Tiger Stripes and Lightening Strikes

18: Secrets

If there were two things about his job Joe hated without a doubt, it was doing paperwork and being confined at his desk. So, he was understandably already in a foul mood when he was confined to his desk doing paperwork. The whole precinct bustled around him. Criminals were being dragged around, cops were chattering and those who acted as aids to them were intermingling.

One such aid, he already knew was coming before she'd even reached the table. The aggressive clacking of her shoes told him all he needed to know. Iris was here to start a fight.

Pushing himself away from his paperwork and reclining back into his seat, he blew out a long breath as he stared up at the woman looming over his desk. "Iris," he greeted her passively, clasping his hands over his stomach.

"You have got some explaining to do," she warned him sharply, her dark eyes boring into him. In one hand, a papery file was clenched.

"Don't I always," he grumbled.

"Barry has been really agitated recently," she began, narrowing her eyes to slits. "He could tell you were hiding something and he knows it's about you and Sebastian." Joe jutted his jaw to one side. "So I did some digging." She threw the file down on top of his untidy pile of papers.

Leaning forward, Joe carefully took the file and cracked it open to peer within. His eyes skimmed the content. Blowing out a long sigh, he dropped it down onto the table. "Why did you look into it, baby?" he groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Do you trust me so little?"

"It's not about trust, Dad," she shook her head. "In this family, we don't keep secrets. We learned that the hard way."

"It wasn't my secret to tell," Joe sat forwards, planting his elbows down on the desk.

"He's Barry's brother," she argued.

"Brothers that have repeatedly disowned one another," he let out an exasperated breath. "The last thing they need is a further reason to put strain on their relationship."

"Why would it strain their relationship?" she furrowed her brows.

"You know what Barry is like," Joe mumbled. "He is an adopter of strays, and right now, Sebastian wants space. He doesn't even want people to know why his father is in prison."

"That's unfair," Iris shook her head. "Barry is the best of us at getting through to people. He has a gift that we simply don't." She blew out a long breath, closing her eyes over. "Henry was locked up in prison too, so if Sebastian needs support from anyone, it would be Barry."

"Have you tried convincing Barry of that?" Joe snorted, placing a palm flat down on his desk. She opened her eyes and stared at her father intently. Cogs were turning behind her gaze.

"When he knows the truth, he will want to help. You know that," she spoke pointedly. "And even if he doesn't, we'll just have to talk sense into him."

Joe nodded slowly. "Alright," he sighed, running a hand down his face. "I'll tell him." His eyes glazed. "Just let me do it myself."

"Alright," Iris's lips curled up into a smile.

*

Barry and Cisco were sitting slumped on Caitlin's hospital gurney. Lights blinked and flashed from all the machines and monitors that were scattered around. The stench of antiseptic burned in the air.

Barry was sitting with his shoulders slumped, his arm in a tough cast. Cisco was sitting still as Caitlin coiled a bandage around his upper arm. The pair were chattering away easily, a tinge of reddened merriness on their cheeks.

In his mind, all Barry could see was a huge explosion of heat and light. Frost's limp body. Cisco being thrown like a toy. The faces of all those bodies he'd worked with on crime scenes. He couldn't help but put the members of team Flash in the same situation. If they didn't figure out how to stop these chimeras, that's what would happen.