The holidays were fast approaching and the weird vision-dreams were all but forgotten. Even the migraines were a thing of the past. "I promise you Caitlyn," I tell her for the thousandth time. "I haven't had any more migraines. Not even a headache."
"Okay," she says. Even though I couldn't see her through the phone, I could hear the skepticism in her voice. "But you tell me if you have any…okay?"
"Yes, Dr. Snow," I tease her. We both hang up, but not before she grumbles at me one more time. A second later, I hear my name being called. Looking up from putting the phone in my purse, I see Iris West walking up to me. "Hey Iris! Thank you so much for helping me with this…"
"Hey, Elizabeth," she greets me. "I'm glad you called." Iris had graciously agreed to help me shop for Barry a Christmas gift. Barry and I had been dating for a few months now…but I still wasn't one hundred percent on what to buy him.
"I'm glad you agreed to help. I know we haven't ever hung out or anything- I just figured you know Barry pretty well- Or well, of course you do, you two grew up together-" I stop my rambling as Iris just smiles at me. "I'm sorry, I ramble when I'm nervous."
"There is no need to be nervous," she says, placing a hand on my arm. "Come on, let's go do some shopping." We spend the next hour or so walking through the store. I finally find Barry a gift along with a gag gift. "You two are two perfect for each other." Iris says with a laugh as I pay for the gifts. "He will love those."
"I hope he does," I say as I grab the bags off the counter.
"He will, trust me," Iris says as we head towards the door. "And you should give them to him at Christmas at our house." I ask her what she means. "Dad, Barry, and I are having some people over for Christmas and I think you should come."
"Yeah," I say as an automatic response. "I'd love to."
"Great," Iris says with a small squeal. "I will let Dad know…you can tell Barry." I nod my head as Iris walks outside. I swallow back the little nugget of dread that was forming in my stomach.
As the kissing grows more passionate, I pull back from Barry. "You know, you do work here…we should probably be a little more professional-"
"You know you initiated this," Barry smiles at me, his fingers lightly pressing into my waist. I had stopped by his lab at CCPD to see if he wanted to get some dinner…but it had somehow turned into a make-out session.
"True," I says, acting like I was musing over it. "So I couldn't get in trouble but…" My fingers play with the hairs along Barry's neckline as he scrunches his nose playfully at me, pulling me even closer. "I'm just thinking anyone could walk in like Joe or your captain or-"
The clacking of heels approaching captures both of our attentions. We look towards the door to see Iris walking in. "Yo, hey," Barry says, greeting her.
"Hey Barry, hey Elizabeth," she says. Her voice sounded a little off, but I barely notice it.
"Hey Iris," I respond. I take a step back from Barry as she comes to a stop in front of us. "So I will talk to you later," I say to Barry. "Text when you're done here-"
"Yeah, definitely," Barry says, standing up from the desk he had been leaning against. "We can get some food later or something."
I start towards the door, but Iris stops me with her words before I can pass by her. "I'll see you at Christmas?"
I knew she just meant it as a parting comment, not as an accusatory statement. It left my mouth dry and my stomach bottoming out. I knew both of them could read the hesitation on my face. "Um, yeah, I'll um, I don't-" I stop myself, never fully answering her. "I'll talk to you later Barry." I say the last comment quickly before all but running to the door. I make it outside right as it starts snowing. Instead of heading towards home though, I start towards work, Central City Museum, to bury myself in work.
-Barry's POV-
We both stare at Elizabeth as she leaves the lab, both slightly taken back by her reaction to Iris' question. "Did she seem a little…?" Iris muses.
"Yeah," I say, still staring at the door. "I don't know what that was about." I had a pit of worry in my stomach already starting to form. I guess I could just add it to the growing pile. "Anyway," I say, shaking my head. "You said you needed to talk to me…"
-Elizabeth's POV-
I stare at my phone, alerting me that Barry was calling…again. Looking back, I knew I had acted funny when Iris had mentioned Christmas; and naturally, Barry was likely worried about me. Christmas was just a weird time for me. I'd never had a real Christmas and I was feeling nervous about going to the West's for the holiday. The phone finally shuts off, lighting up again a second later to tell me Barry had left a voicemail. After I had left his lab, I had came straight to work. Going to work was always my fallback. When I was upset or just needed to escape, I went to work. Luckily, I was the head curator at Central City Museum, so I could come and go as I pleased. It was easy for me to lose track of time when I was in the archives, so when one of the assistant curators comes running into the archives, telling me I should turn on the news, I'm startled by the date and time. It was Christmas Eve…I had been down here over twenty-four hours. I follow her to our break room where the news was playing, showing the Flash getting his ass handed to him by some bad guys. I had yet to encounter the Flash (thankfully) but I had finally gotten used to seeing some story about him on the news. "This is horrible," I mutter, watching him being tossed around like a rag doll. "Why isn't someone stepping in…helping him?"
"The Weather Wizard and the Trickster are crazy," Susan, the assistant curator, says. "I can't believe the Flash is even taking them on."
After a few minutes, the Flash finally seems to fight back, easily overtaking the two bad guys. I let out a sigh of relief I hadn't even realized I was holding in. "Thank goodness that is over," I say, clicking off the T.V. "Do you have plans for the holidays?"
"Yeah, I'm heading out now actually," Susan says. "What about you?"
"I'll probably just hang out here-" I stop myself. "Um, actually…I am having Christmas with my boyfriend and his family."
"That sounds like fun," Susan says. She grabs up her purse and coat, telling me goodbye before leaving the room. I make my way back to my desk to start gathering up my things. I check my phone again, to see if maybe Barry has called, but he hasn't in a few hours. I gather up my stuff before heading to the door…I was going to the West's for Christmas.
-Barry's POV-
"Is Elizabeth coming?" Joe asks as he hands me a mug of eggnog.
I tilt my head side to side. "I am not sure," I tell him. His eyebrows dart up like they always do when he wants more information. "She kind of…I'm not sure if Christmas is really her thing."
"She seemed excited for it when we went Christmas shopping," Iris offers up as she sits on the arm of the chair I was sitting in.
"Elizabeth was always kind of weird about Christmas," Caitlyn says. Everyone turns to look at her as her and Jay step out from under the mistletoe. "When we were in undergrad she never went anywhere for break, she just stayed at the dorms."
"Wasn't she an orphan?" Joe asks. I nod my head—I hadn't even thought about that. "The holidays are usually kind of touchy for kids without parents…"
"I am the worst boyfriend ever," I say, shaking my head. "I didn't even think of that…maybe I should call her-"
"Or better yet, how are we going to explain how we all know each other," Cisco says. Everyone looks at him. "She's not in on the Flash secret, so…"
"Well we took care of Barry after the Particle Accelerator explosion," Caitlyn says. "And then after that-"
"We help out every now and then with metahuman cases," Cisco finishes.
"But Barry," Caitlin says. "Elizabeth is...this may be a problem."
"What do you mean?" I say after taking a drink of my eggnog.
"Elizabeth is very good at what she does, piecing together clues to discover new things in history." Caitlin says. "She is smart enough to figure out that you are the Flash."
"I mean she's wicked smart but…" my bravado was thinning. This wasn't something I had thought of.
"Is she really that good?" Joe asks.
"Have you read any of her books?" Caitlin says. "She single handed proved that America would not have existed without Henry VIII…and it actually made sense. History books around the world are being changed because of her work."
"Oh…girl is crazy smart," Cisco says. "So what do we do-"
"We'll just have to…" I let out a sigh. There was no way I was leaving Elizabeth but yet I couldn't tell her I was the Flash...yet. "We'll just have to be extra careful-" The sound of someone knocking on the door cuts me off. Iris jumps up, saying that she'll get it.
"Elizabeth, hi!" she says. I lean forward enough to see Elizabeth stepping through the front door. "I'm so glad you could make it!"
"Thank you for inviting me," Elizabeth says as Iris pulls her in for a quick hug. She reaches into a large tote bag and pulls out a bottle of wine, handing it to Iris. "And this is for you."
"Thank you," Iris says, looking at the label. I stand up, sitting down my mug before walking over to join them. "The label is in Spanish—is this from-"
"A wonderful shop in Grenada," Elizabeth says. "You'll love it."
"Thank you so much," Iris says. She gives me a wink that Elizabeth doesn't see as she passes by me towards the living room.
"Hey, I was worried about you," I say as I move to stand in front of Elizabeth. I quickly look her up and down, loving the cream colored sweater and long red skirt she was wearing; I always thought she looked amazing in red (the irony wasn't lost on me). "I tried calling you a few times but you never-"
"I know," she says, shaking her head. "I know. I'm horrible for not answering. I was at work and I was just burying myself and I just-" She lets out a sigh, her nostrils flaring slightly. "I was…hesitant about coming here tonight. The holidays and me…don't have the greatest track record. And I've definitely never celebrated with a…"
"Family?" I finish for her. She nods her head, giving me a nervous smile. I had gotten used to not knowing every single detail of Elizabeth's life just yet. There were things, big things apparently, that we didn't know about each other. "Well, I'm glad you're here."
"I'm glad I'm here too," she says. She smiles widely at me before I lean forward and kiss her. I loved kissing her.
"I would like to, someday, hear about how you have spent Christmas before though…whenever you're ready to tell me about it," I add.
Elizabeth's eyebrows crease together briefly before she smiles at me again. "I would like that too," I take the large tote bag from her as we start to move towards the living room. "Get enough of this famous eggnog I've so much about in me and I may just tell you tonight."
"Dr. Cambridge," Joe says as he walks up to us. "Glad you could join us."
"I'm glad to be here," she says, taking a mug of eggnog from him. "And please, call me Elizabeth. I get called the official title enough at work." Everyone else tells her hello as well. I don't miss her eyebrows scrunching together when she sees Caitlin and Cisco there. "And what are you two doing here?" she asks as Caitlin gives her a hug.
"Funny you should ask-" Caitlin starts to say but then is cut off.
Joe asks Iris if they are expecting anybody else as he goes to answer the door. I smile down at Elizabeth as she moves closer to me, wrapping an arm around my waist. We all stand there watching as Joe and Iris interact with the new guest: Joe's son, Wally West. Once he comes inside, Joe introduces him to everyone. "Geez," Elizabeth says once Joe and Wally have moved to the kitchen to get him something to drink. "I miss everything when I stay down in the archives."
-Elizabeth's POV-
"¿Cómo puedes incluso decir que Star Wars es mejor que Star Trek? Son dos totalmente diferentes-" Cisco says to me in Spanish. Somewhere along the line our heated debate about movies had slipped into Spanish.
I roll my eyes at him as I respond. "Puedo decir eso porque nunca he visto Star Trek-"
"¡blasfemia! ¡Eso es blasfemia!" Cisco points an accusatory finger at me as I start laughing. Everyone else chuckles as well, but I doubt they were actually keeping up with the conversation. Cisco then turns on Barry, still speaking Spanish. "¿Cómo sigues con la chica y nunca ha visto a Star Trek?"
"Uh, well, I-" Barry says, looking at Cisco bewildered before turning to look at me. "I assume you all were talking about Star Trek?"
"Just ignore him," I say, leaning back against the couch cushions. "We are done-" Cisco starts to argue again but I cut him off. "terminado, with this conversation."
Everyone laughs as Cisco grumbles into his mug of eggnog. "So Elizabeth," Joe says. "Caitlin says that you two went to college together?" I nod my head and tell him that was right. "Where did you do your post-graduate work?"
"Um, well, I started a master's program at Harvard," I tell him. "But then a spot opened up in the doctoral program at the University of Cambridge…so I snatched that up."
"Wow, impressive," Joe says.
"Thank you," I stare at the tree for a moment. "London around Christmas time was magical. It was like stepping into a Dickens novel."
"Is that where you were last year?" Joe asks.
I break my gaze from the tree as I feel Barry squeeze my hand. I should've seen this coming…Joe was a detective and he hardly knew anything about the woman dating the boy he had raised. Barry gives me a look, telling me I didn't have to answer if I wasn't comfortable with it. "No, actually," I finally answer Joe. "I, um, I spent Christmas at the orphanage I grew up in."
"That's so sweet," Iris says. "I'm sure the children loved it."
"Yeah," I say, nodding my head. "In years past they always did. The, um, the Sisters, that worked there when I was growing up…well, they pretty much embodied every negative stereotype you could think of nuns. Christmas was just another day to them to tell us how we didn't deserve the gifts donated to us…that we should spend all day in the chapel instead, giving thanks for the orphanage that had gave us shelter." A silence settles over the group. Barry's arm comes around my shoulders. I knew it was heavy subject matter, but it had happened to me. I couldn't keep my past from them forever. "It's better now though. After I graduated college I made sure I went back there every Christmas day, gave the children some actual Christmas cheer. All the Sisters that were there when I was there have moved on and the group that work there now are close to actual saints."
"Where was this orphanage at?" Cisco asks after a moment.
"Queens, New York City." I say. "Right down the road from the restaurant I was found in actually."
Someone lets out a low whistle and I turn to see Cisco shaking his head. "Girl you came straight out of a Lifetime movie."
The tension in the room breaks and everyone laughs. "Come on," Joe says, standing up and making his way to the tree. "We got some presents to open and I see at least three with my name on them…"
