TRUTH UNSEALED (BARRY ALLEN/MAGNUS BANE)

Chapter Four

Music: Mistakes--Haimin

Henry Allen was old but he wasn't going to ignorantly pass up the only opportunity to arise in years to see the only son he had. At first glance, the man was aging with grey hairs here and there in his dark brown hair, brown green eyes and tanned skin. For his age, he looked young. His skin wasn't wrinkly at all, in fact it was pretty smooth. He was fairly tall, may-be a few inches taller than Barry and he was broadchested. The man was also fit for someone his age.

As the middle-aged man took in his son's appearance, he realized that Barry had grown considerably since the last time he had seen him. The kid looked so much like his mother that Henry struggled to keep a calm face. He had grown much into the man that Nora would have wanted him to be, that Henry wanted him to be. The things Barry and his friends have done to protect this city and its inhabitants went beyond anything he could have ever imagined.

He thanked Joe silently for raising him when he could not.

However, as he sat across from his son in the cafe, he knew that some-thing else had changed, was still changing. The look in his eyes showed that he was curious about something and he wanted answers to what-ever it was.

OoO

Barry stared at his father, who was sitting across from him in a booth at Jitters, unable to make his mouth work. He was glad his dad was back, don't get him wrong, but he was still reeling from what he recently found looking through his mom's things. Not to mention, the drawing he made the other day (which by the way, was tucked inside his pocket at this very moment) scared the hell out of him. And the way Julian had been acting since was definitely not doing much to quell his curiosity to know if the blonde CSI knew more than he was letting on.

Now for the better part of the ten years he hasn't seen his dad, Barry had thought about what he would say to him if he saw him again. He always asked himself if he would be happy to see him or angry at him for aban-doning him. In the end, he came to the conclusion that he couldn't be angry with his father because he left him. His father had been grieving too and while he could say that the way he grieved was understandable, it was still wrong to neglect his son the way he did.

Being able to see Henry Allen again was nothing but a dream Barry had, knowing that it would never happen. After the eight-month period of his dad being MIA, Barry had given up hope that he'd ever see his dad again. Yes, his dad had been arrested for DUI and a hit-and-run, but he'd only been in jail for two months before being let out on probation. Which meant that his dad had plenty of opportunities to come see him, to try and get him back, but chose not to. His dad always knew where he was, he could have gotten him at any point in time.

"So, Sport, how are things?" Henry asked, leaning forward.

Barry hadn't heard his father call him that since his mom died. In the year after her death, before he was taken in by Joe West, Henry stopped calling him that. It was always just his first name. Barry suddenly felt cold and wrapped his hands around the to-go coffee cup, feeling the warmth from the hot liquid inside spreading through his hands. He took a sip and barely contained a sigh of relief as warmth flooded his body.

"Things are well, great!" Barry told him. "Iris is engaged to Joe's new partner Jack and Wally...he's doing amazing things."

"But what about you? How are you doing?" Henry stresses, as if he knew that Barry's way of avoiding answering a question is deflect it or ignore it entirely by talking about everything else.