In the hallway outside of Julian's room, Barry saw Detective Patterson walking just ahead of him. He called his name, jogging to catch up with him. 

"Barry Allen," he greeted, slowing. "Don't you ever work? Where's your kid?"

"She's with our family right now. I just want to make sure Julian's okay," said Barry quickly, as they arrived outside of his room. 

"Well, I'm about to take his statement," said Detective Patterson. 

"Right, right, but would it be okay if I talked to him before you went in? I just, uh, we're pretty close."

Patterson checked his watch. "Yeah. Make it quick."

"Always. Thank you," breathed Barry. He slipped through the door Patterson had already cracked open, then closed it behind him. 

"Wow," said Julian. He was standing, though hunched over, clearly still a bit weak. "A hospital visit. Didn't think you'd miss me that much." 

"What'd the Doctors say?" asked Barry politely. 

"Concussion and frostbite. I'll be dandy in a few days."

"Good news. I'm glad you're gonna be all right."

Julian was tired of the formalities. Turning to face Barry, he sighed, "As much as I appreciate your outburst of emotion, I think we both know the real reason you're here. Your friend, Caitlin Snow, she's a meta, and not one of the friendly ones."

"She's sick, Julian," he defended softly. 

"She is a bloody menace!" yelled Julian, holding his bandaged arm in the air to show Barry. 

"Julian... Man, I know you think getting powers is this binary game, that you're either good or evil, but life isn't like that for Meta's. Caitlin-- she's a good person. I'm begging you: don't turn her in. I will do anything you want, but please don't do this to her," he pleaded. 

Julian let a short silence fall between them as he pondered it. He said, blandly, "I got hit pretty hard, and I don't have the foggiest idea of who even kidnapped me at all," when he had decided. 

Barry breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, man," he said, and shook Julian's hand in pure gratitude. "Thank you," he said again. He started to leave.

"There is one thing you can do for me, mate," said Julian slowly. 

"Anything," said Barry eagerly. 

"Quit."

Barry froze. "What?"

"Tender your resignation from the Central City Police Department. I can overlook the unexplained absences, the constant overlooks for the rules and regulations. You have a baby, sure, whatever. But your moral compass is broken, my friend. I pointblank refuse to work with someone whose sense of right and wrong is as flippant as the weather; someone who thinks is friendship is more important than justice. You're unfit to be a CSI. Barry Allen has no place in law enforcement," Julian told him; the gist of an argument he had been waiting to exert since he started working with the man. "Now, do we have an agreement or would you like the Detective to meet that girl?"

Barry couldn't protest it. He, in trying to save his friend, had left himself vulnerable to an attack that he was helpless from. He had pledged an offer to Julian. He was unable to refuse it, and he wouldn't, because Caitlin needed his help. 

So, he sucked in a fast breath, bit his lip, then opened the door for Detective Patterson. "He's all yours," he said, trying his best to leave the distaste out of his voice. 

 xxxx

Barry saw no choice in waiting to gather his things from his shared office in the CCPD. He headed there, first. He found a discarded box hanging by the door and he started to pack his files, his books. He waited to pack his desktop. 

By the time he reached his desk, a photo of Parker, Melody, and himself, one of the firsts days out of the hospital, Iris and Joe had discovered the news. The two, Melody tight in Iris' arms, marched into the room. 

"Hey, we just heard from Singh," said Iris, stopping in front of his desk.

Barry decided to ignore the statement, for the time being. He didn't know how he was going to support her and keep S.T.A.R. Labs running without a job. He assumed he was going to have to face the reality of it when he started speaking to his family. They were going to bring it up, if he didn't. 

He raised his head to speak. It was then he saw his life in Iris' arms, and every sliver of doubt he had in his heart was postponed. He was going to work it out for her; there was no option when it came to her. 

"Hi, bitty girl," he whispered, a smile lighting up his face. He held out his arms and held her softly in his arms. He kissed her forehead. "Did you have a good day with everyone? If you didn't, that's cool, too. Your super cool Dad's got a big surprise for you when we get home. How do you feel about homemade mac-n-cheese? I think I can find Mommy's Cookbook that we never, ever touched, or else we'd have died from poison, probably."

"Barry," said Iris softly, gaining his attention. "You quit. What is going on?"

"I didn't really have a choice," cooed Barry. He aimed it at Melody, speaking in odd tones and pulling silly faces because, at the moment, all he wanted was to see her smile. 

"What do you mean you didn't have a choice?" asked Iris, confused. 

"Julian. You quit, he keeps his mouth shut about Caitlin," guessed Joe. 

Iris inhaled a frustrated breath. "That son of a bitch."

"Ah, ah, profanities around a child are prohibited, thank you," said Barry cheerfully. 

Joe chuckled, muttering, "As if she hasn't heard enough from her mother."

Iris' look of anger wasn't enough to scold Joe, in Barry's opinion. 

He said a mildly aggressive, "Well, we don't have to worry about that anymore, do we?" Changing the subject, he continued, "I don't know. He said I couldn't do something like protect Caitlin and still be a good CSI. Maybe he's right."

"No, he's not," said Iris at once. "Barry, you are an incredible CSI and no one in this building cares more about helping people find justice than you. And that was long before you were the Flash. This lab, it's your life."

"She's my life," corrected Barry, placing his head on Melody's. "All of you are. Wally and Caitlin and Cisco and what I have left of Parker. If these past few months have taught me anything, it's that I would give up everything I have to keep you all safe. No regrets."

Joe looked upon his son apologetically. "Every time I think you've run out of ways to be a hero, you show me one."

"Do you want us to join you and Mel tonight?" asked Iris.

"Uh, I think we're gonna spend the night alone, thanks. Just one of those days where i'm missing her more than usual, you know..."

xxxx

Barry couldn't cook. So, for another night, he made a baked potato for himself and settled Melody with canned food because he was helpless when it came to the kitchen. He left a reminder on the fridge to buy a real cookbook. When he had the time, he promised himself he would learn immediately. 

Also following a trend, he decided to watch some other home movies from a CD collection Caitlin had gifted Melody on her anniversary of being alive for a month. She had a collection of videos from every month, thanks to Caitlin. Barry liked to see them; part of him thought Parker had asked for them to be made, specifically for him. 

He didn't bother to watch a new one, that night. He found the first disc in the collection to watch again. It contained a few videos from the first day Melody was brought into the world. 

"To whoever's watching this," greeted Barry, filming from his front camera. He had been sitting across from Parker on the hospital bed. "You all missed it, but I just got Park to admit, seven months later, that she only named Melody that to sing songs from The Little Mermaid 2."

"Sorry I wasn't about to name my only born child Barrieta," Parker's voice was heard from outside of the camera's view.

"It was a joke!" groaned Barry, flipping the camera to face entirely on his wife. "Remember when you wanted to name her Waluigi, had she been a boy? Or Skeletor."

"I changed her middle name to Skeletor on her papers, by the way," she admitted, pausing to yawn. She let her head fall against the headboard. "Sorry, Mrs. Allen. You're important, but not as important to me as Skeletor."

"I don't know if you're kidding or not," said Barry. 

"Good luck finding that name on key chains."

Parker was tired, her eyes droopy and her hair messy. Her glasses were crooked on her face and she slouched even against the hospital bed. She was barely able to open her eyes up all the way. The conversation hadn't helped excite her into feeling more alive. 

"Anyway, Cisco wants us at the Cortex for celebratory cake, so we're documenting Melody's first trip from the hospital and to the Cortex. We'll be using a car. I'll be driving, so we'd better be going," suggested Barry. 

It was that exact moment Parker's face lit up, because he had inadvertently quoted a song from The Little Mermaid 2. Grinning, she sang the next line: "Look at her, isn't she glowing?"

Barry sighed. "Why didn't we just name her Skeletor so this couldn't happen?"

Swapping the original lines for her own, Parker continued to sing, "Down to the Cortex we go, down to a world I know--"

"You came up with this seven months ago, didn't you?" 

"There's never been, not ever before, a child born of Speed Force."

"What will you do if she gets powers?"

Parker stopped the song to scrunch her face, distraught by the idea. "God help me if I have to deal with two super-powered Allen's. Or, maybe I'll be in the grave by then and she'll be all your problem."

"What if she has resurrection powers?" asked Barry. 

"Things we shouldn't talk about with video evidence? Barry, this is a terrible home video, turn it off. Sorry, baby girl!" said Parker. 

"What if Melody doesn't see this?"

"Sorry, Cisco!" she said. She looked above the camera, presumably towards Barry. "What, you know he's the only other person who would watch these stupid videos."

"They're not stupid, they're memories."

"Terribly filmed memories. You can't even film without shaking the camera."

"Wow, I wonder why!"

"I didn't break your hand. Technically, it was your fault." 

"How?!"

"You married a woman who has the strength of ten thousand Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's, then proceeded to have her push out a seven pound baby and be near."

"I like that you almost dropped our brand new kid doing the quotations," complimented Barry. 

Parker winked, blowing him a kiss. "Well, you know, it's not Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson without them."

"Should have just named her that."

"We're going to spend her whole life thinking of alternate names, aren't we?" 

"Or we'll just add them to her middle name. Melody Nora Skeletor 'The Rock' Allen?" 

"Beautiful."

Barry took the remote from Melody's hands and paused the video. It ended a little after that, with a goodbye to the camera and other one-liner's from Parker. He turned the television off. 

Melody frowned up at her father, unhappy about not being able to hear Mommy's voice any longer. 

"Resurrection powers?" wondered Barry. "Got any of those?" 

Melody continued to stare at her father. Her frown randomly turned upside down without any action from him. Her toothless smile made him laugh. 

He swept her up from the couch and started towards the bedroom to put her down for the night. She mumbled little happy nothings as he swayed through the hallway, his fool-proof routine to get her to easily fall asleep. Not a night had gone by where it hadn't worked. 

Barry laid her in the crib, then decorated Parker's shirts around her head and abdomen for her to cuddle into. He covered her with the furry red blanket, hanging over her crib for a little while to watch her little green eyes close.

"We'll see Mommy again someday," he promised her quietly. "When we do, we'll see how long your middle name has gotten, yeah?"