What Tears Us Apart(Sequel to What Brings Us Together)

Chapter Forty-Three: When You're Ready

We got back to STAR Labs, after taking the Meta to Iron Heights, though I had no clue who he was or how we caught him.

"Iris West-Allen, I know BA-edness when I see it, and that was raw, unrefined, cage-free, non-GMO BA right there!" Cisco told her.

"You dove off a building." Caitlin pointed out.

"For me." Barry said. I nudged Thomas' arm and he looked down at me.

"Iris jumped off of a building?" I whispered. His smiled fell, and I saw Cisco looking at us, and Thomas gave him a knowing look. That can't be good.

"Yeah, I guess I kinda did."

"What was going through your mind?" Nora asked.

"Uh, 'please God, don't let me drop this key'?"

"I mean, weren't you afraid? You're not a speedster."

"No, I'm not. But my husband and my partner and my best friend is." Ralph put a hand on my back, which suddenly reminded me that I'm a terrible person.

"Well, not to interrupt this wonderful moment that I just interrupted but you know, I helped defeat that boneless bozo too."

"Mhm."

"And that wasn't so easy. And that...gosh that mask. It was like one of those porcelain dolls that's gonna kill you while you sleep." I furrowed m eyebrows.

"I thought it was more like a Ragdoll." Cisco said. "Yeah, that's right, still got it, hold your applause."

"I guess its off to Iron Heights for Slippery old Ragdoll." We all went our separate ways, and Thomas and Cisco dragged me off to somewhere we could talk privately.

"Ok, so what's with the look?" Cisco asked.

"Laura has no idea what just happened." Thomas told me.

"What?!" Cisco exclaimed. I shrugged.

"I don't know. I was in the lab with you guys and then next thing I know, I'm in the street with Barry, Iris, and Ralph. I don't know how I got there."

"Using your powers must've triggered some short term memory loss." Thomas stated. "That's not a good sign."

"Do you think it'll be permanent?" I asked. "Do you think I just forgot that one thing or that I'm going to start forgetting everything short-term wise?"

"The only way we'll know the answer to that is if it starts happening." Thomas said. I pushed my hair back with one hand, sighing in frustration.

"Why does this have to be happening to me?" I asked. "Like what...what did I do to deserve this?" Thomas put a hand on my back. 

"You didn't do anything. You don't deserve this. Its a sucky situation but...we're going to find a way to get through this ok?" 

"It might be easier to get through if you had your family to support you." I sighed, looking at Cisco. "It wasn't a push, It was merely a suggestion. You know Ralph has always been good at calming you down."

"Can we please, for the hundredth time, not talk about if I'm going to tell them or not?" I asked.

"Ok, ok, that was the last time, I swear." Cisco told me. I nodded. 

"Good."

~~~

We relocated to the Med-bay, where Caitlin began to change the bandages on Cisco's hands.

"Here, let me give you hand with that." Thomas volunteered, taking Cisco's other hand.

"Shirly and I were talking," Ralph began, "And while we realized our styles are very different, what we both like-"

"Is a good mystery." They said together.

"So we put our heads together and after some intellectual hair pulling, we realized that if your mom wasn't lying..."

"And Tannhauser was still somehow involved..." Sherloque added.

"There's only one sure place somebody could hide without anyone knowing about it."

"A Tannhauser Black-Ops site." Caitlin realized.

"There you go."

"I mean, they've got dozens of them. They were safe houses to test dangerous pathogens for the CDC but Mom hasn't taken a government job in years. They'd all be shut down."

"I mean... there's no safer place to hide than a place that's abandoned. No one would ever think to go look." I said. They all looked at me. "We're talking about your Dad being alive, right?"

"We found out that he knew about Killer Frost, and mabe even created her in the first place." Caitlin told me.

"Seriously?" I asked. She nodded.

"Ok, so how do we find them?"

"Without Sally?" Ralph asked. "Have you tried Google?"

"Yes, we just use their satellite."

"I don't think we can use someone else's satellite."

"Or maybe we can." Cisco got up, rushing out of the room to the Cortex and we all followed after him. "When DeVoe took over Sally, he also launched four of his own satellites to bring about the enlightenment, but now that he's gone, maybe we can work around the...multiplexed burst-model channels and the inter-SV handoff."

"Do you..." Ralph started in my ear.

"I barely ever have any clue what he's saying." I said quietly, leaning back against him. A sign popped onto the screen saying 'System Accessed'.

"We've got eyes and ears." Cisco confirmed. "We've got eyes and ears!"

"I knew you could do it." Caitlin told him. They high-fived and he winced.

"Oh, sorry."

 "That was dumb. Ladies and Gentleman, may I introduce you too," He stood up gesturing towards the screen, "HAL, Robbie, DATA, and Colossus."

"I don't really like those names." Sherloque said. "But nonetheless, those can help us in tracking the shards from the satellite?"

"These babies can help with anything and everything."

"Well, once we figure out which one hit Cicada, we can figure out how he got his abilities, maybe find some kind of a weakness." Ralph pointed out.

"So, what we are waiting for?" Sherloque asked, hitting Ralph's arm with the back of his hand.

"I'll see you later." Ralph told me. I nodded, kissing him briefly before he left. Cisco turned around.

"Caitlin? Do you know what this means? We can locate your father." I put a hand on her back, and Thomas lightly touched her shoulder.

"Wait, wait, I uh..." She trailed off.

"Isn't this what you wanted?"

"It is, I just..."

"Your scared," Thomas finished for her. "Its a huge thing." She nodded in agreement.

"Ok," Cisco said, "When you're ready."

"Thanks."