After the small talk Danielle had with her former husband, she decided it was going to be a better idea to stay away from him for a while. After all, she now had a family to attend and she couldn't waste any time in other stuff. And even if this was new to her, she was slowly getting used to be a part time doctor and part time a mother and wife.
Her patients back at the hospital were not so hard to know, in fact, they were very similar to the patients she used to treat back in her old life. And she was relief about it, there was not much papers to read and sort.
"May I?" The door to her office opened and from the other side, James emerged holding a bag on his hands. Danielle nodded as she stood up and he walked to her, kissing her. "Brought you some coffee and donuts."
"That's very nice— "But before she could continue talking, James took a hold of her arm and pinned her to the near the wall, her arm being held behind her back by the man. "James, what the hell are you doing?"
"Who are you and what have you done with my wife?" The man asked in a rather angry tone of voice, hurting her arm even more.
"What are you talking about? Have you gone mad?"
"My wife despises donuts." With his free hand, James reached out to his coat's pocket and pulled the storage case from her contact lenses. "And I found this. Danielle doesn't use contact lenses of her own eye color."
The redhead sighed, closing her eyes as her forehead leaned in the wall. "I can explain. Just let me go, will you?"
James didn't seem convinced enough but he eventually let go of her and backed away. Danielle motioned him to sit on the chairs in front of her desk as she leaned on the edge of it. "This is not an easy story to tell, even more because I'm not sure you will believe it."
"I just want to know what is going on."
Danielle nodded and took a deep sigh. "You're right, I'm not your wife. Or at least not the one you know. I come from other…timeline. A timeline where my mother was murdered by a speedster when I was a teen, my father was sent to prison for her murder and I grew up in a foster home with my brother."
She stopped for a second to see his confused reaction. She knew this was hard to explain but even harder to understand, but he deserved the truth. "I know it's hard to believe, I know it might be confusing to you but trust me, it's not. My brother was in an accident two years ago that gave him speed and in my time, he is known as The Flash. Recently our father died as well, another evil speedster made me kill him and we couldn't take another loss so Barry and I decided to go back in time to stop our mother's murder and finally have our family back together."
"Turns out that we succeeded and here we are. Our lives are the same but different in some aspects. Both our parents are safe and alive, I am married to you and have three gorgeous children, Barry is still a CSI…well, you get the idea. But not only our lives were changed. We used to have a team with other two friends to help The Flash stop whatever threat came into the city. Caitlin Snow, our kids' eye doctor, was part of that team she was a Bio-engineer. Now her life here is way different."
James was silent for a moment taking in everything she has told her. It was hard to believe it all, it seemed like something impossible to happen. But then again, there was nothing impossible in this city. "How can I be sure you're not lying?"
The redhead knew he would probably doubt her, even she would doubt herself. But her best way of proving him it was real was to show the real her. So walking to the mirror, Danielle took her green contacts to let her violet eyes out.
"I myself am a meta. A man used me as an experiment and gave me this…abilities." While talking, she used her telekinesis to move one of the pens on her desk and make it float all the way to James. "I can move things with my mind, I can see and hear people's thoughts, I can also make them do what I want them to."
"It's real." She heard James whisper really low. "So if you just got here, that means you don't know me?"
Danielle lowered her head. "I'm afraid you, as well as the kids, are new to me. I looked into your mind the first day we 'met' and was able to gather some memories, but they're just that to me. I wasn't exactly here to live those moments."
"This is crazy." His hand moved through his hair before standing up and going to her. "But you love me, don't you? You say you saw my thoughts so you know you love me."
Danielle smiled a bit, her hand moving to his cheek. "I do, James. I know this might be new to me and there's still things I yet don't know. All I'm asking is for your help to understand them."
"Don't worry, we'll work something out." He said as he placed a kiss on her forehead and glanced at the clock on the wall. "For now, it's almost time for you to pick the kids. You always arrive 10 minutes before the bell rings and since today is Monday, you take them to your mother's house. She always makes their favorite meal."
"I'll get on that then." Danielle was about to walk away when she turned back and kissed the man. "Thank for understanding."
James simply winked at her and watched the woman leave. She noticed how she took the bag he brought and couldn't help but chuckle before closing the door to the office and going back to his own.
In the other hand, Danielle arrived just in time at the school, being the first car on the line to pick the kids up. She decided to exit the car and drink her coffee as she waited. To her surprise, another car arrived shortly after her and the woman driving it decided to step out of it, waving at Danielle as she walked to her.
"Hey, you." The blonde woman said with a big smile. Danielle couldn't help but feel confused on to who she was, but played along. "Whoa, it's been a while since I saw you drinking coffee."
"I'm getting old and the cold is starting to affect me." She joked and the other woman laughed.
"As long as you don't lose your humor, it's fine." The blonde answered as she glanced at the clock. "Are we still on for dinner later today? Girls night!"
Danielle raised an eyebrow. "How about we change it for some other night? I'm going to help mom with something and don't think I'll make it in time." She lied.
"Oh, sure. Just let me know when. You know how difficult it is to get Mark to take care of the kids." The blonde nudge Danielle and she simply faked chuckled with a nod.
To her luck, the door of the school finally opened and the teachers began to call on the radio for the kids that needed to be picked up. Nora was the first one to exit, followed by her two brothers behind. After Danielle made sure they were all set, she took off toward her parent's house and asked her kids about their day.
It was a surprise when Danielle found that her parents were not alone, Barry was in the house visiting…or what looked more like a serious talk. His face bright up when he took a glance at the kids, but Nora and Henry's face only showed concern.
"I didn't know you were coming here." Danielle casually said to her brother, trying to sound surprise even if she was not.
"I was going to talk to them…about everything." Barry as well tried to act casual since the kids were too young to be involved in this.
"Mommy, is that uncle Barry?" The little girl, Nora, asked as she stepped closer to Barry.
"Yes, sweetie. That's uncle Barry." Danielle gave Barry a nod as he kneeled to get a better look at the girl.
"Hi uncle Barry." Nora said with a shy smile. "I like your eyes."
Barry couldn't help but chuckle. "Have they ever told you that you look exactly like your mom? Specially with that wild red hair."
Nora's smile grew bigger as she glanced at Danielle who smiled back. "Kids, why don't you go upstairs and start doing your homework? I'll call once food is ready."
The three said nothing as they all obeyed their mother's words and sat down at the living room from upstairs, except for James who left his things in the ground and walked to the stairs, sitting down so he could hear.
"James, you know we shouldn't do that." George told his older brother.
"Shut up, George. And go do your homework." George, not wanting to start and argument with his brother decided to stick to his homework and even help Nora with hers.
Meanwhile, the four adults sat by the dining table. Nora and Henry didn't dare to say a word while Barry and Danielle couldn't find the words to say. Finally, Danielle decided it was her who should begin explaining.
"I know you might be concerned about this but there's a good reason as for why." Danielle glanced at Barry who simply nodded.
It took them at least twenty minutes to explain everything that was going on. Both Henry and Nora kept asking questions since this was something very new for them but both Barry and Danielle tried their best to answer them and clear everything.
So once they understood what was going on, the whole family ate together, the kids included. Danielle noticed how happy Barry looked when talking to the young ones, but she also noticed something off with James Jr. She did not want to pry in his head to know what was bothering him, so she decided to ask him once they were back home.
Barry excused himself first once they were done cleaning the kitchen, saying he had some type of date. Danielle knew immediately he meant Iris, but her parents were both surprised he was even talking to a girl.
"Have you told James about this?" Nora asked to her daughter as they sat on the couch of the living room while going through old photos.
"This morning." Danielle answered as she grabbed a photo from the album, a photo of the four when she graduated from med school. That one caught her attention more than the others because of how proud her father looked.
"How did he take it?"
"Rather well, I must say. But he was a bit disappointed when I told him all the things we lived were only memories to me." Danielle placed the photo away as she closed the album and glanced at her mother. "It will be hard to get used to this, but I know I love him and I know he will be there to support me."
Nora placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a warm smile. "I remember the day he asked for your hand. We were here in the house and I even made some chocolate cake, like the ones I used to bake for you and Barry when you were young. James' mother brought the dinner."
Nora reached out for an album on the table and began flipping through the pages as she spoke. "Your dad and I were calm, but Barry, oh he was so nervous. His big sister was getting married and even if he was happy for you, he was also very sad. He knew the pressure your proposal gave to him and he kept thinking he was never going to find someone to love the way James loved you."
The older woman handed a photo with Barry and Danielle the day of the proposal. They were hugging each other, but Barry's face was buried on her shoulder. "That was the first time I saw your brother cry his heart out. He didn't want you to leave the house, he wanted you to stay here and keep living the life we had together. You eventually started to cry with him and that was the day I truly realized how lucky I was to have you both as my kids."
"When you and Barry stopped talking it broke my heart more than you know." Nora stopped for a moment and Danielle placed her hands on her mom's. "My only two children were on each other's throat. You couldn't see each other in a paint, even less in person. Our usual family dinners turned into separated ones, my little Nora didn't even know her own uncle…our family was destroyed. But despite everything, I loved the both of you and hoped for the day to see you two get along once again."
Danielle was silent for a moment. Her mother never mentioned the reason of why she stopped talking to Barry, but she realized that was in the past and there was no point on knowing. "I'm sorry for the hard time you had, mom. But I promise things now are way different."
But before any could say a word, Danielle's head suddenly began to play memories from when she and Barry had a fight back when their dad was still in prison and was taken hostage by both Tricksters. Then it all changed to their other fights, from simple ones to the one that led her to choose Thawne side over his.
"Danielle? Danielle, are you okay?" Nora's voice got her to snap out of her thoughts and the pain those memories were causing on her head.
"Yeah…" She answered unsure to what happened. "Do you mind looking after the kids for a moment? There's something I need to do."
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"Don't worry, mom." Danielle assured her as she got up and hurried outside of the house and into the car.
Barry was currently on a date she did not want to ruin so there was only one person who could help her understand what just happened, her former husband. She promised herself not to look for him again, but this was surely something he could help her with.
When the redhead arrived to the place, Thawne was leaning against one of the crystal walls as if he was already expecting her. "I knew you would be back."
Danielle left her purse on the near chair as she walked to the glass cell. "I didn't have much of a choice." She dryly answered.
"What brings you here then, my love?"
"There's something going on with my memories. They're vanishing." Thawne could tell that she was afraid from her voice. "What's going on?"
Thawne released a low chuckle as he walked closer to the bars. "Your dear old brother didn't tell you?" By the confused look on her face, Thawne knew Barry didn't mention anything to her. "This memory loss you're suffering is a side effect of Flashpoint. You see, time is being written over the memories you have from the timeline we three know. The more Barry uses his speed, the faster you will forget."
Danielle fell silent after listening to his words. If this was true, she would forget everything about the other timeline. She will forget her life with Iris, Joe, her friends, their adventures with Barry as Flash, Earth-2…everything.
"There must be a way to stop it."
"Oh, there is a way to stop it. Tell your brother to take us back to that night and let me do what I am supposed to do and then we go back to the life we knew." Danielle raised an eyebrow as she walked to the bars that were holding him inside.
"I'm not letting you kill my mom once again." She told him in almost an intimidating tone of voice. But Thawne simply moved his hands to hold hers.
That's when it happened again. Her head filled with memories from two years ago when Thawne was still in his Harrison Wells' costume to the moment he disappeared in his actual look. She pushed herself away from the bars, her heart beating fast.
"No…" Danielle mumbled as those memories began to fade away. "I don't want to forget it all."
"There is no other choice, Danielle. Soon you will forget everything completely and there will be no way back. You have to convince your brother to go back to that night and just then, everything will be back to the way it is supposed to be."
The former green eyed woman decided not to answer as she grabbed her purse again and dialed Barry's phone on her way out. This was something they both needed to talk over in person and solve it right away.
It took her some good 30 minutes before Barry decided to finally answer. "Hey, Dan." His voice was an upset one and she knew something was not okay.
"What happened? Where are you? Barry, we really need to talk."
"Right now is not the right time. Wally was hurt badly in a fight and he's trying to recover."
Danielle knew about Wally's life in this timeline where he is the speedster known as The Flash, but she didn't know much about it yet. "I'm sorry to hear that. But Barry this is beyond what is going on right now. I just talked with Thawne about the memory loss from the other timeline…we need to reverse what we did."
There was a long pause as Barry walked himself away from the nursery room where everyone was. "I know we have to do it. I'm sorry, I should've told you what I knew the moment we spoke but I didn't want to accept it. I wanted to be fine with forgetting, but it's not the right thing to do."
"I know, Bar. I wish there was another way out of this but we know it's the only one." Danielle lowered her head so her forehead was against the wheel of the car. "We have to let Thawne do his thing and go back to the life we knew."
Barry sighed as his hand covered his eyes. "We do it tomorrow, first thing after you leave the kids on their school. We better say out goodbyes to our parents."
"Yeah, sounds good to me. Love you brother."
After hanging up the phone, Danielle had to take a deep breath as she glanced at her childhood home. She got out and stepped inside the house once again to see both her parents on the table playing a game with the kids. She stood by the wall, a big smile on her face as she observed how happy they all looked.
"Mommy's back!" Little Nora said the moment she noticed the woman and ran to hug her. "Grandpa said this was a game they used to play with you and uncle Barry."
"It was our favorite." Danielle answered as she took the girl on her arms and kissed her cheek. "Go get your stuff, it's time to go home before daddy arrives and finds an empty house."
After letting the girl on the ground, Danielle walked to her parents and gave them a tight group hug. "I love you both guys, so much. "
"And we love you, princess." Her father told her as he placed a kiss on her forehead. "Never forget that."
"I never will, dad." She responded him with a smile.
As she was done saying that, the three youngsters came back downstairs with their things ready and said their goodbye to their grandparents. Danielle opened the car so they could get inside as she kissed both her parents on the cheek.
"We'll see you tomorrow. Greet James from us." Nora said as she hugged her daughter one last time.
"I sure will."
After that, Danielle walked back to the car and after making sure the kids were seated, she took off to their home. The road was silent except for the radio playing music and Nora constantly singing along.
When they arrived, James was already there waiting for them on the living room upstairs with the husky curled on his side. Nora decided to jump on him to hug as both James Jr. and George attacked him on the side. Danielle only laughed as James tried to escape but failed to do so.
"A little help, honey?"
Danielle doubted at first but eventually joined the kids on attacking. They ended up in the floor, everyone on top of James including their dog. So after having a good laugh, they all went back to sit on the floor as James asked the kids about their day.
"Well, it's time for bed now. Go on, brush your teeth and off to sleep." Danielle announced as the clock strike 9:30 p.m.
"I'm not sleepy." George tried to fight the urge to close his tired eyes and James went over to grab him in his arms.
"Come on now, soldier. We continue watching TV tomorrow." James said as he walked to leave George on his bed and come back for the already sleeping Nora.
"Want me to carry you like your dad?" Danielle joked to James Jr. who was curled on her side as she stroked his hair.
"Was it true, everything you and uncle Barry said to grandparents?"
Danielle was taken off guard when he asked the question. He listened to them, or more like spied them. "James, that was a grownup conversation."
"I was really curious."
"Sometimes, there's stuff you shouldn't do no matter how curious you are." The boy sat so he was looking at her mother. "But yes, it was true. But no matter what you hear or people say, I love you more than anything, okay? You, George, and Nora are my whole world."
"I love you too, mom." Danielle smiled as she kissed his forehead before he stood up and walked to his room at the same time James walked back to the living room and sat next to Danielle.
"What's bothering you, dear?" James asked as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"Nothing at all. I'm just happy with you and the kids." Danielle answered as she leaned give him a quick kiss.
"Come on, let's go and rest."
After turning everything off, both grownups walked to their bedroom and slipped inside the sheets, both falling into a deep sleep.
In the morning, Danielle was the first one to wake up in the house to prepare some meal for everyone. James woke up next and before he went to work, Danielle hugged him like no tomorrow. He thought it was a bit odd, but accepted anyway.
When the time to leave their kids at school came, she had to fight the tears forming on her eyes as she watched them go for the last time inside the school door. And now it was finally time to go back to the warehouse where Barry and Thawne would be getting ready to depart.
To her surprise, Iris was inside there as well with both men. Barry had to present them since Iris didn't know her at all and Danielle tried to act as if she didn't know her as well. She decided to give them both some privacy and time to say their farewells as she walked to where Thawne was standing.
"So, you're ready to go back into your villain life?" She asked, gaining a scoff from the man.
"Right now I'm being the hero, my love."
"Shame, I liked you better when you were the bad guy."
Thawne raised an eyebrow pulled Danielle by the arm and crashed his lips on hers. She kissed him back, her arms wrapping around his neck. "I will be a fool if I let you go."
"Let's focus on getting out of here first." Danielle gave him a pat on the chest as Barry joined them.
But when the scarlet speedster tried to run, his legs forbid him to do so, making him fall into the ground. Iris tried to get close but Thawne stopped her as his right hand grabbed Barry by the jacket and the left wrapped around Danielle's waist.
In a blink of an eye, the three were in the night of the murder and in another blink, they were back to their normal time outside of Joe's house. The whole time travel thing was something new to Danielle and traveling too much caused her nauseas. So when they stopped at Joe's house, she hurried to the side of the house to throw up, leaving both speedsters alone.
When she was done and ready to go back, she felt being lift up and taken to her house. "Welcome to your new life." Thawne said as he stood behind her.
"New?" She asked confused as she turned to face him, but he simply opened the door for her like a gentleman.
Danielle stepped inside and the place remained the same, except for some changes. Those changes including toys on the ground and photographs of an infant on the wall. Her right hand covered her mouth the moment she realized who this was about.
"The timeline changed once again, some things are different than the way you remembered them." Thawne began explaining as she was admiring a photo of the both with a baby. "I was never erased from this timeline; therefore, our son is still alive."
Eobard grabbed Danielle's hand and guided her through the corridor to the door that led to the baby room. Although it was now different since he was not a baby anymore, he was a two-year-old boy who was currently sleeping in his bed.
"Please tell me I'm not dreaming this." Danielle mumbled as she sat on the edge of the bed and carefully stroked the blonde hair of the kid.
"This is very much real, my love." Thawne, as well as Danielle, observed Thaddeus with a smile. "He still looks like you."
The redhead couldn't help to laugh a bit as a tear fell down her cheek. "What are you going to do? You just killed my mom again and you're back. Yet I don't need to read your mind to know you're not going to stick around."
"I can't do that." He responded as both walked outside to let the kid sleep peacefully. "If I stay, your brother will once again try to stop me from doing anything and I don't want to end up locked in the pipeline once again."
Despite everything that happened recently, Danielle felt heartbroken to hear his words. He was still the man she loved, and now their son was here and he was not going to be around to be with him.
"But this is not the last time you will see me, my love. You won't get rid of me that easily." Eobard's hands held Danielle's face so she was looking at him. "I love you, I always will."
"I love you, too." The speedster leaned to kiss her before she broke just inches away. "Stay the night."
"Anything for you."
Both made their way to the bedroom, which had also some adjustments for the commodity of the child. After they slipped inside the sheets, Danielle's head leaned against his chest. It felt good to have him back, even if it meant for a small time.
So, hello everyone and welcome back.
Now I know it's been a while but school really takes a lot of my time. Besides, my laptop stopped working during the vacations and getting a new one was not easy.
But here's a new chapter where we're officially starting season 3. And as you can see, the Flashpoint thing also affected Danielle, but in a good way, eh?
It looks like my muse for season 2 has completely gone. I'll keep trying to write at least where Henry dies and see the whole thing from Danielle's perspective but don't expect it too soon. So far, every time I see a new s3 episode I get my muse and ideas for the writing. It's only the time I'm missing. But I promise to keep writing more.
If you're still following this story, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Despite taking too long to upload new stuff you guys are still here and even sometimes leaving reviews. That's what makes me want to continue this story the most. So really, thank you.
Until the next time. x