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Eddie Thawne had a ring. Their father had just promised to talk to Papa to convince him it was Ma’s decision, had encouraged Detective Thawne to ask their mother.
“Now what?” Don hissed, slipping into Flash Time. “Dawn?”
Her hands flickered again.
“The Speed Force told us Eobard killed Gran and Dad trying to fix that and failing was why Jeven didn’t recognise you,” Don said.
“I think our mother getting engaged to someone else also can’t be good to our continued existence,” Dawn said.
“It’s what Eobard is trying to goad him into. Gideon told us.”
“Maybe we should have gone back further.”
“Gideon told us this is when Eddie Thawne dies and Eobard tries to make Dad go back to make this Flashpoint those are the things we need to stop.”
“But saving him means saving Eobard,” Dawn said. “He-”
“I know what he’d done,” Don snapped. “But he’s Mel’s grandfather. I can’t... Bart disappeared in my arms, Dawnie, I can’t...”
“I know.” Dawn hugged him. “I know.”
“Uncle Wally was right; time travel is more trouble than it’s worth. Maybe we should just fade.”
“Meloni travelling back is also how you met,” Dawn said. “Why you have Owen. Don’t give up yet, we can fix this. We can bring Mel back, and Bart and Owen, and Jeven will remember, and...”
Dawn rested her hand on her stomach and Don put his arm over her shoulders.
“He has to,” Dawn said. “There has to be a way to fix this, Don, there has to.”
“Maybe there is a way to go back further without being there that night and causing even more damage to the timeline. The Speed Force told us there was a way to fix this. I don’t know, we can subtly push Eddie Thawne away from Central, try and encourage Dad to actually talk to Ma, Papa found that blood, if we go back early, we can point it out when the case is open then maybe Granddad won’t be convicted and if Ma and Dad don’t grow up in the same house maybe they’ll talk before the lightning, like they were meant to.”
“I could pretend to be a CSI,” Dawn said. “He had cameras; we could use them to prove Eobard is stalking Dad, that would be suspicious.”
“And he’d notice us,” Don’s shoulders dropped. “He’s spent fifteen years trying to shift time, he’d notice someone else doing the same, and he might recognise us.”
“We could take him,” Dawn said. “We’re the Tornado Twins, we can handle Eobard Thawne. Especially if he doesn’t fully have access to his speed.”
“The Speed Force told us not to make a scene. I wish Uncle Wally was here.”
“Me too.”
“I don’t know what to do, Dawn.”
“We could deal with Thawne now. There’s no reason for Eddie Thawne to shoot himself if Eobard’s in prison already.”
“Uncle Hal said Dad taught him to pause for a moment and think things through before acting.”
“Uncle Hal also told us he was really bad at taking that advice. It’s like Uncle Wally said, something there’s no time to think, you just have to act.”
“But we do have time. He’s been trapped for fifteen years, is Thaddeus born yet?”
“I wish I could answer that,” Dawn said. “He didn’t inherit any powers, Mel doesn’t have powers, I know Owen gets bursts of speed but he’s not a full speedster, and Bart gets his powers from you, so it makes sense he would be born before Eobard gives himself powers.”
“Unless it’s because he uses the Negative Speed Force, not our Speed Force. Mel said her father’s dislike of metahumans started with his bad relationship with his father, but they never spoke, and Thaddeus never talked about him. She’d never met him.”
“We could send him back to the future,” Dawn said. “It’s what he wants, if we find him and offer, he’ll accept.”
“He’ll come back again,” Don said. “We know he will, it’s why Mel brought Owen back, to ask for his help. She didn’t-”
“I know, Donnie.”
“And he won’t confess. He’ll do anything to hurt Dad, why would he give him a way to prove Granddad innocent and get him out of jail?”
“We could find a way to make him,” Dawn said. “Put leaving a confession as a requirement for us taking him back, it’ll explain why Harrison Wells suddenly disappears too. Or maybe we should just forget about Eobard Thawne for now.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“Not a plan. If Eddie Thawne considering proposing is enough to make us flicker, what happens if he actually does it? If we focus on stopping that for now it might give us a chance to think of a plan.”
“Maybe,” Don said. “We need to start somewhere.”
“Or maybe you could start by explaining who you are,” a familiar voice said from behind them. “And why you’ve been following Detective Thawne.”
Dawn and Don didn’t have any clear memories of their father. There was a feeling of warmth, maybe, a cackling of electricity, the smell of static and sound of ducks, but it felt more like a dream than a memory. Maybe it was a dream, maybe Don didn’t really remember anything but he’d been told about his father taking them to the duck pond so many times he’d tricked himself into thinking he remembered. They’d be so young and it did hurt sometimes, but he’d died to save the world, to save their mother and to save them, and Don understood because he’d do the exact same thing for Mel and Bart and Owen. He couldn’t blame him. Don was proud to be his son. Maybe it would have been nice to know him, but they had a big family. They had their mother.
But when the Speed Force appeared to them, they chose his appearance. Always, always dressed as he had the night he’d been struck by lightning originally, a lab coat on, a bow-tie and smart shoes, they always chose that, the Speed Force never wore the Flash suit.
Dawn and Don exchanged a look before turning to face the Flash, the young version of their father standing there, arms folded and tapping his foot waiting for either his answer or a fight, and Dawn voiced what they were both thinking.
“Well, shit.”