39

The Past Is Catching Up


Cadence arrived at work and her eyebrows immediately rose. Not just because of the flurry of movement that was happening, but also because of the way Jordan had raced over and immediately stared to panic-spill everything that had happened.

She took in a deep breath through her nose and placed her hands on Jordan's shoulders, finally getting her to stop talking. "Jordan, the world isn't ending just because you couldn't figure out our office supplies. It can be tricky sometimes, but it's not hard."

"No." Jordan shook her head. "It's Captain Singh, he keeps looking at me like I'm doing something wrong and—"

Cadence laughed lightly. "Jordan, you always think you're doing something wrong. And you're one of the bet receptionists we've ever had. Try not to freak out. If something is going on, chances are it's just some technical problems."

"Oh. Right." Jordan smiled, her shoulders slumping. "I guess Chief Paulson won't be too mad if not everything is where it needs to be."

At that, Cadence stopped in her tracks from her path toward her office. Her plans of going through new case files, checking in on Frankie, and figuring out what she was going to do about the wedding dress fitting her mom was insisting she do immediately went out the window. If things were "normal" the idea of the Chief of Police being around wouldn't be so worrying. But Central City wasn't normal, her life wasn't normal, and it was best if Chief Paulson stayed far away from her.

"What do you mean?" She asked, slowly turning back to Jordan.

Jordan blinked back at her, tipped her head to the side, her white-blonde hair spilling over her shoulders. "Chief Paulson is here today, with Lex Luthor."

And there was the problem.

The problem that almost haunted her more than she would've liked to admit. It was already hard having to deal with being a metahuman, being the leader of Team Flash, having a son who was a metahuman, a fiancé who was a metahuman, and the Central City police force being so close to metahumans in general. Then there was the fact Lex was gaining traction with the MRA and then there was Chief Paulson having a personal stake in wanting the MRA to come to pass; not just to protect the city but also because of the time he and Alicia had been attacked by metas.

If there was a worse combination of people to have around due to their views on metahumans, it was Chief Paulson and Lex Luthor. "Hopefully this is one of those slow days," Cadence murmured, bringing her hand up to rub at her forehead. "And neither of them have to see me."

"I think so," Jordan agreed, all smiles once more. A smile so radiant it seemed like she was glowing. Something certainly was radiating off her. "They know you just had your bachelorette party and there's things you probably have to recover from about that."

Cadence smiled politely. You have no idea.

"Hey, now that the both of you are back, do you think Barry could help me with something?" Jordan asked. Cadence blinked at the sudden change in conversation topic. Especially considering the fact she wanted a CSI's help when the interns had almost nothing to do with that portion of police work.

"Maybe," she replied vaguely, knowing he was currently working on a case. "Is everything okay? Did something happen?"

"No." Jordan looked absolutely baffled. "Why?"

"Because he works CSI and people that look for him specifically, are looking for his help when there's a big crime scene…" she waited for Jordan to elaborate and got nothing. So she decided to ask again. "Did something happen?"

"Oh!" Jordan rapidly started to shake her head. She ran her hands through her hair and clasped them together in front of her. "No. No. I was just wondering if he could help me figure out how to get on Captain Singh's good side. It's kind of well known that Captain Singh seems to enjoy riling Barry up sometimes. You know, being so young and earnest and all."

Cadence eyed Jordan a little longer. Used her powers to detect she was lying. But what would you need to lie about? She thought. "I'm sure he'd love to be able to help you when he gets the chance. It's like you said, if anyone knows how to handle Captain Singh, it's Barry. I'll let him know you were looking for him."

"Thank you, Cadence!" Jordan flung her arms around the fire metahuman and hugged her tightly. Cadence chuckled and hugged her back. "I know I've been a pain in the butt around here. It's kind of hard to fit in here sometimes I feel like a regular fish out of water." She laughed lightly at her own joke, though Cadence could see the twinge of sadness in her eyes. "

No longer worried about the visit that day, Jordan bade Cadence goodbye and practically skipped off back to her reception post. Cadence chuckled and went to her office, eyes searching the precinct for any signs that Chief Paulson or Lex Luthor were coming her way.

It was the last thing she needed.

She went into her office and set her things down, looking over at Natalie Ramirez as she glanced up from her desk. Her boss smiled, pushing her newspaper aside and said, "Should I be worried that you're back to work this quickly after a night of debauchery? Or are you just the world's best co-worker?"

Cadence chuckled to herself. And reminded herself that she probably did need a stiff drink after everything that happened with Amunet. Then again, how many times could people say they were able to work with Superman, Batman, Oracle, and Wonder Woman for a night out? It may have ended badly with their letting Amunet get away, the realization that Killer Frost was never going to go away, Caitlin wasn't going to be her maid of honor and the mood didn't seem right to back to party. But Bruce had promised he'd make it up to her for the wedding so that was something she was looking forward to.

Besides, a night out wouldn't be a night out if something meta related didn't come up, Cadence thought. She decided to answer Natalie's question. "I'm just a good co-worker. I need to set an example for my son. Need to set an example for all the kids we're helping. All of the above?" She shrugged, making Natalie laugh. "We all had a good time. We went to Gotham."

At that, Natalie made a slight face. "You're pretty brave to go into Gotham for a bachelorette party."

"Well, if it's debauchery you're looking for, I think Gotham actually is the best place."

"Good point."

It was then Cadence noticed the files that were sitting on her desk. She put her things down and started to look though them, mentally working out the best way to tackle the day.

A lot of the work that came her way was on the simpler side of things; middle school and high school students were had attendance issues. Issues so bad it made Brady's grumbling of having to get to up in the morning seem like he was singing. Often, those issues were remedied by determining whether or not it was an issue of truancy or depression. Whether there were significant issues keeping the kids from attending school or if they simply that they didn't like to learn. Determining if the solution were providing alarm clocks and going over time management skills or setting up the child in a shelter due to substance abuse, neglect, environment issues, crisis counseling, and, if the cases were more severe, moving any children into temporary or permanent care in other households.

So, as she flipped through the files in front of her, Cadence let out a low sigh, remembering how she had he same struggles not too long ago. And may still have them. People already wondered and worried how she lived her life with Brady when she was a teen mom, and it didn't get easier as she got older. Older parents looked down their noses at her, others side-eyed her before leaning over to whisper to the others, and then there were ones who put their noses too much into her business in the thought of 'worrying about Brady' and reported her to CPS every which way. At one point she was close to losing him…knowing the more she put him out in the field was a field day for anyone who realized their identities and wanted to make her life a living hell.

But at least, in the meantime, she could do some good for those that she could help with the purest of intentions. Like Jordan, Cadence thought with a light chuckle to herself. She spent the most of her morning going over the cases in front of her, quickly determining that most of them were children who wanted nothing more than to sit at home and play video games all day. Others were clear repeat calls that had come in, seeing how many Officers had been named and signed off on wellness checks through their files.

She remembered how gut wrenching; how hard it was to wonder and worry if that day was the day Brady was going to be taken away from her. And then there was what she'd done to John and Karen after finding out what they had bene doing to Frankie. And now that she had been able to send Frankie away, to get her to a permanent family that was going to do well for her. Thankfully, they were meta friendly, she had to covertly figure that out.

Moving forward, that was going to be harder, figuring out who was and wasn't against the MRA in terms of being able to place children. And then also working to figure out if the kids were metahuman without revealing her identity. (It became easy when she saw there was a sticker or some sort of decal from any of the heroes in the city, The Flash's lightning bolt and Flare's double F were easy to recognize though Vibe's glasses were just starting to pick up steam).

Cadence worked through most of the files before taking a break for lunch. She went to the breakroom and joined Jordan and Jonesy as they gossiped about Chief Paulson and Lex Luthor being in the building that day. Everyone appeared to be on their best behavior and was keeping their heads down…until a few officers came in, speaking loudly.

"They should just get rid of all the metas," One of them said. "Instead of us throwing them into Iron Heights. They cause nothing but trouble."

"Eradicate them all and the city will go back to normal," the other said. "Central City used to be a great place to live and now they're crawling all over the place."

"Metas have just as many rights as the rest of us," Cadence pointed out, unable to keep her words to herself. Jordan and Jonesy, who sat across from her, exchanged wide-eyed glances before intensely studying their lunches. "No one asked for any of it to happen to them and it's not anything they can control now."

"Which is exactly why we need to push the Registration Act forward." The break room went silent as Lex's voice strolled through the door and gazed at everyone, finally settling on Cadence. "They may not be able to control that they were turned into metahumans, and others may not be able to control their powers, so that's why it's safer for them to register themselves."

"You mean turn themselves in," Cadence replied.

Lex chuckled, shaking his head. "Turn themselves in?" He repeated. "For what? What crime did they commit?"

"They haven't committed any crimes," Cadence replied. She paused for a moment, noticing the upwards twitch of his eyebrows. "Other than the people who have committed crimes. But that's not to say—"

"—What about that meta that was just dubbed Kilg%re by The Flash and his team, who not only killed a few innocent people, but also could've killed others just from the bomb he took remote control of." Cadence started to protest but was cut off by Lex pointing at the ground saying, "That happened here, didn't it?"

That was so long ago.

"Yes, but—"

"—And what about that other woman, Becky Sharpe, who not only went on a crime spree with her newfound abilities of luck, but also was determined to be the one to cause millions of dollars of damage to a plane and who knows how many other bystanders to become injured, some gravely—"

"Okay, but that's just—"

"—And not to mention all the metahumans that are slowly starting to pop up around schools and other places of education that should be safe for our children." Lex clasped his hands behind his back and shrugged. "Registering those that are metahumans is simply a way for everyone to be safe."

Cadence bit her tongue. She took in a deep breath, did her best to calm herself down before she didn't anything she'd regret. "It's a way for the metas to consistently be in danger." She thought for a second. "It's…okay… we all know there are certain men and women in the world that have to register themselves and stay a certain amount of distance away from schools—"

"—Are you really comparing metahumans to pedophiles?"

"No! I—"

"—Because that would then increase the support for my case, don't you think?" Lex stepped toward Cadence. "Because becoming a metahuman doesn't discriminate. Who's to say that there aren't those out there with those…predilections that have the powers and abilities to continue to get away with harming children in that way." Cadence took in another breath through her nose. "Are you saying that's not possible?"

"I'm not saying that—"

"—So you admit there is a possibility—"

"—Well yes, but—"

"—So then you understand that I'm simply keeping the best interest and the safety of all civilians at the heart of the matter." Lex stopped in front of Cadence, looking down at her. Looking her directly in the eye. "And you can understand how the measures that the CCPD has put into place, while noble, may not be what's the best choice for everyone." Cadence looked back at him; his eyes searched hers. "Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?"

Affronted, Cadence took a step back and stormed out of the break room. She ignored Jordan's calling after her and went back to the office, working hard to keep her anger—and her temperature—in check. It took everything in her not to lose control and set his pants on fire. The liar. The MRA wasn't to keep everyone safe, it was to keep everyone caged.

"Everything okay?" Natalie asked when Cadence went back to her desk. She was not one to mix and mingle much with the rest of the precinct, at least with the younger ones. Cadence had asked about it when she first started the job and Natalie had simply explained it was that she didn't want to worry about learning the latest gossip and rumblings that went through work and wanted to focus on her job. ("Besides," Natalie had pointed out. "I probably know more about it than they do.") "I didn't expect you back so soon."

"Just…ran into Luthor," Cadence explained. "He was talking more about the MRA and…" she shook her head. "I still can't believe it might become a real thing." She dropped to her desk, resting her hands in her lap. If she touched anything she was sure she'd set it on fire. "How are they going to figure out who all the metas are, enforce the rule?"

"They'll find a way," Natalie remarked. "They always do."

Cadence nodded. She turned back to her desk, her eyebrows coming together when she noticed a new folder on her desk. It was different than the others. The previous ones were color-coded dependent on the severity of the cases, had specific tags to denote what things they'd previously tried. The new one was in a nondescript manilla folder, so flat it almost seemed there was nothing in it.

"Natalie?" Cadence continued to stare at the folder. "Did anyone come in here while I was out?"

"No, I've been here by myself." Natalie gazed at her subordinate curiously. "Is something wrong?"

"No. I just wanted to be sure no one messed with my files…" Cadence turned in her chair, surreptitiously taking the folder off her desk. She dropped it to her lap and opened it. The second she did so, her eyes widened and her heart dropped to her feet.

Name: Braden Michael Nash

Alias: Shadowhunter

Age: 11

Hair Color: Brown

Eye Color: Hazel

Status: Alive

Powers: Intangibility also known as Phasing. Can also do the reverse and become "solid". Can fly due to the intangibility as he interacts and phases through the molecules of air. Also has a myriad of weaponry and vehicles to aid his fights. He can phase anyone and anything he touches or comes into contact with.

Address: 2345 Constitution Drive

Unit 5A

Central City, MO

Cadence's eyes widened in horror as she read through the page, flipped to the next one and nearly dropped them when she spotted the fingerprints that were put on the page. The same fingerprints that she had demanded to be wiped out of the system when he'd gotten his physical done. The same fingerprints she was scared would cause something like that to happen.

Millions of thoughts raced through her mind. Someone had given her the file. Someone knew Brady was a meta. Which meant that someone probably knew she was a meta. Which meant…which meant…which meant…

No! Cadence closed her eyes. Shook her head. No. She was supposed to be focusing on her wedding, working out the last-minute details, and sitting in her own little blissful world. The bachelorette party was supposed to be the start of it.

And all at once, the real world was smacking her in the face once more.

So, without a second thought, Cadence shaped her fingers like a gun, a flame hovering over her pointer finger, and burnt the file.


Cadence arrived home later that afternoon, surprised to find Brady standing at the stove, cooking up some dinner with no one else around. When she asked about everyone's whereabouts he said, "Mamaw's asleep in your room, Barry should be back soon, and Conner's finishing up some homework." He noticed Cadence's critical look and he said, "I made sure Mamaw didn't go into any of your things."

"That doesn't matter if you were here, she would've done it when we were all at work," Cadence replied. She reached over to give Brady a hug but he leaned out of the way, giving her the side-hug instead. "Are you too old to hug your mom, now?"

"I'm trying to make dinner! I don't want anyone to get burned!" He replied.

With a snort, Cadence hefted herself onto a stool. "I don't think that's ever going to be a problem."

"Good point. How was school?"

"Fine. Nothing huge happened. I joined the Debate the team."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I figured…if I'm going to argue with people, may as well get good at it."

Cadence smiled. She watched her son for a long time, wondering when the best time was to tell him what she'd found out that day. She wanted to run it by Barry first and then with the rest of the team, but she hadn't been able to get a hold of him all day. They'd at least be able to speak after dinner, if work didn't have him run over. He was able to run through a lot of cases, but after the amount that piled up when he was in the Speed Force, that would take even the fastest speedster some time.

"Are you okay, mom?" Brady asked, breaking into her thoughts.

Cadence ran her hands over her face. "Yeah, I just…I just had a long day." She then rested her chin in her hands. "I was thinking, earlier, about how things used to be. When it was just you and me here. Before we knew you were a meta, before you got your powers…" She shook her head, feeling a lump come up in her throat. "Sometimes I wonder what it'd be like if it was still you and me. If we'd be happier…" She cleared her throat.

Brady turned from the stove and furrowed his brows. "I mean, it's not like everything's supposed to stay the same, right?" He asked. "I know time travel is a thing and I know Barry tends to mess things up with time, but it's not like we can change the current time without changing the past." He shrugged. "The future, maybe. But we can't change right now."

Shaking her head, Cadence gazed at Brady. "How did you get to be so smart?"

At that, Brady shrugged. "You're the daughter of Harrison Wells and Tess Morgan. And you're engaged to one of the nerdiest people I've ever met, something was bound to rub off on me." He smiled when she laughed. "Can't say that Ryder has done much for me," he added under his breath.

There was a long moment of silence. Brady took that time to get out from beneath his mother's gaze and turned his attention back to the spaghetti cooking on the stove. He finished cooking the sauce and noodles and started to plate the food. He could feel his mother's gaze burning a hole through him—to the point that he had to stop and check to see if she was doing so.

"Since when do you call him Ryder?"

"What do you mean?"

It was an innocent question, but he knew exactly what she was getting at. So much so that he didn't have to lift his gaze to know she what expression was on her face. It was one that only parents seemed to perfect; where they already knew the answer and was simply waiting for the truth.

"I mean, since you started calling him 'dad' that's all you called him. And that was two years ago. But recently you've stated calling him Ryder again."

"Um." Brady pursed his lips and looked his mother in the eye. "It's not like he wants me around. He doesn't do anything with me when he has me."

Cadence shook her head. "Ryder loves you."

"I know. Because he's my dad. But…" Brady slowly shook his head. His heart rate increased, maybe a warning of saying what he'd been feeling for a long time. Or maybe fear, not knowing how to take the words back once they were out there. "He's not my dad. When I'm with him he's always busy with work and I'm bored. That's…kind of why we went out that night, to stop Black Bison. Ryder wasn't paying attention to us anyway and…I think he's scared of me."

A hurt expression came across Cadence's face. Not hurt from his words, not from any guilt she was putting on her own shoulders, he could tell. He recognized that look of hurt. This was a look of hurt of not noticing the split between them sooner and addressing it. (And something else, but she was able to keep that away from him).

Emotion suddenly swirled through Brady, and he dropped onto his stool, staring at the ribbons of steam that lifted and swirled trough the air while the plates cooled. "I didn't mean to break his leg! I couldn't control it! Something happened with my powers, and I couldn't stop it! He's scared of me, I can tell!"

"This isn't your fault, bud. It's mine, too."

At her words, Brady looked up.

"I focused more on you having him back in your life because he's your dad. I didn't really put much thought into how you felt about it or how things would go moving forward…" Cadence ran a hand through her hair, sighing heavily. "Your dad and I…we never really talked about you and me being metas. I thought he was okay with it, but it's clear he's not. He's seen all of the things we've had to deal with as metas, he was there when we were trying to stop Zoom. He's a human who got a good look into this world and it's not for him. And I shouldn't have tried to push it on him, or his relationship on you."

"That's not your fault, mom."

"No. But us thinking that we could have the life we wanted before is." Cadence reached out and grasped Brady's hand in hers, squeezed it tightly. He smiled at the warmth from her hand, the warmth that had been ever present, even when he was an infant. "That's not the life we have anymore. I can't keep pretending I'm sixteen years old and I'm having a baby with my boyfriend. We live two different lives now and we need to accept it." She drew her hand back to her lap. "It's your choice whether or not you want to continue to see him, but after what happened with our bachelor and bachelorette parties…it's clear that Ryder can't be the dad to you that we wanted."

"Barry's been more of a dad to me than he's been anyway, so…" Brady's expression became pensive. He chewed his lower lip, pressing his hands to the side of the counter. He leaned against his hands, rocking back and forth a few times. He could see his mother patiently waiting for him to ask the words that weren't coming to him as quickly as he'd wanted. "Um…do…do you think Barry, um, do you think Barry would mind if I called him 'dad'?"

Cadence smiled a smile so wide. One that Brady had only ever seen once before; in a picture of the two of them after he had been born. "I think he'd like that."


A/N: This is going to be a long story, y'all so I hope that you're ready and willing to come along with me for the long haul. But there are certain plot points from the season/character plots that I will bypass such as the Lady Luck ep and Kilgore episodes (as you can tell from this chapter) because it doesn't fit what this fic needs/the fic plot.

That being said, Cecile isn't going to have a huge plot point or fixture in this series for a few reasons 1) That'd be a lot of characters to handle, 2) I'm not a huge fan of her, 3) I feel that as soon as she started up her relationship with Joe that she got too much focus and it took away from a lot of other characters, 4) I think there are too many characters (in show) with ties to Team Flash so that you don't see the different parts of their lives very much at all. Plus, I greatly dislike children as plot points that bring no meaning to the show whatsoever. Cecile and Jenna will be plots, but like some other show stuff it will more be mentioned or happen "off-screen" so to speak.

I haven't done a chapter/scene/plot that focused on Cadence and Brady and their relationship in a while. It makes sense since he's getting older and he'd more likely want to spend time with his friends, but it was great to revisit their relationship here.

I hope you all are still enjoying.

Cheers,

-Riles

PS – There's a chance I may have retconned something with the plot of Brady's prints, but I hope you a) don't hold it against me, lol and b) point out to me what I said before so I can fix it if needed.