It Was Real
Harrison looked at Barry with anger in his eyes. "You said that you would help me save my daughter, but all you've done for the last 24 hours is run around and play house." His voice was gravely low.
"I told you already, they're my family." Barry could feel his emotions beginning to rage, as they loudly demanded to be released. He clenched his hands in an attempt to both distract him from his thoughts, and to prevent him from focusing on the truth.
"And like I've already explained to you, this is not your world. She is not the Iris you know!" A sense of fury had begun to rise inside of Harrison. "Do you have any idea the damage you've caused!? This Earth's Joe is -"
"I know!" Barry yelled out before the other man could finish. "I know that it was my fault!" He looked away and tried to blink back the tears that had collected around his eyes.
"Barry, this needs to stop. You can't go back to her."
"Iris needs me," he said with an edge of intensity.
"No, what she needs is her husband." The anger in Harrison's tone had already begun to quietly dissolve.
"Why are you still pretending to be the other Barry? Tell me. Why are you really doing this?"
Barry's emotions finally reached their boiling point. Anger and sorrow had begun a dual for control as he quickly turned back towards Harrison. "Because this should be my life! I should be married to Iris! It should be me sending my parents an anniversary gift! IT. SHOULD. BE. ME!" There were tears streaming down his face as his anger finally dissipated and sorrow filled its place.
Harrison said nothing as a sense of understanding slowly pushed away his outrage.
The silence stretched between them until Barry spoke again. His voice sounded tired and broken. "I know I missed up. I know I shouldn't have left the precinct with her." Barry's deflated form fell gracelessly onto the seat beside him. "I just … I don't…" He struggled to find the right words. "You should have seen the way she looked at me when she said that we were going home. I- I just couldn't pull away."
He buried his face in his hands for a moment before continuing. "Then when we got to the house and I called my mom, it felt like this unbelievable dream. She just sounded so happy. And afterwards when I saw the look of open concern and love in Iris's eyes, I realized that this wasn't a dream. It was real." His voice broke as small sobs began to escape.
THE END
Part of me felt that Barry acted selfishly during the "Welcome to Earth 2" episode, but then I figured he didn't do so intentionally. He may have simply gotten completely caught up with the life Earth-2's Barry was living. I could see why our Barry would want to spend even just a day in his shoes.
I hope you enjoyed this drabble. Leave a review and let me know your thoughts.
The "Welcome to Earth 2" episode inspired me to write a few WestAllen drabbles. None of them are necessarily connected. I wanted to explore the characters a little further.
