Shift

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

"Has anyone seen Alex?"

It had been for three days since she was missing and Barry was starting to get worried. It was the night after they had captured their bee keeper, and the same night that he had stayed over. She was gone the next morning before he woke up.

He was sure that she was spooked by all of the attentions she was receiving. Alex wasn't used to having someone care about her, he knew that. Barry knew that she needed space, and he was willing to give it. But he hadn't heard anything from her, not even a text. It wasn't like her to go off the charts like that.

Barry called her phone over a dozen times and left just as many messages. She hadn't answered any of them. Alex told him the night before she left about her conversation with Harrison, and he wondered if maybe she was taken by him. That's what made him even more anxious about the whole situation.

Not to mention that they had another shapeshifter case on their hands and all hands were pointing towards Alex. Barry refused to believe it was her. There was something different about this guy and it didn't remind him of Alex. Wells and Eddie were the first to believe that it was her and that she was out on a bender. They got even more suspicious when Alex still didn't answer her phone.

Barry had a hard time convincing them otherwise.

It died down when they found another lead to go off of. Hannibal Bates was the name of the man that was another possibility of the new shapeshifter. That had ended up with Eddie being arrested and no proof to prove he's innocent. And when the shapeshifter had switched to Barry and locked the original up in his closet, things became more confusing.

The shapeshifter, much like Alex, was left handed. So when Wells tasered the person, they had no other option than believe it was really Alex. Iris wanted to save her boyfriend and told Caitlin and Wells that she was bringing them into the station to prove that Eddie didn't kill his fellow officers.

They were reluctant to let her go, and Caitlin joined her in her travels. The shapeshifter had woken up in the middle of the car ride and changed into a little girl. She screamed and cried for help that the older ladies had kidnapped her. Of course, the people near had heard and assisted her in getting away.

They had no proof for Eddie, or that it wasn't really Alex.

It was when Barry had completely lost hope did he finally feel a spark of joy. Alex had shown up out of the blue. She walked into STAR labs with a casual look on her face and not a care about what was going on. She had no idea that there was another shapeshifter in town. It didn't matter though, Wells had used the taser he had before and she was thrown into her old cell.

Barry had to use all of his will not to run her out of that cell. There was still the small chance that it really was her – though he still didn't believe it. Waking up in that cell for a third time had pissed Alex off. "Barry, what the hell am I doing in here?" He was standing on the other side of the glass with his mask on his face.

"What did you say to me the day that you died?" he asked. His face was straight and without emotion. Even if she knew that it was his real name, it still wasn't confirmed that it was really her and not their other metahuman.

"What? Barry let me out of here." Alex put her hand on the glass. He only repeated the question. What was going on with him? She was missing for a few days and everything went to shit? She sighed before answering. "I said that Cisco was right about how pretty your eyes are."

His face relaxed completely and he immediately opened the cell door. Alex was pulled into a tight hug. "I'm so sorry. There's another meta out there that has the same powers as you. I tried convincing the others that it wasn't you, but you were missing for the past week and you were both left handed. I'm sorry we couldn't take the chance that it really wasn't yo-,"