Chapter Text
Sometimes, time travel amazed me. The ability to be some- when else because of a glitch in the space-time continuum, because of Speed Force, or magic, or a really cool ship. This wasn’t one of those times. It usually wasn’t. This was one of those times where I ignored the pure feel of lightning that engulfed every single one of my senses for the milli-second I was in the time stream. One of those times where I had to ignore the thrill of speeding into eras unknown. Had to cut off my excitement for the adventure of it, and just focus on Don’s arm around my waist, grounding me to him, since there was nothing else to ground me.
We emerged in the Bunker. Don made sure I was steady and then let go of me. Only the emergency lights were on, making it seem like no one was there. Just in case, I called out.
“Hello? Is anyone here?” No answer.
Don joined me. “Mr. Queen?” Nothing.
I dropped my backpack on the floor, and Don did the same with his. Besides the thumping of the bags, and the humming of computers, there wasn’t much noise. I pulled out my tablet and unfolded it, giving it a moment to connect with the Bunker’s network.
May 24, 2017
.
“Hey, hon? You got it. May 24.”
“Really?” Don asked excitedly as he looked over my shoulder. He pumped his fist in victory. “Any read-out on Frankie?”
“Not just yet. You know she could be a few hours or miles off. Hang on.” While Frankie was the speedier of the twins, Don was the more accurate when it came to phasing and Traveling. I pinged Frankie’s watch, trying to see if I could get a hit. “Nothing so far. I’ll need more power to extend the search beyond today in Star City.”
“You think she was really that far off the mark?”
“She was a bit frazzled in the Pipeline. Don’t worry-either she’ll catch up to us or we’ll catch up to her.” I plugged my tablet into the central console and began uploading the tracking program. Temporal tracking was a bit nasty, and would be time-consuming, especially on these older computers. “There. My tablet will let us know as soon as she’s been found.”
“Thanks.” Don came up behind me and rewarded me with a soft kiss on the crown of my head. “Can we put Gideon on it, too?”
I sighed. “I wish. But we need to save her processing power for something much more important. But that reminds me. Hey, Gideon?”
The disembodied blue AI head popped out of Don’s watch and turned to address me. “Yes, Ms. Queen?”
“I don’t know if you can tell, but we’re officially on mission. That means you need to refer to us by our code names at all times.”
“Of course, Anna.”
“You remember mine, too?” Don asked her.
“Yes, Don. Although I’d feel more comfortable to continue calling you Master Allen. I feel so rude.”
“The lack of manners is more than made up by for discretion on mission,” Don reminded Gideon. “Okay, that’s all we need for now. Unless you know anything about Frankie?”
“I have no leads on the whereabouts of Miss Allen.”
I sighed. “That’s Frankie, Gideon.”
“Right. No leads on Frankie.”
Don pressed a button on his watch. “Thanks, Gideon.” And she dematerialized. “So, where’s the next place we search?”
“According to Dad, the next most likely place he’ll be is at City Hall.”
“Alright.” He held out his arm for me to step into. “Let’s head out.”
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In a whoosh of air, we arrived at City Hall. Or, more specifically, right in Dad’s office. Right in front of Dad eating a sandwich. He looked up at us and dropped his food.
“I didn’t mean take us directly into the mayor’s office,” I whispered to Don. I turned toward my father.
“Hi, Dad.” I managed an awkward wave as Don let go of me.
Once he blinked the confusion out of his eyes, Dad picked up his phone and pressed a few buttons. “Tracey? Hold all of my calls and appointments. An old friend has just come to visit and I want to spend some time with her.” He hung up, still staring at me with a look of disbelief.
“It’s really me, Dad.” The biggest smile lit up his face and he came around his desk, scooping me up in a giant hug.
“Ryder.” I let him hug me for a while before backing off. “And who’s this?”
“Oh, this is...one of my best friends from my time, Don.” It was an understatement of who Don was to me, but we agreed it was for the best to keep things simple for our cover.
Don stuck out his hand for Dad to shake. “Nice to see you again, Mr. Queen.”
“Oliver is fine.”
“Eh, we’ll agree to disagree.” Don murmured under his breath. No one spoke for a while. It was getting awkward.
“You cut your hair.” Dad made the poignant observation.
I instinctively brought my hand up to my hair, which was indeed a lot shorter. “Yeah. Several times since we last saw each other.”
Dad tilted his head in confusion. “How long has it been for you?”
“About the same amount of time it’s been for you. 2 years, give or take.”
The awkward moment continued. Dad clearly wanted Don out of the room, and, to be honest, I wouldn’t mind some alone time with my dad.
“Hey, Don, are you hungry from Traveling?”
“Starved.”
“That Big Belly Burger on 5th and Main is around in this time period.”
He gracefully took the hint. “Great. I’ll go check it out.” And he sped off.
Dad let out a giant breath. “Is everything okay? Is Tommy okay? And William and your mother?”
“The family’s okay.” It was the biggest possible lie, but it wouldn’t do to have Dad worry unnecessarily about something he couldn’t control.
“And your friend, Don, he’s a speedster?”
“Yeah, he’s from Team Flash in my future.”
“That’s good. For a second, I thought it was you that sped him into my office instead of the other way around.”
“Nope, I’m still fully human.”
“So what brings you to 2017? Another evil speedster? Do I screw something up as Mayor?”
“No. Nothing like that. I’m here to prevent something terrible from happening.”