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EVELYN SAT AT THE BAR with her head in her hands and a heavy heart. It's been a week since the whole Leonard and Cisco situation, and Evelyn had isolated herself from everyone as much as she could given she had to see Barry at work. But during her time off, she kept to herself and put in all her focus on school. It happened to be a good distraction, but that didn't meant that it stopped her mind from wandering to those overwhelming thoughts. So there she was in a serious need of a drink.
"Evelyn?" Cora said sweetly. Evelyn lifted her head to see the beautiful porcelain red head. She looked surprised to see Evelyn here of all places but a good surprised. She looked happy to see her.
"Hey, Cora." Evelyn said with a forced smile. It wasn't that she wasn't happy to see the bartender, or that she didn't like her because neither of those assumptions were true. She wasn't herself lately nor was she happy with how her life had been either.
Sensing that she was down and in need of a fix, Cora asked "Alright, what can I get you? And it's on the house."
"That obvious, huh?" Evelyn asked with a small smile.
"Well, when you're a bartender you begin to pick up the signs." Cora replied with a smirk.
"Well in that case, I need something strong." Evelyn said, and Cora chuckled to herself thinking about the time they first met. She left to make her drink then returned shortly. Cora slid the drink she had prepared Evelyn's way. Evelyn muttered a thank you before taking a sip of her drink. Her face scrunched up at the taste. She really listened to her request for something strong.
"So what did Leonard do this time?" She took Evelyn by surprised by asking her this. "Oh, come on, it wasn't that hard to piece together." She added after taking notice of the look in Evelyn eyes.
"He was being the bad guy again." Evelyn said with a sad smile.
Cora nodded slowly. "I mean, I love Leonard. He's like a brother to me, but hasn't he always been the quote on quote bad guy?" She asked while she put air quotes on the 'bad guy' part.
"I mean, I guess." She sighed as she stared down at the clear liquid in her glass. She swished it around as she thought to herself. She tried to collect her thoughts. "Maybe, I never noticed back then how wrong it was. You know, I was just living my life on survival mode. But now that I left that life behind and work for the supposed good guys in the eyes of the world, I've become stuck."
"It's just so hard. Lately, I felt like I've been betraying everyone. I want to help everyone, but it's becoming impossible. If I help everyone at S. T. A. R Labs, I'm betraying them for being in contact with Leonard. When he was wanted, I knew exactly where he could be and I didn't say a word. If I did then I would have betrayed Leonard. They all want me to be on their side, but they're making it impossible. I love my friends, and I never want to hurt them." Evelyn paused momentarily then released a shaky breath. "But...also... I think... I love Leonard too. I think... I could be in love with him, but I'm not so sure. I've never felt love before, so I don't know if what I feel for Leonard is that."
"I can't choose between them, but I feel like they're expecting me too. I'm scared that it might come to that very soon." Evelyn doesn't know why she told Cora all of this. Maybe it was because she was here, and she needed to get it off her chest? Maybe it was because bartenders are good for this sorta thing? It could be that a part of her knew she could trust Cora. She somehow just knew Cora would keep it to herself.
Cora frowned slightly. "You shouldn't have to choose. They shouldn't put you in the middle. Your friends, Leonard, and even The Flash. It's not fair to you." Evelyn's eyes lit up when she heard Cora mentioned the flash. She grew a bit nervous.
"You-"
"Yeah, Leonard told me you knew who's behind the mask." She said with a smirk. "But don't worry, I'm not gonna force you tell me. To be honest, I don't really care." She added nonchalantly with a small shrug, and Evelyn relaxed.
"Hey, uh, thanks for listening." Evelyn told Cora. She very much appreciated her for taking the time to listen to her problems when they have nothing to do with her.
"Thanks for trusting me enough to confide in me." Cora replied with a bright smile showing off her pearly whites.
"Oh! And thanks for the free drink." Evelyn added with a laugh. It felt good to laugh. She hasn't laughed in a long while.
"Anytime." Cora said as she laughed along with the brunette who had became a real friend to her despite not having knowing her for that long.
Evelyn took noticed of how Cora's smile had dropped. She could see it in her eyes that something was making her nervous. Cora straightened up her posture. Her mouth parted slightly, but shut once she managed to somehow talk herself out of saying whatever the hell she wanted to say to Evelyn. "Are you okay?" Evelyn asked her.
"Can I ask you for a favor?" The redhead asked nervously. Evelyn became tense and anxious by how Cora was acting, but she could see how serious this was. So she nodded her head. "I know you know The Flash, and your friends with people who work at S. T. A. R. Labs. Just like I know they're tracking and looking for Meta's. I was wondering if you could maybe keep me off their radar, or if they do somehow manage to find out about me can you convince them to leave me be?"
"You're a meta human?" Evelyn whispered in case there were others eavesdropping or within hearing distance. Thankfully, the only people in the bar was Evelyn and the young man in the back booth who drank a cup of black coffee and read Hamlet.
"Yeah." Cora breathed. "But I don't want any trouble. I just wanna be normal. Well, live as normal of a life as I can. I don't want a life where I'm dissected, studied in a lab, or living my whole life with people afraid of me. I didn't choose to be this, but I can choose how I'm going to live with it. And I promise you, it will be something that's meaningful."
"Your secret is safe with me. I promise I won't let them come for you." Evelyn said genuinely. It was a promise that she intended on keeping. If she was being honest, it wouldn't be that hard of a secret to keep. She knew Barry would never come for her.
Cora closed her eyes briefly. She smiled brightly at the relief that she didn't have to worry, or spend the rest of her life constantly looking over her shoulder. "Thank you so much, Evelyn. Really, this means a lot."
"Of course. But does... Leonard know?" She asked curiously.
"Apart from you, he's the only one who knows. I came to him two days after the particle accelerator. That's when the weird things started happening. He let me stay with him for a while until I got back on my feet. He gave me a job here, and he helped me learn to control my abilities." Evelyn smiled when Cora smiled warmly at the memory. "I haven't fully learned to control them yet, but I'm getting there. However, I'm no longer a risk to anyone."
"You'll get the hang of it completely soon. Trust me, if anyone can it's you." Evelyn told her. She checked her phone to see how much time had passed. She had been here for three hours much to her surprise. It only felt like a few minutes. "Wow, I gotta go."
"Well, it was nice talking to you Evelyn. You should bring your friendly face around here more often." Cora told her with a playful smirk.
"I will definitely try." Evelyn said then she downed the last of her drink.
"Oh, Evelyn!" Cora called out as she was about to walk out the bar. Evelyn looked at her from over her shoulder. "You love him. It's obvious. And as a reminder, things will work itself out for the better. I promise." Evelyn didn't say anything. She simply sent a smile the redheads way.
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The cab ride back to the other side of the city felt unusually long. Evelyn couldn't figure out why, but she felt off in a way. It felt like her gut was telling her—warning her—that something wasn't right. She forced herself to ignore it. The cab pulled up to her apartment around nightfall. She handed the driver what she owed and then stepped out of the car.
She dragged herself up the stairs due to the elevator in her building being out of service. Her luck was terrible. Thankfully, she lived on the third floor so the walk up wasn't too bad. She finally reached her door, and after searching for her keys she finally unlocked the door.
She took at least four steps before freezing on spot at the figure siting on her recliner. "It's nice to see you again, Evelyn. I think it's time you and I have our little chat. And it's long overdue." Said Lewis Snart with a wicked smile that made her stomach turn.
She really did have terrible luck.
A/N:
Another chapter for y'all today
I hope it wasn't too bad 🤞🏻
Well I wanted y'all to know a tiny bit more about Cora.
Alright until the next update, which will have more Leonard and Evelyn especially since... sadly.... this book will be ending soon. Don't hate me! We're reaching the end of Season 1 of The Flash which is when this story takes place. But I might do bonus chapters that took place during certain chapters, and even in the past during the time when Evelyn was a "rogue". So we'll see cause that's if y'all would like that.
So bye for now. See you at the next update 💭💜