Chapter Text
Iris gaped. Barry Allen was sitting at her porch steps, grinning up at her like if he had no care in the world.
“What are you doing here?” she cried. “I’m betting half of half of CCPD is right now, combing the streets, looking for you.”
Barry laughed. “Isn’t spreading misinformation a big no-no in your profession?”
“What-”
“I’ve squared with Singh. Let him know it was all a little misunderstanding got out of hand. We’re cool.”
Iris almost reeled, relief washing through her.
“Also checked on Eddie at the hospital this morning. He’s still a little” – Barry raised his hand, and turned it slowly in the ‘wishy-washy’ gesture – “about the whole business. But in time, I expect his bosses will make him see reason and we can get back to hating each other civilly.”
“You bribed CCPD?” Iris managed.
Behind the dark shades, she could make out his eyes widening dramatically. “How appallingly libelous of you, Ms. West.” He pressed one palm against his heart. “I am beyond scandalized that you would insinuate the professional comradeship between Star Labs and Central City’s finest as more or less than beneficial to the wellbeing of this city.”
Against her will, a giggle bubbled through Iris’s throat and she turned it into a scoff. “Spare me the mock-innocence, Barry.”
There was a half-second of him freezing – his teasing mood seeming to pause – then he relaxed, chuckling softly.
In one sudden movement, he had whipped off his glasses and he was on his feet, his green eyes intent as he towered above her even from the steps below. She was standing in his shadow, but the heat emanating from his body, mere inches for her, more than made up for it. She felt an answering warmth start pooling in her belly and it was her turn to freeze.
“We never finished our date last night,” he said softly, his voice low and promising.
“N-no,” Iris breathed, taking an instinctive step back even though besides getting up, he hadn’t moved. “We didn’t.”
He noticed, and he smirked, making her skin prickle with anticipation.
Until anger snapped into place. “No, we didn’t,” she said more strongly. “And whose fault was that?”
He pretended to think, furrowing his brows exaggeratedly and she tried not to be distracted by how cute he looked when he did that. “Eddie Thawne?”
“You put him in the hospital and you’re blaming him!” Iris asked, outraged. A thought occurred to her and she gasped. “Oh my god, Eddie. You said you saw him at the hospital? He’s awake? He’s OK?” If she had her phone, she’d have called the hospital already only--- Shock and guilt filled her. She won’t have. All this while, her bigger concern had been on Barry.
The furrowed brows that appeared with Barry’s scowl were not pretend. “He’ll live,” he gritted.
Iris gaped up at him. Then she shoved him. Hard.
“Hey!”
“How can you be… don’t you feel a little sorry for what you did?”
“What I did? He punched me!”
“So in turn, you tried to kill him?!”
“I’m a speedster, Iris. If I wanted to kill him, he’d already be dead! I promise you that it’s not because the thought didn’t cross my mind.”
“You… you…” She couldn’t find the words. How could he say something like that… What kind of person… Why was he like this?
“What happened to you, Barry?” she said at last, the words pushing past the sudden lump in her throat with difficulty.
He scoffed and turned his face into profile. She saw a muscle tick in his jaw.
“I’m sorry about-”
“Don’t,” he snapped.
“I’m sorry about Patty’s party,” Iris half-yelled out the words both to push back against his attempt to silence her, and to force them out a throat that was closing with tears. “I’m sorry about what I did, and everything that happened after that.”
He said nothing.
“And in case you’ve forgotten,” Iris choked, “I lost my father, too. Thanks to what I did, my father died.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “So get over yourself.”
His gaze snapped back at her so suddenly that she might have flinched if she wasn’t already past that. She couldn’t read what was on his face – pity, spite, anger – maybe it was a mix of all three.
For once, she didn’t care.
She pushed past him and walked to her car. She half-expected him to stop her, but he didn’t.
When she pulled into the street, she checked her rear mirror and he was gone.
Screw him.
That little encounter this morning had pushed her back even further than she had started out with. By the time, she got into the highway, there was no chance of getting to the Hall before going to CCPN. She would have to call them from work. How she was going to work without a phone to reach her sources – well, Iris would have to figure that out somehow. Despite this, she pulled into the CCPN parking lot, minutes after work started – and still took some minutes more to re-assemble her face into some form of composure. Crying and driving tended to dishevel a girl.
Screw him.
As she and Linda predicted, Scott chewed her ear out for being late. Linda and Mason threw her commiserating looks but knew better than to say anything. An even more subdued Iris went to her desk and tried to get some work done. Linda popped over to give abridged moral support before she ran off to chase a sports scandal informant. Iris watched her friend go, something tingling at her – then shook it off, and tried to get some work done.
She called the Hall first chance she got, hoping for at least one good news this morning only to be told that nothing resembled her phone was in their Lost and Found. Iris groaned inwardly as she hung up.
Screw Barry Allen to hell and back.
Unless literally, a traitorous voice added and Iris spilled the coffee that Mason had just handed over to her.
“You OK, West?” Mason asked.
“Just peachy,” Iris muttered, as she dabbed at the mess.
“Huh,” he said disbelievingly. “Anyway, you got a call this morning. I was passing around your desk at the time, and took the message.”
Iris scoffed. Sounded more like Mason was busy-bodying through her stories, but she didn’t mind. They were reporters after all. Being nosey came with the territory.
“So who was it?”
“Dr Snow. Star Labs, I believe.”
Iris put her mug down quickly before she did some serious damage. “What was the message?”
Mason shrugged. “Just asked for a call back.”
He wandered back to his desk, as Iris mulled over that. It couldn’t have been about Eddie because he was OK. (And once again, guilt smote at her at how she hadn’t even called the hospital to ask after him, and her general lack of interest in his welfare). Which left only 2 possibilities – Caitlin wanted to warn Iris off Barry yet again (she shouldn’t have bothered, Iris thought furiously) or she had information about Eliza Harmon.
Iris sat up at her desk with a shock. Eliza Harmon. Tracy Brand. The bogus appointment she had set up with the research assistant. She had completely forgotten about it until now. She glanced at the clock – if she left CCPN now, she’d get to Jitters at least half an hour late. She would need to call Tracy Brand and tell her to wait regardless. Iris started reaching for her phone ---- then remembered.
This time she groaned out loud.
“Iris?” Mason from across the aisle. “You OK?”
“Not really,” Iris said as she scrambled to her feet, grabbing her things hastily. She couldn’t call Tracy Brand from the newspaper or risk exposing herself before she was ready. She’d just have to hope that the coffee at Jitters was good enough to keep Brand there until Iris arrived.
“Need some extra eyes and ears on this one?” Mason asked, looking hopeful.
For the first time that morning, Iris laughed. “Nice try.”
Her car door was half-way open when Barry Allen was standing beside her, little streaks of Speedforce static sliding off his edges. His hair was wind swept, falling all over his face and he smelt of ozone.
Iris gaped, her heart racing and not entirely because of shock.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she managed and tried to get into the car but his body was in the way. “I swear, Barry if you don’t-”
“I remembered the appointment,” he said, gasping – (and how fast did a speedster need to run to get out of breath and why the heck did that make her feel light-headed). “You won’t make it if you drive.”
“You think the offer for you to come along is still on the table?”
He smirked and that was just not fair. It was practically Pavlovian the way, her body seemed to melt whenever he did that. “I think you’re running late and you need my help.”
Iris took a deep breath, then sighed angrily, slamming the door shut.
“Hey!” he yelped. If he hadn’t been a speedster, the edge of the door might have skinned him.
He deserved worse.
“So are we going there or not?”
Barry grinned, his face morphing into an expression of pure delight. Then he swung her into his arms. Her arms went around his neck instinctively, and now their faces were so close that she could count all the micro-freckles on his face, see the tiny flecks of grey in his green eyes, and taste the mint in his breath. Everywhere her body touched him seemed to be scorching.
By the rapid movement in his throat, he wasn’t any less affected. His arms tightened impossibly, and his gaze travelled a shuddering path from her eyes to her parted lips.
“Iris,” he whispered, his mouth tantalizing inches from her.
“We…” she whimpered, helpless as his lips drew nearer, “we… should get going, Barry…”
He halted. Her breath stuck in her throat as she felt his hard body locking into tension as if he was exerting superb self-control on himself. Then he bit his lip and leaned back, and with a half-sob, Iris buried her face into his neck because it was either do that or chase his mouth and kiss him until the crazy passed.
Which apparently, would be never.
His hand shifted on her back, coming up slowly to cradle the back of her head against him. “Hold on tight,” Barry whispered, his voice echoing through her body. Beneath that was the sound of his hammering heart, in rhythm with her own rapid breathing.
She was shuddering so much already that she barely felt them Flash.