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"SECOND ROBBERY this week. The teller I.D'd Clyde Mardon as the shooter." Joe West told his partner as they exited the bank and moved towards the street.

"What?" Detective Chyre exclaimed in disbelief as he tilted his head a bit to the side. "Oh jeez, the Mardon Brothers are back?"

Before Joe could comment on his partner's last remark, Captain Singh stepped into the scene. "What do we got?" The captain asked them as Joe passed him the printed mugshots of the Mardon Brothers.

"Perps took the bank, shot out the camera, and as a chaser, killed the security guard over there." Joe explained as the captain studied the pictures then the dead body that is now covered. "I've got unis kicking in the doors of known Mardon Brothers associates."

"CSI been over it?" Singh asked Joe with his back turned. Sensing Joe's hesitation he glanced around the crime scene to find one half of the duo. Evelyn Sutton had occupied herself with studying the pavement around her.

"Uh, they just got on it but uh—" Joe finally begun to answer the captain's question once he knew he was going to spot what was missing.

"Sutton." The captain turned to the brunette that knelt in front of the crime scene. She had been examining the tire tracks that were left behind by the getaway car. She wished that Barry were here to help determine what car this was. He always had a gift at guessing the accurate answer from things like car tracks to murder weapons. Normally, this wouldn't be too much of a struggle but cars were never her expertise. "Where's Allen?"

"Huh?" Evelyn peeked up at the sound of her name. She subtly sent glances to Joe praying he'd step in, but even he was lost for words. Although, it wasn't necessarily Joe's fault for not coming up with a clever excuse for the boy who was like a son to him. When it came to someone who's constantly late, you tend to run out of excuses. And Barry Allen has exhausted all the excuses in the world.

"Where's Allen?" He repeated himself rolling his eyes upon seeing her dumbfounded expression. "Allen? Your partner? Barry?" He elaborated losing all the patience in his voice.

"Oh! Uh—" The captain growing irritated cut her off before she can continue with her response that was indeed going nowhere, so she wasn't in no way complaining.

"You guys can't keep covering for him." He scolded Joe and Evelyn. His eyes going back and forth between the two. "If he's not here now, I'm gonna have to carry on this investigation without him."

As if he was psychic, Barry appeared right on time next to Joe. Any second later and he'd be off the case. "Sorry I'm late, Captain Singh." He greeted the captain with his overused and vague apology.

"What was is it this time, Mr. Allen?" Captain Singh asked Barry clearly annoyed with his constant tardiness. "Did you forget to set your alarm clock?" He added sarcastically.

Barry shook his head vigorously ready to ramble his way out, but Singh beat him to it. "Before you answer, I should remind you the excuse you gave last time was car trouble. Want to know why that one was particularly memorable?"

"I do not own a car," Barry replied flatly replaying the incident in his head. Evelyn stifled a giggle at the memory. She had to admit that wasn't his best excuse.

"He was running an errand for me." Joe finally stepped in with an excuse for Barry's late appearance. "Sorry, I didn't think it would be too much trouble this time since Evelyn was here to get a head start." Joe flashed Evelyn a look to play along although the look wasn't needed.

"It's true. I was more than happy to work alone until Barry could join us." Evelyn chimed in finding her voice.

Joe glanced at Evelyn briefly before he turned to face Barry. "Uh, Barry did you get me what I asked for?"

Barry looked at Joe a bit confused before the gears in his head started turning. "Yeah, yeah, I did." Barry began digging around in his bag a bit then pulled out some kind of food wrapped up. "I have it right...here." He said slowly before he handed it over to Joe. "I had a few bites of it so..."

Joe said nothing but instead gave him a look that pleaded he get to work. Joe nodded his head at Evelyn and Barry rushed over to her. He mumbled a soft hi which she returned in a whisper since they both were afraid the captain would get mad if he heard them talking because Barry was already late.

Barry put on his gloves as he laid down on the pavement examining the scene. Captain Singh, Joe, and his partner along with Evelyn surrounded Barry. After seeing what he needed to make an analysis, Barry shifted up to his knee. "Getaway car's a Mustang Shelby GT500." Joe pulled out his pad and began writing everything down in his notes.

"Shelby's have a rear super-wide tire specifically to that model." Barry pointed to the tire tracks as he explained. Evelyn crouched down beside him to get a better look and understanding. "12 inches with an asymmetrical tread."

"And there's something else." Barry said to Evelyn as he pointed it out. Evelyn looked closer at it as Barry stood up and took a pen from the jacket pocket of Joe's partner muttering thanks. He used the pen to pick up a piece of the evidence embedded in the dirt. He brought the pen up so it was leveled with his and Evelyn's face. As if having the same thought process, they both sniffed it. Evelyn gagged to herself as Barry made a face while he quickly looked away.

"Fecal excrement." They said in unison.

"Animal I'd guess." Barry said aloud but more so to Evelyn as he placed the evidence in a baggy.

"My dad gave me that pen....before he died." Detective Chyre told Barry causing Evelyn to frown and Barry's eyes to widen slightly.

"Sorry." Barry sighed.

Captain Singh and Detective Chyre left to talk to some more witnesses as Joe made his way over to Evelyn and Barry. "Overslept again?" Evelyn asked Barry as she stood to her feet dusting the dirt off her jeans. Barry copied her actions.

"How'd you know?" Barry asked her with a flustered smile.

"Lucky guess." She said with a giggle. Barry always tended to oversleep. It's a habit that unfortunately, in his line of work, needed to be broken.

"You really need to work on getting here on time Barry." Joe hissed as he reached the two of them. Barry's mouth opened then shut when he couldn't think of the proper response. "I can't keep saving your ass. You're an adult learn to show up on time." Joe finished scolding Barry.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry." Barry told him flatly. "I will try to get here on time." He tried to reassure him, but Joe didn't buy it one bit.

"Mhm, that's what you said last time." Joe mumbled before heading off towards his partner.

"Joe!" Barry called after him.

"Go process the evidence." Is what Barry received as his response. Barry lazily threw his hand up swatting the air giving up.

"So..." He had begun as he looked at Evelyn with a frown. "Looks like no particle accelerator for us."

"No particle accelerator." She agreed. Her voice deflated.

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Evelyn sat at her desk going over some paperwork. Barry hovered over his computer printing out more copies of the Mardon Brothers mugshots. The noises from the machines, the scratches from Evelyn's pen as it made contact with the documents, and Barry typing were the only noises heard from their lab. Others would find it tedious but to Evelyn and Barry, it was pretty calming.

"Okay, I'm ready to see this atom smasher...smashing." Iris's voice suddenly rang throughout the room causing Evelyn to jump in her seat. Iris made her way inside the lab and towards the pair.

"There was a shooting today." Barry had begun to break her the bad news while he looked up at Iris from the monitor. "Your dad needs us to process some evidence, which means I don't know if we're going to be able to make it to S.T.A.R. Labs." Barry added as he made his way towards another one of the many computers in this lab. However, they all have completely different functions.

"But seeing this thing turn on is like you guys dream. It's all you two dorks have been talking about. Your sad, little nerdy dream." Iris exclaimed as she stood beside Barry's desk picking at his fries. "Besides, I cancelled a date for this."

"Oh, who with?" Evelyn cut in excitedly. Iris's eyes widened with excitement, but she didn't get to answer nor fill Evelyn in with the latest gossip when Barry spoke up.

"Hands off my fries." Barry told her as he playfully pulled the fries out of her reach and up to his chest. "Unbelievable." He mumbled as he headed back over to the previous computer.

"I'm stress eating over my dissertation." She retorted as she followed after him. "We started selling cronuts at Jitters. I ate two today." She picked up another one of his fries. "If I don't graduate soon, I'm gonna be more muffin top than woman." She plopped the fry into her mouth as Barry smiled to himself at her comment.

"You look amazing," Barry told her confidently, and Evelyn internally was proud of Barry. Lately, he has been going a bit out of his comfort zone when it came to trying to get Iris to understand how he truly felt about her. Evelyn told him he should just be blunt about it and tell her. Of course, he disagreed.

Iris scoffed and went to pick up one of Barry's magazines. He turned around to mask his disappointment from her but Evelyn saw it. A frown tugged at her lips. She never really understood how Iris couldn't see how much Barry was into her. It was pretty obvious. Is Iris really that blind or was she not great at observations?

"What is so important about that particle accelerator anyway?" Iris asked earning a scoff from both Evelyn and Barry.

"Seriously?!" Evelyn exclaimed and Iris's mouth gaped.

"I'm serious." Iris chuckled.

"Harrison Wells work in quantum theory is light-years ahead of anything they're doing at cern." Barry told her with a grin.

"You're doing that thing where you're not speaking English." Iris said. She had absolutely no idea what anything that came out of Barry's mouth meant.

"Okay..." Barry trailed off as he walked over to the board and drew a dot at the center. "Just imagine that that dot is everything the human race has ever learned until this moment."

"Does that include twerking?" Iris joked with mock disgust on her face as Barry continued to draw a larger circle around the preexisting dot.

"That is everything we could learn from the particle accelerator." Barry closed out his statement along with his diagram. "It's a whole new way at looking at physics."

Evelyn stood up with her coffee mug in hand and came out from behind the desk. "The particle accelerator will literally change the way that we think about everything." Evelyn added with a grin as she made her way towards them making wild gestures with her free hand.

Iris looked between the two. They now stand beside one another full on grinning. In her opinion they're way too excited over this thing, but then again she never truly understood science the way they did. "You two literally need to get a relationship."

"Hey." Iris peeked up at a thought that crossed her mind. "You two should date."

Barry and Evelyn's smiles dropped as they glanced at one another. The thought of that made them shudder. It's not that it's an awful thought. It's just that they always saw one another like family. Barry was like a little brother to Evelyn just like Iris was like a little sister. Barry felt the same way when it came to Evelyn. She was like a sister who shared his love of science, and it was nice that he could talk to someone about it without them getting bored or confused.

"Uh, Barry's a little too young for me.." Evelyn said awkwardly and Barry nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Iris said with her nose scrunched. "Besides you guys dating is equivalent to me and Barry dating." She joked and Barry's face fell, but of course, Iris didn't catch it.

"Hey, leave them alone. They're working." Joe said making his presence known.

"Hi, dad." Iris greeted him when a beeping noise is heard stealing Evelyn and Barry's attention.

"Your test thingy is done." Iris stated the obvious glancing over her shoulder at the monitor. Evelyn and Barry rushed over to the computer to look over the results.

"I think the Mardon Brothers are hiding out on a farm." Barry said as he sat in the nearest chair. Evelyn stood beside him looking at a now printed copy of the results. "The fecal matter I found on the street, it was cow manure. Which contained traces of oxytetracycline." Barry added as he glanced up at his partner.

"It's an antibiotic." Evelyn said. Her eyes never left the paper. "There are only four farms in the area that still use it in their feed." She glanced up from the paper. Her eyes drifted from Joe to Barry.

"Bet you find a really sweet Shelby parked at one of them." Barry chimed in handing over the document to Joe.

"Dad, seeing how Barry and Evelyn solved your poop problem..." Iris had begun as she stood up using her arm to pull Joe into a side hug. "How about letting them go to S.T.A.R. Labs?"

Joe glanced at the two of them. Evelyn pouted like a child as Barry smiled nervously. After giving it some thought, Joe sighed. "Fine, go."

"Yes!" Iris exclaimed, and Evelyn squealed. Barry thanked Joe excitedly as he went to grab his jacket and Iris followed after him.

"Hey Eve, you coming?" Barry asked from the doorframe.

"Yeah, let's go Evelyn." Iris said cheerfully.

"I'll meet you guys there." She said as she grabbed her belongings from her desk. "I'm gonna head home and change first."

"Okay," Iris said as she went ahead not before flashing Evelyn a smile.

"Text me when you arrive so I can tell you where we are." Barry told her feeling a bit bad that she was showing up on her own. However, it didn't bother Evely, so she felt he had nothing to feel guilty about.

"Will do." She said as she grabbed her bag and headed towards the door.

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Evelyn arrived at her apartment ten minutes after leaving CCPD. The first thing she did was check her home answering machine along with her mail. She then did exactly what she returned home to do. She changed out of the clothes she wore to work and into something more comfortable. It was supposed to get cold tonight, so she changed into a pair of dark blue jeans and a black long-sleeved shirt.

She put on her boots then grabbed her leather jacket on the way out of her bedroom. She quickly went inside the bathroom to make sure her hair was perfect and the curls were still cooperating. After fixing a couple of strands, she headed into the living room and shrugged on her jacket. She pulled out her phone to text Barry when she froze. She felt like something was off in her gut.

"Hello, Evelyn."

A/N:

rewritten: 2/4/22