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Iris could honesty say child-minding her nine-year-old husband had not been on her lists of things to do ever.
Still, there he was, Barry, aged nine. Sitting in her office at the Citizen. Currently drawing something with some coloured pencils Kamilla had given him.
The main problem was no one was entirely sure what had happened. Barry had been trying to stop a bank robbery, and then there had quite literally been a puff of smoke and a baby had been at the bank, sitting in the Flash suit. Thank goodness Ralph had been there too.
Wally and Cisco were on it. Caitlin had done a few tests and concluded baby Barry- and he was definitely Barry, his DNA was an exact match, speedster genes and all- was a healthy baby and they had no idea how to make him adult Barry again.
They’d tried calling Constantine. Apparently, he had a little experience, but he wasn’t sure exactly what had turned Barry into a baby, and mixing magic sometimes had bad consequences. He’d drop by later but for people who lived in a time machine, the Legends were even worse at timing than Barry was.
Barry had cried a lot. And grown fast enough they could see, which explained the crying.
It took him a few days to reach age eight. At least he started to slow down after that. They just realised maybe him being in S.T.A.R. Labs wasn’t the best idea when he followed Cisco into his lab to try and help build robots and that could have gone so much better.
As much as Caitlin wanted to keep a close eye on him to monitor him, it seemed like Barry in a research facility with expensive scientific equipment might be a bad idea.
He had always been curious.
He hadn’t asked about Nora and Henry yet. He’d been a small child for a week- seriously, where were the Legends- and he hadn’t said anything about them. He hadn’t been confused by her being so much older than him, he hadn’t questioned who Wally was, or Cecile, or Cisco, or Caitlin. He seemed like Barry age nine. Happy, bubbly, curious, determined. He’d come with her to the bank that morning when Lisa Snart and Shawna Baez had shown up to rob the place and he’d tied a mask clearly cut out of one of his shirts over his eyes and tried to fight them. Keeping track of a tiny speedster was not the easiest thing, thank goodness Cisco had shown up in his suit and dealt with that.
She didn’t even see him move, just felt the familiar whoosh and found a drawing of a man on her desk. Maybe it wasn’t perfect, but there were a few clear features. Barry was back drawing at the spare desk in the corner.
“Barry,” Iris said. “Who is this?”
“The magician who made me small,” Barry said.
“Do you remember what happened?”
“He was aiming at Ralph. I stopped him.”
Barry squeezed his eyes shut.
“Let’s go see Caitlin,” Iris said. “After that we’ll visit Dad and Ralph.”
Barry was ten by the time they got to S.T.A.R. Labs.
“This isn’t the spell,” Caitlin said. “Cisco had a theory and I ran some more tests on the blood samples Barry gave me, his cells are rapidly regenerating, it’s how his healing works, it’s what happened when he was in a coma.”
“He’s Speed Aging,” Cisco said.
“What happens when he gets back to his normal age?” Iris asked.
“I don’t know,” Caitlin said.
“He remembers the person who cast the spell on him,” Iris said. She passed Cisco the drawing. “He said they were aiming for Ralph.”
“I do have one option, if we can’t find them and reverse this,” Cisco said. “You remember Cindy taught me to freeze a speedster?”
“Yes.”
“I can severe their connection with the Speed Force. I know it won’t fix this, but it will stop how fast he’s growing. But I can only do that temporarily. The only way to really stop it is to take that connection away. Maybe permanently.”
“No,” Iris said. “It’s part of him. The Speed Force...”
“I know. I don’t want to do it either. But it’s hurting him. Growing this quickly, it’s hurting. And if it doesn’t stop when he reaches thirty...”
“Then he can decide. We have to find this person.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Barry was ten and a half by the time they left S.T.A.R. Labs. He also had a look on his face and offered Iris a lollipop.
“Did you raid Cisco’s stash while we were talking?” she asked. Barry shrugged and pulled his own lollipop out his mouth.
“It’s strawberry,” he said. “Strawberry’s your favourite.”
Iris smiled at him and took the sweet. Barry blushed.
“I think we need to see my dad,” Iris said. “Ready?”
Barry reached for his seatbelt.
“And you don’t know who this man is,” Iris’ dad said.
“Cisco’s on it, but we’re going to talk to Ralph next,” Iris said. “He was doing some research anyway, and if Ralph was the intended target maybe he knows who this is.”
“Still no sign of Constantine?”
“I don’t know what the Legends are doing, but I doubt they’ll be here any time soon.”
“And this Speed Aging.”
“I don’t know what to do, Dad. I can’t take his powers away from him, but we don’t know what will happen, and they’re hurting him.”
“You’ll figure it out,” he said. “I know you will.”
Wally was with Ralph in his office. Barry immediately started talking a mile a minute with him, far too fast for Iris and Ralph to understand, and Iris left them to it and put a copy of Barry’s drawing on Ralph’s desk.
“Barry said he was aiming at you. Do you recognise him?”
“No. I’m sorry. Sue’s in Metropolis talking to a contact, I’ll send her a photo and see if she has any idea.”
“You think this is connected to your Metropolis case?”
“It’s the only magical one I can think of. The girl we met, she’s a good kid, I know she’s not involved, and her father’s not magical at all, he’s mostly a sceptic, but it’s possible it’s someone looking for her.”
“Thanks, Ralph.”
Barry aged eleven had been such an angry child. Iris had understood. Had covered for him sometimes when Barry had been so determined to get to Iron Heights to see Henry. But he’d been so angry at the world all the time.
Her dad had told her it was a good thing once. Such a long time ago, when Barry had run off in the middle of the night, and Iris had insisted on coming to find him. Barry deserved to be angry, they knew that. And he’d said it was good because Barry felt comfortable enough to be angry. He’d never elaborated more than that.
He didn’t seem so angry this time. Incredibly frustrated, but when Iris had woken up and Barry had announced he was eleven now, she’d almost expected him to run. Instead he’d stayed right be her side, almost tearing his hair out and his face screwed up, but he hadn’t shouted or fought with anyone. He’d just been quiet.
“Is there something I can do to help?” Iris asked. Barry shook his head. The Speed Force was humming around him. “Growing this quickly is hurting you.”
Barry nodded and vibrated a little faster.
“Bare, the more you use your speed, the faster you’re going to grow.”
“I know.”
“You need to stop.”
“But you’re sad. You want me to be a grown-up.”
“Barry-”
“I understand. I know I’m supposed to be a grown-up. It hurts my head trying to remember but I know we love each other. And you miss your Barry. I miss my Iris, I know you’re my Iris, just older, but in my head Iris is my age and it hurts trying to remember you’re an adult now and I’m not. But if I grow up then we’ll be the same age again and you’ll be happy.”
“It’s hurting you. I’m not sad because you’re a child, you’re right that I miss how things were, but I’m sad because you’re hurting and I don’t know how to help you.”
“I have to grow up again. I can do it really fast.”
“Not if it hurts. Bare, stop hurting yourself, please.”
“I can’t make it stop. Just make it go faster.”
“Cisco said cutting off your connection with the Speed Force should stop it,” Iris said. Barry looked at her with wide eyes. “Not forever.”
“Just a dampener?” Barry asked. Iris froze. She couldn’t- She couldn’t ask him to do that, she couldn’t-
Barry inched closer to her and Iris could see how red his eyes were.
“Just until we know how to fix it,” Iris said. “It should stop you hurting so much. But it’s your choice and you are the only one who gets to make it.”
“I trust you,” Barry said.
Cisco still had the dampening necklace he’d made Caitlin. Barry had immediately relaxed when Cisco had put it over his head, and Iris had felt the relief wash over her too.
“Feeling any better?” Cisco asked.
“Everything’s fuzzy,” Barry said. He yawned.
“Why don’t you take a nap upstairs? Iris and I won’t be far.”
Barry nodded and trudged off. Cisco turned to Iris.
“Still no leads on this guy?”
“Nothing concrete,” Iris said. “But I’ve been busy with Barry.”
“We’ll figure this out. Wally went to go find the Legends himself earlier. He’ll be okay.”
“He said he knew using his Speed was making him age faster, but he was trying to do that so he could be an adult again and so I wouldn’t be sad anymore. And dampening his powers...”
“You need to stop blaming yourself for what a different version of you in a different timeline did. And you should probably talk about this with Barry when he’s back, but if she dampened Nora’s powers, there was a reason, and what we’ve just seen seems like a good one to me.”
“I don’t understand how I could have kept all this from her though. Maybe if-”
“Eobard was manipulating her. You are not responsible for the actions of another version of yourself in a timeline that no longer exists. I know it hurts, but you did everything you could. She loved you.”
“I think I might be pregnant.”
“What?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t even taken a test yet, but I am late.”
“Do you want to be pregnant?”
“We tried a few times after Nora arrived. We got excited about the idea of having a child. And then once after she died we thought it would be a way to see her again and we were so desperate but I’m glad that didn’t work because I don’t want my next child to feel like they’re a replacement for a sibling they’ve never met. And then we were busy with Crisis and then I was stuck so we stopped but we didn’t exactly...”
“Go back to using protection? Please do not give me any more details about that. That’s not really answering the question.”
“I’m scared. I don’t know what I’m doing. I lost my first child; I can’t do that again. I definitely can’t do this without Barry.”
“We’ll fix this. I promise. It’ll work itself out. We’ll work it out.”
Barry seemed happier. Still eleven. Eleven and not a ball of rage. He probably still had his quick temper, but Iris had been a little more concerned with his secret project. Made predominantly out of fabric he’d seemingly stolen out of Cisco’s lab probably on his way to his nap. They’d gone back to her office so she could finish an article and Barry had sat where he’d been drawing and pulled out his sewing.
He was currently sucking his thumb so presumably he’d stabbed it yet again. But he was carrying on and he stuck his tongue out a little after he removed his thumb and went back to concentrating. It didn’t look big, whatever it was, so presumably it wasn’t a suit, but he had already tried to fight Shawna and Lisa once. But it was occupying him for now at least.
Cisco and Kamilla came over with dinner.
“We thought it might be easier,” Kamilla said. “Give you a break from cooking for the evening. You haven’t started yet, have you?”
“Not yet,” Iris said. “I was planning on mac and cheese, it was his favourite at this age, but this is definitely better. Thank you.”
“How’s he been?” Cisco asked.
“Happier. More relaxed.”
“Everyone gets growing pains growing up, but going that fast, I can only imagine and I don’t know if I want to.”
Barry padded into the room and over to them. He held up a parcel wrapped in newspaper with a lot of tape around it and offered it to Cisco.
“What’s this?” Cisco asked.
“A surprise,” Barry said. Cisco took it and Barry jumped up on the chair next to Iris. Cisco unwrapped it to reveal a slightly misshapen red mask. “It’s for when you’re Vibe.”
“Oh. Thank you, Barry. Maybe we should eat dinner first.”
Barry nodded and Iris helped him pile his plate up.
Barry could barely keep his eyes open after dinner.
And Wally ran in.
“I would have saved you something if I knew you were coming,” Iris said.
“It’s fine, I’ll eat later,” Wally said. “Found Constantine. Barry’s tired, is it okay to bring him here?”
“Yes,” Iris said. Wally disappeared again and ran back in with Constantine.
“Where the hell have you been?” Cisco asked.
“Exactly,” John said. “His name is Felix Faust. I had to have a few words with a few people. Sebastian and Zed have been trying to find him and stop him for ages, Zatanna’s going to help. Where’s baby Flash?”
“Here,” Cisco said. “Barry?”
Barry wandered over and looked at Constantine.
“You shouldn’t smoke,” he said. “It’s very bad for you. And you’re not allowed to in the building, you have to go outside.”
“I won’t smoke in here,” Constantine said.
“Your coat is.”
“What?” He looked at the smouldering corner Barry was pointing at and patted it out. “Damn hellhounds.”
“Hellhounds?” Kamilla asked. “Were you actually in Hell?”
“Yes. You look a little older than one to me.”
“I’m eleven,” Barry said. “I’m supposed to be thirty-one though.”
“You remember?”
“It’s fuzzy now the Speed Force isn’t there anymore.”
“Should he not remember?” Iris asked.
“The spell itself doesn’t erase memories, there are other ones for that, but usually people don’t, or don’t think of them as memories. You don’t remember being a baby, so you forget you were cursed and were older and any memories that don’t make sense, like remembering being twenty when you’re twelve, your mind forms a block.”
“Only Barry was Speed Aging,” Cisco said. “He aged years in days, he didn’t have time to form new memories, so his mind didn’t block his old ones off. And now he’s aging normally because we cut him off from the Speed Force, his head feels funny because it’s trying to make sense of the two realities and they don’t match up.”
“Can I go to sleep now?” Barry asked.
“Probably best,” Constantine said. “I can undo it, it’s an easy fix, and I do have this for him to drink, it’ll help him sleep until he’s done growing.”
“Anaesthetic doesn’t work on speedsters,” Barry said.
“This one is magic.”
“And you’ve got a dampener still, so it should,” Cisco said. Barry looked up at Iris.
“You’re sure this will work?” she asked.
“Yes,” Constantine said.
“Go on, Bare.”
Iris could smell pancakes. Not again.
She winced a little as she sat up. She’d slept on the couch and left Barry in the bed so he’d be more comfortable. He’d been quiet all night. And now she could smell pancakes again.
It wasn’t a small child in the kitchen.
“Bare?”
“Hey,” adult Barry, her Barry, said. Iris threw her arms around him.
“Oh, thank goodness,” she said. “I thought I was going to have to put out another fire.”
“It wasn’t on fire.”
“Seven-year-old you was sweet, but you did also light the hob with a tea towel left on top of it.”
“Well, I haven’t done that today,” Barry said. He leaned down and kissed her. “I love you.”
“I love you. Your pancake’s burning.”
“Damn.” He let go of her and rushed to take it off the heat. “Good thing I like burnt pancakes.”
“Do you need help?”
“I’d ask you not to be so distracting, but I’m not sure that’s possible.” He kissed her again. “I’ll do it.”
“Given up teaching me not to burn pancakes already?”
“I think it’s a lost cause,” Barry shook his head then smiled. “It’s only breakfast foods. There’s always a lot to do at once with breakfast. I need to talk to you about this.” He pushed the dampener across the worktop towards her.
“I took your powers from you, I-”
“Did the right thing,” Barry said. “You absolutely did the right thing, Iris, and I know it was not an easy decision for you to make, but it was also a decision I consented to. And I know who you’re really thinking about.”
“You heard Cisco and me.”
“No. I just know you. I’m glad you talked to Cisco about her though.”
“He said I need to stop blaming myself for a decision a different Iris made in a different timeline.”
“And even when she was here and we thought it was our future, it was a decision you hadn’t made yet. But Nora didn’t... I think it was different, how she saw us. She didn’t know me so she had this idealised version of me, but she had her mother, good and bad, and she didn’t think of you as two different people, not then. But she did come to terms with it not being your decision and she loved you. She loved you so much.”
“But it wasn’t the right decision.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know why it was a decision that was made. Maybe she was Speed Aging and neither of us- of them- knew how to stop it and they both made that decision. Maybe it was because of Cicada. Maybe that Iris lost her Barry and couldn’t bear the thought of losing Nora too. I don’t know. I know Joe hasn’t told me everything about fostering me. When I was eleven it seemed like I’d stay with you until I could live with Dad again and that was it, but in hindsight there must have been more to it than that. But Joe never told me, never let me think there were any other options than staying with you. I lost one home and he made sure I wouldn’t lose another. Not telling me anything that would make me doubt the stability of this home was probably the right decision. Not telling you about Francine was the wrong one.”
“He was trying to protect me. I know... I know why he did it.”
“But it hurt you.”
“They both did. Dad didn’t know about Wally, I know Wally doesn’t blame Dad for that, but she knew about me and she had years to come and find me and she never did. And he knew and if he hadn’t lied to me maybe I could have found her sooner and known her, I could have met Wally years before we did. But we both know we can’t change things like that. We just have to live with them and being constantly angry and hurt is so exhausting, I have a dad, a brother, a sister, isn’t it better to be grateful for that?” Iris looked up at him and Barry smiled. “But it hurt, and Nora was hurt by secrets too.”
“I think it’s a balance. Not telling Nora I’m the Flash when she was little was probably the right thing to do, a four-year-old probably wouldn’t understand why they can’t tell all their friends that, and there’s a chance someone would listen and it could have put her in danger. People like Amunet Black, like Joseph Carver, they wouldn’t hesitate just because she was a child. But I also know how lost I felt when Zoom took my powers from me, and I know I hurt you keeping this from you and it was wrong of me, and I know it was worse because I didn’t tell you, you worked it out. Nora wasn’t told when she was old enough to understand why it was a secret, she had an accident and found out her mother had lied to her, I would be angry too, but it wasn’t a decision you made.”
“There has to be another way to stop Speed Aging. There has to be.”
“That Iris was alone,” Barry said. “You have me. We got through Crisis and I’m still here. I’m not going anywhere.”
“You can’t promise me that.”
“If you need me to stop being-”
“I would never ask you to do that. This city needs the Flash, and I know how much it means to you. I know you could never sit by if someone needs your help. And I know the risks but I would rather live with them than ask you to give up a part of yourself. It’s just...”
“I know. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you. But that’s not going to happen and all these things, they’re bridges we can cross when we get to them.”
“We should head over to S.T.A.R. Labs, let Caitlin check you over. After breakfast.”
“After breakfast.”
“There’s something else I need to do too before we go.”
Iris’ dad had hugged Barry tight when he’d run them in, and Caitlin had immediately pulled him off to have a full check-up.
Everything seemed fine. No sign of any Speed Aging, or long-lasting effects. Except the stretch marks, and they’d probably mostly fade eventually.
Cisco dropped three packets of skittles onto Barry’s lap. Open packets.
“Did you honestly just go through my drawer and steal all my green ones?”
“I was a growing boy,” Barry said. “Growing extremely quickly.”
“I don’t think that’s what Henry and Nora meant when they told you to eat your greens,” Iris said. “Didn’t there used to be a rule about sweets and vegetables?”
“I like vegetables,” Barry said. “And it’s not as if I don’t get enough exercise running across the city several hundred times a day. Should I have brought you the red ones?”
“I hope mischief isn’t genetic.”
“Oh,” Cisco said. Iris smiled.
“You got into just as much trouble, Iris,” her dad said. “Though I am glad neither of you had superspeed when you were younger.”
“I wouldn’t get too used to it,” Iris said. “I think we might need Caitlin to double check. Assuming they’ll be a speedster too.”
“Oh.”