Chapter Text
Max opens his eyes aching and confused, staring at the sky and back slightly wet from the grass (?) he's laying on.
Hurried footsteps make their way to him after a long few minutes of lying there, not quite fully there in the here and now yet.
"Barry! Are you okay?!"
Max looks up at the man and woman who approach. The woman kneels by his side and starts to check him over for injury.
"Dude," the man says with a chuckle. "You passed 200 knots per hour."
Knots? What does he mean by…
As if it could not get any more confusing, Dr. Harrison fucking Wells makes his way over in a high tech wheelchair. "What happened out there?"
"I wish I knew," Max says honestly.
"You seemed distracted," Wells says.
Memories of their mother's death still linger, what he knows had brought him here. Whatever they were doing before this, it's no wonder those memories would be distracting.
But he's certainly not telling Wells about it. What good would trauma dumping to a virtual stranger do?
Despite there only being three people around him, he feels the telltale uncomfortable itch of anxiety as all three of their eyes boring into him. He averts his gaze, wringing his hands and wishing he could scrub the streaks of mud off of his skin.
Though they all have OCD and social anxiety, it presents differently for all of them.
Barry's mostly comes with the meticulous way he handles his work and his hesitance with new people from insecurities harbored from his years of being bullied.
Sebastian ends up lashing out instead of drawing inwards socially, though it doesn't erase his unease, and he is particular with their presentation and hygeine like Max as well as having a need for repetition.
Chem on the other hand is meticulous and particular about almost everything he does and though he's a wordsmith, conversation doesn't come naturally to him since he has trouble reading others, and when overwhelmed, he tends to shut down and go silent.
Their more internal headmates don't tend to front enough to deal with the social and outside aspect of things besides with each other, but they still have to manage in their own ways.
As for Max, it's definitely more… debilitating. He's gotten to work on it over the years, unable to leave the house or stand for even one thing to be out of place in the beginning, but now is capable of accomodating himself and his needs while being away from home.
But there's only so much you can prepare for and being in a skin tight red jumpsuit in a field beside a running track beside three strangers is not something he ever had a contingency plan for.
God, he wishes he could pet Chloe right now. His dog always soothes him.
Wait. Maybe one of the others left a note.
"Where's my phone?" he asks, still not quite able to meet their eyes, pretending to be searching his pockets instead.
"Oh, here dude," the man with the long hair says, handing him the device. He pulls open their shared communication document and sees four notes:
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We were in a coma for nine months after being struck by lightning and have been under the care of STAR Labs.
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The three people with you are Dr. Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, and Dr. Harrison Wells.
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Iris and Joe said to call if we needed anything and will pick us up when we're ready.
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We now have superpowers - see new tab titled "Speed." -Chem
Max's brows shoot up.
Superpowers?! That's— that's fucking ridiculous. That's not— that doesn't— that can't just happen!
He clicks the tab titled "Speed" as instructed and his eyes grow wider. It's not expansive which means that Chem hasn't been able to intricately study them in depth the way Max is starting to suspect was what brought him here.
What did that man, Cisco, say? 200 knots? Knots like nautical miles per hour?!
Speed doesn't do what they can do justice, from the sounds of it.
Max realizes he's been on his phone for too long and turns it off, turning the screen to his palm as he pushes himself up.
"The lightning that you produce is fascinating," Caitlin says. "Do you feel the heat of it at all?"
Lightning?
Pieces finally fall together. If what they can do creates lightning then…
Mom being engulfed in a circle of lightning. Mom's screams. Mom dead on the floor as they took their dad away.
What could this mean?
"I think I need to go home."
Before Harrison can say anything, Caitlin interjects as she clears her throat. "Though I am as much a woman of inquiry and scientific discovery, I think we've far past exhausted Mr. Allen for the day and he would do well to get some rest."
"See you tomorrow?" Cisco asks.
Max nods. "I'll be there." He makes a note to add that to their calendar.
He changes into a STAR Labs hoodie and sweatpants (since when did they have merch?) and waits patiently for Iris to pick him up, relieved that they left him alone as he sits on the bench in front of the building.
The sky has dimmed past the sunset, muddled in dark blues, barely illuminated by the sparse stars.
Iris car pulls up and Max perks up.
As he gets in, he can see that she wants to reach out to hug him. Silently, she holds out her arms in question.
"Not now, if that's okay," Max says.
"Yeah, of course," Iris says, redirecting her hands to the wheel and turning down the radio. "Is everything okay? Last we were here, Chem was fronting. Not that I'm not happy to see you, but if you're out then…"
"Something reminded him of our mom," Max says, the short explanation enough for her to understand.
Iris knows better than to ask what and just nods, lips twisting unhappily, probably wondering how something like that could've come up.
"I'm sure you're exhausted," she says. "Have you had anything to eat?"
As if on cue, his stomach rumbles. "If I have, I could eat again. I'm starving. Guess that happens when you're in a coma for nine months, huh?"
"Too soon, Max."
"Right, sorry."
Her face softens. "I didn't mean it like that. Just… it's been a hard nine months."
"I can't imagine."
"I'm sure you'll find out all about what you've missed."
"We've got to figure out logistics for our job. And the medical bills. And—"
"Hey. For now, how abotu you just figure out what you want for dinner."
He considers her question. "Big Belly Burger?"
She grins. "That sounds great."
As Max waits in the car as Iris gets their food from inside his favorite greasy fast food restaurant, he makes a to-do list of everything they have to take care of now that they're awake as well what they learned from the sprint he was not present for.
It's been longer than usual and Max looks out to see what could be holding Iris up and sees her talking to a blonde man by the door. He's about to call out to her, worried he's bothering her, when she pulls him down for a tender kiss.
Max's brows raise in surprise. When she pulls away, she notices Max's stare and she looks away guiltily. She parts with the man who Max now recognizes as one of the detectives at CCPD.
When she slides back into the car, she points sternly at him. "You can not tell my dad about this."
"Ooo, does Iris have a boyfriend?"
She goes to smack him on the arm but quickly aborts the motion, waving at the air near him. "Yes. Okay?"
"Tell me everything."
"You've never been one for gossiping about my love life," she says, crossing her arms with suspicion.
"Yeah, because it was non-existent," Max says, taking a bite of his burger and moaning with delight.
She scoffs in mock offense.
"C'mon," Max wags a fry at her. "Tel me about him."
"Eddie covered my dad's shifts so we could both be with you when you were in the hospital. I thanked him with a cup of coffee and things just… happened. And it's good."
"Straight out of a rom-com."
"No, what's straight out of a rom-com was you and that girl, what was her name? Nicole? The one whose dog got Chloe pregnant with pups?"
"We never would have worked out," Max says, shaking his head, "not only because her chaos was too incompatible with my… everything, but she just wasn't in a place where it would've made sense for her to know about all of us."
She sighs. "Yeah. I know. I just… you know I'm a romantic."
"We've had to be subjected to enough of your matchmaking," Max says. "I know."
"The one thing is, he's my dad's partner at work and it would just be a whole thing if he knew or if anyone at the station knew."
"Sounds like it."
The two continue to finish their burgers, Max not feeling nearly satiated enough and knowing he'll need a snack when they get back to the house, while catching up a bit on the happier bits of the nine months he missed.
They're finally driving home, talking about all the movies they need to watch together, when a car suddenly speeds towards them. The world starts to move in slow motion, sparks crackling inside of him, and reflexes he didn't know he had have him redirecting the wheel to keep them from crashing into the high speed chase. Before the world returns to normal, Max catches a glimpse of the man.
He knows him. Why does he know him? He tries to remember but it's like trying to walk through a wall of jello. Maybe one of the others will. He pulls his phone out and snaps a picture right before everything around him goes back to normal.
Holy fucking shit. They really do have superpowers.
He looks down at his phone and curses under his breath that the photo is a little blurry, probably a side effect from taking it in whatever that frozen time was, but the face is probably still recognizable enough if they knew what they were looking for.
"Oh my God," Iris exclaims. "Max—"
"Let's just get home," he says, feeling lightheaded. "I'm sure Joe knows what that was."
Joe isn't home so he must've been one of the officers chasing down that car.
Chloe, his perfect baby girl, comes running up to him, barking uncharacteristically loud as she paws at his legs. He picks her up and she nuzzles her face against his, barks turning into whines as she wiggles excitedly in his arms.
”Yes, yes, I missed you too, Chloe. Oh my beautiful little girl, yes yes.”
”She’s been so sad without you,” Iris says. “I wish I could’ve taken her to visit you but, you know, hospital sanitary things.”
Max nods and sets Chloe down, the dog following him as he helps himself to the fridge when Iris goes upstairs to take a shower and is at the dining table finishing a plate of leftover lasagna when Joe comes in.
"Hey, kid," Joe says tiredly. "You decided to come home for the night?"
Max nods. "Yeah. Are you okay? Me and Iris saw the car chase tonight."
"We weren't able to catch the perp. Fog on the road was too thick."
"I got a picture of the guy."
Joe nearly drops his jacket. "You were on the road when he was— when you said you saw the chase, I thought you meant on the news!"
"Do you want to see the picture or not?"
"Don't get cheeky with me," he says with no real heat.
Max hands him his phone and then goes to clean his plate. He doesn't realize until he's done cleaning the plate and placing it in the dishwasher that Joe has gone quiet.
He turns around. "Joe?"
"Clyde Mardon," he whispers.
Max's brows furrow. "Didn't he die?"
"Yes," Joe says, taking a seat. "He did."
"But… he didn't?"
"This doesn't make any sense," Joe says. "None of this makes any sense."
Yeah, Max thinks. He's starting to realize that too.