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The next couple weeks went by and Barry didn't see much of his friends or family. He saw Joe at work, but that was about it. The others had stopped by a few times at the precinct, but Barry was busy working. Work wasn't exactly a place to hang out or mend a relationship. He stopped a few metas... on his own. It was easier to do with Team Flash's help, but not impossible to do without them.

Barry was making more progress in creating Gideon. He was certain making her would take a while, but he had been thinking about it ever since he first learned of his role as her creator. He would have to make her at some point or she would fade out of existence. And being alone gave him plenty of time to work on creating her.

In all honesty, every time Barry saw Joe at work, he wanted to tell him he had had enough space and was sorry for pushing all of them away. But he restrained himself from doing that. As much as he wanted to forgive his family right on the spot for what happened in the pipeline, he couldn't. There was a lack of trust there now. He wanted to forgive them, but he knew it would be hard for them to function as a team if he felt like he had to watch his back. He never had before, but after being shot in the back by them, literally, he was slightly afraid of it happening again. What if another Zoom came along and they decided they had to lock him up for his own good again? He doubted they would almost kill him again. He knew they never meant to do that in the first place and would take precautions if they ever felt they had to lock him up again to make sure he wouldn't be physically hurt when they did. But what about emotionally? That was what really hurt about this entire situation. Not one of them stayed with him. As they had left, Barry had wanted to scream, "Don't leave me alone here! Please!" and he had… after they were already gone.

Truth was, Barry didn't like being alone. Which was ironically exactly what he was doing to himself now. They had left him alone and now he was pushing them away and was alone again. It was yet another one of the reasons why Barry wanted to forgive them. He was tired of being alone.

Before, when he disbanded Team Flash after the singularity, he had still lived with Joe. He could still go home and not be alone. But now he was entirely alone because not only had he disbanded Team Flash, but he'd moved out and was avoiding all of them. And he had no one to blame for that but himself and he knew it.

But it was more than just a lack of trust in all of them that was keeping him from wanting to spend time with them. Fact is, even if he felt he couldn't trust them as teammates right now, he was ready to forgive them for what they did and try to be friends, to be a family again. He was ready for that less than a week into avoiding them. But there was another reason why Barry couldn't let them back into his life. The memory of Zoom shoving a hand through his father's chest just because he was someone Barry loved haunted him. Barry didn't want there to be anyone for another Zoom to take from him like that.

Back at his apartment after work, Barry turned on the news. He'd been watching it a lot lately, mainly due to the fact that there were children disappearing from Central City, Keystone, and Coast City. And a lot of them at that. Any child from age twelve to seventeen could disappear, particularly ones from group homes. There were also a lot of children being deemed runaways, but Barry wasn't so sure. What if there was another reason those children were disappearing? What if it was the same reason the others were?

He'd been putting together a case for them and was pretty sure he knew where the kidnapper was going to strike next. It was a group home in Coast City. Barry would have to call in sick to work if he was going to check it out. Or perhaps if he just went over there tonight, he wouldn't have to worry about calling in sick. He could stake the place out for the evening, stop the kidnappers should they show up, and if they didn't show up, he could always race back to Central City in the morning and be on time for work.

His decision made, Barry sped over to Coast City.

AN: Sorry this chapter is so short. I promise the next one will be longer. I just feel really bad because my author's note is way longer than the chapter itself. There are some important things I need to address in this author's note. Really, I was considering just posting the author's note first and then continuing with the next chapter, but I don't really like doing that since I know what it's like to be super excited to see something has been updated, only for it to not really be updated, so I decided to write the next chapter before posting the author's note. I promise the next chapter will be longer.

spiderman1fan: I've decided I'm going to work in the Invasion! crossover. I'd toyed with the idea, but after you asked for it, I came up with a way for it to really work for this story. Thank you, :).

I also have decided I am going to bring Green Lantern into this fic. I think he would work really well when I get to the events of Invasion! and since this fic's version of Invasion! is going to be a bit different from the show's, Green Lantern's appearance will help it make more sense. His role here is also going to help contribute to the endgame plot of this, which involves Team Flash making amends. Green Lantern knows how to block out fear and he'll be able to tell that Barry is afraid of something and encourage him to get past it. I've been wanting to write fics with Hal in them for a while anyway. I love his and Barry's friendship in the comics and the show has teased him way too many times. First we have the end of season 1 with Ferris Air where Barry says one of the test pilots disappeared. Then we have season 2, where Barry is impersonating his doppelganger on Earth 2 and we see on the phone that one of his contacts is named Hal. And of course two of the others were Bruce and Diana which only made it worse seeing as we may never actually get to see any of them make an appearance on this show.

So, I've had some people give me some really negative reviews and messages about this story. I'm continuing it for those who enjoy it, but let's get one thing straight: I don't need reviews that debate with me about Team Flash, I don't need reviews telling me that you don't like the premise of the story and that they whole situation is OOC, (if you think that, then why did you click on it in the first place after reading the summary?), and I don't need reviews telling me you're going to quit reading it or you can't get into it. Seriously, what is the point of that? Why do you think I need to know that? Lots of these reviews have appeared in the form of guest reviews, so I don't have to approve them. Thing is, why would I approve a negative review? It's not constructive criticism; it's a flame. There is a reason lots of authors, and actors for that matter, actually never read their reviews. Writing and acting are vulnerable things where people put their work out there, and in my personal opinion, if you only have something negative to say, just click off the fic or put down the book. I've come across several fics where I've chosen not to even click on them because I can tell from the summary that I am not going to enjoy them. I've come across several that I've ended up not enjoying, and I don't take the time to tell the author I hate their work. I click off it and go read something else I actually enjoy. I am also not going to approve of a guest review that is trying to debate with me about Team Flash. I honestly get enough of that kind of thing on sites like youtube and tumblr and I really don't need it here too. This is a place where I am coming to write a story for those who might enjoy it, and while I may say some things in my authors' notes, that is NOT to start a debate. That is to explain why I may write something a certain way.

I wanted to explore some of Barry moving forward without Team Flash. I didn't really want them to become a team again solely because Barry needs their help to take down any and all metahumans. I want it to be something bigger and I want it to be more personal too. I want them to realize that Barry can function without them as the Flash and for it to be more of a personal, family/friend connection for them to get back together. Otherwise, the only time Barry might need their help is because of some big crisis like in Invasion! He will get Team Flash's help when the dominators invade, but that won't automatically make it so they are back together and everything is fine again. That is why I talked about some of the powers he has in comics that should make it so he can get along without them. I want the reason for Team Flash to get back together to be because personal connections between friends and family are important. I also want Team Flash to realize that they have hurt Barry and sometimes you can go too far with that. Sometimes, after things accumulate, something like what happened in the pipeline can be the tip of the iceberg. Thing is, on the show, Barry lets Team Flash get away with a lot. I don't actually hate Team Flash. That is something I have said before. I just really don't like the way they treated Barry in season three. Before it was always just a few incidents here and there like the incident in the pipeline that had me angry with them. Other than that, I never had a complaint about their characters. But then I watched the first half of season three and I got angry with them, especially Cisco. It's not that I want to dislike their characters. I don't actually; I just still remember having hated them at a time.

As for the entire fic being OOC because Team Flash would never do this to Barry, which is something one of my guest reviewers said, well, if that's what you think, then I don't see why you would click on the story in the first place. Fact is: the only thing that is different from the actual show is them lowering the temperature on him. And they didn't think it would hurt him. He heals and they thought they would be back sooner. I thought I at least sort of explained in chapter one that the reason they did that was because when they finally opened the door to Barry's cell, they wanted to talk to him, to calm him down, and didn't want him to bolt the moment they open the door. If his muscles were stiff from the cold, it would be harder for him to run away and they'd have a chance to talk to him, to most likely apologize to him. But they accidentally almost killed him in doing that because they were gone longer than they thought they would be. I'll go more into detail with that reasoning later as Team Flash tries to explain themselves in a future chapter.

Also, as I mentioned in this chapter, the reasons he has for asking for some space have a lot more to them than just not trusting Team Flash or being angry with them. Yes, he is having some trouble trusting them after all of that, but he is also afraid of what happened to his father, (and his mother for that matter), happening to any of them. Both of his parents have now been taken from him. So Barry is left to wonder: Who is next? That makes it more than just a matter of forgiving them or learning to trust them again. He also mentioned in chapter one to Joe that he was afraid Zoom would kill them after they left him in the pipeline, which is honestly a legitimate fear. It would have been awful if Zoom had killed Joe too on the show when he captured him. At the end of the day, you have to remember, Barry loves each and every one of them. Yes, he's having some trouble trusting them right now, but the fact that he loves them is never going to change.

If you have something positive to say or constructive criticism, please leave me a review. I always appreciate it when people give me positive feedback or constructive criticism. Flames on the other hand are not welcome. I understand that I can't control what other people do or say to me, but I can choose to delete guest reviews that come in the form of flames and I can choose not to read the entirety of a review that is a flame.

-DragonsintheMoonlight