Short on Time

Chapter 120

~*~ Esther

"No, no!" I shouted as Ralph stretched in front of the dagger. Instead of destroying the dagger with the mirror gun, my dad hit Ralph instead. 

"What's he doing?" Nora shouted in my ear as Ralph fell to the ground. I ran to his side as Cicada II came back and took the dagger. 

"Damn," my mum muttered as Grace left. 

"Cicada, Thawne, dagger," Ralph managed to choke out.

"Don't worry," my mum told him. "We'll figure out this out."

"Can you fix him?" I asked my mum.

My mother smiled at me reasurringly, "we've got Caity." 

~*~

I paced outside with Nora as my mum walked out with Caitlin. I looked at them hopefully, "how's Ralph?" 

"I've never seen anything like it," Caitlin said. "I can't quite figure it out. His cells are kinetically inverted. It's like they're the reverse of themselves."

"Should've spent more time trying to figure out how this thing works," Cisco said in a defeated tone. 

"I just don't understand why he would jump in front of that blast," Nora said. "I mean, why would he do that?" 

I started pacing again, much to Lucia's concern. "That's the question, isn't it? That's the question," Sherloque said. "In other news, Cicada deuce is still MIA."

"All right, we should get to CCPD, see if we can find anything that could help us track her," my dad said.

"We'll keep working on Ralph," my mum said gently.

~*~

"Are you sure you should be here?" Cecile asked me as Joe talked to Captain Singh. 

"I can't keep pacing in STAR labs," I said as I walked up to my dad and Nora. 

"I'm ready for this nightmare to end," my dad said. 

"It should've been over already," Nora said annoyed.

"Nora," I warned and my dad recognized that look. 

"Nora, look, I'm sure Ralph had a good reason," my dad said. 

"Until we figure out what it is, we just gotta concentrate on this, all right?" I said annoyed.

"What's got your knickers in a knot?" Nora asked and I just about spit fire at her. 

"Wait a second," my dad said as he picked something up. 

"What is that?" Nora asked. 

"Looks like wood," I said looking at it. 

"From what?" Nora asked. "I mean the floor is marble, furniture's untouched, and the skylight's made of glass and metal."

"Well, if it didn't come from Cicada's point of entry," I began. 

"She must've brought it from somewhere else," Nora concluded. 

"That's something at least," I sighed before walking away. I heard footsteps behind me and Nora showed up at my side.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"Nothing," I responded.

Nora gave me a look, "you're never like this. I mean you can be a pain, especially when you're working, but never like this." 

"Just drop it, Nora," I hissed. 

~*~ Ginger

"Definitely some kind of wood fragment," Cisco said as we looked at it.