This got sooooooo much deeper than expected, but I think it ended up being a really nice bonding moment for Barry and Cal, as they're getting closer and their feelings are starting to get stronger. They're becoming more and more comfortable opening up to each other and are carving out significant spaces in each other's lives.

Though I do my best to keep my OCs as far from my own personality and background as possible, Cal's story is very loosely based on my own experience hearing of the death of someone I loved deeply but was years distant from.

I don't own the Flash or the song Little Talks. Consider yourselves disclaimed.

In the three weeks since Cal had first caught Barry singing along with her, she had been unrelenting in rotating through as many artists and genres as she could think of to get him to do it again. It was more a battle of wills at this point - there had been several that tempted him, but he enjoyed watching her hair get bigger and bigger as she ran her hands through it, exasperated in her mission.

Today was different though. Barry had beaten Cal to work, which had literally never happened before, and rather than a perky "Good morning Boss!" he was greeted with a subdued "Hey Barry" and she walked right past the cup of coffee he had set out for her to plop down in her chair and immediately open a report. Even her hair seemed to lack its usual bounce, the limp curls adding to the depressed air about her.

"Uh...hey, Cal." She didn't make eye contact with him, instead turning her music on immediately before he had a chance to ask what was wrong. She clearly didn't want to talk about it, so he instead went about his morning, keeping an eye trained on her to wait for her opening.

Her song choices leaned towards the melancholy, and he actually found them rather soothing. If nothing else, he could always get an idea of her mood based on what she was listening to.

She still sang along, more softly than usual, and as a new song started, one he knew from the radio, he found her voice particularly haunting.

"I don't like walking around this old and empty house"

"So hold my hand, I'll walk with you my dear"

Cal's head snapped up as she swiveled around to him and she missed the next line. Barry had joined in on the male part without even thinking about it and was so embarrassed he nearly stopped. Another look at the raw expression on her face, however, and he continued.

"It's the house telling you to close your eyes"

Though she didn't smile, Cal began to sing again, lowering her head back to the reports she was scribbling in. Barry followed suit, allowing the words to hang between them as they worked.

"And some days I can't even dress myself"

"It's killing me to see you this way"

"'Cause though the truth may vary this ship will carry our
Bodies safe to shore"

They continued the duet quietly until the song was over, and Cal turned off the music and just sat there, staring nothing for several long moments. Barry waited for her to speak when she was ready.

"How long have you and your friend Iris known each other?"

That was unexpected. "Uh, as long as I can remember, my mom and Joe were friends from college."

"It's great that you've made it to adulthood and still stayed so close."

"Yeah, it is."

"My sister Lia called me this morning."

Barry waited for her to continue, not entirely sure where she was going with this. She looked up at him as she pushed her glasses onto her head and gave a humorless chuckle.

"Torionne and I met on the first day of kindergarten and were absolutely inseparable from that day forward. That was...a problem."

"Problem?"

"I've worked really hard to lose my accent, but I come from BFE Smalltown Oklahoma. No matter what the elected officials want you to believe, racism is alive and well."

It took Barry a moment to understand. "Wait, you mean..."

"Oh yeah. A little white girl and a little black boy? No ma'am, not happening, don't you dare."

Barry couldn't begin to wrap his head around it. He and Iris had literally never faced issues, and he was raised in her home more than half his life. "But that's crazy!"

"You know that, and Tori and I knew that, and I will forever thank my lucky stars that our families knew that and didn't keep us apart, but we were literally spat at, Barry. At six years old, grown men and women threw cigarette butts and beer cans at us for our 'filthy association'. It never stopped. It became less overt, but it never stopped. Our friendship was hard, but we cared about each other, and we made it work."

"I am so sorry you had to go through that, Cal. It's just wrong."

"Yeah, it is. And if that weren't enough, small town life was so suffocating! Everyone knew everyone else's secrets, who kissed who behind the stadium in junior high and who slept with who getting drunk after homecoming. It was unavoidable. The most popular event all year was the prize pig show at the county fair."

Barry started a bit, raising an eyebrow.

"Totally serious. It just got worse the closer we got to high school graduation. I didn't tell anyone but Torionne that I was applying to schools out of state, especially not my parents. I just couldn't do my mom's good little country pageant girl routine anymore, get an associate's degree in something boring and be a school secretary. I'm a scientist, dammit!"

"Wait, wait," Barry interrupted, smiling for the first time. "Pageant girl? Please tell me there's photographic evidence."

"And half a dozen first place sashes, sir, I earned those." Cal allowed herself a real laugh, grateful for the reprieve, but sombered again quickly. "Tori was always so supportive, applied to all the same schools. Got in to most of them, too - we were going to get jobs and an apartment and be roommates and never, ever go back. But then Tori got scared.

"After we got our acceptance letters, he suddenly refused to leave and shredded all of his. He was convinced the rest of the world was just like our hometown, couldn't stand the idea of facing more hatred than we already dealt with. Nothing I said could convince him, absolutely nothing. When it came time to leave for MIT and he still refused to go, I...I left. I couldn't stay, not even for him. And I never went back."

She was silent for a long time then, and Barry started to think she wasn't going to continue.

"He was so mad. He refused to speak to me for two years. Finally my sister came to see me at school and I called him from her phone, hoping he'd answer. He did, just long enough to tell me that he hated me and never to contact him again." She scrubbed at her eyes for a moment, thought she hadn't shed any tears. "I honored his wish, always hoping he'd change his mind. We haven't spoken in five years. He drove to the city and jumped off a thirty story building yesterday."

"Oh God. Cal, I'm so sorry."

"And part of me feels like I should be blaming myself, you know? Like, I knew how they treated him in that town and I abandoned him for my own selfish desires. But my therapist and I talked a lot about it and I know it's not my fault, I had to do what was right for me and no one else. But could I have done something more to convince him to leave? Should I have called him even though he didn't want me to?"

Barry stood from his chair and walked across the lab to her now, placing both hands on her shoulders. "Cal, you can't blame yourself for this. You didn't make that decision for him, you did everything you could to let him know he was loved. It sounds like he was hearing so many horrible things they blocked out the good ones."

Cal brought both her hands up to grasp his right one, resting her chin on them with closed eyes. She visibly relaxed at his words, letting out a long, slow breath. "Thank you, Barry. For some reason hearing it from you means a lot more than hearing it from my sister."

"Anytime. Are you going back for the funeral?"

"No. That place is toxic. I'll do something for him here, where I'm home. The Torionne I grew up with would understand. He'd have liked it here. He'd have liked you."

Barry found pride blossoming fast and strong at the comparison. "Well it seems we shared good taste in friends."

He sang along regularly after that.

Seriously debated that last line. If you think it's too blah I'll take it out.