Laura Wilson used to have a normal life. She worked in the Central City Police Department as a CSI, along with one of her best friends, Barry Allen. She was smart, beautiful, loved her job. Other then some sexual harassment from one of the police of...
I woke up to the shrill and annoying sound of my alarm clock. I groaned, reaching over and turning it off. I had an arm wrapped around my waist, keeping me from getting out of bed...also keeping me from wanting to. I lightly tapped Ralph's arm, but instead of moving it, he pulled me back so that my back was pressed against his chest.
"Ralph, I have to get up. I have work."
"You don't have to. You could just stay here." He said, his voice deep from sleep. I felt his mouth on the side of my neck.
"Ralph...I can't. I have things like bills and taxes that I have to worry about."
"You want to change that? I know a guy." I turned over, looking at him.
"You're kidding, right? Because as an employee of the CCPD, I'm kind of obligated to report you for tax evasion."
"I'm kind of disappointed that you have to ask if I'm kidding." He said, opening his eyes. He smiled. "Hello, beautiful."
"You're disgusting." I laughed, pushing his arm off of me and sitting up. I stood up, going to my closet when Ralph's hand grabbed my arm in an attempt to pull me back into bed. I turned around to see that he was still laying in bed, and his arm was stretched across the room. "Wow. Using your powers for your own personal gain. That's despicable, Dibny."
"Yeah, don't pretend like you haven't done the same thing. I know for a fact you're at least two inches too short to reach the top shelf of your cabinets. You mean to tell me you don't fly to get to the Tupperware?"
"I don't need to. I have a gigantic boyfriend that can reach them for me." I shook my arm out of his grasp and opened the closet. It was now split between my dresses, and Ralph's suits and dress shirts. "You should get up too. Get to work?"
"Yes, but see the beauty of being your own boss, is that I can go into work whenever I want." He said, leaning his head on his elbow.
"But see, now that's just rude." He smiled and I turned back to the closet, rooting through my dresses. I could feel him come up behind me and put a hand on my waist. He pressed his mouth against my shoulder.
"You should wear that one." He said, pointing to a grey collared dress. "Grey looks good on you."
"Ok, since we're giving fashion advice, I think you should wear..." I pulled out a dark shirt with kind of a stripy pattern on it. "This one."
"Yes Ma'am." He kissed my jaw, taking the shirt, along with a black suit and laying it on the bed. "And since you insist on me going to work, I guess I should go take a shower."
"You do that." He left and I smiled. Ralph had moved in, and things were great. I did have to say no to a lot of his decoration suggestions, such as his many neon beer signs and the futon that once acted as his bed, but most everything else came to my place. And it was amazing.
~~~Ralph~~~
As I walked down the sidewalk towards my building, I whistled a happy tune that accurately represented my mood lately. My life had really turned around since Barry, Joe, and Laura walked into my office that first day. I had friends, that have helped me become a better person. I have a beautiful girlfriend whose smart, and kind, and knows how to take care of herself, and now I get to wake up to her every day? Life is good. It'll be better once we get Allen out of prison, but until that happens, I guess I'll just have to make due with what I've got.
I reached my hallway, pausing as a few familiar smells filled my nose.
"Dakar Noir," I said to myself, "Onions...and liverwurst?" My nose twitched as I realized just who those smells belonged to. "Oh, no." I opened my door and there he was, asleep on the couch. His shirt was untucked and he had a bottle of alcohol in his hand. "Earl Cox. Earl!" He didn't move. I sighed, before whispering, "It's the cops."
"It wasn't me!" He shouted in his Scottish accent, jerking upright. "I'll fight every one of you, hi-ya! Hi-ya!" He started kicking the air and I raised my eyebrows. He turned around, seeing me. "Oh. Hello Ralphie."
"How'd you get in here, Earl?" I asked.
"Door was unlocked."
"No it wasn't. " I shook my head.
"Was after I picked it." He let out an obnoxious laugh, punching my stomach. "Ow! Oh, look at you. You went all Zac Efron on me. Who thought you drank so many six packs you'd have grown one."
"Nice suit, Earl." I said dryly, putting my paper down on my desk.
"Ah, thank you kindly. Armani knockoff, I love it. "
"Listen, it's always great seeing you, but if you'll excuse me, I got a very busy day."
"Clear your calendar, Slim," He said, sitting on the edge of my desk, " 'Cause I've got a score that'll knock your honey glazed holiday ham into next Christmas."
"Yeah, I don't think any of those words mean what you think they do." I pointed out.
"How 'bout these words for you. A rich, old heiress hires me to find her other boyfriend, the pool boy, as a gold digger. Turns out, he is. But Pool Boy is willing to share said gold with someone who can help him keep up appearances, so to speak, and that my friend is your specialty. Are you in?"
"I don't do that kind of stuff anymore." I answered, a small amount of pride swelling in my chest. "Ralph Dibny's gone straight."
"You serious?" He asked.
"I got friends now. A beautiful girlfriend, who I'm living with by the way. They're good people, and they helped me, uh, turn over a new leaf."
"Are they now?"
"Yeah."
"What happened to that girl you were obsessed with? The CSI, way outta your league."
"Same girl." I answered, once again feeling prideful. He nodded.
"We'll see." He stood up, walking towards the door.
"Meaning?" He stopped, turning around.
"Meaning...I love ya Ralphie, I really do. But you let people down. Especially the good ones, and if this girls' as good as you've been sayin' all these years, she's gonna go down the hardest. They get close to ya, place their trust in ya, and then Bam. Ya screw up, every single time." I looked down at the picture on my desk. It was a blurry photo of us that Iris had taken on her phone. I don't know what we were talking about, or why we looked so serious, but it was the only picture of the two of us that we had.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"So, when you let your new friends down," He continued, "Give your old one a call." He left, and I shook my head.
He's wrong. He has to be wrong. I mean, these guys, Caitlin, Cisco, Harry, Laura, they're the ones helping me to be a better person. I am a better person, I'm not going to let them down. I don't do that anymore.
But what if I do? What if I do let them down? And if I do...he's right about Laura, she will take it the worst because she believes in me the most.
