Deviation Actions
Literature Text
Leonard closed his right eye as instructed and opened the left. He tried not to flinch at the light shining directly on his pupil.
"Tracking's good," Julian said. "Both eyes dilate and constrict properly. No more double vision?"
"No," Leonard replied. "I'm fine. Or I will be as soon as you quit trying to blind me. Can we get on with this?"
"Not quite yet." Julian set the light down and picked up a rubber mallet. "I believe next is—"
"I hit back," Leonard said.
That hadn't been true for years, but he still found himself astonished at what he could decipher about a person's medical skills by how they reacted to such a comment.
Cisco looked up from the monitor and watched them with a gleam in his eye.
So glad one of us is amused. Leonard refrained from rolling his eyes at the kid's expression.
Julian's mouth opened and closed a few times. "It's to check your reflexes," he finally replied.
His eyes were narrow, but his hands shook and his knuckles were white around the handle of the mallet.
Fear at the warning. Scorn at needing to explain something so obvious. And not even a hint of reassurance that he wouldn't actually hurt Leonard.
Not that Leonard needed the reassurance. But still, the combination made for some pretty lousy bedside manner, even allowing for the fact that the man was examining a known killer.
Leonard shrugged. "I know. That's my reflex. I. Hit." He leaned forward just a little. "Back."
Julian backed up several steps, clutching the mallet to his chest. "I—I—I think we're d—done now," he stammered.
Leonard hopped down from the bed, prompting Julian to take another quick step back. "Amateur," he scoffed.
In which Len is an ass to Julian. Because I felt like it. 
"What if"... my Flash Sideways fanfic was true canon?
Well, I lied. I've another "what if" chapter already... mostly because I'd written this as part of the previous one, albeit skipping ahead a bit.
Like the Infantano Street chapter, this scene was written before I'd watched that episode and, due to the Flash Sideways premise, has Len retreating from the Cortex not to go to Cisco's lab and "get things ready" but to deal with the disorientation that is processing how things had changed.
This particular scene skips over the team's discovery of Len's disorientation (see next paragraph) straight to them insisting he get a medical checkup to be sure he's actually in a condition to offer the help he was asked for. Given Caitlin's absence I ended up using Julian for the purpose (I was unaware at the time of writing that he never appeared in that episode).
As for skipping over stuff, I had three different versions of how they discovered how the time travel affected Len.
One of those scenes has Barry, being the kind-hearted all-too-trusting individual that he is (though life is certainly turning him into a cynic of late), discovering Len being sick in the bathroom. Another has Joe being suspicious enough to go look for him after he'd been gone for a while. The third has Cisco (as the only one who's flown on the Waverider and thus the only one theoretically familiar with those side effects) being volunteered against his will to check up on Len.
All three versions have Len complaining "If this is what a hangover feels like, I don't ever want to drink"... Barry's version ends there with an admission that the speedster can't get drunk (and a sarcastic "lucky you", followed by Len feeling like he still needs to vomit); Joe and Cisco's versions have the claiming that they prefer hangovers over what Barry's speed does to them, before Len advises them to consider soundproofing the cortex because he doesn't even need to eavesdrop to hear things he isn't supposed to.
Like the previous chapter, "there was more to this one." But unlike the previous one, leaving the extra stuff out of this one was a combination of things that just wouldn't work for the purpose (e.g. more angst than the team can afford while still staying on track with the main plot) or me not knowing how I wanted to handle it given the obvious "alternate timeline" that the What If premise requires.
Namely, there was Julian complaining about not being Caitlin or having her medical experience (to which Len points out it's too bad because she had some real fight to her), and/or Len commenting that they should've had Henry (aka Barry's dad) there because he would never have let Let get away with that threat.
The version where Caitlin is mentioned is one where I just didn't know how I wanted to handle it; do I assume Len doesn't know about Killer Frost working for Savitar or is that the reason he considers it a "pity"?
The version where he mentions Henry, on the other hand, would potentially be more angst than the team can afford under the circumstances. That version has Iris punching Len for the comment, as she thinks he's making a cruel joke. Len is confused by her reaction; he's sure he deserved that but has no idea why and he's more than a little angry that Iris punched him while wearing the ring (he's concerned she might have damaged it, but his concern is entirely for sentimental reasons-due to who previously owned that ring-and not at all because he's a thief). Cisco corrects her and says that Len and Doctor Allen knew each other from Iron Heights and were actually friends. Someone (Joe, probably) questions Cisco's willingness to believe Len with a story like that, and Cisco says "No, but I believed Doctor Allen when he told me practically the same story" (see Flash Sideways chapter 8 if you want to see what "story" he'd be referring to... or wait until I reach that point in the Flash Sideways prequel What Could Have Been). This version would lead to the team discovering the nature of Len's friendship with Henry and Len learning for the first time about Henry's death, and so on and so forth.
Linked fics:
Flash Sideways, of course, since this version is a whole "what if" based on how that story might change in-canon events if it itself had been canon... or at least if I was the one writing those events. 
Technically Catalyst, as this is a follow-up to the previous chapter, but this scene doesn't have anything to do with the content of that fic... not even as an alternate timeline.
All characters seen or mentioned copyright DC, CW, etc.