(Jay)

Jay grabbed his backpack and flung it over his shoulder, readying to leave chemistry class when his phone pinged. He grabbed it and his heart nearly stopped. He opened the email and examined it closely.

To: Jason Garrick

From: Gideon Garrick

Hey Jay!

I understand you told me not to go more in depth with the blood test, but I had to, so whoops.

The blood you sent me WASN'T yours, like I had previously thought. It was from a guy named Hunter Zolomon. The Freaky part is Hunter is the exact same age as you and...wait for the dramatic pause….has the same Y-chromosome and the same mitochondria.

I know you don't want to learn about this right at the moment, especially since you just moved to CCPC and all that, but this is the only time.

Jay Garrick, Hunter Zolomon is your twin brother. He has the same exact DNA strands as you do. My guess is that hunter is your identical twin brother. I'm doing more research on Hunter to see if I can learn any details.

I've met your mom, dude, and I know for a fact that she would never send her child away before you could meet him, so I'm pretty sure that your idiot-brained father was the guy who did this.

At the next possible point, I need you to send me some of your blood so I can run it through again just to make sure my tired eyes weren't messing things up.

Thanks man and I'm sorry,

Gideon

Jay gulped down air and fell into one of the seats, his head reeling with disbelief. The blood Gideon was referring to in the email had been from the last robbery he had witnessed. Gideon was his best friend, living back in Salem, Oregon, where he had moved from. Gideon now had a PhD in criminology and forensics, which was why Jay had sent him the blood he had found on the floor.

"Hey, is everything alright?" a sweet voice broke through, and Jay blinked his eyes rapidly. It was Caitlin, the girl he had met in the coffee shop. She had a textbook placed against her heart, and was carrying a messenger bag. "Jay, right?" He shook his head, then nodded. "I'm going to take that as, no, everything's not alright, and yes, I am Jay." He nodded again, a small smile tugging at the edge of his lips. "Do you want to talk about it?" He shook his head, gently leaning it into his open palm. He wasn't really emotional, but this email had just been a bombshell. He had been alone since he was eleven. His mother had been his only companion through life, and then his father had stolen her away from him.

Something shifted beside him and there was a small arm wrapped around his waist. He stiffened a little bit until he realized it was Caitlin hugging him, and then he relaxed. His shoulders shook as he tried to contain his sobs. She just whispered soft words to him and squeezed him tighter. It was only when the bell rang that he was calm down.

"You better hurry if you don't want to be late for class," Jay whispered, his voice ragged from crying.

"You'll be late," she whispered, looking into his eyes.

"I'll be fine," he told her, taking a shaky breath. "Go on." She shook her head.

"I don't think you understand," she laughed, shaking her head. "Jay, this is my free period." Jay chuckled and looked at her.

"This is my free period too," he said, and they both laughed.

"You heard about the dance that's coming up?" Caitlin asked him, to which he shook his head. Caitlin gave him the rundown of what she had learned from Jesse. "I think that the teachers and faculty secretly hate us."

"That would explain the 'awkward' part of it," Jay snorted.

"Yeah, well you have two weeks to find someone," Caitlin said. "Knowing Ronnie he's going to pretend we don't know each other and ask me."

"But that would be against the rules, wouldn't it?" Jay asked, raising an eyebrow. "Who knew that Caitlin would be such a rule breaker?"

"I never said I would say yes, silly!" she teased, shoving him slightly. "Anyways, I would probably say yes to whoever asked me, as long as I semi-know them." Jay felt his chest tightened up. "Hey...do you want to go with me?"

"Where?"

"To the dance, stupid," she smirked. "We barely know each other and you're on the football team, which might make Ronnie tolerant to let you take me." Jay paused for a moment before nodding.

"That would be nice."

:/:\:

(Cisco)

"Alright, I want details, and I want them now," Cisco ordered as soon as all of the roommates were back in their room. He made his fingers into pretend guns and pointed them at everybody. "Give them all and nobody gets hurt." They all scrambled onto their beds.

"I'll go first," said Barry, raising his hand. All the other boys nodded and leaned in close to him. "I'm going with Lisa Snart and our color is red."

"Me next," said Oliver. "I'm going with Iris West and our color is green."

"My turn!" shouted out Wally. "I'm going with Felicity Smoak and our color is black-and-white."

"I'm going with Jesse Wells, and our color is pink," groaned Cisco, pounding his forehead on his pillow. "I just had to let Jesse pick the color…"

"What about you, Garrick?" asked Wally, glancing at Jay, who seemed to be nonresponsive. "What're your details?"

"I'm taking Caitlin and our color is dark blue," he told them.

"BTW man, her last name is Snow," said Cisco, faux whispering it from behind his hand. "Just FYI." Jay rolled his eyes and chose to ignore him.

"Wait a second," said Wally, pushing himself up. "Where the heck are we supposed to get tuxes? We got way too much homework and no offense, but we're all way too broke."

Barry was quiet then said, "I overheard the drama director, Mr. Morrison, talking to Mr. Singh, the criminology professor. Something about how there were more than enough outfits in the costume warehouse for guys and girls to borrow things. He also announced that it would be open so kids could check things out throughout the next few days."

"Awesome," said Oliver. "Maybe Iris and I can hit up on our way back from lunch."

"Lisa and I could probably join you too," Barry put in, whipping out his phone. "We could skip tutoring for a day." The two boys nodded and Barry got up, going into the guys' bathroom. Cisco grabbed his blanket, cocooned himself, and went off to sleep.

:/:\:

(Jay)

Jay woke up early the next morning on purpose. He needed to get to the biogenetic lab in order to draw his blood so he could send a sample to Gideon. He grabbed his backpack and quietly slipped from the bedroom, racing out of the dorm house and to a little secluded building where all the Science Majors and Minors were located. He dashed inside and headed over to the lab. He poked his head inside and glanced around. Nobody was inside. He slid in, quietly shutting the door behind him. He immediately headed over to the blood work area.

Jay sat down on one of the stools and rolled his navy blue long sleeve shirt up above his elbow. He found some rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball and he wiped the crease of his elbow over and over until it was completely soaked. Then, he pulled out one of the drawers. Just as he was pulling out the needle needed for drawing blood, he heard, "Jay?" He started, dropping the needle onto the ground. He looked up and fear raced through him. Caitlin Snow stood at the front door, staring at him with a horrified expression. "W-What are you doing h-here?"

"Caitlin, I swear this isn't what it looks like," he promised her, trying to keep his heartrate down. "If you come over here, I will explain everything." Caitlin stood shaking at the front of the classroom. "Cait, I need you to trust me." She gulped and nodded, still shaking as she shut the door. She cautiously made her way across the way, gulping. "I need to draw my blood."

"Why?" she asked, her voice cracking slightly.

"Before I moved to Central City, I lived in Salem, Oregon," he explained slowly. "I was interning as a detective at the SPD. Later, when we were looking at a robbery, I found some blood. I took it and sent it to my good friend, Gideon, who was the forensic scientist. I asked him to identify it. He sent me this email after I told him not to go to in depth with it." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, pulling up the email so Caitlin could read it. She read it very quickly.

"Twin brother?" she gasped. "Identical twin brother?" Jay nodded sadly.

"I never knew," he whispered. "I lost touch with my family when I was eleven."

"How?"

He gulped. He knew he was going to have to tell her his backstory, but it terrified him of what she was going to think of him.

"When I was eleven years old, I was forced to watch my father kill my mother," Jay whispered, and Caitlin let out a squeak, a lone tear falling from her eyes. "He was drunk and he was demanding that he get some respect for fighting in the war. He saw me and told it would build character." He took a shaky breath. "I called the police and they sentenced him to death. After that, I moved in with Gideon's family and took their last name." He looked at her straight in the eyes. "My real name is Jason Zolomon. Gideon's last name is Garrick. As it said in the email, I needed to take some blood and send it to Gideon so he could analyze it and see if that robber was my twin brother." Caitlin nodded before walking around to Jay, bending over to grab the needle.

"Let me," she whispered to him. He began to shake his head, but she interrupted, saying, "Jay, out of the two of us, who is studying in biochemistry and genetics?" He felt his lips turn into a smirk and she gently stuck the needle into his arm, finding the vein immediately.

"Ouch," he muttered, and Caitlin smirked slightly. She pulled the blood out and then capped it off. "That's it?"

"That's it," she confirmed, handing the vial to Jay. "All you need to do is go off and ship it."

"Thank you so much, Caitlin," Jay said, standing up and pulling her into a hug. She gently wrapped her arms around his waist and smiled. "Is there a post office on campus or something?"

"You'd be surprise," commented Caitlin. "We can actually go head there now."

:/:\:

(Barry)

"Absolutely, one hundred percent not," Lisa said, shaking her head. "Where the heck did you even find that?"

"It was next to this salsa dancer mannequin," Barry explained, rubbing his eyes.

"That explains everything," snorted Lisa. "We're going to a dance, not a Spanish fiesta." Iris walked over and burst out laughing when she saw the bright red shirt with ruffles on it that Barry was wearing. "See? Even your sister is laughing in your face. Here." She tossed Barry a red short-sleeved dress shirt. "Try this on." He grumbled to himself, but walked into one of the dressing rooms and switched shirts, adding to the effect a black vest and a white thick tie. He walked out of the dressing room and Lisa immediately nodded.

"That's a whole lot better," giggled Iris, still recovering from her laughing attack.

"And, that will be perfect with this," Lisa said, revealing behind her back a beautiful floor length dress. It was the exact same red as Barry's shirt with sparkly silver rhinestones decorating the top, forming into a V. The sleeves were long enough to reach Lisa's wrists and at the end there were silver rhinestones too.

"Wow, Lisa, that is gorgeous!" gasped Iris, her hands gently touching it. "I have no idea what Oliver is picking for…" Before she could even finish, Oliver suddenly appeared behind her, swinging in front of her a floor length emerald green dress. There was a belt around the middle and it had decorative lacing up the front. The back showed a little, but not too much. "Oliver, this is amazing!"

"I kind of got a little help," Oliver smirked, quickly winking at Barry. "Let's just say there's a little birdy who told me your favorite style of dresses." She flipped around and squealed, throwing her arms around Barry. He smiled and hugged her back, taking a deep breath. He caught Lisa and Oliver sharing a smirk and he suddenly seemed confused. Why were they smiling at him? "Hey, when did you say Eddie was coming?" Barry's face fell. He didn't mind Detective Thawne, but he didn't like the fact that he was dating the girl Barry had crushed on since he was eleven. Iris pulled back from her hug with Barry and went over to explain things to Oliver while Lisa walked over.

"Hey," she whispered, wrapping an arm around Barry's waist. He instinctively threw an arm around her shoulder. "You should relax a little. Someday Iris is going to realize that there is only one guy who is perfect for her." She bumped him with her hip. "And that's you."

"Lisa Snart!" a voice growled out, and Lisa seemed to freeze, her face contorting with fear. She yanked herself away from Barry and quickly threw the dress she was holding in a big pile of random clothes. She put on her most bored expression and sat down on a cardboard box as a man with close-shaven dark hair stormed into the warehouse. "Where the flippin' heck are you?"

"In here, Mick," she called out, pretending to play with her nails. Barry noticed while she kept a calm demeanor on the outside, she had a terrified expression behind her eyes.

"What the heck are you doing in here?" he growled, storming over to her. He was wearing a stained white t-shirt and reeked of alcohol. He grabbed her wrist sharply and yanked her up. She stumbled to her feet and Barry clenched his fists. "I thought I told you to meet me at my dorm."

"I was busy, Mick," she said, and he yelled, "Excuses!"

"Hey, back off, Buddy," Oliver said, taking a step forward. Iris wrapped her hands around his arm, holding him back. "Just who do you think you are?"

"I'm her boyfriend, dork," Mick growled back, his fist clenching tighter around Lisa's wrist. Barry heard a tiny squeak and he couldn't take it anymore.

"Let her go," Barry ordered, and Mick just snorted. "You're hurting her. A real man wouldn't hurt his girlfriend."

"Oh, and I suppose you are a real man," Mick guffawed. "Yeah right, loser. Come on, babe, let's ditch this joint." He flipped around and began to practically drag Lisa out of the room. Barry didn't realize what he was doing until it was done.

He took two giant steps then swung, his fist connecting with the side of Mick's face. He was sent stumbling, letting go of Lisa's wrist. Barry quickly pushed her towards Oliver, who grabbed her and hid her behind him with Iris. Mick flipped around, a mask of pure rage and disbelief on his face.

"You sure didn't want to do that, idiot," the guy spat, wiping a bit of blood away from his lip.

"Treat your woman with respect and maybe I will," Barry shot back.

"Lisa?" a voice called out. This one was deep like Mick's, but with a hint of more concern. Another close-shaven haired man stepped out from behind the door. He had cold, calculating eyes, and they were searching for the girl. He was dressed in a V-neck black t-shirt with a blue leather jacket thrown on top.

"Lenny," Lisa breathed, rushing away from Oliver and into the other man's arms. Now Barry was officially confused. Why was she seeking comfort from this man rather than her boyfriend?

"Snart, why are you here?" growled Mick, his question directed to the boy. That's when Barry realized he must be a sibling of Lisa's.

"Unlike you, I found a date and was looking for an outfit," the man said, his voice low. "Now, I suggest you go find a date."

"Lisa's my date."

"He's lying, Lenny," Barry heard Lisa whisper. "We aren't allowed to go with people we know really well. I'm going with the guy in red." The guy, Lenny, looked up at Barry and narrowed his eyes.

"Mick, go back to the dorm. I'll deal with you later," Lenny ordered, and Mick clenched his fists before he stomped out. As soon as he was gone, Iris ran over to the clump of clothes and retrieved the long red dress Lisa had thrown there.

"Thank you," sighed Lisa, sniffing slightly. "I-I just didn't know w-what to do…"

"Are you alright?" Iris asked, hesitantly putting a hand on Lisa's shoulder. Lisa sniffed again and nodded, taking a deep breath. "Who was that guy?"

"Michael Rory, aka Mick," Lisa's brother answered. "The pea-brained idiot who's been dating my sister for the past three years." Barry's mouth widened in disbelief.

"T-Three years?" gasped Oliver, just as stunned as he was.

"Did he treat you like that all the time?" Barry questioned. Lisa sniffed and wiped her eyes from any unformed tears.

"Not in the beginning," she whispered, so soft Barry took a step closer so he could hear better. "When he asked me out, he was a graduate from high school and I thought he was amazing. He treated me like such a lady and he made me feel better despite the troubles I endured through schooling." She faltered.

"Then, almost like it was a switch, he changed. Once he realized how I was treating him, like a King, he started acting like a tyrant. He would demand I do things for him, a-and I got punished if I didn't." She bit her lower lip but pulling the shoulder off of her yellow-cream blouse. There was a long pink scar. "That one was the worse time. He had gotten drunk and thought I had been cheating on him...he couldn't see straight so he thought that when I kissed Lenny goodbye, I was making out with some other dude. He grabbed his beer bottle and just started hitting me. Over, and over, and over again."

It was only then when Barry registered the damp tears that were falling from his eyes.

"Lenny found me the next day when I didn't go home. Mick was passed out on the couch and I had put myself into the broom closet, holding a pocket knife I had found. I never thought that night was going to end. By the time Lenny found me, I was determined that if it was Mick's face I saw, I was going to stab him."

"Oh my gosh," Iris said, running her fingers through her hair. "Lisa…"

"I'm in therapy."

Lisa and Lenny's head snapped up to Barry, who was looking super awkward in the group standing by himself.

"Yeah, I've been going to a therapist steadily since I was eleven years old," Barry added, coughing slightly. "When I was eleven, there was a loud thumping noise in the downstairs living room. I casually thought it was just Mom and Dad messing around and stuff, until I heard a scream. I raced from my room and saw a tall man, dressed head to toe in red and yellow. I never saw what his face looked like clearly, only that his eyes were a startling red. My father came down right before me. He saw what was happening and realized it immediately.

He was a serial killer, and his target was Mom. My dad told me to run. As I left the house, something hit my head. When I came to, I was in an ambulance. They had orders to take me to the hospital for my concussion, but I asked them to take me back to my house, insisting that my father was a doctor (which he was) and that he would take care of me. Once we got there though, everything went wrong."

Barry gulped and used his hand to hastily wipe his tears away. "My father had handcuffs on and he was being pushed into a police cruiser. My now foster father, Joe West, was stumbling out looking dazed, and I was just confused. I asked Joe where my mom was, so I could see her, and he tried to keep me out of the house. That's when I knew what happened.

My mom was lying in our living room, giving the ceiling as cold stare. In her chest she had a large, butcher knife. Joe told me later that they had found prints on the knife that belonged to my father." He gulped again. "My father was sent to Iron Heights Prison for a crime he didn't commit, and since the CCPD thought they had apprehended their guy, they never even went looking for the true murder, the man in the yellow." Lisa just stared at him with admiration and disbelief. "Lisa, you are the first person who I've ever told that full story to in over twelve years. The purpose of that story is to say we've all been pushed to the breaking point before. We just have to make sure we don't get pushed over."

"You should make inspirational cat posters, Allen," she sniffed, laughing a little.

"Feeling better, sis?" Lenny asked her and she nodded. "I think you'll be safe so I'm going to go find that costume." He turned and glared at Oliver and Barry, as if daring them to prove he was wrong. Barry gulped down a wave of fear and silently agreed with Lenny. He turned and walked off, leaving the foursome back.

"We better head out then," swallowed Iris, handing the dress to Lisa. "We're going to talk once you reach the dorms, though." Lisa nodded, wiping away small tears. She turned to Barry once again.

"Thanks, Barry."

A/N: Tada! Also, I do not own Arrow or The Flash. I also feel like I should mention that Oliver and Felicity (along with a few other characters) will be the only Arrow characters in this story. I don't watch The Arrow, so therefore those are the two that I know the best.

Superior Tennyson: Super close! One of your ships is off-kilter. Also, there will be more Flash puns if I can help it. Some of their names will be changed, others will not be. That's all I can disclose for now.