Barry hears the crash preceding Iris's screams for him, and is downstairs before she can even finish her distraught cry of "Barry!"
He wishes his speed could allow him more time to prepare for the image of his toddler daughter clutching her head and wailing, blood cascading between her fingers.
"What happened?!" he demands, prying Dawn's hands from her face. His forensic eye estimates the gash to be about four and two thirds of a centimeters long, but any regular eye could see that the wound is gaping open and in need of sutures.
Iris herself appears to be fighting tears, her voice quivering with her reply. "I don't know, it was all so fast! One second I was chasing her, and the next…" She seems unable to even fathom what had occurred.
"We have to get her to the hospital," Barry orders, gathering a still shrieking Dawn in his arms while Iris scoops up a confused Don.
"Wait, Barry!" She stops him before he can take off. "The car, remember?"
Barry groans, wanting to race Dawn to help as quickly as possible, but he's secretly thankful for the reminder. What would be the use of his physics degree if he didn't realize the abrupt changes in inertia, velocity, and momentum that came along with his speed were far from safe for his delicate children, especially one with a head injury?
"Hurry!" he urges, but he didn't need to emphasize that at all, because after The Flash, no one could move faster than a concerned parent rushing to aid their child.
The drive to the hospital is agonizing for Barry who's used to bypassing traffic in a heartbeat, and is especially made worse when he's forced to listen to Dawn's cries of pain the entire ride, despite Iris's attempts to pacify her in the backseat, but they finally arrive. Barry slams the car door shut and sprints to the emergency room registration before he can even turn the engine off.
"What's your emergency?" the clerk at the front desk inquires.
"My daughter fell and hit her head," he explains. "She's been bleeding for about thirty minutes now, but my wife applied pressure to the wound on the way here."
The clerk types at her keyboard. "How old is the patient?"
"Fourteen months. Is it possible to get some assistance, we have twins-"
"Of course," the clerk assures him. She turns around and motions to one of the nurses behind her. "Can you help this gentleman please?"
"Twins, huh?" A nurse in purple scrubs smiles at Barry and follows him out the sliding doors. "That must be quite a handful."
"Two handfuls," Barry chuckles in spite of himself, leading her to the car where Iris is standing waiting. "She's going to help us-"
"Uh, Barry," Iris shakes her head like she can't believe what she's about to tell him.
"What's wrong?" Barry asks, alarm immediately coursing through him.
"I don't think we need help anymore…"
Barry looks past her and into the backseat to find not only a nonplussed Don, but a now quiet Dawn, face covered with dried blood and tears from no apparent source, as the cut on her forehead seemingly disappeared.
Barry gapes at Dawn, then Iris, and then back to Dawn again.
"But-but-how-"
The nurse frowns. "Where did you say the laceration was again?"
"On her forehead-" Barry starts.
"Sir, we can't help you unless we know why you need help," the nurse interrupts. "So if you could please let me know what's really going on here-"
"I'm sorry," Iris steps in before Barry could make the situation worse with a baffled attempt to explain. "My daughter was running until she fell. She started crying and I noticed blood. I freaked out and insisted we bring her in to make sure everything is okay. We're new parents, we tend to be hysterical if anything happens to them, so please, excuse me if I thought I saw something and was mistaken."
Despite her eyes still narrowing in suspicion, the nurse nods, and Barry breathes a sigh of relief at Iris's swift thinking, pushing aside his own confusion for the next hour at the hospital to play along with the story they contrived.
Once they're back in the car though, he and Iris have the same thought.
"Iris-"
"STAR Labs, now," she commands.
Cisco seems more excited at the prospect of Dawn's potential meta-human physiology than Caitlin does.
"She's a speedster," he declares, a hint of glee to his tone. "What else can explain it? Her molecules are moving at accelerated rates, so of course her cells are going to regenerate that much more quickly, just like yours and Wally's do, Barry."
"We ran tests on both her and Don when they were born," Caitlin counters. "In anticipation of this. And neither of them showed any signs of Speed Force-altered DNA."
"Yeah, but those tests are designed to detect altered DNA in comparison to the human genome," Cisco challenges. "They can't be altered if their chromosomes were already like that to begin with."
"He's got a point, Caitlin," Barry adds, adjusting Don so that his sleepy son could rest his head on his shoulder. "As far as we're concerned, every device here has been designed and calibrated exclusively for humans turned speedsters."
"But even Harry's meta-indicator didn't go off around them," Caitlin insists.
"Because there's no dark matter to detect," Cisco explains. "How could there be? They were never exposed."
"So, you're saying…" Iris trails off, clutching Dawn more closely to her chest.
Cisco takes a deep breath: "I think Dawn is the first-ever born speedster."
The silence that follows this testimony is only broken by Dawn herself whining for the freedom to roam by arching her back and stretching her limbs in an effort to slide off her mother's lap.
"Do you think that both of them are?" Barry finally asks, tilting his head so that his cheek rests against Don's curls, voicing what's likely on everyone's mind.
Cisco shrugs. "We can't know for sure, but I'm willing to bet he is too," he says. "Have you guys noticed anything?"
Dawn nags even more loudly and Iris sets her down on her feet while still maintaining a grip on her.
"Donny isn't walking yet," Iris replies. "But what happened today all makes sense now. I was playing with the kids earlier. Dawn started pacing really quickly, running actually, and then she just-collided with the coffee table. I didn't understand how-I was chasing her in circles and she was right in front of me, but once I registered she'd hit something, I was still behind the couch, which she couldn't have gotten around to the coffee table in so little time-"
"-unless she's a speedster," Cisco interjects.
"Yeah…" Barry ponders, watching Dawn break free from Iris and take curious steps toward the Cosmic Treadmill that he had spent so many training sessions with. The prospect of his little one harboring speed force energy in her little frame, energy far too powerful for her, energy that he struggled to dominate as a grown adult, fills him with a strange mixture of awe and fear.
It definitely fills Iris with more fear.
"What are we going to do, Barry?" she rounds on him when they're back home and the twins have been laid down in their cribs to sleep.
"I don't know," he answers truthfully. "I was bracing myself for this possibility when you were pregnant, but once they were born and all those tests Caitlin ran on them came back negative, I figured they were just two ordinary babies. Human babies. But now it's like-"
"-like we've been hit with this all over again, only now there's no time to prepare," Iris completes.
Barry swallows, nodding his head. Since they became parents, their minds seemed to overlap more than ever before, especially when it came to their children.
Iris flops onto the couch, eyes fixed on the screen of the baby monitor displaying two peaceful, slumbering toddlers. Barry reads the worry in her expression, notices the tension in her shoulders, mirroring his own concerns. As always when it comes to his wife however, he feels compelled to quell all her fears, even if he shares them.
He joins her on the sofa, enveloping her into his arms. Her gaze is still focused forward on Dawn and Don, but she moves easily into his embrace so that he can settle his chin atop her head.
"We've still got time to prepare, Iris," he starts gently, rubbing her shoulder. "That's what parenting is all about-adapting to our kids and who they are. It's a constant cycle of preparation, trial and error, learning and improving…"
"I wasn't prepared for what happened today though," Iris sounds from beneath him, and he doesn't need to see her face to know she's tearing up. "I didn't know Dawn was going to get hurt like that."
"I know, I know," Barry lulls, kissing the top of her head, pushing aside his own anguish at seeing his child injured, no matter how relatively minor and mendable the wound was even without advanced healing. "But-accidents are inevitable, and Dawn could fall and hit her head whether or not she's a speedster."
"I guess I should be grateful that she's able to recover so quickly," Iris chuckles through her sniffs. "It's just so hard to see her in pain."
"Tell me about it," Barry murmurs before clearing his throat and squeezing her arm. "We just need to keep a careful eye on them, which we have to do anyway, right?" He nudges her affectionately, hoping to lighten her mood.
"Right," she sighs, curling into him further.
"She's going to be okay, alright?" he repeats, this promise more for himself than for Iris, his eyes shifting to the tranquil image of his sleeping pair, his beautiful boy and his beautiful girl, what he considers the most precious gifts he's ever been blessed with, such that he would not change anything from his past, tragedies and all, if it meant he couldn't have them. "Both of them are going to be okay…"
Things are far from okay barely two days later.
Dawn's speed didn't make another chance appearance until Barry received an urgent phone call from Iris after having just arrived at the precinct for his shift one morning.
"Hey, Iris," he answers.
"She's doing it again!" Iris exclaims frantically. "I can't stop her Barry-"
Barry doesn't even let her finish before he's bolting back to the loft, not caring if any of his coworkers see him, the cars and buildings he passes blurrier than he's used to with how quickly he sprints, desperate to reach home to his daughter before she hurts herself again.
He's too delayed, he recognizes once he bursts through the apartment door just as Dawn slams into the kitchen island with such force that its contents fall, including, to Barry's horror, a pot of coffee.
He pushes himself to limits he's tried to exceed before to thrust Dawn out of the way, like when he raced to reach Savitar before he impaled Iris, or when he paused the course of the earth to prevent a nuke from catastrophic detonation, but even as he rushes towards her, he knows deep down that there are moments when a speedster is too late, when how hurriedly he runs pales in comparison to the single second he needed for Iris's phone call to reach him earlier, for him to move sooner-the second that could have averted everything.
What follows is the worst scream he's ever heard, straight from the mouth of his child as scorching dark liquid pours over her. A few moments later, after the coffee pot shatters, the second worst scream echoes-this time from Iris once her cognizance catches up with his and she realizes what's ensued.
By the time Iris drops down onto her knees beside them, among glass shards and spilled coffee, Barry's already whipped Dawn's soaked onesie and diaper off of her. He tries to examine her burns, but she flails and wails senselessly in his arms. There's no time to even spare Iris a glance as he dashes to the bathroom, leaping into the shower with her to rinse her with cold water. Only when he notices a red tint to the water does he grasp that she's also been cut by glass from the broken pot.
"Oh, Dawny," he whispers, tears blurring his vision. How much more did she have to endure?
She seems even smaller against the depth of the tub, clinging tightly to him and sobbing so frantically she's short-of-breath. No extent of gruesome burns that he had seen on the job as a CSI compares to his daughter's petite figure and her formerly soft, silky baby skin covered in raw, peeling blisters, and Barry finds himself shaking while he holds her steadily to the stream of water-or maybe he had been quivering all along since that bloodcurdling scream and only now discerned he was. He's too distressed to even mumble futile words of solace, feeling like he himself had been burned right along with her.
Through the sound of the the water pouring over him, he must have missed Iris coming in.
"I called Caitlin," she informs him, her voice small. "She said to cover any burns with gauze and to wrap her in a cold towel and come to STAR Labs right away. Wally is racing Dad over now to stay with Donny."
Barry nods, shutting the water off with reluctance when it makes Dawn screech even more loudly, but she calms slightly the instant Iris presses the cool cloth of the towel to her skin with trembling hands. When Barry gets the chance to take a good look at Iris, he notices her eyes are red from crying.
It was hard for Caitlin to pry a screaming Dawn away from Iris at STAR Labs, but she eventually gives her up.
"She has extensive thermal second-degree burns covering nearly 45% of her body surface area and even some third-degree burning on her stomach and under her chin," Caitlin recites, confirming what Barry himself approximated. She gently lays Dawn onto a bed and ushers him and Iris closer. "I don't want to have to sedate her unless it's absolutely necessary, so you guys should probably stand nearby in case she panics."
Sure enough, once Caitlin moves to clean and debride a burned section of skin, Dawn emits a shriek that triggers more tears and shivers from Barry, nothing to do with how drenched he still is from being in the shower while fully clothed.
"Sweetheart," he starts, taking her little bandaged hand in his, the same moment Iris bends over to smooth her hair back from her forehead, both of them not wanting to pain her further by touching her burns. As much as he wishes he could collapse and apologize to both Dawn and Iris, accepting most if not all responsibility for their current distress, he swallows his guilt to utter one sentence, even if he wasn't sure of it: "You're going to be okay."
Was she really, though? Hadn't he made that same promise to Iris mere days ago, only for his baby to end up in such critical condition? While he observes Caitlin start an IV and carefully apply antibiotic ointment to the wounds, Barry ponders the depths he and Iris are going to have to reach from now on to keep their children safe until they master their powers.
That is, if they could ever master them. For so long, he'd considered his speed a gift, believing he was lucky to be blessed with such incredulous ability, but after Dawn's accidents, he was beginning to question if perhaps the Speed Force was only meant to be harnessed and exploited by an adult-not a child who could barely control her own limbs, let alone fathom what was happening to her body or what she was capable of.
When Dawn eventually quiets, it's only because her screams have exhausted her. Barry can decipher that she's still suffering from the way her nostrils flare and her tiny ribs spasm with silent sobs. Somehow this torments him more than her outright bawling.
"Can you please do something for her pain?" he blurts out, unable to help himself. Iris seems to be just as affected as he is, as he catches sight of her tightly squeezing Dawn's other hand.
"I'll give her an analgesic," Caitlin assures them.
His angel is almost unrecognizable when Caitlin's finished applying ointment and fresh gauze.
"She's had a tetanus shot recently, so that's taken care of," Caitlin explains, handing Dawn back to Iris who appears relieved to be able to carry her again. Her cheeks are swollen from what Barry can see of her face through the bandages.
"I know she looks scary, but already her burns appear to be better than they were when you brought her in-"
"Because of her speed healing," Barry finishes, his eyes still on Dawn.
"It's actually quite amazing," Caitlin remarks. "I thought for certain she was going to need a skin graft for those third-degree burns, in which case I would have had no choice but to refer her to a surgeon, but they started to improve tremendously once I applied the ointment. That's miraculous, and I think she's going to look as though nothing happened in as soon as a week, as long as we keep giving her antibiotics and applying the ointment. And I have a lotion you can rub on her to prevent keloid scars."
Caitlin looks up at Barry: "She's really lucky."
No she isn't, Barry wants to refute. If it weren't for her speed, the speed that he passed on to her, she wouldn't have landed herself in this situation at all.
Had he cursed his children? Endangered them more than the average person? After two accidents within the span of a few days of discovering her powers, two accidents that easily could have taken a much worse turn or elicited more tragic results, it certainly seemed like it. He was starting to dread when Don would take his first steps.
Could his twins be trained and conditioned to master their speed, just as they could learn to walk and speak?
It was a question he would have to explore and that only time would answer, because they had no examples to follow. As far as they were aware, his daughter and likely his son were effectively the first meta-humans conceived in vivo. Every other meta or speedster he had ever encountered obtained his or her powers through mutations after exposure to dark matter, or because of substance consumption, certainly at a stage when they were cognitively, physically, and mentally functional and independent, not as children who already understood very little about themselves and the world around them even without the presence of meta-humans and phenomena that he'd for so long believed impossible.
Of course he and Iris had discussed this possibility when they decided to start a family, but they'd mostly contemplated the social implications of such powers. They figured they would teach their kids to blend in with their peers as much as possible, and to only employ their speed in absolute emergencies. Any of The Flash's rivals could come after them if they knew he had children, and their powers would essentially be a blatant target on their backs.
What they'd never considered was how the Speed Force itself could backfire and harm the very flesh that conducted it by inhabiting a child at birth.
"She may have a concussion from her slam, but it's likely mild considering she didn't lose consciousness or throw-up. Her neuro exam is negative, and I didn't see any nasal or ear drainage, so that's good news," Caitlin proceeds. "Make sure you monitor her closely over the next few days though. Even if speedsters can withstand concussive shockwaves better than a regular person, they're not immune to the dangers of brain hematomas should there be one."
"I'm not letting her out of my sight," Iris swears ferociously, though she isn't looking at either Caitlin or Barry, her gaze focused completely on her daughter.
While he watches Iris, Barry's aware of Caitlin's eyes watching him knowingly, giving the impression that she's conscious of the tension in the air and that she has the courtesy to leave them alone together with Dawn.
"I'll be back to check on her," Caitlin states simply.
Once she exits the room, Barry moves to join Iris on the bed, who's since started weeping silently. She cradles Dawn in her arms, now drowsy after a dose of pain medication. This time Barry has no words of comfort for her.
"I am never drinking coffee again," Iris croaks, stroking whatever skin of her baby's cheeks she can touch that isn't covered with a bandage.
At this, Barry can at least offer some consolation: "Iris, it's not your fault."
"Then whose fault is it, Barry?" she questions, an eerie calmness to her tone.
Mine, he ruminates. After all, it was his speed that hurt his daughter and his speed that couldn't save her. But he doesn't want to play the blame game presently, not when Iris needs him to be her husband and Dawn needs him to be her father.
"I should have known better," Iris whispers, rocking Dawn back and forth now. "I should have watched her more closely. I should have been more careful after the first accident." Her voice breaks: "I made that coffee…" And she hugs Dawn more tightly.
Seeing Iris reduced to such a state rattles him; for so often she was the judicious rock of the two of them who would have the sense to know that in this situation, there was no one to reasonably hold accountable. But maybe when it came to motherhood, when it came to the compromised wellbeing of her kids-maybe that's when she couldn't be rational anymore.
He certainly couldn't be.
Still, he's desperate to alleviate her anguish, to be the levelheaded one for her like she had been for him so many times.
"She heals quickly, Iris," he tries.
"But she still feels everything," she sobs, burying her face in Dawn's hair.
What made this exchange harrowing wasn't only its undeniable accuracy, but the unspoken suggestion that they both understood: there were going to be more accidents, and for each one, Dawn was going to suffer, no matter how rapidly she recovered.
True to Caitlin's prediction, Dawn is free of all burns, infections, and scars in a matter of days, but Barry and Iris are still scarred by the incident. They opt from now on to place Dawn in her bouncer or her highchair whenever Barry is out of the house for work or on a task as The Flash, not wanting to risk having her on her feet if he isn't there to catch up with her. Keeping her at bay doesn't exactly contain her speed however, as occasionally she vibrates spontaneously, which not only troubles Iris that she might choke if she happens to quake while eating, but also scares Dawn herself. She becomes fussy if she ever perceives that one of her limbs is shaking uncontrollably and reaches for either him or Iris, which is like her to do when she's afraid.
"Barry, I think…" Iris cautiously concludes ones day. "I think she's realizing when the vibrations start that she's going to lose control and get hurt again."
What shatters him is that she's probably right.
Barry knows Dawn doesn't like being confined ever since she learned to walk, and sure enough, she shouts and resists whenever she perceives that she's being carried to be strapped in, especially since she starts to grasp that the highchairs or bouncers correlate with the appearance of those tremors she fears. They shower her with new toys and games to entertain her, and keep Don close by his sister, but Barry knows she wants the freedom to wander, and it pains him to think he's restricting his curious, vibrant baby girl, or worse, frightening her.
It seemed no matter what he did, he was hurting her. Upon hearing his concerns, Cisco promises he'll begin work on a special walker for baby speedsters, but in the meantime, it was better for Dawn to be safely enclosed while he was away than risk another injury, at least until her mobility was more coordinated and controlled. In the event of another emergency, with either twin, Iris was to use the STAR Labs distress signal that would contact either Barry or Wally more swiftly than a phone call could.
This system works for sometime, and Barry breaths a sigh of relief that perhaps they could manage this just until he has more free time away from CCPD to teach Dawn how to manage herself or at least oversee her while she runs freely. He even starts to allow himself excitement over the prospect of taking her to the Speed Lab at STAR Labs and letting her loose after some diligent baby-proofing, not even to assess her, but to bring her joy again. He hates the toll the last few weeks appear to have taken on her happiness.
Barry's desperate to elicit another smile from his daughter, and so one Saturday afternoon, after much persuasion, he convinces Iris that they should take a day trip to the park. She's skeptical at first, but even she's noticed Dawn's disheartened affect and too wants her daughter to light up again. Barry knows she agrees only because he'll be with her in case things go awry, but that's good enough for him. Together they take a walk to the playground four blocks down, Iris pushing the twins' double stroller with Don nested inside, and Barry clasping Dawn's hand in his as she hops alongside him, more cheerful than she's been in a while.
Once they arrive, Barry's glad to see that the park isn't too crowded with other families. He doesn't want to think of more children getting hurt if anything were to happen.
Dawn squeals and immediately tugs Barry's arm, gesturing in the direction of the slides.
"Take it easy, Slugger," Barry chuckles, maintaining his firm grip on her, but he empathizes with her enthusiasm.
He catches Iris stiffening in the corner of his eye and turns back toward her, hoping the pointed look he gives her conveys reassurance that he's got this covered.
Barry inhales before slowly letting go of Dawn's hand. Her short legs waddle eagerly to the slide closest to her.
"Dadda!" she calls out to him with her arms outstretched upward once she's at the foot of the slide's ladder.
He jogs to her and sweeps her off the ground, tossing her in the air once lightly, before catching her and positioning her at the top of the slide, his hands still steadily balancing her.
"Mama!" Dawn points to where Iris stands and then motions to the slide's end.
"I'm coming!" Iris laughs softly, wheeling Don over.
"Ready, Dawny?" Barry asks. "On your mark, get set, GO!"
He gives her a gentle push and she glides down the chute, positively giggling when Iris catches her at the bottom.
"You did it, Baby Girl!" Iris cheers, and Barry can see that she exhales like she's been holding a breath in ever since they left the house.
After several more rounds of sliding including a few turns with Don on Iris's lap, they make their way to the see-saw where he and Iris each take a twin and sit on an end, teetering up and down to both Don and Dawn's delight. Barry holds onto Dawn as his feet spring off the ground, his chest constricting at how she practically bursts with laughter at each bounce. It was clear she was an active child who loved movement, and he had kept her within strict bounds out of worry. How much can he justify his daughter's misery in the name of keeping her safe?
Just then his phone sounds as well as Iris's, alerting him to an aggravated assault in Windsor Heights, an affluent residential area all the way on the opposite end of the city and a good fifty miles from their neighborhood in Danville. He brings the see-saw to a halt, Iris's fearful eyes immediately meeting his.
"It's gonna be okay," Barry assures her, his first instinct, as always, to soothe Iris. "I'll get this and be back."
"Put her in the stroller," Iris warns.
"Iris-"
"Barry, please," Iris cuts him off. "I'm not risking anything."
He sighs dejectedly, swinging off the see-saw and picking up Dawn, who appears confused until she registers his intention. Once she sees the stroller she thrashes wildly in his arms, just as he expected.
"Just for a short time, okay Dawny?" he attempts, but she hollers so loudly that other parents turn their heads.
"Look, Don is going in the stroller too, Baby!" Iris exclaims, slipping Don into his seat. "Both of you together! Just until Daddy comes back."
Barry manages to buckle Dawn in, but his heart breaks when her face crumples and she reaches out for him.
"Dadda!" she cries.
"I'm sorry, Love," he whispers, welling up himself. He doesn't know why he's as wounded at the sight of her weeping here as he was when she was bleeding or burning, until he discerns it's because he's been the culprit behind all her tears, whether they manifest from her accidents or her confinement. He bends down to kiss her forehead and speeds off before he can see her miserable expression again.
The assault incident turns out to be a gun-wielding employee seeking revenge on her former boss for repeated abuse. Listening to some of the employee's claims makes Barry sick, but as much as he thinks perhaps the boss deserves a bullet or two, he seizes the gun from the employee.
"Flash," the woman sneers haughtily when she perceives that she's no longer in possession of her gun. "If your platform is one of justice, I'd give that back."
"I know this seems like justice," Barry answers, his throat tingling with the vibration of his vocal chords, "but it isn't."
"You don't understand!" the woman shrills. "The things I had to endure at his hands to keep my job, to put food on the table for my kids-"
"I don't even remember you," her boss snarls. "I would never touch such low-class filth-" and Barry punches him unconscious.
"I would do anything for my kids," the woman beseeches. "But what this man did to me over and over again made me have to prioritize myself before them. I couldn't take it anymore-I quit my job. I wasn't strong enough to keep going for them. I gave up on them because of HIM." Her pupils darken fiercely: "And he's going to pay for that."
"Listen to me," Barry implores. "When you walked away, you did the best thing you could ever do for your kids. They need a mother who's safe, they want a mother who's safe, not one who's in prison."
"I failed my children!" she bellows. "We're going to be evicted, is that the best thing for them? No home-all because of me."
"This is not your fault!" Barry asserts.
"It is," the woman wails, crumbling to the ground.
Barry flashes over to the woman.
"Look," he starts. "Rationally, you can't be blamed for the abuse that lead to your kids' poverty. Emotionally, it probably doesn't matter to you. You're beside yourself that you're the reason they're suffering, but this guilt-it's debilitating. You can't put yourself through that kind of torture-it'll only weigh you down and prevent you from being the mother your kids need. Please-" Barry places a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You have to understand that you haven't done anything wrong, and if you can't accept that you haven't, then at least forgive yourself so you and your kids can bounce back together."
The woman quivers beneath his touch, but finally, slowly, she nods.
"Thank you, Flash," she sniffs. "I can't believe I almost killed him-I don't know what I was thinking…"
"It's okay," Barry mutters darkly. "I want to kill him too."
Just then the distress signal buzzes from his suit, and he knows immediately-it's Dawn.
"I have to leave, I'm so sorry," he apologizes.
"Let me guess: it's your child," the woman suggests.
Barry freezes: "How did you-"
"I'm a parent," she jests. "We speak the same language and I can decipher it from you. I only hope that you'll practice what you preach, Scarlett Speedster." She juts her chin out. "Now go. You're the hero the city deserves, but you're the father your child deserves too."
With her words ringing in his ears, Barry races with all his might back toward Danville, praying, hoping that Dawn was alright, that if anything was amiss, he would arrive just in time to stop it-
He stumbles into the park to find Iris hanging onto Don, looking around frantically, the stroller to her right empty.
"Where is she?!" Barry charges.
"She kept crying until she started convulsing. That scared her, so she cried even harder. The whole stroller was shaking so much like an earthquake that I had to take Donny out," Iris heaves. "And then she just-broke free. I guess she was vibrating so heavily that she phased through."
It's then that Barry detects something whizz past him, knocking the stroller over sideways and whipping Iris's hair into her face.
"That's her!" Iris shouts. "Barry-" but he's already taken flight after her.
Dawn sprints across the soccer field, spins circles around the playground, dashes through the pond. Barry never once removes his focus from her trail, praying desperately that she doesn't collide into anything or anyone, or land herself into any other sort of danger. His calves burn as he drives himself behind her, closing in on her, and ultimately taking one powerful leap forward to catch her.
"YES!"
He envelopes her body in his just in time for an impactful landing on his back.
It takes another fraction of a second before he realizes he's landed on the street.
"BARRY!" he makes out Iris's outcry, and he musters all the energy he has left to somersault out of an incoming car's path.
He's exhausted, but as he huffs zealously he manages a glance downward at Dawn in his arms, running a gloved hand across her cheeks, tousling his other hand through her wet and grass-streaked hair.
"Dadda!" she squeals, her eyes kindling, recognizing him even beneath the cowl. She points behind him. Barry lifts his head to find the slide from earlier. "Again?"
Barry exhales a laugh and cuddles her close to his chest, nuzzling his nose into her neck, overwhelmed and stunned that she's safe, and even better, happy.
"Dawny," he breathes against her soft skin. "We can go again and again, as many times as you'd like." He props her up against his knees so he can look at her directly when he vows, "We're going to bounce back together."
He begins work on that promise just a few hours later, when he steps into the speed lab, Dawn's hand in his own, the two of them sporting matching STAR Labs sweatshirts ("What, you didn't think they came in toddler sizes?" Cisco had teased as he chucked two sweaters at Barry. "I even made onesies!").
"This," he announces to Dawn, "is the place I learned everything." He turns and glances down at her. "And it's where I'm going to teach you everything from now on. When you get older, I'll only teach you if you want to learn, Dawny. But what I know you want now is to be free without getting hurt or being scared. So that's why we're here."
His morale wanes however, when he sees her other hand, the one that isn't grasping his, vibrating again. The anxiety on her face is conspicuous as she watches it shake with an uncontrollable tremor. Her expression scrunches up and she stares up at him, her eyes round with fear, ready to wail, holding her arm up to him as though expecting him to fix whatever was wrong with her.
"It's okay, Sweetie," he assures her as calmly as possible. He crouches down until he's at her level. "I know it's scary, I was scared too."
He takes a deep breath, holding up his own arm, vibrating it to match the pace of hers. "Look!"
Dawn stares at his hand in awe, then to her hand, then back to his again, her lips pursing into a silent "O."
"Look, Dawny, just like Daddy," he whispers, breathless with emotion.
"Dadda!" she shrieks, tapping her feet in excitement.
Then he's struck with an idea: he slows his vibrations and brings his still shaking hand to her belly.
"Is someone ticklish?" he asks devilishly.
Almost immediately, she's overcome with laughter, and in that instant, basking in the melody of his baby's giggles, Barry forgives himself.