𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤. - BARRY ALLEN

SIX!

(CHAPTER SIX)
the confrontation!

WHEN Barry arrives back at the crime scene, arm in arm with Iris as she coddles him, Rosie eyes the man in awe and slight bitterness. She can't see how he can let Joe and his daughter fuss over him when he has superhuman powers. She also can't help but wonder if he's told anyone what he, or they can do.

She reminds herself that she is being a giant hypocrite for being hostile with Barry, seeing as she had no intention of telling him of her new found powers. Although, she wouldn't have kicked him in the crotch if she would have known it was her new friend.

Her new friend? Rosie ponders on the possibility that Barry could be her friend. She had only properly known him for a few weeks, disregarding he nine months they spent inches apart, seeing as they were both unconscious. Although, on their first day of meeting, she did risk her life to save him. Surely that counts for something. She has had many friends in her life, mainly because she was the daughter of two billionaires, but after her father and brother disappeared, Rosie had given up on the fake friends who hung on to her.

"Where did you go? You were there one second and the next you were gone." Snapped out of her pondering state by Joe's stern voice, Rosie redirects her attention to Barry and Iris.

"Dad, go easy on him, I found him outside. He fainted." The raven haired girl explains, rubbing Barry's arm as he nods in agreement.

"Do you want me to get you a paramedic, Allen?" Eddie offers, but Barry declines with a sigh.

"I thought I was dead." The group look over to the security guard who tried to stop the gun men, who is now sitting down with an icepack held to his head, explaining himself to some officers. "I saw the gun go off, and then boom! Suddenly I'm outside."

Joe grits his teeth and points a finger at Barry. "Can I have a word?"

Joe stomps away with his foster son trailing after him like a lost puppy. Iris notices the blonde woman shuffling her feet, a blank look on her face.

"Earth to Rosie!" She giggles as the blonde blinks as though she had just woken up when Iris clicks in front of her face. Rosie hadn't realised how much she had been spacing out recently, but the youngest West seemed to. "You okay, Hun? You haven't said much since the siege. Do you want to talk?"

Even though she barely knew Iris, Rosie could tell she was being genuine, which earned her a small smile. "I'm fine, Iris, really. But thank you."

"Anytime. It's nice to have some female company. It's exhausting being around men all the time." Iris scrunches up her nose dramatically at the word men.

Rosie laughs at the slightly shorter girl. "Tell me about it."

___

After she was granted permission to leave Stagg Industries by Joe, Rosie decides to head straight for her lab at the precinct, in hopes of discovering more about the mystery gang who invaded the event. As she was looking up terminated Stagg workers, footsteps stomp into the forensics lab.

"Barry?"

Rosie spins around on her office chair to face Joe, who is scanning the room, his leather detective jacket slung over his shoulder.

"Sorry, only me. I don't know where Barry is." She shrugs, turning back to her computer.

"Then what are you doing here, young lady? Take the night off. You must be feeling pretty shaken up about earlier today." Joe place his hands on the blondes shoulders, peering over to look at her screen.

"I'm fine, I swear. Plus, I think I might be on to something about the gang who robbed the gun shop." She twists her head around to look up at the older man, a charmingly fake smile plastered on her face. When she is reciprocated with a raised brow, she lets out a defeated sigh.

"Alright, I'm leaving."

Joe chuckles, patting her shoulders being leaving the lab muttering good kid. After sometime of silence, the only sound being her fingers tapping hastily at the keyboard, footsteps enter the lab again, these ones lighter that Joe's.

"Oh, hey Rosie!" Barry was not expecting his blonde co worker to be in their lab, the time being well past nine pm and all.

"Hey."

Scrunching his eyebrows together, the young man walks closer to Rosie. "You okay?"

"Oh my god, I'm fine! Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Realising how unfair it was to snap at Barry, who had done nothing to provoke, Rosie's demeanour softens. "Look, I'm sorry for snapping, I just-" She sighs, trying to put her thoughts in words. "I've had a lot on my plate lately."

Remembering the encounter the pair had in the alley earlier that week, Barry mutters. "I know."

"What?"

Barry, who was not good a confrontation, especially when it came to a pretty girl, considers dropping the super powers subject, but looking at Rosie's intriguing crystal eyes, he bursts.

"I know there's something you're not telling me."

His statement is met with silence and a raised eyebrow.

"I'm not stupid, Rosie. I know you're the blue streak."

Rosie's breath hitches slightly in her throat. She knew that he knew her secret, but she was not expecting Barry to confront her so quickly. She toys with the idea of denying knowledge of what he was talking about, but she knew better. Instead, she had an accusation of her own.

"Well, I'm not stupid either, Barry. I know you're the red streak."

___