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batsutousaiTitle: The Trials of the Hero's Beleaguered Captain
Series: Overprotective Criminals 'Verse
Fandom: CW's The Flash
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: Mature
Pairings: David Singh/Rob, Barry Allen/Mick Rory/Leonard Snart
Warnings: Established relationship, polyamory, canon-typical violence, Singh is not an idiot, Singh is so done with everyone's shit
Summary: The choice to hire Barry Allen had been a difficult one for Captain David Singh, though not for the reasons most people thought.
Disclaim Her: Not mine.
A/N: This was both a lot of fun to write, and felt, at times, like I was pulling teeth. I'm not 100% about Singh's characterization, and since we know next to nothing about Rob, I bullshat pretty much everything. But it's done, and I'm mostly okay with how it ended.
Haha, I have notes for another two fics in this series. Can't say if/when I'll get to them, but just an FYI, there's potential for more floating around. Just no promises about them actually getting written. ^^;
All of the thanks, as ever, to StillNotGinger10 for being willing to beta without much warning. :D (Although, then I sat on it for almost the whole week, because I was more interested in making transparent renders than in rereading and coding this to post. ^^; )
You can also read this at Archive of Our Own or LiveJournal.
Cover on tumblr and deviantArt.
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David Singh has been working at the same precinct for a long time. He'd interned there under his uncle, had served as an officer direct out of the academy there, had been promoted to detective, and then to captain, still in the same precinct in the same little corner of Central City. He'd been working with the same faces for most of that time, and he knew their stories and their families.
He'd just made detective when the Allen murder happened. He hadn't been directly involved in the fall-out, but he was friendly enough with the detectives on the case, and he was friends with Joe, so he had something of a ring-side seat. He heard Barry Allen's testimony, scoffed about it, same as everyone else in the precinct, and clapped Joe on the back and called him a stand-up guy for taking the kid in.
He met Barry – and Iris – a few times over the following years. At family-friendly police functions and when one or both of them would come to the precinct either in search of Joe, or in search of their particular brand of trouble. (Iris wanted to get information about the academy, find someone to sponsor her, because Joe flat-out refused. Barry would try to get people to listen to him about his father, early on, but he eventually just started coming in to ask questions about weird cases.)
During one of Barry's visits when he was in middle school, David had been the one to catch him snooping at the files on Joe's desk, because Joe was out at a scene. He'd sat the kid down next to his own desk with a Coke from the machine, and told him to work on homework until Joe got back. Barry had huffed a bit, but obeyed. Right up until David had opened one of his own case files – he wasn't going to just not work because one of Joe's kids needed to be babysat – and started looking back through the crime scene photos, hoping to see that one thing that would help him break the case open.
He didn't have to find it, though, because Barry spotted it first. He hadn't even needed to read or be told anything about the case, just figured it all out from the photos David had been shifting through. Which wasn't something most people could do. And David had told him as much, because he was Joe's kid and you told the kids of friends when they did good.
(Joe wouldn't speak to him for almost two months, once he found out David had put the idea of becoming a crime scene investigator into Barry's head, because he was determined to keep his kids out of police work. Not that it had done him much good, in the end.)
The spring of Barry and Iris' final year of high school, Joe starts coming in to work with ugly bags under his eyes and a temper that promises nothing good, just like he'd done shortly before and after Francine left. David ends up being the one to take him out for a drink, because Fred Chyre, Joe's partner, has a thing with his son that he can't get out of, and everyone agrees that Joe needed an intervention before the captain either demotes him or make him take unpaid leave.
It's only after Joe's well into his drink that he tells David about Barry shacking up with a couple of guys. "It's not that they're male," he adds, probably thinking David will hit him, because he'd been out for almost two years, by then (and he might well have slugged Joe, honestly; he'd had a few drinks himself), "it's that there's two of 'em. And Iris won't tell me anything about them."
While David can't ever see himself being comfortable with more than one partner, he's spent too much of his life being afraid of the hate he might suffer for being gay, to turn around and hate someone else just because he would never take part in a similar relationship.
If Barry wants to have two partners, that's his choice, and good on him for making and sticking with it.
Which is pretty much exactly what he tells Joe, though perhaps with a little more meandering. (As previously mentioned, he's had a few drinks, too.)
Joe hems and haws and eventually says he'll send his apologies with Iris.
Which is how David finds out that Barry hasn't been home since Joe found out. And he can't even blame the kid, though he sincerely hopes he hasn't resorted to living on the streets.
The next day, Joe looks a little less murderous, and Fred claps David on the shoulder and congratulates him on doing his duty as a good friend, then asks what the problem had been.
Deadpan, David tells him, "Barry's dating. Joe doesn't approve."
Everyone in hearing range roars with laughter, because it's no secret that Joe – like many dads, in David's experience – would be perfectly happy if his kids stayed single and celibate until the end of time. Joe suffers some good-natured teasing for his overprotectiveness, which he bears with good humor. (He also, David is unexpectedly grateful to see, doesn't tell anyone the gender or the number of people Barry's dating; he might not approve, but he isn't going to go around outing his kids while sober.)
Still, given that Joe's depending on Iris to communicate with Barry, David assumes he hasn't done any looking into his current living situation. So David does it for him, calling on a couple of his criminal informants and setting them to stalking Barry.
One of them ends up in hospital with a gunshot wound, while the other makes it out with some pretty impressive bruises and a concussion. They do manage to agree that Barry is staying in one of the rougher parts of Central – not quite mob territory, but worryingly close – and he has at least two guys looking out for him, neither of whom are afraid to use violence to scare people off.
David has a sinking suspicion that Barry has landed himself with a couple of criminals, which explains why Iris is refusing to tell Joe anything about them. (Assuming she even knows.) He seriously debates telling Joe, but then he has a vision of Joe storming into that part of town without backup, not thinking straight, and decides he doesn't want to be at fault for another detective's death.
He does go out to Central City High to see for himself how Barry's doing, because if he is dating criminals, they could be doing god knows what to him, and Iris just hasn't noticed any signs, or doesn't want to tell Joe if she has. But the Barry he sees, laughing loudly with a couple of classmates and grinning wider than David has ever seen from him, is very clearly doing just fine. And his smile doesn't fade as he leaves his classmates and makes for the sketchier part of town.
David lets him go without trying to catch his attention or follow, much reassured about Barry's situation; criminals or no, his boyfriends make him happy, and they're evidentially intent on keeping him safe. Which is more than David could say for his own first serious relationship.
He does mention to Joe, the next time he sees him, that Barry looks happy. Joe's face goes through a complicated cycle of expressions, before finally settling on a strained smile. "That's something," he says, and they don't talk about it again.
About six months after David’s promoted to the captain of the precinct – which comes at an excellent time, honestly, because he's been a little worried about Rob getting sick of his shitty hours – Joe asks him to hire Barry on as a CSI.
It's hardly the first time a detective who's been around for a while has asked the captain at the time to hire on one of their family members, but it's a first for David. It's also kind of a complicated mess, though not, as most people – including the police commissioner and, David assumes, Joe himself – believe, because of the imprisoned Henry Allen. Barry has always held to his belief that his father is innocent, and the former Dr Allen also remains insistent that he hadn't killed his wife; David can respect wanting to stand by your blood family, no matter what.
No, David's problem has everything to do with Barry's relationship with potential criminals.
"You don't even know if he's still dating them," Rob points out when he brings his concerns up over dinner, because Rob has become his best sounding board when he's struggling with something. (Even something he probably shouldn't share with anyone without a badge.)
David sighs. "But if he is. It could be a conflict of interest." Not to mention the potential fall-out if anyone ever finds out.
"You're worried about him," Rob says, completely ignoring the actual issue, as he does. (Some days, David really hates when he does that.) "Look, if Barry is really that interested in becoming a CSI, he's going to find someone who will hire him. Wouldn't you rather it be you, so you can protect him if he needs it?"
"That's not the problem," David insists.
Rob smiles and holds out the last of the cauliflower in response.
(David is going to marry this man one day. God help him.)
He does hire Barry on, because Rob's right: Barry will find a way to become a CSI, and at least if he's under David, he can try to protect him from whatever hot water the kid lands himself in. Joe, too, and the rest of the long-time faces who have suffered Barry's endless curiosity over the years, they'll rally around him if he needs them, though they'll give him a lot of friendly hell in the meantime. And David goes hard on him because he knows the kid is good at his job, but he's also a little bit of a scatterbrain, as many younger CSIs seem to be, and David doesn't want to lose him because he can't be assed to set his alarm early enough to make it across town to work on time.
Barry puts Joe's house as his place of residence in his official records, but they never leave or come in together, even when they have the same shift, so David knows that's a lie. Sending one of his remaining criminal informants after the kid nets him an actual address this time, because his protectors have apparently decided he's old enough to watch out for himself. The apartment building is in the same crap part of town as he'd been staying in almost five years before, and it's under one of those fake names that criminals use to hide who they are when they can't get around a paper trail. He tries to trace it back to the origin when he has some rare down time, but he comes up empty, and he doesn't really want to pass it on to anyone else to look into. For Barry's sake, if nothing else.
And then, of course, lightning strikes, and David wonders if all his hard work was for nothing.
By the Christmas following Barry's return from medical leave, David knows he's the Streak.
It's the little things, at first: The first reports of the Streak following within days of Barry waking up; the way the kid will randomly vanish in the middle of the day, but always for less than ten minutes, and the Streak will regularly foil a crime during that period; the way Barry will walk into a crime scene the Streak was involved with, already knowing key details.
"This city needs a superhero, right now," Rob tells him when he finally unloads his suspicions on his boyfriend.
"Where do we draw the line between vigilante and superhero?" David asks tiredly, because that's a question he's been asking himself since he first started noticing the patterns that led him to realize the kid is the Streak. (The other question he's been wondering about, of course, is 'How is it that the kid gets superspeed, but he still can't make it to work on time?' He doesn't expect he'll ever get an answer to that one.)
Rob is quiet for a long moment before he says, "When you can no longer protect this city without him."
David isn't quite certain they're there yet, but he can admit that there have been some strange cases – banks full of people suddenly attacking each other, a man who bullets don't stop, and, most recently, a yellow blur who is at least as fast as the Streak – that he's not sure the police force could have solved half as quickly as they seem to stop being a problem once the Streak gets involved.
After Christmas, though, Barry starts looking drawn and exhausted in a way that David has never seen before.
"That yellow speedster, at Christmas?" Joe says when David corners him. "What I saw at S.T.A.R. Labs, it looked a lot like Barry described as a kid. If you remember that case?"
How could David forget? Henry Allen's imprisonment may not have had any bearing in whether or not David chose to hire him, but it was certainly something he'd had to talk his way around, when the commissioner had brought it up. And while no one in the precinct brings it up, it hovers over all of their heads, the fact that one of their CSIs has a father in prison for killing his mom, who he still visits every weekend.
(Really, it was no wonder Barry had entered a relationship with a couple of criminals, despite being raised by a cop and aspiring to become a CSI.)
"How sure are you, Joe?" he asks, crossing his arms over his chest.
Joe straightens and meets David's eyes and says, "One hundred percent."
David nods. "You get me some sort of proof – anything – and I will sell the DA."
Joe slumps, looking like the weight on his shoulders just got a lot lighter. "Will do, Captain."
Before Joe can leave, though, David says, "Joe. You need to keep Allen out of it."
"I– That's gonna be real tough, Dave," Joe says, his expression twisting in that way that David knows means he's trying to figure out how to spin a lie.
"Plausible deniability," David tells him, and Joe relaxes. "Keep him away from the evidence and out of the reports. And if this yellow speedster shows up again, he's benched; I don't want to see him at any crime scenes."
"Absolutely," Joe promises, and takes his leave.
That night, Rob snorts into his quiche and says, "So you just gave him a way to explain why the Streak – or the Flash or whatever the papers are calling him today – is at any future crime scenes, but Barry is nowhere to be seen."
David just sighs and shakes his head, because what was he thinking?
(He was thinking that Barry would find a way to get involved, no matter what, and David would much rather the kid do it in costume, so the DA can't complain about him tampering with the evidence. As if the fact that they've all heard of or seen the proof that Barry's impossible story from fourteen years ago isn't actually impossible doesn't mean plenty.)
(And how must it feel, David can't help but wonder, to know that the very ability that's turned Barry into a vigilante-turned-superhero, is the same one that must have haunted his worst nightmares as a child?)
Rob sighs, then, sounding just worried enough that David looks up from his own quiche. "Rob?"
"Wanting to catch his mother's murderer is all well and good," Rob says, his forehead creased with concern, "but even superheroes need to take a break some time, and it sounds like this one's been running full-tilt for almost two weeks."
David frowns, because Rob has a point. "Hopefully my promise of support will make him slow down. Or else those boyfriends of his will find some way to make him take a break."
Rob makes a choked noise and, when David looks up at him, he finds his boyfriend looking like he's just had the single greatest thought. "Do you think they know? That they're dating the Streak?"
David just shoots him a look that, he hopes, makes it clear how much he does not want to discuss that mess.
Rob, of course, laughs at him, but kindly changes the topic to his current work project.
Barry's boyfriends do, in fact, manage to make him slow down, and they're pretty clearly aware of exactly who he is, though David doesn't actually realize any of that until the first time someone catches one of the Flash's exchanges with Captain Cold and Heatwave on video.
"Barry's dating Leonard Snart and Mick Rory," he tells Rob when he gets home that night. It's accompanied by a pathetic moan as he flops back onto the couch, because why does he have to deal with this? He never should have hired Barry, should have let him be someone else's problem.
"Wait," Rob says, his nose scrunching up adorably as he attempts to remember why those names are important. And then his eyes go wide and he breathes, "The Flash is dating Captain Cold and Heatwave?"
"Why do you sound so happy about this?"
"Think of all the puns!"
"I have heard most of the puns."
Rob laughs and shoves at David's shoulders until he sits up enough for him to sit on the couch, David’s head resting in his lap.
"Why do I love you?" David complains, then closes his eyes and relaxes as Rob starts scratching his nails through David's hair. "Oh, now I remember."
Rob chuckles and gives him a moment to enjoy his ministrations, then asks, "Are they cute together?"
"Disgustingly," David admits, because the mask didn't hide Barry's wide, delighted smile as he traded verbal barbs with Snart. And he'd only seen Snart and Rory a handful of times – usually in cuffs – but he can't remember either of them ever looking quite so much like they were enjoying themselves. "There's a video online."
"Do I need to get the laptop?"
David shakes his head and shifts just enough to get his mobile out, because he's way too comfortable to let Rob get up. He pulls up the video and hands it up for Rob to watch.
He spends most of the video laughing at the bad puns – David could have gone the rest of his life without knowing that Snart and Barry share the same love of terrible puns as Rob – but he does hiss a few times, and David isn't surprised when his first comment, once Snart and Rory have made their getaway, is, "Some of those blasts came awful close."
He shakes his head. "It's easier to see on a larger screen, but Snart and Rory never aim directly at him, always slightly to the side. And they telegraph their intentions any time they're preparing to shoot."
Rob raises both eyebrows at him. "How many times have you watched this video?"
David doesn't think that deserves a response.
(The answer is 'probably way too many'.)
Rob snorts like he knows the truth without being told and sets David's mobile on his chest. "I'm going to end up writing a book about all of this."
David snorts as he shifts to shove his mobile back in his pocket.
"I'll title it 'The Idiosyncrasies of Hero/Villain Relations'."
David rolls his eyes. "Right. Why not 'The Trials of the Hero's Beleaguered Captain'?"
Rob laughs. "Won't that ruin your insistence of plausible deniability?"
"Not if it's fiction."
Rob snorts and shakes his head. "If you say so. Though..." He makes a show of tapping a finger against his mouth. "How about 'The Headaches of the Hero's Beleaguered Boss'?"
"Whatever you want, baby."
Rob makes a face at the pet name. "You say that, and yet..."
David snorts and levers himself up as much as his back will let him. "Stop trying to come up with a title for a book you'll never write and kiss me, already."
Rob laughs and leans down to do so.
There are times when David thinks he's stopped being surprised by the weird shit that has been happening in Central over the past year, that having the Flash working under him – and often working with a couple of his detectives, directly enough that there are days when they manage to book so many criminals, he has to bench them for the next two so they will get all the paperwork done – has somehow inured him to the impossibility of the enemies he faces.
There are times, too, when he feels like everyone in the city has to have grown used to having people running around with impossible powers.
This is not either of those times.
The video of Eddie Thawne shooting two cops is...so very damning. Even knowing Eddie like he does – trusting him to always do the right thing, to keep Joe from falling to a dark place after Fred's death and Barry falling into a coma – he almost believes, for a moment, that it's really him.
Except Eddie and Barry both swear it wasn't, and David can't tell if it's his trust in the Flash or in one of his best detectives – or a little bit of both – that has him trusting them enough to fight Cecile about it.
Watching her leave, clearly unwilling to trust the same way he does, David turns to Barry and asks, "Do you have any way of explaining this, Allen?" Because the kid is one of his best CSIs, on top of being the Flash, and he needs to know that he'll find a way to get Eddie out of lockup.
"I'm working on it," Barry says, not looking at him. And David isn't used to seeing that hard, determined stare on him, but it's also not the first time he's seen it, and it always precedes Barry going above and beyond to see things done right.
"Then what are you still doing in my office?" David has to ask.
Barry twitches, shoots him a startled look, then makes his escape.
David sighs, then pulls out his mobile to call Rob; he's willing to bet that it's going to be a long night.
It is a long night, but it's one that ends well, which is about all that anyone can really hope for.
"It's hard to believe we live in a world where this kind of impossible even exists," Cecile says, shaking her head like she's still maybe having trouble believing the video she'd just watched. (David knows the feeling.)
"Luckily," he says, and can't help looking towards Barry, "it's also a world where the Flash exists."
And then, before he can be any more obvious about what he knows – in his defense, it's been a long day – he precedes Cecile and Barry out of his office, fully intending to turn over control to the night shift commander, then go home to Rob.
Thankfully, no other emergencies pop up on his way out, so he makes it home at last. And fills Rob in about...everything.
"Shape-shifting," Rob says at last, and David knows exactly which squinty-eyed stare his fiancé has turned on him based on the sound of his voice.
David sighs, then says, "Is it terrible that I'm glad we have Barry there to handle these things?"
Rob catches his hand and folds their fingers together, the hold familiar and comfortable. "I don't know," he says, and David hates the tremble in his voice, knows it's only there because the darkness of their bedroom makes the close call feel even closer. "I think, if it must be someone, at least it's someone you can trust. And that you know has a good support structure."
David scoffs at the thought of Snart and Rory being a good anything, and Rob lets out a quiet snicker and lifts their joined hands to kiss David's knuckles.
"Fucking supervillains," David mutters, just to win an almost-too-loud laugh from his fiancé, who then shifts and looms over him for a moment before leaning in and kissing him.
It takes them quite a bit longer to actually get to sleep, and when David does, he no longer feels like the dangers of the day are lurking in the shadows of their home.
When he hears about the fire that erupts at the Bradford Tower Highrise on the radio, David doesn't think, just turns the car around and drives as fast as he dares. He knows Rob is still at work, pulling long shifts to try and get far enough ahead in his workload, that his desk won't be completely buried when they get back from their honeymoon. (Which David totally understands; he isn't much looking forward to the state he expects to find his own desk in, especially with how distracted Barry has been, of late.)
Thinking of Barry feels like a premonition, because he's only just got to the line of fire trucks and found out what floor the fire is on, when the Flash breezes past him, electricity crackling in his wake. "Please hurry," he whispers after him.
And then he closes his eyes and trusts.
Because Rob was right, a few nights ago: The fact that he already trusts Barry helps a lot. He knows the kid won't leave anyone in danger if he can help it, that his being there means that Rob will make it out alive.
And the moment the fire vanishes is a miracle, and David knows the Flash isn't some sort of deity, but it feels, for a moment – surrounded by firefighters and gawkers that are staring up in disbelief, because fires that out of control don't just poof out – like he could be.
"He was scared," Rob says when they finally make it home, after the medics have cleared him.
"Barry?" David realizes after a moment, something sinking in his stomach.
Rob nods, and he doesn't look like someone who's just barely avoided death, is too grim. "He was talking to someone, a comm I guess–" makes sense; the CCPD had long been assuming the Flash worked with a team, and David could make a pretty good guess about who, given who he saw Barry and Joe spending time with "–and I couldn't hear him, but what I could see of his face... David, he was terrified."
David sucks in a breath, tries not to remember Barry when he was a kid, coming into the precinct to try to find stories of the impossible. Tries not to remember the expression on his face every time someone told him off, or he left empty handed.
Tries not to imagine that little boy's face behind a hero's mask.
"We're asking too much of him," he whispers, and the words taste like ash on his tongue.
Rob bites his lip and catches David's hands in his, holding on tight, and David honestly can't say which of them he's trying to comfort. "Maybe," he says, quiet and too small. But then he straightens and meets David's eyes, that same brilliant fire in his eyes that had caught David's eye, had made him willing to try a relationship with a paper-pusher who was so very opposite from everything he'd grown up with, it had seemed impossible that they could ever work.
"Maybe," Rob says again, his voice stronger. "But he rises to the challenge. Every time. He's a good man."
"Yes, he is," David agrees, because he's never doubted that, even on the days when Barry's tardiness or the fact that he'd have to hunt him down for the files he needed made him seriously consider firing him and just being done with it.
"So," Rob says, and he's smiling, maybe a little wild, "what do you get for the man who saved your life, when you're not supposed to know who he is?"
"A parade?" David suggests a little helplessly, because what does one get for a superhero who hides behind a mask?
"A parade..." Rob repeats, a speculative gleam in his eyes.
"No."
"You're friendly with the mayor, right?"
"Robert, no."
"Is he coming to the wedding?"
"Oh my god," David moans, and halfway hopes Barry – who he's fairly certain would hate having a parade in his honor – never finds out he had anything to do with the scheming he can see taking place behind his fiancé's eyes. "Can we just go to bed?"
Rob laughs and kisses him, and David knows he hasn't given up, but at least he has a reprieve.
Once they're in bed, though, and both bedside lights are out, Rob asks, "What are you going to get him?"
"A day off," David decides, and Rob laughs against his shoulder, warm and familiar and alive.
David wonders, privately, if there isn't something else he can give Barry that's as priceless as Rob's life.
In the end, David does end up granting Barry time off, via Eddie. "He's been looking tired," he says when Eddie looks surprised at his easy agreement.
"Yeah," Eddie says, and he looks a little bit heartsore.
David wants to ask, but he doesn't end up needing to, because Cisco Ramon, from STAR Labs, brings in a body that very afternoon, and Eddie's the one to explain that this is the man who killed Barry's mother, even though it had been Joe that David had spoken with about the matter previously. (Joe, who is apparently not talking to Eddie, hasn't been since before David got back from his honeymoon, and whose only reaction to Ramon bringing in a body, is to glare at him; David doesn't want to know.)
David's already making calls before the official DNA results are in, because the wound on the body looks suspiciously like the one the sole victim of Snart's cold gun had, though someone tried to disguise it. And because Barry's absence makes a lot more sense if they actually have brought in his mother's killer, especially since David had made it clear that he didn't want him involved in the case.
(The lack of the Flash is strange, given, but David assumes that Barry's alter-ego has done all he can, by now, and getting well out of the way of the verification was the best way he could think of to keep anyone from claiming he'd interfered.)
Either way, David has been near-about handed the single thing he can do that feels anywhere near enough to pay Barry back for saving Rob's life, and he is all-in for it. (Hopes, just a little, that he isn't wrong in putting his trust in Barry's friends.)
He isn't, and Cecile determines that their new evidence, along with video evidence of not just the Flash, but another speedster, that backs up the story Barry gave as a kid, is enough to bring the old case to retrial.
"And," she says over the phone, "I think we have a pretty good chance of the jury finding Henry Allen cleared of all charges."
David is feeling pretty positive about it himself, and he's been a cop long enough to have a pretty good idea of what you needed to make a criminal trial go the way you wanted. (Though it wasn't often that he could say he was hoping the supposed criminal would win the day.)
Eddie getting up from his desk in a rush and hurrying towards the lobby catches David's eye shortly after he hangs up with Cecile, and, looking to the lobby himself, he finds Barry standing there, wearing a sheepish smile. David thinks he looks a little tired, but that could just be because he expects the kid to look tired; Henry Allen isn't anything more important to him than the father of one of his employees, but even David's feeling the strain of waiting for the system to work.
Well, given his conversation with Cecile, David's pretty sure he can ease some stress, so he gets up and makes his way out to where Eddie is gently punching Barry's arm. Barry laughs, looking slightly embarrassed, and David can't help but wonder if that isn't related to Eddie having to put in for his leave on his behalf.
Then Barry sees him and straightens. "Captain, hi. Uhm, thanks, uh, thanks for granting my leave. And I'm sorry I'm late?"
Given David hadn't actually known when he'd be back – Eddie had been being squirrely about it when he asked, and then they'd all got distracted by the current case – he can't actually yell at him. "You're still officially on leave, Allen," he says flatly, and Barry ducks his head, looking embarrassed, while Eddie coughs and pats Barry's shoulder.
David...probably doesn't want to know.
"Since you're here, however," David says, "I just heard back from the DA, and she thinks our chances of getting your father off are good."
"I– What?" Barry says, looking confused and so very young.
Eddie clears his throat. "We, uh, Barry didn't know."
David blinks, surprised. The possibility that Barry hadn't been involved, at least as the Flash, hadn't even crossed his mind. But Barry is a terrible actor – there are days when David can't believe that more people don't know who the Flash is – and his expression is completely honest.
"Eddie?" Barry whispers, looking between them with wide eyes.
Eddie winces. "You remember Hannibal Bates?"
"Of course," Barry agrees, and the words come out sounding slightly pained.
(Given Bates had got Eddie arrested, then ended up being brought in, dead, by Joe and Barry while Eddie took a week of leave, shortly after he escaped from Iron Heights, David isn't surprised he's a complicated topic.)
"The man who killed your mom, the, uhm, the man in the lightning? He must have been hiding a similar way."
"He reverted?" Barry whispers, and the tone of his voice makes David suspect he had been involved in finding the man after all. He just hadn't stuck around after Snart killed him.
So where has he been? Avoiding Snart? Grieving the lost chance?
A little bit of both, most likely.
"Yeah," Eddie says, and he grins. "With the DNA Cisco found at your old house, and some footage they pulled up of yo–" He coughs and glances at David, who resists the urge to sigh; plausible deniability is a pain in his ass, some days, especially since not a single member of his staff who knows, seems able to keep the Flash’s identity a secret. "Of the Flash and the Reverse-Flash running, we thought we had a pretty good case."
"The DA thinks you do, and so do I," David says. "The retrial will likely be next week."
Both Eddie and Barry turn disbelieving stares on him, and David knows it's because they'd been expecting it to take closer to a month for the courts to find the time; criminal trials tended to stretch across multiple days, so getting both a courtroom and a judge with a clear two to four days usually meant having to schedule it a month or more in advance. But David called in a couple of favors, because he owes Barry for saving Rob, and because their city's hero deserves to have his father walking free. (Especially since David knows Joe well enough to bet the dark clouds over his head this past week have a lot to do with Barry. Especially given he's had so little to do with the case he'd been so gung-ho about before David left for his honeymoon with Rob, and Eddie had been the one to put in for Barry's leave.)
He doesn't say any of that, though. Instead, he says, "Dr Allen has been in Iron Heights long enough."
The last thing he expects, is for Barry to hug him.
And yet.
And then Barry jumps back, face red and refusing to look at David. "Sorry, Captain!" he nearly squeaks.
David doesn't laugh, even if he kind of wants to – so inappropriate, but so Barry; and given the news he's just delivered, he supposes he can let it slide – but Eddie lets out a choked noise and turns away, his shoulders shaking, while at least one person in the bullpen behind David starts snickering.
David sighs. "Allen," he says, and Barry winces, looking a lot like he's expecting to be yelled at, "just...take your last day off and go home to your boyfriend."
Barry's eyes widen and he grabs Eddie's arm. "Do th– Does he know?" he whispers in an urgent tone.
Eddie shakes his head. "He left to go after you," he whispers back.
So, David realizes, Barry had run when Snart killed his mother's killer, and Snart – and probably Rory – went chasing after him. And Eddie had evidently found out the pair of criminals were Barry's boyfriends.
Well, at least now he knows what Joe is so angry about. Which David totally gets, he does, because he wasn't happy when he found out, either.
David bites back another sigh; he is not getting involved in this drama.
"I have to– I need to go. He needs to know. He's gonna be so–" Barry coughs and stumbles towards the stairs, rather than the lifts; he's probably going to run all the way home. "Thanks! Thank you, Captain! I'll be in tomorrow!"
"On time, Allen!" David shouts after him, mostly because it's expected.
Barry waves a hand as he vanishes into the stairwell.
David turns to Eddie, then, who sort of shrinks under his glare. David lets him sweat for a minute, then orders, "Get back to work."
"Yes, sir!"
David sighs as Eddie hurries back into the bullpen and to his current partner. He glances at Joe, who is sitting with his shoulders hunched and glaring at some paperwork on his desk.
"Walk away, David," he mutters to himself, and returns to the relative safety of his office.
He knows that Henry Allen is declared a free man almost as soon as the verdict is delivered, even though he's in the middle of an active crime scene at the time, because Rob insisted on attending the trial.
"It's my life that he saved, David," he'd said when David tried to talk him out of it. Because as odd as it would have been for him to attend, it was even weirder for his husband to go. Given Rob had never actually met either of the Allens, and had only met Joe twice.
Still, no one had said anything about it, and David decided, by day two of the trial, to just stop worrying about how it looks. For the most part.
He and Rob have their own private celebration at home, because even if Barry had thought to invite David to the celebratory party he doesn't doubt is well in swing, he would have had to decline; plausible deniability.
The next day, Eddie comes in looking a little like he partied too hard, but Barry is as chipper as David has ever seen him, beaming around at everyone and getting the backlog that had accumulated while he'd been distracted with the trial done in record time. (Even for him; how David's not supposed to have noticed that Barry's work always gets done a little too fast, any more, he can't imagine.)
A little after lunch, however, when the Flash is in the middle of trading blows with some new metahuman by the river, and both Joe and Eddie keep shooting the tv footage worried looks – David wishes he hadn't had to split them up, because his life was a lot easier when they could run out to the scene and provide backup, but neither of them seem willing to trust their new partners to go along quietly, which David sort of understands – Henry Allen steps off the lift into the lobby.
David doesn't actually notice him until he hears Joe say, "Henry?"
(Okay, maybe Joe and Eddie aren't the only ones being distracted by the television.)
"Joe," Dr Allen says, his voice flat.
"Shit," Eddie says from his desk, sounding suspiciously gleeful.
Joe starts to get out of his seat – trying to get height on Allen, David assumes – and says, "Look. Whatever you came here to say–"
Which is about the moment Dr Allen punches him in the face.
David is more than a little impressed at the man's balls – not many people would dare to walk into a police station and punch a detective in front of more than a dozen witnesses – but, then, he also knows the man's son is the Flash; clearly, Barry comes by his particular brand of walking the line honestly.
"I warned you," Allen says, his voice low and hard, "that if you gave Barry the cold shoulder about his relationship again, I was going to break something. And you swore to me–"
Joe attempts to say something from behind the hand he's holding over his nose, but it comes out garbled in a way that leads David to believe that Allen did indeed manage to break something.
David glances around the room, sees a couple of people – including Eddie, of course – with their mobiles out and pointed at the drama, while others trade uncertain looks, like they aren't certain if they should get involved. Because punching a cop is a crime, but it's no secret that Joe's been giving Barry – and Eddie – the cold shoulder for weeks, which has made things feel a little too tense for everyone when Barry comes into the bullpen to deliver something to another detective.
If Dr Allen manages to be the catalyst that eases things with Joe, David might just give him a medal. For the moment, however, he steps forward and places a hand on Dr Allen's shoulder. "Doctor Henry Allen, you're under arrest."
"Yeah, I know," Allen says, and puts his hands behind his back like he's expecting cuffs.
David pats his shoulder and doesn't bother asking anyone for a pair; he's fairly certain the man has said his part. "Carter, get Joe to hospital," he orders of Joe's current partner, then gives Allen's shoulder a gentle push in the direction of the lobby and the lifts down to lockup.
In the lift, Allen looks over at him with intelligent eyes that remind David so very strongly of the man's son. "You're Captain Singh, right?"
"Correct," David agrees.
Allen nods. "Thank you for hiring Barry, despite my circumstances."
David doesn't quite know how to respond to that, so he just nods and, when the lift doors open, gently pushes Allen to walk.
They're about halfway down the hall leading from the lifts to the cells – past the two interrogation room and nearly to the room set aside for metahuman criminals, where a part of David thinks he should put Dr Allen, even if he doubts Barry would actually try to break his father out; plausible deniability is such a pain – when there's a blast of air from behind them, and the hair on David's arms stand on end as the rush of electricity dissipates around them.
"Flash," he greets as he turns.
The Flash is standing there, one hand wrapped around the upper arm of the metahuman he'd been fighting, who has the power-suppressing cuffs STAR Labs designed around her wrists, and a perplexed expression twisting his face. Which isn't blurred, and David sort of wants to smack him. Or yell a lot; some days, Barry makes it really hard to pretend he doesn't know who the Flash is. "Da– Uh, wh-what are you...?" Barry sort of trails off, then his face blurs. "Captain," he says after a moment, his voice vibrating in that slightly disconcerting way he has, which David is almost getting used to.
"I see you've caught us another metahuman," David says when neither father nor son seem inclined to say anything further.
"Huh? Oh! Uh, yeah. Yes. Sorry, could we get by?" he says, and even with the blurring, David can tell he's looking at his father again.
Well, he was going to have to break the news to Barry somehow, so David explains, "Dr Allen decided to punch Detective West in the bullpen, so he'll be spending the night in lockup."
"Just the night?" Dr Allen asks, sounding surprised.
Barry lets out a strangled sound, like he wants to say something, but it's probably something that would give away his identity.
(How is this David's life?)
"Extenuating circumstances," David says, knows he sounds tired. "Next time," he adds, turning the same unimpressed look on Dr Allen as he usually uses on Barry, "punch him somewhere there are fewer witnesses."
Dr Allen nods, looking slightly befuddled. "Right."
David nods, then pushes gently against his shoulder again, and they continue down the hall.
It's only after David has signed Allen in to the log book and seen him to the otherwise empty overnight cell – it'll start filling up once night falls – that Allen says, "Thank you. For keeping Barry safe."
There's something heavy and significant in his voice. And, since there's no way David couldn't have figured out who the Flash was during his brief lapse in the hallway, he has a pretty good idea what Allen is really saying.
David gives himself a second to debate, before sighing and saying, "Not even heroes can do everything alone."
Allen smiles and inclines his head.
"Dad?!" Barry calls from across the room.
"Hey, Slugger," Allen calls back.
David snorts, then turns and snaps, "Allen! Is the Richardson file on my desk yet?"
Barry slouches as he slowly walks over. "No, sir," he admits.
"What, exactly, have you been doing for the past half hour?"
"I-I just... I don't... I got...lost? On my way back from lunch?" Barry finally says, but he won't meet David's eyes.
(Seriously, how doesn't the entire precinct know Barry's the Flash, yet? His excuses just keep getting worse and more unlikely.)
David rubs at his eyes. "You have five minutes. And then either that report finds its way to my desk in the next thirty, or you're in the field the rest of the day." He turns a glare on Barry. "Clear?"
"Yes, sir!"
David sighs and leaves the Allens to their talk.
(The Richardson report is on his desk in twenty minutes, and David hears from multiple sources that Barry ends up near-about camped outside his father's cell for the rest of the day; he can't even pretend to be surprised.)
(And, so far as David can tell, Henry Allen never tells anyone else what David may or may not know about the Flash's identity.)
Rob is the one who hears about it first: "Rumor is your favorite CSI is opening a safe space for metahumans in that part of town that Captain Cold controls."
"I don't have any favorites," David insists, because he likes to at least pretend that he doesn't play favorites with his staff. (To be fair, he doesn't. He just...trusts certain members of his staff more than the rest to handle the weird cases. And they have a lot of weird cases.)
"Of course you don't," is Rob's response.
David seriously considers throwing his pen at his husband, but since he's using it for his crossword...
"I was kind of surprised when I heard," Rob adds. "I mean, as much fighting metahumans as the Flash does–"
"I'm sure that's at least half the point," David interrupts, shooting his husband a tired look. "Not all metas are looking to commit crimes. And it's hardly the first time he's gone to bat for another metahuman."
Rob straightens, his gaze sharpening. "Wait, have you been withholding Flash stories from me?"
David snorts. "No. I told you about the boy with the wings."
Rob blinks and rubs at his chin. "Oh, around when Captain Cold and Heatwave showed up, right? Kid got dragged in for panhandling."
"Mm-hm. Barry's the one that made a fuss."
"Huh. Well, good on him. Hopefully that kid has a home, now."
David swallows and ducks his head back down to his crossword, because he'd told Rob, back then, about his suspicions that the kid hadn't had a home; he does know which neighborhood Barry lives in, despite what his official file says. It makes sense that Barry would eventually look into ways to give that kid and other homeless metas a place to stay, though David can't begin to imagine where he'd got the money. (Hopefully not from Snart and Rory stealing something priceless.)
It turns out, David learns from Joe and Eddie, that Dr Harrison Wells, who seems to have vanished, apparently left his lab, home, and rather impressive wealth to Barry. Which, if David didn't already know that Barry was the Flash, and strongly suspect that the Flash used STAR Labs as his base of operations, he would have been so confused about why the reclusive scientist had decided to leave everything to a random CSI.
Of course, the reason the conversation happens at all, is that Joe and Eddie are hoping to get something from him:
"It's hard to get the word out," Joe explains. "I mean, other than the Flash, everyone in town seems to think that metahumans are all criminals, so why would they spread it around that there's a place for them to gather?"
"Never mind where it is," Eddie adds with a grimace.
Likewise, if David didn't already know that Barry was dating Snart and Rory, he would never be able to comprehend why he'd think Snart's territory is a good place to build anything. (Although, in some ways, Snart's territory is the only place where a metahuman can go, since there are no 'good citizens' looking to drag them into the nearest police precinct as a preventative measure, or whatever reason. And the Families won't go wandering through, looking for recruits with powers.
Okay, so maybe he can understand why Barry would pick there, even without bringing his relationship into matters.)
"What, exactly, are you asking me to do, here, Joe?" David demands, because he really can't see how they expect him to get the word out about there being a place for metahumans to go; he's police, same as them, and no metahuman is going to take him at his word that they'll be safe there.
"Iris got permission to run an article about it in Picture News," Eddie says, "but not everyone in the city reads the paper or has access to the internet. We were hoping to get permission from the commissioner to hang flyers in the police precincts, where the metahumans who are the most at risk are likely to see them."
"And, maybe," Joe adds quietly, sounding tired and hurt in a way that David wishes wasn't so easy for him to relate to, "if members of the force get used to seeing the flyers, they'll be more likely to see meta powers as something other than a crime."
David sighs and leans back in his chair. "I'll ask," he promises, and both of the detectives smile. "And you have my permission to put flyers up here."
"Thank you, Captain!"
The flyers are up within the hour, and David has to admit they're tastefully done. Just enough color to stand out against the mostly black and white flyers and notices already covering the public boards in the downstairs lobby, but not so bright or gaudy as to make them seem unprofessional.
Rather than going straight to the commissioner – who David knows well enough to suspect he won't be easy to convince there are good reasons to put the flyers in police stations – David rings Rob. "So," he says once his husband picks up, "want to help me convince public officials that we should hang notices about Barry's metahuman center in public places?"
"Yes," Rob says in that tone that secretly means, 'of course I do!’ "Are we splitting the list? Which half to I get?"
"The mayor," David decides, because his ridiculous, impossible husband had spent almost an hour at their wedding reception debating what sort of celebration they needed to have for the Flash with the mayor, and then had somehow ended up as head of the planning committee. "I'm going to call Cecile and a few other police captains, see if we can't bully the commissioner into playing along."
"The school superintendent?" Rob suggests.
David blinks. He's so focused on the police precincts and governmental buildings, he actually sort of forgot that there's another place that metahumans who most need a safe place will be. And, from Joe and Eddie's pitch, they've forgotten, too. (Else, they were already tackling that angle by themselves. Not that it would hurt anything to have another person calling about the matter.) "Can you handle that? I don't really..." David winced; he'd got in trouble a lot in high school because of his sexuality, and their current superintendent had been his school principal.
"I've got it, don't worry," Rob promises, his voice gentle, and David loves him so much. "I'm pretty sure one of my co-workers has an in with a member of the school board, so I'll talk to her, see if she can't have the issue brought up at the next meeting."
"You're amazing," David insists, and Rob lets out an embarrassed little laugh, the one that means he's blushing and very probably covering his face. "I love you."
"I love you, too," Rob returns, warm and fond. "Go help your favorite CSI save metahumans."
"I don't have any favorites," David reminds him, and Rob hangs up while laughing. David huffs a bit, then pulls over his list of numbers for other police captains and the DA's office.
By the end of the day, David has more than enough support from other police captains and the district attorney's office to force the commissioner to agree to force every police precinct in the city, as well as Iron Heights, to display the flyers. Joe was plenty willing to send him a digital copy of the file when he asked, and David sends it out as soon as the commissioner folds. He expects they'll have a minor fight with a couple of the precincts farthest from STAR Labs, where there has yet to be a report of any metahumans living, but he can tackle that tomorrow.
When he gets home, Rob has more good news: The mayor is one hundred percent onboard with the idea of a place where metahumans who aren't looking to fall to a life of crime can go. Considering he'd run on the platform of creating more after-school programs and Boys and Girls Clubs in their city, especially in at risk neighborhoods, David isn't really surprised. Still, having the mayor in their corner can only help matters, especially since he helped Rob pressure the school superintendent into agreeing to have the flyers put up at all the schools in their district.
By the end of the month, there are flyers in every government building in the city, as well as three dozen other buildings where a metahuman might see them. All of the public schools, as well as the private school closest to STAR Labs, have put up flyers (though, it being summer, they aren't much use), and over half of the public school principals have plans to either have a school assembly, or bring up the topic during morning announcements during the first week of school.
David feels a little like they've accomplished something impossible, and when he says that to Rob, his husband smiles and says, "Well, this is the home of the Flash; impossible things happen here every day."
"Yes, they do," David agrees, and then leans over and kisses his husband to distraction, because sometimes it's nice to have something that's not impossible.
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 || 5/Jackie's Force
+1/Flash Day
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