Chapter Text
It had been raining the night Iris West’s world was turned upside-down, and it was raining the night it turned right-side up again. She wasn’t thinking of it that way at the time, but curled in her bed snug while it poured outside- well she’d have been better if Dad and Barry were here. Dad was on a case, and Barry- well, he was the reason everything was wrong. Three months in a coma, no idea if he’d ever wake up or if it would be him who woke up, whole and healthy. God she missed him. Barry had been there to laugh with and call and lean on for as long as Iris cared to remember. Being without him was like having a cold, gaping hole in her life. It was a constant ache, reinforced by stabbing pain every time she thought of something she wanted to tell him.
She rolled onto her side, clutching her pillow. It’d be easier if he died, floated through her head, and her eyes welled up at the thought. But it was just- he was there, but it wasn’t Barry. He didn’t trip or laugh or ramble about science.
Iris cried silently into her pillow. There wasn’t anyone to hear her, but she’d never been one for wailing and sobbing anyway.
A flash of light out the window made her blink. The rain continued unabated, and she sat up to try and clear her stuffed head. And stared. The water in the glass on her bedside table was drifting slowly upward, with no care at all for the laws of physics.
She had just enough time to think- that’s impossible.
When-he was there.
Red-gold light blurred the tall figure standing at the foot of her bed.
“Iris?” The voice was a buzz, a low hum that was somehow still warm.
“Who are you? How do you know my name?” She wasn’t really listening. Her old softball bat was in the corner by her closet and her dad’s hold-out Glock was on the top shelf of the linen cupboard in the hallway. Would a bat or bullets even put a dent in this person anyway?
“Iris, I’m not here to hurt you. I need your help.”
“Tell me who you are,” her voice sounded way calmer than she felt.
“Don’t freak out,” the figure motioned at her, the, his voice changing, losing that buzzing edge, as the blurring around him stopped. A tall, thin guy in a dark red suit, some sort of cowl he was pulling off his face to reveal-
“Barry!?” she squeaked. No other word for it.
“Yeah. Iris, it’s kind of complicated, but I’m going to explain what I understand of it-“
“But you’re awake! This is-I have to call Dad-“
“Iris, wait.”
She stopped, hand half toward her phone.
“Look, this is going to sound…impossible, but I need you to trust me.”
“Of course I trust you, Bear.”
So he told her. About how in another world, another timeline, he had made a choice when he’d woken up as something- impossible. And how that choice had caused a cascade of consequences unpredictable at the time which had lead to. Well.
“The end of the world. More or less.” Barry sighed.
“And that wrong choice that caused the end of the world is…not telling me you had superpowers?”
“Basically.”
“You lied to me!?” Barry never lied to her. He was terrible at lying in the first place.
“It was a mistake! One that I’ve literally traveled through time to try and fix.”
“So, you’re going to wake up?” Iris’ hands clutched the quilt in an effort to stay still. This was quite possibly the most surreal thing to ever happen to her, but her brain kept side-tracking to the desire to grab Barry in a hug and never let go.
“Yeah,” he grinned, ducked his head, “give it another couple months, I’m not exactly sure where we are in the timeline.”
“Wait, you have to go back, to your timeline? The awful one?”
“No, theoretically I go to the timeline where my coming here changed what happened. And I’m the only one who remembers that it was ever different.”
“But I’ll remember what you told me.”
“Yeah. Which speaking of, I have to tell you- look, there’s a lot that I know that I don’t know if you should know.”
“And what exactly is that supposed to mean?”
“I mean foreknowledge can be dangerous and-“
“I can take care of myself.”
“Iris, I know, OK? But there’s more than just you involved. And some of the stuff isn’t dangerous as much as it is…personal. Stuff that might not work out the same and could hurt people emotionally, not just physically.”
Barry’s eyes were downright pleading, and Iris sighed.
“OK, how about this. You’ve already told me the bare minimum- you will wake up from your coma, you have superpowers, and there's a whole bunch of other people in Central City with superpowers too.”
“Right.” Barry looked distracted for a moment, then grimaced. “Iris, I have to go.”
“What? No! We just-“
“Look, here’s what I can tell you- trust Cisco and Caitlin. I know you’ll look into the other metas but please be careful and don’t do it without backup. Some of these people are bad, Iris, the absolute worst.
When I wake up, stick by me-“
“Of course I will.”
“It’ll take awhile for my powers to kick in. I won’t know what’s happening. I don’t know how you should tell me you already know.”
“I’ll figure it out, OK?”
He nodded as red-gold light flared around him-
“Iris, I have to go. Be careful!”
“Barry!”
And he was gone. Iris sat unmoving for a few moments, and then snagged her phone. She knew, from Barry’s own lips, that he would wake up. It was time to start compiling data on these other super-powered people. In the morning she’d go see Cisco and Caitlin- interesting that Barry hadn’t mentioned Dr. Wells, she’d have to keep an eye on that- and…convince them somehow.
That people had superpowers? That her coma-bound best friend had time-traveled from the future and told her?
She thought even Cisco might raise an eyebrow at that, and him, her, and (unconscious) Barry had once had a truly entertaining X-Files marathon and therefore she knew that Cisco firmly believed that the truth was, in fact, out there.
Somewhere.
Possibly in the comatose body of Iris’ best friend.
She’d go to STAR Labs first thing in the morning. She trusted Barry, but she’d seen something impossible tonight and she needed some verification.