Shield

Three

"I'll stay."

"I'll get a training schedule ready." Iris typed onto the screen.

"I've got gadgets to work on."Cisco stood and left the room.

"Welcome..." The Flash stepped up removing his mask revealing the face of a man she recognized. One she's recognized from the DeVoe case. "I'm Barry Allen," He put out his hand.

"Izzie Parks..." She shook his hand. "I'm taking it you're not telling the authorities about me. Even though Mr. West is a cop." Izzie put her hands in the pockets of the sweat pants.

"For now," Barry said. Izzie nodded her head. She knew she could make a quick escape before they could turn her into the system. But Barry could find her if he looked long enough. "You can't just stay here for two years you know. You need to go to school."

"He's right." Izzie looked up at Joe. "You need an education. Your parents wouldn't want you just sitting around."

"I'm sorry but you don't know anything about what my parents would have wanted. We were complicated." Izzie promised with her return she wouldn't back down. She'd stand up for herself. "School means system, the system means more foster parents who don't give a crap about me. I'm not up for being locked in the trunk of a car for breaking a arbitrary rule again." Izzie felt herself getting worked up. Every bad memory, every feeling of a bruise or broken body part all began to leave the box she packaged them very deep into. It took a lot more energy to shove it back where they belonged than she expected. She ran for a reason. The trunk wasn't even on the list of reason why she left but judging by their silence it was enough. "The system killed my brother. I'm not sticking around for it to kill me too. Otherwise I'm fine sleeping in abandoned houses." Izzie walked away to the quarters Caitlyn showed her earlier. She held in the tears. She held her knees close to her chest.

~•~

Barry looked around at the team. He noticed the look on Joe's face. Barry knew that Joe was hurt a little being a parent himself and seeing a girl who needed a family in that much pain. Before he found her in the streets he glanced over her file but didn't realize it was that bad. He felt for her being an orphan himself. Barry knew he was lucky to have Joe. He knew very well he could have been like her. "That girl has been through a lot." He stepped forward. "Why are we so interested in her?"Joe asked his arms crossed over his chest.

Barry finally let out a breath trying to hold himself back from what he's kept since the moment he noticed her. The moment he reconized her. There wasn't anymore time left to hid it. He had to tell the truth.

"Anytime I run in time, I see glimpses of time. Past, Present, and Future. I've seen her in it for a split second before...a couple of times." Everyone had their own reaction. "Every part of me is telling me that she needs us." Barry put his hands on his hips looking at the rest of the team.

"She needs more than just us Barry." Cisco pulled files up on the computer. Lots of hospitals record, news reports. It showed the deaths of her parents, her brother, and a boy named Ryan C. Taylor. "Jessie was her boyfriend and he died in her arms. Barry, Izzie needs a therapist. Not Meta humans who fight crime." While Izzie talked to Joe he took the chance too look her up given her strange behaviour.

"We've all had losses in our lives." Barry defended.

"Barry-" Caitlyn stepped forward. "Ryan, her brother, her parents, and god knows what shes been through since she vanished. It's not about the loss it's about the blame she put on herself. The same blame you put on yourself when you thought Iris died, Or when DeVoe took over Ralph." Caitlyn looked at the files on the screen. "She needs help,"

"Izzie needs help but she also needs to trust us. She doesn't look like a girl who knows how to trust." Cisco said. "There's been no sign of her since the day she left. Can we trust her?"