'i'm a little unsure how it go so complicated if i let go i know i'll regret it'

You could probably have heard a pin drop in Jitters; the whole coffee shop had been stunned into silence at the coverage unfolding on the television screen. Every customer's gaze glued to the screen, a few gasped here and there and Leonard was seething with anger at Hartley Rathaway, how the kid had royally screwed up was beyond him. He too watched the screen in Jitter's which would switch between a reporter adding bits of information before it switched back to the helicopter's camera of the high speed chase.

The headline flashing on the screen: ROBBERY GONE WRONG IN CENTRAL CITY? CHASE UNDER WAY! SUSPECTS HAVE HOSTAGE!

Lisa touched his arm, a look of worry dominating her face. "Lenny, calm down." She murmured. Leonard wondered if his anger and worry was that evident on his face or if Lisa was too good at reading him nowadays.


3 hours ago

Leonard slid the pen lid back on with a smirk "There kid, if you need help I'll be a phone call away." He said as he crossed his arms and looked at Rathaway.

Hartley frowned down at the number written up his forearm "That wasn't necessary," he said with a frown on his face "like you said; it's a simple in and out job."

Leonard shrugged a shoulder lightly "Give me a call once it's completed then," he said "then I can pass the message along to the detective."

Rathaway eyed him for a moment "And you're sure this detective hasn't got a nasty surprise in store for us?" he asked.

"That's what Mick is for," Leonard answered "if there is he'll just burn them away for you."

Rathaway looked like he was about to say something when Leonard's phone dinged suggesting he had received a text message. Leonard retrieved the phone he'd marked as 'business' from his pocket and unlocked it to see a message from none other than Barry.

BA – LS [Hey it's Barry, you said not to keep you waiting so I guess you have my number too now]

Leonard looked up to see Rathaway eyeing him. "Was there something else you wanted?" he asked.

"No," Rathaway said.

Leonard nodded his head once "Then get back to memorising the plan and your route," he said before he left the room and started replying to Barry's text.

LS – BA [Barry, I was starting to wonder if I was actually going to hear from you]

Barry's response was pretty immediate which pleased Leonard because if there was one thing that really grated on him it was when people took ages to reply to a simple text.

BA – LS [I'm sorry! I've been getting ready to view an apartment later. Was Capt. Cold getting worried a certain CSI wouldn't text him? That would be pretty cute.]

Leonard had barely read the message before his fingers were moving across the cold screen of his phone to respond.

LS – BA [As if I took time out of my busy schedule to worry if you were going to text me.]

Leonard could clearly imagine Barry opening his message and grinning, the image almost had Leonard smiling. Almost.

BA – LS [A busy schedule huh? Would that be a normal human being's schedule or a criminal planning to steal busy schedule? I'm going to hazard that your reply is probably going to be along the lines of 'that's none of your business'.]

LS – BA [Well you save me from typing that response out, good job Mr Allen.]


Barry checked the address he'd written down before he checked his phone for the time and almost dropped his phone in surprise; he was going to be late to meet the realtor. He wasn't too far away from the property however what he had noticed was that in his rush he had taken a wrong turning… or two. He could salvage the lost time; there should be a shortcut that gets him back on track.

He really didn't want to miss the viewing; Joe would think he'd purposefully sabotaged himself. This was also a way to show Joe that he was being serious about moving out.

Barry vaguely knew where he was now. Crap he only had a few minutes until-

A strong hand wrapped around his left arm "We got company!" the man shouted as he dragged Barry closer toward an abandoned lot where three more men appeared on Barry's right and then there was a young man with glasses stood leant against a car as another man bundled something into the boot of one of the two cars.

"Barry Allen," the man wearing the glasses said, he didn't look like he was much older than Barry "we meet again."

Barry had no recollection of ever meeting the man in front of him and he had picked the wrong person to involve in his criminal activity, didn't he know he was the step-son of a detective who had taught him how to defend himself in situations like this?

A man grabbed onto Barry's right arm so he was held firmly in place.

"You shouldn't have done that," Barry said feeling his heartbeat increase as he felt the adrenaline run through his veins before he used as much force as he could possibly to drive his right elbow into the man's gut winding him and grabbing onto the guy on his left as he head-butted him and freeing himself from any of their grasps.

He had a second to prepare himself as one of the men went to punch him, Barry had practiced this move more than he could care to remember as he brought his arms up together to block the move before he brought his hand back to connect his fist with the other man's face.

He narrowly avoided a kick to the stomach by moving aside and grabbing one of the man's arms and pulling him down to his knees for Barry's knee to connect with his jaw. Barry thought that getting three men down was pretty good until he was caught off guard and landing on his back feeling a bit dazed and confused for a couple seconds before he pushed himself to stand up and face the man with the glasses- the same man with glasses who had handcuffs dangling from one of his fingers.

All of his punches were being blocked and he was again caught by a sharp elbow to the face and then the man's hand was around his neck- then he's on the floor with his arm in the air and a boot on top of his head as the cold handcuffs are being placed on his wrist.

It was probably quite accurate to say that Barry had managed to both piss the men off and put them behind schedule because the man in the glasses was shoving him towards his car and shouting out orders to all the men as sirens could be heard approaching quickly.

"I'll follow behind," the man said "Someone get Rory on the phone and get him to tell us the meeting point."

Barry's roughly shoved into the passenger seat of a car and the door is slammed behind him.

"You know CCPD will apprehend you one way or another," Barry said when the man with glasses got into the driver's seat and didn't waste any time in speeding off after he stuck his seatbelt on. Barry was vaguely aware of how dangerously the situation could escalate when driving at this speed with no seatbelt on.

He moved his gaze from the car that was speeding ahead in front of them clearing the road ahead and looked into the rear view mirror to see multiple CCPD cars chasing them.

"You know somehow I don't think that will be the case," the man muttered "they didn't stand a chance against me before and Cisco certainly doesn't stand a chance against me so who do you think is going to save you?"

"You know Cisco?" Barry asked surprised, the words leaving his mouth before he could fully process what the man had said.

The man quickly glanced at him before they took a couple of sharp turns that almost had Barry falling out of his seat and into the man. "The Flash seriously has amnesia?" he asked sounding close to laughing.

"You know-" Barry started to say when they took another sharp turn that propelled Barry into the passenger door "you're a terrible driver." He decided on stating instead before he noticed the news helicopter in the sky.

This was so not how his day was supposed to go!

"Okay, got it." The man said to no-one in particular and Barry wondered what the man's mental state was like.


Lisa used her side to push the door open to Jitters, a coffee shop she had started to frequent after she had 'mysteriously' come across the knowledge that a certain Cisco Ramon used this as his regular coffee place. "I'm telling you Lenny, their hot chocolates are to die for." She said as she ushered him in to the particularly busy coffee shop.

Leonard sighed "What have I said about you calling me that in public," he said.

You could probably have heard a pin drop in Jitters; the whole coffee shop had been stunned into silence at the coverage unfolding on the television screen. Every customer's gaze glued to the screen, a few gasped here and there. Leonard read the caption on the screen: ROBBERY GONE WRONG IN CENTRAL CITY? CHASE UNDER WAY! SUSPECTS HAVE HOSTAGE!

Leonard recognised both cars immediately and wondered how on earth Hartley Rathaway could have royally screwed up such a simple job.

Hostage!? What the fuck had happened?

It was at a sharp turn that the news camera zoomed in as much as possible and Leonard felt himself almost choke on the air he was breathing, that had to be Barry. It looked like Barry. If it was Barry then Hartley Rathaway was in for a world of pain. Lisa touched his arm, a look of worry dominating her face. "Lenny, calm down." She murmured. Leonard wondered if his anger and worry was that evident on his face or if Lisa was too good at reading him nowadays.


Okay so Barry had a plan and it was probably an insane one that was going to get him injured but it was better than sitting on the car where he didn't know what was going to happen to him when they finally reached this 'meeting point' that had been mentioned earlier. When Barry was younger, he and Iris had begged and begged and begged Joe to teach them how to escape handcuffs and after constantly asking, Joe had given in and taught them a simple trick.

Barry remembered being surprised at Joe even being willing to teach them it but it was certainly going to come in handy now.

The man seemed to be too occupied by the CCPD cars that were slowly becoming less visible in the rear view mirror and the open stretch of empty road ahead of them, it was a now or never situation for Barry really.


Leonard felt nauseous as he watched the whole thing unfold on the television. He's never been one for physical contact (or he hadn't been until Barry) but he found himself gripping onto Lisa's hand. One minute the cars are both hurtling at fast speeds and then one of the cars is breaking sharply. Leonard isn't expecting it, no one was and he couldn't even comprehend what he watched as someone came flying out of the windscreen, over the car and rolled a few times in the road.

Hartley stepping out of car is what Leonard zoned in one first when movement on the road caught his eye and it's fucking Barry Allen. Barry Allen is moving and he's standing up and Barry Allen has just flew out a windscreen. Barry looked like he was in some pain and that much is evident when he swung for Rathaway and the man just simply moves out the way before delivering an elbow to the face.

"Barry," Lisa gasped softly.

Leonard watched on as Barry pushed himself up again and swung for Rathaway again, the man blocking twice before Barry grabbed him by the shoulders and kneed him in the stomach area. Rathaway looked like the breath had been knocked out of him and Leonard was pleased. Rathaway connected with Barry again sending him to the floor once more.

"Rathaway is dead," Leonard mumbled under his breath for Lisa to hear.

Barry's standing again and tugging at his sleeve. The same arm Leonard had written his number on the day before in permanent marker.


Almost every fibre of Barry hurts. He's tugged his sleeve up slightly, the black ink still stained his skin from the day before. He saw the raw look of confusion cross the man's face as he pulled up his sleeve slightly as well to reveal the same number scrawled up his forearm.

"You're… you're working on the detective job?" the man asked frowning in confusion.

Barry frowned confused "What…" he said when the man stepped forward into his space and shook his hand.

"Get in the car now," The man said "if we get caught Cold isn't going to be pleased."

Barry moved numbly to the passenger side of the car again and as soon as both doors were closed shut, the man put his foot down on the gas pedal and off they sped. "Detective job," Barry gasped out once his seatbelt was firmly on "I'm confused about what's going on."

The man is just laughing though "It's… I can't believe it. The Flash working with Captain Cold on a job. You should've said, you didn't need to go through my windscreen." He said.

"I'm not working any job with Cold," Barry gritted out because the pain coursing through his body was unbelievable "I've been seeing Len! What is going on? Who the hell are you?"

"Hartley," the man said as way of an introduction as he glared at the road ahead "all you need to know is there's a dirty cop who paid us a lot of money to steal and deliver a computer that has some incriminating evidence on him. And as for Cold… I'm hoping he hasn't seen the news yet."

Barry let the information sink in. Dirty cop. A cop that works within the CCPD. Dirty. "Dirty cop," Barry breathed "what's his name?"

Hartley took a sharp turning again "Detective Axel Kelker," he said.

"Axel Kelker… Detective Kelker," Barry murmured to himself as he tried to place a name to the face "it's a trap." He gasped.

"What?" Hartley practically yelled.

"Detective Kelker has a reputation in the precinct," Barry explained "all of his arrests have been him tricking the perpetrators and catching them red handed. He's going to destroy the computer and arrest you." He added "…and probably me."

"Two birds one stone," Hartley said.

"Something like that," Barry murmured before he straightened up in his seat as the full weight of what had just happened crashed down around him "this looks awful for the both of us," he said as he turned to look out the back window to see how close the CCPD cars were "if you could put more pressure on the gas until you get to the destination we could be in and out before the police know where we've gone."

"Get that?" Hartley said to no one in particular. Again Barry wondered for his sanity.

"Who are you talking to?" Barry asked.

Hartley gave no warning before he put more pressure and they jolted forwards hurtling at a dangerously fast speed without a windscreen. "An ear comm. You're familiar with them right." Hartley said "so what's the plan?"

"Okay," Barry said as he gripped his seat tightly "Detective Kelker has a couple cops he's close with, we need to be prepared for them to be there to ambush you. But the handcuffs from earlier could come in handy."

"Fuck," Hartley said "okay."


There's movement in Jitters but Leonard is glued the spot, his mind replayed Barry crashing through the windscreen and rolling on the road. He kept seeing Barry hit the ground after Rathaway caught him with a vicious elbow. He could still picture Rathaway getting into Barry's personal space, the two bound by something that Leonard had given them each. Hands clasped together.

"Len," Lisa said "you're holding up the queue. Come on, we'll grab a drink and we'll talk."

Leonard nodded his head and his feet moved of their own accord. He hated not knowing what was going on after what he had witnessed.

"I'm not going to say I told you so," Lisa said after she'd ordered and paid for their drinks "but I did suggest in a very open manner my dislike of the guy."

Leonard loved Lisa, even when he was shocked to his core she still managed to find a way to amuse him slightly. "That oddly sounds like a very different way of saying I told you so," he pointed out as he slipped his phone out of his pocket to shoot a text to Barry.

LS – BA [Barry, are you okay? What's going on? Call me as soon as you can! I want to know if you're okay!] That's all he could do right now and he hated feeling this helpless.

"Well I wouldn't want to come right out and say it," Lisa said as she picked up their orders from the barista and guided him to a table "especially when I know it'll make you feel even worse." She added as they slipped onto the seats. It was oddly amusing how no one recognised who he was when he wasn't in his parka and absent of his cold gun. He was just like everyone else around him- ordinary.


Everyone had anticipated the ambush from Kelker's buddies and Barry found it too easy to get wrapped up in everything going on. Hartley had mumbled a "fuck it," before he crashed in through the side wall of an abandoned warehouse easily knocking out one of the men.

'We are the spark that lights the flame, in every end; we start it all over again'

Barry's out the passenger door and grabbing a man's arm, twisting it round and elbowing him in the face. Hartley's ahead of him and the other men Barry had met earlier are taking a man each. It's hard to believe the whole thing lasted just over a minute.

'We are, we are, the ones to blame, in every end, we start it all over again'

"Allen," Kelker said just as Hartley closed the handcuffs over his wrists "…you're working with low life criminals?"

Barry cocked his head to the side "I was caught in the middle of all of this," he said "the only criminal I see here is you."

Hartley disappeared back to the car for a couple of minutes before he hauled over the computer and placed it on the floor beside Kelker "I guess the evidence will speak for itself," he said.

Kelker looked up from the computer, to Barry and then to Hartley. "Snart put you up to this didn't he?" he asked.

"No," Hartley said as he stepped closer towards Axel Kelker who was on his knees looking particularly defeated "you did this when you decided to double cross us."

"We should…," Barry said becoming particularly aware of the oncoming load of CCPD officers and he was already in a difficult position from the footage caught by the news helicopter.

Hartley shoved Kelker to the ground before grabbing Barry by the arm and pulling him along to the other car. Barry just ached and was exhausted from the day's events. Joe was definitely not letting Barry out of his sight until he was 90 years old or something now.

"I… what am I going to do?" Barry asked as he was placed in the car and the door was closed "I'm implicated in this now." He said more to himself.

Hartley nodded his head "I've got that covered Barry," he said "it involves some pain but you should be fine."

"Please tell me the car is going to be stationary," Barry said.

"Five miles per hour at the slowest," Hartley said in a reasoning voice.

Barry looked at the serious expression on Hartley's face and assumed he wasn't going to get a much better deal out of him. "Five miles per hour then," Barry sighed.

"Good because it's show time," Hartley said as the car jolted to life and started moving as sirens headed their way.

The car slowed down to a crawlers pace as Hartley swung the door to the car open as cop cars slowed down around the warehouse and before Barry could comprehend to prepare himself for the fall, a hand was on his shoulders as a quick "Sorry!" was said and he was being roughly shoved out the car and hitting the ground once more. Barry let out a groan upon impact as he decided to just stay where he was because not moving didn't cause him pain.

"BARRY!" he heard Joe shout and Barry let out another groan of pain because the grilling that would follow would be emotionally and mentally painful for him.


Barry was exhausted. After being checked over by paramedics, having his statement taken, Joe taking him to STAR labs, being questioned by Joe, Cisco and Caitlin and then having Iris grill him about how he should be more careful, it was just a super long day that had drained every ounce of energy out of him.

He had managed to eat some dinner and shower the day off of him when he crawled into bed and grabbed his phone from his pocket. Surprisingly the only damage done to the phone had been a slight crack on the edge of the screen. He'd had numerous calls and texts from Iris, Caitlin, Cisco, Joe and Len.

LS – BA [Barry, are you okay? What's going on? Call me as soon as you can! I want to know if you're okay!]

Len had been worried… or had he? There was no way Len could have known Barry would be where he had been. Barry was conflicted with what to do.

BA – LS [I'm fine; couple bruised ribs and a badly scraped knee. I know you were behind what happened today. You can thank Hartley for saving me from falling under suspicion at work.] Okay, yeah, Barry was a bit pissed off at him.

For all of today's events, he had expected to be gone as soon as his head hit the pillow but he found himself anticipating Len's reply… if he replied that was.

LS – BA [I'm sorry you got hurt, it was never intended for any of what happened today to happen. I like how even though Hartley laid into you, you still want to thank him for something as small as saving your job, from what I heard you'd make a good little criminal. Too early for that?]

Barry wanted to be able to just put his phone down and go to sleep but Leonard Snart had this hold over him and it was scary how strong it was.

BA – LS [Yes it's too early for that. Len, I know you told me what it is you do but I never expected it to get this violent.]

LS – BA [I never expected you to get caught in the crosshairs, it was meant to be a simple job and Rathaway screwed it up. I watched it all unfold on the television and saw what happened, I promise you it will never happen again] Len's response is immediate and it has Barry even more conflicted emotionally.

BA – LS [You can't promise something like that, I know I was in the wrong place at the wrong time but it happened and I can't forget it you know. Also I don't mean to toot my own horn but I'm the reason your men aren't sitting in a jail cell right now so just let that sink in…]

Barry dropped his phone in surprise, when did this become about boasting to Len!?

LS – BA [If that's you telling me to not find a date then message received loud and clear.]

Barry felt his face grow hot at the message.

BA – LS [You're free to do what you want]

As soon as the message sent and Barry couldn't delete it, he instantly regretted it.

LS – BA [I'll keep my calendar clear… just in case.]

Barry didn't smile. He full on fucking grinned as he locked his phone and turned his bed side table lamp off before he drifted off to sleep.


A/N: Hey so i whipped this together for you guys today as i felt bad about the lack of updates. It is actually based off of Demi's music video but when i watched it I was like uh that would be such a good thing to write! basically... I had a massive writers block about what to write next for them. And who doesn't like a bit of Badass!Barry and Worried!Len.