Current Timeline, Jay Garick, 2014
Jay Garrick was busy working at his desk as he continued his long but fulfilling work. He was currently doing research for his next big breakthrough in the scientific community. He remembered his first day starting for Mercury Labs. He'd been in awe of the work they had been doing since he was ten years old and his dream of working there was finally becoming a reality. He remembered the satisfaction he felt when he crossed the threshold of the main entrance for the first time. Everything he had been working so hard for had finally paid off.
There was a knock on the door that pulled him from his thoughts. He looked to find one of the interns standing at the door. He smiled at him and waved for him to come in.
Andre was a good intern and a good kid. An internship here was different from most other places. Getting an internship here served as a trial run for up-and-coming scientists to work with accomplished ones who would act as mentors. It was a way to test them to see if they had potential that would be well used here. At the end of the internship, the mentor would write a letter of recommendation or dismissal that would be reviewed by the hiring committee.
Andre actually worked under Dr. Peter Dursh. He was good at his job but he wasn't the greatest human being on the planet. Peter treated Andre like a go-for. He never let him do anything in his work. That's why Jay let him work with him whenever he had some free time. Andre relished any opportunity to learn, ask questions, and help wherever he could. Jay had even submitted a letter of recommendation to the hiring director for when the internship period was over.
"Andre," he greeted as he walked into his office. "Always good to see you. What can I do for you?"
"Good morning Dr. Garrick," he said upbeat as he closed the glass door behind him.
"Andre, How many times do I have to tell you?" Jay asked as he had many times before. "You're not my intern and I'm not your boss. You can call me Jay."
"As I've told you before sir, once I am offered an official position here and we are colleagues, I will treat you as such. For now, though, I need to ask you about something," he told him as he sat in the seat opposite of Jay.
"Yeah, sure," he said as he placed a bookmark in its place and set it aside.
Andre nervously wrung his hands, "So you know about the Star Labs particle accelerator that's being demonstrated tonight right?" he asked him.
"Yeah, I've heard. What about it?"
"Well, I've been debating on whether or not I should go see it in person. I mean, it is for the company that is our biggest rival but this is one of the biggest breakthroughs that I might ever be able to witness in my lifetime." He looked at Jay for guidance, "What do you think I should do?"
"If I were in your shoes," he put his hand on his shoulder, "I would go. I think that science is one of those things where we should support each other. It doesn't matter who did it, just that science has advanced to help people in some way, shape, or form."
"So does that mean you'll be going as well Dr. Garrick?" he asked him.
"Unfortunately, I am on the clock tonight," he sighed as he leaned back in his chair. "But that doesn't mean I won't watch the event on tv."
"Well, good luck, Dr. Garrick. Oh, how's your project coming along by the way?" he asked excitedly. "The gossip I'm hearing about it sounds like it'll be huge," he told him.
"I'm working on it now," he held up his current research to show him. "It is definitely going to take some time but when it's complete, it's going to change so many lives."
"Your work always does," Andre admired professionally. "Well, thanks for your help. I'll talk to you more tomorrow."
"Sounds good," Jay agreed as Andre headed towards the door. "See you later."
"See you later," Andre returned before he closed the door behind him.
Jay sighed as he looked at the clock. Only a few hours left before he would be called on duty. He settled back into his chair and went back to reading.
After hours of collecting data, looking through research, and pulling together ideas for his latest project, it was time to take a break. He looked over at the clock and saw that it was getting close to the time Star Labs was going to be unveiling the particle accelerator.
He grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. A reporter came on the news from inside Star Labs and started talking about the events that were going to be happening tonight. His focus was on the people behind her as he hoped to catch a glimpse of an old friend, Caitlin Snow.
The two of them had been in various classes together from Junior High through their senior year of high school. She had always been a kind friend to him whenever they crossed paths. The two of them lost touch when they had gone off to different colleges but once every year or so he would look her up to see how she was doing. He was always glad to see she was doing well for herself.
A vibration started coming through his phone. He pulled it out of his pocket and grinned to find that it was his foster dad Nate Johnson. He quickly answered the phone and pulled it up to his ear.
"Hi Mr. Johnson," he answered. "How are you and Mrs. Johnson? I was going to call you after work. Give me a minute and I'll call you right back okay?"
"That's just fine," he told him understandingly.
Jay quickly put his stuff away and headed up to the roof of the building. He didn't expect to be more than a half-hour chat and then he would come back down to continue working. The roof would be a little more private than his office was. After jogging up a few flights of stairs, he made his way over to the vacant little sitting area.
This area was mostly used by the astronomy department but they were away for something he couldn't quite remember. He looked out across the city lit up with the evening lights. It was an amazing sight. He could even see Star Labs from up here. He took out his phone and called Mr. Johnson back.
"Hey kiddo, so how's life been treating you?" he asked him.
"Mr. Johnson, I gotta tell you, things are really going well here," Jay smiled as he sat down at one of the small tables.
"That sounds great," he said. "How's it going with that kid Andre?"
"I submitted that letter of recommendation to the hiring committee two days ago so I wouldn't be surprised if he got a permanent job working here," Jay said as he watched the crowd grow around Star Labs.
"That sounds wonderful," he told him.
"Well, I'm just following your teachings. You know, a good man will give someone a chance when he's had none," he quoted fondly. He listened to him laugh with pride on the other side of the line.
"And I am proud to call you my good man," Mr. Johnson told him.
"Thank you," Jay smiled. A light thunder rolled behind him and he turned around to see a big storm coming in quickly. He did a few calculations and found he still had about ten minutes before the storm would arrive. "So how's Mrs. Johnson doing?"
"Oh you know her, just as loving as the day I met her," he answered. "You know, Toby's actually coming to speak at one of the nearby schools next week. He'll be staying with us during then. You should come by and say hello."
"Yeah, Toby said he wanted to meet up and discuss something when he called me last time. We set up a meeting at that coffee place, Jitters, when he flew in. If you want, I have some free time on Thursday next week to do dinner with you guys," he offered, knowing that he wanted to see him again too.
"Mrs. Johnson will be thrilled to see the two of you again," he told him excitedly. "You two were like brothers. I remember you were so happy the first time he came back from college. You planned out a whole weekend for the two of you to do things."
"Yeah, that was a great weekend," he grinned thinking of their boys' weekend. Jay felt the rain start to pour down on him. "Hey, I gotta go, I'm on the roof and it's starting to rain."
"I get it. I'll talk to you soon, okay?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yeah, I'll talk with you soon," he agreed as he tried to get the umbrella to open. He started cranking the little mechanism on the side of the umbrella. The rain was getting stronger and harder. He heard thunder and saw lightning ahead of him in the distance. "Tell Mrs. Johnson that…." He looked out at the Star Labs building. An almost transparent ring of something burst from the building and grew exponentially as it expanded across the city. He set his phone down on the rock table and raised the hand to his eyes, trying to focus his vision better. "What is that? AGHHH!"
Lightning struck the umbrella that he was holding and ran scorching through his body like burning fire. The last thing he remembered was pain coursing through his entire body before falling unconscious. His head landing on his arm as they hit the rock table.
Current Timeline, Caitlin Snow, 2014
Caitlin was collecting samples from an unconscious man named Barry Allen whose body was defying all logic and reason known to science. Dr. Wells had been keeping around the clock watch on him since Detective West and his daughter had signed off to have him treated here.
It had been three months since the explosion had triggered and things around here hadn't been getting much better. The once active research lab has become a ghost town. Everyone besides Cisco and herself had quit. Most of the facility was in shambles, everyone understandably hated them, and most importantly, her fiance was dead. He was dead because he tried to save everyone. She hated it. Everything all of them had worked so hard for was gone.
She let out a small sigh as she finished with her samples and sealed them up. She'd get to testing them when her shift was over. The sound of the doors opening turned her attention to Dr. Wells as he rolled inside. "Caitlin," he called. "Grab your equipment. We need to go. Cisco will be here in a minute. I found another one."
"What? Who?" she asked him as she went to grab her medical bag and some other more advanced equipment.
"Apparently, Mr. Allen wasn't the only man struck by lightning the night of the explosion," he answered her as she followed behind him out of the building. "There was an employee who was on the roof of Mercury Labs and was struck by lightning. He's been presenting all the same symptoms as Mr. Allen has been. His foster parents signed off on transferring him to our facility. We're going to do a few tests and then transport him back to the lab."
"That's incredible," she told him, surprised by the man's circumstances. It was a miracle either one of these men survived in the first place but the chances of them being in the exact state were astronomical.
A half-hour later, they arrived at the hospital where their new patient was. They were led to the ICU recovery ward by a nurse. "He's been like this for the past three months," she told them. "He'll be fine for a while and then he'll just go into cardiac arrest. We've tried everything we can but nothing we do seems to help. The strange part is, every time we think he's dead, he'll just start back up all by himself. It's a mystery to all of us."
"How is he doing now?" Dr. Wells asked as they continued moving towards the room.
"He's been stable since yesterday," the nurse answered. "The poor thing. We're getting worried that his heart's just going to give out after so many more of these episodes. So I've been wondering, why is it that he's moving to a different hospital?"
"We're taking him to more of a long-term care facility," Caitlin started explaining as they turned into the room. "We're a lot less… Jay?" Her train of thought cut as her eyes landed on her old friend. She moved quickly to his side. Not Jay Garrick, not him, he was too good for this kind of fate. All the old memories she had of them flooded back to her mind being accompanied with worry. First her fiance and now him. Why them? Why did it have to be people that meant so much to her?
"You know him?" Dr. Wells asked her as he wheeled himself into the room a little more.
"Jay was my best friend when I was in Junior High and High school," she told him, unable to tear her eyes away from him. "I haven't seen him since we graduated. We lost touch during college." She slowly reached out her hand to make sure this was real. Her question was answered as her hand landed tenderly on his shoulder and felt warmth radiating from him. She really wished she wasn't seeing him like this for the first time in years.
A spark lit inside her heart. A new feeling of determination swelled inside her as she held onto him just a tad firmer. Ronnie may be dead but Jay Garrick wasn't. She might not be able to do anything to help Ronnie but she could do something here and now to help save her old friend. She wasn't going to waste this chance. She would do whatever it took to help him wake up and get back on his feet. She grabbed her things and started tending to her job.
"Dr. Snow, will this be affecting your judgment?" Dr. Wells asked her, seeing a shift in her.
"No, if anything, I feel more certain now than I have in a while," she told him as she finished conducting her tests. "He should be stable for transporting."
"Very well, Dr. Snow," he said as he had Dr. Garrick moved onto the transporter.
Caitlin stayed in the back of the van this time with Jay. She wasn't going to leave his side until he woke up. She sat down as the van started moving. She placed a hand on one of his. "Don't worry," she told him. "You'll wake up. I promise."
Current Timeline, Jay Garrick, 1997
Jay Garrick, as he now was called, had spent some acclimating to his new home and surroundings before having to go to school. Everything was so different from his old home.
He missed his mom greatly. She was a kind loving stay-at-home-mom like his current foster mom. But his mom was always afraid. She was afraid of a lot of things, even if she hadn't wanted him to know.
His new foster mom was so similar and so different at the same time. She had the same kind, patient and loving demeanor, as all moms do. But she was fearless. The only time Jay had seen her scared was when she saw a bug in the house. She had been so proud of Jay when he bravely got rid of it. She didn't hug him like his mom. But it still felt nice when she did.
Then there were the other kids. There were four other kids besides him that were living in the house that weren't their actual kids. There was a 16-year-old named Kevin. He didn't like much of anything other than his really loud music he played in his room. Jay didn't dare enter that room as he did not want to be like Kevin. He didn't know much about Kevin and Kevin didn't want to know anything about him. Zoom told him to be a good man and Kevin did not look or act like one.
There was a nice but strange 14-year-old named Lindsey. She was nice to everybody but kept talking to herself with some pink thing pressed against her ear but she was very friendly and welcoming. She would often knock at the doors of the other kids just to chat. Lindsey only ever knew her dad. Her mom had died in childbirth. Her dad had gotten ill and needed to be in the hospital. She used to visit him until he died. The Johnsons were actually her aunt and uncle.
There was a 12-year-old named Alex. He didn't like being here. He kept telling him that his mom was just in a jam right now but would be coming back to get him soon. He kept everything packed up in his suitcases and duffle bags. Kevin hated Alex more than any of the other kids. Those two would argue a lot in the halls until either Kevin walked away and did something in his room or Alex ran away crying. It was usually the latter. Alex would occasionally stop by his room to say hello and look at what Jay had brought with him. He always said the same thing, "you got a lotta weird stuff man." He didn't know why he said that. He just did.
Then there was an 11-year-old named Toby. Toby was a nice guy. He'd been living with the Johnsons for 5 years now. Toby had a lot of cool stuff in his room. It was all very old but that made it somehow cooler. Toby had a bunch of model vehicles everywhere around his room. Mr. Johnson had hung up all his airplanes on the ceiling so they looked like they were really flying. All the trains were placed on this track that ran along the outside of the room so that it couldn't be stepped on. All the cars went into a box that Mrs. Johnson had helped him paint to look like a garage. Jay could point at any one of the models and he would know all about any one of them from the paint color to the max speed it could go.
Of all the kids, Jay was closest with Toby. He couldn't do sports with him very much because he had something called asthma and was something else called a paraplegic. Toby said that his family had been in an accident and that he was injured because of it. He told him he was better off because he had lived while his mom and dad died in the accident. They didn't talk much about their parents and that was okay to him. Toby seemed like a good kid so he wasn't worried about him.
Mr. Johnson was probably one of the biggest changes that Jay had to adapt to. He was nothing like his dad. He didn't treat him, Maria or any of the other kids here like his dad had.
His dad was mad all the time. His dad always drank from a root beer bottle but it never had the word root printed on it. His dad yelled loudly all the time. He was never happy. Nothing he or his mother ever did was right. His dad always hit hard. His dad tried to make them hurt. He smiled when he did. Jay still had the scars from the beatings. His dad was mean.
Mr. Johnson wasn't. Mr. Johnson worked during the daytime and came home at night. Mr. Johnson always said hello to everyone when he came home. He always gave Mrs. Johnson a kiss and anyone who wanted a hug.
Jay didn't want a hug. Not from him. He knew he wasn't his dad. He knew if he asked, he would be given a hug and not something else. He couldn't do it though. He wanted to prepare himself. There were days his dad said that he wouldn't beat him, those days he beat his mother instead.
So he stood at attention, just like a soldier. Mr. Johnson would come and stand similarly to him. He'd say, "Jay," like a proud commanding officer would. He'd reply with, "sir," like a soldier who knew. He'd say, "good to see you." Jay would follow with, "good to see you too sir." Then they would go to wherever they wanted. Recently, Mr. Johnson started shaking hands with him. Jay didn't know why. It wasn't bad. He rationalized, figuring other soldiers did that too. Jay didn't know quite what to think of Mr. Johnson. He believed that he was a good man. Then again so was his father until one day he wasn't. Whatever he was, Jay decided that what they were doing worked and that as long as this didn't change, he had nothing to worry about.
Today, he had something much bigger to worry about. Today was his first day of school.
He had one thing he needed to do today. He needed to find a girl named Caitlin Snow. Zoom told him that she would help him and that she went to his school. He remembered what Zoom had said to him and now he had to do it. He had noticed something funny on his paperwork when Mrs. Johnson had been signing him up for school. For some reason, he was 8 years old here when before the trip he had been 9. He didn't say anything about it because Zoom said not to but it did feel odd that he had to repeat the 2nd grade. Whatever the case may be, he couldn't argue with it now.
He and Toby were driven to school by Mrs. Johnson since the Johnsons' car had a special function for Toby's wheelchair. The older kids took the bus since the High school and Junior high was in a different building from the admissions
When they arrived, Mrs. Johnson asked him if he would help make sure that the ramp in the back was secured so Toby could get out safely. He'd done this a few times before because he had gone with them every day because the rules said he needed to be with an adult of some kind at all times. Today felt different than most other days. He had this beating feeling in his chest. He looked down at the clothes that Toby had picked out for him. He looked similar to the other kids. That was good. Toby rolled down the ramp with ease and Mrs. Johnson handed them their backpacks.
"Okay you two," she started as she put the ramp away. "Toby, you keep an eye on Jay when you can. Watch out for him. Jay, try to relax and if you don't know something, just ask. The teachers understand that you haven't been in school for a while. They are more than happy to help you. Now both of you, be safe, be brave, and try to stay out of trouble."
"Yes ma'am," Jay said as he straightened up.
"Okay Mrs. Johnson," Toby promised her.
"Okay, I'll see you both at 3:00. Bye boys," she said as she watched them head for the main doors. Jay turned back around once before making sure he was right next to Toby when the mob of kids swam around.
Before here, children used to be in straight lines as they walked towards their classrooms. Here, they rampaged through the halls like bulls. Toby somehow managed to get him to the main office without being trampled. One of the ladies there showed him to his classroom and showed him where to hang his backpack and coat. He didn't like these hooks. They didn't protect his stuff. He had a cube back home that only opened to his handprint. Here, you could have anything taken without knowing it. He was starting to dislike school. He took a deep breath and tried to remember why he was here. He was going to be a good man. He was here to live a better life and he was here to meet Caitlin Snow. He looked around at the hook name tags as he searched for hers. He didn't get very far before he was made to go into the classroom. The teacher thanked the lady and welcomed him.
"Boys and girls," she called and the room's chatter quieted. Jay felt really awkward standing next to her while everyone else was sitting at a desk. "Class, we have a new student joining us. This is Jay Garrick. Now Jay hasn't been in school for a little while because he moved here all the way from California so if he asks you something please help him. Now, Jay, your desk is right behind Larry's and in front of Kayla's. Everything you'll need for the day is in your desk."
He moved to his new desk rather quickly as to get on with his search for Caitlin Snow. He didn't like it here very much. He felt claustrophobic with everything so squished together. He decided to look at what was in his desk. Mostly it was paper and pencils. He hadn't written with one of these old relics in a long time. Not since handwriting class in kindergarten. He hoped he still remembered how to do it. He took out a piece of paper and a pencil. He made sure to try and keep himself quiet while the teacher was talking to them about how subtraction worked. He decided to try and draw out the chemical compound of baking soda just to test his skills here. He found that it came rather easily and that, like the device back home, the way to write was the same. Granted he was a little shakier here but with a little more practice, he would be as good as he was back home.
"Mr. Garrick," he finally heard her calling.
He looked up at her and then the board before answering, "33."
"I beg your pardon?" she asked him confused.
"The answer to the problem on the board is 33. It's not a prime number as it can be divided by 3 and 11 along with the standard 1 and 33. Multiples of the number include 66, 99, 132, 165, 198, 221, and 254," he told her.
He wished he hadn't. Everyone stared at him really funny. Why was this weird? He'd learned this last year at the school for science and mathematics. The teaching there was really quite different here. He tried to think of something to say that would stop people from staring at him but he couldn't. He looked down at his paper and started working on his model again. Ignoring the stares of the other children as the teacher proceeded with the lesson. Next time, he'd keep quiet.
Jay didn't like school anymore. Even when he tried to keep his head down, people stared at him weirdly. After Math had been Reading, Writing, Music, and Geography. Geography had been really weird. There were places that weren't there like Atlantis and Jottog and then there were things like Puerto Rico.
The worst thing was, he couldn't find Caitlin. He searched everywhere for her but he couldn't find her. Zoom said that she would help him become a good man. How was he supposed to do that if he couldn't find her? Everything was different here and he didn't like it. He wanted to go home and go back to the way things were. He wanted to go home. He didn't like this place any longer.
It was lunchtime and he was ready to eat something. He walked with the rest of his class to the cafeteria before trying to find Toby. He spotted him over at the far tables with some other kids. He made his way over and sat down next to him.
"Hey Jay," he greeted happily. "How's your day going?"
Jay didn't answer him and instead focused on opening his lunch box. He didn't really feel like telling him what had happened.
"That bad huh?" he asked as he tried not to push too hard on the subject.
Jay nodded and took a bite out of his sandwich.
"Yeah, sometimes days aren't great. But there are good ones," he promised him as he began eating his own sandwich.
"Hey! Glasses!" Jay heard someone yell at them. Did he mean Toby? There were two other kids with glasses on at the table. "Hey! I'm talking to you, foster kid!"
He probably meant Toby.
Toby and Jay turned around to look at the kid yelling at them. He was a kid twice Jay's size, probably Toby's age. He was a big kid and he looked mean. He looked like his dad when he got home too late. Jay didn't like this kid one bit.
"Hey Walt," Toby greeted cautiously as the kid walked over. Before either of them knew what was happening, he slapped Toby's sandwich out of his hand and it landed on the floor.
"You know you're the reason why we can't do regular gym? I look forward to it every year thinking that I'll get to play a real sport but then every year you have to muck it all up with your stupid wheelchair," Walt told him angrily. "I'm so sick of you."
"Leave him alone," Jay grumbled as he went over to pick up Toby's sandwich. He bent down to pick it up but felt himself being kicked to the ground and landing on his face with a thud.
"You wanna say that again pipsqueak?" Walt asked as Jay connected to the floor.
Jay grabbed the sandwich and got up saying, "leave him alone," with a little more force.
"Who do you think you are?" Walt asked as he got closer to him.
"Jay Garrick," he answered him. "Now leave Toby alone."
Suddenly, he felt his face getting punched as it sent him back a few steps. "Make me!" Walt yelled at him.
Jay rushed at him and knocked him to the ground on the floor. He landed a couple of good whacks when he was flipped over and Walt started laying into him. Jay tried to block as best as he could and got two more good punches in before teachers came running over to pull them off each other. Both boys yelling at the other as a teacher yelled enough in a truly terrifying way. Both boys were brought to the principal's office and were taking turns being yelled at.
Right now Walt was in the main room and Jay was up next. He was sitting by a girl with long wavy brown hair and brown eyes the color of apple cider. She was wearing a blue striped t-shirt, jeans, white socks, and black shoes. Her butterfly backpack was sitting in her lap.
"Are you alright?" she asked him seeing that he wasn't. He shook his head no as he didn't want to have a conversation. "What happened?"
"I fought Walt," he answered crisply, rather bitterly.
"That sixth-grader?" she asked, scared for him. "Why? He could kill you."
"He wouldn't leave Toby alone," he answered in the same grumble.
"You shouldn't fight people, but you were very brave to stand up for him," she told him.
"Thank you," he said not as harshly.
She inched closer to him until she was right next to him and said, "my dad always kisses where I get hurt."
"My dad tells me next time don't be so stupid," he jutted as he thought about what his dad would think of all this.
"I think mine works better," she told him as she leaned up and kissed the spot on his cheek where the first punch had collided. Jay blushed instantly as he felt her lips on his cheek. He looked down quickly to avoid eye contact with her. He'd never had that happen before. "Did it work?" she asked him as she looked at him. He nodded his head yes without saying a single word. It had. "Good," she said satisfied as she leaned back against the small bench.
A few seconds later, two adults came out of a room and called to her saying, "Caitlin, come on sweetie it's time to go."
She happily hopped off the bench and started towards them. Suddenly it hit him, "Wait!" he called trying to find out if this was his Caitlin.
"Mr. Garrick," the principal called as he opened the door and Walt took his place on the bench. "It's your turn."
"But wait I," he tried to explain.
"Now Mr. Garrick," he told him in a voice that made Jay cringe in fear before following him into the office. He looked back to get one more glimpse of the girl before sitting in the chair in front of the principal. There was another seat next to him that would soon be filled. The principal sat down in his chair and looked at him with a steely gaze, having heard the side of the story from Walt. He knew what that look meant. That look always meant something bad. He didn't know exactly how bad it was but he wasn't going to think about that as much as his mind was occupied by thoughts of the girl that he'd met just now. That nice girl. That girl who thought he was brave. That girl who was going to make him a better man.
"We're just waiting for one of your parents Mr. Garrick," the principal told him as seconds went by at a painstaking speed.
"My parents aren't here," Jay told him. They weren't here. He was all by himself. He was in this strange world that wasn't his. A world that kept reminding him that this wasn't his. He felt like he was in a dream that he couldn't quite wake up from. He wanted to go home. Things stopped making sense to him. Everything he'd known was falling apart in front of him.
"That's why we're waiting for them," the principal sighed, thinking he'd said something stupid.
The door opened behind him and the principal looked up and looked confused at the person coming in. "Mr. Johnson? What are you doing here?" he asked him.
Mr. Johnson? Jay turned around to see him. It was him. Jay turned back around as panic started to set. He was in so much trouble. Whenever his father showed up, he knew he was going to get punished. How bad was it going to be with Mr. Johnson?
"I'm Jay's legal guardian," he answered as he sat down next to him. He turned to look at Jay and surprise filled his face as he saw the bruises that covered him. Jay saw the look his mother would have when his father had beaten him. That look of concern and care. "Oh my," he breathed. "What happened here?"
"Mr. Garrick picked a fight with Walt Emmerson," the principal told him.
"What!?" he looked down at Jay and back at the principal.
"I did not!" Jay almost yelled. That's not what happened at all.
"That kid is a sixth-grader! That kid could have killed him!" he said, angered by the thought.
"Mr. Emmerson claims that he was talking with Toby when he was lunged at and Jay just started hitting him," the principal told his recount. "We were lucky to even pry him off of Walt, he was so latched on."
"No! No! He's lying! He's lying!" Jay told Mr. Johnson, panicked to the point where it almost took over.
"Wait, wait, wait," Mr. Johnson stopped the principal. "Now that doesn't make sense. Do you know how many meetings my wife has had with that family because of the bullying? Jay," he looked at him, a calm washing over him and would soon spread to Jay as well. "Tell me what happened."
"That kid started yelling at Toby. He came over and slapped his lunch out of his hand. I told him to leave Toby alone and went to get his sandwich. When I did, he kicked me to the ground and told me to say it again. I got up and told him to leave Toby alone. Then he punched me in the face and told me to make him. So I did," Jay explained as he looked down, thinking that this wouldn't matter in the end.
He waited for something to happen. He waited for the inevitable. It was inescapable at this point and he was so sure that something bad was going to happen. A large hand landed gently on his shoulder. He flinched as he closed his eyes waiting for the fingers to dig into his skin. He waited and waited but it never happened. The hand never moved. It never dug in. It never lifted and came down hard on him. It just stayed there as it held as gently as it was firm. Jay looked up at Mr. Johnson. He was talking with the principal at the moment. Jay would never remember what he actually said to the principal as all he could notice was the strong but sympathetic hand stayed right there the whole time. He couldn't remember a time where he felt like this before. Secure, sure, safe, while sitting next to someone like him.
"Come on Jay," he heard as Mr. Johnson removed his hand. He didn't say it like his father would have. It was like he was saying it in passing conversation. Jay got up from his seat and followed him. They went over to hook to get his coat and backpack.
They didn't talk as they walked to his hook. They didn't talk as Mr. Johnson put on his coat and grabbed his backpack. They didn't talk as they walked to Mr. Johnson's car or when he handed Jay his backpack as they hopped in their respective seats. They didn't talk as he drove them to a pier and parked in the parking lot. The two of them had been in a silence that Jay didn't know whether it was good or bad. He wasn't quite sure if he wanted to know.
"Come up here to the passenger's seat," Mr. Johnson told him, patting the seat next to him. Jay unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed into the seat without saying a word. "Open the glove compartment there," he told him. His words had been firm but they weren't scary like the teacher that yelled or the principal. He opened the hatch and inside were a bunch of mismatched items that had been shoved in over time. "There's some Swedish Fish in there, the yellow and blue thing. Hand me that," he said as he reclined his seat a little bit.
Jay found it easily and handed the unopened package to him. Mr. Johnson opened the bag and poured a few fish into his hand. He took Jay's hand and put the fish in his hand before pouring himself some. He took a bite of one and prompted Jay to do the same. He took a bite of the red gummy candy. It was really good. He'd never tasted anything like it before.
"Jay," Mr. Johnson started. Jay looked at him, giving him all his attention. "When I was a kid, I got into trouble. When something big happened and I got sent home from school, my father would take me to this big lake and would take me out in a small little boat and we'd go fishing. While we'd fish, we'd talk about what had happened. My dad knew that I wasn't trying to be trouble. He knew that I was a good kid that needed some help. The reason he'd take me out was so that it was just the two of us. So I could talk to him without the world listening in on us. It was our own little pocket of the world. I would have taken you out today but it's too cold so we're going to do this until it's warm enough to do the real thing." He paused his story so he could pour himself a few more fish and handed Jay a few more too.
"Jay, I know you're a good kid. I see it when you play with Toby, when you help Mrs. Johnson by setting the table for dinner, even when you say hello when I come home in the evening. I know that you want to be a good man one day too. Jay, I want to help you do that. I want to give you the tools you'll need to be what you already want to be. So I'm going to start today. I know what a bully Walt is. Mrs. Johnson and I have gone to many meetings to try and help stop him from bullying Toby. I'm not going to deny that sometimes I want to do exactly what you did today. I want to stand up to him and protect Toby and make him know how it feels. But when we start hitting and punching and kicking them, we are no better than they are. When we start doing what they do, soon we become bullies too. They are not good men. If we want to be good men, we can't act like the bad ones.
"When you see Toby being picked on, I want you to run tell a teacher. I want you to run tell an adult if you see something that shouldn't be happening. The adults are the ones that can stop those kids without doing things like bullies. The adults at school are there not only to teach you things but to help you when things are happening at school. Promise me you'll do that?" he asked him.
"Yes sir," Jay answered.
"Good man," he smiled at him. They shook hands like they did when he came home from work. He looked at the time before adding, "there is one more thing I want you to know. I am very proud of you for standing up to Walt for Toby. You were brave to tell that kid who was twice your size to back off. I still can't believe you're in as good of condition as you are." He took a minute to look at Jay with a look he'd never received from his father. He looked at him with so much pride and Jay couldn't help but smile back at him as the feeling washed over him in a warm air that wrapped him up tightly. "But, as brave as you are, a good man will call for help when just standing up isn't working. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"
"Yes sir," Jay nodded, still smiling. This time, Jay reached out his hand first.
Mr. Johnson looked confused for only a moment before a slightly different kind of smile spread across his face. "Good man," he told him as he shook his hand. Jay would swear that he almost saw tears in his eyes when he would tell the story to someone very special to him. Jay hopped back into his old seat and buckled in before Mr. Johnson drove them home with them both feeling the small but important change that had happened today. Jay would never forget this trip with Mr. Johnson. The lesson would be practiced a lot as time went on. Once in a very long while, it would land by the wayside but it was always gone back for in the end. For all the bad memories that would come, he would always remember the day Mr. Johnson told him what part of being a good man was.
This was also the day that Mr. Johnson started working on a project for Jay that would be one of the most treasured things he would ever possess.
Current Timeline, Caitlin Snow, 2014, Nine months after the Explosion
"What are you doing?" Caitlin asked Cisco as the song, Poker Face, started to fill the room.
"Barry likes this song," he answered with no regret.
"How could you possibly know that?" she asked him, annoyed with him and the song she did care for. There was no way he could know.
"I checked his Facebook page," he answered, happy to prove her wrong. "I mean the guy can still hear everything, right?"
"Auditory functions are the last sensory faculties to degenerate," she told him a little less annoyed than she did before. Cisco was walking over to the computer, singing parts of the song as she moved over to the table with her medical equipment on it.
Both were shocked as Barry Allen gasped and shot up like a rocket.
"Oohhh my gosh!" Cisco panted before the shock slipped away.
"He's up," Caitlin smiled. Barry was up. Barry was awake. She looked over to the bed next to him. Her smile faded a bit as she saw Jay was not having the same reaction as Barry. She shook her head as she grabbed some of her instruments. This was good news. Barry was awake so Jay could wake up soon too. She could focus on Barry for a minute and then when Jay woke up, she could focus on him.
Caitlin began the standard medical procedures while Cisco called up Dr. Wells. Barry Allen was not the most cooperative patient. He kept moving away as she tried to establish his baseline. She tried to get him to stay sitting down.
"Hey, hey, relax," Cisco told Barry as he tried to help Caitlin get him to stay seated. "You're at Star Labs."
"Star Labs?" Barry asked, sounding really out of it and not so scared. "Who are you?"
"I'm Cisco Ramon," he introduced himself and then her, "this is Caitlin, Dr. Snow."
She grabbed her next test, determined to get to the bottom of this sudden awakening. "I need you to urinate in this."
"Not this second," Cisco lightly swatted her hand and the cup down.
"Wait, wait, wait," Barry stopped them as he got off the medical bed. "What is going on?"
"You were struck by lightning dude," Cisco told him with a smile on his face.
Barry turned around confused and saw himself in the mirror. "Lightning… gave me abs?" he asked.
"Your muscles should be atrophied but instead they are in a chronic and an unexplained state of cellular regeneration," Caitlin told him as she moved over to him again to try and continue her examination but Cisco pulled him over to sit down in a chair. She really wished that the two of them would quit getting in her way. It was very important to figure all of this out because maybe figuring out all of this could help them wake up Jay faster.
"You were in a coma," Cisco started to explain to him.
"For how long?" he asked him
"Nine months," answered Dr. Wells as he entered the main area, unnoticed by all of them. "Welcome back Mr. Allen," he greeted him. "We have a lot to discuss." He turned to Cisco and asked, "Would you grab him a sweatshirt? We're going to go stretch his legs."
"No, I have to run more tests," Caitlin piped in as Cisco nodded and went to grab one for him. She had important work and all three of them were making it impossible to do her job. Barry was awake. That was great. It was, but she couldn't help look at the other cot in the cortex.
She needed to find out why and finally wake up Jay. He'd been in a coma for nine months and she had been sitting by his side for five of those months. Jay deserved to wake up. She promised him that he would wake up.
"Caitlin, the man is fine and I'm not taking him outside the building. He will be back and then you can do your tests," Dr. Wells told her as Barry put on the sweatshirt Cisco handed him.
"But," she tried to protest, unsuccessfully.
"He will be right back here in fifteen minutes," he told her firmly without raising his voice. With that, Barry and Dr. Wells were off as they exited further into the facility.
She sighed in frustration as she went back to the bed where her friend laid. She looked around to thankfully find Cisco had taken the opportunity to go and do something somewhere else. Not for the first time, she took one of Jay's hands in hers. She looked at his monitors and then back at him.
"Jay," she whispered to him. "If you can hear me, I need you to wake up. I've done everything I can to stabilize you so it's up to you now." she stopped to take in a short breath. She'd been battling with her worry for a while but right now she was beginning to lose. Tears were threatening to escape.
"Please," she begged him quietly before admitting. "I need you to come back. I don't know if I can handle losing anyone else." She moved one hand from him to wipe away the tears so close to breaking. Her hope was hanging by a thread so thin even a small gust of wind could break it.
Current Timeline, Jay Garrick, 2014, Nine Months and Four Hours after the Explosion
Jay's eyes slowly fluttered open as he started to wake up. His eyes were slow to focus but eventually, the room started to clear up. He didn't recognize the room he was in. He was definitely lying on a hospital bed with a matching one next to him. He was connected to a heart monitor. He wasn't wearing a shirt for some reason. That's when he noticed that he looked a little fitter than he was yesterday.
This was not a hospital. There were too many computers. It looked more like the command center of a spaceship. He got up slowly. All of his muscles were working well so he couldn't have been asleep for that long. He turned off the heart monitor and started walking towards a bigger area. There he saw Dr. Wells, Cisco Ramon, a guy with shortish brown hair and a lanky body, and the back of a woman with long brown hair. Had these people been taken here too? An alien abduction was starting to fit more and more.
"Excuse me?" he introduced himself politely. They all turned to see him. The woman turned around and to his surprise, it was Caitlin Snow. Her eyes widened and she grinned ear to ear. There was a visible weight that fell from her shoulders as she saw him. Some fell off of him too as he saw her familiar face.
"Jay," she gasped with so much happiness before she ran to him. She nearly knocked him over as she hugged him tightly.
"Caitlin," he greeted. A small laugh of surprise left him as he hugged his old friend back. It was nice. The last time they hugged was when they said goodbye back at graduation.
"You don't know how good it is to see you up and awake," she told him, practically laughing as she held him a little tighter somehow.
"Yeah, you too," he smiled down at her.
"Sorry, um, who is he? You look very familiar," the lanky kid asked, pulling them out of their reunion. Caitlin moved but kept one of her arms around his waist. He decided to keep one of his arms around her shoulders, just in case something happened and he lost consciousness again.
"Barry Allen," Dr. Wells addressed the kid, "this is Dr. Jay Garrick. An old friend of Dr. Snow's and like you, he also was struck by lightning the night of the particle accelerator."
"Hi," Jay gave a small wave. "It's nice to meet you all."
"Dr. Garrick knows us because we were his competition at Mercury Labs. Isn't that right?" Dr. Wells asked him.
"In my eyes, you were dedicated scientists out to help the world. Same as we are," he told him. "Actually I've been wanting to ask, where are we?"
"Oh, This is Star Labs," Caitlin answered him.
Well, that was good. It meant he was still on Earth. "Oh, neat," he said as he looked around the place. "So wait why am I here? I got struck by lightning. Why aren't I in a hospital?"
"I'll answer all your questions but first I want to run some tests and make sure that you're okay," Caitlin told him as she started to lead him back to where he had been when he woke up.
"Uh sure," he agreed as he walked with her. He sat down on the hospital bed as she gathered up her equipment. "So how long have I been out? A day? Two?"
"Actually, you've been in a coma for about nine months," she told him as gently as she could.
"Nine months?" he gasped. His hearing had to be off there was no way it had been….
"I'm afraid so yes," she confirmed as she continued taking his vitals.
"Oh my gosh," he breathed as the news sunk in. "I gotta call my foster parents and Toby. They must be freaking out right now."
"I promise you," Caitlin started, trying to calm him down to both get accurate measurements and to relax him. "You can call them when I'm done. This shouldn't take very long. I know what they mean to you. I just want to make sure that you'll be stable when you see them."
Jay knew everything she was saying made good sense. Besides, she was his friend. She would help him do what was best. "Okay," he finally said. He watched relief spread across her face. He watched her work for a little while as she examined him. Her smile was just as pretty as he remembered it to be. It had been so long since he last saw her. It was hard to say good-bye to her. He still remembered the words Zoom told him all those years ago. Find Caitlin Snow. She will help you. She will make you a man you can be proud of. At the time, it seemed mythical. Then he met her again in Junior High. They'd been very good friends but their lives went in different directions and so did they. Maybe now he could try again to be good friends with her. "It's weird seeing you again like this," he started.
"I know we haven't talked in so many years," she agreed with him.
"Yeah, I think that was a mistake," he told her.
"What do you mean?" she asked him. Her smile fading slowly away.
"I think I should have tried harder to stay in touch with you when we went off to college," he explained, wanting her smile to come back. "You were a really good friend. I've always regretted that we slipped through the cracks."
"I have too," she told him.
"Maybe, we could try again? This seems as good a time as any to me," he told her.
Her smile held something more than just happiness now. He thought he saw gratefulness mixed in now too. "I'd like that," she said, voice matching her expression. There was this peaceful air that floated around them. The two of them felt as if they were in this state of calm that had been eluding them for far too long.
"So tell me," he started. "Why am I here?"
"Yes! Right! So the night the particle accelerator exploded, it sent out this energy and we believe that it collided with you at the same time you were struck by lightning. When you were in the hospital, they were getting these power surges every time you went into cardiac arrest. But, it wasn't actually cardiac arrest, your heart was just beating so fast that the monitors couldn't pick it up and thought that there was no heartbeat. When we did find out about you, we brought you here, with the permission of your foster parents, so we could stabilize you while you were healing." she explained as best she could. "Your foster parents came around as much as they could. Toby came by as well a few times. It was nice to see them again. Your foster father had this book he would bring in with him."
"Was it, A Good Man?" he asked her, hoping it wasn't.
"Yeah," she grinned as she sat down on the other bed after finishing all her tests. "He would read it to you every time he came. I looked for it online but I couldn't find it."
"That's because he wrote it," he said as he shook his head, still smiling. "He started it after my first fight in second grade. He wrote down every lesson he ever taught me in that thing. He gave it to me as a graduation gift so I could take it with me."
"That sounds really wonderful," she told him as she thought of the stories she'd heard from his father. "Give me one minute. I have to put these samples in their analyzers."
"Sure thing," he said as she got up from her seat and took the tests to what he assumed was a genetics lab. After she placed everything in the correct machine, she started walking back towards him. Something on the floor caught her shoe; she was going to trip. He got up and started running to try and catch her even though he knew she was too far away. In the middle of his run, time suddenly seemed to slow down. Everything around him was almost on pause. He reached out to catch her and the minute he stopped running time returned to normal. She fell at normal speed into his arms instead of the floor.
Caitlin looked from him to the other room and back to him again. "How? How did you get all the way here from there? That's impossible. You would have to move faster than humanly possible," she said as she kept looking back and forth.
"I don't know," he told her as he set her back down on her feet. "I was running and then everything just kinda slowed down around me."
"Jay your hand!" she stopped him when she saw his hand was fuzzy like on an old tv screen.
"Woah!" Jay gasped as he jumped back. When he did, he was sent halfway across the other room. Caitlin stood in awe as she watched this unfold. This was definitely new. He looked at her, worry spread across his face. "Caitlin?"
"Relax, relax, Everything is going to be fine," she tried to tell him before he jolted into the wall. "Okay you gotta calm down," she tried again. "It looks like it's a result of your fear."
"Caitlin, this is getting really AH!" he gasped in pain as he practically ran himself into another wall.
She ran over to him and took his shoulders, "Hey, hey, I've got you. Okay?" she gripped him a little firmer as his breathing started to slow down. "You're going to be okay. I'm going to get Cisco and Dr. Wells and we're going to take a look at what's going on."
"Okay, okay," he started repeating as he tried to do as he told her.
"That's good," she told him as she watched his heart rate go down. "You're doing good."
"Hey guys!" The two of them watched as Barry Allen appeared after crashing into a wall. He picked himself up looking a little bruised before saying, "You'll never believe what just happened. I've got superspeed."
They looked at each other with a sudden understanding of what was going on. Jay had it too. Barry and Jay now had superspeed.