Barry Allen is Missing

When?

Joe was in shock. This was just plain horrible.

He and Hal just went back to the West residence to see Francine crying hysterically. Apparently, Iris is being heavily questioned by the Child Service Woman in her room.

Why did Barry not tell Joe about this?

Or more like he does not know.

Joe was very troubled. He just couldn't hear clearly due to the shock. How bad was Barry bullied? Why did Barry kept quiet?

Iris came out of her room and hugged Joe when Iris saw him. A blond curly woman came out of the room too.

"Joe! I am still staying!" Iris smiled with tears.

"I...I am just shocked. How badly bullied is your child!?" The blond woman asked Francine.

"I...I don't understand...." Francine whimpered.

Joe went up to hug Francine. Francine cried heavily as Iris and Hal gave worried looks to each other.

"My name is Carol Smith. I am from CPS. I want to talk to you about reports of your child Mr. West." The blond woman said.

"Yeah. He's missing. I am sure you are aware."

"Yes. But what concerns me was why he ran away... I apparently heard from Barry's principal about how the suicide of Jimmy Chen affected Barry deeply..."

"Jimmy Chen?" Joe felt that name was familiar.

"Dad... He was the boy who killed himself three weeks ago..." Iris said.

"Oh!... The boy who threw himself off the building due to Tiger Parenting? Barry knew him?" Joe asked Iris.

"I'm not sure... I heard the news about him in my school..." Iris said.

Joe felt a horrible feeling about this. There, Joe got a call from Doyle.

"Doyle?" Joe said to the cell phone.

"Joe... The City Council wants to see you. They heard about a CPS woman inside your home?"

Joe felt a huge headache. This is NOT going well. Hal volunteered to stay with Francine and Iris while Carol Smith will support Joe's story.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

TWO WEEKS AGO...

Barry was always greeted by the strange neighbor everyday. His name was Ryan. Ryan was a fifty year old man who was usually mowing the lawn with a greasy, dirty white T-shirt on. He had a short beard and had a bald head. Also smelled of alcohol too.

Many people did not like Ryan. They thought Ryan was a unemployed molester or a kidnapper.

What freaked Joe out about him was that Ryan was deeply attached to Barry so Joe made Barry avoid Ryan.

Barry was judgmental about Ryan but sometimes, he had doubts.

One day, Barry saved Ryan from a group of asshole teenagers shooting fireworks at him in the middle of the day. No one else was helping Ryan.

Ryan heavily thanked Barry and wanted to repay him.

"Oh. No thank you Ryan." Barry kindly objected.

"No! No! Come to my house. I must give you SOMETHING you know..." Ryan smiled.

"Okay... I guess..." Barry hesitantly agreed. Ryan and Barry walked into Ryan's house.

Barry's doubts have increased even more. There, inside the house were nice furniture and good food. There were discarded alcohol bottles on the floor though.

What shocked Barry was that there was a dusty certificate sign from a South Virginia Mayor, saying about Ryan being a successful child psychologist.

"Woah..." Barry said.

"Yeah. I'm sorry about the bottles." Ryan admitted.

"No! No... I... I didn't know you're a psychologist..." Barry said.

"Nah! Nah! I was..." Ryan said gloomy. Barry was concerned.

"'Was'?"

Ryan looked at an isolated standing picture of a woman with three toddlers.

"...My wife and kids died. It was just two years ago. My wife forgot to turn off the gas stove.... I quit after that."

"Oh. I'm sorry...." Barry said.

"It's just. I'm not taking care of myself." Ryan looked at his dirty shirts, that were in the laundry basket at the kitchen corner.

Despite that, Ryan was still offering Barry some ice cream he found in the fridge. Barry seemed to be calming down.

Ryan then asked.

"Why were you avoiding me Barry?"

"What? I wasn't..."

"I always say hi to you every morning. That was about two weeks ago. What happened?"

Barry wanted to scream. About Jimmy and the bullying. But he couldn't make Joe feel troubled again after his birth father was arrested.

"...It's because of the neighbors told you is it?" Ryan said.

"You... You know what they think behind your back?" Barry was shocked.

"Of course. I was a child psychologist. I know what type of man they would not be with. Well. This is ironic. I look like one of them..." Ryan chuckled.

Barry just felt pure sorry for Ryan. He wanted to cry.

"You were the only kid who sort of interacted with me... Hell you even just saved me when no one wanted to..."

"I just help people." Barry smiled.

"...You remind me of my eldest son..." Ryan said.

Barry did a kind smile.

However, Joe bursted through the door and punched Ryan right in the face. Barry pleaded Joe to stop but Ryan told Barry to not worry.

Joe didn't listen to Barry and the two went straight to home. Apparently, the neighbors thought the man was going to kidnap Barry, despite the fact Barry was saving him in front of them.