Photographs
By: Riley
Summary - Deleted scene from Friction. Jesse and Cadence look at photographs of their lives from Earth-1 and Earth-2 and find out their lives aren't quite so different.
"It's so weird."
"I know. I forgot they had these."
Jesse shook her head, flipping the photograph in her hand to the back. A date was scribbled in the corner. Then she looked at the picture in her other hand and flipped it two the back. Two different dates, but taken in the same place and the same pose. A young couple beaming with pride while holding their daughter's hands in the center. Two different girls in the photo, though roughly the same age.
In Jesse's left hand she held a picture of Cadence when she was five years old, holding Harrison Well's and Tess Morgan's hands as she stood in front of the Metropolis Science Museum. In her right hand was an exact copy of the picture, but with Jesse standing between them at the exact same age. Different circumstances for different lives.
Lives lived out very similarly yet differently on two different Earths.
"I see Burnout isn't here," Cadence said, taking the photo of Jesse. She scanned the picture for any sign of her Earth-2 doppelganger, wondering what she was like when she was young. Wondering what point in their lives was it where their paths diverged.
Jesse stayed silent. How could she explain that on her Earth the Wells' and the Nashes weren't close at all without becoming bitter about it? Once the adoption was finalized, almost all contact was removed, with updating photos sent here and there.
With a sigh, Jesse leaned back on her hands, carefully placing them down around the boxes of photographs they held. Somehow the two had been tasked with the bi-yearly chore of clearing out the Wells mansion. Jesse had only been to Earth-1 to visit Wally and spend time with her Earth-1 sister's doppelganger, finding herself wrangled in on the cleaning Harrison and Tess were spearheading.
"Be glad they're not cleaning out STAR Labs," Cadence had said as soon as the speedster was tasked to help the fire-metahuman clean a storage closet.
For most of the day they hadn't found anything of interest. They threw out things that'd been tossed in for nor reason, and made sure everything valuable was locked away. Same old, same old, until Cadence had found a stack of photos. She smiled sadly, looking through the couple through the years of their relationship; from the day they met at a gala for a science convention to the day they were married, through Tess's pregnancy. There were even pictures of themselves posing with the baby—Cadence—before she was adopted to their family friends, Kent and Maya Nash.
They looked through a few of them until Jesse realized she recognized the backgrounds of numerous pictures. She raced off to Earth-2 and came back with her own box, setting the young women off through time as they stared through the photos. Nearly all of them were identical to each other, though Jesse's had the added inclusion of Burnout every now and then.
"It kind of reminds you," Cadence said slowly. "That they're still just people, you know?"
Jesse's eyebrows came together. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, all of the pictures we have that are the same, of Dad and Tess…they're exactly the same. It was before everything, before their lives became intertwined together…before it diverted."
Jesse wasn't quite sure she saw it that way. They were two completely different people. Earth-1 Harrison and Tess—Cadence's parents—weren't her Harrison and Tess—her parents. It was obvious. One Earth-1, Jesse didn't exist. She'd died when Eobard Thawne took over Harrison's body, greatly injuring the newly pregnant Tess. On her Earth, Cadence may as well have not existed. Burnout didn't have anything to do with her family, quickly becoming jealous of her little sister when she was born, shunning her, and then shunning her family after becoming pregnant.
Still, the girls looked at their identical photos of their parents on their wedding day. Identical, down to the placement of the champagne glasses in the foreground of the picture. They could almost hear the applause of the wedding guests standing around the couple that lovingly smiled at each other, arms hooked while ready to toast each other.
Cadence's breath caught in her throat. She'd never expected to recognize anyone in the photo. Never expected to zero in on a golden glint in the corner of the photo. The glint that she knew was the chain of a pocket watch that'd become dulled in the corner, days away from being restored. Cadence's breath caught in her throat, the longer she stared at the couple in the corner of the photo.
"Cade, are you okay?" Jesse asked, placing her hand on Cadence's shoulder.
Cadence finally tore her gaze from the photo—from her adoptive parents–and smiled. "Yeah," she said. "I guess I just didn't expect my mom and dad to be there. I mean," she ran a hand through her hair. "I knew they were there on my Earth, just not…"
"They still had to be close," Jesse pointed out. "If Burnout was adopted."
"Yeah…" Cadence trailed off. Didn't add the 'but'. Couldn't. It was obvious. 'But Burnout's life fell apart'. 'But Burnout has no relationship with her family'. 'But Burnout doesn't know she's adopted'. Everything that Cadence had learned and opened her heart to, later. Was saddened to see Burnout hadn't been able to, eventually turning her life to crime and terror all the while wondering what life was like on the other side.
Cadence closed her eyes and smiled. "I'm fine. It's just so bizarre."
"I know," Jesse said. She sat up straight, dropping her hands to her lap. "But I'm glad things worked out for us."
"Me too." Cadence grinned and said, making Jesse roll her eyes, "Now I have someone to boss around." She stood up and motioned to the photos. "You better clean that up.
THE END