[There’s a hint of a reaction when Bart tells him Max is gone and isn’t coming back. Some part of him knew. He’d seen far enough into Bart’s future to know it was likely coming, but that doesn’t stop the unexpected sting of it. With all the changes he was seeing in Bart, he’d half hoped…
But it’s all too easy to shake it off as Bart keeps talking. As he goes into explaining how being part of a family was work, how he'd been passed around and abandoned, and that Barry Allen came back, it only makes Thad bristle all the more. Furious, he looks just about ready to strike at him when Bart drops “I don't like where our story ended back home” like a lead weight at his feet.
Anger deflating, he looks searchingly at Bart with a mix of confusion and suspicion. Was that supposed to mean what it sounded like?
“I'd rather not talk about dying right now.” Seems to confirm it.]
So I do end up killing you…
[And it apparently doesn’t stick. Same as Barry. That’s a bitter thought. An underscore of how pointless this whole revenge scheme has been, and one he wasn’t up to thinking deeper into right now.
If Bart didn't want to talk about it further, he'd let him have that for now. He had too many questions he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer to.
Closing his eyes and taking a breath, he tried to reel in his remaining anger enough to speak clearly and calmly.]
I’ve seen your whole life play out over a thousand times, Allen. I know how you met Max, how West treated you, the countless arguments you had with Max over your time with him, how he almost gave up on you once, [A reminder he dredges up with a hint of cruel self-satisfaction.] and how things might have turn out for you if I didn’t interfere.
I told myself that’s why I was better off. I justified my solitude, by telling myself family was clearly nothing but a fleeting, pointless, distraction anyway. And any part of having a family that was appealing, I could try to have after I proved I was worthy of it.
But after I actually got to experience it, I didn’t want to let it go. Even the bad parts.
[Because the last month wasn’t all sunshine and roses. He’d chosen to be there for the worst part of Max’s decline. Something that, to his own shock, became harder to witness the closer he found himself getting to Max and Helen.]
I’m sorry your family hasn’t always been there for you the way you wanted or needed. [The words come out seething with spite, not sorry in the slightest.] But at least they were there. However brief it might have been. And you still have people who want to be there with you, even when they can’t be. You got to do that work, learn from that anger, have those arguments, and just be there with them.
Do you know what I had?
Recordings. Ghosts who will never know I existed.
I never even got to meet the man who made me. I had to earn that right. Prove I was worthy of being in the same room with him, even for five seconds.
And this thing you’re offering me, you’re not doing it because you want me in your life, or honestly see me as family. [Because Thad refused to believe that could be the case. Couldn’t fathom a reality where that was true, so of course, Bart must be lying. Playing him.] Acceptance of my intrusion is a price you’re willing to pay for self-preservation and a peaceful end to this. [He gestures between the two of them, giving crude shape to the deadly rivalry between them.]
So spare me your lectures on how being part of a family isn’t always easy.
[It felt condescending. Even though that clearly wasn’t what Bart had meant by it. His venting attempt to show that family was something you worked at, that they could be family if they worked at it, just felt like Bart was telling him he was making a fantasy out of a thing he’d already written off as unobtainable.]
no subject
But it’s all too easy to shake it off as Bart keeps talking. As he goes into explaining how being part of a family was work, how he'd been passed around and abandoned, and that Barry Allen came back, it only makes Thad bristle all the more. Furious, he looks just about ready to strike at him when Bart drops “I don't like where our story ended back home” like a lead weight at his feet.
Anger deflating, he looks searchingly at Bart with a mix of confusion and suspicion. Was that supposed to mean what it sounded like?
“I'd rather not talk about dying right now.” Seems to confirm it.]
So I do end up killing you…
[And it apparently doesn’t stick. Same as Barry. That’s a bitter thought. An underscore of how pointless this whole revenge scheme has been, and one he wasn’t up to thinking deeper into right now.
If Bart didn't want to talk about it further, he'd let him have that for now. He had too many questions he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer to.
Closing his eyes and taking a breath, he tried to reel in his remaining anger enough to speak clearly and calmly.]
I’ve seen your whole life play out over a thousand times, Allen. I know how you met Max, how West treated you, the countless arguments you had with Max over your time with him, how he almost gave up on you once, [A reminder he dredges up with a hint of cruel self-satisfaction.] and how things might have turn out for you if I didn’t interfere.
I told myself that’s why I was better off. I justified my solitude, by telling myself family was clearly nothing but a fleeting, pointless, distraction anyway. And any part of having a family that was appealing, I could try to have after I proved I was worthy of it.
But after I actually got to experience it, I didn’t want to let it go. Even the bad parts.
[Because the last month wasn’t all sunshine and roses. He’d chosen to be there for the worst part of Max’s decline. Something that, to his own shock, became harder to witness the closer he found himself getting to Max and Helen.]
I’m sorry your family hasn’t always been there for you the way you wanted or needed. [The words come out seething with spite, not sorry in the slightest.] But at least they were there. However brief it might have been. And you still have people who want to be there with you, even when they can’t be. You got to do that work, learn from that anger, have those arguments, and just be there with them.
Do you know what I had?
Recordings. Ghosts who will never know I existed.
I never even got to meet the man who made me. I had to earn that right. Prove I was worthy of being in the same room with him, even for five seconds.
And this thing you’re offering me, you’re not doing it because you want me in your life, or honestly see me as family. [Because Thad refused to believe that could be the case. Couldn’t fathom a reality where that was true, so of course, Bart must be lying. Playing him.] Acceptance of my intrusion is a price you’re willing to pay for self-preservation and a peaceful end to this. [He gestures between the two of them, giving crude shape to the deadly rivalry between them.]
So spare me your lectures on how being part of a family isn’t always easy.
[It felt condescending. Even though that clearly wasn’t what Bart had meant by it. His venting attempt to show that family was something you worked at, that they could be family if they worked at it, just felt like Bart was telling him he was making a fantasy out of a thing he’d already written off as unobtainable.]