"Barry? Barry are you home?" Iris asked as she entered the door to the apartment that she shared with him.
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Barry stopped her at the front door so that she wouldn't spoil her own surprise.
"What's the big fuss?" she asked with a smile as he covered her eyes. He had slaved all day over preparing the house for his big proposal.
But before he could reveal the surprise to her, her phone went off from in her pocket. She pushed Barry's hand away as she went to answer her phone. "It's dad!" she said.
"Dad? Is everything ok?" she asked as she answered the phone.
As Detective Joe West answered her, she rushed over to turn on the television, bypassing the wine and glasses on the table.
There was a breaking news report. Barry remembered this news report all too well, though it was different. Dr Wells of STAR Labs, along with his two employees Cisco Ramon and Dr Caitlin Snow, were warning of an upcoming meteor shower.
"This is big news!" Iris declared, "I'm heading to work! I need to get the latest scoop!" she kissed Barry and bypassed the wine on the table and ran out the door without looking back, leaving Barry slumped on the couch.
He had been living in this pocket dimension for a while now. Ignorance had been his bliss… Well not so much! There was a STAR Labs, He had Iris, there was a Cisco, there was a Caitlin. Hell! even his parents were still alive and together. But there was no Astrid Sutherland, and while he had even tried numerous times to get her back, he had not had any luck.
This pocket dimension had taken place before he had got his powers, so technically there should have been a Barry of this world… but there wasn't. He was it… and somehow, he still had his powers… and he still had his memories. Those memories haunted him every night when he slept.
It was as if he had screwed up time entirely, and no one else knew but him. A secret he felt that he would need to take to his grave! A burden that rested on his shoulders.
Barry rested his head in his hands and took a sip of the red wine before him. He was startled by the immediate presence of a force of energy in the room. He stood up and looked behind him.
A man that he knew all too well was standing before him. He had dark wavy hair to his shoulders, brown eyes and a look of determination wiped all over his face. He looked up at Barry with a mission and grabbed his arm. "There you are! I've been looking for you everywhere! We need to get you the hell out of here!" the man told him.
Barry was baffled, "Cisco? You're alive?"
Behind the man was a large breech. It had been a while since Barry had seen one of these. The man that was standing before him should have been dead… No… that wasn't true anymore… the guy should have been an employee of Dr Wells and had no idea that Barry even existed… but the meteor shower had not yet occurred, either.
Barry was wrong again! Who was this version of his friend? Barry continued to stare at Cisco waiting for an answer. He thought that he might have been dreaming.
Cisco flicked his hair behind his ear… "Ah crap! I think I got the wrong guy… look man, forget everything that just occurred here…" Cisco went to leave but Barry stopped him.
"No, don't go! If you need a speedster, I'm your guy. I just have no clue what is going on. The last time I saw you… you were dead! Astrid… she is also dead…" Barry explained.
"Look… I'm not that exact guy," Cisco said "… but, you're clearly the guy that I am looking for. We need your help and we have to leave now!"
"What? now? Like now-now?" Barry asked gesturing to the room with the wine and the glasses.
Cisco took a sip of the wine, "yes, man… now-now! Not two minutes from now, not five minutes from now… You have screwed things up big time and they need to be fixed… NOW!"
This had been the last thing that Barry had anticipated to happen that night. But that's what happened. Barry took one last look around the room of the apartment, and followed Cisco into the breech.
