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As a kid, Leo Snart had learned a riddle: “Two sweethearts are standing on the same sheet of newspaper, but it’s impossible for them to kiss. How?”
The answer was that the star-crossed lovers are on opposite sides of a door. Even though they were mere inches apart, a physical barrier being between them made all the difference. There was a variation of the riddle that concerned a mother trying to separate two naughty children so that they couldn’t bother each other, but the kissing one had always been the one that stuck out in his memory.
Leo had found himself recalling that riddle a lot lately, primarily because a large sheet of Plexiglas—and a long list of hospital regulations—had been preventing him from kissing, hugging, or even touching his husband for the last five days. And they still had another five to go.
“It’s a safety precaution,” Ray’s doctor had explained the first time Leo had seen Ray inside the isolation chamber. “His symptoms are relatively minor, all things considered, and they’re treatable. However, if he passes the infection onto a non-meta, it could be very dangerous. So until he recovers completely…he needs to be isolated.” And Ray, ever the pragmatist, had nodded in agreement, signaling to Leo that he didn’t need (or want) to be rescued.
The original plan was three days in quarantine. That was the arrangement Leo had agreed to instead of freezing the isolation chamber wall, kicking it in, and then carrying his husband off to take care of him in the privacy of their home—Leo’s own status as a “vulnerable non-meta” be damned. But then Ray’s symptoms had persisted, so the lockdown was officially extended to seven days. And Ray and Leo had found out only the night before that it had been increased once again, this time to a total of ten days. Just as a precaution. Just to make sure that Ray had completely recovered from that pathogen exposure and wasn’t a public health hazard.
So, even though Ray reported that he was feeling fine (“Just a little tired, I guess?”), and it had been almost 24 hours since his last fit of wet, uncontrolled coughing…they were still barred from physical contact. The best they could do was Leo hanging out in Ray’s hospital room, trying his hardest to keep Ray’s spirits up. Although, to be fair, his own spirits weren’t exactly flying high.
Hell must be just like this, Leo thought to himself as he looked over his plastic Guess Who? game board. If he ever happened to cross paths with that rascal John Constantine again, he’d have to ask whether or not his theory was correct. But he had more pressing matters on his mind at that moment—namely, totally throwing this current round.
“Is your person…a man?” Leo finally inquired, glancing away from the board.
On the other side of the glass, sitting cross-legged on the floor a few feet away, Ray snorted with laughter. Despite their gloomy circumstances, the sound still made a warm feeling pool in Leo’s stomach. “You asked me that already. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was your first question this round.”
“I most certainly did not,” Leo argued, though he was having trouble keeping the smile off of his face. “Now, tell me the answer.”
Ray rolled his eyes, though there wasn’t any venom in it. “Fine. Yes, Leo—my person is a man.”
“Okay.” Leo then made a big show of looking over the remaining portraits on his game board, his fingers poised like he was going to knock down a person or two in response to Ray’s answer. After a second, though, he huffed a sigh. “Oh, darn—that actually doesn’t help me. Guess you were right, and I just wasted my turn.” He shrugged. “It is what it is.”
“Really? Because I think that ‘what it is’ is that you’re trying to lose on purpose.” Ray tapped at the frame of his own game board, which was cherry red in contrast to Leo’s royal blue. “And if that’s the case, you really don’t need to do that.”
“Me? Lose on purpose? Absolutely ridiculous—I’m far too competitive to do that,” Leo said, even though he knew that the jig was up. He scolded himself mentally for not hiding his scheme better. Ray was sick, not stupid.
“You’re not fooling me, Leo,” Ray said flatly. “And just because I’m stuck in here doesn’t mean that you have to treat me with kid gloves.” He shook his head. “It’s my turn, right?”
“It is.”
“Does your person have red hair?”
Leo glanced at the picture card nestled in a slot at the very front his game board, which showed a bubbly-looking woman with blue eyes, a purple hat, and—sure enough—red hair. “Yes.”
Out of the three remaining game pieces still standing on Ray’s board, he flipped over two of them. “Is it Megan?”
“Yep,” Leo said cheerfully. “You win.” He picked up his card and showed it to Ray, holding it as close to the glass as he could without actually touching the smooth surface. Apparently, he wasn’t supposed to make physical contact with the isolation chamber wall, and while he’d been tempted to argue with the doctor about this rule, the don’t-screw-with-me glare she had given him last time he’d raised a fuss over a different hospital policy had convinced him that doing so was counter-productive.
“Imagine that,” Ray said. His eyebrows were raised in amusement. After regarding Leo for a few seconds, he turned his attention to the pencil and slip of paper near his hand. He made a tally mark on the left side of the slip and said, “Well, that’s three games each. Score is tied.”
“So, it would seem that we need to have a tiebreaker round. Fine by me,” Leo tipped back his game board to reset it and then gestured to the small stack of picture cards on Ray’s side of the glass. Leo had a stack, as well; they’d divided the cards up so they could each have a pool of faces to choose from. “Pick your character, Terrill—and this time, I won’t show any mercy.”
Ray exhaled. “Eh…maybe later?” He reached upward, stretching out his arms and shoulders. Under normal circumstances, this gesture would have probably caused Ray’s shirt to creep up, revealing his flat stomach. But at the moment, Ray was clad in a blue cloth hospital gown, so his midsection remained completely covered. “I think I’m a little burnt out on Guess Who?—no offense.”
“Oh. None taken,” Leo said. And just to show how not offended he was, he began putting his half of the game pieces back into the box. “Do you want to play something else, then? We could do a pen-and-paper version of Battleship. Or Hangman. Or I could run home and grab your—”
“Leo?” Ray said suddenly, interrupting him.
“Yes?”
“You know you don’t have to do this, either, right?”
“Do what?”
Ray gestured to the space—and the barrier—between them. “All of this. You don’t have to entertain me. You don’t even have be here. I’m fine on my own. Really.”
Leo swallowed. “Do you want me to leave? If I’m keeping you from resting or anything, I can get lost.”
Ray exhaled again. “No, no, Babe—that’s not it. I’m happy you’re here. I’m always happy to be around you. But…just because I’m stuck here doesn’t mean that you have to be stuck here, too.” He smiled weakly. “Only one half of this partnership is currently under quarantine.”
“But that’s because I wasn’t there with you when I should have been.” Leo’s hands were in his lap, and as he spoke, he clenched them into fists.
“Not this again,” Ray sighed. “We had no way of knowing that there was a bioweapon in that old facility—all of our intel said that it had only ever been a normal storehouse. You shouldn’t have been there. There wasn’t any reason for you to be there.”
“But I was at home when it happened. I wasn’t working on anything else. If I’d just gone with you, then I might have—”
“Then you might have been the one exposed, and there’s a strong possibility that it would have killed you,” Ray said. His voice had grown stern. “Look, there were five humans and one meta clearing out that building, and when the container broke, I was the only person who got a face-full of the culture. That’s amazing luck, as far as I’m concerned.”
“But—“
“This is the best possible outcome. I’m glad that I’m in here instead of you or anyone else being in the ground. Okay?”
“…Okay.” Ray sounded so resolute that Leo didn’t think there was a point in talking to him about this anymore.
Ray seemed to sense Leo’s discomfort, and his expression softened. He stood up from his spot on the floor, stretched his arms out again, and then crossed the chamber to his bed. Once he’d flopped down into it, he said, “So…when this is over, and I’m out of quarantine…I wanna go to Earth-1. Do you think you’d be up for that?”
“Sure,” Leo said, relieved to have something happier to talk about. “Any particular reason why?” Not that it really mattered. If Ray had said he wanted to go to Neptune, Leo would’ve figured out a way to make it happen.
“I want a pretzel.”
Leo sat there for a second, waiting for Ray to elaborate. When he didn’t, Leo said, “You…you are aware that we have those here, right? Pretzels, I mean. We have them on Earth-X.”
“Yes, I know we have pretzels here.” He rolled over onto his side. “But…we don’t have Granny Annie’s. And I want a Granny Annie pretzel, specifically.”
“Ah. A pretzel from your Granny Annie?” Leo said, shifting his weight into a more comfortable position. He hated how sore sitting on the ground made him; the aches in his knees were just another reminder that he was getting old. “Was she at our wedding?”
To Leo’s surprise, Ray laughed. “No, no, Granny Annie isn’t a real person. Well, maybe she is? I have no idea. But Granny Annie’s is a pretzel shop chain. They’re super common in shopping malls.” He paused, suddenly, then snorted. “Wow, I say that like I ever spent a significant amount of time outside of Tulsa. I wasn’t exactly well-traveled back when I lived on Earth-1.”
“So, are the pretzels at Granny Annie’s better than the ones we have here?” Leo asked, intrigued.
“Well…they’re definitely good. And the chain’s also famous for their lemonade—you gotta get lemonade with the pretzel, because then you get this amazing combination of sweet and savory and salty flavors. Ugggghhh…” he let out a groan of frustration and flopped onto his back again. “I’ve been craving a Granny Annie’s pretzel with lemonade since last night. We have to go when I’m not sick anymore. Okay?”
“Of course, Darling. Anything you wish.”
“Anything? So, this is a good time to ask you about getting a puppy…or three?” The amused smirk was back on Ray’s face.
“You’re lucky you’re cute, Ray.”
Ray looked like he was going to come back with another retort, but their conversation was interrupted by a knock at the frame of the (open) door. “Gentlemen?” said a woman’s voice.
Leo recognized the sound. “Hi, Dr. Snow,” he remarked as he pivoted to face her.
The Caitlin Snow of Earth-X bore an uncanny resemblance to her Earth-1 counterpart, as doppelgangers tended to do: same brown eyes, same full lips, and—as Leo eventually learned—same ability to shift into a cryokinetic alter-ego. But this Caitlin Snow was an M.D., not a bio-engineer, and spending the better part of her career helping the Resistance stay one step ahead of the Reich had added some extra lines to her face and streaks of gray to her hair. “Hi, Mr. Snart,” she replied, and then she turned her attention to her patient. “Hello, Mr. Terrill—how are you feeling today?”
Ray shrugged with one shoulder. “Fine. Bored outta my mind, but…I can’t complain too much.” Leo wondered if that last bit had been more for his benefit than the doctor’s.
“Good to hear,” Dr. Snow said, smiling placidly. “I just wanted to give you a heads up that I’ll be back to examine you in a few minutes. I’ll be taking a blood sample, as well.” She turned back to Leo. “Which means—”
“—Which means it’s time for me to leave,” Leo finished for her. Examining Ray involved opening the door to the isolation chamber, and that—in turn—required everyone who didn’t have an activated meta gene to go stand in the hallway until the room’s outer chamber could be sterilized once more. That was just how they did things, and Leo knew by this point not to argue.
“I’m sorry,” Dr. Snow said, and she really did seem a bit sorry to be kicking him out when he sounded so unhappy about it. “You can come back when we’re finished.”
“But you don’t have to,” Ray said, looking at his husband. “Like I said earlier…you don’t have to hang out here all day.”
Leo was just about to tell Ray not to be ridiculous, and he’d be standing outside the whole time, ready to re-enter the room as soon as it was safe for him to do so. Before the words could leave his mouth, though, he was suddenly struck with an idea. A good idea. Perhaps even a great idea. He changed tack completely: “Okay, then. If you really don’t mind…I’ll head out for a bit. I’ll be back later. Alright?”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Ray said. If he was suspicious—or, worse, hurt that Leo had actually taken him up on his offer—he didn’t show it. “See you then?”
“Sure thing. I love you, Sweetheart.”
“I love you, too.”
Leo nodded farewell at Dr. Snow and then headed out of the room. He actually was leaving the hospital. Not because he was eager to leave Ray alone, of course. But because his plan required the use of a certain interdimensional extrapolator that was currently at Ray and Leo’s house.
***
Leo considered himself a polite, respectful person; under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t dream of simply inviting himself over to a friend’s house without permission. So, as he examined the extrapolator that Cisco Ramon had given him on his last trip to Earth-1, he suddenly felt a small amount of apprehension.
Perhaps it was bad form to just show up on another Earth and expect for people to accommodate you. What was the etiquette, here? Was he supposed to write down his intentions, open the breach, throw the letter through, and wait an hour to let folks on the other side get prepared to receive him? No, no, he didn’t have time to do that. He’d just have to take the plunge and apologize for any inconvenience he caused.
Leo clicked the button on the extrapolator, and sure enough, a shimmering, blue portal opened up right in the middle of his living room, just behind the couch and coffee table. He took a deep breath and then jumped into it, feeling a bit like he was rushing out a doorway into incredibly dense fog.
The next thing he knew, his feet were touching down on linoleum flooring. As he blinked the light spots out of his eyes, he took in his immediate surroundings and realized that he was in the Cortex of S.T.A.R. Labs. He’d expected as much, though honestly, he was fine being anywhere that wasn’t the middle of a busy highway or a large body of water.
“WHOA!” yelped a voice.
Leo whipped his head in the direction of the room’s main work station. Cisco Ramon was currently standing at the helm of one computer, wearing a graphic t-shirt and a startled expression. His chair was pushed back, like he’d stood up right when Leo breached in, and his hands were raised in a defensive position—probably because he hadn’t been expecting a trans-dimensional portal to open up just a few feet in front of him.
But Cisco being there was actually a good thing, so Leo smiled. “Hello, Cisco! Is this a good time, or are you in the middle of something?”
“Leo?” Cisco said, squinting at him and lowering his hands. He sounded incredulous. “Is that you?”
“Straight from Earth-X,” Leo replied smoothly. He then stopped, because a possibility had occurred to him: “Oh, wait, this is Earth-1, right? I’ve only ever used the extrapolator to get back home—never to come here.”
“Nah, dude—this is Earth-14,” Cisco said, snorting playfully. Now that he wasn’t so spooked, he seemed to be in a good mood. “Horses are the dominant species on the planet, bacon grows on trees, and Firefly ran for eight glorious seasons.”
“Very funny,” Leo said, rolling his eyes. He made a mental note to ask Ray what Firefly was—something told him that he shouldn’t ask Cisco, lest Cisco talk his ear off. “You know, the Francisco Ramon from my Earth isn’t nearly as silly as you.”
“Yeah, and I’ll bet his hair isn’t half as awesome as mine, either,” Cisco said, sitting back down in his chair.
“Oh, no—yours is better by far. So much prettier and more dazzling.” He couldn’t help but add, “Just like the rest of you.” The last time he’d been on Earth-1, he’d complimented Cisco’s hair, and Cisco had responded with utter delight. He wanted to see if he could make Cisco smile like that again.
Sure enough, Cisco’s mouth curled into a sheepish grin, and he turned away. “Watch it, Mister. Any more comments like that, and I’m gonna tell your husband that you were flirting with me.”
“Oh, please—Ray knows that I like to flirt. He thinks it’s charming,” Leo said. “But, speaking of Ray…he’s actually the reason I’m here.”
Cisco’s smile faded into a concerned frown. “What’s going on? Is he okay?”
“Well, technically no, but—”
“Cisco, who are you talking to?” came a second voice. A moment later, Caitlin Snow—this Earth’s Caitlin Snow; one who wore heavier makeup and looked just a bit younger than Ray’s doctor, even though they were almost certainly the same age—entered the Cortex. Like Cisco, she seemed startled to see Leo. “Leo? Earth-X Leo?”
“Yes. Hi, Earth-1 Dr. Snow—you’re looking well,” Leo said.
“Oh—you, too,” Caitlin said, giving him a friendly smile. “What’re you doing here?”
“He said that something’s wrong with Ray,” Cisco answered for Leo, standing up again. “What is it, Leo? Barry’s not here right now, but Vibe and Killer Frost are at your service.”
“Ray’s in trouble? Yes, we can help. And we can call Barry, too, if it’s an emergency,” Caitlin added quickly. A flash of blue illuminated her eyes.
Leo put his hands up. “Calm down, you two—or, you three if we’re counting Caitlin’s chilly friend as a separate person. Ray is in the hospital right now, but his condition is stable. No need to worry.”
“Oh. Okay,” Caitlin said. Leo saw her shoulders (and her gaze) relax. “So…why are you here, then?”
“Well,” Leo said, “this is going to sound a bit strange, but…is there a Granny Annie’s in Central City?”
***
Leo wouldn’t allow Cisco to breach them both directly into Ray’s hospital room; he wasn’t interested in waking Ray up if he was napping, or—worse—spooking a doctor in the middle of performing some kind of procedure. Fortunately, when they made a no-powers trek to Ray’s room, they found the door hanging open. Leo poked his head inside and was happy to see that Ray was currently awake, lounging in bed with a book in his lap.
“Mistah Terrell?” Leo said, putting on a fake accent and a falsetto tone, “You’ve got a candygram!”
Startled, Ray looked up—and when he saw Leo standing in the doorway, he chuckled. “Is that your way of telling me that you’re wearing a sexy nurse costume under your coat? Because, okay, I can’t touch you right now, but I wouldn’t say no to a strip—”
“Hi, Ray!” Cisco sang out as he joined Leo in the doorway—like he wanted to warn Ray (and remind Leo) that they weren’t the only two people around, and he’d appreciate it very much if they’d dial back the temperature on their conversation.
At the sight of Cisco, Ray sat up straighter in bed. “Paco? Is that you? I thought you were in Amazonia, helping with…” his voice trailed off, and he squinted in confusion. “Wait…you’re a different Francisco Ramon. Not the one from this earth. Right?”
“Very astute,” Cisco said, grinning smugly. “I can only assume that my gorgeous hair gave me away. Leo tells me that your Cisco isn’t nearly as good-looking as me?”
“This is the Cisco Ramon from Earth-1,” Leo volunteered quickly, while Ray continued to look perplexed.
“Oh! Well, hi, Cisco,” Ray said. “What brings you here? Hope you weren’t wanting my help with anything, since I’m kinda stuck in this room for the next five days.” He made a sweeping gesture at his surroundings.
“Yeah, Leo filled me in. But the good news is that I’m actually here to help him make a special delivery.”
“What kind of special delivery?” Ray asked. He glanced at Leo, and for the first time, he noticed that Leo was holding a plain, white box in his hands—one that was slightly larger than a sheet cake box. His mouth quirked into a smile. “Please tell me you didn’t actually bring me a puppy. I was kidding when I said that earlier.”
“No, darling—I did not bring you a puppy. But hopefully, this is a good gift, too.” He looked at Cisco. “Ready?”
“Yep. Ray…up top!” Cisco chirped.
Then, with a flick of his wrist, Cisco opened up a tiny breach between himself and Leo, one that was about the size of the size of the box that Leo was holding. At the same time, another breach—or, rather, the opposite end of the same breach—opened up on the ceiling of Ray’s isolation chamber, right above him. Leo dropped the box through the portal, and suddenly, it was flying through the air inside the chamber. Ray let out a small cry of surprise and reached up to grab it before it landed in his lap.
“Good catch, honey!” Leo said, beaming.
Ray’s eyes shot open. “Did you two just compromise the isolation chamber?! Leo, we need to make sure that you didn’t get—!”
“It’s okay,” Leo said, dismissing his husband’s concerns with a wave of his hand. “Cisco and Dr. Snow—Earth-1 Dr. Snow, that is—ran some tests. Apparently, breaches are sterile environments, so it’s safe to send things through to you. You just can’t send the trash back out here.”
The perplexed look was back on Ray’s face. “‘Trash?’”
“Just open the box!” Cisco said, huffing a breath. “Part of the reason I came here was to see your reaction to Leo’s present!”
Still looking a bit skeptical, Ray found the flaps on the box, untucked them, and slowly pushed back the lid. It seemed to take him a second or two to process what he was seeing. But then he let out a bark of laughter and flopped his head back on his pillow. “Leo, did you seriously go all the way to Earth-1 by yourself just to get me Granny Annie’s pretzels?!”
“Surprise,” Leo said. Because, yes, that’s exactly what he had done. The box in Ray’s lap contained half a dozen pretzels—still fresh and toasty; he and Cisco had come straight to the hospital from the Infantino Mall in Central City—and just as many dipping sauces. There was even a 20-ounce bottle of their signature lemonade, to boot.
“This is…that’s ridiculous,” Ray said, sitting up and laughing some more. As he dug through the box, he looked over at Leo again. “Wait, did you get me one of each flavor? And one of each sauce?”
Leo smiled sheepishly. “Well…you didn’t tell me that there were different kinds on menu, and I wasn’t sure exactly which one you wanted. Caitlin said that a plain pretzel would probably suffice, but Cisco and I agreed that it would be better to just buy a variety pack.”
“When in doubt, I always defer to the option that includes more food,” Cisco remarked cheerfully. “Nothing wrong with having leftovers, right?”
“Right. Of course.” Ray said. He shook his head, still grinning. “Oh, my God. Only you would do something this over-the-top, Leo.”
Leo grinned back at him. The warm sensation—the one he’d felt earlier in the day when Ray had laughed at his antics during Guess Who?—was back in his stomach. “So…this was a good gift?”
“Yes. Definitely. Thank you,” Ray said.
“Awesome!” Cisco said, pumping his fist triumphantly. “Alright, well, I’ll leave you two sickeningly adorable lovebirds alone. I should be getting back to my earth, anyway.”
“Okay. See you later, Cisco,” Ray said. “Maybe we can hang out when I’m done with quarantine?”
“Definitely,” Cisco said. “And Caitlin, too—she would have come along on this little adventure, but she had stuff to do at S.T.A.R. Labs and couldn’t leave the building, let alone Earth-1. Plus, we figured that her showing up at the same hospital where her doppelganger works might have caused some confusion, anyway.”
“Right. Okay. Next time we’re all free, we’ll get together.”
Cisco nodded, then turned to Leo. “See you around, as well, Leo?”
“You know it. And…thanks for your help. I really do appreciate it.”
Cisco nodded, then flicked his wrist once more to open up another breach. With a final wave at Ray and Leo, he hopped through it. The portal closed behind him, and Leo and Ray were left alone together.
“He really is cuter than our Paco,” Ray mused, staring at the space where Cisco had made his exit. He glanced at Leo. “Don’t tell Paco I said that.”
“No, we’ll keep it between us.” After hesitating for a moment, Leo gestured to the box. “So…are you actually going to eat a pretzel, or did I travel across the multiverse for absolutely nothing?”
Ray snorted. He grabbed a pretzel—a plain one, Leo thought, though he wasn’t 100% sure—held it up, and made a big show of taking an enormous bite. Leo watched him chew and swallow, savoring the flavor as he did so. Then, Ray closed his eyes and exhaled.
“Is it good?” Leo asked, suddenly nervous. “Is it what you were craving last night?”
Ray’s head swiveled in Leo’s direction. “It’s not just good, Leo—it’s great.” He took another bite. “It’s exactly what I wanted. Thank you so much. I know I already said that, but…yeah. Only thing that could possibly make this better would be you eating it with me. But we’ll go to Earth-1 together when I get the all-clear, okay?”
“Yes. And, in the meantime…you’re welcome,” Leo said. “You are absolutely, 100% welcome.”
Ray took another few bites of his pretzel, clearly enjoying each morsel. “This whole quarantine thing really sucks,” he said as he unscrewed the plastic cap from the lemonade bottle. “I hate it. But…you being here for me makes it bearable. And the idea that I’m doing this to keep you safe makes it totally worth it.” He then took a large swig of the lemonade, seeming to savor its taste, as well.
At that affirmation, Leo wanted nothing more than to grab Ray’s hands, pull him close, and pepper his face with kisses. But he understood that he couldn’t do that, so he just smiled. “Okay,” he said softly. And he didn’t bother fighting the dreamy smile that crept its way onto his lips. They could get through this. They would get through this, even if spending another five days apart felt almost insurmountable at times.
“Well, now that you’re here, and now that I’ve eaten a snack…I think I’m ready for that tiebreaker round of Guess Who?, if you are,” Ray said.
“If by that, you mean you’re ready for me to kick your ass at Guess Who?, then sure.”
Ray grabbed his game board, his stack of picture cards, and the box of Granny Annie’s pretzels. With everything tucked under his arm, he walked over to the isolation chamber wall and sat down on the floor. Leo did the same on his side. Both of them took a picture card from their respective stacks.
“You start, since I won the last game,” Ray said.
Leo nodded. Looking over at Ray, he said, “Is your person…a man?”
Behind the Plexiglass, Ray grinned at Leo the way he had when he’d said “I do” at their wedding. “Yes. My person is a man.”
Leo was fairly certain that Ray wasn’t just talking about the character depicted on his card. But he had to keep his focus if he wasn’t going to totally throw this round.
The End