starlaboratories | (no subject)

(no subject)

[Well. She's already run into two future, grown versions of her son that desperately needed help. Nora finds herself sitting in the Cortex with a cup of hot tea in her hands, trying to wrap her head around the entire situation. She doesn't know how she got here, she doesn't know how she'll get home, but she knows that there are two sons here that she needs to look after for the time being. Maybe more.]

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[ Oh yeah? How about a third version? One that's clearly been through the ringer, still healing from well...everything he went through? He'll be walking through here briefly. Pausing when he sees her and debating walking right back out.

He's been avoiding a lot of people. What's one more? ]

[Too late. She sees him. Nora pats the space next to her]

I don't care how fast you can run, you are not running away from me, young man.

"...I probably could." Well. He definitely could. But instead he goes and takes a seat.

She stares him down. It was hard believing her six year old was suddenly thirty and then suddenly scarred up. And now...this one who looks like he could run at the drop of a pin. She hopes Henry doesn't mind her bringing home adult children. She's sure they could bunk up. Somehow.

"I know you could but you are staying here and telling me what is going on with you."

This Barry? Can pretty much guarantee few versions of Barry Allen will willingly bunk up with Savitar. And this one doesn't even know, yet that he is Savitar. Or will be.

"What's going on with me?"

"You seem more skittish than the others," Nora says patiently.

"I do?" How does one tell their mother that they're only kind of their son?

"A little." Nora sips at her tea and gives him all the time in the world to respond.

"I'm just...waiting for all of it to stop." Existance, he means. Though he's sure that's not clear.

She looks so sad at that. Nora sets down her tea and touches his hand.

"Why?"

"Because that's what's supposed to happen to time remnants. We're not supposed to last."

"Honey, you're going to need to explain time remnants to me," Nora urges. The other Barry did but it still was something that was beyond her.

He fiddles with a pen he picked up off the coffee table. Some sort of marker. It's a version of yourself that's no longer temporarily relevant. A time clone."

"I see."

That saddens her.

"Or you could stay here. And it seems like it's in between time so that you could just live life here."

"I don't know if it's that simple."

She purses her lips.

"Henry is going to need to put up with that, then. There's a few of you that I am taking back with me."

He frowns at her, suddenly uncertain. More uncertain. "What?"

"I'm taking you, and the other two, with me when I go home. Barry, you can't expect me to just leave my son, no matter what he looks like, alone in the world."

He doesn't imagine he'll be in the world long, though he's certainly been in it longer than he thought he would be. "...no, I guess not."

Nora hugs him tightly. All of this was so much to take in.

"Oh honey."

"You might need a bigger house," it's a vague and not very good attempt at a joke.

She chuckles and doesn't let him go.

"That's okay. I think you'd like having big brothers suddenly. You've been asking for a baby sister."

A sort of broken laugh. "Have I?" And then he got Iris.

She laughs a little too.

"Yes, do you remember the Ognats next door? How you would try to play with their baby girl but she couldn't run around like you?"

"Kind of?" He remembers Iris West more, but well. Of course he would.

Iris was never a sister type. Not in Nora's eyes at least. She knew that her little one was smitten with the girl from kindergarten. She smirks a little.

"Do you remember asking me if you could take more dinosaur stickers to school?"

The barest hint of a smile. "I remember that."

"I asked you why and you said that you gave yours to a girl at school. She was sad because her own mom wasn't there," Nora chuckles. She sits back, mind made up on bringing home as many broken Barries she could get her hands on.

A sad and brief smile. "I remember that."

Oh.
Oh that's what the other Barry had been trying to tell him in his exited ramblings. For a moment, he's just going to stand in the doorway and drink in the sight.

"Hey there pretty lady."

She looks up when she hears that voice. Her eyes widen a little at how much older he was but that was still--

"Henry?" she asks cautiously.

Older, greyer but more at ease here. He's got Barry - a few of him really - and his sons are safe here.

But this? He never expected this. A smile as he gathers her in his arms.

Nora holds him tightly. Yes, they absolutely had several sons here. She held the hope she would see him as well.

“Henry, what—“

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