Joe sat in the chair in his living room and pulled out his phone. He had gotten home and settled in after work and now he wanted to speak with Caitlin. Dialing the doctor's number, he put the phone to his ear and listened to the ringing on the other end. After a few rings, Caitlin finally answered.

"Hey Joe." came the doctor's light voice.

"Hey Caitlin. I wanted to talk to you about Barry."

"Is something wrong?" the woman asked. She sounded concerned.

"No, just- When he takes care of Flash business, especially before work, can you just make sure you treat his injuries. I know he can be difficult, but-" Caitlin cut Joe off.

"What are you talking about? I always check him over after a fight." She sounded slightly offended that Joe would suggest she wasn't taking proper care of her patient.

"He told me he had something to take care of as the Flash this morning. He came to work with a broken wrist and ribs." Joe was starting to become confused. Caitlin sounded the same.

"Barry didn't have Flash business this morning. His suit never left the Cortex." Though Caitlin couldn't see it, Joe furrowed his brows.

"Why would he lie?" he asked, mostly to himself.

"I don't know." Caitlin responded anyway.

~x~x~x~

Barry groaned as he lifted himself off the ground. He was a bloody, bruised mess and hurt all over. There was now a blood stain on the carpet he needed to deal with, but when he stood, he moved to the bathroom to get in the shower. He had been right about Tyler's anger. As soon as Barry stepped through the door after work, the yelling and beating had started. Tyler had beaten the shit out of him and then went to bed, where he was currently asleep. Barry tiptoed into the bathroom and closed the door. He slowly stripped and turned the water on. Barry took a moment, while the water was warming up, to look in the mirror. His face was a mess. He had a black eye, split lip, gashes on his forehead and cheek, he was sure his cheekbone was broken with the amount of bruising around it. It would all be gone in the morning, but right now, he looked pretty bad. Checking the temperature of the water, he stepped under the spray and began washing the blood from his face. He hissed when the water initially hit his face, but thankfully, after a moment, he lost sensation. Barry cleaned up and eventually stepped out of the shower, toweling off, re-dressing, and moving into the living room where his phone was. He grabbed his phone when it went off, quickly answering it to silence the ringtone.

"Hey Cisco." he greeted.

"Sorry to bother you, but there's a robbery in progress at a jewelry store in town." Cisco reported urgently. "Dude, it's Snart." Barry rolled his eyes. Of course Len would want to get back in the game. He just hoped it would be dark enough that the other man wouldn't notice his injuries.

"I'm on my way." Barry said, quietly leaving the apartment and flashing off. He didn't slow down once he got to S.T.A.R. Labs, opting instead to change into his Flash suit and leave in the blink of an eye.

~x~x~x~

Len sighed as he put the cold gun back together after cleaning it. Barry's situation was still weighing heavily on his mind. He needed to talk to the kid again. Lisa walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"What's the matter, brother dearest?" she asked. Len just shook his head. Coming to a split second decision, he rose from his chair and looked at his little sister.

"Would you like some new jewelry, Lis?" he asked. Lisa's eyes lit up and she grabbed her gold gun.

"I thought you'd never ask."

"Actually, I'm going alone." At that, Lisa pouted at her brother.

"Spoil sport." she muttered, setting her weapon back down.

Len carefully broke into the jewelry store, making sure to trip the alarm. He walked over to a glass case and used his cold gun to freeze the entire thing. There, they should know it was him. Now, he just had to wait. Len turned toward the door and leaned back against the case. Barry should arrive soon. True to form, Barry arrived with a whoosh and blast of air, the smell of ozone on the breeze. Len smirked, nodding in greeting at the kid.

"Flash." he drawled. Barry huffed.

"What do you want, Cold?" Len shrugged nonchalantly.

"Oh, you know, get Lisa a necklace or two, talk, stuff." he answered. Barry's eyes widened slightly.

"You're pulling a heist because you want to talk?" he asked, bewildered. At Cisco's squawking in his ear, he reached up and turned his comm off. "What did you want to talk about?" Barry asked, stepping forward, closer to Len. It was a mistake, however, because he immediately felt Len's eyes studying him. He had inadvertently stepped into the light filtering in from the streetlight outside.

"What happened to your lip?" Len asked calculatingly, serious expression taking over his face. Barry blanched, stumbling for a moment, not knowing what to say.

"I- I- I had to break up a bar fight right before I came here. Got caught in the middle." Barry lied weakly, his face going ghostly pale, only serving to make the bruising stand out more.

"Take your mask off." Len ordered, crossing his arms. Barry opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before he was able to make his voice work.

"No." he said, strangled. Len pushed off the jewelry case and took a step forward, Barry taking a responding step back. Len took a quicker step forward and put his hands on Barry's shoulders. Barry tried to pull back, but didn't go anywhere. They both knew he could easily speed away if he wanted to. There would be nothing Len could do to stop him. But, for some unknown reason, he didn't. He stood there as Len cautiously raised both hands to his mask and gently pried it from his face. The moment Barry's face was revealed, Len's features froze over. A momentary look of anger crossed his face before he schooled his expression. He ran a finger down Barry's cheek under the cut that was there. The touch was feather light and it almost felt reverent, loving. Barry's heart was pounding in his chest and his breathing hitched before coming out quicker.

"You need stitches." Len murmured, hesitant to ruin the quiet atmosphere. The older man suddenly noticed that Barry's green eyes were beginning to pool with unshed tears.

"It'll heal." he breathed.

"Who did this?" Len asked, his tone pleading with Barry to tell him the truth. Barry shook his head, a few tears breaking free and running down his face. The salt burned the cut on his cheek when the tears ran into it.

"I already told you what happened."

"Barry, I can help. Just tell me what happened." Len felt like he was begging, but at the moment he didn't care. Barry's well-being was on the line. He could get over his own ego enough to allow himself to plead. Barry pulled away from Len, reaching back and pulling his cowl back into place. He turned and sped off, leaving Len in a blast of air. Len sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. This was a mess. He turned and left through the back door. If a diamond and emerald necklace went missing that night, well, nobody made too much of a fuss about it.

~x~x~x~

Over the next week, Len carried out some surveillance. He found out where Barry was living and watched the apartment. He called the landlord, pretending he was a bill collector who needed the name of the other occupant. Now, he was seated at the dining table in the small apartment Lisa, Mick, and he were using as a safe-house. Lisa and Mick had gone out to a bar, a perfect place to hustle some drunk idiots, and weren't due back for a while. He picked up his phone and dialed a familiar number. On the third ring, the phone was answered.

"Hello?" came a tired voice. Len spoke briskly, commanding tone in his voice.

"Piper. I need everything you can find on a Tyler Moss."

"Cold? Do you know what time it is?" Len growled in impatience.

"Now, Hartley!"

"Fine, fine." the younger man grumbled. "Are you going to tell me what this is for?"

"No." Len hung up the phone.

~x~x~x~

Barry had been going non-stop since his encounter with Len. He hadn't heard anything else from the criminal since that night. He felt like he was being watched sometimes, but didn't know if that was Len or his overactive imagination. He had been working so hard and long that he hadn't talked to Joe or any of his friends in a non-work capacity all week long. Tyler had mostly left him alone, too, only knocking him around a couple of times. The tenuous balance he had achieved all week came crashing down when Joe finally cornered him in the Cortex at S.T.A.R. Labs. Cisco and Caitlin had gone out to grab some take-out for them to eat while waiting for someone to need the Flash. Joe walked in, seemingly unsure of how to begin.

"Barry, can I talk to you?" he asked. Barry turned from the computer he was looking at and smiled.

"Sure. What is it?"

"Last week. You told me you got those injuries you came in with from Flash business you had to take care of before work." Barry stiffened slightly, Joe not noticing.

"Yeah, what about it?" Joe sighed.

"I talked to Caitlin that night." Shit. Barry thought.

"Yeah?" he asked. Joe's expression looked pained. He always hated it when he found out that one of his kids had lied to him.

"She said you didn't have Flash business that morning. She said the suit never left the Cortex. Why did you lie, Barry? What really happened." Barry hesitated for a moment, looking down at the floor. He needed to gather his thoughts.

"I didn't lie." he said. "On the way to work, I heard a woman scream. A couple of bikers were attacking her in an alley. I stepped in and got hurt. She got away. I know I shouldn't have done anything without the Flash suit, but I had to act. Luckily, it worked out for the most part." It sounded flimsy to his own ears, but he went with it. Joe didn't look like he was completely buying the story, but he didn't say anything further on the matter and let the subject drop. Barry was thankful, but had a bad feeling in his gut. His carefully crafted fantasy that everything was alright was beginning to fray at the edges. He just hoped Len didn't resurface and talk to Joe, not that the detective would listen.

~x~x~x~

A few days later found Len planning a way to serendipitously run into Barry when his phone rang. He quickly answered it.

"What?" he asked sternly. The voice on the other end sounded irritated and Len's shortness, but excited about something else.

"It's me." he said.

"Piper. What do you have?" Len asked, more alert than he was a moment ago. He was listening intently for the other man to continue.

"You won't believe what I found."