Laura should have known it was a bad sign when she woke to her phone ringing obnoxiously loudly.

For several seconds, she stared at her phone from underneath the covers, contemplating letting it go to voicemail and allowing herself just a few more minutes of sleep, but a good thirty seconds later and it was still ringing. With a weary sigh, she sat up as best as she could, wincing as the fading bruise on her ribs pressed against the mattress, and accepted the call.

"Who is this?"

"Laura? Laura Sanders?"

It took a moment for Laura to place the voice through the haze of sleep still hanging over her. But when it finally clicked in her mind, she couldn't hold back the gasp as she struggled to sit upright in bed.

"David? Is it really you?"

"Yeah, it's me! It's been a while, I guess, huh?"

"Only about three years. Dave, it's great to hear from you and all, but if you don't mind me asking, why're you calling? I haven't heard from you since you got that job with the police in Blüdhaven."

"Laura, did you honestly forget what day it is? I guess spending all those days cooped up in that lab of yours has finally turned your brain to mush."

For a second, Laura was clueless. As she wracked her mind for clues to the mystery that David had posed her, her eyes landed on the calendar she had bought herself at the beginning of the year, held up on her closet door with a lightning magnetic clip, a gag gift from Cisco. Still holding the phone, she climbed out of bed and made her way over to the closet. Despite her busy schedule, Laura was still pleased to see that she had free time in her life to relax, before her eyes landed on the current date.

"Ah, fuck."

"Happy birthday, Laura."

"You bastard." Despite the shame that she felt for forgetting her birthday, of all things, Laura couldn't hold back a laugh as her former foster brother burst into a fit of laughter on the other end of the phone. When he finally calmed down enough to talk again without giggling in her ear, Laura was already in the kitchen making herself a pot of coffee, the city slowly coming to life outside her window. She winced a bit as her hand brushed the side of the boiling pot, but a quick burst of cold tempered a burn before it could form.

"So, you got anything planned for your big twenty-six?"

"Not really. I really did forget my birthday, so I guess you can finally tell Christine I'm a workaholic." She could practically hear David wince on the other end of the phone, and even she knew that forgetting her own birthday was a bit concerning. There hadn't really been a pressing need for her to celebrate for quite a while, and with everything that had happened recently, one more trip around the sun just seemed trivial. Besides, it wasn't as if her birthdays had ever been a cause for celebration.

"Well, I suppose since I'm already coming to Central City today to visit Mom and Dad for the weekend, I could drop by, take you out to dinner…"

"David, I'm turning twenty-six, not fifty. You don't have to do anything, really."

"Did I mention that there's a place in town that serves the most divine chocolate mousse cake?"

Well, in that case…

"What time did you say you were coming?"

"What do we have, Barry?"

"Clay Parker, in Iron Heights for organized crime and battery charges, vanished last night from his prison cell. No signs of forced exit, and no signs that it was someone on the inside."

"Interesting," Laura muttered from behind her portable mug as she took a swig of steaming coffee, "so why is it coming to S.T.A.R. Labs?"

That seemed to be the question of the hour, Laura mused, as she sat back in her chair and carefully took note of just how distracted Barry seemed. As they waited for the others to arrive, ever so often her partner's eyes would suddenly become distant, almost as if he were remembering something, though whether those memories were unpleasant or not she couldn't tell. However, her question was answered when Barry pulled out from his kit a small vial of liquid. As Laura stood to get a closer look, she could see tiny flecks of some sort of black residue lining the walls of the vial, almost like fine iron shavings. The closer she looked, however, the more it seemed that the pieces of residue were moving from place to place, and she stole a quick glance at her partner around the vial.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"Don't worry, you're not crazy. I've been trying to find a way to look at those things without damaging them, but there's just no telling what will happen if we do."

However, as she held the vial in her hand, Laura had an idea. A short burst of cold fled her hands and into the vial where she held it, and within seconds, the particles were stock still in the frozen liquid. She wasn't exactly sure if there was going to be any lasting damage, but at least now they could get started on figuring out what exactly had happened to their missing convict.

"Let's get to work."

By the time everyone else arrived, Caitlin, Cisco, Dr. Wells and Joe collectively looking more rested than Laura felt, there was a sample of the residue ready for action. They had had to improvise with a viewing slide and a Petri dish to keep the particles from 'escaping' – Barry's words, not hers – but, in the end, they finally had something that they could use. However, the moment that the image of the particles came to life on one of the larger screens, the entire room went quiet.

"Are we seeing this right?" Cisco muttered under his breath, his eyes glued to the screen. Laura wanted to reply, but she could only watch silently in awe as the particles on the screen jumped from place to place. All it took was the span of one blink, and then one of those black specks would be gone.

"Not even Barry's cells move this fast. I've never seen anything like this before."

"So Clay Parker is a metahuman."

"About that – the particles Barry collected from Iron Heights do contain some of Clay Parker's DNA, it also contains DNA of an unknown woman."

"Cisco," Laura said as she turned, "can you compare it against the CCPD database? If someone got Parker out, they might have a record."

"I've got it." He announced barely a minute later, and everyone resumed their positions as the picture of a young woman's rap sheet filled the screen.

"Name's Shawna Baez. Everything she's done has mostly just been petty crimes, but this girl really likes to party. There's a list of disorderly conducts a mile long from almost every bar in the city. Dang, I could have used a friend like her in college." Cisco muttered under his breath, and Laura suppressed the urge to scold him. However, as she did so, she caught her friend's eye for just a moment. It was almost like receiving a shock, the way Cisco froze, his smile fading into a thin line of a frown. Part of her was curious about what she had done to elicit that reaction, but there was a larger part of her that needed to find Clay and Shawna before they seriously hurt anybody.

Her questions could wait.

"You've got to be kidding me. She's a teleporter?"

Laura honestly felt like strangling Barry in that moment, but the bullet wound that marked the side of his neck told her that that would have to wait. They'd had little success in trying to find their elusive Bonnie and Clyde, but when the call had come in about a robbery by a couple matching Baez's and Parkers' descriptions, Laura had had little chance to stop Barry from going alone. Now, she was seriously regretting not just freezing him to the floor to get him to slow down, and judging by the remorseful expression on his face, he was regretting his choice as well.

"Like the 'beam up Shawna' kind?" Barry grimaced and nodded as Caitlin swabbed the already scabbing wound with more alcohol. Laura couldn't help but be grateful that that was the most he had been injured, considering how close Clay Parker had gotten to making her a solo hero. Still, Laura couldn't help but see the irony in the fact that Shawna Baez had become the best thing a small-time criminal could ever hope to be.

"I should have seen it. Quantum entanglement – the ability to manipulate inter-connective particles over an infinite distance. Or as Einstein put it: spooky action at a distance." Dr. Wells looked positively excited, almost ecstatic, as he approached the three of them. Laura had to admit that the look didn't provoke the most positive of feelings in her, but she kept her thoughts to herself as Barry shirked his sweater back on.

"Well, whatever it was, it was frustrating. Every time I'd get even close, she'd disappear. It was almost like we were playing a game of-"

"Peekaboo!"

All heads turned to Caitlin as she burst out the name, and Laura was pleased to see her friend looked more than a little proud of herself. She hadn't really seen Caitlin smile like that in a long time, and it felt good to see it again. However, the glee on her face faded a bit in the awkward silence that followed.

"What? Can't I name one?"

"Of course – can't let Cisco have all the fun." Laura didn't think it was possible for Caitlin's smile to grow even brighter, but her friend somehow managed it anyways. Barry, on the other hand, didn't seem at all enthused the whole situation.

"So, how am I going to catch this Peekaboo if I can't even tell where she's going to be one second from the next? I'm never going to be able to move as fast as she does."

"Everyone, even metahumans, has their limits, Mr. Allen. Now that we know what Shawna's abilities are, we can work towards discovering those limits." Laura could see the disbelief on Barry's face, and she would have pitied him if she wasn't already aware of just how frustratingly stubborn her partner could be. However, as she watched him go, apparently to help Iris with some sort of project of hers, Laura realized just how close it was getting to the time of her rendezvous with David. Quietly swearing to herself, she turned towards Caitlin, who was already preparing for a night spent in the lab.

"Caitlin, Dr. Wells, are you going to be okay by yourself for a couple of hours?"

Her friend's brow furrowed slightly in confusion before smoothing out. "Why?"

"It's just that…I have dinner tonight, with a friend from out of town. It's really last minute, but I'll get back as quickly as I can, I promise."

"Oh – that's okay. Don't worry, Dr. Wells and I will be fine be ourselves."

"Are you sure? I can postpone."

"No. You're going to go have dinner with your friend, and you'll come back tomorrow to help with the case. Okay?"

"Thanks, Caitlin. I owe you one."

Barely an hour later, Laura found herself struggling to suffocate the cold building up in her hands as she stepped out of a cab on to one of the finer streets in Central City. She didn't understand why she was so anxious – she had lived with the Infantinos for almost a full year before she'd been moved along to another family. David and Christine had been the closest friends she'd made in her entire time in the foster care system. It had taken effort for her to let down the walls she'd built up, but by the time she had, David and the Infantinos were waiting with open arms. There was no reason for her to be nervous.

Well, except for the fact that she was a metahuman, could likely cause a person to lose their fingers from frostbite simply by shaking their hand, and spent her days off fighting crime as a self-proclaimed vigilante alongside, as some would say, the fastest man alive.

Okay, so maybe she did have a reason or two to be nervous.

Laura forced those thoughts from her head and brushed the frost from her purse as she approached the restaurant. It was a small Italian place, with lighting meant to be easy on the eyes and soft, classical music playing in the background, and Laura was glad that she had dressed appropriately for the occasion. David was waiting for her at the door, looking almost exactly as he had the last time they had seen each other, if only just a bit taller, and with a bit more muscle. The wavy black hair that he had never managed to keep under wraps was still as unruly as ever, just like the toothy grin he gave her when he finally caught sight of her.

"Laura! It's great to see you – you look good."

"You too, David. Looks like your dad finally taught you how to wear a suit properly." She replied warmly as he folded her into a hug, and when they finally separated, Laura found that the cold in her hands was no longer pressing for release. Inside, a waiter seated them both at a quiet table in the back, and Laura couldn't help herself from smiling at David from across the table as they took their seats.

"I can't believe you did all of this, David."

"I just wanted to do something nice for you, especially after, you know, your…accident."

Crap.

Laura suddenly found herself speechless, and a rush of shame filled her mind as she realized that it wouldn't have been that difficult for her foster brother to find out what had happened. And to think that she hadn't even called to tell him that she was okay; she couldn't even imagine how that must have felt. He had been one of her closest foster siblings, his family one of the few that she had hoped would adopt her if they had the chance, and she hadn't even remembered to call him. She couldn't even begin to remember the last time they had actually spoken face-to-face.

"David, I-I'm so sorry, I should have called-"

"Laura, it's fine," her shame abated some at the easy smile on his face, but it didn't fade away completely, "I'm just glad that you're alright."

Underneath the table, the frost that had begun to form on the edge of Laura's fingertips stopped.

The rest of the evening was a breeze compared to their little mishap, and Laura found herself stifling laughter multiple times as David recounted his tales of working with the Blüdhaven police. It reminded her all too much of the time she'd spent with the Infantoni family, when David and Christine would sneak into Laura's room. When it came time for him to hear how the past year of her life had been, Laura hesitated only for a moment. It was easy enough to leave out the part of her life that had turned her into a walking icebox, though David's interest did pique when she mentioned her work with the CCPD. Laura found herself at ease telling David about the newer aspects of her life, such as the crime scenes that she visited almost daily, and it was oddly comforting for her to know that they had one more thing in common.

"So, this partner of yours – what's he like?"

"Grayson? A bit of a stubborn ass, to be honest. But he's got a good heart, and he wants to do good things. Somehow, that just makes me hate him even more."

"You don't mean that." The corner of David's mouth twitched upwards as he sat back in his chair, rolling his eyes, though Laura could tell that her words had hit a chord. Whoever this Grayson person was, it was obvious that he was close to her former foster brother.

"I guess not; it's just a bit annoying the way he wants to fix everything. Admirable, but annoying."

"I specifically remember a certain someone dressing up as a superhero two Halloweens in a row."

"Hey, I told you that was a phase and that we would never mention that to anyone ever again."

"Fairly certain that doesn't apply to you."

"Right. So, how do you feel about dessert?"

Even the promise of chocolate couldn't keep Laura from grinning at David from across the table. When the waitress came back around, David flagged her down to order the cake that Laura had heard so much about. However, just as he excused himself to go to the bathroom, Laura was distracted by the buzzing of her phone. It took only a second for her to find it among the few other things she had put in her purse, and she answered it without a second thought.

"Laura Sanders."

"L-Laura – need your – your help-"

Laura's blood went cold, and the napkin in her lap started to freeze as she gripped at it.

"Cisco, where are you? What's going on?"

"CCPD – lab – Hartley – hurry-"

Before the call had even ended, Laura was on her feet, dessert forgotten, and was making her towards the front of the restaurant. It didn't take long for her to pay for both her and David, nor to flag down a cab, but as she sat in the back seat of the vehicle as it headed towards the CCPD, Laura couldn't help but feel as if time were slowing down. Frost formed in jagged shapes where she clutched at her purse and on her phone as she texted David an apology, and Laura fought to contain the worry that bubbled up inside of her. Cisco had sounded as if he were in pain when he'd called; it made her sick to think of what might be happening to him. When the car finally pulled up in front of the precinct, Laura ran inside almost faster than Barry after paying the driver, unable to wait another moment.

"Cisco? Cisco, where are you?" Laura called into the lab as she stepped out from the elevator. It was silent for a moment, the lights of the city shining in through the windows, before a short, quiet groan caught her attention. A few steps into the room brought Cisco into view, and Laura's heart almost gave out when she saw him, doubled over at her desk, clutching at his ribs, the smashed remains of a remote lying nearby. His eyes snapped open as she approached, and for a second, Laura could have sworn that Cisco almost looked scared. Forgoing her curiosity, Laura proceeded to sit him down and check him over for injuries, and applied a bag of ice to his ribs where a bruise was starting to form; however, once that all was over, Laura knew that it was time for answers.

"Cisco. What happened?"

Cisco hesitated, his eyes averting her own as he leant against her desk, one of his hand still pressing the bag of ice to his ribs. He was the last person she wanted to interrogate, but it seemed that he had finally surrendered when he spoke in a low voice.

"I let Hartley out of the Pipeline."

What?

"I'm sorry."

For a moment, Laura didn't know what to do, what to say. Cisco was still avoiding her gaze, and as she let his words sink in, Laura knew that there was far more to the story. With a heavy sigh, she pulled out the chair from Barry's desk and sat herself down in front of Cisco, making it almost impossible to avoid her gaze.

"Talk. Now."

It was still dark when Cisco finally stopped talking, though Laura knew that it was probably closer to morning than the dark skies would lead her to believe. She had listened the entire time, coaxing Cisco for more when he felt the need to keep something from her or stall, but in the end, she had gotten twhat she needed. There was still more that he hadn't shared, judging by the way his fingers played with the edge of his sweater, but Laura knew those things, those secrets, were his to keep. It wasn't to say that she understood all of it, but at least there weren't going to be any further communication problems between them.

"I'm sorry," Cisco mumbled into his sleeve as he rubbed at his bleary eyes, and Laura felt a pang of sympathy for him, "I was stupid to trust Hartley."

"Hey, hey, none of that," She scolded him lightly, reaching out for his hand, "Hartley's an asshole and you know that."

"Which is why I should have seen it coming."

"Don't you dare," she snapped, and for a moment, Cisco almost looked fearful of her, "you did what you thought was right, and none of us are going to judge you for that. But I have to ask, Cisco: why?"

"I – I took a chance. I haven't told Caitlin or Dr. Wells, but I – I sealed Ronnie into the accelerator, that night. He told me to wait two minutes; he said he would be back. He didn't come back, Laura. I thought – I thought if I could find him, if I could fix him, then maybe I could make up for making him the way he is." Cisco sounded so despondent that Laura couldn't wait another second before she reached forward, pulling him into a hug as his breath hitched. She could hear him fight to keep tears at bay as he shuddered in his arms, and Laura wished she could just take all of Cisco's guilt and lock it away permanently.

"Cisco, listen to me. None of that was your fault. Nobody could have known what would happen that night. Ronnie made his choice, and you made yours. You did what you thought was right, and Ronnie wouldn't blame you for that. Caitlin wouldn't blame you either. So, don't blame yourself if they wouldn't, okay?"

"…okay."

"Good; now, let's get you home."

The sun was just starting to set the next day when Laura received a text from Cisco, asking him to meet her at his place. Shawna Baez was safely locked up in the pipeline, and Laura couldn't help but sympathize with the other woman. Loving someone that deeply, putting that much trust in another person, only to have all of that thrown away in the blink of an eye, was devastating enough even when you weren't a criminal. But for Clay to leave Shawna to the mercy of the police, and run off with the money, that was just cruel.

On a lighter note, Cisco had found the courage to tell the others about his deal with Hartley, as well as what had happened the night of the incident, and she was immensely glad that neither of their friends, especially Caitlin, were angry with him. Cisco had a nasty habit of jumping to conclusions when it came to serious matters. It hadn't taken much for her to deduce that he had expected her to be angry when she'd arrived the night before, for trusting Hartley. But despite the higher points of the day, something was still bothering Laura.

What Hartley had told Cisco about Ronnie and Martin Stein, the fact that the two of them had possibly been fused – she wasn't quite sure she understood what role F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. played in all of this, but at least they had some answers now, as vague as they were. At least Caitlin had answers now.

"You know, I can't believe I've never been to your place before." Laura mused aloud as she slipped off her shoes, the sound of bottles clinking together drifting out from Cisco's kitchen.

"I know, right?" She took the beer bottle from Cisco as he appeared in the hall, his eyes dancing with a familiar glint of mirth that had been conspicuously absent for the past few days. She liked the atmosphere of the apartment, though the considerable size difference between it and her own made her feel a bit claustrophobic. It was definitely Cisco's apartment, judging by the amount of clutter that seemed to occupy every inch of available space and the number of sci-fi posters lining the walls, but Laura found herself oddly comforted by it. There was a small table for two by the stove, so Laura took a seat, shrugging off her coat and hanging it over the chair as Cisco propped open a window.

"How're your ribs doing?"

"Pretty good – it only hurts when I breath and move. I think we're going to have matching bruises."

"Don't get too excited; pretty sure Caitlin's going to put handcuff you to your bed if you keep this up."

"Kinky."

"Shut up. Just remember, you need to keep ice on that."

"Very funny."

"I'd like to think so. So, Cisco, what's this about?"

"What's what about?"

It was clear from the way his face froze momentarily that Cisco had hoped she hadn't seen through his façade, but Laura wasn't that easy to fool. She had learned how to see through deception very early on, which wasn't exactly healthy considering how she'd had to learn it. It was at times like this, however, that Laura found her abilities of perception to be the most useful. There was something bothering her friend, and Laura knew that if she didn't push now, she might never find out what it was.

"I'm not blind, Cisco. I'm fairly certain that this isn't just a friendly chat, and judging by what happened last night, you have something serious on your mind."

"What makes you say that?" Laura could have sworn that his voice had risen a few pitches.

"Francisco Ramon, I swear to God–"

"Alright, fine!" The near-shout startled her into nearly jumping in her seat, but Laura recovered just in time to see Cisco slouch in his chair, all pretence gone in a flash. It was some time before he spoke up, but Laura waited patiently until he was ready.

"Listen – when I went to go see Hartley in the Pipeline after you and Barry brought him in, he said some things about you. I wanted to think they were nothing but then I started to think about them. And I know that I have no right to ask, but I couldn't stop thinking about it." He finished his sentence almost too fast for her to comprehend, but Laura had learned how to decipher the words that blurred together whenever her partner got too excited. She knew there was no malicious intent behind Cisco's words, but for some reason, a small pit of dread had started to form in her stomach.

"Cisco…what did Hartley tell you?"

"He said that you had secrets," Laura's heart stopped as she suddenly realized what Cisco was so worried about, "and that I would look at you differently if I really knew what they were."

Oh.

Oh, God.

It all made sense. Hartley knew. He knew everything, and distantly, Laura knew that she should have seen it coming. He'd probably hacked the CCPD and found her files, and the thought that someone like Hartley Rathaway could know everything about her made her sick. But in a completely Hartley-esque fashion, instead of telling Cisco what he knew outright, the Pied Piper had chosen to plant a seed of doubt in Cisco's mind. It was just another cruel twist of the knife in the wound that he had made by attacking his parent's company in the first place, and she cursed Hartley silently as she sat there, the frantic beating of her heart drowning out every thought in her head. Now, Laura could understand just why Cisco seemed so hesitant to confront her.

"I-it's okay if you don't want to tell me, I just t-thought if you did want to…" Laura hadn't even been aware that Cisco was still talking, and she looked up to see that he had tucked his chin into chest, almost as if he were bracing himself. A wave of nausea ran through her when she realized that he expected her to be angry – he expected the worst, and it belatedly dawned on her that that was exactly Hartley what had wanted from all of this. Slowly, she let go of her bottle, the taste of alcohol bitter in her mouth, and clasped her hands together to keep them from shaking.

"Hartley's right." Cisco let out a shaky sigh, but Laura pushed on.

"I do have secrets, Cisco. I've always had secrets, and I'm always going to have secrets. It's who I am, and I'm not sure that I can change that. Some of them are harmless, little things, really, but there are others…," Laura's breath hitched in her throat, and her fingers sought out the underside of her bicep as she felt the world start to close in, "you really would look at me differently if you knew those ones, Cisco."

"You don't know that."

Her fingers brushed across the underside of her bicep, trembling beyond her control, but the feeling that she was being trapped, that the world was closing in on her, was still building. It had been years since she had felt so out of control that she'd needed to cope this way, but the familiar symptoms of a panic attack were becoming more and more apparent and she wasn't about to let Cisco see that side of her. She couldn't let him see that side of her.

Laura began to count.

One, two-

"Maybe I don't. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know if I can take that chance."

-three, four, five-

"But I do want you to know something."

"…what is it?"

"Whatever…the secrets that I have, they will come out eventually. I know that now, and as much as I want to keep that from happening, as much I have tried to keep that from happening, I know that I'm not going to be able to stop it. It's something I've accepted, and it's for the best that I don't fight it. So when my secrets – any of them, all of them – do come out, I want you to know that you will only hear them from me. You will learn my secrets from me, because I will trust you with those secrets, Cisco. I trust you, and keeping secrets from you does not mean that I don't, okay?"

"I trust you, Cisco. Do you understand?"

-six, seven-

The following silence was heavy and tangible, and Laura couldn't help but close her eyes as it stretched on, her fingers trembling where they clamped down on her bicep. It was only when Cisco finally spoke did she look; the look in his eyes wasn't one of anger, as she had come to expect over the years, but acceptance. She didn't know else what to do underneath that gaze but wait.

Finally, Cisco spoke.

"I – I understand."

And he meant it.

-eight, nine-

"…thank you, Cisco. Thank you."

Laura didn't understand why her eyes were burning.

-ten.

"…anytime."

Later that night, as she sat beside Cisco on his couch, arguing over the semantics of the latest episode of Doctor Who with boxes of Chinese food laid out on the coffee table, Laura could tell that something that changed.

Nothing drastic, and nothing too important, but something had most definitely changed. Cisco wasn't quiet, nor was he being careful, and it felt like heaven to see that blinding grin over and over again as the hours slipped by. There were still plenty of things left unsaid, that much was clear, but for the moment, it felt as if they were free. It was both comforting and energizing, to feel this way even after all she had told him, and Laura wasn't quite sure that she ever wanted the feeling to end.

And right then, Laura knew that when her secrets finally came out, then at least she would have memories to remember her friends by once they did.

But for now, Laura was happy to enjoy what was left of her birthday.

Secrets, silent, stony sit in the dark palaces of both our hearts: secrets weary of their tyranny: tyrants willing to be dethroned.

- James Joyce

Hey guys! I'm sorry it's been so long, but since I've gotten off school, everything's been a little bit hectic. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, and stay tuned for more!