Chapter Text
Three boys watching two streaks of lightning circling their mom on one fateful night.
The man in red with yellow lightning ran Barry away before he could witness the horror about to be displayed.
Chris, woken up by the screams and slammed door and hurried footsteps, ran to wake up their dad.
And Sebastian, hidden on the stairs behind the banister, was witness to the murder.
Chris and their dad nearly trip over Sebastian the inconsolable boy, trembling in the middle of the stairs.
Their dad lets out an anguished scream and goes to staunch the bleeding, steadying the weapon impaling her so she wouldn’t lose more blood, and yells to Chris to call 911.
But before Chris can, the police come storming in, pulling him away his wife as he pleads to them to let him help her, that she needs help, that she’s going to die.
When Barry returns to the house, Sebastian has already been questioned, but through his tears and sobs, he wasn’t able to give a coherent statement, only able to insist their dad’s innocence. Chris had gone mute from the shock, unable to give his side of the story, and the police made their own assumptions. And when Barry tries to tell them of the men in lightning who had broken in, who killed their mom, he isn’t taken seriously, having not been at the scene of the crime, seemingly fabricating a tale so his dad wouldn’t be taken away.
The boys are separated, Chris going to their mother’s best friend, Maddie Stewart, who had been named godmother when the boys were born and she was much more capable of caring for the three. But now, in between jobs, struggling with money, she was only able to take in Chris. Sebastian is taken in by their uncle and aunt in Paris, wanting to get as far away from the place he once called home as possible. Barry is taken in by his best friend Iris’s dad, Joe West, the only one of the triplets that stayed in Central.
The boys stayed in contact as best they could, but when high school hit and Barry got busy with his many extracurriculars and keeping up his top of the class marks, Sebastian came back to the states to go to Dalton Academy, and Chris met Vanessa and was overtaken by shame from the assault allegations, their messages became fewer and further between.
The first time the three boys are brought back together since the night their mom died and dad was taken away from a crime he didn’t commit, is in the aftermath of the manipulation and abuse that Chris had endured from Vanessa, hospitalized from being coerced to hurt himself enough to nearly bleed out.
The boys, though identical, had changed with age.
Barry was the lankiest of the three, his focus on academics not conducive to having the best physique. Hair falling limp and unstyled over his forehead, in his Dragon Ball Z t-shirt, skinny jeans, and well-worn Converse, he looked the complete opposite to Sebastian whose hair was perfectly styled, still in his crisp school uniform. Where Barry’s face is puffy and tearstained, Sebastian gaze is stony, expression blank and body tense.
After the night their mother was murdered, Sebastian swore to never let his emotions get the best of him again. Maybe if he had been more eloquent that night, maybe if he could have told them what had happened while twisting the truth unlike Barry, maybe if he said the right thing then his father wouldn’t have been taken away for a crime he didn’t commit.
Chris lies on the cot, hooked up to so many wires, too pale and too thin, his hair greasy and unkempt and arms wrapped in bandages, and Barry and Sebastian can agree it’s been too long since they checked in with their brother.
When Chris wakes up, apologies immediately start to spill from his lips, and Barry and Sebastian are quick to quiet him, rushing to his side and pulling him in as gently as they can.
Chris, stunned to see both of his brothers there with him, only falls apart more.
They don’t know how long it is as the three of them stay in that embrace, only that their backs start to ache, and Chris and Barry grow exhausted and dehydrated from the tears.
Maddie finally comes in to check on the three, startling slightly at the sight of the identical boys, before pulling herself together and doting on Chris, murmuring about how relieved she is that he’s okay and that that girl will never hurt him ever again.
When Chris is discharged, the boys go back to the Stewart house, and gathered around the dinner table, eating takeout pizza, catch up on the many months they spent apart.
It’s mostly Barry and Sebastian filling the air, Barry talking about his many extracurriculars and getting teased by his brothers for being in anime, science, astronomy, yearbook, and Key Club. Sebastian talks about being at Dalton like his time in the lacrosse team and being the student head of his glee club, The Warblers. He does not mention his mean streak nor the way he’s edged closer and closer to being the kind of bully he would fight off from Barry and Chris when they were kids.
They can’t stay long, both needing to get back to school, for exams in Barry’s case and for Regionals, but with a promise that they won’t lose contact like they did before.
As the three get older, they start to find their own paths in life.
Sebastian went to university for pre-law, wanting to be the kind of lawyer that will listen and not make lazy assumptions to get the real criminals put away and keep the innocent from being taken advantage of.
Barry studies to be a CSI, to be able to find evidence at the scene of the crime so that he can identify all of the facts and evidence.
Chris studies psychology, both to understand himself and people like Vanessa, but also so he can help people who need to be heard, especially when they don’t know how to speak out.
Sebastian ends up becoming well respected in Starling City, getting several internships in undergrad and law school and eventually working his way up as a cutthroat defense lawyer, attacking the corruption in the cesspit of a city. Barry gets a job as assistant CSI at CCPD, eager to make his way up in his career, and being able to work with Joe. Chris ends up being a high school guidance counselor in Keystone, getting away from the town that would never forget his tarnished reputation and the rumors that even he believed to be true.
As much as they promised that they wouldn’t lose touch again, when Chris discovers what Sebastian had done in high school, betrayed and in disbelief, they get into an explosive argument. They scream until their throats are raw and many things are said that can not be taken back.
It’s not the first, nor the last, attempt Chris has on his life. But it’s the first one that isn’t because of Vanessa.
Sebastian can’t forgive himself and Barry, terrified to lose another person he loves, faults Sebastian too. Chris, ashamed at his moment of weakness blames himself for the wedge he’s created between his brothers.
And as time goes on, the three lose touch once again.
It’s not until years later that the brothers find themselves reunited once again in a hospital room, this time Sebastian and Chris stood around Barry, lying still and unmoving, struck by lightning and in a coma.
A lot can change in nine months.
And a lot can change after it.