Sparks Fly {the flash}

twelve

I watched as Caitlin and Cisco looked over the blueprints that Barry and I had pulled from Hartley's computer. Cisco looked appalled at the plans, but Caitlin was a little harder to read. Her eyes conveyed a type of fear that I had never seen in her before, but her face remained as stoic and unreadable as ever. Barry was biting his thumb as he paced up and down the lab, his mind most likely racing a mile a minute with all of the information he had retained on Hartley. I sat by, watching all of their reactions like an outside force. I had been disturbed by the information, sure, but I hadn't reacted to it the way that all of them had, because I wasn't in their position. I wasn't fully aware of what all this madman could do, but I had a couple of pretty good guesses that a bomb was only a minor show of his skills at leveling a city.

"I can't believe that he's going to build a hydrogen bomb." Cisco stated, sitting back in his chair as his dark eyes stayed trained on the computer screen.

"I can't believe he has the resources to do it." Caitlin concurred.

"That's probably why he robbed the bank." Barry informed them, putting two and two together. "Either he's paying someone to build the bomb for him, or he needed the money to put everything together."

"Where would he even be able to build something like this?" Cisco questioned. "I mean, he would have to find somewhere that was big enough for him to rebuild the particle accelerator, and it would have to be somewhere where he wouldn't get caught coming in and out all the time."

"Maybe it's in the warehouse district or something like that." I proposed. "It's pretty abandoned most of the time, so that would make sense."

Barry nodded. "That would make sense."

"But that doesn't fit Hartley's profile." Caitlin countered. "If he was going to do something like this, he would do it somewhere where it would reach the most people."

"Like somewhere near the heart of the city." Cisco concurred.

"Like near S.T.A.R. Labs." Barry finished, his eyes growing wide. "He would want to be right under our noses the entire time."

"But how would we find him?" Caitlin asked. "He could be anywhere in this city, and anywhere around us."

"I can start a search tonight." Barry said. "If I find anything, I'll report back."

"You could get hurt, Barry."

"It doesn't matter as long as Hartley is stopped." He stopped pacing and looked at his friends, his eyes hard and serious. "He's one of the most dangerous people that we've gone up against, and I will be damned if I let him get the better of us."

"But we don't know what he could do to you." Cisco countered. "He could be anticipating every move you make, ready to blow you away as soon as you walk through the door."

"I'm ready to take that chance." He stated, sending me aback slightly.

Caitlin noticed my shock and shifted on her feet slightly, looking from me to Barry. "Barry, I don't think that we should be making decisions like this tonight. You're tired, and you probably aren't thinking straight."

"I'm fine."

"Barry, go home." She insisted, her voice hard. "Take Izzy home, and then go get some sleep. We'll talk about this in the morning when you're rested and level-headed." He was about to protest when her stare turned even more stern. "Go, Barry."

He hesitated for a moment, most likely contemplating whether or not he was going to argue with her anymore. I'm guessing that he figured that it would be pointless since Caitlin would win, so he conceded. He gave me an apologetic look for the small argument between the two of them, and before I knew it, I was standing outside my apartment door. The hallway was dimly lit by the few overhead lights that were spread out amongst the hall. We were too high up from the streets to have any of the streetlight's glow, and that was one of the downsides of living so high up in a building. I looked up at Barry, and I could see that all he wanted to do was go out and find Hartley as soon as I locked my door behind me. That was the last thing I wanted, because I knew that he would only get himself hurt, and I wasn't sure if I could handle something like that.