archimedes |b. allen|

happy birthday, sam

happy birthday, sam

"Leave them alone, Cisco," I threaten him under my breath for the third time before tightening my pony tail.

"But I can't," he huffs, falling into the chair near the door as I wind back to punch the bag in front of me again. "It's so awkward. They're making it all so awkward. This is worse than when you and Barry were at your peak of sexual tension."

My motions pause all together, faltering for just a moment before I throw my hardest punch yet. It causes the bag to break, sand and cotton and saw dust all fall to the ground, making me sigh and drag myself away from the bag. I grab the roll of duct tape again, taping over the rip I'd just created as quickly as I could.

At what point did we just invest in a new bag?

I'd worked my first shift since my 'car accident' last night. Oddly enough, it was nice to keep the tradition of working on my birthday alive. I'd never had a year with the day off, even somehow school always fell on the 19th of December. I was glad for the excuse to sleep all day, though. I never really cared for making birthdays a big deal. At least, not mine.

"You're a real easy bake oven, you know that?" I quip at him, my glare not matching my playful smile.

"Is that supposed to be an insult?" I throw another punch as he asks this.

"Are you insulted?" I retort with a concentrated brow.

There's a moment of silence as I wait for him to answer. And when I spare him a look over my shoulder, I see that he's pretending to think about it. "You know what? Yeah."

And then he gets up from his chair and goes to bother Caitlin and Jay who've been talking in the viewing room, while he's been 'monitoring' me train. What they're talking about? I couldn't fucking guess. I didn't even care. But Cisco was annoyed about it for some god unknown reason.

"Oh, dear lord, just kiss already," Cisco deadpans, leaning on the wedged open door of the viewing room to interrupt the pair, speaking loudly so I can hear.

"Is everything all right?" Caitlin asks, and I swear I can hear her fake smile.

"Yeah, I keep checking, but all is quiet on the metahuman front—hey, you think Zoom decided to take Christmas off?" Cisco asks from around the corner, and I finally start to unwrap my hands. I had to work again tonight, too. I didn't want to be here too long or push it too far.

I stretch and flex my fingers as I free them from the confines of the gauze and tape as Jay asks what Christmas is, following Cisco and Caitlin out of the viewing room and into the heart of the Cortex, everyone giving me a wave or a smile as they pass by. I give the three of them a nod as Caitlin attempts to explain the holiday, doing so poorly by bringing up the birth of Christ as if he was just some dude (he was, but whatever).

It ends with Jay saying he actually does know what Christmas is, and Cailtin inviting him to the annual Christmas Eve party at the West House.

"They said we could invite whoever we want," Caitlin says vaguely, trying to hint at her Christmas wish.

Cisco is now sitting at one of the desks toward the front of the room, Cait and Jay standing right in the middle. I stretch my neck from side to side as I lean against the doorway of the training room, watching the scene play out.

"Who—who do you want?" Jay asks, stuttering, almost making him appear more human to me. Almost!

"You," she answers immediately, before backpedaling. "I want to invite you, I mean."

"This is so painful," Cisco cuts off their huge smiles, fingers rubbing his temples. "Have you guys seen Harry?"

"Uh, no, I have not, but I told him to rest. Seeing as he's just like all my other patients around here, I can only imagine—"