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CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
olxxiv. something still feels off with the stalker
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"ITS OUT, CISCO." Barry told Cisco through the comms, later that night, a fire had stated, Barry rushing to get there in time to stop it and by his statement it seemed he had. "Copy that. See you in a bit." Chloe heard Cisco reply as she lounged in her desk chair, spinning back and fourth every once in a while wondering what her boyfriend was up to at the moment. He was probably robbing some fancy place.
After Barry hadn't zoomed into the cortex, Cisco called into the mic, "Barry? Hello? Are you there?"
"Maybe he got held up?" Chloe shrugged, knowing that wasn't the answer.
"What was that?" Cisco asked, giving the redhead a look to say "Really?"
"I don't know." Barry replied, "We need to find out." After that Chloe went home that night and fell asleep, cuddled up in her blankets, wishing Leonard was there to hold her.
CHLOE STOOD NEAR Iris and Caitlin the next day as they watched Jay run on the treadmill that was designed for Barry.
"His blood pressure is low, his heart rate is low, his oxygen levels are impressive." Caitlin spoke, watching the man run.
"Yeah, but nothing compared to Barry's." Iris retorted, walking over as Chloe laughed at Caitlins reply, "No, but he's certainly in the physical specimen range."
"In more ways that one. Hmm?" Iris questioned, a hand on her hip. Caitlin shook her head, "Oh, I wasn't paying attention."
"You were practically drooling, Cait." Chloe told her, not looking up from the book she had stolen from Leonard, it was a Stephen King novel and it was pretty enjoyable.
Caitlin let out a small scoff, before turning on the mic to tell Jay, "That's enough for today, Jay. Thank you." He slowly stopped running.
Chloe got up, putting her finger in between the two pages in the book she was on, walking into the cortex, Iris and Caitlin following as Barry sped in. He handed Cisco a jar of what seemed to be sand, the long haired man examining it with a magnifying glass.
"Found it at the crime scene. I mean, it's gotta be from the Meta-Human that attacked me." Barry told Cisco.
"Huh." Cisco pushes the magnifying glass away, he seemed to be annoyed, "What is this stuff? Sand?" Barry sighed, Chloe just swayed side to side in her wheeled chair, reading her book.
"It's not sand." A voice spoke up, making Chloe look up, it was Jay, the woman's eyes narrowed slightly. She still didn't trust him.
"It's human cells whose myosin II protein have migrated to the cells periphery." He told them, now wearing a STAR Labs sweatshirt.
"Jays a fellow science nerd." Caitlin told them.
"Those cells have the ability to rearrange and harden, giving them the appearance of sand." Jay explained.
"And how do you know this?" Barry asked, Chloe nodded in agreement, "Yeah, how do you know that?"
"They belong to a Meta-human I've fought before named Sand Demon."
Cisco immediately stood up, offended, "I know you're new here, so I'm just gonna break it down for you. The whole "naming the bad guys thing," that's my jam." Cisco pointed to himself, "But you know what?" He then smiled, "I'm gonna let you have that one 'cause I actually kinda like it. I'm not mad at that one." Before he titled his head, questioning, "Is that Barry's sweatshirt."
Chloe looked up from her book once again, eyes narrowing. Yep, it was Barry's sweatshirt.
"Oh, uh, sorry. It's was all that we could find, so. . " Iris trailed off. Barry had a wide eyed look on his face, Chloe just sighed going back to her book, but still listening to the conversation.
"I was gonna say, 'cause it looks a lot smaller on you, right?" Cisco chuckled. Caitlin looked down, hiding a smile, Chloe just gave an amused smirk, Barry sent an annoyed look to the man.
"I gotta do this thing." Cisco said awkwardly, walking away.
"So, who is this Sand Demon?" Iris questioned.
"I wanna know too!" Chloe called, raising a hand in the air.
"I don't know his name, but I know how to stop him." Jay told them, making Chloe sigh, that wasn't any good information, in order to stop him they'd have to find him, and without a name they wouldn't.
"You know what?" Barry questioned, "I think we'll be fine on our own." Chloe agreed, nodding as she spoke, "Mm-hmm. We're fine on our own, Stalker."
Jay sent the woman an annoyed glare at the name before turning back to Barry, "Look, Barry, I don't know what else I can do to prove to you and your sister that I'm on your side." Barry just shrugged, "I've been poked, prodded. I even subjected myself to a full body scan."
Iris and Chloe both turned to Caitlin, her simply stating, "I was being thorough."
"Sure--" Chloe snickered, stretching out the 'e'.
"Sand Demons from my world. Let me teach you how to stop him." Jay tried.
"Yeah, I don't need you to teach me anything, Jay." Barry replied.
"Zoom sent Rothstein to kill you. He must have sent Sand Demon here to do the same thing. Don't you get it? Anyone close to The Flash, all of you are in a lot of danger." Jays voice rose.
"I could really use the Cold Gun right about now-" Chloe grumbled under her breath.
"All right. If you're so good, you would have caught him already." Barry told Jay getting closer to him with each step. Jay let out a sigh.
"Let's get Jay back to his cell." With that Barry walked away, Chloe just turning back to her book, pinching her nose in frustration. She really just wanted to see her boyfriend right about now.
"YESTERDAY'S SURPRISE BROADCAST from a Star City vigilante who is calling himself the Green Arrow has spawned a massive outcry of both support and dissenters..." The news anchor spoke, Caitlin saying, "Catchy." Chloe shrugged, "Its better than just "Arrow.""
"I hate it when they put a color in their name." Cisco said bitter, making Chloe laugh at the long haired man.
"Yo!" Barry called walking into the cortex.
"Yo." Cisco replied blandly.
"The sample you gave us?" Cisco asked.
"Yeah." Barry nodded, Cisco went on, "Not sand. Definitely human cells." The long haired man pulled up the scans of the cells.
"Yeah, I know. It's not him, I get it." Barry told Cisco.
"I hate to say it, but I think this Earth-2 theory is starting to make sense." Cisco crossed his arms. Chloe sighed, "I hate to admit it. But maybe the stalkers telling the truth about another earth." She spoke up.
"For real?" Barry questioned the two.
"What, you think Jay is lying about the Sand Demon?" Iris questioned.
"I don't know. That's my point. But I'm not gonna just believe some guy is that walks in here and says a few things that sort of check out." Barry said making hand gestures.
"I never said I trusted him, he could be a crazy psych patient for all I know. It just makes sense, there was a dead guy and then he was up and walking again. This new guy, Slick? He wasn't even in town the night the Accelerator went off. Not saying I trust him, but some of what he's saying makes sense." Chloe shrugged.
"Sort of?" Cisco asked, "He was- He was right about Zoom."
"We don't even know anything about Zoom." Barry argued, Chloe nodded, "Got to agree with him there."
"What is Zoom? Is Zoom even real? Right now, that's just, you know, a story around a campfire. I mean--" Barry turned to Stein, "Have you discovered a breach yet?"
"Not yet--" Stein put a hand up, "But we know how to now."
"Have you found on thing to suggest that Jay is a speedster?" Barry turned to Caitlin, Caitlin opened her mouth but quickly closed it as Barry asked, "Is the Speed Force even in his system?" The doctor shook her head, "It doesn't appear to be, no."
"See?" Barry questioned, "We are scientists. You are a journalist." He pointed to Iris, "We test, we prove, we report. That's what we do. Except right now, nobody here wants to do any of that expect me."
Chloe scoffed, "Excuse you? I've been saying somethings weird about this Jay Garrick from the start. We don't even know if that's his name. And he stalked us and you all know how I feel about people digging into my life." Chloes eyes narrowed, after she had taken down the cameras in her house after Barry had found them all, she didn't like it when people watched into her life.
Barry sighed, Iris asking, "Can we have the room for a moment? You stay too, Chloe." Barry sighed again as everyone but him, Chloe and Iris left.
"What has happened to you?" Iris asked Barry, "Chloe's always been standoff-ish, but you Barry?"
"Are you- Me?"
"Yes, you." Iris stated, "The you that I grew up with. The you that is my best friend. The you that is Chloes brother. The you that became The Flash. I haven't seen that you in a very long time."
"A lots changed, Iris." Barry told her.
"Understatement of the year." Chloe scoffed.
"Yeah, it sure has." Iris added, "You have learned how to not trust people. What is it about Jay that you two don't like?"
"I don't know." Barry sighed, Chloe glared at the floor, "He stalked me, Iris. And not to mention he stalked all of us! There's something off about him. ."
"It's because he reminds you two of Harrison Wells." Iris told them.
"We trusted that man. For months. We all did." Barry paused and shook his head, "And you know what? Eddie is dead. Ronnie is dead. And a whole lot of other people in this city, they are dead because we trusted him. I'm not gonna let us make that mistake again."
"Barry, Chloe, not everyone is Harrison Wells. Besides you defeated him because you trusted in people. Because you believed in them. This team that you have here, they will follow your lead. They'll do what you say. But if they think that you don't believe in them, it won't be long before they don't believe in you. Both of you." Iris told the two Allen's.
Barry nodded along with Chloe, something still felt off about Jay though. It was like the feeling she had with Wells, but it wasn't as strong. It was still there though. And Chloe didn't like that one bit.
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AUTHORS NOTE | word count : 1781
Idk what to say-
Sorry if you don't like Chloes gut feelings-
I just feel after everything she's been through she'd get stronger gut feelings about things than other people-
Like with Leonard she felt it was going somewhere.
Or with Thawne, she knew something was off just not what same with Jay since he's ya know *cough* Zoom *cough*
But yeah, i'm NOT saying she knows he's zoom, that'd just be crazy-
she just knows something is off-
Favorite part?
2021 edit!! : I totally forgot ( when i wrote this ) that Hunter ( Jay ig in this episode ) was actually a psych patient from what remember- The way Chloe knew and I didn't even remember at the time [cries] I swear it just a coincidence, i legit forgot hunters backstory when i wrote this shit tbh [cries]
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