Destiny

Four

The next morning Barry woke up early before Iris and rushed to Jitters before going to Star Labs.

"Heyy," Barry said softly handing Caitlin a cup of coffee, who was just sitting up from the uncomfortable gurney. "You slept here last night? I thought Cisco or Julian would offer.."

"Yeah," she groaned, "don't worry, they did. It's just I couldn't think about spending the night with any other guy."

Barry smiled, they wanted to kiss each other right then and there. But ever since the Hannibal Bates incident Cisco usually looked over the security footage at night. They still had no idea what to do. They wanted to be together so bad, but there was Iris, Julian, and their friends and family.

After a few more seconds of longing silence, Barry interrupted, "I guess I should go to work now, see whatever excuse Joe and Julian told Captain Singh to why I was gone for so long.

"Ok," Caitlin said back, "see you later."
........
As Barry made his way into the precinct Julian quickly ran up to him.

"Hey Barry," he said, seemingly rushed.

"Hey, Julian, what's up?" Barry asked.

"Uh, well for one Joe and I managed to cover up that you've been on a to clear your mind after your father died, but," he stopped.

"And..." Barry waited.

"Well," we have another team member in the lab..." Julian tried to make it sound exciting.

"Wait they replaced me?!" Barry said.

"No, no mate. It's just with you gone and unable to be well, reached, we needed the help."

"Ugh," Barry groaned, "who is he?"

"His name is August Heart, says he's Central City born and raised, and apparent Most Valuable Newbie. I found out besides forensic science, he's been known to solve massive crimes as fast as any other detective, and he's been in the force only for a few years. Although he says he had a brother in the force, Jorge Heart, don't know much about him though."

"So I guess I need to get my name back," Barry joked.

"Or try to fix it," Julian pointed towards Captain Singh heading their way and tapped Barry's shoulder before running up to the lab. "Good luck mate."

"Allen!" Singh yelled, "You ever thinking about calling into work before you go off on vacation for six months!"

"Uhh, sorry Captain," Barry stuttered, "I promise won't happen again."

"Hmh," Singh hummed, "we both know that's not true. But you're lucky I'm not in a firing mood, I go to the lab," he ordered.

"Yes sir," Barry replied and quickly made his way up the stairs, finally experiencing a normal work day for the first time in forever. 

"Hey," Barry greeted his new co-worker while entering their lab, "I'm Barry Allen." 

"So I've heard," a tall, tan, square-jawed, but decent looking young man, with medium length black hair, and a scruffy unevenly shaven facial hair.  "August Heart, nice to meet you." 

The two shook hands and August quickly got back to work, filing through the papers at a faster than usual pace. 

Turning to Julian, then looking around the already tight lab, Barry asked, "soo... where's my desk?"

Julian and August looked at each other awkwardly, waiting for the other to make a suggestion.  With Julian at his desk and August at Barry's old one, the lab was a bit crowded. Neither of them felt like sharing a workspace. 

.........

Later that day, after finishing their shift, Barry and Julian headed over to Star Labs together. Of course not before stopping by Jitters. 

"So Barry," Julian grabbed both their coffees and sat at a table, "I was wondering what you thought of Caitlin."

"What do you mean what I think?" Barry asked.

"Like do you think she's ready to go out again, or even when she's not busy because she is always working," Julian said.

"Oh, well uh," Barry started trying to think of what to say. "I don't think so Julian, she's had a rough couple of years. But also, you two have already tried. Multiple times... and we'll, each of them ended up in one of you getting hurt. Or you sure that's wise."

"Oh, ok," Julians mumbled. It looked like that wasn't the advice he wanted. Julian was quiet the rest of the ride to Star Labs.
.....
"Hey guys," Cisco greeted as Barry and Julian entered the Cortex. Julian took a seat next to Cisco taking a monitor.

"Hey, any crimes for the Flash to solve?" Barry asked.

"Not yet, but we still got the rest of the day."

"Cool, I'm going to go to the speed lab, get some training in," Barry responded running down to the Speed Lab to meet Caitlin, causing all the papers on the desk to fly.

Running into the speed lab Barry ran Caitlin onto a corner of the track with no cameras.

"Hey," he smiled giving her a kiss.

"Hi," she said muffled against his lips. "Wait, wait, Barry stop," She said pulling away, "we can't keep doing this like this."

Barry looked down disappointed. "Yeah, I know. But we've waited so long."

"I know but, this will just hurt us more in the end. We need to figure out a way. I don't wanna hurt Julian, we don't wanna hurt Iris. We can't just keep hiding."

"Can we please do that after, right now I just want one more kiss," he said pulling her in again, avoiding the peril to come.

Because of their blind closed eyes, they didn't happen to see Iris. Standing at the door of the track entry listening.

"That bitch..." she whispered.

_________
No pic but I have a lot for the ending.