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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 is the chapter that covers Henry's release from prison. For those who have been waiting for it. ^^; Takes place between seasons one and two.
You can also read this at Archive of Our Own or LiveJournal.
Wells/Thawne/whoever may not have confessed to his crimes, but his corpse had reverted to his original form, which meant they had a body to match the unknown DNA that had been found at Barry's house. Which Barry doesn't find out until well after he's returned from Sun City, as everyone had apparently agreed to keep it hushed until they knew for certain that they had enough to convince a judge for a retrial.
Barry's testimony, which had been thought madness fifteen years before, was now accepted in court, with some additional video of the Flash and Reverse-Flash fighting at Christmas, to prove there were two speedsters in Central City. Testimony from both Joe and Eddie painted the Reverse-Flash as the villain.
Two weeks after Barry returns from Sun City, Dad is a free man.
They have the party at Saints and Sinners, because it's one of the few places in the city where supervillains and members of the CCPD can shake hands without someone waiting for the handcuffs to come out. Iris, Eddie, Cisco, Caitlin, and Ronnie all look a little out of place next to Len, Mick, and Lisa, but they're all smiling when Barry leads Dad in, all the same. The Steins show up about twenty minutes later – apparently they got lost – with Kerry in tow, and while he seems a little uncertain about the crowd at first, Barry introduces him to Mick and he and Kerry are fast friends. (Clarissa jokes that they might have to discuss visitation. By Mick's expression, Barry suspects visitation might be less of a joke than she thinks.)
"This," Dad tells him a little over an hour into the party, after a couple of the locals have poked their heads in despite the sign on the door and offered their congratulations, "is a pretty amazing family you've built yourself, Slugger."
"Yeah, it really is," Barry agrees, though the reminder of the missing members – Mom and Joe – put a bit of a damper on his smile.
"I'll have a word with Joe," Dad promises.
"Are you going to punch him again?" Barry asks suspiciously, because he lives with two criminals who absolutely would if given half the chance. "Because you realize he can actually arrest you, now. Again."
Dad snorts and pulls him into a hug. "I make no promises."
Barry huffs and laughs and lets it go.
(Dad absolutely does punch Joe again. In the middle of the bullpen at the precinct. Barry isn't there to see it, but Eddie gets it on video for him, and Barry moans when he watches it, but Len and Mick both roar with laughter, and Lisa gives Dad a high five next time she sees him. Dad ends up spending the night in a cell, but he swears it was worth it. And Joe still very obviously doesn't approve of Len and Mick, but he's talking to Barry and Iris and Eddie again. He also promises not to shoot Len or Mick next time he sees them, but he reserves the right to arrest them. Which everyone admits is fair.)
About a month after he's released, Dad leaves. Which, well, a part of Barry's hurt by that, because he really sort of wanted his dad to stick around for a while. But, too, he's been living with criminals long enough to understand that need to just go. (Has suffered it himself, a few times; one of the dangers of constantly moving flats is that you eventually get used to changing it up on the regular.)
Len, of course, suffers approximately an hour of Barry's moping before he snaps, "Barry. You can circle the earth in under five hours; if you need a hug, just run out to him and get one."
"Call first," Mick adds.
Barry still misses his dad, but Len does have a point, and Dad is generally game for Barry to run out to wherever he is that week, so long as he rings in advance.
Barry doesn't even last a week before he's running to visit him, but that's mostly because Wells/Thawne/whoever apparently had a regular call-in with his attorney, and when he misses, his living will activates. And that designates Barry as the recipient of...pretty much everything, including a video recording he's supposed to watch in order to keep S.T.A.R. Labs (and keep Cisco and Caitlin in work).
Len and Mick are of the opinion that he should just bin the video, because watching it seems like a bad idea to them – considering the last conversation Barry'd had with Wells had sent him into a depressive spiral, he didn't blame them – but Barry liked using S.T.A.R. Labs as a base of operations, and he didn't want to make Cisco and Caitlin have to go job hunting. (Plus, if he owned the place, he could hire Ronnie and Dr Stein, so they both had a steady stream of income while they were in Central, as well as a place they could meet up and merge regularly without anyone asking questions about why two so different men were meeting. Hell, he could pay himself, and then Len wouldn't be able to tease him about being a supervillain being more profitable than being a superhero.)
In the end, it was Kerry who decided him, because the particle accelerator's explosion had changed a lot of lives, and far too many of them were in the same position as Kerry. In the same position as Angel and the other metahumans hiding in his neighborhood. Barry was only one man, but he'd learnt that a lot could be done if you had the bank to fund it. Like building somewhere safe for metahumans who needed a place to go.
Len and Mick weren't able to argue with that, but they did insist that Barry watch the video with someone. Them, Barry assumes they meant, but, well... Wells/Thawne/whoever hadn't just ruined Barry's life, and he thought it was only fair to give his dad the option to watch his final words, too.
Dad agrees to watch it with him, so Barry speeds out to the coast, where Dad's enjoying the ocean, and they sit together in the shade, crowding around the laptop Barry brought with him.
Dad scoffs and says, "Bullshit," when Wells says Barry will never be happy.
(If Wells had had his way, though – if Barry and Len and Mick didn't love each other as much as they do – he would have been right. Which Barry tries very hard not to think too much about.)
In the end, though, Barry and Dad are left staring at each other. "Did he just–?" Barry whispers.
Dad laughs, loud and little startling, and then he yanks Barry into a hug. "You beat him, Slugger," he whispers. "You got me out without his pity play."
Len and Mick, when Barry gets home and shares that with them, laugh, too. And, as soon as all the paperwork's filed and Barry's added Ronnie and Dr Stein to the payroll, they buy a ridiculous amount of expensive food and throw another party.
While S.T.A.R. Labs is easy enough to sort out, and Barry and Mick turn Wells' glass house into their new chemical explosives site – it's unsurprisingly easy to talk Len into coming along and joining in, for once – he has far less luck with finding a safe space for metahumans.
They can't use S.T.A.R. Labs because it's still in use as Flash and Firestorm's base of operations. There are a couple of places in the inner city that Barry thinks could serve, but all of them are within shouting distance of a police precinct or a news station of one media or another, and Barry knows he wouldn't want to go past either of those if he's going to a place meant for metahumans. So he starts looking in their neighborhood, except all of the buildings that might work there are already full of their 'neighbors', and Barry doesn't have it in him to kick a bunch of people out just so he can turn a building into a safe haven for a very specific sort of person who needs help.
He finally finds the perfect building just inside mob territory, which figures. When he mentions it to Len, though, he says, "I'll handle it." And, two days later, the neighborhood has expanded to include the warehouse Barry wanted. Without any blood being spilt, miraculously.
(Barry doesn't ask and Len doesn't explain.)
Barry does a large portion of the inner construction himself, because it's faster than hiring a construction crew. He makes Mick, Len, Eddie, and Firestorm help him with the parts he can't do on his own, while the rest of his strange little family – minus Joe, who none of them are daring enough to ask to help, and Dad, who's still on holiday – get on the painting and purchasing furniture that should hold up under a wide array of abilities.
"Who's going to run the place?" Caitlin asks Barry at one point. "Everyone here either has a job or is on the run from the law."
"Not everyone," Barry replies, because Lisa knows all of Len's tricks to avoid getting caught, while also possessing a far smaller drama bone. So while she's been a person of interest in a handful of cases, she's never actually been convicted of anything. And, so long as Len doesn't let her tag along on any of his and Mick's little 'taunt the Flash' trips and she gets seen by the police or caught on video by an onlooker, that's not likely to change.
Lisa takes a little convincing – she much prefers being a free spirit who can leave Central without any warning – but she does agree to manage the center for the first year, adding, "That should be plenty of time for you to sucker a couple of do-gooders into taking over for me."
Barry got Angel and the other metahumans living in the neighborhood to move in first, and while they all started out a little uncertain, they all settled in without too much convincing.
("It's the free food," Lisa whispers to him while they watch the small group tackle a far more filling and nutritious lunch than any of them have likely had in a long while, and Barry has to admit she probably has a point. Though he suspects that Izzy, at least, is also grateful for the access to medication; her advanced healing has been helping her manage her leprosy, but Barry has his own healing power, and he knows that it isn't always nice being able to heal super fast from whatever happens to you.)
Iris talks her boss into letting her write an article about the center, and Eddie and Joe somehow manage to get Singh to go to bat for them and convince the police commissioner and the DA's office to put up notices in public places suggesting that metahumans can find a safe place to learn to use their powers, or just to go when there's nowhere else for them. And Len makes it clear to everyone in their neighborhood that metahumans on their way to the center are off-limits. (If, however, someone sees cops other than Eddie, or reporters other than Iris snooping around, they have his full permission to do whatever it takes to get them to fuck off back to the politer parts of the city. Barry's just hoping this doesn't end with the police calling in the national guard or something and 'cleansing' the neighborhood for attacking people just doing their jobs.)
It still takes almost two months before a new metahuman shows up, and Barry actually comes across her on his own way to the center, backed into an alley and still managing to mostly hold her own against three thugs.
"Hey!" he shouts once he's set down his armload of groceries, picking up a broken piece of brick and chucking it at the back of the biggest of the three. "What's Cold's rule?"
The bigger two turn to face him, and Barry swallows, because it looks like these three might actually be Family, which means they're not going to respect Len's rules. They also aren't going to respect that Barry's got Len's protection, which means he's really better off running for it.
Except they've cornered someone, and Barry doesn't need to be in costume to want to help people.
"Ya really think we care what rules Snart's throwin' around?" one of them says.
Barry grabs another broken brick piece and snaps, "You want to avoid a war, you do. Or do you really think the Families can stand up to Captain Cold and Heatwave?"
"Easily," one of them says. But the other looks less certain.
"Yeah?" Barry says, putting as much bravado into his voice as he can manage. "What if they make a deal with the Flash? Get his help."
That stops both of them, and also makes the third guy finally turn away from the person they've cornered. The third guy's eyebrows go up when he sees Barry and he says, "Shit. Yer Cold's piece of ass, ain't ya?"
Barry closes his eyes because for fuck's sake. He's almost certain that assumption was reached by the Families on their own and not helped along by Len, but if he ever finds out otherwise, it's going to take a lot more than returning a big diamond to the museum to get Len back off the couch. "Either tell me which Family you are, or scram," he tells them. The implication being, of course, that he'll be mailing their remains back to their boss. (Truthfully, he's more likely to ensure they're gift-wrapped for the police, but they don't know that.)
Wisely, they take their chance and leave.
Barry huffs a bit and drops his brick piece once they're well past him, then he turns his focus to the person they'd cornered. Who he can now see is a teenager with – judging by how she's not touching the three bin lids hovering in front of her – telekinetic powers. "Hey, you okay?"
All three lids hit the ground with a clatter and she collapses to her knees.
Barry runs towards her, barely resisting the urge to use his speed. "They didn't get you, did they?" he asks as he kneels in front of her. "You're not hurt?"
"I'm o-okay," she chokes out, and now Barry's close enough, he can see she's shaking like a leaf and her wide eyes are tearing up.
"Do you do hugs?" Barry asks, because she looks like she could use one.
In answer, she falls forward against him with a sob, and Barry doesn't hesitate to wrap his arms around her, making quiet shushing noises as she cries.
When she finally draws away, she keeps her head down while she wipes angrily at her eyes. "Sorry. I didn't mean–"
"Hey," Barry interrupts. "It's okay. I cried, too, the first time I had a brush with the mob. Pretty sure most sane people do."
"Only most?" she asks, and when she peeks out at him, Barry thinks he might see the start of a smile tugging at her mouth.
Barry goes for a nonchalant shrug. "Sure. Some people plan their run-ins with tanks and fighter jets at their back."
Her giggle sounds a little startled, but when Barry offers her a grin, she smiles back, a little shy, and he calls it a win.
"I'm Barry," he offers with his hand.
"Jackie." She shakes his hand briefly, then withdrawals, folding her fingers together. "I, uhm, I'm looking for the, the center? For people with p-powers."
"I'm on my way there myself, if you want to join me?" Barry offers.
"O-oh! Sure!"
Despite not using his speed, Barry's easily to his feet before Jackie, and he holds down a hand to help her up the rest of the way. When he stops by the mouth of the alley to pick up the groceries he left there, she says, "Do you need help?"
"I won't say no," Barry admits, and she takes one of the bags. When she takes a peek inside, clearly curious, he says, "Lisa, who's in charge of the center right now, has been bribing everyone there with movie night if they leave for a couple of hours every day. Which I totally get, because I wouldn't really want to be cooped up all day for weeks on end with the same faces, either. But it does mean we go through popcorn at a ridiculous rate."
Jackie laughs at that, just a little. "It sounds like fun."
"I hope it is," Barry says as honestly as he can. "Everyone we've got right now, they all ended up on the streets. Either because the people they trusted kicked them out, or because having abilities put them in a dangerous position." He takes a deep breath, then adds, "I got lucky. My family, they're okay with my powers. I want this center to be a place where everyone else can have that same luck."
"Oh. That's–" Jackie let out a loud sniff and shifted her hold on her grocery bag so she could rub at her eyes. Then she turned a smile on him. "That's a good reason."
Barry nods. "Yeah."
She ducks her head, then, and asks in a kind of shy tone, "I heard, too, that you might know how to...control our powers? Like–"
"Block them?" he guesses, because one of the first things Angel had asked him, when he realized Barry was involved with S.T.A.R. Labs, was if there was a way to hide his wings.
"Yes...and no. Maybe?"
Barry can't help a slightly tired laugh. "S.T.A.R. Labs developed portable containment cuffs for transport of metahumans – those of us with powers – to help the police, but they only have so much charge, so it's not something you can wear indefinitely. Controlling powers, though, like learning how to better use them? We can certainly try. But you might have to suffer a bit of prodding and some uncomfortable questions from the S.T.A.R. Labs scientists."
She makes a face. "Maybe not."
Barry shrugs. "Up to you. They come around about once a week or so, so Caitlin – Dr Snow – can do check-up on everyone."
"Oh. I don't– I'm still seeing my doctor? Sort of."
Barry shoots her a knowing smile. "Yeah, but Caitlin's not going to put it in your record that you're a metahuman," he points out, and she ducks her head down and away. "This is the place," he adds, because they've reached the center.
"Barry!" Angel calls as soon as he sees him. "Is that popcorn?"
Barry laughs. "Yeah. Come take these bags and put them in the kitchen, and you can microwave one now."
"Yes!" Angel hurries over to accept the bags, trading shy "Hello"s with Jackie, then races towards the kitchen, his little wings fluttering behind him.
Jackie coughs what sounds suspiciously like a laugh into one hand and Barry shoots her a knowing grin.
Lisa isn't the only one up in the room she's turned into her office, and Jackie gasps, "Captain Cold!" then ducks behind Barry.
Len's raised eyebrow is more entertained than anything else, while Lisa rolls her eyes, then says, "Hi, Barry. Who've you got there?"
"This is Jackie," Barry introduces, gently tugging her out from behind himself. "Jackie, this is Len and Lisa Snart. Lisa manages the center."
"H-hi?"
Lisa's smile is far more welcoming than the ones she usually turns on people, and Barry knows it's as more because of Jackie's nervous stutter, than her gender or apparent age. "Hey, kiddo. Don't mind Lenny's grumpy face. I promise the only person here he'll be biting is Barry."
"Lisa!" Barry complains, while Len barks out a laugh.
Jackie, though, turns wide eyes on Barry and breathes, "Wait, you mean you are sleeping with Captain Cold? I-I thought that was–"
"Not a euphemism," Barry admits. And then, seeing Len's frown, because no one in the neighborhood would have dared to imply to a stranger that Barry was sleeping with a supervillain, explains, "A couple of Family thugs cornered her."
Len's face goes flat and cold. "Did they."
"You are not starting a war with the mob, Len."
Lisa laughs at them, having heard this particular argument a time or two. "Come on, Jackie, let's introduce you around. And are you going to need a room?"
"I– Oh, no. At least, I hope not. My father doesn't know–" Jackie explains as Lisa leads her out of the office and back down to where the television has been turned on downstairs.
"The city can't afford a war," Barry reminds Len quietly once the two ladies are gone. "We can't afford a war, not with the center right on the edge of the border."
Len lets out an angry snarl, because he'd never endanger the metahuman center, and not just because it's Barry's pet project, but the fact that it's on the edge of their territory means it's at constant risk. The fastest way to secure it, would be to build more of a buffer between it and mob territory, but if they push too much further inwards, they chance starting a war. Or, alternately, the invisible line the police don't usually cross on the opposite side starts to creep inwards.
They're in a delicate balance, for the moment, and all Barry can really do is keep hoping that it stays that way.
(And maybe speed around the building in costume once or twice a week, just to remind the Families that Captain Cold and Heatwave aren't the only ones they'll have to fight if they try to take the building back.)
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 || 4/Kerry's Flame ||
+1/Flash Day
Part Six: The Trials of the Hero's Beleaguered Captain
.