Collateral Damage (snowbarry)

Running Naked

"What was she thinking?" Cisco yelled, right as Caitlin walked into the cortex.

"What's wrong?" She asked

"Iris's blog. She's calling Barry 'the Streak'. That won't work at all." Cisco explained, pulling Iris's most recent blog post up on his computer.

Caitlin laughed. "Makes it sound like he's running around naked."

"That's what I said!" Cisco yelled, outraged by the name. "She should've come to me right away for a name."

"Cisco, Iris barely knows us. We were literally just her brother's...friend's...step-brother's, I'm still not really sure what they are. We were his doctors. Then we've seen her, what, twice now, when we've gone out to get drinks with her, Eddie, and Barry. Which always ends up being us watching Barry pine over her while she flirts with Eddie. Let's go with calling them friends, because otherwise it'd be weird." Caitlin explains. "Where was I going with this?

"Not sure." Cisco responds, only half paying attention. "I'm going to think of a better name and make her change it."

"How are you going to do that? Why would we care about it as far as Iris is concerned?" She asks. Iris was already a little confused as to why Barry still came around S.T.A.R. Labs at all.

"Hey there Streak." Caitlin greets Barry with a smirk as he walks into the cortex holding Big Belly Burger bags for all of them.

"Surely that won't stick right?" Barry whines.

"Don't worry, I'm working on something better." Cisco assures him, staring at the picture Iris posted with her blog, hoping it will spark some idea in his head.

"It makes it sound like I'm running around town with my boys out." Barry says, motioning to his crotch.

Cisco and Caitlin both turn to him with their eyebrows furrowed. "Your boys?" They say in unison.

Barry nods and points to his crotch again. "Ya, know. The boys. The goods. The pickle and beans. The"

"Please stop." Caitlin shakes her head, trying to hold in a laugh. "We get the point."

"I mean hell, I don't even let you two see me when I'm changing into my suit. I definitely don't go around town flaunting about." He whines again.

"No one is claiming you are. Just a brutally unfortunate nickname. And besides, Caitlin and I have seen plenty." Cisco says flatly as he continues to look at the screen.

Barry looks at both of them in horror and confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Barry...you were with us for nine months. In a coma. We had to bathe you at some point." Caitlin explains. "We saw your 'boys' plenty. Approximately once a week each actually." She doesn't smile or smirk. To her and Cisco there is nothing funny about it. They were taking care of him.

Barry blushes and sits down across the cortex from them, suddenly very uncomfortable.

"Do you two still see me as your patient?" He asks a few minutes later.

"When you come to me with broken bones, yes." Caitlin answers.

"No, I mean...am I part of a project for you two?" He says, sounding nervous.

Caitlin and Cisco immediately look up at him with shock on their face. Barry Allen was never just a patient or a project to them. Even when he was unconscious. He was their friend. At least they hoped he was.

"Hell no." Cisco answers. "You're our best friend man."

Caitlin puts her hand on his shoulder. "Barry what's wrong?"

He looks up at her. "I just notice you guys hang out a lot without me which is totally fine, I know I'm new and you two have been friends for along time, and I feel like I bother you when I come in here because you two always immediately stop working, and you two always seem uptight when I show up with a new meta problem like you're fine with me being here for testing, but not meta stuff, and"

"Whoa whoa whoa cowboy, slow down." Cisco says loudly, motioning for Barry to take a breath. "Lets unpack that a little shall we?"

Caitlin starts addressing each of the concerns. "We don't invite you to hang out with us because we're scared you'll get tired of us or we'll annoy you and with what we do, the last thing we need is for you to not want to talk to us. If you want to attend our extremely intense movie nights then you are absolutely welcome anytime." She smiles at him. "We stop what we're doing when you walk in because we were probably working on something embarrassing or weird. Cisco and I's days when you're not here usually consist of arguing about new riddles for you and calculating some random statistic dealing with your speed."

"Like how many bugs you swallow daily." Cisco interjects, proudly.

"Yes...that." Caitlin says, more embarrassed than proud.

Barry chuckles at this and looks back to Caitlin for her to finish.

"As far as our reactions when you bring us a meta problem. Barry we messed up. We made a mistake and it seems to never end. Every time you bring us a new meta problem, it's a reminder of just how many people our mistake has screwed over, and is still screwing over. We're happy to help. Always. Because we owe that to everyone. But it is a little hard to swallow sometimes."

Barry looks back and forth between the two of them. "How many bugs do I swallow?"

"Too many variables. We couldn't figure it out." Cisco admits.

************************************

Later that evening, Cisco, Caitlin, and Barry are sitting in a bar, watching Iris and Eddie playing darts. This had turned into a regular thing when they'd go out. This time however, Barry didn't seem as bothered by the lack of attention he was receiving from Iris. He was too busy laughing with his friends.

"Red Sonic!" Cisco yells, slightly intoxicated at this point.

"Sonic is already a thing Cisco. We can't steal a name from a video game character." Barry says, laughing.

He has spent the majority of the evening rejecting his friends suggestions for a new superhero name for him. The worst yet was 'Quick Feet Man' suggested by a very tipsy Caitlin.

"C'mon guys, you have to come up with something. I can't keep being called something that makes it sound like I'm going around flashing people." Barry whines.

"Flashing!" Caitlin squeaks. "Like a flash of lightning. Flashing Lightning Man." She suggests proudly.

"That's a bolt you idiot." Cisco slurs. "Bolt Boy!" He suggests.

"Nope." Barry takes another pointless drink of his non-effective beer.

"I think we're onto something with this flashing thing. Like a camera flash. You get from place to place...in a flash. You have lightning trailing you, so you're bright. It really, it suits you much better." Cisco says, his creative wheels turning having slightly sobered him up.

Barry's phone starts buzzing. He answers to discover that a bomb went off in a building not far from where they were. He races out of the bar to check it out, leaving behind a gust of air and bright light.

"There it goes. The flash." Cisco states flatly, taking another sip of his drink.

Him and Caitlin quickly turn their heads toward each other. "The Flash!"

A/N:

So this was a little bit of filler, but I figured we needed to get the name established at some point, and I didn't want to just toss it in as a part of a blog post and move on, so here you go.

The next bad guy we're gonna cover is Blackout. There will be some major changes to how that story plays out so get ready.

Peace and Love! -Ali