Savior

Summary

Title: Savior
Author: PNZ
Fandom: Flash, Glee
Pairing: Barry/Blaine
Warnings: character bashing, discussion of murder
Summary: Barry decides proactive is his new favorite word. Good thing he has a whole bunch of friends to help him with his goals.
Note: Glee-AU from season 3 and on. Blaine never left Dalton. Flash, AU from the start. Canon? Who the fuck needs canon?

Barry finally couldn’t take it anymore. It had been twenty-three days in a row now, he had counted. He had made sure to log everything and make copies, including reports and screenshots of his time card. Then he took a screenshot of the time card the following week once someone had changed it. Someone had changed it to reflect a different schedule, one where Barry actually had his scheduled days off instead of being called in like everyone knew he was. But this could not carry on. He was exhausted. Not to mention it would be a problem for the lawyers should he have to testify.

Barry had tried to file a complaint, but that, too, seemed to have disappeared. Luckily, he had thought ahead and made copies of that as well. Taking a deep breath, he pushed send on the text message he had typed out on his phone.

From Barry: If you have some time…I need to speak with you privately, please.

It was agonizing waiting for a response, but Barry held himself still, finishing up the tasks he set for himself at his desk. The hope was that this would be the end of it, and he could take a few days off in a row. 

To Barry: Of course. I assume somewhere not my office?

From Barry: Yes, please. It’s sort of urgent. And somewhere we aren’t seen together. 

From Barry: Or, you can just come over for dinner. I’m about to leave.

Barry threw that last offer out there, as it was probably the most private place he knew, and no one from work would be interested in his home. 

To Barry: If Blaine is cooking, I am definitely there. 7 pm.

From Barry: Thank you.

All Barry could feel was immense relief. 

~~~

Barry had called ahead, of course, so that Blaine wouldn’t be surprised by the additional dinner guest. Blaine Anderson was many things, but easy-going about surprises wasn’t one of them. 

By the time Barry had gotten home and changed into more comfortable clothing, Captain David Singh had just rung the doorbell. 

“Can you finish setting the table outside?” Blaine asked Barry. “I’ll go let David in.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

A few minutes later, Blaine had joined Barry outside, with David following behind him. The three of them easily fell into small talk about what was going on in their lives and the idiocy of city bureaucracy. By the time dessert came around, David decided it was time to broach the subject of his visit. 

“So, Barry, want to tell me why I’m here?” He leaned forward to place a slice of the delicious-looking red velvet cake onto his own plate. “I believe the word ‘urgent’ was used.”

“You get the box, Bas, and I’ll pour out the coffee for everyone,” Blaine offered. 

Barry nodded and got up from the table to retrieve a file box that was off to the side. He placed it on one of the empty chairs next to him. “Thanks for coming tonight with almost no explanation, David. Captain.” 

“Calm down, Barry. You know you can come to me with anything,” the captain said with a hand up to stop him from rambling on. “I know we have been keeping our personal relationship quiet at the station, but that doesn’t mean my door is completely closed to you.”

Barry sighed. “I know, I know. But this–this is getting out of hand. I realize that I’ve only been working at the station for two years, but I would have hoped that the hazing or whatever it is that’s going on would have stopped by now.”

“Hazing? What are you talking about, Bar?” David took the offered documents from his CSI and started flipping through them as Barry started setting up his laptop.

“I’ll let you read through those while I get this up on the screen. You–I’m so sorry to be bringing this to you, but honestly, I just can’t take it anymore.” Barry sat back and drank his coffee while working on the laptop. 

“I really hope the two of you can come to some sort of solution on this because otherwise, I am going to suggest that Sebastian find a new job, David.”

David looked up sharply at Blaine, shocked at the statement. Then he went back to the documents in front of him with a new purpose. Suddenly things started to make more sense. He rearranged things so that he could compare them…and he wasn’t liking what he was seeing. 

“Did you make any attempt to see who was making the changes? And is this the first time it’s happened?”

Some of the tension seeped out of Barry’s shoulders. “No, I decided to leave that up to you and ‘The Powers That Be.’ And definitely not. This has been happening for almost as long as I’ve been working there. I just thought that my complaints were deemed unworthy. It’s only within the last six months when I noticed my card was changed — actually changed–that I figured out that my complaints were being blocked completely.”

Another folder was handed over. “Here are all the forms I submitted requesting my days off returned to me. Here are all the forms requesting I no longer be assigned to work with West. Here,” Barry pointed at the documents in a folder still in the box, “these are all the reports I actually filed for the cases I have worked on. Before they were submitted to you, they were somehow edited to have different names in them. I haven’t tried to speak with the officers involved because I don’t know if they know that the names have been changed. It’s not like anyone in the precinct pays me any mind. But it could also be that they just trust that the science reports are correct and add it to the files as-is.”

David took note of the bitterness in Barry’s tone. “Are things really so horrible for you there?”

Blaine and Barry shared a glance before Barry spoke. “West is still spreading it around that I somehow was living in his house when you and I both know that I despise him and never lived with him for a moment. Why any sane LEO would accept that he would receive custody of me, I have no idea.”

“They all pretty much think he got his job because of West and doesn’t have the skills to be there. And on top of that, West constantly dismisses his findings. Even though they are usually correct.” Blaine dug into his cake to stop himself from saying more.

“I am very close to proving, however, that West is behind me getting blacklisted at every other place that I interviewed.”

“I would very much like to hear about that, as well. But first, let’s deal with what’s in front of us.” David gestured at the laptop. “Show me what you have there, and then let’s go over all of this step by step. And then, I think, we’ll need to bring in Internal Affairs.”

It took the rest of the night, but between the three of them, they were able to put together a timeline of events and also work out more or less how many days Barry was owed–and who hadn’t been working their shifts. A definite pattern had emerged once they had put it all down on paper in an organized fashion. 

“The thing is,” Blaine began as he cleared all the dishes onto a tray, “they couldn’t have done all of this themselves. Someone who has access to the system–this specific system would have had to make the changes for them. I mean, the reports are all them, yeah.” David and Barry just nodded along with Blaine’s reasoning. “But the attendance records? Aren’t those restricted?”

Captain Singh sighed. “Yes, yes they are.” He sat there silently writing up a few notes as Blaine brought the tray inside to the kitchen. Barry busied himself with putting all the files back in order so that they could be packed up again. “Barry, I’m going to take this in for you to IA. No–” he stopped Barry from interrupting. “Hear me out. You can’t be seen going anywhere near Internal Affairs. I, on the other hand, always have to sign off on things. In fact, I’m going to take all of this home, make copies–”

“Those are your copies,” Barry interjected. 

“Oh, well, that makes things easier. Then I’ll take all of these home and get in touch with Ross now. Maybe I can meet with him tonight or in the morning and get things moving. Tomorrow you’ll work like normal, but hopefully, by the weekend…and then next week, you’ll be off. Barry, according to this, you’re owed a few months’ worth of vacation time. 

“You do understand that what they were doing is illegal, right? There is a reason you can’t work so many days in a row? And that they are–”

“Compromising cases by changing names? Yes. That’s why I kept copies of my reports on separate drives that were untouched. I’m not sure the detectives ever look at the reports beyond what I tell them, anyway.”

They all said their goodbyes, and Singh went off to his own home, phone already dialing as he got into the car. “Ross? It’s David. Tell me you have a few hours to come over for a drink.”

~~~

Blaine must have sent messages to the whole group about what was going on because Barry had been inundated by anticipatory text messages. He couldn’t see who was sending what, they were flying in so fast.

Does this mean we can have everyone for a rehearsal?

Are we all singing together?

I’ve forgotten what you looked like!

Can we schedule a physical get-together? Choreography, asshole!

He laughed out loud to himself and jotted quick replies in the affirmative before getting back to work. If he was going to be off for a while, then Barry wanted to make sure that he cleaned out his desk area of anything outstanding.

Yes, you assholes. We can totally get together and plan some stuff. How about a celebratory karaoke night next week? 

Barry smiled to himself as they continued to plan through the group chat, letting Blaine make the decisions needed. Of the two of them, Blaine had more free time this morning to play on the phone. If Blaine hadn’t been offered the lecturer position at Central City University Music Department, Barry would have gone in a completely different direction for his career path. Being blackballed for no reason whatsoever grated on him but did not stop common sense. He and Blaine had discussed it at length already. Once all of these ‘mishaps’ had been cleared up, there was a good chance that Blaine would start shopping around for a new place to teach or possibly for Barry to stop working and go back to school for another degree and broaden his options.

~~

Ross entered the quiet coffee shop, immediately spotting David Singh at the corner table. Flagging down the waitress as he made his way over, he placed his order and waited for David to finish whatever he was doing on the laptop in front of him before pushing over his own tablet.

“I have no idea what prompted all of this, but it sure is a hell of a mess.”

David raised his head at that before looking back down at the tablet to peruse the information in front of him. “Hmm. My own secretary, even. I’m not sure what prompted all of this–”

“Ah, I think I might have insight on that.”

David’s whole body snapped to attention at that.