Barry looked out of a window in his and Iris's room. Or what used to be their room. Just the memory of her threatened to bring tears to his eyes. Savitar had killed her and Caitlin had turned back into Killer Frost. It had beena week, but it felt
like he had just lost her. Barrycollapsed into a chair and put his head in his hands. There was a knock on the door and his head shot up.
"W-who's there?" He stammered.
"Uh, its Julian," Julian's voice floated through.
"Oh."
"Uh, can I-"
"Uh, yeah, sure."
Julian opened the door cautiously, as if afraid of what he would see.
"Are you alright?" Julian asked.
"No," Barry admitted. "I'm not."
Julian sat down in front of him.
"Why are you here?" Barry asked.
"I just wanted to make sure you were okay. The rest of us haven'tseen you since... the accident."
"Is that what you're calling it now? An accident? Is that all it is to you?"
Julian pursed his lips and looked away. Barry felt a little guilty.
"Look, I'm sorry-"
"No, its fine. You've got every right to be mad."
They sat in a silence for a while, looking anywhere but each other. Julian broke the silence.
"Barry, I know you're upset about Iris's death, but the rest of the team need you. We need the Flash."
"The Flash isn't here right now," Barry said bitterly.
"Well he needs to be, because the city needs him."
Barry finally looked at him.
"But I can't-" he broke off, looking away again. "I can't be the Flash right now. I wasn't fast enough to save Iris, and I might not be able to save others."
"Barry," Julian said, forcing him to look at the man. "Savitar is the fastest person alive. There was no way you could've beat him with speed. But the criminals in this city aren't like him. They aren't as fast him, and they aren't as smart as him. You
can beat them."
Barry looked at him, suddenly noticing the blue shining in his eyes and the lashes framing them. Julian seemed to realize how close they were and swallowed. Barry's eyes flickered down to his lips, and Julian leaned a little bit closer. They were so close.
Just a little closer and- Barry's phone rang. They jumped apart, eyes wide.
"Uh- I should probably- I should probably get that," Barry stuttered, red spreading out over his cheeks.
It was Cisco calling.
"Barry," his urgent voice called over the speakers.
"Yeah?" Barry asked.
"The box, it just appeared out of nowhere and it's going crazy. I know you've been grieving and all, but we need you right now."
"Oh- uh, okay, I'll be right there." He hung and looked at Julian awkwardly. "Uh, that was Cisco. It's the Philosopher's stone. The box is back. I really need to go."
"I'm coming with you," Julian said.
"Look, Julian, this is-"
"I'm part of the team now, aren't I? So this involves me."
Barry sighed, running a hand through his hair, messing it up.
"Fine," he finally agreed.
He quickly grabbed Julian and sped towards the lab.

He saw the light before he saw the actual box itself. Cisco was at the computers, trying to do something and HR was standing there, unsure of what to do. Cisco looked up and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Barry and Julian.
"Thank God you guys are here," Cisco breathed.
"What happened?" Barry demanded, throwing off his jacket, which had caught on fire.
"Everything was fine, and this box just showed up out of nowhere, half open. I thought you threw it in the speed force."
"I did."
"Then why is it still here?"
"Well how am I supposed to know?"
"I don't know."
"Guys!" Julian cut in, peeling himself away from the wall he'd been leaning on because of the speed Barry had gone. "Can we actually try to do something?"
"Well I was trying to-"
The light grew brighter and the whole box exploded. The force of it threw all of them back against the walls, knocking Julian out cold. Thankfully, Savitar didn't appear. Barry got back on his feet and saw that Cisco and HR were both fine. He checked
Julian's pulse and was relieved to find it steady. Cisco immediately took control of the situation and Barry went over to HR.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," HR said. "But he's not." He pointed to Julian.
Barry felt worry course through him.
"He's going to be fine," Barry said, mostly to convince himself. "He's going to be okay."