In A Blink ➳ Barry Allen/The Flash

38.

Joe waited until the captain was gone before he could talk to Barry, "Anything?"

By the solemn expression, Natalie knew he didn't have any good news, only for this to be confirmed when he shook his head. "No. I've looked everywhere, Joe, and I can't find him."

"Well keep looking," Joe said before he walked off.

Barry's hand found Natalie's, looking down at their joined hands as he intertwined their fingers, "Look Natalie, for today, can you please just stay with me, in my sight. I don't want to take any chances and with your dad released now and Wells on the loose.."

"Of course," Natalie replied, causing the worry on Barry's face to lessen as he cracked a smile and led the two up to his lab to finish up the evidence Singh asked for.

Barry smiled softly to himself as Natalie curled up as best as she could in the office chair beside him as he stood and worked. "Is that my sweatshirt?" Barry asked with a small laugh. Natalie cracked open her eyes and looked at the black sweatshirt, "Yeah, I kind of stole it from you room. Expect a lot of that since we're gonna be roomies."

"I don't mind. Besides, you look good in my clothes," Barry remarked just as Iris walked into the room.

"Hey, Barry. Can I talk to you to, alone?" she asked looking at Natalie. Barry glanced a his girlfriend, wanting to say no to keep her in his sight. Natalie opened her mouth, no words coming out until she saw the pained expression on Iris' face, "Barry, I'm just gonna go wait in the lobby."

Natalie quickly slipped on her black converse that she had taken off and retied her hair in a messy bun as she climbed down the stairs. She took a seat on a bench in the lobby, just like she said she would, making sure it was well in view of people so Barry would be satisfied. The brunette played with the rips in her light skinny jeans as she took out her phone, unlocking it to see that Cisco's and Caitlin's updates held no news on Eddie.

Barry walked in front of Natalie so that she could see his face and prevent from scaring her, given that Joe had texted Barry about her nightmare, "Hey, babe, we're gonna go to S.T.A.R. Labs, okay?" Natalie nodded her head and took his outstretched hand, "Am I allowed to know what Iris wanted to talk to you about or is it a brother-sister-only kind of thing."

"To sum it all up, she told me what happened with Eddie and she doesn't think The Flash is doing enough. Which just means I need to try harder, push harder because she thinks the cops should be looking for Eddie," Barry explained as he led them to an alleyway, picking her up gently before he ran the two to S.T.A.R. Labs.

Letting Natalie regain her surroundings as she leaned against his body, Barry stared warily at Cisco, who was pulling apart the pieces of a camera, "Hey Cisco, you planning on keeping all those cameras Wells used to spy on us?" Luckily Barry had sped around last night and pulled all of the cameras out of the walls, dropping them off at S.T.A.R. Labs, much to Cisco's delight. Natalie shifted and stood up straight giving Barry the sign she was good, "That's kind of creepy don't you think?" Barry chuckled but Cisco seemed nothing close to amused.

"First rule of mechanical engineering, guys: never waster good tech," Cisco answered as he continued to pry apart the pieces. He set the semi dismantled camera down on the desk as an alert popped up on the computer. "Central City Gold Reserve is under attack."

"Gold. Isn't that the case Singh has you on, Bare?" Natalie asked as she turned from the computer to her boyfriend. Barry nodded, "I'll be right back, babe. Keep an eye on her, Cisco." Cisco raised a brow as Barry left them in a blink of the eye, "Keep an eye on you?"

Natalie shrugged as she plopped down in the chair beside him, turning on the intercom, "Barry just wants to make sure I'm okay with Wells and my dad running wild." Cisco nodded his head in understanding as he brought up Barry's vitals for Natalie to keep an eye on, given Caitlin's absence in the room. "Where's Cait?"