Almost - A Flash and Arrow crossover

Chapter 20

Joe, accepting defeat, walked over to the chair beside Barry. It had just occurred to him, Barry didn't know him yet. In the time Barry had lost his memories, he'd never even met Joe. And that scared him. The thought of Barry, his son, not knowing who he was petrified Joe.

He didn't even want to know what Iris would have to say about the whole situation.

"Detective," Began Stein, wondering over to stand next to the dark-skinned man. "I'm sure Barry will be fine. His speed should heal the majority of his injuries in no time. He just needs rest."

Joe nodded. "But I'm staying here until he wakes up!"

Martin patted Joe on the arm, said "Of course." and sat in front of the computer screens.

A couple of minutes passed. Ronnie had moved to seat himself beside his partner, Felicity was tenderly wiping the dried blood from Barry's face, Caitlin was attempting to bring down the swelling and trying to judge how to sort Barry's nose. However, Cisco stood trembling slightly at the foot of the bed. Joe surveyed the man. His eyes were glued to Barry, wide and shining as he held back tears.

Slowly, the detective pushed himself out of the chair beside Barry and tapped the young scientist on the shoulder.

"Cisco, I think I left something in the car. Mind giving me a hand?"

Cisco jumped at the sudden touch, but soon smiled goofily and replied.

"Sure. Be back in a minute guys."

With a wave of his hand, he trailed behind Joe en route to the lift.

Halfway there, the detective pulled back. Cisco imitated his action.

"Cisco," Joe fixed the boy with a soft but serious look. "What's wrong?"

Cisco looked away. "What?" He laughed nervously. "Pfft, nothing. Nothing's wrong. I'm good. Well, not good, but I'm OK. Kinda. Almost good. Half way the-"

"Cisco ..."

"Joe, this is scaring me."

Well, Joe thought, certainly wasn't expecting that quick a response.

"What's scaring you?"

"This whole thing." Cisco was back to wringing his hands. Classic giveaway of unease. Joe didn't want to push him, but he wanted to help.

"I mean, like the memory-loss stuff. Barry and Oliver can't remember a single thing, except a few names and faces. And they aren't ..."

"Aren't what?"

"Aren't them." He quipped. "The old Oliver. The old Barry. They're different. You should of seen them. They didn't exactly get on earlier."

"Cisco?" Joe asked.

"Yeah?"

"Did Oliver do that to Barry?"

Cisco looked downright terrified.

"We, um, we don't know yet." he stuttered. "But Joe? Don't, um, don't do anything stupid. They aren't who they were. Either of them."

Nodding, Joe gestured for Cisco to continue.

"But Barry, he's reckless. He's had the brunt of it all. The concussion, the almost passing out, the beating, everything. And Oliver, he's always angry. He's just uncontrollable. What happens if they don't get their memories back Joe? What happens if they're like this forever? What ha-"

"Cisco, listen to me," Joe stepped forward and placed both of his hands on each of the younger man's shoulders. "You've faced Meta's before. You've worked with the Arrow before. Barry's been through worse than this. The bee's, remember that?" Cisco nodded. "And Grodd. Barry got flung into a wall and had aGorilla torturing his mind! And guess what Cisco? You, as a team, pulled through. You beat them. You stopped the threat. You won!"

Cisco smiled sheepishly.

"And as for Oliver ... with me around, I think he might be a little more careful about losing control, eh? We'll just have to keep them apart. "

Joe winked and made Cisco giggle.

The detective smiled too. Ruffling Cisco's hair, they turned around and made their way back to the cortex.

"Joe?"

Joe looked down into big, round chestnut eyes. "Yeah?"

"Thanks."

{A/N}

Helloooo my broadheads! TechnicalArrowhead here, and welcome back to another Author's Note! Uh... yeah. Anyways...

I've been quite inactive on Wattpad recently. Mainly Animorphs and Almost because they take longer to type. My internet is crappy right now! So, hopefully sometime soon, I'll be getting better internet. I already typed out some of the upcoming chapters or Almost and Animorphs though.

Okay, so I should get going. Stuff to do (Shhhh I'm actually going to be eating foodstuffs). So may the speedforce me with you!

~ Copyright, 'Almost,' by TechnicalArrowhead. All rights reserved (to me). Not obeying the copywrite rules will result in being reported.