Within Seconds: Sylas & Allen

A Way Back Into Love

I don't know how good Joe's talk of sense was, but I do know that some of what he told him generated another argument between Parker and Barry. The reason they fought was due to Barry --once again-- revealing himself as the Flash to someone who had no true reason to know.

After he broke the news to Linda, the first thing he followed with was, "Don't interfere with me and Park's future argument. I guarantee she'll be pissed."

And Parker was. It was a given that she was angered by who he chose to tell and why he told her. The way Barry broke the news to her -- entering the Cortex maskless with Linda and staring at Parker with his eyes squinted, waiting for an outbreak-- hadn't helped her calm easily.

Lucky for the team, the building wrath that lived inside of Parker for the last week had passed the lashing out stage. It left her with silent fury, which made the team incredibly uncomfortable, as they were used to Parker verbally expressing her anger.

She sat in her wheelchair properly: hands folded on her lap, ankles crossed, back straight. Her eyes were closed and her jaw was clenched. She hadn't made a sound, or a movement for several minutes after he showed her

Although he tried not to, Barry looked concerned. "I don't know what's happening right now."

"Parker," Linda said softly. "If you find this to be a problem, I can assure you I'll keep this a secret. Nobody will find out from me."

A laugh brought Parker's eyes to open. "Sure thing, Linda. I'm sure that'll stay true when you get kidnapped and tortured to find out who's under that mask."

"Hey, back off," Barry warned. "Linda hasn't done anything wrong."

"Yet. Never say never," Parker said cheerfully. "Now, what's was your reason for telling her?" She scrunched her face. "No, no, that's not even my main problem right now. My main problem is the eagerness you have about this plan. You want to know why you're so eager?"

"I want to know why," said Cisco, hiding his words behind a cough.

"I need to save as many many people from Zoom's wrath as I can, that's why," Barry told her.

"That might be some of it. Most of it is you not wanting to be in the same position as last year," she said. Barry's scrunched brow faltered for a split second, which allowed her to see that her assumption made sense in both of their heads.

Under his breath, Cisco sang, "Jackpot."

"We spent months hunting down the Reverse-Flash. You don't want to wait, for lack of patience or for Zoom to hurt more people. That's completely understandable, Barry, but that's not how we're going to start doing things.
These baddies don't come with a time limit. You don't stop one by doing what you think might work. You have to stop them by planning, by knowing that the plan you chose is going to be successful."

Barry broke his eye contact with Parker. "We do have a plan."

"Your plan involves two rookies following a script," Cisco reminded him. "A very well written script, if I may say so--"

"Your plan includes two people you know, and love, going into a potentially dangerous situation where we can protect ourselves," Parker explained, in slow terms for him. There seemed to be a lot of that going around, yet still, nothing was clicking in Barry's head.

"You proved you could protect yourself in training with that gun," Barry said.

"If you can catch a bullet, I guarantee you Zoom can."

"I can protect--" Barry started.

"Linda and I? You can't."

He scoffed. "You don't know that."