Pre lightning

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Barry POV

I must have a target painted on my back. 

It's really the only explanation. 

It went from bullies in school to criminals in the streets. 

Or in this case... the precinct.

As far as criminals go, Howard wasn't even a very bad one. Of course he made up for his "lack" of crime with his oh so charming personality. Honestly, he was a real piece of work. 

I had been walking back towards my lab after dropping off a case, when I noticed a hooded figure being led to the holding cells. He talked quite a bit, but he said things that I will not repeat. I made eye contact with him as he was walking by, and he glared at me, as if I had killed his cat. 

I shrugged it off and went back upstairs. 

Two hours passed, and I had forgotten about the little incident. 

I had forgotten it, until I heard the click of a gun behind me.

"If you -beep- make a -beep- sound you -beep- I will -beep- blow your -beep- brains out." 

Even if he didn't have a distinct voice, the number of times he manages to insert curse word into such a simple and short sentence would have given it away.

"Howard," I muttered.

"Now." he said, "Hands where i can -beep- see them."

"Geez, you kiss your mother with that mouth?" I asked as I slowly raised my hands.

"Shut the -beep- up." 

I slowly stood up and Howard jabbed the gun into my back harshly.

That was gonna leave a bruise.

"Don't -beep- try anything. Hear me?" Howard said in my ear.

God. I could hear his bad breath. And smell it. 

I nodded and let him guide me towards the stairs. I heard shouts from below, yelling about Howard escaping. Howard roughly shoved me down the steps and started shouting.

"If anybody -beep- moves I -beep- shoot the -beep- kid!" he shouted.

It was like someone had hit the pause button. Literally everyone froze. I saw a few people try and move closer.

Howard jammed the gun against my head, "I said don't -beep- move!"

I could see the worried looks of Joe, Chyre, and Singh, and I tried to give them a reassuring smile. I probably looked more like a grimace. But when it came down to it, I didn't think Howard would shoot me. Well... I hoped he wouldn't shoot me. 

He shoved me into the elevator and made me push the buttons.

When they got to the bottom, he did the same thing he did upstairs. We got outside and he dragged me into an alley.

"Thanks for being my -beep- hostage kid. You did a -beep- fantastic job."

"You know," I said, "You really had no need to use curse words in either of those sentences."

I felt a sharp pain in my skull and everything went black.

***** LINE BREAK *****

"Barry."

"Barry."

"Barry!"

I shot upright, instantly regretting it as my head pounded. 

"Ow." I grumbled.

"You okay Barry?" Joe asked.

"Hm yeah. Yeah I'm good." I said, rubbing my head. "I might have a concussion though."

"Come on," Joe said, hoisting me to my feet, "Let's go get you checked out."

"M'kay."

"He tell you anything that might hint at where he's going?" Joe asked.

"Nope. Although he did tell me that I was a good hostage."

"Of course he did. He add any profanities?"

"Countless."

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A/N- Honestly. It took me so long to figure out what to do for this one. Sorry I didn't get to it yesterday. I was pretty busy with homework, and then my dad took me driving. It's actually really fun when someone *cough* mum *cough* isn't criticizing your every move and reaching for the wheel at the same time.

I'll get the next chapter in soon, then I'll be back on track!

Thanks for the patience. Love y'all! :)