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It was supposed to be a celebratory evening at a nearby restaurant: Iris was Joe West’s daughter and Barry’s best friend, and Eddie was a well-liked detective. Of course as much of the force that could come out and celebrate their engagement would be there. The Captain and Joe were covering the tab, and Barry and Cisco were taking a much-needed night off to just relax and enjoy themselves.
They should have known better.
“This isn’t us,” Cisco stated firmly but quietly as their group crowded around the table after the television broadcast, and Barry nodded in agreement, even though he wasn’t entirely sure himself. Not that he believed for a second that the entirety of the Inhuman race was rebelling, but at the same time, he knew everyone was thinking of Daisy's current Rebel Vigilante work as "Quake" that was splashing along the headlines, causing a lot of problems for Inhumans just trying to get by.
Still, his gut told him that there was something missing from the picture.
“It doesn’t matter, Cisco,” Joe was replying in the meantime, voicing the same rationale that Barry had just been thinking. “People see Inhumans taking credit for an act of terrorism, and they’re going to believe it: they're going to react.”
“Which is why we need to protect ourselves,” Hartley said, hand twitching slightly as it clenched on the table.
“Which is why we need to respond carefully,” Singh corrected, his hand carefully covering the younger man’s until his partner took a deep breath and relaxed minutely. “Miami was just a warning—everyone’s going to be looking here for the real deal.”
Barry nodded fervently at this statement. Central City had somehow become an unofficial Sanctuary City of sorts for powered people since the Sokovia Accords—despite SHIELD and government agencies working to spread out the population, people still seemed to somehow find their way here, where the city maintained a delicate, but vocal peace between humans and others. Barry, as a former SHIELD agent and a current part of the CCPD, would be damned if some psychopaths were going to destroy that now.
“So we’re probably next then,” Lisa established.
“I won’t let them anywhere near you,” Cisco assured her, but there was a way the honey-haired woman bit her lip as she set her face into a grim expression that Barry didn’t like at all. Lisa Snart had run with her brother’s gang of enhanced Rogues before the Inhuman outbreak, and as The Flash he’d worked hard to neutralize them. He knew that he owed her and Leonard big time for helping to snap him out of his Hydra brainwashing, and that Snart and his people had mostly scattered or gotten locked up in the time since, but Lisa had stuck around and managed to stay under the department’s radar. When she met Cisco while applying for a job at a pawn shop after he and Barry returned home to help Hartley reboot Star Labs, it wasn’t long before Cisco suddenly had a new girlfriend and the facility had a new "security consultant". For the most part it worked out pretty well, but Barry couldn’t pretend he didn’t know that Lisa could be ruthless when she felt threatened: it was one of the reasons she’d refused to sign the Accords herself.
“Okay, first things first,” the speedster established, trying to keep the conversation from spiraling out of control. “We have about forty-five minutes before the next blackout hits, and a city that’s already probably freaking out on both sides. We need to make a plan that keeps everyone safe until SHIELD can get to the bottom of this.”
“Is your boyfriend coming to save us, Allen?” Lisa asked mockingly; SHIELD had never been one of the Snarts' favorite people, although since joining the team,
Lisa had managed to keep her hostility leashed for the most part.
“I called him. He’s coming.” But his grimace was poorly concealed—Barry had always been a bad liar.
“But…?” Joe prodded.
He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably, eyes shifting downward under the scrutiny. “The new Director—“ he felt Cisco’s hand on his arm, and he looked up apologetically. “SHIELD is under orders to take the threat seriously.”
His best friend was the first to process the subtext. “They’re not coming to protect us,” he established.
“Ollie thinks we should all go into lockdown until SHIELD can fix this.”
“Lockdown?” Lisa scoffed. “Just hide, and hope some psychos don’t get us? No way.” Her hand slid into her clutch and Barry’s eyes widened in concern as to what she’d have tucked in there.
“Hey!” Joe’s voice stopped her short, and his stern gaze fixed on all of them. “We are not going to make things worse by losing our heads over this.”
“That’s right,” Singh agreed, patting Hartley’s hand before standing and turning to the bar. “Everybody listen up!” he called out to the group, quieting down their own pow wows. “We are calling in all CCPD officers and affiliates on the assumption that ours will be the next targeted city. These terrorists gave us a window of opportunity by not attacking Central first, and we’re going to use that to our full advantage to show them that humans and Inhumans are not at war.”
“Detective Thawne,” he called over to the newly engaged blond. “You will assemble your team for riot control. SWAT gear out and on, we will prepare for the roaches that inevitably follow this mayhem. We’ll put out an emergency broadcast, and set up a grid sweep. Radios and patrol cars at the ready.” Eddie nodded and glanced over at a worried Iris before gathering up his coworkers and heading out to their cars.
“Detective West,” Singh continued, turning to Joe. “You’ll assemble the Special Task Squad. If this is an Inhuman situation, we need to locate it and quash it as soon as possible. We know that SHIELD assistance is on its way, so let’s put together any intel on who we could be up against."
The officers filed out, and amongst the shuffling the captain leaned into the four enhanced humans with him. “Cisco, I want you, Snart, and Hartley to run through your contacts and chase down all of your people. Put them on lockdown, like Queen said. If this is an uprising, we need to know who’s on whose side.”
“And if it’s something else?” Cisco asked.
“Then we’ll need you to keep your people safe,” Singh shared a lingering glance with Hartley, and then turned to Barry. “Allen, we’re going to need the Flash on this one.”
“But the Accords—“
“If the Accords don’t account for protection in times of terrorism, then what the hell were we signing them for?” Singh countered. “This city holds together as proof that humans and Powered people can live together, and the Flash represents that unity. And right now someone's trying to split us apart. If he’s not out tonight, protecting the public, think of what kind of message that will send.”
Barry’s eyes flickered around the table, and he nodded. For some reason, Barry’s invisible heroics had managed to inspire people, rather than scare them. He had a feeling that it came a lot from Iris’ good press, but in Central City at least, the speedster that helped keep the city safe was held on par with The Avengers in some ways, and even Oliver had suggested that it was this acceptance that had really drawn benign Enhanced and Inhumans there. And Barry wasn’t going to let them down tonight, promise or no promise to his boyfriend.
Cisco nodded. “We’ll stay on comms the whole time,” he asserted. “Put together some back-up gadgets in case they have any tricks up their sleeves. They’ll see they’re messing with the wrong city,” and Barry couldn’t help but grin.
***
Oliver fidgeted as the car sped along the highway. Well, he told himself it was speeding—honestly, it felt like a snail’s crawl compared to the superspeed of his boyfriend or the wind-whipped humming of the Quinjet. But Central City had gone dark three hours ago (followed by London and Moscow), and they couldn’t afford to be up in the air when they hit the city line.
So SUV it was. He’d been in contact with Director Mace, and the orders had been simple—find and neutralize the threat. When Oliver had pointed out that they had powered assets in Central City that could be of use, his suggestion had been overridden due to the declarations of the terrorists, which Oliver found asinine. Even if this group was Inhuman, the vast majority of powered individuals in his district were not hostile, and were possibly in more danger than the humans he was going in to protect if the Senator’s words caused as much trouble as he was willing to bet. But he was an Agent of SHIELD, and Barry and Cisco both had signed the Accords, and so he had told Barry to bunker down until this mess was sorted out, continuously calling his boyfriend until, sure enough, the blackout hit them.
Not that he believed for a minute the younger man would actually do it; which was honestly what left him even more impatient to get there. Even before he had superpowers, Barry had a horrible sense of self-preservation in favor of always wanting to help, and now that he was a speedster, it was as if that side of him was amplified as much as his metabolism. And while he was restricted by the UN, that didn’t mean that Oliver wasn’t ninety-eight percent positive that the Flash was still racing around Central City, with Captain Singh and the Anti-Inhuman Special Task Force conveniently looking the other way every time a criminal was magically thwarted or dropped into their custody.
But Barry wasn’t meant for the life in the field—he wasn’t careful, or focused, or safe. Especially with the enhanced advantage and Cisco’s toys to battle fellow Inhumans, Barry ran straight toward trouble with little more in his mind than good intentions. It was a very big reason that the agent been relieved when the director had pulled Barry off of field work, although it cut Oliver deeply when both Barry and Cisco opted out of SHIELD to return to their lives in Central City: where Barry could be a CSI, a primary shareholder in the rebuilt Star Labs, and a mysterious hero that kept all of the people in his city safe. It was a pretty full plate.
An odd clicking noise brought Oliver back to the present, and he looked around out the windows as he noticed the car slowing. “What happened?” he demanded.
“Looks like another EMP might have gone off,” Felicity responded from the back seat. “That might explain why we haven’t gotten any response from the CCPD in the last few hours.”
Oliver kicked open the door hard. “Then I guess we’re walking,” he stated, rounding the vehicle to the trunk. “Let’s see what still works.”
It turned out that they were significantly less prepared for the mission than they’d realized. With the continuous power disruption, much of their fancy weaponry and all of Felicity’s tracking tools were rendered moot, and any plans to split up and stay in contact via radio were completely out the window.
“Not to mention we now have no idea where to even start looking for Barry or whatever’s causing this,” the blonde sighed, plopping against the side of the car.
“No,” Oliver stated, his chin digging in the crook of his thumb and finger as he thought hard. “Singh had Cisco and Hartley contacting all of the enhanced humans they knew and drawing them to Star Labs for containment.”
“Well, that could either be a really good or really horrible idea if the Inhumans are rebelling,” Sara pointed out.
“Cisco and Barry are still on our side,” Jesse insisted. “And Hartley is Singh’s fiance: we can trust them.”
“Unless these psychos were counting on that sort of move and the entire enhanced population just walked into a trap,” Thea remarked, looking from the biochemist to her brother.
The group glanced between each other.
“Look, either way, Star Labs is our best bet for a start,” Oliver asserted. “Either the Inhumans there are the trouble, or are going to be in trouble, so let’s take whatever gear still works and head out on foot.”
Oliver wasn’t sure how the other cities were faring, but he had to hand it to CCPD—the rioting wasn’t as bad as it could be. The forces had obviously pulled back to the innermost blocks of the city, squad cars abandoned when they seemed to realize that the power-outage affected everything, but despite the looters and vandals swaggering through the streets, the chaos that a city with this level of diversity could descend to hadn’t yet occurred.
“Hey Oliver! Guys!” The team’s heads and guns snapped toward the sound, and the agents relaxed slightly in relief as they watched Cisco and Detective West running toward them. Sara and Dig’s stayed in poised and ready, but Oliver shook his head curtly—Joe was a cop, and Cisco had been one of them.
The two panted slightly as they closed the gap between the two teams, and the Inhuman grinned ear to ear. “Boy am I glad to see you guys,” he said. “Tell me you brought friends.”
“What’s going on?” Thea asked. “Inhumans?”
Joe shook his head. “All the lines have been down, but the task force hasn’t seen anyone we know out on the streets since Singh issued the emergency alert.”
“But since the blackout, I’ve been vibing, trying to track down Inhumans and get everyone to Star Labs; and at least three of us have been taken down by some creepy dudes I’ve never seen before,” Cisco added, his face now more than a little disconcerted.
“You mean in the riots?” Felicity asked, and Cisco shook his head.
“No—these guys were specifically looking for them. Roughneck types. I don’t know how, but it seemed like they knew exactly where to go and—“ Cisco shook his head and gestured vaguely at the weirdness of the circumstances. “This is definitely not us.”
“How is that possible, with all of the security measures on the Accords?" Sara asked quietly, leaning toward Oliver. The older agent bit his lip and shook his head shortly--
he could think of a few hackers that could breach that sort of encryption, but they didn't really match up with the weird broadcasts streaming currently, or anyone trying to counter it. Too many puzzle pieces, and not enough time to sort through them.
One thing was obvious, however. "However they're doing it, they’re targeting Inhumans, and we have no way to get out a warning,” he murmured back.
Jesse, meanwhile, was on a different track. “If they know where to find Inhumans, then it's only a matter of time till they hit Star Labs-- if they haven't already.”
“Cisco, what do you have for security?” Oliver asked, fixing his blue gaze on the Inhuman.
Cisco shook his head. “Lisa and Iris are trying to lock things down, but all the fancy toys are out of commission, so it's mostly just barricades and hiding out in the pipeline," he admitted. "Even worse, some of us are having trouble keeping a lid on our powers,” he admitted. “Hartley’s hearing aids are on the fritz, so he’s locked up in isolation, and Jax and Stein are tinkering to try and repair the quantum splicer in case of emergency. Plus my specs..." The engineer reached into his pocket and pulled out his now useless accessory. "We’ve got people working on access points to try to make up for the loss of the security feed, but I couldn’t stay there, seeing what I did. I found Joe and we’ve been trying to track down any others ever since; but we've had to do it old school.”
“We still need to figure out whatever’s causing this blackout, if it’s not Inhumans,” Thea pointed out. “We should go to Star Labs and see if the geniuses combined can figure something out.”
“We can’t just leave the others alone out here,” Cisco argued.
“Until we find the source of this, Cisco, all your vibing is going to do is lead us to their bodies,” Dig countered. “We’ve got to stop them first.”
“I agree,” Joe nodded, looking at Cisco. “The force is completely outmanned here, and there’s not enough SHIELD for reinforcements. If we want to help everyone, we need to find the people doing this, and fix whatever they did.”
“Fine.” Cisco looked anything but happy about the plan, but he relented. “The fastest route is through downtown, though, and—“
“Wait, where’s Barry?” Oliver asked, realizing that in his breakdown, neither Cisco nor Joe mentioned their friend.
There was a pregnant pause. “We haven’t heard from him since comms went down,” Cisco admitted.
“Singh had him trying to contain the rioting after the first wave hit, but he hasn’t checked in with the Task Force since I left with Cisco,” Joe added. “I mean, I told the team where I was going, so maybe he just hasn’t found us yet—“
“Barry has superspeed and knows you and Cisco are out here alone trying to find Inhumans under attack, and you think he’d purposely not come looking to help?” Oliver asked incredulously. He huffed in exasperation to hide the sudden twist of fear in his gut as the worst-case scenarios began flickering through his mind. “Okay, here’s the plan. Sara, you and Thea will take Jesse, Felicity, Cisco, and Detective West back to Star Labs, and see if you can find the source and the real people responsible for this. We need that power back on and those guys shut down. Me and Dig are going to track down Barry.” The group nodded. “Cisco, where were you headed before you found us?”
“I saw an Inhuman at Jitters with a group of people—pretty girl, one of the new barristas. I didn’t see those guys yet though. So far they just looked scared.”
“If Barry’s figured out what’s going on, then that’s as good a place to start as any,” Oliver decided, looking at Dig as he hiked his quiver up further on his shoulder. “You guys stay safe.”
“You too, Ollie,” Thea said, wrapping her arms around her brother quickly before turning to follow Sara as she led the group down the street.
***
Barry groaned quietly as he tried to see through his blurred vision around the room from his place on the cold linoleum. He had to admit, he kind of wished he’d thought this through a little better.
When Cisco had explained that there was a gang of people hunting Inhumans in the chaos, Barry hadn’t wasted any time leaving the generic violence to race through the city in an attempt to find them. He’d only discovered Frankie alive, terrified and barely restraining her other, much less manageable self, and was just able to calm the teenager down before racing her back to Star Labs to Iris and Lisa and helping with fortifications before going back out. When Barry was too late, he could barely stymie the nausea at the bodies left on the floor. How many people were dead seemed to vary, but the scenes he’d found always contained at least one Inhuman, leading Barry to believe definitively that Cisco’s hunch was on the right track.
He’d noticed the scene in Jitters from outside, and instinct had driven him into the shop without much planning—they were just guys with guns, after all, and Barry was faster than bullets. He raced through the cafe, grabbing up the sidearms no problem, and then circled back to restrain half a dozen of them before he’d suddenly been blasted back. Barry'd quickly found himself paralyzed and crying out in pain, his body on fire as he was stabbed with thousands of what felt like knives.
In his defense, though, he hadn't considered that random Inhuman-hunting rioters would have access to top military-grade prototype weapons that specifically targeted kinetic energy.
Now the Flash found himself trussed up and on the floor against the wall, two sets of malicious eyes watching him writhe as the rest of the gang strode menacingly through the crowd herded against the wall in fear. Barry had managed to disassemble their guns, so there had been a brief space of rummaging through the coffee shop to improvise with blunt objects, as their special Flash Torture Device seemed to only work once. However, Barry could vouch that the new weapons were still pretty effective, as they’d spent a solid few minutes battering him back and forth, hurling spit and slurs in between strikes before seemingly getting back on task.
“We know there’s an Inhuman in here,” the likely leader announced, turning to the frightened crowd. “And your Freak Hero can’t save you. If you don’t tell us who it is, we’ll kill all of you, and it won’t be pretty.” He paused for effect as one of his lackeys’ boots connected soundly into Barry’s gut, causing him to grunt in pain.
So that explained the bodies. Barry was struck between pride and horror at the thought of regular people standing up for the Inhumans...and being massacred for it. And now here he was, stuck as another hostage, while they waited for the group to give up another one. It also explained why they hadn't killed him yet, to be honest. If the Flash, a more-than human individual, was the town's symbol of hope, what better way to strike fear and compliance into its citizens than by keeping him bleeding and helpless in front of them?
There were murmurs and whimpers from the other side of the room, but Barry felt relief that no one was moving to give up the innocent. Through his bloodstained mask he looked over the crowd, trying to be confident about their chances while also trying to suss out which one was the target. He wasn’t sure he was making progress with either.
The leader of the killers turned back to the two men on either side of Barry, gesturing with his head, and they hoisted him by his arms to a kneel, and Barry fought to bite back a groan. “Where’s your fellow Freak, Flash?” the skinhead sneered, shoving his shoulder and pushing the fragments deeper into his skin. Barry didn't know if he was imagining it, but he could almost feel his healing abilities regrowing skin over the shards. “We know there’s another one here. Tell us who and we’ll make your death quick.”
“You’re insane,” Barry panted heavily. “I don’t know if there’s an Inhuman in here, but even if I did, I wouldn’t help you kill an innocent person.”
“Innocent?” Now it was the other man’s turn to snort in disgust, glancing at his cronies before rearing back and punching Barry across the face. Barry gave an anguished grunt, spitting out blood before forcing himself to look back up defiantly, but the leader had already turned back to the crowd of scared people. “None of these alien freaks are innocent. They are dangerous, unnatural, and they will kill us if we don’t kill them first.”
“That’s not true,” Barry argued, more to the hostages than the nut job threatening them. “Central City has lived in peace with Inhumans and Enhanced people. We just want to live our lives—“
“You want to take over,” the man snapped, slamming Barry in the face with his found plumber’s wrench. “You say you’re like us, but you hide behind a mask? You’re nothing like us—and if the government isn’t going to protect us, then we’re going to have to do what it takes to protect ourselves.” He turned and shouted at the huddling customers. “Now where’s the Inhuman, or I’ll bash in your Freak Hero’s head first, and then everyone that stands between us and them.”
Barry didn’t want to die, by any means, but he also didn’t want to let any innocent people—Inhuman or otherwise—get hurt, especially since he was ninety-nine percent sure that these guys were just going to kill him anyways. He wasn’t Inhuman, but he was Gifted, and to people like these, it was basically the same thing. So he fought against the agony digging into his skin and set his features as he stared down his potential death bravely.
“Wait.” Aw, shit. Barry’s eyes widened as a familiar-looking barrista stepped forward, fidgeting nervously as she tucked back a highlighted strand of her brunette hair. “Don’t hurt him.”
There was a quiet gasp in the room, and Barry heard someone murmur, “Kendra?” in disbelief, but the thugs just set their eyes on the petite woman, those not currently holding onto Barry closing in on her.
There was a sudden whoosh of air, and the leader cried out as his hand groped at his shoulder—now with an arrow sticking out of it. Barry’s head turned toward the door, and he felt his heart leap as he watched Ollie and Dig burst through the entrance, a combination of punches taking out two guys guarding the door.
As the men started charging to take on the newcomers, the speedster turned toward the crowd of people. “The back exit—everyone, go!” he yelled hoarsely, taking advantage of their captors' distraction.
The people rushed for the now-unoccupied door, with Kendra hesitating before turning back, letting out a an angry yell and a pair of feathered wings from out of nowhere. They flapped forcefully, sending a rush of air to unbalance the two men holding Barry, causing them to fly backwards into the tables and Barry to collapse onto the floor.
The Inhuman raced over to him, dropping to her knees with a worried expression as she loosened his restraints. "Flash?" Her hand hovered over him, uncertain. "What do I do?"
Barry hated the only idea he could think of. "Fragments," he grit out, his own fingers creeping to the first piece he could find and tugging at it painfully. "Get them...out..." Through the dark and crimson of his squinted eyes, he could see Kendra hesitating. "It's okay-- I'll heal. Hurry-- get to safety."
For a second he hoped that the woman would leave-- she was who these guys were hunting, after all. However, he suddenly broke into a scream as he felt something sharp digging into his suit, raking through his skin as they grabbed up the fragments that were nestled within. As much as the feeling was searing in its agony, though, Barry felt his body aching with relief as it began to heal with the jagged metal removed.
"Barry!" Ollie was in trouble-- Barry could hear it in his voice. He was desperate to help him, to save him from whatever pain saturated his words; and he forced his fingers to grip his bleeding skin, to try to help Kendra as her talons (and he realized now they were legitimate talons that had appeared, along with her wings) kept digging out the fragments.
He could feel the last of the needles leave his body, the relief overwhelming his muscles as they were able to relax and heal, but Barry didn't have time to waste. Scrambling to his feet, he pulled Kendra up and toward the door. "Thank you-- now go!" he rasped out in as commanding voice as he could muster, giving her an encouraging look until she nodded and escaped out the back exit. Leaning against the door to close it firmly behind him, Barry turned and raced over toward the SHIELD Agents as they took out the last of the thugs.
As the last man fell, Barry zipped around, tying up the gang, before returning to Oliver with wide eyes looking over him in worry. "Ollie, are you okay?" he asked, gripping his shoulders as he blinked away what he hoped was sweat. "Are you hurt?"
Both Oliver and Dig stared at him in disbelief, and as Barry's adrenaline jolt wore off and he felt his knees buckle, he had an inkling as to why. Luckily, Oliver was there to catch him, carefully half-guiding, half-carrying the Scarlet Speedster to a chair away from the criminals. "Perfect timing, as always," Barry breathed as he flashed a tired smile at his boyfriend.
Oliver's eyes were still narrowed unhappily as they appraised the younger man, brushing at Barry's face and pulling away red-- oops, definitely blood then. Not that it would matter in a little while, Barry reasoned to himself. The agent, however, seemed less at ease. "What the hell did you think you were doing, Barry?" he demanded quietly, blue gaze searing into the green with a mixture of anger and worry as it took in the damage that hadn't yet healed.
"They're Watchdogs, Ollie-- I got a look at their tattoos," Barry argued. "They were hunting and killing Inhumans-- I had to do something."
“You got yourself taken hostage, and put more people in danger in the process,” Oliver scolded, even as his fingers gently traced over Barry's shredded costume, putting pressure on the exposed wounds with a dusty dishtowel he'd conveniently found on a nearby counter. “You almost got yourself killed running in here with no recon, no plan, Barry. You didn't even know they were Watchdogs until just now. This is exactly why Mace pulled you out of the field.”
“Mace pulled me off because he doesn't trust any powered people affiliated with Daisy, just like Yo-Yo and Joey. And the Captain seems to think the Flash does just fine protecting Central City,” Barry countered with a quiet huff, sucking in a short breath between his teeth as the other man touched on a sensitive cut.
“Which is in direct violation of the Sokovia Accords that you signed!”
“The Sokovia Accords never directly specific which government agency—“
“Are you seriously making use of loopholes at a time like this?”
“A time like this is exactly when loopholes need to be made! These guys were killing people—“
“Guys!” Both men turned to face Dig, who was fixing both with a pointed stare. “You can't possibly be arguing about this now? We still have a blackout to deal with, and people in danger, so if you can put this aside until we finish taking down the bad guys out there?”
Barry watched as Oliver's anger melted from his face completely, worry etched in his features as he carefully placed a hand on Barry's. "Can you stand?" he asked. Barry nodded: he still had a lot of healing to do, but his strength was starting to return to him already, fueled by his motivation to get back to his friends, and with a little help from his boyfriend, they shifted to their feet and made their way out the door towards Star Labs.
***
The power was back on, and the Watchdogs were in custody. Arguably, Oliver kind of agreed with Barry that they should have guessed it was those assholes to begin with; but there was no way they could have guessed the hate group had gone global or gotten the kind of funding that it seemed to have pulled. Oliver was definitely going to look into some of the weapons they had pulled out, because the idea of those guys with that kind of artillery was terrifying.
They'd lingered at Star Labs afterwards, technically helping with damage control-- there were a lot of terrified Inhumans and Enhanced people both that needed help getting back to normal, either physically or emotionally. For his part, Ollie had had to go back out and shut down the EMP with the others, but afterwards he was glued to Barry's bed while the other man rested. It had been terrifying, coming in and seeing his boyfriend tied up. And while he'd found out later that Kendra had been helping, the screams that came from his lips almost had the agent shooting the Inhuman, if he hadn't been preoccupied with the Watchdogs at the time.
Now, though, Barry was...well, cleaner, at least. Stripped of his costume and wiped down as his gashes slowly closed beneath the layers of gauze Jesse had applied, his breathing steady and a soft smile lingering on his face as Oliver's thumb traced lightly over his knuckles.
"I'm sorry I worried you," he breathed, eyes fluttering open as they fixed on the agent.
Oliver scoffed quietly. Worried felt like the understatement of the century; but Barry always played off his injuries as minor, talking up his healing powers as if his boyfriend didn't have full access to his medical records.
"I just want you safe."
"Me too. And you." Barry tilted his head. "That's why I had to be out there, Ollie-- I had to keep us safe."
Oliver shut his eyes, hating that he completely understood the speedster's logic. Hating that these sort of people that didn't know his boyfriend at all saw him as an abomination and wanted to kill him and his friends. "We're going to find these guys," he promised. "We're going to shut them down. I promise, Barry."
Barry smiled softly. "I know," he replied softly, his voice completely trusting. "And I promise that the Flash will work harder not to get blindsided by bad guys," he whispered with a twitch in his lips.
Oliver sighed, shaking his head softly. He supposed this discussion could wait for another time. Instead, he shifted so that he was half-laying on the bed, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend as he carefully wriggled to curl against the man's broad chest. "Do you need to get back right away?" Barry murmured.
The agent quietly shushed him, fingers combing through his hair. While he needed to head back to base to give the Director his full report, Sara had already checked in, and Coulson's team was spearheading the situation... he could stay for a little while.
Barry hummed in quiet contentment and let his eyes close, fading back to sleep. And Ollie just held his hero tightly, grateful not to have lost him today.