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Lightning flashed outside the cabin, thunder cracking and the wind howling through the trees. The windows seemed so thin, ratting as rain hammered against them.
“Dad?” Barry asked. “When can we go home?”
“Soon, Slugger,” he said. He tucked the blanket Barry was clutching up around him, trapping his arms and legs underneath it.
“I miss Ma,” Barry said.
“So do I. But we both need you to be safe. I’ll keep you safe, Barry, always, I promise. I love you, Barry.”
“Love you, Dad,” Barry chirped.
He smiled and leaned down to kiss Barry’s forehead.
“Go to sleep now,” he said.
Barry nodded.
Lightning flashed again and then Barry was in someone’s arms, sitting on a hip like he was four, not eleven.
The room flashed gold.
“Put him down, Flash,” the man in yellow said, and Barry shrieked in fear.
Only he knew the face that was revealed as the mask was pulled down.
“I said let my son go.”
“Barry, stay here for me,” the Flash said, tucking Barry into a wardrobe that hadn’t been near where they were before.
He closed the door impossibly fast, and Barry curled himself up as the crashes got louder and louder.
“Mama,” Barry said. “Mama, I want you.”
Lightning crashed around him, the wardrobe going up in flames, and there was a hand reaching for him.
Barry grabbed it desperately and it pulled him forward-
He bolted upright in a white room he didn’t know, fluorescent strips above him instead of any windows, and two people he didn’t know way too close to him.
He could still hear the echoes of thunder.
And he wasn’t wearing a shirt.
“Woah, easy there,” the guy with long hair said. He put his hand on Barry’s chest and Barry shot back away from him.
Pain flared in his arm and Barry stared at his hands.
“No, be careful!” the woman in the lab coat said. “Mister Allen, I need you to stay still.”
“Doctor Wells, we need you in the Cortex,” the man said. Doctor Wells?
“What’s going on?” Barry croaked. He touched his arm, to where blood was pooling in the crook of his elbow.
The storm was new. The dream wasn’t- and he could tell it was a dream when he was awake, he knew that wasn’t exactly how it had happened when he was awake- but he didn’t remember a storm being a part of it before.
There had been a storm though. Above him. He’d seen water leaking through the skylight and-
“You were struck by lightning,” the man said. “The is S.T.A.R. Labs, I’m Cisco Ramon, she’s Doctor Caitlin Snow. You’ve been in a coma.”
“A coma?” Barry asked. He looked down at himself.
“For nine months,” a voice Barry was sure he knew said. “It’s good to see you awake, Mister Allen.”
“I don’t understand,” Barry said. He poked the abs he hadn’t had before he was here.
“Why don’t you sit down and let Caitlin wrap your arm,” Doctor Harrison Wells said. “And I’ll explain everything we know.”
Barry watched as Doctor Snow wiped the blood from his arm and wrapped a bandage around it. He’d torn an I.V. out.
The nasal cannula she took out gently though, and Cisco had grabbed him a S.T.A.R. Labs branded sweatshirt to wear after they’d finished disconnecting him from the heart rate monitor.
His heart had been racing, Doctor Wells had explained. Impossibly fast, and each time it corresponded with a blackout at the hospital. They hadn’t known what to do.
So, he’d stepped in. Figuratively, because the particle accelerator explosion had hurt a lot of people that night, including Doctor Wells.
Barry stared down at his hands.
Nine months was a long time.
“You started showing some positive signs of regaining consciousness a week ago,” Doctor Snow said. “You were starting to open your eyes but weren’t responding still and didn’t have full awareness. Your eyes were moving more though.”
“I was dreaming,” Barry nodded.
It hadn’t happened like that. Barry could remember that when he was awake. He could remember Henry was locked in Iron Heights where he’d been for the last fifteen years, where he couldn’t get to Barry ever again.
He hadn’t seen his face that night. Hadn’t found out that Henry was the Reverse Flash until later.
Hadn’t found out the reason they’d run until later.
He wasn’t sure why it was always a mask in the dream. Henry hadn’t worn one like that, he’d had a helmet and blurred his face, like the Flash did, but in Barry’s dream the Reverse Flash always had a mask and glowing red eyes.
“Can I go?” Barry asked.
“I really think you should let us do some tests first,” Doctor Wells said.
“Please,” Barry said. He stood up. “I need to find Iris.”
“We can’t stop you leaving,” Doctor Wells said. “We can advise against it, but we can’t stop you.”
“Thank you,” Barry said. “For not letting me die.”
He rushed out the door.
Tuesday in Central City. Barry had been given shoes that fit him at least, but that was all he had. He didn’t have a phone, he didn’t have his wallet, maybe he should stay, let them do some tests and ask Cisco to call Uncle Jay.
But Barry didn’t know them. Sure, Uncle Jay had probably agreed to this, and that was Harrison Wells, but it was still somewhere he’d never been.
Barry really, really hated not knowing how he’d got somewhere.
Jitters was the closest place. It was probably further than he should be walking, given he’d just woken up from a coma apparently, but right now Barry wasn’t sure how he was walking and Jitters would take him to the one person who he trusted with everything.
It looked the same. Barry breathed a sigh of relief at that.
Most of the walk had seemed almost hazy, all his focus on getting here.
He put his hands on the door and the thought occurred to him that it had been nine months. He didn’t actually know if Iris would even be here, and if she was working.
But there she was. In her blue shirt and hair perfectly curled, her apron tied around her waist and her smile making the whole world slow down to marvel at it.
The whole world was slowing down.
Barry watched, wide-eyed, as people moved coffee cups up to their lips in slow motion, the sound in his ears acting wrong-
And then all he could think about was Iris West’s arms around him.
He laughed and spun her around.
“You’re awake,” Iris said. “Why did no one call me?”
“I just woke up,” Barry said. “And I don’t know what happened to my phone.”
“You just woke up?”
“I came straight here?”
“And they just let you walk straight out?” Iris asked. She let go of Barry. “You’ve been in a coma for nine months! How did they even know you’d get here?”
“I didn’t tell them this is where I was coming,” Barry said. “They said they couldn’t stop me leaving.”
“They have my number, they should have just called me,” Iris said. “I would have come to you.”
“Iris-”
“You died,” Iris said. “Your heart kept stopping, right in front of me, you died. I thought I’d lost you.”
“I’m right here.” Barry offered Iris his hand and guided it to his chest. “I’m okay.”
“Your heart’s racing,” Iris said.
“I’m just really happy to see you.”
Iris hugged him again.
“Come sit down, I’ll get you some water and something to eat and see if I can leave early. You know when I call Jay he’s probably going to tell you to go back to S.T.A.R. Labs and let them do their tests?”
“If you say I can trust them, then I’ll trust them.”
Tracy had almost dropped a tray and Barry caught it.
“That was an incredible catch,” she said. “Are you feeling okay, Barry?”
Barry stared at the tray and the unbroken mugs.
“Barry?”
“Huh?” he looked up.
“Do you need me to call someone or something?”
“I’m okay,” Barry said. “Spaced out. Iris is taking me back to the doctors when she gets off.”
“Okay,” Tracy said. “If you’re sure.”
Iris didn’t take long to get back. Or the clock said it hadn’t been long, but it felt like hours.
The sandwich she’d left him with was long gone.
“Ready?” Iris asked. “I called Jay, left a message, he’ll call back in a bit.”
Barry nodded and linked arms with Iris.
He could focus more, now she was there.
“Nine months,” Barry said. “It’s really...”
“What do you remember?” Iris asked.
“Someone tried to steal your laptop,” Barry said. “We went back to the station. We were going to wait for Joe, and then- Then my phone was ringing? I went upstairs and there was this flash and rain was coming in through the skylight and then nothing. I woke up in there with people I didn’t know.”
“I’m sorry none of us where there, Bar,” Iris said. “They said you were showing positive signs and Jay, Joan, Dad, and I have been alternating waiting with you, Detective Thawne even offered a few times, but Jay got a call from someone this morning and I couldn’t get the day off on short notice.”
“It’s not your fault,” Barry said. “You know I’m not great at timing.”
“I really missed you,” Iris said.
“I don’t remember anything, but I’m sure I missed you too.”
“Nothing?” Iris asked. “Doctor Snow said stimulating the senses can help people who are in comas, and sometimes they can remember people talking to them.”
“Maybe?” Barry offered. “I dreamt about that night again.”
“You were in a coma,” Iris said. “It makes sense another traumatic incident might make you thing about that again.”
“It was different this time. There was a storm outside and the lightning set the wardrobe on fire and it wasn’t Joe who opened it, I think it was a woman, but I couldn’t really see her, there was too much lightning.”
Iris leaned against him.
“Did he-”
Barry cut himself off.
“Did you finish your dissertation?” Barry asked.
“I did,” Iris said. “I’ve been granted a few extensions, a lot of people had to take them after the particle accelerator, but in just a few weeks I should graduate with my Masters.”
“I’m really proud of you,” Barry said. “What else have I missed?”
“I started a blog. There’s been some interesting things happening around Central City. Eddie- Detective Thawne- and I got coffee a few times. He’s really sweet.”
“Ooh,” Barry teased, ignoring his own heart breaking. “Iris has a crush.”
“Stop it,” she laughed, shoving into him playfully. “It’s complicated anyway.”
“What did Joe do this time?”
“Dad doesn’t know or need to know anything,” Iris said. “Eddie is under the impression we’re dating.”
Barry’s heart skipped a beat.
“It’s just, he drove me to the hospital after you,” Iris said. “And you were seizing and they were talking about coding and a lot I didn’t understand, and they said family only because you were dying so I might have blurted out that I was your girlfriend?”
Barry blinked.
“I’m really sorry,” Iris said. “Because it spread a lot and I know Cisco and Caitlin and Doctor Wells also think we’re dating.”
“Iris, it’s okay,” Barry said.
“I mean, even Dad believed it! He should know better, but he said something about you finally managing to talk to me, and that’s ridiculous, I heard about this Felicity and I think I accidentally ruined things between you too-”
“Felicity is just a friend,” Barry said, ignoring the tight feeling in his chest. “Honest. But we can clear everything up for you now, if you want?”
“After you actually let Caitlin do her tests,” Iris said. “She’s nice, you’ll like her. And you’ll really like Cisco, I promise.”
“There’s something I think I should tell you,” Barry said.
A car barrelled past, way too fast, dangerously close to hitting another.
Only then it wasn’t fast.
Then it was like the air had turned to molasses and Barry watched Clyde Mardon turn and almost meet his eyes.
He was moving so slowly, only he wasn’t looking where he was going, he was going to hit someone else and Barry-
Barry moved, jumping into the car, and time sped up again.
“What the hell?” Mardon asked.
Barry tugged on the steering wheel and the car spun, smashing into an old phone box.
The air bags went off and Barry darted back.
He stared at his hands.
“Barry!” Iris yelled, running for him. Sirens sounded from somewhere.
“You’re like me,” Mardon said. “Shall I show you what I can do?”
Fog clouds gathered around him as two police cars skidded to a stop.
“Freeze!” Joe said.
Barry stumbled back, into Iris’ arms and concerned look.
He held out his hand. It was moving too fast.
“You’re okay,” Iris said. “Barry, you’re okay.”
“Iris!” Joe rushed over. “Oh my God.”
He gathered Iris and Barry up into a tight hug and Barry hid his hand. Joe couldn’t-
It had been Joe who pulled him out of his hiding place, Joe who’d told him about his mother, Joe who’d held Barry’s hand until Uncle Jay and Aunt Joan had arrived, Joe who’d always been there, who’d always believed in Barry. Joe couldn’t know, Barry couldn’t let him down.
“You’re awake,” Joe said. “What the hell are you two doing here?”
“Barry woke up and rushed straight to Jitters,” Iris said. “I’m taking him back to Caitlin.”
“I knew I should have called in,” Joe said.
“It’s no one’s fault,” Barry said. “They said it’s been nine months, none of you should have been putting your lives on hold for nine months just because of me. That was Clyde Mardon, Mark will be somewhere nearby.”
Joe and Iris exchanged a look.
“What?” Barry asked.
“The Mardons are dead,” Joe said gently. “Clyde shot Chyre and they got in a plane. I watched the accelerator explosion bring it down.”
“Is Fred okay?” Barry asked.
“He died,” Iris said. She rested her hand on Barry’s shoulder.
“It looked like Mardon,” Barry said. “He was making fog.”
“There haven’t been any reports like that since...”
Joe didn’t finish. He didn’t need to, Barry knew exactly what he was talking about.
“You just woke up,” Joe said. “I’ll drop you both off at S.T.A.R. again, and Eddie and I will find out what happened here. If it makes you feel better, we’ll double check the Mardons’ known hide-outs, just in case. Okay?”
“I don’t think I am feeling that great after all,” Barry said.
“Come on,” Joe said. “You can sit in the back of the car while Eddie finishes up here.”
Barry was pretty sure the only reason Joe hadn’t stayed was Detective Thawne waiting for him.
He had made sure Barry was actually back sitting on the bed with Doctor Snow fussing over him before he left though.
“I’ll look after him, Dad,” Iris promised.
“You just make sure you’re actually good to go before you go running off again, okay?” Joe had made Barry promise, and Barry internally cringed at the word running.
He sat quietly, Iris next to him holding his hand, while Doctor Snow worked, Doctor Wells watched intently and made Barry squirm, and Cisco talked to Iris about her blog.
“I had a question about that,” Iris said. She glanced at Barry. “On our way here there was a guy who crashed a car and it looked like he was making fog with his bare hands, and there’s been a few bank robberies recently where people talk about a storm inside the bank. Do any of you have any possible explanations?”
Cisco and Doctor Snow looked at Doctor Wells, who nodded.
“We did theorise the energies given off by the particle accelerator might have resulted in people gaining certain abilities,” Doctor Wells said cautiously. “That could explain some of the reports after the so-called Royal Flush Gang attempted to rob a casino a few months ago.”
“You mean metahumans,” Barry said.
“That’s a good name,” Cisco said.
“Keystone had them years ago,” Iris said. “Central too, but mostly they were in Keystone. We both used to live there.”
“We did theorise that might explain your own healing, Mister Allen,” Doctor Wells said. “Nine months and your muscle mass not only didn’t atrophy but seemed to improve. Your broken bones healed in half the time we would expect to see that, and when you were in the hospital, they were having power outages that corresponded with you seemingly flatlining. They suspected that was the life support cutting out due to the loss of power, but the equipment we have here managed to detect your heart not stopping, but racing, and I would like to suggest it was the other way around. The life support failing didn’t make your heart stop. Your heart racing created a surge of energy that stopped the life support working.”
“Can you fix it?” Barry asked.
“You’re awake, your heart has been stable for a few months now, if you do have powers-”
“Then you gave them to me, so can take them away again?”
“It’s okay, Barry,” Iris said. “I trust them.”
“It’s super speed,” Barry said. “It happened earlier.”
“Dude, that’s so cool,” Cisco said.
“No, it’s not,” Barry said. His voice wobbled. “I want you to take them away and make me normal again.”
“Your blood changed,” Doctor Snow said. “I’ve been taking regular blood tests to check on you. It’s like there’s lightning around your blood cells, and I think your DNA has changed. This is not something I have any experience with, and I don’t know if anyone does, but if it is a change in your DNA, I don’t know if that’s reversible.”
“Something else is bothering you,” Doctor Wells said.
Barry nodded slowly.
“What do you know about the Flash?”
Thirty years ago (give or take), Keystone City had had a superhero. The Flash, the Crimson Comet, faster than a speeding bullet. He’d stopped bank robberies and fought other people with powers, and for a while, that had been fun. Barry remembered growing up seeing the Flash on the news, devoutly collecting the newspaper clippings about him, he’d adored him.
But the Flash had a few reoccurring villains. The Fiddler, the Shade, the Thorn. Two of them were a team, first appearing a few years after the Flash, Cobalt Blue and the Reverse Flash. They robbed art galleries and rich people and fought the Flash and it had almost seemed like a game.
Only one day it wasn’t a game anymore.
One day the Reverse Flash lost it and killed his wife. The leading theory was she’d found out what he’d been running around the city doing and given him an ultimatum. Others had suggested he was having an affair with Cobalt Blue and maybe she’d known who they both were, maybe she hadn’t, but she had realised there was someone else and confronted him.
Whatever had happened that night, the jury had agreed he’d killed her.
He’d never admitted why. Maintained he hadn’t done it, blamed the Flash for her death, even though a witness had confirmed he'd seen a man in a yellow suit in the house that night. The Flash had tracked him down after then. Confronted him.
And that was the last time anyone saw him. The only thing they’d found was his helmet.
The Reverse Flash had been deep under Iron Heights ever since, locked away in a cell that blocked his powers and kept him too cold to ever run again. To ever escape.
Not that he hadn’t tried.
Iris rested a comforting hand on Barry’s shoulder.
Iris was here. Everything would be fine, as long as Iris was here.
“You knew the Reverse Flash,” Doctor Wells said. His eyes pierced through Barry, almost like he was looking into his soul.
Barry trembled.
“He was my father,” Barry said. “I heard a noise and came downstairs and my mother was surrounded by lightning, and then I was outside alone. And then my father was there and he put me in a car and we fled the city. There was this cabin out in the woods, we’d been there before, I thought they were just for fun, I didn’t realise it was so he could hide after robbing someone. He taught me to fish out there. I used to love it there and he told me we were staying for a while, that it was to keep me safe, in case the lightning came back. And then the Flash came. He hid me and he tried to save me, and my father killed him so he wouldn’t take me away from him. Joe found me, took me home. Told me what had really happened to my mother, Henry had lied and said she’d join us eventually, but there had been too much blood for that to be true, and when I told Joe what I'd seen... They never found where he’d hidden her body.”
“You aren’t him,” Iris said quietly, just to Barry. “You could never be.”
Barry held his arms across his chest.
“Uncle Jay and Aunt Joan took me in,” Barry said. “We moved to Central, I changed my name. Allen was my mother’s name and Bartholomew was my grandfather’s, it meant I could still be Barry like she’d called me without it being the name that came from him. I should have always known he was a supervillain, who names their child Barrence?”
Barry laughed weakly and tried to ignore the tears in his eyes.
“Please take them away again,” he said. “I don’t want these. I can’t have these. I can’t have anything that connects me back to him.”
Doctor Wells nodded, and Doctor Snow rested her hand on Barry’s other shoulder.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she said. “Which means this won’t be quick. It means we’re going to need to do a lot more research before we can do anything, but I promise we will do everything we can to help you, Barry.”
“I’m very sorry to ask this of you,” Doctor Wells said. “But to research this properly, I think we are going to have to ask you to run. S.T.A.R. Labs bought Ferris Air’s old runway just outside the city, no one else will be up there, no one else has to know about this.”
“And I have some stuff,” Cisco said.
Iris nodded and Barry took a deep breath.
“Okay,” he said. “The sooner we start, the sooner can be over, right? It’s just for science.”
“That’s the spirit, Mister Allen,” Doctor Wells said. “Cisco, if you would?”
Uncle Jay had called Iris back while they were sat in the van, and Cisco had pulled over and shut the engine off for Barry.
They had a few more tests to do, then Barry could go, and it was fine, he was with Iris. He’d be home in time for dinner, and Aunt Joan had already declared she was making all of Barry’s favourites, and that Joe and Iris should join them. A proper family dinner.
Cisco had presented him with a red suit that had a cowl that came up over Barry’s face, leaving only his mouth uncovered.
“It’s one I was making for firefighters,” Cisco said. “I thought it would be something we could give back to the city and people wouldn’t hate us so much so much for the accident.”
“You’re a doctor,” Barry said.
“No, I’m an engineer,” Cisco said. “I make the toys. I made the heart rate monitor you were connected to and did all the general helping Caitlin when she needed extra arms but she did all the keeping you alive. She’s great.”
“You two must be close.”
“She’s my best friend. Her fiancé, Ronnie, he died in the explosion. That’s why she gets quiet sometimes. But Caitlin’s great.”
“She seems nice,” Barry said. “Thank you for helping.”
“Don’t worry about it. Um. You said cold. They keep him cold.”
“It slows him down,” Barry said. “Why?”
“I like making things,” Cisco said. “I don’t know you but from what everyone’s said about you, you seem great. But I could make something. Something portable and cold.”
“In case I turn out like him,” Barry said. He nodded. “You should do that.”
“I don’t think you will,” Cisco said. “You’ve got a good vibe. And a bizarrely varied yet really good taste in music. Iris gave me a list of your favourites to put on, Caitlin said it can be good for people in comas.”
“Well, I half grew up with Joe,” Barry laughed. “He has a collection of jazz and blues records and Iris and I used to borrow them to listen to when we were doing homework. And I used to watch a lot of musicals with my mother.”
“And Lady Gaga,” Cisco said. “She’s great too.”
Barry smiled at him, and Cisco beamed.
“See,” Cisco said. “I don’t know you and I’m not going to pretend I do, but I do know Caitlin and Doctor Wells pretty well and they really know their stuff. If there is a way to undo this, they’ll find it. And if there isn’t, having the same powers as him won’t make you turn into him. Admittedly my family issues are more because my brother is their favourite and staying at S.T.A.R. Labs even though it very publicly blew up was not the decision my mother wanted me to make, and me changing my name was for trans reasons, my dad’s a plumber, but I think I get it. If you ever want someone to talk to. I guess you talk to Iris.”
“About everything,” Barry said.
Or almost everything.
“I like your name,” Barry offered.
“Well,” Cisco grinned and finished buckling the helmet on Barry’s head for him. “The camera gives us a feed of what you’re seeing, and the suit should detect your vital signs. And I think your powers are awesome and I can’t wait to see you run but you are the only person who can decide what you’re going to do with them and what kind of person you’re going to be. You ready?”
“Yeah,” Barry nodded slowly. “Thanks, Cisco.”
Running was terrifying.
Running was maybe the most terrifying thing Barry had ever done.
And the most exhilarating.
He’d shot away down the runway, gaining speed with every step as yellow lightning gathered around him and streaked behind him.
The whole world seemed to slow around him as Barry kept running. Doctor Wells was talking to him, and the world didn’t slow down as much if Barry kept trying to focus on his words and what h was saying, but by the time Doctor Wells told him that would be enough for the day Barry wasn’t sure he’d be able to wipe the smile off his face.
Iris was smiling too and found his hand to hold almost right away.
They stayed at Ferris Air for a little while while Doctor Snow- Caitlin- and Doctor Wells went over some of Barry’s results. The sun was starting to get lower; they’d be expected for dinner soon probably.
Cisco had already offered to drop them off. Barry did not want to have to have the conversation with Uncle Jay and Aunt Joan about powers now or preferably ever. He could privately admit it had been fun, to run like that, but Caitlin and Doctor Wells could make them stop and then everything would be fine again. Everything could go back to normal, and Barry could pretend this had never happened.
Could go back to ignoring Henry Garrick had anything to do with his life.
The radio was saying something about a tornado though. That didn’t sound right.
“Where is that?” Iris asked.
“We have a satellite,” Cisco said. “Hang on.”
He pulled up an image on his computer and Barry leaned over to look too.
“It’s up-”
“That’s one of the farms I told Joe and Fred the Mardons might be hiding at,” Barry said.
“Dad said he was going to check their old hide-outs,” Iris said. “Barry-”
“Okay,” Barry said. “What do I do?”
“Mister Allen, are you sure about this?” Doctor Wells asked.
“No,” Barry said. “But it’s Joe.”
“Barry,” Iris said. She held his hands. “You’ve got this.”
He nodded.
“Take the suit,” Cisco said.
“I’ll be okay,” he promised Iris. “I’ll make sure Joe is too.”
Joe was lying on the floor in the barn, groaning with a bruise on his head. Barry would have stayed with him, only he could hear arguing coming from outside.
Eddie Thawne had a gun drawn and aimed at where Clyde Mardon was gathering wind up and up.
“If you run counter to the flow, it should collapse,” Doctor Wells said.
“He would have to run at over seven hundred miles an hour,” Caitlin said. “He woke up from a coma this morning and we have no idea if that’s even possible, he only got up to a hundred and fifty just now, and he’s been running for a while-”
“He can do this, Caitlin,” Doctor Wells said.
Barry nodded.
He started running, faster and faster, letting the lightning take control.
He focused on Iris.
He wasn’t his father. Iris was right, he wasn’t, and Cisco was right, it was his choice.
He would never be his father.
Barry pushed, faster and faster, and then-
Mardon stumbled back as the tornado collapsed and Barry skidded to a stop in front of him.
“You again,” he said. “Do you think you’re the Flash, kid?”
“I’m just here to stop you hurting anyone else,” Barry said.
More wind picked up as Mardon raised his hands.
“You really think you can stop me?”
A gun fired and Mardon fell to his knees as Eddie Thawne lowered his. He stared at Barry.
“What the hell is going on?” Eddie asked.
Barry had run Joe to the hospital while Eddie called for back-up. He hadn’t stuck around though, getting back to the van right as Iris got the call about Joe from Captain Singh. Jay and Joan were meeting them there.
“He’ll be fine,” Barry said.
“Because of you,” Iris said. “You just saved the city, Barry.”
“No, I-”
Barry looked around and both Caitlin and Cisco nodded in agreement.
“Ms West is right, Mister Allen,” Doctor Wells said. “Without you being there tonight, who knows what damage Mardon would have done, and it was my mistake that cause this. At least seventeen people died that night. Sixteen, since Clyde Mardon seemingly didn’t, and countless more were injured. If you and Mister Mardon are anything to go by, every single one of those people is potentially now a metahuman. I get the feeling this is just the beginning.”
“And you want me to help stop them?” Barry asked.
“I am not going to ask you do to anything you are uncomfortable with,” Doctor Wells said. “But all you’re thinking about is him. He wasn’t the only person with these powers, and perhaps that’s how you prove how unlike him you are, how little he means to you.”
“You’re already wearing red,” Iris said. “But you don’t have to, Barry.”
“No, of course not,” Doctor Wells said. “This is my mistake, it’s for me to try and fix, I just got caught up in the moment of maybe helping you is how I do that.”
“I’ll think about it,” Barry said. “And none of you can tell Uncle Jay, Aunt Joan, or Joe.”
“How are you planning on hiding this from them?” Cisco asked.
“We’ll think of something,” Iris said.
Cisco dropped them off outside the hospital and somehow Barry’s hand found its way into Iris’ again.
“We didn’t tell them we’re not together,” Barry said.
“If it’s really bothering you-”
“It’s not at all,” Barry said. “You act like dating you wouldn’t be something amazing, Iris.”
“You’re sweet,” Iris said, apparently still completely oblivious to how earnestly Barry meant that. “You don’t have to pretend. But if it’s not bothering you-”
“Maybe we let Uncle Jay and Joe assume we’re running around doing that instead of running around saving the city?” Barry finished.
“It could work,” Iris said.
“It would mean things are still complicated with Eddie,” Barry said. “You could tell him we’re poly and you can also date him-”
“But lying to him about that would be different,” Iris said, just like Barry knew she would.
He knew Iris better than anyone in the world. If only he could actually work out how to tell her.
Maybe faking it would be the closest he ever got, at least until all this was over. Helping stop some criminals for a few months until C.C.P.D. figured out how to handle it themselves wouldn’t mean he’d have to be the Flash forever.
Nine-year-old Barry would have been thrilled by all this. If only he could find out how to feel like that again.
“We’ll figure it all out,” Barry said, talking about the Eddie situation and everything else. “You and me, just like always, we can do anything.”
“Just like always,” Iris said. She leaned against Barry’s side. “Jay and Joan are either already inside, or on their way. You ready?”
“We’ve got this.”
Joan had taken Barry and Iris off in search of coffee. Jay hadn’t wanted to let Barry out of his sight, but he’d be fine with Joan.
They’d all be fine. Barry had been planning on telling Iris how he felt that night, they were probably long overdue a conversation. Or perhaps they’d managed to have it earlier.
Jay felt so guilty he hadn’t been there, hadn’t got Iris’ voicemail earlier, but, well.
“You’re sure?” Jay asked.
“I might have a mild concussion, but I do still remember what it was like to be carried by you,” Joe said. “The nurses were talking about lightning too, and David said something, but I’m sure I’ll get the whole story tomorrow. It wasn’t him. Why would he do this?”
“To try and trick Barry into thinking he was the Flash this whole time and was framed?” Jay asked, pacing back and forth across the room. “I don’t like this. Any day would be a bad day, but they chose the day Barry woke up?”
“You don’t think that’s a coincidence.”
“Neither do you. Joan thinks we should tell him. She’s right, if he’s already walking around he’ll want to go back to C.C.P.D. sooner rather than later, he will find out. If Henry doesn’t go to him first, he’s spent the past fourteen years asking to see Barry.”
“Do you think he will?”
“I don’t know,” Jay said. He sat in the chair next to Joe’s bed. “Joan suggested it might be time. When Henry demanded to see me the other month, when he found out what had happened, he asked me not to tell Barry the truth about Nora. It didn’t make sense then, it does now. He’s always maintained I was there, that I ran off with Barry and went back for Nora, that he really was expecting her to meet them later.”
“Now you know she’s alive, you’re wondering if there’s more he didn’t tell you.”
“It wasn’t as if the Flash could defend himself, but he kept up his story even after he’d been convicted to the one person who knew it was a lie,” Jay said. “And we still don’t know how he found out about Barry’s coma.”
“You want to tell him the truth.”
“The only other thing Henry said to me was that Barry will hate me when he finds out. He’s right.”
“I don’t think he could hate you, Jay.”
“Every good memory Barry has with Henry is tainted but he still has good memories of Nora. He loves her, he chose Allen instead of Williams because of her, to find out he not only knew exactly what Henry was doing but was just as responsible? That will ruin that as much as finding the truth about Henry did. And then to find out she’s alive and she never came back for him? That over and over she chose someone he doesn’t really know exists, that she and Henry killed people for a brother he never met but they lied to him and left him? He saw the Reverse Flash that night, he’s spent fourteen years believing he watched his father kill his mother, how do I tell him? And then tell him I lied to him as well, that he’s hated Henry for fourteen years for murdering Nora and the Flash and neither of us are dead.”
“But we all believed she was,” Joe said. “And it was only an assumption everyone else made, you never told him the Flash was dead.”
“Does that work for you?”
“Sometimes,” Joe admitted. “Sometimes I tell myself I’ve only ever told Iris Francine is gone, and not correcting her assumptions isn’t that same as lying to her, but I think most of that is lying to myself. You made the decision for Barry, Jay, and you didn’t make it alone. We all agreed he’d been through too much already, he didn’t need any more involvement in that life, and you stopping was the best way to keep him away from it. This was all meant to be over; this was all a decision made to try and protect him.”
“Henry claimed that too,” Jay said.
“What he did wasn’t your fault.”
“He’s right that I lied to him. If I’d told him about this, maybe he would have told me about what had happened.”
“He had other options,” Joe said. “He chose this path. He’s wrong, Barry won’t hate you, but he will be angry.”
“Joan said that too,” Jay said. “And when he’s angry he pulls away. I can’t have him rushing off on his own now, not now. Johnny would have said if it was him, and no one’s seen Max for over a decade, Edward Clariss is dead, he’s the only other one.”
“I want to keep Iris away from it,” Joe said. “But she’s got this interest in reporting now and Joan is right that you can’t keep this from Barry. They’ll probably want to ask him questions, and if you tell one, you tell them both.”
“I know,” Jay said. “I know the longer I say nothing, the worse it’s going to get.”
“But you don’t want him running off when you just got him back.” Joe patted Jay’s arm. “He knows no one ever caught Cobalt Blue. It’s not confirmed yet, is it?”
“No.”
“Then take it one step at a time. He just woke up, he’s going to have a lot to deal with, and David won’t let him back right away. He won’t let Barry be involved in this.”
Jay nodded.
“We found some!” Barry said. He appeared back in the doorway with Iris and Joan and presented Jay a cup. “It’s decaf.”
“Thank you,” Jay said, accepting the cup and holding it in both hands.
“The nurse said you probably shouldn’t have any right now, Dad,” Iris said. She looked so worried.
“That’s fine,” Joe said. He nodded at Jay.
He gulped.
“Barry,” Joe said. “You should sit down.”
“I feel fine,” Barry said. “Really, I do.”
“We believe that,” Jay said. “We have something we need to talk to you about.”
“Okay,” Barry said. He sat in the chair next to the bed Joe was in. “I guess there’s a lot to figure out, right?”
“We’ll handle that,” Joan said.
“It’s not about that,” Jay said.
He hesitated. Didn’t Barry have enough to deal with?
“There’s not really an easy way to say this, son,” Joe stepped in. “Jay got the call from Iron Heights this morning.”
“Iron Heights?” Barry asked. “Is he- Did he-”
“Henry escaped this morning,” Jay said.
Barry’s face fell and his fists clenched and he looked straight to Iris like he’s just made up his mind about something.