Within Seconds: Sylas & Allen

Pity Cleaning

The entirety of Parker's day was spent exploring the busy streets of Star City. Eventually, following road signs, she reached Palmer Tech.

She managed to speak past the receptionist and into the Arrow Cave. It was empty, deserted. It looked as though nobody had been down there in several weeks.

"Excuse me," asked Parker, once she was on the ground floor of Palmer Tech again. "Has Felicity Smoak been in lately?"

A nervous inhale came from the receptionist. "She hasn't been in for weeks. I could take a message for her, if you'd like."

"That's all right," muttered Parker. "Thanks for your time."

Judging by the clues --an empty Cave, an uncomfortable receptionist-- something was clearly wrong with Felicity. It left Parker with one option: intrude on their house.

Four knocks on the door of their apartment; she continued to face the wood. Desperate, she hopped, hand tapping across the doorframe for a key. It toppled over the edge. She opened the door.

"Fel," she called up the stairs. "Ollie! I'm giving you five minutes to put your clothes back on before I barge up there and interrogate the shit out of you!"

Silence greeted her. Parker searched the house, only to find it empty, and untouched, as the Cave had been. She tossed her coat on the couch. She began to clean up the house, figuring if things were as bad as they seemed to be, the couple could use some aid to run things smoothly again.

Rubber gloves on, scrubbing at the moldy plates, she lost track of how many times she gagged. Less than halfway through, Parker's phone buzzed wildly on the kitchen island. The dishes flattered as she dropped them and dove for her phone. She answered the Skype call.

"I miss you," said Barry after he stole the phone. Cisco's sigh was heard.

"I've been gone for, like, an hour," said Parker.

"Six hours," corrected Barry hastily. "And I've missed you for every one of them."

Parker flashed a smile. "Nice to know. What did you call for?"

"Cisco's Meta App helped us catch a new one," said Caitlin.

"What does he do?" asked Parker.

"Suffocates people in tar," called Cisco.

"Intense."

"Baby, do you want to see the screen?" muttered Barry.

"No, staring at your face will help us solve this case," said Parker sarcastically.

Barry, deciding to be a smart ass, didn't flip the camera. She set propped up her phone against a paper towel dispenser, then resumed cleaning of the kitchen, purposely ignoring the dishes.

"Tar Pit was after one Clay Stanley. Stanley, who, as it turns out, is a suspected hit man that the CCPD has been trying to track for a while, but they haven't been able to make anything stick," summarized Cisco. He giggled. "No pun intended."

"Do we know why Stanley was targeted?" asked Parker.

Barry shook his head. "He wouldn't answer any of my questions. He was pretty scared."

"When a hit man is scared, you know something is wrong," said Cisco.

"You get an ID on our meta?" asked Caitlin.

"Yes, I'm running it through four different facial recognition scans. Give it a second," said Cisco.

Barry's eyes squinted through the camera. "Park Elizabeth, are you cleaning?"