Well nobody really guessed what was going to happen with the baby so maybe this will come as a shock to everyone to see what I decided to do with it. Thanks though to everyone who has expressed their liking of the story by reviewing, following, or have favourited the story. Your support means the world to me.
As always, I have my co-authors to thank for their help, Brightburn1985 and thomasmarieamell.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Flash
Cisco was having a weird day. He felt like this had all happened before. It was the strongest sense of deja vu he ever experienced.
He even felt like he'd seen the new meta, Mark Mardon before, but he knew he never even saw a picture of him before today.
Barry looked to be waiting for something. He would casually look at Caitlin as if he was waiting for her to say something, but as usual, Caitlin never gave him the time of day whenever they weren't arguing. What? Did Barry do something and was waiting in anticipation for Caitlin to retaliate? That seemed likely.
"Okay!" Cisco loudly said, capturing the attention of the other two, "I vibe some pretty thick tension in this room and you two are gonna tell me about it." He said to his best friends.
"I have no idea what you're talking about Cisco," Caitlin asked in confusion.
"Barry?" Cisco asked the speedster.
"I think I need to go to CCPD right now," Barry said, obviously distracted by whatever was going through his head. "I'll talk to you later," he said, looking at Caitlin, which surprised them all that he was expecting to actually talk and not fight.
"Okay, that's weird. He avoided the question then he said he was gonna talk to you? What is it about?" The engineer asked in curiosity and suspicion.
"Like I have any idea what goes through his head. I'm not his keeper. Out of the two of us, it should be you who knows," Caitlin said to him.
"Well, obviously I don't, that's why I took a shot and asked you," Cisco asked the icy meta. "When something is bothering him, it usually involves you,"
"Not this time. At least, not that I'm aware of. It looked like he was expecting something. Maybe he's waiting for someone to tell him something," Caitlin suggested.
"Were you planning on telling him something this morning by any chance? Maybe a reminder or your daily arguments?" Cisco questioned.
At that moment, Barry whooshed back in, carrying Mark Mardon in chains. How did he find him already? There goes Cisco's excuse on bailing his brother's birthday.
"I know you're The Flash and all but how did you find him so fast? You didn't even need our help." Cisco asked as he suspiciously stared at Barry. Something is very weird about Barry today.
"I went through some old cases for the Mardons and decided to check them out. Guess I got lucky. Now, let's get this guy in the Pipeline before he wakes up," Barry pointed to the criminal.
"Mr. Allen, can I have a moment with you in my office?" Dr. Wells asked, squinting his eyes at the speedster.
"Sure, Dr. Wells," Barry agreed before making his way into the office, followed by Wells. "So, what is this about?" he asked.
"I want you to be completely honest with me, Mr. Allen. The chances of you finding Mardon are pretty low and you're acting strangely today. What happened?"
"Dr. Wells, I'm not sure whether I should be telling you this, but I was running to stop this tsunami that Mardon created and then the next second…" Barry said.
"You found yourself in a completely different place at a completely different time," Dr. Wells concluded.
"Yeah, all that happened today happened yesterday for me. Now, Caitlin is pregnant and she doesn't want me-" Barry was cut off by Wells raising his arms up to silence him. He was slightly shocked at the prospect of Barry and Caitlin together. That was something he wasn't expecting for a long while. He didn't let the shock stop him from saying what needed to be said though.
"First off, you never should have altered history. You should have let the things that were supposed to happen run its course." Wells said. "It's admirable that you wanted to save people, but imagine if you went further back? A year, a hundred years, you would change the events of history so much it would become unrecognizable,"
"But Dr. Wells…" Barry tried to say.
"Second of all, you can't tell me or anyone for that matter about the future. You can't tell us what will happen, you need to keep that information to yourself." Dr. Wells continued, ignoring Barry's annoyed look for being cut off.
Barry nodded in understanding.
"Lastly, Caitlin is not pregnant," Dr. Wells said.
Barry had a shocked look on his face. "How do you know?"
"I was unfortunate enough to take out the trash the past few days and in one of them was a pad covered in blood," Dr. Wells informed him.
"Oh, I guess I changed some things. I-I should go, Captain Singh might be looking for me…" Barry trailed off as he stood up and walked out of Well's office, hearing and knowing that he wasn't a father shattered his heart, more than seeing Iris with Eddie.
"Barry, you should let it go. You thought you were a father for a day. You still have the rest of your life to have a family, whether it be with Caitlin or not," Dr. Wells said.
"I know but… I was so happy, Dr. Wells. But Caitlin doesn't want me to be part of our non-existent child, maybe it's not in the cards for me to, you know, be a father." Barry sadly told the scientist.
"You're going to be a great father, Barry Allen." Dr. Wells said with a knowing look in his eyes. "Trust me, I know,"
"Thank you, Dr. Wells. I should get going though, I still don't know what else I changed." Barry said to his idol.
Dr. Wells had a worried look on his face upon the reminder that the timeline had changed. "Yes, hopefully nothing of consequence has been altered too drastically. Just promise me you haven't changed anything else,"
"Of course Dr. Wells," Barry nodded.
"Just remember Barry, because you defeated Mardon, someone else will fill the hole you've created. Be on alert," Wells said. "It might be something even more dangerous than what you prevented from happening."
"I doubt it, but thanks," Barry said before he sped away.
Dr. Wells sighed and he started wheeling away. He had something he needed to check on.
In the Time Vault, Wells waved his hand over a podium to activate something. "Show me the future," he demanded.
An article about The Flash appeared. 'Flash Missing. Vanishes in Crisis' was seen on the headline. As well as something about red skies.
"Okay, good, the future seems to be intact," Wells mumbled to himself. "Be on alert for any changes in the timeline and notify me of anything that could hinder my return,"
"Of course, Dr. Wells." An electronic female voice replied.
"Let's hope nothing happens that could change anything. Things just got more complicated thanks to this," Wells glowered at the image of the future Barry.
With Barry's new ability to time travel, even if he didn't really know how to control it, his plans to return to the future were made difficult. The fact that he can't control it just puts his plan in more jeopardy since at any moment, he could change the timeline again and alter the future and past at the same time.
Raising The Flash was more work than he signed up for.
Cisco was gone. None of them knew where he was. The last any of them heard of their engineer, Barry was with him in a bar and the speedster left when a girl showed up to talk with Cisco.
"So, are you gonna tell me why you were not-so-subtly gazing at me yesterday?" Caitlin asked, breaking the silence between them.
"I thought you were going to tell me something, but I was overreacting about it and it turned out to be nothing. Don't worry about it," Barry dismissed her. "To be honest, I was kinda excited and was really hoping it was real. For a moment, I felt like everything was going to be okay no matter what was going to happen,"
Barry lightly coughed to interrupt his own monologue. "So, should we be focusing on this?" Barry indicated their new case. Captain Cold was back, and he brought friends. He was the one to take Cisco, and a call to his family showed that his brother, Dante, was missing as well.
Captain Cold had returned, and he brought backup with him. First it was one of his previous partners, Mick Rory who wielded a gun that was in contrast to Snart's. A weapon that projected flames of massive temperatures. Along with Snart's sister, Lisa, who had obtained a weapon of her own. One that turned everything it touched into a golden substance. It wasn't actually gold. It just looked like gold. The only explanation was that they forced Cisco into making these weapons and with the fact that Dante was missing as well, it was likely they were holding him hostage so Cisco would make their guns.
They were doing all they could to find Cisco, and as it turned out, Snart allowed Cisco to walk right out of there the moment he got everything he wanted. A name.
Dante was rushed to the hospital. His fingers were frozen, but with some luck, they wouldn't have to be amputated, however they would never be the same again.
With Cisco safe, they managed to locate Snart and they sent Barry to confront him. He already knew who The Flash was. There was nothing they could do about that. They just had to make sure he wouldn't be telling anyone.
They managed to make a deal. Barry would let their crimes go, let the police handle them, as long as there were no more casualties. The trio were humans, not metas. They weren't their responsibility. As well as a promise not to tell the world of The Flash's identity as well.
While not the most favourable outcome, things could have gone much worse. There was one less villain they had to worry about. They had much bigger fish to fry. Like the Man in Yellow. Barry could feel that they were getting closer than they realized to finding him.
It all went very fast, even for Barry. It started out with a bombing at Central City Park, it was a man named Trickster. He wears a domino mask and multiple layers of clothes.
However, he wasn't the Trickster, he was a copy. The original Trickster was a man named James Jesse, who was locked up in a maximum security prison after going on a killing spree for a week. When confronted, Jesse was outraged that someone was using his name, and doing a terrible job at it as well apparently.
After what happened with Hartley and whatever happened with Simon Stagg, Barry couldn't feel that he could trust Dr. Wells as much as he used to. He tried to keep his distance subtly, but it was becoming noticeable.
When under the threat of a bomb, Barry deliberately ignored Wells' warning that the bomb was a ruse to keep everyone occupied and the real scheme was happening elsewhere.
It wasn't like they were suggesting doing anything else.
It turned out the two Tricksters were in cohorts with each other and had been planning this for the past year. To get Jesse out of jail and back on the streets. And they were smart enough to take a hostage. Henry Allen, Barry's dad.
Finding them proved to be easy. Iris had unfortunately run into them at the mayor's benefit and was able to call Joe to inform him of what was going on.
The tricky part was apprehending them. Somehow, they strapped a bomb onto Barry's arm and if he wasn't constantly moving at 200 miles per hour, it would explode as well if he would try to remove it.
"How could you let them strap a bomb on you?" Caitlin asked.
"I didn't know what it was! How was I supposed to know it would be dangerous?" Barry yelled.
"They're criminals! And they're crazy. Everything about them is dangerous," Caitlin pointed out. "You should never have let them get close to you, period,"
"I was busy restraining Jesse when Walker came up behind me," Barry tried to defend himself.
"Great, just what we need, a superhero who can only charge head-first into battle," Caitlin mocked him. "Apparently, all we need to do is get behind him and suddenly he's defenceless,"
"This would be easier if I had someone to watch my back, like a certain ice meta who refuses to do anything with her powers," Barry said.
"Hey, it is my choice if I want to go out on the field and risk my life," Caitlin said, slightly offended. "Not all of us have a hero complex we need to act on,"
"I do not have a hero complex!" Barry shouted.
"You literally go out every night in a spandex suit beating up criminals and patrolling the city for crime," Caitlin said to him.
"Can we focus on this bomb on my wrist?" Barry asked.
"You're deflecting Barry," Caitlin noticed. "Don't have an argument?"
"I just really need to get this bomb off of me so I can get back to the Tricksters," Barry said.
"So you can save everyone?" Caitlin asked.
"That's the plan," Barry said.
"Hero complex," Caitlin coughed.
"You know what? Just go back to your lab and make the antidote for the poison, I'm gonna need it as soon as I get this explosive off me." Barry shooed her away. "Alright, so what do I do?"
"Barry, do you see any walls nearby?" Wells asked out of the blue.
"Why?" Barry questioned him suspiciously.
"Because you're going to run into one," Wells said. "Or more accurately, through one,"
"Huh?" Everyone asked.
"When you vibrate at the frequency of air, your body, your cells, will be in a state of excitement that will allow you to phase through that wall, leaving the bomb on the other side," Wells informed them.
"I can't do that!" Barry exclaimed.
"Barry, breathe," Wells attempted to calm him down. "Feel the air on your face. Feel the ground pushing you forward. The lightning. Barry, feel the lightning charging through your body like a shock. You're no longer you now. You're part of something greater. It's yours,"
Feeling inspired, Barry focuses on everything around him and moves as fast as he possibly could.
Up ahead, he sees a truck. Without thinking, he goes right through it and he doesn't stop until he makes it to the other side.
While in that state, it was something Barry couldn't really describe. It was akin to being submerged in water, but instead, the water would go through him instead of around him. Barry only had enough mind to keep moving forward until he could see the street again.
Swiftly checking his wrist, he saw that the bomb was gone. An explosion on the other side of the truck confirmed that the bomb was gone and he was safe. He let out a sigh of relief that he didn't know he was holding. That felt weird.
Going back to STAR, he picked up the antidote. There should be enough to cure everyone at the party. With his plan foiled, hopefully Jesse would reveal the location of his father. It wasn't like he needed him anymore.
Luckily, Jesse was willing to reveal Henry's location. An old abandoned factory, tied to a chair with a crate of knives above him if he were to escape. He wouldn't be able to avoid them. It was a good thing his son was The Flash.
Barry managed to find him and get him out of there before the knives impaled themselves into the man.
Having a feeling his father already knew, Barry took off his mask, revealing himself to be The Flash. He'd made a few hints to being suspicious of who The Flash really was.
When it was shown Barry was The Flash, his father only had one thing to say. "You always did look good in red."
During Henry's brief period of freedom, Barry invited him on a tour of STAR Labs. Henry was amazed at all the advancements in medicine and technology since he was practising. He was also thankful to the staff of STAR for saving his son from being struck by lightning.
Even during that small amount of time, Caitlin and Barry still managed to squeeze in one argument in front of his father. To which the father smiled at the two, almost as if he was lost in memory.
As he was led away by Joe, who had to take him back to prison, Henry started up a conversation with his old friend now that he was out of hearing range of his son.
"I didn't realize Barry had gotten married while I was gone," Henry commented.
Joe just laughed. Once he was finished, he said, "You have no idea what is going on between those two,"
"Enlighten me," Henry said.
"Bottom line, they say they hate each other. They get into arguments all the time, and constantly oppose the other. They don't get along and there is no common ground between the two." Joe said. "But at the end of the day, they are there for each other no matter what."
"Barry is a lucky guy. Don't find someone like her just anywhere," Henry said, happy for his son.
"Yeah, the problem is he's too stubborn to see it. They both are," Joe shook his head in frustration.
Barry was thinking. He was staring at the board he created about his mother's murder. After being so close to finding the Man in Yellow during Christmas, he'd been staring at that board everyday.
There was a feeling in the back of his mind. Something he couldn't let go of.
A few months ago, a reporter, Mason Bridge, came to him about a story he was creating about the truth of Dr. Wells, but before he published it, he went missing. His computer was destroyed and files deleted.
He didn't want to believe it at the time, but today, when Wells was walking him through how to phase, his words were just too close to what Barry was actually feeling.
The only way he could know how all that felt, was if he experienced it himself. That meant Wells, at some point, was a speedster. But he'd been paralyzed. He couldn't move his legs at all. Unless that was all a trick.
Like with the Tricksters today, make something obvious because there's something they don't want others to see.
So, if Wells wasn't actually paralyzed and could actually walk, and therefore, run. That meant, Dr. Wells was The Reverse Flash. He didn't know how, he didn't know why. He just knows Wells is the man who killed his mom.
Barry called Joe down to meet him at the precinct. He had to tell him that Joe was right about everything. Every suspicion he had about Wells, it was all true. He wasn't just in league with The Man in Yellow, he was The Man in Yellow.
Looking into Wells proved to be more difficult than it seemed. Despite being famous and having written an autobiography, the man's life was completely shrouded in mystery. The big take away was that he was enigmatic.
There was only one point in his life that might shed some light into this situation. When his fiance, Tess Morgan, died in a car accident. After that, all of Wells' friends claimed he had become a completely different person.
Joe planned on heading over the Starling City soon, but he couldn't get out of work just yet. So that was put on hold for a while.
An excellent surprise this week was Felicity Smoak was visiting with her boyfriend, Ray Palmer.
Apparently, Ray Palmer was looking to go into the hero business as well considering he built a suit that would allow him to fly and shrink to miniature sizes. He was thinking of calling himself, The Atom.
The problem was, his suit wasn't finished and he couldn't seem to fix the issue with the jetpack, which kept shorting out. So they had decided to come to Cisco as he was a tech genius. They were hoping he could get it fixed.
At the same time, two people had died, due to bee venom. The only thing was, the venom in their bodies was potent enough to kill a herd of wildebeest, and the bees had gone missing. That doesn't happen since bees die after stinging someone.
They suspected the work of a meta who was somehow able to control these bees to do their bidding and somehow prevent them from death after losing their stinger.
When Barry was trapped in a building with these bees, he'd almost died, but luckily Cisco had recently installed electric pads for just a situation in the suit.
After that, Barry became nervous around the STAR staff. He already knew Wells was the Reverse Flash. Could they be in on it too? Could Cisco have deliberately led him to the wrong way out of the building? But then why save him? Why would Wells save him if he murdered his mother? It just didn't make any sense for him.
"That was too close for comfort, Fleet Feet." Caitlin said to him, using her nickname for him but the worry was evident on her voice.
"Worried about me, Ms. Frosty?" Barry teased her.
"As much as I loathe to admit it, this city needs you, Flash," Caitlin grumbled.
"I knew I'd worm my way into your heart eventually," Barry smirked.
Caitlin's face felt warm at that comment. She immediately denied Barry's accusations. "There is nothing in my heart for you, Barry Allen. Do you hear me? Nothing!"
"You're pretty cute when you're all flustered and your face is all red," Barry lightly flirted with her. He didn't know what he was doing, it just came naturally to him.
"Shut up," Caitlin mumbled under her breath. It was impressive how hot she felt considering her powers literally controlled the room temperature.
She felt infuriated. Barry wasn't supposed to cause these feelings in her. He was supposed to incite rage and frustration. She wasn't supposed to get butterflies when he showed her that smug expression. Maybe she was coming down with something.
At that moment, Cisco started screaming. There was a bee in the lab. One of the bees must have been in the suit when they brought Barry back. These things worked in swarms, but they had no idea what just one was capable of.
Barry swiftly captured it in a jar to keep it from harming anyone. Once under inspection, they saw that it was not actually a bee. It was a small robot that was designed as a bee.
That meant they weren't dealing with a meta, they were dealing with a hacker. A very skilled hacker to be able to create and control hundreds of robotic bees.
Doing a bit of research, and a quick trip to Mercury Labs, revealed the culprit to be Brie Larvan, the Bug-Eyed Bandit. Cisco and Ray thought of the name together.
It was basically a revenge plan that she was fired for being unstable and her research for these bees was cancelled. Not the most original villain plan.
Ray was sent to distract the bees whilst Barry would take Tina McGee to a safe location before trying to apprehend Larvan. Felicity would work on using her own hacking skills to disable the bees. It actually excited her to find someone who could combat her hacking capabilities. In the end, she won, which gave Barry the time to handcuff her and take her in.
Before Felicity and Ray would return to Starling, Felicity pulled Barry to the side to have a serious conversation.
"What is going on with you? This entire time you've been treating Cisco, Caitlin, and Wells with hostility. Caitlin I may understand, but even then it's more than usual," Felicity asked about his recent behaviour.
"I don't know who to trust Felicity. Recently, we've found evidence that Wells may be the one that killed my mother and now…" Barry trailed off.
"You're not sure who you can trust. What? You think Cisco and Caitlin may be in on it? That all this time, they've been deliberately leading you on?" Felicity questioned him.
"That's the thing. I don't know. I may have never gotten along with Caitlin, but the fact that I know Wells is The Man in Yellow is making me question everything. I don't know what's real or not? I mean, was Caitlin purposefully seducing me that night?" Barry mumbled to himself. He didn't realize he let that slip whilst Felicity was within hearing range.
"I'm sorry, seduce?" Felicity asked. "Did you and Caitlin…?"
"It was one night. We were drunk," Barry tried to make an excuse.
"A drunk man's actions are a sober man's thoughts," Felicity pointed out. "I can't believe this happened,"
"I know. I couldn't believe it either," Barry said.
"No, I mean I can't believe this happened so soon." Felicity said. "Come on Barry, we both knew this was going to happen sooner or later,"
"This was never supposed to happen, especially after we promised to never do anything like this the first time," Barry accidently let slip. When he realized what he said, he covered his mouth in embarrassment.
"The first time? This has happened before?" Felicity asked.
"It was just a kiss. And it was a spur of the moment thing. We thought we were gonna die," Barry explained himself.
"Let me see if I got this. You've kissed, you've had sex, yet neither of you are willing to admit there's something else going on? You two will have children together and still claim you hate each other," Felicity said.
"That almost could have happened," Barry mumbled to himself.
"Excuse me?" Felicity yelled.
Barry groaned. "Why do I keep saying these things?"
"Explain now," Felicity demanded. "Is Caitlin pregnant?"
"No," Barry shook his head dejectedly. "It was a few weeks ago. She told me she may be pregnant, but it turned out she wasn't," Barry decided to leave the time travel part out of the story. It was complicated enough without it.
"Barry," Felicity said with sadness in her tone. "I'm so sorry. Knowing you, you must have been so excited. I know you always wished you could have a big family considering everything you've been through,"
"I was," Barry said, a few tears gathering in his eyes. "Even if Caitlin was the mother, I was so happy that I was going to be a father. And even though I know it's not real, I keep thinking about if it was,"
"Barry, you are going to be an amazing father. You are one of the most selfless people I know. Your child is going to grow up with so much love in their life." Felicity comforted him.
"Wells said something similar actually." Barry took a deep breath to calm himself. "But you're right. I'm going to be a father someday, and I know I'll love them no matter what,"
The two of them stayed there for a while, Felicity offering her support in any way she could think of. Barry dwelling on what could have been for him if Caitlin did turn out to be pregnant. He would have done anything to make sure he was a part of that child's life, and let it know how much he loved them.
So Felicity knows what's going on between those two. We get to see Barry in mourning about his lost child. A little sad, but they are now onto Wells being The Reverse Flash.
Hey we're almost done with the season. That was fast. The later chapters will probably be longer in length now that we're getting down to the climax of the season, and then we're on to season 2. I'm so excited for season 2. Share your thoughts about the chapter.
As always, stay safe everybody and I'll see you next week.