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Barry had no idea how he continued to end up in these situations. In a back alley with an armful of his supervillain? Nemesis? He still wasn’t sure what category Cold fit into and that was before the hugging. Maybe one of these days he’d try that whole ‘planning ahead’ thing that Oliver kept going on about.
It started that morning during his coffee run, about 30 hours into his typical 8-hour shift. A new mob war sprung up over the last week and it was all hands on deck and then some at the precinct. Barry just managed to wrangle a quick break to refuel and stock up on caffeine from Singh, and Cold just had to ambush him outside the back door to Jitters. All he got out of the man was “I have a problem, Scarlet,” and they set up a time to meet after Barry’s shift ended. Normally he would’ve argued more, demanded more information...basically done anything other than what he did. Which was agree and allow Snart to choose both the time and place. Something seemed very...off about his nemesis and Barry wanted to know why.
He actually managed to be on time. Mostly. About a minute and a half late and Snart made no comment whatsoever. Confirmation that something was very wrong, check. He zipped from the precinct to the Lab to drop off his stuff and put on the suit—never hurt to be careful, but he didn’t think he’d be walking into an ambush. He texted Caitlin and Cisco about his run-in with Cold during his lunch break and they came up with a Plan B in case it was an elaborate trap after all. The other two weren’t in favor of his impulsive decision to meet the man but promised to reserve judgement, and run interference with Joe that evening if the detective decided to go by the Lab on his way home. Barry seriously hoped that Joe’d just go home, they had a very long couple of days. Also, Caitlin and Cisco weren’t that good at lying.
Barry moved closer, waited for the other man to speak up, explain himself, do something beyond stand there slightly hunched over and curled in on himself. He was breathing heavily and if Barry didn’t know better he’d think Cold was on the verge of a panic attack. Ok, whatever this was had to be pretty damn serious to get the normally cool, ugh, Barry can’t believe he walked into a pun in his own mind, man into such a state?
It probably wasn’t metahuman related–if that was the case he would’ve freaked out a bit during the betrayal at Ferris Air rather than having fun at Barry’s expense. Besides, there weren’t any new metahumans on STAR Labs’ radar, and Barry hadn’t seen anything at CCPD to indicate that either Lisa or Rory had any warrants. Well, any new active warrants anyway, or hospital reports that fit their description.
Barry continued to close the distance between them, looked around to make sure the area was as deserted as it first appeared. He pulled his cowl down, then let his arms drop to his sides, slightly extended with the palms up in a classic ‘no-threat’ posture. Cold lets him approach, eyes wary but still, and Barry couldn’t quite believe it, but...fearful. As he got closer he saw just how wrecked the other man was—eyes bloodshot, huge circles under them, expression brittle and on edge—and he couldn’t help it, just pulled Snart into a tight hug.
The thief stiffened for a heartbeat before practically collapsing onto the younger man, dropped his forehead onto Barry’s shoulder and returning the embrace, arms tight around Barry’s chest and damn was the man strong. He had no idea how much time went by before Snart drew in a deep, shaky breath and pulled back a bit, loosened his grip from ‘lung-crushing’ to ‘really tight by normal standards’. “My father, he’s out.”
Barry blinked, confused. That was really not enough…oooh, right. He remembered now, looking through the book of mugshots after their first encounter. Joe mentioned that his father was a dirty cop doing time in Iron Heights. Well…that provided a little context, but still not enough. Unless…shit. He really regretted destroying Snart’s files now, because maybe then he’d have more information. Or that he read the damn things before running Felicity’s program. He waited, hoping the other would continue without prompting. He didn’t exactly have anywhere he needed to be tonight.
He may have all night, but patience has never been one of Barry’s strong suits, and becoming the Flash only made that worse. After waiting a few more minutes, he decided to nudge the conversation along. “That may be an explanation for some people, but I’m gonna need more than that, Cold.”
The older man took a long, shaky breath before releasing the speedster and stepping back, creating some distance. Pulling himself together, if only just a little. He seemed to need the space before he could elaborate.
“Thought you might get it. Yours is there too,” he trailed off slightly, adding “but you actually visit your father, so maybe not,” under his breath.
It took a moment, but Barry caught on. Of course Snart knew about his Dad. Wait.
“How do you know I visit?” came out before he could stop himself, wanting to know but needing to focus now that Cold was actually talking.
His mask slipped—clearly revealing more to Barry than he intended and not quite sure how to recover. The speedster made a mental note to follow up on this later before giving the man an out.
“Look, we can come back to that. Joe mentioned something a while ago, that your dad was a dirty cop and doing time in Iron Heights? But that’s about it.” And it certainly didn’t explain why Snart was here, approaching Barry for help. Clearly upset, and so far off his game he was almost unrecognizable. Even the stupid parka was missing. The thief was in street clothes—a dark grey long-sleeved shirt and jeans—making it obvious that he didn’t have the cold gun with him for this meeting, either.
“Not gonna go into too many details. Lisa’s the main reason the old man did time in the first place. Swearing he’d get her when he got out is why he never got parole. That and the dirty cop bit. You badges hate that more than most things. I’m,” he grimaced, clearly not liking what he was about to say, to reveal to his...whatever he considered Barry. “Not sure I can keep her safe.” Scowled, muttered “either of us, really.”
Barry was almost positive he wasn’t supposed to hear the last part, but it was hard not to with barely a foot separating them. He didn’t know how to react to that. Cold may be many things, have many less-than admirable traits, but one thing Barry took for granted—practically as an unwritten rule—was the man’s ability to look out for himself. To turn practically any situation to his advantage. It was one of his more annoying qualities, if the speedster was being honest with himself. That and his dedication to his sister. Maybe Heat Wave, too. Ok, so two things then.
Yet here he was, coming to Barry for help with both of those things. “So what exactly are you asking of me, Snart?”
The man winced slightly at the use of his last name. It was barely perceptible, something Barry would’ve missed if they were standing further apart. Or if he wasn’t studying the thief’s face so intently. Snart sighed again, shoving his hands in his pockets before responding. “Honestly Red, I dunno. Still can’t quite believe this is happening. But maybe find her someplace safe to lay low while I deal with the bastard? Can’t be connected to either of us or our usual line of work. He’d know to look there. Already tracked us down once.”
Barry’s mind was racing. STAR Labs had the space, but he had to talk to the others before offering it as a solution. Plus, they’d have to Rogue-proof it. He knew there was no way that Cold, and probably Heat Wave, would be far from Lisa given the circumstances. That meant two, potentially three, people living in close quarters with his friends. Who were kidnapped and tormented by the people that now needed their help. How did he end up in these situations?
“Ok I may have a pretty good option in mind, but need to run it by the others first. Pass me your phone?” That earned him a curious glance—finally an expression he expected from the other man—as he dug out his phone and passed it to Barry. The speedster quickly entered his number and sent himself a text before handing the phone back.
“Care to return the gesture, Barry?” the other man asked.
Barry smirked and gestured to his suit, “Does it look like I can fit my phone in this thing, Cold?” earning him that considering head-tilt and once-over that Barry was sure lingered more than necessary.
“Fair point. I assume you mean STAR Labs. Don’t bother answering—we both know that’s what you meant. Let Ramon and Snow know that we will respect any boundaries set. Within reason. And that pipeline, Red? Not reasonable.”
That hadn’t even crossed his mind. The pipeline solution never sat easily with him and he was actually secretly glad the other sabotaged the transfer to Lian Yu and freed the metas. Once the sting of betrayal and Mardon’s lightning wore off, anyway. Barry just rolled his eyes a bit at that. “Never thought it was, Cold. Anything else before I run?”
“Not really. You lot decide to help that’ll change but…” he trailed off.
Barry could respect that, didn’t want to pry. He always hated it when others tried to make him open up about what happened with his Mom and Dad...who was now probably stuck in prison forever because of Wells, Thawne, whatever. Barry gave himself a mental shake.
“Ok, let me get back and fill them in. I’ll be in touch soon, one way or the other.” It was odd, feeling the need to extend common courtesy to his nemesis, but that summed up his life since the lightning and Barry just rolled with it.
Cold nodded once with a quiet “Thanks, Scarlet,” that lingered in Barry’s ears all the way back to the Cortex.
Turned out it that wasn’t just Caitlin and Cisco in the Lab, Iris arrived while he was out talking to Snart. She was dropping by more frequently lately, ever since finding out about the Flash and helping them take down Grodd. Well, helping him get away from Grodd more or less in one piece. She was becoming an invaluable addition to the team. His best friend was more grounded and practical than either himself or Cisco, but not quite as cautious as Caitlin when it came to taking risks. Joe wasn’t too thrilled, but seemed to be coming to terms with it. At least this time he didn’t pull out the silent treatment. Barry hoped that they all learned something from the whole ‘keeping Iris in the dark about the Flash’ fiasco, but figured it was only a matter of time before one of them did something.
Hell, if all this worked out he’d probably be on the receiving end of the patented West freeze-out this time. And did he really just think of having the Snarts, and Rory, stay at STAR for an indeterminate length of time as ‘working out’?! Barry refused to look at that too closely, especially since the others fixed him with expectant gazes when he dropped back to normal speed.
“Well man, what did Cold want?” Cisco got straight to the point, kicking his chair out from behind his workstation. Iris raised an eyebrow, leaning on the railing and giving him that ‘talk, Bear’ look of hers while Caitlin just stood up and crossed her arms.
He pushed the cowl down, taking a second to collect his thoughts. Trying to wrap his own head around everything that happened in the last—was it really only twenty minutes?—so he could lay it out for his team. But first, “Cisco, can you pull up the files on Snart’s father? Thanks.”
The engineer nodded skeptically before rolling back to his keyboard and starting to pull up the information. “May take me a few minutes, I’m not as fast as Felicity.”
“That’s fine, just have a feeling we’re gonna want to look them over soon enough.”
That earned him some weird looks. He took a deep breath before launching into an edited version of the meeting, leaving out the hugging and panic attack. If that was even what it was, Barry still wasn’t sure. Stressing how out of character the entire thing was for Cold. Actually showing emotions beyond the usual sardonic amusement, typically at their expense, not being able to maintain his persona. The real fear for his sister, and finally what the man asked of them and Barry’s tentative solution.
Their reactions were fairly predictable, although he appreciated them waiting until he finished before starting in. Cisco was still bitter about Cold sabotaging his tech on the transport and Caitlin wasn’t a fan of either of them. Iris stayed quiet, considering. Barry sighed.
“Aren’t we supposed to be the good guys here? Shouldn’t we at least consider helping?” That got Caitlin to budge slightly, her expression softening. Just a little, but enough to notice.
“Hey Cisco, have you gotten those files on Snart the Elder up yet?” Iris entered the conversation.
“What? Oh, yeah. Barry, you should choose a harder password, man.”
Barry chose to ignore that and all of them moved behind Cisco to see what he found.
Well shit. This does explain some of why Snart—Cold—looked so off. And he was really going to have to come up with a new name for the guy before this got very confusing. Focus, dammit. The files were disturbing to say the least, and—
“Damn. Ultimately convicted of working for organized crime, you don’t get that much time for simply taking bribes, but clearly they couldn’t prove anything more serious. Or they didn’t look. And since he was a cop, I bet they ignored a lot of the signs before they began building their case. Dad mentioned that this reprimand usually means ‘showed up to work drunk, repeatedly’.” She was frowning now, concerned and seemed to be getting on-board with this crazy request.
He could’ve hugged her, but that would’ve required way too many explanations for why helping Snart mattered to him. The speedster didn’t have any answers, just knew that for some reason he really wanted to do this. Learning their father was a drunk only solidified that. Between his time as a CSI and the things Joe told him and Iris growing up about alcohol-related violence, he was starting to assemble a picture from the clues available. Combine that with Cold’s demeanor, and what he came up with wasn’t pretty.
Cisco and Caitlin glanced between him and Iris.
“Ok, fine. So what parts of the Lab will be easiest to lock down for the Rogues to use?” Caitlin directed that to Cisco, prodding the engineer into action and pulling up the blueprints.
“Seriously, we’re doing this?” Cisco shot them all an incredulous look.
Barry ran his hands through his hair, then rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. We may not like them, but the Rogues aren’t too bad. Mostly annoying. They’ve respected the rules from the woods and I wouldn’t be too surprised if they’re helping to keep crime down by making others fall in line. And Cold did not look good. Like, at all. He also said they’d respect any ground rules we set about the Lab as long as they didn’t involve the pipeline. Why don’t we take another half hour, forty-five minutes or so getting a section of the lab locked down for them, then I’ll call Cold and let him know what’s going on?”
It took a while to decide on a section that was near the Cortex, had direct access to the garages, and could be locked down. They settled on a section of the main floor that terminated into their lounge because it had a full kitchen in addition to the sofas and TV. The rest of the area included four labs that could easily convert into bedrooms, and locker-room style bathing facilities. Cisco reactivated the pass-code system on the doors, updating the team’s proximity cards and Barry’s suit before he started in on passes for the Rogues, making sure they had a path from the garage while keeping them out of Team Flash’s work space.
Sharing the lounge wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t the end of the world. They wanted to give the Rogues space, but decided they’d rather not have the supervillains on a separate floor. The whole area was covered by surveillance cameras, minus the showers, allowing them to keep an eye on their guests.
After Cisco finished with the doors, Barry texted Cold to let him know the Lab would work after all. Putting the phone back down, he zipped around to gather blankets, extra couches, towels, and the ubiquitous STAR Labs sweats and shirts for their...guests? Enemies? Soon-to-be-resident supervillains? He snickered at the last. Considering who their mentor turned out to be, it just wasn’t STAR Labs without a supervillain in residence. He and his friends had no idea what the Rogues would bring with so he wanted to at least make sure that they could shower and wouldn’t have to sleep in their street clothes.
Iris and Caitlin were in the lounge, shifting the couches Barry brought and checking on supplies. “Bear, we’re gonna need to stock this place better, and soon.”
Right, groceries...well, they’d have to make do for tonight. There was a frozen pizza, some bananas, and half a box of granola bars. As long as Barry stuck to Cisco’s Flash food, that is. Luckily, he had tomorrow off and could iron out the finer details of this whole mess. And get food. It wasn’t like he had plans anyway, beyond sleeping in. Which probably wouldn’t happen, especially since he and Cisco were going to spend the night in the Lab, just in case.
Now they just needed their ‘guests’ to arrive.