Title: Shatter
Author: an-alternate-world
Rating: T
Characters/Pairing: Barry Allen
Word Count: 815
Summary: When Barry hears the news about Oliver, he's in the middle of processing a crime scene.
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for Arrow S03E09/S03E10.
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with The Flash, Arrow, The CW, DC Comics or anything else related to the universe.

Anonymous on Tumblr prompted a fic with the first sentence of: When Barry hears the news about Oliver, he...

When Barry hears the news about Oliver, he's in the middle of processing a crime scene. It's a Tuesday morning and Joe and Eddie are interviewing witnesses while other cops wander around collecting evidence and skirting the immediate crime scene so he doesn't snap at them that they're trampling something important. It doesn't initially appear that he's dealing with anything metahuman related - simply a case of wrong place, wrong time for a victim of a mugging who apparently tried to keep his possessions.

When his phone rings the first time, he half-peels off his black gloves and peeks at the screen. Felicity's face is flashing and he frowns, wondering why she'd be calling him. As far as he was aware, Caitlin had sent the DNA results back for who had killed Sarah - something that still seemed painful, and he didn't even know her that well - but it was unusual for Felicity to call him. It was also really terrible timing when he was in the middle of photographing blood spatter and collecting traces of soil and searching for skin cells of the perp.

His phone rings out and he mentally promises to call Felicity back as soon as he's done, but then his phone buzzes with a text message and he takes his glove off and frees it.

Felicity: URGENT. CALL ME.

He glances around the crime scene, how everyone is milling around and not particularly aware that he's about to break a rule. At the very least, he figures he can step away from this job - it's harder to call Felicity if he's in the middle of a fight with a meta determined to kill him.

He picks off his second glove, checks behind him that he's not about to disturb a goldmine of evidence, and sneaks away to the other side of the police tape. He dials Felicity's number and listens to the ringing buzz in his ear.

She picks up on the second ring, sounding breathless. He wonders if she'd just run across the room - or if she's in trouble.

"Hey, what's-"

"Oliver's dead," Felicity interrupts, her voice quaking and squeaky. "I didn't want to tell you but he-"

Barry's not sure what else Felicity says. His blood feels cold, colder than when Caitlin had been kidnapped a week ago, and his vision swims in front of him. Oliver's dead? He doesn't want to believe it, he can't believe it, because Oliver had been so careful, so strong, so important in guiding him and-

"Bar?"

A hand presses into his shoulder, dragging him away from the brink of despair. He wants to run, wants to run all the way to Starling City and demand to see Oliver's body because maybe then - only then - will he believe Oliver's actually gone.

The hand moves to slide along his back and he peers up at Eddie crouching beside him. It's only then that he realises he's sunk to the floor, his knees splaying his legs awkwardly beneath him, his hand in his lap - the call to Felicity still connected, he's not sure if she's still talking - and the stickiness of tears staining his cheeks.

"What's wrong?" Eddie asks, a line between his eyebrows betraying his concern. Even though Eddie's living with Iris, even though Eddie seems to know he has feelings for Iris, he can see the care and concern etched into Eddie's expression.

"A close friend- He- He-" Barry can't even say the words. His composure crumples in the worst of places - on the edge of a crime scene with plenty of colleagues around him - and Eddie tries to hush him until another hand settles on the back of his head, a hand that taught him how to catch a baseball and a hand that kept some of the nightmares away for years. He tilts towards Joe instinctively and allows himself to be folded into the tight embrace.

"This isn't the time for this," Joe whispers into his ear, his grip strong to crush some of the emotions that seem to be spilling through Barry uncontrolled. "Let's get you away, okay? I'll drive you wherever you want to go, kid."

Barry's not even sure where he wants to go but he accepts Joe's offer because he doesn't want to be around people from work who will see him grieving for someone they didn't even know he knew.

Joe helps him into the passenger seat of the patrol car and disappears for a few minutes, probably to tell one of the other techs to take over processing the scene. He looks at his phone when it buzzes in his hand, his lower lip trembling as he reads the words.

Felicity: What we do is dangerous, Barry. Oliver always wanted you to know that. Please keep safe.

~FIN~