.:8:.

Barry sighed as he sat atop the roof of Verdant, looking out over Starling City. There wasn't much to see, really, he had already zipped around the city to get an idea of what it had to offer and…nothing. There were no robberies to stop, no car chases to join in on, no muggings, no fights at all. It was as if people actually went to work and did what they were supposed to do during the day and went nuts and did bad things at night. What sort of life was that? Who wanted to sit around doing their regular stuff and not fight metahumans and people at all hours of the day? It was exciting!

But, that was the difference between Starling City and Central City wasn't it? It's what Oliver is trying to shove down your throat, Barry; you can't forget that, he reminded himself. With a light shake of his head he stretched out his legs over the edge of the building and rested his arms on his thighs, still looking around. You have to do everything Oliver's way now… He snorted lightly, shaking his head. "Yeah, if torturing someone to the point of blacking out is a 'way'."

"I know you don't really understand everything I choose to do, but I'd hope that you'd at least have faith in the way I do it." Oliver's voice came from behind him. Barry twisted around, carefully bringing his legs back over onto the roof and stood up. Barry was annoyed when he saw how confident Oliver was standing, showing that he wouldn't back down on his opinion.

Barry simply shrugged in reply.

He had no idea what words he would actually use to try and show Oliver that what he was doing was wrong. Actually, he had no idea how Oliver would react; maybe he'd kill Barry too. The millionaire, or former millionaire as it was, had been on an island for years so who knew what had happened to his psyche and what would set him off.

"So…your mother was murdered in front of you, too," Oliver said. He walked over to Barry then by him, looking out over the city. "I'd say 'welcome to the club' but it's not one that most people are happy to have a membership in."

"What do you want, Oliver?" Barry finally asked.

"To understand you a bit more…for you to understand me. I don't think you understand that there is a difference in the way our cities run, from the cities in general to the people within them and…while I could see that your emotional response to what you had seen last night is your reaction, I don't see things the same way." Oliver cleared his throat and turned back towards Barry. "You see, in my city, I don't let anyone run around longer than they have to. I don't allow them to pull one over on me over and over again."

"So you've been doing this longer than I have, I get it," Barry said stubbornly. He was starting to hate the way Oliver was talking to him, talking down to him. "And this isn't your city," he added, shooting the vigilante back with his own low blow. It was childish but he didn't care. If Oliver was going to treat him like a kid, then he would treat Oliver like a kid. "Not since you lost your fortune."

Oliver's lips twitched. "I'm going to let that one slide because I know you're upset," he said then cleared his throat. "My mother died because of Slade Wilson, because of something that had happened between us when I was on the island. I watched as she gave her life up for me and Thea, and Slade put a sword directly through her chest."

"The same thing happened to my Mom," Barry said with a light nod of his head. "I was younger than you, but I had come downstairs to see this…Man in Yellow swirling around the room, keeping Mom from getting to safety and she was stabbed as well." He raised his arms before slapping them to his sides. "And yet, I'm not going on a rampage and killing off everyone that comes my way."

"Really?" Oliver's eyebrows rose for a moment.

"Really."

"So you don't have a vendetta against any…metahumans that may have something to do with your mother's death or may have some knowledge about it?" Oliver shook his head. "I know that your motivation through all of this is to get your father out of jail and to find your mother's murder, you've told me before. And I do think you have the right to do so, but when you treat everyone else around as some sort of a game then you're not going to see the big picture."

"And what is that big picture, Oliver?" Barry shot back. "That they're all disposable and if they have no use to you to just let them go? To kill them? To 'put the fear of God' into them?" He rolled his eyes. "That's not the way—"

"—what do either of us know about the 'right way', Barry?" Oliver interrupted. That caught him off guard. "What does anyone know about doing things the right way? Do you think I would be doing this if I hadn't gotten onto that boat? If my father hadn't died…if everything hadn't happened?" He thought for a moment. "I probably would have inherited everything from my Mom and Dad as they retired, Thea and I would probably still be absolute spoiled brats, and I'm sure I wouldn't be able to have even an iota of the sorts of relationships I would have."

"Oh you mean Felicity?" Barry nodded as if he understood everything. "Yeah, it certainly would have kept things from being awkward around you because of our kiss."

Oliver blinked for a moment then his eyes narrowed. "You two kissed?" He asked.

Realizing his mistake, Barry laughed nervously, running a hand over the back of his hand before waving his hands. "It wasn't…it's not anything to worry about. I mean it's not like it was…" he trailed off and quickly changed the subject. "Don't you think that if this didn't happen you wouldn't have the friends that you have now? Diggle, Roy, Felicity…"

"I think I should ask you the same thing," Oliver pointed out. "Do you really think you would have had the chance to meet Cisco, Caitlin, and Cadence…"he took a light breath. "Or Dr. Wells if the Particle Accelerator explosion hadn't happened?" He reached out a hand and placed it on Barry's shoulder. "If I didn't think there was something special about you or what you can bring to Central City, Barry, I wouldn't have any faith in you or your abilities. I didn't question that when we were in Central City and I can only hope that you do the same for me while we're here in Starling City."

Barry lowered his gaze to the ground as Oliver removed his hand and walked away.

"Is there any reason why you're dancing around the Arrow Cave like that?" Roy asked, his eyes following Cadence as she glided across the concrete floor to an invisible beat.

"Not that we're complaining," Cisco added quickly causing Caitlin to elbow him in the side. He flashed her a charming smile and she gently shook her head, turning back to Felicity, who was leaning back in her seat, shaking her head as well.

"I'm a Zumba instructor," Cadence explained, still moving around in dance moves. She then pitched herself into a pirouette, whipping her head around to stare at a fixed point. "I had to take some time off from teaching classes to come here."

"Zumba instructor?" Felicity repeated, her eyebrows rising. She turned around in her seat, carefully dragging her heels across the floor. "I kind of pegged you more as the…librarian type."

With a light laugh, Cadence stopped her movements by planting her feet firmly on the ground. "Thanks for that," she remarked. "I've had people telling me I should be a librarian for years, mostly to fulfill fantasies." She held up her hand. "As for Zumba, don't knock it. It has great benefits. I get health coverage, a 401k, seen paid days off, eleven paid holidays, and only work 30 hours as week. Plus it doesn't seem like much happens here unless it's night time."

"And all of your other time is spent chasing down metahumans?" Lyla asked from where she stood on the other side of the ArrowCave. When Cadence nodded her eyebrows rose for a moment before she turned at the sound of footsteps and found Oliver walking down the steps of the club to the ArrowCave, Barry wooshing in a second later as he sat a few meters away from everyone. "Is everything okay?" Lyla asked Oliver.

When Oliver didn't response quickly, Felicity slowly moved to stand up. "Oliver? What's up?"

"Nothing," Oliver said. He turned his gaze to Caitlin and Cisco. "But something tells me that you all didn't get permission to leave Central City to come here."

Cisco laughed loudly, a nervous laugh. "Ha! What…what makes you say that?" His smile faded as Oliver stepped aside and Harrison slowly wheeled himself forward across the floor of the ArrowCave. "Ah…oh…Dr. Wells."

"Dr. Wells!" Caitlin immediately stood up, chewing her bottom lip. "What are you doing here?"

"And how much trouble are we in?" Cisco added, getting elbowed once more.

"Well, when I'm aware that my only staff didn't show up to work it can be very worrying." He clasped his hands together in his lap, evenly looking around at Barry, Cadence, Caitlin, and Cisco. "And if it is that you all had to leave so quickly there was only one place that would make sense for you to leave to." His eyes then shifted over to Oliver, Felicity, Roy, Diggle, and Lyla. Oliver stared back at him. "However I am unsure as to why."

"You see…" Caitlin swallowed hard. "Captain Boomerang showed up in Starling City and…because Oliver and the others had helped us so much when they were in Central City we thought that we could help them here in Starling."

Instead of responding to the explanation, Harrison turned his attention over to Lyla and moved towards her. "I'm sorry; I don't believe we've met before." He held his hand out towards her. "Harrison Wells."

"Lyla Michaels," she replied, reaching out and shaking his hand firmly. "It's nice to meet you, Dr. Wells."

"I'm sure the pleasure is all mine, especially with the aid that you have brought to Oliver's and my team while they've been here," Harrison said. His eyes searched hers for a moment before he turned to Diggle. "Your ex-wife, I presume?" He asked.

Barry's eyebrows furrowed. "How did you know they're not together anymore? I didn't know."

"Both of them have a tan line on their ring fingers where a ring had been before," Harrison said as he turned around. "Not to mention their similarities of comfort around the handguns that are present on their waists which makes me wonder if they have ever served in the same faction of military if not police. And not to mention the way they consistently look at each other when they believe no one is paying attention." He turned back around. "Now what, may I ask, have you figured out about Captain Boomerang?"

"Digger Harkness," Oliver corrected.

"Digger Harkness."

Felicity and Oliver filled him in on what they had learned so far as well as the fight that Barry and Cadence had aided on once they arrived as well as finding out Digger's accomplice the night before.

Cadence listened quietly to all of what was said but quickly became fixated on one word; ARGUS. She hadn't realized they office they had been fighting in before had been an ARGUS office, nor did she know that Lyla was a current ARGUS member. She knew it was the head of Task Force X aka the Suicide Squad, she knew that Digger was part of the Suicide Squad having faced him in the battle along Central City. She didn't know that she was currently working alongside a member of the group, or two if Diggle was concerned, she wasn't completely sure about that.

She felt herself starting to shake. All the memories of the battle that she had downplayed, the times she had been forced to do such awful things while under control of someone else, knowing that she was under control but had her mind to know everything she was doing, but still wasn't strong enough to keep herself or others protected.

"Now that we have that figured out," Harrison turned to Cadence and looked seriously at her. If her startled appearance fazed him he didn't show it. "Where's Brady?" he asked her.

She had to think for a moment before replying with, "He's hanging out with Eddie and Iris today. Why?"

"There's something I need to talk to you about," Harrison said. He tilted his head to the side and Cadence followed him as he moved to a more secluded part of the ArrowCave. He pressed his lips together for a moment.

"I know you're probably mad that we all left without telling you, but it was Cisco's and Caitlin's idea, they left first," Cadence said and smiled when she heard Cisco's indignant cry of 'hey!'. Her smile faded when Harrison shook his head.

"That wasn't what I wanted to speak to you about though I'll admit I am a bit angry that you all decided to leave without telling me but there are more pressing matters that you need to be aware of." Harrison cleared his throat and placed his hands in his lap. For the first time since he arrived he appeared in a more relaxed state than he had been before, but still held an air of grievance. "It's about Brady."

"What about him?" Clenching her hands into fists, Cadence ran her thumbs over the knuckles of her fingers. Harrison glanced down at her hand and managed a small smile, noticing that despite their distance in life she had managed to prove one thing of nature vs. nurture by adopting his hand movement.

"Before I came out here to Starling City I got a visit from Detective West. It seems that they are launching an investigation over Brady's well-being due to a plethora of things. The time that he had been kidnapped by Michael Bloom as well as when he had gotten onto the bus to STAR Labs by himself in the middle of the night." Cadence took in a deep breath but didn't reply. "Of course you and I both know the reasons those things happened were because of metahuman interference, but the Central City Police Department, apart from Joe, don't. And because of those moments they are insisting that you and Brady are visited by Child Protective Services for a well-being check."

Child Protective Services….well-being check…Cadence rolled the two phrases in her head over and over again, trying to make sense of them. She had them said to her many times before by overbearing parents around her that thought she was too young to be a mother. From those that thought she was being selfish for deciding to keep Brady rather than give him up for adoption or give him to her parents for them to raise him as her brother. She had even thought herself that they may show up at her doorstep without a second of warning, but to know it was actually happening made a strange feeling sit in her gut.

On one hand she had no choice but to accept it, on the other if things continued to be unearthed surrounding her choices while the metahumans were at play there was a really good chance they would see that he would need to go to a more stable home. Why did I have to take him out of school this week? She cured herself. They were sure to check up on his school attendance.

She should have thought of that.

"Cadence, I know you want to protect Brady at all costs and you know that Joe and I will do everything we can to make sure that nothing will happen to him," Harrison said. "But unfortunately there are some consequences we'll all have to face for our actions in our particular line of work."

"I know," Cadence managed to say through gritted teeth. She clenched her hand harder and watched as it erupted into a ball of flame before shaking out her hand. Bowering her head, she swung her hair out of her face. "It was always a risk but I knew I had to help Barry. It was only a matter of time it would catch up to me." She smiled a soft smile. "Thanks for letting me know, if this happened at home my Mom and Dad would've just said 'I told you so' and used it as a way to justify their wanting to have him. So I guess your giving me up was a good thing. Thanks."

She turned on her heel, bringing a hand up to her forehead to rub at her temples, trying to sort out her feelings—and keep from potentially burning a hole through the ground at her feet. She didn't think Oliver would be too happy about that.

"Is everything okay?"

Cadence lifted her head to find Roy standing behind her, his hands shoved into the pockets of his hoodie. Cadence blinked at him for a moment before smiling. "Yeah, everything's fine. Just some things I have to deal with when I get back to Central City."

"I don't expect it's anything that you want to really talk about."

"No, not really. Why?"

Roy smiled. "Because I have someone I think you may want to see." He took her hand and the two slipped out of the ArrowCave and up the stairs to Verdant. He pushed open the door and headed across the floor of the empty club to the petite young woman that was gathering glasses together to be watched. Hearing footsteps head her way she turned and fixed Roy with a slight glare.

"Where have you been? You were supposed to help me get things cleaned up before opening tonight!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But I ran into someone I thought you would like to see."

Cadence's eyes widened for a moment as she recognized the girl that stood in front of her. The girl she had babysat a few times as well as been mutually tortured—in childish ways—with. "Thea?" She asked.

Thea Queen turned around, the ends of her bob hitting her in the face. She carefully put her tray of glasses down before grinning herself. "Cadence!" She hurried across the floor and grabbed her in a tight hug, the two rocking back and forth. "Oh wow, it's so good to see you!"

"And it's so good to see your neck," Cadence commented before taking a step back, tilting her chin up to look into her eyes. "Since when did you get so tall? Last I remembered you were even shorter than me."

"And that's saying something," Roy commented, causing Cadence to whack her on the arm.

"I'm not talking to you, Little Red," she said then took Thea's arm again. "It's been so long. You run this nightclub with Oliver now? I hope he doesn't expect you to do all of the work."

Thea laughed lightly, bringing her hair behind her ears. "We have different jobs here. He works with the clientele and the finances and I run everything else. Though I can brag a bit about myself and say that I do run it very well. We've gotten so many people coming that we've had to turn them away due to potential fire hazards."

"Gee isn't that ironic," Roy muttered and smiled as Cadence glared at him out of the corner of her eye. "Actually, Thea, if it's not too much trouble I wanted to ask if I could get the night off tonight."

"Yeah, sure, Roy it's no problem." Thea's eyes then furrowed together as she looked back and forth between him and Cadence. "So how do you know each other?"

"Through Barry and Oliver," Roy said quickly. "You remember the guy from Central City that Oliver had met last year? She works with him."

"You work for the Central City police? Last I heard you were going on to be a doctor."

Cadence thought for a moment. It didn't seem like Thea knew what had gone on with her as time had passed. Or else she knew and wasn't saying anything to be polite. Either way it was good, Cadence didn't have to worry too much about the secrets she had to keep. It was starting to get hard. Giving up one secret to get stuck down with another one. It was starting to become exhausting.

"I am. I'm in residency right now. It's just taking me a bit longer than I thought it would to make it official. But you can call me doctor; I have the degree next to my name." Cadence took in a deep breath. "Look, Thea, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry I haven't kept in touch so much and that I'm sorry for the loss of your parents."

Swallowing hard, Thea nodded. "It's alright," she said. "I'm adjusting well, surprisingly. I mean, what could I want more than my own nightclub?" She took a step back to go back to work, then grabbed onto Cadence's hand again. "It really is good to see you, Cade. Come by later and we can talk some more, alright?"

"Sure thing."

Cadence watched her leave before crossing her arms and turning towards Roy, who appeared to be doing his best not to watch his ex-girlfriend. "How long ago did you two break up?"

"A couple of months," he replied. "Why?"

"Curious." She placed her hand on his shoulder. "Take it from me from what I've heard; you're probably the first boyfriend that she's had that actually treated her well. And I know a lot in that department." She turned on her heel and started to walk out of Verdant. "So what is there to do for fun around Starling City? Brady is, I'm sure, going on and on about his birthday and what he wants for his birthday and for Christmas."

"You don't want to get some practice in while the others wait to see where Harkness is going to strike next?" Roy asked an expression of concern on his face.

"I really don't want to be around Barry right now," Cadence admitted. Or anything else that'll remind me that I'm only a few days away from Brady being taken away from me. The thought sent a sharp pain through her chest and she closed her eyes, turning her head away. It wasn't time to worry about it, there was too much to deal with at the moment that she couldn't allow outside thoughts to jeopardize anything.

At least that was what she kept telling herself.

"We had an argument over the way Oliver was doing things…I guess he still doesn't trust me." She cleared her throat and gave Roy a half smile. "So, Little Red, are you going to show me to Grandmother's house or—"

"Are you sure you're okay?" he interrupted. "Because your eyes are glowing and I wouldn't want my red riding hood to be singed." He smiled as she laughed. "C'mon, I think we can find something to do."

A/N: Sort of an easy chapter before getting back into the rest of the Flarrow crossover with the next one. The next one will be in Barry's POV for the most part to balance this one being mostly from Cadence's, which will also bring Iris and Eddie into the story more.

I also noticed that I spelled Lyla's name wrong in the last chapter and I'll go on to fix it soon. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter. And what a season opener last night, right? It gave me motivation to get this chapter done. And if you haven't already please go read my one-shot Wide Awake as it is a deleted scene from chapters 6/7 of this story.

Thanks to Alisha Winchester Collins, guntezz, and scoobyice8 for reviewing.

Cheers,

-Riles