Okay first off I am SO VERY SORRY for the delay. School is kicking my butt and Elijah is being very stubborn, he does not want to follow what I want. So he just took the ball and ran with it, I have no idea. Thank you to all who have read, followed, favorited and reviewed because every single one reminds me that I am not alone. It is a spark of brightness in my day with the knowledge that somehow I have tricked you into loving this story just as much as me. But that's enough of me. Once again sorry and have a great day/night and keep making people smile.


"Makayla?" I faintly hear someone's voice coming up the stairwell, "Makayla!" their voice grows slightly more agitated as they come closer and soon I can feel their feet sending vibrations against the ground as they come closer, faster now.

Whoever it is must be running.

They reach me and lean down cradling me in their arms as they stroke my hair, "Hey, what's wrong? Love," he says softly.

Elijah?

He chuckles softly and pulls my head up from his chest, "Yeah, I saw you burst out of the precinct running like your life depended on it. You seemed very..." he pauses searching for the right word as he runs his hand through my hair. His hand pauses as he finds it, "Distraught. I left the lab and have been searching for you the past few minutes. Finally found you curled in on yourself crying up a storm," his brilliant azure eyes staring into mine as he raises his hand to wipe my cheek.

His fingers tenderly caressing my cheek as he clears the tears away with the pad of his thumb and his others framing my face, "Now, now, love, we can't have those tears hiding your beautiful eyes can we? Come on," and he gently peels himself away before getting up and offering his hand for me to lift myself up.

"Let's get out of here. Eiling has the case so we're free to go for a drink," and he stands there waiting for my answer just staring at me with his bright eyes as he runs a hand through his hair.

I ponder for a minute and finally smile, "Okay, one coffee. But first let me check in with Barry. He is my boss," and Elijah nods as we walk to the lab avoiding the front.

We find Barry about to leave his arm in his jacket.

"Hey, Barry?" and he turns around startled his eyes wide.

"Makayla?" he says staring at me before smiling wide and crossing the room in a few long strides, "Makayla!" he says his smile growing bigger as he grabs me in his arms and buries me in his chest. We stand there for a few seconds and I revel in being in his arms, safe.

His mouth whispers against my ear, "I didn't know where you went. Was so worried about you," and he pulls me away from his chest looking at me his emerald eyes full of worry, "Are you ok? You ran out and I didn't know what to d-" he cuts off when he sees Elijah standing there, "Oh, uh, hey Elijah," he says and awkwardly lets me go. His hand running through his hair as he gives a small smile, "What are you doing here?"

Elijah grins, "Was just coming to ask if I can take Makayla out for a coffee, I think she needs a break," he says to Barry and Barry glances at me.

He then looks at his desk where one of the files is lying, "Uh, go on. I need to run this by a few friends, see what they can find," and I step closer to the file.

It's just a va file number but I still commit it to memory, could be important.

"It's just a coffee, right? Nothing else?" I hear from behind me and see Barry asking Elijah.

"Will have her back in no time. There's no current case going on anyways. We're taking our leave now bye," and Elijah turns around to the hallway.

I shuffle on my feet as i look at Barry who seems vaguely confused. He stares at me before running his hand through his hair and looking at the ceiling before turning his gaze back to me, "So are you...and him, together?" and I blanch.

"It's a coffee," I defend myself and then drop my gaze to the floor noticing my shoes, "Besides, I don't think I'm really in the right state of mind to be pursuing a relationship, right now," and I give an awkward smile.

"Because of Grayson?" and I nod smiling weakly.

Yeah, Grayson, that's one reason

"What are the others?" he looks at me asking and I don't have the heart to tell him that it is him, mostly because I don't think that my heart would be able to take the rejection.

I look at him. The amazing person that has a hold of my heart and doesn't even know. His smile lights up my day and he's always so free to smile. I hope he never loses that light inside of him.

And then I compare myself, a girl hiding her life. She has lost everyone that she cares about whether willingly or not. Those people are parts of her entire soul and by tearing them away she tore herself apart. Cracked her own heart into pieces scattered around her.

Put it simply, I'm broken.

So I give a small smile, "One day I hope you'll help me figure it out," and leave with a small wave before catching up with Elijah.

He grins at me his blue eyes glistening, "Let's go, love," and we walk out of the precinct.

We reach Jitters in no time and I spy iris flitting around between tables and wave.

She grins back at me and waves us in before meeting us at the front with great shouts of happiness, "Makayla! Come on," and she drives us to a table before plopping us down.

She directs herself at Elijah, "So what can I get you?" and he just smiles, "Simple black coffee is fine by me," and he looks over at me smiling, "What would you like to get, love?"

Iris grins widely upon hearing the petname and shoots me a thumbs up. I inwardly roll my eyes, "Can I get one of your marshmallow espressos?" and she grins, "Coming right up," before turning away to fulfill our order.

And you know spy on us from the counter.

Elijah looks at me from over the table, "So are we just going to ignore the elephants in the room?" and I give him a confused look.

"What do you mean?"

He leans closer, "Your masked friend, the barista thinking we're dating, me finding you in the stairwell broken, your shot boyfriend" he lounges back throwing his arm over the chair, "Take your pick, love,"

I lower my gaze. He's right, there is a lot of things unexplained.

"Ok, first off you can't say anything to anyone about 'my masked friend'. He is to stay a secret. My first day here he saved my life, and I am grateful to him for it. As recompense I make sure that the rumors about the red streak stay just that, rumors," I look at him and he nods.

"I promise, he seems to mean a lot to you," and then he waves his hand for me to continue.

"Iris thinks we're dating because it was your brilliant idea to distract her," I let a little bit of annoyance bleed into my voice.

"Distract who from what?" Iris comes to our table steaming coffees in hand, "Sorry I took so long, had to ask the manager if I could take my break," She directs her attention to Elijah, "So you and Makayla?" and she smiles.

Elijah looks at me confused before answering her, "I can say one thing for sure, I've never met someone like her, and she is pretty amazing. But I know we can't," and this time he turns his burning sapphires towards me, "Because Makayla has a secret, one that she can't tell any of us," Iris looks at me bewildered.

Elijah grins at me and continues his voice like silk, "A secret that she can never tell anyone," I take a small breath, and my hand grips the seat waiting for him to continue, "she's just not that into me," my grip releases from it's vice and I stare at him dumbfounded.

He grins and laughs, "I had you two going pretty well, you should have seen your faces," and right now I'm not sure if I want to hug him for not knowing or knock him out for terrifying me like that.

Maybe I could do both, is that anatomically possible?

Iris looks over at me and grins wide addressing Elijah, "You're funny, well I want to be a matchmaker for her, because she needs a guy. someone like her who's smart, funny, and gets her, able to love her fsr the amazing woman she is," she pauses her finger touching the tip of her lips in thought before turning towards us her eyes alight with an idea, "How about Barry?" and I'm pretty sure I choke on my heart that just plummeted itself up its throat, along with my stomach dropping to the floor.

"What about me?" I hear from behind me and Elijah grins like his favorite soap just came on. Iris gives me a guilty look before looking at her wrist, "Oh look at that, break's over," before high tailing it out of there with a slight grin in my direction and undisclosed happiness dancing in her eyes, "Have fun you guys," she says breezing out.

I look behind me after assuring my heart is still in my chest and see Barry standing behind me. His hair in disarray like he just ran all the way here. The smile he gives me makes my heart drop once again. Barry stands there and his smile fades as he looks back and forth between me and Elijah, "Sorry, forgot you two were here. I didn't mean to interrupt your date," and both me and Elijah launch to protect ourselves.

"He's not my..."

"Oh, we're not..."

Barry looks between us a smile on his lips again, "Mind if I join in. Just waiting for Iris to finish work," I gesture to the chair next to me, "All yours," he beams at me gratefully before settling down in the chair next to me.

He looks around at us smirking, and grabs the cup on the table, "What was Iris saying about me? Nothing embarrassing, I hope," Elijah chuckles.

"Iris was just commenting on Makayla's love life, and the right guy for her," Barry's grip tightens on the cup.

"Really, what about it?" he says without looking at either of us. Elijah leans back a little intimidated before continuing, "Iris was saying that she needs someone, who deserves her. Isn't that right, love?" he directs towards me.

"Love?" Barry questions and I launch to my defense, "It's a pet name...but not like that," and they both stare at me as I flush red.

"Okay," Barry stares at me before continuing, "So why do you guys think the military wanted in on the investigation?"

"Well they seemed interested in the fact that the explosion was seemingly caused by nothing. Maybe they think they could find a way to incorporate the one who did that and use them for U.S. advantage. To help those who need it," Elijah starts.

I jump in to the conversation, "What if that power could potentially harm those that use it, or there is no active consent. What if they just try and force whoever it is to act against their wishes. Would they be justified?" Elijah smirks.

"Wouldn't it be their duty to serve their country, you guys always talk about the obligation one has to serve their country. If what they can do would be capable of saving lives then shouldn't they take that choice instead of being selfish and keeping it to themselves, some even run away," and Barry stares between us before taking a breath

"They don't have to if they don't want to. Everybody has their own choices to make, and everybody has had different things affecting their lives," he says this one his eyes downcast before he inhales and looks up at Elijah.

There is anger in his eyes and it chills my blood to see his normally cheerful face so twisted by malice, but as fast as it appears it's gone.

I look up at where Iris is finishing up her shift and elbow Barry, "You were going to talk to Iris about something?" and he turns towards her and looks between me and Elijah.

"Yeah, but I could use some help, would you be willing?" he directs towards me his eyes shining in the light of the cafe. I nod and he gets up offering his hand as we walk towards Iris.

She looks up from taking off her apron and addresses us with a smile, "Oh hey, guys" and Barry leans on the counter, "So hows your blog going?" her face falls and she tries to defend herself, "It's my business what I write about, and you can't change that," Barry sighs and runs his hand through his hair in exasperation, "You've got to stop writing about this guy, he doesn't even exist," and Iris turns towards us a smile on her face, "I saw him, you guys. He wears a red suit, like, a uniform or something. With a lightning bolt on his chest," she says fondly and Barry sighs, "I mean, Iris come on. You were drinking last night at the bar," he accuses her gently trying to get her away from her line of thinking.

Iris's anger flares and she hisses at Barry, "I was not drunk, and I know what I saw," and I jump in, "Iris people who are inebriated have a distorted sense of reasoning. By a quick calculation we were at the bar for about 2 hours before Eddie got the call, and in that time you had about four beers and a wine with me and Barry. From your calculated weight and gender, I would have estimated your blood alcohol level at somewhere around point one one seven give or take two. At that point you had the distorted reasoning and concentration, your depth perception is impaired and paired with the reasoning it is possible you made it up in your mind," I say coming up with the calculations quickly without knowledge of even really knowing that I was doing so.

Barry stares at me and Iris raises her eyebrow. She looks at me, "Ok first off, that's impressive, and second off I'm not crazy or drunk. He wore a mask," she pauses and blushes bashfully, "I think he smiled at me," and Barry seems to get a little bit jealous as he sighs, "Okay, first of all, if he's wearing a mask, that probably means he doesn't want people to know who he is," and Iris cuts him off losing patience.

"It doesn't matter who he is. What matters is that people know he's out there," and my mind flickers back to Red saving me from Black the first time I met him, the heartbreaking look curling his lips down as he gazed at me from under Snart's gun. And I understand what she means but I also know that it wouldn't do to have him known throughout the town.

Part of it is for the danger that I know would happen but another pat is because deep down I know that I don't want to lose one of the only people who has seen my broken side and still stuck by me.

I don't want to lose my friend.

Barry and Iris seem unaware of my inner monologue and continue to throw daggers with their eyes as Iris spits out suddenly, "What is wrong with you? This is important to me," she doesn't scream but the intensity in her voice has both me and Barry jumping back.

The intensity turns into melancholy as she says soft enough that we could barely hear, "Why can't you be more supportive?" and Barry seems to be knocked backwards at the loss in her voice and he runs his hand through his hair as he flounders for an excuse, "I'm just...you haven't even put your name on it," and Iris seems offended so he tries to explain himself, "How serious can you be about an anonymous blog?" and Iris jumps the gun as she yells at both of us.

"Okay, you know what? Our entire lives you couldn't scream loud enough that the impossible exists. Always taking your trips to search for some proof that you weren't crazy and imagining things," she turns to me and points at me, "He would leave for days at a time just chasing after something that we thought was fake. Me and my dad thought that he was just chasing after rumors and fairy tales," she grins at me and gestures wide, "And now it's actually happening in Central City, the impossible is here running through our streets and I have proof of it," she sighs from her outburst and I place a comforting hand on her shoulder as she glares at Barry, "And you don't want to know about it. So when you're ready to tell me what this whole routine is really about, then we can talk," and Barry seems to want to respond but his phone vibrates and his face falls.

Iris turns away and he gives me a sad smile before answering the phone with a hushed, "Yeah," and he nods a couple of times before his eyes shine in surprise and wisdom as he says, "That's why she was looking for the folder," and the person on the other end must have confirmed it because he places it away and gives an apologetic smile before wrapping me in a hug and whispering against my ear, "Thank you," I close my eyes in surprise my head against his heart for a fraction of a second but feels like forever as time slows down and it's just us. The sound of the cafe dulls down to a low thrum in the background drowned out by his breath humming against my ear. His chest heaving up and down, our breath in sync and his heartbeat thrumming in my ears. There is a soft pressure on my forehead before time resumes to normal and he pulls away with a sheepish smile before waving once and exiting out the door.

Elijah winks at me from the booth as I come closer, "That was probably the fastest romantic hug between platonic friends I've ever seen, love," and I blush rapidly enough to feel the heat travel above my ears.

Didn't feel very fast to me, more like time had slowed down and I was the only one aware.

"That's how you know they're the one," Elijah says from in front of me with a wide smirk across his face that grows even more the deeper shade that my face gets. I can feel the heat traveling and burning bright in my cheeks. Elijah starts to laugh, "Man you should see your face, never seen someone turn that red," and I let out a large sigh.

I push up from the table and leave to exit. Giving a small wave to Elijah on the way out and trying to get a smile out of Iris but she just ignores me and sashays away.

Okay, don't need that attitude anyways because I need to face something that I've been running away from, someone that terrifies me to my very core.

And judging by what Barry said it has something to do with that folder. Because there is something that I'm missing here.

Such as if the General isn't here for me, than who is he here for?

And what will that poor bastard have to do when they're in his iron claws?

Man, I need to talk to Red.

He'd have field day.


Feel free to comment because I am having a lot of fun with clueless jealous Barry. So much fun. And I'm gone now, bye.