Notes: 3x23 Finish Line - Iris reflecting on the events of the night.
Welcome to my first story for The Flash. I hope you enjoy Chapter One. Personally I'm having mixed feelings but I have a tendency to self criticise my own work regardless of what it is. Each prompt will be the title of the chapter and at the bottom of the story I will include the photo I used to help describe the loft.
The original prompt has 100 prompts on the list so this will be a multi chapter story but the chapters won't necessarily connect with each other. If one does I'll make sure to say so in the notes. I can't promise to write all 100, it depends on if I can think of something to write for the prompt that fits the character, but I will try my best to do as many as possible.
The door slowly creaked open as Iris stepped in, heels clicking on the hardwood floor as she switched on the light. Closing the door behind her, Iris leaned against it, letting out a deep sigh, the memories of the last few hours rushing through her brain. She had declined her father's request to stay with he and Wally, saying she needing to be in their space but now as she looked around the empty and quiet loft Iris was starting to wish she had taken him up on his offer.
She pushed herself up and made her way across the room, taking her coat off as she walked before dumping it, and her purse, across the dining chairs. Kicking off her heels next to the table Iris walked the short distance to the living room area, grabbing the thick fleece throw over one of the sofas and wrapping herself around in a cocoon before curling up on the sofa on her right.
She knew everyone was concerned about her, concerned for Barry, but she had to be strong. With Barry and Caitlin gone, it was going to be up to her to rally what was left of the team together. Cisco was going to be lost without both Barry and Caitlin and while Wally was improving every day she was going to need him to pick up the slack with the absence of The Flash. It wasn't fair to expect him to do everything and her dad was going to have enough on his plate explaining Barry's disappearance.
No. It would have to be her. She promised Barry she would be strong and that is exactly what she was going to do. It was up to her, up to all of them, to protect this city. It was up to them that Barry, one day, had a city to come home to. There was no time to curl up in a ball and cry. Savitar may be gone but that didn't mean the city was safe, not by a long shot. There was always something, someone, lurking in the dark shadows of the city.
After everything, you would think the universe would give them a break but it seemed determine to do nothing but screw them over. After cheating death all Iris wanted to do was to curl up in his arms and plan for the future they had been given a second chance at. For such a long time Barry had been too afraid to tempt fate and make any wedding plans, not knowing she had been slowly putting together a wedding book. Iris had tried to stay optimistic that they would somehow find a way to save her, no matter how hopeless it looked. Someone had to, despite how scared she was deep down inside.
She had tried to plead with him, tried to use the city's need for The Flash to get him to stay. Watching him walk into the speed force had been one of the most difficult things she had ever done, even worse than watching him code over and over again. Then there was always the possibility of him pulling through, he was there and touchable all those months lying in the hospital bed. But now, he was just gone. There was no guarantee they would ever get him out of the speedforce, that she would ever see him again, that she would ever get to become Iris West–Allen.
As she watched him walk towards the speedforce, towards his mom, with tears streaming down her face a million things ran through her mind but the loudest of them all was the urge to scream "I love you, please don't go".
Iris had spent the past couple of months preparing to do one of two things; die or marry the fastest man alive. Not once did she prepare for a third option, to live without him.
End Notes: I hope that wasn't too over the place, it was a little shorter than I originally planned. The last line I scribbled down on a piece of paper before I went to bed last night after I was thinking about the story and it suddenly came to me.
The story is also available on AO3 /works/12000723/chapters/27153363