"There's a car crash. Two people trapped upside down in a car, Cisco said there was a p-power line? I am so sorry, my love, I'm so sorry.." Barry apologized.

Parker smiled and placed her hands over his. "Stop. It's perfectly fine. I'll meet you at S.T.A.R. Labs. No worries."

"I can run you there!" Barry suggested, scrambling to pull on his coat. "I have time-"

"It's okay!" Parker interrupted with a laugh. "Dude, go. They need you."

With one last sigh, Barry kissed her forehead, mumbled a million 'thank you's' and then jogged out of the Chipotle.

Parker squeezed the lid onto both Barry's bowl and her own, held them tight against her stomach then awkwardly shuffled out of the restaurant. She called a taxi for a ride to the Lab.

Parker felt overdressed, a little embarrassed and highly ready to just call it a night.

The problem wasn't that Barry ditched her on date night because he hadn't really ditched her in the first place. Duty called and he went-- she knew that was inarguable.

The real problem was that he had began to notice her habit of facing the door when they went out to eat.

There was a back story behind that, a depressing one, that she wasn't sure about telling Barry Allen. Not just yet.

"You look so beautiful!" Caitlin squealed.

Parker flinched, not realizing she made it into the Cortex. She took a seat in her normal chair.

"Yeah, thank you."

Beliving that her upset attitude was caused by interrupted date night, Cisco and Caitlin communicated through eyebrow conversations to find a way to make her smile. And not a polite little closed-lipped smile like she tended to do, they wanted a real one that made her eyes crinkle.

"It will happen a lot," Dr.Wells said.

The three snapped their heads to their boss, wanting to hear what had broken their silence.

"Being interrupted during date night. However, I truly do believe that Mr.Allen will make it up to you in one way or another."

Parker high-fived Dr.Wells, then slipped her hand back into the pockets of her coat.

"I know. He's good like that. But that's not the problem-- I seriously don't mind being cut off for date night. It's something else that I really don't want to talk about."

"That's key for 'don't push it,'" Caitlin clarified for Cisco, who had opened his mouth, most likely to ask what Parker was upset about.

Parker gave Caitlin a nod filled with gratitude.

Barry ran into the Cortex with the signature crack. He pulled off the mask, send a low-key wink to Parker (knowing her love for him maskless) then looked at Cisco, his face scrunched in a grimace.

"What did you do to my suit?" Cisco slowly asked. His eyes were wide with horror at the suit Barry brought back.

Parker slouched further down in her chair. Barry had managed to make it to the last suit, and then covered it in burn marks and grime.

There were two possibilities: construct a new suit with the industrial fabricator, or spend hours cleaning the suit.

"Okay, when are we going to start calling it my suit?" Barry asked, tilting his head.

"Never," Parker chimed, raising her eyebrow at the boys. "Guess who made that suit?"

"Guess who designed the suit?" Cisco challenged.

Parker narrowed her eyes. For once, Cisco beat her in an argument. She sighed and looked at Barry.

"I'll settle for calling it our suit."

While the boys and Parker were discussing the usual suit dilemma, Caitli had analyzed Barry's speed compared to other missions and came to the conclusion that Barry had ran faster than ever that night.

"Your training is paying off. That couple is alive because of you," Dr.Wells said.

"I can still get faster, I know I can," Barry disagreed.

"And you will one day, for sure. But for today, I'm sure you've fulfilled your safe quota. Proper rest is all we need."

"Better yet, what we all need is drinks!" Cisco offered. "So, who's up for a round?"

"Sorry, man, it's date night for us," Barry declined.

Parker's head snapped her neck to look at Barry. He answered directly after the question was asked, without hesitation, and not even a glance to Parker.

And then, Barry slipped one foot behind the other and performed a dorky spin move to face her.

"Where were we, Park? Going back to your apartment?"

"Are we gonna make out?"

"With Hercules in the background?" Barry suggested.

Parker's mouth dropped, making Barry's eyes widen in excitement. Just like that, Parker wasn't kidding anymore.

"Barry, yes! That's the best idea you've ever had!"

Barry held his hands out and Parker pushed herself from her chair, hopping into his arms. They wished everyone a fast goodbye and left the lab as fast as possible.

"They're such dorks," Cisco grumbled.

"Agreed," Caitlin and Dr.Wells chimed.

>>>>>>

"I'm going to put on something more comfortable," Parker said when they made it to her apartment. 

She left without a word, leaving Barry to put the movie on.

Barry gulped. He could feel a blush creeping up his neck. So early in their relationship and Parker was already trying to..

Not that he wouldn't. He knew he eventually wanted to share that experience with her. But sex wasn't what he wanted from her.

He wanted three a.m. conversations, the deep ones where they truly get to know each other; he wanted dorky moments that made them giggle when it was supposed to be serious; he wanted to be at peace with everything when he was with her.

If they accomplished that, and more things on his checklist of the perfect girlfriend, then he would give himself to her. As far as he knew, she was already breezing past the requirements.

"Okay, I'm baaaack!" Parker called, hiding behind the wall. "Are you ready to see my outfit? I just bought it. You're going to love it."

"U-Um--"

Parker used her fuzzy socks to slide across the floor, truly making an entrance to show off her outfit.

Barry's sigh of relief was loud enough for her to hear. He dropped his tense shoulders, mentally called himself an idiot for overreacting, then actually looked at her pajamas.

Parker's fingers were pointing to her black t-shirt. On the front, it had a pink heart with the words, "My boyfriend is a forensics scientist." Her eyes were scrunched with the smile that showed her excitement.

"You're such a loser," Barry chuckled.

"I'm a loser that you can't resist."

She jumped into his arms and brought them down onto the couch, straddling his hips.

Barry gripped her waist and accepted all of her kisses, rather hungrily. He kissed back, using more force with each kiss. Slowly, his hands started to roam from her waist.

"You know what this suit is made out of?" he whispered in between her kisses.

"Please don't make a stupid joke," she panted.

"Boyfriend material."

A small smack of her lips detaching from his jawline occurred. She moved her face back, her hair shielding their faces. Her blinks were slow; a small smirk on her face.

"Turn off?" Barry winced.

"Major," Parker whispered.

She smothered him with kisses once more and he did the same to her.

Secretly, she added his loser pick up lines to the List.

>>>>>>>>>

Joe West had requested both Barry and Parker at the crime scene.

Like always, it was at an awful early hour on a weekend.

Barry and Parker grudgingly obeyed, flying through the streets of Central City to the prison.

"This is literally my dream Sunday," Parker joked, following Barry to the escapee's cell. "I really wanted to spend my Sunday morning in a jail."

Barry glanced at her. He silently begged her to not grumble in front of Joe.

She obeyed, raising her hands in a surrender. "I'll talk to the prisoners," she decided.

It had probably been a very long time since those men had seen a woman.

Just walking through the hallways with inmates had Barry feeling uncomfortable for his girlfriend.

Those men wolf-whistled, cat-called and eyed her in ways that were not appropriate.

When he first saw a prisoner look at her, he put his arm around her waist.

She had shoved him away and told Barry she was fine by herself-- a concept he couldn't seem to grasp.

Parker backtracked through the hall, the prisoners in the hallway watching her every move.

She cupped her hands over her mouth and shouted, "If one of you happened to get a look at the person who broke him out, speak now!"

All she got was some gross, sexual remarks.

"If no one wants to help, then I guess I'll just leave.." Parker trailed off, taking two steps back.

Protests came from the prisoners.

"Then who wants to help?" she challenged.

"Are you the cops?" A prisoner shouted.

"Sketch artist. So, no, if we're being technical," Parker stated, her hands moving to rest on her hips. "Now that we know that, who wants to give me some information? Anything I should know?"

Twenty-four minutes later, after two minute talks with twelve different prisoners, Parker had the notes page on her tablet filled with information on Clay Parker. She took a small bow for the prisoners and retreated to Barry.

He was thoroughly explaining some science talk to Joe when she arrived. His eyes averted from the bottle in his hand to her and he cut himself off, allowing her to speak.

"The dude was trapped in here. There's no sign of footprints outside the window or anything super obvious, as far as I know. I checked his name on the list of people affected by the Accelerator-- nothing came up. I'm researching family members with the same name and trying to find out who his girlfriend is..." Parker stopped talking, due to Barry freezing.

"Is that Parker Sylas?"

Parker's mouth dropped. A grin fell onto her lips and she spun around, almost not believing her ears.

Sure enough, Henry Allen stood in the doorway of the cell. He was handcuffed and a guard held his elbow, but he was there.

"Henry!" Parker gleefully shouted as Barry yelled, "Dad!"

Barry dropped his science gear and raced to Henry, holding onto his hand like a lifeline.

Parker would have stepped away, if Henry hadn't made a motion, reaching for her hand.

Parker looked at Barry for confirmation, Barry grinned and nodded, and Parker slipped her frail fingers into the palm of Henry's hand.

"Word around here is that Parker pulled a Shawshank," Henry said, glancing back and forth between the two kids.

"You would be correct. And none of the other prisoners heard or saw anything," Joe explained.

"Well, they wouldn't talk to you about it," Henry scoffed.

"I got a few things out of some prisoners," Parker said.

"Which still leaves us with not a lot to go on," Barry said.

Henry squeezed Barry's hand. "If there's anyone who can figure out how he got out of here, it's you, son."

The lingering guard decided to step up and tug on Henry's elbow.

Parker and Barry slipped their hands out of Henry's and interlocked their own fingers together instinctively.

"Duty calls," Henry muttered.

Barry popped his head around the door and watched his dad walk away, the ghost of a smile on his face. He turned and faced Joe, his eyebrows raised.

"So, my dad just happened to stop by?"

"The guard owed me a favor."