Chapter Text
We arrived back in the Bunker in a flash, and I stepped out of Don’s hold as soon as I caught my balance. Don, however, was still staggering. I put my hand on his shoulder and waited until he was able to make eye contact with me. After what felt like an eternity, he looked down at me and nodded.
“Is he okay?” Mom asked.
“Yeah, let me just-” I found Don’s bag and grabbed one of his specially formatted energy bars. I opened it and held it out for him. He grabbed it gratefully and wolfed it down quickly.
I quietly asked him, “Why didn’t you tell me it was too much?”
“It wasn’t. I’ll just take a break now.”
I rubbed his shoulder. “Yeah, that’s probably for the best. You’re doing a job meant for two speedsters.” He headed off to where the cots were, and I turned back to the problem at hand.
“So, what intel were you able to get from the Bratva?” asked Dinah.
“Not much.” I grimaced. “Just this phone number, which I hope we’re able to backtrace.”
“Give it here.” Mom held out her hand. I gave her the phone number. She typed it into a search algorithm and let the computers do their thing. Within seconds, she had a match. “It’s a burner phone.”
“Can you track it?”
“It’s basically untraceable, but that isn’t going to stop me.” A few more keystrokes. “It’s in Central City, at this address.” I didn’t recognize the location immediately, but I was less familiar with Central than I was with my own city. The team was looking at me, waiting for my orders.
“We’ll go check out the address in a bit, after Don has gotten some rest. Besides, we need to go to Central tonight anyway. Everyone go home and get some rest; be ready in case I need you tomorrow.”
The team nodded and started heading out. I went to go check on Don. I found him in the back of the Bunker, talking to Gideon. I leaned on a support beam just out of earshot, so I could let them finish their conversation in privacy. It’s not like Gideon and Don kept secrets from me, but I knew speedsters and their AIs had certain information about timelines that humans probably shouldn’t know. As I watched their interaction, I let my mind wander again.
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Don’s and my first date was unconventional, to say the least. It was barely even a date. We had agreed to go mini-golfing on some Saturday afternoon, when all the little kids were out and about. When he texted to ask if I wanted to go, I had assumed he meant me, him, and Frankie. After all, Don and I never did anything just the two of us. Imagine my surprise when I got to the course and found that only Don was waiting for me.
“Where’s Frankie?”
“Frankie? This is just me and you.”
“Oh. Okay.” I was confused, but I went along with it. Maybe Don had some concerns about Frankie he wanted to tell me. Things got weirder when Don insisted he pay for both of our passes, but it’s not like the Allens had never paid for things for me before. We played the first few holes pretty quickly, with me beating him solidly already. When we got to the fourth hole, we were behind a rather large family who were taking their time. Don sat down on a bench, but it seemed too small for me to sit down next to him, so I stayed standing.
“What do you say we make things a little interesting?” I asked.
He arched an eyebrow. “How so?”
“Loser buys the winner something from the arcade.”
“Oh, c’mon. You’re already winning by a lot.”
“Like you didn’t know that would happen? Face it, your meta genes are no match for pure skill.”
Don smirked. “Fine, you’re on.” We shook on it, and, if I wasn’t imagining it, Don held the handshake slightly longer than he needed to.
“Don’t slow me down.” I turned on my heels and started at the next hole. I ended up smoking Don by twenty-three strokes for the course. We got back to the main building and I had to decide what I wanted Don to buy me from the arcade. I wanted to choose the most embarrassing item available. I bypassed the yo-yos, slinkies, and hats. That’s when I found it.
“I want that,” I said.
“As you wish, ma’am.”
“And I’d like you to carry it out of here for me.” He looked at me like I was crazy, but I just shrugged. “I won by a lot. Seems only fair.”
He huffed, but complied. To this day, I still don’t know how much that giant stuffed pink bear cost, but I know that Don bought it for me, and carried it out of the building with as much pride as he probably had. I asked him to speed me and my prize back to the Bunker, where I was meeting up with the team to get my assignment for the night.
When we got back, it was just Mom and Dad getting ready for the night’s activities, with Tommy in his corner playing. My parents turned when they felt us enter the Bunker. Dad had an unreadable expression on his face, but Mom’s look was one of pure joy.
“How cute! A member of Team Arrow and a member of Team Flash dating!”
“Dating?” Dad and I exclaimed at the same time. And that was how my entire family, myself included, discovered that I was dating Don. And I haven’t looked back since.
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Standing there, watching Don, I was reminded of all of the reasons I never stopped dating him. He didn’t mind my competitive side, which was good for him, and I enjoyed how quietly brave he was. He wasn’t one to take credit for anything he did, but I knew how much he had done to save the world and the timeline. I wonder how much it hurt him to be messing with it.
Don shut off Gideon, and I went to sit next to him.
“What did Gideon have to say?”
“She finished analyzing the water at the treatment facilities. No contamination that she could detect.”
“Good. That matches with what the Bratva said. We’re going to catch this guy.” Don looked less than sure, so I bumped my shoulder against his. “How are you feeling, champ?”
“I still need some rest before we go on our next mission. Any idea of what’s next?”
“We have to check out this phone number in Central, then it’s off to STAR Labs to get your dad on this LP reverse engineering.”
“Right.”
“Hey, remember our first date?”
“Yeah?”
“I get why you couldn’t rack up the courage to tell me it was a date, but how did you get the courage to even ask me out?”
He chuckles softly. I bump my shoulder against his again, trying to get him to open up. “I think you greatly underestimated how much I liked you back then.”
I mocked being offended. “Back then? So I’m to take it you don’t like me much now?”
“Ha ha. I was just a seventeen-year-old guy who thought his sister’s friend was too pretty not to ask out. But believe me, it took me hours to format that text.”
“If I remember right, the text just said ‘Hey u wanna go minigolfing?’ and then maybe a smiley face.”
“Yes! And I sweat through two t-shirts coming up with it!”
“You’re such a nerd.”
“Yeah, but you love me.”
“Yeah, I kinda do.”
“Hey, I hate to interrupt, but I ordered food, if you want some, Anna or Don?” And there was my mom.
I turned toward Don. We exchanged a look. How much had she heard? Don jumped in. “I just had one of my energy bars, so I think I’ll just take a bit of a nap.”
“Anna?”
“Sure, I’ll join you.” I got up, and, once I was sure Mom was out of sight, blew Don a kiss.
I joined Mom at the conference table in the corner of the Bunker. She had ordered some Big Belly Burger.
“Oliver had to run to City Hall to take care of some business that Thea said just couldn’t wait. So it’ll just be you and me.” No. I couldn’t do this. I considered going to get Don to act as some sort of buffer, but that would just put us further off-schedule. I guess I’d have to power through. Here goes nothing .