⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗘

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
fate & destiny

⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

JULIET WOKE UP the next morning to a splitting headache.

She groaned, her eyes slowly fluttering open. Juliet saw a familiar ceiling and looked down. She was in Oliver Queen's bed alone and the sunlight was peeking through the curtains. Juliet pushed herself up, the covers falling off of her to reveal her wearing one of Oliver's shirts and a pair of his sweatpants. She pressed her palm to her forehead. God, how much did she drink last night?

"Good morning," Oliver's voice stated, and she looked over to see him standing in the doorway with a glass of water.

Juliet might've been shit-faced drunk, but she could still recall Oliver acting strange around her when she came. She lowered her hand from her forehead and lowered it back into her lap. Oliver walked further into the room and handed her the glass of water along with two pain pills.

"Hey," Juliet responded. "Thanks."

"No problem." Oliver watched as she put the pills in her mouth and swallowed them with water. "Do you remember anything?"

She slowly nodded. "Uh, yeah, a little bit. Sorry for showing up so randomly, by the way."

"It's all right. I'm glad you did, because . . . we need to talk."

"Okay." She sat up a little straighter. "What's up?"

"I'm sorry I didn't answer your texts," Oliver told her, staring ahead at the wall. "But, Jules . . . I've been thinking. Thinking that we — we need to end whatever we have."

She would be lying if she said she wasn't expecting that, but it still felt like an absolute punch to the stomach. Juliet averted her gaze from looking at him to looking at her lap, watching the sunlight shine on the water in the glass she was holding. She could feel her heart sink into her stomach. Maybe her and Oliver weren't meant to last, but they still could've had something. They did have something.

"Oh," she whispered.

If Oliver really believed that, she wasn't going to fight for them. She didn't want to keep holding onto something when the other person didn't show any interest. Juliet knew she was worth more than that. It might've hurt, but she clearly had to let . . . whatever they had go.

"It's not you," Oliver voiced. "It's really not. You — you're amazing, Jules. Incredible."

"But . . ."

He let out a breath. "I don't believe a lot in fate and destiny, Juliet. But there's something telling me that you and I aren't meant to be together." Oliver paused for a moment. "You like Barry. I know you do."

Juliet gave a small laugh that was humorless. "Is it that obvious?"

"To everyone but him, apparently."

"I'm sorry, Ollie. I just want you to know I didn't use you to . . . to, like, get over him, or something. I really, really like you."

"I also really like you," Oliver revealed. "But we're just . . . not right."

Juliet reached over and took his hand. "I wish we were."

Oliver squeezed her hand. "Me too."

"I know you like Felicity." Juliet looked over at him when he went silent. "Come on, I see the way you look at her."

"We're so perfect for each other, and yet we're pining over people. I — I can't be with Felicity."

"Fate may have different plans for you," Juliet argued lightly. "And maybe our destiny is just to stay friends. That's coming from someone who does believe a lot in fate and destiny."

Oliver finally looked at her. "I don't regret anything, Jules."

"I don't either. You made me feel . . . wanted."

"You deserve to feel like that."

Juliet's phone then buzzed. She glanced over at it on the bedside table and picked it up. There were multiple missed calls from Barry, a couple of texts from Iris, and many texts from Barry. The most recent one was Oliver texted me that you were with him. But please don't disappear on me like that again, I nearly had a heart attack. With one hand, Juliet replied, Sorry, see you later.

"He likes you back," Oliver said. "I know he does."

"No he doesn't," Juliet refused. "You're just saying that to make me feel better."

"I'm saying that because it's true."

"Kind of crazy how you literally just broke up with me and we're acting perfectly normal."

Oliver gave her a tiny smile, a rare sight for him, but normal to her. "That's because we're Jules and Ollie."

Juliet nudged his shoulder with hers. "Felicity likes you back, too." She sighed. "I — um, I should probably get back . . ."

"Yeah." He squeezed her hand again. "We were something, don't you think so?"

She felt tears prick at the back of her eyes. "We were." Juliet leaned over and pressed one final kiss to his cheek. "Thank you, Ollie. For everything."

Juliet stood up from the bed. She teleported back into the clothes that she had worn last night that had been discarded to the floor. Juliet handed him the clothes that he had let her borrow with a tiny, sad smile.

"Bye, Oliver," she whispered.

"Bye, Juliet," he replied quietly.

With that, Juliet closed her eyes and teleported back to her apartment. Once she was inside alone, she let a tear fall down her cheek. She knew Oliver and her would be okay as friends. It still hurt, however, being broken up with when she really liked him.

She reached up and wiped it away. No, later. Right now, there was still a teleporting Metahuman on the list.

Juliet walked into her bedroom and caught sight of herself in the mirror. God, she looked like a mess. Her hair was all knotted and there was mascara all underneath her eyes. Juliet thought fuck it and got in the shower. She felt a lot better when she was finished, feeling a lot less gross and sticky.

She put her hair in a side braid with two front pieces pulled out when it was a little less wet. Juliet got dressed in a new outfit, including a black zip-up hoodie of Barry's that she had taken a while ago. Her lingering headache from her hangover was still there, but it wasn't bad.

Pull yourself together, Juliet.

Juliet instantly teleported to S.T.A.R. Labs. She arrived in the hallway by the elevator, where she saw Barry drinking a cup of coffee and Caitlin wearing a pair of sunglasses and a yellow scarf. Clearly, she was not feeling so well.

"J," Barry breathed out, sounding very relieved, reaching out and pulling her into a side hug so he could still hold onto his coffee. "Thank God you're okay."

"I'm okay," Juliet responded.

"You sure? You're wearing that black zip-up hoodie of mine that you wear when you're sad."

"I'll tell you later. Um, sorry my drunk self decided to just leave, I wasn't really thinking straight." She then looked at Caitlin. "How are you doing?"

"Let's just say I envy Barry's inability to get drunk," Caitlin voiced as they started to walk towards the cortex. "I don't remember much from last night."

"Yeah, that's probably for the best," Barry insisted. "Summer loving."

"Oh, God. That I do remember."

Juliet slightly smiled at that, shoving her hands into the pocket of Barry's hoodie. When they walked into the cortex, they were met with the sight of a very angry-looking Dr. Wells and a very guilty-looking Cisco. Her eyes flickered between them in confusion.

"What's wrong?" Barry asked.

"Cisco . . . has something he needs to tell you," Dr. Wells revealed.

"Hartley's gone," Cisco stated.

"You mean he escaped from the pipeline?" Juliet questioned. "I didn't think that was possible."

Cisco shook his head. "I let him out."

Juliet's eyes widened. What the fuck.

He looked at Caitlin. "Are you mad? I can't tell with those glasses on."

"I'd like to yell and wave my arms, but I'm afraid I'd throw up," Caitlin replied.

"Why?" Barry inquired. "What were you thinking? You know how dangerous he is."

"Hartley said he knew what happened to Ronnie," Cisco answered.

Caitlin took off her glasses. "I told you to let it go. I didn't want you looking into that for me."

"I wasn't doing it for you. I . . . I sealed Ronnie into the Accelerator before it blew. He told me to wait two minutes, and I waited, but he didn't come back. And I can't stop thinking, ten, twenty seconds and . . . Ronnie wouldn't be like he is right now. I've wanted to tell you so many times. I'm so sorry."

"So you carried that around this whole time?" Caitlin rounded around the desk. "Do you know what Ronnie would say if he was here? He would say that you did the right thing. It wasn't your fault. What happened that night wasn't anybody's fault. Come on, don't we have a teleporter to catch?"

"We do have a teleporter to catch," Dr. Wells agreed as he wheeled up behind the desk. "And fortunately, we do have a promising theory. Take a look at this." He brought up the sample of what was underneath the microscope on the screen. "Now, this is the normal behavior of the particulate that Shawna left behind. Watch what happens when we remove light."

He turned off the light. The microscope went into night-vision, turning the screen green. All of the cells instantly stopped moving.

"Shawna can only become entangled with something she can see. Take away her ability to do that—"

"She can't teleport," Cisco finished.

"So she didn't completely steal my thing," Juliet commented. "Looks like I'm still in the game. All we have to do is get her in a dark space. But . . . how?"

"It's a valid question," Dr. Wells voiced as Barry walked away to take a phone call.

"Hello?" Barry began. His voice then turned panicked. "What? Yeah, I'll be right there. All right."

Juliet stared at him in concern. "Barr? What's the matter?"

"M-My dad," Barry stammered. "He's been stabbed."

Her eyes widened. "What?"

Barry approached her, his green eyes swimming with panic. "Will you come with me? J, please come with me."

"Yeah — yeah, okay." She took his hand and frowned at the way it was shaking. "Come on."

She teleported the two of them to outside the prison, where they met Joe. The three of them went into the prison and were brought to the hospital there. Henry was sitting in a hospital bed, hooked up to a bunch of machines. He had bruises all over his face. Barry sat in the chair next to the bed while Juliet and Barry stood at the edge of the bed.

"Dad . . . what — what happened?" Barry asked.

"A rather stern reminder, I'd say, not to poke around Marcus Stockheimer's business," Henry admitted.

"Dad, I told you to stop."

"Your dad called me with more intel," Joe stated. "It helped us track down Clay and Shawna and arrest Stockheimer."

"And I managed to screw up Marcus' big heist, too, so . . ." Henry added, smirking smugly.

Barry looked at Joe. "You two kept working together and you didn't tell me?"

"Well, it isn't his fault. I did it to help you."

"You getting stabbed and beaten is not helping me."

"Look, I — I — I — I don't get to feel useful very much in here," Henry protested. "So if I can help you for a change, I'm gonna want to be there for you. Just like you've been there for me all these years."

Barry nodded slightly. "Yep."

He reached forwards and took his dad's hand in his. Juliet grinned softly, placing a hand on Barry's shoulder and rubbing her thumb back and forth on the fabric of his coat.

"You said Marcus had a big heist coming up?" Joe questioned.

"Mm," Henry confirmed.

"Do you know anything else about it?"

"Dad, tell me who did this to you," Barry pleaded.

"No, it doesn't matter, slugger," Henry protested.

"But you said you want to help me. So help me."

"One of Marcus' boys. Julius."

Barry looked up at Juliet. They communicated a plan through their eyes.

Once they got information of which cell was Julius', Juliet and Barry quickly got into their suits which were left back at S.T.A.R. Labs. Juliet waited outside the prison gates for Barry. He came out in the matter of seconds with a guy that was wearing a bandana and had tattoos on his arms.

Julius looked around. "What the hell?"

"Evening, Julius," Barry greeted, and Juliet gave him a small wave with a sickly-sweet smile.

"How'd I get out here?"

"You escaped."

"They catch me trying to escape, they're gonna add five years to my sentence," Julius said.

"It's actually ten," Juliet corrected. "So you'd better tell us where Marcus Stockheimer's next job is going to be." The alarms then sounded from the prison and she glanced back at it for a moment. "The guards will be here any second, so I suggest you start talking."

"Okay! Okay. It's a TDK and money transfer truck coming from the federal reserve bank in St. Louis. Supposed to be millions. Delivery's around eight o'clock. That's all I know, I swear."

"That's right now," Barry voiced.

He snagged Juliet's waist in his arms and ran her away, completely leaving Julius behind for the guards to get him. Serves him right for stabbing Henry. Juliet couldn't really see what was going on until they stopped. Barry set her down, and the two of them stood side-by-side in a tunnel. They were blocking the pathway of a car that had Shawna and Clay in it.

Shawna teleported out of the car. "Why the hell do you care what we do? Are you a cop or something?"

"Something," Barry confirmed.

Shawna took out a pair of nunchakus. Juliet and Barry went to approach her, but Shawna teleported behind them, striking Barry in the back. She kept teleporting around the two, striking them when they least expected it. Juliet felt anger rise in her veins. She was the one who had better teleportation skills.

Juliet teleported right in front of Shawna and grabbed the arm that was holding her weapon. Shawna instantly teleported them up onto a crane. She leaned forwards and kicked the construction worker off. Barry sped forwards and caught him.

She tightened her grip on Shawna and teleported them back to the ground. Juliet dodged a punch Shawna threw her way and threw her own punch. She struck Shawna right in the face, causing her to stumble back into more construction equipment. Juliet then kicked her in the stomach, causing her to go backwards even further. Her body was buzzing with energy, and she could feel the red energy sparking at her fingertips.

The car then sped forwards. Juliet looked back at it, her eyes widening. She felt Barry speed her to the side out of the car's way as Shawna teleported back inside the car.

"Barry, Juliet, remember — she cannot teleport if she cannot see," Dr. Wells told them. "Limit her field of vision."

Juliet summoned a ball of red energy in her hand. She teleported back to where the car was going, throwing the energy at the lights so that they broke. Juliet continued to do that. Barry helped her by running up the wall and smashing the lights she didn't already get with a wrench. Soon enough, the whole tunnel had no more lights in it. The only ones left were the headlights.

She focused on inside the car at the light stick dial. Juliet could even picture it in her brain, which was new. She slightly tilted her hand, turning the lights to off. Just for good measure, Barry ran back and slid onto the hood of the car, smashing the headlights.

The car stopped. Juliet walked up to the passenger side door and opened it, Barry standing at her side. They both looked down at Shawna. She was the only one in the car, and tears were in her eyes.

"He left me," Shawna voiced, looking over to the empty drivers seat, where Clay once was.

Juliet felt her own tears start to fill her eyes. She knew what that was like, considering Oliver literally broke up with her mere hours ago. He might've not left her completely like Clay did with Shawna, but Juliet felt her pain.

They brought Shawna back to S.T.A.R. Labs and put her in a cell in the pipeline. Juliet, now back in her regular clothes, watched as Shawna looked around the cell as she hugged Barry's black hoodie around her. Standing there with her was Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin. In a panic, Shawna started to teleport in her cell. However, she couldn't get out.

"Is there any way she can teleport out of this?" Barry inquired..

"It's impossible," Cisco answered. "It's one-way glass. It's mirrored on the inside. No one dangerous is ever gonna get out of this thing again."

Barry walked closer to the cell. "Shawna. Clay left you. He's out there, and you're in here."

"You know what the crazy thing is?" Shawna countered. "I still love him."

Juliet frowned.

Barry looked back. "Cisco."

Cisco closed the door to the pipeline. Juliet started to walk out of there, standing in between Barry and Caitlin.

"Crazy is right," Caitlin agreed.

"Some people are worth being crazy for," Barry responded.

Juliet snuck a quick glance at Barry. She was crazy for him — that hadn't stopped when she was with Oliver, even though it was masked with how much she liked him. Somehow, Juliet started to kind of believe Oliver and Iris' words about how Barry liked her.

Maybe their destiny was to end up together. Nobody knew.

"I'm sorry if I was a bit of a drunken mess the other night," Caitlin continued.

Juliet nodded. "Same."

"Actually, it was pretty fun," Barry said.

"Yeah, it was," Caitlin stated.

"You know what? I think everybody's been right about you and me. Both of us have been hung up on people for way too long."

"If what Cisco says is true, that Ronnie merged with Martin Stein, then he's not alive anymore. Time for me to move on. Find someone new to be crazy about." Caitlin poked Juliet's arm. "And you, how crazy are you about Oliver?"

Juliet averted her gaze to the floor. "Uh, not much anymore. We — um . . . we broke up this morning."

"Oh my God, Jules, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. We weren't meant to last." Juliet looked up and met Barry's eyes for a moment. "I'll see you guys tomorrow. I'm going to go see Iris and cry and eat ice cream."

And that's exactly what she did. Juliet sat on her best friend's couch, a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream in her hand, letting all of her feelings out that she had been bottling up all day.

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. . . I'm so sorry. I hope I wrote it well :)

bruh the whole juliet-barry-oliver situation is the way I loved you by taylor swift in a fucking nutshell