Always Running

Key to Forgetting

Greg Turk walks out of his boss's office, turning the corner and letting out a deep sigh. He was just scolded for the umpteenth time in the last six months. One of his clients passed away and his many attempts to contact the recipients of his estate have utterly failed. It wasn't his fault. The letters he has sent have gone unanswered. All attempts to call them have ended in disconnected numbers and voicemails. His most recent attempt to contact their place of employment, the attempt that he was most confident in, disappointed him the most. The Police department in Coast City claimed that no one with that name worked there and the science institution doesn't even have a number. Those labs are listed as 'closed and inoperative until further notice', so what the hell was he supposed to do now? He stares at his computer, tugging at his hair and sipping on his third coffee of the morning.

"Barry and Caitlin. Where the hell are you two?"

***************************************

"Wally, you're gonna be fine." Caitlin says, slightly annoyed.

"Snow, I'm not!" Wally says, sounding worried. He turns to her, smirking. "See what I did there?"

Caitlin rolls her eyes and nods in disappointment. The look of panic immediately returns to Wally's face.

"I'm not ready." He turns to resume his pacing.

"You are, Wal." Caitlin assures him. "We studied for how many hours last night?"

"Not enough." He argues.

"Too many." She argues back. "If you do bad, it's going to be because you're panicking, not because you don't know the material." He sighs, slowing down his pacing and taking long, deep breaths. "Even your mom knew the material by the time we were done studying."

"She has a better memory than I do." He says.

"That's a lie." Caitlin laughs. "She forgot to turn the oven on the last three times she's made dinner."

Wally sighs and leans over, putting his hands on Caitlin's desk and dropping his head between his shoulders. Caitlin hits his hand with her breakfast fork and scares him. He looks up at her with a confused look.

She smiles a calming smile. "Calm. Down." She whispers to him.

He lets out a deep breath. "Okay."

"Now go kick ass." She says in a light, encouraging tone.

He stands and bounces up and down, clapping his hands, and nodding his head from side to side. "Alright. I got this."

He holds his hand in front of Caitlin and she stares at it. He stares a little longer and waits for her to return the high-five. She smiles at him and leans back in her chair. He glares at her and answers his own high-five with his other hand dramatically and struts out.

"Good luck!" She calls out when he's out the door.

She gets back to her work, knowing she won't get much done when he's done with his exam. Before she can get started, her phone rings.

"Hey Iris." Caitlin answers.

"Caitlin! Did you hear?" Iris exclaims.

"Hear what?"

"They're giving the Flash the key to the city!" Iris almost yells through the phone.

"What!" Caitlin answers in disbelief.

"Yeah. Took me forever to convince those jerks that the Flash was even real and now they're having a whole public ceremony to give him the key. And I can't even be there!" Iris says in disappointment.