Falling Slowly [Barry Allen]

Chapter 8

The next few days at work were slow. A few criminals captured and brought to justice here and there, some other cases gone cold. Joe has become my mentor at the CCPD, so he's been helping me with how the whole operation works, mostly with stuff like running copies, checking Mass Spec results from the lab, that sort of thing.

I was sorting through some files for the Captain when I came across one from a little over a year ago. It was a massive explosion of a recently developed Particle Accelerator. I remembered hearing about STAR Labs creating this machine, and because I had studied the science field in college, I knew what kind of advances it could bring to the scientific community.

I also realized how much damage it could do. I wanted to go watch it turn on, but after I heard about the explosion, I was glad I didn't leave Starling City. The fatalities and injuries inflicted were numerous. I had read somewhere that Dr. Harrison Wells, the well-known scientist that headed the entire operation, had become paralyzed from the waist down. I scanned the file, but didn't really find anything I didn't already know. I slipped the folder back into its slot, quickly pulled the case the Captain was looking for, and returned to work.

'I wonder what happened that caused the accelerator to combust like that,' I thought. 'Who was the genius who decided to turn it on during a storm, anyway?'

I resolved to get more info from Barry or Iris later. I would just ask Iris, and I love her to death, but she knows less than nothing about the science field. Barry, on the other hand, would be very insightful on the Particle Accelerator.

As the end of the work day approached and things began to slow down at the police station, I decided to pay Barry a visit in his office upstairs to ask about the explosion. I knocked on his door, and he answered fairly quickly.

"Hey Katie! I haven't seen you all day. I've been holed up in here, working on a case for Joe and Eddie. What are you up to?"

I stepped into his space, and he closed the door behind me. "Barry, what do you know about the Particle Accelerator explosion from a year ago?" I asked. "Were you there when Dr. Wells turned it on?"

"I was there, but it failed. After that, I left when everyone else did. I was actually here, in this office, when the explosion occurred," he explained.

"So you could see it from here?" He nodded. "How did STAR Labs hold up after that?"

His face tilted down. "It couldn't keep its head above water. The building was trashed after the explosion, and all of its investors backed out on them. They closed down within weeks of the Particle Accelerator accident. The building is completely abandoned now, but I don't think there are any traces of radioactivity left."

"So it's safe to go there?" I inquired.

His eyes darted away from mine to the papers on his desk. "I'm not really sure. I wouldn't go there if I were you though. It's... it's in a bad part of the city."

I raised an eyebrow in Barry's direction, but he still wasn't looking at me. Instead he was stacking papers on his desk and moving things around aimlessly. I decided to let it drop.

"Alright, whatever you say, Allen."

He turned around and leaned on his desk, but decided to study his shoes again. "So, tonight there's this trivia night thing at Jitters, and Iris and Eddie invited me to go along with them. And I don't really wanna be a third wheel, so I guess I was wondering..." He scratched the back of his neck nervously and brought his green-blue eyes up to meet mine. "Would you be interested in going with me?"

There was no way of stopping the grin that was spreading itself across my lips. Barry looked so adorable when he was nervous.

"It would be my pleasure to accompany you, Mr. Allen."