135

"You ready for this?" Barry asked Nora, stood with her, a few feet in front of me, in the ice rink.

"Dad, I'm just- I'm not fast enough yet." Nora began, giving an excuse.

"No backing out now, this is the biggest race of your life." Barry told her, "You ready?"

"Not really." Nora mumbled, "Dad-"

"Get ready, set, go!" Barry cheers, skating off.

"Dad- wait, wait!" Nora shrieks lightly, trying to keep her balance on the ice, "Oh, God-"

Team Flash had gone out for ice skating, a break from the chaos.

I fix the slouching navy blue beanie on my head, my straight hair cascading down my back as far as it went, as I was dressed in a grey sweater and black ripped jeans, Barry's jean jacket over everything to finish the look, instead of black boots on my feet, it being white ice skates.

"Whoa, whoa-" I came up behind Nora, keeping her steady, "I got you-"

"This is so embarrassing." Nora nervously laughs, and almost falls once more, "I'm really good at the ice skating game on my Pocket Pal!"

I kept a hold on her, "Hey- okay, you just gotta bend your knees- and lead forward a little."

"I'm doing it." Nora laughs out in relief as she followed my instructions, "I'm skating."

"You are-" I let go of her, laughing quietly, "You're honestly doing so much better than I was when I first started."

"Who taught you?" Nora questions, slowly skating next to me.

"Your Dad-" I told her, "I was too afraid to get onto the ice so he grabbed me, and literally left me in the middle of the rink until I got up. When I got up, he held onto me until I could skate and every time I fell, he'd catch me, or break my fall by an attempt to catch me."

Nora laughs, "Oh man, that's rough-"

"Yeah-" I laugh lightly, and catch her right as she starts to fall, "Hey, remember, bend your knees and lean forward a little-"

Nora gains her balance, giggling, starting to skate away from me, "This is like schway city, Mom. Thanks."

I smile to myself, keeping at my pace, Barry skating up next to me, "Look at you guys."

I hum, looking at him, a smile wide on his lips, "You're such a mom."

"Well, what about you?" I kept my balance, "You're the one who sprang for ice skating and game night."

"Yeah, well, I know when Nora got hurt, I got a little frustrated." Barry began to explain, "And now, I mean, we have an actual plan to stop Cicada."

"Waking up his niece to appeal to his heart." I nod, fixing my glove.

"I know Dwyer's a killer, but he's still a person, and he loves Grace just like we love Nora." Barry explained further, "So I don't know. I just feel like everything's heading in the right direction."

"Here I come. Coming in." Ralph skates next to me, "Here we go-"

"I'm sorry, why are you wearing a helmet?" I look at him, "I thought you were made of rubber."

"Somebody's gotta set a good example for these kids." Ralph told me, trying his best to stay balanced.

"Well- I thought you grew up on the ice." Caitlin comes by us.

"Well, I did, basically, my mom dated a zamboni operator, so-" Ralph shrugs.

"And I tell you where I'm from we don't date zamboni drivers. Why is that? Because there are no zambonis. How do we clear the ice? All winter long, we are on our hands and knees with a squeegee in hand." Sherloque slides in, "Let me tell you. Best eight months of the year for this guy."

"It's a really great story, Sherlock." Ralph nods.

"Sherloque." He skates away, correcting him.

"You know, speaking of squeegeeing, you know who could use a good squeegeeing is Larry Blumenthal." Ralph looks at me, "He's dead."

"Larry Blumenthal is dead?" I repeat, staring at him with wide eyes, "The patent registrar across the hall from you with the 400 square footage-"

"-And the courtyard views?" Ralph finishes my sentence, "Yeah, dead as a doornail. You can have that place if you want it. Yours to rent."

"What? Oh, my God." I press my palms together, excitement for Iris filling within me, "I mean- I never even wanted it- I was helping Iris look for a place for her newspaper because she's always boasting about starting one and her ad revenue has been up this quarter, so-"

"Yeah, with the extra space she'd be able to hire editors, photographers-" Barry smiles at my excitement.

"She could turn her blog into a real newspaper." I smile widely, losing balance.

Barry catches me, "Let's not getting too excited, you're still on ice-"

"I have to tell her-" I giggle, grabbing my phone.

"Oh, my package has arrived." Sherloque skates back over, staring at his phone.

"What package?" questions Caitlin.

"This is the solution to all our problems." Sherloque skated towards the exit, "Allez, les amis. We must go."

-

"Madames et monsieurs, may I present to you-" Sherloque pulls off the cloth off the machine, speaking in French.

"The Memory Machine." I made it short and simple for everyone, fixing my beanie.

"Oui, Zee. Memory Machine." Sherloque went on, "Many times I have entered into people's minds using this very technology. From the unfortunate comatose victims of the Summerholt Institute to, yes, Jervis Tetch himself, the Terrible Mad Hatter Killer from Earth-221-"

Cisco steps in, "I come back from Tannhauser for one second, just borrowing a splicer for the meta cure and what do I find? This, this-"

Sherloque repeats the name in French, staring at him.

"Whatever." Cisco rolls his eyes, "How did you even get this here from Earth-221?"

"Well, I used the Forerunner Multiversal Delivery Service." Sherloque told him, "You don't use it? You don't have a gold card like me? Maybe I'll get you a discount-"

"We don't need a discount." Barry cuts them off, "All right, we just need to wake up Grace. This'll wake her up, right?"

"So in most coma patients, high traffic areas of brain activity go dormant and the low traffic areas spring to life, but unfortunately, Grace isn't normal." Caitlin began, "Not only has her coma lasted longer than the average, but her consciousness has isolated itself into one specific region, her long-term memories."

"It will be so facile, easy peasy for you." Sherloque points out, "All you do is you transmit your brainwaves into Grace's memories, right? And then you'll lead her consciousness out of a neural nexus portal. And Grace awakens."

Ralph spoke up, "It's sort of like when Barry woke me up when the Thinker trapped me."

"Surprisingly, that sounds kind of easy peasy." I shrug, looking between everyone.

"As long as Grace's unusual brain damage doesn't cause any unforeseen risks." Caitlin mentions.

"This is why I suggest you travel in pairs when you're using this technology." Sherloque suggests, "Every time I enter into someone's memories when I use this I went with my partner for sure."