++++++ My apologise, I would have had this up last night but fuck family issues.

I hope you enjoy.

I do not own ++++++

Twenty-Six

I think telling Leonard was harder than telling my dad. Telling my dad was like telling a stranger but telling the man that sat in front of me was hard but I forced myself to continue. When I finished, I stood up and went to raid the minibar for anything to drink. I threw Leonard a little bottle of vodka and drank mine.

"I'm sorry I lied," I told him after an hour of awkward silence, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the meta-human thing but I kinda didn't know what to do with it. You're a criminal mastermind and I'm a superhero. I don't know how this is supposed to be."

"What this?" Leonard asked me. "What you and I had was just sex. You're just a kid."

I grimaced. "Oh-okay…" I got to my feet and went for the door, I stopped and turned after I opened it. "You know this is hard for me to admit but I was stupid enough to go and fall in love with you. I was stupid enough in deluding myself that you'd be the only one in my family that I would feel less disgusted with myself but guess I was wrong."

"Charlie!" he groaned.

I kept my eyes on the ground in front of me, fumbling with my room key as I went. Footsteps behind me made me quicken my pace and I got to my room to unlock it. Leonard grabbed my arm and yanked me around. I gulped. "Can you please let go of my arm?"

He let go and held his hands up in surrender. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"I don't understand what I'm doing," I whispered. "You're turning everything upside down and I don't know if it's good or bad. I tried, Leonard. I tried to have a normal life away from this stupid life. I tried to date a guy-hell I was prepared for a second date but I got kidnapped by my best friend's psychotic fucked up family!"

I kissed him…or I tried-I wanted to try and feel somewhat normal again. It was good to feel the familiar against my lips but my whole body just seized up and I pushed him away, tears prickling at the corner of my eyes. "I'm sorry…" I whispered. "I just-I can't."

Leonard put his arm around my shoulders and kissed my head, even when I winced he still kept his arm around me. "I'm not gonna say to you that I feel the same way about you but what I will say is that you're going to stay with me tonight okay?"

I nodded and let him usher me back to his hotel room.

I will admit that that night was the first night in two weeks that I slept without the dreams.

For all the sleep I had missed out on, I seemed to have caught up on it in a few days. Two days had past and when I woke Leonard was gone but his stuff was still here-Including the cold gun. I could have easily taken it and ran but I pushed the case back underneath the bed and left it.

I stood up and went to have a shower, just putting on one of Leonard's shirts and a pair of leggings, I slumped down on the bed, logging onto my phone to check my emails. I was tempted to skype Suki and let her know that I was okay but part of me was still angry at her for everything even though it wasn't her fault.

There was a few emails from work, some from Barry and a dozen phone calls from all of them.

Iris was the only one who had sent me a message telling me that she was looking after Lancelot for me. I smiled, sometimes I give Iris less credit then she deserves.

There was nothing on TV apart from reruns of I Dream of Jeanie.

That's when I decided that I needed to go out.

I grabbed my bag and headed for the door just as Leonard came back in. "I swear I wasn't running away," I blurted out. "I was in serious need of entertainment."

"You don't need to explain yourself to me, Charlie," Leonard replied. "I had some business to attend to."

"Like robbing a museum and derailing a train?" I joked.

He stared me down and I laughed. Leonard shook his head and walked over to the bed with some food. "No. I put the feelers out for your friends. Rose and Joseph."

I grimaced. "You don't need to do that. Please don't do that. I don't think that I'm in any kind of way to fight them. I can barely even think about it."

"As far as they know I'm just inquiring," he replied. "I didn't mention anything about you. But speaking of feelers, your cop-dad is looking for you. He's put his feelers out. Seems your little friend who helped you hasn't told anyone where you are."

"Good," I answered. "I almost killed Joe when I saw him last, no intention of repeating the same mistake." There was a knock on the door and the two of us stared at it with frowns on our faces. "I'm not expecting anyone, I don't know about you."

Leonard shook his head. "No. I'm not expecting anyone but I did have a feeling of being followed on the way back. Thought I'd shaken them off." He drew his gun and went to stand by the door, peaking out the window. "Um-I read the paper and what the hell is River Harper doing here?"

"She's a friend," I frowned. I got up and went to the door, letting River in.

She took a look around the room with a single glance and then her sights fell on Leonard. "So you're Leonard Snart?" she asked. "River Harper. Nice to meet the guy that's got Charlie's knickers in a twist." River held her hand out for him to shake.

"No offence but I rob people like you," he answered, not shaking her hand.

"And I'd kick your ass if you tried," she smirked. "Put some shoes on Charlie. We need to talk."

I shook my head. "No I'm fine here thanks. I don't particularly feel like going back to Central right now."

River rolled her eyes. "I'm not gonna take you away from Captain Cold over there."

I slapped my head. "Cisco? Captain Cold? Really?"

She chuckled. "I know."

"Just give me a second," I sighed, disappearing into the bathroom to clean my teeth.

"Nice to meet you Snart-harm our girl here and I will kill you. Understand?" I heard River say in a muffled voice.

"It's incredibly easy to make people think you don't care about them," Leonard told River. "At the same time it's easy to make others think the same."

"I know love when I see it," River confessed. "I don't know much about what happened only that I was told she got hurt. But I know behaviours and she's gonna spiral. She'll say she's fine but she'll spiral soon and I don't mean just snap like she did with her adopted dad, I mean spiral and either kill someone or herself. You'll be there for her, yes? Take as much time as you need, rob a bank or something-I don't care. Just be there for her?"

I coughed and flushed the toilet, using that chance to leave. "Ready."

River smiled. "Let's go. Sara's in the car with Roy. I figured baby therapy would do you some good."