THE FLASH - No more a surprise, still a gift

How Allen became Barry

Captain Singh rarely went upstairs, to the laboratory of the CSI department, or, like everyone in the precinct called it, Barry's lab.
Barry Allen was this kid who had spent most of his life in that precinct. The quiet and polite but lovely and happy little boy who came after school to do his homework was like the little brother of all the precinct. But, happy, he had so many reasons not to be.

Barry was barely thirty but he already had passed through more than his batch of tragedies. It all began when he was eleven as he saw his mother be violently murdered and his father be convicted and incarcerated. And while everybody believed in his father's guilt, Barry was the only one who knew he was innocent. He spent the next fifteen years trying to exculpate his father, never losing faith in his father while everyone else kept repeating he was delusional. He finally succeeded in clearing up the name of his father. But only a year after his release, his father died too in some strange circumstances. And there was the murder of Clifford DeVoe for which Barry was designed guilty. Such a sad like father, like son. There was also a schooling marked by harassment and the misfortune of being struck by lightning which put him in coma for nine months. It wasn't really a good score at the moment. A lot of people would have probably already gone wrong or, worse, give up !

But Barry stayed on the straight path, hung on to life, became this talented, passionate and dedicated CSI and this brillant, brave, honest and lovely young man. Barry could be proud of the man he became. Of course, he didn't become who he was on his own. Detective Joe West, who took Barry in after his mother's death, Henry and Nora Allen before him, with their incredible education and their love, helped Barry develop all his capacities. But his sense of honor, his strong character and his good heart came first from Barry.

This golden boy had only one downside: his sickly tardiness. Singh held it against him just because he was his captain so he had to. Singh truly believed in his employee. Despite him being late countless times and his sometimes very incredible excuses, Barry Allen was the best crime scene investigator of the Central City Police Department. Maybe he was, with Joe West, the best factor of all the law enforcement : meticulousness, kindness, work always finished on time, never a cold case. His desire to make the city safer was the only thing as strong as his will to help the victims, the innocents.

David would never admit it to anyone, even under duress. But he esteemed this kid. A lot. And he felt honored to have seen him grow and blossom as a man. If only Don Southworth could retire ! But this old, arrogant, despicable leech who had absolutely no passion and no talent for his work hung on to his position of CSI's director because he had perfectly understood who would succeed him.

Singh reached Barry's lab. The door was opened. By all the very few times talking with his CSI required to see him in his lab, Singh had once had the misfortune to come when the door was closed. He never did it again. But today Singh could talk with his employee safely. Plus, Barry already had a visitor. And this visitor was Joe West. It could only be Joe West. Foster father and son ? Father-in-law and son-in-law ? Friends ? Joe called Barry son and Barry called Joe Joe. It was hard to put a word on the relationship between the detective and the forensic. Unique was probably the best way to describe the link between these two men. They shared a connection so strong and a respect so deep !

- Bar, you have to explain something to me, Joe said while Singh walked in the laboratory.

But his oncoming went unnoticed by the men. Singh stayed on the doorstep.

- It has been raining all day. You have a stack of files as high as the tower of Mercury Labs. You have to testify tomorrow at the first hour for a case with the same judge who convicted your father and the same D.A. who convicted you for DeVoe. You got your ass kicked once again. By the way, we can still see the smudges on your face. I'm pretty sure you just hung up with a furious Caitlin who harangued you to leave S.T.A.R. Labs before you completely healed. And just because I see you striving against this poor centrifuge, I assume it's still out of service.