Chapter Text
Barry had not been told about S.T.A.R. Labs offering their help with the Mercury Labs case. Presumably for the same reason Joe had requested CHQ send a C.S.I. down to analyse the scene rather than ask Barry who was literally upstairs and would be ready in like thirty seconds if Joe had just come up like he’d use to before all this.
Unfortunately for Joe, Eddie did not realise Barry was apparently not supposed to know.
Barry had no idea what Eddie knew. He was dating Iris and maybe at one point Barry would have been jealous of that, but he’d been watching the two of them fall in love for the past year and Eddie made Iris so happy and she was his best friend, that was all he ever wanted for her. Eddie was dedicated and had maybe started a little too eager to prove himself, but he did seem honest and kind. Barry definitely wouldn’t have minded if Iris had told him why she’d started looking into the Flash, and Eddie had mentioned reading Barry’s blog and Barry had mentioned the Man in Yellow on that, but Eddie hadn’t directly said anything about the Man in Yellow.
Though, given Eddie was currently avoiding Barry’s eyes, that may have been his attempt at plausible deniability.
“We don’t need forensics!” Joe shouted. If Barry had still been twelve-
Well, actually, even at twelve Barry’s response to being on the receiving end of Joe’s temper was usually to get angry himself, but then, most of their arguments had similar subjects, and Barry had been quite an angry child.
“But you can accept help from a defunct lab who shouldn’t have known about any of this?” Barry yelled back. “You’re still angry I took Iris’ side, aren’t you?”
“You’re helping her support this criminal-”
“He’s a hero,” Barry immediately defended. “And Iris is a good journalist. I’m not going to tell her about this, I know how to do my job, Joe!”
“Barry,” Captain Singh cut in and Barry immediately snapped to attention. Captain Singh almost never used his first name. “Do you have any idea what S.T.A.R. Labs were talking about when they started talking about accelerated molecular intangibility?”
“Atoms are full of empty space and are constantly in motion,” Barry said. “They mean he can move so fast he can pass through that empty space in the brief millisecond it lines up for him and he can walk through walls, hence there was no evidence of breaking and entering at Mercury Labs.”
“Doctor McGee definitely didn’t want to give Doctor Wells the tachyon prototype,” Eddie said. “I don’t think Wells would have been her first call about the break in.”
Joe glared at him and Eddie shrugged apologetically.
“Allen has the best chance of actually understanding whatever S.T.A.R. Labs start spouting,” Captain Singh said.
Joe immediately opened his mouth, and Captain Singh didn’t even let him start.
“Allen, Iris’ blog is good and she’s very convincing, but we do not know who the Flash is, and we don’t know what’s happening to the people he’s fighting. Unless you can answer both of those questions for me right now, he is still our prime suspect, I do not want any bias from any of you jeopardising a conviction of a murderer.”
Barry didn’t say anything. He certainly did not bring up that Iris had introduced him to the Flash. And there was no way he was telling Joe the Flash had offered to help him catch the Man in Yellow.
Nor that Barry needed to be part of this so he could prove the Man in Yellow was real, and finally get his dad out of prison.
“Just, all of you go before I change my mind about approving this nonsense,” Captain Singh said.
Doctor Harrison Wells was waiting at the door. A year ago, Barry would have been thrilled to meet him. Part of Barry still was.
The other part had seen the wreckage of Wells’ accelerator, and heard from Eddie Wells was a little...
Eddie hadn’t been sure what to say, and that summed it up pretty well for Barry.
Doctor Tina McGee was standing next to him and from the tension alone Barry was certain she would not have been the one who called Wells to tell him about the break-in. Barry didn’t like using gut instinct in policing, he liked hard, solid evidence, but they both seemed unsettled, and neither of them were engaging with each other, that was enough evidence to point him in one direction.
There were two other people standing there too, a woman and a man, both around the same age as him Barry was guessing. Something about the man seemed vaguely familiar, but Barry was sure he’d remember meeting someone who looked like that.
“Detective West, Detective Thawne,” Doctor Wells said. “And...”
He narrowed his eyes at Barry.
“This is Barry Allen, our forensic analyst,” Eddie said. “We were hoping you could talk him through how this trap of yours works.”
Eddie smiled earnestly in a way that made Barry frown a little. Eddie really didn’t like Doctor Wells for some reason.
“I’m afraid it has very little to do with chemistry,” Doctor Wells said and Barry got the feeling he was being pleasant as reluctantly as Eddie.
“I would also feel more comfortable with lending you my prototype if you can explain fully, Harrison,” Doctor McGee snipped.
Those two were definitely on the verge of a shouting match.
“I studied some physics too if that helps,” Barry offered, right as the other man stepped forward and said, “I think I can give an overview.”
He shuffled a little, clearly embarrassed.
“Um,” he said. “If that would help.”
“It would be interesting, even if I don’t get it all,” Barry said. He held out his hand. “Barry Allen. Eddie already said that.”
“Cisco Ramon,” he said, a little bashful, as he shook Barry’s hand.
A familiar electric jolt passed between them and Barry immediately shoved down his shock. Not with Joe right there, that would not help anything.
That did explain why S.T.A.R. Labs was getting involved though, and how they’d heard about all this.
“I’m the mechanical engineer here,” the Flash carried on. “I helped Doctor Wells build the force field.”
“I didn’t realise force fields weren’t just science fiction,” Barry said. “I suppose I would have said the same about superpowers this time last year.”
“Right,” Cisco said. “Um. It’s this way.”
He pointed towards the building and beamed a little.
Barry was completely certain Iris was right and there was no way this man was anything other than earnestly trying to help.
A year ago Barry would have been thrilled to get the S.T.A.R. Labs tour. He would have been hanging off every word Doctor Wells was saying. He would have felt incredibly awkward being between Doctor Wells and Doctor McGee trying not to descend into a shouting match.
He did still feel very awkward standing between Doctor Wells and Doctor McGee like a buffer. But mostly he was focused on Cisco. He seemed so excited, talking about his project, about how he expected it to work, if their hypotheses were right. And of course Doctor Wells would be right about his predictions, though Barry wasn’t entirely sure he agreed with that last part. His last prediction had blown half the city up. Barry had been stuck on a train just outside the city for hours desperately trying to get hold of Iris and Joe to see if they were all right. If he’d been on the train he was supposed to be on instead of the later one he would have been in Central too. Or if the train he had ended up getting back had been on time he probably would have headed straight back to work to debrief with Captain Singh and he probably would have been in his lab, and that had been hit with a lightning bolt that had hit his chemicals shelf, who knows what would have happened if there had been a person up there.
At least it had finally got Barry a far more secure chemical storage unit and a new skylight that didn’t leak.
Considering he hadn’t thought Barry would know enough to follow, Doctor Wells was a good teacher. When Cisco got a little too bogged down in the details he would cut in with an easier to understand explanation. Not that Barry had lost track entirely yet, and Doctor McGee seemed to find it patronising, but if Barry had been struggling, he was sure Doctor Wells would have been able to explain.
Barry could admit he was paying more attention to Cisco than Doctor Wells. Something about him just drew Barry to him. It wasn’t something he could name, not a feeling he could explain, but there was something about Cisco Ramon pulling Barry in, like he was a magnet and Barry was being dragged into his orbit.
He was not the first person Barry would have described if he had to guess who was running around Central these days, but it was also so obvious he was the sort of person who would jump straight into helping people.
His plan made sense to Barry. Doctor McGee didn’t comment on anything sounding wildly wrong, and Barry was more inclined to trust her than Doctor Wells. Captain Singh was right, if the Flash was fighting metahumans, they had no idea how that was ending. He certainly hadn’t been dropping them off at C.C.P.D. to be arrested. Barry knew from Iris the Flash had fought Danton Black, and Barry had been the one at the scene where his dead body had been found, the same night Simon Stagg had died. Stagg was heart failure according to the coroner. Black had fallen off the roof.
Barry could, in theory, be standing next to a serial killer right now.
But something about Cisco felt trustworthy. Barry just couldn’t see him hurting anyone. And he knew, he knew this was all relying on gut instinct, he knew anyone else he’d be telling them to get their act together and get some real evidence, he knew he should tell someone what he’d realised, but what was he supposed to say? He’d got an electric shock off Cisco when they’d shaken hands and he recognised it as the same shock he’d got when Iris introduced him to the Flash? No one would believe that, no one believed anything Barry said. That was why he liked chemistry, it was harder to argue when he had proof backed up by science.
And he’d have to explain to Joe that Iris had introduced him to the Flash and Iris had been regularly meeting with the Flash and it would not matter that they were twenty-five years old and legally Joe had ceased being Barry’s guardian when he’d aged out the care system, Joe would ground the both of them for the rest of their lives.
And Joe would instantly arrest Cisco and Barry was at the very least certain Cisco, who would also have been around eleven, was not the man who had broken into his home and murdered his mother. If there was another speedster, as Doctor Wells referred to them, then maybe it would give Barry a lead.
Maybe he finally, finally had a way he could help his dad.
The trap was set. The bait was set. And now all there was left to do was wait.
Barry didn’t mind waiting if it meant more time with Cisco.
And it did, Joe had made himself very clear that Barry did not need to stay here if he was satisfied with the science and Cisco, clearly sensing another argument brewing, had offered to give Barry the tour of S.T.A.R. Labs.
Barry wasn’t turning that down, even now, and not having to be in the room where Joe and now Captain Singh were trying to convince Doctor Wells and Doctor McGee they didn’t have to be in either sounded like a great idea. Doctor Caitlin Snow, the other employee of S.T.A.R. Labs, had also jumped at the chance to not stay in the room they were trying to get a murderer to run into, but she’d waited in the room Cisco called the Cortex and just said to enjoy the tour with a wink at Cisco.
Who had seemed a little flustered at that, but then, so had Barry. This wasn’t... Cisco Ramon was a very handsome man, and Barry was demiromantic. He’d never done the immediate attraction thing. Maybe that was why this feeling felt so weird, and he supposed he had met Cisco before, he just hadn’t known that.
And he hadn’t told Cisco yet either.
“Down that way is the Pipeline,” Cisco said, pointing to a corridor that sloped down to a sealed door. “It might be better if we don’t go down there.”
“I take it repairing the particle accelerator hasn’t been high on your list of jobs,” Barry said.
“No,” Cisco said.
“Were you here?” Barry asked. “If you don’t mind my asking.”
Cisco shook his head.
“I was right next to it,” he said. “My friend, Caitlin’s fiancé, he had an idea. He made me shut him in and I was going to open the door again, when Ronnie had activated the emergency shut off, but I was electrocuted. I ended up in a coma for nine months.”
Nine months. That lined up with when Eddie first saw the unexplainable lightning man who Iris had dubbed the Flash.
Sort of Iris. She’d borrowed the name from one of Barry’s old comics after a comment he’d made, but the Flash seemed to like it.
“Sorry,” Cisco said. “I don’t know...”
He trailed off.
“I see why you don’t want to go down there,” Barry said.
He rested a hand on Cisco’s shoulder and another jolt of electricity jumped between them.
Cisco jumped a little at it too this time.
“Sorry,” he said. “It’s probably the equipment I was working with earlier.”
“Or there’s a storm coming,” Barry said. “That normally makes me staticky.”
He hesitated.
“Cisco,” he said. “There’s something I should-”
The room around him dissolved into lightning and Barry grunted in pain as he was flung against metal.
He blinked, confused, and then tried to scramble back as he recognised the man above him, the man now smirking down at him.
“Hello again, Barry Allen,” the Man in Yellow said, that same red lightning pouring from his eyes. “It’s been a long time.”
He grabbed hold of Barry’s neck, lifting him off the ground with one hand that Barry couldn’t pry away. He could see Joe on the other side of the force field, see his gun raised and the fear on his face.
“You all didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” the Man in Yellow asked.
He shoved Barry back against the force field, holding him tight until Barry’s eyes started to shut.
Then slammed him down onto the floor, right as Wells rushed back into the room as fast as he could with his chair. He could see the Man in Yellow talking, hear Joe’s panicked protests that were being entirely ignored by the Man in Yellow-
He saw the force field flicker, then another burst of lightning. Blue lightning.
The last thing he saw was Cisco dragging the Man in Yellow away from Joe.
And everything went dark.
Barry had, unsurprisingly, come to in a hospital bed. One he was pretty sure Joe and Iris had only eventually left the side of because there was a detail outside. Not that they would be able to do much, if the Man in Yellow came back, but he’d got away with the tachyon prototype, he’d got what he came for.
And the nurse insisted Barry needed rest, and visiting hours were over.
It was still dark outside. Barry would have assumed the pain had woken him up- the morphine definitely felt like it had worn off- if he hadn’t felt a presence next to him.
He stiffened, then winced at the movement in his arm.
“Sorry,” the Flash said in that warbling, disguised voice Barry recognised. “I should probably have waited till morning.”
“Doyle’s outside,” Barry said. “I think. You know if they see you, they’ll arrest you.”
“If they can catch me,” Cisco said with a grin.
“Don’t say that,” Barry said. “It’ll take me even longer to convince them I do not need an armed guard outside or whatever Joe’s going to propose next.”
Cisco hesitated and Barry waited a beat before laughing.
He sombred up quickly.
“Did he hurt you?” Barry asked. “The Man in Yellow?”
“He ran off,” Cisco shook his head. “I’m sorry I couldn’t catch him for you.”
“You tried,” Barry said. “Your trap did hold him, he just had another way out.”
The Flash had never stayed still. Always moving, vibrating, and now he was moving faster.
“I won’t tell anyone, Cisco,” Barry said. “I promise.”
“What are- What are-”
“When you shook my hand earlier,” Barry said. “The static jumped. It felt the same as when you first shook my hand as the Flash.”
Cisco did still now. His mouth was quirked in confusion, and now, now Barry could see the resemblance in the tiny parts of him that were visible under the cowl.
“It also explains how S.T.A.R. Labs heard about the theft,” Barry said. “And why they offered to help. You must have known it was risky.”
“They don’t trust S.T.A.R. Labs,” Cisco said. He pulled down his cowl and now Barry could truly, truly see him. “But at least I don’t have a warrant out for my arrest as Cisco Ramon.”
He looked awkward, standing there, and Barry shuffled back, wincing in pain as he pushed himself upright, leaving plenty of room for Cisco to perch himself on the edge of the bed and sit.
“You work for C.C.P.D.,” Cisco said.
“I know,” Barry said. “I should go tell my Captain. About everything. I’m not going to.”
“Why not?” Cisco asked.
“I’m a hypocrite, apparently,” Barry shrugged, then regretted moving his shoulder. “I trust you. I don’t know why, I don’t know you, but I trust you. You’re...”
Barry hesitated, then reached forward a little. Cisco didn’t move.
Another bolt of lightning jumped between them, sinking into Barry with a feeling he could only describe as contentment.
“I don’t know how to explain how I feel about you,” Barry said. “Or why I feel like this. But there’s something about you that is not a feeling I have ever felt before.”
Cisco leaned a little closer.
“I know it doesn’t make sense,” Barry said.
“It makes sense to me,” Cisco said, leaning in closer, close enough Barry could just lean and-
A noise came from outside the room and Cisco pulled back and pulled his cowl back up.
“I should go,” he said.
Barry nodded and Cisco hesitated.
“I won’t tell anyone,” Barry said. “I promise.”
“I believe you,” Cisco said. “Before I do go.”
He grabbed a pen and a scrap of paper from somewhere at super speed and scribbled something down.
He offered it to Barry.
“What is it?” Barry asked.
“My number,” Cisco said. “In case he shows up again and you need me.”
Barry clutched the paper close and smiled.
“The other speedster tonight,” Cisco said. “He called himself the Reverse Flash. He was your Man in Yellow, wasn’t he?”
Barry nodded.
“We should get a coffee, when you’re feeling better,” Cisco said. “Probably with Iris. Work out what the next part of our plan is.”
“Thank you,” Barry said. “For everything.”
“I hope you feel better soon, Barry.”
A flash of blue lightning, and Barry was alone.