Wide Awake

By: Riley

Summary – Deleted scene between chapters 6 and 7 of Crossfire. What happens when Barry, Cisco, Caitlin, Cadence, and Brady all have to share one hotel room in Starling City? Not a lot of sleep, that's for sure.

"Are you sure it's okay that we all stay in here? We can go find another room if we're imposing." Caitlin pulled back the duvet that covered her bed and handed it over to Brady, who moved to the floor and started to make up his bed along with Cisco and Barry.

Throughout the floor of the hotel room laid their bags strewn open and their belongings spilling out. As it was one of the better hotels in Starling City the room fit two beds and three people on the floor comfortably. Brady had very quickly opted to give up his bed for Caitlin to use while he would take a few blankets on the floor. She insisted that it wasn't a problem for her to sleep on the floor but he had insisted.

Barry and Cisco exchanged light eye rolls as they arranged their blankets on the floor of the hotel room. "Trust me, if that were an option, I would've thought of that ages ago." He shook his head and busied himself with fluffing his pillow, though with the viciousness he exhibited while punching it showed he was more irritated than he was admitting.

Cadence let out a light sigh, resting her hands in her lap. "I already told you guys we don't mind. There aren't any other rooms open and the Queen mansion is no more so…" she batted the air with her hand. Then she clasped her hands together and beamed. "And I haven't been to a sleepover since I was in high school!"

"I bet that was a fun one," Cisco commented with a bright smile. He pulled his hair back behind his ears.

"Oh sure, it ended up with…" Cadence trailed off as she pointed over towards her son then laughed as Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco's eyes all widened. "I'm kidding. Actually my girlfriends and I ate a lot of junk food, laughed over absolutely nothing, and went joyriding with the basketball team." She ran a hand through her hair. "I think there was something about a…" she made a vague hand gesture "bonfire at our rival school's football field."

"That sounds awesome!" Cisco declared as he and Barry laughed, Caitlin rolling her eyes and shaking her head. Cisco noticed his friend's movement and snorted. "Oh, I forgot, Caitlin. You were born and immediately grew into Dr. Caitlin Snow," he teased.

The bioengineer placed her hands on her hips, pursing her lips. "What is that supposed to mean?" She poked herself in the chest. "I know how to let loose! I know how to have fun! You should've seen me when I was in high school."

"Okay, Caitlin." Barry wrapped his arms around his upraised knees and lifted an eyebrow. "What sort of things did you get into when you were in high school?"

With an air of indignant pride, Caitlin lifted her chin. "I went on plenty of dates."

"With the captain of the mathletes," Cisco pointed out. He moved his hand to the side of his mouth and pretended to speak in a stage whisper. "She was as uptight then as she is now. She had to schedule her dates days in advance." He laughed as Caitlin reached over the end of her bed and swatted him on the head.

"I was not uptight!" She defended herself. "I just had a lot of things I had to do. I was working hard to get good grades, wanted to get a high score not he SAT and ACT and wanted to get some scholarships. Excuse me that I took my school work seriously."

"So did I, but I at least played a prank here or there." Cisco rubbed the back of his head where he had been slapped. He winced for a second, realizing how hard his best friend had managed to hit him. "I mean, I was part of the science club but that didn't stop me from setting off a stink bomb every now and then."

Barry laughed and held out his hand, allowing Cisco to give him a high-five. "Nice one, man."

Placing his hands on his hips, Brady frowned. "How come I got in trouble for my prank and everyone else thought yours was funny."

"That's because you didn't play a prank," Cadence pointed out calmly but firmly. "You released all of the mice you were going to use for your science projects."

"Watching all of the girls run around screaming was funny!" Brady defended himself.

"Not according to the teacher and as it is, they still haven't found two of them and I wouldn't be surprised if by the time we get back there there'll be hundreds of them running around." Leaning over, Cadence reached into her bag and pulled out a bright blue package. "Now eat your Oreos."

Brady beamed and grabbed the package of cookies, immediately ripping them open. Cisco and Barry reached out a hand and grabbed a few pieces of the dessert for themselves. Caitlin, on the other hand, continued to pout from where she sat on the bed.

"I'm not uptight!" She finally said.

Barry gave her an odd look before laughing lightly. "You waited this long just to say you're not uptight?"

"Well, I'm not," she said, though didn't sound so convincing.

Cisco laughed around his mouthful of cookies. "Okay, Caitlin, you're not uptight," he said. "You just like to have everything in its place, completed in a timely manner, you like things to be clean, and in its place." Caitlin glared at him and he immediately dropped his smile. "You're not uptight; I don't know what I was saying."

"I'm not."

Cadence slowly started to smile an evil, mischievous smile that Brady seemed to have picked up. She twisted a cookie in her hand before leaning back against the pillows on her bed. "Okay, you say you're not uptight," she said slowly. "Then I dare you to run a lap along the floor shouting 'room service' while knocking on every door you pass."

Caitlin's jaw immediately dropped as Cadence laughed gleefully, almost in an uncontrollable giggle. "Cade!" Caitlin reached over and slapped her on the arm.

"You did say you weren't uptight, Caitlin," Barry pointed out. "And it's just a simple dare. It's not like you were told to run around the first and second floors with a towel tied around your shoulders yelling that you were superman or anything." He paused, crossing his arms over his chest to cover up the superman logo that was emblazoned across the front. "Not that I had to do that or anything."

"This one time at band camp…" Cisco joked.

"It was on a field trip for theatre class!"

"A field trip for theatre?" Brady wrinkled his nose at the same time Cadence did, both making a similar expression.

"We were putting on a performance of Macbeth and went on a field trip to see it professionally done." Clearing his throat Barry ran a hand through his hair, his cheeks turning red at the memory of his embarrassing dare. "It wouldn't have been so bad if the end of the towel hadn't gotten snagged on a planter as I turned a corner."

"Too bad we don't have any proof of it." Cadence's evil smile widened as she grabbed her phone. "But we'll at least get this. Okay, Cait! Start running! And if anyone from the hotel actually makes a complaint, we'll pretend like nothing happened."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Caitlin snapped.

Cisco, already figuring out what it was that the fire metahuman was thinking reached out and placed a hand on Barry's shoulder. "We don't call you 'The Flash' for nothing."

"For real?" Barry looked like he had just been told that his childhood heroes were all fake.

"Well, unless you want your named to be changed to The Bolt or the Red Racer I think The Flash is the way to go, Barry," Brady pointed out. He then nodded over towards his mother. "And when she gets that look on her face, you can't talk my Mom out of anything."

"Thanks for having my back, bud!" Cadence rolled off of her bed and leaned over, giving him a kiss on the forehead before digging her phone out of the pocket of her sweatpants. "C'mon Miss. Snow, you're going to have photo and video evidence that you're not as uptight as the rest of us claim you to be." She grabbed onto Caitlin's hand and started to pull her out of the room.

Caitlin stumbled as she was forcibly dragged out of the room. "Can't we talk about this? I don't think it's prudent for someone of my stature to engage in such childish behavior like this." She dragged her heels on the floor, smiling brightly when she managed to stop the petite metahuman from her forward progress. Her smile immediately faded once she was teleported out of the room.

Barry, Cisco, and Brady immediately came out after them, the group standing in the hallway.

"Well, Cait, you were the one that said that you didn't think you were uptight," Cisco pointed out as if the thought had suddenly crossed his mind. He smiled sweetly as Caitlin glared at him and he reached out, fist-bumping Cadence.

Nodding Brady added innocently, "you did seem really upset about that word being used."

Knowing she was caught, Caitlin quickly tried to backtrack, stuttering as she did so. "T-that's just because I-I don't want anything to think that being organized and strategic are bad qualities to have," She sputtered. She then turned to Brady and rested her hands on his shoulders. "They're not," she said seriously. "It's something you have to think about when it comes to your future."

"Okay, Caitlin!"

Smiling sweetly, Cadence reached out and put her arm around her best friend's shoulders. "You know how I said that I haven't been to a sleepover since high school?" She asked. Caitlin nodded. "I also haven't had as much fun since then and right now you're my source or entertainment." She stuck out her lower lip and widened her eyes. "You're not going to deprive me of that, are you?"

"Nice guilt trip." Barry gave her a thumbs up.

"Tell you what Cait, if you do this, then you get to dare any of the rest of us to do something," Cisco said.

Barry snorted. "Speak for yourself. I'm The Flash; I have a reputation to uphold."

"Not when you can do it so quickly no one can see you," Brady pointed out. He smiled innocently when Barry turned a glare his way, but the speedy metahuman couldn't help but laugh when he noticed the bits of chocolate cookie stuck to the boy's teeth and gums. "Just stating the obvious."

Caitlin lowered her head. On one hand, it was just a silly dare that she could get done within a few minutes. How long could it take to run around the entire floor knocking on people's doors? And…it was the sort of thing that she had wanted to do when she was young. Growing up she had been so into her studies that while she did have girlfriends she didn't have the sort of friends that invited her many places to hang out. While the other girls in her class were constantly at each other's houses for parties where they talked about boys, gossiped, and braided each other's hair she was researching and studying, watching TV movies with her parents when she was able to take a break.

Even when she was in college she studied most of her time, foregoing parties and bar crawls. She was always on the outside looking in when she heard of the drunken tales from the night before. Now she had the chance to let loose and do something crazy for once—as well as having Barry, Cisco, and Cadence to go to bars with—and she was doing the same thing she always did, sit back and watch everything go on around her. Even when they were in high school the other three had more interesting lies than she had.

"Okay, fine," she finally agreed.

"Really?!" Cisco's eyes practically lit up like fireworks.

"Sure. But only because I have the three of you to go after next!" She shot a glare to each of them before taking a deep breath. "Okay, I just have to do this whole floor right?"

"Yelling 'room service' and knocking on doors as you go," Cadence agreed. She picked up her phone and turned it sideways as she pulled up the video function. "It doesn't take that long to do. The record so far is about a minute."

"That was probably a hotel that wasn't nearly as extravagant or as large as this one," Barry pointed out. He then smiled impishly. "I could probably do it in a second but then that wouldn't be any fun." He nudged Cisco with his shoulder and the two laughed again. "C'mon, Caitlin, it's just one dare."

"I already said I'd do it, Barry, don't make it worse for me." Caitlin rolled her shoulders a couple of times before letting out a low sigh. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Just go whenever you wan—"Cadence barely got the word out of her mouth before she, Cisco, Barry, and Brady had to take off running after Caitlin. The bioengineer raced down the hall of the hotel, darting back and forth to each door, shouting 'room service' as she went. The group laughed to themselves as they continued to run around as quickly as they could.

At one instance Caitlin managed to knock on a door and turn away just as the hotel door opened and a disgruntled man stepped out, having heard the sound of the groups' thudding footsteps and laughter from coming down the hall. She squeaked, her face immediately turning red, and he sprinted around the corner, keeping from doing the rest of the rooms on the hall before finishing up and practically diving back into their hotel room. She jumped face down on the bed, covering her face with her hands.

"I can't believe I did that," she moaned.

"I can't believe you managed to run so fast," Cisco declared. "Who says that intense embarrassment and adrenaline aren't good incentives for track stars."

"I never ran track in school," Caitlin mumbled.

"Well, you should considering a career in it you were flying!" Cadence declared. She bounced onto the bed and grabbed Caitlin's shoulders, gently shaking it. "Cait, c'mon. That was awesome. You need to see the footage!"

"I'd rather leave it as a distant memory, thanks." Caitlin grabbed a pillow and whacked Cadence in the face so hard that she back rolled off of the bed and fell to the floor. "Okay, now it's my turn to give a dare." She cleared her throat and clasped her hands together as she thought about it.

"The cookies!" Brady kneeled on the floor and nudged his mother aside. "Mom, you're crushing the cookies."

"It's good to know that you care more about your food than your own mother, Bud," Cadence remarked, blowing her hair out of her face.

He blinked at her, pulling the cookies closer to himself. "Well, you can heal yourself can't you?" He smiled as Cadence leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his, the two making the same expression of scrunching up their noses before he turned away. "You did a great job, Caitlin."

"Okay, I got one!" Caitlin practically kicked her legs with glee before turning towards Cisco. "I dare you to go down to the lobby and steal a—"

"—anything that won't get us thrown in jail, Caitlin," Cisco said quickly, holding up his hands. "I don't know about you, but considering this is Starling City I think even the flowers in the planters are worth thousands of dollars."

"What about riding the elevator down from the top floor of the hotel to the bottom floor back to our floor in only a towel?" Brady suggested. He shrugged as all eyes turned towards him. "I saw it in a movie. And everything's funnier when you have the chance to get caught."

"Yeah, that." Now Caitlin smiled impishly as Cisco's smile faded. He took a breath, trying to find a way out of it, but Caitlin immediately interrupted. "I mean, I already did mine and you're the one that always said life isn't worth living if you're not having fun."

"When have I ever said that?"

"Almost all the time!" Barry slapped him on the shoulder. "And if you haven't actually said it you implied it." He grinned, laughing quietly as Cisco mumbled to himself, walking to the bathroom. He came out, holding tightly onto a towel that hung around his waist, muttering to himself about a draft and how 'things weren't supposed to go this way' before walking out of the room with the friends following him.

They all climbed into the spacious elevator, which just so happened to be a glass elevator, and stood at the side, pretending not to be affiliated with Cisco as he stood in the center of the elevator, arms crossed tightly over his bare chest as they rode it to the top floor and rode it back down to the bottom floor once more.

The first few people that got on looked at Cisco strangely to which he muttered the excuse that 'he got locked out of his room'. When more people got on he stated 'it was the new fashion and everyone was doing it. Have you ever noticed how clothing just keeps getting smaller and smaller these days?'. As he didn't notice from the other side of the elevator, to extend his torture, Barry had pressed the button for every single floor on the way down to the lobby, causing Cisco's discomfort to increase by the floor.

"I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you…." Cisco muttered over and over, loud enough for his friends to hear as more and more people got on and off (including hotel staff) the elevator. By the time they arrived back at the room he had managed to find amusement in the situation and was preening like a peacock as he sauntered towards the room.

But Brady grabbed onto the end of the towel and yanked it off before sprinting towards the hotel room with Cadence, Caitlin, and Barry, slamming the door in his face and ignoring him as he tried to cover up and knock on the door as well. They left him outside for a few minutes before letting him back inside where he darted towards the bathroom, coming out to the sound of hysterical laughter.

As the night went on Barry had been dared to dance on the front desk of the hotel for the length of a song and Cadence had been dared to go to the hot tub and pretend to recognize everyone that was inside both of which managing to be completely fairly quickly. By the time the group had finished the four dares they were exhausted from having laughed so hard as well as feeling sick from the junk food they had eaten.

Cadence brushed her hair back behind her shoulders as she watched her friends get ready for bed. She had been telling the truth when she said she hadn't had so much fun since high school. For the first time in year she felt she was finally able to be herself and to let loose, even with her son with her. It was always hard for her to find a good balance between being a responsible parent and a young adult at twenty-four years old. Being able to do both made her feel like she was finally able to be herself. She turned her head to the side and started to brush harder when she noticed the small smile on Caitlin's face.

"What?" she asked her friend.

"Nothing." Caitlin shrugged. "I'm just having a good time."

"I hope so," Cadence said with a light laugh. "Or I'd have to pay you back for hitting me in the face so hard. I didn't know pillows could hurt so much."

"I didn't know potted plants could hurt so much," Caitlin shot back, mentioning how she had managed to run directly into one in her haste to get back to the hotel room. She smiled over at her friend. "I don't think I've ever seen you so lively before, Cade."

"Well, it's kind of hard to smile when you have a bunch of metahumans trying to kill you on a daily basis, Cait. Unless you want me to give them the opportunity to knock out all of my teeth at one time." She smiled and continued brushing. "I was telling the truth when I told Barry I was excited to have finally met another metahuman. But having met you and Cisco is just as great. I can finally be myself and that was certainly something I've missed." She looked up as Brady walked over and opened his mouth; she peered inside for a moment. "There's still Oreo in the back, brush again."

Brady huffed, "fine", and walked back into the bathroom.

"It's funny," Caitlin remarked slowly. "I can say the same thing about you guys."

The girls smiled at each other.

"I'm finished brushing my teeth," Brady announced as he walked out of the bathroom. He went over to his mother. "Goodnight, Mom." He gave her a kiss on the cheek, which she returned before going to Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry, giving them hugs. "Goodnight Caitlin, goodnight Cisco, goodnight Barry." He grabbed his blankets and slid underneath them, resting on the floor.

Cadence carefully stepped over him as she headed towards the lamp, watching as the rest of her friends all started to get comfortable under their covers. "Does anyone else need any more blankets or pillows?" She asked, hovering by the light.

"You're such a Mom, Cade," Barry said as he stretched out on the floor.

"That's kind of the point, Tholly." Cadence turned off the light and climbed into her bed, curling up into a ball as she did so.

There was a brief moment of silence before, "Does anyone want to hear a ghost story?"

"Cisco, go to sleep!"

A/N: Finally we see a more carefree side of Cadence balanced with her serious one, as well as her friendship with Cisco and Team Flash hanging out with no thoughts of metahumans or fighting anyone. I hope you guys enjoyed it.

Cheers,

-Riles