Author's Beginning Notes: Say hello to Stacey and Amber! They were mentioned in episode 7, from Noemi's POV. But now we get Stacey's POV and Amber's! Also a wild OC appears, bringing to the table some exciting clues.


The song for this chapter is Swedish House Mafia's Don't You Worry Child. The beat and flow of the words, as well at the words themselves, really encompass this chapter and what they're going through.

No trigger warnings for this chapter, though there is a mention of several near death experiences.


Stacey tugs on a bit of her hair, listening to her family talk around her and trying not to snap or show what agitation is pressing outward, making her feel too tight in this skin. Two days ago, Amber and her had found a promising lead that connected to a woman named Mia Coldwater. However, thanks to Christmas coming upon them so quickly and each forgetting completely, and Noemi in a similar boat on the other side of the country, they had no choice but to put off contacting the woman for another week or two to appease their families concerning their standoffish behavior. Hannah going missing would no longer excuse them and how testy they were as of late, no matter how rooted in the truth their emotions were.

It would be easier if Bailey wasn't going off to Ireland, Stacey thinks a fraction moodily. She found this lady.

It was a hard transition for everyone connected to Hannah, suddenly realizing she was gone. And even fewer knew that is was less her running away/being kidnapped, or even a mix of the two, and more her somehow stumbling into an alternate dimension where the events of the CW's DC shows were very much real and very much something to be concerned about. It was heartbreaking when you watched Hannah and realized she wanted to go home, and it's all she wanted, no matter how she liked the people she interacted with in the meantime.

Stacey closes her eyes, thinking on what she'd need to do to get Hannah home. Noemi kept mentioning Cisco's vibe powers that would manifest and then, when properly honed, be able to take Hannah home. Something about that seemed too good to be true, though, especially with how Mxyzptlk seemed to stress that their world was off limits from the rest of the multi-verse. Noemi called it a waiting game, that they could definitely try to get her home early but that, ultimately, they probably couldn't do anything when they had no magic to readily rend the spaces of universes open.

"You okay?" A familiar voice asks and Stacey looks up at her cousin Gray, hair carefully styled back with a reindeer headband and in the ugliest, most delightful Christmas sweater Stacey ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on.

"Yeah. I- I'm fine." Stacey smiles, lie obvious but unwilling to let her family in on this. "Holidays."

Gray purses his lips, sitting down. "Thinking about your friend?"

She smiles wanly. "Am I that obvious?"

"Kind of. Yeah." Gray bumps her shoulder with his, then grimaces. Stacey thinks it might be his binder acting up, shifting too much. "I'm sure she's okay."

The image of Hannah being choked by an unhinged Speedster right before she shoots him in the leg blocks the sight of her cousin when she blinks. Her second blink has Hannah taking two bullets to the chest before Stacey finds out after a heart stopping moment her friend wasn't dead. Stacey has to look away from her cousin briefly, managing out a hoarse, "Yeah. I hope."


Amber pauses in unbuckling, looking at her friend. "You sure you want to come in? You've been off today."

"I'm fine." Stacey shuts off the car and unbuckles, climbing out. "I want answers and Bailey is pretty sure she has them."

"Seeing as that Tevan lady was a dead end and scared the shit out of Noemi, I hope we get some answers too."

Amber leads the charge up the small hill to the brick, two story house. Mia was the new neighbor to Bailey's mom and soon-to-be step-dad, which is how Bailey met the lady. She was a certified witch, apparently able to divinate people's futures by various means, whether by palm reading, crystal ball, Tarot cards, or something else. Which, while Tevan did the same, no one had been able to guess Bailey's favorite memory and her biggest concerns just from a simple palm glance.

"I used to swear I wouldn't touch magic and other-worldly shit." Amber complains as they pass by hydrangeas and sunflowers and bamboo and other plants. "Sleep paralysis was shitty enough and I didn't want to deal with more Casper the I'll-Eat-Your-Face Ghost stuff."

"We aren't channeling the dead, Amber." Stacey reminds. "We're trying to bring home our friend who got hijacked into another universe."

Amber's nose scrunches. "I know. But still. Ugh."

They reach the porch and climb the several stairs. Amber is reaching for the doorbell when the door opens.

In the doorway is a Tolkien elf. Well, she should be a Tolkien elf with how tall and willowy she appeared, skin shiny and black as night, eyes so bright a purple-blue Bailey had told them they weren't contacts and to not ask, lips painted to match her eyes, hair tamed and held back by several clips and combs that looked like real silver and gold. She wore short running shorts, a baggy racerback tank top that declared "I'm Still Waiting for My Mrs. Darcy", and a pink-green paisley kimono. Her socks were Harry Potter themed and Stacey, against better judgement, liked her already for the socks and shirt alone.

She smiles warmly at the two.

"Was waiting for you two to show up. Come on in."

She turns from the door, wandering into her house. The two women share a look before Stacey takes the first step inside. Amber follows reluctantly.

From within the heart of the house, Mia calls, "Shut the door please, Amber."

Amber loses several shades to her skin and Stacey latches onto her friend's wrist so she can't bolt, giving Amber a Don't you fucking dare look.

After closing the door but being sure to leave it unlocked, the two follow the path the woman had left. There are knickknacks and books all over the place, piled on bookshelves, under and on the coffee table, the side tables on each side of the couch. The only place organized was the hundreds of movies in VHS tape and DVD format surrounding the TV. There was a large hamster cage made of wood and glass by the large bay windows that overlooked the large field and distant woods, a small dwarf hamster running on its wheel inside the cage.

In the messy kitchen, Mia had set out a cup of coffee and one of tea. She was depositing sugar and honey into her own.

"I knew you were coming long before I moved here next to Bailey. Some things are destined, even without any gods to guide us anymore." Mia explains, and waves at the two cups. "They're safe. I promise. French roast for you, Amber, and a sweet mint-jasmine for Stacey. I'd fix them up for you but I figured you'd run out the door." She doesn't say, Like you just tried, but it's easily implied with her brief, knowing uplift of her eyebrow.

Stacey carefully takes her cup, sniffing at it. Then she takes the offered honey pot from Mia. There's a container of creamer and a bowl of sugar on the island counter, waiting for Amber to use them. It's only after Stacey makes her tea how she likes and tries it that Amber finally takes her coffee. Stacey does well not shooting Amber a hurt look at having been a guinea pig.

Satisfied that they're settling in, Mia sits. "Sit when you're ready, ladies. There's time. Hannah won't be figuring anything out for a while."

"What do you mean?" Stacey asks, hands curling around her mug protectively. "How do you know all this stuff? Are you really a witch?"

"I identify as a witch." Mia explains, eyes sparkling with knowledge and mirth. "Though what I am is both far more and far less complicated."

"I'm not going to ask. Quit beating around the bush and tell us." Amber hisses. "I want my fucking friend back, safe and sound."

Mia huffs good-naturedly. "She is safe and sound. She's probably ended up in the best possible place, especially considering what she carries within her, both mentally and physically. Better to have happened now and not later or earlier."

"Can you at least tell us how to get her back?" Stacey near begs. "Please?"

The witch's perpetual smile of sincere coy shady-ness turns soft and kind. Her voice is gentle, like a parent explaining death to their child for the first time. "You can't, Stacey. Hannah is exactly where she should be."

Stacey's knees wobble and Amber slides a chair under her friend's butt before she drops. "What?" Her eyes drop to her tea, trying to figure out what the witch's words mean for them now.

"You can't bring her back?" Amber demands. "Or point us to someone who can? Is that what you mean?"

"I'm saying exactly what I mean." Mia takes a long but brief sip of her tea. "Hannah, as I said, ended up in the best place she could have, and she is meant to stay there. She won't be back until, or if, she's good and ready."

"'If'?" Amber repeats in disgust. "'If' ? I've watched her bawl her eyes out three fucking times because she wants to come home! She's done it god knows how many more times between the end of season 1 and start of season 2! She's almost died three times as far as I've seen! She's practically Zoom's whore! There's no goddamn way she wants to stay there!"

Mia keeps calm through Amber's wrathful yells, sees past to the fear and panic both of these girls and several others have been dealing with for half a year. She holds out a hand, palm up.

"Amber, place your hand in mine."

Amber hesitates, surprised at the calm the woman exudes still. Then, carefully, she places her hand in Mia's. There's a deep contrast between the dark brown and black-brown of their skin, and even further clearer by the heavy callouses Mia has to Amber's baby softness.

Mia draws her thumb along the curves of Amber's palm, peering past the skin into something deeper.

"Whom I descend from were compared to trickster gods. Loki, Anansi, Hermes, Eshu, Lugh, djinn of the Middle East." Mia explains like a lecturer. "We descendants are few, and there are no copies of us in any other universe, because there are no copies of these gods. And each of us, because our blood is so diluted, are given a singular gift of our ancestor. Mine is the gift of seeing other universes, and the many possible futures a person could take if I try hard enough. It's bastardized because I do draw upon the wild magic that remains here, so I'm not much like my ancestors, but close enough to count."

"And what are you looking for?"

Mia grins at Amber's palm. "What the future has in store for you, friend of the impossible, teller of plausible stories." She lifts her head to meet Amber's gaze. "While your journey isn't as fun as Hannah's or Noemi's, you do have one ahead of you. Your place is here, but that doesn't mean you don't accomplish nothing."

She releases Amber's hand, holding out for Stacey's. Stacey looks at Mia with hurt and betrayal. The witch waits patiently, understanding clear.

Stacey gives in with a grimace, surprising when each girl had come in with completely different feelings. Mia repeats what she had done to Amber, look intent but lazy.

"I know you're upset, but not every journey can be made together. Sometimes they must be solitary. Even the Fellowship of the Ring broke up, and Bilbo returned to Hobbiton alone after his journey There and Back Again."

"There isn't a ring to destroy," is the quiet reply.

"No, there isn't." Mia agrees. "But all the same, a hero's journey will be a lonely one, even with friends to help them. The best you can do is hope she stays safe, and if she comes back then to welcome her with open arms."

Stacey questions. "Why wouldn't she come home?"

"Tasting freedom from the binds you have been shackled to since birth is a form of liberation you cannot duplicate." Mia draws back from Stacey, eyes knowing. "She may choose to come back, or go somewhere else. It is her choice. She is like, hm, Dorothy. But she doesn't have the power to return." Her smile is secretive. "Yet." She laughs softly, before squeezing Stacey's hand once, briefly. "There are other worlds than these, Stacey. And she must go to them before making a final decision." Mia smiles sweetly. "Luckily, your journey isn't as lonely as hers. And maybe you gain allies."

Something like apprehension curls up in her stomach at these words, the woman's smile too sweet.

"What's in my future?" Stacey asks. "Here, with Amber?"

"No and yes." Mia explains with a mingling of pride and glee. "Your path is a rarity. It's unclear. Every path but some are clear, Stacey. Your's means there is room for doubt, for change, for control. And that control will help everyone tangled up in this tale, so long as you decide no one may lead your fate but your own."

"Like Hannah…" Stacey whispers, trailing off. "She's changed everything so wildly that the Flash changes as she goes through it."

"Exactly like that." Mia grins even wider. "Exactly like that. I can't see what entirely goes on, just that you don't die. Which," she shrugs and it's unfairly graceful, "not the bestthing, but that just means a lot of your future in in your hands."

Mia stands up, purple-blue lipstick glowing like her eyes when the sunlight comes through her windows just right. "Ladies, my door is open to you whenever but I have to get ready for work."

Stacey stands, and they're led from the house.

At the door, Mia looks at them both with hope and pride. "And by the way, try not to be too overprotective of her decisions, ladies. We can't always be smart about love."

Mia is stepping back and the door snaps closed before either can open their mouth.


"How's everything coming along?" Annie asks Amber at work the next day, and Amber isn't sure what to tell her. "Was the lady a dead end?"

"I wouldn't say that." Amber says after a long moment, hedging. "She… she was certainly legit for a witch. Knew everything that was going on and then some."

Annie leans over the counter, eyes widening. "What did she say? Can she bring Hannah back?"

It leaves a sour taste in Amber's mouth to say the words, but she must admit Hannah looked to like where she was when not worried over Hunter Zolomon. "She said Hannah can't be brought back. That she'll return if she wants."

Confusion covers the woman's face, unsure of how to process that. "What do you mean? Hannah is going to come back. Who would actually want to live there?"

Amber shrugs. "Her, possibly. I mean, I wouldn't even if I had the pick of the bunch there. Not worth it. She might stay just because of the place."

Annie shakes her head. "She's always wanted to live an adventure but… Hannah will come back. She'll be an author and living in a foreign country, happily talking shit about how downhill America has gone with her cats and dogs."

Amber grins, but something in her keeps saying to not count her chickens yet. "Yeah. Exactly."


Stacey lays on her bed in an old sweater and skinny jeans, scrolling through her phone messages. She had just read through the last of Hannah's messages from the night she'd fallen into the Flash, excited about going to Germany and Amsterdam and sharing Pentatonix videos in the group chat. The others hadn't been very responsive that night so she'd stopped texting the group chat halfway through DnD, focusing on Noemi and Stacey alone.

She rubs at her eyes as Noemi texts, asking how the meeting with Mia went.

"It went. " She sits up in bed, reaching down to grab her computer. "Any changes in the show today? "

She boots up her computer, bringing up her Netflix account. Her phone dings and she grabs it.

"No. Nothing that I've seen. "

Stacey nods, and scrolls down to click on Supergirl. She never expected to get into the CW shows but no time like the present with a friend trapped in them. And wasn't that weird? She didn't know how any of the dialogue was supposed to go but she knew it was wrong when Hannah was there talking, leading the team down a different route.

Hannah wasn't around Kara because the two were on different earths, and Stacey had admittedly started watching it just to get away from the insanity that was her friend's life. She didn't expect to actually like it, but she did.

Kara falling off a building snaps Stacey's attention to the screen, and she blinks as the Kryptonian is set down on her feet, clothing on fire. And Stacey's eyes roll heavenward as she realizes who's on the screen, freaking out about setting Kara on fire.

Hitting the space bar to pause the show, she taps out, "Did you know Barry goes to Kara's earth? "

"That's still there? " Noemi shoots back. "Great! "

It had been unsettling to realize several weeks ago that the show had adapted to fit Hannah, and then had to keep changing because she made decisions that didn't line up with the show's direction. Noemi had, like with everything else, caught on first and started watching approximately week by week, realizing it changed as the stories happened as Hannah experienced them.

"Now what did the lady say? Have a way to bring Hannah back? "

Stacey pauses in her reply, unsure of how to word what Mia had said. They all wanted their friend back, and maybe Noemi did best of all, but she couldn't do much where she was, cut off from the rest of the displaced woman's hub of friends. After agonizing for a few minutes, she types up, "Said she was where she has to be. Will come back when ready. "

"That doesnt make sense. We need to bring her home. She doesnt want to be there "

"I know! Amber said the same. Mia thinks differently, and that we need to just wait it out. "

Noemi doesn't reply for several hours, and Stacey panics the entire time, terrified of what the other woman has to say to be so quiet for so long. When Noemi finally responds, she simply sends, "Im not giving up "