"Hey, Barr-"
Joe paused as he walked into the crime lab. He was expecting to see Barry working on some urgent project for Captain Singh, or reading a book (and forgetting the time in the process). Maybe even attempting to create a rock climbing wall in the far corner again.
But no. What he saw was something he was still completely unprepared for, despite having lived with two teenagers. An unknown man was kissing Barry, leaning him against a lab table. Joe's trained eyes took in far more of the scene than he wanted to see; the way the two men clung to the other with hands on each other's hips, the ring on the unknown man's left hand –
Joe looked away.
"Barry."
This time, Barry heard. The men sprung apart, Barry frantically rearranging his cardigan around his hips while his face grew pink.
"Hey, Joe! I, uh, wasn't expecting you."
"I noticed."
"Yeah! Yeah, you noticed..."
Joe tuned out Barry's babbling for a moment to look at the other man. He was obviously closer to Joe's age than Barry's; Joe's sense of discomfort increased.
"...I should introduce you! Joe, this is one of my – Harrison Wells. Harrison, this is my foster dad, Detective Joe West."
One of my...?
And then he noticed something else.
"The Harrison Wells? The guy whose biography you spent weeks reading?" Joe managed to make this sound more like an insult than a compliment.
Wells reached forward to shake hands. Joe looked at it without moving to respond.
"What's with the wedding ring?"
"I married Tess almost five years ago – one of the best days of my life."
Joe crossed his arms, making sure his firearm was still in easy reach.
"If you're married, what are you doing here?"
"Don't worry about it, Joe, I was kissing her last night." Barry interrupted, turning even redder than before.
"She's busy right now, or she'd have been here," Harrison added.
"Not helping," Barry muttered.
Joe collapsed into the nearest chair.