Caitlin quirked her head to the side as Cisco and Joe entered in a silent 'You OK?'
Cisco nodded with a small flash of a smile before sauntering over to sit at the desk once again.
The detective returned to his seat beside his son. Placing his head in his hands, he let his eyes follow a faffing Felicity.
"You OK?" He asked the blonde. Joe felt like a counselor of some sort today.
Felicity snapped her head up from where she was attaching an IV to Barry. Joe didn't fail to note the shine in her eyes and the way her hands trembled slightly - similar to Cisco.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm OK. It's just - "
Her breath hitched and she cast her gaze back to the IV.
"Just?" Prompted Caitlin who had now joined the conversation.
"Just, it's all so messed up." She finished, her hands dropping to her sides and her face falling into Caitlin's open arms. Quietly, she began to sob.
"Felicity, I know this is a little different to what we're used to." Caitlin soothed, rubbing a comforting hand up and down her back whilst exchanging a gloomy look with her husband. "But it'll turn out fine in the end. I promise." She didn't fully know who she was trying to reassure, Felicity or herself.
Slowly, Felicity's shoulders began to shake less and less and finally, she pulled back from Caitlin. Mascara ran down her face but she wiped it away with her fingers.
"Where's Oliver and Diggle?" She inquired, looking behind the small crowd of people that had appeared.
"Um, good question." Said Ronnie, crossing his arms. He hadn't known Barry long, but knew that he meant a lot to Caitlin. To tell the truth, the boy had a way of wriggling his way into your heart. Shame the same couldn't be said for mister bow and arrow, wherever he was. Perhaps the Starling vigilante was made of tougher stuff, or was it the constant intimidation radiating off him? The fact he trusted very few people or the power he seemed to hide? Either way, Ronnie was pretty sure he had something to do with what happened to Barry. And he didn't like it.
"I think I saw Mr Diggle escorting him away from the drama taking place near the elevator earlier." Stein said, shrugging his shoulders.
"I can ring John now. Tell him to meet us up here in five?" Felicity suggested.
Cisco and Caitlin nodded and returned to monitoring Barry. Already, the gash on his temple from the jewelers had completely disappeared and his nose was beginning to straighten - with the help of Caitlin. The swelling had gone down on his shoulder and his breathing seemed more consistent.
"He should be awake in no time." Assured Cisco, looking first at Joe, then at Ronnie and Martin. The three men nodded and returned to their brooding positions.
XXXX
Diggle practically frog-marched Oliver with him to the cortex. He didn't like the idea that Oliver had something to do with the state Barry was in and the fact that most of the people in S.T.A.R Labs knew the speedster better than his best friend didn't exactly help matters. He understood, whatever Oliver had done was bad, but Barry had to have been part of it as well, and there was no way - memory or not - that he was letting Oliver be blamed for everything.
Felicity caught sight of them first.
"Where have you been?" She murmured once she was close enough for them to hear.
"Just a little evening stroll." Replied Diggle, letting his gaze wonder over the petite blonde and towards the people approaching on the far side of the room.
Oliver seemed to register the oncoming battalion of scientists and heroes as well.
Outnumbered a little here, aren't I?
Caitlin was the first to break the ice.
"Oliver, I need you to be honest with me." She said calmly, keeping her face neutral. "Did you do that to Barry?"
"No."
Why the hell am I lying?
Caitlin looked mildly taken aback. So did Felicity and Diggle. But Cisco, Joe and Ronnie looked less believing of his lie. Professor Stein wore a blank expression.
"Do you know what happened to Barry?"
"No."
Caitlin sighed. She'd hoped Oliver would have been honest, for his own sake. Fair enough, neither of the heroes where the people she'd come to know, but she couldn't think of a reason Oliver would lie.
"Mr Queen," Ronnie took a menacing step forwards and instinctively, Diggle pushed Oliver the tiniest bit behind him. "I think we'd all appreciate some honestly right now. It's been a long day and we're not in the most ... tolerable of moods."
Caitlin looked at her husband with a mix of confusion and pride. She'd never seen this side of him before.
Oliver swallowed nervously. Guiltily, his gaze swept over the figure, lying on the bed in the far corner. Was this boy always in a bed?
"I-I didn't mean for it to go that far." Oliver's voice was an octave higher than usual, crackly and faint. He met none of their eyes.
Felicity shook her head and a single tear slid down her cheek. Diggle and Martin's expressions remained the same. Caitlin looked away from Oliver and Cisco's face looked like that of a child who had just found their parents putting presents under the Christmas tree instead of Santa Claus.
Oh, but Joe and Ronnie had more of a physical reaction. Barry's foster father matched The Flash's speed once again as he lunged for the ex-millionaire. Ronnie darted forwards, alongside the detective, grabbing Oliver's wrist and pinning it behind his back whilst Joe held him against the wall.
Diggle was about to thrust the two men away from his best friend before Felicity grabbed his sleeve and shook her head. This time, it might be better for Joe and Ronnie to handle it.
"Let him go!" Diggle yelled, but obediently stayed by Felicity's side.
Ronnie and Joe ignored him.
"Tell us everything that happened." Demanded Joe, increasing his hold on the Arrow.
Oliver gritted his teeth, squeezed his eyes shut.
"I will, if you let me breathe!" He mumbled.
Reluctantly, Ronnie and Joe spun him around but still kept his arms pinned to the wall behind.
Oliver rolled his eyes. "Barry followed me out of the room, I wasn't exactly in high spirits. I told him to go, he didn't. He annoyed and provoked me, I lost control."
Cisco shook his head. "That's not Barry."
"That's not Oliver either!" Snapped Diggle towards the young scientist.
"And that's not the full story. Is it, Mr Queen?" Muttered Joe.
"That's all I remember -" Oliver began.
Ronnie had had enough. He tightened his grip on the vigilante's arm and leaned so his mouth was centimeters away from his ear.
"Listen here," He whispered. "I can literally set myself on fire, so if you'd like to experience that first hand whilst me still holding your hand then carry on the way you're going, princess. Or, you can tell the truth and we might just let you go."
Slowly, he pulled back, narrowing his eyes.
For the second time, Oliver swallowed.
Coughing to clear his throat, he began to recount the events.
"Barry wouldn't shut up. He was spoiling for a fi-"
"Well, technically, I was just enjoying annoying you, but yeah, you could say I wanted a little rough and tumble."
Everyone turned to see a swaying Barry Allen standing unsteadily between Felicity and Cisco.
"Man, you shouldn't be out of bed." Said Cisco.
"I'm fine." Answered Barry. But despite his comment, he swayed backwards. Seeing what was about to happen, Cisco grabbed his arm and pushed him down onto a chair.
Barry sighed and shook his head, smiling sheepishly. What colour he had momentarily lost from his face, returned a little and he gestured to Oliver for him to continue.
"I'm sitting down now. Tell me a story."
It wasn't an aggravating statement. It was a sarcastic one. It was meant to be funny ... almost like how the old Barry used to be.
"So anyway, Mr Allen here kept going on and on until he hit a nerve. So I hit his in return."
Barry nodded in appreciation at the fact that Oliver didn't mention the venomous exchange that had taken place between the two.
"So," Oliver continued. "Barry went for me."
Wriggling out an arm from Joe's grasp, he tugged up his shirt, revealing a round, purple bruise on the right side of his stomach.
Barry looked anxiously towards Diggle, who was staring daggers at him.
"I, for some reason, kept going."
Again, he turned his face to the side, showing where Barry had punched his jaw.
"Then, when Barry came at me again, I countered it." He stopped and turned his gaze at Caitlin and Cisco. "And I don't know how."
"Muscle memory." Felicity blurted out, gaining everyone's attention.
Blushing slightly with all eyes on her, she shuffled her feet and continued. "Oliver knew how to do it from Muscle memory. His mental memories were wiped but his muscle memory wasn't. Like when you haven't played a song on the piano for a while, but your fingers seem to know where to go. Or when you're typing and your fingers move quicker than you actually register where the letters are."
Oliver's eyes widened. "Sweet." He commented.
"Anyway, moving on." Said Diggle, still chancing threatening glares at Barry every now and again.
"Right, yeah, well, I stopped Barry's punch and basically got the advantage over him."
"Can I just point out that I was pretty drained by this point and would have easily have taken Oliver down any other day." Barry chipped in, raising a hand.
Cisco chuckled, clapping him on the shoulder. "My bet's on speed." He said.
Barry just looked a little bemused at his statement.
"So, as Barry said, he was pretty weak. And I just had this fury inside of me. I don't know why, or where it came from, but I couldn't stop myself and I-"
Oliver hesitated, looking at Joe and Ronnie.
Barry cleared his throat. "Let's just say, I was losing."
Now Oliver inclined his head in thanks.
"But that wasn't the only thing." He mumbled, looking pointedly at Barry on the chair.
Barry nodded in understanding and decided to take it from there.
"I remembered." He muttered to the small audience.
No one moved an inch.
So Barry continued.
"It was when Oliver was ... making it rather difficult for me to breathe, shall we say, and there's this annoying itch at the back of my mind all the time."
"I have that too!" Quipped Oliver.
"Right, thanks for sharing." Barry joked, earning a small smirk from Cisco. "Anyway, one minute, I was intent on literally shredding Oliver to pieces-"
"You were what?"
"-and the next, I felt like I knew him. Well. Really well. And that I needed him to know who I was. To remember who I was.
"The next thing I knew, I woke up over there and saw you all gathering around over here." He finished, waving a hand to signify where the 'here' was.
"I had a similar feeling." Oliver picked up. "Like something was trapped just out of reach. Then Barry started calling me Olly. And it was like a piece of a puzzle fell into place. I stopped and pulled back, 'cause, like Barry said, I felt like I knew him. Like I shouldn't be hurting him. Then, when I looked down, Barry wasn't breathing. I tried to help him out and that's when those two men came." He said, inclining his head towards Ronnie and Martin.
Barry, holding onto every detail Oliver had just said, pulled a disgusted face and wiped his lips on the back of his hand.
"Gross dude." He said.
"What was I supposed to do? Let you lay there, not breathing?"
"Hey, if you'd neve-"
"Guys, seriously." Cisco chuckled, shaking his head. "Lay off each other."
The Flash and The Arrow exchanged looks. Their expressions softened and Barry could of sworn he saw the corners of Oliver's mouth twitch up.
Almost a smile ... he thought.
"So, what do you remember?" Asked Felicity, moving past Diggle to hold her boyfriend's hand that wasn't still pinned to the plaster behind him.
Oliver, although he didn't exactly know Felicity well, felt like the action was familiar - so he let it pass.
"Not much." He sighed. "Just feelings. Like when I woke up, I felt like I knew Barry from somewhere, or like I knew certain names. Now, however, it's like I know who Barry is, just not properly."
"All I remember is that Oliver and I knew each other before hand. But I remember it, not just because we've been told." Barry added, rubbing a hand through his hair. Joe smiled at Barry's signature action.
Ronnie decided that now was a good time to let go of Oliver's arm. With a nod to the vigilante, he wondered over to stand beside Caitlin, wrapping an arm around her waist. She looked deeply into his eyes, a small grin crossing her lips.
Then Barry ruined the moment.
"Who's he?" He asked with a tone of a five year old, pointing next to Oliver.
The question cut through the air like a dagger and Joe's face fell.
Stein bravely spoke first.
"We have some explaining to do, Mr Allen ... "
A/N:
Longest chapter and longest time since I updated. Sorry guys, I've been busy. Only 2 more days left of school, then we break up for 6 weeks. Meanwhile, still working on another fic ( so far, it's got just over 10,000 words, and 2 and a half chapters - collab fanfic with I Am The Eleventh ). Oh, and in other news, this story is gradually being uploaded onto AO3. Please go leave some kudos and subscribe for me please. Would really help me out. Once again, sorry for the wait. Next chapter soon ... ish - Ellie x