A/N: This story is supposed to take place sometime after Power Outage, so Barry hasn't confessed his feelings for Iris yet.
It was disorienting to Iris as she opened her eyes and found herself in the hospital. It took her a moment to figure out how she got here, but then she remembered that the bus she had rode to work in had crashed. She remembered the sickening crunch of the bus colliding with something and the horrifying sensation of being thrown forward. It seemed that she had survived the crash, and as she studied herself, she did not see a single scratch. She got up with ease and a nurse came in.
"Hello." The nurse didn't acknowledge her greeting as she just walked past. Her eyes followed the nurse to the bed and she gasped at the sight that greeted her. Her body was lying lifeless on the bed. Several cuts and bruises inflicted on her skin. Iris wondered if she was dead, but the monitor still beeped indicating that her condition was stable. She had seen movies like this, and it appeared that she was having an out-of-body experience.
Since she was no longer tethered to her body, she decided to explore the hospital. In the waiting room, she found her father and her best friend Barry sleeping in the hard chairs. Iris glanced at the clock and saw that it was five in the morning. Iris was touched that two of the people she loved the most spent the evening in what looked to be a very uncomfortable waiting room to make sure that she was alright.
Barry stirred awake first. Iris tried calling out to him, just to see if it worked, but he couldn't hear her. The nurse came out of the room where her body lay. Barry walked to her and asked how she was. He breathed a sigh of relief as she told him that she was going to be fine once she woke up. His face fell when the nurse told him that when she would wake up was uncertain. Her father woke up and Barry told him the news. He looked so relieved and Iris knew that he had probably been worried sick all night.
Barry's phone rang and he answered it, "Hey Cisco." He listened to the boy on the other end of the line before saying, "I'll be there soon." He hung up before turning to Joe. "There's another metahuman on the loose. Call me if she wakes up." Iris' jaw dropped as Barry ran out of the room, but at lightning speed. Iris had been suspicious of Barry's behavior lately, but she could no longer deny the truth. Barry, her Barry, was the Flash that she had been blogging about. Not only that, but apparently her father was in on it too.
Iris was shocked, but after piecing together the clues, everything made sense. Her shock soon turned to hurt, wondering why her father and best friend couldn't trust her with this secret. If they had just told her, she wouldn't have started the blog, and even if she had, she would have kept Barry's identity a secret.
When Iris decided to visit Eddie, she found that she was unable to leave the hospital. She spent the next few hours in her room, trying any method she could think of to wake herself up. Nothing she tried was successful and she found herself walking around the hospital as she waited for something to happen or for someone to return.
A few hours later, Barry returned to see her. Despite her being mad at him, she was glad that he was here for her. The nurse allowed him into her room and Iris followed him in.
He sat by her bedside, a tear shed as he looked down at her cuts and bruises. "Iris," Barry said softly. Iris' full attention was on Barry as she stood on the other side of the bed that housed her body. "I'm so sorry. I wish that I could have been there to save you." He took a deep breath. "There's so much I wish I could tell you." He looked around the empty room and then continued, "You remember when I was struck by lightning? It wasn't ordinary lightning. It made me the impossible like I always believed in. There are others like me, some good but mostly bad. I've been working with Star Labs to stop them and bring them all in." He took a deep breath, "I wanted to tell you, but I promised Joe that I wouldn't." Iris rolled her eyes at that. She loved her father, but being a cop made him more overprotective of her than most parents.
Barry wasn't finished confessing though, "I love you Iris. I don't just mean that as a friend." Iris looked at him in shock. "I've loved you since we were kids, before I even understood what love meant." Iris thought back over all of her life, trying to find the clues that she had missed. How could she have been so oblivious?
"I know you're with Eddie now and I've missed my opportunity, if I even had one," Barry said sadly, "but I want you to know that I love you no matter what. I just want you to be happy." Iris' heart fluttered at the admission, which made her very confused. Did she have feelings for him as well? What did this mean about her feelings for Eddie?
Barry took her scarred hand in his and Iris felt herself shift back into her body. She felt his lips against her forehead. As though his lips were magical as a prince's in a fairy tale, Iris found the strength to open her eyes. "Barry," said Iris softly looking at her best friend.
Seeing that she was awake, Barry's smile was bigger than it had been in a while. "You're awake."
"I love you too," Iris said, realizing that she truly meant it. Barry leaned in to kiss her and she kissed him back. The kiss was short and sweet, but it made her feel fuzzy all over. She knew that she would have to deal with Eddie later and she felt guilty about the kiss, but the moment felt so right. Perhaps this was a sign that she was meant to be with Barry.
Joe came in and smiled when he saw that his daughter was awake. After a gentle hug, Iris turned to the two of them. "We need to talk about you two keeping secrets from me."