The next morning, Barry and Alicia found themselves walking down to Jitters with their arms linked to visit Iris, as they usually did before work. The two decided that they needed a cup of coffee before going to work. Alicia parked her car, and the two laughed good-naturedly, feeling light and happy. However, the laughter from Barry stopped and he suddenly had a hurt expression on his face. Alicia looked at what was in front of her, noticing why Barry looked upset. Iris was sitting in Jitters, kissing Eddie Thawne. Alicia frowned and suddenly Iris noticed the two of them just as Barry started to walk away. Alicia started to follow him; she knew how Barry felt about Iris and seeing Iris and Eddie kissing hurt him. She already knew of Barry's jealousy towards Eddie, and now on top of that, Eddie was dating the girl he'd had a crush on since he was a child.
Iris followed the two of them, and three proceeded to walk down by a long canal, which led to the waterfront. Iris spoke up first.
"You guys cannot tell my dad about this," she pleaded. "If he knew about me and Eddie he'd kill us both."
"So doesn't look like anybody's in on that secret," Barry said bitterly, the words feeling like acid on his tongue. He and Iris told each other everything and shared everything with one another. The fact that she kept this from him hurt him more than anything.
"When were you going to tell us?" Alicia asked. She knew that Barry's anger was stemming from jealousy and comparing himself to Eddie.
"I was going to tell you both," Iris tried to say. "When the two of you were in the hospital, Eddie covered my dad's shifts so that we could see the both of you more. One day he came into Jitters, I thanked him with coffee, and he asked me out. We've been going out ever since, and things between us are good. He makes me happy and I like him."
"Well I'm happy for you. You deserve somebody amazing," Alicia said, offering Iris a smile. She truly was happy for Iris, but she felt bad for her other best friend.
"Dating your partner's daughter; isn't that against partner regulations?" asked Barry, his words sounding bitter. He was not even trying to hide his unhappiness.
"Why are you so upset?" Iris asked.
Oh Iris, you're so blind sometimes thought Alicia. It was plainly evident from the ways that Barry looked at Iris that he had a massive crush on her. Alicia noticed it, her partner Dick noticed it, and even Joe and freaking Captain Singh noticed it! Everybody knew Barry secretly drooled over Iris and he was too afraid to tell her how he felt about her. He was crazy about her! Alicia felt a surge of sympathy for Barry. He was probably thinking to himself that guys like him never got the girl, and he was the example of that. She offered Barry her hand, which he took, squeezing onto it thankfully. Alicia knew him so well. Suddenly, they heard the sounds of tires screeching. A black car was racing towards them with police cruisers chasing after it. Instantly, Barry's reflexes kicked in, and he shoved Iris out of the way as Alicia ran to the side to avoid getting hit. Alicia looked over at Barry, and the two of them managed to catch up to Clyde Mardon. Alicia shoved him down to the ground.
"Hey sweetheart," he said slyly to Alicia.
"You're supposed to be dead! You-You fell out of a plane!" Barry gasped in shock. The fact that Clyde was there in the flesh was a huge shock to him and Alicia. Alicia grabbed hold of her gun and showed her detective badge to Clyde.
"Clyde Mardon, Detective Alicia Galloway, Central City Police Department, special victim's unit," Alicia said, going into cop mode. Her expression hardened as she grabbed her hand cuffs to lock them around Mardon. "You have the right to remain silent. Keep in mind that can be used against you in court of law. You have the right to an attorney, and if you do not have one or cannot afford one, an attorney will be provided for you."
However, before Alicia could even put the cuffs on Clyde to hand him off to an officer, he sprinted away before anyone could see him. Mardon shot and killed a cop, leaving Alicia frustrated as her partner, Dick, came forward with Joe. Iris came forward.
"Thank God you're all right, Licia," Dick said. His partner hadn't come into work yet, so when he heard of a car chase, he went down to check it, not expecting to see his partner there.
"What were you thinking having Iris around?!" Joe exclaimed angrily to discipline Barry and Alicia. "I thought I told you and Barry, Iris, when you see danger, you run the other way! You're not cops! Barry you're forensics!"
"I'm not a cop only because you wouldn't let me!" Iris said angrily.
"Damn right you're not! And Alicia this isn't even your turf!" Joe scolded the SVU detective. "You handle sex crimes in this city not car chases!"
"I was just here making sure that nobody got hurt!" Alicia said. "And I nearly had the guy! I was about to cuff him!"
"Easy, Alicia," Dick said, resting a hand on his partner's shoulder.
"No, Dick!" Alicia cried out, frustrated as Barry went off to talk to Joe in private. "I'm a detective! SVU or not, I am going to do my job which is making arrests and holding people accountable for the things that they do! You cannot keep me from being a cop! It's who I am and it's what I do! I chose this life!"
"I know but you have a habit of running towards danger!" Dick said. "I'm just looking out for you! You're like family to me! Ever since we became partners and transferred to the CCPD at the same time, I've looked out for your best interest and loved and cared for you like a sister! The least you can do in return for me is to stop looking for trouble! As your partner I need to hold you accountable!"
"Are you kidding me, Dick?! We're cops we are always running towards danger every damn day! It runs in my family! Okay? And don't treat me like my father! Just because my father got shot and killed when I was sixteen in front of me doesn't mean I shouldn't be the person that I am!" Alicia said angrily. "I know you are just looking out for me, Richard, I know you see me as a little sister, but I am not a little girl! I can handle myself, man! You know that you see me out there on the field! I can tackle down any drug dealer, pedophile or rapist twice my size! I take self-defense classes so let me do my damn job!" She stalked over to where Barry and Joe were standing, Iris on her tail. When she heard the argument between them, she knew she had to intervene, as it was upsetting Barry.
"Your dad killed your mother; I am sorry, son! But I knew it; the jury knew it, and now he's paying for what he did!" Joe yelled.
"Dad, stop!" Iris yelled. "Enough!"
"No Iris," Joe said, cutting her off. He looked at Barry. "I have taken care of you since that night and I have never asked for anything in return, not even a thank you! But what I do ask now is that you start seeing things the way that they are."
Alicia felt compassionate for Barry as tears welled in his eyes. He proceeded to walk away so that nobody could see his tears of anger and disappointment and hurt. Alicia followed him, intent on going after him and comforting him.
"Barry," she said to him. She felt her heart break for him as she noticed the tear tracks on his cheeks. She pulled him into a tight hug. Barry breathed in the familiar, spicy scent of her perfume, that smell of cinnamon, brown sugar, pepper corn, orange, vanilla and ginger, and felt comforted by it. "Barry I know. Okay? I saw Mardon too. It's impossible that he survived that plane crash."
"It's not just that," Barry said. "I heard from a banker yesterday that Mardon had attempted to rob her, and he did something impossible. He-He controlled a tornado in doors!"
"I guess we are not the only ones who were changed from that particle accelerator," Alicia said. "Guess we need a conversation with Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon and Harrison Wells."
It was not long until Barry and Alicia strode into S.T.A.R Labs. The two really wanted and needed answers. They wanted to know if they were not the only two people affected by the particle accelerator the night that it exploded. They needed a sense of closure and information so that they could stop Clyde Mardon before he did more damage to the city. He was a thief and a murderer and a liar that had to be stopped.
"We were not the only ones affected by the particle accelerator, were we?" asked Barry.
Dr. Wells glanced at Cisco and Caitlin before saying, "We do not know for sure."
"You said that there was no residual damage," Barry said, narrowing his eyes. "But we know that that is not the case so what happened that night?"
Caitlin and Cisco glanced towards Wells nervously. They knew that now was the time to face the fact that others, aside from Barry and Alicia, were affected. Cisco's hands went to the keyboard immediately as wells spoke.
"Well," Wells said, tapping at a screen on his wheelchair. Barry and Alicia turned to look at the computer monitors in the cortex. "The accelerator went active, and we all felt like heroes, and then. . ." The screen on the computer monitor lit up, showing three-dimensional structure of the particle accelerator exploding. "It all went wrong. The dimensional barrier ruptured, unleashing unknown energies into our world: anti-matter, dark energy, ex-elements-"
"But that's all theoretical," Alicia cut in.
Wells nodded. "Unmapped dispersion throughout and around Central City, which we have no way of knowing who was exposed," he said. "We've been searching for other. . . metahumans like yourselves."
"Metahumans?" asked Barry.
"That's the term we are currently using," said Caitlin.
"I saw one today aside from myself and Alicia. He's a bank robber and he can control the weather," Barry said.
"Cool," Cisco said.
"Not cool, actually. He shot and killed a police officer after getting himself into a high speed chase," Alicia said. "I was going to make my move on him and arrest him, but then he escaped and shot the police officer." Her words felt bitter on her tongue, like she swallowed a lemon.
"But this isn't a job for you two to handle it's a job for the police," Wells said.
"I'm in the police, Dr. Wells!" Alicia said, frustrated. "I may be a special victim's detective, but I am a detective nonetheless, and the fact is that Clyde Mardon got away and killed someone. He took a life. He's a thief and murderer and he needs to be punished. What's important is catching this douche before he hurts somebody else! I already lost my father at age sixteen when he got shot and killed right in front of me. And with Clyde it's even more personal, because he was the son of a bitch that killed my father! He made me watch as my dad got shot in the head right in front of me, my two older brothers and my little sister! I would never forgive myself if that happened to somebody else; a young child that would never get a chance to see his or her mother or father again! I mean, after that my oldest brother Paul got driven so far down that I at one point had to drive him home from a bar because he was passed out in the backseat drunk! My sister Massie was so traumatized by the whole ordeal that she developed PTSD! Clyde ruined my life, and he needs to be stopped!" She felt her eyes burning with tears as she said that. Her whole life she wanted nothing more than to catch her father's killer; that had been her motivation for being a police detective in the first place. "Okay? I-I hate it! I hate that my dad's killer got away! And Caitlin, I know you lost your fiancé and I am so sorry but I feel that if I do not catch the man that killed my dad then my whole life's work would be for nothing! Clyde's a freaking psychopath!" The tears rolled down her cheeks in anger as her tough, police façade broke. Underneath her toughness she was in pain and everything felt so screwed up. The only few people she allowed to see that side of her were Barry, Dick, Iris and Joe, but Barry more so. Barry understood her and read her like a book, so he was easier for her to let her guard down around him.
"Besides, I work for the police too!" Barry said.
"As a forensic scientist," Wells said.
"Wells you created him, you're responsible for making him into what he is!" Barry said, exasperated, shocked that this man who he idolized wasn't holding himself accountable for his actions and his role in this.
"What's important is the two of you!" Wells said to Barry and Alicia. "Not me. I lost everything. I lost my company, I lost my reputation, I lost my freedom, and then Barry you break your arm, it heals in four hours, and Alicia, you slice your hand open, and it heals within a split second! Inside your bodies could be maps to a whole new world of genetic therapy, medicine, vaccines; treasures hidden deep inside your cells! We cannot risk everything we've got because the two of you decide you want to go out and play hero. You're not heroes; you're just two people that got struck by lightning."
Alicia felt her face burning red. Her and Barry just turned around and walked out of the lab in disgust. Alicia felt as though she'd swallowed something extremely sour, while Barry just felt disappointment. When they were outside the doors of S.T.A.R Labs, Alicia looked at Barry and realized he really needed to talk to somebody.
"What are you thinking right now?" she asked him quietly.
"As much as I want to talk to my dad right now," Barry said quietly, "there is one person I need to speak to about this. And I could use his advice."
"Oliver Queen?" asked Alicia.
"You know him?" Barry asked.
"I met him too. I visited Roy after so woke up and he introduced me. Oliver knows," Alicia told him.
Barry nodded and lifted Alicia up and into his arms, running them at super speed in the direction of Starling City, where their mutual friend, former playboy-turned-vigilante, could tell them what they needed to hear.
A/N
Thank you to the two following readers who have been loyal to this story and what I am creating. You two have been so good to me these past two days that I decided to update this morning before going out with my family.
SeleneAlice- I think that in the future once I start writing for the Flash season 4 and Titans, an OC/Dick Grayson relationship could potentially be done. I have to watch Titans first to see the chemistry between Dick and Starfire, which I believe will be the romance that the Titans show will go into. Plus, I already have ideas brewing in my head for the sequel which will take place in Flash season 2. I can guarantee that whatever I come up with going forward with this series, you will not be disappointed in what gets delivered.
highlander348- next chapter, Alicia and Barry are going to get their supersuits. I promise you the suit design for Alicia will not disappoint. It will be a little bit sexy, but it won't be too provocative. Though I can promise you'll love it. The next chapter will also include the conversation between Barry and Oliver.
Also, Grant Gustin won choice action tv actor! So so happy!
