20
Team Building
"Barry!...Barry, where are you?"
"I don't know, I lost Caitlin. There are too many of them, man."
Brady ducked toward the ground, groaning in pain when he felt the armor strapped to his chest collide painfully against him. That wasn't a good idea, he thought, continuing to army crawl forward in the darkened room. He looked to the side, squinting to see if his eyesight would've adjusted through the dim lighting. Still hadn't, not as much as it would have been if the red laser beams weren't flying everywhere. It would've helped if someone, anyone was wearing something light colored.
Ow! Brady's head collided with a darkened corner. He backed away, rubbed the growing bump and continued to army crawl across the floor. He shuffled as quickly as he could, dodge-rolling out of the way when he heard thundering footsteps and shouting coming closer. He pressed his back against the wall and waited, holding his hands between his knees as he waited with bated breath.
Sweat dotted his forehead, the air around him suddenly growing stuffier as the seconds passed. Screams and shouts echoed around him as he continued to hide. Brady looked around for a second, glanced up in the nearby corners to be sure there were no cameras pointed his way, then phased through the wall behind him. He turned, crying out in surprise when he saw Leah suddenly kneeling on the ground in front of him.
Her brown eyes widened in surprise at his sudden appearance before relief moved through her face. "You're okay," She breathed.
"Yeah, they haven't gotten me, yet," Brady replied. He moved closer to her, keeping his voice low among the shouting and sounds of blasting going off around them. "Have you seen Connor? Did he get hit?"
Leah's blonde ponytail bobbed as she shook her head. "I don't know, I haven't seen him in a while. I lost him as soon as the lights went out."
"Cisco! We have to get out of here!"
"No, you can take them," Cisco insisted. "Just listen to me. You just need to do one thing." He paused, taking in a deep breath. Brady could practically see the expression on his face, a dramatic expression with his eyebrows pinched together. Teeth clenched so tightly that the vein in his forehead was starting to pop out. Brady guessed he was right when Cisco then gave an impassioned, "Run Barry, run!"
There was a moment of silence before Brady heard Barry's screaming. A sign of his charging toward whatever was coming toward him. How many times had Brady heard him do that in battle? Enough to know that there wasn't a chance that he was about to throw a very bright, very powerful lightning bolt. No, this time, Brady knew he was about to throw himself out into the open, opening himself to the possibility of being attacked.
Which was exactly what he did as, seconds later, Barry's triumphant screaming was immediately cut off, turning to a groan of disappointment. The sound of electronic lasers and gunfire went off, reaching Brady's ears. Brady popped up, resting his arms on the railing that gave him a vantage point over the laser tag field. He cocked his head to the side, watching as his future step-father looked up at him, bringing his arms up and slapped it back to his sides.
"Wow," Brady drawled. He pointed toward Barry with the plastic gun in his hands. "You're terrible at this." He shook his head. "I think that's, literally, the twentieth time I've shot you today."
"Oh, come on," Barry complained. He turned to the side and gestured with his own gun as the plastic vest that sat across his front flashed with the warning that he'd been shot. "They got me." Even from where he stood, Brady could see the pout on Barry's face, deepened by the shadows of the laser tag maze.
"Oh, you have failed this city," Cisco growled before getting to his feet. He came flying around the same corner that Barry had recently been hiding behind, plastic gun blazing as he did so. He managed to take a few steps forward, a few more than Barry had, before he was stopped in his tracks. His own vest lit up with the signal that he'd been hit.
"Ha ha!" Brady cheered. He waved his gun behind Barry and Cisco, making them whip around to the other side of the laser tag arena where his classmate—and the birthday boy—Chad McConell stood, waving his own gun.
"For real, Chad?" Cisco demanded, throwing his hands in the air. His glossy locks flew around his face as he whirled around to face the young boy. "In the back?!"
Chad merely gestured with his gun. "Suck it, old man!"
"Ooh." Brady turned to the side, seeing Connor and Leah leaning against the railing beside him. Connor was the one spoke, he grinned as he shook his head, looking down at his friends. Laughed when Barry's and Cisco's heads both jerked back in surprise at the name that Chad had called them.
Caitlin then came scurrying around the corner, clutching her own gun close to her chest. She looked toward Barry and Cisco, then did a double take when she saw their lit-up vests, compared to her dark one. "Wait, did you guys die already?" Her shoulders slumped and she shook her head. "Really? Come on, this is like, the fifth—"
Leah whipped out her gun and aimed it toward Caitlin, shooting her directly in the chest. "Boom!" Caitlin looked down, shoulders slumping when she realized she'd lost, too. Leah cheered loudly, throwing her hands into the air while Brady and Connor joined in on her celebration, high-fiving each other as they did so.
"Kids these days," Cisco complained as a loud alarm went off and the lights within the arena went up. "They take these things so seriously. It's just a game you guys." But Brady, Leah, and Connor went right on cheering as the game announcer called them out as the team who won. Cisco gestured with his gun once more and sneered up at the three pre-teens. "Churlish!"
"You're just mad that you lost to a bunch of kids," Leah teased. She flipped her ponytail over her shoulder and added, "You're getting old, Cisco!"
"You know, I think I liked it better when you didn't talk much," Cisco shot back.
Leah rolled her eyes. "I'm sure everyone says the same thing about you, Cisco."
Brady and Connor laughed again, this time with Barry and Caitlin joining in while Cisco shook his first toward the young kids. "I'm going to get you for that one, Brooklyn! You and me, and we'll see who has the better shot!"
"Yeah, we'll see," Leah replied. She waved her gun and the three headed down the stairs toward the game floor. Once there, she used the nozzle of her gun to point toward the large scoreboard that sat on the wall. "Because, so far, I'm beating you by more than one thousand points."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah…"
"Cisco, why don't you quit while you're behind," Caitlin suggested, placing her hand on Cisco's shoulder. Squeezed it gently. "I don't think your years of video game play is going to help you here."
"Clearly," Barry grumbled. He twisted his gun back and forth in his hands, pressing his finger into the trigger a few times. "I think mine's defective."
Brady grinned. "Don't be such a spoil sport…we can still beat you in the arcade, too."
"Anyway, I'm sure everyone's hungry," Caitlin said, moving to take off her vest and attached gun. "Let's go see if the cake's ready."
"And I'm sure mom's done with telling people what to do, too," Brady agreed.
Or, at least, was getting to the point that she didn't want to have to look after anyone else's kids again. It'd been easy for her to get talked into it, another mom suggesting she at least had the energy for it while subtly mentioning, once again, that she was a younger mother compared to all the others. And, of course, his mom had agreed it with a forced smile, not wanting anything else from her past to be used against her.
Brady followed his friends to the front of the game center to return the vest and gun, counting the coins he had left in his pocket, working to figure out what prize he wanted to get. He didn't have nearly enough or the new gaming system. Not that Cisco couldn't build me one if I asked, Brady thought with a wry smile. They gave up their weapons then went outside where most of the party was converging around a fleet of food trucks that flanked a table filled with a large birthday cake.
"Chad really knows how to throw his wealth around," Leah commented, gently shaking her head while gazing at the crowd. She lifted her hand in a wave toward Alicia, who was on the other side of the party with Rachel and the rest of their friend group. Alicia looked up and waved back enthusiastically. "It's almost as bad as Alicia's last party."
"I don't think anything could beat Alicia's last party," Connor remarked. Brady made a grunting sound in agreement. The daughter of the police chief could get whatever she wanted for a party and had proved it multiple times. Though her last one had been ruined by a metahuman attack. "She had iphones as a goodie bag gift."
"I had to give mine back," Brady said with a frown.
"I took mine apart," Connor replied. Brady's eyes widened. "Just to see if I could make the signal output for Wi-Fi even stronger, to make a bigger hot spot than the phone itself."
Leah shook her head. "My boyfriend likes to take things apart for fun." Connor smiled. "I can't remember the last thing I did for my birthday. My parents don't really celebrate it." Connor reached up and put his arm around her shoulders. The two smiled at each other and Connor immediately dropped his arm form her once more.
"Come on, let's get some food." Brady raced toward the picnic table that Joe, Cecile, and Iris had commandeered. Brady scrambled to the table and swung himself over the bench, waiting for his food to be handed to him. Cisco sulked over along with Barry and Cisco, glaring at Chad as the young boy walked by.
"You better watch yourself, Chad," Cisco called out. He raised his chin defiantly when the birthday boy walked by with his friends. "Come at me at the paintball field next time. I'll kick your little a…." He broke off into a nervous laugh when he spotted Chad's mother walking along behind him. "Hey! Mrs. McConnell. Chad's a treasure. He really is. He really…" Cisco turned and sat on the bench, lowering his chin. "Chad cheats!"
"Or, maybe, you're all just a little too old to be playing laser tag," Iris pointed out. Nevertheless, she rested her chin in her hands and smiled, laughing at the sour expression on Cisco's face. "It's just a game, Cisco! Not one that's worth pulling muscles and accusing little kids of cheating."
"Nothing with Chad is ever just a game," Connor pointed out. He rolled his eyes. "Why do you think people don't like him? You should see him in PE, he treats the whole thing like the Olympics." He nudged Brady on the arm. "Sounds like someone else I know."
Brady smiled back.
"Ugh, PE." Barry made a face. For a moment, it was as if his entire life flashed before his eyes, if not a horrific memory that he tried his best not to think about. "I think I was the only person who ever got a C in PE."
"D plus," Cisco commented.
"Straight up failure right here," Caitlin said, jerking her thumb towards herself.
Iris shook her head. "That's just pathetic. You get points for just showing up. How do you fail PE?"
"Well, Iris." Cisco laced his fingers together. He sucked in a deep breath through his nose. Brady started to grin, knowing they were in for a good story. "When you have a bunch of self-proclaimed nerds who are forced into that fine class that most would call physical education but the rest of us would call torture, there are many ways that you could fail. Liiike," he pretended to think about it. "Not wanting to take showers after class."
"Not being able to throw," Caitlin said. She started to count on her fingers. "Not being able to do a push-up. Not being able to do a pull up."
"Barry, here, couldn't even run," Joe remarked. He and Cecile came back to the table with a mountain of food piled high on a few trays that they set in the middle of the table. Iris, Brady, Connor, and Leah burst out laughing as Barry scowled, resting his arms on the top of the splintery picnic table. "Come on, Barry, it's not like that was a secret. All anyone has to do is pay attention to your running form and they'll know that you run like—"
"—Like a duck?" Cadence broke in. She leaned over the table, picking up a grape tomato off the salad Caitlin had ordered and popped it into her mouth with a grin.
"For real?" Barry's expression turned wounded, hoping it'd make his fiancée give him a little bit of sympathy. It was nowhere to be found. As long as Barry and Cadence had known each other, Cadence seemed to make it her mission to find a way to tease Barry about everything, while he struggled to find anything he could tease her about in response. Very humorous to watch, from the outside looking in. Though Brady was sure Barry didn't find it to be as amusing.
"Sorry, babe, but you actually do run like a duck," Cadence said with an apologetic shrug. Then she lowered her voice enough so that Cecile couldn't hear and added, "At least not when you're using your powers." Then she cleared her throat and reached out, running her fingers through Brady's hair. "You've been in there for a long time. Did you have fun?"
"Yeah!" Brady beamed up at his mother before turning his cheeky grin toward Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco. "We kicked their butts." He fist-bumped Connor and Leah, making Joe give a wheezing laugh in response.
"You better have," Cadence replied. "Because this is the last time I'm going to chaperone another birthday party like this. I forgot I'd agreed to do it because of that…" She clenched her teeth, eyes turning hard. "…that damn PTA Meeting. I hate going to those!" She folded her arms. "This is the reason why." She shook her head, looking over the numerous decorations and activities that'd been set up. "And I thought I was spoiled."
"Because you miss out on some epic games of laser tag?" Cisco asked. He paused to acknowledge her second point. "And you are."
Iris rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's it. We're jealous we had to miss out on a bunch of screaming kids trying to kill each other." She sat up straight and motioned toward the food that rapidly grew cold in the middle of the table. "Can we eat now, dad, or are you going to, uh, keep holding our food hostage?"
"Right. Uh…" Joe glanced at the spread around the table. "A salad and a pretzel for Caitlin. A corn dog for Iris. Two franks for Cisco. Burgers for Connor, Leah, and Brady. And…three burgers, five churros, and six funnel cakes for Barry."
The speedster's face flushed as the biggest pile of food was placed in front of him. He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. "It's, uh, not all for me."
"The churros are mine!" Cadence grabbed them off his plate, quickly biting off the end of one. She smiled happily, hummed to herself, wiggled her shoulders in a mini dance as she chewed. "I needed something to keep my energy up while having to watch a hoard of brats." Brady made a face. "No offense."
Cecile sighed, brushing her hair back from her ears. "Well, I'm sorry that the pipes in the house were making this weird, annoying sound. We would've just had you all over for dinner instead of having to be roped into the birthday party from hell!" She winced as a blaring alarm went off from inside the arcade; someone, somewhere must've won a lot of tickets. "Do these places have to be so loud?"
Leah shrugged. "Maybe you're just sensitive to the sound, Ms. Horton," she suggested kindly.
"She's not sensitive to anything," Joe said quickly. A little too quickly. He cleared his throat and looked down at the club sandwich in front of him as if it were suddenly the most fascinating thing in the world.
Barry watched Joe closely. Then his face cleared as he clued into what Cecile had said and rolled his eyes. His voice took on a sarcastic note as he turned to lock eyes with Iris and asked, "Squeaky pipes at the West house, what a surprise?"
"Mh-hmm." Iris nodded in response. Her own eyes rolling.
"Wait, you know the sound?" Cecile asked, her eyes widening. "That…" she trailed off, her face screwing up in thought. Then she produced a high-pitched sound from her mouth that made Barry and Iris start to nod. "Yeah, every time I've been at the house it'd make that noise!"
"It's been doing that for, what, 18 years?" Barry asked.
"Every house has a personality," Joe grumbled. "Ours just likes to be heard." He cleared his throat, quickly changing the subject. "Anyway, how's the wedding planning going?" Cadence and Brady made groaning noises at the same time. Joe laughed to himself, "What? Did I ask the wrong question?"
"No, it's just that every time someone mentions anything about the wedding, my mom calls," Cadence remarked. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and held it in her palm, waiting for it to ring. "I swear, she has some sort of radar about it."
"You can't be serious."
"She's serious," Brady said, at the same time a peal of a ringtone pierced the air. He nodded towards his mother's hand. "See?"
Cadence sighed heavily. Her eyebrows shot upwards as she answered the phone with a dull, "Hi, mom." Instead of the greeting in response, Maya immediately started in on a conversation as if they'd been talking for the past twenty minutes.
"The Wexler-Walcawiks broke up!" Cadence jerked her head away from her phone, wincing as her mother's screeching voice reached her ears. Cadence reached up and wiggled a finger in her ear.
At Maya's words, Barry immediately perked up. He speed-ate through the rest of his food and mumbled a "For real?" through a full mouth.
Through the speaker, Maya heard him enough to excitedly squeal, "Yes!" In response, which made Cadence jerked her head back once more. Shooting an exasperated look simultaneously at her phone and at her fiancé.
"Hell yeah!" Barry cheered. Cadence glared at him. "Is that…not good…?"
"Yeah, and why are we happy that their love is dead?" Cisco added.
Maya continued speaking as if the question was being directed toward her. "Because they were getting married and the Propizzio the weekend of the second, so that means the venue is now open! Which means we can open the invitation list to some more people. Which means we're going to have to think more about the kinds of place settings and name tags you want to choose. The menu…we can expand the menu now that we'll have ore guests, more money to spend…How lucky!"
"Yay," Cadence said weakly. She brought up a hand and scratched at her forehead. "Mom, can we talk about this later? I'm chaperoning a party."
"Yes, yes, I understand. But, sweetie, we're going to have to let Mallory know about the change so that—"
"Bye, mom!" Cadence quickly hung up, sliding her phone back into her pocket.
Brady quickly glanced at Caitlin then looked away. He ducked his head, finding the rest of his burger to suddenly be so interesting, and understanding why Joe did the same with his food—though not sure the exact reason why. But this was more delicate. He'd been surprised and happy to see Caitlin join them at the party that day, but felt the awkward tension as soon as she got there.
Then the tension was back. Brady wondered if Caitlin knew his mother had chosen her high school best friend to be her Maid of honor. Wondered if it bothered her too much that she wasn't part of the wedding party…or knew much of the wedding at all because of who she was.
Or who she used to be, Brady quickly corrected himself.
"I thought she drove me crazy before, but she's really doing it now," Cadence said, rubbing her temples. Added under her breath in a mumble that only Brady could hear, "I wonder if I shot myself in the head if I'd be able to heal from it."
"She just wants to make sure you have the perfect wedding," Caitlin said kindly. Her brown eyes were kind, though seemed haunted with… something. "Can you blame her?"
"Well, Cait, if your mom wanted to throw you, her only daughter, her only child, a big ass wedding, what would you do?" Cisco asked. He threw his arm around Caitlin's shoulders, gently rocking her back and forth. "Wouldn't you let her do everything she wanted? Or would you put your foot down and let her know that it's your day?"
Caitlin swatted his arm off her shoulder with a gentle shake of her head. A small smile came to her lips. "Well, when Ronnie and I were engaged, I did a lot of the planning myself. Some of the other scientists at STAR Labs would help me out." She poked Cisco on the arm. "I remember you were very invested in the color of flowers we were going to have. Blue or orange."
"I still think orange," Cisco defended himself. "It's a very warm, autumn color. Goes with everything." He pointed to Barry and Cadence. "Keep that in mind, and if you do it, then I deserve all the credit. Orange is a good color, it brings you two together nicely." He gave an exaggerated thumbs up, making everyone laugh.
"My mom wasn't involved very much with my wedding," Caitlin continued. "We didn't have a good relationship then. Not that we do now, but…" She trailed off, shaking her head. "It helped that Ronnie was involved with the wedding as well. Everything we wanted to do with the day, we talked about and decided together." She smiled fondly. "Not that we didn't have times where we argued, things did get a little tense because we worked together, too." She shrugged, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Just remember that you guys are a team and at the end of the day, the ceremony if for everyone else. The party is for everyone else. But the marriage is for you."
"And don't forget…open bar," Iris said.
"You know it," Joe agreed. Father and daughter leaned over the table to give each other a high-five. "All the best weddings I've been to have had an open bar."
Barry's eyes narrowed in thought. He tipped his head to the side. "Aren't those also the same weddings that you and Captain Singh were called to to break up."
"Yes, and even with the cells being filled with drunk mothers-in-law depressed over losing their songs, fathers of the bride who got into drunken fist fights, and the weird cousins who thought it was a good idea to take a joyride in the car that'd take the new couple to the hospital, they were the best damn weddings I've ever been to!"
"Just make sure you remember to tip the bartender," Cadence said. She folded her arms. "I've done enough weddings where the only tips I got were phone numbers and that was not…" she trailed off, noticing all eyes turned her way. "You know I was a bartender before I became a Zumba instructor."
"Yeah…was that before or after you were a massage therapist?" Cisco asked.
"I thought it was after working in the flower shop," Caitlin said.
"Or maybe when you wer ea babysitter," Brady chimed in.
Cadence rolled her eyes. "Haha." She waved her hands in the air. "Pop quiz! How many jobs have I had before the CCPD?"
"Nine," Barry said confidentially, casually as he looked through the menu to figure out what else he wanted from the food truck. "You can't usually hold a job for more than a year." Then he noticed the silence around and looked up. "What? It's not like it's a secret. You said so yourself."
"Yeah, but I never knew you actually kept track," Cadence replied, amused. "I mean, it took a long conversation to convince Captain Singh to give me a chance with the CCPD because of my track record."
"David can be a little hard to convince sometimes, but he always comes around." Cecile got up from the table. "I'm going to get some more food. Looks like we'll need it and if someone else is paying for it, there's no need for us to not go all out, right?"
"It's like the Newlywed game," Leah remarked with a tiny smile. "Who knows each other better? Miss. Cadence or Mr. Allen?"
Cisco shot his hand into the air. "My bet's on Cade!"
"Dude!" Barry's eyes widened, hurt as how quickly his best friend had sided. On the other hand, Cadence practically preened like a peacock. "Okay, it's not like you don't know us either. We practically tell you guys everything."
"Oh, this is going to be fun!" Iris clapped her hands together. "Who…makes the better breakfast?"
All eyes turned to Brady on that one. He looked up, cheeks bulging from stuffing his face with a large bite of his burger. His eyes shifted around the faces looking at him and he shrugged in response. "I do," he said, making Barry and Cadence laugh. Not that his mother nor Barry couldn't cook, they could and switched duties regularly. But Barry had a tendency to burn things because he cooked them too quickly, and his mom didn't branch out with variety too much, having had way too many options growing up that she preferred things to be simple. And he had tow built in guinea pigs with what he liked to try cooking so…
"He has us on that one," Cadence agreed. "It's one less duty I've got to do and as long as he doesn't set the place on fire, I'm happy."
"Okay." Iris tapped her chin. "Who has the better shower singing voice?"
"Even I know that one, we did karaoke together" Caitlin remarked. She pointed toward Barry—ignoring Cisco's outraged cry of "you went to karaoke without me?!"—who cringed. At the same time as Cadence. Both clearly thinking of the same thing with the memory of Barry's singing talents. "That's him. Have you ever heard him? His voice his amazing!"
"No, it's not," Barry said modestly.
"Yes, it is!"
"Well." Barry paused, eyes shifting. "Kara's got a better voice than me, anyway. Have you ever heard her? She can blow the roof off of the place."
"Kara can sing, too?" Cisco asked.
"Her name's Supergirl," Caitlin pointed out. "it's kind of implied."
Connor turned his head and looked at Brady with a smile so sudden that Brady looked at him suspiciously form the corner of his eye. "Can Debby sing?" Connor asked with that same, pointed smile.
A scowl immediately came to Brady's face, but was unable to keep the curious mental picture of her singing out of his head. "How should I know?" Brady looked away, feeling his cheeks flush. "By the way, are you getting a band or a DJ?"
"You should get a DJ," Iris pointed out. "Better opportunities for dancing."
"But a band can really set the tone for a wedding," Cisco pointed out. "Believe me, I have a lot of family." He waved a hand in front of his nose. "And there have been plenty of stinkers because of the music that was played."
"What about you, Joe?" Barry turned toward the man, who looked startled that all the attention was suddenly on him. "Do you have any words of wisdom to share?"
"Yeah." Iris laced her fingers together, wiggling her shoulders. "Do you think you're going to be tying the knot anytime soon?
At that, both Joe and Cecile, who had taken that time to return from the food truck, started to wave their hands, deflecting the change in conversation topic toward them. Brady smiled to himself, looking around the table at his friends. At his team. At his family. There were more than enough times that people tried to tear them apart, that things were difficult for them, that they kept secrets from each other and that their numbers dwindled. But they were always able to come back from it, and be a stronger team.
Barry was back from the Speed Force and it was like everything managed to fall back into place. There was someone after him again, of course. But the rest of Team Flash had grown strong in his absence and were doing well in continuing to grow as the days passed. Especially now that he had finally been able to tell Barry what'd been bothering him for so long.
Holding onto dark thoughts for that long…it hadn't done well for what'd been going on with the other side of him that he'd been trying to hold off. Demon, as he was now starting to call it, was something that'd only come up a few times here and there. First when he was facing off against Breathtaker, then when in battle a few times. The last time they'd faced Abra Kadabra had been when he managed to fend it off more than he'd done before. He had to pay attention to his fear when in the throes of battle but…
He couldn't help but wonder what it would mean for the team if…when…he finally told them about Demon. A lot of tests, for sure, but after that…well, it didn't matter much anyway, he supposed. After having been benched. It was probably best, now that he thought about it. Not due to whomever it was sending out the Samuroids and who created the Bus Metas, but what happened if he completely lost control during battle?
He was broken out of his thoughts with Iris's comment of, "But, I must say, I'm really looking forward to seeing Brady stand up there in his suit," which made Brady make a face, making everyone laugh. It didn't take long for him to laugh along with them.
Who knew when was the last time they were going to laugh? Who knew when was the next time they were going to be able to get together like that and have a good time? Not have to worry about any metas or ruthless villains trying to exact revenge on them? It was in the back of his mind every time he stepped out the door, but he still had to live life. Life was always worth living.
They had a wedding to get prepared for. It was supposed to be one of the best days of his mother's life. Supposed to be when they were really going to start being a family. They had life to look forward to and he was going to focus on that.
"I've got one," Brady said. "Who's going to be the first to cry?"
"Barry," was the unanimous answer before the entire table burst out laughing.
A/N: A little bit of everyone in this chapter and some time for Team Flash to be normal before they have to go back into being Team Flash! I hope you guys enjoyed it, I planned on having the action come back in this one, but things didn't work out the way I originally planned and this chapter came up instead. Also, I couldn't remember if I had it that Cecile knew Barry was Flash yet (I'm pretty sure she doesn't) and had to work around some things with that here as well.
Cheers,
-Riles
