.:11:.

"Do you think Dr. Wells will mind if we decorate the place?" Cisco asked his chin resting in his hand as his eyes moved along the empty, spacious walls of the cortex. "It's starting to get kind of depressing."

"Well, you have to remember that it's only been a year since the explosion and Barry's getting his powers and everything," Caitlin pointed out. She lifted her head from her monitor and gently shrugged, nose wrinkling. "I can't blame him for not enjoying the holidays season."

"But it used to be his favorite holiday."

"I think 'used to' are the operative words, Cisco." Caitlin gave him a soft smile and pushed back her seat far enough so she had enough space to cross her legs at the knee. "I can't say that I blame him. Everything that he and the rest of us worked for went up in flames, right before our faces." She tucked her hair behind her ear. "This is something we all worked really hard on, that we thought would bring us everything we ever wanted…and seeing it all come crumbling down…" she shook her head. "It wasn't even our reputation that got tarnished."

"I know." Cisco reached out and picked at a peeling spot on his desk top. "I just think that we should turn it into something that's good for him. I mean, we might not have met Barry if it weren't for the Particle Accelerator going off."

"You don't think so?"

Cisco pressed his lips together as he shook his head. No. He truly didn't think so. Yes, Barry had wanted to go to STAR Labs the day it was to be turned on, but then Iris's bag had been stolen and he chased after the person to try and help her, and he missed it all, going back to his loft office to figure out if there was anything that needed to be done, which put him directly into the blast that gave him his abilities. If he had been able to get into the Particle Accelerator and watched it turn on with everyone else, he may have been injured if not killed by the blast, rather than getting his powers from it. Besides, with Barry's powers they wouldn't have been able to help the city in the capacity they were currently operating.

"I don't," Cisco agreed. He tucked his hair back behind his ear and turned towards Caitlin. "It's kind of like a Butterfly Effect sort of thing…if you change something that happened and then go back to the present, then everything around you wouldn't be recognizable."

He smiled as Caitlin tilted her head back and laughed lightly. "You're truly one of a kind, Cisco." She got up from her seat and walked over to her friend, wrapping her arms around him in a hug, which Cisco returned. "You certainly know how to make me feel better." It was then that Cisco looked into her eyes, realizing why she was worrying so much about Dr. Wells and celebrating Christmas, she didn't want to celebrate it herself. Not when it was going to be her first holiday, alone, after Ronnie had died in the explosion. He should've remembered. "Oh, Cait, I'm sorry," he apologized, arm still around her. "If I remembered—"

"Oh, don't worry about me." She braved a smile, mimicking his movement and pushing her hair behind her ear. "I'm fine, really. I have you and Barry and Cadence and Brady and…Dr. Wells…" her eyes shifted for a moment then quickly moved back to Cisco's. "I have all of you guys. I'll be okay." She lowered her arms from Cisco and looked around the Cortex. "You know what, I think you're right, we should spruce up this place a bit. We just have to make sure that Dr. Wells doesn't come in while we're doing it or else we'll have to take it down."

Grinning like a little kid in a candy shop, Cisco clasped his hands together. "I think we still have it all stashed away in the closet by the break room. I'll go get them." He turned on his heel and hurried out of the Cortex, going at nearly a run. This was going to be awesome and a much better Christmas than it was the year before. Last year, even without the explosion, hadn't been a great Christmas for him; his parents had done nothing but fawn all over Dante, getting him the best gifts. Things that he had actually asked for while Cisco, on the other hand, only got things that were even vaguely related to science. No graphic-tees, no controllers for his gaming systems, not even good candy—who liked black licorice anyway?—and yet they expected him to sit there, grin and bear it.

But this Christmas was going to be one hundred times better. He had new friends; he and Caitlin weren't so close the year before but now they were like brother and sister—he couldn't wait for her to see the gift he got her this time around—he didn't have to spend it with his family; the team at STAR Labs were now his family, and once they saw the invention he had made for them this time it was bound to cause laughs and a true feeling of the holiday spirit. Having the decorations up was just going to be the icing on the cake with the cherry on top. Stopping by the closet, he pulled the door open and looked inside, frowning as he was suddenly overcome with sadness. Some of the items that poked out of the tops of boxes he recognized as belonging to those that had passed that their family members either didn't know existed or wanted.

Pushing them and the copious amount of office supplies aside, Cisco grabbed the two large boxes of Christmas decorations, pushing them out from the depths of the closet and pushed them out. He kicked the door shut behind him and started to move them down the hall, suddenly coming to a stop. What was that? Twisting his head around, Cisco tried to pinpoint the sound he thought he had heard. Was it footsteps? Heaving breathing? The sound of his own hopes rising and rising?

"Cait?" He called, voice echoing along the corridor.

But he didn't hear anything in response. Nothing that would indicate there was someone there. Still…he was sure he had heard something. "If there are any mole people that are going to try and eat me, please don't do it until after Christmas. I'm actually looking forward to it this year," Cisco called. "I'll even salt my leg for you if you want."

He pushed the boxes into the cortex and Caitlin turned towards him, giving him a funny look. "Did you say something?"

"I was warding off the mole people from attacking me," Cisco explained. Caitlin's confused look increased in depth. "Don't ask, Cait. Just believe me when I say they're real." He picked up a long piece of tinsel and held it up over his head and twisted this way and that to see if he could find a good place for it to be placed. Finally, he draped it over the back of his own desk. "I'll take it. Blue's my favorite color."

"I thought your favorite color was red," Caitlin said.

"No, it just looks good for a suit color; I've completely thought this out. Like, the vest and the leggings have to be blue because that's a color that will grab the attention. But everything else has to be a contrasting color, maybe red or yellow. But they all have to be splashes, none of them can be overpowering. " He looked up from the Christmas tree he had started to set up, noticing that Caitlin hadn't said anything but continued to look at him funny. "You can't tell me that you haven't thought of it."

"Thought of what?" Caitlin asked, carefully putting up a string of lights over her desk, going as far as to take off her high heels so she didn't slip and fall. "Making myself my own suit?"

"Yeah! If you had the powers that Barry has wouldn't you want to design your own suit?"

"I've never thought about it, actually," Caitlin said, turning away from Cisco.

"Really? I think about it all the time! I mean, I made Barry's suite for the CCFD at first, but now it's working better for Barry and what he wants to do. And then Cade's suit…I made that after Dr. Wells told me to and it works perfect for the abilities she has though still has the same sort of components that Barry's suit has. I'd probably do that basic idea with a lot of different suits but mine would be the best one of course."

"Because you'd put all of your attention onto it."

"Exactly!"

Cisco steed back into the middle of the Cortex and placed his hands on his hips as he looked around the room. Instead of the grays, silvers, and blues that came from their metal-esque equipment and the blue screens from their monitors that greeted them every day, now it was filled with bright reds, greens, golds, and yellows from the lights they strung up around the large, circular room. Light blue tinsel snowflakes and stars swayed from low hanging parts of the ceiling, and a large Christmas tree festooned with tinsel, lights, and ornaments stood proudly in the corner of the room with wrapped boxes underneath.

"I think we've outdone ourselves this time, Cisco," Caitlin said with a proud smile as she placed her hands on her hips. She then reached out and gently poked him on the shoulder. "You've outdone yourself. This was fun."

Cisco grinned as he looked at his handiwork. It was certainly much better than anything he would see back home, where the family didn't put up the lights and decorations but a service did. It was always pretty to look at, but it didn't have the same sense of accomplishment that doing it himself did.

"Thanks Cait." His smile waned for a moment. "Unfortunately as fun as this was, I still have a lot to get done on Barry's suit and Cade's suits. I don't know what happened to them back in Starling City but they managed to do enough to it that it's going to take me a while to get it back up to code." He cracked his knuckles. "Remind me to have a word with them later."

Chuckling, Caitlin brought her purse up her shoulder. "You got it. I'm going to go to the store and see if we can find anything that we can give Dr. Wells this year. I don't think giving him another black sweater will go over very well. Even though we did do it at the last minute."

Cisco laughed loudly and gave Caitlin a hug goodbye as she turned on her heel and left the Cortex. He went over to the holding area for Barry's and Cadence's suits and shook his head as he looked the over. There were a few scuff marks here and there as well as a few rips and tears. And yet neither of them had explained what happened when they came back from whatever Oliver and Roy had needed to see them for before they had returned from Starling City. That bothered him more than the damage itself, not knowing how it got there.

"I see not much has changed around here."

Surprised, Cisco whipped around to find Bette standing quietly behind him, her auburn hair pulled back into a light ponytail that dusted her shoulder, a jean jacket over a tank-top, jeans, and light boots. In all, she appeared calm and collected, more so than he had seen her when she first arrived in Central City. As a matter of fact, there was a lighthearted glow in her eyes that wasn't there the last time he had seen her.

"Plastique," he said to her. Then gently shook his head. "Bette." She didn't necessarily deserve to be referred to as her metahuman name anymore. Not after her role within the Suicide Squad. Though if what Oliver said it true, then it wasn't anything that she had much control over. If I had the opportunity to get rid of Eiling too, I would've done it. He tilted his head. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you, Cisco."

Cisco could have said a lot of things in response to that statement. He felt butterflies erupt in his stomach, felt his knees go weak, and his palms get filed with sweat all at the same time. He hated having that visceral response to it. He wanted to stay angry, serious, and wanted a really good way of being able to prove it to her.

Instead he crossed his arms and said, "We need to ramp up security around here."

Frowning, Caitlin tilted her head to the side as she looked around the men's section of the store in front of her. There were so many things to buy, but nothing seemed like something Harrison would want. She had the same problem back in Starling where, admittedly a lot of it more was more expensive, but now that it was supposed to be something from her and Cisco it should've been easy, but it was anything but.

"I see you're having the same problem I am," Cadence said as she walked over. Caitlin turned and smiled at her, noticing that she was laden down with so many bags she appeared in danger of falling over under the weight. "You didn't have a gal pal to shop with, but here I am to break you out of your misery." She gave her friend a warm smile. "You should've called; I've been here all day."

"I can see that," Caitlin said. "You seem to have hit a lot of stores."

"I had a lot of gifts to get. Something for all of you guys, then stuff for Brady—which is always hard to hide because he snoops everywhere, so I have to do the shopping when he's at school and stash it somewhere else—for Iris and Eddie and Detective West, and Oliver and Thea—"

"—and Roy?" Caitlin broke in with a sly smile casing Cadence to busy herself with placing her bags on the floor, adjusting them in her hands. "What's going on with you two? You spent a lot of time together in Starling City."

"Yeah well, Roy's…" The fire metahuman trailed off, shaking her head before speaking honestly. "Roy's great. But I don't like to bring people around Brady that may leave after a while. And even though Roy's really cute and fun and we have a lot in common…he's not ready to be a potential step-father to him. A friend, sure. A step-father, no, not really."

"I think I get it," Caitlin said honestly.

"Did you and Ronnie ever think about having kids?"

For the second time that day Caitlin was caught off-guard. There were a lot of things she thought about when it came to her relationship with Ronnie and what it could have been. She planned out her entire wedding in her head; the kinds of flowers they would have, the venue, the kind of cake at the reception, her dress. She had thought of it all the way down to her shoes and how she would wear one kind during the ceremony and then switch into flats and a different dress for the reception so she could be sure to have a lot of fun. She planned for the limo that would take them to their hotel to have a pizza waiting for them knowing they would have little to no time to eat while they were busy greeting their friends and family that came out to the wedding.

She would try to use that time to show her mother that she was truly happy with someone that may be a little bit beneath her. She would show her mother that she was happy with what Ronnie meant to her rather than the job he had, what he was like in college, or that they were two different people, proving that in some cases opposites did attract. There was a reason he continued to call them fire and ice, teasing her whenever she got angry about something as she showed off her 'fiery' side. It didn't help the one time she had experimented with dyeing her hair red—it was for a costume—and he continued to taunt and tease her, trying to get her mad.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything," Cadence said quickly, breaking Caitlin out of her thoughts.

"It's alright, I guess I'm going to have to get used to it." She shook her head as the two started walking. "It's better than what my Mom keeps doing. It's my first year without Ronnie in a while…she keeps looking at me as if I'm going to burst out into hysterical tears or that everything she says is going to offend me."

"Does everyone have crappy parents around here or is it just me?" Now Cadence shook her head. "And I thought Central City was supposed to be all light and happy. It's even got a golden glow to it. Metropolis was a lot of sky scrapers, to the point that you got blinded nearly every time cars went by." She suddenly stopped as they reached the elevators that would take them to the parking garage. "Weren't you going to get a gift?"

"I couldn't find anything, I'll just look later," Caitlin said quickly. She suddenly came to a stop, looking over her shoulder. She could've sworn someone had just been right behind her, breathing down her neck. But…there was no one there. Okay, there were strange things going on around Central City but she was sure she hadn't completely lost her mind at that point. Not yet, though she was sure she would strangle Cisco the next time he tried to force her into a monster movie marathon.

Unnerved, Caitlin turned back to face forward once more and followed Cadence to her car so that she could help put all o f her bags into the car. Tilting her head to the side, Caitlin tried to peer into a bag when she spotted a bright blue swatch of clothing, wondering if it was a gift for her. Laughing, she pulled her hand back as Cadence shot her hand out and smacked her on the wrist for trying to look inside. Once the trunk was closed, Caitlin's attention was immediately drawn to the reflection of a figure standing behind her. She gasped, causing Cadence to notice and the two whipped around to face the figure.

The man looked to be homeless with long, stringy hair, dirty and ripped clothes, and smudges of dirt along his face. His head was bent towards the ground, breathing heavily as he held his arms at his sides, slightly elevated. He took in a few deep breaths before turning on his heel and hurried away from the two young women. Before she could stop herself, Caitlin hurried after him.

"Cait!"

She could hear Cadence's footsteps behind her and the two skidded to a stop around the corner when they realized they had the man cornered in a small alcove. His back was towards them, ragged breathing increasing in sound and tempo. He slowly turned around, gritting his teeth in effort of…what? Caitlin's eyes lifted and she stared hard at the figure's face, straining to see through the long pieces of hair that covered him. Then he lifted his head and Caitlin's eyes widened.

They widened even further when there was a sudden flash of bright light and the head and hands of the figure erupted into flames. There was a low rumbling sound that started deep in his throat before he let out a cry of fury and raised his hands, shooting the flames out towards her.

"Look out!" Reacting quickly, Cadence pushed Caitlin out of the way and brought her hand up, blocking off the rush of flame that headed their way. Falling heavily onto her side, Caitlin looked up to see the man pull his hands back and punch towards Cadence. She ducked out of the way, and then did a back flip to move back even further. She sent a cloud of smoke towards the figure, giving her enough time to move back to Caitlin's side. "Come on."

But Caitlin stayed frozen, staring at the figure as he moved the smoke out of his face. Enraged, he turned back to Cadence and brought more fire up to his arms and shot it out towards her. Tucking Caitlin behind her, Cadence brought up her hands and shot her own stream of fire back to him.

"No! Wait, stop!" Caitlin cried, grabbing onto Cadence's arm. The fire metahuman immediately stopped and looked down at her friend, who continued to stare at the figure with wide eyes. He stared back at her, shifting his eyes towards Cadence then back to Caitlin.

Then he turned and disappeared around the corner. Dropping Cadence's arm, Caitlin got to her feet and hurried after him, but found him gone within the few seconds it took to reach the concrete slab that hid his exit. Cadence came up behind her.

"What are you doing? Who was that?" she demanded.

"I think…" Caitlin swallowed thickly. "I think that was Ronnie."

"Uh…I hate to break it to you, Cait but Ronnie's dead…that guy didn't exactly look like the Ghost Rider."

Caitlin whipped around and grabbed onto Cadence's shoulders. At the fire metahuman's surprised glance she realized she was shaking and had difficulty catching her breath. But in her heart of hearts, in her gut, she knew that was Ronnie. "It was him," she said. "I know it."

"Okay…then we have to tell the others."

"No! Not yet, I want to be sure. I want…" What did she want exactly? Time alone with the man she thought had died to see if it really was him? Time to see if he remembered her and wouldn't ever attack her unless…unless he wasn't Ronnie. "Just don't tell them, please."

"Okay. I promise." Cadence looked up at her friend, concern evident in her eyes. She reached out and grabbed onto Caitlin, hugging her tightly. "Everything's going to be okay, Caitlin."

Caitlin hugged her back, hoping to stop trembling.

Barry leaned back in his chair and yawned loudly, running his hands over his face. Considering how long it was taking for the results to come back from his testing of that day's crime scene—it wouldn't have been so bad; a routine older woman who had died alone, if the death hadn't occurred weeks before and her house looked like it had been broken into—he was starting to appreciate how quickly he could move when he had the chance. Now it was like watching paint dry as he waited for his machines to get up to speed to analyze what was brought back from the crime scene.

Sighing heavily he turned around, after looking to be sure no one was coming up the stairs to his office, and leaned forward to grab the string that rested at the bottom of a map of the world and pulled on it. It rolled up to reveal the board that held all of the information about his mother's case. He hadn't looked at it in a long time, though it was something that used to consume him. Glancing over the newspaper articles, the red strings that kept piece of evidence tracked together, different leads he had followed over the years, the night came rushing back to meet him.

He remembered the strange sounds from the living room that caused him to venture out of bed that evening, how his mother screamed as the yellow swirl moved around the living room, keeping her trapped, how his father tried his hardest to get to Nora before she was killed. But, of course, Barry hadn't witnessed that part; he had been whisked away by something that he had never been able to determine. All he knew was one second his father was screaming at him to run and the next thing he knew, he was blocks away with no idea what happened. Then his father was taken away and he was with the Wests…Standing up, Barry reached out a hand and gently ran his fingertips along the picture of his father being taken away by the police; the picture that graced the front of every newspaper delivered around Central City, the picture that was broadcasted over websites for everyone to see and he was known as a 'wife-killer'.

He must be so lonely in there, Barry thought, realizing he hadn't seen his father in a while. I need to go visit him again, soon. Letting out another sigh, Barry brought the map back down over his board and turned around back around to the machine to see if the tests had been done. Seeing they weren't, his shoulders slumped. This was going to take forever. Looking at his watch, he looked around the empty office one more. No one had come to see him all day other than giving him the samples from the crime scene, Captain Singh seemed to be avoiding him since their last run in—though he had been under the whammy from Bivolo—, it seemed that everyone was going through the motions.

"I guess I have enough time to get to Jitters before anyone notices I'm gone," he said, before zipping out of the office, causing loose papers to flutter to the ground. Barry came to a stop around the corner of CC Jitters and walked inside, immediately going up to the counter to get his usual. He stopped short, realizing that he, sort of, recognized the young ma that stood in front of him. As if sensing that Barry was staring at him, he turned and Barry slowly nodded as he realized that Ryder was standing in front of him.

Ryder blinked at Barry for a moment before his eyebrows lifted with recognition. "Hey. Barry, right? We met once before at Cade's apartment."

"Right." Barry nodded and took the hand Ryder offered him and shook it. "You're Ryder." A brief, awkward moment shot between them once they stopped shaking hands. "How're things going, man?" He inwardly cringed. But what was he supposed to do? It was his friend's ex-boyfriend, the father of her son, and the one that had come back to Central City with gifts for the two of them for their birthdays. Despite having two loving parents, he knew how awkward moments like that could be.

"Not bad," Ryder said with a nod. "I've been working a lot out here. You know that office building that's being built…" he paused. "Or I guess I should say rebuilt considering the huge explosion that ripped through it a few months ago."

Barry nodded, trying hard not to keep it from reading on his face. That explosion had come from Plastique, when she attacked him the first time; the first time he had proven that he could run up the side of the building when he got the first chance to. He tried not to grin but failed, causing Ryder to give him a funny look.

"It's cool, but I don't think it's anything to grin about," Ryder said slowly, reaching for his wallet to pick up his order. Though from what I can tell around here, it seems like I'm going to be having a lot of work. There always seems to be some sort of destruction going on around here."

"Yeah, a lot of strange things are happening around here now," Barry said slowly. Of course all of them had to do with metahumans. He had fixed up as much as he could after the fall of the Suicide Squad and the Assassination Bureau, hoping to keep the citizens of Central City from regaining their memories of that day. He wasn't sure what Breathtaker had managed to do to completely erase their memories of that night, but if he was able to use his powers to control the Assassination Bureau into doing everything he wanted, it couldn't have been hard. "But, I mean, The Flash is here to help everyone so I don't think it's anything to worry about."

"Kind of like Metropolis with Superman I guess," Ryder agreed. He stood aside as Barry ordered his usual drink and the two sat down at their own table. "There's always something going on over there, but there's someone for them to look up to. I guess the Flash is that for Central City."

"Have you ever seen him?"

"The Flash?"

"Yeah."

"No… but I've seen the pictures…the blog posts…" Ryder blew his fringe out of his face before leaning back, crossing his legs at the knee. "He's doing a really great thing for the City. No matter what happens I think people will keep living here if there's someone like The Flash to keep them around." He let out a low breath through his nose. "I might move here myself."

As he was taking a sip of his latte, Barry choked slightly. He coughed, moving the cup away from his mouth and grabbed a napkin. Ryder didn't appear at all offended to Barry's reaction, instead, he placed his cup down and loosely crossed his arms.

"Look, I know it's weird. Because I haven't been part of Brady's…or Cade's life, for a while but I'm really trying to change that now. He deserves to know that I'm here for him that I wanted him, but didn't have much choice when it came to how things were played out. I made a mistake and I'm trying to fix that mistake."

Barry nodded but didn't say anything else. It wasn't his business, really. Cadence and Brady were both good friends to him and he did feel a bit protective over what was going on with their personal lives, but he felt a protective of them as well.

"We're not going to get back together, that's not what I want at all. I just want things to be okay between us. So I can be the father that Brady deserves and needs. It'd kill me if I'm not given that chance. Every kid deserves to have his father around, right?"

Barry nodded then opened his mouth then closed it again, unsure of what to say. He could understand that, but he didn't know Ryder well enough to know if he was telling the truth. Still, what he said did have some truth to it. Every kid did deserve to have their father, but their mother as well and he…he didn't really have anything. There was a reason he didn't like the holidays so much; yes there were Joe and Iris who he could celebrate with and it was always great. But it wasn't the same as when his Mom and Dad were around.

Where his Mom would already be awake when he went to get his parents up Christmas morning and she would go down to the kitchen and help him make breakfast for his Dad. Then he would go charging up the stairs to their room and jump onto his Dad, waking him up despite Henry's grunts and groans to at least sleep for another hour. Then the three of them would go down to the living room where Barry would eagerly watch the two of them as they opened the gifts that he painstakingly saved enough money for to buy. No matter what it was they were always happy to see what he gave them; even if it were something that held to little to no value to anyone but them.

But it was gone now, Nora was gone and Henry was sitting in jail…

Feeling guilt run through his body, Barry sighed and placed his forehead into his upraised hands. Ryder gave him a funny look. "Look, man, I didn't mean to upset you in any way."

"It's not you; it's something I forgot I have to do." Barry got to his feet. "It was good to see you again, Ryder. See ya." He left Jitters and immediately raced over to Iron Heights prison, set halfway between Starling City and Central City. All thoughts of missing work left his mind as he signed himself in and waited a few moments before he was brought back to a row of stalls that held a phone.

Barry settled down in his seat and looked around the small, enclosed space as he waited. Then he heard a door open and perked up as a security guard came into view, bringing an inmate along with him. Once the inmate was settled into place, he reached up and took the telephone, pressing it to his ear. Barry did the same.

"Hey Dad," Barry greeted Henry Allen with a sad smile.

"Hey there, Slugger," Henry replied with a smile of his own.

Flick, fizz. Flick, fizz. Flick, fizz.

Eyes narrowing, Snart shifted his gaze over to Mick who continued his routine; flicking open the lid of his lighter and watching the dancing flame, a content, almost perverse smile on his face. Tilting his head back, Snart closed his eyes and shook his head before bringing his hands up over his face. It figures the guy he had asked to become his partner in crime was one of the most irritating people on the planet. His obsession with fire was bound to get them into more trouble than anything else, especially if he ended up falling for his vices; setting something on fire and standing in almost a loving, romantic trance as the flames destroyed everything in its path.

That's why he preferred the cold. No heat, nothing resembling humans or emotions, messy things that got in the way. As it was, he as seconds away from picking up his cold gun and blasting Mick in the face with it. He would've done it if he wasn't aware of Mick's heat gun that could be brandished as quickly as his own.

"Tell me again why we're not working to lure The Flash to us?" Mick asked, lowering his lighter to the table. "I want to see how long it'll take for his suit to burn down to his flesh and bone." Eyes gleaming in the flickering light, he looked positively demonic.

"Because I want to be sure of the one that's working with him first," Snart said. "The one called Flash Fire. Seems that she hasn't caught on with the press yet, but it is interesting that the one that as aligned with him has the power of fire…" his eyes trialed over to Mick, who suddenly seemed alert, a dark and malicious smile coming to his face. "Is it not?" Snart slowly smiled as he tilted his head to the side. "Besides, even heroes deserve to have a day off before everything goes to hell."

Mick responded by closing the lid of his lighter with a loud snap.

A/N: One thing I'm not sure of is if I'm not showing enough of the differing relationships within this story. So if there's anyone you think I need to show more of, please let me know. I know for sure one of them is Cisco and Cadence, but then there's also Barry and Caitlin and Barry and Cisco and Iris and the girls and Eddie being thrown in all there. But let me know please.

Fun Fact: when originally thinking of this story and Flash Fire, Caitlin was to be the first to find out about Brady being Cadence's son while they were out Christmas shopping.

Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter. I should update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riley