Destiny

Thirty

As they all walked into the cortex, Barry showed them around, "This is Star Labs." Noticing this was now the first time they were seeing the suit he then quickly and casually said, "Oh yeah, by the way, I'm the Flash."

Caitlin looked at him with a scolding look, which Barry then responded by mouthing "I don't know."

"Kinda obvious, I mean, a speedster from Central City," Charlie said looking around. 

"We're not idiots," Thomas scoffed. 

"Hey guys-" Cisco said walking in, "wait who are these people?"

"Oh, Cisco. This is my Uncle and my brother," Caitlin introduced them.

"Wait a minute..." Cisco said confused, "I knew about the Uncle, but brother?"

"It's a long story. I'm Charlie by the way," he introduced himself. 

"Hi, Cisco Ramon, the baby's godfather," Cisco said sternly, making sure he didn't get his title given away. 

"Don't worry Cisco, you will always be the baby's Godfather," Barry assured him. 

"Okay, Nice to meet you then," Cisco smiled, "I'm assuming the grumpy looking man over there is the famous Uncle Thomas." 

The man nodded in response, continuing observing the lab. 

"I'm going to head to work, I'll be back soon," Barry said kissing Caitlin before heading out. 

"I'll be in my lab," Caitlin said, Thomas then following her, leaving Cisco to berate Charlie with questions about his powers and what little Caitlin was like. 

Thomas sat silently as Caitlin worked, but she couldn't help feel the change. Usually, around her uncle, she was happy and jumping with joy when she was a kid. Now she couldn't help feeling a sense of darkness surrounding him. The discussion they had last night was still on her mind. She couldn't believe that he would suggest something like that, it was so out of character for the man she knew. Then again he wasn't.

"You okay Uncle Charlie?" Caitlin asked breaking the silence. 

"What do you mean?" he replied. 

"You're just acting differently," she sighed, "I feel like getting all the lies out of the way would've made things, I don't know, better." 

He didn't reply. Caitlin just continued working. Before it was time for lunch Caitlin tried to initiate another conversation. 

"Barry and I were planning to go house hunting soon and since you and Charlie are living with we thought could come with us too-" she started before he cut in. 

"Caity, I can't stay," he said causing her to stop what she was doing. 

"What, why?" she asked. "I thought we already had all of this handled. You and Charlie-" he cut her off again.

"Charlie is going to stay, I think he'd want to anyways," he said, "but you were right. The reason things aren't better is because of something I've still been hiding." 

He paused hesitating to go on. What worse could it be than lying to her about her father? Caitlin thought. 

"Last night when I lashed out," he started, "with all the lives you, Charlie, and your child, and going to see come and go, and the struggles your father with that..." he paused again. "Caity, your father and I were incredibly close, although not by blood, brothers. He was tired of losing people, I saw his-his, pain, his agony from the years he's lived. Caity," he sighed, "this isn't my first time living." 

"What do you mean?" she returned his first question. 

"Your father had connections with the League of Assasins. I'm not actually in my late 60s, with my horrible family genetics it is common for us to die in our early 50s. I met your father when I was twenty in 1948, and I died in 1979 from high blood pressure at 51. He couldn't handle losing another person, and I was also the only person who knew. He revived me and I've been alive and well at ninety years looking like a 60-year-old."

"So. why do you have to leave?" Caitlin asked.

"The more history you have Cait, the more troubles you have. When your father and I spent time in Gotham, I fell in love with a woman, well not really I was manipulated. She had powers and we had a son. I was a different man back then, and I hate who I was. He and his mother were one of the experiments in the lab we worked at. They told me I had to experiment on them, and I listened. He grew to resent me, he hated me and his mother for the burden we had given him. One day he tried to escape, and the guards shot him, killing him. I've lived with this burden ever since that day. Last night, that was just me getting back bad memories from this incident." 

"Gosh, Uncle Thomas I'm so sorry," Caitlin said hugging her Uncle. He smiled in her embrace. "But I still don't see why you have to leave."

"My time is coming to an end, Caity. The effects of the Lazarus Pit are wearing off," he sighed. 

"Then we can help you here," Caitlin suggested. 

"No, it's been long enough," Thomas said, "it's my time. And since I've been living such a long life of mischief, maybe some time to think about my past and everything I've done might help me pass less struggled. I think I'll do that best on my own." 

Caitlin nodded somewhat understanding. Just getting him back she hated seeing her Uncle leave again, but she now had Charlie. 

"I know you and Charlie will get along well, you both have your father's obligation to family and his stubbornness. Also when you mention all of this to your mother, don't mention me too much," he joked. 

Caitlin laughed lightly. "Does Charlie know?" 

"He knew it was coming one day," he replied, "It might be tough for him, but having his sister around will help." 

Caitlin smiled, being assured she still had some family close to her. 

After having one last moment with her uncle before he went off, Charlie and Cisco came in. 

"Hey, do you guys want to come?" Charlie asked, "I'm gonna show Cisco some extreme snowboarding." 

"Wait, but it's the middle of August," Caitlin said. 

"Exactly," Charlie replied. 

"Ooh, I like your brother Caitlin," Cisco replied. 

______________________________________

Author message:

I've got to be honest and say that I've just been winging it, writing and figuring out an interesting storyline as I go. How interesting the plot is and how it develops the characters is something I feel the most important to a good story, and recently I've been hitting walls and falling into plot holes since I've just been winging it. Which is why I haven't been updating super quickly like I've promised to before. I know, I'm sorry. But I'm an annoying perfectionist who also has random surges of spontaneity, so I've been doing research and making sure every comic fact or science term is correct. Updates might not happen as often anymore, but I am also working on other stories so stay tuned. But thank you for all the support so far and for reading, be sure to vote.