#captain frye

[bear-the-flame]

Captain Frye: Jo, can I speak to you for a minute ? In private.

Jo: Ooh, someone's in trouble. It's me. I don't know why I did that.

[meadow-roses]

Some more character concepts for TGE.  Captain Frye, Maggie Weaver, and Master Eefaw Potter! 

[techno-sorcerer]

Chapter 7: Connections

Part of the Discoveries series/mutlichap fic. An alternative Barry Allen Orign Story written before the show aired. Prologue through Chapter 6 available here. The rest available on ff.net and ao3.

Summary: Barry sees if he still has a job at the CCPD after waking up and discovers he has a new boss.

Barry walked into the CCPD headquarters excited at the prospect of getting back to his normal life, or at least his old job, considering certain parts of his life were probably never going to return to normal. Unfortunately, he had also been right about one thing; three days was not enough time to process what had happened. So many questions still bounced around in his head regarding how he had been able to run at such speeds, partly out of curiosity and partly out of worry.

"Why me?" popped up a number of times as well. The abilities seemed to be a result of the accident, so it mostly came down to being in the right place at the right time. Not many people were doused with shelves full of dangerous chemicals. The addition of the lightning to the mixture had probably created some new and exotic compounds. Once he accepted that he had the abilities, those ideas provided the best explanation for how he had acquired them, even if he didn't know how they worked. Yet, the coincidence that such an accident would happen to a person who had a previous and in fact life-changing experience with super speed seemed suspicious.

A similar accident must have happened to the person who had attacked his mother, and while given it granted super speed, the killer must have lived in Central City or the surrounding areas. Why else would the attacker have chosen to attack Nora Allen? The whole incident had seemed very purposeful, so Barry had always suspected the murderer had some connection with his mother, even if the two didn't know each other personally. But, then, a similar accident would have had to have happened nearby. Considering no one seemed to know that super speed existed, Barry doubted that the chemicals in question occurred very frequently. Unless there was a gigantic government cover up, but even thinking about that as a possibility made Barry uneasy, so he dropped the idea. Unfortunately, he didn't have any better ones.

The fact that somebody else had moved into the room the evening of his run and that the hospital's monitoring of him had increased tenfold since the incident didn't help matters any either. He had no privacy during which he could test the abilities. Looking over the data from his medical files sand the list Julio had sent him was fine, but even knowing the biggest side effect of them all, Barry couldn't make heads or tails of the information.

Not being able to use the abilities affected Barry mentally as well as intellectually. Though Barry knew that the run had been all-too real, without any other cases of accidental super speed and not daring to touch the associated feeling with a ten foot pole until he was alone, he began to feel like he was going crazy. Maybe it hadn't really happened. Maybe what control he had mustered had been blind luck, and he actually didn't know how to turn the abilities on and off. Moreover, while the idea of choosing not to use the abilities was fine by him, having the decision forced upon him, felt wrong, almost claustrophobic.

Therefore, though he wished the tests had come back with some useful data to parse the situation apart and had hoped that somebody would notice something after the run, he was certainly glad to leave the premises when the results came back negative. He also unpacked and cleaned up his hole-in-the-wall apartment a little… quicker than otherwise. Just a little though. He wasn't going to be reckless.

After making sure his place was in order and mentally thanking his family for keeping the apartment in order as well as they had, Barry flopped onto his bed. He had had a long week. While he physically he felt fine despite the sudden bust of activity, his brain felt like he had attempted to get to Starling without his new abilities aiding him.

His arm lazily reached over to the small bookshelf by his bed, and his fingers fiddled with the book spines before pulling forward a familiar friend with a tattered binding. He needed rest. Unfortunately, it could have been a while before his eyes finally fluttered closed. The pages between his fingertips weren't boring by far, but he had practically memorized their contents. The words knew when not to ask too much of him. At ten, he finally placed the book aside, eyelids heavy, sleep beckoning.

Now, Barry was wishing that he had gotten to sleep sooner. He didn't know how that would help his situation; he wasn't particularly tired. But, maybe it would have calmed his nerves. What would Captain Frye decide? Would he receive his old job under Patty Spivot? Would he be demoted to paperwork duty down in the basement? Would they bring him back at all? Barry hadn't exactly left on a high note, so that last option remained a distinct possibility. Before going into a coma, Captain Frye had discovered he had not had food poisoning, and Team Arrow had derailed his rush back to the department. Because he couldn't give that excuse to his boss without harming Green Arrow's ability to do his job, Barry wasn't sure what he would say in his defense.

Maybe if a certain medical condition hadn't reared its head, he wouldn't have been so distracted and would have had time to think about it.

On the good side, Captain Frye seemed welcoming when Barry had made the appointment, and Julio had said that the labs, like always, could use an extra hand. That had to count for something. Barry just had to hope that Captain Frye wanted some of that help to come from him. Too bad right now Barry knew who would win if his optimism and his current anxiety got in a fight, and it wasn't the optimism

Barry shook his head and knocked on the door to the captain's office. Captain Darryl Frye would decide what he decided. He should just make it through the meeting and not worry so much. He'll deal with the meeting's consequences once he knew what they were.

"Come in." Captain Frye called from inside.

Barry opened the door. Captain Frye hunched over his desk, pen darting across a stack of bright white papers, before he started filing them away. "Sorry, Barry. I was hoping I could get some of this out of the way before you came in." Captain Frye gave a laugh. "Ever since getting this job, I think the department invented paperwork just to keep people from wanting promotions."

Barry smiled. Though it had been a little intimidating having the man as his boss, Barry had known him for a long time through Daniel West, so seeing Darryl's humor shine through helped set Barry at ease. "I wasn't too late, was I?"

Darryl glanced at the clock. "No. You're a little early even." He shrugged. "It's been so long, I'd forgotten about that bad habit of yours. Don't worry. It was never so bad that it would affect my decision here." Darryl gestured with an open hand at the large-cushioned chair in front of his desk. "Sit down."

Barry sat. "So, is there any sort of procedure for this sort of thing?"

"I wish." Darryl gave a short laugh. "I've never had to deal with a worker going into a coma before you got struck by lightning, and before you woke up, I never had to deal with rehiring somebody who never officially quit nor had been fired or laid off. Trying to figure this out is a little disorienting." Darryl paused. "Then again, if there were a procedure, there would probably be five forms I would have to fill out to go along with it."

"So, what exactly is my employment status then?"

"Legally? I don't know. Throughout the department's system you're included sometimes but not others. For example, we couldn't bring ourselves to cut the health insurance, considering it was a health condition that prevented you from working in the first place, a condition you got in one of our labs no less. However, four months ago during a routine system clean up, your name got removed from the payroll." Darryl tilted his head. "Hopefully, by the end of this meeting we'll be able to get you back in there." He turned to face the small computer monitor positioned precariously close to the desk's edge and flicked the mouse to wake it up.

Barry's eyebrows jumped. "So, I will be rehired?"

Darryl gave a comforting smile. "The department could always use more help. Getting things done a little slower here means Central City has a little less piece of mind, so I'm not against picking up somebody we know is competent." Darryl's eyes hardened; Barry felt his stomach drop. "We just need to know where to put you."

With the captain's eyes boring into him, Barry could only give a nervous nod. Darryl hadn't forgotten about that last incident.

"On one hand, you're a great CSI. You've routinely shown initiative in your work and the ability to think outside the box as well as a technical understanding of forensics. If you hadn't run off to Starling, I was this close to removing the word assistant from your title," Darryl held up his right index and thumb half a centimeter apart for emphasis, "and Queen Consolidated's report on your services certainly demonstrates that you don't need someone telling you what to do." Darryl gave Barry a pointed look. "At least as a CSI."

If Barry didn't feel the 'On the other hand' coming, he would have smiled at the news. He hadn't known he was that close to a promotion or that anyone, probably Patty Spivot, was noticing his work. Patty Spivot was a nice person; Barry could have imagined them being friends, if she hadn't been his supervisor. But, towards her assistants she had a guarded attitude. Though she gave useful feedback and criticism, neither Barry nor Julio had been able to tell how she felt about them as workers. While he still would have headed to Starling, knowing that information, with the prospect of greater freedom just around the corner, Barry would have been more selective in his excursions away from the CCPD.

Moreover, his relationship with Oliver Queen had been awkward from the start, the older man clearly questioning his forensic authority and experience. To say the least, things had not improved once Oliver Queen had discovered that Felicity had leaked his secret to Barry. Hence, the fact that Queen Consolidated had sent a report at all came as a surprise.

However, Captain Frye's whole speech dripped with foreshadowing, the 'On the other hand' hanging at the end of each word. Barry couldn't savor the good news.

"Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of you as an employee. As said, your consistent tardiness is forgivable though still noticeable. Worse, is that you seem to forget that it was the CCPD that hired you not the departments in Kansas City, Blue Valley, or Starling."

Barry's eyes widened. "We discovered those other ones after we realized what had happened with your case of food poising last December. The departments in question are typically grateful for your assistance, but if we hire you, that means we have tasks for you to do here, and we can't have you suddenly running off. If you do that again, somebody else will take your position, no matter how qualified you are. In fact, I will probably be requiring you to bring in doctor's notes before calling in sick after the number of times you pulled that excuse. I will have to personally approve any vacation days."

Again Barry nodded, though this time he managed to push out a "yes," before adding a "sir" for good measure. The only reason they hadn't listed his trip to Hub City was that he had done that on his own vacation time.

Captain Frye tilted his head. "No defense?"

"Guilty as charged." Barry shrugged. No point in lying now. "And, I investigated those cases for personal reasons which I do not regret. The only thing I can say now is that with all the weird occurrences here in Central, it doesn't look like I'd have to be leaving anyways."

Captain Frye pushed his lips together. " 'Figured you'd say something like that. West told you, I assume." He didn't even pause for an answer before he was flipping through one of the stacks of paper on his desk. "We're having so many unexplained cases here in Central that the FBI suggested we set up our own task force to deal with them, so their division doesn't feel the need to drop by every single time." He finally pulled out a sheet of paper and glanced down at it. "I know unexplained phenomena are a bit personal for you, so tell me why you will be able to remain objective if I put you on it."

Barry took a deep breath. This was something he had always wanted, to be able to explore the edges of the known and help explain it, to provide someone else the comfort he had never had, to have his crazy ideas actually be useful for once. No pressure.

He gathered his thoughts. All the reasons he had dodged work and traveled to other cities at the hint of a case involving some unexplained phenomenon which others might overlook. All of his drive to push through a major in biology and then a degree in forensics. All of his joy in aiding Queen Consolidated and finding his theories pan out for once. The tinge of amazement which lined his disappointment when the picture came together on other cases without the fantastic elements he had expected. Even the world you know can offer little wonders.

Barry discarded the reasons which hit too close to his heart and kept the others floating in his brain.

"I will admit that I have a personal connection to ideas which others might dismiss off hand, and I will be the first person to tell you that I am unfit to work a case involving, for lack of a better word, super speed." Barry felt reality slap him at the statement, reminding him that now he had more than one reason to lose objectivity with regards to speed. He paused to recompose himself. "But, I have other reasons to investigate such cases, and I don't have to let my history with odd occurrences rule me.

"I love science and the scientific method, not because it pretends to explain everything but because it allows us to bring new knowledge into the fold. Solving routine cases where everything makes sense, at least physically speaking, is great for the families of those involved. Seeing an unexplained element does make me hopeful that such things are more common than people assume and that I wasn't crazy. Yet, I also want to bring those elements into the realm of what we know. I'm not going to offer ridiculous hypotheses like 'aliens did it' without regard for the evidence because that isn't going to help anyone including me. While people might not originally believe my hypotheses, I make sure to back up my ideas and will change them as new evidence arises."

Barry swallowed. He hoped he addressed the issues running through the captain's head. It all depended on how the captain thought he was going to lose focus.

Captain Frye looked back at the paper, rolling his lips for a moment in contemplation. "And, how are you going to come up with these unbelievable hypotheses?"

This Barry knew how to answer; it was merely what he did every time he saw a blip over the interdepartmental police network, rushed off to another city, and surveyed the crime scene.

"A case is unexplainable because no hypothesis fits it. There is no routine way to proceed. Often there's a hypothesis that people are willing to accept, that they will sleep soundly with, but even that hypothesis ignores certain pieces of evidence. Everyone else is going to look at that explanation, so I look at the others. I take the evidence everyone else is ignoring and find the best hypothesis to fit it, even if I have to take some liberties with established scientific knowledge. Still, I note what those liberties are, in the hopes that those points of departure can be bridged."

Barry looked Captain Frye in the eye. "My hypothesis might not end up being correct, but it deserves to be heard. Established scientific knowledge is great and thorough, but it has its limits. Perhaps one of these cases will point one of those limits out."

Captain Frye did not answer immediately. Barry stared at him intently, wide eyed.

He was back in college during an oral exam. The question had been vague, suggesting that the professor had something particular in mind but not what it was. The professor was deciding whether or not his answer was it. However, Captain Frye wasn't his professor but rather his boss, and it wasn't a grade on the line but rather the job he'd always wanted and dreamed for.

Captain Frye shrugged. "The FBI hadn't been specific about what answer you should give, just that it could be a problem with these sort things. People who seek out weird phenomena tend to be a bit involved, and I know you certainly have reason to be. 'Thought that you should at least have and answer, and I should note it down. We'll figure this thing out as we go."

Suddenly the tension in Barry's muscles disappeared, and Barry felt his jaw go slack. "It didn't matter that much what I said? You were planning to put me on the task force?"

"So long as it didn't have me question your mental health," Captain Frye, now once again Darryl, smiled. "though you seem to have given your answer a lot of thought, so I'm really not worried." Darryl put down the sheet of paper. "The FBI said it is usually best to have a mixture of believers and skeptics working on such cases, and your name immediately came to mind with regards to the former category."

Barry could see the logic behind it. You would need somebody willing to suggest the unthinkable but also somebody to keep the believer's head from becoming stuck in the clouds. "So, who's going to be the skeptic?"

"You and Julio seem to get along great, and Spivot already reported that he has a tendency to keep you grounded. I assume you wouldn't mind sharing a lab with him again?" Barry shrugged in approval. Julio was a good person; he looked forward to working with him again.

Darryl continued. "Unfortunately, this doesn't let you completely off the hook. Your record of absences means I don't exactly trust you to stay without supervision. You also just woke up from a coma, so I'd want somebody watching over you to make sure you adjust back properly. Even though you won't be an assistant anymore, I want you to report to Detective Edward Thawne. He will be the liaison between the investigative and detainment portions of the task force."

Barry scrunched his eyebrows together. "Thawne?"

"He's rather new here, I'll admit; he transferred to the department three months ago," Darryl wove his hand through the air to show how little it mattered. "But, he had a good record and has proven himself competent while here. Most importantly, while he doesn't specialize in the scientific aspects of police work, he's shown a better understanding of science than most of the other detectives. Considering the cases you'll be working will hinge on figuring out how exactly they do or do not break the natural laws, I wanted to have the go between be able to keep up with that sort of stuff, speak both science and cop."

"Do you want to me to talk with him after this meeting?"

"That would be nice," Darryl nodded, "Could you start tomorrow, or do you need more time?"

Barry checked his watch. 10:30. He would still have time to grab groceries after checking in with everybody, and that was the important thing.

He'd had a light dinner last night in the rush to go home, and he had had to grab some fast food on the way here. Unfortunately, he'd slept longer than expected, so while he still managed to consume more than the chain's other patrons, he still wasn't caught up on his caloric intake. Barry had been glad throughout the most of the meeting that his stomach seemed to know that it would have to endure bouts of hunger and thus only growled at times of starvation. But, even if his stomach wasn't alerting anybody else, he wouldn't be able to go another day like this.

Barry nodded. "Yeah." He shrugged. "I'll be able to come in… tomorrow."

"Good." Darryl looked at the sheet again. "I think we're done here then. I'll straighten out the official aspects of it with Director Singh at our meeting later this week. You're free to go."

Barry got up to leave. As he opened the door, he turned around. "Darryl, thank you. It means a lot to me." And, it did.

Darryl had done a lot for him growing up. He had been at the investigation of Nora Allen's murder along with Daniel West. Back then the two had been officers working in the field, with the people they were protecting. Since then Daniel had adopted Barry and had been promoted to detective. He wouldn't want to go any higher in the department, as it would take him too far away from the people. Yet, even as Darryl continued to climb the ranks, the family friend continued to stop by for the backyard barbeques. He continued to check in at the key moments in Barry's life.

But, he didn't need to do any of that, and he didn't owe Barry anything now. Barry wasn't just grateful for the position on the task force.

Darryl smiled. "No problem. You're a good kid. You just need to remember to actually show up every once and a while."

Barry walked towards Detective Thawne's cubicle or at least across the cubicle sea hoping to stumble across it. It was odd. He was glad for the new position, but he hoped that he would be assigned to someone he knew. He had enough on his plate without trying to figure out the whims of a new boss. Some things you could tell right away; people just gave off certain vibes. Yet, you could never immediately tell what things would set somebody off. Hopefully, he wouldn't mind a bit of tardiness. Though Barry hoped that he could get this speed thing under control and use that to arrive on time, he knew his luck wasn't that good. His luck was never that good.

Part way across the sea of cubicles, Barry suddenly stopped. Something felt… off. On some levels it was comforting, like there was a presence out there and he wasn't alone. Why he would be alone he didn't know, but apparently he wasn't. However, it was also disturbed him. Like the presence had no reason to exist, and in any case, something about it rubbed him wrong.

He glanced back and forth. Where had that come from? Was he going crazy… er… crazier? He shook his head.

It was probably nothing. He couldn't even describe how the presence felt or why it produced these small emotional reactions in him. He certainly didn't sense it physically. His eyes didn't pick up anything new, and the same buzz of office chatter reached his ears. The air still felt stale against his skin and only contained the faint smell of dust. It was probably something mental then, perhaps his brain straightening the fallout of his meeting with Darryl. It hadn't gone the way he was expecting.

He walked another fourth of the way across the room before he saw the plaque declaring the cubicle office of Detective Edward Thawne. Barry froze.

The man might not even be there. As an detective, there was a good chance he was on patrol or just out and about, and Darryl hadn't bothered to check that. That could be a sign that Darryl knew the man was in or that he didn't consider Barry meeting up with Detective Thawne that important. Still, it was worth having a chance to meet his new supervisor before his first day back. Barry raised his hand, paused, and then knocked on the carpeted wall. Even though he could just step around and take a look inside, he wanted to make a polite impression, if Detective Thawne was in. Most people did not like others suddenly appearing behind them.

He heard the shuffling of papers and a hesitant "Yes?" Barry stepped to the side and into view.

A blonde and tall man had turned half way around in his chair holding a large stack of papers in one hand. Several other stacks littered the man's desk, most on top of or still contained in manila envelopes. He wore a slightly confused and frustrated expression, which Barry hoped meant that while Detective Thawne didn't want to be interrupted, he wouldn't blame Barry for stopping by.

Barry hesitated for a moment trying to think of what to say. "I'm not sure if Captain Frye warned you that I would be coming. I only just found out about it myself." Detective Thawne continued to stare blankly in Barry's direction. Barry swallowed, before giving a slight wave. "I'm Barry Allen."

Detective Thawne's eyebrows shot up. "You're the Barry Allen?"

Well, that certainly wasn't the reaction he had been expecting. Barry blinked. "If you are the Edward Thawne whom Captain Frye mentioned, then, I am the Barry Allen who was assigned to report to you. I'm not sure if I would precede my name with an article more generally."

"I am indeed him. However, I don't particularly like the name Edward, so you can call me Eddie or Thawne." Barry tucked that information away, deciding on Thawne because he couldn't call his supervisor Eddie.

Thawne gave a slight laugh, deftly placing the pile of papers in his hands back on the desk. "Sorry about that, though. I was a little surprised to receive the liaison position when I volunteered for it, and then suddenly I receive an email yesterday saying that I will probably be watching over someone on the task force but 'don't worry about it. It won't be that much work.' I wasn't entirely sure what to make of the arrangement." Thawne gave a brief smile. "Plus, not every police department has somebody who has gone into a coma let alone from a lightning bolt the same day as a meltdown at a particle accelerator. I transferred in a half a year after your accident, but I was bound to hear about it eventually."

"I guess I should have expected that." Barry stood there awkwardly. What exactly are you supposed to say to your new supervisor? Was one just supposed to get the formalities out of the way then leave or was he supposed to stick around and chat? Considering the official work started tomorrow, Barry decided on trying to know the man better. "So, I heard you only moved to Central recently. How are you liking it here?"

"It's practically perfect: the right combination of big city buzz and Midwestern relaxation." For a split moment, Thawne's facial muscles tensed, his eyes squinted, and his gaze lost its focus. An expression containing both nostalgia and pain darted across his face.

The expression had left almost as soon as it had arrived, and Thawne's muscles relaxed again. Barry raised his eyebrows in anticipation. He wasn't going to force the man to continue, but there seemed to be a story behind the move and an emotional one at that. Thawne paused for a moment before looking Barry in the eyes and continuing, "I grew up in Metropolis, and there always seemed to be something going on. There is S.T.A.R. Labs' and the United Nation's headquarters, along with a number of other iconic organizations and individuals trying to make a difference. After experiencing all of that I could never go to some slow small town."

Thawne's eyes glanced downwards, and he glared at the floor, so intensely that Barry thought he and the carpet were having a death match. "Unfortunately, the City of Tomorrow has lost its tarnish for me. I discovered too many of the institutions I had trusted had lost touched with their roots, and the rest of the East Coast didn't seem any better." Thawne looked up from carpet in apparent victory. "I thought I'd try Central City out for a change. The people here seem to be able to move forward without forgetting where they have been."

Barry furrowed his eyebrows. "Seems like a big move."

"Not so much as you'd think but at the same time more than you can imagine. I visited Central a few times before the final move and even spent two weeks here in the middle of June scoping the city out, so I'd have a feel for the place. It's still feels small, though. The City of Tomorrow never really stops; sometimes it seems like you can go forever without leaving the sky scrapers. It always surprises me here when I suddenly end up in suburbia." He tilted his head inquisitively. "How about you? Do you like this city?"

"I've lived in the city or in one of its suburbs all my life, so," Barry shrugged, "it's my home. I'd do anything to protect it."

A moment passed before Thawne offered, "I assume you want to know the specifics of how this is going to work out."

"That would be nice. I'm not exactly sure how Captain Frye expects the task force to work or what he meant precisely by report to you." Barry was fairly certain that Darryl had invented Barry's new arrangement in the department, and while the department had created task forces for particularly big cases in the past, he hadn't heard of a more permanent one like this.

"First," Thawne took a moment to mentally retrieve the information, "according to the email Captain Frye sent me, I wouldn't interfere too much with what you were doing, and I know enough about forensics to say that you probably know way more. I won't be telling you what to do. He more wanted you to be telling me what you were up to. If you could check in with me at the start of each day and email me an abbreviated version of any paperwork you would have sent to Spivot, we'll be fine."

Barry bobbed his head in approval. "That doesn't seem too bad."

"I didn't think so either." He adjusted himself in his seat. "Now for the task force. The FBI said that cases like these require a different mentality than most cases. After banging my head up against the wall working two including this one and talking with others who were on cases like these, I'd have to agree. The main point of creating the taskf orce then is so that we don't have to have a new set of investigators adjust to thinking that way for each case." A smile twitched on Thawne's lips. "As such, whenever a case with unexplained elements comes along we'll have first dibs. However, in between cases, when the leads have dried up, or if we are waiting for test results to come back, we'll be on call for other cases as well."

Thawne glanced over his shoulder at the piles of paper on his desk. "Our mysterious arsonist hasn't struck in a while, and the fire investigators are finishing up looking over the previous burn site, so we would actually be in one of those times right now." Thawne narrowed his eyes in frustration. "Lucky me, I'm going to be in charge of coordinating these investigations and making sure everyone receives all the information. Since the task force is just starting, I have to sort out all the previous unsolved cases with interesting elements and catalogue them. I'm almost grateful that the arsonist is likely to strike again soon."

Barry's shoulders dropped. "As much as I am not excited about it, I should probably familiarize myself with those." Those folders would probably contain some intriguing facts and figures, but Barry guessed that they would be buried in routine analyses and bureaucratic fluff.

"You're free to join me," Thawne sighed, flipping through a couple pages.

"I don't even start work until tomorrow, so I'll have to pass for now." Barry smiled. "Well, it was nice meeting you. Good Luck."

Thawne rolled his eyes. "Don't worry. I'll leave some for you."

Barry waved goodbye, but the other man was already so engrossed in his task that he didn't wave back. Having completed that introduction, Barry decided he'd swing by Julio and tell him the good news. The two friends and coworkers chatted idly for a bit. Julio explained how he'd rearranged things in the last year, at least on his half of the room, and noted that in patching the sunroof broken by the lightning, the department had finally fixed some of the lab's other leaks, so no more puddles on the floor during rainstorms. He mentioned some of his previous lab partner's quirks and personality traits.

Eventually the conversation turned to Barry's new position in the department, when Julio asked, "So, who'd Captain Frye put you under?"

"Actually, I am technically no longer an assistant," Barry smiled, before shrugging, "Unfortunately, all of my sudden trips out of town have come back to bite me in the ass, and I now have to check in with the task force liaison at the start of each day and send him a copy of everything I'm working on." Julio gave him a weird look. "What?"

"I don't know much about Thawne, but he seemed wound up tight when he first got here at least." Julio's expression went deadpan and wide eyed. "I was not thrilled when I heard I would be working with him."

Barry furrowed his eyebrows together. "He didn't seem too bad when I talked with him."

"Well, maybe you were just lucky, but let's hope he's learned to loosen up a little."

The conversation turned elsewhere from there, though Julio's comment certainly left Barry with something to think about. When Barry decided he should finally leave and stop distracting Julio further, his plan to grab groceries next finally came up. The offhand comment sent Julio frantically searching through his wallet, an action which in turn raised Barry's eyebrows. "I might be cringing at the bill, but I don't need you offering me money."

"It's not money, damn it!" Julio exclaimed before finally pulling a card out of one of the pockets. Barry then found a Big Lots card shoved into his face in a movement that would have been rather sudden if his friend weren't moving so slowly. "I don't use of this thing nearly as often as I should. The proportions are a bit big for me, but after watching you eat… just take it."

Barry hesitantly took the card. "Thanks?" He then glanced at the clock. "I should probably be heading off. See you tomorrow?"

Julio smiled. "Yeah. See you then."