.:8:.


Harrison sat in his wheelchair, an almost giddy smile—for him—on his face as he watched Barry and Cadence run on their treadmills. Barry moving so quickly that the air around him crackled with electricity, arms and legs flying as he used his enhanced speed to race on the belt made of rubber, plastic, and metals.

On another treadmill Cadence was running at a considerably slower pace, not able to get up to Barry's top speed of around 700 mph, though her powers of heat got her close. As she ran, little sparks of fire seemed to fly off her body. It had taken Cisco a few tries before he had come up with a treadmill belt that didn't melt under her feet due to the rise in her body temperature with little cooling effect from her sweat.

And as he continued to watch, Harrison's smile slowly faded. There were still ramifications they hadn't been thought of when it came to dealing with these two metahumans. Barry wasn't moving towards his full potential, not yet. He was still able to go faster, push himself harder, and while he had been doing so well as of late, there were still some things he hadn't seemed to understand were so important. He always seemed to find things as…some sort of a game, trying to see how many crimes he could stop in the span of a day.

Cadence on the other hand, was even more of a frustration for him and their research on their abilities. There were so many things that were keeping her from getting to her top abilities, like Barry, though on a grander scale. Her body temperature couldn't get too high or else there would be irreversible brain damage, much like that of having a very high fever. There was always a point where she would stop herself, afraid of going the extra mile and breaking through the barrier of her powers but would then come to a grinding halt and start all over.

And all of it infuriated Harrison. How was he to be sure that things worked he way they wanted him to, they way they were supposed to when there were so many things getting in the way. Barry's mind still wasn't completely operable at top speeds, and while they had recently found him able to speak a mile a minute—probably even faster than that—Harrison wasn't one hundred percent satisfied with their progress.

But now, watching as they progressed in their main abilities, speed and power, he couldn't help but smile. Everything was slowly going the way he wanted, no needed them to and the thought alone gave him the rare chance to smile.

Caitlin glanced over at Cisco and Harrison, a small smile on her face as well. Cisco was beaming as he watched the two metahuman race on the treadmills, every now and squealing like a little girl and bouncing on his toes. Then again, he found monster truck rallies and everything supernatural—ghosts included—to be 'cool' when they gave her a headache and scared her half to death. But then looking over at Harrison she was surprised to find that he was smiling.

Not that he didn't smile a lot, she reminded herself. But it never came up a lot, usually only for special occasions, or watching in amusement as she and Cisco got into some sort of little argument or wager in over their particular fields. Otherwise the only other times she had seen him smile a lot was before the explosion. Then again, Caitlin, you used to smile a lot then, too. And once again her mind was incased with thoughts and images of her and Ronnie. They had been together for a short amount of time, but had fallen in love so quickly.

He had warmed her heart, when she hadn't thought it would be possible. Growing up, she had been interested in boys, had gone to dances, and hung out with her friends as they giggled and blushed over them, but she still felt socially awkward around hem at times. She hadn't thought she was ugly by any means, but what guy wanted to go out with a girl that could explain each and every element on the Periodic Table of Elements without a second of thought? Who wanted to go out with a girl that would rather experiment with different chemicals and how it affected life sciences than go to the mall and the movies?

But Ronnie had been different; he made her laugh, had her open up more, taught her how to live life to the fullest and she had fallen for his charm. For once she didn't feel like the odd one out, he had been just as smart as she was and was still very—by her admission—attractive. Their romance had been a whirlwind, a heated affair everyone had been able to see since the day they met each other and while they tried to keep it a secret and toned down at work, soon he had proposed to her and everyone around had been happy. Especially Cisco, he was one of her best friends, like her little brother and had become best friends with Ronnie. He was to be the best man at their wedding and had even helped Caitlin come up with different themes for the wedding.

None of which she used but it was a fun night; drinking at the bar, being able to show off her ring to anyone that came by, listening to Cisco's idea to make their wedding cake half red and half blue to represent their favorite colors, and enjoying the warmth that Ronnie's body radiated as she leaned into him ever the woman in love.

And now here she was in S.T.A.R. Labs with a career that would probably never happen and…having friends. She never expected that to come out of the particle accelerator explosion that had hurt so many people and ripped so many lives apart. But she had started to grow more while working with Barry and the others and, honestly, wouldn't trade it for anything.

She glanced over the vitals of the metahumans on the screen in front of her and frowned, noticing that Cadence's vitals were starting to return to a lower number. Glancing up, she noticed the fire metahuman had pressed the stop button on her treadmill and was slowing to a stop, hands on her hips.

"Miss. Nash, may I ask why you're stopping your training?" Harrison asked, wheeling himself backwards, to meet Cadence at the door of the room that held the treadmills, separated by a glass window. "We haven't been able to get a good grasp of the extent of your abilities."

Barry slowed on his treadmill and followed after her, watching quietly.

"Trust me, that's the extent of it," she remarked, gently wiping sweat off her forehead. "Anything more than that and I'm sure I'd black out in a matter of seconds." She shrugged. "It's happened before."

Something flashed across Harrison's face and he pressed his lips together before regarding her with a cold stare. "Be that as it may, we won't be able to get you to break through that barrier if you continue to keep yourself at a plateau." He lowered his voice, almost to a menacing one that the others immediately recognized. "I'll ask you, Miss. Nash, to please not test my patience. Not only are you using my time to help you progress your abilities to a level that you can take care of yourself, but you're also using my resources."

The fire metahuman's eyebrow rose. "I've been dealing with this since I was eight, I can—"

"That's all I have to say about it," Harrison interrupted, his voice now dark and gravely. Cisco, who had been watching quietly, winced at the tone of his voice. It was the same tone the man had used when he found out about the cold gun that Cisco had created before knowing Barry was a nice guy. The tone was dark, filled with tension and unmistakable anger.

Cadence lowered her gaze to the floor, realizing that she had taken her argument a step too far. Harrison kept his eyes on her as he wheeled back his chair before turning it around and leaving the floor so that he could go to his office.

Barry made a low whistling sound under his breath. "Even I don't make the mistake of getting him angry like that," he said. "It's like…getting sent down to the principal's office."

"Sorry, Barry, but something tells me that you were never sent to the principal's office," Cadence said, sending him a look.

He thought for a moment. "You're right," he agreed. "I never went when it was something that was actually my fault." Patting her on the shoulder he addressed Caitlin and Cisco. "Is something bothering him? He seemed really annoyed."

Caitlin waved a hand. "He's just very invested in his work," she defended him. "He's always been like that and after everything with the particle accelerator…well, he's trying hard to get his reputation back and I guess this work is a release for him or something." She crossed her arms. "But he does have a bit of a point. We can't get a good handle on what you can do if you don't allow yourself to get pushed further and further."

"I'm sorry, weren't you the one that had warned him,"—Cadence gestured to Barry—"that he could defeat me because of my whole body temperature thing?"

Cisco turned to Caitlin and leaned in towards her. "She's got a point," he whispered to her.

Caitlin glared at him and Cisco shrugged, turning away. Her face softened as she turned back to Cadence. "You do have to be careful," she agreed. "But pushing that threshold back further and further will ultimately be beneficial to you."

"Yeah, and maybe one day you'll actually be able to control your powers enough, to, like, burst into flames or something," Cisco said. His eyes lit up at the thought. "Then you'll really live up to the name Flash Fire."

Cadence's right eyebrow hiked upwards as he eyes flashed dangerously. "Seriously, Cisco, if you insist on calling me that, I'm going to have to call you guys the Super Stars or something, because that's getting ridiculous."

Cisco appeared not to notice her sudden shift into an angry tone, or that the air around them had increased in temperature in favor of the nickname he had just been handed. "Super Stars?! I like that! Then we'll have cool code names too." Caitlin rolled her eyes, shaking her head as Cisco became completely enamored with the idea. "Then I can be Star Shooter or something." He reached over and picked up his cup of coffee. "And we need to come up with a name for you Caitlin…what about Imperial Ice?"

Caitlin, Cadence, and Barry all exchanged confused glances.

"Why Imperial Ice?" Barry asked, scratching the side of his head. "I would've thought of…Ice Star or something." Now Caitlin glared at Barry and he zipped to the other side of the room, far away from Caitlin's potential wrath. "Just saying."

"Oh come on, it sounds cool and you know it." Cisco brought his coffee up to his mouth and took a long sip. He made a face, forcing himself to swallow it, before holding it an arm's length away from him. "God, this stuff tastes disgusting when it's cold."

"You don't know what you're missing with iced coffee," Caitlin sing-songed. "It's the only thing that gets me through the day."

"Here." Cadence reached out and took the cup from him. She removed the lid and blew across the top, before handing the steaming cup back to him. Cisco watched the steam rise from the top of the cup and grinned, practically bouncing on his toes once more. Barry zipped back to his side, causing Cisco's hair to blow out of his face and looked at the cup as well.

"Dragon Breath." Barry grinned as he nodded.

"So. Cool." Cisco agreed.

Cadence turned towards Caitlin with an odd expression on her face. "And you have to deal with this every day?"

Caitlin closed her eyes in a pained expression, nodding. "Every day, unfortunately," she concurred. Brushing her wavy brown tresses from her face, actively ignoring the "hey's" of protest from Barry and Cisco, Caitlin picked up a stack of folders that had been resting by her arm and organized them before cradling them against her chest. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go over some of these findings with Dr. Wells. I may have found something in your guys' abilities that can really help us." She turned on her heel and started towards Harrison's office.

Her heels clacked against the ground as she went and when she arrived at Harrison's office, she was surprised to find his office door was already open. Not forgetting her manners, she reached out and knocked on the door, leaning in to find Harrison at his desk, forehead resting in the palm of his hand.

"Dr. Wells?" She gently called.

Harrison looked up, moving to close the folder he had been looking over. Caitlin glanced at it as she moved closer to his desk but he skillfully hid what was written on the cover as he opened the drawer at the top left of his desk. "Yes, Miss. Snow?"

"I have some of the results of the tests that we ran on Barry and Cadence," Caitlin said. She crossed the room and carefully lowered herself into the seat, placing the files and folders on the desk. "Their vitals are at the levels we'd like them to be, and Barry is getting faster and faster by the day. Though, in line with your concerns, Cadence seems to have hit a brick wall."

"That's where my worries lie," Harrison said. He placed his fingertips together, icy blue eyes boring into Caitlin's brown ones. "Progress isn't going to be made if she continues to stay at the area she is currently at. I believe there is something physically stopping her from getting to the point where she can exhibit her powers further."

Caitlin nodded, crossing her legs. Harrison's eyes darted downwards before coming up towards her face once more. "It's probably that she's trying to get through the thought that she has to keep it a secret," She reasoned. "Not only has she had these powers since she was a kid, but she continued to go to school and stay as normal as possible, having to hide the abilities for so long, knowing what can happen if they were taken too far."

Harrison nodded then changed the subject. "What about Barry, then?"

Caitlin took a deep breath as she thought about it. She recognized this pattern. Rather than him giving her all of the answers, he wanted her to work them out for her own. It was what the two had done when he was still her mentor, after first signing on to working with him. She had been the first person he recruited for the work on the particle accelerator, if she remembered correctly and they had continued to work closely together as time had gone on.

"I think…Barry is really excited about what he can do," she said slowly, working it out as she thought. "He's very passionate about helping people, why else would he and Cisco have started to do it when we had no ideas about what they could do or who'd be after him."

"And what about you?"

The sudden one-eighty turn caused Caitlin to blink in surprise. "Me?"

What about me? Caitlin studied Harrison, forcing herself to look away from his eyes as they continued to train on her. His gaze had always been so piercing, almost as if they were looking right through her. Did he mean about her thought of Ronnie? Did he know how much she thought about him or how worried she was for Barry because of the danger he constantly put himself into? What about her?

The frosty woman shrugged. "What about me?" She asked.

"How are you holding up through this whole thing?" Harrison tilted his head towards the door to his office. "Cisco takes it all in stride and it's his excitement for things like this that drew me to him, I see good things coming from him. But I haven't really gotten a good grasp of what you're thinking about it." He straightened the incline of his head. "That is, unless it's hard for you to still be here."

"I'd…rather not speak about Ronnie if that's alright."

"I wasn't speaking about Ronnie."

Caitlin lowered her gaze, crossing her legs the other way. She chewed her lower lip for a long minute. His confidence had always been something she admired about him, and the attention he paid to her, but now it threw her off a little.

Harrison licked his pink lips and leaned forward, resting his arms on the desktop. "You had such an amazing future ahead of you, Caitlin, I know that. And I know that you constantly wonder what would've happened if you hadn't decided to take my offer to work at S.T.A.R. Labs if not having gotten out of the work before the accelerator went online. In fact, I distinctly remember trying to tell you…and Ronnie,"—he took a deep breath—"to go off o your vacation sooner."

"I couldn't begin to imagine missing the start of the accelerator."

"Even if it meant not having your future taken away from you?"

"Even then." Caitlin now looked him in the eyes. She mimicked Harrison, licking her lips and taking a deep breath. "I wouldn't trade any of this either. What we're doing…what you're doing…it'll take a while for people to understand but this is all ground breaking and you shouldn't allow yourself to listen to what everyone else hast o say."

"Well, under the circumstances I think I can understand that some people aren't particularly happy when they hear my name," Harrison said. He ran a hand through his hair before leaning back in his wheelchair, resting his hands on his stomach. "But I thank you for your vote of confidence, Miss. Snow. It helps me know that what I'm doing is all worthwhile."

Caitlin smiled and nodded back at him.

She continued to sit in the chair, her gaze on him lingering a bit longer before she blinked and gazed at the files once more. "So there's everything that came from their tests if there's anything else that you need, feel free to call me."

"I'll make sure of that." There was a light lift to his tone that wasn't always heard when they were working and it caused Caitlin to smile a little wider.

Caitlin got up from her seat and left the room. She was almost back to the testing floor when the scent of acrid smoke hit her nose and she practically sprinted the rest of the way. Coming around the corner, she skidded to a stop and watched as smoke poured out of the top of the cup that had been Cisco's coffee, Barry stood beside it, rapidly fanning it with the quick movements of his hands, and Cadence was sitting on Cisco's shoulders, reaching up towards the sprinklers at the ceiling and waving a towel to keep them from going off.

The three appeared as if they had been caught in the cookie jar when the spotted Caitlin.

"What are you doing?" She demanded.

"Nothing," the three replied in unison.

Caitlin placed her hands on her hips as she watched the three, trying to keep the stern expression on her face though all she wanted to do was burst out laughing.

No, she certainly wouldn't trade any of it for anything else.


"So, Cadence, don't you have to get to work soon?" Barry asked as he pulled open the door to Jitters, allowing the fire metahuman to go into the coffee shop before he followed after her. Sliding his hands into the pockets of his jacket he fell into step beside her, looking for a table to sit at. "I didn't think you could miss any days while in residency."

Cadence grimaced before she replaced the expression with a calm one. "Actually…I, uh, I stopped," she admitted. Barry glanced at her, a smile frozen on his face, eyebrows lowering in confusion. "I talked to my program director this morning and opted to take some time off from it…with Brady back and with the long shifts that are unpredictable, I can't keep working there."

She tucked her hair behind her ear before looking around and finding a table to sit at. She quickly strode over to it, sure to avoid Barry's gaze, knowing he'd continue to push the topic if she did so.

And she had decided to leave residency, though it wasn't completely on her own terms. The morning after she had gotten Brady back, she was awoken by a knock on the door to her apartment. Looking down at Brady, glad to see that he was still sleeping soundly; she quietly slid out of bed and hurried over towards the front door. She had barely gotten into the foyer before a gust of wind blew the door open and Lucas strolled inside.

Cadence stopped on a dime and turned her gaze to the ceiling before looking back at him once more. "You seriously have to stop doing that," she said to him. "I don't go barging into your place."

"Be that as it may, I'm not the one that constantly needs to be watched," Lucas pointed out to her. He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a wad of money. "Good job on your last hit, Breathtaker was proud." His blue eyes flashed. "Though it did take a bit for the woman to fucking croak to get the job done."

Cadence frowned then said sarcastically, "Next time I'll just make it look like she spontaneously combusted. Would that be better?" She held out her hand and Lucas stuffed the wad of bills into her palm.

Looking it over, she let out a deep breath, moving her lower jaw to the side. The image of the woman's face, turning white and filling with fear the longer she held onto her neck, watching the life move out of her eyes. She had then increased the temperature of her hands, burning the woman's neck so that her fingerprints wouldn't be left behind.

All so she would get the money that would keep herself and Brady afloat. Then when she had the chance, she'd get out of the Assassination Bureau and would be able to get away so the two of them would be able to live a relatively normal life; though going back to Metropolis was out of the question.

Cadence's eyes narrowed as she looked through the bills that were in her hand. "This is more than I was contracted to get," she said to him.

"I know," Lucas concurred. Now he placed his hands on his hips. "Part of that comes from my cut. Something extra for you and Brady."

Now Cadence let out a low chuckle before she regarded him with a glare. "You're not his father, Lucas, excuse me, Stratos. So stop acting like it." The last word was barely out of her mouth before Luca shot out his hand and grabbed her around her throat and squeezed tightly.

He brought his face close to hers, blue eyes flashing. "Don't forget that what happened to you son before…can easily happen again. Don't test me." He brought up his other hand and Cadence's eyes squeezed shut, tears streaming down her cheeks, as a strong wind blew through the apartment. "Unless you want to end up dead on the floor with the air taken from your lungs."

Cadence brought up her free hand and grabbed onto his wrist. "Or I can burn your lungs," she replied, voice hoarse as he continued to hold onto her. "That's your choice."

Staring at her a few seconds more, Lucas smirked before dropping his hand. Cadence coughed, bringing her hands up to her neck. It throbbed with pain and she was sure it was going to bruise within a matter of minutes.

He shook his blond hair from his face. "We should be getting our next assignment soon, make sure you don't have anything get in the way of it. Breathtaker was happy with your work, but he's not happy with the way you're constantly pushing it off for other responsibilities." He took another step towards her. "He wanted me to remind you…of the risks you're taking when you're not at our beck and call like you agreed to when you first joined us."

Cadence nodded. She had willingly agreed to help them out when they had first approached her. She had willingly agreed to everything they told her about their work and she had continued with it as the years went on; and despite the many times she had proven she was working with the Assassination Bureau and had done a great job on each of them, they still questioned her.

"Has there by any word back from the Suicide Squad?"

"Not at the moment but when we hear from that or about our next assignment, Breathtaker will have us all meet up again." Lucas had left shortly after that and Cadence had gotten on her cell phone to set up a meeting with her program director to tell him that she would be taking some time off from her residency. Lucas had been right; there were too many risks she had been taking while waiting for her next assignment for the Assassination Bureau.

Keeping an eye on Barry was a lot easier than she had anticipated; now all she had to do was wait for her next instruction.

But sitting across from Barry in Jitters, seeing the concerned expression on his face as she told him she had left the residency made her frown a little. She didn't think he would be so naïve, so friendly with everyone around him. Nevertheless it made her job that much easier.

And he won't see it coming, Cadence thought.

"So why doesn't he just go back to stay with your parents?" Barry pressed.

Gritting her teeth, Cadence sucked a deep breath into her mouth. "That's a whole other, long story that I don't want to get into." She waved her hand before reaching over and picking up a menu. "Trust me, it's boring."

Shrugging, Barry picked up his own menu and looked it over for a moment before his eyes shifted behind her. He smiled and waved. There was the sound of footsteps, angry footsteps behind Cadence and she looked up as an African-American woman appeared at the side of the table, holding onto a pad and a pen.

"Don't you smile at me, Barry Allen," she said. "I'm still mad at you."

Barry held his hands up defensively. "For what? I'm just sitting here."

Iris placed her hands on her hips and looked pointedly at her best friend. "For the last argument we had, I know there's something you're not telling me but you haven't even had the decency to pick up a phone and call. Me." She whacked him on the arm with her pad of paper. "Some best friend you are."

"Ow! Ow! OK, Iris, stop!" Barry tried to defend himself. "We're in public."

Cadence laughed as she watched Barry lean back out of the way as the waitress continued to hit Barry with the book. It must suck not being able to use your powers to get away, she thought. Barry must've had the same thought for he grimaced underneath his smile, doing his best to use his hands to block her.

Now Iris laughed as she gave him one last swat on the arm. "I don't care." She giggled, pushing her hair behind her ears. She turned to Cadence, eyes lighting up as she did so. "Though if this is the reason why you've been avoiding me, that's fine. Hi, I'm Iris West."

Cadence smirked, reaching out and taking Iris's hand, giving it a firm shake. "Hi, Iris, I'm Cadence Nash."

Iris continued to smile at the fire metahuman. "So how did you meet Barry? I wouldn't expect it to be on a crime scene."

Wanna bet? Cadence tried to hide her smile as she exchanged a glance with Barry. "Uh, no, actually we met at my aerobics class." She slowly started to smile, showing her teeth, as Barry narrowed his eyes at her.

"Aerobics?" Iris and Barry repeated with varying degrees of interest.

"Yeah, I had been in residency at Central City hospital," Cadence explained, keeping her eyes on Barry. He looked mildly annoyed. "But I realized it wasn't something I wanted so I started to teach aerobics classes at the local gym. You know…like Zumba and stuff. Barry here,"—she motioned towards him—"was in one of my classes. He's really good at Zumba, actually, one of the best in the class."

"Really?" Iris snapped her fingers. "So that's what you're not telling me! You're taking Zumba classes. That's why you started to get…muscular and everything." She paused and then hit Barry once more, causing him to cry out in pain.

"Was that really necessary?" He demanded, looking like a wounded puppy.

"I love Zumba," Iris declared. She clasped her hands together. "And Yoga and I'm always trying to get someone to go with me." She pouted. "Eddie doesn't like it; he says that it makes him feel like he's questioning his masculinity whenever he gets into it."

"Eddie?" Cadence repeated, she noticed the light roll of Barry's eyes when the name was mentioned.

Iris tilted he head to the side, her dark tresses falling out of her face as a sweet, serene expression filled her face. "Eddie's my boyfriend," she explained. "Actually, he's my Dad's partner. Things were kind of awkward for a while, but they're better now."

"Oh!" The fire metahuman's dark eyes lit up. "Detective Pretty Boy!" Barry burst out laughing as Iris reached out to hit him once more. This time he used a bit of his enhanced speed to lean out of the way, though she didn't notice. "Yeah, I met him once, there was a suspect they were looking into that was at the hospital. I met them then." She brushed her hair from her face, not concerned with the pointed look Barry was sending her way.

She sent a look back that said 'What? It's not like I'm spilling my guts here'.

"But hey, he's handsome, you get that," Iris said. A new look entered her eyes and she chewed her lower lip, gently twisting back and forth. "Actually, we have tickets to go to the theater this weekend, maybe you two would like to come as a double date?"

"A double date?" Barry repeated. He started to wave his hands before pointing back and forth between himself and Cadence. "No. No, no. This…uh, this isn't anything like that. I mean, I don't think of her that way, we're just friends, barely know each other really."

"Besides, he's not my type," Cadence interrupted. "I have a thing for blonds." She glanced at the menu and looked it over for a moment. "Could I get a hot chocolate please?" She pushed the menu aside as Iris whipped up her pen and scribbled down the order.

"Of course, and Barry I'll get your usual."

Barry didn't speak again until Iris was out of ear shot. He turned to Cadence with what was his version of a stink-eye. "Zumba? Really?"

"It was the best I could come up with on short notice. And besides, it looked like you needed some sort of an alibi or something since you can't tell her what's going on with your powers and everything." Cadence pressed her fingertips together. "It might be better if you do, though. My parents had no choice but to know, but when I told Brady, he took everything in stride." She sorted. "As a matter of fact, in his eyes I'm a lot cooler. But what eight year old doesn't like anything superhero related."

"Is that ever weird?" Barry asked. "That there's such a big age difference between you guys? You're…twenty-four right?"

Cadence nodded. "It's not so bad," she said. "Sometimes its stressful, otherwise it's fine." She sat up straight when Iris returned to the table with their drinks and Barry's blueberry muffin. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Iris replied. "Enjoy you guys. And it was nice meeting you Cadence."

"It was nice meeting you, too, Iris. I hope to see you in one of my Zumba classes."

"I'll definitely be there." Iris beamed and reached out, placing her hand on Barry's shoulder. "And so will, Barry." Barry smiled in agreement, waiting for her to leave once more before turning back to Cadence.

"I hate you." The bluntness of his words caused Cadence to burst out into loud laughter. She further warmed her hot chocolate between he hands before taking a long sip of the drink that would scald a normal person. "I can't dance! Why'd you have to go tell her that? Now it's going to be so embarrassing." He ran his hands over his face.

"That's alright, Barry…you'll learn fast."

She laughed again as Barry dropped his forehead to the table.


Harrison finished looking over the files that Caitlin had given him and pushed them aside. He opened the drawer that held the file folder he hid away and placed it on his desk. Opening it, he pushed aside the newspaper articles until he came across a family photo of Cadence when she was about nine years old, nestled in the arms of her mother and father, all smiling widely at the camera.

He studied it for a long time, taking in everything of the photo. The location; his deduction it being at some sort of a festival or parade judging by the crowd wearing red and yellow in the background, the time of day; mid-day judging by the source of the sunlight, the images in the photo; how happy the three family members looked.

Harrison brought a hand up to his mouth, covering it. Taking off his glasses, he ran his hand over his face, shoulders slumping. He lashed out; smacking his fist on top of the photo then grabbed it in his hands, crumpling it up before tearing the photo into tiny pieces that fluttered to the floor like confetti when he savagely swept them away from him.

He rested his elbows on the desk, hands clenched into fists, glaring at the space in front of him.