He was nervous. Really nervous. So nervous that his hands were sweating. Why was he so nervous? Oh yeah, because he had to face Patty after leaving her alone when the metahuman attacked in the museum. Would she be angry? She definitely would be, what a silly question. Of course she would be mad, who wouldn't be angry after being ditched by her boyfriend in the middle of a date? Stupid Barry! How could he have forgotten about her?

He took a deep breath before knocking at the door. "I can do it", he said as he closed his eyes. He reached out his hand, knocked at the door with his knuckles and waited.

The door finally opened, giving sight of a pretty angry Patty. Angry and sad, which was worst. She had swollen eyes. Had she been crying because of him? At that moment he deserved a punch in the face. Not from her, though, but from himself. It was a crime to make a wonderful woman like her cry.

"I was right. I thought that you would look mad, and you do."

Patty stared at him for a few seconds. "Great Barry, what a way to start a conversation" he said to himself. The girl didn't say anything, she just turned around and went to the living room. Barry took a deep breath and shut the door behind him.

"What happened?" Patty said while crossing her arms.

"Um, I don't really have a good excuse." He smiled crookedly. "But what are you saying?!"

"Nothing? Nothing?! I mean, come on, Barry. Anything is better than nothing." She said almost pleading. Then she was silent, waiting for Barry to say something but that wasn't the case. "I mean, come on. Holy crap, I've been a really, really cool girlfriend. Most girls don't have the self-esteem to handle the… plans? 'Oh, no plans. That's cool.' Or the… or the waking up in the middle of the night screaming again. Fine, whatever. And then… and then the really, really fancy plans which were awesome." She raised her eyebrows. "And then you ditched me right before I almost died."

"I mean, when you put it that way…" 'Why the hell am I smiling?! Wake up Barry!'

"I'm actually really upset." She said frowning, sad.

"Yeah, I know." He looked down.

"Look, we've been having fun. And fun has been really great. But… I'm moving past fun to the close part. That's what I want, okay?" The tears started to show up. "That's where I'm going. You need to figure out what it is that you want. And do it fast."

Patty turned around and left, leaving Barry alone and thoughtful.

"Fast is my specialty." He talked to himself out loud.

He definitely had to do something, just apologizing was not fair. He had to tell her the truth, everything. Damn it! How could it be that difficult to do? Hours ago he was ready to do it. Maybe because it would seem like a cheap excuse? But well, no one excuses themselves by saying they are The Flash. Okay, maybe someone did but he can prove it, right?

Besides, after all that happened if he wanted this relationship to work he had to tell her the truth. Well, and because he trusted her too. It's difficult to have a relationship if one of them it's not completely honest with the other. And Patty deserved it too, she told him about her father, she trusted him and it's not like he had to tell her all the metahuman thing from the beginning, right?

Downcast, he opened the door and left the apartment. Right now his head couldn't stop thinking. What could he do? The things were pretty bad and he couldn't blame her for it. Patty had been waiting enough time for Barry to tell her exactly what was happening, because let's be clear, Barry was not an expert liar. You could see miles away that something was disturbing him and Patty just wanted to help him.

Actually everything was pretty simple, he just had to tell her who he really was and why he had been so reluctant when he had to be honest. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, on the contrary, he didn't want Zoom to know her and to hurt her because of him. On second thought, who was really hurting Patty was none other than himself.

He stood at the other side of the door thinking about his options. The first and 'simplest' was to leave everything as it was, end their relationship and have hope for Patty to be safe. And the second one and maybe the more difficult, tell her the whole truth and let her decide what she wanted to do about it. If she chose to end their relationship, well… It would be really hard but at least he tried. He couldn't blame her because it was completely normal: No one wanted to be in a situation like that. But if in the end Patty decided she wanted to be with him after all, cool. He and his team would do everything to protect her and well, she wasn't a damsel in distress, she knew how to defend herself.

'Okay, I'm going to do it. Wish me luck, mom.' He told to himself. He rubbed his hands on his jeans and knocked at the door again. A thousand things went through his head. Millions. Those ten seconds were really that long? Or it was more time? When he was rambling about the eternal duration of the seconds, the door opened, letting him see a tired-looking Patty.

"What do you want Barry?" she said in a sigh.

"I was thinking about what you said and…" he couldn't finish because she cut him.

"You didn't have time to think about anything, Barry." She put a hand on the frame door.

"Of course I did. The answer has been with me this whole time and I've just been insisting on ignoring it" He stood up, stepped forward and took her face in his hands. "What I really want it's you, just you Patty."

Before she could do anything, Barry kissed her and stroked her cheeks with his thumbs. At the beginning she was surprised but little by little she just surrendered to that kiss. She put her hands over his and the kiss was more intense. Seconds later they broke up the kiss and Barry touch her forehead with his, both of them had their eyes still closed.

"Barry what…?" She couldn't finish the sentence because he cut her.

"Before you can say anything I have to tell you something" Both of them opened their eyes. "Or rather show you".

Patty frowned. She didn't understand what was happening nor what he was talking about. She couldn't say anything because Barry grabbed her hard and started to run. He just run.

A red lightning appeared all over the living room, shaking all the objects around the place.

You could see that red lightning moving across Central City streets, dodging the vehicles in his path. Finally Barry decided to stop running and he stared at Patty, who was still in his arms.

She couldn't believe what just happened. A second ago they were on her apartment and now… Were they at Star Labs? What the hell was happening? She looked at Barry with her mouth open and her hair was a little disheveled.

"Fl… Flash?" It was all she could say in a whisper, while she was looking at him.

"This was what I wanted to say to you yesterday on the party" he said with a lopsided smile.

"But… How…?" Patty was speechless. She walked away, looking around. She didn't expect anything like this.

"I was hit by a lightning when the particle accelerator exploded." He put his hands on his pockets. "The rest… Well, you know it."

Patty turned around and stared at him, even more astonished. She really didn't know what to say. Now all the silly excuses that he told her made sense. She always suspected that something big was behind all the silly explanations, but that? Wow, she didn't expect it.

"You…" She put a lock of hair behind her ear. ""You saved me… multiple times…" She said more to herself. "Thank you" A smile showed up on her lips.

Barry grinned shyly and look down.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" She took a couple steps forward, to where he was standing.

"I wanted to do it but… Well it was complicated."

"You didn't trust me? Did you think I wasn't going to believe you?" She asked sincerely.

"Of course I trust you, it's… It's dangerous to know who I really am" He scratched his nape. "That's why I didn't want to tell you at the beginning. I wanted us to be a normal couple."

"Barry, we both go after metahumans, it's not that we're very normal" She smiled at him. "Besides, I'm a cop and I'm in danger all the time."

"Look, right now the things are not good. There is a metahuman… Zoom, who is after me and he wants to hurt the people I love and…" Barry was going to continue but he saw that expression on Patty's face.

Patty was quiet, looking at him with eyes wide open and little by little a smile showed up on her mouth.

"What?" Barry asked a little confused.

"The people you love?" She quoted him. "That means…?"

Barry realized what she was talking about. He looked down while he was touching his hair and smiles.

"Yes, the people I love" He took one step forward and took her hand. "You are one of those people Patty, that's why I'm afraid that he can hurt you because of me"

"Barry that's why I wanted…" she rectified "That's why I want to know what happens so I can help you"

"So… You are not going to break up with me?"

"Of course I'm not going to break up with you Barry, I love you…" A smile showed up on her lips. "And any kind of danger or metahuman is going to make me break up with you."

Allen couldn't help smiling. What started really bad was going better than he ever expected. The truth was that a part of him thought that when Patty found out the whole truth she was going to decide that it was too dangerous and the best thing they could do was end their relationship. That it had been a pleasure to meet him and spend those three months with him but it wasn't worth it.

"So do you want to meet the team formally?" He proposed with a big smile.

"But, now?" She blinked several times. "Right this moment?"

"They are already here" he pointed the Star Labs "and actually you really know all of them"

"Okay" she took a deep breath and she nodded with her head. "But… Can I ask you something?"

"Anything you want"

"Can you do…? You know… Can you run like The Flash again?" she placed her hands together. "It was really fun"

Barry could not help but laugh at her request.

"And what more tricks you can do?" She asked curiously. "Well tricks… Skills or whatever you call the things you can do… It's not like I'm comparing to you with a dog or something like that…" She tried to clarify, as everything she just said sounded a bit wrong and she was babbling, as usual. "I don't know how you call…"

But she couldn't finish the sentence because Barry's lips prevented it. When their lips were apart they just looked at each other and they couldn't help but smile. Before Patty could realize, Barry grabbed her hard and he run to Star Labs, just like she asked him seconds ago.

THE END