Quite a long time had passed since Tina McGee had decided to Barry Allen's offer to join STAR labs instead of being main competitors. The understanding they had between them worked perfectly. It was exactly as it was initially planned. They could switch employees when they needed, for once in her life she didn't have to work as hard in getting government grants and projects knowing that STAR had a lot of contracts and Barry would probably pass something on to her if she said that they were running low on things to work on.
One thing she didn't really count on was meeting Henry Allen. She knew his story and knew that the man was nothing as portrayed in the papers, he was a good man who was falsely found guilty for a crime he didn't commit and imprisoned. The other thing she didn't count on was falling for the man, he got to know him very well from various parties that the Allen couple had invited her to over the past few months. He was nice and gentle, he had a nice demeanor and quite good skills as a doctor considering he had been in prison for the last 14 or so years.
Today, however, today she bumped into an issue that she did not expect. Mercury was a separate entity from STAR even if they decided to cooperate. While the business was good and they were more prosperous than ever, someone decided to try to undercut the shares that people owned in the lab and start to buy them. She took a look at who would do that but the buyers were anonymous. She decided to take a drive to STAR and talk to the two Allens. After about 30 minutes she walked into the Cortex finding the usual team tinkering around.
"Hello, Barry, Caitlin, Cisco" she greeted.
"Good afternoon, Tina. How are you doing? Is anything the matter?" Caitlin gave her a hug.
"Should I start calling you mom?" Barry chuckled and Tina gave out a scoff.
"Nothing of the sort, you smartass. I have a problem. As you know Mercury Labs was initially owned completely by me. Before our ... arrangement, where we could get money and everything we needed by cooperating with STAR, there was a … bad period that had me sell almost half of the labs as shares so we could stay afloat" She told them.
"Oh. You should have mentioned that. We could have bought them out and then you wouldn't have had any problems at all with problematic people that only understand profit and not progress" Barry said quite seriously
"They never gave me trouble. They were good people who I know and who wanted to support the work we did. I was actually happy that I had found persons that were understanding of the work and didn't pressure us about their investments" She told them
"What seems to be the issue then?" Caitlin asked while offering her a chair.
"For a while now more and more of them have gone dark. I don't see them at board meetings and they don't return my calls. The problem is that a buyer that I do not recognize was undercutting them and buying stock in Mercury. Someone that I didn't know and whose identity on the market is withheld. I don't trust people that do such a thing so I thought you two could help with the problem. Maybe you know a broker that is proficient in finding out stuff like that" She told them. You could see on her face that she was pretty worried about the future of the Lab that she herself had worked to rise off the ground to become, at its best time, one of the main competitors of STAR.
"Yes, we do have someone we can call. When has this started happening?" Caitlin asked
"I don't know since when. They people started dropping out about a month ago, but I started to see they buying trend last week" Tina told the speedsters. Barry took out his cell to call his broker and stepped out of the cortex leaving Tina to talk to Caitlin. The man knew his business, since he had managed to invest some of his money and almost triple it over the course of a year. After about 20 minutes he came back.
"Yea, you`re right. Someone was undercutting the market share to buy you out. I told him to start buying shares in Mercury as soon as they become available. We don't have to give whoever that is any sort of wiggle room" Barry told her.
"So wait, you`re going to buy everything?" Tina asked his surprised.
"Yes, is that a problem? We don't know who this guy is and what he wants to steer the labs into. I would rather we buy it and then you can come to us if there's an issue" Caitlin reinforced Barry's point of view.
"Well yea, I would like that. Could you find out however who is trying to buy me out?" Tina asked "I still want to know"
"That would be Felicity. Give me a minute" Caitlin pulled out her phone and called the blonde woman "Hey, can you do me a favor real quick if you`re near a computer. Yeah. Look into Mercury Labs for me. There should be an anonymous buyer that is trying to buy into the company. Yeah, can you hack his identity? Or at least something that would give us an idea who this person or company is? Ok, I'll wait"
"Did you say, hack?" Tina looked at them a bit weird.
"I did say hack. You asked to get information, Tina" She smiled Tina decided not to ask more, but she did want to find out who that person was.
"Yeah, I'm still here. Really? Now that's interesting. Are you sure?" Caitlin spoke on the phone. Tina was waiting for something. "Ok. Thank you. Can you keep an eye on the transaction that account does? Yes, someone is trying to undercut Tina and we really need to know who" Caitlin closed the call "Felicity didn't manage to find anything, which is really strange, because they do require at least some sort of ID to do that. It seems like the account was scrubbed of personal data. I have her keeping an eye on that account if something comes up"
"Thank you. With Barry buying the shares that continue to pop up, Mercury should be safe. The unknown person didn't really manage to buy more than 1% so that should work" Tina smiled at Caitlin
"My broker has been instructed to start buying the shares aggressively. To everyone outside it will seem like a hostile takeover, but you know better. There is no other way to secure the ones that are outside. You don't mind me doing this, right?" Barry asked.
"No. I don't. I'd rather you have the rest of the labs and I with my share than getting some unknown wrapped up in my business. Thank you for helping" She smiled.
"No problem, it's good that you came to us. Worst case scenario we just buy everything and the only investors you'll have to deal with for the foreseeable future are the same people you deal today on a daily basis. Best case, we manage to scare the guy and you`re left with the investors you know. Either way, it's a win-win" Caitlin smiled.
"Don't worry Tina, nobody is going to steal Mercury from you. Caitlin is going to see you out. Be safe and if this continues come back. My broker already is keeping an eye on everything" Barry smiled to her.
"Why would you send me with her? Are you expecting something?" she asked while she was taking Tina out.
"Yes. This sadly seems like a bad plot of a corporate spying B movie. I'm betting my ass that someone will try to kill her as soon as she goes out of the lab" He replied quite sternly
"Wait. You`re expecting someone to kill her?" Caitlin said surprised
"Yes. To be clearer, be careful about stray bullets or even snipers. I suspect that will be the case" Barry told her
"Ah I see. If she dies while exiting STAR then someone can interpret that and smear our own name to manage to undercut even us when it comes to Mercury Labs. Basically by killing her in front of STAR they get a major drop in price and they can buy her shares for nothing. Also by smearing us they keep us from taking over, because we will be the ones that couldn't keep her safe" Caitlin realized
"Pretty much. But I don't know how we might get over everything. We might have to play the Tina is dead card?" Barry said.
"You mean let the world think that she is. That might work" Caitlin replied
"Do that then. If that will be the case just catch the bullet and clock her one so that she falls. We'll deal with that if it happens" as soon as they got out the front door Caitlin accelerated keeping in mind what Barry had told her. She managed to catch the bullet just in time and hit Tina hard enough for her to fall. She then stood over the body and faked a 911 call, dragging the body into the lab and as soon as the door closed flashed back to the Cortex. Tina woke up rather fast, Caitlin was careful to hit her just enough to knock her out but not more.
"What happened?" she asked
"Someone just tried to kill you. You were lucky Barry sent me to walk you out. I was able to catch the bullet, but I had to hit you so you`d fall" Caitlin told her rather absentmindedly
"So I would fall? What do you mean?" Tina looked crooked at Caitlin
"It's simple. Someone tried to kill you so that your shares in Mercury would become available and he could probably buy you out. Even if you didn't die and were just injured, the prices would drop fast enough and settled to a new low. With you falling, even if Caitlin did catch the bullet, the person would be able to confirm the kill" Barry replied to the physicist who was looking at him
"Now, all we have to do is wait and see who writes first about your presumed death and who gave them that story. Then we'll know who put the hit on you" Caitlin added.
"Wait, you two want to kill me?" she looked at them and gave them a chuckle.
"That would be the best course of action. Of course, if you think we should try something else then … by all means we're open to suggestions" Barry added from the consoles.
"Why would they try that with Mercury? If they would want a takeover of something. STAR Labs would be the main target" she got up from the bed
"Maybe. But trying to kill us would be something pretty hard to do. We are public figures and they do not know how much protection we have. Besides, people think that we have a tight relation with Flash and Frost. Which means, for anyone to take a hit on us, that uncertainty is something pretty big" Caitlin told her.
"Then someone doesn't know the last modifications I made to my will. After we decided to cooperate and seeing as I don't have any sort of family or children, in the event of my death, everything I own will revert to you two. Including what I own of Mercury Labs. Which means they have no chance of buying more than what's already available" Tina said nonchalantly. The news surprised the two speedsters that had no clue she made that modification. Not that they knew what Tina had in her will, but still that was something that they did not expect.
"Well we did not know that. Probably the person that is trying all of this didn't know it either. I'm still wondering why they are trying. The only reason that comes to mind is that they need some sort of base in Central City and Mercury was the smallest thing they could take over" Barry was scratching the back of his head.
"Then there's no point in you playing dead" Caitlin replied. "If the shares come to us, then whatever anyone would be planning becomes moot. Which leaves us with a problem. How do we find out who?"
"I don't know, Cait. The only logical course of action would be to use Tina as bait. See if there are any papers that come up with the fact that she was shot, make her put out a statement and wait for the killer to try again" the speedster looked at his wife and at Tina who were both entrenched in thought.
"Wait. There is a chance that someone on the board or inside Mercury is helping this person do this because he doesn't want to see Mercury taken over by STAR Labs. If that's the case, we can do something else. If that doesn't work ... we can go with the bait plan" Tina realized that there was another course of action.
"We're listening" the two speedsters sat on a chair and were all ears.
"I can call for a board meeting, have you two join it and announce, internally, that the stock I have in Mercury has been sold to you for a hefty sum, because, I don't know, I want to retire or something. If the labs being bought by what the people believe to be their biggest competitor, I'm pretty sure that the people that have grudges will come out of the woodwork" Tina reasoned.
"We can try that as well if you want. The problem is whichever way you look at it, you are painting a target on your back. I don't think this is a takeover of Mercury. Someone has a personal bone to pick with you and they are trying to do that by taking over what you love most and then killing you. Not in that particular order, but you understand where I'm going with this" Barry replied.
"I have people who have grudges against me. Quite a lot I imagine, but they mostly are scientists, not people who would pick up a phone and order a hit" Tina told them truthfully
"I don't know what to tell you, the thing is right now you need protection more than anything else. If you come out of this alive then the killer will know he has failed and will have to try again. So it's up to you Tina. What do you want to do?" Caitlin inquired the aging physicist. Before she could answer, Barry's phone rang. It was Felicity, he put in on speaker.
"Did you find something?" the speedster asked with a stern voice.
"I have, there was another purchase made today of a few shares in Mercury by the same profile that you had me track. I couldn't get the identity but I managed to track the money. You won't believe whose account it was" Felicity replied.
"Well, don't keep us in suspense, out with it Felicity" Caitlin chuckled.
"Malcolm Merlyn. But that's not all that is. There was a second purchase almost immediately after that. That time, the money came from an account that I have tracked before, which was used by Damien Darhk" she replied.
"Isn't Thea's dad dead? I seem to remember Oliver say something to that effect? Darhk is definitely dead. Oliver killed him so … how does he have the accounts that he used to use" Barry asked with a surprised face.
"I do not know. Both accounts are marked as active which means their owners should have been making transactions anywhere in the last 3 months. That's all I can tell you for now" she replied with a worried voice.
"Thanks, Felicity. Keep us in the loop. Also talk to Oliver, see if he can find out if Malcolm Merlyn is still alive" Barry told her and closed the line. "If the league is after Tina then we have a big problem. Even if we kill the first one that comes alone there will be others. The league doesn't leave a debt open for long"
"I don't think they are after her, but someone smart enough to use those accounts to cover his tracks. I'm sorry but this is sounding more and more like this isn't even someone we know. Those two were people that Oliver had to deal with not us" Caitlin replied. The discussion was abruptly cut off by Cisco who had received a ping and was listening in to the police band.
"Guys, we have a problem. There has been a bomb threat called at Mercury Labs. Seems oddly familiar with the problems we've been having when Oliver was here" the engineer told them. The two speedster had instantly changed into their suit prompting Tina to smile.
"We're on it. Tina, don't leave STAR, yet. We don't know who is after you for now and we don't want to take any chances with your life. Cisco, is Bette on the way?" Barry asked his friend.
"Yes. She's almost at the scene. Take care of her, you two. Please" Cisco looked at the two speedsters and they understood why he was asking.
"We'll make sure she comes out of this alive, be sure of that" Barry smiled at his friend and the couple flashed out the door running at high speed to make it in time to Mercury. When they arrived the bomb squad wasn't even surprised. Bette was already in full gear heading toward the cabinet like bomb that had been placed at between two of the support structures that were keeping half of the Mercury Labs building up. Before Bette started to tinker with the bomb, the speedsters got everyone out and at a safe distance telling them to not approach. Then they returned to their friend.
"How does it look?" Barry asked her and she made a grimace when opening the cabinet
"Take a look for yourselves" She motioned while rubbing her forehead. She could feel a headache coming on. The bomb was very similar to the one that had too many triggers back on the top of the building. Except this one had enough explosives packed at the bottom of the enclosure to completely bring down the Mercury building and more than likely severely damage the structures that were around.
"Great. This again. Can you tell if it's the same pattern like the other one?" Caitlin asked.
"Yes, it seems to be the exact same. It's hard to believe that someone is manufacturing these on a large scale. These bombs can only be defused by you two because you have the speed. To give me something like this to disarm is basically just a message that however much I can try, I can't do anything" Bette looked at them and sighed.
"Which means, that they are made to bait us into disarming them. Frost, keep an eye out for drones. I'll do the same and let's neutralize this. I suspect we're being watched so that goes for you too Bette. Keep your eyes open" the Flash told them.
The two got to work and disarmed the bomb making sure to not damage anything in the casing. They needed to examine it in detail, some clues to where it was manufactured had to be in the components. Out of the corner of her eye, Frost saw a black drone just hovering between the buildings a ways away.
"Flash, there's your drone. What can we do with it?" She asked.
"It would be beneficial for us that we take it down mostly intact. It can offer us clues as well as that bomb over there" The reply came. "Can you turn it into a block of ice?"
"Sure. But if it reactivates after, we have no idea what sort of weaponry it has, we could be putting the people in the precinct at risk" She commented.
"Good point. Skewer it. Once it's down ill remove the power source so that doesn't happen" Flash nodded. The two ran straight at the drone who wanted to get some altitude to get away from them, but that didn't happen. Frost threw two icicles precisely at the large blades that it sported damaging them, making the contraption start to fall to earth. Flash was fast enough to catch it and dismantle its power source, at which point they came and left it near the disarmed bomb.
"I'll take these to the NCPD Lab. Or I can talk to Singh and take it directly to STAR. Whichever works" Bette smiled "Thank you for the assist"
"Take it to the lab. We'll be there as soon as we can" the two left with the people and the cops cheering for their victory. They returned to STAR where they weren't surprised to find Tina arguing with Cisco about physics. The couple changed and just sat in the doorway smirking at the two.
"Give it up Cisco. You can't win at physics when Tina is involved, she's the best in the city at this time. You should just accept that you`re beat" Barry chuckled. His voice interrupted the two who realized that the speedsters had come back
"Is everything all right?" Tina asked looking at them
"Yes, but the bomb was the same time that we had when Oliver was here. The drone was there also. Someone was keeping an eye on us. There was enough explosive in that to tear down the Mercury Building. Someone wanted to make damn sure that if he couldn't buy you out, you wouldn't have a place to work" Barry explained.
"This looks more and more like someone has a beef with you. Or against Mercury. Although the fact that this bomber guy is involved might mean that all this has a hidden meaning to it" Caitlin concluded
"I don't know what's going on. Let's wait until you have a chance to examine the bomb. Then we'll decide what to do about Mercury. What do you want me to do?" Tina asked quite frankly
"Stay here. Nobody knows what happened to your body. If the sniper that tried to shoot you saw me from dragging you inside then he doesn't know what happened to you. We'll be right back" The two speedsters raced over to the NCPD lab where after a while Bette and the bomb squad managed to bring the locker and the drones.
They spent almost 4 hours analyzing the bomb and taking it apart piece by piece to see if there would be some sort of forgotten evidence anywhere. Sadly all they had was some names form the firms that made the components. That didn't really help because most of them were usual components that even STAR bought on a monthly basis. The drone however was a different story. It used specific components for the alloy in the wings and the rotor blades. The control processor was a surprise, it was only manufactured in two places. STAR West and Mercury Labs. It was an advanced type that was used in all the internal machines that the labs had since it had more processing power and speed.
The labs were now working on cutting the costs so that that particular type of chip could be released to the public for normal use. In order to get that the person must have been working at one of those two venues. Which made sense, if the person Oliver told them about was behind this then he probably had people in both places that were providing advanced technology. The speedsters put everything they managed to get out of it into evidence bags and returned to STAR.
"Here's the deal. The bomb didn't yield anything interesting. However the drone did. I'm actually happy that we decided to take that down and not blow it up" Barry began
"Beside the alloy that it's made of containing rare materials, remember the XZ25 chip that we use now in most of the machines at STAR? The one we gave you to see if you can cut production costs on" Caitlin replied.
"Yes. I know the chip. Why?" Tina asked
"Simple. Because that drone had one in the middle as a control platform. There are only two places that produce those chips. STAR West and Mercury. They haven't been released to the public either which means that all we have are internals. We need to find out who leaked those chips" Barry concluded. Caitlin once again picked up her phone and phoned Felicity.
"Well, twice in one day. This is a rare occasion" Felicity chuckled.
"Sadly, it might be a big issue as well. Can you pull up production and inventory on the XZ25 chips that we have? I need numbers, how many were fabricated, how many were used, how many are in stock and if by any chance we lost some" Caitlin told her.
"Let me run the query. Why? What happened?" she asked.
"We had another bomb threat like the last time you were here. This time we managed to down the drone that was watching us and inside we found one of our chips. Go figure" Barry spoke
"Wow. Ok. So there are only two places that make them. Ah there we go. There was a shipment of 50 chips that was stolen last month. Mercury just got their production line in order and they were sending us batches to stress test and see if the lowered cost would lower the quality of the chip" Felicity said through the phone.
"I'll send you a picture with the serial number. Can you see if this is from that shipment?" Barry got a picture and emailed it to the blonde
"Yes. That serial is from the batch we should have gotten from Mercury" she confirmed
"Who pegged the shipment as stolen, Felicity?" Tina asked pretty bluntly
"Hello. Tina. Well, let's see. A Benjamin Fields? Does that name sound familiar?" Felicity asked pretty bluntly.
"Oh, it does. Benjamin Fields is a Board member. He has no right or authority to mark stuff as stolen. So what would he do that?" the physicist looked at the two
"Maybe you should find out. I think your death had just been canceled. Should we go to Mercury and find out?" Caitlin smiled. Tina nodded and the three flashed into her office. Ever since she found out who the two were she always left the window to her office open, just in case someone would need to come over in a hurry. The office was closed and nobody could see them flash in. Tina went to work and checked what happened. Fields had indeed marked that transport as stolen, but the GPS data from the truck that had been stolen had been mysteriously erased.
"Look at this. The GPS route is gone. It would make sense that the GPS would have been turned off at the moment of the hijacking. But there should be at least the trip till the hijack point, not a completely erased log. This was tampered with" She told them.
"Can you get ahold of this Fields character?" Caitlin asked looking at the scientist.
"I tried. He is the first board member that hasn't responded to the summons and my calls either. Come to think of it, if the date in this is accurate then he didn't show up for the board meeting the next day. Which as you might think is a bit strange" She replied.
"So this is the most likely suspect. Is there anyone that might have had anything to do with that particular transport?" Barry looked at Tina
"No, the rest just did their jobs. Everything seems to start from Fields" She answered.
"I should talk to Captain Singh to see if he can put an APB on this guy. Although I don't think that might work, the APB only works if there is a reason tied into it" Barry voiced his thoughts.
"Yeah. He can't help us although it never hurts to ask. However, we can take care of that another way. I'll have the mainframe from STAR and STAR West track the transactions from those accounts and from his credit cards" Caitlin replied with a stern smile.
"I'm not even going to ask" Tina looked at the two.
"We have some software that was created by Felicity. Our resident genius hacker. It can track anything from a simple payment from a credit card, to a chain of payments done through shell accounts until it reaches the end. It's not legal, of course. Because it involves actually getting the information through illegal means, but it has helped us in more than one occasion find metahumans and people that were dangerous" Barry explained to her.
"I see. Well I hope you get a track on this person" Caitlin didn't even manage to finish her sentence when the glass window cracked. She was close enough to put herself in front of the bullet and take the hit in the back. Barry changed and sped out the window in the direction the bullet came from. He caught up with the man breaking both his legs with a few well-placed hits.
"Hello, Assassin. Fancy meeting you here" He grinned. The person in front of him was mortified. The demeanor Barry had was something akin to someone who was about to kill him for what he just tried.
"Are you all right?" Barry asked mentally
"Besides being shot and being in pain? Yeah. It didn't hit anything major except that it stings like nothing else" the reply came.
"Take Tina to STAR. I'll be there shortly. Can you get rid of the bullet? Or do I need to cut it out of you?" He asked with could only be heard as a worried tone.
"You'll need to take it out. Don't be late, the wound will close in a couple of minutes and you'll have to cut it open again" she replied. Barry felt rage and annoyance. He clocked the man in the chin making him pass out, grabbed the maimed assassin and took him straight to Singh's office. The captain didn't expect him to just pop in.
"Captain, this idiot tried to kill Tina McGee, but hit my wife in the back. Can you make sure he's locked up nice and tight? I need to get a bullet out of her back before the wounds close" Barry said with worry in his voice.
"Go take care of her. But I do expect some explanation to what's happening" David replied instantly. Flash nodded and sped out his window with maximum velocity back to STAR. Caitlin was waiting for him in the cortex.
"I'll tell Singh the story later. Take the blouse off and lie down. Sorry about the pain" he took a scalpel and made the bullet hole larger and started to look for the bullet with a pair of forceps along the path of entry. It wasn't that bad, it hit the back shoulder bone and just cracked it a bit, but didn't go any further. She was wincing and grabbing at the railing.
"Can you not give her any sort of anesthetic?" Tina looked at the way Caitlin's face changed because of the pain every time Barry would move the forceps
"It wouldn't work. Our metabolisms burn through it like it burns though alcohol. It would last maybe … 10 seconds if I hit her with a stupidly large dose. Me and her, we're used to it. I can't use them either. She can tell you the amount of operations she had to perform on me without any kind of pain suppressant probably number in the double digits" Barry managed to get the bullet out and clamped the wound with the bio staples and bandaged it. "There we go, Cait. All done"
"Thank god it's over, that hurt" Tina could see that her face was white and her lips were almost purple at how hard she winced while Barry was pulling the bullet out of her.
"Why did you jump in front of the bullet?" Tina asked her pretty surprised.
"I thought I had enough time to use my ice armor. With that not even those types of bullets can harm me. I miscalculated, the moment the bullet hit me the ice that covered my skin didn't reach the desired hardness so it went straight through. My bad. Besides, we were there to protect you" She smiled at the physicist.
"Thank you for not letting me get killed. Both times" Tina looked at the auburn haired woman and gave her a big hug, being careful not to put any strain on her injury.
"I need to talk to Singh. He was pretty worried when I told him that guy shot you. I'll be right back. Say if you need anything. You know I'll hear you anyway" Barry smiled and ran to the precinct.
"We have a problem" Singh told him as soon as he entered "The man had a cyanide capsule on him. He died in the lockup about 2 minutes after you brought him in. Is Caitlin all right?"
"She is. I had to pull a bullet out of her back. She's now resting at the labs and Tina is with her. Someone tried to kill Tina this morning. Frost was there and managed to catch the bullet. We assume this was the same guy as the one I brought in that tried again now. The bomb that was brought here for us to analyze was a dud for evidence, but the drone had some STAR proprietary chips in it, that have not yet been released to the public. They were stolen while they were moving a few of them from Mercury to STAR West. We found someone that had a hand in that, he's our primary suspect at the moment" Barry explained him as succinctly as he could. He was worried about how Cait was doing. He wanted to get back to the Labs as soon as possible.
"Tell me who he is, I'll put an APB out on him" Singh didn't even flinch when he said that.
"David, don't you need a reason for an APB?" Barry smiled, but being surprised at the man who offered his unconditional help.
"What? Attempted murder of Tina Mc Gee and Caitlin Allen? How's that for a reason" he replied quite sternly.
"We don't know if he's the guy that hired the assassin. That might be a moot point" Barry replied.
"It doesn't matter. Its reason enough. I'll get the APB out as soon as possible and let you know if we find something" He said with conviction in his eyes.
"Thank you, his name is Benjamin Fields. Keep in touch" Barry smiled at him. It was pretty clear that he wanted to help the two no matter what.
"Can you get something to eat and some coffee?" He heard a voice in his head.
"Of course. Be right there. Singh put an APB on Fields. He's going to call us if anything turns up" Barry replied while going for pizzas and drinks.
"He agreed? Wow, that's new" Caitlin replied.
"Actually I didn't even have to ask. He put an APB for attempted murder on you and Tina. That's a good of that as we can get. He wanted to help, I could see it in his eyes how frustrated he was that you got shot and that the assassin that I caught killed himself with a cyanide pill" Barry replied with his hands full of food flashing into the cortex.
"I'm glad that he wants to help. Hopefully then we find who this Fields character is and we can take it from there" Caitlin suddenly answered making Tina look at her strangely "Oh sorry, Tina we were having a discussion" and she pointed at her head. The physicist understood immediately what it was about.
"Tina, are you comfortable of working from STAR for a while instead of going back to Mercury?" Barry asked quite directly
"I … guess? But will have to go there at least a few times a month. I know most of the people there and I don't want to give them the impression that I'm not working" she replied.
"Hopefully it won't take that long. Just until we catch whoever is trying to kill you, but you can always tell them that since we are collaborating, it would be a sign of good will that you`re working here" Caitlin replied seeing where Barry was going with this.
"All right then. Give me a lab and I'll get to work" She smiled brightly at the two speedsters "Thank you again for keeping me alive"
"No sweat. Let's go find you a place to call your own, at least for the time being" The two speedsters smiled at her. Caitlin remained to eat and recover her energy as Barry and Tina roamed around the lab to find her a place to work.
As the two were roaming around the lab, Barry's eyes fell on an article that was in the national news. He never really cared about that, but this time the article was about someone he knew very well. "Major Hal Jordan dies in experimental plane crash". The speedster was sad, his wife could sense that coming off him even if she wasn't in the room. She was next to him in a couple of seconds.
"What's up with you, you seem to be sad about something" She asked. He pointed at the news article "Someone you know?"
"Yes, you could say he was one of my best friends a while back. I met him while my father conducted some trials for the air force as a medic. Back when I was a child, before he was imprisoned. After my mother died, me and Hal kept talking via letters, later on before I went to CSI school we met again" the speedster started
"You never mentioned him. What happened?" She asked.
"What happens with good friends because of age. He enrolled and became a test pilot like his dad, I went to school. We lost touch, we were both doing what we wanted to do. I heard he became quite a staple in the Experimental Aircraft program based in Coast City. And then I saw this" the speedster answered looking at the news story.
"Ah, now I understand where the sadness came from. You were close in the past and now you didn't even know that he died, you had to find it out from the papers" Caitlin took his hand, trying to stifle the torrent of sadness he was feeling.
"It's not like I could have known, Coast City is a long way from here and since we lost touch, I had no reason to go there. As you might know I had other things to worry about. More important things than a friend at the time. However, you are right, that's why I'm feeling sad. I wish I would have gotten to at least say goodbye, but as it stands I think I even missed the funeral" Barry said with a heavy heart, sighing.
"I don't think there is something more that you can do at this point. Can you at least find out where his gravestone is so we can go visit?" She inquired
"No, I cannot. His father died in a plane accident just like he did. That is the only family of him I actually knew. I don't know if his mother is still alive, we never really discussed family after my own mother was killed and my dad was put into prison" Barry sat down with her in his lap and looked at the white wall in front of them.
"Then all you can do is remember him the way he was when you met him and hope he is in a better place now. That is the only comfort that you can get" She sighed
"Don't worry about me, it will pass. I just wanted to see him one last time and offer my respects. He died doing what he loved, what his father loved. That is something that has to be commended" He replied. The two sat in the cortex for a while not saying anything, Caitlin just trying to be there to comfort her husband over the loss of someone who apparently Barry cared about very much, even if the two didn't manage to keep in touch. She wanted to ask more about what happened, but decided against it, since right now it would only bring memories that would further sadden him.
