Suddenly Super- A Flash Fanfiction

Chapter 8

I think about this long and hard. She was trying to tell us something.

"It could mean anything," Cisco says. Then he continues with, "She lost a lot of blood too, she could have just been delirious."

I shake my head. I know Dawn well enough; she is trying to tell me something.

"She is a genius, guys. She is smarter than all of us. We just need to figure out what she was telling us."

I turn towards Dawn and grab her hand that's not broken. I hold her small, cold hand with both of mine and bring it up to my cheek. "What are you trying to say?" I whisper.

I feel my eyes start to burn then tears well up. I again wonder how such a small person can make such a large impact on my life. I sit there for what feels like forever until I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn to see Iris's grief stricken face. She is staring at Dawn with indescribable eyes. 

The door opens and a short lady with curly blonde hair walks in. Her face is caked with makeup and her hair has so much hairspray that I can smell the fumes from the other side of the room. She is wearing a cheetah print pencil skirt and a matching top. She gasps at the sight of Dawn and rushes over to her.

"Oh my poor girl," she says.

"Who are you?" I ask a little to harshly.

The strange lady looks a bit hurt but then waves it off. "I'm Tina, Dawn's social worker. You must be Barry. Dawn talks about you a lot."

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to see how she was doing. Also I wanted to meet you." She looks down at the floor like she has something else to say. "I am afraid I have terrible news."

I groan. How can anything be more terrible than this.

"Dawn's current foster parents want nothing to do with her in this condition so she will be moved to a new foster home in Coast City.  They are transferring her to another hospital down there tomorrow."

Everyone in the room has the same reaction as me.

"What? No! They can't do that," I burst. Helplessness floods my senses.

"They can."

The idea pops up in my brain so suddenly I almost deny it. What if Dawn had a family? Then she wouldn't have to go.

"How old do you have to be to be a foster parent?"

I see Caitlin's head raise from behind Tina. She knows what I am thinking. Tina looks at me with suspicion but then comes to a certain realization.

"Twenty-one."

"I'm twenty-six."

"I see where you are going with this, Mr. Allen. This is a big deal so I'll give you some time to think about it."

I nod but I already know that I am taking Dawn. The strange lady leaves and as soon as the door closes everyone starts talking to me all at once.

"I don't understand why you guys don't want me to take in Dawn," I say aggravated. Iris sits next to me and takes my hands, but I don't feel like being touched so I pull my hands away.

"Barry, you heard what the nurses said; Dawn has an eight percent chance of waking up and we can't leave her in a coma for the rest of her life. It's not that we don't want you to adopt Dawn, we do, we just don't want to see you hurt."

"I am already going to be hurt if she dies. At least if she belongs to me I can be with her until that happens."

She shakes her head. "Barry, if you adopt Dawn then she will technically be your child-"

"- and loosing a child is something you can never recover from," Harry cuts Iris off. I didn't even know he was in the room until now. Suddenly it's not such a clear decision anymore.

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Harry left with Cisco and Caitlin an hour later. Iris said she was going but she left Wally here with Jesse because, like me, she refused to leave Dawn alone. I am still sitting in the same chair I have been in all day, next to a broken Dawn. Jesse is still trembling from seeing Dawn that first time. I feel like Jesse is a lot older than her genius counterpart, but they are only three years apart. Wally sits next to Jesse, whispering in her ear.

Jesse's eyes are so focused on Dawn that l almost begin to worry. Her facial expression is hard to read; it is almost like she is trying to memorize every detail of Dawn's face. Then she stands up from her chair and walked over to her bedside. She studied the tubes that travel from machines to Dawn's mouth and down her throat. She then moved her glance to the monitors that were reading the beat of Dawn's faint heart. Then her eyes darted towards me.

"Markers, markers, markers.."

Wally and I have the same question on our face. What the-

"It works!" she yells.

"What works?" Wally and I ask in unison.

"Dawn said 'it works with markers'. The medicine we have been working on!"

"Ya but what are markers?" Wally asks.

"Metahumans have certain marks in their DNA. Dawn must have figured it out."

"So how does that help us?"

"Jesse," I say. I think I know what Jesse is thinking. Either that or we have both gone completely crazy. "Call Caitlin now."