milliways_bar | (no subject)

Barry enters the Bar from the offices. He's not looking so happy at the moment. And while he gets that Sara-is-here smile, he still carries some concern with him.

"Hey, Nightbird."

[ooc: slowtime likely at points today.]

"Hey." She's immediately concerned when she sees his expression. "What's wrong?"

"Note to self: learn to make a poker face when approaching woman who love me," he says with more of a grin.

"It's Naraht. He's quite ill. Guppy and I were just checking on him. He's afraid it's something contagious to other silicon-based lifeforms, and he's in isolation in the cells."

She snorts. "Which would only work on someone who hadn't had to crack poker faces for a living. Metaphorically speaking."

Her brow furrows. "Oh no--I hadn't heard he was ill. Didn't think he could get ill, actually. Do they know what's wrong?"

"I think it's some kind of Horta pox. Guppy and some of the healers - he mentioned someone named Raven - are trying to help, but I don't think we've gotten the science of it down yet.

"Though as luck would have it, Naraht thinks Dr. McCoy was here yesterday. Certainly, he would at least have some knowledge of Horta biology, if nothing else. I'm going to leave word for Faith to look for him - Faith was the one who put Naraht in the cell, so I guess it;s her case."

Barry sits and gives Sara a nice hug.

"I'm not sure Dr. McCoy would be able to do much," she says worriedly. "Naraht is from later in their timeline--according to McCoy they'd just recently discovered Hortas. But he would know more than any of us."

"Yes. Never mind that McCoy is really as good as advertised. Not that Guppy isn't trying. But to go from a resident at a hospital in modern Britain to this is a lot." Barry sighs.

"Well, enough worrying. I can do that on my own time. How are you today, my dear?" He lets his smile return.

"I'm fine. Hiding from Grissom. He's furious with me." And cue the return of the self-satisfied smirk.

"What did you do, Sara? Is today his birthday?" Why does Barry have a bad feeling about this?

"Today is his birthday and all I did was make people aware of that fact." Doesn't she look innocent?

"Ah. I see. Well, I too know the pain of wanting to keep a birthday a secret, only to find that my friends can't be trusted not to tell," he says with a smirk. "One of these days, I will get back at Tim and Eska for that.

"I think that a man his age can cope with a birthday, though. And with any gifts his friends get."

"If we had truly thought you would be very uncomfortable, I doubt we would have planned the party," she says with a somewhat pointed look. "And would you really want to involve two wizards in a prank war?

"He should. I got him gift certificates for his favorite insects."

"Meddle not in the affairs of wizards, for they are much more clever than even a speedster," he says with a small laugh. "I was thinking more that sooner or later, they have birthdays too. Though Tim's last birthday was the day of his war. That could be hard to top.

"Gift certificates for insects? I always though you could jsut find them in nature."

She snorts. "Doubt he'd really want to be reminded of that." She says nothing about her own birthday, trusting it will not be overtly embarassing.

"Um...he likes edible insects, such as grasshoppers and such."

"At the risk of seeming small-minded, ick." Whatever appetite Barry had is fading fast.

"Oh no, I agree." She sees the look on his face and cringes. "Sorry."

"It's okay. I guess that does give me a sense of how you feel about meat in general, though. Always good to see the other viewpoint."

He snickers a bit. "Th CSI staff cookouts must have been wild, with you at one end and Grissom at the other."

She snickers. "I was far from being the only vegetarian. But Grissom had to supply his own bugs and eat them out of our sight. We could view three week old corpses but drew the line at grasshoppers."

Barry laughs a little more loudly. "Well, I hope he has a good birthday snack regardless. It's not like my eating habits are so great here, what with the ever-larger and more imrpessive meals the Bar serves.

"I had french toast casserole for brekafast today. It's a good thing I have a good metabolism."

"French toast casserole?"

"It's a fancy version of french toast - baked, I think - with cream cheese and apples and cinnamon.

"Dinah has apparently been working with the waitrats to give us more of a choice.

"See what you miss by sleeping late?" He smiles when he says that.

"Your point would be?"

"Only that the early bird - the early Nightbird - gets french toast." He keeps smiling, but knows this is not one he will win.

"Eat healthy. Live well. Die anyway," she snarks back before giving him a kiss to his cheek.

"Want a milkshake?"

"A milkshake sounds good." He gets up and reaches for her to follow.

"I had the strangest meeting this morning. A girl from a world that wasn't my own, but has some surprsing things in common."

"Who'd you meet?"

"Her name is Chloe Sullivan. And when she told me she was from Smallville, I told her I knew someone from there. She asked who. I told her, figuring that odds are she wasn't from my world, or that if she were from my world, she was too young to know Clark Kent.

"Nope. She knows him. But the Clark she knows is her age - maybe 15. And what's more, she's a cousin of a Lois Lane.

"I stumbled onto someone from what could be a cousin to my timeline. Which is not too surprising, but weird." And as Barry tells this, he has a look of bemusement.

She blinks. "Great--we do have the Smallville people coming here. Remember me telling you about that series?"

"Oh. Oh my. That sort of explains things." Barry thinks.

"So her Clark is supposed to grow up to be Superman, too. Oh boy. I'm glad I was careful as it is. If I told her the wrong thing..."

She nods. "I don't think Chloe knows about Clark's origins or anything like that. His friend Pete Ross does, however. And Lex..."

She pauses.

"Has suspicions."

"I tihnk I need to be careful around her. I already told her that the Clark I know grows up to be a big time reporter, as does Lois. I don't think I need to do anything esle that might cause trouble. After all, it's real to her, TV show or not." And then something occurs to Barry.

"A few months ago, there was a Lex Luthor here. Younger than the one from my world. But clearly Luthor. I figured it might be the one we all feared and hated, but earlier. And for about a day, I flipped out. I was back in costume full-time, afraid that if he found out my real name, he could use it against me.

"Now, I quickly realized that I couldn't let him dictate how my life was to be lived. Never mind that in my life, he never became my enemy. But now I have to wonder...

"Was the other Lex Luthor here? That would explain why he seems so contemporary."

"That's a distinct possibility. And who knows? Maybe this Lex can fight destiny and win." She sounds doubtful though.

[ooc: Work-related slowtime]

"Maybe. Certainly if there's a world where all the report DNA that Lois has on mine went into Chloe Sullivan, anything is possible."

[ooc: seeing Jack Green in the bar. Think we should wrap so that Gil G. can enjoy his birthday. Take it easy!]