𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑 ― b. allen ² ✓

SEVEN

"And that's where Ronnie came in," Cisco replied.

"Yes, and now that Ronnie is no longer a part of Professor Stein—"

"Those molecules don't have anything to bond to," Barry finished.

"And the longer he goes without merging, the more unstable he becomes," Caitlin explained.

"Ugh," Cisco commented, basically saying all of their feelings out loud. "All right, so, what do we do?"

"We find another . . . participant."

"Okay, cool, so, how do we do that? Are we just gonna make a Tinder app for potential Metahumans? 'Cause I'm pretty sure merging with Stein and randomly bursting into flames sounds like the biggest swipe left of all time."

"But even if we do find another participant who's willing, Stein can't just merge with anyone," Juliet added.

"No, he can't, but I have done some research, and I found two potential candidates that might be compatible with him," Caitlin voiced, walking up behind the computers and pulling up two pictures of people — Henry Hewitt and Jefferson Jackson. "They both were affected by the dark matter, and they were both admitted to the hospital showing symptoms of gene rearrangement mutation. And they both share the same blood type as Professor Stein and Ronnie."

"All right," Barry said. "I mean, this is more than an organ donation. We'll need more than tissue typing to see if their bodies are compatible."

"If I can isolate the genetic locus of the two candidates and cross-reference it with the mutations in Professor Stein, I might be able to find a match and save his life."

"What do you need to do that?"

Turns out, she needed a blood sample. Juliet immediately looked up at Barry, her eyebrow raised. Barry let out a deep breath and pressed a kiss to her hair before speeding off.

Barry sped back into the lab, holding two test tubes full of red liquid. "All right, blood samples from both potential candidates."

"Damn, that was fast even for you," Cisco told him.

"I may have skipped the asking for permission part."

"Oh, so you're a blood stealer now?" Juliet inquired.

"Shut up, J," Barry responded, but there was a small smile on his face.

Caitlin took the two samples. "Let's see if we can't find a match."

While Caitlin and Cisco were doing that, Juliet and Barry did have to go back to work. She was in the midst of walking down the stairs from her lab with a case in her hand, leaving Barry behind to finish up something.

"Jules?" a familiar voice called, and Juliet turned on the stairs, seeing Patty walk up to her. "Hey, uh, I was actually just looking for you, or Barry — mostly you." Patty fell into step beside her. "Wait, am I allowed to call you Jules? I — I just heard a bunch of the others—"

"You're fine," Juliet approved, giving her a small smile despite the weird air between them after what happened. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to show you this." Patty handed her a bag. "These were just found in an alley off of Eastwood Avenue."