Taken for granted

Barry looked up from the case notes on the Ralphson murder and sighed in frustration as his door banged, announcing his captain’s entrance. Just what he needed, yet another interruption.

“Something I can do for you, Captain?” he asked, nowhere near the solicitous tone that was customarily used in his presence.

“Allen, where the hell are the results on the Mayfield robbery and the Ralphson murder? Why the hell aren’t they already in the hands of the detectives?” Captain Singh demanded at the top of his voice, as per usual. Barry did not doubt that everyone downstairs could hear every word.

“Well, Captain, I’m sure Detective Johnson would have the results of the Mayfield robbery in his hands had he bothered to come upstairs 20 minutes ago when I called down to tell him they were ready.” Without pausing to let the Captain berate him for his attitude, Barry continued. “As for the Ralphson murder, I just finished up as you entered.” He handed over the file right there. “If I stopped to go downstairs every single time I finished a file it would waste precious time. If the detectives are in the building, I notify them that their results are in.”

Barry moved on to the next case file, the evidence already in the mass spectrometer, getting the paperwork ready. Feeling bold, he asked, “And since when do you play gopher? Can’t they get their paperwork and results on their own? Don’t you have more important things to do?”

Singh froze for a moment with the folders in hands, completely taken aback by his CSI’s words and demeanor, before snapping out of it. “Been getting complaints that you’re running slow, Allen. Too busy focusing on personal projects to work on actual cases.”

Barry Allen was sick of this bullshit. “Oh, yeah? There actual paperwork to back that up? Or is that more hazing bull from the masses because they don’t understand that science isn’t magic and I can’t pull DNA out of thin air or make the test run any faster than it already does?”

It was like this day in and day out, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he was going to put up with it. He had joined the force — or the CSI unit, more accurately — to help prove his father’s innocence. However, with the way things were going, he was going to put himself in a cell right next to the man for justifiable homicide. His coworkers seemed to love hazing him — not out of camaraderie, but out of disrespect. He was a nobody to them, despite the fact that they needed him to solve their cases. And Captain Singh — well, he was reasonably sure the man just hated him.

“I don’t know, Allen. Should I get them to file formal complaints?”

“You want me out of here so badly, Captain?” Barry wondered as he turned around, ceasing his current note taking. “What is your problem with me, anyway?” After a prolonged silence coupled with the Captain glaring at him, Barry let out a breath and asked, “Was there something you wanted from me besides paperwork?”

“I heard about your little project.” Singh reached out and lifted the first layer of the large bulletin board, uncovering Barry’s murder board of his father’s case. “Is this what’s taking up all of your time?”

Violated didn’t quite encompass how Barry felt right now.”Is my personal stuff that I do on my own time taking up some time? Sure, Captain.” Barry walked over, his voice dropped, turning cold. “Is what I do in my free time any of your or the other officers’ business? No.” He really hoped everyone downstairs was getting a good show.

Deciding that his commanding officer had infringed upon his workspace enough, Barry started backing Singh out bodily.  “Maybe, instead of breaking in here — which obviously they have been since I keep that covered during work hours — they should focus on their cases. It might help the solve rate. Also, please remind Johnson and his cohorts that being in this lab without me is a defense attorney’s dream come true and grounds for case dismissal.”

By this time they two of them were by the office door. “Have a great day now.” And with that, Barry shut the door.

This kind of fuckery was the reason he was thinking of leaving, Flash responsibilities aside, what did he really have to stay for? Joe? The man always ignored his opinions and ideas despite the fact that he was right over 90% of the time. It didn’t take long for the young man to figure out that living with his foster father was a Bad Idea, capital letters and all. He never believed him, dismissed everything he said, and rarely stood up for him with the other guys at work. Never mind the fact that he always took Iris’s side, even when she was wrong. The man was responsible for putting his father in prison and Barry wasn’t sure he would ever forgive him for that.    

Iris? He knew he wasn’t in love with her. Sure, he loved her as a sister, but apparently, that was all one-sided. She consistently took without giving, readily apparent with her constant demands that he share every detail of his life, but she always kept secrets. When she had demanded a key to his new place he specifically told her it was for emergencies only. He promptly changed the locks after moving in and gave her a copy of the old key aware that she would ignore the rules he had laid down. Lo and behold, she threw a tantrum about not being able to waltz in one Tuesday afternoon when he was on shift. Her reason for dropping by? She wanted to see if he had settled in already — translation: she wanted to snoop. All he had said in return was “Case in point.” Needless to say, things were a bit frosty between them, no matter what kind of front she was putting up. He had a right to privacy, and no matter how often he had let her walk all over him in the past, it wasn’t happening anymore.

One of the many gifts of the 9-month coma was a fresh start on all aspects of his life. Living for himself instead of for everyone else was just one of the bullet points on his list.

With a weary sigh, Barry took out the brochure for the graduate program in applied physics at Cal-Sci. He hadn’t spoken about it with anyone, something telling him to keep it to himself, but this was becoming less hypothetical and more possible or even probable option. Caitlin had caught sight of the college booklet and asked him about it and he merely said that he was looking up what was going on in the physics world since he’d been asleep. A few days later he made sure to have a couple physics journals fall out of his bag when he was in the cortex. Dr. Wells seemed to calm down and the creepy stares from him lessened.

Dr. Wells. There was another reason to get the hell out of Dodge. That man tripped his triggers in a bad way and the only way to stop that from happening was to be anywhere but here. It seemed unavoidable, following the man’s directions. Somehow, the leader of their little project seemed to always be one step ahead, or always find the solution. But there was something just a little off about him. Barry didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on it, what with his crazy schedule and all, but the unsettled feeling he had around his supposed mentor wouldn’t go away. And there was no one he could safely talk about it with.

Maybe, though, it was time to go speak with Oliver and get some feedback on all the craziness that was going on around him. Get him to go for coffee in Starling away from the others on a random day off without telling anyone else he was stopping by. Hopefully, he could convince Oliver to keep it all to himself.

Maybe it was time to go visit the Cal-Sci campus and see what kind of scholarships or grants he could apply for. Hopefully, he could explain that he wanted to keep this all quiet. He was a legal adult, there was no reason that they should be contacting anyone he doesn’t put down for them to call.

Maybe it was time to really figure out who Barry Allen was without anyone else’s input but his own.