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The day after Leonard's return, Joe got to the station early to finish filing his paperwork so that he'd have plenty of time to berate his 'partner'.
The man had taken down the Clock King without any casualties the day before and was probably 'walking on sunshine' and thinking that he'd come back to work with Joe still being in the dark about his secret relationship with his daughter.
Well, Joe huffed out a small laugh to his own thoughts, he had another thing coming.
But, when Detective Eddie Thawne came limping into the station, all thoughts of revenge swiftly flew from Joe's mind.
"What happened to you?" he asks, watching the younger man ease his way into his chair.
"I, uh," Eddie fakes a bright smile. "I tripped running down the stairs in my apartment building this morning. Should've tied my shoe laces," he shrugs, looking away. "What, uhm, what are you doing in early?"
"Fell down the stairs?" Joe repeats with as much sarcasm as he can. "Why don't you give me the facts, instead of fiction."
"It's fine," his partner assures him, keeping his attention to his computer that he's trying to bring to life. "I'm fine. Everything is fine."
Joe's about to push the issue, concerned that his partner might have gotten himself caught up in something over his head, when he sees a familiar face walking towards him.
"Morning, Joe!" Leonard hands over a cup of coffee to his foster father. "Is Captain Singh in yet?"
"No, not yet," the detective's brain clicks everything into place as he sits on the edge of Eddie's desk. "Is there something you want to tell me, Len?"
"Me?" Len lifts his eyebrows in shock. "Why would I have anything-Oh!" he turns to Eddie and gives him a smile with too much teeth. "Sorry about that, detective. You must be Eddie."
The blonde's shoulders visibly stiffen as he turns a pained smile to the other man, "Hey. Yeah, that's me."
"It's nice to finally meet my father's partner," Len takes the man's hand and gives it a firm shake. Joe notes the white knuckles with an inward sigh. "I'm Len. I hope we'll be able to talk more after I speak to the Captain."
"Sure," Eddie has to practically pry his hand out of Len's. "If you'll excuse me. I just need to do something...Over there."
The blonde detective walks very quickly towards the break room.
Joe turns a glare to his kid, "Please tell me you did not literally beat me to talking with Eddie about dating Iris."
"I'm home less than 24 hours and you're already assuming I'm up to no good?" Len sighs with a little flair. "Where has the trust gone?"
"Len," the detective warns him with a low growl. "What did you do to my partner?"
"I just did what you were planning on doing when you woke up early this morning," the younger man smirks. "He's brave, Thawne, but he's also a little bit of a flake."
"Leonard, you can't go around threatening police detectives," Joe hisses at him, eyes darting around the room to make sure he wasn't overheard.
"Didn't you hear the man?" Len shrugs. "He tripped."
When his foster father continues to glare at him, the younger man sighs again.
"Fine," he lifts his hands in surrender. "Next time I'll let you do all the threatening."
"Thank you," Joe smiles, patting his kid's shoulder good-naturedly. "It's my job as the father anyway."
"Good morning, Captain!" Barry calls out to the man from the lobby as he runs up the stairs to his lab. He wants to see his foster father and brother in the room where the detectives desks were, but he doesn't have time.
"Late again, Allen?" Singh growls at his cheery greeting. "Why can't you get your act together?"
'Because there was a close call with a broken traffic light this morning.' The brunette shrugs, jogging the rest of the way to his lab.
Singh shakes his head as he goes straight for his office. There's a young man with a buzzed haircut waiting for him in a guest chair.
"You my new trainee?" he guesses, taking his chair as he looks the kid over. "Straight out of the Air Force, right?"
"Yes, sir," Len nods, straightening in his seat by habit. "General Patton sent me here."
"Under your explicit request," Singh nods, remembering the paperwork he looked over for the sixth time the night before. "Why, might I ask, would a young man with so many successful missions under his belt want to put down roots in Central City."
"I have family here," Len smiles. "In fact, one of your lead detectives is my foster father."
"Oh?" the Captain hadn't gotten that tidbit of information in the paperwork. In fact, the information was so scarce it didn't really require the folder it was put into. "Does that mean you expect special treatment while you're training here, Snart?"
"No, sir," the younger man shakes his head.
"Do you think that, just because you know a few important people, that you'll be able to do things or get away with behavior 'other people' wouldn't dream of even trying?"
That gets him an interesting smirk, some sort of dark, hidden humor in the facial movement as the young man repeats, "No, sir."
"Good," Singh frowns. He's got a strange feeling about this one. "I'm putting you under West during your training until you're qualified to take the test."
"What are my duties, sir?"
"You're to follow West around like a personal servant and do as he says," the Captain smirks, thinking Joe might actually owe him for this later. "If you have any more questions, ask him. Don't come to me unless it's important."
"Aye, aye," Len rises in one fluid movement, forces the habit of saluting down as he curtly turns and goes for the door. He turns in the doorway to add, "Thank you, Captain Singh."
Then he leaves before the other man can say anything.
"So, you'll be riding with us for roughly six months," Eddie repeats with a grimace that he probably thought looked more like a smile. "Great."
"Don't worry about him," Joe chuckles, purposely not clarifying which 'him' he was referring to. "I'm sure we'll all make a great team."
"Do we just wait for the cases now?" Len asks, eyes scanning the room carefully.
"No," his foster father grins, pulling out a thick book from under his desk. "You get to go over the police codes for the different types of illegal activity we might encounter."
Len picks the book up and leafs through the pages, "Light reading material then." He looks to Joe sitting at his desk, "Can I read this in Barry's lab?"
"Since you don't have a place to sit yet," Joe shrugs. "It should be fine."
"Call me if you need anything."
Then the young man's off, striding to the upstairs lab with confidence as if he owned the place.
"He scares me," Eddie confesses once the young man's definitely too far away to hear him. "I can't believe he's related to you, Joe."
The detective gives his partner a dark look, "I can't believe you dated my daughter behind my back."
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