chapter thirty-two ; starling city

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Natalie pulled on her blue floral crop top and smoothed down her billowing black skirt, very aware that the way she dressed stood out among the very drab environment that is Starling City. Checking her high bun using her front camera, she furrowed her eyebrows at Cisco, "Why are you looking at me funny?"

"Why are you so concerned about how you look?" Cisco countered.

"Have you seen how everything is so serious in Starling, monotone-like? If we are going to be the only ones dressing fun, I am damn well going to make sure I keep up my appearance," Natalie stated confidently as Cisco laughed at his friend. The two quickly quieted down as Captain Lance approached the three visitors from Central City in the middle of the precinct.

"Here it is," Captain Lance said as he handed the file on Wells' accident to Joe.

Joe flipped rather quickly through it and frowned, "This is all you have?"

"Well, it's a pretty cut and dry case, detective. Harrison Wells and Tess Morgan were out on a Sunday drive, the tires blow, Wells loses control, and sadly Tess dies at the scene," Lance explained as Joe began to hand the pictures in the file to Cisco and Natalie to look over. "Couldn't imagine carrying that kind of guilt around. So, what are you three hoping to find?" The three glanced at each other, all looking as if they were trying to have a telepathic conversation on who should lie first. "We're not exactly sure yet," Joe said finally.

Captain Lance looked over the three, "You came all the way out from Central City and you don't know what you're looking for?" Natalie shrugged, "We're just following a hunch.. Sir."

"Can you take us to the accident site?" Cisco piped up as he handed Joe back the pictures. Captain Lance shook his head, "It's been fifteen years. I think the pictures will serve you better." Seeing the saddened looks on all of their faces Lance sighed and nodded his head, "Whatever you need."

As Natalie pulled out her phone to update Barry, she heard a woman talking to the Captain and looked up to see a smitten Cisco. "This is Detective West, Natalie Reed, and Cisco Ramon," Lance introduced the group to the woman, "Everyone this is A.D.A. Laurel Lance, my daughter." The three shook hands with Laurel.

"You work at S.T.A.R. Labs, with Barry Allen, right?" Laurel asked as she shook Cisco's hand, much to his delight. Seeing as he was lost for words, Natalie answered for him, "Yeah, he does."

Laurel cocked her head to the side, "Aren't you his girlfriend? I heard Felicity mentioned that when she got back from her visit." To answer her question Natalie nodded, looking over at her love-struck friend. Laurel glanced back at her dad and Joe, "Can I speak to you two privately for a minute?"

Natalie looked back at Joe, who nodded in permission, before pushing Cisco along behind Laurel. "So how do you know Barry," Cisco asked, attempting to start a conversation, "You guys like friends or something?" Laurel held the door open to a room and shut it as they filed in, "Not exactly. We met when the last time he was in Starling, visiting my friends, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, and Oliver Queen."

"Three people who have absolutely nothing in common.. as far as I know," Cisco said as he leaned on the table. Natalie tilted her head, only knowing one of those people and knowing of another. Laurel placed her hands on the table, "Cisco, I know Barry's the Flash and Oliver's the Arrow. By the way, Natalie, Oliver wants to have a conversation with you about that."

The brunette nodded her head at this, "Yeah I figured, but it's not my fault that I guessed, right? Just have to make sure he doesn't shoot me in the back like Barry told me Oliver did to him. Unfortunately, I don't have speed healing." Cisco glanced warily at Laurel, "How do you know all of that?" Laurel smiled gleefully and leaned closer to him, "Because I'm the Black Canary."

Natalie couldn't help but giggle as Cisco began to have a fangirl moment. "Stop that. You stop that right now," he said right before he burst into laughs. "I love you. I mean, I love the way that you beat up criminals," he finished when he regained his composure.

"I don't think you should mention that to Barry. He may get a tad jealous. But I would like to say thank you for being one badass woman who proves that we don't need men to hide behind," Natalie said smiling in appraisal. Cisco cocked his head to the side, "Wait, why are you telling us this?"

To answer his question, Laurel began to dig around in her purse and pulled out something Natalie thought looked similar to one of those things you stick on your car vent to make it smell better. "I need some technical expertise. I've been using my sister's sonic device and I was hoping you could help..modify it." Cisco gingerly took it out of her hands and flipped it over. Natalie could practically see the wheels spinning in his head as he formed ideas.

Before anymore could be said, there was a knock at the door. "Hey kids, we should probably get back to the hotel," Joe said as he popped his head into the room, "Captain Lance is gonna take us to the accident site tomorrow."

~~~~~

Natalie stood in the middle of the road, holding her phone up to the sky trying to get a signal. "Not even one bar," the brunette told Joe as she walked back to him, Cisco, and Lance. Barry had texted her last night saying there was a meta on the loose back home, who can change his appearance into any person he touched. The worst part, the meta changed himself into Eddie and shot two cops so Eddie was now under arrest. Helping Cisco carry a device further into the accident site, the two friends followed the two cops.

"What is that.. a metal detector?" Lance asked as he took a sip of his coffee. Natalie looked at Cisco to answer, given she didn't know what it was either, "Essentially, only instead of listening for metal objects I'm listening for anything that emits an abnormal sound." Cisco trudged past the two cops, pulling Natalie along as they walked off the road, holding the detecting part of the device towards the ground. Cisco set the device down as he helped Natalie climb over the concrete barrier and put on the headphones as he and Natalie swept the device across the dirt floor.

Not having gone too far, it didn't take that long for Cisco to pull off the headphones and call out to Joe. The two cops jogged towards the younger ones in response. "I think we got something. Tachyons. Little bits of time travel," Natalie heard Cisco mumble as he pointed towards the area the device signified. Before anything else could be said, the coffee from Lance's started to float up, causing everyone to look at it in surprise, more to Lance than to the other three.

"So what know, Cisco?" Natalie asked as she stared at the ground.

Her long-haired friend shrugged his shoulders, "Dig?"

After lugging out two shovels from the van they drove there in, Cisco and Natalie went to work on digging, given that they didn't want to put any physical stress on the two older men. The two worked for a few minutes while the two cops watched them. "What exactly are you looking for?" Lance asked.

Natalie propped up her shovel and leaned on it, wiping the sweat off of her forehead, "To be honest, Captain, I'm asking myself the same question." She continued to dig, admitting silently to herself that she was surprised the Captain wasn't asking about what happened to his coffee.

"Wait, Nat, Cisco, stop digging," Joe said as he took tentative steps close to the two, careful to not cause the free dirt to fall back in the hole. Lance stumbled after him, curious to see what he saw. The four gathered in a circle around the whole as Joe pulled out a napkin and began to wipe away at the dirt. After a few swipes, what Natalie originally thought was a rock was revealed to be something completely different.

"Please tell me that's not what I think it is," Cisco said as he took a step back. Lance took a closer look, "Yeah that is definitely a hand."

"Ooh see I thought it was a foot, but a hand is just as bad," Cisco remarked as he looked at the decomposed skeleton with disgust. Natalie and Lance both shot Cisco a look for his comment. Natalie gagged slightly, all of Joe's words earlier about a body being a shell completely floating away from her mind, "Um, Joe, I don't think we have to worry about stopping for dinner."

Joe continued to wipe away at the dirt and eventually revealed the head of the buried body. "I need to test it to be sure," Cisco said before running away towards the van. Natalie pursed her lips before running away as well, "And I think I'm going to go throw up."

Seeing his friend start to crouch over on the opposite side of the road, Cisco rushed to Natalie's side and pulled her hair back as she clutched her stomach and puked. Rubbing her back in comfort, Cisco slipped off the hair tie she had on her wrist and did the best he could to tie her hair into a low ponytail so that her hair wasn't in her face. When she was done, he left her side briefly to grab he a few napkins and a bottle of water. The two sat in the open trunk with their legs hanging off, after Natalie cleaned herself up, waiting for the two cops to get back to he car.

Natalie stared at the two as they conversed by the newly discovered body, "If wha- who we just found is Harrison Wells, then who is the person we've been working with?"

~~~~~

The three visitors returned to the precinct to thank Captain Lance for his assistance and for Cisco to show Laurel his modifications on the sonic device. After they returned to their hotel room the night before, Natalie went straight to her room and binged watched season 4 of Teen Wolf, wanting to forget the image of the skeleton that seemed to have lodged itself into her mind. Cisco, having the same idea, worked all night on the device while Joe did the opposite, thinking through everything that had happened and formulated theories.

Pulling Laurel aside, Cisco revealed his modifications to Laurel, who looked quite happy with the result. "I think you should call it the Canary Cry," Cisco said, priding himself on yet another name.

Laurel nodded her head in approval, "I like it, thank you. And as promised," she said as she handed him an envelope. "You show this to anyone, besides Natalie because I know you're going to see it, I'll kill you." Cisco laughter died as he saw the expression on her face was serious.

"Hey Laurel, could you tell Oliver that we'd have to talk about me knowing his alter ego some other time? What we came here for, we found out some stuff that we have to get back to Starling urgently," Natalie asked.

Laurel smiled softly, "Of course."

"So..what is it?" Natalie asked as she looked at the folder in curiosity after Laurel had left. Cisco opened it and pulled out a photo of him and Laurel dressed as the Black Canary. "Seriously dude, you asked her for a picture? You could have told me first. Maybe I wanted one too," Natalie teased.

Cisco stuck his tongue out as the brunette playfully pouted and the two followed Joe down to the car where he body was locked and loaded in a connected trailer, much to Natalie's dismay. When the three got to S.T.A.R. Labs, they brought the body up to Barry's lab so that Cisco could test it without Dr. Wells knowing. With Natalie's help, though she struggled to keep the bile down at first, the tests were conducted as Joe called Barry to let him know.

After the shapeshifter of a metahuman was caught, Barry brought Caitlin into his lab, directing her to a screen that displayed the results. Caitlin stared at it blankly as he breath hitched in her throat, "This is impossible."

Cisco approached her cautiously and grabbed her hand in solace, "Caitlin, Natalie and I ran the test twice. It's a perfect match."

Caitlin walked towards the skeletal body that was laid out on a meta table, "If this is Dr. Wells, then who have we been working for this whole time?"

"That's the same question I asked right after I threw up," Natalie muttered as she crossed her arms and the group surrounded the body. Barry rubbed her back in comfort, "Dr. McGee said that after the accident, Harrison Wells became a completely different person."

"That's because he really is a different person," Natalie said out loud, finishing his thought.

Caitlin looked up from the body, tears forming in her eyes and she ran as best as she could in her heels to her cousin, throwing her arms around her and squeezing her tight. "I'm so sorry, Nattie. I'm so sorry."

"Shh, it's okay. And I'm sorry too, I knew how big of a shock this was and still I acted like a bitch," Natalie said into her older cousin's shoulder.

The three other men cracked a smile at the make-up before Joe left to go his own way and check up on a newly released Eddie. Cisco, Caitlin, Barry, and Natalie all left to go to S.T.A.R. Labs once they knew he was gone because Cisco said he wanted to run some more tests.

"Everything's going to change now isn't it?" Natalie heard Caitlin mutter from the driver's seat as she clenched the wheel.

"Yeah, let's just hope by the end of it we come out the other side."

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30 July, 2015

I would just like to thank astrnxmy for making the cover of this story. I love it so much!!

And thank you for the 9k+ reads!! That's amazing and I am so happy!! Posting a lot of chapters today because there probably won't be any next or after that as well. After this week, chapters will be up rather slowly as I am going to have to focus on school again.

LillianXx