Ch 3

After Barry had got his boss the coffee, he was on his way home when he then saw his boss talking to a group of reporters and his two work friends, Patty and Albert had also come.

..."very satisfied with the ruling in the Johnson case. The evidence our lab analyzed was more than sufficient to be conclusive."

Barry couldn't believe what was going on.

His boss still rushed the evidence even when he told his boss to wait and now his father was going to spend another week in prison.

"I was still working that evidence!" Barry said in frustration.

"I think if it were up to you, everyone would still be scraping Ted Bundy's molars." Albet said before he and Patty laughed and now Barry just couldn't stand it anymore.

"You know what? I'm so happy you find this all so hilarious, but we are dealing with real people's lives, people's families, and I don't think you can grasp the gravity of that, so why don't you leave me alone?!" Barry shouted but then his best friend from college Iris West came and the two work friends left.

"They're not really my friends." Barry said quickly. "They're my work friends."

"So, you work here?" Iris asked curiously.

"Yes, I do." Barry replied.

"I feel like we saw each other like a few years ago, right?" Iris asked.

"No, because... we haven't seen each other since...college." Barry reminded her.

"You're father's appeal is tomorrow, right?" Iris asked.

"Yeah..." Barry said but then he realized something. He hadn't told Iris any of that. He didn't even know why Iris was so focused on his dad. "How do you know about that?"

"I'm covering it for the paper." Iris explained.

"Oh." So, Iris was a news reporter now.

"How is he holding up?" Iris asked.

"Are you asking for the paper?" Barry asked, confused.

"No, I'm asking as a friend. Although I'm sure the public would want to know as well." Iris said.

"Well...my only offical comment is that my dad is innocent." Barry said after that awkward silence. "Sorry, I have no official comment at this time."

After that, Barry then met with his wrongfully imprisoned dad in prison.

"You getting out much?" his dad asked.

"Well, no." Barry replied. "But I, um, I ran into an old college friend... Iris West, today."

"Didn't you have a monster crush on her?" his dad asked teasingly.

Yeah, but I'm too busy. Barry thought but he didn't say it.

"Why don't you ask her out?" Barry's dad continued.

Then Barry took a deep breath before he told his dad what he had been really working on.

He knew his dad wouldn't like that he wasn't living his own life but he didn't really have much of a life without his dad.

"I had a friend run the old security camera footage from the store through this new program he's developed." Barry explained. "And it's crystal clear now.

It's just...you never look up, Dad. You can't see your face. So, without new evidence to support your alibi... we're just gonna need to start thinking about the next appeal."

"No, you need to stop worrying about your old man." his dad said. "Do that and you might actually have time for a girlfriend."

"But Dad, I don't want-"

"I'm okay, really."

Then Barry's dad took a deep breath before he continued again.

"You know, sometimes I even think it's probably easier for me to be in here than out there... without her. 'Cause this way, I can imagine she's alive... out there living her life." Barry's Dad explained and Barry sighed.

Yeah, he understood that but he couldn't do that right now. Especially not when he still had that tramautic flashback of what happened.

His mom's scream and her bleeding out.

His dad yelling at Barry to call 911.

Him running - Okay, stop, stop.

Barry then realized that he was too caught up in the flashback and took a deep breath to relax and Barry's dad talking again soon brought him back to the present.

"Barry? Don't worry about tomorrow." his dad said. "We always knew it was going to be a long shot-"

But then the phone beeped and the prison had terminated the call so Barry then went back to his home but then he had a sudden idea.

He didn't need the alibi at all.

He could just go back into the past and stop his mom's murder from ever happening.

Then that could save mom and save his dad's future.

It was risky, but Barry didn't see any other way.

He had to try.