Within Seconds: Sylas & Allen

Misconceptions About Marriage

"Yeah, we're moving on to the third location," Cisco said over the speaker.

"If the other two leads were cold, this has to be it," Parker said. "You be careful, Cisco. And you, too, Wells."

"Don't worry. Big Poppa Cisco will return to you."

"Please don't call yourself that," pleaded Parker.

"I think Cock-Block Ramon suits him better," Barry said thoughtfully.

"I do, too," Parker laughed.

"So, this is what it's like every time you go after one of those meta-human's?" Henry asked.

"Uh.. Pretty much. Only, it's usually Cisco and Caitlin in here with Park, and I'm the one out there," said Barry.

"Well, there's no reason you shouldn't be," Henry said. Barry furrowed his brow. "Iris showed me what happened. With Zoom? That was hard to watch. I can only imagine what that must have been like for you."

Barry's shoulders dropped. "He showed everyone in Central City that their hero wasn't good enough to stop him."

"That is certainly what it looked like. Was he right?" Henry asked. Barry stayed silent. "Your body's healed, Barry, and yet here you are feeling the shame of losing."

"I can't stop him. I know it. He knows it. And now everyone in this city knows it. They don't believe in me anymore," insisted Barry.

Henry stood in front of him, shaking his head. "At the trial for your mother's death, a lot of our family and friends were in that courtroom. They heard awful things about what I had done to your mother. It didn't matter that it wasn't true.

Everyday, I could see it on their faces, the moment when I lost them, until everybody had stopped believing in me. That was my reality. I was going to serve a life sentence for a crime I didn't commit, but worse than that, every time I looked someone in the eye, from that moment forward, they were going to believe that I had killed the woman I loved in front of our son. So, yeah, I do know what it's like being destroyed."

Parker set her hand on Barry's. "And he got past that, baby."

"How?" Barry asked.

"I embraced it. Accepting it was the only way I could move forward, but I knew if I could survive that, and learn to believe in myself again, I could survive anything..

And you know what lit that belief in me, Barry? You. Eleven year old you, running around, believing in me, gave me that hope. Now, I'm giving it back to you, son. No more monsters can take that from us."

Henry had opened his heart to them. Countless times before Barry had imagined the horror his father went through, but hearing it from the man himself shattered his heart. At the same time, it lifted his determination. Henry was right: if he could get past that, Barry could do the same thing.

On the other side, by the end of Henry's words, Parker was crying. A sniffle from her made the Allen boys snap their heads to her. Barry engulfed her in a hug. Henry set his hand on each kid.

"I didn't plan to be the one crying," Parker said. "I'm ruining the moment, I'm so sorry."

"Whoa, what happened here?" Iris asked when she walked into the Cortex.

"Dad made an emotional speech," Barry said. He looked at Parker, who was roughly wiping her tears. He hit her hands away and dabbed lightly under her eyes with his sleeve. "Don't irritate your skin, loser."

"What would I do without you?" Parker sighed.

"Don't want to find out, really," Barry said quietly. He squeezed her hand, then walked to catch up Iris and Joe on what the plan was.