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Barry rushed up to the crime scene, trying not to wheeze, to a familiar raised eyebrow from Detective Singh and a disappointed look from Joe that instinctively made him flinch.
“Car trouble again, Allen?” Detective Singh asked.
He winced and peeked up at Darryl, who was giving him a very unimpressed look.
“The train was late,” Barry said. “Um.”
“Here’s your kit,” Darryl said, passing Barry the box and Barry gratefully leaned down to see what he could find. Science he could do.
Tuning out the mutters of Darryl going too easy on him and playing favourites was a little harder.
Barry stuck his head into Darryl’s office before heading to S.T.A.R. Labs.
“Do you have something?” Darryl asked.
“I have some leads,” Barry said. “I’ve narrowed it down to five farms. Joe said he’s going to go check. I, um.”
“Sit down, Barry,” Darryl said.
Barry folded into the chair across his desk, feeling vaguely like he was twelve and about to be grounded again.
“Did you find anything in Starling?”
Barry winced.
“You know I can’t keep doing this,” Darryl said.
“I know,” Barry said. “You don’t have to. I know what they all say.”
“Barry,” Darryl sighed. “You have the potential to be a great C.S.I., you could be director in less than ten years, but you need to work out what your priorities are.”
“I know what they are,” Barry grumbled under his breath.
“We’re not talking about that here,” Darryl said. “Next time you take off like that, I’m not bailing you out.”
“He’s still out there,” Barry said. “There is a murderer running around free, and no one else even tried to-”
“That’s enough.”
“I’m going to find him.” Barry stood up with a scowl. “I don’t care how long it takes me; I am going to find him. My dad is innocent and I’ll prove it, Darryl. You can fire me and disown me if you want, but I am going to find the Man in Yellow.”
“You’ll be doing it on your own,” Darryl warned.
“I already am.”
Barry turned and left.
“He’s just worried about you,” Iris said.
“I know,” Barry groaned, slumping down.
Iris patted his shoulder comfortingly. Gosh, he loved her.
If only he knew how to tell her.
“And he’s wrong,” Iris said. “You’re not alone, you’ve got me. I can’t believe I miss one trip and you manage to meet Oliver Queen.”
“You had college presentations,” Barry shrugged. “Next time I’ll make sure I bring you.”
“You’d better,” Iris warned. “So, this particle thing. If I did my journalism assignment on it, can you give me the run-down?”
“Sure,” Barry said.
Iris pulled out a notebook and he launched into an explanation.
Darryl wasn’t in his office when Detective Thawne brought them back to C.C.P.D.
Joe wasn’t in either, off following Barry’s leads. Iris had already said she’d wait for him. Maybe he should wait for Darryl. Apologise at least.
It wasn’t Darryl’s fault. Sometimes it felt like it was. He was a detective then, it was his job to investigate murders, and yet he’d let them arrest Barry’s dad for something he would never do.
And Darryl had been his friend. He was friends with Barry’s parents, he should have known his dad was innocent, even if no one else believed Barry. He was Barry’s godfather, he was the one they wanted to take care of Barry, to do what was best for him, and what was best for him would have been proving his dad innocent so Barry could go home. Could at least keep one of his parents, instead of both of them being ripped away from him for no reason at all.
It was more complicated than that, they all said to him. And maybe it was for Darryl. He’d found out a couple of years ago there had been accusations his mother had had an affair with Darryl, that Barry with his blue eyes and the blond hair he’d so obviously sported till he was five and it had started to get darker, was Darryl’s son by blood, not Henry Allen’s.
It wasn’t true. Barry had never thought his mother capable of that, and neither had his father, and Darryl had denied it too.
They wouldn’t have let Darryl have Barry if that were true. They hadn’t, he’d stayed with Joe for the first two months, it was only after the trial they’d given him to Darryl and Darryl had adopted him.
And he was a forensic scientist now. If there had ever been any doubt, which there wasn’t, he could run DNA himself.
He still felt guilty, and the only person he’d told was Iris, but not as much as he’d felt relief.
Darryl was a good man. Barry knew that. He loved Barry, and really had tried, and Barry knew that too. He just...
There had always been this conflict in his life, with everyone, that he stubbornly refused to give up on a man convicted over a decade ago for murdering his mother. They thought he was all kinds of things.
They thought he was betraying his mother’s memory.
That one hurt the most.
He’d sighed and gone up to his lab when his phone started ringing. Felicity. It was probably best to be alone.
Probably best not to be talking about things involving the Arrow in a police station, even if he was a few hundred miles away.
Thunder cracked, shaking his lab, and rain pattered in, through the skylight Barry was sure he’d closed.
He went to tug on the chain, to pull it tight-
-and he woke up in a white room with two people standing over him.
Iris had been at Jitters, and Barry hadn’t realised how much his heart was racing until he felt her arms around him, holding him close, dragging him back to Earth after what felt like the worst nightmare of his life.
Nine months. Nine months, gone, in the blink of an eye.
Iris hadn’t been able to leave. Barry hadn’t expected her to. Jitters seemed busy, and Tracy had dropped some mugs and for a moment Barry had been sure he could have caught them, but Iris had to help her clean up and deal with the queue and it had seemed so much easier for Barry to say he’d come back in a bit, after her shift was over.
He’d made his way to C.C.P.D. instead. He probably owed Darryl an apology. Nine months, and he’d left him on an argument.
People greeted him when he walked in. Said they’d missed him. That was weird.
Joe was at his desk, and rushed to Barry just as quickly as Iris had done. Hugged him tight, he missed him.
“Why didn’t Wells call?” Joe asked.
A sour look crossed his face at the mention of him.
“I only just woke up,” Barry said. “I assumed they called Darryl, is he not in the office?”
Joe’s face fell.
“What is it?” Barry asked.
“Son, I think you need to sit,” Joe said.
“Why?”
“Joe, Thawne, robbery in progress,” Detective Singh called from Darryl’s office.
“David,” Joe said, his hand on Barry’s shoulder. “He doesn’t...”
Time seemed to slow to a stop around him before Joe could finish his sentence. Before he could confirm the doubt that was creeping into Barry’s mind.
His breath hitched and time sped up again.
“I’ll be okay, Joe,” Barry said. “You can go, they need you. I think Detective Singh can explain.”
“Bare-”
“I’ll be okay,” Barry said. “Promise.”
Joe nodded and followed Detective Thawne out.
He looked at Detective- Captain- Singh standing in the door to Darryl’s office, saw the looks of pity.
“Do you want to come in, Barry?” Captain Singh asked kindly.
Joe hadn’t believed him about Clyde Mardon. Barry hadn’t expected him to. Joe had never believed him about the Man in Yellow. Joe was...
He was Barry’s Joe. Iris had been Barry’s best friend since forever, and when Joe had been promoted to detective he’d been partnered with Darryl, and Barry had half grown up at his house, even before.
Maybe Joe had only fostered him for a few months, but Barry remembered being eleven and not knowing what was going to happen to him, and Joe sitting him down and promising he’d be there. That even if they refused to give him to Darryl, he could stay with Joe, Joe wouldn’t let them to send him away to strangers, that he’d wanted a son once, and that whatever did happen, Barry would always have a home with Joe and Iris, that he would always be welcome, and he would always be loved.
Not even the running away and constant searching for the Man in Yellow had changed Joe’s mind, but Joe had never hidden his disapproval and disbelief either. Especially not when Iris involved herself.
Barry was in shock, Joe said. He understood this time, but Clyde Mardon had died the night the particle accelerator had blown.
Had died when the plane he'd been in was struck by lightning. The plane he'd been flying, that he'd jumped in right before his brother had.
Right before his brother had shot Darryl in the chest.
Darryl who’d been there because he trusted Barry.
And yet Barry had heard Detective Thawne mention the other witness statement looking like Mardon as he’d stormed away.
Detective Thawne who was dating Iris. And maybe there was this jealousy, this fear, this anger and grief and confusion, all these bad feelings waiting to burst out that tempted him to run back to S.T.A.R. Labs without her, to just go back there and pray this was some kind of terrible nightmare-
But Iris was his best friend. His best friend and he needed...
“Joe doesn’t like S.T.A.R. Labs,” Barry said.
“He likes Cisco and Caitlin,” Iris said. “I don’t think he trusts Doctor Wells, but not many people do these days. I know no one else took his offer of help.”
“But Joe did,” Barry said.
“It wasn’t Dad,” Iris said. “Darryl adopted you. Without him they said you didn’t have a proper next of kin, and Dad was trying, he was talking to D.A. Horton on how to get you under his name, or to at least restore Henry’s rights to you, but your heart kept stopping and you kept seizing and the hospital didn’t understand how both were happening but they said it was unfair to keep forcing you back if your body wanted to go. And then Doctor Wells swooped in and paid for everything and took you to S.T.A.R. Labs and he told us it was guilt, that he wanted to be able to help after everything he’d done. I think Dad maybe questioned whether it was really redemption, or whether it was because you were a medical mystery he thought he could solve and at least get some of his glory back, but he said as long as it brought you back to us, that was all that mattered.”
“Do you trust him?” Barry asked.
“You’re here,” Iris said. “I didn’t think I’d ever be able to talk to you again, but here you are, and I’ll always be grateful to them for that.”
“I think they can explain how Clyde Mardon is alive,” Barry said. “And I- I- The-”
He gulped.
“What’s wrong?” Iris asked gently.
“I think it can explain the Man in Yellow too,” Barry said. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” Iris said, with no hesitation.
“I have to go back there,” Barry said. “But if you come, I think I’m going to have to ask you to hide something from Detective Thawne, and I don’t know if I can ask that. It won’t be forever, I just don’t know...”
“Do you need me?” Iris asked.
“I can handle this,” Barry said. “He's hurt people. His brother killed Darryl, and if Clyde's alive, maybe Mark is too, maybe he's not, either way, I am not letting either of the Mardon brothers hurt anyone else."
“I’m already asking Eddie to keep this from Dad, and now you as well,” Iris said. “I’ll go distract Dad so you can do whatever mystery plan you’ve got.”
“You’re the best,” Barry said, hugging her tight.
“Good luck,” Iris hugged him back. “And whatever it is, when you’re ready to tell me, I’ll be there.”
Barry nodded, and took off, his jog accelerating until he left Iris’ sight.
The lightning gathered round him again, and he ran.