What Brings Us Together (A Ralph Dibny/ The Flash Fan-Fiction)

Chapter Fifty-One: I Believe in You

I'm gonna try something new. I'm gonna do this episode in Ralph's POV. Could be fun.

-RandomAccountName23

~~~Ralph~~~

That afternoon, I got a text from Laura saying that Cecile and Iris needed everyone at STAR Labs. What Earl said had been running through my head all day. I have let a lot of good people down in the past, I know that. Laura is one of them. And if I've let her down before, what's to stop me from letting her down again? What's to stop me from letting the others down?

I walked into the Cortex, feeling significantly less cheerful than I had this morning. My eyes immediately when to Laura. She was wearing the dress I had picked out this morning, and she looked beautiful as ever. What if I hurt her? What if I lose her? 

"Hey guys, got your alert. Sorry I'm late." I'm already screwing up.

"It's ok, Ralph." Caitlin said.

"No, it's not ok," I answered, " I ran into this old business partner of mine. This guy, he's just a big, fat creep." I noticed Laura furrow her eyebrows. "He's always sticking his nose in my business. And he's so shady, he's got these beady eyes and this crooked smile. He's just a real two-faced rat from head to toe."

"Freaky." Cecile said. I noticed everyone was looking at me weird.

"What? He's a two-faced rat, he is." I looked at Laura again, who looked shocked. I also noticed my voice sounded weird. "What's wrong with my voice? Do you hear that?"

"Um...Ralph..." Laura started. Cisco pressed a button, turning on the monitor camera. I saw Earl standing in the middle of the Cortex. 

"That's hi, right there, do you see him? That's him." I pointed to all of the different screens. "Right there, he..." I walked up to one of the screens and started moving my hands. "That's me. That's me!" I touched my now swollen stomach. "What is that me?!" I grabbed Laura's arms. "What is happening?"

"I think we just discovered a new aspect of your powers." She said, putting a hand on my face.

"You somehow willed your body to shape shift into this guy's appearance." Caitlin pointed out. "Seems like your cells can do a lot more than just elongate."

"Ugh, brilliant. How do you undo it? Undo this, that, this." I grabbed my belly again.

"Control Z." Cisco suggested.

"Control..." I started thinking about how I look and my body started changing back to it's normal self. Laura smiled.

"That's better." She said.

"Guys, I think I just figured out how to stop Warden Wolfe." Iris said. "If Ralph could shape shift into Braveheart here, then he could easily shape shift into Wolfe and meet Amunet before midnight."

"And call off the whole deal before it ever even happens!" Cecile exclaimed.

"Which would give us time to hopefully find Barry and save him before anything goes wrong!" Laura threw in.

"Angala what now?" I asked. Laura put a hand on my back.

"I'll explain everything later." She said. She always has to explain things to me. She probably gets tired of it.

~~~

Caitlin, Cisco, Laura and I went down to the Speed lab to work on my Shape Shifting thing. They had a picture of Wolfe pulled up and I was attempting to stretch my face into the shape of him.

"Ok, how's this?" I asked.

"You know that painting in 'IT', the one that comes to life?" Cisco questioned. "It's like that." Caitlin nodded in agreement. I shook my head, returning to normal. Figures. I finally have a way to be useful and I can't even do that right. Why do they even let me be on the team?

"This is impossible. We might as well just gift wrap Barry, hand him to Amunet, and call it a day." I said. Laura shook her head, walking over to me.

"No, it's not." She paused, thinking for a moment. "Ok, when you turned into that Earl guy, you were angry. You were complaining, and your strong feelings towards him lead you to turn into him. SO maybe you just need emotions to fuel you."

"Like what?" I asked.

"This is Barry we're talking about here. His life is in your hands, and we're all counting on you. I'm  counting on you. So, I want you to focus on that emotion, think of Wolfe's face, and clear your mind of all other thoughts. Ok?" I nodded. They're all counting on me. Barry's counting on me. Laura's counting on me. I can't let them down. I can't let Earl be right. I closed my eyes, and I could feel myself changing. When it stopped, I opened them again. Caitlin held up a mirror, and Warden Wolfe's face stared back at me.

"Oh wow, sweet chiseled cheekbones, I did it!" I exclaimed. Laura smiled.

"I want to kiss you, but it's not your face, and that's a little too weird for me."

"Wow...maybe I can save Barry." I stood up, going to take a step, when my legs gave out and I fell on my face. "Uh, a little help?"

"Next, we need to work on his motor skills."

~~~

I had managed to stay upright after a little bit of training, and was about to head to the bar to meet Amunet. Laura was standing in front of me, straightening my jacket and making sure nothing about the shape shift looked like Ralph Dibny.

"So...you gonna tell me what's wrong with you?" She asked. I furrowed my eyebrows. How does she know? She always knows. She's so incredibly smart.

"Nothing's wrong. What are you talking about?" Wolfe's voice answered.

"Well, for starters, you're late all the time, and you've never cared until now." Yeah...I'm late all the time. It's expected of me now to be a screw up. "Plus your whole, this is impossible, I can't help Barry speech."

"I don't know what you're talking about." She met my eyes. She is so beautiful, it hurts. It's like, every time she looks at me my brain goes fuzzy. I can't think.

"If you don't want to tell me right now, that's fine. But I hope you'll get around to telling me eventually. I don't want you to pretend that you don't have problems. Your problems are just as important as mine. I want you to be able to talk to me, Ralph. I..." She trailed off.

"You what?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. She shook her head.

"I really care about you." She was going to say 'I love you'. She's too scared to say it, though. Maybe because she knows, just like Earl did, that eventually I'm going to let her down. Does she think that? "You're gonna do great, ok? I believe in you." She wrapped her arms around my waist, hugging me. "Now get out of here." I nodded.

She believes in me.

Today...that's the worst thing she could've said to me.