Part four
They'd made a small attempt at keeping the secret, but really there was no way to keep a triceratops the size of a motorcycle hidden for long. Barry'd sped-read through some construction manuals. Between him, Cisco, and Firestorm, they'd securely fenced off Cisco's new backyard, and turned the massive living room/museum into Cera's living quarters, complete with a Dino-door that took up most of a wall and only opened for Cera's microchip or an identical chip in Cisco's STAR Labs ID.
The house wasn't nearly as creepy as it had been at first, since Cera's renovations and any attempt at fixing the had made the place feel much less sterile, and everyone seemed to take it in turns to spend the night. Cisco was glad for it. Still, he didn't want to spend all his free time there, and since a couple videos from the bus Incident had found their way to social media, what could it hurt? People'd find out sooner or later.
"Wanna go to the park?" Cisco called. Cera thumped her tail, and skidded over to fetch her harness from a hook by the Dino-door. Cisco scratched at her neck ridge and near the base of her horns. "That a yes?"
"Eeehhhk! Eekkkhhhnnn!"
Briefly, Cisco wondered if this was a Good Idea, but it was just a neighborhood park, and Caitlin wasn't there to stop them. He clipped the heavy-duty leash to Cera's harness and let her pull him down the walkway.
It was a nice evening. Birds were shrieking, and Cera shrieked back, giddy with new things to look at. The sun was out, there were children playing some kind of gameā¦.
Or they were until they saw Cera.
Cisco expected them to run screaming, and froze. Cera tugged at her lead, not hard enough to pull him over, but enough to let Cisco know she wanted to meet the new people. There was a moment that could only be described as Deer in headlights, before one of the five kids raised his hand.
"Mister? Is that a Triteratops?"
"It's a Triceratops, duh," a girl said. Cisco noticed that she was wearing a "Flash" tshirt.
"Can I pet it?" asked another boy.
Cisco found his voice. "Um."
"I thought dinosaurs were dead," the first boy said. "Is it a robot?"
Cera leaned forward again. Cisco shook his head. "Nope, she's real. And, uh, yeah. Dinosaurs are mostly dead, except for her. And birds, sort of. You can pet her, she doesn't bite. Slow, ok?"
"She's so pretty!" the last kid squeaked.
"No, she's tough."
"She can be both." Cisco decided he liked the Flash girl.
"What do you mean, birds?"
Cisco settled into "blabber about science" mode as Cera accepted scritches and handfuls of grass. He wasn't sure when the Adult Supervision showed up, a guy who looked kinda like the dude in that Guardians of the Galaxy movie, but he left with new friends, an invite to Chris' weekend barbeque, and a very happy dinosaur.
I may still update tomorrow as well? not sure. This is easier to write than my other stories, and I need the distraction. Those of you who follow my tumblr may have seen my post, but basically my Aunt is in pretty bad shape and is in ICU. She was comatose yesterday, but has since woken up and been able to blink at us and vocalize. we're hopeful at this point, but it's still gonna be a chancy couple of days.
but I need the distraction so who knows.
