・・★・・・・・・★・・

CHAPTER THREE

HOUSE OF MEMORIES

・・★・・・・・・★・・

     IT WAS ALL READY ENOUGH that Joe had offered her a deal, and Charlotte thought that nothing else much could come out of it. Stay in Central City, help catch bad guys, capture (and maybe kill) her dad, and go back to Starling. But, alas, just as things couldn't get any better, Joe steps in and offers a small dilemma, work with The Flash.

     Those words. That phrase. That sentence mocked Charlotte all throughout the night. Her mind raced through the many options she had, which basically only came down a one since she failed on her own: work with The Flash. But how could she? How could she work again with someone, who she recalls as someone who she might have let get too involved with her life? Maybe she was too transparent? Maybe she was too vulnerable? Maybe she was weak?

     No, no no. Don't think like that.

     Charlotte only managed to make a few good friends, while she previously stayed in Central City, but she only had three that she had become really close with. Barry Allen, Cisco Ramon, and Caitlin Snow. Before, Cisco and Caitlin had taken her under their wing, aiding her in the fight to make Central City safe again, later on, taking Barry aboard their crazy superhero train, together making them the unbreakable team. At least that's what they all thought.

     Since then, numerous things have happened. According to Joe, Cisco as works a scientific advisor at CCPD. Caitlin worked for Mercury Labs, S.T.A.R Labs' competition, but soon quit due to unknown circumstances. Barry was finally able to provide evidence that proved his father's innocence to his mother's brutal murder.

     However, despite Charlotte being burdened with the unlucky two human beings she had known as her parents, she was very incredibly lucky in the friendship department. But still, it had been months since she saw all of them. Since she had heard from any of them. But that was mostly her fault. After a month of disappearing, she changed her all of her contact info, mainly because of her father might be able to trace her location, but still, they never bothered to stay in contact.

     So, Charlotte imagined things would be completely awkward if she walked back into their lives after not speaking to them for a whole six months. She had her suitcase packed the night before, casual and formal clothes had been neatly placed, along with various heels and boots, and a couple of magazines to keep her company. Along with her suitcases was a duffle bag positioned close, guarded by numerous smaller suitcases. Inside, her alter ego's uniform was neatly placed, various weaponry stored inside just in case.

     It was around lunchtime. Charlotte had been reading one of her fashion magazines when the train had finally come to a halt. The rest of the passengers were out of their seats, swarming to the nearest exit. And then there was Charlotte. With more than two suitcases and a duffle bag, she tugged and pulled herself, along with her belongs out of the train.

     She's starting to think that Ruby was right when she encouraged her to pack lightly, considering that she probably was only planning on staying for only a few months. Which in Charlotte's opinion, was basically a year. She was a fashion icon. She couldn't risk her reputation being caught wearing the same thing more than once. So, technically she had no choice but to bring a variety of clothes. And shoes. And accessories. And makeup. She's got to keep her reputation alive. For God's sake, she freaking Charlotte—

     Charlotte walks straight into something. To someone.

      "Oh shoot, I am so sorry—"

     Her jaw drops when she looks up, and the feeling of her heart sinking into the soles of her feet quickly make her speechless. Instead of babbling, she stands there frozen as if her mouth had been sewn shut, refusing her the action to speak.

     "I thought you were dead—"

     "I, uh—"

      Now, it should be mentioned that Charlotte Hope had sort of thing for going speechless. She had a habit for it. Just like she had a habit of disappearing for long periods of time. In her defense, she had learned had a very young age that saying too much could and would get you killed. Look at her mother, for example. Because she chose to say too much — well, anyways.

       "I am not dead," she continues, swallowing spit nervously. She figures that if she answers his first statement then she regain herself. He's down on the ground, picking up her suitcases, halting two on his shoulder, and rolling them on his side. "I've just been traveling, that's all. And what are you..."

     "Yeah, uh," he says. Charlotte reached down and quickly grabbed the jet black duffle bag before he could. He gives her a strange look but doesn't address it. Charlotte's known for being secretive, and by now he's used to it. "I didn't think that disappearing for six months without a trace was considered traveling."

       Charlotte rolls her eyes. "It is in my dictionary — it's in a Summers' blood to disappear without a trace. My grandfather taught my dad, and look my dad managed to teach," she says. She takes off into the train station, following the swarm of people out of the exit. "Isn't life just wonderful?"

       He chuckles. "It's nice to see you again, Charlotte."

      "It's nice to see you too, Barry."

★

      IT TOOK TWENTY MINUTES for them to arrive in the heart of Central City. Considering, Barry decided to take a "shortcut" that he assured would get them there faster, but it only resulted in the both of them sitting in traffic in what felt like an eternity. For the most part, things weren't totally weird between them. They fought over the car radio, debated over which road to take, and complained together when cars started traveling below the speed limits. It is was almost like good times. Almost, as if Charlotte never left. Almost.

      But it didn't take long for the sweet feeling to wash away when Charlotte stepped into the local coffee shop and noticed the various glances. The look on their faces spelled out shock as the once native of Central City had arrived back into town. She felt weird. Just imagine how they would react when they figure out that Aurora is coming back.

      Although, Charlotte had insisted on paying as a small token for appreciation, Barry, before she could pull out her card, had retrieved his wallet, pulling out money to pay for the two hot drinks. One decaf coffee and the other one regular with three sugar packets and pumpkin spice creamer.

      He remembered. Just like old times.

      Now, they had placed themselves in the corner of the room, away from everyone. While Barry was sipping, Charlotte was still stirring. Silence stood in between them. So, while Barry was almost halfway done with his drink, Charlotte was stirring, only this time, her stirring was becoming noticeably violent. She had a lot on her mind.

       "You know," said Charlotte, finally putting her spoon down. "I-I was going to call after it all happened."

      "Yeah," Barry looked up at her. A small frown was on her face. "I just figured after the thirty-fifth day of you disappearing, you just wanted some space. And plus by the twenty-sixth day of me calling, your voicemail was completely full."

      He counted the days, he actually counted the days, Charlotte thought. She felt a sudden rush of guilt run through her veins. He was actually trying to communicate with her, and she just completely had blown him off. But this wasn't about him. She wasn't here for him. Remember the deal. Remember the real reason why you are here.

      "Right," she mumbled. She looks back down at her now warm drink, which she hasn't taken a sip of yet. A little odd of her, but again, the girl had a lot of things on her mind. "Anyways, uh, how are things? I mean, things have to be less shitty, right?"

     "Oh, yeah, my dad was released from prison yesterday," says Barry.

      Charlotte nods. "Sounds exciting."

     Although her voice behind it doesn't make her sound enthused, she really is happy for him. She knows how much he's been eagerly waiting for the day to come to see his father walk free as an innocent man. She imagined that he probably cried the day his father was released. Afterall, Barry was an emotional person. In a good way, of course.

      "I mean, I am happy for you, actually, I am happy for the both of you," she says. This time she had a smile on her. Hopefully, he won't consider her previous to be somewhat sarcastic or anything rude. Because again, she was happy for him. But also, she was still nervous. And when she was nervous not only did she become speechless, but when she forced herself to speak she was a bit too sarcastic. It was sort of a curse, honestly. "Send him, my love when you see him, yeah?"

      "Yeah," says Barry. He sends her a smile. "He accidentally overheard Joe and I talking about you coming. To make a long story short, he's pretty excited to you. I-I think we all are, honestly."

      "Really?" asked Charlotte, a little too over excited. Maybe things weren't going to be that awkward.

      "I mean, yeah, when you up and left, we all went our separate ways," says Barry. "That day we all lost something. Hell came crashing down when we thought everything was good. Of course, it sucked, but we had to face the fact: we couldn't do this alone. We needed each other. So, recently the team just all came back together and — well, we aren't complete without you, Charlotte."

      Charlotte looks down at her coffee. Her reflection staring back at her in the liquid substance. As much as she wanted to jump from her seat and find comfort in Barry's arms, she had to keep herself focus. She screwed up once, and she couldn't afford to do it again. Her goal was to capture and her dad and maybe live a normal life if normal was ever an option. But still, she was going to try.

      "My main goal is to figure out how to stop my father from destroying the town and whatever other fucked up ideas he has in store," she says. "Once, he's captured, I'm headed back to Starling. But in the meantime, I agreed to stick around and help out while I am here."

      Barry nodded. She continues. "But this is something that stays between you and I, okay? I don't need anyone else knowing about this temporary deal. If my father gets any idea — this is just my only chance, my only chance to redeem myself."

      "I understand."

      "Good."

      Barry smiled sympathetically. Charlotte grabbed her cup but immediately frowned as she now noticed that it was cold. She looked at Barry and he couldn't help but smile at her. Her heart fluttered. His smile. She missed seeing that. She missed this. She missed him.

      Damn this was going to be hard.

      Barry chuckled at her. "Come on, I'll buy another coffee. In honor of the goddess being back."

      Charlotte giggled. "Well, I guess it's good to be back."

★

CENTRAL CITY MOST WANTED

WARRANT ISSUED BY: CENTRAL CITY

NAME: RAYMOND SUMMERS

HEIGHT: 5'10"

RACE: WHITE

EYES: BLACK

HAIR: BLACK

TATTOOS/SCARS/MARKS: TATTOO ON LEFT SIDE OF NECK OF SAYING, KING. TATTOO ON LEFT HAND OF A CROWN. TATTOO ON RIGHT FOREARM SAYING "CS" & "AS" (COULD BE INITIALS OF FAMILY MEMBERS).

WANTED FOR:

ARMED ROBBERY

MURDER

HOMICIDE

RAYMOND SUMMERS IS WANTED BY THE UNITED STATES MARSHALLS SERVICE & DISTRICT OF OHIO FOR THE FOLLOWING CRIMES: ARMED ROBBERY, MURDER, HOMICIDE. SUMMERS IS CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS. IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION ON THE CURRENT WHEREABOUTS OF SUMMERS, PLEASE CONTACT THE CENTRAL CITY POLICE STATION AT 1-800-633-CCPS (2277)

★

      HAD EVERYONE SCREAMED when they saw Charlotte appear in the corridor of S.T.A.R Labs? Of course, they did. Had the rest of team cheered when they heard that Aurora was coming back? Of course, they did. Had Cisco eagerly run into Charlotte's arm the moment she made this announcement? I mean, who wouldn't. Did Charlotte feel bad for hiding the fact her dad was lounging around Central City and probably plotting to kill her? Well...yes, yes she had.

     Even with that whole mess, Charlotte had to admit that she was excited. Her friends were all in agreement that they wouldn't be a team without her, which in a way, was a complete weight off her shoulder. Things weren't turning out to be awkward like she thought. And, because of the whole Goddess-Being-Back thing, Cisco figured that he would make the ultimate comeback suit for Charlotte. And, Charlotte was definitely excited for that. Personally, Charlotte was happy with her original suit, the black leather suit had been in her possession for almost two years, and it had done the trick for her. But now, that her suit was very noticeable to the eye of the people (especially her father's mafia) the timing seemed perfect to design a new suit.

     But you know, Charlotte thought that not much could happen in the five minutes she spent in the corridor, chatting with everyone and listening to Cisco plot ideas for her new suit. She thought things were going great. But just as she goes to follow Cisco into his workshop, excited to plan her new suit, a man walks in.

     "My name is Jay Garrick," he says. Without hesitation, Joe stands in front of everyone, pulling out his gun. By now, everyone seemed alarmed by the mysterious name that suddenly waltzed into the abandoned laboratory. Charlotte had always assumed that S.T.A.R Labs was the last place that anyone would come to, let alone come to find her. "Your world is in danger, Barry Allen."

     "Uh, um — well, Barry do you know this guy?" asked Charlotte.

     Barry shakes his head."Please, just let me explain," says Jay, as he watches Barry motion for Joe to put in gun down, but Joe being the officer he was trained to do only does what he thinks is best for the current situation, he keeps his gun pointed towards Jay. "I mean no harm."

     "How do you know my name?" asked Barry.

     "I know all of your names," replies Jay. He scans around the room, pointing to every person that came into his view. "Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, Detective Joe West, let's not forget about the famous Charlotte Hope..."

     "Enough," Joe calls out. His hands are now placed on the trigger of his gun. Jay slowly places his hands in the air and swallows spit. "That part about explaining needs to happen right now."

     "This world is in danger."

     "What other worlds are there?"

     Jay begins to explain that at the brink of death in the hands of Zoom, another an evil speedster in his world, he was sucked into their world when the wormhole opened. He also admits that in this world, he claimed to be a superhero speedster also called The Flash, though he lost his speed force (and his helmet) in the process. He goes on to say that he had been hiding out in Central City for six months, waiting for the right moment before approaching them.

     By the time he's done explaining, the entire corridor is silent. No one knows what to even say. Each of their faces shares the same dull expression of confusion. But, there's really no surprise. The thought of learning that there could another evil speedster out there gave Charlotte the chills. She wasted an entire year chasing after Reverse Flash last year, which caused her to, well, fuck up.

      Finding out that her once trusted mentor turning out to be a complete fraud, completely haunted Charlotte. Not only because he was someone she could confide to, but after a while of being around him, he slowly becomes more of a father figure to her. While her father was out somewhere in city or country (his posse traveled a lot) selling government weapons or orchestrating a new drug to sell, Harrison Wells had fostered her and showed her how a caring father was supposed to act. But, of course, in Charlotte's world, anything that happened to her was always too good to be true.

     "And here I thought I was going to be the only new face in Central City," said Charlotte, as she places her hands into pockets. Her voice echoed through the silent room that housed the blank faces of her friends. But no seemed too interested in her small spark of conversation.

     By now, Jay had been ushered into the medical room by Caitlin as Barry insisted to do some safety medical test on Jay. Although he spoke with authority, Barry was noticeable uncertain about the new stranger's intentions. Which in fact, really wasn't a surprise to Charlotte. They both had been gullible last year on who they trusted that it hit home extremely too hard when they found out the truth. (Well. Charlotte really could admit that she wasn't surprised when she found out the truth because once again, in Charlotte's world...you get the picture. Anyways.)

     "Is any of this actually possible?" asked Iris, as she paced back and forth throughout the lab. "A breach to another earth? It's not, right?"

     "The contrary," says Dr. Stein. "Just recently, the many-different-worlds theory proposed interaction with parallel universes was plausible. Now, if what Mr. Garrick's saying is true, that theory has been proven sooner than we all thought."

     "It doesn't add up," said Barry.

      "I'm gonna be honest here," Joe spoke. "I don't understand what the hell any of you are talking about."

     Charlotte nodded. "I agree with Joe on this one," she says. "I'm here for like fifteen minutes now and you guys are already talking about worlds being in danger and parallel theories. God, can't a girl catch a small breather before we jump into this science experiment stuff?"

     "So, what Jay is saying is he's from, like a mirror-world," Cisco said. "Or a parallel universe that's very, very similar to ours."

      "Multiverse would be a more apt description," adds Dr. Stein.

      "No, not helping."

      "Bless your heart."

     Charlotte snorts. "Well, shit...I guess we are fu—"

     "Okay, let's see if this helps," says Dr. Stein. He rolls into the room a dry-erase board, followed by a yellow marker. As he begins to draw circles on the board, he explains, "This is our earth. Let's call it Earth-1. And this second earth, let's call it Earth-2. This is where Jay claims to be from. And these other earths, three, four, five, to infinity, all of them, are nearly identical to ours. And they all exist at the same time, giving us endless alternatives to what we have here,"

     "For example, the Joe West, on Earth-2, your doppelganger, he might not be a detective. He could be a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. The Barry Allen here is The Flash, but over there, he could be an electrician." he says. He turns to Charlotte, who is way too distracted by her chipped dark nail to even pay attention. She jumps a little when she hears her name. "And you, the Charlotte Hope here is Aurora, but over there, she could be—"

     "A total badass," said Charlotte. "Which would be really cool, because we would be total badasses together and be the queens of superhero badass society." The smile on her face grew a little, and she stepped closer to Cisco to nudge his arm. "And, she probably has the coolest suit out there, which is a total plus."

     "Right."

      "So, I'm assuming that the people on all these other earths work to make money to pay bills and such."

     "Right."

     "So, we got that in common," said Joe. He places his hand into his pocket. "I'm heading back to the station. Call me when this makes a little bit more sense, I'm still trying to wrap my head around time travel. See you guys later. Oh, by the way, I'm making spaghetti for dinner."

     "Oh, cool," said Barry. He then turns to Charlotte. She nods at him. "We'll see you later then."

     Joe smiled. "Don't be late, kids."

     As Joe departed the building, she smiles back. But it's mostly because she can't help but feel like things are starting to feel a little normal again. Which makes her happy. Being normal would be good for a while, she thinks. She is also happy that later on, she be eating Joe's famous spaghetti she missed dearly. It would be a good change from Chinese take out that she and Ruby always ordered.

     Around her, she can hear the same conversation about the multiverse continues. Already Charlotte's starting to pick up on the idea that if Jay was right, then somewhere in Central City there was a breach and it needed to be closed. And if there was a breach, who knows what can come out it? The last thing she needed was this, in all honesty. She sits down in one of the chairs, where she close by in the hearing distance.

     There are some suggestions. Finding the breach would be the most important thing to do, and after listening to Dr. Stein and Cisco, apparently finding it would be the hardest part. Figuring out who the hell this Zoom character was, and if he was even real. A couple suggestion involved hammering Jay with more questions, but it was still in the air.

     Caitlin appears as Charlotte is listening in on the conversation, hoping that some type of solution would appear out of thin air. Dr. Stein and Cisco are now running around the lab trying to figure out the location of the breach — when they left, Charlotte grumbled loudly only because she really wanted to look up new ideas for her suit, and Barry and Iris leaned in and listened to Caitlin. "Well, Jay's heart rate is extraordinarily low. And he does have regenerative capabilities." she had said. "Other than that, I'm not seeing any evidence of the Speed Force in his system."

     Charlotte frowned. "So in other words, he might be lying?"

     "We don't even have proof that he's a speedster, much less from another earth," said Barry.

     "So in other words, he might be lying?"

     "Not necessarily."

     Barry raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

     "Well, Jay doesn't know this," Caitlin said. "But while I was testing his heart rate, blood pressure, and motor responses, I also measured his autonomic reactions while we were talking."

     And, with that, Charlotte grinned. She looked both mischievous and very excited. "You—you gave him a lie detector test?" she asked.

     "Well," she said, "He passed it."

      Her friends looked impressed. And so was Charlotte. Now if only they would have thought about giving Harrison Wells a lie detector test, then maybe have of their problems would have been solved. And it would have taken them a lot of explaining if he ever found out about it, but at least it would save them a lot of time. And heartbreak. It would have saved them from lots of that.

     Her phone starts to buzz, and she grabs it quickly. Her stomach dropped a little when she noticed the caller ID: Unknown. She has a clue on who it could be. Afterall, only a few people have contact information. Without thinking twice, she opens her phone, and reads the message.

UNKNOWN: TONIGHT 7PM @ 256 WILLOW LANE --- HE'S PLANNING A DEAL. ARE YOU IN?

・・★・・・・・・★・・

oooo spooky unknown text messages...

okay, wow, i am doing this a lot different from the six (i dont actually remember how many times i've rewritten this story) attempts of aurora. so i am going to be focusing on the plot of s2 (because it is my favorite season of the flash), but at the same time, the main focus is charlotte being a detective and trying to figure her dad's plan. therefore, do expect for charlotte to be running around star labs all day. this will technically be a lot of au writing soo i hope you guys don't mind.

anyways, i hope you enjoyed reading this as much as i enjoyed writing it. leave your comments down below because i enjoy reading those more than anything.