Chapter Text
Barry’s smile felt, and probably looked, forced if the concerned looks Iris and Felicity kept throwing him were anything to go by. He tried to enjoy himself at this trivia night with his friends but his mind kept replaying what happened earlier when he went to go visit his Dad at Iron Heights.
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While Felicity went back to her hotel room to get ready for trivia night, Barry decided to go give his Dad a visit at Iron Heights. Father and son sat down across from one another and simultaneously picked up the phones.
Barry grinned as his Dad greeted him the same way he always has for the past fifteen years. “Hey slugger.”
“Hey Dad.”
The two chatted for a while, Barry catching Henry up on the recent events for the past week. Barry had just finished telling Henry about the attempted diamond heist this morning when Henry’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait, did you say Leonard Snart? He’s the one that might have this cold gun that could,” He paused to look around that no one was paying attention to their conversation, and then lowered his voice to be safe. “Slow you down?”
Barry nodded. “Yeah, why? Do you know him?”
With his free hand Henry slowly wiped his face from eyes to mouth, suddenly looking ten years older in a matter of seconds. After a moment of being lost in thought he finally nodded. “Yeah,” his voice caught and he cleared his throat to start again. “Yeah, I know him.”
Barry’s eyes shifted back and forth as he waited for the older man to finish.
“I’ve known the kid since he was about sixteen. I’m assuming you read his file at the CCPD about his father.” Barry only nodded. “Well I would help him and his sister out at my clinic off the books. When he was nineteen he brought in a week old baby boy. He explained that the child was his, and that the mother abandoned him on his doorstep. He was adamant that he wanted to keep the kid, but he needed help. He wanted to go straight to keep his son safe. I got him a job at the clinic, Nora would make home cooked meals for him, and we would watch his son from time to time whenever it was needed.”
Barry finally cut in. “What went wrong then? I knew everyone who worked at your clinic, and he’s obviously not doing any other legit work if I saw him trying to steal that diamond this morning.”
Henry shifted and sighed. “After about a year, things got real bad back at home with his younger sister. He thought with him out of the house that attention would shift away from his sister. His father had only ever hurt him and never touched her. That changed when he got drunk and threw a bottle at her. She was only eight years old and needed thirteen stitches. He knew he needed to get her out of that house, but he also didn’t want his father to find out about his son. Leonard then had to choose between his baby sister and his baby boy. He,” Henry stuttered for the first time in his story. “He knew that Nora and I had been trying, unsuccessfully, to have a baby for awhile and made the hardest decision in his young life. He knew, with the baby being so young, that he wouldn’t remember that first year of his life. Not in the long run.”
“Dad, wha- what are you saying?” Barry asked breathless.
“You, Barry, were the baby. Please know, every decision that was made, was made with your best interests at heart.” Barry felt like his heart just dropped out of his chest. He rubbed the nape of his neck, then crossed his arm in front of his chest the best he could with the phone still in his other hand. Henry patiently waits for Barry to process the news.
After a minute of Barry minutely shaking his head, he finally made eye contact with Henry. Barry chose his next words deliberately. “Why didn’t you ever tell me Snart was my biological father?”
“He didn’t want you to know and think that you were unloved. He loves you so much and it tore him apart having to let you go like he did.” Barry ducked his head down and away as he felt tears stinging in his eyes. On impulse, Henry went to hold Barry’s hand, only to mentally curse as his hand is stopped by the plexiglass between them. “Hey, look at me.” He waited until Barry raised his head, eyes red rimmed. “If there had been any other alternative where the two of you could have stayed together he would have taken it. He wanted to give you a better life than what he got.”
“Does Joe know? Does anyone else know?”
Henry shook his head. “No. The only people that knew were Nora and I, Leonard, and a close friend of his, Mick I think his name was.” Barry nodded but stayed silent. He wiped his eyes and glanced at his watch.
“I, uh, better get going. Even with my speed, I still have a problem being on time. I’ll be back next week.” Barry gave a shaky smile and started to stand up.
“Hey, I love you son.”
Barry gave his first genuine smile. “I love you too Dad.”
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Barry shook himself out of the memory as Eddie got up after getting a call that Snart was spotted at the museum. With Felicity’s help, Barry was able to get to the scene as well.
Barry flashes in the moment he saw Snart, his real father, shoot a white beam at Joe. Without thinking, he pushes Joe out of the way then ducks behind a pillar for cover. He clutches at his side where he was shot. Barry vaguely hears Joe ask if he’s okay. He hisses as he manages to let out an affirmative. He hears the cold gun power up and he darts away to another place to hide.
“Time for a test run!” He hears Snart call out. Barry sneaks a glance from his hiding place and sees Snart aiming the gun at a civilian. Not wanting this to get dragged out, Barry acts on impulse. Before Snart can even squeeze the trigger, Barry grabs the man and races him to a forest outside of the city. While Snart is still disoriented from being moved, Barry snatches the cold gun out of his hands and tosses it a couple yards behind himself. With all that done, Barry steps back a couple feet, turns off the comms in his suit, and waits for Snart to get his balance.
After a couple seconds and the world stops spinning for Snart, he yanks the goggles off and tosses them to the ground. He takes a deep breath to swallow his panic at being alone and at the mercy of this unknown speedster, then smirks. “Well well well, not quite the hero everyone has been whispering about, are you Streak ?” Snart raises his arms and gestures to the isolated forest that he was brought to. “Bringing little old me all the way out here, without one witness in sight for miles.”
He then drops his arms and his smirk, taking a step forward. He has the most serious look on his face that Barry has ever seen. This whole time Snart’s been acting like this is all just a game, but now things just got real for him. “Just answer me this before you kill me, how did it feel to kill Nora Allen? Did you wait until her son, only eleven at the time, was downstairs to see you end her life? Huh! Did you get a kick out of that Man in the Lightning ?!”
Barry takes a half step back. He feels the prickle of tears in the corner of his eye at the mention of his mother, feels all the pain that a reminder of losing his mother comes with. Then, without a word, looks Snart right in the eyes and removes his mask. “My name is Barry Allen, I am the fastest man alive, and I’m also your son.”