Even The Shadows Cry (Flash Fanfiction)

Chapter 4: In The Bar

"UGHHHHHH."

Barry, who had told himself that he would go to the bar with Felicity in an hour, was secretly hoping that he would just sleep the entire night away. Well, nope. Barry had been asleep for 20 blissful minutes, before his inner demons flashed memories behind closed doors. Barry lied on on the bed, trying - and failing - for 10 minutes to see if he could just fall back asleep. Of curse his universal luck left him high and dry.

Barry leaned up on his elbows and fished his phone out of the front pocket of his jeans. He squinted for a moment at the screen, when the light blinded him. He blinked a few times, before checking the time, and then groaning and flopping onto the bed again. "Mmmmm! It's only 7:11!"

'I guess, I could just go now. There isn't much for me to do in my room. Wait- I could watch T.V. No, nothing good is probably going to be on. Shoot. I guess I'll go. And hold up, Felicity said she wanted me to go. She never said how long I had to stay!' Barry quickly sat up on the bed, it doing a little bounce. "I'll go now, look around for thirty minutes, and then I'll come back!"

He stood up and using his speed, he quickly changed his clothes, combed his hair, and splashed water onto his face. Before walking out, Barry grabbed a jacket from his bag and the room keys. He stepped out of his hotel room, put on his jacket; zipping it all the way up, but not wearing the hood, and stuffed his room key into the pocket. He grabbed the handle of the door, and tried to turn the knob checking that it was definitely locked.

After he was sure, he headed toward the elevator.

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"I love karaoke!"

HR turned to Caitlyn so fast, that he didn't realize that he had spilt half of the contents of the cup in his hands on his shirt. "Oh my go- Me too! Let's go - come on- come on!"

Felicity, Oliver, and Cisco watched in amusement as HR, who set his cup haphazardly on the edge of their table, and Caitlyn linked arms, and practically skipped to the table where people were signing up for a chance to sing.

Felicity simply gushed, while Oliver said "Haha. I didn't know Caitlyn was a singer." Cisco took a little sip of his drink before mentioning, "Neither did I."

Oliver had already arrived, saving a table, when Felicity and Team Flash had arrived. Oliver, of course, was immediately aware that Barry was not amongst them. He hadn't asked anyone about it, but seeing Cisco slightly tense and cold, he realized that throughout his sort of 'debriefing' earlier, Cisco and Barry were clearly avoiding each other. And Caitlyn and HR seemed to know as well, but weren't doing anything, except they seemed fine with speaking to the speedster.

"Cisco join us!"

"Yeah! San Fransisco!"

Oliver gave another chuckle at seeing the normally mature doctor and HR screaming their friend's name across the bar. Oliver looked beside him when Cisco made a move to stand up, after setting down his cup. "Hold up, I'm coming." he yelled back at them. His voice clearly showed the mild distaste Cisco had with singing, but Caitlyn was busy clapping happily and HR cheering loudly.

The moment Cisco was gone from earshot, Oliver turned to Felicity, who was already staring at him. "I know what your thinking. Where's Barry?"

"Yes."

Felicity sighed, "Barry's coming in 30-ish more minutes, but originally he wasn't going to come. He feels guilty." Oliver furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean he feels guilty?" Felicity looked immediately apologetic. "I don't know if I can tell you, but it has to do with-" "Cisco." Oliver interrupted, but Felicity added a second after, "And Caitlyn."

"Caitlyn?"

"Yeah, it's all about Flashpoint." Felicity paused.

"Flashp- What's Flashpoint?"

Her eyes widened. "Shoot. I wasn't supposed to tell you. Barry was going to do it himself, but seeing how the others reacted, he was probably going to wait. Oh my gosh- oops."

But Oliver didn't hear her last sentence, because he suddenly felt a presence behind him. He turned around ready to 'fight', but standing there was only HR. "Hey guys! We signed our names- well Caitlyn and I did. -" He pointed his hand over his shoulder, waving to somewhere behind him. " - She's still back there trying to convince Fransisco to join us. I don't suppose you guys would like to join as well, ehhh?"

When Oliver and Felicity didn't say anything, HR sighed and grabbed a vacant chair from the table behind him, pushing himself in between Felicity and Oliver. He gave little sigh, but his voice was still mirthful. "Talking about Barry and Flashpoint?"" HR grabbed reached over Felicity, grabbed his drink, taking a little sip. "Yeah, that turned out to be a mess didn't it?"

Felicity gawked at him, (Oliver was still confused as heck) and HR immediately back tracked. "No- wait- that's not what I meant. I mean, the team, we're all broken. After Barry told everyone, we've all been pushing ourselves away. No wait, that's a lie. Hold on." Oliver and Felicity watched as HR took another sip of his drink. "AS much as I want to hate to say it, Cisco has ben pushing Barry away the most. I didn't really have anything to say, as I wasn't even apart o this Earth, but even Caitlyn - as Killer Frost of course - "

"Killer who?!"

Felcity ignored Oliver, and HR kept talking. "-did 'blow' up on Barry so to speak, but they've gotten past it. Yeah they're awkward, but it's a better relationship between them, than Fransisco and Barry. Worst part is, though, that Barry has stopped defending himself. Barry continues to take the verbal punches. And I can tell that he's losing his footing. It won't be long till he falls down."

"Barry." Felicity whispered.

While Oliver stared at HR. "I'm going to need a better dang explanation than this. What's Flashpoint? Who's Killer Fro- I mean Caitlyn?! What happened between Cisco and Barry? And what the heck do you mean by Barry's going to fall do-"

"OOhhhhh!"

All three of them at the table stopped and noticed their surroundings when half of the people inside had called out. Behind them, where the karaoke sign-up table was supposed to be, a crowd of people were circled around, blocking their view. All of a sudden, the bell, that shows someone had exited the bar, rang, and it was clear to hear, because the entire place had gotten quiet. And then from the center of the crowd, came a shocked Caitlyn dragging a slightly red faced Cisco behind her, to their table.

All three of them stood up and met the other two in the middle. By now everyone else in the bar were talking, maybe even louder than what it was before. No doubt gossiping about what happened. If only Oliver knew what had happened.

None of them were able to ask what happened before Caitlyn blurted out, "Barry just left."