Almost - A Flash and Arrow crossover

Chapter 8

Hi, um, Joe."

"Hey Cisco, how's it going?"

Cisco gave an angry glare at the people surrounding him. The phone was on speaker so everyone could hear. None of them had been wanting to phone the detective, knowing how protective he was of Barry. After they had crossed out Diggle - the man had never met the detective - and Felicity had pointed out she wasn't exactly on a first name basis with Joe, it was down to Caitlin and Cisco. Caitlin had brought over the phone and dialed the number, then put it on speaker. Everyone waited patiently until a rustling was heard over the line and without a seconds hesitation, Caitlin thrust the phone into Cisco's hand and smiled evilly. Diggle and Felicity seemed quite amused as well as Cisco fumbled for words.

"Good, good, everything is goooooo-"

"Cisco, what is it?"

The man was a detective. How Cisco thought he could draw out the talk, he didn't know.

"Well, you see, Team Arrow are down at the mo-"

"Oliver Queen?"

"Yeah ... yeah, well ..."

"I'm coming over now."

"Wait, what? No, Joe! Hey, hang on a sec-"

The line went blank.

"Right ... " Cisco lowered the phone and looked up at the others with the face of a cornered puppy. "That went well ..."

Felicity laughed lightly and headed over the sit between the two beds.

"Who's gonna meet him?" Asked Diggle. "He can't just walk in and see the two of them like this, let alone if they wake up and not know who the hell he is all of a sudden."

Cisco and Caitlin exchanged looks.

"Don't look at me!" Caitlin said, "I'm not explaining!" And with that she walked off the join Felicity.

Diggle looked at Cisco's shocked face. Smirking at the comedic expression he wore, he walked forward and clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"Sorry man, you can't win against the wonder women up there."

Chuckling, he walked off, leaving the scientist to continue to stare at the place Caitlin previously stood.

XXXX

Joe pulled up to the front of S.T.A.R Labs and walked to the lift. Pressing the button, he tapped his foot impatiently as the elevator rose. With a ding, the doors parted, revealing a pacing Cisco. When he saw Joe, he smiled nervously and waited for the detective to step out of the lift before speaking.

"Joe! Hey, how's it going?"

"What's going on Cisco?" Joe asked, he was not in the mood to be messed around. When the Arrow was in town, nothing good ever happened. Especially if Barry was involved.

"Well, it's a long story-"

"What's a long story?" Joe looked harshly at the young scientist. He didn't mean to come across this stern, but his concern for his adopted son was growing by the second.

"Right, well, you see, earlier this evening, Team Arrow kinda came and paid us a visit. There were a group of back-street dealers trying to sell Vertigo on the outskirts of the city. Turns out it was a Meta, but he was pretty feeble. Could persuade people or something, hence the buying drugs business. Not as awesome as the others."

Joe raised his eyebrows. It was rare for Vertigo to be in Central City. Starling he could understand, but Central?

"Anyway," Cisco continued, " They called us for a little assistance. Barry and Oliver went and sorted the problem out while Felicity and Diggle-"

"Who's Diggle?" Interrupted Joe, his voice was wary and questioning.

"Oh," Realisation dawned on Cisco's face. "he's with Oliver. Ex-ARGUS agent. Pretty cool dude actually. He once-"

"Cisco."

"So yeah, Barry and Oliver came back and disappeared off to the treadmill when we got an alert of a bank being robbed."

Joe nodded. The station had got the call earlier that night and sent a unit out to clean the place up.

"With Felicity's help, we managed to get footage of one of the security camera's and turns out it's another Meta." Cisco paused for an almost dramatic effect.

"Two Meta's in one night?" Asked Joe.

"Yep. That's what we were thinking. But around 15 minutes after we saw the footage, another alert came in from a jewelers. Just a couple of blocks away from the bank. Couldn't say the dude wasn't eager.

"Oliver and Barry got suited up and went to the scene. Barry got everyone out and the man eventually came out from where he was hiding. However ... somethinghappenedandhegotaway."

Cisco said the last part too quickly for Joe to decipher.

"What?"

"Something went a little ... wrong."

The detective didn't like the sound of that. His voice became low and slower. His eyes looked down on Cisco with a serious glare.

"Cisco ... What went wrong?"

The young man began to wring his fingers together and his eyes suddenly became fascinated with his feet.

"Well," His voice was a mumble, not wanting to cause Joe to explode. "The Meta, kind of, used his powers on them."

Joe was silent.

"He can make people lose their memories."

Silence.

"And he got a hold of Barry ... and the Oliver ... and now ..."

Cisco stopped speaking and didn't look up.

Silence.

Painful silence.

Carefully, Cisco raised his head and looked at the man in front of him. Joe was staring at him with a blank face.

"Joe?"

"So he can't remember a thing?" Joe asked. He was calmer than Cisco had expected.

"No. Neither can Oliver." he replied. "And he had a bit of an accident. Oliver was trying to get him to calm down when they were in the jewelers but he sort of fell and hit his head pretty hard. He's OK though, just has a concussion."

"That's the cherry on the cake then." Joe said. Cisco sighed in relief. The detective hadn't erupted after all. "Can I see him?"

"'Course." Cisco waved a hand for Joe to follow him and led him to the cortex. As he entered, he looked at Caitlin and imitated wiping his brow. She smiled and looked back at Barry's head, removing the bandage to reveal a long cut where there was once a deep gash. Both men were still in their uniforms with their masks pulled down.

Joe walked in a second later. Felicity and Caitlin looked up and backed away from Barry to busy themselves with checking Oliver over. Joe walked up to the speedster and seemed to stare at the boy for a long time before looking over at Caitlin.

"How're they doing?" He said, snapping a glance down at Oliver as well.

"They're OK. Oliver's sedated at the moment, but Barry lost consciousness again once we got him here. He should be alright. Luckily, his healing has kicked in. He'll just be a little dizzy for the next few days ... and confused."

She looked away and helped Felicity take off Oliver's jacket. Joe sat down in the chair beside Barry's bed and placed his head in his hands. Man, this was a new experience for him.

Diggle came in and shook hands with the detective, introducing himself. Joe offered the same courtesy and they talked while Caitlin and Felicity changed the men into casual clean clothes. Once they were done, Cisco brought through a second round of coffee for everyone and everything and everyone seemed to relax for a bit.

Then Oliver began to rouse.