March 1.

Ralph carried the last box into the apartment that Sue and himself settled into. It wasn't fancy nor was it cheap, a balance between the two. The two even joked that it was almost exactly like Carrie Bradshaw's apartment from Sex and the City, minus that there was a walled in bedroom between the bedroom and living room. Other than that the layout and coloring was like Carrie's.

"Last box!"

Sue bedroom organizing her side of the closet with her stuff. "Okay!"

Ralph had stacked the last of his boxes in the living room and fell in the couch exhausted. He hated moving. He loved this moving—living with one of his best friends whom not only did he consider one of his best friends, a best companion and someone he had fun with on a daily basis but with his best that he loved and adored in every way he never thought. Yes, Caitlin said he was built for love. He still doubted it at times. But with Sue she made it clear.

Speaking of the devil Sue leaned forward and faced down so her forehead was against his forehead. "What? Tuckered already?"

"We're on the tenth floor. I knew we should had waited until it was darker out so I could elongate and save time."

"I'll ask Barry next time for the help." She smiled. Yes, Sue finally figured it out. Barry as Flash, Caitlin as Frost and Cisco and former hero Vibe. How? Smarts (Really; Barry's jawline, Caitlin seeming to go away just as Frost appears and vise verse, Cisco and Vibes hair). She never told them the way she found out. "It'll be a quickie."

He knew it was a joke but that didn't stop Ralph from pulling her further down and lip kissing with her passionately. They pulled away but their nose tips stayed. "I'll show you a quckie."

She shook her head. "Next time. Z called me and needs help putting together something for work."

Ralph's heart skipped a beat but not in a good way. "Sure. Does she need anymore help? I'm not doing anything right now."

"No. She's good for now. See you later."

He waited until she was out of the apartment and an extra five minutes to give her time to get out of the area. Ralph leaned forward and rubbed his temple as his wondered into uncharted areas that he hasn't visited since high school.

No way. There was no way Sue was cheating on him. Absolutely no way she was doing that. She was quick and mysterious but Ralph had two steps ahead of her. Goodness! Back in January he figured out what Sue was doing for his birthday that was coming up in a couple of days (A set of clues that would keep him busy throughout the city all day until 8PM when the surprise party began at Cisco's apartment). But lately she's been super secret about something.

She generally had some excuse to go out on Saturday afternoons. Every Saturday afternoon. Whether it was something to do with her friend, some late minute work meeting, having to go into work to catch up on a couple of hours that she somehow missed during the week. He's played it off as Sue trying to throw an ultimate surprise party for him but every Saturday was needed for it?

No way she was cheating on him. Sue Dearbon is upfront and honest. Sneaky, but honest. Maybe tonight he will talk with her and see if he can catch anything she says.

He began piling his own stuff away on his side of the closet. Jackets, shirts, fancy pants, shoes under where his pants hung. Regular shirts and pants into the pull out drawers. He placed the empty boxes on the top shelf for now but the last box wouldn't fit into his shelf. He turned behind him and saw there was enough room on Sue's shelf to fit the box, for now. He started to place and push the empty box onto the shelf when all of a sudden the blue-purple box fell to the ground—its contents flying on the floor and spreading out. "Crap." He said. He got onto his knees and began pilling the papers together and organize them into one pile. He placed them back into the box and then brought it back up, placing the box above his own box.

Four Hours.

Sue came back to the apartment to find it empty. She had heard on a neighbors police radio about a large hostage situation at one of Central City's largest university funding banks so she had a general idea about where Ralph could be at the moment. She hung up her jacket, kicked off her boots and made her way quickly to the bathroom to drown ants. Graphic way to explain but she had to go. She noticed that Ralph placed his stuff. "Oh good. He's finished."

She came out a few minutes later and grabbed her stool to grab one of her boxes from the shelf where she stored her secret snacks from Ralph. If there was one candy they both fought over it was Roll-O candy. She stepped on the stool to take her pink box when she noticed the change. Her purple-blue box was now above one of Ralph's brown boxes.

She turned blossom pink. Pale scared and aggressive red. "Dibny!" She shouted.

"Yes?"

Sue twisted too fast that she lost her standing and fell. Ralph's elongated arms caught her just in time before she smacked into the floor. "Ralph!"

Uh oh. Ralph. She was angry. "Yes?" He asked again.

Sue stood up and gawked an angry expression at her hero suit boyfriend. "Did you look in my box?"

"No."

"Then why is it right there now?" She pointed to the box. "Why?"

He saw which box and said, "Oh. I had to put one of my boxes on the shelf but accidentally knocked that one down. A bunch of papers fell out. Don't worry, I got them back into the box."

She breathed heavy. "Did you read the papers?"

"No."

"Positive?" She expressed anguish.

That was new to him. "Sue, I wouldn't look in your boxes for any reason." He observed her and saw that this Sue wasn't the Sue he always knew. This Sue was the same one he had seen on her birthday. But the sensation he felt now and then was the same. There was a secret she hid and he felt like it was eating her up inside, killing her energy. "Annie, what's wrong?"

Sue shook her head. Come on, don't cry! "No. I'm good. That's just an important box."

He called her on it. Ralph took his mask off and made direct eye contact with her deeply. "What's eating you?"

The witty woman replied, "Noone yet." UGH! You cringy bitch! "I apologize. I just had a whack Saturday. Z was driving me nuts with everything."

"Z?"

"Yes. Z. Remember? I was with her all day today."

Ralph made a face at her. A funny, awkward face. "You left your cell phone here. She called it three times and then finally called me at the two hour mark that you were gone."

"So?"

"She wanted to tell you about this gig she's got from May until August. Wanted to know if you'd collect her mail for her and just let her know if there's a bill that needs to be paid. But that isn't important to me right now," His words came out as broken as a vase. "You lied to me."

"Not like I hadn't before."

The urge it took Ralph to not roll his eyes at her was more powerful than DeVoe draining his energy from him. "You mean before or after being together like now?"

"Oh come on Slick. It's nothing shitty. What do you think I'm doing? Going out with someone else?"

"No. But you've been acting a lot different for the past couple of weeks. There's something off about that."

Sue denied it. She didn't say it aloud, but she denied it. Instead she turned around and stomped her way into the bathroom, slamming the door shut. She could hear Ralph's footsteps coming to the door and she just paused at the closed door waiting for the next move. Nothing. He stopped at the door and tapped it several times. "Sue? You want to talk about something that's bothering you?" Sue didn't say anything back to him. She twisted herself to the bathroom shower-tub and blasted the knobs all the way.

He knew she was going to be in there for a while. Sue was the kind to plan her pajamas for the night out in the morning (same with her clothes for the next day) so he stretch behind him to where he knew she had placed them, brought them forward and settled them on the doorknob of the bathroom.

For the first time when she got into this mood, she didn't cry. She sat in the tub just in her own thoughts as the water fell over her. Debating whether to tell him now or wait. Now felt right, but she personally felt...wrong? The papers for the apartment were signed so the next three-hundred-sixty-five days Sue lived here but what if, after she told him, he didn't want her anymore?

What if he didn't want used up goods?

By the time her toes and fingers were prunes Sue figured it all out. She trusts him with her words. "Come on Sue." She told herself. "Charlotte said it. It's going to have to get out at some point if this is where the direction of your life is going with him."

Ten minutes later with her hair semi-dried, teeth brushed and in pajamas Sue came out of the bathroom hearing the television on the Mysteries & Crimes Unsolved channel. She sauntered over to the couch and surprised Ralph, a bowl of popcorn on his lap. "Love you."

"Love you too."

"I meant the popcorn, Slick." Sue grabbed a handful for herself and began picking with her free hand. "So, who'd you bust?"

"Elmer Terranceson? Monologues at us for, like, five minutes while Cisco deactivated his wheely-spinny electrical weapon." Ralph wrapped his arm around her as Sue took a seat next to him and planted a kiss on the top of her head. "What's on your mind, Annie?"

Annie. Gosh, its such a nauseatingly amazing nickname. Nothing I'd ever expect as a nickname! She didn't sit up from leaning on his shoulder but kept her focus on the screen. "So...there is something I've got to tell you. It's something that lead up to me having to find anything on Carver to blackmail him into stopping his blackmail against my parents." She inhaled deeply, held it for ten seconds then slowly breathed out. "I was raped."