Within Seconds // Barry Allen

Not My Allen

A specific ringing came from the computer. Without looking, Parker announced that it was a ping from Barry's cell phone.

"Where?" Barry asked, starting to walk to his suit.

Parker leaned over the desk, reading upside down. "The airport. Better hurry, he's trying to leave."

Barry took no longer. He shoved the suit into his backpack, secured it onto his shoulders and ran from S.T.A.R. Labs, leaving a whoosh of wind behind.

Parker rounded the desk and took a seat, activating the tracker on Barry's suit. She watched the red dot on her screen move through the city and stop in the airport. Almost immediately, her cell phone rang.

"Are we sure he's at the airport?" Barry asked, sounding unsure.

Parker held her phone away from her mouth to breathe out a loud sigh. "I honestly don't think your cell phone would lie. Just be patient."

"Yeah, but he could be any of these people. I'm not seeing him."

A moment later, Barry hung up the phone. The red dot zipped to a different location in the airport. Barry had found something, hopefully, Hannibal Bates.

Caitlin and Dr.Wells joined Parker at the desk. Caitlin monitored Barry's vitals, Dr.Wells was ready with the microphone, Parker watched over the tracker.

"Guys?" Barry asked breathlessly. "It's Barry. The one and only."

"Prove it," Parker challenged.

"We didn't have sex last night."

"Oh, my God."

Too embarrassed to even glance at Dr.Wells or Caitlin, Parker dropped her head into her hands shamefully. Her mind clicked and she shot up, rambling about going to the Accelerator ring, took the meta-human binder and bolted out of the Cortex.

The meta-human binder was to keep track of the villains. It held information of allergies, favorite foods and activities, etc. Don't think for a moment that the (good) people at S.T.A.R. Labs didn't feed or treat their prisoners with care. They were still human, after all.

Parker sat on the platform, beginning to fill out a new page for Hannibal Bates.

When Barry arrived, he opened the prison and shoved Bates into a cell. Parker took Barry's outstretched hand, getting to her feet and moving to allow Bates to see her.

"Hello, Hannibal Bates. I'm in charge of the meta-humans care down here, so if you want your time here to be mildly enjoyable, please tell me three of your favorite foods or things that keep you from being bored."

Bates, his body changed to look like Iris, smirked and stayed silent.

"Silence of the Lambs?" Parker suggested, not missing a beat. "Maybe I'll play that for movie night with the metas. You can finally find out why your parents named you something so goddamned awful."

"You can change into an awful lot of bodies, Mr.Bates," Dr.Wells said loudly, wheeling up the ramp with Caitlin and Cisco behind him. "But, who are you really?"

"I, uh, I can't remember. I can't remember."

"Park," Barry whispered, nudging her head up from the binder.

Parker let out an audible gag at the sight. Bates had morphed into what seemed to be a regular human from the feet and up, but only until his head. His head was a glossy white, eyes shut, lips a pale shade of pink. He looked like a baby straight out of the womb, and it was sickly.

"Ew, okay, I'm closing up shop," Parker announced. Her hand tapped the touch screen lock, sending the Accelerator into lock down.

"Goodnight, everybody," Dr.Wells said. He waved at his workers and left.

Aware of their surroundings and popossibly a lingering Dr.Wells, the remaining four came close together for a whisper.

"I have something to show you all," Barry said.

Around a half-hour later, the three workers and Joe West gathered in Barry's lab at the CCPD.

Caitlin, Cisco and Parker stared at the crumpled body on the medical table.

For Caitlin and Cisco, overwhelming amounts of regret, grief and betrayal were being held in.

"Okay. That's sorta sad," Parker muttered, tearing her eyes away.

"If that's Wells, who's been acting as him?" Caitlin wondered.

Barry pursed his lips, shrugging. The others had similar ways of responding.

Parker, her mind swirling, desperate to connect the dots, was the only one to make an objective noise.

Slowly, her mind gathering the thoughts as she went, she said, "In Cisco's dream, of the previous timeline, he said Dr.Wells admitted he was the Reverse-Flash."

Joe caught onto her suggestion. "Cisco, did he admit anything else?"

"Not that I remember. I haven't gotten flashbacks of anything except dying, but I think you're onto something, Park."