⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
I've been having a hard time
adjusting

⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

"HE'S NOT DEAD," Caitlin insisted blankly, turning to them slowly. "He's not dead."

"Caitlin—" Barry began.

"He's not dead. He's not."

Juliet slowly walked up to her. "Cait—"

"This isn't happening," Caitlin continued, grief written all across her face, something that made Juliet's heart shatter into a million pieces. "This isn't happening again."

Cisco went up to Caitlin, putting an arm around her. "Hey, I got you. Come on."

Juliet watched them go for a moment. She turned back to the place where the breach once was, clenching her jaw in anger. Zoom had taken Jay from Caitlin, yet again somebody she gave her heart to, only to have it ripped away. And, God, she couldn't even imagine how Witch was going to react to his death.

"Open it up," Barry demanded.

"Allen . . ." Harry trailed off.

"I need to go back."

"I can't do that."

"Open it the fuck up, or I swear—" Juliet started to say.

"St. James!" Harry shouted, cutting her off. "The breaches are closed. All the breaches are closed."

"Why can't we just open one of 'em?" Joe asked.

"The quark matter energy that we used to seal the breaches, it prevents them from being opened, ever again. There's no going back to our world."

"Wait, we're trapped here for good?" Jesse questioned.

"Yes," Harry answered.

"No, we can't just let Zoom get away with this," Barry protested. "He just murdered Jay right in front of us."

"There's gotta be something we can do," Joe agreed.

"There's not," Harry replied. "Not this time. It's over."

Juliet shook her hand. "No, it's not."

She then turned around and walked off. Juliet ventured down the hallway, smoothing her shaking hands down the front of her suit. After all of that, after everything they just fucking went through, Zoom still made sure they lost. Juliet's chest felt tight as she continued walking, and it sounded gruesome, but she wanted to claw at her chest so it could help her breathe.

"J," Barry called from behind her. "Juliet, hey."

"I'm just going to get changed," Juliet replied, practically on autopilot. "I've been in this stupid suit for so long, and—"

"No." Barry caught onto her wrist, making her stop in her tracks. He then reached up and placed his gloved hands on either side of her face. "Will you look at me, please?"

Juliet looked up, finally locking their eyes together — and suddenly, just like that, she could breathe just a little easier. "I didn't like Earth-Two."

"Me neither," Barry agreed. "But this, the way you're acting now . . . this iis more than Jay. I know it is."

Juliet said nothing. All she did was press up onto her toes and put her arms around Barry's neck, holding on tight. Barry wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her impossibly close. She would be lying if she said she wasn't scared from being in that cell. Sure, she put up a front that she was annoyed with Zoom — okay, maybe that wasn't a front, he was fucking insufferable. But being locked in a small cell in the middle of absolute nowhere on a different Earth was enough to shake her down to her core.

It was stupid, it was childish, it was completely fucking dumb to be acting like this. But right now, as she sunk into the arms of her boyfriend, the same boy she had known her entire life, all she wanted to do was cry.

"Don't let go," Juliet said quietly. "Please."

Barry pulled her in closer. "I won't."

Juliet sighed, resting her forehead on his neck. "I want to go home."

"I know." Barry pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Soon, I promise."

She wasn't exactly sure how long they had been standing there, but eventually, they pulled away from each other. Barry slung an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into him, planting another kiss to her head. Juliet smiled softly and allowed him to steer her further into S.T.A.R. Labs.

They got changed back into their normal clothes before heading into the cortex. Cisco was standing in the doorway of the medbay, holding his Vibe goggles in his hand. Caitlin was laying down on the bed with a blanket over her, unmoving — evidently sleeping. Juliet frowned at her figure. First Ronnie, now Jay . . . she wasn't sure if Caitlin's heart could take it.

"How's she doing?" Barry inquired.

"Not good," Cisco revealed. "We tried to get her to go home, but she refused to leave, so, you know, I just sat with her until she fell asleep."

"First Ronnie, now Jay."

"Yeah. I'm afraid what this double dose of grief is gonna do to her. I mean, she's pretty shell-shocked."

"She'll be fine," Harry cut in. "Snow's strong. She'll get past this. But in the meantime, I would not say anything to her about her counterpart from my Earth. That goes for Joe and Iris too."

"May I ask why?" Juliet asked. "It's extremely bold of you to think that after the whole Scarlet situation I would keep things from Iris."

"Because you don't want to influence their reality in ways that should not be influenced."

"Like in the same way as when Barry time travels?" Cisco questioned. "And when Juliet hypothetically alters realities?"

Juliet pointed at him. "Still haven't gotten there yet."

"Exactly, but also, what's the point?" Harry insisted. "Those people are not your people. Their lives are not your lives. Never were, never will be. Bury it. Move on. Yes?"

"Yeah," Cisco breathed out, sparing a glance at Caitlin. "That I can do."

"Allen? St. James?"

Juliet thought it over for a moment. She had been locked with herself in a cell for basically a day. It was strange to say, but she felt a connection to Earth-Two Juliet. How could she just let that go so easily? Yet, Harry might've been right. Earth-Two Juliet wasn't Juliet.

"Okay," Juliet softly let out while Barry nodded.

ϟ ···················· ϟ ···················· ϟ

SO, THEY DIDN'T. They didn't talk about Earth-Two at all. What happened there stayed between the four of them, and they moved on with their lives knowing that there was not a single fucking thing they could do to stop Zoom. All that was left was to adjust with the new circumstances of their situation and cope with the losses. The death of Jay brought tolls along with it, leaving permanent scars that were more prominent on others.

Juliet had to get her mind out of that cell she had been in and move on, but she found herself stuck. She left Earth-Two Juliet to face Zoom by herself, no Flash to help her this time. Earth-Two Iris and Earth-Two Barry were picking up the pieces that Zoom had broken off of her, not to mention Earth-Two Joe was dead. It flashed her back every time she looked at her Joe and Iris, or even at herself in the mirror.

So, yeah, she hadn't been sleeping the best lately, kept awake by dreams and nightmares. Who could blame her? Kidnapping could do that to a person. Her personality was still the same, and even though she was a little more reserved, she was more outgoing than Barry these days, who had just shut it off completely. In order to try and bring more stability to herself, she kept training, kept fighting, waiting for a new Metahuman to pop up and wreak havoc and distract her.

By the ways of the universe, Juliet certainly didn't have to wait long.

Family game night wasn't uncommon at the West house. Currently, Juliet was sitting on the floor in the living room, absentmindedly twisting the Sagittarius ring — the matching one she had with Iris — around her finger. Barry's head rested on her shoulder and her legs were draped across his lap. Wally was in the middle of cup stacking, probably one of the more competitive games that they always did.

"Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one," Iris counted down, but Wally had managed to get all of the cups into one single stack before it hit one. "Time!"

"Yes!" Wally exclaimed. "Ain't nobody faster than me."

Joe chuckled. "Well, I don't know about that." He then looked over at Barry, who was staring out blankly. "Earth to Barry."

Juliet nudged her boyfriend's side, making him pick his head up. "Head out of the clouds, babe."

Joe slid the stack of cups over to him. "It's your turn, dude."

"Yeah, it's time to show this little punk who the fastest stack attacker alive is," Iris stated.

"One of you guys go ahead, I'm gonna pass," Barry voiced.

Wally's eyebrows knit in confusion. "You're afraid of a little competition?"

"No, just not in a gaming mood right now."

"Okay, well, I guess that makes me the champ, right?"

Juliet scoffed. "Just wait until we get to Mario Kart. Your ass is getting left in the dust."

"Is that a challenge?" Wally asked.

"It's a promise."

"I'll hold you to it, Jules." Wally then stood up. "Anyway, I'm gonna go meet up with some friends."

Joe stood up and hugged him. "All right."

While Iris got up to hug Wally as well, Juliet felt Barry drop his head back onto her shoulder. Juliet frowned a little and ran her hand up and down his back. Earth-Two had fucked all of them up, but Barry especially. It probably had to do with seeing Earth-Two Joe literally die right in front of him and Juliet getting kidnapped, judged by the way he practically didn't let Juliet out of his sight.

"Maybe next time," Wally offered to Barry.

Iris waited until he left, pushing her hair away from her face. "And I thought you were the competitive one in the family."

"I know, right?" Joe agreed. "What's up, Barr?"

Barry shrugged. "Nothing. Just . . . I don't know, I don't thin Wally likes me too much."

"Well, we need to fix that. I mean, you've been so busy running between alternate realities, you two haven't had a chance to spend any time together."

"What do you want us to do together?"

"Get to know each other, find something that you guys have in common," Iris suggested. "Like, Jules and Wally have found that they really like challenging each other to do better."

"He's part of the family now, Barr," Joe said. "You're gonna have to give it a chance."

"I know," Barry replied. "Um, all right, well, look, I'm gonna head to bed, all right?" He stood up and offered his hand to Juliet. "You coming?"

Juliet took his hand and allowed him to pull her up. "Yeah. Night, guys."

"Night," Iris responded.

Juliet gave Barry a look as they climbed the stairs. "You're not being very subtle about all of this."

"Subtly never was my strong suit," Barry insisted.

"Barry."

He sighed. "I'll try to get better, I promise."

The next morning, the two got dressed and immediately headed to S.T.A.R. Labs. Juliet walked into the cortex, holding hands with Barry. Cisco was leaning against the desk of computers, looking incredulously at Caitlin, who was walking into the medbay.

"Hey," Barry greeted.

"Did you hear that?" Cisco questioned.

"No, what?"

"Caitlin just bit my head off. She's been all business, no emotion lately. She's been . . . cold."

Juliet rolled her eyes. "Cold? Cisco, seriously?"

"This could be the beginning of her becoming evil," Cisco argued. "You're not worried about that?"

"No, I'm not, actually. Caitlin's not going to become Killer Frost."

"Hm."

"You haven't mentioned anything about Earth-Two, have you?" Barry inquired.

"No, 'cause I know how to keep a secret," Cisco answered.

"All right, well, look, I mean, it's gonna take some time for her to heal. We just got to be there for her, keep her busy."

"That shouldn't be a problem," a very familiar voice interjected.

Juliet turned, only to see Diggle and Lyla walking right into the cortex. Her eyebrows knit in confusion.

"Oh," Cisco let out.

"Hey, Dig, Lyla," Barry announced. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We came to give you and Juliet the head's up, Barry," Diggle revealed.

Barry's eyes flickered in between them. "About what?"

"A Metahuman who escaped from A.R.G.U.S. custody, goes by the name King Shark," Lyla added.

"King Shark?" Cisco repeated. "You mean the half-man-half-shark that tried to kill you months ago. I thought he was dead."

"That's what A.R.G.U.S. wanted you to believe when they snatched him up, but believe me, this half-shark is very much alive, and his biological imperative is telling him to do one thing," Diggle explained. "That's kill you, Barry."

Cisco stared at him with wide eyes. "We're gonna need a bigger Flash."

Juliet flicked her hand to the side, making Cisco's head snap to the right like he just got slapped. "Fuck you. I'm right here, bitch."

"First of all, ow. Second of all, you know what I meant."

They called everybody back into the cortex, and by everybody, Juliet just meant Harry and Caitlin joined. Juliet leaned against the desk of computers, staring at the screens on the wall, showcasing King Shark.

"So how do you know about King Shark?" Barry asked.

"Well, as the new Director of A.R.G.U.S., Lyla's job is to clean up Amanda Waller's messes," Diggle responded. "King Shark was one of the bigger and weirder ones."

"And it appears under her directives, A.R.G.U.S. had been monitoring Metahuman activity for the past two years," Lyla said.

"Why?" Caitlin questioned.

Diggle looked at Lyla. "Well, to see if any of those powers could be exploited."

"Weaponized," Harry translated.

Diggle nodded to Juliet. "Had her eyes on you for a while."

Juliet sighed. "Of course she did."

"How do you know that he's coming after me?" Barry inquired.

"While in our custody, he kept saying the same thing," Lyla began. "Zoom wants the Flash dead. And although he removed the tracker we had in him, the readings we did receive show that he was headed towards Central City."

"Let him come."

"Barry, this thing is a killing machine," Diggle insisted. "We just came here to warn you, man. Let A.R.G.U.S. handle it."

"No," Juliet interrupted swiftly. "All year, we've just been sitting around, letting Zoom and his brainwashed minions run around. King Shark is the final henchman. We can't just wait around for him to attack." Juliet pushed herself off of the desk. "Especially since he's coming after my boyfriend. We at least owe it to Jay to go after him first."

"Wells, he's from your Earth," Barry stated. "What do you know about him?"

"Real name is Shay Lamden," Harry answered. "He was a — get this — marine biologist before my Particle Accelerator changed him into King Shark, and Zoom put him under his control."

"So how did you track him when he attacked Barry?" Caitlin asked.

"Zoom sent him to this Earth to kill Barry and find Juliet. I just followed."

"Yeah, but you did track Grodd down," Barry voiced. "Can you find King Shark, too?"

Harry walked off. "I can try."

Juliet looked at the screen, which had a map of where King Shark was tracked. "Everywhere he's gone has been next to a body of water."

"There must only be a few hours before he needs to get back into the water to re-oxygenate his blood," Caitlin said.

"J and I can take the waterfront," Barry offered before looking to Lyla. "Can you have your team handle the rest?"

"I'll get them on it," Lyla agreed.

"All right. What about Dr. Lamden's doppelganger? Maybe he could help us somehow."

Cisco typed for a moment. "Or not. Um, looks like he died when the Particle Accelerator exploded."

"What about next of kin?" Caitlin questioned.

"Uh, he's got a widow, Dr. Tanya Lamden. She's a research scientist at Nautilus Labs, and she studies — wait for it — sharks."

Juliet let out a deep breath. "Uh, okay, can you two go see if maybe she's discovered anything in our research that could help us with this."

Caitlin stood up. "Sure."

Cisco followed her. "Great."

Barry then answered his phone, putting it on speaker so Juliet could hear. "Hey, Joe, what's up?"

"Hey, Barr, I talked to Wally, he wants to meet up with you and Jules," Joe admitted.

"All right."

"He's working on his engineering project at our place tonight. He would love some help from that big brain that you two seem to share."

Juliet sighed. "Joe, I know it's important, but we're kind of dealing with something crazy right now."

"Why?" Joe inquired. "What's going on?"

"Do you remember that Metahuman shark Patty was looking into? The same one that attacked Barry?"

"He's back? I thought Wells — you know."

"Yeah, us too, but apparently, A.R.G.U.S. had him and he escaped, and now he's heading for Central City," Barry continued.

"I get it," Joe replied. "Uh, I'll tell Wally some other time."

Barry shared a look with Juliet, who merely shrugged as if to say up to you, before cutting in again. "Hey, you know what? Um, it's all good, we'll make it work. Tell him tonight should be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks, you two," Joe told them.

"Yeah, bye." Barry hung up before noticing Juliet's smile. "Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?" Juliet responded innocently, starting to walk away. "I didn't look at you like anything."

"Why are we dating again?" Barry asked, although there was no real malice or bite behind his words.

"Because we're literally forever lovers?" She turned around to look at him for a moment. "You're stuck with me."

Juliet and Barry got into their suits before heading to the waterfront in Central City. While Barry ran around, Juliet teleported, small jumps to different spots to keep an eye on things. However, she saw absolutely nothing. Finally, she teleported back to the parking lot just as Barry sped in next to her, where Diggle and Lyla were getting out of the car.

"Anything?" Diggle questioned.

Barry shook his head. "No, man, nothing yet."

"Yeah, so far, nothing on our end either."

"Let's just hope Wells is doing better than we are."

Now, it was no secret that Juliet still had absolutely no idea what was going on with Team Arrow. Last she heard, Felicity and Oliver had been attacked by gunmen, the injuries resulting in Felicity being paralyzed from the waist down.

Juliet tucked some hair behind her ear before placing her hands on her hips. "Felicity doing okay?"

Diggle sighed. "Well, I'm not gonna lie, Juliet, it was pretty rough there at first, but you know Felicity, she's tough."

Juliet gave him a tight smile. "I know. It's just . . . I've been trying to call her, and she hasn't been answering. It's taken a lot of willpower to not just teleport right to her."

"She has a lot going on right now. But, hey, I'll ask if she can give you a call when this is all over."

"Thanks."

"I just want to catch this thing, man, have everything to do with Zoom and Earth-Two put behind us, so we can just move on with our lives," Barry stated.

"Starting to do that thing Oliver does, Barry, carry the weight of the world on your shoulders," Diggle told them. He nodded to Juliet. "I've seen you do it, too. Gotta stop that, you two, it's gonna slow you down."

Juliet blinked. "Oh my God, I'm turning into Oliver Queen? That's, like, my worst nightmare."

Lyla then walked up to them. "Still nothing." She pressed on her earpiece. "Status check, Grid six."

Well, they actually did have something. Grid six ended up dead by King Shark, unfortunately. A hazmat team was called in to carry away their mangled dead bodies and to wash their blood off of the shipping containers. Juliet and Barry checked all of the surrounding area, but even for an extremely tall Metahuman shark, he was very good at hiding.

Juliet walked up to Lyla and Diggle, Barry right behind her. "Still nothing. We searched the whole area."

"Couldn't have gotten far," Diggle insisted.

"Still, he knows we're here now," Lyla voiced. "We lost the element of surprise."

"Well, not if Wells can figure out a way to track him," Barry responded.

"In the meantime, we'll keep looking."

"All right. We'll meet up with you guys later. We have to go see Joe's son."

Diggle blinked at them before turning to Lyla. "Okay, I thought our relationship was hard to follow."

Barry put an arm around Juliet's waist. "Ready?"

Juliet held on tight to him. "Yeah, just go." She waved to the others. "Bye."

And with that, Barry sped off, taking Juliet with him.

After getting out of their suits and freshening up a bit, they went to the West house. Juliet and Barry sat at the dining room table, and Wally arrived with his backpack on. She gave him a small smile in greeting, watching as he slid his backpack off to rest it on the chair.

Wally took his laptop out of his bag. "Joe thought I should have you two take a look. So, this is what I got so far for my project essay to get into CCU's engineering program."

Barry placed the laptop so Juliet could see it more before clicking through Wally's project. "Turbine supercars?"

"Turbines?" Iris repeated. "Like jet engines?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's use an engine like the ones they have in some helicopters, only it's run on biodiesel," Wally replied.

"Cool."

Joe nodded. "It's very cool."

"Yeah, you're gonna want to address the fuel economy issue here," Barry explained. "I mean, it is a jet, so it's gonna burn through a lot of fuel."

"Yeah, that's — that's why I want to use biodiesel," Wally said. "It'll run off of anything that burns with oxygen."

"No, okay, but you also got a sound issue. Gonna wake the neighbors . . ." He chuckled for a moment. "For sure."

Wally stared at him. "Anything else?"

"Um . . . well, I just . . . want to help, you know. I'm just trying to make sure they don't have any reason to say no."

"Okay."

"Sorry, Wally, I didn't mean that — I mean, it looks really good," Barry stated.

"Jules?" Iris inquired.

"Oh," Juliet let out, snapping herself out of whatever weirdness they had just been in. "Um, this does look good, Wally, but Barry does some bring up some good points. Maybe we can go through everything together and work out some things?"

Wally nodded and sat down in one of the chairs. "Sounds good."

Barry slid the laptop back over to him. "Cool."

Even though Joe and Iris were still right there, Juliet could feel the tension radiating between Barry and Wally — and right now, she didn't know how to fix it.

〖   ϟ   〗

okay so like I'm not gonna lie when this chapter was written it was the first time I've written juliet in literally three months so . . . if it feels weird that's why