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

Chapter Sixty-Two: Dibny-Esque

After looking around the lab for I while, I found Ralph in one of the containment units.

"Why are you in there?"

"This is prison for Metas, right?" I rolled my eyes. "Are you really gonna let him do this?" He asked, leaning against the wall. I shrugged.

"It's not my choice to make." He shook his head.

"Do you agree with him?" I sighed.

"Honestly...I don't know. I mean...my first instinct is to tell you that you should be more careful, but not only is that super hypocritical...my intentions are kind of selfish." He furrowed his eyebrows and I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "Barry made a good point. There are only three of you left, and the more he takes...the closer he gets to you."

"Laura..."I stepped into the cell, looking down at my feet.

"I can't lose you." I whispered. "In my life...even before the powers, I have lost so many people. If I lose you too...I don't think I'd be able to take it." He grabbed my face, using his thumbs to tilt my chin up so I was looking at him.

"You're strong.' He said. "You'd be ok eventually." I shook my head.

"I've had to be strong so many times, and I barely made it those times. Besides, this is different. I didn't care about them the way I care about you, I didn't love them like I..." I trailed off, looking at him with wide eyes. I said it. I finally said it...kind of. He smiled.

"What?" He asked. "How was that sentence going to end?"

"I..." I bit my lip, looking into his eyes. "I love you." His smile turned into a grin.

"This is an interesting place to hang out." Ralph looked behind me, his smile falling, along with his hands.

"Come to suck the fun out of being benched?"

"I...no, I want your help, actually."

"You want help from the guy who can't take anything seriously?"

"Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so quick to judge, I..." We stepped out of the cell, standing in front of him. "But with DeVoe, so many steps ahead of us, it just-to see you joking around in the middle of this just made me feel like you weren't taking it seriously." Ralph leaned back against the wall, sighing.

"I know this is serious. I watched Izzy die in front of me. I see how scared she is every day." I bit my lip. "I'm scared out of my mind."

"Well, you know, you got an odd way of showing it."

"Yeah, well not everybody grew up with a super dad like Joe West who makes it easy to talk about your feelings. When I was ten, my dad walked out on me and my mom. I was terrified. But my mom, you know, she was even more afraid. So, you know, I just started making jokes. Started doing stupid gags and funny bits and whoopee cushions. Anything to push her fear away. And you know, after a while I started to push my fear away too." I grabbed his hand, intertwining our fingers. He looked at our hands, then at me.

"I had no idea, Ralph." He looked back to Barry.

"It's not that I don't care about beating DeVoe. It's not that I don't care about being a great hero. It's just ever since then, whenever I'm afraid, I either hide...or I make jokes."

"Barry, we found Null. Central City Museum."

"What do you say? You want to get of the bench? We really could use your help."

"Well, if doo-ty calls. You get it?"

"Yeah, let's just go, alright." Ralph looked at me.

"Did you get it?"