Shoulda Been Me
Disclaimer: I own nothing but what you see here. While listening to Billy Ray Cyrus' Could've Been Me song on the radio at work, I wound up being inspired to write this. This is set some years after my 'The Ghosts of Oliver Queen' story and in one direction that things between Barry and Iris could have gone. And yes, I do happen to actually like Billy Ray Cyrus' music.
Years after Barry's confession to Iris the day of his return from Starling City on a day that would later see Barry Allen who would become known as The Flash wind up in a coma for 9 months after the STAR Labs Particle Accelerator exploded and caused charged lightning to strike him had left quite a few changes in its wake. Most notably of those changes was the relationship between Barry and long time best friend Iris West who the Speedster had been in love with for years. The relationship had gone from the best of times to the worst of times as the two had grown apart shortly after his awakening from the coma and learning she had wound up in the arms of Detective Eddie Thawne while waiting for him to wake up again.
For whatever reason, Iris had gotten it into her head that Barry would be okay with it since she felt that him having gotten his confession off his chest would have made him realize they were truly better off as friends. That would be something she would later realize was her being in serious denial regarding how he felt about her. And she was proven horribly wrong on the view she had when he went off on her about it and firmly told her he would have never done something like that to her. He also in a fit of anger after an argument with Joe, broke his word to Iris and Eddie by telling him what the two were doing behind the man's back. Which had left the couple fairly unhappy with Barry over it and was just one of several things that helped to cause the growing distance between the two former best friends.
Things had been rocky at first between Barry and Eddie at first over that particular mess but eventually the two managed to become fairly close. A closeness that helped form when the Speedster informed the man that whatever feelings he had for Iris died when she pulled what she did with her line of thinking. Other factors that went towards the growing distance included his trying to get Iris to stop blogging about his Flashy alter ego, her inteference with him and Linda, her attempt to get him to see that he still had feelings for her and boy did that cause a serious issue between her and Eddie that saw the two split up, and when she found out about his being the Flash. His lies to her over that for nearly a year had left her pretty angry at him for a good long while.
Thankfully with the changes in the timeline resulting of the early confession, Eddie had wound up deciding to shoot Eobard in the head to end his threat when he had his attention focused entirely on Barry instead of shooting himself in the chest. Joe had even tried his hand at getting the two former best friends to reconcile but eventually had to give it up when he saw that the distance between the two was just too strong to be over come.
And now, years later Iris West, who had become one of the top reporters in Central City for the Central City Picture News station was sitting in attendance of one Barry Allen's wedding. Strongly wishing that it was her he was marrying and not someone else. The whole thing made her wonder why she had given into her dad's needling about coming to the wedding as all it did was fill her with even more regrets over how foolish she'd been regarding her and Barry. And when the priest asked if anyone had any objections to why the man that should be hers and the woman he's with shouldn't be married, she nearly had stood up and spoken aloud.
But in the end kept her silence as too much damage had already been wrought and she didn't think she could handle Barry's unhappyness with her. She wasn't foolish enough to think he'd have a different reaction considering the attempt she made days before to get him to be with her instead. I should have said something anyway… That SHOULD be me! But her chance was lost as Barry and Linda Park-Allen sealed their union with a passionate kiss.
The entire thing reminded her of an old country song as she sat there in regret of past mistakes as everyone else cheered for the happy couple. It shoulda been me…
Author's Notes; Well that was probably considerably more angsty then what I usually write. For those of you who read 'Ghosts of Oliver Queen', I hope you liked this particular direction I took the Barry confession in. I almost went with Patty Spivot but didn't and originally I had thought of going with a Raylicity one shot with some Oliver angst with this idea. And by the way, once I get 'The Offer' and 'Found But Still Lost' completed, what would you guys like to see from me next?