Madison P.O.V
A part of me wish I ran away from The Flash when I got the chance, but another part of me just wanted to mess with him. That part of me won.
So yeah, Spark flirted with The Flash, but he didn't try to kiss her, I mean me, again. At least he's loyal, and that's what I was counting on. Plus, his reaction was hilarious. After my chat with The Flash, I made my quick exit through the electrical wires and headed straight home, knowing The Flash would race over to S.T.A.R Labs.
When I got there I changed into some sweatpants and a tank top before flipping through Netflix. Before, I could start season 4 of The Office my phone goes off and it's Austin.
"Sup,"
"Are you all pack for tomorrow?"
"Pack?" I ask, reaching for the remote to pause the show.
"See this is why I called. Of course you forgot." Austin chuckled. "Film Awards ring a bell to you?"
"Shit," I mumbled, remembering that Saturday is the Central City Film Awards. "I got to go, but I'll text you."
"What no, 'thank you'?"
"Thank you!" I shout before hanging up and rushing to my room to pack. The reason I have to pack is because we booked a hotel to stay in a day before since the commute uptown is just to long and that's without traffic!
I'm not gonna lie. I'm very nervous about interviewing all the celebrates, nevertheless writing a piece for the newspaper in hopes that my boss likes it. Heck, I'm going behind his back to write this and I'll be lucky if I don't get fired, but it's a risk I'm willing to take.
Sorry no, have to take.
~~~
So I come back home from the Film Awards feeling great and accomplished. My interviews went great and seeing the Awards in real life was amazing. The awards air next Sunday which means I have less then a week to write my piece to be publish for next Saturday newspaper. No pressure.
The first thing I wanted to do when I got home was start my work, but something bigger and more argent came up.
Remember Caitlin's dead fiancé, Ronnie, who turned out not to be dead, but instead is a metahuman who can turn into flames? Yeah, he's back. He also appears to have his body or at least mind connected by some scientist named Martin Stein and Team Flash was working on finding a way to help him.
Mostly due to the fact that he isn't the most... stable. Gosh I hate that word. Anyway he isn't...in the right mindset since he had killed a man. A man named Quentin Quale who was a scientist.
I know I should focus on my article. Caitlin insisted that I work on it besides help, but after all that Caitlin has done for me. I figured this is the least I could do.
"Well, it appears letting Ronnie roam free is no longer an option." says Dr. Wells as he scans the news about the scientist death.
"He's not even Ronnie anymore." Caitlin sighed. "He's Martin Stein walking around in Ronnie's body, like a vampire."
"Why is it that Stein's brain is in control of Ronnie's body, not the other way around?" I ask to no one in particular.
"Simple Darwinism, I suspect." says Dr. Wells as he moves around the room in his wheel chair. "A brand-new organism will select the strongest parts of itself in order to survive. Survival of the fittest. In this case, Ronnie's body, Stein's mind. In any event, he badly hurt an innocent man, and we have hunted meta-humans for less. Caitlin," he looks over at Caitlin with a serious expression. "We need to know that you're on board with what needs to be done here."
Caitlin expression was blank , but instead of answering she asked a question of her own. "How do we find him?" Dr. Wells nodded in understanding and continued.
"Quentin Quale, the scientist that Ronnie attacked, is a former colleague of Martin Stein and if Martin is indeed in control of Ronnie's body, he may be trying to figure out exactly what's happening to him."
"What do we know about him? I don't even know what Stein looks like." says Barry.
Before you ask, everything between Barry and I are fine. He still hasn't mentioned anything about Spark, but I'm letting it slide since at this point I'm just being hypocritical. Sue me.
"This is Martin Stein." says Dr. Wells, pointing behind Barry to s screen with a black and white photo of a white male with grey hair and light brown eyes.
"That's Stein?" Barry asked shocked.
"It is." Caitlin replied.
"I've seen him before." Barry says as he gets a closer look at the photo.
"When?" I ask, curiously.
"On the train, the day the accelerator exploded."
~~~
"Of course I've heard of S.T.A.R. Labs." Mrs. Stein says lightly. She is a very pretty women with long curly blond hair and a tone of voice that was soothing. Motherly even."Martin was always vocal about the competition."
After finding out where Mr. Stein had lived Caitlin, Barry, Dr. Wells and I deiced to head over there and speak with his wife to see if she could be of any help in finding him. Cisco wasn't joining us since he had to help a friend out with something last minute.
Barry told me that when Cisco rushed out the coffee shop this morning to go help his friends, he didn't sound so convincing. I slimily told Barry to have a little faith in Cisco and if it was important for us to know, then he would tell us when he's ready. I'm sure Cisco is fine.
"S.T.A.R. Labs is actually helping the CCPD looking into your husband's disappearance, Mrs. Stein." Barry explains.
"Oh, please. Call me Clarissa." Clarissa smiled, warmly.
"The Conway Prize for Scientific Advancement." says Dr. Wells as he stares at Martin Steins display of trophies. The collection the man had certainly was impressive. It would explain why Dr. Wells voice linger with a hint of jealously.
"Martin was very proud of that one."
"I'd always hoped to win one of these myself." Dr. Wells admits. "Oh, and look at that. He won it three times."
"Takes a special kind of person to make Dr. Wells jealous." Barry chuckled to which Clarissa smiled understandingly.
"Well, Martin had a talent for making people jealous. Even me." Clarissa shyly admits. "I sometimes think Martin loved his theorems and experiments more than he did me."
"I'm sure that's not true." says Caitlin as she approached the small group in the dinning area.
"And you haven't heard from your husband since he disappeared." I ask.
"No."
"Mrs. Stein, could I show you a photograph?" Barry ask while pulling out a picture of Ronnie from his coat pocket, "Have you seen this person before?"
"Yes, I have." Clarissa says warily. "Who is he?"
"Um-"
"He's just a person of interest in your husband's case." I state, covering for Barry. "When did you see him?"
"I started getting the feeling that someone was watching me, and sometimes I still do. And about a month after Martin disappeared, that young man showed up here." Clarisse says. She told us how he came to her house and knew where she had kept her spare key. What she didn't know was that the man she called the police on was actually her husband.
After speaking with Clarissa, we left and began our short walk back to the S.T.A.R. Labs van.
"So it appears Martin Stein and Ronnie Raymond have something in common besides sharing a body. They both feel the need to protect the women they love." says Dr. Wells
"Clarissa said she feels like she's being watched." I say, stopping the group. "Maybe she is."
"Well, then, this has all the makings of a stakeout." Dr. Wells smiles.
"I can't." Barry and I say at the same time. I instantly tense up and glance at Barry. Today was Tuesday which means it's the day Spark and The Flash meet up at the pier in order to discuses working together. That explains why we can't take part in the stakeout.
"And why's that, Miss. Foster and Mr. Allen?"
"I have to finish my article that can either get me fired or promoted depending on how it goes." I explain with a shrug as if it's no big deal, but trust me it is.
"Oh and I'm doing overtime at work, but if you need me-"
"We know who to call." Caitlin reassures before sending us off.
~~~
"I should just not show up." I tell Piper as I lay on my bed, hugging my blue fluffy pillow close to my chest for emotional support.
"Are you kidding?" Piper shouts from my bedroom doorway, holding a bag of chips she took from my pantry. "You need to work with him on this!"
"I can do it myself. I don't need him"
"Liar!" Piper says taking a seat in my desk chair. "You do need him on this. Plus you wouldn't be having this problem if you just told him who's under that mask of yours."
"You know I can't!" I whined. "It's not like when Barry got his powers and told me in a matter of days. I got my powers and haven't told him in twenty plus years!"
"So you plan to just keep lying? What happens when you guys get serious?"
"Aren't we already serious?" I ask slightly offended.
"No I mean like, married and have kids kind of serious." says Piper. "You're not seriously thinking about taking this to you're grave, are you?" I don't answer right away because if I'm being completely honest with myself, I would most diffidently do that. "He deserves to know.
"I know he does." I sigh. "But what if-"
"No more of these stupid 'what if's'!" Piper groans. "Tell you what, let's make a deal."
"I don't like the sound of that."
"Hear me out!" Piper groans once more. "You're deadline of telling Barry you're Spark is when you two find the girl and put her behind meta human bars. If you don't it by then, then I'll be the one to tell him."
"Piper!" I yell, bolting up right from my bed and giving the girl the deadliest of looks I can muster. "You wouldn't dare!"
"Barry's gonna find out sooner or later and I rather it be you telling him, but if you wouldn't I will." Piper says looking me dead in the eye. She was serious about this. "Barry can get on my nervous once in a while, but he's like another brother to me and shouldn't be kept in the dark about this anymore. Promise me."
Piper sticks out her pinky and waits for me to pinky swear with her. The girl is a child at heart, but I know she's right. I take my pinky and wrap it around hers. I'm surly going to regret this.
"I promise."
~~~
Salt fills the air due to the near by open water. It's two minutes till ten and no one is around the pier. It's quite here beside the light crashes coming from the oceans waves as it hits the shoreline. I'm sitting by a bench in my Spark uniform most likely looking like I just got back from a cos- play convention, but that's the least of my worries. The Flash should be here any minute now an that thought terrifies me.
Pipers right, for once. I need the tell him. I need to tell him everything, but it's just a matter of him understanding why I kept it from him for so long that's got me freaking out.
I must have been so lost in thought that I didn't even hear The Flash approach me.
"Hey," his raspy voice startles me, making me yelp and jump to my feet. "It's just me." The Flash raises his hands sheepishly in a surrendering manner.
"Oh hi." I say, but my voice is low so I don't think he really heard me.
"Have you decided?"
"Before I agree to this I need you're word on some things." I says slowly, glade that my voice was audible this time around.
"Yeah? And what would that be?" The Flash ask stepping around from the bench and closer to where I now stood.
"That if were gonna do this, we do it my way. That this will be the only time we work together unless the world is like, I don't know, ending?" I say, putting my foot down.
"So the flirt doesn't want to see me again? Thats a shocker." The Flash teases with a playful smirk on this lips. I roll my eyes to avoid smiling at his stupid smirk. "Plus, unless the world is ending? Already planning for the worse?"
"Do we have a deal or what?" I ask, crossing my arms.
"If you're making demands, I would like to make some too."
"Yeah? And what do you want?" I ask, carefully.
"No going after this girl without me. You find a lead or anything of that sort, you tell me and we take care of it together." says The Flash.
"Anything else, Speedster." I ask, bored.
"We tell each other our identities." I don't know how, but I manage to start choking on air.
"Are you insane?!" I shout. "There's no way I'm doing that!"
"How can we trust each other if we don't even knew what we look like?"
"I'm not gonna meet this demand of you're Flash so keep dreaming." I sass.
"Fine then I'm not meeting your demands." The Flash shrugs.
"Great! Then we aren't working together."
"Yeah we are."
"N-O spells no."
"What are you, five?" The Flash chuckled.
"Takes one to know one!" I say. Sure I'm being childish, but there's no way I'm going fo meet his stupid demand.
"I'm not doing this." The Flash sighs, slightly annoyed by my behavior. I don't blame him.
"Great because I didn't even want to work with you in the first place. I can do this myself."
"Sure you can." The Flash laughs.
"Watch me asshole! I don't need you or any of you're help."
"Then why are you still here?" he smirked. The angry I felt was completely drained at this point. He's right. Why was I still here. "There's nothing wrong with a little help, Spark."
I felt my eyes string and the concern look The Flash was giving me told me it must look like I was on the verge of tears.
"What if something goes wrong? Then that's on me."
"You can't think like that." The Flash says as he puts a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "If were gonna do this, we need to do it right. We do everything together, but you can get the final say unless it goes against my morals. In that case, I just won't do it."
"Hold up, what do you think I'm gonna do? Kill someone?"
"Well no, but if it's something like that I'll have to stop you."
"Fair enough, continue."
"We'll contact each other using burner phones in case we need to contact each other and as for how long this partnership will last. We'll see how this mission goes and decide from there."
"I guess that's fare." I says giving in. "But what about identities?"
"We only have to tell each other if we have to or if we feel like it." says The Flash. "That can be the basic rules for now and we can add more if it feel necessary later down the road, but I think that should be good for now. Do we have a deal?" The Flash stuck out his red gloved hand for me to shake and after a hesitant wait, I took it.
"You have yourself a deal, Red."
"I'm sorry, but must you keep giving me new nicknames in the spam of one hour." The Flash laughs making me laugh.
"I'm testing them out." I defend myself. "Or would you prefer that I call you handsome or sexy or-"
"Or my real name?" I stop my teasing to give a frighten look towards The Flash. He reaches up to his mask and pulls it down to reveal the Barry Allen I fell in love with. "You can call me Barry."
"Oh." was all I manage to say which made Barry let out a nervous chuckle. "I'm guessing you want me to take off my mask?"
"Only if you want to."
In that moment it wasn't just the way he said it, but the way he looked at me that just made me want to rip off my mask and tell him everything.
Without even realizing it I felt my hand near my mask and the urge to rip it off never felt so urgent and demanding then had in this moment in time.
~~~
A/N: CLIFF HANGER!
Sorry, I had to! That's not the only bad new tho. This was the last chapter I had pre-made so my upload schedule for this book might go downhill, but that doesn't mean I'm done writing this story! It just means I'll post updates more slowly instead of every Sunday like I have been doing for the past month. I do hope you enjoyed this chapter because I sure did and I'll see ya in the next one!
xxx