick around for a few days, see what we can help with.” Sam answered. “That is if it isn’t putting you out.”

“No no, that’s fine! I should have a room or two open you can use,” she said pondering. “We haven’t been at max capacity in a while so, most we should have to do would be freshen them up a bit. Vacuum, dust, maybe changed the sheets....”

“We’re used to motels in the not greatest of places. I’m sure your rooms are fine.” Dean assured.

“Hmm, alright. I guess you have a point. Let me go see what I have for you boys.” She smiles one last time before heading up the stairs. Sam and Dean sit on the living room’s furniture and settle in until she gets back. Amanda eyes them from a near by chair for a moment before speaking up. “So, you know her?”

“Uh, yeah, we do,” Sam responds. “She appeared around the time.... uh..... when Lucifer got out.”

“Yeah, makes sense,” Kristen muses. “That was around the time she didn’t stick around much. Least, more than usual. She never really left the house or the property for that matter unless one of the former residents needed her. She was always hands on, pretty good teacher too.”

“What does an archangel teach anyway?” Dean asked.

“Enochian for language and magic, exorcisms, runecraft, and help with combat practice,” Olivia says from the banister. They all turn to face her jumping a bit in surprise. “I’m even know to do a little history lessons. Managed to find you two rooms, one across the hall from the other. C’mon, I’ll help you settle in.”

“Then in that case, I’m heading home,” Kristen says standing with a stretch. “Curiosity has been satisfied, and I’m freakin tired. See you tomorrow.” She waves taking Tom with her. Braiden moves to follow when Amanda stops him. “Can Braiden stay the night?” She asks.

Olivia raises an eyebrow crossing her arms and puts on her best ‘mom face’. Amanda clasps her fingers together pleadingly. “You know the rules, miss.” Olivia says sternly before smiling. “Behave, alright?” Amanda smiles and jumps up. “I promise!” She grabs Braiden’s hand and runs up the stairs giving Olivia a quick hug before heading to her room.

“You really think they’ll behave?” Dean asks.

“No,” Olivia admits. “But I trust them to at least be safe.” The boys shrug and nod in agreement before grabbing their bags and following her up the stairs. “Breakfast is at 8 am, and it’s a school night so the kids will head off at around 8:30. Morning chores usually start at 7, you are welcome to help out but don’t feel obligated to. 9 o’clock starts our childcare services so it’ll be a little loud. I don’t think anyone has any appointments for help finding employment so, other than routine house chores should be relatively quiet until the kids get home at 3.”

“Wow,” Sam says impressed. “You sure are busy throughout the day.”

Olivia smiles. “It’s not so bad, after 50 years of practice the routines are second nature. Plus, not like I’m doing it on my own. Everyone helps out where they’re able.”

“You’ve been doing this for 50 years?”

“Hobby of mine turned passion project,” she smiled. “I’ve spent a long time earthbound. As the years went by, things steadily got worse and people found it harder and harder to get by. I saw a way to help ease concerns, even just a little bit, and decided to do something about it. I’ve poured, well, what could be considered a soul, into this.” She stared off thoughtfully with a soft smile. “May not have changed the world, but it made a world of a difference to whoever found their way here.”

“You’re probably the nicest angel we’ve come across,” Dean observed.

Olivia cringes a little. “Yeah well, pretty sure I’m one of the very few who have lived among humans for long enough to want to help. They didn’t really like the decree to hold humans in high esteem.”

“Who knew,” he responded somewhat bitterly.

Olivia clears her throat. “Believe it or not they’ve actually mellowed out from when I knew them more..... intimately.”

“Oh, well, think they need to work on that a little more. Bedside manner still needs some improvement.”

‘I’ll be sure to let them know,” Olivia smirks. “Alright, I’ll let you guys sleep. Pay no mind to footsteps you may hear, just me walking around.” She turns to face them half way out the door. “They house is well warded against everything, right down to the frame work. Rest easy.” She smiles warmly again as they wave goodnight.

“Place feels just as safe as the bunker,” Sam comments preparing his bed. Dean looks around his room and nods in agreement. “Kinda reminds me of a more successful and better balanced version of what Victor tried to do, y’know?”

“Yeah, now that you mention it.” Sam pauses. “Look, I know we trust her and all but, maybe.”

“We should stick around just in case?” Dean finishes. Sam nods. “Well, you heard them in the bar. No shortage of demonic problems going on so may as well. I’m sure they won’t mind.” After a bit of silent unpacking and settling in they say goodnight to each other and close their doors.

❧

Small feet running outside their door woke them the next morning. Checking the clock, Dean groans rolling over trying to ignore the noise. 6:10, much earlier than the promised wake up time of 7. After staring at the ceiling for a few minutes silently yelling to himself, he gets up groggily shuffling to the door. He swings it open in time to see Sam emerge from his room and inspect the hall as well. They just noticed a small child hurry around a corner and heard them stomp down they stairs when the gentle waft of breakfast drifted by. ‘Bacon,’ Dean’s brain registered as he started shuffling quickly toward the staircase with an eager smile, Sam quickly following suit having smelled toast and sausages.

Following a small procession of children into a large dining hall like room, they could hear chatter and singing. Some of the kids joined in, others would try to change the song. Dean didn’t care, he wanted his bacon.

“I smell bacon,” he said to no one in particular. “Where do I find it?”

“We have to finish setting the tables first,” a small child said setting out some silverware. “Auntie ‘Livia, Auntie Amanda and Auntie Lanai are cookin in the kitchen. Uncle Braiden is lookin for some strawberries and raspberries.” Dean looked around and saw a few other kids setting out napkins, plates, cups and even some place mats at the 4 very long solid oak dining tables. “This place looks like friggn Hogwarts,” he observed.

“Here,” another child said handing him a wash cloth. “You guys can wash some of the tables down,” he said handing Sam a bucket of warm soapy water. “Someone had late night snack so we need t’wash ‘em down.”

Sam paused before taking the bucket. “Sure, we’ll be happy to. Right Dean?” He glanced over at dean who was staring at the cloth. “Uh, yeah. It’s the least we could do.” He smiled. The child smiled back before returning to washing his section of table. “I didn’t sign up for chores,” Dean whispered grumpily when they were a few steps away.

“Dean, it’s really not that bad,” Sam said as Dean began angrily washing. “Not like they’re asking us to do anything absurd. And we get breakfast out of it.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Dean muttered.

Braiden and two teens come in a few minutes later with some berries, milk and biscuit mix disappearing into the kitchen. Hooked on a Feeling was being belted out with some of the kids dancing near the door completely distracted from their breakfast chores. Braiden comes out shortly after with the teens and various juices as they begin to fill the cups on the tables. The rest of the house files in and takes their seats, Sam and Dean following suit after they finish washing the table. They head into the kitchen to dump the now cold murky water into a sink and find the three cooks dancing along to the song. Olivia smiled wide when she saw them. “Almost done, go ahead and find a seat.”

Dean mirrored her wide smile and hurried to find a seat, Sam rolled his eyes and followed to a near by table sitting across from his brother. Olivia and Lanai giggled seeing them leave with anticipated excitement before gathering large plates of food and bringing them out. One by one they filled the plates with what was requested, some had waffles and bacon, others had pancakes and eggs, each plate a unique combination of breakfast classics. “A little to start,” Olivia said serving the brothers, “and once you’re done, you may have seconds. Provided there’s anything left.” She smiled as Dean looked around concerned, it had been so long since he had good home-cooked bacon and he wasn’t about to miss out.

Olivia watched as all the mouths happily chowed down and chatted to each other with a smile. She found it amusing how Dean got up three times for more bacon taking it as a compliment before announcing the time and ushering the kids out to finish getting ready for school. 8:30 sharp they all left, Olivia and three others carting them off in well worn mom vans.

Shortly before 9, a knock was heard at the door, Dean answered and saw a young woman with a toddler standing here a little frazzled. “Hello?”

“Hi,” she said with a stressed smile. “You new here? I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”

“Uh yeah,” Dean stuttered. “Yeah, I just got here last night. I’m Dean. Here, let me help you with that,” he said taking the heavy bag she brought.

“Oh, thanks!” she said handing it off. “I’m Brenna by the way.”

“Nice to meet you,” Dean said escorting her inside. Lanai walks in just as Dean puts the bags down by the desk. “Hey Brenna, let me take him for you,” she said taking the toddler from her.

“Ah, thanks! He just had breakfast so he should be fine until lunch. I’ll be home late today, sorry.”

“No, don’t be sorry. We’ll see you when we see you, alright?”

“Ok. Again, thank you so much.” She smiled before turning and hurrying out. Lanai smiled at the toddler preparing for more to come by as Dean watched the woman leave.

Two more toddlers and a boy of about 6 showed up shortly after that and the house was loud well into the evening. Apart from the occasional yard work needing to be done, many of the adults left in the house were keeping it orderly or tending to the garden outside while Olivia made frequent trips out to other parts of the country to help her grown wards with whatever they may need.

Sam joined in with the gardening and yard work while Dean stayed inside. He jumped at the opportunity to clean and keep up the weapons kept in the basement. It was more than a basement, resembling an arena with a separate armory type room and kept everything from blades to guns and even magical artifacts and weapons. That’s where Sam found him along with most of the older teens when dinner was ready. “Hey,” he said entering the armory. “Olivia sent me down here to get you for dinner.”

“Dinner already?” Dean asked surprised. “What time is it?”

“6 pm,” Sam answered.

Dean and the teens blinked in disbelief before checking their own watches. “Wha—“

“Yeah, you’ve been down here all day. They’re just finishing up so put whatever you’re working in away and come up.” Sam tapped the door frame and turned to leave. “Oh, and Olivia wants you to make sure you wash your hands.”

“Ok dad,” Dean dismisses reassembling the rifle in front of him. The teens snickered doing the same with their pistols.

“Seriously,” Sam said. “Some of the stuff down here produces ‘supernatural particles’ that don’t exactly react well if ingested.” Dean looked at him with a raised eyebrow slightly concerned. “And she trusts kids coming down here?”

“Young adults and up, provided they prove they can adhere to the rules,” one teen explained. “Seriously, one kid forgot one time too many and got really sick. If it were not for Olivia supervising he would have been screwed.” Dean stares at him in disbelief, Sam doing the same flicking his eyes between the group. “So yeah, wash your hands.” He pats Dean’s shoulder before leaving the room again. Dean stares off into space for a moment before finishing up and heading out for Dinner.

“So,” Dean trailed off. “Supernatural particles? Really?” One teen, a young man of about 15, smirked with a chuckle. “We couldn’t come up with a better name. Basically, it’s the side effects of touching the magical weapons and casting certain spells. Some ingredients too if not handled proper.” he explained thoroughly scrubbing his hands. “She’s got a charm to make sure nothing really leaves the room, but I guess anything left on skin can make it through.” Dean paused thoughtfully before scrubbing his own hands and joining the rest of the family for dinner.

Homemade fried chicken, peas, mashed potatoes, pork chops, corn, green beans, rice, and bread stuffing were served that night. The dining hall was alive with chatter and Olivia watched happily as everyone ate.

8 pm rolled around much faster than most of the young kids may have liked, their evening play time never seeming to last long enough, and the call for bedtime routines to start rang out. Disappointed groans and a few pleading whines gave way to compliance as each young child marched off to their rooms, then most of the teens followed after helping clean up. Any remaining teens geared up for their shifts to patrol the property to make sure the sigils were in tact and no monsters or demons were posted up. Any child who were going on night hunter training left the house with their chaperone at 9:30 leaving the house nearly silent once again as the handful of adults finished locking up for the night.

Sam and Olivia sat at one of the tables and chatted as Dean struck out with Lanai while she finished closing the main desk. Making her way in chuckling dismissively, Dean trailing behind making one last attempt at flirting, she takes a seat next to Olivia. “Not going home?” She asked.

“No, not right away,” Lanai answered with a sigh. “Been a while since I’ve hung out with you. Kinda miss it.”

“Aww, I feel special,” Olivia cooed.

Lanai rolled her eyes playfully pushing her with a laugh. Shortly afterward one of the kids make their way down the stairs again rubbing their eye. “Jacob?” Olivia asks turning to face the boy. “What are you doing up?”

“Hmm, can’t sleep,” he said tiredly. “Can I sit with you guys?”

Olivia looks suspiciously at him for a moment before beckoning him over. “Sure, sit right here,” she pats the seat next to her. He shuffled over and plops down into the seat and rests his elbows on the table. “Hey,” he said nodding to the Winchesters. “Sup,” Dean responded with a nod back. “Mom, could you make me some ramen?” He asked turning to Olivia.

“You just ate not even two hours ago,” she retorts.

“Yeah, but you make really good ramen and it might help me sleep.” Olivia eyes him suspiciously again before giving in without much fuss. “Alright, alright. I should have enough fixings for a small portion,” she said standing. “I think I have some chicken stock, that ok?” She asked making her way to the kitchen.

“Yeah, that’s good,” Jacob said watching her leave. “Could you put those spiral thingies in it too?”

“Surimi?” Olivia asked accidentally banging a pan. “I don’t think I have any left. I’ve been meaning to get some herbs and things, I’ll put that on the list just in case.” She poked around the fridge looking for ingredients.

“It’s fine if we don’t have them, chives and veggies are ok too.” As Olivia begins to cook and hum, Jacob turns his attention to Sam and Dean. His face becomes serious and his eyes loosing any semblance of tired haze. “So what are you doing here really?” he asks narrowing his gaze.

Taken aback, they both stutter glancing at each other and then back to the boy. “Jacob!” Lanai scolds trying to keep her voice down. “What? You really think they showed up here by chance?”

“That is not—“ she started scolding again.

“Look, we didn’t intend to find this place,” Sam cut in attempting to diffuse the situation. “But she did invite us over a while ago.”

“We were never able to get a chance to go looking for it,” Dean added. “We always had a case or something more urgent come up. Honestly, we didn’t even realize this was the town she mentioned until we heard her.”

Jacob held his intense gaze before relenting. “Alright, you’re cool I guess.” he finally determined with a shrug. “But I’ll kick your ass if you try anything, alright?”

Dean chuckled. “Yeah, ok.” Sam and Lanai chucked too before Olivia reappeared with a piping hot bowl of homemade ramen a few minutes later. “I managed to find a few of your surimi,” she said with a smile. “I’ll be sure to pick up more ingredients to make them next time we go into town.” She placed it in front of the boy along with a pair of chopsticks. “There’s also mushrooms, carrots, parsley, chives, cabbage, some spices and the last of the rice noodles.”

Jacob smiles wide. “Thanks, looks great.” Olivia pats his head and returns to her seat. “So mom,” Jacob said slurping up a few noodles. “I’ve been thinking, you never really talk about what you did ‘before’.”

Olivia cocked an eyebrow. “Well, before includes an awful lot. It would take quite a long time to get through it all. Now, what prompted that?”

He shrugged. “Just curiosity I guess. No time like the present to start,” he replied nonchalantly gulping down a mouthful of soup. Olivia stared at him thoughtfully, pursing her lips to one side. Lanai started scolding him again before she stopped her. “Alright, you have a point,” she said finally. Jacob stopped his slurping to stare at her, Lanai mirroring his look, and even Sam and Dean raised eyebrows at this. “Wait, really?” Jacob asked wiping his mouth.

“Sure, why not. Might get you to sleep even,” she smirked. He smiled back shimmying in his seat to get comfortable to listen.

“So, wait,” Sam began. “What exactly does that mean?”

“Means what it means,” Olivia replied.

“So before means....?” Dean pressed.

“Everything, from as far back as I remember. Barring the really boring uneventful things.”

“So then, that includes....” Lanai alluded with a hint of excitement.

“Yes, Heaven and all,” Olivia confirmed. The trio of adults smile with intrigue completely ready to stay up all night. “I guess I’ll call it, ‘The Long Bedtime Story’. Now, I suppose I should start from the very beginning...”

———

I apologize for any typos I may have missed. Also any word salad, I tend to get carried away with descriptions. Hope y’all enjoy!! 🥔

#supernatural archangel #supernatural sam #supernatural #supernatural fandom #supernatural fic #fanfic #writing #fantasy #supernatural dean

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