"𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑑𝑜𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 . . . 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑑𝑜𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡."
― 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝐷𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑛𝑠, 𝐻𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠

— 𝒮 —

𝐇𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐃𝐋𝐘 𝐏𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 the skirt of her black dress, Sophia rushed into STAR Labs.

She gave a small groan as she saw the large crowd and heard the booming voice of Dr. Wells as he continued his speech. It had already started. And she was late.

The crowd of about a hundred people watched in awe as Dr. Wells spoke, some holding up their phones to record while others took the moment in. She had been like them once—holding onto every word that came out of the great Dr. Wells' mouth. And though she got used to it, she still could sense her inner nerdy fangirl freaking out whenever he talked to her.

Another group of people stood near the back, holding signs of protest, although they remained silent. She wasn't too surprised about that; the particle accelerator would be a big advancement, and people were frightened about what that would mean. She pitied their narrow-minded thinking.

"And trust me, the future will be here faster than you think," Dr. Wells, who was wearing a sharp suit and a confident smile, told his audience. He took notice of Sophia as she speed-walked towards the elevator, giving her a nod of greeting before proceeding to address the gathering of people.

She impatiently tapped her foot as the elevator went down, praying that the doors would open soon. They did only a moment later, and she rushed out to head towards the Cortex.

The Cortex was bursting with scientists and excitement, and light chatter filled the air as everyone waited for the arrival of Dr. Wells. Sophia could feel the enthusiasm and tension elevate with every second that passed, and, she had to admit, she too was growing nervous.

How could she not? Something they had been working towards for the past couple of years was about to be put into motion. Something that they had worked night and day on, missed important holidays and friends' birthdays for. Something that made Sophia cry almost every day whenever she became frustrated with the equations and blueprints that just weren't working.

But now, it all came down to this night. And, damn, was it worth it.

The particle accelerator was ready to be launched.

Cisco was at the front desk, his back turned towards Sophia as he typed into the computer on the right. She smiled as she watched his fingers fly across the keyboard; she loved this boy with all of her heart.

She walked up to him, nudging his side. He spun around to face her, and his eyes immediately lit up.

"Sophia! Oh, damn, look at you." He raised his eyebrows as he examined the cocktail dress she was wearing, and a grin grew onto his face. "You look good, girl."

"Thank you," she giggled before taking in the tie that he had loosely put on over a button-up. She eyed the casual zip-up sweater that he had over it, and chuckled, "Glad to see you took the effort to dress up."

He grinned. "Oh, yeah. Super profesh."

"Well . . ." She reached her hands towards his tie and quickly tightened it. "Now you're super profesh."

"Thanks. Anyway, I was just gonna check the weather report; make sure everything's clear." He turned back around to face the computer. "Oh, shit."

"Oh, shit?" Sophia came to his side, leaning over and peering at the computer screen, which showed that the forecast was predicting a thunderstorm. Her eyes widened. "Oh, shit. We have to find and tell—oh, there he is."

The two of them turned to see Dr. Wells enter the Cortex, adjusting his blazer as he stepped in. Immediately, they walked towards him, the man giving them a side glance and raised eyebrows.

"Dr. Wells, we just got the latest weather report. A big thunderstorm is rolling in," Cisco warned as they walked over to a monitor at the back, whose screen was displaying the blueprint of the particle accelerator.

"We're not launching a space shuttle. We'll be fine," Dr. Wells reassured the both of them as he slipped his hands into his pockets.

Sophia exchanged a worried glance with Cisco as they stopped in front of the monitor. Dr. Wells, on the other hand, smiled at the screen. But what could they do? He was the one in charge.

Sophia nodded toward Cisco, and the two of them walked back over to the main desk. She typed a few things into the computer on the left before straightening up, a grin on her face.

"Dr. Wells," she called, causing him to turn towards her, "the accelerator is primed and ready for particle injection."

Dr. Wells' smile grew as he began to walk toward the main desk. "Well, I feel I should say something profound. Like, one small step for man . . ." He stopped at the middle computer, now standing in between Sophia and Cisco as the other scientists gathered around.

Sophia gave a small wave of hello to Caitlin and Ronnie as they approached. The adorable couple was yet another couple of people with whom she was close, and she was more than excited for their wedding that was to take place within the next couple of months.

"All I can think of to say," Dr. Wells continued, "is I feel like I waited for this day for centuries."

After a tense moment, he leaned forward and pressed his hand against the screen, confirming his identity.

There was a whirring sound that filled the air as the collision was initiated, causing all of them to look up towards the wall. Of course, they couldn't actually see anything.

"That's it?" Cisco questioned, his eyebrows raised. "You'd think there'd be like a . . . loud bang."

"If there was a loud bang," Ronnie replied with a small frown, "we'd all be in big trouble."

"Take it from the guy who helped build it." Caitlin smiled as she looked over at him, receiving a similar smile in return.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we did it," Dr. Wells announced, receiving applause from everyone around him.

Sophia and Cisco exchanged a fist bump as Dr. Wells picked up a bottle of champagne and uncorked it. The cork flew through the air, everyone's eyes on it as it landed on the other side of the room.

Dr. Wells' grin faded as champagne began to float out of the bottle, the fizzy liquid rising up through the air.

Suddenly, it splattered to the ground just as an alarm began to blare, drawing everyone's attention. The lights shut off, encasing them in darkness before a noisy crash ensued.

Nervously, Cisco looked over to Ronnie and questioned, "Was that . . . ?"

Ronnie's nod was grim. "A loud bang."

Immediately, everyone flew into action to figure out what was wrong. Sophia typed furiously into the computer as Cisco leaned over her shoulder to watch, her eyebrows furrowing before she found the answer.

"There's an anomaly in the core chamber," she told them hurriedly as she looked up.

Caitlin, who was over at the other computer, stated, "Ring structural integrity is holding."

Dr. Wells looked towards the middle one, his hands gripping the desk. "It started a chain reaction, we need to shut it down."

"We can't from here." Cisco straightened up before nodding and telling him, "We'll do it manually."

"Go!" Dr. Wells exclaimed, making a shooing motion with his hand to emphasize his words.

Sophia, Cisco, Caitlin, and Ronnie turned around to head out the entrance before Dr. Wells grabbed onto Sophia's arm.

She nodded for the others to go on before turning to Dr. Wells. "Yes?"

"You should—" Dr. Wells' eyes looked around frantically as he searched for the right words. "You should go upstairs."

"Upstairs?" she echoed in confusion, her eyebrows furrowing as she shook her head. "Why? Shouldn't I go help them?"

He seemed to have regained his confidence as he ordered, "Make sure everyone's out of the building."

"But—"

"Now!"

With a timid nod, she brushed off her skirt and sprinted towards the elevator, groaning internally at the fact that her heels were slowing her down. She dashed into the elevator, jabbing her finger into the floor button multiple times as the doors closed.

As soon as the elevator doors opened again, she ran out to the room, shooing out whoever was still loitering around. After receiving a few grumbled complaints, she looked around the room, giving a small nod to herself once she deemed it free of anyone.

And then she heard the screams.

Panicked, she looked towards the doors, which showed her that the crowds of people that had been standing outside were now scrambling their way out, letting out terrified shrieks as they pushed and shoved.

Both anxious and curious as to why this was happening, Sophia headed towards the doors, pushing them open as she felt the chilly wind brush past her.

She took a few steps out of the door, letting it shut behind her as she peered around at the fleeing people and wondered what was scaring them so badly. Had the crash been that loud?

Just as everyone had cleared out, Sophia gave a small sigh. She figured that she'd head inside and question Cisco what had happened; he and the others should've been done with fixing whatever was wrong by then.

Before she could turn around and head back inside, however, she felt a wave of hot air push her from behind, causing her to drop to her hands and knees, scraping the delicate skin.

Now light-headed, Sophia blinked a few times, her breathing slowing down as she gradually dropped to the ground and lost consciousness.

— 𝒮 —

Sophia groaned softly as her eyes fluttered open to see pavement.

Slowly, she got to her feet, wiping off the dirt and dust that had littered itself all over her dress and legs.

She had an immense headache, but she ignored it as she stumbled her way back inside.

Rubbing the side of her head, she leaned against the back of the elevator as it took her down to the lower level. What the hell had happened?

As soon as she arrived back on the bottom floor, she made her way to the Cortex.

She peered around as she entered, wondering where all the scientists had run off to before realizing that the room was still occupied by a tearful Cisco and a sobbing Caitlin.

All thoughts related to the pain in her head vanished as she saw her two friends, and she immediately rushed up to them, her eyebrows furrowing in concern.

"What's wrong? Where's Ronnie?"

"He—he's—" Caitlin sniffled, using the back of her hand to wipe the flowing tears off of her cheeks as best she could. "He's . . ."

"Ronnie went inside the accelerator to fix it," Cisco said quietly, one hand rubbing Caitlin's back as the other wiped a tear from his eye. "He didn't . . . He didn't make it."

Sophia let out a small gasp, bringing her hand over her mouth as her eyes moistened with tears.

"Cait . . . I . . . I'm so sorry." She gently wrapped her arms around the other woman, holding her tightly as Caitlin sobbed onto her shoulder. She then looked back over towards Cisco, her eyebrows knit tightly together. "Where's . . . Where's Dr. Wells?"

Cisco shook his head. "I—I don't know."

"Shit," she breathed out. "What do we do?"

He shook his head once more, tears more obvious in his eyes as he looked up at her. "I don't know."