⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗘

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
back to the beginning

⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

THE LAST THING Juliet wanted to do was be dragged on a double date between Iris and Eddie and Barry and Linda and be a fifth wheel, but she also didn't want to be alone.

Turns out, she ended up being alone. Juliet laid on her couch in her apartment, her cheek in the palm of her hand. A box of pizza was in front of her, and she was eating it as she watched Cinderella — the original version from the 50's. Don't ask why she was watching it, she just was.

Suddenly, her phone rang. Juliet paused her movie and set down her pizza crust in the box. She looked to see that it was Cisco calling. Juliet answered.

"What's up?" Juliet asked.

"There's a silent alarm that's been tripped at the Central City Morgue," Cisco revealed.

Juliet's eyebrows knit in confusion. "Who the fuck would want to rob a morgue?"

"Exactly what Dr. Wells said. Well, minus the curses. Barry'll probably meet you there."

She hung up the phone. Juliet discarded her dinner and movie and teleported away from her apartment. She teleported into her suit back at S.T.A.R. Labs before going to the morgue. Juliet appeared in a room, and Barry sped in next to her. She gave him a fleeting smile before the two of them wandered further into the room. Her heart instantly sank at the sight of the coroner, dead on the ground.

"What's going on?" Cisco asked. "What do you see?"

"A dead body," Barry answered.

"Barry, you're in a morgue. You're gonna have to be a little more specific than that. JJ, please help."

"It's the coroner," Juliet added. "He's the dead body."

The two superheroes went away for a moment when they noticed police sirens coming. They put their suits back at S.T.A.R. Labs and reappeared at the crime scene, both with coffees and their CSI cases. Barry, however, crashed straight into Captain Singh, spilling water all over the two of them. Juliet shut her eyes in embarrassment for a moment.

"Allen, my fiancé just bought me this!" Captain Singh scolded.

"Yeah, I'm so sorry, Captain," Barry replied.

Captain Singh looked straight at Juliet. "St. James, why don't you take over the CSI job for today and help Joe find out who did this?"

Juliet nodded. "Yes, Captain." She elbowed Barry when Captain Singh walked away. "Good going."

Joe gestured to all the water on the floor. "What's with all the water? Did the sprinkler system go off or something?"

"All the sprinklers were intact when Barry and I checked," Juliet told him. "But check this out."

Juliet pulled on a pair of gloves out of her case and a pair of tweezers. She picked up a chunk of ice off of the floor. Earlier, when she first saw the coroner she thought it was glass, but it wasn't.

Joe looked at it. "What is that, ice?"

"Yeah," Juliet confirmed. "And the coroner has multiple impact bruises across his torso, each the size of a tennis ball." She pulled up the coroner's scrubs to show Joe the bruises. "Considering the amount of ice and water that's all over the ground, he was probably killed by hail."

"Hail? In here?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Do you think this was Snart?" Joe questioned.

"No, his cold gun couldn't have done this," Barry voiced.

"Joe, we got something," Eddie announced, walking up with a device in his hand. "The coroner's office just installed an automated dictation system. Listen to this."

"Please, no more," a voice begged on the recording, presumably the coroner.

"I'll stop when you tell me," a deeper voice stated.

"S-S-Stop."

"Who killed him?"

"I know that voice," Joe admitted. "That's Mardon."

"I want a name," the deep voice — Mardon, urged.

"Clyde Mardon's dead," Eddie argued.

"It's not Clyde Mardon," Joe said. "It's his brother, Mark."

"It was Detective West," the coroner told Mardon. "He shot him. Detective Joe West killed your brother."

"He will pay for what he did," Mardon responded.

The coroner then started screaming from Mardon killing him. Juliet took a deep breath and glanced at Joe worryingly. If Mardon knew that Joe killed his brother, and he was still out there . . . this was not good. This was really not good.

Juliet, Barry, and Joe went back to S.T.A.R. Labs. They explained to the team what was going on as they had Mark and Clyde Mardon's mugshots pulled up on the screen.

"So Clyde Mardon has a brother?" Caitlin inquired.

"And both brothers survived the plane crash, and then the dark matter released from the Particle Accelerator explosion affects them both in virtually the same way," Dr. Wells added.

"Yeah, only Mark's powers seem to be a lot more precise," Barry revealed. "To be able to control the weather like that, indoors?"

"You'd have to be a Weather Wizard," Cisco voiced. "Ooh, been waiting since week one to use that one." He then took a sip of his slushie and winced. "Mm!"

"Trigeminal headache?" Caitlin asked.

"What?"

"Trigeminal headache. Brain freeze."

"Then why don't you just call it a brain freeze?" Cisco complained.

"So I'm guessing you running around and you controlling a twister in the opposite direction isn't gonna do the trick this time," Joe stated, looking from Barry to Juliet.

"I just remembered. During our run-in with Clyde Mardon, I was tinkering with something to help attract unbound atmospheric electrons."

Juliet crossed her arms. "Like some sort of grounding mechanism?"

"Yes, 'cause the only way that Mardon can control the weather is if he can tap into the atmosphere's natural electrical circuit, and if we take away that circuit, clear skies," Cisco explained.

Joe pulled his phone out of his pocket, which was ringing. "Singh's checking in. I gotta go."

"Yeah, J and I'll meet you at the station," Barry replied.

"Joe, we'll find Mardon," Dr. Wells reassured him. "Don't worry."

"I'm not worried at all," Joe said before leaving.

"Well, he's taking being targeted by a revenge-seeking Metahuman rather well, I must say. Don't worry, Barry. Don't worry, Juliet. Joe will be fine, I promise."

"Yeah, no, I know," Barry responded. "Uh, I actually wanted to talk to you about something else."

"Mm-hmm?"

"Um . . . look, last night, on my way to the morgue, I saw something."

"What'd you see?" Dr. Wells urged.

"I was running and I turned and I saw myself," Barry admitted, making Juliet's eyebrows knit in thought. "Or, I don't know, another Flash running beside me."

"Interesting."

"Yeah, well, what do you think it was?"

"Could be an optical illusion, a mirroring effect caused by wind shear and light, a speed mirage, if you will," Dr. Wells suggested.

Barry shook his head. "It didn't seem like that. It was . . . he seemed real."

"I'll tell you what. Let's focus on finding Mardon, and once he's safely contained in the pipeline, we'll investigate this."

Juliet patted Barry's shoulder comfortingly. "Come on. We should go."

Barry looked down at her. "What do you think it was?"

"Don't know. Maybe you're going crazy."

"Great, love the encouragement."

Juliet and Barry went back to CCPD. They entered Captain Singh's office, where Captain Singh, Eddie, and Joe already were.

"Where are we at with Mardon?" Captain Singh questioned.

"No one at the morgue saw or heard anything," Eddie answered.

"We're canvassing known associates, seeing if he reached out to anybody," Joe added. "Maybe we can get a lead on where he's holed up."

"All right, why don't we let Thawne do that?" Captain Singh suggested.

"Because nobody knows the Mardon brothers better than I do. I mean, Chyre and I tracked them for years. I know how they think."

"Which is why you should coordinate the investigation from here."

Joe turned around and walked out of the office, clearly upset. Juliet, Barry, and Eddie trailed after him out into the main part of the precinct.

"Hey," Joe began, pulling Juliet, Barry, and Eddie in closer as Iris walked into the precinct. "If you guys want to keep that smile on that pretty face, she doesn't hear about any of this." Juliet nodded in agreement, and Joe stuck a smile on his face, reaching an arm out so he could hug his daughter. "Hey, sweetheart."

"Hey, dad," Iris responded, hugging him tight. She looked at Eddie. "Hi."

"Hey," Eddie replied before walking away.

Iris looked upset for a moment, but turned back to the other three. "So, what are you guys working on? You got any good leads for an honest reporter?"

"Uh, things are actually pretty quiet around here right now," Barry told her, playing it cool.

Iris glanced back at Eddie. "Can you guys give me a minute?"

"Yeah, me, Barry, and Jules were actually gonna grab lunch," Joe revealed.

"We were?" Barry inquired, and Juliet discreetly elbowed his side. "Right, yeah, yeah."

Juliet smiled at her best friend. "Good luck, 'Ris."

Her, Barry, and Joe went downstairs and got in Joe's car. He drove them to Big Belly Burger, and they all ate their meals in the car as Joe drove. Juliet casually ate her French fries and burger in the backseat, and even though she had just gotten Big Belly Burger with Barry the other day, she never minded having it again.

"I haven't had one of those in way too long," Joe commented.

Barry nodded. "Felt appropriate. So, you want to talk about what's been going on with you?"

"What do you think's been going on with me, Barry?"

"He means you're acting really calm, considering what we're facing," Juliet translated, sipping her drink.

"We aren't facing anything," Joe argued.

Juliet gave him a look. "Joe."

"Look, I'm fine. Can we just change the subject, please?"

"Sure," Barry agreed. "Actually, you know, I could use some advice."

Joe glanced at him. "About what?"

"Uh, you know, just relationship stuff."

Juliet raised an eyebrow. "You and Linda are having problems?"

"No, actually," Barry stated. "With Iris. Things between us have gotten a little complicated again."

Truth be told, Barry only said Iris in replace of Juliet. He couldn't talk about Juliet and his newfound strange feelings for her that had risen up beneath the surface with Juliet there. Barry was sure it would just throw everything off balance. But he needed to talk about it, and the only way he could discreetly with Juliet in the car was talking about the girl he thought he had feelings for this whole time.

Juliet inwardly sighed and leaned back in her seat. Her heart could never catch a break.

Joe laughed. "You're asking your adopted father for advice about being in love with his daughter, who just so happens to be dating his partner?"

"I know, I know," Barry said.

"Things have been way past complicated for months now, Barr," Juliet voiced.

"Sometimes, me and Iris—" Juliet "—have these moments, and when I'm looking into her eyes, it's hard not to think that she's feeling the same way I do."

"Look, you already told Iris how you feel, so unless she comes out and says she feels the same way, all you can do is hold onto those moments," Joe stated. He then looked at the amount of rain that had started to pour. "Man, it is coming down."

Juliet stared out the window. God, she couldn't help but feel like she was in a dramatic music video — feeling heartbroken while staring out into the rain. Barry then turned the dial on the radio, changing the station.

"And it's another beautiful day here in Central City," the reporter announced. "Not a cloud."

Juliet's eyebrows knit in confusion. Did he not see the rain or hear the thunder? Unless . . .

Joe suddenly stopped the car. "Mardon."

Al three looked behind them. Sitting in a truck was Mark Mardon with his hand raised. He then curled his hand into a fist, and Juliet looked up through the sunroof in time to see a bolt of lightning come down straight at the car.

Her eyes widened and she reached a hand up, focusing on the bolt of lightning. Juliet felt energy travel up and down her arms as her mind connected to the lightning. The bolt stopped right above the sunroof. She could feel Mardon fighting against her, trying to get the bolt to keep going, but Juliet held on.

"Go," Juliet urged. "Get Joe out of here."

"J, I'm not leaving you," Barry protested.

"I'll be fine. Go."

Barry hesitated for a moment, but saw the strong look in her eyes. He grabbed Joe and ran them out of the car onto the side of the road in a flash of yellow lightning. Juliet took a deep breath. She could do this. Juliet removed her concentration on the bolt and focused only on herself. Just as the bolt of lightning hit the sunroof and glass shattered everywhere, Juliet teleported away.

She materialized on the side of the road next to Barry and Joe just as Joe's car went up in a fiery explosion. Juliet felt arms wrap around her waist and pick her up off the ground, holding onto her tightly. She instantly hugged Barry back just as tight, still breathing heavily. Juliet picked up her head from his shoulder and watched the fire.

Well, shit.

The police arrived on the scene and instantly questioned all three of them. After a couple of minutes of answering questions, they were allowed to go back to the precinct. However, Captain Singh was waiting for them.

"You're confined to the precinct until Mardon's caught," Captain Singh ordered.

"David, you said it yourself," Joe replied. "That son of a bitch killed my partner."

"And I'm not gonna lose you the way I lost Fred Chyre. Look, I can't stop you from being pissed, Joe, but I can keep you safe. Maybe your daughter can contact the Flash and Scarlet."

"I'm not getting her involved in this."

"Allen, St. James, make sure he doesn't go anywhere," Captain Singh instructed.

"I need to be out there," Joe insisted as he walked over to his desk.

Juliet followed after him. "Joe, listen. You're the first one who always tells Barry he's not thinking clearly. Well, with the exception of me."

Barry blinked at her. "Doesn't he tell you when you're not thinking clearly, too?"

"No, because I never do anything wrong. But that's not my point."

Joe looked at them. "I took down Clyde. I can take down his dirtbag brother, too."

"You didn't do that alone, remember?" Barry reminded him.

"You're right." Joe gestured to all of the officers in the precinct. "How are any of these guys going to protect me? They don't know. They don't know what Mardon's capable of."

"All right, well, lucky for you, your friends at S.T.A.R. Labs do."

Juliet gave him a look. "Do not make me mind control you to stay seated in this desk, Joe."

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IRIS HAD CALLED Juliet the next day, asking her if she could meet her at Jitters. Juliet immediately agreed, because best friend time with Iris was always something she loved. They met up at the coffee shop and greeted each other with a quick hug before going to order their coffees.

"You sounded a little bothered on the phone," Juliet told Iris, giving the barista a gracious smile as she put her latte down on the counter. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Iris answered, but Juliet didn't buy it. "You should've come the other night?"

"And be surrounded by two couples, one including the boy that I've been in love with my whole life?" Juliet inquired, scoffing slightly as they sat down at a table. "Yeah, no thanks."

"But you and Barry are always so cute together when you bowl."

"Well, he can be cute with Linda, I guess." Juliet sipped her latte. "Anyways, what's up?"

Iris placed down her folder. "So the reason that I called you was because my sort of advisor at the paper is always teaching me lessons, tricks of the trade, how to get a good story, and one of the things he's repeatedly telling me is to follow your hunch, see where it leads."

"Good advice."

"Yeah, it is. Except in this instance, that hunch involves you and Barry."

Juliet's mind instantly started to spin. Iris didn't know that they were Scarlet and the Flash . . . right? No, there was no way.

She placed a small smile on her face, trying to calm her nerves. "You know you can ask me anything, 'Ris."

"It's about Harrison Wells," Iris revealed.

"Oh. What about Dr. Wells?"

"Well, I mean, a lot of strange things have been happening in Central City this past year. The Flash, Scarlet, the Burning Man, people going missing. He was there at Stagg's office the night that Stagg went missing."

Iris handed her a photo from her folder, and Juliet looked down to see it was a security camera picture of Dr. Wells outside Stagg Industries.

Juliet raised an eyebrow. "Do you think that he's responsible for Stagg going missing?"

"I mean, I don't really know him, but you and Barry and your friends do," Iris continued, and Juliet handed her the photo back. "Jules, in your heart of hearts, do you think it's possible that there's more to Harrison than people have been led to believe?"

Yes.

Woah, where did that come from?

Juliet continuously looked up to Dr. Wells. However, after he was so willing to let Ronnie and Professor Stein die . . . Juliet had started to feel kind of iffy about him. She would never admit that out loud, though. Nobody would've agreed with her.

"He's a good man," Juliet insisted, although her heart didn't really believe that. "You probably won't find a story with him."

That was evidently the end of that conversation. Juliet and Iris finished their drinks and chatted for a bit before going their separate ways. Cisco had sent Juliet a text saying his device was done, and she teleported back there. Her, Barry, Caitlin, and Dr. Wells all gathered in the cortex to see Cisco's machine.

"I call it the Wizard's Wand," Cisco announced, turning around and holding something that looked like a metal stick.

"So I get to be like Harry Potter?" Juliet asked. "Wicked."

"Subtle," Caitlin commented. "How does it work?"

"Just think of it like an active lightning rod. You just point it at the sky, and it'll suck up whatever energy's floating around it like a sponge."

Barry took it from him. "And it'll stop Mardon?"

"It'll certainly slow him down," Dr. Wells responded. "If there's no atmospheric electrons available to him, there's no way for him to control the weather. Good work, Cisco. As always. If you excuse me, I'm gonna go stretch my legs."

Juliet leaned back against the desk of computers and averted her gaze to the floor.

Barry nudged her side. "Are you all right? You seem . . . off."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Juliet replied. "It's just . . . Iris' advisor at Picture News got into her head that Dr. Wells is suspicious."

"Like what?" Caitlin questioned, glancing at Cisco.

"He was apparently the last person to leave Stagg Industries the night Stagg went missing. Nobody's heard from or seen Stagg since the night that Barry and I stopped Danton Black."

"What'd you tell her?" Cisco inquired.

"I told her she was wrong, which she is," Juliet answered.

Is she? her mind echoed.

Juliet had gone back to her apartment after that, wanting nothing more than to relax.

Relaxation is not what she got.

She got another call from Cisco. Juliet answered.

"Mardon's at the CCPD," Cisco told her before she could speak. "Barry didn't answer, you have to go."

"Shit," Juliet voiced.

She teleported to S.T.A.R. Labs to get into her suit and then teleported to the CCPD. Sure enough, Mardon was there. He was causing wind to funnel into the precinct. Glass was shattered and multiple officers were crouching.

Juliet instantly grabbed the Wizard's Wand. She raised it in the air, and all of the wind got sucked into it. Mardon stared at her incredulously before he left the precinct. Juliet went to go after him, but there was a more pressing matter.

"Captain!" Joe shouted. "David."

Juliet turned. Captain Singh was unconscious on the floor next to a filing cabinet. He had been hurt by Mardon. Joe looked up at Juliet, and she ran over to him. Juliet placed her hands on Captain Singh's shoulders and teleported the two away to the closest hospital.

He had to be okay.

〖   ϟ   〗

if you see chapter thirty-four looking pretty much the exact same as this one just know it's because this is when barry goes back in time and fixes everything WOOOOO

also YEAHHHHH we got a barry self-confession let's go bitches