Steps

Side Step: Intoxicated (Cisco POV)

No. Fraking. Way.

Cisco stared at the now shattered glass pane lying on the floor. How had that even happened? One minute he'd been working on his latest toy, trying to keep any thought of the past few (God-awful) months at bay, and the next minute the panel across the room had just.... shattered. For no obvious reason.

He got up from his chair and slowly walked over to the panel, making sure to avoid any glass shards on the floor. There weren't any stray arrows lying around, which kinda bummed his out. There went that idea. But what exactly had just happened to shatter the glass? It had to be something, right? Had it been a sonic device or something like that, he would have heard it. So what happened?

Cisco glanced around the lab, looking for anything that could have just made the glass explode. Nothing. No sign of anything. So, it had just randomly exploded then. Ok. Not the weirdest thing to happen today. He walked to the corner and grabbed the broom that he kept there for things like this. Caitlin suddenly ran into his lab.

"Cisco! Are you ok? I heard a crash..." She glanced at the glass covering the floor. "What happened?"

"I'm fine, Cait. This.... Just exploded...." He started to sweep up some of the glass.

"It just... exploded?" Caitlin crossed her arms and stared him down.

"I don't know, Cait. Maybe the Particle Accelerator was settling again, I don't know. One minute I was over there," Cisco pointed to his workbench," and then the next, this thing just... shattered. No idea what did it; it just happened." He finished sweeping and dumped the glass in a nearby bin.

Caitlin walked over him. "That's really weird."

"You're telling me."

"Yea..." She rubbed her temples, the dark circles under her eyes more pronounced than ever. Things had been rough on Caitlin since Wells... Eobard... had disappeared. It had been rough on everyone really. Just keeping the lights on at S.T.A.R. Labs was hard enough, but cleaning up after the whole singularity mess, that was even harder. Everyone was exhausted from the whole ordeal. And now that the black hole had been pinned on S.T.A.R. Labs, things were only getting worse. Rebuilding the broken lab's reputation while more negative press was coming in was almost proving to be too much. Thank God Ray was offering private funding. Speaking of Ray....

"Did Ray email you back yet?"

"About the components for the A.T.O.M. Suit?"

"Yea." Cisco idly brushed some hair from his face before walking back over to his workstation.

"No. Why?"

"He was supposed to be sending me another component this week. I just haven't heard if it was in yet or not."

"Your Palmer Tech source hasn't contacted you yet?"

Cisco glanced at his phone and sighed. "No, not yet." Still no text from Lee today.

"Well, why don't you just go over and check if it's there? You have a badge, right?"

"Well, yea."

"Just go check, Cisco." She started to head back out to the hallway. "Ronnie and I are going out tonight. Will you be here?"

"Not sure."

"Well, let me know if anything comes up." Caitlin disappeared behind the doorframe.

"Ok." Cisco plopped down in his chair and gave it a good spin with his foot. He needed to clear his mind. He pushed his hair back as he spun. To get the component today or not. And what about Lee? Why hadn't she texted him back today? Should he go and see if she was there? If not, he could still get the component, like Caitlin said. He tried to weigh his options.