Bravery Requires Fear

15. Preparation

A/N: See end of chapter for triggers.

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He woke up with a groan and rolled over to smack the alarm off, not quite being awake enough to remember how important today was going to be. 

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It took Barry twenty minutes to remember that he was supposed to be having breakfast with Elaine before he turned in his resignation at the precinct. That was depressing. He worked for less than a year and had to leave already.

Why the hell was he doing this again?

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Change of plans, Elaine had something she had to drop off at work so they stopped by the precinct first. Barry didn't want to inconvenience her any more than he already had. The captain wanted him to find a suitable replacement but Barry managed to convince her that Elaine would be fine on her own until they could find someone else, it's safe to say that he would never be in her good graces again.

After Elaine was done doing whatever sketchy thing she was doing they took off on her motorbike for the little cafe on the corner. Christina was supposed to meet them there at eight for breakfast. It was going to be the last time the three of them would ever have breakfast there.

The last time ever.

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After watching him pick at his food for five minutes straight Elaine decided to poke fun at him, see if he'd talk about what was on his mind, " Barry you know it's not poisoned right?"

She laughed at how quickly his face turned red, almost the shade of her hair, it was so bad. Elaine sobered up quickly when she realized what he was doing and sighed. Breakfast was supposed to be happy, a last-minute serenade to Barry Allen to show that she cared by remembering his favorite cafe, but Barry drawing it out was just depressing.

She was worried for him, had been worried for a while because of how withdrawn he had become. Elaine worried he was thinking about doing some bad things to himself, she hadn't considered that he might be trying to leave until Mattias mentioned what Barry and his mom were up to. She hadn't thought he was still thinking about it like he was when he first came to her earth, but apparently she was wrong because the very next day she ended up finding some of his drawings and a protype for the machine in his lab.

She just wanted Barry to be happy before he left, she didn't want to see him mope around like a lost puppy but she knew it wasn't up to her.

Elaine glanced up at Barry and folded her arms under her chest, leaning back in her chair.  " You doing okay?", she asked him softly, brows furrowed with concern. Barry's eyes snapped up and he started mumbling some nonsense about being fine.

Elaine leaned over the table and made eye contact with him, " I call bullshit."

Barry's face turned an even darker shade of red, he leaned backward and scoffed, crossing his arms. He rolled his eyes and looked away, " I'm fine, that isn't bullshit."

" Total bullshit."

She had the cockiest grin on her face, god he just wanted to wipe it right off. Barry moved, quick as a bullet, and grabbed her arm to pull them into Flash-Time. Actually, woah, looking around this was completely different than it was on Earth-One. The streaks that always moved around him then were orange and red, they were a purplish color now like his powers were mixing with hers.

Taking advantage of her surprise was going to be fun, he knew that it was sick of him to be this excited to tell her how fucked he was in the brain but Barry couldn't find it in him to care at the time.