.:20:.

Barry rested his chin in his hands as he watched Joe and Iris move back and forth in front of him, packing up boxes and closing them with tape. Oh how he wished he could use his powers to make it move faster. Not only would it make everything go by that much faster, but then he would be able to get over the awkwardness of everything. Eddie was doing his best to keep from looking at Joe, Joe was doing his best to keep from remarking that Iris really was leaving, and Iris was trying to engage Barry in as much conversation as possible.

If she knew that Oliver had died and that was why she was trying to do it, he wouldn't be surprised. But no one was to know about that and she was probably just picking up on the fact that he hadn't spoken very much since he arrived to help out. How could he? What was he going to say? That he was too busy trying to run faster—which would've been a joke as it was, before he got his abilities he wasn't that athletic—and get over the death of one of his best friends and mentors?

Yeah, Barry, that'd go over well, Barry thought as he rolled his eyes. A sigh escaped his lips. Where are you, Oliver?

"Oh! Look!" Iris cried, reaching into a box. She pulled out a small, red and yellow backpack. Barry looked over at her and his eyes widened in recognition. "It's your old backpack!" She opened it and looked inside to find a couple of comic books. "And your Batman and Superman's." She leaned forward on her knees, holding it out to him. "You used to read these all the time."

"I haven't seen these in forever," Barry said, taking the comic books and running his hands over the front. All those nights he stayed up reading, holding a flashlight in his teeth so that he could use both hands to turn the pages. Every now and then he would hear Joe's footsteps to come up the stairs to check on him and Iris and he would click off the flashlight, throw his comic books under his pillow and pretend to be asleep only to go back to reading when he was sure Joe was gone once more.

"Remember how you used to get in trouble in class for reading so much?" Joe teased. With a light laugh, he turned to Eddie and gently nudged him on the arm. "The teachers actually got mad that he would read ahead in books, read when he was done with his work and read when he was t recess rather than play with the other kids."

"Joe." Barry looked up at him as if he had just been slapped, or as Iris called it, his puppy dog face. He rolled his eyes as Eddie chuckled to himself. "I'm sure you had your little quirks when you were a kid," he defended himself.

"Well," Eddie hesitated for a moment, placing his hands on his hips. "I was a bit of a chubby kid and my Dad wasn't very well liked, so there was a lot of reasons for people to beat me up. For a while I was very well known as a teacher's pet because I was bullied enough that I was always with them. Or others were constantly getting in trouble for it or they were—"

"Sweetie, I think we got the point," Iris remarked, reaching out her hand and patting his wrist. She smiled up at him. "But it's cute to know that you were kinda…chubby when you were a kid. Makes this fine specimen that I have now that much more appealing."

Barry's and Joe's faces twisted up into mirroring expressions of disgust. Then Joe took in a sharp breath and turned away from his daughter and partner. "I did not need to hear that."

"And that is why we're moving in together, Daddy," Iris teased her father. She stood up and wrapped her arms around herself, looking around the boxes that piled through the living room, up the stairs, and stacked by the door. "It's really weird…seeing the place like this. It's going to be weird not living here anymore."

"You know you and Eddie are free to come over whenever you like," Joe reassured her. He reached out his arms and wrapped them around his daughter, holding her tightly, patting her back every now and then. Barry smiled up at Joe, knowing he was doing his best to keep from letting his emotions show through. He was as much of a wreck about her leaving as Iris was. It was hard when Barry left to go to college then moved into his own apartment once he graduated, but this was his flesh and blood. "I'm going to miss you, baby."

"We're not going that far away, Dad," Iris reassured him. "It's only ten minutes, tops."

"Yeah, and you can come over to our place," Eddie agreed. He put his arm around Iris's shoulders and grinned up at his partner. "Just let us know that you're coming over." His smiled immediately faded and he cowered when Joe stared at him. "Or not…you can just…yeah you can come over when you like…or have a key…?"

Barry laughed a little. That was certainly one thing he wasn't going to get tired of. If there was anything Joe was really good at, it was intimidating people when he tried. Not only did he have the best record of getting suspects to confess things to the CCPD, but he seemed to make it his mission to do the same to his partner since announcing said partner was dating his daughter. It might've been a bit petty, but to see someone as confident as Eddie cower in fear whenever Joe was around was priceless.

"No? Okay. Well." Eddie looked around for any excuse to get out of the awkward situation. His eyes landed on a box and he moved over and picked it up. "Well, I-I'm just going to take his box and…and wait in the truck. Thanks for the help, Bare."

"Yeah, thanks," Iris agreed. She grinned up at her best friend—which to be honest Barry wasn't even sure he'd really consider her that anymore; they rarely spent time together as he was so busy with his duties as the Flash and she was busy with work and Eddie—and opened her arms for a hug. Barry grinned and walked into them, hugging her tightly. "I don't know how I would've been able to get all of this stuff done if it weren't for your help."

A chuckle escaped Barry's lips. "I don't know how much I did help. Joe did most of the work." He looked over Iris's shoulder as Joe gave him a look. They had to keep some stuff a secret if Barry was to help clean out Iris's room when she wasn't paying attention. "I'm going to miss you, Iris. It's not going to be the same coming here and not seeing you."

"What are you talking about?" Iris playfully hit him on the arm as they pulled back from the hug. "I'm still going to come here for dinner. I mean, you moved out and you're here all the time."

"Yes, well," Barry coughed. He rubbed the back of his neck. "That's because you can't get anything better than a home cooked meal."

"That's because you don't know how to cook," Iris pointed out. She reached up and ruffled his hair. "I always told you if you needed something you could always just ask me. I'm a great cook and I don't mind teaching you."

"And have you laugh at me as much as you did when I tried to make birthday cake for Joe?"

"Yeah, I'm still feeling that one, too," Joe remarked, his hand on his stomach. "Thanks for that."

Now Barry laughed along with the others and hugged Iris once more. "If you ever need anything, let me know. I may be late getting there, but you know I'll be there." She smiled and nodded as they broke apart. Barry expected some sort of a tug of annoyance in his stomach, some sort of pang of pain, maybe even a damn lightning bolt coming through the ceiling and striking him. But he felt nothing. Not even a zip of jealousy. He frowned, taking a step away from her and watched as she picked up a box and followed Eddie out the door, waving as she went.

Joe waved, waiting for the door to close before turning back to Barry. He tilted his head to the side, studying him. "What?" He asked.

"What?" Barry repeated.

"What's with that look on your face?" He glanced at the door once more then turned back to Barry, pointing between the two. "I thought you would have been a bit more…I don't know, sad that she was leaving."

"Yeah…" Barry agreed. "I thought I would be too." He sucked in a deep breath, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "It's weird. Iris just moved out…moved into an apartment with Eddie…and I didn't feel anything. I've been in love with her for as long as I can remember and I don't care that he's gone." He shook his head. "Maybe that lightning strike scrambled my brain a little bit."

"Or maybe, Barry," Joe said slowly with a wise air about him. "You're not in love with her anymore."

Barry thought for a minute then opened his mouth to answer when his cell phone rang. He pulled out his cell phone and saw Cisco's name come up. "Hey Cisco, what's up? How'd the presentation at the CCPD go? Did they like the shields you made?"

"Yeah, yeah, it went fine," Cisco said quickly. "But you need to get here now. Something's happened to Cade."

Cadence's eyes fluttered as she straightened her head. A low groan escaped her lips and pain exploded in her head. For a moment she was sure Brady had landed on her head in his excitement to wake her up—over the years he had become very creative with doing so, though his favorite way was still to pull open her eyelids. Others included whacking her with a pillow, pulling the covers back and tickling the bottom of her feet, poking her with a broom, and slipping headphones over her ears and turning music up loud, each and every one resulting in hysterical laughter when she did. But no, this hurt much worse than getting jumped on by a hyperactive kid.

She really needed to see if she could heal herself just as quickly as she could heal other people or this was going to get old fast.

Then she remembered what had happened. She had just left the hospital to get her last paycheck, stepping out onto the sidewalk when she had seen a fist flying towards her face. Normally her paranoia would've been on point so that she could've ducked out of the way or at least teleported, but it had come so fast the next thing she knew she was waking up, tied to a chair. Shifting her hands and feet she found her arms and legs were bound at her wrists, upper arms shoulders, thighs, and calves were tied as well.

"Okay, I know some people have their kinks, but this is ridiculous," she muttered to herself.

"It's funny that you mention kinks because there is one that I certainly want to do and it has something to do with the Flash," Snart said as he walked over to her. Cadence mentally cursed herself, knowing it was a bad idea to have even left the house when she had just had her face revealed to him and his partner. I messed up again, she thought, shaking her head. "Now…we know who you are, I think it's fair that you tell us who the Flash is, too."

"As opposed to…?" Cadence questioned.

There was a sudden high-pitched whirring sound and Cadence found the barrel of his cold gun pressed against her forehead. Goosebumps immediately popped up on her skin at the subzero temperature of the barrel. If it was that cold from the tip of the gun alone, then the blast had to have been even worse. No wonder Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin were so against him and everything he stood for. Being able to freeze someone or something like that would have been terrifying.

"As opposed to seeing how long it takes for your fire powers to freeze," Snart said.

Cadence nodded. Then her eyes narrowed and shifted around the…wherever it was she was being held. It looked like a normal house…but at the same time it was much more extravagant than she thought any criminal would hideout in. Then again, nothing took their attention off anyone else than a good looking house where appearances were everything. It were times like these she wished she could've fulfilled her lifelong dream of becoming a Power Ranger.

At least that way she would've had a way of contacting the others with ease.

"So where's your partner?" She asked. "The pyromaniac?" Snart's eyes shifted to the side and Cadence turned her head, letting out a shriek and jerking backwards when she realized how close Mick's face was to hers. It wasn't entirely good to look at, but up close it was even more horrifying. Especially with that creepy grin that was reserved for psychotic clowns and Mother-In-Laws who pretended to like you, and those Mommy Bloggers who obsessed over making it seem like their lives were perfect. Unfortunately she had experience with all three. "Jesus! Give me a heart attack why don't you?" She was already starting to feel sick from her rapid heartbeat.

"Sorry," Mick mumbled. She reached out and smoothed a strand of hair off her cheek, his gaze burning holes in the side of her head. "Couldn't help it. I wanted a front row seat in case you tried to break out of those binds."

She had thought about it. But knowing these guys, knowing how elusive they were, and seeing as they had a lifetime of criminal activity, they were probably well versed in making sure their hostages didn't get away.

"So, let's chat for a minute, shall we?" Snart set up a chair in front of her. He sat down and looked directly into her eyes. He pushed back on his seat, leaving the back two legs on the floor and rocked, however he kicked his trigger finger steady on his cold gun. With each rock Cadence winced, feeling the gun press even further against her forehead. "The Flash aside, word on the street is you know everything about everyone in this city."

Cadence's eyes twitched. She was sure it was true considering how long Breathtaker had used her. "How'd you know that?"

"I hear things. Word gets around. Normally I don't listen much to words, but these words were interesting." Snart slowed, but didn't stop his rocking. "I'm very aware of the fire powers that you hold, as is my partner, Mick. As you and I can both tell he's taken a shining to you." Now Cadence's upper lip curled."I'm not saying you have to go out with the guy, frankly I wouldn't even give him the time of day if it weren't for the fact that I know how he operates." He brushed the barrel of the gun against her once more. "Now…how do you operate?"

"What do you mean?"

"What sort of things can you do with your powers?

Cadence shrugged and started to list off everything she could do starting from shooting fire from her eyes, to controlling the body temperature of others, to determining their being truthful from the change in their body temperature and perspiration. With each explanation Snart's evil smile widened. "Now what about heat seeking? Are you attracted to warm bodies? If you were in a room that was completely dark would you be able to see someone due to their body temperature?"

That stumped Cadence. She had absolutely no idea. As a matter of fact, her list of side effects and things she could do was much longer than things she couldn't do or didn't know she could do. Now I get why Harrison is constantly pushing my abilities, to get me past the plateau. It's better to know what I can and can't do and how to use it rather than question it.

"Does the fire come from inside you?" Mick leered at her. "Or is it something you can't create yourself?"

Cadence leaned as far away from him as he could then shrugged to answer Snart's question. "No matter, there're other thing to figure out. Such as the wealth that you are so well known for. You know what…" Snart licked his lips. "I could use you." His eyes shifted to Mick as he let out a low growl. "We could use you…for collateral. I'm sure by now The Flash knows you're missing."

A chuckle escaped Cadence's lips. "You wouldn't be the first one to tell me that." Her eyes shifted to Mick and then narrowed when he came close to her, tilting his head to the side. Now that she was getting a good look at his face, she was struck with how familiar it seemed. I know I've seen him somewhere before…before having met him as Heat Wave. But where? "I know you," she murmured. "I've seen you…somewhere before."

Mick finally smiled. He leaned back away from her and pulled a lighter form his pocket. He lifted the lid and flicked out a flame. It twisted and danced as high as it could, taking on the oxygen around the room. Snart's and Mick's faces looked demonic as they flickered against the fire light. "You know the best thing about fire?" He asked. "The power it holds. It gets to the root of people and things and shows their true forms." He reached out with his other hand and ran it over the third degree burns that lined his shoulders. "The best part is when it takes down nature. You take it to its truest form and decides whether to continue to stay in its natural form or start all over again."

"Get to the point," Snart said with an edge to his tone.

Mick grunted at him and continued at his pace, almost mimicking Snart. "Burning wood is okay, you can watch it as long as you want. It can take forever for a house to come down, the best entertainment you can get. But if you want to watch something fast, you get a field full of crops. It spreads faster than a virus." He shrugged. "It's a good thing Millville is full of them…pure entertainment."

The connection fell with a sickening thud in her stomach, making her feel just as she had the first time she got drunk. "You were the one that set that fire," she murmured. "You were the one that set me up!" She started to thrash against her binds. "Wait until I get my hands on you!" A scream then escaped her lips as she felt the coldest, burning pain on her hand. Trembling, she looked down to find Snart had removed the gun from her forehead and blasted it with ice.

The three watched as it slowly started to melt away, steam coming up from the block of ice. Finally she clenched her hand into a fist as it burst into flames, reversing the casing it had been in. She breathed a sigh of relief when she found that she could still feel her fingers and move them as she had before.

"Huh." Snart cocked his head to the side. "I wonder what'll happen if I do this?"

Cadence screamed again as he then turned the gun to her feet and froze them. She could already fee her body temperature fluctuating, trying to take on its natural state of dropping then warming up once more. It was already starting to tire her out, pushing a lot of heat to one spot. Another relieved sigh escaped her lips when she reversed the damage, causing her to tilt her head back. Her eyes shifting to the rafters that sat above her. Those were too high…But when she lowered her gave a little bit she found one that wasn't so far off the ground that it would injure her. If she moved quick enough this should work though it might also make the chair burst into flames. She had managed to take people with her when teleporting but not objects.

It was worth a shot.

To Mick's and Snart's surprise a bright smile came to her face. "Not that this torture fest hasn't been interesting but this serious conversation is really grating on my nerves. You know what we could use?" She asked with extra amount of pep to her voice. Snart looked at her warily. "A cheer!" She blew her hair out of her eyes. "Of course this would be much better if I had use of my hands and feet, but I'll manage."

Realizing what she meant, Snart's lips pulled back into a half amused, half annoyed smile. "Goodie," he drawled.

"Let's get fired up!" Cadence started to cheer. "Hey, hey, hey. Let's get fired up! Do your best…MHS!" She repeated herself as Snart bobbed his head back and forth, waiting for her to finish. "Let's get fired up! Hey, hey, hey. Let's get fired up! Do your best…" She teleported, chair and all to the medium high rafter and threw herself off the top. Doing a flip in the air, she tucked herself in a ball and send out bursts of fire at her hands and feet, breaking the ropes that held her down. Then she unfolded and landed on her hands, doing a few front hand springs. "MHS!" She landed on her feet and lashed out at the last second in a high kick, striking Snart in the face and sent him spinning to the ground.

She then turned on her heel and did a butterfly kick, knocking Mick in the chest before he could bring his heat gun up in enough time to strike back. Once he was distracted Cadence took one last look around the room before teleporting. She arrived in STAR Labs, behind her friends, breathing heavily.

"You all really need to work on security," She said through ragged breaths. "If I can teleport in here, anyone can get past it."

"Are you okay?" Barry hurried to her side and helped her to her feet. "What happened? Where's Brady?"

"I'm fine considering," Cadence replied, being helped into Cisco's chair. "Brady's fine, too. That's not the point. You know how we were saying to be worried about Snart and Mick knowing who I was? Well, that seemed to be something they thought of too."

"What happened?" Harrison demanded.

Cadence looked at him glumly. "Other than messing up again?" She asked. "Not much. They just wanted to know the identity of The Flash."

"Cade…" Caitlin placed her hand on her shoulder and kneeled down by her side. "You didn't mess anything up?"

A snort escaped Cadence's lips. "I can't say my track record is really good. Not only have I ruined the whole point of a secret identity, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Within the last year an eight-year-old nearly got Wolverined, I basically became Deadpool at one point, we got repo'd by Juggernaut, Central City nearly became New York in the Avengers, and now we're got Batman's Mr. Freeze and a pyromaniac whose fetish is probably the smell of burning skin on our butts. So I'd say I messed up."

"There's that cheerleading pep and positivity," Caitlin said sarcastically.

Cisco slow clapped. "But Bravo on all of the comic book references."

Barry ran a hand over his face. "It's not your fault, it's mine," he said. "They only took you because they were trying to figure out my identity. Who knows what else they could've done to figure that out."

Cadence thought about telling him how they had tortured her but thought against it. The information wasn't going to help anything. They already had a vendetta against Snart, becoming even angrier wasn't going to do anything else. She looked up as Barry grabbed onto her shoulders. "I need your help," he said. "We've been thinking about this all wrong; putting you up against fire is just going to help them. What we need you to do is distract Captain Cold."

"Distract him for what?" She asked. "I don't know if you noticed, but he's so calculated I'm surprised his brain moves as quickly as it does."

"To cross its streams," Cisco remarked, snapping his fingers. "We've been thinking about this all wrong. To stop these two and their guns we thought we just had to knock the two of them out. What we need to do is cancel out their guns. Cold's is of absolute cold and Snart's is of absolute hot, so what else would be able to stop it rather than neutralizing it."

"And you think we can do that?" Caitlin asked. "It's not like we can force them to do it."

"Not without both of us working together," Barry remarked. He finally tore his gaze away from Cadence and looked at his friends with grim determination. "I can move around fast enough to get them to follow me, but with one person it'd be easy to follow. It'll be harder with two." He turned back to her. "What do you say, think you could help me?"

"Apparently everyone wants a piece of me today," Cadence said. "How can I say 'no' to that?"

But the words felt hollow on her tongue.

"But are you sure about this?" Caitlin pressed. "If you do this, you two are going to be revealing the fact that you're real things and not stories to Central City. Do you think you can handle that?"

"Not unless I can change my name," Cadence remarked, mostly to annoy Cisco who stuck his tongue out at her, sticking his nose in the air. "Sorry, but I've read enough of Iris's blog and other posts to be really tired of people calling me a sidekick."

Barry ignored her comment, turning to her with an outstretched hand. "Partners?" He asked.

"Partners." Cadence reached out and firmly grabbed his hand in hers.

It didn't take long for Snart and Mick to show their faces within Central City once more. Having been easily beaten and humiliated as Cadence had done to them before made them move faster than Team Flash had anticipated. However it didn't take long for a police barrier to show up in the middle of downtown Central City as Snart and Mick stood with their cold and heat guns ready. Cadence and Barry arrived on scene, breaking through the police barrier.

"Well, well, well, it seems that your little friend here let you know what happened," Snart said, pointing his cold gun directly at Barry's chest. "Now that we know her little secret, why don't' you tell us yours. Better yet, why don't you hold still while I 'flash freeze' you."

"Or Flash Fire," Mick added.

Cadence rolled her eyes. "Y'see? This is why I need a new name," She murmured to Barry, who briefly looked at her. She clenched her hands into fists.

Barry watched as Snart and Mick slowly walked towards the two of them. There weren't too many people around. He didn't have to worry about other people potentially getting hurt. No one but the police but Snart and Mick weren't after the police, they were after him. And they wanted him dead. Hopefully this works, he thought, feeling his body tap into the source of speed as it always did before he went to run. He could even feel it in his eyes. Taking a glance at Cadence once more he nodded before racing down the street. Just as he thought, Snart and Mick followed his movements, turning around and shooting a blast of ice and fire after him.

Turning on his heel, Barry shot the other way, with Snart and Mick following him just as Cadence sent a combination of smoke and fire back towards them. Smiling to himself, Barry skidded on his feet once more and turned back to Snart and Mick once more. Snart, realizing what was going on, ducked down under the proverbial ash cloud and barked at Mick, "Don't stand there you idiot! Watch my back!"

With that, he turned and shot a blast of ice in the direction Barry was running, one blast escaping him and hit a fire extinguisher. Like a geyser, the water blasted out of the top and froze at the same time. With a cry of surprise, Barry tried to stop himself and found his feet skidding over the slush before crashing face first into the block of ice the geyser had become. It was no wonder he never particularly liked to ice skate. The bruising he immediately felt when falling face first into the frozen water was enough to give him flashbacks of his classmates' birthday parties at the ice rink.

Cadence turned the other way and focused her attention on Snart once more. This time she shot a stream of fire to his cold gun. Sensing heat coming his way, Mick turned and fired his gun at her instead, the two streams crashing against each other. The warm blast sent Cadence backwards and she teleported before hitting the parked car behind her, landing atop Mick in a crouching kick, sending him forward, then teleported once more. "Flash, get up!" She called. "We have some work to do!"

"She's right, Harrison said. "You know what you have to do."

"Get faster?" Barry groaned. At least he could heal enough so that the bruising didn't hurt anymore. His bruised ego was another matter. He heard Caitlin's sigh and added. "I know, I know, cross their streams. You don't have to be so…uptight about it."

"I didn't even say anything!"

"Yeah, but your sighs hold more words than you think, Cait," Cisco pointed out.

"Let's get back to the problem at hand, please," Harrison said firmly.

Nodding, Barry lowered his hand from his ear piece. He flipped to his hands and knees and peered around he parked car he had crouched behind and found Cadence had drawn Snart's and Mick's attention towards her. That should work. There was a sudden high pitched whirring and everything moved in slow motion. Barry looked up to find Mick sending a blast of fire his way from his gun and Barry got up, just as the car caught fire and exploded.

"Got im'!" Mick declared, pumping his fist.

"I don't think so!" Barry called back.

He raced out of the explosive fire and away from Snart and Mick, grabbing Cadence's hand and pulled her away as well. When they came to a stop, Barry placed his hand on his knee, already winded from exertion. "This isn't working," he said.

She nodded. "Let's tire them out then."

"You got it."

With that, Barry and Cadence started to dart back and forth along the street with ice and fire blasts coming after them. Barry even raced up the side of a building to try and escape, but found himself blasted off the side with a rush of fire. He crashed hard to the ground and was knocked back once more when Snart hit him with ice. That was the worst part. With fire he could potentially take the speed, with ice it slowed him down. He had to have been hit directly. Cadence landed hard next to him, having been struck as well and the two looked up to find Snart and Mick walking towards them, guns drawn.

"How fast can you teleport?" Barry murmured to her, mind moving a mile a minute.

"Fast enough," Cadence whispered back. She was breathing as heavily as he was.

"I think we should use the plan we came up with, I just don't know if it's going to work," Barry replied.

"Better than nothing."

"Let's hope so."

There was another whirring sound and Barry looked up into the grinning faces of Snart and Mick. Just as the shot out another blast of fire and ice there was a metallic clanging sound. The metahumans looked up to find Eddie crouched down in front of them, holding onto the metal shield that Cisco had invented just for Captain Cold and Heat Wave. The blasts reflected off the front of the front of the shield but the pressure against it wore Eddie down to his knees.

Cadence teleported just as Barry grabbed onto Eddie and zipped him away from the criminals' blasts, sending him a safe distance away. He turned back around in time to find Cadence coming out of her teleport and landing on Mick. She wrapped her arms around his neck and turned him to face Snart at the same time Barry raced over to Snart and turned him to Mick at the same time they both fired their guns once more, crossing their streams.

There was an implosion that sent Snart and Mick flying away from each other across the street. Barry then stepped onto Snart's cold gun and pushed it away as Cadence disposed of Mick's heat gun.

The two criminals were knocked out as the police converged around them, guns drawn.

"Yes! It worked!" Cisco cheered. "My idea worked!"

"How long do you think we're going to have to listen to this?" Caitlin asked.

"You know as well as I do, Dr. Snow, this can go on for a long time."

"That's what I was afraid of."

Barry smiled to himself, relief moving through his body. They finally got him. Captain Cold was going to be put away and his partner was gone as well. Cadence turned to him and the two high-fived before going back to STAR Labs.

Cisco hummed to himself as he took the hot and cold guns, placing them in a secure locker beneath STAR Labs. He looked them over for a long time once they were taken back to the laboratories. The cold gun was what he had created; he knew it inside and out. But how in the world did they figure out how to make a heat gun as well? The circuitry was similar to his, but it was vastly different as well. Snart was smart, that much was certain, but Mick was a sort of meat head. How would either of them be able to create something so advanced if they weren't well versed in the sciences?

"Well, it's something else we have to think about," Cisco said to himself. "Not like we don't have the time, these guys are going to be in jail for a long time." His voice echoed back to him, reminding him of his tendency to talk to himself. But with STAR Labs being so big and the three of them dealing with so many different roles, it could get pretty creepy on the quieter floors of STAR Labs. Talking to himself was certainly a way to deal with it.

Besides now he had a new project to work on; the security for STAR Labs. Turning on his heel, Cisco whistled to himself as he walked back towards the Cortex, frowning when he found the light to Caitlin's office on. He thought he was the only one there; the others had made a quick exit as it was.

"She must've left the light on before she left," Cisco muttered to himself. He continued to walk to her office and stopped short in the doorway, mouth dropping open when he spotted Caitlin leaning over Harrison's wheelchair, hands on the sides of his face and kissing him.

Cisco started to spin in a wild circle, trying to decide whether or not he should leave and give them privacy, or give into his nosy disposition and wonder what it is they were up to. Not that he wanted to know that bad, but the gossip and potential ways to use it to his advantage became too great. Not to mention the intense feeling of shock that made him practically scream like a little girl and yell, "What the hell?!"

Caitlin immediately jumped backwards as Harrison moved his wheelchair around.

The only sound that stretched between the three of them was the grinding gears of Harrison's wheelchair.

The first thing Cadence noticed when she got back to her apartment was that the door was slightly open. She immediately paused, wondering if she had left it open like that before she left. If she had been at her last apartment, which was in a not so great area, she wouldn't have thought it was a big deal. But being in a better part of the city…her paranoia was on the verge of going into overload.

She slowly pushed open the door and side-stepped her way inside, keeping her back pressed against a wall as she went. She listened hard for anyone that was inside but heard nothing. Her anxiety started to dwindle. Brady was at Conner's house as he had been since soccer practice that morning, so that worry was gone. They didn't have anything that valuable around. Snart and Mick were now in jail…

Her questions were answered as there was a sudden gust of wind and the front door blew shut, sounding like a gunshot. Cadence whirled around and her eyebrows rose. Becoming so used to the metahumans constantly running around Central City, she didn't get as surprised anymore. But the last person she expected to see was leaning against the door behind her.

"Nice place," he said, crossing his arms. "I figured at some point you would upgrade."

"Stratos," Cadence said. "What do you want?"

Iris finished sweeping the floor of Jitters and rested the broom against the counter. Placing her hands on her hips she double-checked she had cleaned every inch of the floor. Now all she had to do was close the register and she could get home and see Eddie. He had insisted that she stay at Jitters where things were safe once she had gotten a hold of him after the newsbreak that went over the TVs. As it was, it was probably a good thing she didn't go down there. She needed to keep busy.

It was tough being a policeman's daughter, but the girlfriend of one? That was even harder. If she didn't keep busy she would go nuts, probably do something stupid. So when her co-workers started to get antsy she offered to close up for them. Now she was ready to see what had happened, postings were flooding her blog, mentioning the Flash had finally shown himself. She needed to get on that, her journalistic sense was tingling as it were.

Hearing the bell over the door ring, Iris turned around to find a blonde woman coming into the shop, looking around pensively. "Oh, I'm sorry," She apologized. "Are you closing? I was going to ask for a cup but if you've already turned things off—"

"No, it's alright," Iris reassured her. "I only just turned off the coffee pot, it's still hot." She watched as the woman walked closer, slightly limping. Iris's eyebrows lowered in concern. "Is everything okay?"

The woman's blue-green eyes widened and she looked down at her leg as if noticing it for the first time. "Oh, yes, I'm fine. I've gotten used to it."

"Um…how did…"

"I was in a car accident, dear, it's alright," The woman said. "I like my coffee with two creams," she added.

Iris nodded and walked behind the counter, grabbing the coffee pot. A car accident was a conversation that was too heavy for the moment. Especially after what had happened to the Flash that night. "I haven't seen you around before, and being a barista you tend to notice everyone that comes in here."

"Yes, well, I've been in Coast City for a while," The woman explained. "There was a specialist out there that aided in my physical therapy after my accident. I couldn't pass it up if I wanted to walk again. But I've lived here in Central City for a while after having moved from Starling at one point. It's all a big jumble, my life's work make it so that I follow wherever the research needs me."

"So you're a scientist?" Figures. She always seemed to be surrounded by scientists these days. But this woman was different, she didn't speak like Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry did with as many big, scientific words that Iris could even fathom to look up later. The woman spoke to her warmly, with almost a motherly tone, but was still very wise. "What did you specialize in?"

"This, that and the other," The woman said. "I wouldn't want to bore you…uh…" she leaned forward to get a good look at Iris's name tag.

"Oh!" Iris held out her hand. "Iris West."

"It's nice to meet you, Iris," the woman said with a warm smile and shook her hand. "Tess Morgan. You can call me Tess."

A/N: So as you can see I changed the Caitlin/Cisco part of the episode…personally I think I've put Caitlin in too many instances of having to be saved so far, she needed a break. But I hope you liked the change. Much like the last story at this point is when the overall story plot that deviates from the show comes in.

So, what do you think about Tess being alive? I bet no one saw that coming. And now Stratos is back, what do you think he wants?

Also, I have a question: Do you want the story to focus more on Cade's POV or do you think it's fine with it shifting POVs of different characters throughout the story? Any insight would be helpful.

Cheers,

-Riles

PS - Don't forget to check out In A Flash (on this account) and The Mark of Sage on Crystal Manning's account. These three stories will crossover in Flashpoint sometime soon.