Violet shook her head, rubbing her temples with a sigh as she followed him into her purple room. “You and Hartley didn’t do anything on my bed, right?”
“No.” He said matter-of-factly before taking a long draw from the bottle and setting it on his desk on the far side of the room. “Okay, so tell me about Detroit.” Cisco said, crawling up on the bed and cuddling under the blanket he brought with him. “What are you two going to do on this little trip?”
“I don’t know. We’ve only cuddled like once and that was like half a year ago and like the last person I saw you wrapped around was a naked man. I don’t know. But come on, we can go to my room because it doesn’t have any Hartley connections and we can just rest. You don’t have to sleep but we can just snuggle and I can tell you all about my plans with Barry. I’m going to take him to Detroit.”
“Okay, fine.” Cisco said, not wanting to argue with the woman. He rolled off the couch, blanket and all before pulling himself to his feet. With the blanket draped over his shoulders, he shuffled to the kitchen and grabbed a cider from the fridge, popped the top off and shuffled over to the hallway. “You coming? You’re welcome to make yourself a drink. I just restocked not too long ago.” He said with a small smile. “I ate all the ice cream, though. Sorry.”
Despite their situation and despite everything she had been put through, Lisa felt herself smiling. Always the same Cisco. Questions shot one right after another in rapid succession. “If I knew what was going on and why I wasn’t waking up, I would have told my brother, Cisco,” she pointed out. “As for the other stuff,” she hesitated unsure for a moment what she wanted to say, “as for the other stuff, I was angry with you, Cisco. Part of me still is. How can I not be after all those things you said last time? I know, I know. You weren’t yourself. Something was going on with you. So you said. And I want to believe that, Cisco. I really do, it’s just…I’m afraid. I’m afraid I’ll get hurt again if I do.”
“I understand that you’re angry at me. I’m not really sure what happened to lead to that happening to me, but I’m working to get to the bottom of it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Cisco explained, hoping the woman would trust what he was saying. “I won’t hurt you, Lisa. I can promise you that. I have a plan in place if I were to go off the deep end again. That doesn’t matter now.” He paused, taking a deep breath as it became harder to keep a hold on the vibe. “We need to hurry. I can’t hold the vibe much longer. How did you get here? Did someone do this to you? Was it an accident?”
“Okay, let’s sleep now. It’s the middle of the day so it won’t be so nightmare inducing and you can latch onto me if you want. It’s slightly awkward now, considering the circumstances but you need to sleep.”
“Do you think I haven’t tried that? I tried to sleep during the day. It doesn’t work.” Cisco sighed, rubbing his eyes as images flashed across the tv screen. “Why is it awkward?”
Pamela let out a grown as she took in the attempt at disguise. Just what she needed, a wannabe vigilante. “’Take me in’. Please, don’t flatter yourself.” She muttered with a roll of her eyes before shrugging. “He tried to kill me first. I simply returned the favour.”
“I really hate it when people do that. Kill someone because they tried to kill them? Kind of a pansy move, if you ask me.” Cisco said with a smirk. “Who are you? I recognize your face.”
He didn’t want to interrupt. Cisco was a fine kid, and he was of course concerned what could happen to him if he was jolted out of his vibing or whatever it was. But Len wanted to know. Wanted to know if Cisco could see Lisa. Wanted to know if Cisco could figure out what was happening to Lisa.
But he hadn’t survived so long by being impatient and impetuous. So Len watched and waited.
Cisco’s face softened as Lisa stepped into his line of sight. “Lisa. It’s so good to see you! What’s going on? Why are you so angry? Are you angry at me? Or angry because you’re not waking up from this? Also, why aren’t you waking up from this? Is something stopping you?” He cocked his head to the side as he watched the woman. He could feel his energy draining the more he talked, so he thought it was best for Lisa to do the talking.
“We’re a family, Cisco. It’s not a bother if you’re coming to us for help. It’s what we do and it’s what we’ve always done. Barry and you are both so damn stubborn to see we can’t survive this without each other. We’re a team,” she sighed gently. Her own demons kept her at bay but she was willing to try and deal with it to save her friends. “Eobard Thawne happened and we can’t change it.” Caitlin closed the gap between them, her hands rested on his hands, “let me help you Cisco.”
“I know you say I’m not a burden, but I know you have a life too. I just feel like I’m taking away from things you have to do.” Cisco said, picking his head up. "But okay.”
There’s a knock at the door but no answer. The mail carrier leaves the large brown box on the doorstep for the homeowner to find.
Inside is another box, wrapped in black matte paper. Within that box lay a neatly folded forest green hooded cape with matching utility belt and gloves. Under that is both a pair of back pants with a matching black shirt that has padding in the places one might need it.
On the lid of the box was taped a note saying: Hart- I’m sorry I’m a disappointment. It was great while it lasted. I made this while you were in the hospital because I needed to pass time and I had the material already. I hope that one day I can live up to your expectations.
“This… Darkness… It’s what made you go off the rails? It… It matches up to when you and Rathaway first hooked up, right? Do you think it’s connected?”
“No, it was there even before Hartley came back to Central City. I ran into him on my way out of town, when things already started happening. I think my nightmares and what Eobard did to us is the cause of it all. I’m not letting things go. I’m holding grudges that are pointless, but I can’t find it in myself to let them go. I’m not sleeping at night. On a good night I’ll get 3 hours of sleep. It’s recommended that an adult get 6-8 hours. I haven’t had that since before I discovered I had these powers – that’s when the nightmares really got bad.” Cisco stopped. “I need to sleep. Part of me just wants to go get admitted so they can give me something to induce a coma so I can recover. But that’s a worst case kinda thing, if I can’t figure it out myself.”
Violet watched him carefully, slowly reaching over and turning on the TV but not taking her eyes off of the shape under the blanket. “What were you planning on doing if you were alone, Cisco? You said that you couldn’t be alone right now. Were you thinking about hurting yourself?”
Cisco rolled over so he was facing the tv, his right cheek smooshed against the pillow that lay in Violet’s lap. “Probably just lay in my bed and cry as I just let the thoughts race through my mind. I thought if I was alone I would let the darkness take over. I’ve been feeling it peeling at me for weeks. I’ve found that pain keeps me grounded. You keep me grounded, too. I thought calling you was a better option.” He paused, his mouth finding his fingernail as he talked. “I was going to run up and down the stairs until I couldn’t feel my legs. Or until I passed out. Anything to get my mind off this and whatever is etching away at my mind.”
Cisco backup