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batsutousaiTitle: Nobly Save or Meanly Lose
Series: Overprotective Criminals 'Verse
Fandom: CW's The Flash
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: Mature
Pairings: Barry Allen/Mick Rory/Leonard Snart, canon ships
Warnings: Established relationship, polyamory, canon-typical violence, pile 'o OCs, bigotry & hate-language, identity reveal, Barry wants to save everyone
Summary: Five times Barry Allen helps out other metahumans while out of costume, and one time he helps them as the Flash.
A/N: This chapter falls between episode 18 All Star Team Up and episode 19 Who Is Harrison Wells?, with a bit at the end occurring after the latter.
You can also read this at Archive of Our Own or LiveJournal.
Barry's the one who finds the little girl, hiding in a cramped little space behind some industrial-esque pipes that she never should have been able to get to, but which had probably saved her life, because the gunman had gone for easy targets.
"Hey, sweetheart," he says, keeping his voice low and gentle and holding out his hands so she can see he's not armed. And he should probably try to call over someone who's actually trained in talking to victims of mass tragedies, but he likes to think he's learnt a lot during his duties as the Flash. Anyway, he has a sneaking suspicion he knows how she got into that hole, and he doesn't know nearly enough about the group the FBI sent to trust any of them with a metahuman. "My name's Barry, and I'm with the police. I promise you're not in any trouble or danger. Can you come out?"
The girl stares at him from inside her hole for a long moment, then shakes her head.
Barry frowns. "You can't get yourself out?" he offers.
"Stuck," she whispers, and tightens her arms around her knees.
Barry can't really tell if that means she's afraid to use her power, or if she can't control it. Either way, he doesn't push, instead taking a look at what he has to work with. He's no building engineer, but he does live with a man who could have been one, if he was any less interested in stealing things. So, while he can't tell without some help what the pipes are used for or where they go, he can tell that they aren't coming unscrewed from the wall without some serious work. Probably involving either a power drill or an industrial-strength saw. He doesn't have access to either, and he doesn't think either of them would be happy with waiting until someone finds one.
That leaves him with his own powers, and he takes a quick look around to ensure no one's entered the room since he'd spotted the girl, then he turns back to her and takes a deep breath. "Okay. I'm going to try to move the pipes, but I don't know how far I'll be able to do so. As soon as you have room, slip out."
She nods, staring at him with wide eyes.
Barry takes another breath as he shifts positions, then he reaches out and does his best to brace the pipes as he vibrates the bars holding them against the wall hard enough that they snap.
The girl lets out a startled gasp when he starts, but she doesn't actually speak until after she's managed to slide out under the pipes. "Free."
Barry carefully scoots back, wincing when the pipes sag warningly when he's no longer bracing them – that's going to be interesting to explain to the museum curator – then he turns and offers the girl a smile. "Okay?"
She stares at him for a long moment, then reaches out and takes the hand Barry had been vibrating against the bars. "You're like me," she said in a hush as she looked his hand over.
Barry swallows and nods. "Yeah," he agrees quietly. "It's a secret, though."
She nods and lets go of his hand. "No one can know, or they lock you up," she says with all the wisdom of a child who had heard too many horror stories.
"Only if you do something bad," Barry corrects. "Being different isn't a crime."
She gives him a slow blink. "It's only a crime if you're caught."
Well, that's...disturbing to hear a kid say. "Let's avoid saying that to the police or FBI," he suggests a bit drily.
She nods, then tilts her head to the side. "You're with the police."
"Oh, yeah." Barry fumbled out his lanyard, which he usually shoves in his back pocket so it doesn't get in the way of evidence collection. "I'm a CSI, one of the people who come through after the crime's done and finds what evidence they can."
"CSI," she repeats like she's tasting the word, rubbing her fingers over his lanyard. "I'm glad you found me."
"So am I," Barry admits, because he can't envision how much trouble anyone else would have had getting her out.
"I'm Mia," the girl says at last as she hands back his lanyard.
"It's good to meet you, Mia. Were you with the Keystone Elementary group?"
She blinks and nods.
Barry takes a deep breath, preparing himself to deliver the bad news. "Okay. Uhm, both of the teachers who came with are, uhm, they're gone."
"Dead," Mia corrects in a monotone.
Barry blinks at her, a little disturbed at her tone. But then he recognizes, just a little, that she's wearing the same expression he'd worn in some of the photos of himself in the years following Mom's death, when he would remember she was gone. "Oh," he hears himself say, then hurries to continue, "One of the other adults, an older man, he's been rushed to hospital, and the two women who are about my age were both being treated for minor wounds when I got in, same with a bunch of the other kids."
"Okay," Mia says.
Barry swallows, then holds out his hand to her. "Let me walk you down before someone remembers you're missing and it causes a panic."
"No one will remember," Mia tells him with certainty, but she still takes his hand and lets him lead her out of the room and down to the museum lobby, where the members of her class that weren't being treated by the paramedics were gathered.
"Who gave you permission to take that child anywhere?" the FBI agent who's stuck watching the kids demands when he sees Barry and Mia.
"I found her hiding upstairs," Barry replies in as neutral a tone as he can manage; he'd picked up a dislike of the FBI from Joe long before joining the precinct, during times when they'd boot the local police off a case for whatever reason, and living with two criminals who are wanted in multiple states hasn't helped that. Still, Singh had been clear that they would be playing nice with the feds. Or else. "Her name's Mia."
The agent scowls and brings up a clipboard with paperwork on it. "Last name?" he drawls.
"Mia?" Barry calls when she doesn't immediately answer.
Mia blinks, opens her mouth to speak, stops and shakes her head, then says, "Johnson?" like she isn't actually certain of her last name.
The agent apparently finds her, though, because he makes a mark and drawls, "We were informed you were absent today."
Judging by the smug or discontent looks some of the other students are sending Mia's way, that had been intentional.
(Children, Barry knows, can be far too cruel.)
"You're welcome to go. Whoever you are," the agent adds to Barry.
"Barry," Mia says, tightening her grip on Barry's hand, as though she's afraid he'll let go. "He's a CSI," she adds like she thinks that's important.
"Great, a lab rat," the agent mutters, rolling his eyes. "Look, leave the kid and do your job already, won't you?"
Barry's used to his job being looked down on by cops – regular officers, usually, but a couple of detectives hate having to depend on the science to support their case, far too fond of the days when the law depended on a hunch and beating or threatening a confession out of your 'perpetrator' – so he ignores the insults. But Mia looks the most alive Barry's seen her yet, red coloring her face and whole chest puffing up like she's about to start screaming.
"Mia," he murmurs, leaning down to talk to her without the agent overhearing. "He's right, I do need to get back to work. Will you be okay with your classmates?"
She deflates, looking lost and hurt in a way that Barry can relate to, but he's learnt the hard way that there are some fights you cannot win, and the one she was gearing up for was one such. "Yeah," she says, monotone.
"Okay." He squeezes her hand once, then pushes her gently towards her classmates. When she goes, dragging her feet the whole way, he turns and returns to his job, heart heavy.
By the time he's finished, the kids have already been picked up and are on their way back to Keystone, and he tries not to feel too bad for missing the chance to tell Mia goodbye.
Not quite a week later, just after the mess with Hannibal Bates and Joe and Cisco getting back from Starling with the body of the real Harrison Wells, a large, hand-made thank you letter arrives from the classes at Keystone Elementary who had been at the museum, which everyone knows had to have been the idea of their new teachers, and likely at least half of the kids had been forced to sign it.
"Allen," Singh says before Barry can escape after coming down to take a look; he'd really only been interested in spotting Mia's name, which hadn't taken long.
"Sir?" Barry says, looking over at him.
Singh is holding out an envelope, which has 'CSI BARRY' scrawled across the front. "This one is for you."
"Ooh, Allen has a kindergartener crushing on him?" Frank Curtis, one of the detectives, calls with a mean little smile.
"Third grader," Detective Ava Randall corrects, her tone unimpressed. "Really, Frankie, it's no wonder the ex took the kids in the divorce."
"Why you–!"
Singh cleared his throat and the two detectives shut up, very obviously not looking at each other.
Barry makes his escape before anyone can start in on him again. In his lab, he opens the envelope and is maybe a little surprised to find it's a more heart-felt thank you card from Mia, one which is clearly store-bought, but no less well-meant. It includes an address he can write to her at, with a note in much neater handwriting (Barry assumes it's her guardian), which echoes her thanks for rescuing her and explains that Mia wants to be penpals and her guardian is willing to allow it.
Barry is touched and maybe has to wipe at wet eyes, but he absolutely writes her back and posts the letter on his way to S.T.A.R. Labs that evening. He leaves her card in his lab, and it's something he can look at that wins a smile from him, even once everything goes to hell only a few days later.
Part One: Criminal Partners
Part Two: A Distraction of Ice and Fire
Part Three: Relationship Status
1/Cisco Ramon || 2/David Singh || 3/Felicity Smoak || 4/Eddie Thawne || 5/Henry Allen
Part Four: Whatever Happens Here, We Remain
One ||| Two ||| Three
Part Five: Nobly Save or Meanly Lose
1/Angel's Wings || 2/Damini's Shock ||
+1/Flash Day
Part Six: The Trials of the Hero's Beleaguered Captain
.