Iron Heights Penitentiary
Sebastian felt like his every nerve was on end as he walked into the daunting prison. He had never visited anyone in prison before. It wasn't the prison that made him nervous, though. It was the fact that he was going to see his father for the first time in fourteen years. His father, who was also his mother's murderer. Sebastian had a hard time deciding which one to think of him as, his father or the murderer.
He was both.
Sebastian wondered what his father would look like now. He couldn't really remember what he had looked like before. Of the few family photos Sebastian had in his possession, he had burned all the ones of Henry. He had only kept the ones of him, his twin, and his mother. He barely even remembered his father's face.
"Hey, Barry," the guard at the desk said when he approached, "Came to visit early this week?"
Sebastian nodded.
He figured it would be easier to enter the prison as Barry. He wouldn't have to go through the whole visitor registration process then.
"I'm sorry," Sebastian said, "I forgot my visitor's badge."
The guard gave a dismissive wave of his hand.
"It's fine," he said, "It's just a formality anyways. We all know who you are by now. I'll send a CO to get your dad for you. You can head over to the visitation area. You know the way."
Sebastian gave him an uneasy smile, and then walked down the hall that the guard had gestured to. Thankfully, it led right to the area that the guard had mentioned. Sebastian's heart sped up when the row of desks came into view. He sat down at one of them and stared at the glass. Any second now, his father would be on the other side of it. Sebastian felt like he was going to be sick as he waited.
He didn't know if he'd be able to get the words out when his father was sitting in front of him. He had already started to forget everything that he had been planning to say to the bastard.
Before he had time to clear his mind, a guard was leading a prisoner towards the desk on the other side of the glass. Sebastian's heart nearly stopped when his dad's face came into view, instantly bringing up so many bittersweet memories. Little league games, fishing, his father reading books to him and Barry before bedtime. All the memories Sebastian had been suppressing for years came rushing back in a single instant once he saw the man's face, and Sebastian had to fight to keep tears from forming in his eyes.
His father looked a lot older than he remembered. More worn down, and his eyes didn't hold the same warmth that they had in his memories of him. Sebastian supposed that was simply what fourteen years in prison does to a person.
Henry smiled as he sat down across from him and picked up the phone on the wall next to him. Sebastian took a deep breath and grabbed his own phone with a shaky hand. Henry spoke first, and Sebastian shuddered at the haunting sound of his father's voice.
"Mixing it up a little today, Barry?" his father laughed, "Why didn't you sit in our usual booth?"
Sebastian swallowed, his throat dry. He had been planning from the start to tell his father it was really him right away, so that he could unleash everything he wanted to say to him, but now that he was in front of the man, he froze.
"Are you okay?" Henry asked in concern, "What happened to your eye?!"
Sebastian reached up and touched his face. He had almost forgotten about the black eye Barry had given him. He didn't answer his father. He hardly had it in him to look at him, let alone talk to him.
"What's wrong, Slugger?" his dad asked seriously, "What made you come visit this early in the week?"
Sebastian shuddered at hearing his brother's old nickname on his dad's lips. He hadn't heard it in years. He took a shaky breath and spoke as steadily as he could into the phone.
"I-I just missed you," he stuttered, trying to think of what Barry would say, "It's been a hard week."
Sebastian felt like a coward, pretending to be Barry. Really, he did it all the time, but this was different. He wasn't doing it to play some lame joke. He was doing it because facing Henry as Barry was slightly less terrifying than facing him as himself.
Henry frowned at him.
"Are you finally going to tell me what had you so upset the other day?" he asked.
Sebastian took a shaky breath and shook his head, not able to look his father in the eye.
"It's nothing," he muttered quietly, "I-I just wanted to see you."
"Is it about me?" Henry pressed anyways, "Is that why you've been acting so strangely? Is this about my case?"
Sebastian open and closed his mouth, not sure what he should say.
"Because I told you not to obsess over that anymore, Barry," Henry said seriously, "You need to stop worrying about me and move on with your life, son. You can't keep dwelling on what happened to our family. I don't care about what other people think. You know the truth, and I know the truth. That's all that should matter."
Sebastian looked up at him then with watery eyes. Had his father completely forgotten about his other son? What upset him more, though, were the games Henry was playing. Was this really the sort of shit he usually said to Barry?! It was no wonder why Barry still believed the guy was innocent. Henry was playing some pretty sick mind games with his brother.
"Barry?" Henry asked quietly, surveying his son's face.
Sebastian didn't know what to say. So many different emotions were washing over him at once. Sadness, heartache. Anger. He couldn't do this. He couldn't sit here and calmly pretend to be Barry while he talked to their mother's murderer. Before Sebastian could think of anything to say, Henry's expression changed suddenly, his eyes widening.
"Sebastian?" Henry asked in shock.
Sebastian's head snapped up to look at him, his heart stopping in his chest. Recognition dawned on his father's face and tears quickly formed in his eyes.
How had he known?
"Sebastian," Henry choked, "It's you, isn't it?"
And then Sebastian panicked. He quickly moved to hang up the phone.
"Wait!" Henry cried, causing Sebastian to hesitate, "Wait, please, son. Please don't leave!"
Sebastian's panic was quickly replaced by anger in a matter of seconds.
"Don't call me that," he gritted into the phone, "Don't ever call me your son. You're not my father anymore."
"Sebastian," Henry said in anguish, "I—"
"Don't," Sebastian snapped, cutting him off, "Don't talk. Your lies aren't going to work on me the way they work on my twin. Just keep the bullshit to yourself, Henry. I didn't come here to listen. I came here to say what I needed to say."
Henry placed a hand over his mouth, tears rolling down his face, as he nodded, clearly still in shock having his other son visiting him after all these years.
"I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that I hate you," Sebastian began, feeling his nerves leaving him, being replaced by rage, "You know that already. I'm not here for myself. I came here to tell you to stop poisoning Barry's mind with your lies. Stop taking advantage of my brother. It's sick."
"Bash," Henry cried.
"Don't call me that," Sebastian said angrily, "The man who drove a ten-inch knife into my mother's chest doesn't get to call me that."
"Please," Henry sobbed, "Please, just let me—"
"It should have been you," Sebastian said angrily into the phone, "It should be you who's dead right now, not mom. You tore our family apart, Henry. You murdered mom, right in front of Barry. You took my whole life away from me, and you destroyed Barry. Do you realize how many shrinks Barry's seen by now? How scarred he still is by the whole thing? Barry's childhood was a series of therapists and nightmares. Now me, I'm average, but Barry, he's always been gifted. He's always been special and so…bright, but he'll never reach his full potential because of you. His whole life has been ruined by what you did. Both our lives have. You rotting in prison for the rest of your life will never be enough punishment for all the pain you've caused us."
"Sebastian," Henry cried desperately, putting a hand up to the glass between them.
Sebastian glared at the hand.
"I hope you rot in hell, dad," he whispered brokenly into the phone before slamming it back onto its hook on the wall.
As Sebastian stood up from the desk, he could see his father shouting desperately to him through the soundproof glass, tears rolling down his face. Sebastian didn't look back as he walked away.
He never wanted to see Henry's face again.
Barry sighed as he hung up the phone for the twenty-sixth time. By now, he knew it was pointless. Sebastian wasn't going to answer. Barry just wanted to talk to him, to work things out before Sebastian fled from Central City. That is, if he hadn't already left.
Barry had even gone to the Oshtoff hotel that morning to see him, but Sebastian wasn't there. Barry was afraid he was too late. Sebastian had probably already left Central City. Barry should have gone to him last night. He should have gone straight to the hotel to talk to his brother, to apologize for hitting him and for the things he had said, even if they were true.
They couldn't keep this up. They couldn't keep doing this to each other. Barry and Sebastian had thought they could get along, could act like brothers again, without addressing all the old issues between them. Ignoring the history of their family didn't make it magically go away, though. It just made it harder for them when things inevitably came to a head.
Barry looked up hopefully when his phone began to ring. With trembling hands, he quickly picked it up. His face fell when he saw that it wasn't Sebastian calling. The caller ID simply said 'DOC Ohio call.' Barry only knew one person with that caller ID, and that was his dad. Barry's father never called him. He didn't want Barry to have to pay the call fees, even though Barry had told him countless times that he wouldn't mind paying them at all. As Barry hit accept on the call, he knew something big must have happened for his dad to be calling him. With a churning feeling in his gut, Barry pressed the phone to his ear and listened to the automated recording.
"This call will be recorded and monitored. You have a collect call from an inmate at: Iron Heights Penitentiary. Your telephone service provider does not allow collect calls from: Iron Heights Penitentiary. If you would like to accept this collect call, you will be charged: $17.35 per fifteen minutes on your prepaid account. We accept Visa and Mastercard. If you would like to accept this call, please press: 4. For prepaid account inquiries, contact billing and costumer service at: 866-230-7—"
Barry impatiently pressed four on his phone before the recording was even finished.
"Hello?" he answered nervously, "Dad?"
"Barry," his dad said, and Barry's stomach clenched.
He knew just from the sound of his dad's voice that something was very wrong.
"What is it?" Barry asked urgently, "What happened?!"
"Your brother," his dad said shakily, "He came to visit me this morning."
Barry felt all the blood drain from his face.
"How long has Sebastian been in town?" his father demanded before Barry could say anything, "Why didn't you tell me?!"
"What did he say to you?" Barry asked urgently, ignoring his dad's question.
His father went silent, and Barry knew that it was bad.
"Dad, what did he say?" Barry asked worriedly.
"What do you think he said, Barry?" his dad sighed, "He hates me and wants me to stop talking to you. He thinks his father is a sick bastard."
Barry immediately saw red.
"I'm going to kill him," he gritted, "The next time I see Bash, I'm…"
"Are you the one who did that to his eye, Barry?" Henry asked seriously.
Barry sighed.
"Yeah," he muttered, "And I was feeling pretty lousy about it until now. Now, I just want to hit him again, smack some sense into him."
"Don't," Henry pleaded, "Please don't make this worse, Barry. I just want you and your brother to get along. It kills me to know that my sons are estranged to each other because of me. I want at least one of us to have a relationship with Sebastian, and if fighting about me is what's driving you two apart, I don't want you to do it anymore."
"Dad," Barry said in a strained voice, "I can't let him go around thinking those horrible things about you. You're our father. You deserve better than this."
"Barry…"
"Besides," Barry sighed, "We can't just keep pretending like the problem doesn't exist. Ignoring the issue—ignoring you—isn't going to fix things. The only thing that will make things better between us is if I can convince Sebastian of the truth."
"Sebastian's never going to see the truth, Barry," Henry said hopelessly.
He had given up on that hope years ago.
"Yes, he will," Barry said firmly, "I'm going to prove it to him—to everyone. I'm still going to get you out of there, dad. Don't give up yet."
Barry heard his father sigh over the phone.
"I just wish you had told me," he said sadly, "I wish you had told me your brother was in town, that you two were talking again."
"I wanted to," Barry said in anguish, "But things…they're so complicated right now. Sebastian and I haven't seen or spoken to each other in three years. It's like getting to know a stranger sometimes. We've both changed so much. I didn't see it before, but I can see now that Sebastian has changed. He still has a lot of growing up to do, but he's not the same person he once was. He's trying. I'm trying. I thought we could finally fix things between us, but we can't do that until he sees the truth. The past couple weeks have been…messy, and I didn't want to involve you in all that. I knew it would just hurt you."
"I'm the father here, Barry," Henry said firmly, "It's not your job to protect me, and I had the right to know that my other son was in Central City."
"I'm so sorry that you found out the way you did," Barry said earnestly, "I should have told you. I didn't expect Sebastian to do that…to go visit you. I'm so sorry."
"I understand why you didn't tell me," Henry sighed, "Just…please don't leave me out of the loop again. You and Sebastian…you're my family. I deserve to know what's going on."
"Okay," Barry agreed, "I won't cut you out of this anymore. I promise."
"Thank you," Henry whispered.
"Are you going to be okay?" Barry asked worriedly, knowing how badly his father must be hurting after whatever Sebastian had said to him.
"I'll be fine," Henry said, his voice wavering slightly, making Barry doubt his words.
"I'll find a way to get through to Sebastian, dad," Barry assured him, "I promise."
There was a long pause on the other side of the phone before his father finally spoke.
"I know you will, Slugger."