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"it's all my fault"
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--𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐀 perfectly normal day for Paisley. If anything, it was unusually perfect. The sun was shining brighter than ever, her coffee was perfectly warm, and she only had one case to look at: an incident at an inactive radioactive site.
"Please stay safe."
"Har, I'll be fine." Paisley laughed as she pressed her phone to her ear by her shoulder.
From the other end of the phone, Harry couldn't help but worry for Paisley. "You're going to a radioactive site," he deadpanned. "What part of that is 'fine'?"
"The fact that it's my job. It'll be Detective West-Allen and I, so we'll basically be in and out."
"I-,"
"I'll bring you and Jesse Big Belly Burger once I'm done," she interrupted before he could go on. "Number 2 and an XL soda right?"
"Paisley!"
"Byeee!"
She hung up quickly and shoved her phone in her pocket, a smile on her face as she approached her partner, Iris.
"Good morning Holloway," she greeted. "I assume that was Harrison?"
"Over protective as always." Despite the slight annoyance, Paisley couldn't help but smile at it. She knew it was all in good faith: an overprotective father being an overprotective father.
"Where are we," Paisley finally asked, scanning the area around them.
They stood in the center of what used to be a large forest, now cleared out and closed off to the public. It was all empty save for a dark cave leading into the underground.
"Man-made tunnel," Iris answered. "It was made ages ago to store radioactive waste until it was safe to decompose. However records say it's been inactive for years now. I guess the city forgot about it."
"At least until now."
"Yup. Apparently some workers working in this area saw someone sneaking in and out of here. We're just here to see if anything was tampered with or stolen."
"Simple enough," Paisley sighed, hands on her waist. "Let's check it out shall we?"
The girls made their way into the cave, flashlights illuminating their path. It took a while, but eventually they were met with a wall of metal barrels with a hazard label.
"1965," Iris read. "So focused on the future, no can even imagine that."
"Detective, look at this."
Paisley shone her light on a small section of the barrels where they were gone; just big enough for someone to squeeze through.
Without thought, Paisley slid past them, sliding into the space to find the end of the cave, all surrounded and littered in newer looking containers.
"What do you see," Iris asked.
"More waste, definitely not from '65."
"Definitely not safe," she commented. "Come on back Detective."
"Let me just get a picture."
She began to reach for her phone, ready to snap a picture, but stopped. The ground rumbled, moving under her own feet.
"West-Allen!"
Before Paisley could make it for cover, a sudden wave moved from the back of the cave right at her. She flew back into the containers, hitting her head. Before she knew it, her world went dark.
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two months later
--𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 the first thing Paisley saw. She winced immediately, bringing her hand over her eyes, but she was quickly stopped when she realized the glass keeping her contained.
"Where am I," she asked to nothing.
Panic came to her first, her heartbeat racing and her breath quickening impossibly. Then came the pain. It felt as if she was being torn apart and put back together all over again like a failed Dr. Frankenstein monster.
The pain seared through her mind as she tried to gather herself, only making it worse. Then, the glass doors open, allowing her to fall through.
She was immediately caught by someone's arms: Harry's. "Paisley, listen to me."
She tried and tried and tired, but it was fruitless, the pain was too powerful. All she could do was grab onto the man who held her up.
Until she couldn't.
She felt the floor quickly beneath her, phasing right through the man as multiple faint phantoms over her reacted in the same way she did: terror and fear.
They moved in and out of her, numerous copies of her tearing their way in and out of her physical form as they tried to grab onto reality.
"What's happening to me?!" It came out as a desperate cry as Jesse and Harry could do nothing but watch.
Harry was quick to crouch down next to her struggling body, doing his best to mask his pure fear for the woman he considered a second daughter.
"Paisley listen to me. We've stabilized your biological state. Everything that is happening to you is purely emotional. You. Must. Control it. Only you are in charge. Only you can stop it. I know it hurts, but I believe in you. Jesse and I are right here."
Paisley didn't know how long she sat there, struggling to bring herself back into one, but she did.
She looked up at Harry weakly. "What happened."
The man looked at her with so many emotions. Fear, desperation, worry. Guilt.
