Len felt his chest constrict at the sight of Barry so frozen, caught in the wake of the anger and distaste from these new arrivals—toward him.

These were the first people Len had even seen aside from Barry since he woke up, newly erased. General knowledge and a few scattered memories had come back to him, but nothing substantial, nothing that helped him understand why the people at the mouth of the lounge were looking at him with such hatred. Especially the young man. He looked livid.

"Barry," the woman pressed, her expression firm, wary, though not quite as toxically accusing as her companion.

"It's not what it looks like!" Barry said—which was news to Len because he wasn't sure what this looked like.

"So that isn't Captain Cold wearing one of our S.T.A.R. Labs sweatshirts?" the young man barked.

It looked like that, apparently, and wasn't an untrue statement. Only, if Len didn't remember being Captain Cold, maybe it wasn't what it looked like.

The way they were positioned in the room had Len closer to the pair on the other side, while Barry was caught in the center of the room to the right—well, left for Len—by the coffee table and sofa.

"I don't—" Len tried, taking a step forward, but Barry flashed between Len and the others as soon as the young man made an abortive jerk as if he meant to intercept Len himself.

"He's not Captain Cold right now!" Barry jumped to Len's defense, hands raised. "I pulled him from a bank robbery last night, we got into a fight, and he ended up saving me when part of the building came down on us. He hit his head and doesn't remember anything."

The pair looked at each other and then at Barry with matched skepticism.

The young man stood shorter than the woman, younger too, but with enough fury filling his face and stance to more than make up for that. He had a picture of Bones, Doctor Leonard McCoy, from Star Trek on his T-shirt. Len had always loved that character, he suddenly remembered. He wondered if it was because they shared a name. It couldn't be often he shared his name with a popular fictional character.

Len's attention shifted to the young man's face as he took another step forward.

"Doesn't remember anything?" he repeated with a sneer. "And you believe that? The guy was built to lie to you, Barry. He's never done anything but lie to you!"

"I know, Cisco, okay," Barry backed up closer to Len—Len wished he could see Barry's face, "but I swear it's the truth. I did the stitches on the wound myself, and if he was faking, he had more than enough opportunity last night to try something while we were sleeping."

"You slept here?!" Cisco shot back. "With him?!"

"Okay…" The woman moved in front of Cisco, her snug grey dress shifting smoothly with her movements. Her gaze was hard when she glanced at Len, but diplomatic when she looked at Barry and Cisco. "Maybe we just all need to calm down a minute. Barry, why don't you explain to us in a little more detail exactly what happened last night."

Remaining in their positions, Len a few feet back, while Cisco and Caitlin—Len learned—stood a few feet in front of Barry like he was some neutral zone point of no return neither of the other sides was supposed to cross…Barry explained everything. It was helpful for Len to hear as well, since he had only partially understood what had transpired to cause him to get his head wound in the first place. More details of the event didn't make him feel any better about his alter ego.

Maybe it was Len's vacant and he hoped innocent expression through it all that seemed to convince Caitlin. Cisco was another story.

"He kidnapped Caitlin, Barry! Then me and my brother. He forced me to tell him your identity. Betrayed us—"

"I know!" Barry interrupted, glancing back at Len apologetically, which seemed so silly—Len should be the one apologizing. "I know, Cisco, but we're the good guys, aren't we? Right now he isn't Captain Cold, he's just a man who needs our help."

"And when he gets it, who knows what he'll do to us as a thank you," Cisco snarled.

"You do seem more forgiving when Lisa Snart is involved," Caitlin pointed out with a sly smile.

Cisco scoffed and pointed a finger at her with a gaped mouth for several moments. "She…has been nice to me on occasion. He," he pointed more sharply at Len, "has not."

"Look," Len entered the conversation finally, moving to stand beside Barry instead of behind him, because he was tired of standing there, and actually felt like he might need to lie down again, but he didn't want to be any trouble until they sorted this.

His movement, however, caused Cisco to back up a step and Caitlin to tense.

"I really don't remember. I swear I don't remember doing any of the things you're accusing me of. And I know that doesn't mean I didn't do them," he rushed on when Cisco opened his mouth with a glare, "or that I don't deserve punishment for every last thing you've mentioned. But I don't remember. I'm sorry anyway. But I really…don't remember."

He felt Barry's hands on him before he realized he'd started to sway.

"Len? You should get back on the sofa," Barry said in concern. "You need more rest, and probably more pain killers. And you should eat something substantial now that you've made it through the night okay."

Barry was rambling a little again. Len loved it when he did that. He let himself sag against Barry gratefully and forgot for a moment that the others were there.

"Len?" Cisco grumbled scornfully.

And then he remembered. He tried to push away from Barry; he was causing too much trouble for the kid.

"Hey," Barry said, holding Len tight against him and refusing to let him get away. His gaze softened when Len looked up at him, then hardened as he looked back at Cisco. "He's hurt. Actually hurt, because he threw himself into danger to save me. It doesn't matter how we ended up in that situation to begin with, it matters that we're here now, and he needs our help. Are we the good guys or not?" he asked in challenge.

Len wasn't used to Barry sounding so commanding, but it had the desired effect. Cisco and Caitlin both cowed in the face of his forceful tone.

"Here," Barry said, and the next thing Len knew, he was back on the sofa. It never ceased to amaze and impress him how Barry could move like that. "Let me get you some more ibuprofen and some toast or something. We'll figure the rest out as we go." He smiled hopefully, but there was a pained expression behind his eyes that hadn't been there yesterday.

Len tried not to look at Cisco or Caitlin as he nodded.

"Cisco," Barry turned back to look at the startled pair, "you don't happen to have Lisa's number, do you?"

"N-No," Cisco sputtered, his face agape with an awkward smile twitching at his lips. "Why…why would I have that?"

Barry sighed. "Just figured it was worth asking. She's one of the few things Len sort of remembers, but we don't have any way to let her know what happened to him." He walked back around the sofa, but Len couldn't help noticing how he stood in a way that shielded him from the others again. "Can you guys check on what happened at the bank after I took Cold? Maybe someone has a line on where Lisa went. I didn't have a chance to look into anything after we got here. I was…busy." He sounded like he was trying to keep from being short with them, but was ready to snap if they tried to fight him on anything else.

Caitlin frowned but with traces of sympathy hidden in the depths of her gaze. "I can do that," she said, turning back toward the lab.

Cisco opened his mouth to protest after her, then looked back at Barry, who Len couldn't see well, but that he figured had a pleading expression. Barry's shoulders sagged with a sort of pleading, at least, and Len could just picture Barry's downturned eyebrows. Naturally, Cisco relented; no one could resist that look, Len was sure of it.

"Maybe…Lisa will think to come here," Cisco said at last. "She's been here before. She knows he was last with you. And when nothing pops up on the news about him being in custody, she'll probably assume you're together."

"I don't think she'll worry…too much," Len spoke up. He felt a little too under scrutiny when Barry turned to look at him and Cisco's eyes landed on him as well.

It was strange having this faint sense of Lisa without really remembering her. It was as if he could picture her smile now, not her whole face, but he knew her expressions, and could imagine how she would laugh, or scold him, and things that might annoy her, but he couldn't think of any exact examples of those things happening.

"I think…I think she might be used to me disappearing sometimes, but I always eventually come back, so she wouldn't worry for a few days, at least. After that…if I'm still here…" Len shifted his gaze away from Cisco's frown to Barry's hopeful expression, "then maybe she'll come looking."

"Well, the police don't have her," Caitlin said as she reentered the room. "Official report is that both Lisa and Leonard Snart escaped the scene. No mention of The Flash."

"I was in and out with Cold too fast for the cameras to see me. I was…a little upset when his name came up after what happened the last time we saw him…" Barry grimaced, and once again looked to Len apologetically.

"I wonder why…" Cisco muttered.

Barry scowled at him, and something like static passed between them, this invisible electricity of unsaid comebacks and remarks, until both finally looked away from each other, equally defeated and upset that they didn't agree on this—on whether or not Len was worth saving.

Len wondered if Barry had too much faith in him. It didn't seem like he deserved it.

"Caitlin," Barry said solemnly, "can you look over my stitch job and make sure Len's okay? I didn't check any other vitals or anything. I wasn't really sure what to do."

Caitlin nodded with a tightening of her lips, but her eyes still held some compassion as she looked over at Len. "Of course. If you made sure he got rest, that's the best you could have done, and if he made it through the night without any complications, that's a good sign. Just a headache and some dizziness, no vomiting?" she asked Len directly.

"No, but the nausea is definitely close to the surface. I think I could eat something small again though."

"Toast," Caitlin told him, "like Barry said. Barry, why don't you go get that and some pain killers for him, and I'll bring my things over here so…Len doesn't have to get up again." She tripped a little on his name, but still made the effort to use that rather than 'Cold'.

"Right." Barry flashed away, and Caitlin turned with her tight smile to gather whatever things she needed from the lab to look Len over, leaving Len alone with Cisco.

Cisco…who stood resolute and crossed his arms as if he dared Len to tell him to leave.

The tension in Len's chest increased as they stared at each other from across the room, and he felt his features weighed down by the sorrow he felt, the helplessness of not remembering, but of somehow having caused someone such distress that it prompted this level of distrust and loathing. He dropped his gaze to his hands resting limply in his lap.

"I…"

"Okay…the kicked puppy look is pretty convincing," Cisco interrupted, with a touch of frustration like he didn't want to believe that, "but I swear if this is somehow an act just to get to Barry, to any of us, and you betray us again when we're honestly just trying to help you right now…"

"It's not a trick," Len looked up, noting how Cisco's arms had fallen, his face conflicted, "I swear. I wouldn't betray you…I mean, I know I apparently did betray you, but right now, whoever Captain Cold was, I'm not him. There's all this blank space…" He reached up and pressed his palms into his eyes. He was starting to feel the need for the pain killers again. "Sometimes it's so close, I can almost…but then it's gone. And whatever emotions I might have felt toward any of you before, when I did remember, those feelings aren't there anymore. You're trying to help me, and I know it's more than I deserve, which Barry will probably never really understand or agree with…but I swear to you, I am not here to cause any trouble. I'm just good at causing it anyway."

When Len finally looked up with a weak, self-deprecating smile, he saw the halting way Caitlin stood at the door, having started to come back in but faltering as she overheard the conversation.

Barry flashed in, peanut butter toast, a glass of water, and the ibuprofen bottle somehow all balanced in his hands, which really, he probably could have come back with much sooner given his speed, so Len wondered if he'd taken a little longer on purpose to prompt this conversation.

Cisco looked…satisfied? Sad? Len wasn't sure if he could read the kid, but he seemed to have lost his ire for now.

Len accepted the pills, grateful again at Barry's attentiveness, and slowly ate away at the toast as Caitlin moved to stand behind the arm of the sofa and check his wound. She hissed when she got a look at it.

"Well, you weren't lying about the knock to the head, that's for sure. Barry did a good job on the stitches though. Let me just disinfect this a little better, make sure it heals like it's supposed to."

"Thank you," Len said earnestly between bites of toast.

"Uhh…of course," Caitlin said with obvious surprise.

"Are you guys okay here if I run take a shower and change?" Barry asked. The tension had dissipated between him and Cisco, but it seemed to fill the room again on these words, for all of them. "I'll only be one room over…" Barry assured them.

"It's fine," Cisco said, sitting on the arm of the chaise section of the sofa, close, but not too close to where Len laid. "He's weaponless and injured, and I'm starting to think there is no way Cold could be this good of an actor with how much he enjoys hearing the sound of his own sardonic voice, so…it's pretty likely he's on the level. We'll be good." He eyed Len as if studying him closely, but without the animosity, more like something challenging that Len took as a small form of acceptance.

"Thanks," Barry said. He smiled sunnily at Len, as bright as he had yet managed since Caitlin and Cisco arrived. "I won't be long." He flashed away.

Len couldn't help snickering, even though it turned into a hiss as Caitlin finished her exam of the stiches with a press of disinfectant. "Doesn't he take super-fast showers anyway?" Len said, swallowing back the last of his small, but more than enough on his queasy stomach, breakfast.

"Not really," Caitlin said. "Showers, when Barry isn't running late, which he usually is, is one of the few things he enjoys being slow at." She came around the sofa to sit on the edge of the coffee table closer to Len and seemed to realize what she had just implied. "Not that I know that from any personal experience! I am very happily married—"

"Recently married," Cisco supplied.

"Happily," Caitlin repeated with a stern look, and Len could tell it was only a playful tease between them by the way Cisco smiled.

"Anyway…we just tend to know a lot about Barry's habits since we ask a lot of questions for his well-being," she explained. "Can you roll up your sleeve? I just want to check the basics. Pulse. Blood pressure."

Len did so and held his arm out to her. "You watched over him after the lightning strike," he said. "Helped him develop and control his abilities. I know. He told me about it. You saved his life. Several times over. You can tell he's grateful by the way he talks about it. You both mean a great deal to him."

Caitlin fumbled a bit with the blood pressure monitor.

"It's okay. Barry wasn't used to me being…nice, either." Len smiled at her. She looked even more surprised, but smiled—for the first time—genuinely back at him.

"That's because you're not nice," Cisco said, and Caitlin immediately shot him a glare, but Cisco continued, "usually. That's why this is weird…but also makes me think it has to be real. You really don't remember? Our faces aren't at all familiar? Or Barry's?"

Len shook his head.

"Not even a sense like—"

"Cisco." The device on Len's arm beeped and Caitlin peered at the numbers that displayed. "Blood pressure is a little high, but that's normal, especially if you haven't eaten much in the last 12 hours. Nothing to be concerned about. It was just the head wound?"

"And some bruises. I'm sore, but nothing else noticeable."

"Given how long you've been here without getting any worse, you'll probably be fine, then," she said. "Memory, however, is…tricky. Just because you don't seem to have any major damage, doesn't mean there isn't deeper damage where we can't see. And even if there isn't damage, that doesn't mean your memories will just come back. They might come back in the next five minutes..."

"Or they might not come back at all," Len finished for her.

Hey eyebrows downturned in a similar fashion to Barry's. "Yeah."

"Would it bother you if I said I…maybe wouldn't mind if I never remembered?"

"Nope," Cisco said concisely. "You were a dick."

"Cisco!"

Len laughed. He could tell that Cisco didn't mean it with any hostility, he was just someone who spoke his mind. "Then let's hope I don't. I want to see Lisa. I know I will eventually. Maybe I'll remember more then. But I don't want to. I don't like the person who prompts those expressions from you, who did those things to you, who you hate. Barry told me my record was wiped clean? I could start over. Be a new person. Be someone completely different from Captain Cold.

"Barry said…nature versus nurture. Maybe this is who I would have been if whatever shaped me into Captain Cold never happened. It doesn't mean I'm not me. Lisa would understand that too, don't you think?" He looked at them each in turn.

Their returning expressions weren't encouraging.

"Sure," Caitlin finally said, haltingly.

"She does really care about you," Cisco added.

"Look," Caitlin said, standing with her equipment, "Barry is probably almost done in there. Why don't you go take your turn? Take it slow. Try not to get your stitches wet. If you start to feel dizzy, call for us. Barry can be there in seconds, as you already know," she smiled. "You'll probably feel better."

A shower sounded amazing actually. Len was skeptical he could handle more than a quick one before he'd want to lie down again, but at the same time, the thought of needing to call for Barry's help wasn't without its perks.

"Thanks," he said, surprised and pleased that she offered a hand when he sat up and made to stand, and even more so that no wave of dizziness met him once he was on his feet. He headed toward the bathroom with a small, appreciative smile offered to both of them, and thought they looked at least somewhat like they believed him.

He'd already found his way to the bathroom earlier, having awoken with the need to use it, but not wanting to bother Barry since he had looked so peaceful sleeping there, tucked into the sofa along Len's legs.

Much like the partial living space of the lounge and kitchen, the bathroom was built to accommodate people staying at the lab for longer periods, with urinals, several stalls for toilets, and a line of showers at the back, sectioned off with curtains. He'd caught a glimpse of a large tub in the far back corner, though he hadn't wanted to snoop around too much while he was there before.

Now he entered more boldly, having been given permission, and opened his mouth to call for Barry so he wouldn't walk in on him in any compromising position.

Apparently, he wasn't fast enough. Before he got the words out, he turned the corner to look down toward the showers to see Barry already out, unabashed at having the curtain thrown back from the stall he'd chosen as he started to dress, only just getting his underwear up his thighs as Len spotted him. Barry hadn't noticed him yet.

Maybe twenty-five feet separated them down the length of the bathroom, Barry turned sidewise as he sifted through a pile of more normal looking clothes of his on the bench in front of the showers—jeans, a heather grey sweater. The line of his body was so long. Barry was only about an inch taller than Len, and yet something about the lanky, toned muscles of his body enhanced that. Unlike Len, Barry didn't appear to have a single scar or mark on his body, just newly healed, fresh skin from his abilities. He radiated a thrum of power even when his movements were at normal speed.

Len sighed in appreciation before he realized what a terrible voyeur he was being. Barry heard him, turned his head, and flushed darkly—all the way down the line of his bare chest.

"Sorry!" Len looked away.

He heard a flurry of movement. When he glanced up again, Barry was dressed, striding toward him scratching his head.

"No, uhh…I was taking forever. It's fine. Everything okay?" Barry's insecure smile was definitely the sweetest version. Len wanted to tell him he had nothing to be insecure about.

"Clean bill of health from the doc for now," Len said instead. "Caitlin suggested I join you. I mean…" Len was pretty sure Captain Cold never stumbled into phrases like that, "…just that I should…should take my turn getting freshened up too. No trouble. Not even from Cisco." He smiled, hoping his fumbling wasn't too humiliating.

Barry seemed adorably amused. "Should I get you a fresh set of sweats?"

"No, these are fine again for today."

"Okay. We'll get you something else to wear once we, uhh…decide what to do next." Barry's face fell and he bit his lip. "I don't need to be at work today, so I can stay, but I don't think it'll be safe for you to leave for a while. You're still sort of a wanted man."

"It's fine. You've already done so much for me, though I supposed it's hard for you to take anything slow, huh?" he grinned. "I'll start with a shower." He moved passed Barry, reaching up to pat Barry's chest in what felt like such a natural gesture of comradery and affection, even though there was no reason it should.

Barry beamed at the contact. "I promise I'll knock before I come in," he said with a teasing undertone to his words.

Len laughed.

Barry knew his face was on fire. Of course it was. He'd never been able to control his body, and despite having impressive control over his speed now, that hadn't changed much since he became The Flash.

How much had Len seen before Barry caught him? Not that he'd caught him! Surely, Len had walked in accidentally, he hadn't been…checking Barry out.

The look on Len's face when Barry first saw him, though, had certainly looked like want, the eye-dart down and back up his body, the way Len had actually been the one to flush and stammer a little.

Barry needed to focus. There had to be some sort of 'don't be a creeper' handbook when it came to amnesia victims, right? He was pretty sure he was failing all of its tenets right now.

He found Cisco and Caitlin back in the main room, hard at work on something at one of the monitors.

"What's up?"

They both jumped, and Caitlin clicked something on the computer as if they feared being found out doing something he'd disapprove of.

Barry frowned. "Guys, what? Please tell me there aren't security cameras in the bathroom and that you are spying on Len right now." He wished he meant it as a joke, but he wouldn't put anything past these two sometimes.

Both looked rightfully scandalized at the suggestion. Then Caitlin slumped.

"Not in the bathrooms," she said. "But there are cameras in the lounge."

"So?"

"So…we were watching footage from last night," Cisco explained.

That should not have filled Barry's stomach with as much lead and embarrassment as it did. He moved to stand behind them and get a look at the monitor himself, crossing his arms as if it might protect him from whatever accusations they were about to throw at him for behaving like such a dopey idiot. But the footage on the screen appeared to be of only a few minutes before Caitlin and Cisco arrived.

Barry was conked out on the sofa, curled toward the back, taking up very little room considering his size. At least he hadn't snuggled Len or anything; that would have been something worth dying of embarrassment over. But Len was awake. Sitting up at the end of the sofa. Watching Barry.

"We just wanted to make sure he hadn't done anything while you were sleeping that might show he was faking it," Caitlin said. "Not that we think he is!" she added quickly, "we just wanted to be sure."

"And?" Barry pressed.

Cisco possibly looked the most downtrodden, and at first Barry wasn't sure if it was worry or guilt. "Nothing. He just slept. It's only here that he woke up."

"So what's the big deal?" Barry was starting to think these two were losing it.

"It's just sort of…sweet," Caitlin shrugged. "We weren't expecting sweet." She clicked the play button on the screen.

In the footage, Len continued to sit there, watching Barry silently, looking contemplative and a bit sad, in Barry's opinion. Barry stirred, trying to press deeper into the couch cushions, and Len reached a hand out to place it on his leg—just a small touch, meant to sooth. It worked instantly, and Barry settled.

Len stood, taking the blanket with him, which he spread out over Barry carefully, tucking it up by his shoulders. He hovered a moment, just watching again. Then he grabbed his head, like maybe it pained him—it probably did—before he released a heavy sigh and headed out of the lounge toward the bathroom, which was about the time Barry remembered waking up.

He hadn't noticed Len had done any of that because of how violently he'd awoken, the blanket on the floor by the time he was fully alert.

His arms unconsciously tightened across his chest. "See," he tried to play it off like that hadn't been anything special, or at all strangely affectionate, "he's totally on the level. He doesn't remember anything."

"We believe you," Cisco said sincerely, but his eyes were doing that 'I really don't want to have to tell you this, but I'm going to anyway' thing they did so well. "But we remember. And whatever it is that's making him such a different guy right now, Barry, you gotta be prepared for when he remembers…and turns back into Captain Cold."

TBC...