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Being a very outgoing person, Iris makes friends easily—always has. Throughout school, she had no shortage of friends, and even now, at work, she’s friendly with almost everyone. Which is why she takes it as a challenge when the officers at her dad’s work are messing around.
“I’ve never even seen him crack a smile,” Officer Gibbons notes.
“Because it’s physically impossible for him,” Eddie, her dad’s partner, jokes. “He couldn’t be polite even if he tried.”
“Who are we talking about?” Iris asks, their conversation piquing her interest.
“Allen, the CSI.”
“Oh, he looks nice.”
“Nice?” Officer Gibbons scoffs. “He’s said, like, five words to me, and he’s been working here for six months.”
“He thinks he’s so much better than us, but I’d like to see him try to do what we do,” Eddie says.
“It’s not like you could do what he does,” Iris points out. “Besides, never judge a book by its cover.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I bet I can get him to talk to me.”
“I’d like to see you try.” Eddie laughs. “Fifty bucks says you’re back down here in two minutes with no luck.”
“Fifty bucks says we become friends in three,” Iris challenges.
All of the officers listening in try to hide their laughter, thinking that Iris is going to be out fifty dollars within the next few minutes, but Iris thinks otherwise. She’s never interacted with Barry, but her dad always says he’s a kind person and a hard worker, so she knows she has nothing to worry about.
When she enters his lab, he’s staring intently at a test tube, and she’s afraid to interrupt him, but then she remembers that she’s Iris West and no one is immune to her bubbly personality.
“Hi!” She greets brightly. He slowly lowers the test tube, looking up at her from over his glasses.
“Hi?” He repeats, though his is more of a question.
“I’m Iris,” she adds, taking a few steps toward him.
“Barry.” She offers her hand for him to shake, and he stares down at it for a second before looking back up at her face. “I don’t want to contaminate my gloves.”
“Right.” He’s proving to be a tough nut to crack, but she was never one to give up easily. “How’s your day going?”
“Uh, fine.”
“That’s great. It’s a slow news day today, so that’s why I came over here.”
A small nod of recognition is all she gets to know that he’s listening. Letting out a small huff, she thinks she just needs to change her tactics. How, she’s not sure, but she’s going to figure it out.
“Your job looks hard,” she states. “Is your job hard?”
“No,” he replies. When he doesn’t add anything else, she blinks slowly at him.
“You know, I took organic chemistry in college,” she tries, thinking she can get him talking if she speaks on his level. “I know all about covalent bonds and stuff.”
“That’s stuff you learn in general chemistry.”
“I never said I was good at it.” She shrugs, and he looks up at her with an unreadable expression.
That’s probably the face that makes all of the officers feel like he’s looking down at them, she supposes. And she starts to feel the same way until he cracks a smile. She gets a rewarding feeling when she sees it, and she’s not really sure why. Sure, she gets a fifty dollars from Eddie, but it makes her happier than that should.
“Well, I’m sure I’m better than you at something ,” she teases. “Unless you’re secretly an amazing reporter, too.”
“Nope.” He laughs lightly. “Just science for me.”
“So, what are you doing over here?”
“Will you understand if I tell you?”
“No, but you can tell me anyway.”
His face lights up as he talks about identifying DNA and taking samples and a bunch of other things Iris doesn’t understand. As he’s telling her this, she notices that he speaks very fast, at least when it’s something he’s seemingly passionate about.
It takes everything in her not to stare at him while he shows her multiple test tubes. She knows she’s supposed to be focusing on what he’s showing her, but he looks so cute when he’s talking so animatedly, and he keeps looking over at her and going “are you following?” and she just nods her head enthusiastically.
Now that she’s gotten him to open up, she’s not sure if he’ll ever stop talking. Surprisingly, though, she doesn’t want him to stop. Sure, she’s a polite person, and she’ll let people talk about whatever boring thing they want, but somehow, he’s making taking a skin sample from a dead body sound interesting to her.
What’s more interesting is him . He’s wearing a sweater over a button up, and he definitely looks nerdy, but she likes it. There are freckles littered all over his skin, and she thinks that she’d quite like to trace them and find all of the constellations.
But then she remembers that they don’t know each other and that thoughts like that would most definitely freak him out and ruin any chance at a friendship. She really wants to be friends with him. Maybe more. But for now, she has to try for friends.
“When’s your lunch break?” she asks suddenly, interrupting his rant on proper sample-taking procedures.
“Uh.” He checks his watch. “Right now.”
“And you’re working? During your lunch break?”
“I guess,” he supplies weakly.
“That won’t do.” She shakes her head. “Come on, we’re getting lunch.”
“Okay,” he agrees, looking bewildered at her assertiveness. She links their arms as they walk down the stairs, and with each step they take, Barry’s face flushes a little bit more, because some of the detectives start looking over. “Won't they think that…”
“They can think whatever they want.” She waves him off. “Let me go grab my jacket.”
As she’s grabbing her jacket, she holds a hand out to Eddie, who begrudgingly places fifty dollars into it.
“How’d you do it?” Eddie asks.
“Have you seen me smile?” She scoffs and turns back toward Barry, who’s waiting for her like an obedient puppy.
They walk out of the building arm in arm and head for Barry’s favorite pizza place, something she had to coax out of him. He seems like a people-pleaser, so she can’t for the life of her figure out why anyone wouldn’t like him. Sure, he’s a little awkward, but he just seems shy, and she knows for a fact that none of the officers have ever tried to get to know him.
Over the next half hour, Iris finds out a lot more about him, partially due to the fact that he rambles nervously.
“You talk very fast,” she tells him with an amused smile on her face.
“Sorry.” His face turns red and he looks down.
“No, it’s cute.”
“Oh. The guys at the station used to make fun of me for it, so I kind of just stopped talking in general.”
“I’m sorry.” Her brow furrows, and she feels like she wants to punch every single person who’s ever made him feel bad. “If it makes you feel any better, my dad thinks you’re pretty cool.”
“Your dad?”
“Detective West.”
“Detective… oh, my god,” he mumbles to himself. “He’s going to kill me.”
“Why would he kill you?”
“Because you’re his daughter, and—is this a date?” He asks suddenly. She silently examines the straw in her drink for a second, just to make him sweat.
“No,” she answers, making his cheeks color again.
“I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I thought that—”
“But you kind of ruined my whole plan to ask you on a date,” she interrupts his nervous stuttering. “Now I’m not sure if I can go through with it.”
His silence makes her want to laugh. When she looks up at him, his lips are slightly parted and his eyes are wide. She can tell he’s about to try to backtrack, but she beats him to the punch.
“Actually, I can,” she corrects herself. “Barry, would you want to go on a date sometime?”
“Yeah.” He breathes out a sigh of relief, and it makes her smile grow wider.
“You’re adorable.”
“I’m a grown man.”
“And you’re still adorable.”
They go to pay, and Iris insists on doing it since she was the one who asked him. He says something about chivalry, and she shuts that down with one look.
“You paid with cash.” He notices as they’re walking out. “I didn’t know people still carried cash around.”
“I won a bet.” She shrugs.
“What was the bet? I mean, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“Detective Thawne bet fifty dollars that I couldn’t get you to talk to me,” she tells him. “Joke’s on him; I would’ve done it for free.”