Work Text:
“No.”
“Cisco…”
“No!”
“Cisco!”
“No, Barry, just… no. I'm not staying here one more second.”
Barry sighed, running a hand over his face in frustration as Cisco shoved yet another piece of tech into his already overstuffed bag. “Cisco, you’re being — ”
“This place is haunted, Barry.”
Ridiculous. Cisco was being ridiculous.
Barry sighed again.
“Cisco,” Barry all but pleaded, once more trying to be the voice of rationality. “There is no reason to think Star Labs is haunted.”
Cisco, however, was not interested in rationality of any kind. He whirled around, flinging his bag onto a workstation and pointing a finger very deliberately at Barry.
“There is every reason. You haven’t been around the lab lately. You don’t know.”
Which, okay fair. Barry had been really busy on a case recently, and before that he had helped Joe clean out the storage space for Cecile’s stuff, and before that… yeah. So Cisco was right. He hadn't been around as much, but honestly though… ghosts?
Of course, he couldn’t say that to Cisco.
“Honestly though… ghosts?”
Or maybe he could.
Cisco’s nose scrunched up with indignation even as he fought to close the zipper on his bag. “Yes, Barry, ghosts. How else do you explain the noises?”
Barry shrugged. “Drafty building? Drafty partially blown up building?”
Cisco shook his head. “I have practically lived in this building for more than three years. I know its noises. I know its quirks.” He looked up from his bag, struggling to meet Barry’s eyes. “This is different. And it’s been months, okay, but it’s really ramped up lately. The noises, the feeling… I dunno. It’s a person, dude. I can feel it.”
“Well did you try to vibe it?” Barry asked, trying a different tactic.
“Duh, dude, of course,” Cisco scoffed. “It was the first thing I tried. But there’s nothing to vibe. It’s all creepy sounds and general mockery.”
Barry raised an eyebrow. “Mockery?”
Cisco shrugged, even as he finally won his war with the zipper. “The sounds have a distinctly contemptuous overtone. That,” he added pointedly, “is how I know it’s a ghost. A person. A jerk, if you want to get specific.”
“Why would the ghost be mean?” Barry found himself asking, before realizing that was just adding credence to this absurd theory.
Cisco narrowed his eyes and started ticking off things on his fingers.
“The Conjuring, The Ring, The Grudge, The Shining, Poltergeist, Poltergeist 2, Poltergeist 3, the fourth Poltergeist movie, which was also inexplicably named simply Poltergeist — ”
“I mean, why would you think it’s a ghost at all?” Barry interrupted before Cisco could make it further down his IMDB list. “If it’s such a jerk why wouldn't it be a metahuman?”
Cisco rolled his eyes. “You think I didn’t think of that? I have gone over every inch of this place with every bit of scanning equipment I can think of. Electromagnetic, UV, doppler, you name it. Nada. And once you eliminate the impossible — ”
“Do not,” Barry warned, holding up his index finger, “use Spock or his ancestor against me.”
“I’m just saying, not a metahuman.” Cisco swung his enormous bag off the workstation and over his shoulder, the straps almost groaning under the weight. He walked over to the doorway before sighing again and looking back.
“Look, I know how it sounds, okay? But let’s not pretend this place hasn’t seen its fair share of death. So maybe it is something else, but right now, I just can’t be here. I’m sorry. I can do Flash support at home for now and, you can call me if you, you know…” He trailed off and shrugged helplessly at Barry.
“Need help ghost busting?” Barry suggested.
Cisco glared, turned on his heel, and left.
“I ain’t afraid of no ghosts!” Barry called after him, trying and failing not to grin, because yeah, it sucked that Cisco was booking it, but the situation was still kinda funny. Plus Cisco had clearly left the best ghost movie of all time off his little Letterboxd list and maybe needed reminding of Bill Murray's genius.
And then Barry's smiled faded and he was alone in an enormous, almost certainly NOT haunted building.
“Ghosts,” Barry breathed out, leaning against a table. “Ridiculous.”
And if the subsequent groaning of the building sounded a little like laughter as he did, well…
He was never ever telling Cisco that.
*******
Day two of Operation Barry is All Alone Because He’s Off Work for a Week and Cisco Abandoned Him and Caitlin Was With Her Mom — which, admittedly needed a better code name — went very much like the first. Barry monitored Flash needs from Star Labs, tagged in Cisco when he needed someone on comms, and passively checked the building for whatever had scared his best friend off. Barry was still not convinced it wasn’t a metahuman or faulty plumbing, but he hadn’t experienced any of the weirdness for himself yet either way.
The only new development was a visit from Joe, with even more of his old crap from home.
“Oh my god, Joe, more?”
“Don’t blame me,” Joe replied with a chuckle. “You’re the one who treated my attic like your high school locker.”
“My locker was not that bad.”
“Iris took pictures, son, don’t play.”
Barry rolled his eyes and took the top off the banker’s box to poke around at the contents. A few books, a sweatshirt, some old electronics….
“Oh, I wonder if this gaming system still works,” he muttered, picking it up and poking at the buttons.
“Knock yourself out, kid,” Joe told him warmly, turning to leave. “As long as it doesn’t make its way back to my house.”
Barry nodded absently, hands already reaching for a screwdriver.
*******
When the gaming system turned out to be a bust, Barry went back to examine the rest of the box, if only to alleviate his boredom. He found some CDs, a hat, and, weirdly, an old AM/FM radio. Why had he even had a radio, he wondered. Then he remembered.
It had been his dad’s.
Barry sighed as he fiddled with the antenna, remembering listening to Diamonds games in the backyard when his dad had been too tired from work to watch TV. Instead, he chose to let the sounds of the game wash over him under the stars, letting Barry stay up late to listen with him. Barry loved those memories.
He wondered if it still worked.
When, unlike the gaming system, the on/off light turned red, Barry mentally cheered. He smiled, a little sad but still pleased, and started slowly turning the knobs, looking for something to listen to. He didn't think the Diamonds were playing tonight, but maybe something else would catch his attention. He jumped around the channels at random, idly skipping back and forth. He found a lot of music, singing along whenever he knew the song. There were some news panels, a sports commentator, a deeply amused chuckle —
What.
A different kind of music player came to mind as Barry’s brain scratched like a record needle hitting a particularly deep gash on a vinyl. Barry stopped, everything stopped, and the chuckle stopped too. Not like he’d moved the dial away from the channel, just that the sound had cut out on its own.
I ain’t afraid of no ghosts…
Barry wasn’t smiling anymore.
“Hello,” he called, trying to sound unconcerned. He… kinda succeeded.
There was a noise, something like a sigh, but it was garbled. Far away. Barry willed his fingers steady and adjusted the dial minutely, back and forth until the sound was sharp. Clear. Concerning.
“Hello?” he called again. “Who’s there?”
For a moment, there was just silence and Barry wondered if Cisco and him were somehow sharing a mini mass hallucination.
And then a voice. A voice he knew.
“Hello Scarlet… boo, I guess.”
Barry froze.
*******
For a minute Barry didn’t say anything. He wondered, briefly, if he was losing his mind. He’d felt that way, just before Flashpoint. But, no… this was different. Probably. He flexed his fingers back and forth for a second, and then, finally replied.
“Len?” he asked, hating how his voice cracked even on one syllable. It had probably been foolish to hope it wouldn’t.
“Mmmmm,” came the voice from the radio. “I’d say ‘in the flesh’ but, well…”
“Right. Right. Right.”
Great. Very articulate Barry. A+, man.
Leonard chuckled.
“It’s always been a mystery to me why you didn’t go into reporting like your friend Iris. Such a way with words, Barry.”
“Shut up,” Barry snapped reflexively, then flinched. “No. Sorry. Don’t — what the hell? What is… you’re dead.” Okay, still not the most eloquent, but at least it got the point across. “Or… are you? How are you here?”
From the radio, Leonard sighed, all humor gone now. “Barry, as much as it truly pains me to say this, Ramon was right; I'm a ghost. No idea about the how, though.”
“You’re…” Barry didn’t even know how he had planned to finish that thought. It was taking all of his willpower to remain upright and not collapse into the nearest seat.
“Dead, Barry,” Leonard finished for him. “I’m dead.”
Barry lost the battle and sunk down into a chair.
*******
A half an hour of quizzing later, during which time Barry made Leonard prove he wasn’t just a meta with voice mimicking skills or a particularly annoying fae —
“There were two guards on the 27th floor. I think you whisked them to a malt shop or something.”
“I played ‘Cold as Ice’. You didn’t appreciate the genius."
“You sign your letters ‘Best, Barry’ which honestly makes you sound like a bit of a tool, but I appreciated the alliteration.”
— and Barry was convinced he was talking, somehow, miraculously, to the real Leonard Snart.
The problem was neither of them knew how.
“I have no idea, Barry. I just remember blowing myself up like an idiot and then… nothing. Except for being here.”
“What… what does that even mean?”
“It means,” and now Barry could hear the frustration in Leonard’s voice, “that sometimes I am nowhere and sometimes I am here. I don’t know, and I don’t understand it. It’s like… I feel like I slip through these cracks.”
“Cracks?”
“Breaks maybe? In the… afterlife? Wherever I'm supposed to be. I keep slipping through and then bam, I’m in Star Labs, except no one can see me or hear me. I can't seem to stay for very long, though. I just slip through the other way.
"It’s been happening,” Leonard paused, sounding, for a moment, uncharacteristically hesitant, “for a while. I think. Time is… funny here. It feels off. I don’t know how to explain it. The only good thing in all of this was that I've figured out how to affect the equipment here enough to freak out Ramon, which is objectively hilarious. Otherwise I would have died of boredom. Again.”
“But you died months ago,” Barry argued, as if that was the best estimate he had, as if the exact date wasn’t indelibly stamped on his heart. He ran his hand through his hair, pulling slightly to ground himself. “Almost a year, Len… why come back now?”
“I don’t know,” Leonard hissed, frustration almost tangible. “I have no idea how this works, Barry! It’s my first time dying, I’m hardly equipped to write the Triple A TourBook on it.”
Barry paused, mid pull. “Triple A?”
“What?”
Leonard sounded so grumpy, so much like himself again, that Barry laughed, despite the insanity of the situation.
“God, you’re old.”
The voice in the radio humphed.
“Shut up, Barry.”
*******
“Why do you think the radio is picking you up, when none of Cisco's tests did? I mean, he used electromagnetic sweepers.”
“I don't know, Barry. Because West taught you to be a hoarder and Ramon forgets technology existed before Linux?”
“Do you think it has anything to do with the Fourier transform?”
“Sure.”
“Because radio waves are on — ”
“Barry.”
“So there has to be — ”
“Barry!” Leonard sighed. “Please. Just… stop.”
Leonard’s voice was quieter now, and Barry stopped pacing to give the radio his undivided attention. “Stop what?”
“The twenty questions. I don’t know how long this slip will last. I never do. Sometimes I’m here for hours, but usually it’s only minutes. And it’s been so long since we… can we stop with the ‘why’ for a second, and just, I don’t know, talk?”
“Talk?” Barry repeated, a little dumbly.
“Not my first choice of activity with you," Leonard confessed, voice dropping into that teasing register he often used. “But the only one we have right now, and you know what they say about beggars and choosing.”
And how could Barry say no to that?
He nodded, even though he wasn’t 100% sure Leonard could even see him at this point, and began to sit at a terminal before thinking better of it.
He picked up the radio and started walking.
There was no backyard at Star Labs, but there was a roof and the stars were the same.
*******
“Do you regret it?” Barry asked, lying on his back, head pillowed on the hands he had crossed behind his head. It was easier, somehow, asking this in the dark. Even though it wouldn’t really matter with Leonard anyway. Even though he wasn’t really here.
In the dark, Barry could believe he was.
“What the dying?” Leonard made some kind of noise, halfway between a scoff and a snort. “Who can say? It doesn’t seem to be sticking anyway.”
“No — well, yes. But I really mean going at all. Do you regret becoming a Legend?”
“That’s a… complicated question, Barry.”
When he didn’t seem inclined to elaborate, Barry did it for him.
“I do.”
If radios could turn their head slowly, Barry imagined this one would have.
“That right, Barry? Thought you wanted me to be a hero.”
“I wanted you to see in yourself what I always saw in you. I didn’t want you to die. I didn’t want to lo— ”
Barry stopped. Some things even the dark wouldn’t cover well enough.
“I didn’t want that,” he said instead.
There was a long pause, almost too long, and then Leonard finally piped up.
“Well you know what they say; live fast, die young.”
Barry knew it was a dig at him but the dark did more than just hide feelings Barry wasn't ready to confront. It made him a little impudent, too.
“Oh?” he said, a sly smile growing on his face. “And how does that apply to you?”
Another pause.
“Barry, feel free to turn off this radio at any time.”
*******
“Not that I don’t appreciate the company— ” Leonard said, an hour or so later. Barry had by now caught him up on everything he knew about the Legends, the Rogues, and the Keystone City Combines. These were safe topics. Easy topics. The only hiccup had been Lisa.
“Do you want me to contact her? She can — ”
“I don’t want my sister anywhere near this. She’s been through enough, I won’t put her through anymore.”
But even that had been okay.
Safe.
But then Leonard veered them back toward danger.
“—but don’t you have work or something?” Leonard continued, finishing his thought.
“I’m off work for a week,” Barry admitted. “There was a big case, which pushed me into all kinds of overtime. And there were… admin changes, while I was away, so now I actually have to take my vacation, which I keep forgetting.”
Barry could feel Leonard’s piqued interest through the airwaves.
“Away? To where, Coast City? Seems like you could have kept up with any handbook adjustments from there. What aren’t you telling me?”
Rip off the band-aid, Barry.
“I, uh, went back in time. But I broke the mug, so to speak. Changed some things. Tried to change them back. Mostly succeeded.”
“Been there,” Leonard replied, with something like sympathy. “What prompted this trip through time?”
“It had been a rough month,” Barry answered vaguely, eyes on a star he was pretty confident was Sirius.
Leonard sighed. “Barry…”
“My dad died. Murdered. My dad was murdered. Right after someone else I — ” Barry stopped. “It was a rough month.”
“I’m sorry,” Leonard said softly, though he didn’t say for which.
*******
“So did you look me up? In your little Barrytopia?”
“Yeah,” Barry admitted. “Your life was… basically the same. Pre-Flash same anyway. You didn’t seem to have latched onto Wally like you did me. But yeah, still a master thief, if not a supervillain.”
Leonard snorted. “And you didn’t feel the need to intercede? Save me one more time?”
“I’ve been told not to save people who don’t want to be saved. And besides, what mattered most was that you were alive. If I wanted to keep you that way it seemed wisest to just… leave you alone.”
There was a pause.
“Wise, huh? First time for everything I suppose.”
“Oh come on.”
Leonard’s response was just quiet laughter through the speakers.
*******
“So how did you find out?”
“About what?” Barry asked.
“Me. Dying.”
Blunt as ever, Lenny.
“You want the official answer or the unofficial one?”
“Surprise me.”
“The official answer is Ray told me several months later. While we were fighting aliens… which is another thing I should probably tell you about.”
“Probably.”
“You would have been proud of my poker face though.”
“Unlikely, but I love your optimism.”
“Yeah, well, Ray bought it.”
“Ray’s bought a bridge in Brooklyn several times over.”
Barry shrugged, because yeah, probably.
“And the unofficial answer?”
“You didn’t reply to my last letter.”
There was a long pause, but Barry didn’t feel the need to fill this particular silence.
Leonard hummed softly. “Oh so we’re talking about those now?”
“If you like.”
The letters. The letters Barry had started writing to Leonard when he was in Iron Heights. That he’d kept sending via Gideon after The Legends began their mission. The letters that Leonard had never responded to until suddenly he did. Until suddenly he seemed to be sending them daily. Like they meant something.
Like Barry meant something.
“And why would my reply or lack thereof tip you off?”
“Because I asked you a question. And you’re a lot of things, Len, but you’re not cruel. You would have answered it, one way or another.”
“You have a lot of faith in me, kid.”
“I always have.”
“Yeah. Could never really decide if I hated that or not.”
*******
Every hour or so, Barry could feel Leonard start to mentally brace himself, as though preparing to disappear again. Barry wasn’t sure what Leonard’s experience was like on his side of the veil, but it didn’t seem painful at least. Barry was glad of that.
Still.
Every hour or so, his voice would tense and his questions would trail off.
But he was still here, so Barry kept talking.
“So you’re single,” Leonard noted airily, like it was a perfectly normal question. Maybe for them it was. “I must say, I’m a bit surprised. I would have thought you’d be married to your intrepid gal reporter by now, well on your way towards 2.5 kids.”
“No, we — it didn’t work out.”
“For who?”
“Both of us. I mean, she lost her fiance a couple of years ago and I.. could relate. We weren’t exactly in good places. And then she kept trying so desperately to convince herself we were destined to be together… I don’t know, it didn’t seem fair to either of us to pursue it. The last straw was our kiss being erased. So eventually I just… stopped. I mean, I still love her. I’ll always love her. But I’m not in love with her. She’s just my… Iris. She’s necessary to my life.”
“She’s your Mick.”
Barry wrinkled his nose. “I’m not sure that’s an apt comparison.”
“Would you blow yourself up to save her life?” Leonard asked.
“Yes,” Barry said, without a second of hesitation.
“Then it’s apt,” Leonard decreed.
And Barry could hardly argue with that.
*******
“You’re not… you’re not in pain, right?”
Barry hated giving voice to that fear, but he knew keeping silent would only make him worry more.
“No,” Leonard assured him. “No pain. No… anything, really. Just me and a vortex of… whatever this is, and a bright white light I can’t seem to escape.” He took a deep breath, though Barry doubted he had to breath at all where he was now. “And there are worse things than being non-corporal. I never much cared for people touching me anyway.”
Barry frowned.
“You never seemed to mind when I did it.”
There was radio silence after that, a pun Barry congratulated himself for in his head before remembering that Leonard hadn't actually responded to him yet. “Len?”
“Yeah, I’m… you broke a lot of my rules, Scarlet.”
*******
“So why haven’t you asked about my love life, Barry?”
“What love life?”
“Well not to kiss and die — ”
“Oh my god, Len.”
“— but Sara slipped me some tongue before everything went all blowy uppy. In case that’s of any interest to you.”
Barry sighed.
“Are you seriously trying — as a disembodied voice during what is shaping up to be yet another deeply traumatic event for me by the way — to make me jealous right now?”
“Depends. Is it working?”
“You’re such a dick sometimes,” Barry muttered, though there was no real heat in the admonishment.
“Hmmm,” Leonard considered. “Perhaps. But I think maybe you enjoy a good dick.”
“Well you’d know for sure if you’d bothered to come home,” Barry shot back.
Could a radio be delighted? Barry thought maybe it could.
“See this, this is why I let you break my rules!”
“Lucky me,” Barry grumbled. “Especially when you could be off haunting Sara instead.”
“Yeah… I could.”
They were both quiet for a long time after that.
*******
“Do you think it has something to do with the antenna?"
“Do I think what has something to do with the antenna?”
Barry leaned up on his elbows. “Why I can hear you on the radio. There’s gotta be something—”
“This is what you want to talk about?”
“Not especially. It’s just bothering me.”
“You know what’s been bothering me? Why you started writing me those letters in the first place.”
Barry dropped back down to the rooftop. “You know why.”
“No, I know what. You come see me at Iron Heights. Blah blah, there’s good in me, blah blah, more than just a criminal. Next thing I know I’m getting weekly letters that contain a metric ton of optimism and more good cheer than a high school pep rally. But you never told me why.”
For the first time all night, Barry closed his eyes and didn’t answer at all.
*******
“I have to say, you seem remarkably unfazed by this, Barry. I expected a lot more… you.”
Barry considered his response.
“You ever hear of Gorilla Grodd?” he finally settled on.
“Noooo.” Len drew the word out like taffy.
“Telepathic gorilla. Hellbent on revenge. Not a fan of bananas.”
“This is the oddest ‘two truths and a lie’ I’ve ever played.”
Barry scoffed. “Please. I bet every time you play it’s ‘three lies and a you leave with their wallet’.”
“Now that would be a fun game. But you’re deflecting.”
“Maybe. My point is this doesn’t even show up on the radar of weird for me anymore.”
“Ah. I see.”
Barry looked up at the stars. They’d moved a lot, since the night began.
“But for the record, Len? I’m fucking fazed.”
*******
“I suppose it could be the sine waves… but that doesn’t really answer the electromagnetic issue.”
“Why did you send me that last letter?”
The question came out of nowhere, and Barry paused mid-calculation in surprise.
“Why didn’t you answer it?” he asked instead.
“Who says I read it?” Leonard sounded petulant, like a teenager, but Barry let him have it; Leonard had had to grow up too quickly after all.
“Gideon,” Barry confessed. “She confirmed you received it. That’s also when I learned… about the Oculus.”
The beginning of Barry’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad breakdown. The pebble that would become the landslide that was Flashpoint.
“I asked first,” Leonard groused. Still petulant then.
Barry tried to put his thoughts in order, not that he was sure it would help; he hadn’t really been thinking when he sent it.
“Zoom was… terrifying. For me. Even before my dad. To face him, I knew I needed to be brave. I wanted to be brave. So I decided, I dunno…”
“In for a brave penny, in for a foolhardy pound?" Leonard supplied.
“Something like that. I wanted to see if you felt… how I felt. If we could ever try. But I guess I missed my chance.” Barry laughed, but it felt hollow. “The fastest man alive, and I was too late.”
Leonard was quiet for a long, long moment before responding.
“You know, I’ve never stayed this long. Without slipping. And it’s stupid, but the sun will be up soon and I keep thinking this is some screwed up Cinderella shit, and at dawn I turn back into a nothing pumpkin. Maybe I finally… move on after this. And maybe the reason I haven’t yet is because I was waiting for you. To say goodbye.”
Barry could hardly breathe. He’d convinced himself he would just be grateful for this extra time. That he wouldn’t be sad when it ended.
He was wrong.
“Len — ”
He had barely choked out the syllable word before he was interrupted.
“Not too late, kid. I think you were right on time.”
********
For being one of the most intense nights of his life, Barry would later remember it as though someone was channel surfing through different frequencies; some parts crystal clear, others fuzzy, bouncing around in no particular order… right up until the moment he hit the right wavelength.
Until he figured out why they needed a radio.
“Distance!”
Leonard had been mid-story, telling Barry about a trip to the old west, which had sounded fascinating and kinda sexy right up until Leonard started talking about shooting people.
“Ugh, Barry, let it go. I told you, the first time was to save the Professor, and the second wasn’t even lethal. They just needed someone who had accuracy at a distance.”
Which was when Barry shot up like a rocket, shouting.
“Distance?” Leonard repeated slowly, clearly confused.
“That’s what’s different about a radio — it’s designed for distance.”
“Okay… but I’m right here.”
“Are you?” Barry was fully standing now, rapidly pacing the roof like he hadn’t been up all night with the one who got away.
With the one who might still be here.
Barry was so close, oh he could taste it. This wasn’t metaphysical, this was science.
And Barry was a scientist.
“You mentioned a vortex, right? And slipping through cracks?”
“I mean, that’s what it feels like.”
“Right. Okay. And that’s how Jay described it too…”
Barry picked up the radio and started jogging down the stairs. He wouldn’t admit it but he was afraid to flash around with it, afraid of losing their connection. Again.
He was in the main lab in record time anyway. He kept talking as he started to grab some tech off the shelves.
“Len, the reason the radio can pick you up is because you aren’t here.”
“I really am.”
“No, you’re not. You’re everywhere. You’re just focused here.”
“Did you hit your head on that roof floor, kid, because you are making no sense at all.”
“You said a while ago you started slipping through cracks. In time. Just when I came back from Flashpoint and created cracks in time.”
“Okay…”
“Len, I don’t think you’re a ghost, I think you’re in the Speed Force. I think the Temporal Zone and the Speed Force are connected and when you blew up the Oculus you sort of got stuck between them. But that’s not the important part.”
“Oh? Then what is? Enlighten me.”
“I think we can bring you home.”
“Barry,” Leonard said, slowly and with great emphasis. “I am dead.”
“I don’t think you are!”
“I am and you need to stop trying to save me!” Leonard’s voice was no longer steady and Barry could hear the rising fear, which wouldn’t be so concerning except for the first time all night it was coming out of the radio staticky. And Barry knew, in his bones, that this was his chance. He wasn’t sure he believed in Leonard’s Cinderella sunrise, but he knew they were running out of time.
Leonard had been telling a story about poker.
Barry played the only hand he had left.
“You asked me why I started writing to you. It’s because I realized you saw me. Really saw me. And I saw you.”
“Barry — ”
“You saw me. Not just the parts I show the world, but the whole ugly stupid mess. The broken parts. And you didn’t flinch. You saw the bad in me mixed in with all the rest and you didn’t look away. And I saw the good in you and I liked it, but more importantly you liked it. I realized after that horrible job with your monster of a father that we saw each other and I couldn’t turn away from that. I didn’t want to. So yeah, I started writing to you, and yes I will try to save you. In every way I can, however you will let me, and we can start by bringing you home.”
Leonard was quiet for a moment. When he spoke again, it was so quiet Barry had to strain to hear him.
“How?”
Barry nearly sagged with relief.
“I need Cisco. And you need to trust me. Do you?”
“Obviously I do, or I wouldn’t still be here.” Leonard sighed loud enough for Barry to hear. It didn’t sound resigned exactly, just accepting. “Oh fuck it,” he finally said. “If we’re doing this, let’s do it; come on Flash, save me.”
Barry didn’t even wait to reply. He just ran, flashing first to his own apartment and then to Cisco’s. He was back before Leonard probably even realized he’d left.
Standing in the middle of Star Labs, in his pajamas, Cisco stared at him.
“Bartholomew Henry Allen, and I say this with all the love in the universe — are you out of your goddamn mind?”
“Not a ghost. Snart’s trapped in the Speed Force. You need to vibe him to get him out, just like you did with me.” Barry was pretty impressed he managed to say all of that at somewhat normal speed. Unfortunately, Cisco still seemed confused.
“What?” he exclaimed.
“Ramon!” barked a voice from the radio. Cisco jumped in the air and the voice laughed meanly. “Oh I wish I had had this thing before. Hilarious.”
Cisco’s face cycled through about 15 emotions at once before landing on annoyed.
“I cannot believe this is my life,” he muttered, rolling his shoulders and glaring at Barry. “Also, ignoring that absolutely insane explanation, I already told you there was nothing to vibe. Unless you’ve got a spare parka in your closet.” Cisco directed that last line to the radio.
The radio that crackled with static again.
Barry opened the small box he’d grabbed from home and pulled out a white envelope from within. He held it out to Cisco.
“You kept it?” Leonard asked, quietly.
The only physical letter Leonard had ever sent him. The one that said that he was leaving with the Legends, and it was Barry’s fault, and thank you.
Barry handed the letter to Cisco. “Vibe this,” he demanded.
Hesitantly, Cisco took it. “Okaaay. And we’re sure he’s not dead, right? Because I really don’t want to be wrong and accidentally send him to hell or something.”
“Cisco, now, please.” Barry was scared. Because it couldn’t be this easy right? Nothing in his life was ever easy, and he wasn’t sure he could bear getting this close to saving Len only to fail now.
“Cisco,” the radio piped up. “If this works, I'll, uh, put in a good word with my sister.”
Cisco rolled his eyes but dutifully concentrated on the envelope until his expression morphed.
“It’s... oh shit, it’s working!” he yelled. “Tell Snart he has to walk towards me.”
“Snart can hear you himself.” Leonard snarked, but Barry could hear the anxiety there too. “And he’s not crazy about this ‘walk towards the light’ plan.”
“Len, I need you to trust me. Please.”
“Wish I had your optimism, kid.”
“Well, you’re a thief,” Barry reminded him, voice raised and more than a little desperate. “Steal. It.”
There was a laugh from the radio, a muttered expletive, and then… and then he was there. Here. Home in one piece and very much alive.
It was almost anticlimactic.
Barry stared at the man who had been dead nine hours ago and a ghost nine minutes ago and a Speed Force hostage nine seconds ago and no, no this was in fact very climactic indeed.
And then the man took three steps forward and pulled Barry into a kiss the likes of which he had previously only read about.
Barry had the wild, romantic thought that maybe they were both home now, but he didn’t voice it, because that would require him to stop kissing Leonard Snart and he had absolutely no desire to do that, like, ever.
There was a sort of choked noise from behind them and then Cisco muttered, "Oh. So we’re all in hell. Cool, cool.”
Barry paid him no mind.
Eventually, though, they did separate. They had to, they needed to breathe. Because they were both alive.
Barry grinned.
Leonard responded with a smirk (and god, had Barry missed that smirk), eyes twinkling.
“How’s that for an answer?” he asked.
Barry shrugged, but couldn’t keep the smile off his face… or the catch out of his voice.
“Late. But acceptable.”
Leonard rolled his eyes at that, but Barry…
Barry thought back to Cisco’s IMDB list, thought about how most ghost stories didn’t end like this — with teasing and a kiss and hope — and decided that this was by far his new favorite. That no other ghost story had ever or would ever be this good again.
Len caught his eye and pulled back.
“What,” he asked, eyebrows raised slightly with curiosity.
“Nothing,” Barry said, laughing a little with nerves. “I’m just relieved. And happy. And feeling a little bad for Bill Murray.”
Len shook his head. “Your ‘two truths and a lie’ are so fucking weird,” he complained, but his voice as he did was warmer than Barry had ever heard it before, either in person or through a radio. Barry thought about trying to explain his train of thought, but then Len was kissing him again and all his thoughts sort of got derailed.
Yeah, Barry decided as he distantly heard Cisco make a pained noise and exit the lab, this was it. Best. Story. Ever.
Apologies to Ghostbusters.