I wake up to a sweet smell. I walk into the dining room where Joe is sipping a mug of black coffee.

"Hey," I say stretching. My neck hurts from sleeping on the couch last night.

"Hey, Barry. Hmm, mind telling me who the little girl with the broken arm is in your bedroom?" Joe stares at me.

"That's Dawn. She works at STAR Labs with me."

"Why is she here?"

I tell him about the events that unfolded last night. When I finally finish Joe is stunned to the point where he has no words. Then Dawn walks in the room nervously and Joe excuses himself. She looks worried.

"Barry what am I doing here?" she asks hastily.

"I couldn't bring you back to your house."

"That is exactly what you need to do! What do you think is going to happen when they open the basement and see that I'm not there? Please take me back now."

I suddenly realize what she means so I rush her back to her foster home and into the basement. We stand at the top of the stairs.

"Get out before they come!" Dawn begs. I nod and walk out the door. I turn the dead bolt and before I turn around I here a bellowing voice from behind me.

"What are you doing in my house?" A large man, who I am guessing is Dawn's foster parent, stands in front of me. He continues.

"Get out before I shoot you." Have fun with that, I say to my self . Then a type of anger that I haven't felt in a long time comes over me. Rage.

"Listen to me young man-" he starts but I cut him off.

"No, you listen to me! That girl in there?" I point to the basement door. "She has already been through enough and she doesn't need you to make it worse. And if you hurt her again I will come and kill you before you even know I'm there."

My voice is so cold and frightening that I almost scare myself. I've never actually killed anyone before but the way I am feeling right now, I might just have to. The man stumbles back. I think he is actually scared of me. He nods fast.

"Okay, okay."

"Now I am going to leave then you are going to let her out of the basement and apologize. For everything." I walk out of the house confident. As soon as I am out I breath a sigh of relief. Then I sit on the sidewalk. A few minutes later Dawn walks out with a content look on her face.

"That was strange," she said.

"What?" I ask pretending to be clueless.

"I just got let out of the basement without getting hit. Not only that, my foster dad just apologized to me."

"Interesting." I say smiling.

"Thank you." Her gratitude is unlike anything I have ever seen. Her eyes are bright and her smile is wide.

"Nice way to start my birthday," she exclaims.

"It's your birthday?" I ask completely shocked.

"What, you didn't find that out when you were stalking my foster care files?"

I laugh and shake my head.

«»«»«»«»«»«»«»

A couple months later.

6:00pm

I got to know Dawn a lot more in the past couple of months. Today things were going on just like normal. That is until approximately six o'clock. We were just sitting around in the cortex doing our own thing. Dawn and Jesse are helping Caitlin with her miracle drug and Cisco is tinkering with a small metal device. The day was going great and then I looked over and saw Dawn smiling and laughing and the day got even better. Looking back on the matter I realize that it was indeed six o'clock when everything went wrong.

I was scrolling through the internet, not looking for anything in particular. That's when I saw an article about a boy that had lost his mom and his dad was blamed for the crime. You can see how this through me off a bit. Well thanks to that sullen Buzzfeed article my fantastic mood turned into just the opposite. I was suddenly in the worst mood I had been in all week. The minutes started to fly by and the sun started to go down. I bluntly hear the sound of rejoice coming from the group of girls. Then Dawn is making her way over to me.

6:37pm

"Barry, we are so close to figuring out the answer to Caitlin's medicine!" Her overjoyed expression makes me even more irritated and I roll my eyes. Dawn takes a step back and presses her lips together. She looks hurt and I instantly regret my remark, but I don't do anything about it.

My mind starts to spin with dark thoughts and I get dizzy.

"Barry are you okay?" Dawn asks. I know she means well and she actually cares about me but I find her more annoying than ever.

"I'm fine!" I yell the statement louder than I mean to. I didn't mean to yell at all. She goes back to Jesse, her feelings hurt but her face strong. Cisco is giving me subliminal glances from his desk.

7:13pm

The sky is dark and the night noise of honking buses and loud party music wraps the city like a blanket. My mood hasn't lightened either. Dawn says she needs to get home and says good by to all of us. Then she makes her way over to me.

"It's getting dark, Barry, do you think you can run me home please," she asks politely. Any other day I would have but today I just didn't feel like it.

"You think that just because I can run fast that it doesn't tire me out? Well it does! You always ask me for everything but I never get anything in return. I think you should walk yourself home."

She cowers into herself, something she hasn't done in a while. Then she nods her head, apologizes, then walks out of the building.

8:09pm

Once I am home my mood lightens and I start to feel guilty about the stuff I said to Dawn. I contemplate going over to her house and apologizing but then I decide to give her space instead. I will apologize at length tomorrow.

Sleep calls at me and I welcome it. But a second before darkness floods my mind I get a weird feeling. Something isn't right. I hear the sound of sirens wail in the distance as I lull off to sleep.