Fatherly Love

After about ten minutes of joking around and examinations, Joe arrived. Cisco had notified him.

Joe rushed into the surgery ward and immediately wrapped Barry in a bear hug.

Holding Barry happily, Joe said, "My boy, you scared me to death."

Barry smiled, touched. "Joe, I'm fine. I recovered quickly. Look, I can jump and run around again."

After saying that, Barry mischievously hopped twice.

Joe patted Barry's arm, then seriously seized both of his arms. "Barry, I suggest you go back and focus on your job. You already have a job at the police department."

Barry asked in confusion, "Joe, you mean...?"

Joe sternly snapped, "Take off that red suit. Stop doing those stupid things, okay?"

Caitlin cleared her throat in agreement. She could not stand the superhero antics these men kept getting up to.

Joe glanced at Caitlin strangely.

Caitlin said, "Don't look at me. I support you."

Take off that red suit? How could that work? If Barry did not wear it and become The Flash, what would happen to the future? Lin Li did not care. As long as Barry ran fast enough to travel through time, Lin Li did not care what happened to the future. But Wells was anxious. He needed The Flash to appear and stabilize the future.

Dr. Wells said, "Detective, we all want what's best for Barry..."

Before Wells could finish, Joe cut him off. "If you wanted what was best for Barry, you should have talked him out of it instead of letting him go out there and gamble with his life. He almost died again."

Barry was deeply dissatisfied with Joe's words. He said, "Joe, you saw it too. There was a metahuman who could control the weather..."

"So what? You nearly got killed. You nearly died. You just run a little faster than normal. This is not something you can handle. Stop this foolishness."

Joe spoke harshly. He truly did not want Barry risking his life; it was far too dangerous. He had already planned to have a proper talk with Barry and tell him to stop this hero business. Seeing Barry lying in a hospital bed this time only made Joe feel even more strongly that it was too dangerous. Barry absolutely could not keep doing this.

Faced with Joe's lack of understanding, anger rose inside Barry. With restrained fury, he said, "I saved you. I saved Eddie. I saved everyone on the streets. Without me, all of you would have died. I have the ability to do these things, so I have to do them."

Joe folded his arms across his chest and rebuked him. "You think running a little fast and saving a few people makes you a hero? Makes you something special? Stop living in some hero fantasy, Barry. Lin Li is much stronger than you. Leave this kind of thing to him. You're still a child, my child. Stop indulging in your imaginary heroics."

Joe's rebuke enraged Barry. Barry shouted, "I'm not your child, Joe, and you're not my father."

"My father is suffering in prison, carrying a bellyful of injustice."

"That was caused by your misjudgment. This time was caused by your misjudgment too."

"I saved you. I saved Eddie. Yet you berate me like this and deny everything I've done. I don't know what I did wrong."

"I don't have the ability to save my father, but if I can save others from disaster or stop criminals from committing crimes, I will act without hesitation."

"I'm not some pet you raised. You can't stop me."

After shouting those words, Barry became a blur. A gust of wind swept through the surgery ward as yellow arcs of lightning flashed, and he vanished. His adoptive father's lack of understanding, support, and recognition of what he had done left him deeply hurt. Joe was the person closest to him—so why had he never understood what Barry wanted? Filled with anger, Barry sped away.

A burst of wind pressed against Joe's face. His eyes shimmered with tears as he watched Barry disappear before him. Barry's words—"I'm not your child, and you're not my father"—broke his heart. He had raised Barry for more than a decade, and their bond had been carved into his bones. Joe had long regarded Barry as his own son. At that moment, a father's love clashed with his child's choices, leaving him in anguish. Everything Joe wanted Barry to do was for Barry's own good, yet Barry simply could not understand.

Every father and child encountered such problems. A father's concern restrained the child, while the child only wanted his will to be affirmed.

This was a family matter, and the others had no way to intervene. Only after Barry left and Joe departed did the stifling atmosphere ease.

"The Flash had a falling-out with his adoptive father? Is Barry's hero plan going to fall apart?"

Cisco formed finger guns with his hands and pointed them around at the others, trying to get an answer. He liked being a hero's support crew, and he did not want to lose such cool action after only a dozen or so days.

Caitlin did not answer him. She simply shook her head and said, "Barry and Joe must both be hurting badly. They care so much about each other."

"This is something Barry needs to resolve himself. I believe he will resolve it. Right now, the most important thing is finding Weather Wizard."

Wells maneuvered his wheelchair and left the surgery ward after speaking.

Cisco followed Wells out of the surgery ward. He needed to go to the control room and monitor things while repairing the Lightning Suit.

Caitlin remained behind, preparing to tidy up the surgery ward. After all, this was her domain.

When she saw Lin Li standing there motionlessly, she called to him. "Lin Li? Why are you standing there like a wooden dummy? Or are you going to help me clean up the surgery ward?"

Lin Li shook his head as though waking from a daze. "Huh? I'm going to the underground training room."

Without the slightest consideration for her, he left, leaving Caitlin alone to clean up the surgery ward.

Caitlin continued tidying the surgery ward with an indifferent expression.

At the moment Barry had left, Lin Li felt the Speed Force in his mind abruptly expand from a speck of starlight. It rapidly increased in quantity, and his head once again felt as though it contained a mass of Speed Force, just like before.

So the Speed Force only emerged when Barry ran?

Lin Li considered it carefully. The Speed Force in his head made him deeply uneasy, especially because he could not control it. He had experienced what it felt like to use the Speed Force and knew what kind of godlike sensation it was. He had once hoped to obtain that power too, but the Speed Force had never responded no matter what he did, forcing him to give up.

He had originally thought that the tiny trace of Speed Force in his head would remain that way forever, like a speck of starlight that would neither increase nor diminish.

It was only when Barry started running that he felt it change.

The Speed Force once again shrouded his head. Why did it envelop his head? What was it covering or wrapping around? Yet this mass of Speed Force did not affect his brain function at all. It simply remained there quietly, warning him only when Barry's life was in danger.

There was definitely something strange about this mass of Speed Force in his head.

I need to study the Speed Force.

Having reached that conclusion, Lin Li headed straight for the control room. He downloaded everything related to Barry from the main computer, including Barry's physical data from the past two days. He needed to investigate why this Speed Force that belonged to Barry was inside his own head.

Lin Li's actions once again aroused Wells's suspicions, especially when he saw Lin Li download all of Barry's information onto his tablet and take it away for study.