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

Chapter Fifty-Seven: Just Like Izzy Would Have Wanted

I went straight to the roof upon getting back to STAR Labs. I didn't feel that I deserved to be around anybody, and...I almost guaranteed that Ralph didn't want to be around me. This is my fault. Her death was my fault.  I heard a familiar stretching sound, but didn't bother to look up. He sat down next to me, draping his suit jacket around my shoulders like he always did. I pushed it off, handing it back to him.

"I deserve to be cold and alone up here. Go back downstairs with the rest of the heroes." I said tearfully.

"That's a bit harsh." He replied, also sounding rather tearful. I shook my head, violently wiping the falling tears from my face.

"I killed her, Ralph. She died because of me. She left because I was stupid and jealous, and I took it out on her and now she's dead..." I broke down, sobbing. "I put in her in danger, and I couldn't even save her, so what made me think that I could ever protect you?"

"Laura, don't say that." He said, his voice breaking. "This was not your fault ok? You fought for her with no regard for your own life, ok? You did the best you could, you are not to blame for this."

"That's not what you said earlier." I looked at him now, seeing the tears that were forming in his eyes. "YOu said that this was my fault, and you were right...you were right." He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against his chest, and I just sobbed into his shirt. I could feel his body shaking, telling me that he was crying too. "I'm sorry...Ralph, I'm so sorry. I know you really liked her, and I'm sorry." He pulled away, taking my face in his hands.

"What are you talking about?" He asked. I removed his hands from my face, looking down at my lap.

"I know you were starting to have feelings for her. I know I shouldn't have gotten jealous, but I was sure you were going to break up with me, and I got so angry and hurt and-"

"I've been in love with you for almost a decade you dummy." I looked up at him now, furrowing my eyebrows. "I've told you a thousand times that I've been in love with you for so long, and that you were my dream girl. Why would you think, even for a second, that I would give that up for a girl I'd known for two days?" I shook my head.

"Because I'm an idiot and a horrible human being, and now I'm a murderer, so you'd probably be better off dumping me now." He shook his head.

"You're right." I squeezed my eyes close, the pain of those words ripping through me. "You are an idiot if you think I'm going to break up with you. With all the crap you put up with from me, if you've taught me anything, it's that you don't give up on the people you love just because they make a mistake."

"This wasn't just any mistake, Ralph!" I exclaimed, looking at him. "I got someone killed and helped an evil genius mastermind proceed to the next step of his plan! This isn't a mistake! I have ruined everything."

"So what if you have?" He asked. I shook my head, but he grabbed my face again, forcing me to look at him. "I don't care. I'm not going anywhere. We're going to do this together and we're going to figure this out together, because that's what Team Flash does. That's what we do. Understand?" I sniffed, nodding my head. He wiped my tears away with his thumbs, pressing his mouth briefly against mine before pulling away and wrapping his arm around me.

~~~

Ralph and I sat on the floor in his office, our backs pressed up against his filing cabinets. My head was on his shoulder and we had a radio blaring the music from Izzy's CD. There was a knock at the door before it opened and Barry came in.

"Hey guys. I can come back if-"

"No, its...it's ok." Ralph said. He came in, closing the door.

"Look, I totally understand if you need some time away from the team. Maybe it'd be good for both of you." he sat down directly across from us. "I mean, to lose someone right in front of you. Especially someone you care about."

"Izzy was really special." Ralph said. I nodded in agreement.

"She was." Barry stated.

"But...but now. DeVoe's still out there. And until that threat's over...we gotta keep this buddy system going."

"I thought you might say that Allen, which is why I got you this." He removed his arm from around me, reaching into his pocket and handing Barry a business card.

"You want me to be your partner?" Barry asked.

"Oh, hey, come on. This Turner don't need no Hooch, but...I do know what it's like to get fired from CCPD when you didn't even really break the law."

"But you did though." I pointed out, putting my head back on his shoulder.

"And I remember, after I lost my job, it felt like I lost a piece of my identity. And now you won't have to deal with that problem. So, the next time we're out in the field and someone asks you who you work for you won't have to get all stammery."

"You like me," Barry said, "You really like me." We all laughed, standing up.

"Don't go gettin' all soft on me now, Rookie. We gotta stand up and we gotta fight back."

"Just like Izzy would have wanted." I added.

"That's right. There's three more people out there who need our help and we need to find them before DeVoe does. And after we do that...I'm gonna take DeVoe down."

We were done playing DeVoe's game. I think I can speak for everybody when I sat that. At the end of the day, just like every other villain that it seemed impossible to beat, we were going to win, that wasn't a question.

The question was, however...how much more are we going to lose before we do?