Episode 35 - Flash Fanfiction - Game On!

Chapter 5

"Whoa..." Cisco stammered.

"Yeah... that was unexpected." Barry agreed.

"I get that this guy is supposed to be the enemy... but, he's pretty kickass!" Cisco said.

"I don't think that he's the enemy, Cisco... Everything he just said has some sort of meaning to it." Barry replied. "he just gave us more clues and left."

"More clues?" Caitlin wondered. "Or more setbacks?"

"Harry, you were right when you said he has the traits of all of us..." Astrid said, "We must have been his heroes, his role models. We've clearly failed him somehow... He told Barry that Iris was fine. He didn't want to hurt her. Cisco is another name for..."

"...For Paco." Cisco replied.

"Yeah... and he ships Caitlin and Barry... that has to have some meaning for the future... and Harry... clearly, he knows you too well, too. There are no coincidences to any of this... and that damn Star Wars reference... He seems to be the product of us all..." Astrid explained.

"But what about what he said to you, Astrid. You taught him everything he knew. That could be the way to figure out why he's here." Barry replied.

"I think what Caitlin said earlier might have been correct." Cisco said, "Maybe, he is our son..."

Astrid shook her head sadly, "So, why has he come back? And why is he toying with us? Don't tell me we raised a psychopath!"

"No, I don't think either of you would ever allow for that to happen," Barry replied, as he placed his hand on Astrid's shoulder to comfort her. "I'm going to go with the theory that we have failed him somehow... whatever it is, we need to fix it, but first, we need to find him."

"This is all part of his game!" Harry said, speaking up for the first time in a while. "when he came to me earlier, he said that I'd figure it out... He knows that we will want to lure him out and change things..."

"He came to you earlier?" Cisco asked, but he let it slide. "So... what are you saying that we do?"

"I'm saying, Ramon, that we don't give him the attention that he wants. We wait him out and watch if he slips up." Harry said.

"But... What if that's what he's expecting us to do? Take your advice and wait him out?" Cisco asked.

"Astrid... you taught him everything he knows..." Caitlin said," What do you think we should do?"

"We work as a team. We do both. We get his attention, but we don't go in on the offense."

"What do you mean?" Barry asked her.

"Well, we still don't know what his agenda is... he could be simply trying to get us prepared for something that is yet to come... In fact, we're probably the ones who sent him here. It's about considering how we think in the future." Astrid said.

"What happens to us in the future? do we become assholes or something?" Cisco asked.

"I was wondering how long it would take for you to give a reference like that, Cisco," Astrid said staring at him.

"You have to admit, you kinda set me up for that one," Cisco replied.

"Even so, we all know that traveling back through time is risky. Why would we send your kid?" Barry asked he felt weird saying the words 'your kid' as soon as they had come from his mouth.

"Maybe things are different in the future. Maybe that's why he is playing us this way... I don't know... but that's the most that I can come up with. Unless any of you have a better idea?" Astrid replied.

"I'm with you, Astrid," Barry replied.

"Always," Caitlin added. Cisco nodded in agreement, while DR Wells left for his office to form with his own plan, in case Astrid's was set to fail.

As Astrid and Cisco worked on a plan to bring the man back out of hiding, Caitlin and Barry spoke in Caitlin's medical bay. "Do you really think it could be their kid?" Caitlin asked him.

"I'm not sure. But you have to admit, the likeness is pretty uncanny." Barry answered.

"It's scary, thinking about the next generation... and about kids." Caitlin said, but Barry could tell that there was something else on her mind.

"I'm getting the feeling that this is less about them having a kid who's come back from the future and more about something that's going on with you, Caitlin." Barry took her hand as he spoke.

"It is. I don't mean to bring down the moment, but do you remember when I manufactured the vaccine for Harry's speed serum?"

"Yeah... Frost's cells counteracted the speed-cells, stopping the process. Why? What does this have to do with anything?"

"Barry, you're a scientist... deep down you know what it means."

"Didn't Cisco say something about if we ever had kids they wouldn't be speedsters?"

"Yeah... but there's a little more to it than that... I think that you should know." She looked away as she continued speaking to him, "...While Frost's cells inhibit my body, there's a chance that you and I will never..."

"...will never be able to have children," Barry said, finishing her sentence and understanding her saddened demeanor.

Caitlin nodded, "I just thought that you should know. But, I can see you with children, Barry. You would make an amazing father. So, if that's a deal breaker..."

Barry smiled at her reassuringly and held her tight. He kissed her on the forehead, "No, Caitlin, it's not a deal breaker, I love you and nothing will ever change that... I just want you to know."

Caitlin held him tightly, wishing and praying that he was right. But as happy as he made her, she felt that just like Romeo and Juliet, they were doomed from the start.

"Hey, you guys!" Cisco called out to them excitedly.

"Yeah?" Barry asked as he and Caitlin joined him and Astrid at the work desk.

"Well, my lovely fiancé here..." Cisco said, "...seriously, I love using that word... well, she came up with a brilliant idea."

Astrid who was sitting on top of the work desk beside him, took the reign of the conversation, "Do you guys remember when I was kidnapped with Grodd and I was able to send images into Cisco's head causing him to receive a vibe of where I was?" she asked Barry and Caitlin.

"You're proposing we do the same thing with this guy..." Barry said.

"Exactly... maybe we could send him a message, to provoke him to lure him out..."

"But what if he hurts somebody?" Caitlin asked.

"I would like to believe that any child of mine would not intentionally cause harm to anyone..."

"He didn't hurt Iris when he could have..." Cisco said, "Let's take that as a test of faith... that this guy isn't the Kylo Ren of our family."

Astrid tried to hold back a laugh as she continued on with her plan. "This message, it has to be powerful as this guy is very mentally strong... Strong enough to keep me out of his head. It's going to take a lot of mental energy. If we manage to lure him out, we're going to need to cuff him immediately afterward... Barry, that's where you come in... then we can try and reason with him."

"Cuff him, Leia?" Cisco asked, "...and this is going to be the mother of my children... well, is the mother of my child?... Damn, this is confusing as hell!"

Caitlin and Barry gave them a polite smile. They decided to keep the conversation that they had just had between themselves. Their friends seemed too excited about the aspect of having kids to lay their news on them now.