Within Seconds // Barry Allen

Unexpected Inmate

"There's a car crash. Two people trapped upside down in a car, Cisco said there was a p-power line? I am so sorry, my love, I'm so sorry.." Barry apologized.

Parker smiled and placed her hands over his. "Stop. It's perfectly fine. I'll meet you at S.T.A.R. Labs. No worries."

"I can run you there!" Barry suggested, scrambling to pull on his coat. "I have time-"

"It's okay!" Parker interrupted with a laugh. "Dude, go. They need you."

With one last sigh, Barry kissed her forehead, mumbled a million 'thank you's' and then jogged out of the Chipotle.

Parker squeezed the lid onto both Barry's bowl and her own, held them tight against her stomach then awkwardly shuffled out of the restaurant. She called a taxi for a ride to the Lab.

Parker felt overdressed, a little embarrassed and highly ready to just call it a night.

The problem wasn't that Barry ditched her on date night because he hadn't really ditched her in the first place. Duty called and he went-- she knew that was inarguable.

The real problem was that he had began to notice her habit of facing the door when they went out to eat.

There was a back story behind that, a depressing one, that she wasn't sure about telling Barry Allen. Not just yet.

"You look so beautiful!" Caitlin squealed.

Parker flinched, not realizing she made it into the Cortex. She took a seat in her normal chair.

"Yeah, thank you."

Beliving that her upset attitude was caused by interrupted date night, Cisco and Caitlin communicated through eyebrow conversations to find a way to make her smile. And not a polite little closed-lipped smile like she tended to do, they wanted a real one that made her eyes crinkle.

"It will happen a lot," Dr.Wells said.

The three snapped their heads to their boss, wanting to hear what had broken their silence.

"Being interrupted during date night. However, I truly do believe that Mr.Allen will make it up to you in one way or another."

Parker high-fived Dr.Wells, then slipped her hand back into the pockets of her coat.

"I know. He's good like that. But that's not the problem-- I seriously don't mind being cut off for date night. It's something else that I really don't want to talk about."

"That's key for 'don't push it,'" Caitlin clarified for Cisco, who had opened his mouth, most likely to ask what Parker was upset about.

Parker gave Caitlin a nod filled with gratitude.

Barry ran into the Cortex with the signature crack. He pulled off the mask, send a low-key wink to Parker (knowing her love for him maskless) then looked at Cisco, his face scrunched in a grimace.

"What did you do to my suit?" Cisco slowly asked. His eyes were wide with horror at the suit Barry brought back.

Parker slouched further down in her chair. Barry had managed to make it to the last suit, and then covered it in burn marks and grime.

There were two possibilities: construct a new suit with the industrial fabricator, or spend hours cleaning the suit.

"Okay, when are we going to start calling it my suit?" Barry asked, tilting his head.

"Never," Parker chimed, raising her eyebrow at the boys. "Guess who made that suit?"

"Guess who designed the suit?" Cisco challenged.