Catching Up || Barry Allen [2]

08| Not The One*

***

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Professor Stein had to shot through the loss rap music as we entered the car garage.

Barry nodded as we looked around the empty place. "Yeah. Jefferson's a mechanic."

"Could indicate a strong technical aptitude. That's a positive." Professor Stein noted as he glanced at the table where allergy medication was placed. "Oh, prone to allergies. That's definitely a negative, not to mention his taste in music."

We heard the clattering of tools as the music suddenly stopped. "Would you prefer Celine Dion instead?" A voice asked as he slipped from under one of the cars. "I got the "Titanic" soundtrack in the back there."

"No, thank you." Professor Stein replied as the mechanic ripped his hands down with a rag before making his way to us.

"Jefferson Jackson, right?" I asked as we all walked up to him.

"Yeah." He confirmed with a smile as we shook hands. "But you can call me Jax."

"Okay." I said slowly pulling my hand away since he hadn't let go. "I'm Diane Crock and this is..."

"Barry Allen." Barry introduced himself stepping in front of me before turning towards the Professor. "And this is Martin Stein. We're with the Department of Safety. It's a small, newly formed agency."

"Very new, we probably don't even have a website yet, do we?" Professor Stein continued as he played along.

"You need to see our licenses?" Jax asked us. "I mean, we're all up to code here."

"No, no, nothing like that." Barry quickly corrected. "We are compiling data on people who were affected by the Particle Accelerator explosion two years ago."

"Look, man, I lost enough time in my life cause of that stupid thing going wrong. Now, you don't got a car I can fix, I can't help you." Jax stated as he turned his back to us to place his tolls back in their place.

"If you would consider coming back to S.T.A.R. Labs with us, I believe we can help you." I told him not planning on letting him go that easily.

"Help me how?" He asked as he turned back around to face us.

"Well, we know what the Particle Accelerator did..."

"Look, I already told you, I don't talk about that night."

"Why is that?" Barry asked him.

"Because that's when everything changed. I got hit hard. When I woke up, I was in the hospital. Busted up leg, torn ACL." Jax explained clearly not comfortable talking about the situation. "The look on my mom's face, I knew any dreams I had of playing pro ball were over."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Yeah, well look, I gotta get back to work." Jay said as he turned his backwards us.

"Wait." I said as I checked the inside pocket of Barry's coat where I knew he kept a small notebook. "Pen?" I asked as he pulled a pen out of his back pocket, I wrote down the lab's number before ripping the page out and handing it over to Jax. "Here, it's just it's our number, call us if you change your mind."

***

Barry, Professor Stein and I walked into the Cortex before stooping in place as we saw Hewitt in the middle of a conversation with Caitlin. On the other side go the room Cisco was just staring at Hewitt in annoyance.

"Caitlin, what's going on?" I asked interrupting her conversation.

"Hi, I'm glad you're back. This is Dr. Henry Hewitt." Caitlin introduced. "This is Barry Allen, Diane Crock and Professor Martin Stein."