"So that's why you were all staring at me."
Shawna laughed, the tension leaving her shoulders in one exhale. "I thought I'd been spotted by someone bad. I was about two seconds from walking out."
"Not at all," Barry said, his smile the picture of innocence. "My friend just didn't have the nerve to turn around and look at you himself. He's a little shy."
"That's exactly right," Cisco confirmed from the left.
"Very shy," Caitlin agreed from the right.
While Shawna's attention was on Barry, Jude fixed the back of his skull with a stare of such concentrated intensity that Barry actually shifted in his seat. The smile didn't waver, but his posture developed a subtle, involuntary stiffness — like a man who could feel something drilling into him from behind and was choosing, for social reasons, not to acknowledge it.
Shawna turned back to Jude, and her expression softened into something apologetic.
"I'm sorry — I should tell you upfront, I have a boyfriend." She glanced down at her drink. "He's in jail right now, but. I still really like him."
Jude let out a breath that was eighty percent relief and twenty percent theatrical regret.
"That's a shame. He sounds like a good person."
"Oh, he's really not."
The words came out before she could reconsider them, and then she was already going — hesitant at first, then not. Parker and his gambling. The borrowed money she hadn't known about until it was gone. The debts that kept compounding. She picked up a glass almost without noticing and started drinking while she talked, the way people do when they've been carrying something heavy and someone finally asks.
"I know how it sounds," she said. "I know. But I can't stop liking him even when I'm furious at him. That's the worst part."
"It's not the worst part," Jude said. "The worst part is that you've been carrying this alone." He refilled her glass, then flagged the bartender for a bottle. "Most people would've been gone a long time ago. Staying — that's not stupidity, that's loyalty. It's rare. People don't talk about how rare it is."
Something in Shawna's face shifted. She picked up the glass and took a long sip and kept talking.
In Jude's earpiece, Wells's voice arrived at a murmur.
"Found her. Shawna Baez — several prior offenses in the system, all misdemeanors. Habitual bar disturbances. Her boyfriend is one Clay Parker, currently serving time at Iron Heights for gambling, robbery, fraud, and some additional charges. He has substantial outstanding debt with at least two loan operations." A pause. "I also pulled the security footage from this bar. Approximately one month ago, she lifted wallets from several intoxicated patrons. When someone raised the alarm, she vanished from the middle of the crowd — and reappeared on camera directly in front of the bar entrance in the same frame."
"Teleportation," Cisco breathed. "That's exactly like an Enderman. She's a thief, she teleports — who came up with that one? Actually, that's pretty good."
"I still think 'Peek-a-Boo' is cuter," Caitlin murmured.
"Giving nicknames is my job—"
"Can't I have one?"
"Both of you stop," Barry whispered. He watched the other end of the bar, where Jude was leaning slightly forward, listening to Shawna with the focused attention of a therapist and the strategic patience of a chess player. "What do we actually do? Do I run back to the lab, change, come back—"
"Or," Wells said, very dryly, "you could check what's happening three feet in front of you first."
The three of them looked.
"—and honestly, even when he did things that hurt me, I kept making excuses for him," Shawna was saying. She swirled what remained of her drink. "Which probably makes me an idiot."
"It makes you someone who loves someone," Jude said. "That's different. The problem isn't you." He shook his head, genuinely indignant on her behalf. "He's the one who doesn't understand what he has."
"Jude," Shawna said, setting her glass down with the particular emphasis of a person who has just decided something. "You get it. If Parker wasn't in my life—" She laughed softly. "I'm serious. When does he ever actually do anything for me?"
Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin watched in collective silence as Jude, the man they had collectively used as a prop in a cover story two minutes ago, proceeded to dismantle all of Shawna's social defenses through the application of genuine listening and very accurate observations about her life.
She had stolen from bars to cover Parker's debts. Jude said: you were trying to take care of someone you love, that's not nothing. She had let things go that she should have confronted. Jude said: you were being patient, and patient people are rarer than people realize.
By the time the second bottle was halfway gone, Shawna was talking to him like they'd known each other for years.
"Is this Jude?" Cisco said, at a volume only the earpiece could hear.
"Where did he learn to do that?" Caitlin whispered.
Why is he still single? Barry thought, and then felt bad about it.
Five minutes after that, Shawna's forehead made gentle contact with the bar and didn't come back up.
Caitlin rubbed her own arms slowly. "I'm never going drinking with him one-on-one. I just want to say that now, in advance."
"Do you think he might be a metahuman?" Cisco asked. He was only partially joking. "Because he was in Central City the night of the particle accelerator. Technically."
"Don't start." Jude rolled his eyes.
"Mission accomplished for the night?" Caitlin asked.
"Not yet." Jude checked his watch. "The substation worker. He has minutes before he clocks out."
"What do we do about Shawna?"
Jude looked at her — unconscious, head on the bar, apparently peaceful. He was quiet for a moment.
"Barry — take her to my apartment. Get Dr. Wells a cell sample so he can confirm whether she's genuinely a metahuman." He stood, pocketing his phone.
"Why your apartment?"
"Because I got her drunk." His voice was straightforward. "So it's my responsibility to make sure she's safe until she can take care of herself."
"And if the tests confirm she's metahuman?" Barry pressed. "We could take her to the pipeline right now. Lock it down clean."
"That's up to you." Jude shook his head. "I won't be part of that decision tonight."
He looked at Barry, and something in his expression made the conversation feel briefly less casual.
"She wasn't guarding herself with me. She trusted me. I'm not going to repay that by handing her over while she's unconscious." He picked up his jacket. "If you want to arrest her — fine. Come back tomorrow, suit up, and do it properly. I've already given you everything you need to find her again. If it takes two tries, it takes two tries."