Steps

Step 17: Final Frost

"You've got to be kidding me. AGAIN?!?!"

"Hi to you, too." Leah didn't look up from her screen as she heard Cisco storm into her office and begin to shuffle around.

Over the past two months, things had slowly evened back out to normal. Or rather, what had become normal. She got better. Her neck and arm healed in time, and later this afternoon, she would finally be downgraded to an ankle cast. That was the best news of her life at the moment.

Cisco, though, Cisco got worse, it seemed. He was still Cisco, of course, but...somehow, he got worse. More 3 am calls, more nights spent with her, less sleep. He woke up in a panicked frenzy so often, it had genuinely begun to worry her. All she could do in turn was try and calm him down. That alone made her feel awful. She wished there was something more she could do, but as it was, there was nothing.

Cisco always looked so tired now, but maybe that was because she was finally aware of how little he really slept. There'd been a whole week sometime in late March where he called her every night, frantic and confused, practically begging to come over. She'd gotten him a key after that. It was much easier to just let him slip in when he needed rather than making an ordeal out of being woken up by the phone, and then having to half crutch, half trip her way to the door to let him in. It just worked better that way.

Most days now, when she woke up, he was there curled up right next to her. Arm slung over her, head either buried in the crook of her neck or resting lightly against the side of her own head, always on her pillow and never on his. She just...got used to it; the near constant feeling of having someone right next to her. There was no real way around it, she thought. Cisco slept better that way, and Leah knew it, so she put up with it. Simple as that. She would have done the same thing if it were Jamie or Adam. He was right up there with them now, somehow. Somehow, he'd weaseled his way in. Probably, because he was, well, Cisco. Just...Cisco.

"Have you seen this?!" Leah looked up as a phone was pushed in front of her face. So much for finishing this patch by mid-afternoon.

"Shut the door," she said, taking the phone from his hand. She watched Cisco for a bit out of the corner of her eye as he hopped on her desk and settled himself. He seemed oddly peeved today judging by harshness of his actions. The plastic takeout bag in his hands was spared no sympathy as he ripped it open, clearly too fed up to even attempt untying the knot at the top.

"Well?" he asked, tone dryer than normal. A carton of chinese was shoved in front of her, and smell wafting up from it had her mouth watering in seconds. She'd meant to get lunch earlier, but then this patch had been sprung on her, and well...lunch was quickly forgotten.

Leah glanced down at the phone and skimmed over the article. The title gave her all the info she needed, and she let out a small sigh. That explained things; the vigilante was back. "Ok...?"

"Ok? What do you mean ok?" Cisco asked, the sourness in his voice unmistakable. "Who is this guy, and who does he think he's helping?!?"

Somewhere around mid-April, there'd been reports of a new vigilante running around Central City. No one knew his name, or really even what he looked like aside from his signature green cloak. Every time he popped up in the news though, Cisco got ticked. She watched him now, fuming as he fumbling around in the bag for something else. He swore under his breath before tossing her some chopsticks.

"I mean, nobody really hates what he's doing," Leah said, putting the phone down. She popped open the box closest to her and fished out a piece of whatever was in it. "If anything, he's helping the Flash by taking some of the minor cases out. It's mostly been stuff dealing with the rougher parts of town, right?"