Only Because I Need You

Discussing The Obvious

Caitlin sat back in her chair. The rest of team Flash had congregated in the cortex, the only members missing were Cecile and Joe. They all sat together by the welcome desk. Iris and Barry were leaning on it, shoulder to shoulder, where as Harry and Cisco were at opposite ends of the desk. Caitlin held in a smile. That pair pretended to hate one another, but in reality they would both be distraught if they were separated. Pride was a dangerous thing. Caitlin sat close to the middle, her teammates regarded her kindly, but also as though she had told them the most obscure thing they had ever heard in their lives, "so let me get this straight," Cisco cleared his throat, "you think that Sonny gained his powers the night of the particle accelerator and he somehow managed to gain powers and travel forwards in time to now?" He raised a dark eyebrow.

"It would explain his confusion and his disappearance," Iris added in gently with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

"He could have some advanced form of breaching maybe even an ability to control space and time itself," Harry's eyes narrowed slightly and his top lip curled slightly upwards. Caitlin recognised that as the face he pulled when he was on the verge of figuring something out but did not have all the puzzle pieces.

"Which would explain how he was able to pull Ethan, not only from the future, but possibly even a different world," Cisco hummed along, his eyes were staring off into space, his arms crossed over his chest. Cisco was brainstorming ideas, searching for the best one that fit.

"Maybe even the fact that Barry had caught him whilst he was falling had something to do with Ethan being the one he pulled into the past," Caitlin offered up, sitting back into her seat.

"That's very possible," Harry muttered, his expression deepening. A moment of silence passed through the room. The team were silent, slowly thinking about their own solutions. There were so many possible ones and so many impossible ones. Caitlin's mind felt like spaghetti that was greedily eaten by a dog, only to be thrown up moments later. She nearly smiled in amusement, that was what brains looked like anyway.

"What happened to the Jelly Lady?" Irises soft voice cut through their head aches like a gentle summer breeze blowing across a scorching beach. Her eyes scanned them all, waiting patiently for a reply. Barry opened his mouth to reply before clamping it shut.

"You mean Sting?" Cisco sent her a sly smile.

"That's an awful name," Harry barked. Cisco sent him the side glare, his mouth hung slightly agape. He moved to reply but Caitlin cut in before he could. She did not want to listen to another one of their petty arguments.

"Well we don't know where she went, we have searched for her but she has disappeared. Even her killing spree has stopped," Caitlin replied, pressing her lips into a thin line. She hoped that Sting wouldn't cross paths with another unfortunate person. Being killed by having your throat ripped out was bad, but being killed by Irukandji venom was worse.

"Do we have any way of tracking her?" Iris raised an eyebrow at them. Her dark eyes shifted from genius to genius expectantly.

"No, we will just have to wait until she resurfaces," Harry grumbled. To Caitlin he sounded a little like her grandfather had in his later years when he woke up in the mornings, demanding coffee, only to be told that he was not allowed caffeine any longer.

"In the main time though, we can focus on Sonny," Cisco brought light back to the conversation, he cheerily rose his hands up for emphasise and a cheesy grin crawled across his face.

"Yes, after some major research we managed to find his father," Caitlin replied, turning to the computer to pull up a large photo of the man, projecting onto the main screen in the cortex "his name is Gareth Kirkland, he works as a Captain down at the docks," his image was eerily similar to the boys. He had dirty blonde hair and two piercing blue eyes. His captain's hat sat wonkily on his head as he sent the camera a cheery smile that was frozen in time. Caitlin sighed, he looked very young, maybe his late twenties to early thirties. Sonny must have been his first child.

"He spent the last few years of his life believing that his wife and son were either dead or missing," Cisco added absentmindedly. His eyes bore into the Captain's with such remorse and pity that even Caitlin felt affected by it, "we couldn't find the mother, but we can contact Captain Kirkland,"

"What about Sonny though?" Iris stopped them, "we can't just give him back to the Captain, he has no idea how to control his powers. If he can somehow control time, what's to stop him from travelling back in time and accidentally messing up the time line?"

"Cisco will teach him," Barry grinned widely at his friend. Caitlin felt a small smile of her own begin to form. Cisco was perfect for teaching the child, even if he didn't know it yet.

"Excuse me?" Cisco squeaked, tilting his head to the side like a confused dog and pulling his eyebrows in together.

"Barry is right," Caitlin told him, Cisco's dark eyes flicked over to her they were filled with drama and betrayal, "your powers are so similar and out of all of us you know the best what messing with the time line can do," Cisco also had the mind of a toddler at times, but she didn't say that out loud. She was trying to charm him, not annoy him.

His face fell slightly, "don't tell me you are afraid of a child?" Harry taunted him with the twitching of his lips.

Cisco jutted his jaw out to one side and rolled his eyes, "no, I am not afraid of a child, I just didn't know I was going to be the one teaching him," he pouted, "but I will do it,"

"Thank you Cisco," Caitlin smiled, she felt it reach her eyes.