Title comes from "The Sun" by Ríoghnach Robinson.
When the Arrow yells for them to run, Iris does. She waits half a second to be sure that Eddie runs too, then she takes off, sprinting away as fast as she can. Moving as fast as she can won't do anything if the Flash decides to go after her, of course, but the Arrow seemed to have distracted him. He was never that interested in her, anyway. The only person the Flash seemed to care about was Eddie.
Eddie, who, Iris has to admit, may not have been entirely wrong when he said the Flash was dangerous.
She's still certain that there's something wrong with the Flash, something making him act this way. She has to believe that. She can't accept that her hero would decide to kill her boyfriend of his own free will. But even if someone is controlling him, they're using the Flash's body, and that means they're using his speed. Even if it's not his fault, the Flash has proven himself to be almost unstoppable. Eddie is a trained cop, and if the Arrow hadn't appeared out of nowhere, the Flash would have killed him.
Even if Iris has to believe that he wouldn't hurt anyone if he had any other choice, it's impossible to deny that the Flash is dangerous. The Flash is faster than a bullet, faster than anything anyone could use against him, and if he ever does turn against them, all of Central City is doomed.
With that thought in mind, Iris waits for a few moments until she heads back towards the car to look for Eddie. He ran in the opposite direction that she did, and while she knows the city well enough to guess where he could have gone, there are far too many options for her to easily check all of them on foot. The car will help. And even if it's not faster than the Flash, it's faster than Iris is on foot, and that makes her feel a little bit better.
The car is where she left it, and Iris doesn't look over at the passenger side door as she climbs in. She'll have to take the car into the shop to get fixed tomorrow, but honestly, she's not sure if she'll ever be able to get in it again without thinking of the way Eddie hit the ground, the way he kept rolling and bouncing until he finally came to a painful stop. It was terrifying, and Iris knows she'll never be able to forget it until the day she dies.
The car still works, so Iris starts the engine and slowly drives forward, peering down every alleyway she passes. She doesn't think Eddie would probably have been able to get too far, judging by his awkward, stumbling run, and so she's not surprised when it doesn't take very long for her to see a huddled figure in one of the alleys. She reaches for the pepper spray her dad always insists that she have in the car, just in case shadow-shrouded figure isn't actually Eddie, but she has the feeling that it is.
And when she pulls the car over and steps out, she sees that she was right, and Eddie is leaning against the alley wall, hugging himself and visibly shaking. "Eddie?" she calls, keeping her voice mild. She saw how hard the Flash hit him, and she knows that he's still not one hundred percent healed from the gunshot wound Tockman inflicted, and she's taken more than enough first aid classes to be aware that it's not entirely unlikely that Eddie is going into shock. She needs to be gentle.
"Iris?" Eddie asks, looking up at her. There's blood on one side of his face, and his eyes are wide. "Iris, are you okay? Did he touch you?"
"He didn't touch me," Iris says, kneeling in front of Eddie. "Do you need to go to the hospital?"
"No," Eddie says, shaking his head. "No, I just want to go home."
"Okay," Iris says. "If I give you a hand, can you get back to the car?"
Iris thinks she sees Eddie flinch, but the movement is so quick that she can't be sure of it. "Yeah," he says, uncurling one arm from around himself and holding it up towards Iris. "Will the front door close?"
"The passenger side is pretty much a loss," Iris says apologetically. "You'll have to go in the back."
Eddie nods and lets Iris pull him to his feet. He keeps one arm curled around his torso in a way that makes Iris wonder about the state of his ribs. Maybe she should take him to the hospital, his protests be damned, but Iris decides she'll bring him to his apartment first and check how badly he's hurt. If there are broken bones, she'll bring him to the hospital, but if it's all just bruises, she won't make him go if he doesn't want to.
With Iris's help, Eddie stumbles to the car. Iris helps him into the back seat, and she buckles his seatbelt when his shaking hands fumble it twice. Normally, she thinks he'd be annoyed by the help he needs - Eddie's still irritated by the impositions the doctor placed on him until his arm is fully healed - but he hardly seems to notice that it's happening. That's not a good sign for his mental awareness, Iris knows, but hopefully he'll come back to himself by the time they get back to his apartment.
"Okay," she says, trying to sound cheerful. "Are you ready to go?"
"I'm ready," Eddie says hoarsely, so at least that's something.
Iris nods, then she goes around to the front seat and slides behind the wheel. She drives to Eddie's apartment the long way, the way that doesn't bring them anywhere near the place where the Flash attacked them. It means more time in the car, which she doesn't think either she or Eddie is a huge fan of, but Iris would rather spend more time in the car than get anywhere near the Flash tonight.
Eddie is silent through the whole drive, and when Iris finally parks in front of his apartment building, it seems to take him a second to realize that the car's stopped. By the time he starts fumbling with his seatbelt, Iris has already opened his door and is waiting to help him upstairs.
"Do you need a hand?" she asks, watching as Eddie's shaking hands keep missing the buckle.
"I can do it," Eddie says, which makes Iris feel a little better. If he'd asked for help, she'd be worried that he was really hurt. Whether or not he can really do it himself, at least he thinks he can.
Finally, Eddie manages to unbuckle his seatbelt, and Iris helps him out of the car and into the building. They go to the elevator, and Iris presses the button for Eddie's floor while he pulls out his keys.
"You should probably take these," Eddie says ruefully, offering the key ring to Iris. "I don't think I'll be able to unlock too many doors right now."
At least he's sounds like himself, Iris thinks as she plucks the key ring out of Eddie's shaking hands. She's still a little worried about shock, but Eddie doesn't seem concussed, and his breathing is even enough that she doesn't think his ribs are probably broken. Bruised, obviously, and maybe cracked, but as long as nothing's broken, they should be okay.
Eddie's apartment is as clean as always when Iris pushes the door open. She drops the keys in the dish by the front door, then she helps Eddie to the couch.
"Okay," she says, setting him down. "Is your first aid kit still under the sink?"
"Same as always," Eddie agrees, gingerly leaning back against the cushions. "And ibuprofen is in the medicine cabinet."
"I'm not giving you anything until we figure out if you need to go to the hospital or not," Iris says grimly, heading to the bathroom.
"No hospital, Iris, come on!" she hears Eddie protest, which does make her feel better. When she first found him in the alleyway, he'd seemed almost empty, and for a second she'd worried that the Flash had hurt him beyond repair. But now that they're back in his apartment - now that they're away from the Flash - he seems to be coming back to himself.
The first aid kit is under the sink, like Eddie said, and Iris is glad to see that it's well-stocked. She grabs the ibuprofen too, even if she's not going to let Eddie take it yet, and heads back out to the living room. Eddie is still on the couch, fumbling with the buttons on his shirt. His fingers are still shaking, and he can't quite grip them.
"This is really annoying," he says with a feeble chuckle. "I don't suppose you could give me a hand?"
"For you? I can give you two," Iris says, kneeling in front of Eddie and unbuttoning his shirt. She pulls it open to reveal darkening bruises on his torso, ones she's sure will hurt for a long time. "Do you think anything's broken?"
"No," Eddie says with confidence. "I've had broken ribs before. These hurt, but nothing's broken."
"What can I do to make them better?" Iris asks.
"Nothing really," Eddie admits. "They're just bruises, Iris."
They may just be bruises, but Iris can't stop staring at them, can't stop staring and remembering how the Flash toyed with Eddie, like a cat waiting to kill a mouse. If he hadn't taken the time to talk, if the Arrow had shown up just a little later, then the night could have been a lot worse.
"Iris," Eddie says softly, curling his fingers under her chin and tipping her head up. "I'm okay."
"You're the one who got hurt," Iris says, and to her horror, she feels her eyes filling up with tears. "I should be the one comforting you, not the other way around."
"You had to watch," Eddie says. "And you thought you could trust the Flash. This was traumatic for you too."
"I don't understand why he would do that," Iris says. "I mean, what was wrong with him?"
"I don't get it either," Eddie says. "The way he was talking… It sounded like he thinks I took something from him. But I don't even know who he is."
"Something was wrong with him," Iris says. "I don't know what, but he wasn't right."
"I don't necessarily disagree," Eddie says. "But Iris, you know this doesn't change anything, right? I'm still going to ask for a task force. Even if the Flash is a good guy, he can't keep operating outside the law."
"I know," Iris says, and she does, because tonight she saw just how dangerous the Flash could be, and she doesn't like the thought of that anger being loosed on anyone, even criminals. The Flash needs checks and balances, and maybe he has them already, but maybe he doesn't, and maybe Eddie and his task force could provide them.
"And Iris," Eddie adds, "I know I can't make you do anything you don't want to do, but… Please don't meet with him anymore."
"I won't," Iris promises. She means it. She still thinks that something was wrong tonight, that the Flash normally isn't like this, that he's a hero (or at least, she thinks uncertainly, he thinks of himself as a hero), but she also just watched him almost kill her boyfriend. She's not going to want to be alone with the Flash for a long time.
"Good," Eddie says, visibly relaxing. "Iris, you know I love you, right? I don't know what I would do if anything happened to you."
"I feel the same way," Iris says, sitting on the couch next to Eddie and very carefully curling up next to him but not on top of him. "When I thought the Flash was going to kill you…"
"He didn't," Eddie says, taking Iris's hand in his and squeezing it. "I'm okay."
"Can I stay here tonight?" Iris asks impulsively. If she goes back to her house, she's only going to have nightmares of the way Eddie hit the pavement. If she has the same nightmares here, at least Eddie will be next to her to tell her they weren't real.
"Of course," Eddie says. Something in his voice makes Iris wonder if he wanted to ask for her to stay but didn't know how. "Of course you can. You can stay whenever you want to."
Iris snuggles a little closer, resting her head on Eddie's shoulder. She's still careful not to put any weight on any of the spots where he's hurt, but considering the fact that he puts an arm around her and pulls her closer, she doesn't think he's complaining about her desire for more intimacy.
"I love you," Iris says quietly, nestling closer into Eddie's side.
"I love you too," Eddie says, squeezing her gently.
And when Iris dreams of the Flash looming over Eddie, she wakes to find him next to her, breathing steadily and curled around her, and when she falls back asleep, the dreams don't return.