Six months before the particle accelerator explosion
"BARRY!" IRIS' VOICE ECHOED throughout the West house. She had her left leg perched on the stair step. Her right arm was casually resting on the handrail of the stairs. She was waiting for a reply from the brown haired man upstairs. Iris' huffed and pushed herself away from the staircase. She walked to the kitchen and looked at the clock on the wall.
Her shift at CC Jitters would start in fifteen minutes. She was dressed up to leave. She was wearing a black pencil skirt that she put a brown belt around it, a long sleeved dark blue top, and her high heeled boots.
9:45 am, it read. She shook her head and went back to her previous position at the bottom of the staircase.
She was going to be late, but she needed to wake Barry up because he was already late for his job at the Central City Police Department as a Forensic Assistant. My dad is going to be pissed, she thought.
"Barry! For the love of God, please wake up! If it was up to me, I would go straight into your room, but last time you were butt naked on your bed and I do not want that to happen again!" Iris' shouted at the top of her lungs.
Iris' cringed from the memory. Last time she woke him up, he wasn't wearing any clothes. He was full on naked lying face down on his bed. She never asked why, but Barry explained that it was a very hot day for him.
Few minutes later with no reply from Barry, she closed her eyes and tilted her head up. Please, let him be fully clothed, she thought. She lowered her head and let out a sigh. She slowly took another step on the stairs. By the time she was almost at the top, she shouted again, "I'm coming up, Barry!"
She heard nothing and she rolled her eyes. She reached the second floor and she turned right to go straight towards Barry's room. She brought her hand up to knock, but the door opened.
Her eyes met Barry's clean shaven face. His hair was gelled up and swept to the side. He was wearing jeans and a black shirt underneath his plaid shirt. He had a smile on his face when he saw Iris. Iris returned the smile and placed her hands on her hips. She looked at him up and down.
"You clean up fast," she said. Her voice laced with sarcasm. Barry's smile reached his eyes and he walked around her. She followed him to their living room.
"Did Joe leave already, Iris?" Barry asked as he grabbed his coat from the coat hanger beside the stairs.
Iris rolled her eyes from behind him. Her back was faced towards him. She was grabbing her small sling bag from the couch, double checking her things.
"Yeah, he did. Two hours ago," she said turning around to see Barry's jaw drop open and his eyes wide.
"N-No. No, he said ten, not...seven," he stammered. Iris slowly shook her head at him throughout his sentence.
"Seven, Barry, he said this right before we all went asleep. You're late, and, yes, my dad is going to be pissed," She said.
She slung her purse on her shoulder while Barry hurriedly wore his coat. He was behind Iris as she opened the door. He stumbled towards the door and almost forgot his CSI Forensic kit on the floor on the small table beside the door.
Iris laughed at him as he struggled to carry the heavy kit.
"Come on, Barry, we're both late already," she said and opened the door.
+x+
BARRY RAN THROUGH THE CROWDED streets of Central City. With every step he took, he let out huge breaths of air. He was struggling to keep the heavy bag from slipping from his shoulders. He pushed himself to run even faster. He didn't want to get in trouble again.
Oversleeping was not a good excuse to Captain David Singh. He was going to get his ass fired, but, thankfully, Joe West was there to protect him.
"Excuse me—sorry—my bad," He said as he moved past the sea of strangers. He saw the familiar stairs of Central City Police Department and ran towards the doors.
"Wait, wait, wait!" He shouted from the entrance as he saw the elevator doors started to close. A female officer that he did not recognized politely pressed the button to keep the doors from closing. Barry sprinted towards the elevator. He almost hit two police officers walking in front of him, but he side swept around them.
When he finally reached the elevator, he panted and muttered a "thank you" to the female police officer. The elevator doors shut and silence filled the room.
Fortunately, it was not crowded in the elevator. He stared at the floor buttons to see that his designated floor was already pressed. He looked up and stared at the little screen that showed the current floor. After a few seconds, the doors open and he ran for the last time.
He saw Joe and Captain Singh having an intense conversation. From his vantage point, he could see them through Captain Singh office glass. Joe was standing in front of Singh desk while Singh was seated at his leather chair.
Singh had a frown on his face while Joe was busy talking to him. His hands were making gestures while he talked. Barry prayed that whatever they were talking about was not about him being late again.
He greeted some officers that he knew as he passed by them. He reached Captain Singh office and knocked. He heard the conversation suddenly stop and he looked through the glass to see Joe's disappointed face.
He looked away and felt the guilt rush through him. He reached for the knob and twisted it open. The door let out a creak as he pushed it forward. He entered and closed the door behind him. He met two pairs of eyes and his guilt deepens.
"Three times in a row, Allen. Congratulations. What was it this time?" Captain Singh mockingly asked Barry.
Barry opened his mouth to utter an excuse, but couldn't when he saw Joe looking at him.
"Uh—I got stuuuck...in t-traffic be-because, uh, Iris—" he stopped his sentence when he saw Joe turn his full body in front of him. His face stone cold and his hands were on his hips. Clearly, he did not want Iris to be included in my excuse.
"—no, no, Iris, just me. I was—" he was interrupted by Singh. Barry gulped and clutched his bag sling tightly. He didn't have a valid excuse this time.
"You know, Barry, I am this close," Singh held up his right hand and used his pointer finger and thumb that was barely touching to show his point, "to firing you," he paused to see that Barry was now looking down at his feet.
"But I don't, you know why? I don't fire you because you are the best this department has when it comes to collecting and analyzing evidences," he finished. Barry looked up at Singh with hopeful eyes and nodded.
He was silently thanking the man. He didn't want to open his mouth anymore in fear that he would say something stupid. Singh looked away from him and turned his chair towards Joe who was leaning against the wall, arms crossed.
"West, kindly show Mr. Allen the recent evidence we gathered in the latest Smith murder," Singh said and he leaned forward on his table. He gathered his papers and started opening folders. This was him showing them that they had to leave and that the conversation was over.
"Come on, son," Detective Joe West's gruff voice filled Barry's ear. He turned his head and saw Joe's ever-so-kind face. Barry followed him out of Singh office.
As they walked up the stairs, Barry decided to talk to Joe, "Hey, Joe, I'm sorry for being late," He said in the most sincere voice. He heard Joe sighed and he replied, "It's okay, Barry, just try to be early next time, okay? Singh might have been kind a while ago—"
"Kind? He was embarrassing me again," Barry argued.
Joe turned around to face Barry and he scolded him, "Everyone has their limits, Barry, don't keep pushing your luck around Singh. You being the best or not, he can still fire you," Joe finished and turned back around to reach the top of the stairs.
He didn't say anything because Joe was right. They arrived at Barry's lab and Barry cringed at the sight of his messy workspace.
Papers littered the floor and his laboratory equipment were scattered at his desk. He also had a leftover donut from CC Jitters on his table beside his favorite red mug.
"This is just nasty, Barry, clean up. The recent evidences are inside those file cabinets. We also wanted you to run up some DNA test on the blood that we find and see if you can find a match," Joe explained to Barry.
Barry, who was listening, scrunched his nose in disgust as he saw ants lining up towards the donut. He picked up the small plate that had the donuts on it and threw the donut and the plate on the trash can near the door.
"After that, you can go home. Don't forget to pick up Iris after her shift, okay?" Joe said and looked at Barry sitting in front of his laptop.
"Yes, Joe, I got this," Barry replied and turned his upper half body towards Joe. He gave him a small smile and Joe returned it. Joe silently left the room and Barry turned back to face his computer.
This is going to be a long day, he thought. He let out a sigh and planted his feet on the floor to stand up. He went around his table and walked towards the file cabinet that had the evidences.
+x+
CC JITTERS WAS UNUSUALLY FILLED WITH A LOT PEOPLE. Iris was not used to having so much people lining up at the counter that it almost reached the entrance doors. The tables that the coffee shop had did not even seem to be enough for the people that were currently inside.
She noticed that the top floor was almost full and the main floor was not doing much better. Fortunately, she wasn't the one manning the counter or else she would be stressing out.
She was actually taking a break. Her shift won't start after twenty minutes and she silently prayed that it won't be this crowded.
She was seated at the corner of CC Jitters near a plant. She scanned the room for any familiar faces, but saw no one. She let out a sigh and leaned back on the couch.
She just wanted to go home, but she couldn't because her work does not end until 8:30 pm. After a few minutes of contemplating her life and staring at the vast amount of people, she stood up from her arm chair and headed towards the back of the counter.
When she was about to reach the counter, a really tall guy, about six feet, blocked her way. She looked up at the guy and met the green eyes of the stranger.
"Oh. Hello," Iris said, confused. She stepped away from their close proximity and scrunched her eyebrows in confusion.
The stranger continued to smile at her. He had a coffee cup on his right hand and he was wearing a baseball cap on top of his short shaggy blonde hair. Iris did not mean to stare a little bit longer, but she did.
She had to admit that this stranger was attractive. He had a dimple on his left cheek and his shaggy hair was sticking to his forehead messily. He was tanned and muscular. Iris could see his biceps shaping at the sleeves of the maroon shirt he was wearing.
"Hi—um—this is embarrassing," the guy started. His voice was exactly what she expected to hear. It was appealing; not too high or low. It was husky and kind of sexy. She also envied his perfectly white teeth that made his smile glow.
Iris craned her neck upwards to look at the guy properly. The guy brought his coffee close to his chest and continued talking, "My friends dared me to talk to you and wanted me to get your number. I said it was easy, but looking at you now, it's going to be harder than I thought," the guy smoothly said.
Iris had to keep herself from grinning. This handsome guy was seriously flirting with her. She was not that lucky. Still, she wasn't going to fall for this cute guy's cheap tricks. She knew he was lying about this 'dare'. She was a cop's daughter; she's not easy.
"You're going to have to take me to dinner first," Iris said. She gave him a tight smile and walked around him.
The guy stepped backwards to stop her from walking. He grabbed her arm which made Iris turn around and glared at him.
"Don't touch me," she snapped pulling her arm away from his grip. The stranger let go and brought bought of his hand up in a surrendering position.
"Feisty. I like that," the guy continued to flirt. Iris squint her eyes at him and turned away from him. She started to walk again, but cute guy stopped her again.
"What do you want? Touch me again and I'll have you arrested. My dad's a cop," She replied. The guy raised his eyebrows and gave her another heart-stopping smile.
"Okay. Take it easy, princess. I guess you know that I wasn't dared to talk to you. I also do not have my friends with me. I'm alone, but, the truth is, I do want to talk to you," He explained.
"Why?"
"Can't a handsome, young gentleman talk to a pretty girl like you?" He said with a grin. Iris couldn't help but smile at his sentence. She crossed her arms on her chest and took a small step towards him.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"Vincent Snow or, you know, just call me Vince. What do they call you?" He asked in return.
"Iris," She replied and bit her lips to keep her from grinning. She brought her hand up for a handshake which he gladly took.
"That's a pretty name, Iris, lovely to meet you."
+x+
FIVE HOURS PASSED BY, by the time Barry finished his report on the latest case. His eyes hurt from not blinking too much. He was so focused on his work that he did not even bother getting up to eat or drink.
He looked at the time to see that he was actually too early to go to CC Jitters to pick up Iris so he decided to stay at his lab for a few more minutes. He leaned back on his chair and stretched out his arms and legs. His back cracked a little and he let out a moan. He stood up from his chair to fix his table.
He gathered his latest findings and put it inside a single folder. He closed the folder shut and saw the front page.
GERARD SMITH - MURDER VICTIM
He sighed and carefully placed the folder beside his laptop. He grabbed his bag that was also his forensics kit and slung it over his shoulder. He really didn't like unsolved murder cases. It reminded him of his mom's death and how unfair it was that his father was in jail for it.
His grip tightened on the sling of his bag. He shook his head from the tragic memories that happened. He would free his father from prison. He was sure of it.
He walked out of his lab and turned right towards the stairs. He stopped when he saw Joe's running figure towards him. Joe stopped midway when he saw Barry at the top of the stairs. He was panting from all the running he just did.
Barry saw the worried look on Joe's face and he knew something had happened. It was the look he gave him and Iris every time they were about to do something reckless.
"Joe, what is it?" Barry asked his expression changing from bored to frightened.
"Pierce Pharmaceuticals. There's been a robbery. Three civilians are dead and five are injured. We have to go there now."
Disclaimer: I do not own the Flash.