Episode 5 The Flash Fanfic

Chapter 3

Barry sat across from his father, separated by glass at Iron Heights. He clutched the phone to his ear and listened to Henry who told him, as he wept, that both he and Nora had been told that Barry's twin brother had died at birth.

"Why didn't you tell me, Dad?" Barry finally asked his father, "all these years and you never told me."
"Son. Finding out that Malcom had died, it crushed your mother and I. You were too young to understand at the time. Then when your mother died, I could never find the right words. You had been through too much and I did not want to be the one to tell you that you had lost another family member. One that you had only ever known before you were born." Henry explained.

"But that is the point. Malcom didn't die. The doctor that delivered him, lied to you. Malcom was adopted out. He goes by the name of Eddie Thawne and he is Joe's partner at CCPD. He is dating Iris!" Barry told his father.

Henry Allen gasped. "Malcom is alive?" He was having a hard time believing this news. "How..." He could not finish his own sentence. Instead he sat in silence.
After a long pause, Barry spoke up again. "Joe told me this morning. He told Eddie as well."
"How did Malcom... I mean Eddie, take the news?" Henry asked.

"I'm not sure. I haven't spoken to him." Barry said softly. He wondered how on earth he would talk to someone that he had just found out was his brother. Normally, he would go to Joe or Astrid for advice. But right now he was angry at them both for not telling him sooner.

For a while now, he had hated Eddie for being the object of Iris' affections. But now he needed to see the man in a new light. Eddie had lived an entirely different life to Barry. He had never known Nora. He had never felt the same pain that Barry had, at witnessing Nora's death.

Eddie had always come off as a decent human being. Barry at that moment was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"Dad, I need to go." Barry told Henry, and to avoid revealing his hidden identity, he left as any regular guy would have left. At normal speed.

"Mick! What are you doing?" Leonard Snart growled at his friend who had just started a fire at the back of The Central City Museum. They had just stolen billions of dollars, worth of artifacts without being caught but now this was set to change things.

"I'm sorry." Mick Rory grumbled. "I couldn't help myself. Think of it this way, at least if we get out now we won't get caught." The flames were burning higher.

Leonard Snart pocketed a beautiful diamond necklace that he knew his sister was bound to love, the moment she saw it. He and Mick ran to find the nearest exit, just in time for the smoke alarms to begin sounding initiating the museum's fire emergency protocols.

They left the building through an emergency exit, leading out into an alleyway and running and hiding behind a large garbage bin, before anyone had seen them. "So what's the plan anyway?" Mick asked Leonard. "When the hell are we getting back out of this city?"

"After Lisa has finished her little project. She told me that she has a gift for us and by the sound of it, we will not be disappointed. So I believe it is worth the wait." Leonard informed his partner in crime.

"They have got to be hot on our trail by now. We are getting reckless." Mick grumbled at his friend, as they peered from behind the dumpster to see fire engines driving past with the sirens blaring. 

"When has my sister ever done us wrong?" Leonard asked, "I do believe that she was the one who got both our asses off that road to Iron Heights. We will not abandon her now."

"Well then. When are we supposed to see your sister again?" Mick asked as the two of them stepped out from behind the dumpster again. They made their way out back into the street and watched as the firefighters began putting out the fires. 

Without Leonard realizing, Mick had lit several fires throughout the museum and he stood still to marvel at his work. He felt a pang of anger watching them be put out.

Leonard grabbed him by the collar of his jacket, dragging him away and they casually walked away down the street unnoticed. "We will see her later tonight. Now let's go." Leonard said, as he opened an unlocked car door and climbed into the driver's side. Mick climbed into the other side and they drove off down the road.

Astrid sat at her father's desk with a stack of papers in front of her and a pen in her hand. She tapped the pen onto the desk and tried to concentrate on the fine print in front of her. She replayed the memory of her father's words in her mind over and over. He had wanted her to turn Sutherland Labs into her own. He had even suggested her changing its name. But how could she do this?

The words on the documents that her attorney had sent her were asking for the new name of business. Sutherland Labs, since the meteor shower had expanded its works from diseases to all things science. All things technology and other research. No name that she could think of sounded right.

Her mobile phone buzzed from next to the documents. It was Oliver, so she answered it. "Hey Star, how did things go with the Firestorm demonstration?" he asked.

She was thankful for the interruption from her work and turned her seat so her back was to her desk. "It went well. Dr Stein may have even considered a way to separate himself from Ronnie." She replied.

"That's great. I bet Caitlin would be pleased." Oliver said.
"I'd say so. She is in helping Dr Stein, Cisco and the team as we speak. I on the other hand... I am having trouble trying to fill in these forms. I am in the process of changing Sutherland Labs names. I really cannot think of any substitute for Sutherland Labs." She explained to him.

"Well... that's because you are still thinking of it as your father's organization. Once you begin to see it as your own, it will dawn on you." He told her.

"Thank you, Ollie."

"You're welcome. How are you really doing? Your father's funeral wasn't easy for you. You kept a strong façade up. But this is me. You can tell me." Oliver asked her.

"I know that I can. But I think I am fine really..." Astrid heard her door open and didn't even need to turn around to see who it was.

"Astrid! Martin Stein might just have it! We just need to find a very large amount of vacant landmass for precautionary reasons." Astrid turned around to find both Cisco and Caitlin standing in the doorway awaiting her answer. Cisco had been the one who had spoken.

"Hold on, Oliver. Can I call you back?" she ended the call and stared blankly at her friends. "How large are we thinking?" she asked them.

"...enough space for a relatively large explosion." Caitlin told her, full of hope.
"If you follow the back route out from Central City, where all that empty land is, roughly seven hours out of town. That should be enough, I hope. Sutherland Labs used to use it for some projects when they worked with the military. I hope that is sufficient." Astrid told them.

"I know where you are talking about." Cisco replied. He turned to Caitlin, "I won't be able to accompany you, as I have a date tonight. But I can draw you a map." The two of them turned and left Astrid's office.

At that moment she thought of the perfect name for Sutherland Labs. She penned it to the paper.