Pinch Hitter

[run_barry]

Opening the door from Milliways Barry leads Yamato through and into S.T.A.R. Labs.

"And here we are, welcome to Central City and S.T.A.R. Labs."

They step out into a medical lab space, complete with fancy equipment and an exam table. The place looks pretty high-tech, but it's also currently a shambles. Things are knocked over on the countertops, several drawers have been pulled open and rifled through, there's an IV stand laying on the ground, and the red Flash suit is discarded on the floor beside the exam table.

It's the sort of scene that happens when a speedster on his last legs storms through an infirmary trying to help himself and not pass out in the process.

Glancing around, Barry frowns and rubs the back of his neck.

"Sorry about the mess."

Comments

[makes_the_toys]

"No I'm not you're-- " Cisco pauses, brow squinching as he tries to decide if Yamato really is here or not.

"Don't do that. You're here!" he declares. Then, less sure in an aside to Barry he asks, "Right? He's here in the Cortex?"

[run_barry]

"Dude, it's cool," Barry assures Cisco. "He's just here to help me out while everyone else is down."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"If you'd prefer it, I can go, kid," Yamato says to Cisco, glancing over at him. He pauses for a moment, then approaches, tucking the blanket a little tighter around Cisco's shoulders with an irritable growl. "But if not, you should find somewhere to sit or lie down. And take a decongestant if you haven't in the last few hours."

[makes_the_toys]

"I didn't say that," Cisco sniffles. "I'm just wondering what we're going to do if-- "

"Barry, please go get some more orange juice," comes a voice from the door that's sliding open once more. Caitlin slips through, wrapped up in her own blanket.

"-- that happens," Cisco continues, gesturing in Caitlin's direction.

"He's been whining all day and I'm this close to smothering him-- with-- a... " Caitlin notices the other person in the room and trails off, looking at the stranger then throwing Barry a 'who is this and what are you doing?!' look.

[run_barry]

Barry is ready to interject between Cisco and Yamato, but before he can Caitlin arrives and he's caught between all of them.

"Heyyy, Caitlin," Barry greets sunnily, smiling an oh-so-innocent smile.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

... Okay. Okay, Yamato was maybe not as prepared for this particular awkward situation as he thought he was. Maybe this isn't the best way to be introduced to Caitlin. Maybe he's nervous enough that he immediately drops into Commander-Of-The-Chosen mode, standing up straight and tipping his chin up and generally projecting an aura of authority, which totally isn't just a defensive mechanism in this instance. Not at all.

"Doctor Snow," he says, in a tone that's maybe slightly clipped. "I'm Yamato Ishida, I'm a friend of Barry's. And Cisco's. I'm sure Barry's just dying to explain to everything to you."

[makes_the_toys]

Cisco and Barry exchange odd looks on Yamato's reaction, and then Cisco moves to get in behind Caitlin.

"Yep, Barry will totally explain everything," Cisco says, gently sliding the lab door closed again.

"Yamato," Caitlin greets uncertainly. She looks over at Barry and gives him her most pointed of expressions. "Barry?"

[run_barry]

Barry shakes his head at Cisco's lack of help.

"Right. Okay. About Yamato... " he says, focusing on Caitlin. "Yamato is from Odaiba, Japan, here by way of a door that leads to a magical bar that sits at the end of the universe where Cisco and I hang out sometimes."

His tone is very reasonable as he explains, and when he goes on to theorize, "Well, most people say it's magic, I'm pretty sure the doorway is some extra-dimensional wormhole that serves as a portal through space time and allows visitation by individuals from throughout the multiverse and separate points in time to congregate in a fixed place within the time stream that physically manifests as an asteroid in space."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato is more of a ball of nerves than he expected, and his nervousness isn't easing up at all, but he's at least managing to cover it up with a combination of gruffness and military-grade formality.

Barry getting derailed by the science of Milliways is something he didn't account for, at all.

"It's either magic or very high-tech, but the point is that these two have been visiting a kind of interdimensional nexus," he says to Caitlin. "I'm not from this reality. Barry and I met a while ago, and Cisco and I a little after that. Since everyone's sick here, I offered to help out until this epidemic had passed."

He's just not going to mention Barry's whole nearly-passing-out thing. Nobody needs to know that right now.

"I'm sure they both would've told you earlier, but it's a ... strange thing to have to explain," he adds, tone still rather clipped and formal. "It's nice to meet you, though. They both speak very highly of you."

He'd offer a hand to shake, but that's probably a health hazard right now, so he just inclines his head a little instead.

[makes_the_toys]

As Barry goes off on tangents Cisco grips his blanket with one hand so he can use his other to snap his fingers in the air, trying to bring Barry back.

"Barry, focus!" Looking at Caitlin, Cisco throws her a sheepish smile. "It's really not half as crazy as it sounds once you get used to it."

Caitlin looks at all three of them like there's madness in the air and all of them have caught it.

"I'm sorry, what?" Holding up a hand to forestall any answers to that, she shakes her head then focuses on Barry.

"Can I talk to you? Out in the hall." She doesn't wait for an answer, she just starts walking.

Watching the two leave, Cisco sneezes a few times, covering up with his blanket. Fishing around inside his fuzzy cocoon, he pulls out a tissue and blows his nose loudly then gives Yamato a wane look.

"Boy, I'm sure glad I'm not Barry right now."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Some of the tension goes out of Yamato's shoulders once they're both gone, and he gives Cisco a slightly helpless smile.

"I'm ... I'm sure she'll understand," he says, sounding like he doesn't entirely believe it. "It's just a lot to take in. Maybe I should've brought Gabumon, that might have helped."

He does throw a nervous glance in the direction they went in, just for a few moments, before glancing back at Cisco.

[makes_the_toys]

Seeing Yamato's nerves, Cisco starts to reach out to pat the guy's shoulder, then realizes that's a good way to try and get Yamato sick, so he keeps his hand to himself.

"She totally will," he assures Yamato, sniffling loudly when his voice comes out stuffy from congestion. "She's like, the queen of rolling with it. After she reams him out she'll be back in full-on understanding mode."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Don't misunderstand," Yamato says, gruffly. "It's just going to make this whole helping-you-guys-out thing awkward if we trip at the first stumbling block."

He's definitely not worried about Barry and Cisco getting in trouble, you understand. He's equally definitely not worried about making a good impression on their team. So you see.

"I'm glad to see you're on your feet, though. This virus sounds pretty bad, I was worried that you'd be half-dead," he says. "I'd hug you, but you're full of snot and I don't want to."

[makes_the_toys]

"Oh, I'm definitely dying," Cisco says, huddling down into his blanket. "Caitlin and Barry won't tell me, but I know I'm done for."

At least he feels done for. The only reason he's upright right now is the desperate need for juice and trying to catch Barry before he sped off again.

"But what about you?" he asks, then pauses to cough long and hard into his blanket. It's bound to sound as gross as it feels, and when he's finally able to stop, Cisco looks ten times more miserable.

"Pretty sure I just hacked up a piece of lung," he grumbles, then continues with Yamato. "What's with the straight-back attitude? You join the military or something while I've been down?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I might be a little nervous. Maybe more than I thought I'd be," Yamato admits.

He peers at Cisco for a few seconds before dragging over a swivel-chair, because if Cisco's here he may as well sit down and try to rest a little.

"Besides, I've always been like that. I'm just not usually like that with you."

[makes_the_toys]

"Isn't like, hopping back and forth between worlds your everyday?" he asks, collapsing into the chair Yamato brings over. "Or is it because you're here, working with the S.T.A.R. Labs elite?"

Shuffling around inside his blanket again, he finds his tissue and blows his nose loudly, making a face at what comes out and then tossing it into a nearby wastebasket.

"It's good you haven't done it with me. I'd have suspected brainwashing or robot right from the start. In fact, I'm not entirely convinced right now that you aren't. You should let me stick you in our MRI scanner."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"'S.T.A.R. Labs elite'? Good to know your ego's still intact," Yamato says, just a touch wryly. "Just -- nervous. Caitlin and Wells are friends of yours and Barry's, after all, and I'm basically an interloper in your secret hideout."

Those two things are not an un-nervous-y combination.

"If you're shoving people in MRI scanners, you're not resting," he adds, mildly. "So I'll pass on that, thanks."

[makes_the_toys]

"It's not a big deal, dude," Cisco assures him. "I mean, we've had an evil clone up in here and you aren't nearly as creepy as that."

Not to mention their last meta guest who dropped by just to murder them all.

"Besides, you're a friend, too. With how much we've hung out and how much you already know, you're practically a member of Team Flash already."

Burrowing further into his blanket, Cisco sighs. He's getting tired again, so he won't put up too much argument on the MRI thing.

"Fine. We'll save it for when I'm better. Or dead. I'd take either one right now."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato flushes a little red at that (being practically part of a team is a big thing!). "I could so be an evil clone if I wanted to be. You'd never know I wasn't the original Yamato," he mutters. "Thanks, though. I guess it goes both ways, too: At this point, you and Barry are basically members of the Chosen."

Beat.

"GP is your partner."

Yamato can't wait for GP to evolve into MetalGPmon.

He gives Cisco a slightly concerned look at that second part, and moves to ruffle his hair, before thinking better at it and just sort of ruffling the air a few inches above his hair, because Cisco's virus may as well be an impenetrable forcefield as far as he's concerned.

"You're going to be fine, kiddo, just make sure you don't push yourself too hard. If I get a chance, I'll make you a pot of shoga-yu or something, see if we can't clear your throat up a little."

[makes_the_toys]

"Which is why an MRI is vital," Cisco returns.

He smiles at being declared basically one of the Chosen, then has a realization.

"Hey, I guess I can finally tell Caitlin what GP really is and where he came from."

Speaking of Caitlin, her and Barry walk back in together.

"Have a seat, I'll be right back," Caitlin says to Barry, heading back into the closed off lab.

[run_barry]

"How we doing?" Barry asks, flashing a smile that's several shades of awkward as he comes over to join Cisco and Yamato; rolling up his shirt sleeve.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"We're doing fine, apart from Cisco hacking up a few organs. How'd things go with Caitlin?"

Beat.

"Excepting the fact that she's clearly about to jab you with a needle."

Yamato may be absently tugging the sleeves of his shirt a little further down his arms, because while he's ninety-nine percent sure Barry's the only one getting a needle stuck in him today, he doesn't want to be caught unawares by a surprise attack.

[run_barry]

"Well we're good for now on the end of the universe and you visiting to help out thing," Barry replies, hooking an empty chair with his foot and pulling it over to sit in.

"She's more upset about my... episodes." Hence the needle jabbing.

[makes_the_toys]

"I should keep them in a jar," Cisco mutters. "Maybe I could clone myself from them."

Inside his blanket cocoon Cisco folds his arms, like Yamato wary of any stray needles that aren't aimed at Barry.

"What episodes? You're not catching this bug now, too, are you?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Good for now is good," Yamato says, with a quick, slightly tense nod. "I mean. For now, I guess."

Although he is visibly starting to tense up again as he says that.

"He hasn't caught the bug," he says to Cisco. "He's just, er ..."

He lifts a shoulder slightly, electing to let Barry explain. After all, he doesn't want to end up accidentally sell Barry out.