Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you know the drill.
Feedback: Always appreciated.
AN: Just as a minor 'game', can anyone guess where I got the inspiration for Sara, Barry and Ray's aliases?
AN 2: A very dialogue-heavy chapter, but things will pick up; I obviously took some inspiration from Peter David's take on them, with only a few necessary tweaks, but I hope you like this alternative take on the Danvers regardless of its source
The Angel of Fire
"You're sure you can do this?" Sara looked sceptically at Barry as the three of them stood outside the Danvers household, Barry now dressed in a smart suit he'd 'borrowed' from a nearby clothing store (it wasn't stealing if he was going to put it back as soon as the interview was over).
"Hey, which of us is the one who actually works for the police?"
"You're a CSI, I'm pretty sure you don't actually meet the suspects most of the time-"
"And I spent years living with Joe and basically doing everything I could to argue that my dad was innocent; I think you can assume I've picked up a few things over the years," Barry said. "Look, I'm not going to stick around and join your mission long-term, but I'm not going to leave until I know that Alex's sister is all right-"
"And nobody's complaining about having you along for the ride," Ray smiled at Barry in understanding. "We've got a situation, and you're willing to help us out; we appreciate the back-up."
"Let's get this done," Sara said, walking up to the door and knocking sharply on it as Barry and Ray got into position on either side of her. After a few moments, the door opened to reveal a tall man in a police uniform; Barry was immediately reminded of photos he'd seen of Kara's adopted father Jeremiah when they'd exchanged stories about their parents, except for the fact that this man seemed a bit thinner than Jeremiah.
"Officer Fred Danvers?" Sara asked, holding up a security badge (Barry didn't know if that was legitimate or something the Waverider had faked, but he wasn't going to over-analyse that issue). "Special Agent Cameron Roberts; this is Agent Julian Kane and Agent Lawrence Gardner. We're here to ask you a few questions about your daughter's disappearance."
"Linda?" the man looked sharply at her, before he swallowed his initial reaction and nodded tentatively at the three. "Well… come in."
As soon as Fred Danvers had stepped aside to let them in, Barry shifted into Flashtime and run up the stairs to carry out a search of the house; they had no reason to believe that the Danvers had anything to do with their daughter's disappearance, but anything he could pick up could be helpful, particularly when there were questions they wouldn't be able to ask without giving away too much. After a search of the large room with a double bed turned up nothing more interesting than a well-thumbed copy of the Bible, Barry turned his attention to the other two upstairs bedrooms, immediately assuming that the one with the unmade bed was Alex's while the unused one belonged to the missing Linda.
Even if Barry hadn't been a speedster, it wouldn't have taken long for him to find a collection of police procedure manuals that made Barry suspect Alex's doppelganger was studying for a possible promotion. By contrast, Linda's room seemed basically empty apart from a few clothes and books, which matched what he'd expect from a young woman in her twenties who'd just recently left her parents' house. As he was searching her bedside table, Barry was surprised to find a leather-bound red journal, a quick glance of its contents revealing that it was full of entries up until a couple of weeks ago. Deciding that this was the best clue he was going to get, Barry took a moment to make sure he hadn't accidentally knocked anything out of place before he ran back down to rejoin Sara and Ray, so subtly that neither Danvers would realise what had happened unless they had been actively looking for him to move.
As he entered the room, Barry was surprised to see that Alex's mother actually looked rather like her counterpart back on Kara's Earth based on photos he'd seen in Kara's apartment, save for the fact that she had shorter brown hair as opposed to Eliza Danvers' long blonde style. Moving into a position where it would look like he was just behind his associates, Barry returned to regular speed as Fred Danvers introduced the three investigators to his wife Sylvia.
"So," Fred asked, with the probing stare that Barry recognised of a natural cop looking for information, "why would the FBI be looking into a small-town missing person's case?"
"We have reason to believe that it may tie into another, larger case we're investigating at the moment," Sara replied promptly. "I'm not at liberty to disclose any more at this time, but any information you can give us about your daughter's disappearance could be useful."
"Exactly," Ray smiled politely. "So, Mr and Mrs Danvers, do you have any… suspects… for who might have taken your daughter?"
"No," Sylvia shook her head. "Linda's been distant for a while… don't get me wrong, she never turned us away, but it was like… we just didn't know how to talk to her any more."
"What about her sister?" Barry asked.
"Lexa?" Sylvia responded.
"Lexa?" Barry repeated curiously, mind flashing to the stories he'd been told about Kara's history with the Luthor family back on her Earth. "Her name's… Alexandra, right?"
"Linda… always called her 'Lexie' when they were younger because she liked the alliteration of it with her own name," Sylvia explained, sniffing slightly at the memory. "The girls grew out of the original nickname itself, but the idea…"
"It helped bring them together," Sara smiled. "I understand; I… was a younger sister myself, and it's…"
She shook her head, smiling apologetically at the older man. "Sorry about that; so where does… Lexa work?"
"Down at the station with me," Fred smiled. "Well, I say she works with me, but the girl's on the fast-track to becoming a detective; not ashamed to admit I've become pretty good staying on patrol duty."
"Staying in the thick of the action, right?" Sara nodded at him. "My father was the same; even when he got promoted, he tried to stay on the streets when he could afford to get out."
"Your dad was a cop?"
"And the best man I ever knew," Sara replied, Fred relaxing slightly at this show of approval from the apparent agent.
"Anyway," Ray said, "as long as we're talking about our jobs, what does Linda do?"
"She's a freelance artist," Fred shrugged, the brief moment of camaraderie with Sara shifting to dissatisfaction. "Makes money selling sculptures and other knick-knacks to crafts fairs and the like; don't get it myself, but she's pretty good at it, if you like that sort of thing."
"Where does she keep her work?" Barry asked.
"She got an apartment on the other side of town a few months ago; just comes over here for dinner once or twice a week."
"Uh… sorry if this is getting personal, but if Linda doesn't come over that often, couldn't she just be-?"
"We still call her at least once a day, and Lexa drops in on her sister during her own patrols when she's got the time," Sylvia explained. "Linda doesn't always say much, but when we call, she always answers… until this week, anyway…"
"She answers you," Fred observed, now with a bitter edge to his voice. "And we're lucky to get that these days…"
"She's just trying to find herself-"
"And how long can you use that, Sylvia?" Fred glared over at his wife. "Ever since Meeke's wife left it's like Linda doesn't know what she wants any more; she's just… been giving us attitude for months."
"Fred!" Sylvia looked urgently at her husband. "Linda lost a major source of support-"
"Almost a year ago; we should just keep letting her use that as an excuse?" Fred countered. "Seems like these days she barely lifts a finger foranyone if it isn't her middle finger, outside of her usual art crap…"
"She's a good girl, Fred; she just… she needs to get back to the right path…" Sylvia said, even as a slight tension in her stance reminded Barry uncomfortably of the early days in the West house when Joe had pretended to humour his insistence on his father's innocence before he gave up on that approach.
"Whatever's happened to her, we're going to do what we can to find your daughter, Mrs Danvers," Sara nodded reassuringly at the woman, trying not to pay too much attention to Fred Danvers' suddenly more bitter expression.
"We'll let you know as soon as we find anything," Ray added, smiling reassuringly at Sylvia before he turned to follow Sara and Barry out of the house.
"Well?" Sara looked curiously at Barry once they were outside. "Any clues up there?"
"Nothing obvious, but I did find this." Barry took the journal out from under his jacket.
"A journal?" Sara raised an eyebrow as she gave Barry a grim smile. "I'm not sure if I should be amused or amazed."
"Let's…" Barry began as he opened the journal, only to pause as he took in what he was looking at.
"What?" Sara asked.
"This… is odd," Barry observed, rapidly scanning through the journal before he looked up at Sara. "This journal's missing a few things."
"Missing a few things?"
"She's making references to meetings and friends, but she doesn't always say where they're meeting or even who they are," Barry explained. "I mean, I didn't keep one of these myself, but I checked out Iris's a few times when we were growing up-"
"Really?" Sara looked pointedly at Barry with a dangerous yet teasing grin.
"I was worried about her and dealing with my own feelings for her whenever I got the idea that she had a date with a guy I didn't like; it's not like I did it a lot, OK?" Barry said defensively. "The point is that Iris always put down more names and places in her journal than Linda does here; it's almost like she's… well, like she's hiding something."
"In her diary?" Ray asked as Sara took the journal from Barry. "Isn't that over-thinking things a bit? Maybe she's just a bit private-?"
"Nobody's this private in something this personal unless they're really trying to be," Sara said, looking up from the journal after a brief flick through its pages. "I agree with Barry; whatever's going on here, Linda was trying to make sure her parents don't learn something about her social life."
"But this is just the journal she kept at their place," Barry pointed out with a thoughtful smile. "Which doesn't rule out the possibility that Linda has another one at her place that might have more information…"
"Should we be focusing on her like this?" Ray put in. "I mean, I appreciate that Alex means something to you two, but Lexa hasn't even met either of you-"
"This isn't just about helping Alex's counterpart, Ray," Sara cut the scientist off. "Linda's basically the only real lead we have of anything strange going on in this town at the moment, which means that we need to find her to at least eliminate her as a suspect if we're going to sort this mess out."
"Suspect?"
"She's hiding something from her parents and she's disappeared when we know supernatural entities are involved in events going on here; it's something we have to look into at least."
"…All right," Ray conceded with a nod. "If we're looking for clues, where's her apartment?"