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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 follows pretty much immediately after Whatever Happens Here, We Remain, picking up within days of Barry, Mick, and Len's return to Central City.
You can also read this at Archive of Our Own or LiveJournal.
Iris' idea of making sure Barry is okay after he, Len, and Mick get back from Sun City, is a double date. Which Len has to turn down because he had business to catch up on in their neighborhood – Barry knows his boyfriend has become the de facto leader of part of the city between the mob's territory and where the police will patrol, and people in that area expect him to play the part – but he's got both his cold gun and Lisa with him, so Mick's willing to play the part of Barry's boyfriend for the day.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given how Mick liked to play up his pyromania (well, somewhat; he really did tend to get a little over distracted by fire more often than not) and downplay his intelligence, Eddie looked a little uncertain when Barry told him Mick would be the one coming to dinner with them. But he didn't outright complain, and Barry still prefers talking about his boyfriends as little as possible around the precinct, so they both left it.
Barry rides with Eddie to the restaurant Iris found, since it's on the other side of the city, in a neighborhood that isn't known for its regular police patrols, but is still nice enough that no one side-eyes their nicer clothing, which Barry and Eddie had taken turns using his lab to change into before they left. (And then bore the familiar ribbing from their co-workers with good humor. Joe, who was still working at his desk, had just ignored both of them. Which, Eddie had confided in Barry when he first got back, he'd been doing pretty much since the first time Eddie had told him to shut up about Barry's boyfriends. The day before Barry got back, Singh had even assigned them separate partners, because it was affecting their work. And while Barry feels a little bad for being the source of the strife, he knows – without being told a dozen times, thank you everyone else – that this is on Joe, not him.)
Iris and Mick are waiting for them when they get there, Mick having politely agreed to pick up Iris on his way. (She, like Barry, doesn't see the point in wasting money on car payments, insurance, and gas when public transit and rides from friends and co-workers get them around the city just fine. Unlike Barry, who had been pressured into learning to drive by his boyfriends, Iris doesn't have a license, though Barry suspects Eddie will talk her into learning before they get married, if he hasn't already started teaching her.)
Iris, of course, looks as lovely as ever. But Mick, unusually, has donned a suit, even though Barry knows he hates them, and is freshly shaven, which makes him look a lot less like Len Snart's dumb muscle or the eternally snarling Heatwave.
Barry laughs a bit as he walks up to them, and Mick quirks a crooked, amused smile at him. "Where'd you steal this from?" Barry jokes as he tugs on one of the lapels.
Mick snorts. "Ask Lisa. She's the one what turned it up," he says, making an obvious (to Barry) attempt to hide his rougher Keystone accent. Barry's heard him do this a few times over the course of their relationship – he'd done it a number of times in Sun City when Barry talked him into meeting him for lunch near his campus – and he doubts it'll ever get old. Especially since people treat him differently, and Barry always prefers people not talking to his boyfriend like they think he's an idiot.
"Bare," Eddie says in a helpless tone, and Iris giggles.
Barry coughs. "No implying we might be aware of criminal activities?" he guesses, and Mick rumbles a laugh as he tugs him in for a kiss.
Eddie just groans, and Barry wonders if working with a vigilante for the past couple of months is making it any easier for him to ignore the occasional reference to crime.
Dinner goes surprisingly well, once they get past the initial awkwardness of having both a wanted criminal and a police detective at the same table.
It isn't until after they're done, while they're trading goodbyes outside the restaurant, that things go to shit.
Mick stiffening at Barry's side is his first warning, almost immediately followed by him saying, "Fire."
Barry and Eddie both straighten, looking around them, but it's Iris who sees the smoke, pointing just over Barry's shoulder and saying, "Over there."
"Shit," Eddie says, yanking out his mobile to dial 911, because that's an awful lot of smoke, and once they've spotted it, the glow of the fire making it is also visible.
"Mick, you need to go," Barry hisses, trying to shove his boyfriend towards the familiar bright red Mustang.
"Ya think I'm gonna jest let ya go runnin'–" Mick starts, falling back into his familiar accent.
"If you're seen near a fire, they're gonna think you set it, and you know it!" Barry interrupts in a hiss. "Don't make me have to break you out of prison tonight."
Mick scowls. "If ya ain't home afore me, I'm comin' back here," he warns, then storms to his car.
Barry breathes a sigh of relief, then nods to Eddie and Iris before speeding towards the fire as quickly as he can in his suit. Which isn't nearly fast enough to put out the fire, he knows. Not that it looks like it'll do him much good, not as big as the blaze has got, the house nearly vanished inside the flames.
"Take that!" a woman standing in the middle of the street shouts at the blazing house. "Burn in hell with your harlot!" And then she raises her hand and a fireball forms in it, which she throws into the blazing house.
"Did you set that?!" Barry shouts, too shocked to keep it in.
She spins to face him, fireballs appearing in both hands. "So what if I did?" she snarls, her face twisted with rage. "He got what he deserved!"
"You can't just go around killing people!" Barry shouts over the sound of approaching sirens.
"Can't I?" the woman returns, and then throws one of her fireballs at Barry.
Barry flashes out of the way, forgetting he's not wearing his suit until after he's stopped moving and the scent of burnt rubber wafts up from his poor shoes.
The woman's staring at him, wide-eyed, the hand holding the other fireball hanging limp. "Flash," she whispers, and Barry almost curses as he hurriedly makes his face blur.
"Police!" Eddie shouts from the direction of the restaurant, and Barry looks over to find him standing in the middle of the street, gun out and pointed at the woman with the fireballs.
She's stuck between them and the burning house, now, and Barry can see the moment she decides to commit suicide by fire. "No!" he shouts, speeding forward and grabbing her arm.
At close-range, there's no way her fireball can miss, and Barry can't stop a scream as it connects with his shoulder, burning through his suit and setting his skin blistering.
"No!" he hears Iris scream, while Eddie shouts, "Flash!"
Barry grits his teeth against the pain and refuses to let go. "Don't do it," he gets out through gritted teeth. Somehow.
She stares at him for a second that seems to go on forever before saying, "I'm sorry."
And then she shoves Barry hard, though without using any more fire, and turns to run into the house while Barry's still reeling, too off balance to react quick enough to stop her.
He needn't have bothered, because a shot rings out and the woman howls as she crumples to the lawn in front of the burning house, clutching at her leg.
Eddie takes careful, measured steps towards the woman, gun out and ready to fire again.
Iris, though, runs to Barry, her eyes wild and eyes wet as she crouches down next to him. "Oh my god," she breathes, hand hovering over his shoulder. "Barry."
"It'll heal," Barry grits out, because it will. It'll hurt like a bitch once the nerves regrow enough for him to feel it, and he's pretty sure he won't be making it back home before Mick, but he'll be able to go in to work tomorrow with no one the wiser that he'd taken a fireball to the shoulder after dinner. (Simultaneously a pro and con of being the Flash.)
As though the thought had called him – Barry suspects Iris is the actual culprit – the red Mustang roars to a stop next to them, Mick's face a mask of rage, which Barry doesn't think he's ever seen so close to a fire before. "Get in, ya moron," he orders.
Barry manages a huff, though he's pretty sure it comes out pained, and doesn't fight Iris when she helps him up and into the back seat.
"We've got 'im," Mick promises her, and then the car is racing away with a squeal of tires, likely just missing the incoming fire trucks.
Mick waits until they're well away from the fire before snarling, "Goddammit, Barry! Yer not invulnerable!"
"I know that," Barry chokes out, cradling his arm and doing his best to both ignore the scent of charred flesh and avoid looking at the mess of his shoulder. Not for the first time, he wishes pain killers would work on him, because god parts of it already hurt, and he knows it's going to get worse as his skin knits back together and nerves regrow.
Mick doesn't say anything else, just continues driving through the city. He does lighten his turns around corners, and Barry's fairly certain he's doing his best to avoid potholes, which he appreciates.
A hospital is, of course, out of the question, and while Caitlin had made it clear a while back that she can treat Barry at her home, if necessary, Barry's not particularly surprised that Mick takes them straight home. Because, of all of the wounds he could have got, burns are the one Mick's most familiar with.
And Mick does treat him, his hands gentle even though he keeps muttering angry insults. By the time Len gets home a couple hours later, Barry's bundled up on the couch, his shoulder open to the air and already looking much better than it had before Mick started cutting the remains of his suit away from it. Len is, unsurprisingly, unimpressed at Barry taking a fireball to the shoulder to keep an arsonist from committing suicide. Barry calls him a hypocrite, Len points out Mick wouldn't commit suicide just for being caught, and Mick rolls his eyes and shuts them both up by supplying ice cream and hot chocolate.
It's a rough night for all of them, because Mick and Len decide they'd rather sleep out in the living room with Barry, rather than go to bed without him, but Barry's shoulder is completely healed by morning, not even a scar to match the familiar array along Mick's shoulders and back. (Barry's pretty sure he's not supposed to be sad about that, but he does sometimes miss having scars, especially since both of his boyfriends have so many.)
When he gets into the precinct in the morning, both Eddie and Iris are already there, bruises under their eyes speaking to a long night of their own. Iris runs over and hugs him as soon as she sees him stepping out of the lift, which Barry appreciates, even though it might look a little weird.
And then Eddie reaches them and grimly explains, "After you left last night, there was a fire. The woman who set it is a metahuman and in custody. Her husband died in the fire, and they have a kid. Who's also a metahuman and the grandparents won't take him."
"Oh, shit," Barry says with feeling, because there have only been two metahumans in the foster system, so far as Barry knows, and one of them was killed by their foster parents when they found out, while the other ran away and is currently living in one of Matty's buildings in Barry's neighborhood. (He's never met the kid, unlike Angel, but he's been slipping Matty money so he has a safe place to stay, same as he's done a couple times for Angel and the two other metahumans he knows of who find shelter in Matty's buildings. Matty, kindly, has never told anyone where the money comes from, and he doesn't make a fuss about Barry supporting metahumans, just tells him how many couldn't pay that week, and then asks for help with another weird stain as Barry counts out the necessary money.)
"He's only five," Iris whispers, her face lined with grief. "I asked if we could take him, but..." She shakes her head.
"Not married, and we both have jobs with crazy hours," Eddie says for her, frustration in his voice. "We thought about asking Caitlin or Cisco, but with Wells dead..."
"They don't really have jobs, right now," Barry agrees tiredly, even as he cycles through his mental list of everyone he knows would might be willing to take in a metahuman child. "I could try the Steins?"
"I forgot about him!" Iris says, perking up.
Barry quickly dials the number he has for Dr Stein, which ends up being the landline, and his wife, Clarissa picks up. Once Barry's identified himself and Clarissa gets Dr Stein on the line, he explains, "There was a fire last night and it's left a metahuman child effectively orphaned. If he goes into the system, it's likely he won't survive, so we're trying to find someone who'll take him."
"Oh, the poor thing," Clarissa says, sounding honestly upset on the kid's behalf.
"What is is ability?" Dr Stein asks.
"Uh, mom threw fireballs," Barry offers as he turns back to Iris and Eddie.
"Kerry can summon fire, too, but only small flames," Iris explains, holding her finger and thumb up so they're maybe the width of a quarter apart.
"Small flames. He's only five," Barry tells the Steins.
"Martin," Clarissa says, a world of meaning in her voice.
Dr Stein sighs. "We'll come and meet him."
By the cheer Iris lets out, Barry's relief must show on his face. "Eddie, is the kid here? Or with child services?" Because metahuman cases always got sent through their precinct, no matter where in the city they originated. Barry was fairly certain that was due entirely to Joe and Eddie having a connection to the Flash, though he supposed being the closest precinct to S.T.A.R. Labs might have something to do with it, too.
"Here."
Barry passes on directions to the Steins, then hangs up. "It's not a definite thing," he warns, because Iris still looks like it's Christmas morning, "but they want to meet him. And it sounds like Clarissa, Dr Stein's wife, is onboard, at least."
"Well, I'm going to have positive thoughts," Iris insists, then grabs his hand. "Come on, there's plenty of time for you to meet Kerry before they get here."
Kerry looks lonely and terrified where he's sitting in a corner that's been very obviously fire-proofed. The man and woman who Barry assumes must be from child services have left a clear distance between themselves and the kid and are clearly content to ignore him.
"You again," the man says when he sees Iris and Barry approaching.
"Yeah, me," Iris snaps in that tone she always uses when Joe's being completely unreasonable. "This is Barry Allen, who works here. He called some friends of his who might be willing to take Kerry. They're on their way."
The man looks Barry up and down and clearly finds him lacking. "More unmarried college graduates," he assumes.
Barry lets time slow around himself and takes a deep breath, expels the well of anger churning in his gut, and then smiles as everything returns to normal speed and says, "Maybe. I'd like to meet Kerry, if that's alright with you?"
Iris lets out a sharp breath, which sounds a little surprised. Like she'd been gearing up to join Barry in yelling this pair down. But Barry thinks the Steins coming in and proving their assumption wrong will feel much better, in the long run.
"It's your funeral," the woman says, motioning for them to go ahead. There are what look to be first-degree burns on her fingers, which are shining from some sort of soothing cream or gel.
Iris leads the way, and Kerry clearly recognizes her, because he perks up, dropping the paperclip chain he'd been working with. "Iris!" he cries, reaching up his hands towards her.
"I'm sorry I left, sweetie," Iris says as she picks him up, then sits in the space he'd been in. "This is my best friend, Barry."
"Hi, Kerry," Barry offers with a smile.
Kerry blinks at him, then reaches out a hand, inside which appears a miniature flame. By his expression, Barry suspects this is intended as a test, and his heart hurts at this sign that even a five-year-old has learnt that he won't always be accepted because he's a metahuman.
"That," Barry tells him with all the sincerity he can muster, "is super cool. My boyfriend would be so jealous if he was here."
Iris laughs. "It's probably for the best that he can't summon fire with a thought."
"Tell me about it," Barry says, while Kerry's fire goes out and he looks between them with a growing smile. "At least his lighters and matches have a limited use."
"Oh no," Iris moans, but then she's grinning at him. "Did you see his face the first time Firestorm caught fire?"
"I honestly thought he was going to hug him," Barry admits, before telling Kerry, "We have a friend who can set himself on fire. He calls himself Firestorm, but we only knew him as the 'burning man' for a while."
"Cool," Kerry announces.
By the time the Steins arrive, Barry's shared stories about a handful of metahumans he's met, and he really hopes the Steins can take him, because Kerry's favorite is undoubtedly Firestorm, and Barry wants to be there when he finds out his new dad is one half of Firestorm.
Barry's right that the child services people's reaction to the Steins being Barry's friends are pretty excellent. More so when it turns out that the woman took a class under Dr Stein at one point and knows exactly who he is.
Clarissa takes approximately ten seconds to fall in love with Kerry, judging by her expression, and Dr Stein is probably won over as much by her pleading stare as by the thoughts of what he can discover watching how Kerry's gift grows with him.
By lunchtime, Kerry has a new family who Barry knows will protect him from any backlash about his being a metahuman, and he looks like he's having a great time when they all catch lunch together at Big Belly Burger.
After lunch, Barry sneaks down to the metahuman cell in the basement, because Kerry's mother, Jennifer, isn't planned to be moved for another couple hours, after the traffic from the lunch rush has petered out.
Jennifer looks up as Barry slips into the room, and the way her eyes immediately go to his shoulder tells him she recognizes him. "I heal fast," he tells her.
"I'm glad," she says, and she sounds like she means it.
Barry crosses his arms over his chest, keeping away from the cell because the energy dampeners always make him feel a little like the world is dragging on him. Not harmful or painful, just uncomfortable. "I met Kerry," he says.
Jennifer's face crumples. "My baby," she whispers. "I didn't think– I was just so angry. Is he–"
"A friend of mine, who's also like us, is able to adopt him. They'll keep him safe, teach him how to manage his abilities. Maybe bring him to visit you, if he ever asks." Barry had made sure of that, because he'd spent too much of his childhood desperate to visit his dad and being constantly told no. It doesn't matter that Jennifer actually had killed her husband, Kerry deserves the right to choose whether or not he wants to see his mother again.
"Thank you," Jennifer whispers, tears rolling down her face.
Barry shrugs and nods and makes his escape when it's clear she has nothing else to add.
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 || 3/Mini Mia ||
+1/Flash Day
Part Six: The Trials of the Hero's Beleaguered Captain
.
