Team Flash: Adventures of Olivia and Cisco

Chapter 9- Failure

Tomorrow was the day. Olivia's big presentation.
"It's not just some big presentation Ralph..it's a huge, mega,absolutely colossal presentation" Liv stretched her arms as she tried to explain to Ralph " This could either make or break my career..I have been working soo hard for this. Everything I've done since I stepped foot at Mecury labs has led up to this.."
"Don't worry you'll get the project. ..there's no way they'd be crazy enough not to pick you" Ralph slung his arm across her shoulder.
"Yeah I mean you got help from the two brightest minds in the universe" Cisco grinned as he and Harry shared a look
"Yeah,especially since one of the bright minds was responsible for me not having access to my other lab for an entire weekend" Liv smirked and Cisco gave a nervous chuckle. " My bad"
"But I really appreciate the help guys..she's ready" Liv rubbed her palms together.

"The robot-a- fly" Liv sighed
"I didn't approve of that name" Cisco muttered
"Yeah I'm gonna call it a night" Ralph grabbed his jacket and headed out.
"Yeah me too. Gotta go grab a big belly burger" Harry left. Liv looked down at her feet. Cisco stood in front of her.
"Hey Princesa"
"I've told you not to call me that" she muttered
"You'll be fine princesa. You've worked really hard for this. You'll be the best one there". She looked at him with those big beautiful green eyes and his heart did back flips. He wanted to kiss any trace of doubt off that beautiful face.
"You really think so?"
"Absolutely. Come on what can I do to make you believe how incredible you are?"
"Well you can always make me some sancocho" she cooed
"But I'm sooo tired" Cisco grumbled.
"But Ciscooo" she whined and gave him a pout and her best puppy dog eyes.
"Aww..how can I say no to a face like that?" He cooed and opened a breach.
The next day...
The entire team had put together a little party at the West house to celebrate Liv's success.
"Yo Cisco! Buddy, this is your big chance" Barry told the engineer as he hung up some streamers.
"I'm not following "
"To tell Liv that you're in love with her"
"Love is a strong word" Cisco muttered as he twirled a balloon in his hands. "I mean I only want her more than I've ever wanted anything in my entire life. That beautiful smile, sparkling eyes...". Barry gave him a knowing smirk
"Not love huh? Look man all I'm saying is you gotta tell her soon. She'll be really happy today and after the party you can get her alone and talk"
"We'll see"
Caitlin got a text.
"Umm..guys? Liv says she her bot didn't make the cut" Caitlin said sadly
"Oh no she must be so devastated " Cecile said
"Poor thing. This was really important to her" Joe said
"Important? Try life changing " Harry said
"Shouldn't we check on her or something?" Ralph asked
"I think it's best if she's left alone for now" Barry said
"Yeah, I mean if she wanted some comfort she would have come here" Iris agreed
"I just don't understand it. She worked so hard..her robot was flawless" Cisco sighed
"Yeah and I went over the chemical compound she developed in the pollen grains.." Caitlin said
"Well, there goes the food and decorations " Ralph sighed and slumped on the couch.
"Are you sure she'll be ok? I mean she hasn't experienced most emotions before"
"And right now she must be going through so much sadness and rejection..who knows how she'll handle it" Cecile sighed.
"No worries guys. I'm sure by tomorrow she'll be back to her normal,bubbly, cheerful self" Barry said half convinced himself.
It was tomorrow...
Liv was not back to her normal, bubbly or cheerful self. She didn't show up at Star labs and she was usually the first one there.
"I don't know,Caitlin why don't you drop by her place and check on her?" Barry suggested
"Me? Why me?"
"I don't know. I thought you two were like biochem lab buddies or something" Barry shrugged
"Yeah we are..but..I don't think I'll know what to say to her"
"Cisco,she's your neighbour,why didn't you check on her?" Ralph asked
"Same reason as Caitlin" he muttered
"Guys this is our friend we're talking about. We have to be there for her" Iris pitched in.
"Yeah, but we can't all go" Ralph shrugged.
"I'll go" Caitlin said and left the cortex.
She entered Liv's apartment and was a little surprised. The place was in disarray..she definitely pulled a Harry. Alot of things were in positions that obviously indicated they were flung from across the living room. Some breakable were..well..broken. And Liv sat in the middle of it all. Like literally, she was sitting on the floor stuffing her face with cookie-dough ice cream. Caitlin took in how devastated she looked. Her hair was in a messy bun instead of its usual ponytail.She had a huge blanket wrapped around her shoulders.
"What is going on here?"
"What do you want Cait..?" Liv sighed
"For you to come to work and to go back to being you again"
"Well tough luck. This is my life now..it's all I'm good for apparently "
"Frost says you should stop being such a wuss". Liv just scoffed and stuffed more ice cream in her mouth.
"You want me to get Cisco?" Caitlin asked though Liv knew Frost probably instigated that.
"Don't you dare. He can't see me like this he'll think I'm pathetic"
"You're on the floor of your trashed up living room stuffing your face with ice cream at eleven am".
"One,the ice cream gives comfort. Two, you don't get it. I'm supposed to be a genius,I have two freaking PhDs..this just proves what a failure I am..especially to him. He won't see me the same way.
Though I'm not sure I care much anymore" the blonde muttered and opened a bottle of liquid chocolate.
"Liv, you're not a failure..nobody will ever think that way of you..we're your friends. The relief to your misery isn't at the bottom of that bottle of chocolate "
"How will I know, if I don't look?" Liv took another swing of chocolate. Caitlin's hair turned white and Liv was face to face with Frost.
"That's it missy,you either come with me or I tell Cisco about your little crush on him" Frost threatened. Liv snorted
"I don't know what you're talking about Elsa"
"I'm a part of Caitie so I've heard every time you've talked about him"
"Fine. Let's go! I've got nothing else to live for anyway"
At Star labs...
Liv entered the cortex still reeking of depression. Hair hair was now in a messy ponytail and the bags under her eyes were a clear indication of her lack of sleep and endless sobbing. Cisco vibed her and his heart twisted at how sad she was.
"Liv I'm really sorry about what happened but we need you to take a look at this" Iris said and handed her a rope.
"This is Slipknot's" Liv said
"Yup one of his unbreakable bad boys and we need you to synthesize a compound that can you know..break it" Ralph explained.
"I don't think I can. Cait?"
"Bio med..there's only as far as I can go in figuring it out "
"Harry..?"
"That thing has a tensile strength of about two thousand psi..there's no engineering around it"
"Fine, I guess I can synthesize a compound to reverse the polarity of the intermollecular bonds.." she muttered and sulked to her lab.
Cecile came in.
"Hey guys.." Cecile paused and took a breath. She looked in the direction of Liv's lab "she's still upset. I can feel it from here"
Cisco muttered something to himself and left.
The next day....
Liv stormed into the cortex with an angry look on her face.
"Hey..what's up?" Ralph asked
"Are you feeling any better..?" Barry asked
"I was until...where's Francisco!"
"Umm..I think he's in his workshop?" Caitlin muttered knowing fully well what the engineer had done.
"I think I saw him in the speed lab" Iris innocently offered and Caitlin cringed. Liv stormed off.
"He is in soooo much much trouble " Caitlin muttered to herself " I warned him not to do it"
Liv found him hunched over the computers and she shot him a light blast. He dodged it just in time.
"What the hell?!" He asked in shock.
"You little ficticio! What is wrong with you? Of course it had to be you!!"
"What are you..?
" Don't even deny it! I just got a call from Dr McGee and guess what?! Some genius called Mecury labs to try and bribe her with a tachyon enhancer prototype..the very kind Star labs stole from her"
"OK first of all,we didn't steal it, evil Dr Wells did. Second of all,what makes you think I did it?"
"There are only four people in this city or probably this whole stupid earth who can build such tech- Dr McGee herself, Harry, who was on earth-2 visiting Jesse, and the remaining two people are in this room right now"
"OK but why would I bribe Dr McGee to add your robot to the six they chose for the project?"
"How did you know they only chose six? You dimwit!!"
"I don't get why you're so mad, I was only trying to help!"
"Uugghhh" Liv threw another blast " you made me look like a pathetic, incapable looser who can't handle the fact that she didn't make the cut! You made me look like a desperate ten year old! I can't believe you would stoop as low as offering her tech bribe.."
"Again I was just trying to help you looked so miserable when you didn't.."
"This didn't make it any better, did it! I could've lost my job and it would've been all your fault!!"
"I'm sorry..I didn't think..."
"Precisely, you never do you ..." she ranted some colourful spanish insults at him.
The alarms blared...
Barry sped in as she aimed another blast.
"Umm...am I interrupting anything?" Barry asked and Liv powered down. "Anyway Slipknot's back. Were you able to.."
"Yes I was..because contrary to what some people might think, I'm not a pathetic failure.."
"Ummm" Barry wasn't sure he knew what she was referring to.
"It's in my lab, go get it, I'll suit up and meet you there" she shot Cisco a glare "I need some air"
"I'm already going with Ralph"
"I said I'm coming too" she said with finality.
And so...
Liv was down in the speed lab fixing something. Harry came in and stood behind her.
"Back from Earth-2 already?" She asked him
"Yeah, well Jesse doesn't always want to see much of her old man so.." he noticed the charred hard drive she was fixing. "Someone had a tantrum..who were the light blasts aimed for?"
"Cisco" she grunted
"Ah yes, Caitlin told me about what Ramon did. What I don't get is why you are so mad at him"
"Well he took it upon himself to fix my problem..again..I'm so sick of it"
"Look,I know he can be..annoying,believe me I've worked with him. But I also know that he has a big heart,and he would do anything to see his friends happy"
"And I have no qualms with that, it's just..I can't help but think he did it cause he feels sorry for me,like he thought I couldn't handle it..does he think the only way I can get a hit is if he bribes someone?" She twirled the wrench in her hand "I wanted to prove to everyone that I can be a genius too, but I failed..". Harry grabbed a screw driver and joined her
"You don't have to prove anything to anyone ever..especially not to your friends. I mean even Dibny has his moments. And you are not a failure either, I mean it took Edison a thousand tries to invent the light bulb"
"Are you saying I'll have to try a thousand times before I succeed at anything?" She smirked
"You know what I mean Diaz. And thirdly, Ramon thinks alot of things about you, but failure is definitely not one of it, not by a Longshot"
"What do you mean he thinks alot of things about me?"
Harry dropped the screw driver..
"What? ...N..nothing..I gotta go.."
"Go where?"
"Do something in the breach room" he hastily left and Liv shrugged.
That evening...
Cisco knocked on Liv's apartment door.
"It's open" he heard her from inside. He entered and when she saw him she huffed and turned around.
"I'm really sorry princesa..I mean Liv.." he said and she didn't say a word " umm..anyway..It's movie night so I brought some pizza,ice cream and popcorn..but..it's..you know..it's ok if you don't wanna do movie night..". She still didn't say anything. " It's alright, I deserve it..I'll just.." he dropped the food and the table and turned to leave.
"The popcorn" she finally said and he turned around hopefully " is it the milky kind?"
"I know it's your fav but the shops were all out..but do want the milky kind? Cause I will find you the milky kind..I'll breach to.."
"Shut up and come watch a movie with me"
He happily obliged
"So why the sudden change of heart?"
"Well, being mad at you is exhausting, and I talked to someone, who made me realize you were only trying to help and you didn't do it because you thought I was pathetic"
"What? I would never think that. You are brave and you are the smartest person I know"
"You're a good friend Cisco" she nudged his shoulder and pressed play. Cisco twitched at how easily she friend-zoned him. He watched her pour popcorn into her ice cream and he watched her smile and laugh. He would tell her someday, how she made him feel and how he wanted them to be so much more, but she was here with him and that was a win. Friend would have to do for now.

.