#tkv fic

Barry looked at her, the restless anxiety she carried just barely concealed. His eyes softened when Nora hiccuped and he shifted. His hold was awkward and nervous but it was gentle and so sincere. Caitlin guided his hand to support Baby Nora’s neck. She stroked the soft infant hair and wondered if she would ever have a day like this for herself. Probably not. She made her peace with that long ago but every now and again a sorrowed wave of could-beens lapped at her shore. 

“Thanks, Cait.” He still stared at Caitlin like she was a new invention. Like she wasn’t of their earth or made of their kind and that was so impossibly untrue. She’s never felt more human, no longer unmoored. The Frost that lived in her and beside her is gone but she can breathe with the emptiness, no longer sifted between two spirits Caitlin’s no longer cold. “Go.” 

She bit her lip and hope ebbed through her. She glanced away at Iris still celebrating with Cecile whilst dropping hints for Nora from the future to speed back to the year she belongs.  

“Are you sure?” 

“Yeah,” he said. “Go home.” 

If Barry looked at Caitlin like she was a goddess’ token, Cisco’s stricken face told her she was a ghost. She waved half of her fingers at his doorstep with a lopsided grin, already caught with the swell of relief and nostalgia to see every way he has and hasn’t changed. His hair was chopped–fluffy and wonderful, but so jarringly not curled into his shoulders it aged him like wine. But he was Cisco, her Cisco, visibly struggling to reconcile life and death before him and his heart on his sleeve was exactly what drew Caitlin to this man in the first place.

Every word of the speech she had in her head left the moment he stood in front of her. Her apologies and the interrogation for his glaring absence to one of the most important milestones of his best friend’s life that vexed her the longer she realized he wasn’t in an emergency all disappeared. 

At a loss, she lifted the diaper disposal he sent to Central City, the pink bow still on top of the box. “Barry and Iris have two of these already.” 

“Ah,” Cisco said. 

“There wasn’t a gift receipt. I figured I’d save on the shipping. Why didn’t you come to Nora’s party?” 

“I’m busy.” He glanced at his rejected gift and his mouth twitched, suppressing a frown already furrowing in his brows. 

“With what?” She raised an eyebrow, waiting for an answer, but a snarky retort never came. Her expression flattened at the intensity of Cisco’s stare. Suddenly, Caitlin wondered if she did this all wrong. Casual, she attempted, downplaying her raging feelings to be respectful of Kamilla. Aloof, she decided to not get tangled in any expectations. But Cisco stared and stared and stared until the floor beneath her feet felt more like slippery ice than solid ground.

“You look so much like Caitlin.” 

Pins and needles prickled beneath her skin and her heart dropped to her stomach. This wasn’t like ghost-sighting–Caitlin was a ghost. 

How didn’t he know she was back? Barry spoke to him and he sent the welcome gift, she sent him voicemails and texts to his phone. But nine months was a long time, a whole being incubated to birth, and enough time for Khione to step out of her lab chamber, opening young eyes to discover life and find purpose. Certainly, enough time for her best friend to change his number.

“Cisco, I am Caitlin.” 

His arm dropped numbly from the door edge and Caitlin went inside. She absorbed the eclectic knick knacks of Cisco’s old shoebox apartment scattered throughout this high-scale unit.  

She dropped the diaper disposal on a black marble tabletop and then turned around. “Where’s Kamilla?”

“In Miami.” Still pressed against the front door, his eyes said what his pressed lips would not. The who and what and when and how? Always so expressive and bouncing with life, full brown with light and wisdom, they now seared into hers, uncomprehending and vulnerable. The distance in his voice disappeared after the quiet that settled between them. “You’re really Caitlin?” 

Even her name on his tongue sounded old. A weight carried behind it like a loaded gun. 

So she went with old and bore her weight in return. 

“I think about all the memories I cherish the most and you are in every one of them,” she recited, heart open. There were other things she could’ve said. Inside jokes, and medical wounds she treated, but nothing felt more apropos than those lifeboat words of his that once buoyed her soul to surface.

Cisco stood before her, mouthing at his knuckle like he was biting down pain. “You were dead.” 

“I’m here,” she said softly, reaching for his arm. The faded t-shirt he wore was soft and familiar.  Famous for being worn once too many nights pulling all-nighters at Star Labs.

“I got a call from Carla telling me you were gone.” Cisco’s eyes pierced into hers and once he started he couldn’t stop and Caitlin didn’t want him to. 

“And the worst part is I wasn’t there for any of it. I could’ve stopped you before you–I would’ve seen the signs–Don’t look at me like that, we know it’s true. And after…” He laughed like he was still in disbelief, running a hand through his shortened hair mimicking his gesture of stress when there was enough of it to frizz up on the crown of his head like a muppet.  “There was no funeral. Nobody mourned. Like it didn’t happen and I couldn’t understand that…Barry and Iris partying like it was New Year's, posting pictures on Instagram while I was drinking to forget what it felt like seeing you die on the operating table wash over me again.” 

“I never meant–” 

“And when I finally showed up to Central City,” he said sharply, pointing his trembling finger at her, grief curved into every crevice of his face. “there you were again, Khione wearing your face again. But it wasn’t you. None of it was you. You didn’t know me. I was a stranger to my best friend. You didn’t know my name when I was the only one who cared you existed and knew you were worth more than a vote.” 

“I know.”

“No, you don’t!” He tore away, and the strain in his voice humbled her. “How could you do that to yourself, just give your entire life away? And Mark was still around after everything he’d done, helping you to erase yourself from existence but they wanted me back for Nora’s party? Frack, no! I can’t!” His exhaustion caught up to him and he sagged onto the royal blue couch, knees knocking and arms folded in, dropping his head to the floor. “Caitlin, I can’t. Dante, Cynthia, hell, even Frost didn’t choose to die.” 

Caitlin touched her tears as terrible relief flooded through her. So scared she had been that in the last nine months, he learned to no longer miss her when she was gone, for his life to have changed so much there would be no room for her again. “I made a mistake,” she told him. “This isn’t happening again.” 

“Caitlin I’m tired of this game.”

She stepped forward with open palms. And again, deja vu flashed before her eyes. 

They were in the speed lab as Barry zoomed laps overhead. Her in turquoise and him in light wash denim already falling into her hug with forgiveness on his lips. 

They were at Mercury Labs, a funky Flash emblem shirt thrown over one of his classic tees, a lanyard access key swinging around his fingers, leaning against the lab table with his wind-tousled and soul-sucking dark eyes, tapping at her resolve for her to hang up her white coat with careless ease as she shrugged off loneliness. 

They were at a bar, Cisco leaning against another countertop, jaded and beaten down from the long year’s journey, still following her every movement with that unforgettable pickup line flirtatious smile making her forget why she vowed to stay away.  

"I've got night vision and snacks," said Beth, always taking one for the team. "You're the one with the test, Courtney. I don't mind staying a little longer with Rick until his hour is fully done."

Courtney looked like she wanted to protest, but Cosmo chirped, dragging her onto the path in the opposite direction of the school. "Whoa!"

"See?" said Rick. Even the staff agreed. Case closed.

"Okay, sheesh! I get it! I get it!"

Yolanda waved before jogging to follow. "We'll meet up again tomorrow."

Beth lifted the goggles from above her eyes, incredulous at Rick's aloofness as they waited around in the dark. "You're not going to convince me to leave, too?" She dug into one of the pockets of her yellow and black suit for a granola bar. Two bites into it, she turned to glance again, still waiting for a reply.

"It'll be over soon." He tapped at the base of his hourglass. The sand was aglow, tilting into the slightest pile at the edge of the pinhole.

"I thought you were itching to get out of here."

"I was...but..." He craned his neck upwards, looking back to the evergreen. It was a nice view, eerie institute aside, and the moon was out. The other girls got to climb and fly high, but Beth always stayed grounded. It wasn't fair she always missed out on seeing the sights. Holding out his gloved hand, he reached for Beth.

She tucked her granola bar away, interest piqued. "But?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Are you seriously Aladdin-ing me right now?"

He cracked a smile. "I don't have a magic carpet."

She levelled him a look. "You're my boyfriend for a reason. Yes, I trust you."

"Nice to hear. Hold tight." He took her hand, and secured it around his neck. It was just enough time for Beth to yelp when he started moving. She clung onto his cape, hooking one leg around his hip as he launched up to dangle from the lowest tree branch, effortlessly climbing up until they were at eye-level with the school's roof. Beth shuffled, sitting with one hand bracing the trunk like her life relied on it gazing around in the open air.

"It's pretty, right?"

Beth, still winded and a little speechless, nodded her head. She smiled at the way he looked at her instead of the starry night and moon. He was proud of his trick and she knew it. He managed to sweep her off (and sixteen ft above) her feet.

She fixed her goggles on again, scanning the area with her new vantage point. Just as Rick was about to ask what she was looking for, she gasped, grabbing his hand. "An owl!" she whispered excitedly, pointing at the next tree. "It's watching us, look!"

There was indeed an owl perched on the branch a few feet away. Its black eyes grew in size as it stared at its unexpected guests.

"Are we, uh, disturbing him?"

Beth tapped the side of her goggles. "It's a girl, she's a Barred Owl. Five years old." She flipped a switch, entering X-Ray mode. "And currently digesting her last meal." Beth winced, removing her goggles so she wouldn't have to watch more of the owl eating its dinner.

"Definitely disturbing, then. Maybe she's Hootie's cousin," Rick joked, humouring her.

"Maybe."

"We should leave her alone."

"Is that why you brought me here?" Her eyes fell to his lips. "For privacy?"

"Do you think we need it?" Rick was so close, Beth wasn't gripping the trunk for support anymore, instead she leaned into his space until her back fit against his suit. His arm securely wrapped around her. Better at heights, she may be, he'd still never let her fall. Her hair tickled his nose when he tipped his chin down.

"I'd never say no," she breathed.

Rick kissed her smile. She sighed, bringing a hand to his cheek, mask and all. She cupped his face and pressed another kiss when the last one ended and the sandglass was empty. "We're going to be so tired at school."

"Did you want to get down?"

"No."

"Me neither."

The Mustang pulls up beside her parking spot not even ten minutes later. Rick’s in a white tank and hands over an iced tea in a can. Beth perks up from her wilted waiting, throwing her arms around Rick instead of taking the cold drink. “I am so happy to see you.” 

Rick chuckles, rubbing his hand over her back for a few moments before moving on to check what was up with the Ford. 

Beth takes a sip from the can, hopping onto the hood of Rick’s car as he pops open hers. “I don’t have the goggles with me. I wish I did, or else I could’ve at least let you know what the problem is.” 

“It’s alright. If I can’t figure it out in the next few minutes, we’ll just transfer over your stuff to my car and have Zeek pick this up. It’s probably the battery.” 

“My knight in shining armour,” Beth teases, appreciating the view. 

Rick wipes at his forehead and glances over his shoulder, crinkling his brow. “Me or Zeek?” 

Is that even a question? “You, of course!” She sets down the iced tea and approaches Rick as he inspects her car. His ears are red as he works. “I’ve always liked watching you work on cars. I’m glad Pat’s hiring you for the summer.” 

Rick sighs and closes the hood, giving her a long look. “We better call Zeek.”

Beth says, “Oh, is it done for?” 

“No. I just can’t concentrate with you looking at me like that.” 

“Like what?” Beth grins at him, knowing full well she’s full of it. 

“C’mere.” Rick draws her close, pulling her into his arms. She spins around and they’re face to face, trapped between their two cars. Rick lifts her back onto the Mustang to off-set the height difference and Beth easily loops her arms around his neck. “Did you get all the stuff on your list for the grad party?” 

“Yes.” 

“Do you still want to make the announcement at the party, too?” 

Beth runs her fingers up Rick’s tank coyly. “That we’re official now?” 

He nods. 

“Yes,” she says. “Although I’m not sure how much of it will be a surprise.” She meets his soft gaze. “This feels so right, it doesn’t even feel new.” 

Rick smiles. “I know what you mean.” He gives her a short kiss, then helps her carry over the grocery bags into the backseat of his Mustang. “Let’s get these over to your place and then stop on the way to Richie’s when we’re done?” 

Beth cheers. “You know what I think?” 

“What?” 

“So the plan is to be careful with your movements, get him comfortable, then I’ll introduce you. I know he’s massive, but he’s pretty sensitive. He’ll know if you’re scared of him.”

“And he isn’t going to be mean, right? Since you resurrected him?” She bites her lip. “I just want to be sure.”

Rick gives her hand a small squeeze. “I promise, he’ll love you.” His gaze holds more words than that. Beth has to look down at the leaves on the ground, fighting the flush to her cheeks. “Okay.”

When they get to the big log bench, he sits her down. “I’ll go fetch him.”

Rick puts two fingers into his mouth, a crisp whistle echoing through the forest. “Grundy!”

Beth’s back goes rigid, hands tightly over her knees when the ground begins to shake.

Her eyes grow enormously wide at the mammoth of a zombie man that stumbles towards them.

Rick grins. “Hey, pal.”

“Rick….Friend.”

Grundy pats Rick’s back a little too hard. He loses his footing, converse shoes twisting in a clump of dead leaves.

“Rick!”

“I’m okay!” he reassures her with a laugh. He turns and taps on Grundy’s fingernail, half the size of Rick’s head. “Pal, remember what we talked about. Be gentle.”

“Gentle….” Grundy grunts. “Learning.”

“That’s right.” Rick chuckles, continuing to talk to Grundy. The zombie monster sits hard on the earth, causing another mini earthquake. Beth grips the peeling bark, fascinated by the discussion they’re having. Grundy soaks up every single word, expanding his vocabulary. Beth marvels at the light across Rick’s face. She’s heard the stories, the compassion he has for this…brute of a thing. But it’s another thing entirely to see it in action. Rick has such a huge heart for what he’s been through. He’s such a beautiful person. Beth would like to think that she’d show forgiveness to the weapon manipulated into killing her parents if she were in Rick’s shoes…But she’s not so certain she would. She can’t believe she gets to witness it in Rick, to be a part of his transformation.  

Grundy seems as calm as he can be, munching on the many bags of apples Rick had left by a tree stump.

“Beth.” He sweeps his arm at the colossal giant. “This is Grundy.”

She waves. “Hi, Grundy!”

“Grundy…This is my, um…This is Beth.”

Grundy swivels his head to stare at her. “Beth?”

“Yeah, remember? From the tunnels? I talked to you about her a few times?”

Beth bites her lip, trying to hold in her delight. Rick has talked to Grundy about her? What did he say?

“Beth…Your…Friend?”

“Yeah. She’s my friend.” Rick looks back at her. Beth flashes two thumbs up with a toothy smile, hoping that her nerves aren’t leaking through too obviously. She wants Grundy to like her. Grundy is important to Rick. And he stinks and looks like he could squash her flat with a burp, but she’s here and she’s trying. Rick sits down and wraps an arm around her as she tries to swallow down her apprehension. Seems like Rick can read her like a book. His touch is warm and the stiffness in her back and neck softens with uncanny ease.

“She’s…Actually, she’s family. It’s a little more than a friend.”

Her breath hitches, and she looks up at him. Rick’s thumb grazes over the leather elbow pad of her orange zebra jacket. She doesn’t dare move, not even breathe when he meets her gaze.

“She’s actually, weirdly enough, the one who brought me to you.”

Her brows crinkle with confusion. “Did I?”

“You showed me the truth,” Rick whispers, still staring at her intensely. “About my parents. About Hourman–And yeah. Grundy for the first time.”

“I had always thought that might’ve been a mistake.” She thinks back to the forest on the outskirts of West Farm, far from where they are now. Beth knew she needed a way to stop Rick in his tracks before he did something he’d regret, but the absolute devastation, the grief that played on his red-tinged, tears-soaked face had her doubling over. Rick’s pain was so cutting, she felt it like it was her own. Beth wasn’t sure she’d have done it over the same way, it was her first day ever as Dr. Mid-Nite, and she’s now more sensitive with the information she shares, and how she shares it.

But Rick is shaking his head. “It wasn’t. I needed to hear it. I needed to see that. It took a while, but, it saved me.”

Her breath catches, trying to find words to say.

Grundy interrupts them. “Beth….saved…friend?” He throws an apple core behind him. It lands on the river bank with a plop, and a group of birds squawks at the invasion, flapping their wings to get away.

He stands with a groan, looming over them, studying Beth again.

Beth stands too, swallowing hard, batting Rick’s hand away when he tries to pull her back. “Hey, you need to give her space.”

“It’s okay,” she says. “I got this. I think he just wants to get to know me, right?”

Beth turns, raising an eyebrow for agreement. Grundy huffs through his nostrils, which she’ll take as a nod.  

“Great. Okay.” She needs Rick again. “How exactly did you bond with Grundy?”

Rick scuffs his shoe into the ground. “I don’t know. Like this? Eating apples? I just started talking and he listened. Not sure how much he understands but it’s enough to get by.”

“I just have to talk? That’s not hard.” She sticks her hands into the pockets of her jacket and jokes, “We’ve been making a lot of speeches lately.”

Beth clears her throat. “You know when I first heard of you. I was scared of you. And when I saw you in that cage for that first time, I was desperate to get Rick away from you, because it wasn’t what we were supposed to do down there and I didn’t want him to try and hurt you, yes, but…It was also because I was scared of you. I still kind of am,” she admits quietly. “But you’ve earned Rick’s trust, and you taught him mercy, acceptance, patience and forgiveness…And, also how to lie really really badly.”

Rick chuckles behind her and she scrunches up her nose. Rick letting her tease him never gets old.

“Lying aside–You taught him those things, and…that matters a lot to me.”

“You’re not just some imaginary friend for Rick to talk to. Or a figment of his grief. You see in Rick what I do. You’ve been there for him.” Her back is to Rick and she’s glad, she’s not too sure she’d be able to continue with her voice so loud and clear if she’s able to see his face if she can see the slightest indication that he’s moved. “You’ve been there when I couldn’t be. You saved him. And Rick says the same of me. So, I think we have a lot in common, Grundy.”  

A hand lands on her shoulder–Rick with misty eyes. Beth melts, wrapping her arms around his middle and buries her face in his shirt as his hand slides soothingly up and down her back. She closes her eyes, breathing in the damp moss and musk and Rick’s new soap.

“And I know Rick’s really strong physically,” she continues, craning her neck up at Grundy, but still hugging him. “But he’s resilient, too. He doesn’t think it’s okay to struggle, but we know life–our I guess many lives– can be very hard. Lonely.”

“Beth…” Beth puts her hand on his chest. She’s not finished.

“And I’m just really, really grateful, that he has someone that’s even bigger and stronger than he is. I hope you can help me teach Rick that he doesn’t have to be strong all the time. Just keep looking out for him, okay? And I promise to look out for you.” Her voice breaks, “Because that’s what families do.”  

Rick presses a kiss to her temple. He croaks a tiny, “Thank you.”

Grundy groans, stomping to the tree base. Beth wipes away at the wetness gathering in her eyes before they smudged her glasses, confused. “I thought that would work.”

“Just wait…”

Grundy clops back and shoves the burlap sack of apples into Beth’s arms. She yelps, stumbling back into Rick as the bag jostles, twenty or so apples rolling around, dropping out of the bag and onto the floor.

“Apples. Yep.” Rick bends down to collect the ones that fell before they roll into dirt. “Told ya he’d like you.” He finds one, rubs it against his shirt and offers Beth a bite.

“I’d usually wash my fruits first, Rick…”

He shrugs and sits with Grundy on the log bench. “There’s a creek nearby if you want.”

“I meant tap water!”

Rick smiles wide. Beth digs into her jeans pocket and snaps a photo to capture it. Then takes a few more with Rick posing with Grundy.

Now she’s the only one not having a snack. She sighs, making a grabby hand at Rick’s apple and simply resorts to never telling her mother.

“This is nice.” She leans against his shoulder, listening to Rick’s healthy breathing, nature, and Grundy. “I see why you like coming alone here.”

Grundy reaches over and gives Beth a respectable non-back-breaking pat. "Family."

“I hope not. I’ve transferred over everything I do still have access to onto my backup cloud and mass-deleted files just in case.” She types some more, pulling up their personal folders and doesn’t see any breach there. “It’s mostly an attack on our JSA library archives. Wait. Let me try something.” Rick watches her work with quiet fascination. The fact that he’s never grown up with advanced computers or phones the way she had definitely makes what he’s looking at seem like a different language. He’s no Pat Dugan–Rick can work a laptop fine–but he’s never had the desire to learn the science behind the programming. 

She tries pulling up another site by changing her VPN settings…only to be met by the same aggressive pop-up. She closes the laptop hard, pushing it away from her with a tired groan. 

“Hey, it’s alright. You said so yourself:  It isn’t an emergency, only a virus or something, right?” 

“I had other things I wanted to do today,” Beth grumbles. “It’s just very frustrating.”

Rick doesn’t want to point out that temporarily losing library archives, while important, isn’t the biggest deal in the world. But he’s attuned enough to Beth to know it’s not really about who is behind it, and more about the fact they’re besting her. And now that she’s been challenged, she’s not going to be able to stop obsessing over it until she pulls a triumph. Beth builds self-confidence by coasting through these problems, as she should. She’s brilliant, and Rick knows just how maddening it can be to fail at figuring out the one thing you’re supposed to excel in. It’s like the hourglass or the AI Chuck malfunction all over again. They share that same sore spot.

He gives both of her shoulders a reassuring squeeze. “I can see that.” Rick can feel it, too, trailing his fingers along the back of her boat neck where her muscles are tight. “You’ll figure it out.”

Beth buries her head into her hands. “I don’t know.” 

“You always do.” His hands start moving on their own, curled and draped over the smooth curves of her shoulders just above her collarbone. He tries to massage the stress away with gentle, consistent pressure. Beth grows very silent at the sudden continuous contact, but he keeps it going until a tiny whimper escapes.

“Rick?” she squeaks. “What?” 

Rick presses harder with his thumbs in slow circles against her blades and neck. “Just tell me if you hate this or something.” 

“...I certainly don’t hate it.” She arches into his touch as he settles into a rhythm. “Oh…” 

She relaxes with a dreamy sigh, melting in his hands like a wax candle. His lips curve at her blissful tone. “Feel better?”

He gets lost in it. Rick works on relieving her tension, spreading out to use the entire length of her shoulders. His chest feels warm and tight and swells with pride when she rests on the table, closing her eyes with her head buried in her arms. “Mmmhmm.”

It might be a bit weird, but this feels natural at the same time. And she needed it. Beth worries so much. For the JSA. For him. She puts everything on her shoulders when she doesn’t have to. 

It’s nice to see her zone out and unwind. It’s even nicer to see that Rick can help her reach calm. Something about making Beth feel good drives Rick crazy. He can get her brain to slow down before it goes into overdrive. And the result—Beth all loose and pliable—is so rewarding it almost seems selfish. He kneads through her knots until he can’t really say they’re knots anymore, and then keeps going because he doesn’t want to stop. He moves lower, palms sliding along her inner spine. 

“You are really good at this.” She’s so peaceful and sleepy that Beth almost sounds drunk. 

Rick chuckles and leans forward, giving up on his technique to draw lazy patterns on her back. “I’ve never actually done this before.” 

“Then how’d you know it would work?” 

“I dunno.” He shrugs. “I had a feeling.” 

Rick freezes when a longer moan slips out. He’s never heard her make a sound like that before, but now that he has he won’t ever stop thinking about it, and if he isn’t careful all of the blood in his head is going to rush somewhere else. 

“Um.” He clears his throat and his voice is rough. “Beth?” 

“Sorry!” She jerks, tensing up. Embarrassment flashes across her wide-eyed face. “Sorry, oh my gosh.” 

“It’s okay,” Rick says quickly, feeling bad at all the work he’s done going down the drain. His hands return to her shoulders again for a small encore, but nowhere near as intensely. “I mean. It’s my fault. Maybe I got a little carried away.” 

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” She finally tilts her head to gaze up at him. And her eyes are soft and sparkling. Happy. Lips pulled into the slightest of coy smiles. Rick quirks a brow at her, about to ask what that means when Pat walks in with his customer. Rick takes his hands off Beth like she’s a hot iron as she scoots her chair away very loudly. Both sets of eyes snap to Pat, who is staring at them with a clipboard in hand and his patented head-tilted smile that screams absolute confusion. 

“What’s going on here?” 

Beth flips her laptop open. “Nothing! Nothing!” she yelps, voice three octaves higher than normal. Rick crosses his arms, trying very, very hard not to smirk at the obvious effect he still has on her as she scrambles to make it seem like she’d been hard at work and not purring for him like a cat. “We’re doing nothing!” 

“N-nothing,” Rick echoes, not at all sounding smooth when Pat swivels for his explanation. 

“Er…Right.” Pat shoots them another weird look. “Well. Mr. Harold, if you’d step into my office I can walk you through that paperwork I’ve been talking about…” 

Pat’s customer chuckles, following behind. 

Rick looks at Beth. “You wanna get out of here and tell the others about the breach?” 

She bundles the laptop into her school bag. “Yes, please.”