Barry woke up from a night of restless sleep, unable to remember what he dreamed about. All he knew based on feeling alone and the lack of a good sleep, was that he had a night full of dreams. Other than that he had stayed awake half the night thinking about what he found earlier that day. It kind of felt like a dream but he knew better. He layed in bed staring at the ceiling and when sleep had finally taken over, it was any-thing but restful.

Sighing, Barrry rolled over in bed to look at the clock on his nightstand. It was half past eight and knowing him, Barry was going to be late to work if he didn't get up now. He dragged his tired body out of bed and grabbed the few necessities before heading to the bathroom for a shower. During the shower, he wondered why Joe hadn't woken him up before leaving this morning. He probably thought Barry needed the extra sleep.

As soon as he was done with his shower, Barry flew through getting him-self dressed and rushed downstairs. He passed through the kitchen and was about to just grab his keys and leave when he spotted the breakfast bag with his name on it. There was a yellow sticky note on it. Reading it, he smiled to himself. Iris always seems to know when I'm going to leave without breakfast, he thought as he picked it up and walked out the house. Making sure to lock the door behind him, he went to his car and got in, starting the engine up. As he went to pull off, some idiot in a car shot past him causing him to slam the breaks.

"Fucking idiot." Barry muttered. Taking better caution he made sure no one was coming before pulling off.

Barry arrived at work a little after nine 'o' clock and was greeted by most of the city's finest. As long as he's been working here, a lot of the cops and detectives have gotten to know and love him. The older ones treated him like their own, the ones a little older than him treated him like their little brother and the younger ones looked up to him. The whole CCPD was basically a family in its own right, with Barry at the center. It was hard not to grow to love the CSI or adore him. He was always open and honest and caring and he always wanted to help others.

One detective in particular, stood out to Barry among the rest. While there were other detectives who Barry was pretty close with and had had nights out at the bar with, he was closer with Ralph. As Barry made his way through the bullpen, he spotted Ralph sitting at his desk and waved at him. The man in question waved back, shooting him a huge grin.

Barry walked up the stairs to his lab and entered. Upon seeing, Julian at his own desk going over some reports, Barry smiled and said, "Hey Julian."

"Allen." Julian greeted.

Barry remembered yesterday that he promised to thank him. "Thanks for yesterday, man. I really needed that."

Despite Julian's hard and sometimes cold and sarcastic exterior, he was actually a freaking cinnamon roll. Julian smiled. "What are friends for?"

A small chuckle left Barry's mouth as he moved to sit at his desk, ready to go through his reports as well. Grabbing a manilla folder from the short stack at the edge of his desk, he flipped it open and began reading through it. Then he wrote his report on the case and made corrections where it was needed. That was the way the first few hours were spent and by the time he was on his last few, Barry was about ready to just about go to sleep.

Barry's mind kept straying to what he read last night. He couldn't help it. He was so curious to learn more but he was afraid of what he'd find if he kept digging. That saying that knowledge is power, well that's true but when someone knows too much, it can hurt them. That's especially true when it's something that's obviously dangerous. So dangerous in fact that his mom took drastic measures to make sure he was safe from the danger that apparently threatened his life when he was younger. And yet another thing that was still hard to wrap his head around, was warlocks existed and his mom was friends with one, not to mention that she was one. Used to be one when she was alive. Which would mean that Barry was one too, right? It would make sense if he had powers when he was little.

Barry was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear Julian calling his name until the blonde moved in front of him, snapping his fingers under his nose. He blinked, giving a small shake of his head as he raised his eyes to look at Julian, a lost look on his face.

"Sorry what?"

"I said, what are you doing?" Julian looks a bit miffed, probably from having to get up from his chair to get Barry's attention.

Barry frowned. "What do you mean? I've been going over reports, same as you."

"No," Julian holds the word for a few seconds. "You've been sitting here drawing like a maniac for the past twenty minutes." He points at the closed manilla folder in front of him.

Confused, Barry looked down to see what his lab partner was talking about. Sure enough, there was a drawing on the back of the folder and his eyes widened in surprise. It wasn't the fact that he drew it without even realizing it, but what it was that surprised him and scared him all at the same time. It was a complete sketch of a creature with a black scaled hide, red eyes, teeth longer than a sabertooth tiger and deadly claws. His eyes scanned over the symbol that he'd drawn above that was supposed to be engraved into the sword sticking out of its chest and he felt a vague sense of recognition and de'ja vu wash over him.

He'd seen this before. Where, he had no idea but he knew it had a lot to do with what his mom did. Were the memories one of the things she sealed away with his powers? And if so, were they slowly leaking through into his subconscious?

Julian, actually taking a look at the drawing since he came over to get his attention, made a face of approval mixed with a certain discomfort. "What the hell is that?"

"I-I don't know." Barry stammered. "I didn't even know I was drawing it."

"It looks real, almost like it's moving." Julian stated. "I didn't know you could draw."

Barry has always known that he had a knack for drawing but it was never like this. He got it from his mom originally and he just went with it. That was one of the reasons he was a good sketch artist at CCPD. A tickle in the back of his subconscious caused him to cringe slightly. It felt like an itch that you couldn't reach or scratch. He knew something was wrong, something was changing. Scratching the back of his head, he sighed.

"Yeah, I've always been able to." Barry told him. He winced again as he continued to stare at the sketch, something trying to break free but it was too weak. "I don't even know what this is."

Liar, a voice whispered in the back of his mind. Yes, Barry knew what the drawing was but there was no way in hell that he was going to tell Juli--

"Looks like a demon."

Barry struggled to keep his face calm and blank as he watched Julian's reaction. He wondered how he knew that and he couldn't help the slight shift in his body as he stiffened a little. Julian was staring really hard at the paper, at the sword to be exact before narrowing his eyes at him. Barry shrunk away at the intensity of the look and swallowed thickly as his eyes darted around the room, searching for a possible escape. The man looked like he was going to kill him.

"Barry, have you ever seen these symbols--this weapon--before?" Julian asks slowly. His voice is low and serious and none of his usual under-tone of sarcasm is there. Quite frankly, it was scaring him.

Barry's eyes landed on the part of the picture the blonde was pointing at and there was another tickle in the back of his head, except it was more grating and he grimaced. Judging by the look on Julian's face, the male had seen his reaction. Trying to cover up what he was sure would lead to more questions, Barry said,

"No, I-I uh..." Barry trailed off and settled for shaking his head quickly. "Nope. Never seen it before in my life."

Lie.

Barry now wondered if Julian knew something that he didn't. And if he did, would it be a good idea to ask him. The blonde stared at him with narrowed blue eyes, as if studying him for any tells that he was lying. Which would be needless considering Barry is a horrible liar most of the time.

"Are you sure?"

Panicking and unable to come up with another lie, Barry blurted, "How about you? You seem to know something about this so have you seen this before?"

Julian studied him silently, his eyes sweeping over his face and resting on Barry's eyes. Apparently finding nothing, Julian looked away and said, "No."

That was the end of that.

Does he know something that I don't?

OoO

Later that night, Henry Allen came back into Barry's life from his time away, upending his life for better or worse.