Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Bernadette Henrietta Allen was born on March fourteenth, nineteen eighty-nine to two loving parents; Henry and Nora Allen. She had a pretty good childhood, though she was bullied a little bit, and got into too many fights in Nora’s opinion.

When she was eleven years old, tragedy struck, and Nora was killed by something impossible. Barri heard something downstairs and had gone to investigate. What she saw would haunt her nightmares for years to come. Nora was kneeling on the ground, screaming for Henry as yellow and red lightning circled her.

“Mom!” Barri had cried, reaching towards her mother. Her father appeared next to her, gripping her shoulders tightly as he turned her away from the sight before them.

“Barri, run!” He ordered before releasing her to try to make his way towards Nora.

“Mom!” Barri cried again, tears stinging her hazel-green eyes. In a blink, the yellow lightning was zooming towards her and she found herself outside. Looking around, she noticed that she was few miles away and just started running, brown hair billowing behind her.

When Barri reached her house, cops were swarming the place. As she made her way up the steps, Joe West, her best friend’s father, was leading Henry away in handcuffs. “Dad? What’s going on? Where are you taking him? Dad!”

“Barri, do not go inside that house, do you hear me? Don’t go in the house!” Her father shouted as he was loaded into the back of a police car. Completely ignoring what her father had said, Barri rushed into the house to see two cops standing over a body covered in tarp. Falling to her knees next to the body, she pulled back the tarp and saw her mother’s lifeless eyes staring into her.

“Mom?” She whispered. “Mom, wake up!” A hand on her shoulder made Barri look up. Standing behind her was Detective David Singh. He reached past her to put the tarp back over Nora’s face, and pulled Barri into his chest, making sure her face was turned away from the gruesome scene.

He consoled her as much as he could before Child Services showed up to take her away. Joe was attempting to get custody of her, but the CPS agent didn’t seem to be budging because Iris’ mother, Francine, who Barri thought was dead, showed up with a kid named Wallace and a death omen looming over her head. Joe has too much on his plate, and the woman knew it. David offered to take her in, able and willing to foster the young Allen for a time.

That night she went home with David, prepared to one day go to another home sooner or later.

It never happened.

Thirteen-year-old Barri was sitting at the kitchen island doing some homework, her brown hair pulled up into a bun on the top of her head, chewing on her pencil eraser in concentration. She heard the door open and shut quietly and knew David was home from work. “Bare?” He called out.

“Kitchen!” She called back, scribbling out some equations on her paper. He stepped into the kitchen, suit jacket and vest already off and shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He pressed a quick kiss to her head in greeting before looking down at the papers in front of her.

“Homework?” She nodded.

“Yep, and I’m almost done.” He sat down next to her, and Barri frowned, moving the papers and books away from her. “David? What’s wrong?”

“You remember when I started fostering you, it was only supposed to be temporary?” He started. Barri’s frown deepened. Was Joe taking her now? Did David not want her anymore? “I was thinking that we make things more permanent.” He placed a small packet of papers in front of her and Barri stared at them intently, heart pounding in her chest. David didn’t want her to leave; he wanted to adopt her. Studying the papers, a bit more, she noticed that next to David’s neat signature was Henry’s messy scrawl. Her father knew and was okay with it. Those thoughts made her chest tighten. He truly believed he was never getting out. “Bare, honey, remember this is your choice. If you want me to just stay your foster parent, that’s fine. I won’t be upset,” David continued, miss-reading her silence as a no.

“Yes,” she said quickly, surprising herself. David blinked, clearly just as shocked, before a smile broke out across his face.

“Okay. Okay,” he took a deep breath, running a hand through his dark hair. “I’ll have this processed as soon as I can. What do you want to do for dinner tonight?”

“Can we go to that Chinese place on Fifth?” Barri questioned. “As a celebration?” She tacked on.

“Sure, baby. Go grab your coat.” Barri wasn’t sure when the last time she smiled so brightly than when she was grinning at David across a small table, a large bowl of shrimp lo mein in between them.

Seventeen-year-old Barri Allen Singh was finishing up her final paper in English for the year when she decided what she wanted to do with her life. Her paper was on DNA Analysis and how it helped police officers and detectives either prove someone’s innocence, or if they were guilty.

Barri wanted to do that; she thought for the longest time she’d become a detective like David so that she could catch criminals who do murder their wives and was fully prepared to go into the police academy after college. That’s when she realized, she didn’t want to be the one to make the arrests. She wanted to be the one that gathered and tested evidence.

Bernadette Henrietta Allen Singh wanted to be a Crime Scene Investigator. She shut her book forcefully, the echoing crack caused David to jump out of the nap he had been taking on the couch. “What happened? Are you alright?” He questioned, sitting up and looking around for threats, his hand automatically reaching for the gun strapped under the coffee table that he didn’t know she knew about.

“Sorry, dad, that was me,” Barri apologized, smiling guiltily at the man. A smile broke out across David’s face, like always, when she called him ‘dad’. “ I don’t think I want to be a detective anymore,” she blurted out. David blinked.

Oh,” he paused. “When did you change your mind?”

“Two seconds ago,” she grinned, handing him her finished essay. He read through it and glanced up at her.

“You want to be a CSI?” Barri nodded. “Alright, we can look at some schools tomorrow. Start looking at scholarship opportunities and grants. I’m sure there are some for children of police officers.”

“I’m also going to talk to some of the advisors. I want to see what I have to do to graduate early.”

Barri and David spent the next several weeks talking with people, taking road trips to colleges, and more nights than not David had come home to find Barri passed out on the couch, a book on her chest. She worked herself to the point of exhaustion, but it was worth it. She graduated at seventeen, the whole police force celebrating with them at the station. Iris had shown up, giving her old best friend a big hug, congratulating her. “So, where are you going to go for college?”

“I’m thinking Perdue. I got a full-ride scholarship for there,” Barri explained. Iris nodded, smiling brightly at Barri, brown eyes gleaming.

“You’re going to have to come home and visit all the time! And I’ll come visit you!” Tears started pooling in Iris’ dark eyes before she wrapped Barri back up into her arms. “I’m going to miss you!” Barri hugged back, her own green eyes misting over.

“I’m going to miss you, too.”

After two months, Barri was all signed up for classes at Perdue and was getting situated in her dorm room. David had gone all out, and she’s in a room by herself with a suite mate she shared a bathroom with.

David had her wrapped up in a tight hug as they were saying their goodbyes. “If you need anything, call me. I don’t care what time it is, or if it’s boy troubles. Anything goes. I love you.” Barri’s grip around his waist tightened.

“I love you, too, dad.”

As she was waiving goodbye, they both pretended that they didn’t see the tears staining each other’s cheeks.

“Can I come in, Captain Singh?” A voice sounded through the office. David looked up to see Barri standing there. The twenty-two-year-old looked a bit different. She looked a bit thinner, a little taller, and her hair was shorter, but it was still his baby girl. David stood up, side-stepping his new desk to wrap Barri up in his arms.

“I thought you weren’t coming home until next month,” he commented as they pulled away from each other. “After Graduation?” Barri reached into her bag and pulled something out, handing it to him with a smile. David opened it, and grinned.

“You graduated early? With a 4.0? Bare, I’m so proud of you!”

“Top of my class,” she announced proudly. “Not quite sure how, though. I was late a lot.” David sighed. Of course, she was. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about the promotion. I had to find out through Miller,” Barri complained.

“Why are you talking to Miller?” Mason Miller was a still wet-behind-the-ears Officer with only a couple years under his belt. David was surprised Barri even knew who he was.

“He’s the only one I could bully into keeping me updated on things I probably shouldn’t know about,” Barri shrugged with an easy smile. David rolled his eyes. He’d have to have a talk with Miller about what he could and could not tell his daughter.

“I wanted to surprise you,” he defended.

“Well, job well done.”

“Bernadette,” he warned in a low tone. Barri raises her hands in defeat, the smile never leaving her face.

“I’m not mad, dad,” she started, the grin growing. “Just disappointed.”

“Get out.”

“I’ll be back here in a couple weeks for my first day,” she chirped. David furrowed his eyebrows.

“First day?”

“When Miller told me, a month ago, might I add, that you were getting promoted to Captain I submitted an application for the Forensic Assistant position. Had an interview with Captain Hayes before he retired,” she explained. David squinted at his daughter before moving to his computer to look up new hires. Staring back at him was the name Bernadette Allen. “I decided to apply under my original last name. I figured that you wouldn’t want people thinking that you’ll play favorites. Not that you ever would! Everyone already here knows you’re a hard-ass.”

“You are aware you just called your boss a hard-ass, right?” Barri paused.

“Technically, I called my dad a hard-ass. You aren’t my boss yet.”

“And yet you can still get in to trouble. Are you going home to drop off your things?” Barri bit her lip.

“Actually, dad, I found an apartment to live in. It’s cheap and in a decent neighborhood.” David sighed again.

“Do you have furniture yet?”

“Nope,” she said cheerfully.

“You didn’t think this through very well, did you?”

“Nope!”

Later that night, she and David went shopping for some furniture for her new place.

Almost a year after, Barri had just turned twenty-three when he dropped the big news; David had [i]met[/i] someone that he wanted to bring home to meet her. “His name is Rob,” he explained over dinner one night. “We’ve been seeing each other for a few months, but I wanted to make sure it was serious before I introduced him to you.”

“When can I meet him? We could make dinner this weekend?”

“You seem excited.”

“Dad, does he make you happy?”

“Yes,” David answered honestly.

“Then that’s all that matters. I’m sure I’ll love him.”

Barri met Rob that Saturday. He was funny and cute and made David laugh, which was all that mattered to her, like she told David earlier. “You are so much prettier than David described,” Rob commented when David got up to get more wine for the three of them. Barri blushed, disagreeing in her head. She was too lanky and thin; all limbs and no curves.

When David came back, the three of them talked for about another hour before Barri excused herself, citing that it was time for her to head out, shooting her father a wink.

“Bernadette,” David growled, narrowing his eyes at her.

“It was nice meeting you, Rob, and we should definitely do this again soon. Bye, dad, love you.” She kissed David’s cheek quickly and hurried out the door, enjoying the sound of Rob laughing at her dad’s expense.

That Monday, Barri found herself standing in front of a guard at Iron Heights. “Personal effects in here,” the man said in a monotone voice. Barri shakily puts her phone and wallet in the tub placed in front of her, and then was led down a hallway towards a room with with a row of windows and chairs. She’s led to one and is told to wait a couple minutes.

Barri is fidgeting in her seat when the door on the other side of the room opens up, and Henry Allen is led in, chains attached to his wrists and waist. The sight makes Barri tear up, but she forced it down. Henry sat down across from her, studying her face as if he hasn’t seen in her years, which Barri belatedly realized was true. She hadn’t seen her father since she left for college. “Barri,” Henry breathed into the phone that the two just picked up at the same time, placing his hand on the glass between them. “Look at you! You’re all grown.” Barri reached forward, placing her own palm on the glass.

“I’m sorry it’s been so long,” she apologized. “I graduated last year with a 4.0 GPA at the top of my class. I’m also a Forensics Assistant. I’m working my way up, dad,” she sniffed, the tears coming back. “I’m one step closer to proving you didn’t murder mom.”

“Bernadette Henrietta Allen Singh, you better not be where I think you are!” David raged over the phone. Barri cringed.

“That depends, where do you think I am?”

“Don’t play that shit with me right now, Bernadette. Are you in Starling City?”

“Yes,” Barri sighed.

“Bare,” Rob’s voice now flowed through the speakers making her perk up a bit. “You know we don’t care when you go hunt the impossible in your spare time, but you have to tell us when you’re leaving. David and I got worried when we went by your apartment earlier and your neighbor said you left the night before with a bag packed. We worry, honey.” Fuck, he was good at guilt tripping.

Barri apologized numerous times, David yelled a little bit more, ordering her on the next train home. She agreed, saying that she’d be home soon. As she was waiting for her train, something hit the back of her head sending her into darkness.

Barri came to with a headache and a blonde with glasses leaning over her with a worried expression marring her face. “Wha’?” Barri slurred, trying to sit up.

“Save him, please,” the blonde pleaded. Felicity, Barri’s mind supplied weakly, remembering the blonde when she was investigating the break-in at Queen Consolidated. She sat up and saw Oliver Queen lying on a metal table next to her in the Arrow suit. Holy shit. Oliver Queen is the Arrow. Fuck. Okay, breathe, Barri.

“Allen!” The man next to Felicity snapped, getting her attention back on track.

“Right, what’s wrong with him?” She questioned, sliding off the table. “Also, where’s my phone?” She continued, patting her pockets.

“Focus, kid,” the man growled.

“Dig,” Felicity warned. “Look, save him and we’ll let you go.”

“You guys are really bad kidnappers,” Barri grumbled, grabbing a penlight and shinning it in Queen’s eyes, checking pupil reaction. “What was he given?”

“We don’t know,” Felicity answered, wringing her hands nervously. After a couple of minutes, Barri concluded that he was dying and needed something to thin his blood; she of course tries rat poison, much to Felicity and Dig’s -John Diggle, apparently- dismay.

After twenty-four hours and a near strangulation, Barri was finally on her way home. She stared into a compact mirror she had in her bag and checked to make sure the foundation she applied to the marks around her neck were covered. David would’ve been on a war path to Starling if he ever found out.

She glanced at her phone, grimacing at all the missed calls and unread text messages she had. David and Rob and Iris were most likely going to kill her when she got back to Central. She sighed loudly, letting her head fall against the headrest behind her. Her phone beeped signaling another text and she almost ignored it but decided to see who it was.

Unknown Number: Thank you for saving my life. I owe you dinner.

Barri grinned, knowing exactly who it was and saving the number in her phone as Robin Hood.

If you’re ever in Central give me a call. Be careful out there.

She didn’t receive a text back, but she was still smiling when she got greeted by her angry father at the train station.

A few miles away, a man stood in a white room with braille-like markings on the walls watching a girl with brown hair and green eyes embracing a man at a train station. He glanced at a podium, the words The Flash Missing: Vanishes in Crisis splashed across the page in bold, capitalized lettering above a picture of Bernadette Allen in her signature red costume, the article written by Iris West. The date, twenty twenty-four.

The man grinned. “Soon, Barri Allen. Soon.”

Chapter Text

“Excuse me! Coming through!” Barri Singh cried, pushing her way through the crowds of people in her way of getting to the crime scene she was supposed to be at twenty minutes earlier. If there was one thing you could always count on from the twenty-five-year-old, it was that she would be late. “My father’s going to kill me! Out of my way, please!”

“Watch it,” a woman snapped after Barri’s shoulder slammed into her.

“Sorry!” Barri called out. Yep, she was definitely dying today.

“Where’s Allen?” She heard David call out as soon as she ducked under the police tape, flashing her badge and a smile.

“Sorry, I’m here,” she panted, skidding to stop after her sprint to David, Joe, and Joe’s partner, Fred Chrye. “Captain, detectives,” she greeted.

“What was it this time, Allen?” David questioned, crossing his arms across his chest, staring her down. Barri’s heart skipped a beat.

“I missed the bus,” she lied quickly. He clearly didn’t believe her, quite used to her bullshit.

“Get to work, Bernadette.” Barri flushed hotly at the use of her name, and looked at the tire marks on the ground, studying there tracks.

“The getaway car is a Shelby Mustang GT500. The rear tires are wider in the back with an asymmetrical tread,” she explained. She didn’t notice David’s proud grin he flashed at her. “There’s something else. Captain, do you have a pen or something?” She questioned, turning her head to look at him. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out one of the office pens that are always lying around and handed it to her. She grabbed it with a gloved hand and picked up what she assumed was excrement with the tip of the pen. She took a cautionary sniff and reared back, scrunching her nose. “Fecal matter. My guess is animal. I’ll take this to the lab and process it,” she finished, dropping the pen with the fecal in an evidence bag.

“Good job, Allen,” David praised.

“Thank you, Captain.”

“Let’s go see this Atom Smasher….smashing,” Iris said, walking into Barri’s lab at the precinct as Barri was waiting for the results on the fecal matter found at the crime scene.

“Are you talking about the Particle Accelerator?” Barri questioned, turning in her chair lazily to face her friend. The two has drifted apart once David adopted Barri, but they still got along and still hung out, but Barri knew there were things that she would never confide in Iris about. She knew the same could be said about Iris.

“You find anything yet, Barri?” Joe asked, walking into the lab.

“The test is almost finished, Joe,” Barri answered.

“What exactly does the Particle Accelerator do?” Iris questioned, spinning in one of the chairs by Barri’s desk. Barri grabbed a marker and walked over to her glass board, drawing a dot.

“This is everything we know to this day,” Barri explained.

“Does that include twerking?” Iris interrupted. Barri ignored her with an eye roll. She drew a large circle around the dot.

“This,” Barri continued. “Is everything we’ll know from the Particle Accelerator. It will change everything we know about theoretical physics.” She explained things in a bit more detail before the machine running the trace on the fecal matter beeped. Barri walked over to her computer, pulling the the results. “Joe, it looks like the fecal found at the crime scene was cow manure. It contained traces of oxytetracycline, which is an antibiotic. Only four farms around here still use it.” She printed out a paper with the list of the farms and handed it over to Joe with a grin. “I bet one of those farms will have a beautiful Shelby parked in front.”

“Now that Barri has solved your poop problem, dad, can we go see the Particle Accelerator?” Iris asked, placing her hand on Joe’s shoulder. He sighed.

“Fine, go. Just make sure you tell David. We don’t want another repeat of Starling.” Barri flinched slightly. Yeah, the yelling she had to put up with from David was a nightmare, and Rob’s disappointed looks were just as bad.

“Got it, thanks, Joe.”

Iris and Barri made their way down the steps into the bullpen and Barri poked her head into her father’s office. “Captain? May I come in?” He motioned for her to enter and she shut the door softly behind her.

“Going somewhere?” He asked, noticing Barri’s jacket draped over her arm.

“I’m going to S.T.A.R. Labs to see the Particle Accelerator get turned on. I processed the fecal matter from the crime scene and gave Joe the results. He and Chyre are leaving soon to check out the farms the Mardon brothers could be hiding at.”

“Good job, Bare, and thanks for letting me know that you’re leaving. Have fun. Oh,” he continued, making Barri pause at the door and turn back around to face him. “Rob wanted me to let you know that he’s cooking dinner tonight. Wants you over.” Barri smiled.

“Sounds good, dad. Text me a time and I’ll be there. Love you,” she said before opening the door.

“Bye, Barri!” David called from behind her and she and Iris made their way to S.T.A.R. Labs.

Turned out, Barri was not going to be able to see the Accelerator get turned on. Someone had snatched Iris’ bag, and Barri took off after them, earning her a smack to the face with said bag. Thankfully the new Keystone transfer, Detective Eddie Thawne, was there to catch the guy when Barri let him get away.

“Who’s the new guy?” Iris asked, looking at Thawne skeptically.

“Eddie Thawne,” Barri answered. “Just transferred from Keystone.”

“Oh, that’s Detective Pretty Boy,” Iris mused. Barri shot her a confused look. “That’s what my dad calls him.”

“Hey, Allen, you good?” Eddie questioned, moving over to them after he put the handcuffed perpetrator in the back of his cruiser.

“I’m good, thanks, Eddie,” Barri assured. Eddie looked her over and winced sympathetically.

“That’s going to be a nice shiner by tomorrow.” She sighed loudly at his comment.

“I know. My life sucks.”

About thirty minutes later, Barri sat her desk, a bag of ice pressed to her cheek where the bag had cracked against her cheekbone and sighed loudly as she turned on the news. Linda Park was standing in front of the labs where just moments later, the Accelerator would be active. “You okay, Baby-Face?” Detective Frank Johnson asked, walking into her lab.

“I’m good,” she assured, handing him the results of a test she had run for him earlier. He moved the bag of ice away and let out a little hiss before moving it back into place on her cheek.

“Keep icing it. You’ll probably have one hell of a bruise and will most definitely swell.”

“Thanks, Frank.” He left a couple seconds later, and Barri turned her attention back to the TV. Instead of cheers, people were screaming, and Park was talking about a malfunction. Barri stood up and walked to the window, looking out to where S.T.A.R. Labs was, and her eyes widened when there seemed to be an explosion of sorts that sent a shockwave through the city, cutting the power off everywhere.

Dropping the bag of ice on to her desk, Barri made her way to where her skylight was, noticing that it started raining and water was pooling on the floor. She grabbed the chains and started tugging when she felt static go throughout the room. She looked around and saw chemicals in beakers start floating. The same as when mom was killed, Barri thought. She then looked up to see a bolt of lightning heading straight towards her from the opening in the skylight.

The bolt struck, sending her into complete darkness. She wasn’t aware as she went flying backwards into shelves that were filled with chemicals, and she crashed to the ground on top of the fallen metal shelves.

A yellow bolt of lightning traveled through her veins.

Captain David Singh was sitting at his desk, finishing up some paperwork before he had to leave for dinner to meet his boyfriend and daughter. He heard a little bit of commotion outside in the bullpen, so he got up and walked out to where a group of his detectives were standing in front of a computer screen. “What’s going on?” He questioned.

Something happened at S.T.A.R. Labs,” Detective Miller supplied. “They’re evacuating, Sir.” David felt his heart skip a beat.

“Barri-“ he started, already turning to grab his jacket and make a run for the Labs.

“Is fine, Captain,” Miller said. “She’s upstairs in her lab.” Relief flooded through David and then confusion seeped in.

“Why is she here?”

“Someone stole Iris’ bag,” Detective Johnson snorted. “Barri decided to play hero and got cracked in the face with said bag. Did I mention it had Iris’ laptop in it?” David closed his eyes, feeling a headache forming quickly.

“So, the guy got away?”

“No, Thawne got him,” Johnson answered, motioning with his head towards his newest Detective. The young man was sitting at his desk, processing a man probably younger than Barri. David felt his eye twitch when he realized this was probably the guy that smacked his daughter in the face with a laptop.

“Something at S.T.A.R. Labs just exploded!” Miller yelled and David’s attention was snapped back to situation at hand. He felt a chill when something seemed to pass through the building and the lights flickered off.

“What the hell?” He murmured, looking out a window to see it looking like it was about to storm. Lightning flashed in the sky, followed closely by a large crash from upstairs that was echoed by thunder. Johnson chuckled lightly.

“There goes Barri being her clumsy self, huh? I’ll go check on her real quick.” The Detective jogged up the steps as David started sending people to S.T.A.R. Labs for a damage assessment.

“Captain, I just got a call from West. The Mardons were killed when the Accelerator blew, but Chyre was hit by a stray bullet. He’s dead.” God damnit, David thought. He’d have to call Rob and let him know they’d have to cancel dinner. There was going to be way too much on his plate tonight.

“Captain!” Johnson shouted from the second floor. David looked up to see the older man leaning against the banister, his phone to his ear, and a panicked look on his face. “It’s Barri! I think she was struck by lightning!” David’s breath caught in his throat and his chest clenched tightly. Barri?

David ran for the steps, taking two at a time to get to his daughter more quickly. He sprinted into the lab and his eyes widened at Barri’s prone form stretched out on the shelves that she must have been thrown into. She looked so pale, the bruise already forming on her left check looking darker. He ran up to her, dropping to his knees next to her, reaching with shaking fingers to check Barri’s pulse. Weak and thready.

Johnson hung up the phone after giving all the information to dispatch. “Two minutes out, Sir.” David didn’t respond to him, just stroked Barri’s hair, willing her to wake up and sass at him.

What would David do without her?

”Can’t read my, can’t read my poker face…” Barri felt awareness creep into her slowly as Lady Gaga’s song pierced the foggy veil.

“What are you doing?” A woman’s voice asked, sounding close to Barri.

“She likes this song,” another voice said, sounding defensive.

“How can you possibly know that?” The woman questioned, sounding skeptical.

“I checked her Facebook page.”

The voices moved away, and she could hear the man singing in a low tone to himself. Wake up, Barri, she told herself. WAKE UP!

She sat up with a gasp and looked around, eyes wide. “Woah!” The man shouted, his hands flying up. He had shoulder length dark hair, dark eyes, and was tanned. He looked a bit shorter than Barri.

“You’re okay,” a voice to her left soothed in a stern voice. Barri looked over to see a pale woman with brown hair and matching eyes shinning a penlight in Barri’s eyes. Barri flinched away, trying to move in the bed.

“What?” Barri panted, freaking out. The last thing she remembered was closing her skylight. “Where am I?”

“You’re at S.T.A.R. Labs,” the man said. “I’m Cisco Ramon, and this is Caitlin-“ he paused. “Doctor Snow.”

“Are you experiencing any dizziness?” Doctor Snow questioned shining another light in her eyes. Barri cringed and then swung her legs off the side the bed. Why was she wearing sweatpants?

“No,” she finally answered. “Why am I here?” She stood up quickly, brushing off the pair of hands trying to force her to sit back down.

“You’ve been in a coma. You were struck by lightning ,” Cisco told her. Barri’s eyes were wild as she looked around, finally stopping at a screen with a camera facing her.

“Lightning gave me abs?” She was in a red sports bra and looked like she had a bit of curves now on top of the new abdomen definition on her stomach. Did she develop a bit of bigger chest, too? Nope, still practically flat.

“Your muscles should’ve atrophied, but instead they are in a constant state of cellular regeneration,” Caitlin told her, prodding her arms and then stomach.

“Wait, coma? How long?” Barri asked, Cisco’s earlier words finally catching up to her.

“Nine months, dude,” Cisco told her, breaking the news. Nine months? Jesus Christ. Oh, God. Nine months.

“Where’s-“

“Your dad was here yesterday. He hasn’t stopped by yet today. Speaking of, your dad is the Police Captain? Were you able to get away with anything as a kid?” Barri chuckled slightly at Cisco before sobering quickly. She needed to leave.

“I have to get out of here,” she rushed out, pulling electrodes off of her temples and chest.

“You shouldn’t be going anywhere,” Caitlin protested, as she and Cisco tried to get her to sit back down.

“Miss Allen,” a voice sounded from the entryway. Barri turned to see Harrison Wells, founder of S.T.A.R. Labs sitting in a wheelchair.

“Singh,” she corrected. “Its Singh.”

“Miss Singh,” Wells continued, pushing his black framed glasses a little farther up the bridge of his nose. “There are still many tests that we need to run to make sure you’re healthy.”

“I feel fine,” Barri insisted, thanking Cisco quickly as he handed her a S.T.A.R. Labs sweatshirt. She slipped it on, and then was handed her converse. She paused and looked at them. Shouldn’t they have been fried when the lightning struck? She shook her head, slipping them on and moving towards the door.

“Miss Singh, you really should lay back down,” Caitlin protested as she and Cisco moved to stand by Wells’ chair.

“Seriously, I feel great,” she said, moving out the door quickly. She popped her head back in and motioned to the sweatshirt. “Can I keep the sweatshirt?”

“Yeah, keep the sweatshirt,” Wells sighed. As Barri ran down the hall, she heard Caitlin say, “really?”

Opening to the doors to precinct, Barri took a deep breath. Everything looked the same. Most of the same faces of people she remembered were at their desks. Phones were ringing, she could hear someone shouting from the holding cells. Her stomach clenched when she was reminded, yet again, that it had been nine months since she was last here.

Sneaking her way past the bullpen was too easy as she made her way to David’s office. She glanced through the window to see him hunched over some paperwork, fully focused on what was in front of him. She opened the door a crack. “May I come in, Captain?” She questioned with a small smile. David’s head shot up so quickly that Barri was worried the man was going to get whiplash.

“Barri?” He whispered. She fully stepped in, shutting the door softly behind her and let her smile widen.

“Hi, dad.”

“Oh, baby,” he cried, standing and circling his desk quickly to wrap her up in his arms. Her own arms circled his waist and leaned into his chest. Barri could feel David’s shoulders shaking with silent sobs, making her own eyes tear up. They started falling when David pulled back and she saw that his eyes and cheeks were damp. “You’re okay,” he breathed, eyes flitting over her features. “When did you wake up? Should you even be walking? Why didn’t I get a call?” Barri reached up to cover the hand on her cheek with her own.

“I’m okay,” she assured.

“Do you want to go home? You should probably be resting. How are you even walking after just waking up?” David questioned lowly. Barri shrugged.

“I don’t know, I feel fine.” She pressed her hand to her abdomen with a grimace when her stomach growled loudly.

“Would you like to go grab some lunch first?” He asked with an amused eyebrow raise.

“Yes, please, food,” Barri grinned, grabbing his hand and pulling him out of his office. David laughed slightly, grabbing his coat off of the coat rack in the corner of his office before they exited the room.

David’s laugh garnered the attention of others in the bullpen, which was understandable. Barri’s father was generally pretty serious and stoic at work. “Baby-face!” Miller yelled in excitement making her let out a small groan. Of course, that nickname was still sticking.

“Quite a nap you took there, baby-face. And you still look twelve,” Johnson laughed as he passed them, clapping Barri on the shoulder with a heavy hand, eyes glowing with mirth and relief.

“Thanks,” Barri drawled out flatly. Barri looked around, eyes scanning the room when she saw one of the beat cops accidentally elbow his coffee off of his desk. She reached forward and it was as if the world slowed down around her as she watched the mug fall and hit the carpet, shattering at a snail’s pace. She took a step back and everything sped back up to normal speed.

Barri blinked in confusion and shook her head. What the hell was that? “Bare? You ready?” David asked, keeping an arm around her. She nodded.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Are you sure you’re alright?” He stared at her, concerned. She nodded.

“I think I’m just getting a bit tired. I’m good.”

Then, it happened again. She watched as a man was being processed and reached for one of the cop’s guns. Everything slowed down around her again, and she suddenly found herself on the other side of the room, taking the gun out of the man’s hands, and back in her original position all within a blink of an eye. The man stared hollering and thrashed in the cops hold. David stared for a moment, clearly wondering if there was anything he could do to help his cops, and then looked back down at Barri. She must have paled considerably at what had just happened because that concerned line between his eyebrows was back in full force.

“Baby? What happened? You aren’t looking so good.” Barri suddenly remembered Doctor Wells mentioning that they needed to do more tests to see if she was really okay. I think I need to go back, she thought.

“Dad, can we actually get a rain check on lunch? I think I’m just going to go back to my apartment and lay down. I will definitely be over for dinner tonight, though.” A thought suddenly occurred to her. “Do I still have an apartment?”

“Yes, Rob and I have been covering your rent while you were in the coma,” David assured before pulling her back in his arms. Over his shoulder she saw some of the new faces of cops and detectives that never met her gawking at the sight of their normally straight-faced, hard ass of a Captain hugging some girl they’d never seen before. “Go get some rest, Bare. I’ll call Rob and tell him the good news, so you don’t give him a heart attack tonight like you did me.” Barri rolled her green eyes with a smile.

“I’ll see you tonight, dad. I love you.”

“I love you, too, baby-girl.”

Barri made her way out of the precinct and out to the back alley. She looked down at her hand and saw it was vibrating. “What?” She gasped, took a step, and she suddenly crashed into the alley wall twenty feet away from where she was just standing.

How could she move so fast? She tried again, this time crashing into the back of a police cruiser, shattering the glass. She dusted herself off and and took off in a run and she tripped into the back of a truck. Pushing some stuff off of her, she grinned up at the top of the truck. “Cool.”

About an hour later, Barri is changing into a tight red outfit that cut off at the shoulders and went to her mid-thigh. “How does it fit?”

“It’s a little snug,” she answered honestly, walking out the trailer uncomfortably.

“Good news is you’ll be moving so fast, no one will be able to see your outfit,” Cisco supplied helpfully. She shot him an uneasy smile and walked on to the tarmac at an unused portion of Ferris Air.

“What do you need me to do?” She questioned.

“Run as fast as you can,” Wells supplied. “We need to test your speed.” Barri nodded, and Cisco messed with the helmet on her head for a few moments before letting her get situated in a running position. She took a couple of deep breaths , waiting for her mark. Wells fired off a shot into the air, and she took off, turning into a blur with yellow lightning trailing behind her.

The world flashed by her and Barri had never felt so alive. She saw the yellow lightning around her, and her mind took her back to that night when she eleven, watching her mother surrounded by yellow and red lightning before Barri was sped away.

A man in yellow with red eyes staring at her.

“Barri, run!”

She came back to herself with an unpleasant bump and couldn’t stop herself from careening into a few water barrels, making them explode with the impact.

Footsteps were running towards her quickly, and Barri scrambled to lift herself up on to her elbow, cradling her deformed right arm to her chest. She panted with pain as Caitlin reached for her.

Three hours later, Barri was sitting on a table with Caitlin walking towards her with a tablet in her hands. “You had a distal radial fracture,” Caitlin explained.

“Had?” Barri frowned. Caitlin showed her the tablet screen. “This was your arm three hours ago,” she started, showing Barri an x-ray of her clearly broken arm. Caitlin swiped to another one. “This is your arm ten minutes ago. Completely healed.”

“For real?” Barri glanced down at her now healed arm in amazement. “How?”

“Your cells are healing at a hyper-accelerated rate. A bone that should takes weeks to heal, healed in three hours. It’s amazing.”

They talked for a few minutes until Barri looked at the time. David had gotten off work ten minutes ago. “I have to go; I’m having dinner with my dad and his boyfriend.” She slid off the table and grabbed her things.

“We still need to run more tests,” Caitlin protested.

“I’ll come back tomorrow, alright? I just got out of a nine-month coma. I need to spend some time with my family.” Barri’s tone left no room for arguments. She started walking out of the room, calling out behind her, “I’ll see you later!” Tapping into her speed, Barri found herself in front of David’s house in a matter of minutes. She straightened out her clothes and re-did her ponytail, so her hair didn’t look so wind-blown. When Barri reached the front door, she took a deep breath and slid her key into the lock and pushed the door open softly. She could hear David’s deep voice coming from the kitchen, Rob’s much softer one following shortly after. She took off her jacket, lying it on the back of the couch, and made her way into the kitchen.

She watched David and Rob maneuver around each other in a familiar way that made Barri’s heart ache. She had missed so much of this because of the coma. Rob noticed her first and almost dropped the skillet of eggs he was making. “Breakfast for dinner?” She questioned with a grin as she leaned against the door frame.

“Your favorite,” he choked out, placing the skillet on the stove to rush over and hug her tightly. She wrapped her arms around her dad’s boyfriend, hugging him back just as tightly. When he let her go, David swooped in to wrap an arm around her and lead her to the dinning room table where they had set up some plates and drinks.

“Why don’t you have a seat, sweetheart. We’ll bring the food out.” Barri nodded, taking up a spot near the far corner of the room; her normal spot.

A couple minutes later, dinner was served and the three were eating. Barri didn’t realize how hungry she was until that moment and she started to shovel food in her mouth. “Bare, honey, slow down. You don’t want to make yourself sick,” Rob suggested, reaching out to push a lock of hair out of Barri’s face. She swallowed with a sheepish grin.

“Sorry, didn’t realize how hungry I was until I started eating,” she explained with a shrug.

“There’s plenty more food, Baby,” David said, and Barri noticed the concerned eyebrow line was back in full force when he looked at her.

“Dad, I’m fine. I promise,” Barri tried to soothe. She glanced at Rob and noticed that he had almost the same concerned face. “Guys, I’m good. I swear.” She’s pretty sure they didn’t believe her, but they did stop giving her looks as they finished up their meals.

“Want some desert?” Rob offered, and Barri nodded, watching him walk into the kitchen. Her gaze snapped to David as she felt fingers brush her left cheek softly, and she saw him looking at her with a soft look in his dark eyes.

“Do you want to stay in your old room tonight, Bare? Take it easy for a couple days?” Barri was about to decline; she wanted to learn more about this speed she acquired from the explosion. Something in his eyes, though, made her pause and think about what he had to have gone through while she was in the coma. The constant fear of her dying. He wanted her close for a while, if only to truly convince himself that she was really okay.

“Yeah, that sounds nice, dad.”

The next day, Barri was out the door as soon as both David and Rob had left for work. She stopped by Jitters first to grab a coffee and say hi to Iris when she saw her kissing Detective Thawne. Barri stopped, startled. The last time she saw the two of them in the same room together, Iris seemed to almost despise the blond man. When they broke apart, Iris glanced in Barri’s direction and saw her. Barri raised a questioning eyebrow, and Iris bit her lip before muttering something to Eddie and made her way over. “Can we talk about this later when I get off of work? And please don’t tell my dad! Or your dad, because he will definitely tell mine.”

“Yeah, we can talk later, and don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me,” Barri promised.

“Thank you, Barri,” Iris breathed before smoothing out her apron. “Okay, I have to get back to work. See you later at around five-ish?” Barri nodded, and with her coffee forgotten she decided to head to back home. She had promised Rob she wouldn’t do much today and overexert herself.

She sped her way through the streets, stopping at Big Belly Burger to get some food and plopped herself down on David and Rob’s couch all within a few minutes. Barri was really liking this new development.

She turned on the TV, deciding to use the few hours of down time she had before meeting Iris to catch up on shows she’s missed.

Barri was halfway through the fourth episode of the first season of Game of Thrones when she got a text message from Iris saying she got off work early. Barri texted back saying that she would meet her at Jitters in a few minutes and turned off the TV, throwing her stuff away.

She ran to Jitters, trying to stop near the alley, but crashed into the alley wall instead. “So graceful, Barri,” she chided herself quietly, pushing off from the wall and rubbing her now sore right arm. She was probably going to bruise.

She jogged out of the alley and saw Iris already waiting outside of Jitters with two coffees and a pastry bag. Barri crossed the street, making her way towards her friend. “How was work?” She questioned as Iris brought her into a hug.

“It was work,” Iris sighed before smiling and handing Barri one of the coffees and the bag. “Cinnamon vanilla latte, extra foam and two shots of espresso. One large chocolate chip muffin.” Barri peaked into the bag and shot Iris a thankful look.

“You are a Goddess among men.”

“Obviously,” Iris scoffed before linking arms with Barri and they started walking down the street.

“So, you and Detective Thawne?” The brunette prompted, taking a sip of her drink.

“Once he became my Dad’s partner after Chyre died, we spent more time together and just clicked, you know?” Of course, Barri knew and understood.

“ So, Joe doesn’t know yet?” Iris shook her head with a sigh.

“No, not yet. We’ll have to tell him soon, I know.” Barri had stopped paying attention by that point, head turned behind them when she heard sirens. A car skidded around a corner, heading in their direction, with three cop cars behind it. They sped past them, Barri grabbing Iris’ arm and pulled her towards the grass where they’d be safer. The car stopped, and Barri was surprised to see Clyde Mardon step out.

She took a step towards him, green eyes wide, when he lifted his hands, palms up, and the area started fogging up quickly. “What the Hell?” Iris cried, looking around. Barri’s eyes never left Mardon. Wasn’t he dead? He backed up into the fog, disappearing from view. “Iris?!” Barri’s attention left the quickly dissipating fog and turned around to see Joe running towards them after exiting one of the cop cars.

“Dad?” Iris cried, hugging her father as he reached them.

“What the Hell are you doing? Why are you both out here?” He questioned angrily, pulling back from the hug.

“Dad, calm down-”

“Clyde Mardon is alive?” Barri interjected, cutting off Iris’ placates.

“What? No! The Mardon’s died the same night as the Particle Accelerator blew.”

“Why did I just see him get out of that car, then?”

“Allen, I think you’re seeing things,” Joe said slowly, wrapping an arm around his daughter’s shoulders. He didn’t believe her. No one ever believed her.

“I’m telling you, that was Clyde Mardon,” Barri pressed, voice rising with her temper. Joe waved his hand dismissively, pulling Iris towards his cruiser, clearly done with the conversation.

Barri’s jaw clenched, and she let out a deep breath. “Are you sure, Baby-Face?” She looked behind her to see Miller and Johnson standing there, Miller having just exited a crashed cruiser. “You really think it was Mardon?” She nodded.

“I’m not seeing things, Mason,” she said, her voice pleading for them to believe her. They exchanged looks and Johnson sighed.

“We’ll know soon. Sketch artist is with witnesses that saw the bank robbery.” His dark eyes cut to Barri again. “Go home, Kid. The Captain is going to be pissed if you get involved in this after just waking up from a coma.” That was true.

“Keep me updated?” She directed this towards Miller. Johnson would just give her that look that he’d been giving her since she was twelve and tried to sneak peaks at David’s files.

“Absolutely not,” Miller answered and when Johnson turned to walk back towards his, thankfully, unmarred cruiser, he shot her a wink making Barri grin. She could always count on that man.

Barri walked down the road and as soon as she was out of the cops’ views, she sped off towards the labs. She had questions that only they could answer.

“I wasn’t the only one effected, was I?” Barri asked, bursting through the doors to the cortex. Caitlin and Cisco both jumped, Cisco turning wide brown eyes towards her.

“What?” He asked as Wells rolled next to him.

“The Particle Accelerator explosion; I wasn’t the only one effected. The only one given powers?” The three exchanged looks.

“No, we don’t think so,” Caitlin answered slowly.

“Are you doing anything about this? I just ran into a man who robs banks, a bad guy, who can control the weather!” She paused, determination settling over her features. “I can stop them.”

“You are not risking yourself to fight off meta humans,” Wells protested, wheeling closer to her.

“Why not? Meta humans?” She directed the second question to Caitlin.

“It’s what we’re calling those effected by the Particle Accelerator,” she explained. “And do you realize how valuable your cells are? With your healing, we can figure out ways to cure cancer!”

“We can not let you put yourself at risk,” Wells finished. Barri felt a bit like a child getting scolded and sent to her room. She needed to get out of there.

She ran out of the labs and far away from Central. She needed to talk to someone that understood.

“-And then I ran here; I just had to get out of there,” Barri finished as she explained what happened on a rooftop in the newly dubbed Star City. Oliver, in full Arrow gear sans the mask and hood, stood across from her.

“What made you decide to come to me?” Oliver questioned.

“If anyone could understand the desire to help someone when you’re given the chance and the means to do it, it’s you,” Barri explained softly and then sighed, running her hand through her wind-swept hair. “I don’t even know what I was thinking. It’s not like I can do anything.”

“Barri, I think that lightning chose you,” Oliver explained, taking a couple of steps towards her. A small smile quirked Barri’s lips upwards.

“Do you think I should become a vigilante? Become Central City’s Arrow?”

“No, not a vigilante. Better. A hero. One who can save the day in a flash.”

“I’m not like you, Oliver. I’m not sure I can do this.”

“Don’t be like me; be you.” Barri blinked, surprised.

“You know, you’re surprisingly good at pep- talks,” she joked lightly.

“Please tell Diggle that. He seems to think he’s the master at pep-talks,” he returned easily, putting his mask on in a smooth motion. “Did I ever thank you for this, by the way?” He questioned, motioning to the mask. Barri smiled.

“No, and you are very welcome.” She paused a moment. “You did promise dinner, though. Soon?” She questioned, hesitation in her voice. Was she reading the signs wrong? A small smile lit up Oliver’s features.

“I’ll let you know when I have a free night. You can run on over.”

“It’s a date!” She chirped happily.

“It’s a date,” he echoed with a small grin, before shooting an arrow at a building across from them with a rope attached. He slid across and Barri watched him go.

“Cool,” she breathed with a grin, disappearing in a swirl of yellow lightening, a trail in her wake.

“Cool,” Oliver agreed, watching the cute brunette run back to Central. He needed to start planning a date.

Barri appeared in the cortex of S.T.A.R. Labs with a trail of lightening after her. “I’m going to stop Clyde Mardon,” she decided firmly. “I’d like your help figuring out what it is I can do with these powers and hunt down other-” she trailed off, not remembering the name for what they, she, was.

“Metahumans,” Cisco supplied.

“Yes, thank you, hunt down other metahumans using their powers to rob and hurt and kill people,” she finished. Caitlin and Cisco shared a look, clearly discussing the offer silently between each other, but Wells was shaking his head.

“No, you are much too valuable to risk going after bad guys,” he answered resolutely. “Your cells could lead to medical breakthroughs, but only if you stay alive,” he stressed. Caitlin looked like she was starting to agree with him, the doctor side of her weighing in against her desire to help a superhero get her bearings.

“Look, I’m going to do this with or without your help., but I’d really like it if it was with your help,” she added.

“This is mostly our fault,” Cisco piped in, sounding sad as he remembered all the damage the particle accelerator did as it exploded. All the lives lost, and all the lives changed. One of them standing right in front of him, wanting to make a difference. “The least we should do is help.” Caitlin let out a sigh and her big, brown eyes gazed at Wells.

“He’s right, Doctor Wells. We’re at fault, here. We need to do something.” The man in the wheelchair let out a big sigh.

“Alright, fine,” he grumbled and then peered up at Barri from behind his glasses. “What can we do to help?” Barri grinned and glanced down at her burnt shoes.

“For starters, maybe an outfit that doesn’t catch on fire when I run?”

Cisco grinned. “Already way ahead of you, girl. Follow me.” He led her deeper into the cortex and in front of them was a red, skintight outfit, with yellow accents. Her identify would be protected by an over-the-head cowl., and it looked like the torso of the suit was designed to give her a more masculine figure, hiding her curves and breasts. “Ta-da!” He yelled, throwing his hands out towards the display.

Barri grabbed an elastic hairband from around her wrist and put her long hair into a low bun at the nape of her neck and then speed-changed into the outfit. She went to normal speed as she slipped on the right boot and smiled over at Cisco. “How do I look?” She questioned, pulling the cowl up.

“Like a hero.”

After a long battle, Barri was victorious, but at great cost. Clyde Mardon was dead. She had almost lost when Mardon created a vortex, but Cisco had the brilliant idea of running around the tornado in the opposite direction and unravelling it,

The idea worked, but Barri was left exhausted and collapsed on the side of the street. Mardon got a second wind and was stalking towards her prone figure menacingly. A shot rang out and then another and he twitched before falling to the ground. Barri whipped around, seeing Joe West standing there with his gun drawn and still aimed at where Mardon was just standing. “No,” she shouted and quickly made her way over to where the man was bleeding out on the street. She placed her gloved hands over the wound on his torso, noticing that was the fatal one out of the two gunshot wounds, and put pressure on it.

Mardon groaned, met her eyes with his hazy blue ones, took a shuddering breath and stilled. Barri let out the air she didn’t realize she was holding and stared down at him for a moment. She heard West approaching her, and started vibrating to mask her face and voice, well aware that he would know it was her in a heartbeat. “Is he dead?” He questioned, still keeping his firearm trained on Mardon.

“Yes,” Barri answered in a clipped tone. Joe didn’t have to go for the kill shot. He could have incapacitated him by doing something, anything, other than killing him. What kind of hero was she if she couldn’t even save Mardon from a bullet or two?

She stood up as more cop cars started pulling up and Joe filled them all in as Barri took off towards S.T.A.R. Labs. “That was amazing!” Cisco cried in delight as soon as Barri had changed back into the outfit she had been wearing throughout the day, bruises and cuts she had accumulated during the fight already in the final stages of healing. Wells wheeled himself next to Cisco and Caitlin, who was double checking Barri’s wounds to make sure they healed correctly.

“Yes, miss Singh, that was spectacular,” he praised lightly.

“Thanks, but I could’ve saved him,” she replied, sounding defeated.

“You can’t save everyone, Barri,” Wells stated. “None of us can.”

“I’ll just have to try harder next time.”

Wells wheeled himself down a long stretch of hallway, leaving behind the sounds of laughter and celebration on Barri’s win against Mardon. He came to a stop in front of a hidden door and wheeled through. As the door shut behind him, he stood from chair and removed his glasses, a podium appearing before him.

“Show me the future,” he ordered out load and a hologram appeared above the podium. The hologram was over a news article, dated twenty twenty-four reading ,Flash Vanishes in Crisis and Wells grinned. Good.

The future was still intact.

Chapter Text

“Bare, you have got to stop running into walls,” Caitlin ordered, shining a penlight into Barri’s green eyes for third time that week.

“It’s only been a few weeks since I got my powers,” Barri retorted. “I’m allowed to have some mishaps.”

“Your life is a mishap,” Cisco shot from his normal chair in the cortex. “Boom! Cait, you better put some ointment on that burn!” Both women shot him dark looks. “Kidding,” he added weakly, cringing back in his chair. Barri and Caitlin both rolled their eyes and Caitlin went back to prodding the mark on Barri’s forehead.

“It’s already almost healed, and no concussion. You’re good,” Caitlin declared as she snapped her gloves off and tossed them in the trash.

“Thanks, Caitlin,” Barri grinned and hopped off the table. She had an interesting past couple months to say the least. She hated hiding the fact she was the Streak from David and Rob. Especially with how worried they both got when she almost passed out from not eating enough right in front of them.

Barri also had to deal with a meta-human that could turn himself into a toxic gas, Kyle Nimbus, or the Mist as Cisco lovingly nicknamed the Meta. Barri had managed to breathe some of the gas in and Caitlin removed it by inserting a rather large needle into her lungs, which hurt. In the end, Barri was able to defeat the Meta and he was currently locked in a power dampening cell in STAR Lab’s pipeline.

Wells rolled into the cortex and up to Barri after she jumped down from the table. “Miss Singh, I believe it is time we start testing more of your abilities,” he suggested. Barri tilted her head.

“What did you have in mind?”

Turns out, what Wells had in mind was multi-tasking. Barri was speeding between playing chess with Wells, Operation with Caitlin, and a game of table tennis with Cisco. She was doing pretty well until she didn’t get a good enough look at the chessboard before making a move, too busy wanting to do this is fast as possible. She was already back at the tennis table, hitting the ball back to Cisco when Wells yelled out, “checkmate!” Barri looked over at him with confusion, letting the ball Cisco hit back smack her in cheek.

“What?” She questioned, ignoring the slight sting to back over to the chessboard. Sure enough, there were three other moves she could’ve made to ensure she would still be in the game, but she was in too much of a rush to pay enough attention. “Well, shit,” she sighed, leaning against the chair across from Wells.

“We’ll work on it,” the wheelchair bound man assured.

“Uh, Bare, we got a robbery in progress,” Cisco called from in front of the monitors. Barri sped over and glanced at the monitor.

“Where am I going?” She asked. Cisco rattled off the coordinates and Barri nodded. She made her way to her suit, changed quickly, and sped out the cortex in under three seconds, leaving a small lightening trail in her wake.

She ran to an in-progress heist and had the men taken down and unmasked in mere seconds. One of the men looked familiar, Barri just couldn’t place where. He had dark hair cut close to his scalp and icy blue eyes that were glaring daggers at her. She realized quickly that they were there to steal the Kahndaq Dynasty diamond that she heard was being moved that night from one of the detectives earlier that day.

One of the men quickly got to his feet and fired off a few rounds. Barri dodged them easily enough, but one of the guards wasn’t as lucky. Barri quickly ran over to the man, assessing the damage from the bullet and decided to take the man to the hospital, and let the men escape.

As soon as Barri got back to STAR Labs, her phone beeped. “Your dad messaged you!” Cisco called out as she was changing back into normal clothes. She had her dark hair in a braid, resting over her shoulder with some dark jeans, a black tank top, and a red and black flannel shirt left unbuttoned resting over with some black converse.

“What have I told you about looking at my phone?” She teased as she flashed over to take her phone from his hand. He made a confused noise and rolled himself away from her, still in his chair. Barri rolled her eyes with a laugh and looked at the message.

Get downtown. There was a robbery. She saw the address and realized it was the same place she was just at. Shoving her phone into her back pocket, Barri quickly grabbed one of the extra kits she kept lying around in case she was called out at wasn’t at the station already and hoisted it her shoulder.

“Got to go,” she said in a goodbye and sped out of the cortex to the crime scene. David was already there with a few other cops, Detective West included, and Barri grimaced. She didn’t necessarily have anything against the detective, but she certainly felt that Clyde Mardon could’ve been saved, and later that week he found out she was the Streak. He’s threatened to tell David a few times when Iris comes by and pushes for information about her for Iris’ new blog she was thinking of writing. Joe was completely against it, as was Barri, so Joe had threatened that if Iris finds out or gets hurt because Barri’s the Streak, then nothing would stop him from telling David.

Not that it would really matter for much longer. Barri already planned on telling David and Rob soon, she just wasn’t sure how to start. ‘Hey, dad, Rob, you know that guy that runs around in a red suit that everyone is calling the Streak. Well, he’s a she and she’s me!’ David was going to murder her for not telling him as soon as she found out she had powers. Their entire relationship after he adopted her was based on honesty, and there she was, breaking one of the most important rules to them both. At least she had Rob. He’d have her back.

“Nice of you to join us, Allen,” David snapped, fully in Captain mode. She would have to wait a bit to maybe broach the subject of dinner so she could spill the figurative beans.

“Sorry, Captain,” apologizing for loosing focus, too. She quickly went through a dramatic telling of the events that transpired, leaving out details that couldn’t back with evidence, such as faces beneath masks of anything like that. “I also believe there were four people, not three,” she corrected at the end.

“Thank you, Allen.” David writes a few things down and walks away towards other detectives. Joe walked up to Barri and leaned forward a bit so his voice wouldn’t carry.

“You were here earlier, weren’t you?” He questioned and she nodded. “Were you able to see anything?”

“I saw one of their faces, and he looks familiar, but I can’t place a name,” she sighed , frustrated.

“When we head back, we can take a look at the database; see if any faces ring a bell.” Barri thanked him and as she looked around again, she didn’t notice David walking up to her.

“Allen?” He questioned.

“Hmm?” She hummed, still a bit distracted from trying to remember the man’s face.

“Bare? What’s going on in that head of yours?” He asked, dropping the Captain persona for a second and failing easily into ‘Dad Mode’. She shook her head.

“It was done too smoothly. Whoever did this has stolen priceless things before.” He clapped her on the shoulder lightly.

“Don’t worry, Baby, I know you’ll find out who did this.”

As soon as Barri made it up to her lab and set her kits down to try to get matches for the prints she found, but she was pretty sure the group that tried to steal the diamond was too good to leave partial prints at a crime scene. Joe came in a couple minutes later with a large book full of mug shots. “Take a look through this and let me know if you recognize-” Barri flipped through pages, quickly stopping at one. “Any of them,” Joe finished before looking more closely at the mugshot Barri pointed at. “Him? You’re sure?” Barri nodded.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Do you know him?”

“That’s Leonard Snart; his father was a crooked cop. Guess it runs in the family.” Barri frowned. She figured that it would be difficult living with a cop who was discovered of being dirty. And who knows what he did to Snart to as a kid push him in that direction.

“He’s father is in jail, too? Maybe we should start a club,” she joked, sobering quickly at the dry look Joe gave her. “I’ll see if his prints match any of the ones I got from the scene and go from there,” she recommended. Joe nodded in agreement and as he turned, Iris was standing there with some coffees in hand.

“Hey, Iris,” Barri greeted, closing the mugshot book and placing it on her desk.

“Hey, I brought coffee. Dad?” She offered first, holding one of the still steaming cups to her father. Detective West shook his head.

“No, thanks, baby-girl. I still have some waiting for me on my desk. I’ll let you two talk.” He walked out the door, but not before shooting Barri a warning look. Yeah, she got it. Don’t tell Iris her own secret. Thanks, Joe. Iris skipped over, handing Barri one of the remaining coffees and sitting down on one of the chairs in her lab. Barri took a sip of her drink, vanilla cinnamon as always, and sat across from her friend.

“What brings you here, Iris?” She questioned.

“Besides wanting to see my father, boyfriend, and friend?” Iris started. “I posted my blog last night,” she admitted. “There have been so many documented sightings of the Streak, and I have to post about him; I have to let Central City know about our own hero.”

“Iris,” Barri sighed. “I think this blog is a bad idea.” Iris scoffed in annoyance.

“You and dad both, apparently,” she muttered under her breath.

“It could put a target on your back,” Barri protested, voice raising a bit. After hearing stories from Starling City, the villains would only get worse and more willing to use the people close to you. She didn’t want Iris to be one of those casualties; didn’t want anyone to be one.

“I’m not stupid, Bare,” Iris sniffed. “My name isn’t affiliated with the blog.” Well, silver lining, Barri supposed.

“Well, you’re going to get bombarded by the crazies and internet trolls,” she tried again, grinning a bit this time. Iris grinned back.

“Bring it on.” A throat cleared behind them, and both women turned to see a woman with black framed glasses and blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing a blue crop-top paired with a high waisted multi-colored and patterned floral skirt.

“Hey, Barri,” she greeted with a wave. “I heard you woke up from the coma and wanted to say hi.” Barri smiled and let the woman hug her.

“It’s good to see you again Felicity.”

“So, you have powers?” The blonde questioned as they were walking down the street, Barri drinking her cooling coffee and Felicity grimacing through Joe’s discarded one.

“What? No!” Barri denied. Felicity shot him a look with a raised eyebrow.

“I was on the comms when you told Oliver on that rooftop,” she said, and Barri felt her heart give a little flutter at the mention of the bow-wielding vigilante. “Also, are you and Iris dating? Because, let me tell, you it’s about damn time,” Felicity whooped, amusement dancing in her blue eyes.

“Iris and I are never going to date,” Barri said firmly. “I got over my crush a while ago and she’s also in a serious relationship with one of the detectives. She’s also very straight.”

“The pretty one with blonde hair?” Felicity guessed.

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

“Good choice,” she mumbled before pulling Barri to a stop. “I want to see it.” Barri blinked, confusion seeping through her hazel eyes. “And by it, I mean your speed, obviously,” Felicity finished in a ramble. Barri grinned and handed Felicity her coffee to hold on to.

“Watch that building,” she ordered, making sure the blonde was looking in the right direction before glancing around to check for wandering eyes and ran up the building, stopped to take a quick picture of her blonde friend, and sped back down all in two seconds. Felicity jumped, surprised to see her back.

“Oh my God, you’re fast and you took a picture of me. From on top of a building,” she turned her head to look back up at the building, and then back to Barri. She glanced down. “You’re also on fire.”

“What?” Barri asked before looking down. Her converse were indeed smoking. She stomped on the ground, putting out of the flames as curses spewed from her mouth angrily. “It’s fine,” she assured Felicity once the fire was out. “It happens all the time.”

The two headed back to STAR Labs where Barri went to introduce Felicity to Caitlin and Cisco but found out they already knew each other. “How can we be so sure she’ll keep your secret?” Caitlin asked, skeptic of the blonde.

“Felicity works with the Arrow in Starling City,” Barri shrugged. “If she can keep that to herself, I’m sure she’s fine keeping mine.”

“Everything with Starling City makes so much more sense now,” Cisco mused and then he narrowed his dark eyes at the blonde. “So you know who the Arrow is?” He paused and turned accusing eyes on Barri. “Wait, do you know who the Arrow is?” Wells rolled in not much longer and greeted Felicity warmly. They spoke briefly before Felicity broached the subject on how Barri trained.

That led to Barri getting the high-speed treadmill ready, while Caitlin and Cisco had led Felicity into the monitor room. “This screen shows her heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen levels as she runs,” Caitlin explained as she pointed at the different monitors.

“Alright, Barri, take off!” Cisco commanded through the comms and Barri nodded, starting off at a light jog and then quickly picking up speed.

“How fast can she actually go?” Felicity questioned, watching her friend become a blur with yellow lightening trailing behind her.

“We don’t know yet,” Caitlin responded.

“Wanna watch me run backwards?” Barri offered, feeling a bit cocky. That was, of course, short lived when she lost her footing, tripped, and went flying back into a wall thankfully padded with boxes.

“It’s okay,” Caitlin soothed as Cisco laughed. “She heals quickly, too.”

“So, what will this trivia night entail?” Felicity questioned as Barri was walking her back to her hotel room.

“Just a bunch of nerds getting together,” Barri shrugged. “Seemed like fun and Iris invited us both to go.”

“You had me at nerds,” the blonde joked. “I’ll be there.”

“Cool, we‘ll be teamed up with Iris and Eddie,”Barri explained. “Meet us at Jitters around seven?” Felicity nodded and hugged Barri tightly before promising to see her later.

She decided to stop by Jitters to see how Iris’ day was going. “Eddie is not excited about tonight,” Iris sighed glumly as soon as Barri got there. “It’s not really his scene, but I’m so excited to hang out with you, and you and Felicity seem great together-” Barri’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Wait, what?”

“I think this will be a perfect first double date,” Iris squealed, continuing as if she didn’t notice Barri’s face changing expressions.

“Iris, Felicity and I aren’t together,” Barri explained. Iris shot her a look. “Seriously, we are just friends.”

“Bare,” Iris sighed. “You know that I don’t mind you like women, too, so there’s no need to hide this from me. Besides, no one hops on a train for eight hours to come see a friend.” Barri frowned. There was no way Felicity had a crush on her, right?

That night Barri was seated across from Iris and Eddie, waiting on Felicity to show up. “Bare, what should our team name be?” Iris questioned.

“E equals MC Hammer,” Barri fired off, easily way to excited about the name. Iris and Eddie shared a look, but Iris ultimately keyed in the name.

Felicity showed up a couple minutes later wearing a black mini dress that looked more suited for a club than a coffee shop. “Well, I’m way over dressed,” she joked, looking embarrassed as she slid into true seat beside Barri.

“No, it’s fine,” Iris protested. “You look great!” Felicity thanked her before looking at their team name. “E equals MC Hammer,” she noticed with a grin. “That’s funny.” Barri noticed Iris and Eddie share an amused glance at each other but ignored it as the games began.

Felicity and Barri were a powerhouse together, putting puzzles together and answering questions at speeds other teams couldn’t help but fall short of. “You two are killing it,” Iris commented with a grin. Eddie nodded in agreement, seemingly a bit surprised at how much the two women knew. Their winning streak continued until they got a buzzer.

“Sorry, guys,” Eddie said glumly. “I thought I knew it and got excited.”

“It’s okay, they probably don’t even know it,” Barri tried with a shrug.

“Yeah,” Felicity interjected with a smile as she glanced over her should to a table with a group dressed as Star Wars characters. “I’m sure the team named ‘Pride and Padawans’ doesn’t know what the name of Han Solo’s ship.” The group cheered as the bell dinged in their favor.

“Oh, honey,” Iris cooed, grabbing Eddie’s face in between her palms. “You’re so cute when you’re confused.” His face pinched a bit in distaste before allowing their lips to crash heatedly. Barri let out a low whistle, turning her head to look anywhere else but at them. Awkward kissing was awkward.

Eddie’s phone beeped, breaking his and Iris’ kiss and dragging all of their gazes to the phone. Eddie read the message and the leaped out of his seat. “I gotta go; Snart’s been spotted.” Iris stood with him, walking him to the front entrance while Barri and Felicity shared a glance, both moving at the same time towards the back entrance.

“I’ll cover for you,” Felicity offered. “I usually tell people Oliver’s at a nightclub with a girl or nursing a hangover.”

“Neither of those will work,” Barri said, shrugging on a leather jacket over her black long-sleeved shirt.

“Really bad stomach ache,” the blonde tried again. “Explosive diarrhea.”

“Yeah, I’m not comfortable with that, either,” Barri quickly shot down.

“Just go!” She didn’t have to tell Barri twice. She quickly sped her way to the lab to change and made it to the theater Cisco directed her to just in time to watch Snart shoot something almost white at Joe. Knowing that her body could take more of a beating, she tossed herself in the way and gasped as a beam of cold assaulted her torso. The ice that covered her stomach was so cold that it burnt some pieces of the suit, and some of her skin underneath.

“You good?” Joe questioned. Barri sucked in breath after breath quickly.

“It burns,” she gasped out, turning her head just in time to see Snart aiming the gun at her again. She shoots up, running off. Snart looked around the movie theater, goggles on and gun held up in a position to shoot easier. Barri was little worried. That gun could easily cause some damage to her specifically, and she really wanted to know how he did it.

“Time for a test run!” Snart shouted out, looking a bit amused as the corner of his lips twitched upwards. He looked around for a target. “Let’s see how fast you really are.” He aimed at some people on the second floor, and shot. Barri quickly moved them to safety, as well as the couple running up the steps out of the line fire as well.

Gasping in pain from the burning in abdomen, Barri leaned against a pillar, eyes widening when Snart set his covered gaze on a man in a suit coming up one of the theater isles. Barri ran along side the steam of white, but didn’t make it in time to save the man. “No!” She shouted, falling down beside the man. He was covered in frost. Barri didn’t even notice they Snart had made his escape. All she could think of was that she just cost someone their life.

Barri was sitting on a table in the cortex, tee-shirt pulled up to show the still blackened patch of skin on her abdomen. “It’s still numb,” she informed Caitlin after the doctor finished prodding around the edges of the skin.

“It’s presenting itself like third degree frostbite,” the brunette informed, allowing Barri to lower her shirt back down.

“I thought she had hyper healing,” Felicity commented, looking something over on a tablet.

“It’s been slowed. If your cells weren’t regenerating at the rate they are, your blood vessels would have been frozen solid and the damage would’ve been permanent.” Caitlin’s eyes turned more serious. “You’re lucky to be alive.” Barri stood up and let out a sigh.

“Snart wasn’t a meta-human. He had a gun that froze things. It-it slowed me down. Enough that I wasn’t fast enough to save someone.”

“According to his records, Snart didn’t even finish high school,” Felicity said, motioning with the tablet in her hand. How did he build a high tech, hand held snow machine?” She looked over to Wells, who had stayed silent.

“STAR Labs built the cold gun,” he admitted, and Barri’s eyes widened a bit.

“Doctor Wells and Caitlin had nothing to do with it,” Cisco cut it in and looked Barri in the eyes. “I built the gun.”

“You did?” Barri questioned in a small tone. “Why?”

“I designed a compact cryo-engine to achieve absolute zero. I built it to stop you. I didn’t know who you were then, Bare. What if you turned out to be some psychopath like Mardon or Nimbus-”

“But I didn’t!” Barri cut him off, speaking for the time since Cisco stared explaining his reasoning.

“We built the entire structure your standing on to so good,” Caitlin interjected. “And it blew up. In the wake of that, you can understand why Cisco would want to be prepared for the worst.”

“I can understand that,” Barri said. “I completely understand that reasoning. I just don’t understand why you didn’t tell me. After all we’ve been through? I thought you trusted me? I thought we were friends?” She didn’t even realize she was shouting at this point.

“We are, Bare,” Cisco smiled, moving closer to her.

“If you had just told me, I could’ve been prepared, but instead, someone died tonight.” Cisco gave her a look like she had just stabbed him, and Barri felt a tiny jolt of shame.

“And I have to live with that.”

“No,” Barri denied. “We all do.” Barri walked out of the cortex, leaving everyone standing there. She didn’t know what to think about this revelation. On one hand, she understood where he was coming from. All the metas they’ve faced so far haven’t been good. On the other, she thought she had Cisco had built a friendship quickly and she felt betrayed that he would build something targeted to hurt her specifically. She needed to run off some steam.

Barri wasn’t sure how long she’d been running for when Felicity calling her name made her slow to a stop, panting. “Hey,” she greeted the blonde. “What are you still doing here? You should go back to your hotel and get some sleep,” she suggested.

“So should you,” Felicity shot back.

“I can’t sleep,” Barri said. “Every time I close my eyes, I see his face. I watched him die.” Barri shook her head, dark ponytail flipping over shoulder with the movement. “I need to get faster.”

“Barri, that man’s death is not your fault. And it’s not Cisco’s either. I know you’re upset, but you have to look at this from his point of view.”

“I get it. He didn’t trust me,” she said with a shrug. Felicity’s eyes narrowed and she stepped up to the platform that held the modified treadmill.

“When you first met us; Oliver, Diggle, and me. We’re a well-oiled archery machine, but we didn’t start out that way. And unlike you guys, we weren’t tossed together over night. We came together one at a time. It took more than watching Oliver do the salmon ladder to make me trust him,” she added a bit slyly. Jealously flared up in Barri that she quickly had to smash back down. She and Oliver hadn’t even been out on a date yet. What right did she have to get jealous over another woman watching him? Shirtless. Sweating. Oh, Felicity’s still speaking. And was now standing by the door. “I’ve seen first hand what this life can do to people. It’s a lonely path. Don’t make it any lonelier than it has to be.”

Barri was standing in the cortex a bit later, looking over a monitor screen when Cisco walked in quickly. “I may have figured out a way to track Captain Cold.”

“You’ve got to stop naming these guys,” Caitlin said making Barri grin to herself for a second.

“How?” She questioned, turning around to face him, frowning a bit. Even though what Felicity was said was true, she still felt bitter and hurt.

“The cold gun is powered by an engine controlled unit“The cold gun is powered by an engine controlled unit micro-computer that regulates air to fuel ratio so the sub-cold fluid in the chambers don’t overflow-”

“And explode,” Felicity finished.

“Yes,” Cisco agreed, pointing at Felicity excitedly. “This ECU was receiving updates wirelessly from my tablet,” he went on to explain about how he could track the cold gun, moving around the table Caitlin and Wells were seated at to get to one of the monitors.

“How long do you need?” Barri questioned, thinking about it for a second.

“First I have to hack into the city’s network, so, I don’t know; thirty minutes, maybe?” He guessed with a shrug.

“I can do it in less than one,” Felicity cut in, sitting down in one of the chairs in front of a computer. “When it comes to hacking, I’m the fastest woman alive,” she bragged, cracking her knuckles and yelping when a loud crack shot through the air, shaking her hands. “That was not as badass as I pictured,” she complained before she started typing.

True to her word, it took mere moments for Felicity to gain access. A few more and Barri was given an address to where Snart was heading. A train station. “Looks like he got what he came for,” Wells mused as he looked over at her. She nodded, zipping away to change into her red suit.

“When we put our minds to it, dude, nothing can stop us,” Cisco grinned, tapping his temple. Barri reaches up and turned her comm off. Cisco frowned and rested back a bit in surprise. “You turned your comm off. How are we supposed to talk to each other?”

“I don’t really feel like talking right now,” she said and ran off. She made it the train station, running past Joe and Eddie and burst through the train doors in front of Snart. He aimed the cold gun at her.

“I never noticed before,” he started, tilting his head. “Does your mom know you’re out past your bedtime?” Barri smiles despite the situation. She really shouldn’t even be surprised. Even villains thought she looked like a baby.

“If you wanted to get away, you should’ve taken something faster than a train.”

“That’s if I wanted to get away,” Snart returned and Barri’s smile slipped into a confused frown. “I’ve seen your weakness. At the armored car and then at the theater; see, while your busy saving everybody, I’ll be saving myself.” He lowered the gun, firing at the floor. The wheels froze and Snart tossed himself off of the train when it started to derail. Barri tapped into her speed, slowing down time and zipping her way through the compartments, getting everyone safely to ground as the train compartments started crashing into each other as the train made its way completely off the tracks.

When she had gotten everyone, Barri collapsed to the ground and tried to catch her breath. She let out a scream as the cold gun was fired into her back and she went back down. “Thank you,” Snart said in that calm tone that never seemed to raise.

“For what?” She gasped out, turning onto her back and lifting herself up onto her elbows.

“You forced me to up my game. Not just with this gunNot just with this gun, but with how I think about the job. It’s been educational.”

“Drop it,” a voice ordered from behind Snart and Barri could hear the whirring of something firing up. Snart frowned, turning his head to see Cisco holding something large, pointing it straight at Snart. Caitlin and Felicity carried an attachment behind him. “This is a prototype cold gun,” Cisco explained. “Four times the size, four times the power.”

“I was wondering who you were talking to ,” Snart mused, looking back at Barri.

“Hey!” Cisco snapped. “Unless you want a taste of your own medicine, I’d back the hell up.”

“You’re hands are shaking,” Snart noticed in that same bored tone. “You’ve never killed anyone.”

“There’s a first time for everything,” Cisco retorted, teeth clenched tightly together. “Captain Cold.” Snart’s head tilted and he glanced back down at Barri for a minute.

“You win, kid.” He raised the cold gun, letting rest against his shoulder. “I’ll see you around.” He turned and walked away, Cisco keeping the weapon pointed at him until he was out of sight. The weapon powered down and Cisco turned to look at herZ

“I couldn’t shoot him even if I want to,” he confided. “This is the STAR Labs vacuum cleaner with a lot of LEDs.” He let out a laugh and moved to help Barri out of ice restraints.

“Thank you,” she said grasping his forearm tightly. “You saved my life.” Barri’s eyes glanced behind him towards Caitlin and Felicity. “All of you saved my life.”

Back at the cortex, Barri was changed into a pair of dark sweatpants and a STAR Labs sweatshirt, talking to Cisco. “You’re a good friend,” she said honestly.

“I’m sorry you got hurt because of me.” Barri waived it off.

“I feel like it’s part of the job description now,” she joked. “I forgive you, Cisco. I know you would’ve never use it against me once we got to know each other.”

“Not even jokingly,” he replied. She hugged him tightly and then turned to Felicity as she was saying her goodbyes to everyone; Caitlin offered to drive her to the train station. Barri was going to run Felicity over, but got a text from David asking her to dinner.

She and the blonde hugged goodbye, and then Barri took off towards David and Rob’s house. She stopped about half a block away and jogged the rest of the way. She dug our her key and pushed the door open. “Bare?” Rob called from the kitchen.

“Yeah, it’s me! That smells amazing!” She called back.

“Hi, Baby!” David called, coming down the steps and sweeping her up in a tight hug.

“Hey, dad. Thanks for inviting me to dinner. I’m starving.”

“You’re always hungry, Bare,” Rob playfully chastised, coming into the living room with as he wiped his hands on a towel.

“Hey, before dinner, I have something to talk to you both about,” she stated, wringing her hands nervously.That’s when Barri noticed the gleam shining off of his ring finger on his left hand. “Is that- Are you?” David wrapped an arm around Rob’s shoulder, both of them with excited grins on their faces.

“We’re engaged,” Rob revealed. Barri congratulates them both, bringing them into tight hugs.

“That’s amazing! When did this happen?”

“Earlier today,” David said and then looked at her closely. “You said you had something to tell us?” Barri swallowed and smiled.

“It can wait; tonight is about you.”

“Baby, are you sure?” David pushed. Barri waved his concern off.

“It’s fine, dad. Don’t worry about it. Now, tell me everything.”

Chapter Text

Opening up the door to her dad’s office, Barri hands him a cup of some strong coffee. There had been a string of ATM robberies around town and no witnesses. He was pulling in a lot of hours and would be working late that night. “Here, dad.” David looks up from his paperwork and takes the large cup with a sigh.

“Thank you, sweetheart.” He took a large drink and looked at her over the rim of the cup. “Why don’t you go home and get some sleep, Bare. You look tired,” he suggested.

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” she replied and then shot him a grin. “Kidding; and going.” She walked around his desk to bring him into a tight hug. “We’ll get him, dad,” she promised. Based on the guy’s history, he was probably going to hit another one that night. She’d be ready. When she pulled back, Barri got a good look at David. He looked run down and exhausted. “Dad go home. Let the guys patrolling tonight go after this guy,” she ordered gently. “You look like you need more sleep than I do. Don’t make me call Rob and tell on you,” she threatened before giving him a kiss on his cheek.

“I’ll head home in a few minutes,” David promised.

“Good. I love you.”

“I love you, too, baby.” Barri walked out of his office and to the front doors. She gave a quick wave to Johnson and Miller, who were leaning against Miller’s desk, talking. They both looked just as tired as David, but they were assigned Snart’s case after he derailed the train. It was originally Eddie and Joe’s case, but Eddie had petitioned for them to be put on a whole other case; hers. According to Eddie, the Streak was a menace. Is this how Spiderman felt in the comics with J. Jonah Jameson always on his ass? She empathized.

“Hey, Barri,” a voice called, and she turned her head to see Joe.

“What can I do for you, detective?” She questioned. He glanced around and Barri realized that he wanted to talk about her alter-ego.

“Can you try to talk some sense into Iris?” He asked with a sigh. “As the Streak? She’s still continuing with that stupid blog, and I’m getting worried.” Barri nodded, though she wasn’t sure what she could actually say to change Iris’ mind. The Wests were known for their stubbornness.

“I’ll see what I can do,” she answered. He nodded in thanks, and then walked back over to where Eddie was staring intently at a computer screen. She continued on her way, and as soon as Barri reached the alley next to the station, she glanced around to make sure no one was there and sped her way to STAR Labs.

She changed into her suit and after saying hi to Cisco and Caitlin, made her way to a few of Iris’ haunts. She found her, alone, at Jitters. She was tapping away at her laptop’s keyboard, taking sips of coffee occasionally. Barri burst in and vibrated her vocal cords to disguise her voice. “I heard you were writing about me.” Iris jumped, almost knocking the cup over and stood quickly.

“Oh my God, you’re here! Hi.” Iris exhaled sharply. “Yeah – yes, I’ve been writing about you,” she admitted.

“That’s got to stop,” Barri ordered. A defiant look entered the other woman’s dark eyes.

“People have a right to know who has been saving them for the past few months,” Iris argued.

“It’s put you at risk, Miss West,” Barri retaliated. “If one of my enemies finds out who writes those blogs, they will come after you. I don’t need that hanging over my head.” Too harsh? Iris reared back and blinked a few times. Yeah, maybe too harsh. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but the less known about me, the better,” she tried.

“I don’t care what happens to me,” Iris fought. “The people you save deserve to know who rescued them. You deserve to be treated as who you are; a hero.” Barri sighed, realizing there was no changing her mind that night.

“If you’re going to continue doing this, can you do me a favor?” Iris tilted her head questioningly. “Please stop calling me the Streak. It’s – it sucks.”

“What do you want to be called?” Iris asked and Barri just smiled before speeding out.

During her patrol, Barri noticed a Hummer speeding down the street, an ATM machine attached to the back and swinging wildly. There’s ATM guy, she thought, preparing herself to chase after him. A kid’s ball bounced into the street, the little boy chasing after it; right into path of the Hummer barreling towards him. Barri sped towards the child, scooping him up just in time for the Hummer to pass them. “Are you alright?” She questioned. The little boy looked shaken but nodded. His mother ran up to them, checking the kid over for injuries and thanking Barri. She nodded, and then took off after the man in the Hummer.

Quickly gaining ground, Barri was soon next to the Hummer. The man looked over at her, confused, and Barri returned the look. Why did he look so familiar? He frowned and turned the wheel sharply trying to hit her. She dodged, and the man hit the curb and then a pole.

The man stepped out of the Hummer and glared at Barri. She ran forward, aiming to punch the man in the face when he turned to steel. She didn’t have time to slow her punch down and flinched when her knuckles broke on impact. She retreated back a few dozen feet, cradling her broken hand. She looked back at him in time to see the steel seemingly melt back into normal flesh on his face. Another meta.

She tried again, kicking and punching but he always turned to steel before her hits could meet him. He ducked under one of her kicks, slamming his hand down on her knee, the kneecap dislocating with a crunch. She gasped, swinging her leg back and putting all of her weight on the other leg. The man gave her no time to get her bearings before a fist landed in her side, cracking, and most likely breaking, some ribs. Barri doubled over, grasping at her side as another hit came down on her left cheek. She fell to the ground, knowing that her cheek was most likely cracked as well. Blood pooled in her mouth and she was in so much pain that Barri wasn’t sure whether the blood was coming from her teeth slicing into her cheek, or from biting her tongue.

The man lifted her up by the front of her suit and grinned cruelly at her. “Nighty night, Streak,” was the last thing she heard before his face turned to steel and he reared back his head, snapping it forward into her face. As another crack sounded, Barri knew that one was her nose as the warm liquid traveled down her face. He dropped her to the ground and Barri was in and out of consciousness enough to see him walk back towards the Hummer and climb in. He drove off, the ATM machine still attached to the back.

Barri rolled to her side, wheezing for breath. She needed to get somewhere safe. That’s all she wanted; safe What felt safe?

David Singh was lying on his couch, his head pillowed on his fiancé’s lap. Fiancé. It was such an odd concept for him. For so long it was just him, and then it was just him and Barri. Now, it was the three of them; him and the two most important people in his life. “Honey, you’re thinking very loudly.” David’s dark brown eyes opened to stare into the soft blue hue of Rob’s eyes and David could swear he just melted a bit.

“Sorry,” he apologized quietly. Rob smiled down at him and then bent his head to press his lips to David’s softly. When they pulled away, David reached up to trace the apple of Rob’s cheek with his thumb. “I love you.” Rob’s smile brightened.

“I love you, too, David.” He bent back down to seal their lips together again when the front door burst open and they were both startled by a gust of wind. David moved himself off the couch as quickly as possible, reaching for the gun strapped under the table and aiming. His eyes widened when he saw it was the Streak, covered in blood. The Streak reached up with a clearly broken hand and grasped onto the cowl, pulling it down. Long dark hair tumbled down the Streak’s shoulder and pain stricken hazel eyes stared at him.

David dropped the arm holding up the gun, letting it clatter on to the coffee table. Even through all the blood, he recognized those features. “Oh, God,” Rob gasped from behind him. Clearly, Rob knew her, too.

“Barri?” He questioned.

“Daddy?” She gasped, attempting to take a step forward before her legs gave out on her and she fell to her knees. David rounded the table faster than he thought possible in time to catch Barri’s upper body before falling forward.

“Barri?” He called to her, shaking her lightly but after her eyes rolled back into her head, she was out. “Rob, call an ambulance!”

“We’ll reveal her secret,” Rob countered, though he was already starting to dial.

“Shit!” David tried to think of somewhere else before it dawned on him. “Hasn’t she been spending a lot of time at STAR Labs?” He questioned. Rob stopped before hitting the ‘call’ button on his screen, thumb still hovering.

“Yes. Do you think they know?”

“They helped her while in the coma. They might be her best shot.”

“I’ll go get the car ready,” Rob said before dashing to grab his keys and out the door. David kept on arm securely around Barri’s shoulders and slid the other under her knees and lifted. He flinched when her left knee felt off; it was clearly dislocated, and he had the sudden desire to rip apart whoever did this to her. He walked out the front door, not even bothering to lock it behind him and Rob was waiting by the running car and opened the back door for him to slid Barri in.

“You sit in the back with her, I’ll drive,” David ordered, knowing he could reach STAR Labs faster than Rob could. The other man nodded, climbing into the back and reaching out to help support her head and neck as they both maneuvered her in. Once Rob had Barri secured in his arms, David shut the door and rounded the car, climbing into the driver’s seat and peeling out of the driveway and towards STAR Labs.

He could hear Rob murmuring softly to Barri in the back, probably stroking her hair, maybe trying to rub some of the blood on her face off. How could he not know his daughter was the Streak? Why didn’t she tell him? He thought back to the night he proposed to Rob; Barri wanted to tell David something. Was this it? Was she going to come clean about the metahuman who was saving Central City from other metahumans? How did he miss this?

After a few more minutes, David squealed to a stop outside of the labs, throwing the car into park. He almost slipped on the gravel in his haste to get to the other back door. As he threw it open, Rob’s face stared back at him, pale and frightened. “She’s not doing good, David.” David’s heart skipped a beat. This was not happening again. Barri was going to be just fine. This was not turning into another coma. He took her back into his arms, her head rolling onto his shoulder.

“Come on,” he urged quietly, he and Rob hurrying through the front doors. “Stay with me, baby.” They made their way down the hallways quickly, David picking up the sound of voices.

“What exactly are we debating?” Wells, David’s mind supplied.

“The average number of bugs Barry swallows in a day of running,” another male voice answered, sounding younger than Doctor Wells.

“I look forward to seeing you accept your Nobel,” Wells commented dryly as David and Rob burst into the room. Wells turned in his wheelchair, eyes widening when they settled on Barri in David’s arms.

“Barri? What?” The younger male with shoulder length dark hair sputtered. The woman, Doctor Snow, if David remembered correctly, quickly schooled herself and motioned for David to lay Barry out on one of the tables. David backed away but watched closely as the woman ran experienced hands over Barri, flinching a couple of times. She glanced up at them when she finished her examination, expression grim.

“If either of you are squeamish, I’d leave now,” she recommended. David shifted and his arms crossed. He certainty wasn’t going anywhere; not while his daughter was lying on a table, bleeding. Rob’s comforting presence was still beside him, so he knew the other man wasn’t leaving, either. Snow nodded and got to work. She and the other man rolled Barri to a room with an x-ray machine in it to see how many broken bones she had; thirteen in just her hand alone. Oh, yeah. He was most definitely going to rip this bastard apart.

Barri awoke with a pain filled groan. She could tell that bones were back in place, but after everything set, she was left with some aches that would take about two hours to go away. “Barri?” Her eyes opened to see Caitlin leaning over her looking worried. “How are you feeling?” The brunette questioned, reaching out to help Barri sit up slowly.

“Sore,” she answered honestly, hissing when she moved her left knee the wrong way.

“Dude, you look like you got hit by a train,” Cisco oh so helpfully supplied.

“Feels like it, too,” Barri replied, rolling her neck. Her gaze moved across the room and settled off to the side where David and Rob were standing, both looking very worried. “Dad? Rob?” She questioned. What were they doing there? They both made their way over to her, Caitlin and Cisco moving out of their way. Rob reached forward, gripping her hand and smiling softly.

“Hi, sweetheart. How are you?”

“I’m okay; I can feel myself healing. I’ll be good in no time. How-”

“You came over after your fight with whoever did this,” David started, motioning towards her blood covered suit lying on a chair in a corner. She glanced down quickly; Caitlin must have changed her into some clothes she had left aside. “We brought you here as soon as we could. Bare, why didn’t you tell me you were the Streak?” Barri made a face.

“Ugh, I hate that name,” she grumbled and then looked over at David. “I was planning on tell you soon,” she promised. “It’s just that, no time felt right. It didn’t seem like something to be brought up over dinner.”

“You have thirteen fractures in your hand alone, which is a new record. You also have a concussion, three cracked ribs, and a bruised spleen,” Caitlin rattled off. “Even with your powers, this will all take a couple more hours to heal.”

“Who did this to you?” Rob asked, thumb running gently over a knuckle that Barri remembered breaking over the man’s face earlier.

“I don’t know. He’s the guy that’s been stealing ATMs, though,” she said, directing that one at David. “He had one dragging behind the Hummer he was driving; it was probably stolen, too. I made him crash into a pole and when we started fighting, he turned his skin to metal,” she explained. Wells leaned back, arms crossing.

“Interesting. A man of steel.” He almost seemed to be smirking to himself, which piqued Barri’s interest.

“Why didn’t you call anyone?” Cisco asked.

“I didn’t think I needed any help,” Barri shrugged. “I figured it was just going to be a simple robbery; flash in, detain him, flash out.”

“Well, you’re just lucky he didn’t knock any teeth out. Those puppies don’t grow back,” Cisco supplied. Barri shot him a dark look and attempted to get out of the bed.

“No,” David ordered, his hand gently lying Barri back down. “You need to rest, Bare.” She sighed, knowing he was right.

“I think I knew him,” Barri blurted out.

“What do you mean?” Caitlin questioned.

“He said something that was familiar, but he’s going to hurt someone if I don’t stop him.” She looked over the group. “How do I fight someone made of steel?”

“We will find a way,” Wells encouraged. “Tonight, though, you will heal.” He turned his chair to face David and Rob. “Will you two be staying with her?” David nodded.

“Yes; I’ll also be taking her home when she’s healed enough.” His tone left no arguments. Wells nodded in understanding and wheeled himself out of the room. Cisco followed after saying his own goodnights to the rest of the group. Caitlin stayed for a bit longer, looking over some more charts.

“You should be healed enough to head home in two hours. Do not push yourself at all tonight or tomorrow,” she ordered. Barri gave a sloppy salute and closed her eyes. She couldn’t believe she was still so sore.

“Get some rest, Bare,” David urged, a hand running through her hair. It didn’t take much persuading.

When Barri woke back up a couple hours later, Caitlin, who had passed out on one of the cots in the other room, did a couple more scans and cleared her to go, reminding her again to not do anything strenuous for the rest of night or the next day. David and Rob both nodded in agreement, looking serious, and Barri knew that neither of them would be letting her out of the sights for a while.

The drive back to David and Rob’s house was quiet, and when they got inside, Barri flinched at the blood that was on the floor from where she had collapsed. She looked back at the two men, prepared to apologize, when she noticed that they were both covered in dried blood; David a bit more than Rob. She opened her mouth, but David shook his head. “Go take a shower and then go to bed. We can talk in the morning about all of this.” Barri nodded, rushing forward to give him a tight hug.

“I’m okay, dad,” she murmured into his shoulder. His arms tightened around her.

“That was the scariest moment of my life,” he finally said, voice tight. “Don’t you ever do that to me again, Bernadette.” Barri’s eyes twitched. He broke out the first name.

“It hardly ever happens,” she soothed.

“That is not comforting,” he griped before pulling away. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and then ushered her up the steps. She first stopped by her old room. It still had few things in it, but most of the things she’d taken with her to her apartment. Her old bed was still there, as well as a dresser and some band posters. She rummaged around in the dresser, hoping that she kept a few articles of clothing there.

Thankfully, she was smart and had left some things. She found a pair of cotton shorts and a large tee shirt with Nirvana written on it. Barri was pretty sure it belonged to an ex-boyfriend. She took her shower, and then climbed into bed, not looking forward to the talk in the morning.

“How did this happen?” David asked, his back to Barri while he was flipping a pancake.

“When the Particle Accelerator exploded and I get hit by that lightning bolt, it changed some things,” she answered, taking a drink of the coffee in front of her.

“Did this happen to others?” She nodded.

“Mardon, this steel guy,” she said with a shrug. “We call them metahumans. Us,” she corrected. “We call us metahumans.”

“These people are dangerous, Barri,” David said with a sigh. “I really don’t like the idea of you out there fighting them.”

“I’m dangerous, too,” she countered, taking a couple of the pancakes David had sat in the middle of the table quickly and began to eat.

“This is why you were on your feet so quickly after the coma,” he realized, eyes narrowing in thought. “How quickly can you heal?”

“I broke my arm a couple months ago. It healed within three hours.” David dropped his utensils and his head fell into his hands. Barri dropped her own and reached forward to grip his arm. He looked up at her; her face that was so mangled and broken and bloody the night before, was clear of any blood or scratches. “I have a team behind me, dad,” she reminded him. “I will be just fine. I’ll always come home.” He shot her a look. That was something he had always told her when she was worried about a case he had; that he would be just fine and would always come home.

“Nice, using my own words against me.” She smiled and got back to eating.

“Can you pass the syrup?”

A few hours later, Barri was sitting on top of Miller’s desk, nursing another cup of coffee as more details of the man who robbed ATMs and turned to steel came to life. A mugshot popped up on the screen David was pointing at. “We have a name; Anthony Woodward.” Tony, she thought, her mind flashing back to when she was kid after her mom was murdered and her dad was arrested.

Little Barri was hurrying towards her next class, books clenched tightly in her arms. A shove to her back knocked her down, books scattering. She reached for them, but one was kicked out of arms reach. Barri glanced up to see Tony Woodward standing there. He was a boy in her class. He was large and kind of mean. At least to her. “Well, well. If it isn’t the murderer’s daughter.” Barri’s eyes shut tightly, warding off tears.

“He’s not a murderer,” she protested, eyes opening and glaring up at him.

“Oh, yeah?” He challenged, kneeling down so they were closer to eye level. “Then why is your mommy six feet under with stab wounds?” Something in Barri snapped, and she punched him. He snarled, about to retaliate, when a teacher rounded a corner just in time for Barri to get in trouble.

That was the first time David had been called to principal’s office for Barri fighting, but it certainly wasn’t the last. After the run-down on Tony, Joe came up to her asking about her talk with Iris went. “I tried,” was all Barri could say. “Hopefully it sticks.” He also asked about Tony since one of the pictures shown was of her and Tony fighting from the perspective of a street camera. She told him that he can turn his skin to metal and that she got her ass handed to her. Also, that David and Rob now knew.

“Iris better not be next,” he warned. “She needs to stay away from this shit.” He walked away and Barri sighed before making her way to David’s office.

“So, I remember where I know him from,” she said instead of announcing herself and shut the door behind her. David raised a dark eyebrow, motioning for her to continue. “Remember that kid I punched when I was twelve?” She asked.

“Yes,” he nodded and then his eyes widened. “You punched – Tony,” he remembered, leaning back in his seat. “I remember him now. Your first of many fights.” She shrugged with an easy grin. “Did you also date him?” Barri flinched a bit. Tony wasn’t necessarily a bad boyfriend, but it sucks when you find out someone was dating you just to get close to your best friend.

“What can I say? You raised a fighter. I’ll be going to STAR Labs tonight. Cisco has some ideas on how to train to beat this guy.” David sighed in that way only exasperated parents are able to.

“Just be safe. Please? For my blood pressure?” Barri frowned at him.

“Dad, you aren’t even forty yet. Don’t turn into an old man on me now.”

“Out.” Barri smiled again.

“Love you!”

“Love you, too.” She shut the door behind her and almost ran into Eddie.

“Oh, hey, Barri.”

“Hey. You good, Eddie?”

“You know that blog Iris has been writing about the Streak?” Barri nodded, not liking where this was heading. “She posted another one earlier about an encounter she had with him last night.” God damnit, Iris. “Get this; she signed her name this time.” Fuck. Joe was going to murder her. “I just don’t know what to do anymore,” he sighed. “I’m just trying to keep her safe and she pulls shit like this. What if someone comes after her because she signed her name?”

That was exactly what Barri was worried about.

“I call it Girder,” Cisco announced proudly as he unveiled a metal dummy for Barri to practice on and she eyed it nervously.

“Don’t worry,” Caitlin interjected. “I’m on standby with supplies.”

“Comforting,” Barri mumbled before rolling her shoulders and loosening her limbs, preparing for an attack. She eyed the dummy again and flashed towards it, a trail of lightning her wake. She tossed a couple punches, putting varying degrees of force behind each one, until she ran at it again, using her shoulder to hopefully make a harder it.

It backfired spectacularly. She bounced off, sliding across the floor, holding her arm close to her body. Caitlin rushed over, deemed her shoulder dislocated, and popped it back in to place within a couple of minutes. “Thanks,” Barri groaned and rolled her shoulder gingerly.

“Stop that,” Caitlin ordered, pointing a finger in Barri’s face before walking back over to the console of computers. Barri chuckled lightly and went back over to the steel dummy, studying it. There had to be a way for her to beat him. Her phone vibrated in her pocket and she glanced at the text, surprised to see it was from Oliver.

So, if you’re still interested in that date, how’s this Friday. 8?

Barri bit her lip to try to stop the excited grin from spreading across her face as she typed out her reply. She typed and deleted at least a dozen times. At first, she sounded too excited and then she sounded uninterested. She finally decided on something a couple minutes later.

8 sounds great. Just let me know where I’m heading, and I’ll be there.

She pocketed her phone again and looked over at Caitlin when she made a noise. “Cait?” She questioned, moving over to the brunette. Her brown eyes glanced up at Barri and she frowned.

“Iris posted another blog about you. Mentioned that you two talked yesterday,” she commented. Barri nodded.

“Yeah, Eddie told me earlier.”

“What a stupid thing to do,” Caitlin continued. Barri’s phone went off again, and she looked at it. This time it was from Joe asking if she’d heard from Iris. She replied that she hadn’t, and then looked at Cisco.

“Can you pull up the security camera at Jitters?” Cisco nodded, tapping away at the keyboard in front of him before he paled.

“She’s there. So is Girder.” That was all Barri needed before she quickly changed into her suit and sped over to the coffee shop. When she got there, Iris was backed into one of the tables, Tony looming over her. The remains of Iris’ phone were crumbled next to her laptop. Tony glanced over at Barri with a smirk.

“Thought this might you get here,” he commented, backing away from Iris and stalking towards Barri. She braced herself; this was probably going to hurt.

After getting her ass handed to her for the second time, Barri was sitting up on the same bed as the night before, an icepack to her bruised cheek. She wasn’t beat nearly as bad as before, but she still hurt. “You have got to stop putting yourself in harms way!” Wells was saying loudly; not really shouting, but close to it.

“What else am I supposed to do? I feel helpless, even with these powers! Just like I did when my mom was murdered.” Cisco interrupted their spat to let her know he’d calculated what speed she’d need to reach to actually do some damage to Tony. “I’ve never gone that fast before,” Barri frowned and then looked at the time. She had promised David and Rob she’d be by for dinner that night. “Look, I have to go. Cisco, if you can think of anything else besides me somehow going faster than the speed of sound, I’d really appreciate it.” She flashed out, appearing in front of David and Rob’s house a couple seconds later. She knocked on the door and as soon as it opened, Rob’s smiling face melted into one of concern. Oh, right. The bruise.

“Is that Barri?” David called from somewhere inside.

“Yes, and she’s hurt again!” Rob called back.

“No, I’m not!” She countered, moving into the house and shutting the door behind her. David rushed in and looked her over. “It’s just a bruise and it’ll be gone before dinner is over.”

“Wat happened?” Rob asked as they all took a seat at the table and he handed her a glass of red wine. She took a large drink and sighed.

“Tony targeted Iris tonight to draw me out. Kicked my ass again,” she pouted and stabbed at her chicken with her fork.

“Your nerd squad hasn’t figured something out yet?” David questioned.

“Cisco did some calculations, and I will somehow have to travel at the speed of sound to beat this guy.” She placed her fork down and leaned back with a groan. “I’ve never gone that fast. What if I catch on fire again?”

“Excuse me?”

“Again?!”

“I confronted Wells.” Barri paused mid sip of her coffee and glanced over at Joe.

“About what?”

“I think he knows more about metahumans that he lets on,” he explained. Barri’s eyebrows furrowed and she lowered her voice.

“I’m a little skeptical, too. When he talked about Tony, he called him a ‘man of steel’ with this odd look on his face. Almost like he said something funny that only he’d get.” Joe’s eyes narrowed as he mulled over Barri’s words. Eddie rushed in, breathing heavily. He explained that something happened at Jitters and when they pulled up the security footage, it showed Tony kidnapping Iris. Barri shared a look with Joe. “Tell my dad what’s going on,” she said in a rush before tossing her coffee away and exiting the building as quickly as possible by a human’s standard. As soon as she was clear, she flashed to the cortex to grab her suit.

“Do we know where she is?” She asked as soon as she and changed and appeared in front of Caitlin, Cisco, and Wells.

“An alarm was just triggered at the high school,” Caitlin supplied. “Best lead, so far.” Barri nodded and flashed out towards the high school. She burst through the door and slammed into Tony, who thankfully had no time to change is skin and they both rolled down the hall. They got their bearings back at the same time and every hit Barri threw was met by steel. She grabbed Iris, pulling her down one of the hallways off the main stretch Tony was still standing in.

“Stay here,” she ordered a bit breathlessly and stood up. She flashed a bit further away from both of them, and pressed on the comm. “How far did you say I’d have to get?”

“Five point three miles,” Cisco replied. “You’re going to do it?”

“It’s the only chance we got,” she exhaled.

“Bare, you have this.” That was David. “Kick his ass, baby girl.” She grinned and sped away.

Five point three miles away, to be exact. She skidded to a stop, took a deep breath, and readied herself. You got this.

Barri ran, surprised by the burst of speed she produced. She crashed through the school doors again with a loud boom, and saw Tony shifting to steel right before her fist crashed into his face.

“Supersonic punch, baby!” Cisco cheered over the comms, but Barri barely heard it. The force of the hit had to have broken her hand, and pain was shooting up her arm. She heard Tony climb to his feet before crashing back down, knocked out. She glanced up, surprised to see Iris shaking her hand out.

“Nice one,” Barri commented, leaning back against the row of lockers.

“I think I broke my hand,” Iris said.

“Me, too.”

Barri’s hand was indeed broken, and already healed three hours later. She was standing in front of the cell in the pipeline containing Tony, watching as he slowly came to. “Where am I?” He looked around and stared her down. “Streak? What is this place?” Barri took her cowl of slowly, shaking her hair out into natural waves and met his surprised blue eyes. “Barri? You’re the Streak?” She nodded.

“Yes. And you’re where you can’t hurt anyone again.” She turned on her heel and walked away.

“Barri? Hey, wait!”

“I’ll come bring you something to eat in a couple hours,” she said and closed the large door to the pipeline behind her. As she reached the cortex, David was staring at Wells disapprovingly.

“Having a private prison is illegal,” he was saying. Barri honestly agreed, but until prison’s had somewhere that metas couldn’t break out of, the pipeline was the safest place. Wells said as much, but David was still unhappy.

“Come on, dad,” Barri said, grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the door. “Let’s go get some food.” She looked at Caitlin and asked if she’d feed Tony when she got the chance. The brunette nodded, and Barri and David went back to his house for a late dinner, regaling Rob with that night’s happenings.

“Jesus,” he cursed, downing a glass of wine quickly and Barri let out a little laugh. Yeah, she understood that reaction.

She decided to head back to her apartment, the two men reluctant to let her out of their sights. She promised she wouldn’t go out that night and went straight home. She was perusing the internet when she stumbled across Iris’ blog. There was a new entry and Barri read through it quickly and paused when she reached the end.

‘A friend recently gave me the idea for a new name; hopefully, he likes it. I have a feeling it’s really going to catch on. ’

Barri saw Flash had replaced Streak at the top of blog and she smiled brightly as she shut the laptop. She remembered Oliver telling her to save her city in a flash and her smile grew.

Yeah, she liked it.

Chapter Text

“What do you think of this one?” Barri questioned, holding up a cream-colored dress for Iris to see. Her date with Oliver was that day, and she was more behind than she wanted to admit in preparation for this date. Iris tilted her head, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

“It’s not hot enough,” she decided, before smacking her boyfriend on the thigh. “Babe? What do you think?” Eddie had been lounging against the headboard of Barri’s bed, playing with a rubix cube. He jumped when the back of Iris’ hand connected with his leg.

“What?” He looked at the two women, noticing their expectant expressions. “Yes, that one - What?” Iris sighed in disappointment while Barri laughed.

“The dress,” Iris explained. “I don’t think the cream one is hot enough for a date with Oliver Queen.” Eddie blinked as understanding crept into his bright blues and he studied the dress.

“I’m with Iris, Bare,” he agreed. Barri groaned, hanging the dress back up.

“Then I literally have nothing to wear,” she complained, falling onto the bed and rolling into Eddie’s side. The blonde didn’t even seem phased, going right back to the rubix cube. Iris looked at Barri’s closet, dark brows furrowed in thought before her chocolate eyes lit up.

“Oh my God, I have the perfect dress.” She stood up, dragging Eddie along with her who pouted at the discarded cube now lying on Barri’s bed. “We’ll be back in half an hour!” The brunette let out a sigh and fell back onto the mattress, grabbing her phone off the nightstand. There were a couple of new notifications and looked through them quickly. One was from Cisco, asking if she’d seen one of his tools lying around the lab, one was from Rob, questioning if she’d like to have dinner with him and David the next day. She replied yes to Rob and looked at the last message. It was from Oliver.

We still on for dinner? I hope the answer is yes, because my train is almost there.

She smiled at the text, typing out that they were still on for dinner.

Cool, meet at your place?

She agreed, sending him the address before tossing her phone to the side. Barri stared up at her ceiling. When Iris and Eddie were there, she had been tossing the idea of telling the couple her secret in her head. She’d been considering it for a while. Ever since David and Rob found out and didn’t treat her any differently, she wasn’t sure why she should be keeping it from two of her best friends. “I’m going to tell them,” she said out loud, finally convincing herself that it would save them all a bunch of hassle. Maybe Barri could get Iris to stop posting on that stupid blog about her alter ego.

“Tell who what?” Barri jumped, sitting up quickly and looking over to the side. Iris and Eddie were back, Iris holding a red dress. Iris handed her the dress when Barri stood from the bed. It was pretty. It was a nice dark red, long-sleeved dress with a deep neckline. It looked form fitting and would probably stop at around her mid-thigh. “You should wear those strappy gold heels I got you for Christmas two years ago that you never wear, and a long necklace to make sure his eyes are drawn to the neckline.” Jesus, Iris put a lot of thought into this. “But seriously, what are you telling someone?” Barri bit her lip, clutching the fabric a bit tighter between her fingers.

“We should sit,” she started, leading them to her living room after placing the dress down on the bed.

“Bare, is everything okay?” Eddie questioned in a soft tone.

“Yeah, everything’s fine, there’s something I need to tell you both, and neither of you are going to be happy with me.”

“Barri, you can tell us anything,” Iris soothed, reaching across the couch to grasp her hand tightly.

“I’m the Flash,” she blurted. Iris blinked and Eddie reared back in shock.

“I’m sorry, you’re what?”

Barri explained everything – how she woke up from the coma realizing she could move so quickly that time seemed to stand still and how when the Particle Accelerator blew, many people were affected, not just her and she felt like she had a duty to stop them since she could.

“What do you do with them? The ones you catch?” Eddie asked.

“Well, that’s the hard part. We have this thing called the Pipeline at S.T.A.R. Labs that cuts off a metahuman’s powers, so we’re keeping them there for now.”

“Barri, that’s illegal.”

“Dad said the same thing. We’re working with Iron Heights to have something built that acts like the Pipeline.”

“Wait, the Captain knows?”

“Does my father know I’m a vigilante? Of course, he does, Iris.” She paused. “I mean, he and Rob found out because I crashed through their door after Tony Woodward beat the shit out of me, but yeah, he knows.” Eddie got quiet after that. “I’m sorry that I lied to you. Both of you.”

“Barri, I think we’ll need a minute to gather our thoughts.” Iris stood up with Eddie right behind her. “Bare, I’m so glad you told us. I can’t even describe how happy it makes me that you’re trusting us with this. We’ll talk later, I promise, since I’m going to want a play-by-play of your date with Oliver Queen.” The two made their leave, and Barri was surprised at how well it went.

She looked at the time, seeing that she had a few hours to kill and decided to go say hi to her dad. Grabbing a bite to eat and a coffee from Jitters, Barri skidded to a stop in the alley next to the precinct. She smoothed her hair down before walking in and going straight to David’s office.

“Come in,” he called after she knocked.

“Hey, dad,” she greeted, slipping through the door and closing it softly. As soon as she turned to face him, David raised an eyebrow.

“What did you do?”

“What makes you think I did something?” She questioned, plopping down in the chair in front of his desk and tossing one of the sandwiches she got at him. “Don’t look at me like that; I know Rob is making you start that diet. Here’s a cheat.”

“This is why you’re my favorite child.”

“You have more?”

“Seriously, though, what did you do?” He questioned again, taking a bite of the sandwich. Barri sunk a bit deeper in her seat and avoided eye contact. “Bernadette.”

“Ugh, I hate it when you pull out the full name,” she grumbled before taking a deep breath. “I’m an idiot and told Iris and Eddie that I’m the Flash.”

“You did what?”

“I hate lying to them, dad! And wouldn’t it be smart to have someone else in the precinct knowing the truth besides Detective West?” David kept the glare going, even as he took another bite of the sandwich.

“At least you didn’t tell Johnson or Miller,” he murmured with a sigh.

“They’re next on my list.”

“Bernadette, I swear to God.”

Barri had slipped on some gold heels that strapped at the ankle with three-inch heels. She was putting in some gold hoop earrings when there was a knock on her apartment door. Her heart started beating faster and lightning flickered around her fingertips. Oh, he was there. She checked the mirror to make sure her hair was perfectly curled and that her thin gold chain necklace was hanging right; fun fact – her hair was in fact not curled perfectly. She made a section of curls too large compared to the other parts. “Fuck it,” she hissed, grabbing a hair tie and pulling her hair into a messing ponytail that she hoped still looked tastefully cute.

Opening her front door, Barri smiled brightly when she saw Oliver holding some wild daisies in his hand. “Are these for me?”

“Actually, they’re for your dad,” Oliver joked. “He’s the one I really need to make like me.” Letting out a laugh, Barri grabbed the flowers and quickly filled a vase she had in one of the cabinets with water and dropped them in gently.

“They’re beautiful, and I’m sure my dad will love them.” A small smile crept across his face, and he held out his arm. Barri weaved her own arm through his to gently grip his bicep as they made their way out of her apartment. “So, where are you taking me?”

“I was thinking, at first, dinner and a movie, but a movie seems like a bad idea with your attention span,” he teased making Barri let out another laugh. “So instead, I thought about dinner and a walk through the park.”

“That sounds amazing,” Barri agreed and followed him out towards his rental car. Oliver opened the passenger door for her, rounding the front of the car and slid in behind the wheel. At some point during the drive over, their fingers laced together over the gear shift, and he occasionally pulled her hand towards his face, pressing his lips gently to the back of it without letting his eyes roam from the road ahead of it. The action made butterflies erupt in Barri’s stomach and she felt her face heat up with a blush.

They pulled to the front of what was most likely the nicest restaurant in all Central City. Barri had never even thought of going near the restaurant, let alone eating in it. “Ollie,” she breathed, looking over the building.

“Too much?” He questioned, one side of his mouth pulling down in a small frown.

“I’ve just never been here, so I’m excited,” she said, leaning up a bit to press a light kiss to his cheek. “It’s wonderful, thank you.” He opened his door, handing off his keys to the valet before making his way towards her door and holding out hand to her. He kept his fingers intertwined in hers as they made their way towards the hostess behind a black podium.

“Hello, reservation for two under ‘Queen’,” Oliver said. The hostess looked surprised as if she didn’t expect the reservation to be under multi-millionaire Oliver Queen of all people.

“Right! Yes, right this way,” she said, leading them to a secluded booth out of most people’s line of sight, which might have been for the best.

They sat down across from one another and were handed menus. “Order whatever you want,” Oliver said, making Barri raise a dark eyebrow.

“Are you sure? Did Felicity tell you how much I eat now?”

“Bare, I have a lot of money. My wallet be fine.” He stopped and studied her for a heartbeat. “Would you like to hit up a food truck after this?” Barri felt her eyes light up as she reached across the table to give Oliver’s hand a light squeeze in appreciation.

“You’re amazing.” He squeezed her hand back as they looked over their respective menus. It took Barri a few minutes to realize that they never released each other’s hand.

“Dinner was amazing, thank you,” Barri said, arm entwined with Oliver’s as they strolled the park near the dead center of Central City. There weren’t a lot of people out so they were practically alone.

“I’m glad. I’ve really enjoyed our time together tonight,” Oliver replied back and Barri beamed up at him.

“Me, too.” The continued their walk in silence, thankfully a comfortable one. They circled back around to Oliver’s rental and he drove her home. He walked her up the two flights of stairs to her apartment, and they faced each other. Barri didn’t want to say goodnight quite yet, and from the look on Oliver’s face, he didn’t either.

“I really did have a nice time tonight, Barri,” he said softly, his left hand reaching out and being gently placed on her waist.

“I did, too,” she whispered back with a smile. She leaned forward, not breaking eye contact and pressed her lips gently to his. As she pulled back, Oliver chased her, lips crashing hungrily on hers and his hand moved to her back to tug her closer. Pressed up against him, Barri could feel every muscle in his torso, and as her hands roamed up his arms, she mapped out every dip and curve along his biceps. She didn’t think she’d ever wanted someone more in her life. She pulled away a bit. “Come inside?” She questioned a bit breathlessly, turning a bit to unlock her door and push it open.

Instead of answering, Oliver reached down, gripping her below her ass and lifting her up. Barri wrapped her legs around his waist, allowing him to use her body to push the door open fully and kicking it closed behind him once they had entered the apartment. “Bedroom?” He asked between heated kisses.

“Down the hall, first door on the left,” she moaned as Oliver started sucking and biting at her neck. Following her directions, he walked them down the hall and into her bedroom and placed her gently on the bed, following closely.

Barri pulled back as he pulled his shirt off and she unbuttoned his dress pants. Once his shirt was off, Oliver leaned down, pushing her dress up so it bunched at her hips, pressing his lips to her thigh. Barri fell back onto her bed, panting. Fuck, she knew she wasn’t going to last long if he kept this up. She felt him unbuckling the straps at her ankle to tug her heels off and once he was finished, his slid his hand up her inner thighs, gently pushing her legs apart. He moved up pressing his whole body against her but making sure that his arms bracketing her form took most of his weight. He kissed her again, slow and deep. “Condom?” He asked, but Barri shook her head.

“Birth control.” That was something that she and Caitlin had to work a while on. Her metabolism burned through her normal dose so quickly that it was ineffective. They created a stronger one, and thankfully it worked. “I’m clean.”

“Me, too,” Oliver said, kissing her again. She felt the heel of his palm press against her through her underwear, and she moaned, Oliver using that moment to slip his tongue into her mouth. Their tongues rubbed against each other, not really fighting for dominance, Barri was just enjoying the dance. Oliver trailed his lips down her jaw and neck until he reached the skin between her heaving breasts. He reached up, tugging the material at her shoulders down to reveal her breasts to him, and the two worked together to take her dress all of the way off.

Barri thought that she’d want to use her speed, that maybe she’d think that things were moving to slow; even though she could feel the electricity thrumming beneath her skin, she was enjoying the pace. Oliver was very good at sex, not that she should be surprised, so there was no need to rush.

She leaned forward, making sure their bare chests were pressed together, and she nipped at his jaw, pulling him closer to her. She could feel his hardness pressing against her inner thigh and she slowly moved her leg against him earning a groan against neck from him. Her hands explored his back, fingers rubbing gently over the raised scars that littered his back. His hand that was still occasionally rubbing against her pulled away so he could kick off his own shoes and pull his pants down.

Barri thought that he was going to kiss her again, but instead Oliver lifted her and slid her underwear off before tugging at her hips so she was sitting at the edge of the bed. He spread her legs, and then knelt on the ground and gently separated her lower lips before sucking her clit into his mouth. Barri let out a loud moan, lowering herself back on the bed while Oliver hoisted one of her legs over his shoulder and pushed the other one further to the side. She couldn’t believe how talented he was with his mouth. She felt two fingers enter her as his tongue massaged her clit and she swore she was turning to goo. “Ollie,” she groaned, grabbing at his shoulder to pull him up. “Need you.”

The fingers withdrew, as did Oliver’s mouth, as he leaned over her once more to shove his tongue in her mouth. She tasted herself, which was odd, but kind of hot at the same time. She pulled herself backwards so she was lying fully on the bed to make it more comfortable for both of them, letting her legs fall apart. Oliver’s gaze darkened as he drank her in before he climbed on top of her again. Barri reached down, gripping him in her hand and guiding him towards her entrance. He pushed into her in an easy slide that made her shudder and Oliver groan against her neck again. “Ollie, move.” He clearly didn’t need to be told twice. He pulled almost all of the way out before pushing back in and Barri swore she was about to fall apart. He kept up a steady pace, Barri thrusting her hips up to meet his with each push.

He reached down, rolling her clit between his fingers, and Barri saw white. Oliver let out a surprised groan and stilled. “What? What happened? Why are you stopping?” Barri panted, eyes roaming over his face.

“Did you not feel that?”

“Feel what?”

“Bare, you just vibrated.” Barri blinked.

“I did?” He nodded. “Did it – did it feel good?” He nodded again, a small smile playing at the corner of his lips. “Hit that spot again and make me vibrate.”

He did. After one particularly hard and deep thrust, Barri noticed the vibration this time as Oliver bit her shoulder with a moan. “Fuck,” he gasped out, hitting that spot inside her again and again until her vision whitened out again. She came with a sharp cry that echoed through her room and she vibrated with such intensity that the whole bedframe shook with it. He followed her shortly after, coming inside of her. They both breathed deeply for a long moment before Barri leaned up to press her lips against his softly. He kissed back, shifting his weight to one arm so he could cup her check with the other one gently as he deepened the kiss.

“That was incredible,” she breathed against his lips. “I think I need a nap now.” Oliver chuckled, kissing her one last time.

“I should probably go back to my hotel.”

“Or you can stay?” Barri offered.

“Are you sure?” Barri nodded, pulling him close again before wrinkling her nose.

“Maybe we should shower before bed, though.” He agreed, and while Barri was sure both of them had just a shower in mind, round two ended up happening instead. Not that she minded, of course. Like she noticed earlier, Oliver had a very talented mouth, and the way the callouses on his fingers rubbed against her inner walls… holy fuck.

As soon as they were done with shower, Barri sped through changing her sheets while Oliver was still drying off before they climbed into bed. She wasn’t sure if Oliver liked being touched while he slept so she kept her distance until he reached forward and tugged her into him. Barri snuggled into Oliver’s bare chest, tracing the tattoo there before the two were lulled into sleep.

“You two had sex?” Iris questioned way too loudly.

“Iris!” Barri hissed in annoyance as she looked around to make sure no one but Eddie overheard inside the precinct. “Yes, we had sex. Twice last night, and once this morning.” It was actually how she woke up. She had never once had a partner wake her up by rubbing against her gently, rolling a nipple between the fingers. It was amazing, and honestly one of gentlest orgasms she’s ever had.

“How are you walking? I’ve heard Oliver Queen is hung.”

“Iris!” Eddie hissed this time and Iris just shrugged.

“What? It’s just a question,” she defended, still looking at Barri intently.

“I heal fast,” was all Barri said, taking a sip of her coffee.

“Was he good?”

“And this is where I walk away,” Eddie sighed, pushing himself out of his chair and away from his desk. Barri and Iris were sitting on top of it, facing each other. “I’m glad you had a fun night… and morning, Bare.”

“Thanks, Eds,” she chirped, grinning at the blonde.

“When does he leave for Starling?”

“His train leaves in about an hour. I offered to see him off, but he said no. Felicity apparently told him about less than stellar attendance record here.” Barri took another sip. “I suppose I could speed over. Get there and back in a few minutes.”

“That’s a great idea!”

Barri spent that hour between looking at the clock, watching the minutes tick by, and doing actual work. When it was time for Oliver’s train to leave, she sped over the train station, looking through all of the compartments until she found him. He didn’t seem surprised to see her sat across from him, eyes crinkled a bit in amusement. “You don’t seem surprised to see me.” Oliver leaned forward, grabbing her hand in his.

“The girl I just had an amazing night and morning with has superspeed,” he whispered lowly. “I had no doubt in my mind that’d you’d show up to see me off.”

“Can I come by next weekend? Date number two?”

“Sounds great,” Oliver agreed, leaning forward a bit more and Barri followed suit and met him in the middle for one last kiss before he departed. “Stay safe out there, Flash.”

“You, too, Arrow.” She pressed her lips to his chastely before speeding off of the train and back into her office. She plopped into her chair so quickly that it spun in circles a few times before she shot her hand out to grab her desk and stop the chair.

“What the actual fuck, Baby Face!” A voice shouted. Barri yelped in surprise, turning her chair again to see Mason Miller standing there, mouth open and brown eyes wide in surprise.

“Uh-”

“You’re the Flash? Barri, I watched you trip over your own feet last year and go headfirst into a table!” He paused, and Barri could see the wheels in his head turning. “Was it the lightning? And the – the particle accelerator thing? Did that give you-”

“Powers?” She offered, and he nodded, mouth now hanging open. “It did. It did the same to others, and I stop them.” He let out a deep sigh, plopping down in the seat across from her.

“Does your dad know?” She nodded.

“He found out during the ATM robberies.”

“Right, I remember that guy. He beat the shit out of the Flash, if I remember correctly.” He paused again, eyes widening as he turned them on her. “Holy shit, Baby Face, that was you!” She opened her mouth to tell him about what happened when there was a sigh from the doorway. Miller turned in his seat and Barri peered around him. David was standing there with his ‘disappointed dad’ face on full blast.

“Really, Bernadette?”

“I didn’t see him standing there!” She defended.

“I know I taught you how to canvas a room before entering.”

“Yeah, but it’s my office! I shouldn’t need to canvas it!” Barri was grasping at straws at that point, and all three of them knew it. David just blinked at her, thoroughly unimpressed, before turning his sights on Miller.

“Officer Miller.”

“Captain?” Barri could hear the poor man audibly gulp.

“You tell anyone about what you’ve discovered today, I’ll-”

“Sir, I won’t tell anyone. That could put Barri at risk, and I’m not about to do that,” Miller cut in, standing from his chair. David studied him for a heartbeat before nodding.

“Good. Go back to work.” Miller nodded, handing the Barri the folder he was holding. That was probably the reason he came into her office to begin with. He scurried out the door, shutting it softly behind him. David let out another sigh, taking Miller’s spot in the chair before his piercing dark gaze landed on Barri. “How did your date go?” Barri blinked.

“Hold on, you aren’t going to yell at me?”

“You’re an adult, Bare. It’s your decision to tell people this secret. All I ask is that you be smart about it, think it through, and be careful. Okay?” Barri nodded, and then told him all about her date with Oliver.

Well, she did leave a few things out.