40

Stand Still

Brady followed Ryder into the doctor's office. Just a regular, ordinary doctor's office that was going to be as boring as all the other appointments he'd ever gone to. At least he was missing school for it, he reminded himself.

Though that wasn't necessarily a good thing, either. He needed to catch up on things with Leah and Alicia, especially since she got the papers back to Chief Paulson. Or, that's what he assumed. She hadn't said anything about it and Chief Paulson hadn't knocked down their door or anything. So they were in the clear, for the moment.

Brady looked around the office, shoving his hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt. He gazed at the other children that sat with their parents, all with their noses in their phones. Others were reading, some were craning their necks back like pigeons as they gazed blankly at the television where an episode of a boring home design show was on. But most had their heads in their phones, neck bent to resemble a question mark.

And Brady closely looked over each of their phones. Candy Crush, Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, every game he'd played in his own life. But then he saw a few that were a bit more suspicious. They sat hunched over their phones, wanting privacy to do…who knows what, while their parents sat right next to them. Brady peered closer, his curiosity getting the best of him.

It was like Dr. Allen had said, always stay curious. Always ask questions. And, at the moment, Brady's question of 'what are they hiding' was bigger than whether or not his shots would hurt. He watched them as the seconds passed, just two kids, a boy and a girl. A little older than him. Probably in their last year of middle school considering the small spots of acne that dotted the boy's chin and the smeared lip gloss on the girl's lips, her application shaky. He listened to what his mother said about watching everyone around him.

Not to scare him, but to make a point. You can easily see what the person is about and what their mannerisms are in within a few moments of watching. Enough to detect any danger that may be coming. Brady didn't think he was in any sort of danger in a doctor's office—then again, he thought the same about school—and continued to hover by Ryder as they waited for the receptionist to get to them.

He craned his neck, discreetly leaned back and forth to see what was on the cell phones that had them being so secretive. He'd heard it from school, heard it from his mom, "When you get older, you'll start to become more curious and look up certain things on the internet…" but he didn't think they'd be so bold as to do it in public. Finally, when the boy stretched his legs to the floor, unfolding himself from the knot he'd put himself into, Brady saw the account on screen.

The Instagram account he and Conner had made. They hadn't worked on it much, as of late, too much time figuring out what was going on with Savitar and Alchemy, so many birthdays and holidays and events coming around at once. He thrived on chaos, enjoyed the 'alternatively normal lifestyle' his mother gave him (as she called it) but sometimes he wished things would just slow down.

"Hey, buddy, it's our turn."

Brady obediently turned away from the targets of his stare and nodded up at his father when he heard his nickname from him. 'Bud' from his mom, 'Buddy' from his father. He wondered if they talked about that before he was born. Brady leaned against the counter, eyes shifting behind the smiling receptionist. Nothing too ordinary. Just boring things in all doctor's offices.

"Yes, how can I help you?" The receptionist asked.

"We have a 9:30 appointment with Dr. Hemsworth," Ryder explained. He nodded towards his son. "For Braden Nash."

"Alright, can I get your medical card and ID?" The receptionist asked. Her voice was as pleasant as ever. Brady looked at her and she smiled sweetly. He smiled back, his smile staying up for a second, then wilted. Something wasn't quite right. He didn't know what it was, but something was going on. "Okay, and can you tell me your address?" Ryder rattled off his own address. The receptionist looked it up through her computer and made a low humming sound, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, I can't find that address."

Ryder's eyes narrowed. "The last time I was here, y'all took my information just fine," he explained.

"I'm sorry, sir, but it's not coming up in our records. Is there another address you can provide for us?" Brady looked around the room, at the fidgeting line behind them.

"Well, he lives with his mother," Ryder explained slowly. He blinked twice. Almost as if stunned by the push back. Brady had been on construction sites with his father enough times to know that everyone he worked with respected him and didn't talk back unless they felt something was dangerous. Brady looked at his father, noticing his blue eyes flickered down his own attire—boots, jeans, a t-shirt, nothing too out of the ordinary but combined with the reference of his relationship status with Brady's mother and it was enough to bring some judgement. "I bet it'd be under that."

The receptionist's peculiar expression didn't change. Brady suddenly felt annoyed and defensive. How many kids had divorced parents? How many people had parents who weren't, legally, together? Why did she have to be so judgmental about it?

"May I have that address, please?"

Ryder rattled it off and waited, extending his hand to drum his fingertips on the counter top. The sound filled the waiting room, causing the tension to rise further. Even Brady wanted nothing more than to turn on his heels and run.

The receptionist tapped it into the computer, nodding as she did so. Then she leaned back, eyelids twitching, and nodded. She turned to Ryder and smiled. "That one's worked just fine."

"Great, we have everything we need then." Ryder started to turn away.

"We do have one more piece of verification that needs to be done." In a flash, the receptionist whipped out a half sheet of paper filled with the same information that was on his medical card—that Brady could see—with a box sectioned in half. One side had a sticker filled with medical jargon Brady didn't understand, and the other side was empty. She reached under the counter and grabbed a box of ink. "Please press your finger into this, Brady."

Brady shrugged and reached out to do as he was told, though a warning signal went off in the back of his mind—danger, don't do it—the receptionist grabbed his wrist and practically forced his thumb into the ink and then onto the paper. Brady reacted with surprise at her aggression, accidentally phasing. Her hand dropped through his, creating a low 'thunk' on the table. It was that sound that grabbed Ryder's attention through the few second interaction.

He looked at Brady, who looked back at him with wide eyes, then at the receptionist, then at the ink box and the finger print that was now on the page. "What the hell is that?" He demanded.

The receptionist sat up straight, bringing her hands to her lap. She looked Ryder in the eye, unfillable to the flinty expression that came to his face. His expression was almost carved out of granite, a rare sight for Brady. So much so he was glad his mother was the disciplinarian of the two. He couldn't imagine how angry Ryder could become if he weren't seeing it for himself.

"A fingerprint."

"I can see that. I want to know why y'all have his fingerprint on that sheet of paper."

The receptionist blinked but continued to hold the smile on her face. The other children with their parents started to crane their necks, looking to see what the commotion was. Brady looked at them then back to Ryder, confused, but knowing something was wrong. "For the same reason we have to ensure the address and medical ID matches to the patient."

"You think I'm going to try and bring another kid in with me? What's that going to do?"

"You'll be surprised how many parents bring in their children to take advantage of the healthcare system."

"Well, I'm not here to do that. I'm here for my son to get some shots that his school authorized him to receive. Now, I want his fingerprints off that sheet! Tear it up if you have to!"

"I'm sorry, sir. I can't do that."

"Like hell, you can't!"

"Sir, we need it to authorize—"

"—I don't give a damn what y'all need to authorize," Ryder spat. "You didn't authorize it with me."

The receptionist pushed her glasses up her nose. She slowly stood up to face Ryder, keeping her hands pressed to the counter top. "I understand you're upset about this Mr…" she glanced at his ID. "Moseley," she finished. Ryder scoffed. "But I must ask you to stop using such profane language when you're speaking to me. As it is, this is a new procedure that has been put in place due to those taking advantage of the healthcare system. I don't like it any more than you do,"—Brady seriously doubted that, the receptionist looked like she was having a good time telling Ryder off—"but it is a policy that needs to be followed. If you haven't brought your child in with you to previous appointments, I can understand how you didn't know about this. But there haven't been any complaints from any of the other parents."

At the same time, Brady and Ryder turned to the reception area. All eyes immediately turned away from them, busying themselves in their phones, books, magazines, anything that would keep them from looking at the disturbance going on.

Brady watched as the two older kids looked at him, then looked away, then would look at him over the tops of their phones. He wasn't sure what they were trying to say, if they were saying anything.

"I want. His fingerprints. Off," Ryder said in such a slow, calm manner that Brady wondered if he'd been spending a lot of time with Oliver. Both of them managed to make a chill go down his spine; Oliver with his overall gruffness as being the Green Arrow, though he—just barely—held restraint when working with the young boy.

"And they'll be taken off, as soon as he receives his shots," the receptionist insisted.

Ryder shifted his lower jaw to the side. He sucked in a breath through his nose, then let it out. Without a backwards glance, he grasped Brady's shoulder and directed him to the empty seats in the far corner of the receptionist area. Brady lowered himself into the seat next to his father and looked up at him, watching as he pressed his hands to his face and scrubbed at the skin with his fingertips. If it were Barry, he would've been more diplomatic, maybe even stammered a bit while trying to wrap his head around everything.

But Barry wasn't Ryder and Ryder wasn't Barry. Their differences and similarities were like apples and oranges. Barry was soft, gentle, helpful, friendly, willing to do everything for his friends. Ryder was outgoing, rough around the edges, charismatic, and believed the amount of hard work someone showed was a testament to their true person. Barry enjoyed the sciences, Ryder enjoyed sports. Barry liked to sit back and watch Netflix, Ryder liked to go out and have a beer with his friends. Barry was introverted. Ryder was extroverted.

And even with those differences, Brady at least knew they both had his best interest at heart. Without powers, Ryder did his best to protect him, even though Brady had no idea what he was being protected from. Something wasn't right, he could see that. But…It's a doctor's office, how bad can it be? He thought.

"Dad, are you okay?" Brady finally ventured to ask.

Ryder lowered his hands form his face, but brought them up to rub his neck. He pressed his fingertips into his pressure points, letting out a low groan. "Yeah, buddy, I'm alright," he said. He must've noticed Brady's skeptical look because he added, "I've been better, but I'm alright." He turned in his seat to look at his son closely. "What about you?"

Brady shrugged. "I'm okay." He rubbed his fingertips together, working to take out the stain of the ink on him. "I guess."

"You guess?"

"I don't know what's wrong. She just wanted my fingerprints." Ryder looked at him for a long moment, unblinking. Then he shook his head and turned away. "What?"

"Nothing, buddy." Ryder rubbed at his eyes, stretching out in his seat. "I'll tell you when you're older."

Brady sighed a sigh that rivaled coughing up a lung. Offended. How many more times was he going to hear it? I'll tell you when you're older. I'll tell you when you're older. "I hate it when people say that. I keep getting older, but no one tells me anything."

"Believe me, buddy, you know more than a lot of kids your age do." Ryder lowered his voice, but didn't opened his eyes. "Especially when it comes to this meta stuff."

Brady turned his gaze to the floor. He looked around the waiting room and thought about what happened. Something about it, something about the way he reacted to his fingerprints being taken clearly had something to do with being a meta. Ryder didn't hate it, exactly. There wasn't much he could do about it, but Brady knew he hated to look at the news and know he was out there helping Barry and his mom when the time came.

He sucked in a deep breath, pushing down the thoughts of Breathtaker that immediately sprang to mind. His hands started to shake. Knees bounced up and down. Fingertips tingled. Brady swallowed hard, ran his hands over his face. Memories flashed through his head.

A hand over his mouth.

Being forcibly pulled from bed.

Walking aimlessly out of the apartment, with no control over his body.

Images of his mother's dead body in front of him, images of his mother saying he was a mistake, images of his mother attacking him, saying he ruined her life. Things that weren't true, things that hadn't truly happened. Things that he'd thought he'd forgotten.

"Braden Nash?" Brady looked up when he heard his name. A nurse waited in the doorway to the office. She smiled sweetly when Brady stood up and started toward the door. Ryder followed him. "Hi Brady, how are you today?"

"Fine." He swallowed hard, caught his breath. "Better now."

"Now?" The nurse looked at him, tilting her head to study him closely. Brady looked back at her. Something about her was very familiar. He just couldn't quite put his finger on it. "Is everything alright?"

"We just had a bit of an argument with your receptionist and her ways of determining what is and isn't imperative to ID'ing a patient," Ryder said, folding his arms.

"Oh, you mean Jackie Hollowell," the nurse replied. She closed the door behind them and motioned for Brady to take off his shoes and step on the scale. He did as he was told, watching the numbers climb. "We call her 'the Jackal'. She can be a bit heavy handed with our policies."

"A bit?" Brady asked, before Ryder could. The nurse smiled. "I can see why you call her Jackal. Her smile is all teeth." He jumped down from the scale and pressed his back against the wall, waiting for the slab to lower down to capture his height. When it was recorded, he eagerly stepped aside and looked at the numbers.

"Wow, you're really shooting up there, buddy," Ryder commented, looking at the numbers himself.

"Looks like you're getting some shots today," the nurse said, looking over her clipboard. "I hope you're not still scared of them. I seem to remember you kicked and screamed so hard your mother had to bribe you with copious amounts of chocolate." She laughed as Brady's confusion deepened. "Tell her Corinne Bloom says 'hi'."

Harrison placed his palm against the cool, metallic wall of the empty hallway. He removed his hand and stepped back, careful not to let any appendages get too close to the slots on the wall that opened. He looked over his shoulder at Maya and Tess. The former gaped at the opening in the wall while Tess clasped her hands behind her back, waiting for the room to reveal itself.

"You have hidden rooms in here, too?" Maya asked. Her jaw dropped, and her arms slouched, nearly dropping the expensive purse that dangled off her arm to the ground. She looked at her two best friends before turning her gaze around to the walls of the hallway. She stepped back and ran her hand along one wall, before rapping her knuckles against it. "How is that possible? You already have eight floors of technological advancement. Is this a panic room or something? You know, Kent and I had one built in our mansion but, thankfully, we've never had to use it."

"It's not a panic room, it's a time vault," Harrison explained.

"A what?"

"Time Vault," Tess replied. She brushed her hand over Maya's shoulder, motioning for her to enter the spacious room. The lights flipped on, blinding Maya for a few seconds. She blinked rapidly, working to move the spots from her eyes. "We didn't call it that, Cisco came up with the name."

"A name I think could use a change, but I digress," Harrison said. He pushed back the sleeves of his black sweater and folded his arms. "I got out-voted when naming STAR Labs, and Cisco is the resident namer around here."

"But what is it?" Maya asked.

Harrison spread his arm around the room. The brightly lit room that, to Maya, looked like an interior decorator had decided that ping-pong balls were to make an interesting texture, didn't look to be too exciting in some way. What was so special about a room. "This is the room Eobard Thawne operated out of when he was still within my body," Harrison explained. "And is the room he used to run surveillance on Barry before and after he became The Flash."

"From in here?" Maya asked. "Oh." She understood then, the implications. How wrong it was. How utterly…devious. Thinking there was someone who was working with them, but was working against them the whole time. That's exactly how things with Cadence worked out, Maya thought. She briefly wondered if it was something that ran in the family.

"Yes, it was a very difficult time for us all," Harrison said. He slid his hands into the pockets of his slacks and strode into the middle of the time vault. Tess followed his movements. "And it's something, honestly, I don't think Barry will ever get over."

"There aren't many things that people can come back from and betrayal is definitely one of them," Tess agreed. She motioned Maya to move closer to herself and her husband. "But he has a strong team around him to keep him grounded. And now that he's so concerned about the future, there's something we need to show you." She looked Maya in the eye. "Do you remember the last time we spoke about Breathtaker?"

Maya nodded.

Maya's hands shook as she handed the papers Tess had given to her back across the desk. Tess took them and set it aside. She looked up at Harrison, who stood beside her, watching Maya's face closely. He lowered his chin and said, "I know this is really hard for you to hear, Maya. Knowing we kept it from you for so long."

"No, it's not that," Maya whispered. She cleared her throat and folded her arms, pulling her purse tighter against her body. "I understand how…how you guys needed to operate. Things had to be kept a secret. For…for our safety." She took in a shuddering breath. "Just as…as I'm sure Kent understood considering he kept his illness a secret. I just can't help but think—"

"—Had you known sooner you may have treaded lightly?" Harrison asked. "How you would've made different decisions. Done your best not to isolate and keep others away? I understand how all that feels as they're decisions I've made and have continued to make as the years tick by. Sometimes I feel it's something that I'd change if I had the ability to go back in time but I can't. And we've seen what's happened once Barry has done the same. Who knows how our future would've been impacted."

Maya took in another deep breath. "How did it happen?"

Tess reached out her hand and placed it atop of Harrison's wrist. The small, peculiar smile never left his face as he took in a breath and revealed the truth. "Eobard Thawne, just like he'd done to Barry Allen, made Cadence a metahuman long before she was to be one. Tess and I were to have made STAR Labs years in the future, where Barry would've become struck by lightning and become The Flash in his thirties. That same wave of dark matter would've been released and caused Cadence to turn into a metahuman. Instead, Eobard Thawne traveled back in time, inhabited my body, and made it so that STAR Labs was built sooner, thus making Barry a speedster sooner. However, he'd known there was another metahuman that would be as much of a formidable foe in the future."

"Cadence?" Maya asked. Her eyes darted towards the papers she'd relinquished her grip on. She didn't know much about science but DNA images direct from STAR Labs's database didn't lie.

Tess nodded.

"So much so that he deemed to also make her a metahuman long before she was meant to be. He forced me to inject her with dark matter to supplement her with the powers that would then change her DNA. Thus making it so that any children she bore would have the metahuman gene as well."

"Why?" Maya asked.

Harrison took a deep breath. "Because of Breathtaker."

"There are more things that we need to tell you about Breathtaker, especially now that he's told our team what it is he truly wants," Tess said.

"I don't understand." Maya rubbed at her eyebrows. All these secrets and the 'underground life' of being a metahuman was really starting to make her head spin. She wondered how they were able to keep it all straight let alone a secret from most of the world. Maya felt a swell of pride for not just Cadence and Brady but for Cisco, Caitlin, Wally, Jesse, Harrison and Tess as well. And now that she was being pulled more and more into the world, having aided in the advertisement for STAR Labs even before its inception, it was only a matter of time until she truly learned what went on. "You told me that—"

"—I told you Barry and Cadence were made into metahumans much sooner than they were suppose dto be," Harrison explained. "All because of Eobard's changing of the timeline, wanting to get revenge on Barry."

"Because of Breathtaker," Maya agreed. She worked hard to remember what exactly she had been told. It was hard to keep everything straight. "He's someone they want to keep from taking over the world. Like they do with every speedster that comes out each May." Harrison and Tess exchanged amused smiles. "I understand that. But what I don't understand if why?"

Harrison lowered his head. His eyes squeezed shut behind his glasses, as if warding off unfortunate, painful thoughts. Maya watched him for a long moment. Finally, Harrison lifted his head and took in a breath. "From what I've seen with the mind-meld between me and Eobard I was able to discern that Breathtaker, in Eobard's version of the future, would've enslaved the world."

Maya gaped at him.

"Metas were taken from their homes, ripped from their families, ripped of their lives and very essence—"

Maya blinked quietly. She tried to wrap her head around it. Essence? What sort of essence did metahumans have that others didn't? It was times like these she wished Kent was around, he was able to figure things like that out better than she could. Maybe due to her more naïve view of the world. She was slowly starting to understand why Cadence was so short with her sometimes. "You mean, they would've kept the metas from being able to use their powers?"

"Not just keep them from using their powers" Harrison said. "Remove them completely. Experiment on metahumans to ensure it was a possibility and then execute when possible. They first used the so called 'cure' on those they deemed to be threats to national security."

"The goal is to return all metahumans to humans so that he would be the only one to rule them all," Tess explained. "A God."

"But Breathtaker has said he wants to make sure the metas come to power," Harrison said, speaking Tess's unasked question out loud. "'In this timeline, in this time that is exactly what he intends to do. He will bring the metahumans to power and then, slowly, he'll take over, becoming a supreme ruler to the world. The Flash will go missing in crisis…and Breathtaker will enslave the world."

"What does that have to do with Cadey? Or Savitar? Eobard made her a meta sooner, what was to happen to her in the future?"

Harrison was silent for a long moment. He cleared his throat and when he spoke again, his words were gruff with emotion. "She was to be a formidable foe to Breathtaker's plans, stopping them at every turn. Until she couldn't. She wasn't to make it that far. In the future…the original future…she's murdered."

Maya gasped quietly. There was always a possibility of it happening, but to have it confirmed was tougher to grasp. "By who?"

"By those that deem her resistance network to be a threat against national security," Harrison explained.

Maya gazed at him. Resistance Network? Despite not knowing if that future was going to come true or not, despite not knowing how Barry's traveling to create Flashpoint did to affect the future, Maya felt a twinge of pride for her daughter. Since she was old enough to start working, and practically threw a tantrum when her parents hesitated on the idea in the first place, Cadence never held a job for more than a year. There were the same excuses: "It wasn't fun", "my bosses were mean", "my co-workers sucked", "it didn't pay enough", "I didn't like it". But to know she would be doing something that great…?

Harrison pulled off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. "She's taken from her home and beaten to death. A private metahuman registry was created from a database of DNA obtained from fingerprint scans, crime scenes, and other such tasks of illegally obtaining information. It is then, eventually, sold to world governments. Cadence's resistance was making great strides to taking those in power and convicting them and they murder her."

"What does that have to do with now?" Maya asked.

"Well, there are more things we need you to know now that you're becoming more integrated with Team Flash and the goings on in Central City," Tess said. She looked at Maya seriously. "With Lex Luthor's presidential campaign, there are things we need you to bring back to Metropolis as there are those in power there who are trying to push forward on the segregation of metahumans and humans."

She nodded to Harrison, who extended his hand, hovering his palm over a white pedestal in front of him. A blue light emanated and scanned the palm of his hand. In seconds, the light flashed and faded, before a face warped out of thin air in front of the three.

"Hello Harrison Wells," Gideon greeted him. "Hello Tess Morgan. Hello Maya Nash. What can I do for you?"

"Gideon, show us the future."

"Certainly, Dr. Wells."

Gideon's face was then replaced by a massive newspaper article. The title: The Flashes Missing In Crisis, headlined by Iris West and showed an up close and personal shot of Barry's face in his mask, charging towards the camera that was taking the picture of him. Maya silently read the newspaper article. Read about the fight with Eobard Thawne and how Barry will disappear in 2024. Only in seven short years.

Brady would be 19 then.

She could hardly wrap her head around it.

"What else do you notice?" Tess gently pressed.

Maya's eyes roved over the newspaper, bouncing off the names she recognized and others she didn't. Flash. Green Arrow. Hawkgirl. The Atom. The Reverse-Flash. Vibe. Shadowhunter. Killer Frost. Geo. She didn't see Cadence's name in there.

"I don't see Cadey in there," Maya remarked.

"There's also mention of the Anti-Metahuman Act," Tess said tonelessly.

"Which goes into practice in 2021," Harrison said.

Tess frowned. "So…everything they're doing now. It doesn't matter. This is all going to happen."

"Not necessarily, this is just one of the many possible futures that coul come to pass," Harrison explained. He jabbed his finger into the air. "'It says the Anti-Metahuman Act doesn't go into practice until 2021. It doesn't many any mention of Lex Luthor, doesn't make any mention of his presidential campaign."

"Which means?" Maya asked.

"Which means we have a lot of work to do," Tess said.

A/N: Whew, chapter 40. That's a feat I'm equally excited for and slightly frustrated for. I hadn't anticipated the story getting this long but there was a lot of things I needed to touch upon. I'm glad you guys are still sticking around with the start of the last arch of the story.

Cheers,

-Riley

Review Replies

DarkHelm145: Does this count as going to hell? Lol. I hope you enjoyed and now have plenty to think about.

Ethan: Barry has matured a bit, that much is true. But it's definitely not something that's easy for either of them. As for Barry stumbling through the name thing, they really do have a 'messed up' family tree. Cade is connected to nearly every major family by the time they get married. And her realization is exactly thought I had when I figured it out. But, yes, it's something I haven't touched upon a lot, where she fits in with Barry's family as Barry has usually needed to fit in with hers.