Confessions
Parker reached S.T.A.R. Labs. Without popping in and saying a quick hello to anyone, she stole the keys to the van and raced to Barry's old house.
Before Cisco ended the call earlier, Joe asked her if she was ready to explain all of it to Barry. With Joe there to help her, she thought she could.
Sherry wasn't there when Parker knocked on the door.
Fortunately, Parker knew how to pick a lock. It was probably really suspicious to anyone jogging by or driving past to see a girl bent over, jamming two bobby pins into the lock.
Parker was practically sweating from the pure panic of someone getting the wrong idea.
The lock clicked. From the amount of weight she had been leaning on the door, when it opened, Parker tripped forward into the house.
"Sherry?" She called.
There was no response.
Parker started unloading the machine from the van. It took seven trips and an hour to assemble all the parts correctly.
Once it was ready to be fired up, the only thing missing was the presence of Barry Allen.
Parker slid down the wall beside the machine. While she waited for Barry and Joe, she decided to check in on her friends in Starling City.
To: Felicity Smoak
Hi, buddy.. How are you doing?
From: Felicity Smoak
Great! Everyone's pretty good. I met this guy named Ray. I think we've got something going...
From: Felicity Smoak
Oh, and Oliver got revived.
The door creaked open.
Parker was too baffled from the casual text message to check if it was Barry. She stared at the tiny letters, rereading it over and over.
To: Felicity Smoak
Um..? None of you thought it might have been a good idea to call me? Tell Oliver he's getting a very angry call from me when I get the chance!
"Parker?"
Barry looked surprised to be in his old house, but even more so when he saw Parker chilling against the wall. He grabbed her outstretched hand and hoisted her up, straight into his arms.
"I haven't seen you in forever," he mumbled into her hair.
Parker giggled, squeezing around his shoulders as hard as he was around her waist. Her eyes were closed, melting into him.
"It's only been like two days, Barry."
"Way too long to go without seeing you."
Barry pulled away from her and let her move back to the machine. He watched her, feeling an urge to grab her again and not let go.
"Beautiful home," Parker complimented, diverting Barry's focus on what she was doing.
"It's a lot bigger. Everything's changed.." Barry said.
He looked around, his hands on his hips. His search stopped on a specific piece of furniture.
Parker smirked when she saw Barry stop at the mirror. Barry looked up at her, saw her smile, and narrowed his eyes.
"I don't fully know how Cisco and Parker did it.." Joe confessed.
"Did what?" Barry asked, his forehead scrunched.
Parker fully brought the machine to life, Joe clicked the button, and the two watched Barry for his reaction when the holograms appeared.
"Mom.." he mumbled.
"You can see two speedsters, there, Barry. And over there, on the wall, we found blood. We tested the DNA," Joe explained.
Barry locked eyes with Parker. He watched her, and based on her normal reaction, he figured all of what Joe was saying rang true. It all clicked for him: that's where Parker and Cisco had disappeared to yesterday.
"It's yours," Parker said.
Barry's face went from grief to denial very quickly. He took a step back, shaking his head.
"No, that's impossible. I wasn't even downstairs yet."
"Not baby you. Adult you," Parker continued. "There's some science rambling Cisco could get into if you truly want to be sure, but I know--we know-- it's you. Adult Barry was here the night of the murder."
"The one speedster is the Man in Yellow, we've figured that out," Joe said.
"Meaning..." Parker egged on.
"The other one is the Flash.." Barry said. His eyes flickered to Parker's for confirmation. "That's me."
>>>>>
"So, time travel. Is it possible?"
Joe was asking Dr.Wells, but Parker was so excited about being correct about her theory that she jumped in and said an overly-excited, "Yes!"
Dr.Wells sent her a worried look. "Yes, she's correct. But it's problematic. Assuming you could create the conditions necessary to go on that journey, that journey would then be fraught with potential downfalls."
"Like what?" Joe asked.
"There's like three main ones. If you travel back in time to change something, you become the causal factor of that event."
A ramble of explaination had Joe still looking at Parker, confused.
"Terminator," she tried, and then Joe nodded. "There's also the idea of alternate timelines. If you go back and change something, it would create a timeline where it did happen, and a timeline where it didn't. Like Back to the Future."
"Saw that one too," Joe nodded.
"Tremendous picture," Dr.Wells praised.
"So, how does it work?"
Dr.Wells and Parker stared at Joe, their faces blank. Parker turned to Dr.Wells, then back to Joe, giving an unsure look.
"Um.. There's no proven theories on how to travel through time, if that's what you're asking?"
"But maybe there's someone else you can talk to about this," Cisco offered.
>>>>
Hours later, Barry came back to the Cortex quite noisily. He was grunting and gasping with every step.
When he entered through the doors, Parker understood why. Dozens of prickles were stuck in his body.
"Barry!" Parker shouted, taking his other side and helping him to the bed. "What did you do, run into a giant sea urchin?"
"It was Eiling," Barry wheezed.
"I should have known," Caitlin admitted, shaking her head. "When I talked to the grad student about F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M., he said the army took all their evidence. I should have connected those dots."
Parker relocated Barry's hand to her hip, wanting to help pull out some of the needles. She grabbed one on his arm with two of her fingers and pried it out quickly.
"Park," Barry whimpered.
"Oh, you're fine," Parker muttered.
"You have to hurry. Barry's wounds will start to heal with those in them," Dr.Wells warned.
Parker triumphantly smiled at Barry. She continued to pluck needles out of Barry's body; Caitlin did the same, only with tweezers and precision.
"So who is this?"
Parker raised her head for a moment, smiling at the visitor. By doing process of elimination, she figured it was Ronnie Raymond.
"I'm Parker Sylas. I started working here after you died. I'm kind of Barry's savior, and coincidentally, his girlfriend."
"Oh, that's, um.." Ronnie trailed off.
"Interesting, I know," Parker agreed with a chuckle.
"Let's just finish this and go to Stein's house, if Eiling attacked Ronnie, he'll go for Stein," Barry worried.
"Stein's fine," Ronnie said.
Cisco tore his eyes off of Barry and looked at Ronnie with question.
"He's right there."
Team Flash turned their heads. Martin Stein stood at the door way, wringing his hands.
"I don't think Mr.Raymond and I are as distinctive as we'd hoped."
>>>>>
"I'm still inside Ronald."
Parker snorted, hiding her face behind Barry's shoulder.
"There has to be a better way to phrase that," Cisco agreed.
Caitlin pointed to the screen for evidence. "All your brain waves are perfectly in sync. The chances of that happening are next to impossible."
"But impossible is kind of our motto for Team Flash, so you've come to the right place," Parker assured, giving a thumbs-up.
Cisco shrugged his shoulders, not convinced. "Yeah, but this is some Twilight Zone level stuff. And I say that knowing full well that we have a guy locked up in our basement that can turn into poisonous gas."
"Wait, really?" Ronnie asked.
"That was only week three," Parker and Cisco chimed together.
While they praised each other for their twin thoughts, Martin Stein pulled his headpiece off and stood up, ready to leave.
"If this Eiling is as dangerous as I think, I need to warn Clarissa," he fretted.
"I can get Clarissa out of the city in time, but we need you to stay here," Barry said.
Martin didn't look convinced. Barry looked to Parker for help.
"Professor, we need you to trust us," Parker told him.
"Very well."
>>>>>>
Parker and Barry decided to take Caitlin and Ronnie to the West house. Ronnie needed somewhere to stay, and for some reason, so did Caitlin.
"You two can stay in Iris' old room," Barry offered. "It's kind of small, but--"
"When were you going to tell me we were having guests?" Joe cut in.
Barry stared wide-eyed at Joe. He looked like a fifteen year old being scolded.
Cringing, Barry asked, "Is that okay?"
Joe turned out to be faking the parent disappointment. He greeted his guests.
"This is Ronnie," Caitlin introduced.
In the middle of shaking hands, Joe had a realization and froze. He looked at Caitlin.
"Yes, the dead fiancée," Ronnie confirmed for him.
"Dad, Barry?" Iris called, pushing open the front door. Seeing all the surprised faces staring at her, she stopped in the doorway.
"What are you doing here?" Joe asked.
"It's Tuesday and she cooks for you on Tuesdays," Parker recalled. "Damn. Even I remember and I don't live here.."
"Well, there's plenty for everyone. Caitlin, what brings you by?" Iris wondered.
"There's a gas leak in my apartment. Barry said that we could stay here," Caitlin expertly lied.
Parker silently praised Caitlin for lying convincingly. Now, for the others, the same couldn't be predicted.
"And who's this?" Iris asked, smiling at Ronnie.
"This is.." Caitlin trailed off, at a loss of words.
Barry, although he really shouldn't have, tried to help. "Her cousin," he filled in, fingers nervously dancing on his chin.
"Sam!" Parker continued.
"Visiting from Coast City," Joe finished.
Iris nodded. She kept her gaze on Sam, racking her brain to figure out where she had seen him before.
"You look really familiar, Sam," Iris finalized.
"Yeah, just one of those faces, I guess," Ronnie said with a chuckle. "So, what's for dinner?"
>>>>
Barry
While Iris cooked in the kitchen, Joe spoke to her.
Caitlin and Ronnie retreated upstairs to unpack.
Parker meant to watch the program with Barry, but after she'd curled up on the couch, her head in Barry's lap, she fell asleep.
One hand was stroking her head rhythmically, the other held a photo of himself and his mother.
For a while, he looked back and forth between the two women, dreaming what it would have been like if they met, if they were all together. He wanted nothing more than that.
There was such a peaceful look on Parker's face. Her hands were laid on top of one another, resting under her cheeks. The black curls attached to her head draped across her cheeks, a little blanket for the exposed skin on her neck and shoulders.
A blanket was thrown over Parker, and her legs tucked further in, snuggling into the warmth. Barry nodded thankfully at Joe.
"She's sleeping," Barry confirmed for Joe.
"Should I not have told you? I can't help but feeling like I just handed you a brand new burden."
"Yeah," Barry mumbled, his hand stroking up and down Parker's arm. "But it's our burden, isn't it?"
Joe smiled, the metaphorical weight gradually decreasing from his shoulders. He nodded and took a seat at the end of the couch, the only space for him, since Parker and Barry occupied the rest.
"Joe, can I ask you something?"
When he nodded, Barry tore his eyes away. He knew in his heart the answer to the question. Without asking, he'd known. But confirmation was something wanted.
"How did you two know the blood in the house belonged to me? You would have had to test it specifically."
Joe folded his hands together. He preformed the normal nervous habits-- fiddling of the hands, not meeting the eyes, etc.
"Parker tested them to every person who worked at S.T.A.R. Labs," Joe covered.
Barry scoffed under his breath. If Joe consulted Parker--a sketch artist-- on a murder case, it wasn't for her drawing skills.
At the time, Barry was clueless to Parker's suspicion about Dr.Wells, but he had picked up on the fact that she wasn't fond of him. Based on the fact that Joe already told Barry of his suspicion, everything clicked.
"You wanted to know if belonged to Wells?"
Joe didn't answer, telling Barry the answer he needed.
"Dr.Wells had nothing to do with my mother's murder. Do you believe that now?"
Joe nodded.
"Dinners ready!"
>>>>>
Parker
Parker was shaken awake by Barry. It wasn't for dinner, it was after dinner. The excuse for not waking her was because she looked so peaceful.
"You suck, and I'm hungry," Parker grumbled.
Barry hooked an arm under her leg and the other around her shoulder, carrying her from the couch and to the S.T.A.R. Labs van. He set her in the passengers seat, due to Caitlin begging Barry to not let her drive.
Just for that, Parker whined the entire ride for Barry to stop at a drive thru.
Caitlin did the mom response and said, "There's food at the Cortex."
The first thing Parker did was head straight to the kitchen. When she had a plate of pancakes doused with syrup and surrounded by strawberries, she happily bounced to the Cortex.
A manly scream sounded.
Parker's brow furrowed and she gripped her plate tighter, jogging into the Cortex. She followed the screaming to the back, and found Ronnie was the source.
"What's going on with Ronnie?" Parker asked.
"It's not happening to Ronnie. It's happening to Stein and Ronnie is feeling his pain. Their connection is getting stronger.." Dr.Wells observed.
"And what happened to Stein?" Parker asked.
"Got kidnapped by Eiling," Barry said.
Parker rolled her eyes, swallowing her food. She stabbed the fork through a piece, annoyed that she was annoyed in the first place.
"Water," Ronnie mumbled repeatedly.
Cisco handed the glass to Ronnie. Unexpectedly, Ronnie dumped the water and smashed the glass onto the table.
Parker was calm until then. Ronnie stabbed the shard into his arm, and Parker screamed, spinning around so she didn't have to look.
"What the hell?! Is he suicidal all of a sudden?" she shouted.
"No, he's carving a message.." Barry mumbled to her as he figured it out. "Caitlin, let him!"
"He's cutting himself!" Caitlin snapped.
"But in a good way!" Parker yelled, not very helpfully.
Ronnie's cries of pain stopped. He was heavy panting instead, his eyes scanning the floor frequently, waiting for something to pop up.
"Anything?" Cisco asked.
"Nothing.. Nothing, it's just cold."
Parker heard the shard clatter against the tray and turned around, continuing her breakfast.
"Tap, tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap, tap, tap."
"Morse code?" Dr.Wells tried.
"Do all old people know Morse code?" Parker muttered.
Cisco grabbed a clipboard full of paper and started scribbling the pen across the paper. A minute later, he figured out the Morse code translated into a number: twenty-seven.
"Army bases sometimes go by numbers," Barry guessed. "Area fifty one?"
Parker handed him her plate of pancakes and retreated to the computer. She used their satellite to search any near army bases and found an abandoned army base, numbered twenty-seven.
"I'm going," Ronnie called after Barry.
"No, you can't!" Caitlin disagreed.
Parker rolled her eyes. Of course, the whole 'I can't lose him' thing would come into play, right when someone was in danger. They were wasting time.
Parker tuned out the whole conversation between Caitlin and Ronnie. She caught the kiss, she fake-gagged, and then Barry and Ronnie left together.
Upon entering the base, Barry saved Stein and proceeded to get exposed to a weaponized phosphorus.
"Water or foam won't extinguish it," Cisco said, looking for Dr.Wells to help.
Parker grabbed the speaker that was connected to Ronnie's earpiece and pressed down on it, letting her main focus rest on him.
"Ronnie, where are you?"
"Stein and I are hiding. What happened to Barry?"
"He's.." Parker trailed off.
She scooted back a few steps and looked at the screen dedicating to the tracker. Barry's red dot was running in circles.
"Let's just say he's occupied," she muttered. "Listen, I know you to probably don't want to, but you need to merge if you're going to get out alive."
Dr.Wells rolled next to Parker and leaned towards the speaker, his expertise needed.
"Parker's right. But if you're going to do that, you must not fight it. Accept the change, the balance, accept each other."
"Cait, whatever happens just remember, I'll always love you."
Parker watched Barry's red dot go in circles. A couple minutes later, Barry ran out of the circle.
"That was a lot of running!" he gasped, panting. "Ronnie? Home?"
"Yeah," came Ronnie's response.
>>>>>
On the fly home, Martin and Ronnie had internally decided they couldn't stay. When they came back to S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin already knew what they needed to do.
"How?" Ronnie wondered.
Caitlin sadly smiled. "I'm connected to you too."
Parker leaned against Barry, a quiet. "Aw.." coming from her pouty lips.
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