A/N: Yay! I've started getting request! I have a Stydia fanfic and another WestAllen fanfic coming soon. I'm pretty friggin excited to write bot of these! I've also gotten a request to write a fic involving Don and Dawn from The Flash comic, which I am totally game to do, but that one is going to take some time. I want to be able to research the comics first a little more for that because I'm not super familiar with the comics (I'm mostly a Marvel person, but there's a few DC comics that I like.) If anybody knows The Flash comics really well and can tell me anything about the twins, that would be amazing. Thank you guys so much!

Also, there's a brief reference to another story that I wrote in the chapter. You don't have to read that story to make sense of this chapter, but if you're interested in checking it out, the story is A Princess in His Eyes. Its basically a one-shot filled with cute young WestAllen fluff that talks about how Iris first realized she loved Barry.

…...

Iris looked down, chewing on her bottom lip, the wheels of her mind spinning. He knew that look all too well. He knew she was putting the pieces of the puzzle together, and he knew she would figure it out—she was wicked smart after all. It had officially reached the point in Iris's so called "fantastic idea" where the speedster was starting to regret agreeing to the idea.

"Let me hear your voice." She said abruptly.

"You've been hearing my voice." He told. Crap, she was on to him.

"Your real voice." The journalist said. "Let me hear your real voice."

"I can't. I have a secret identity to keep up."

"But how would your voice tell me who you were? Unless I knew your voice. And that would mean that I would know you, out of the mask."

She waited several minutes for his response, but when he gave none—other than diligently staring at his hands resting in his lap—she took his lack of response as a confirmation and continued, laying her puzzle pieces out for him.

"Your favorite food is peperoni, olive, and jalapeño pepper pizza." She began slowly. "And that's Barry's favorite pizza."

Still no response from her companion. "And you said your last girlfriend could shame even Barry with her tolerance for spicy foods. Barry nearly killed himself eating a ghost pepper at CCPN to win his last girlfriend back."

Iris was greeted by silence. "You and Barry both love SiFi movies, and apparently have all the same favorites. You said that your worst habit is being perpetually late for everything, and Barry has always been late for everything."

Nothing. The Flash continued to stare at his hands as she spoke. "And all of the metahumans started showing up after the particle accelerator exploded, except it wasn't until nine months later when The Flash started showing up and saving people. And Barry was struck by lightning on the same night as the particle accelerator explosion, and spent nine months in a coma before waking up."

"What do you want me to say, Iris?" The man sitting before her said, his voice still disguised. "What do you want me to do? Just tell me, and I'll do it."

Now that the young journalist was listening for it, really listening, she could hear it clear as day. His voice—Barry's voice—hidden under the disguised tone. Iris could swear that she heard it, but she needed to be sure.

"I want you to drop the disguise." She told him. "I want to hear your voice, your real voice. Okay? Please?" She begged, "I need to know."

Looking at her in the dim glow of her cell phone's flashlight he saw her bottom lip trembling, the tears building up in her brown eyes. The speedster was hardly able to keep himself from following his urge to scoop Iris up into his arms and comfort her until the tears left her eyes. Nodding he let himself drop the disguise that hid the visible parts of his face before looking up to face his best friend.

"You're right Iris." He told her using his real voice, "You do deserve to know."

She knew those eyes. She had known those eyes since she was a nine year old little girl. The second he looked up at her after dropping his disguise she knew she was right, because those amazingly beautiful blue-green eyes with the golden flecks could only belong to one person. Only Barry's eyes could hold such emotion, so much of what he was feeling, that she felt it as if the emotions were her own. And then he spoke, and any doubt she might have been clinging to that her suspicions might have been wrong evaporated. It was him. He was Barry. Iris let out a long shaky breath as she moved so that she was kneeling. The girl leaned forward and reached out a trembling hand wanting to pull his mask back when he caught her hand in his, stopping her.

"I have to—" she began, but again, he stopped her.

"I know." Barry said, his voice breaking."Trust me. I know, okay?"

Iris nodded as he withdrew his hand, somehow understanding exactly what he meant. The speedster took a deep breath of his own as he reached up and pulled his mask back revealing his face. As the final piece of her puzzle clicked into place she moved a hand to cover her mouth, unable to hold back the tears any longer. The minute she broke Iris felt herself being pulled forward into the familiar embrace of her best friends arms.

"Hey, come here." Barry whispered to her as he pulled her against his chest and held her tight. He was crying now too, rubbing circles on her back as he tried to calm his friend. "Iris, I'm sorry. I am so sorry."

And that was how they stayed for the next several minutes. Iris's head nuzzled in the crook of his neck as she cried, her friend of 17 years holding her close and gently rubbing her back while crying into her hair. Both of them too overcome with emotions to speak.

"You know, I kind of want to slap you right now?" She mumbled into his neck, finally breaking the silence.

"You know, I'm pretty sure that Snart would be more than happy to lend you his cold gun to use on me if you wanted it." Her friend replied, his voice cracking from all of the crying. The comment earned him a soft laugh.

"Damn it Barry, don't make me laugh. I'm mad at you."

"I know." Was all he said. Then after another moment of silence between the two he spoke again.

"I really am sorry, Iris. I know that I should have told you sooner, and I wanted to tell you—I did—the minute it happened, I wanted to tell you. But I couldn't, because I wanted—"

"Bartholomew Henry Allen, if you say 'protect you' I swear, I really will slap you." Iris said, pulling back from the embrace to look at him.

"You should probably go ahead and slap me then." He said nodding his head, cringing internally at the use of his full name.

The girl let a small, sad grin appear on her face as she playfully punched her best friend's chest. Barry returned the smile with one of his own and gave her a teasing "Ow" in response.

She shook her head, trying hard not to smile at his teasing—she was still kind of mad at him after all. As much as it infuriated her that everyone was trying to protect her from the world, she could appreciate their attempts. They only did it because they cared about her, after all.

"I know that you and my dad want to protect me from every horrible thing in the world Barry, but I'm a big girl now." She told him, "I can handle it."

"When I first realized I had this ability, I wanted to run right to you and tell you everything." He said, his eyes fixed on hers. "But then Clyde Mardon showed up, and he could create storms so powerful that he was able to start an F4 tornado. And we have a guy in the pipe line at S.T.A.R. Labs who can actually transform himself into a poisonous gas—the same gas they use in the gas chamber for executions."

"I don't have any doubt in my mind that you could take down a regular criminal with a gun Iris." Barry paused for a breath, "But the things these people can do? I didn't want to risk bringing you into that. Not if there was a way I could protect you from it and keep you safe. I cannot lose you. And I really am sorry for not telling you sooner. I hated having to lie to you and keep this secret. You deserved to have known the truth from the beginning."

"I know." Iris told him, reaching out to take his hands in hers. Mad and hurt as she might be, she hated seeing that hurt look in his eyes, and it had always broken her heart when she saw it. "I believe that you're sorry Bar, I just—I just hate thinking that felt you had to keep this a secret from me."

"Trust me, keeping this a secret from you was the last thing that I wanted to do. And It was definitely one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I just, wanted you to be safe. Because Iris, as hard as keeping this from you and lying to you was, just the idea that I might lose you was so much worse."

The girl nodded slowly, letting her friends words sink in. The young man sitting across from her remained perfectly still, his eyes fixated on their hands. He held onto hers so tight it was if he feared that she would disappear from his life forever if he let go—which he probably did considering the circumstances.

"Well," she began, offering a small smile in an effort to comfort him—to let him know that she wasn't going to leave him. "At least now I know why I've always found it so easy to talk to The Flash. Because it was really you."

Barry returned her small smile, though his grip on her hands remained just as firm and his eyes stayed fixated on their hands.

"Hey. Look at me, Barry." She said softly. He gave no response. The girl released one of his hands from her grasp and placed the tips of her fingers just beneath his chin, carefully guiding his face up so that he was looking at her.

"Barry," she began, "I'm not going anywhere, okay? You're not going to lose me. Not ever. I wouldn't trade those memories or you for anything in the world, remember?"

She saw the corners of his mouth tug upward into a small smile, seeming to remember her comments from earlier. "Okay." He whispered, nodding his head in understanding as a few stray tears ran down his face.

"Okay." Iris said, giving a soft laugh and holding her arms out for her best friend. "Okay, come here."

She pulled the speedster against her and held him close to her. The journalist felt his arms encircle her waist as he buried his face into her thick, wavy dark hair. She felt his breath tickle the skin of her neck as he let out a heavy sigh, his entire body seeming to slowly relax against her. He had definitely been afraid of losing her, Iris realized.

"You know what's ironic about all of this?" She asked him. If he was willing to let her in on his secret, maybe she should let him in on hers. Besides, she wanted—needed—to tell him this. And she knew that if she didn't tell him now while they were alone in this storage unit she wouldn't have the courage to tell him later.

"What?" Barry asked leaning back enough to look at her, keeping his arms around her waist for reassurance.

"I told you earlier that Eddie and I broke up, and that it was a mutual decision. But I didn't tell you why."

He knit his brows together looking at her in confusion as she continued. "Eddie found out that I had been meet The Flash on the roof at Jitters. He said that he didn't want to feel like he was constantly competing for me, that sharing me with you was enough and he couldn't do it with someone else. He was jealous of The Flash, which at the time I laughed at."

"I ended things with Eddie because I had had feelings for someone else for a while, and I didn't think it was fair to keep doing that to him. Don't get me wrong, I did love and care for him but, it was never going to be the way I loved this other person. Its ironic because as it turns out, Eddie was sort of right, because they both turned out to be the same person."

"Wait, what?" Barry was looking at her as if she had just told him that she was The Tooth Fairy, which she supposed was an appropriate reaction since she had just confessed that she had feelings for him.

"I know I should have said something sooner, like maybe when you told me that you had feelings for me at Christmas, but I was just so overwhelmed. And maybe even a little scared. I was with Eddie at the time, and it was Christmas. I couldn't just break up with him on Christmas. And he had just asked me to move in with him, and I'd told him yes."

Her best friend was nodding as he listened to her, trying to process and understand her words. Iris took a deep breath before continuing.

"Then you confessed that you had feelings for me and I was just so overwhelmed by everything, and a little shocked because I had no idea you felt that way. And truth be told, if you'd have waited long enough I might have actually said something, but you just took me by surprise and I didn't know what to say or do. And then you started dating Linda, and I thought that I missed my chance, and maybe I did. But I've known that I loved you ever since that stupid homecoming dance when we were sixteen Bar, and I have loved you everyday since then."

He was silent for a while, letting all of this new information sink in, and Iris had begun to cry again. When he did finally speak, he tried for a light, playful tone.

"That night at homecoming, there was a brief moment when I actually though you were going to kiss me." He told her, reaching a gloved hand up to gently wipe the tears from her face with his thumb.

"I actually wanted to." She told him honestly, "I really wanted to."

"Why didn't you?" Barry asked, keeping his voice soft. He was genuinely curious. "I mean, you could have, if you wanted to. I wouldn't have minded." He added offering her a small smile.

"Because I didn't want to mess things up between us." Iris told him.

"Trust me, you wouldn't have. I wanted you to kiss me that night too, and I almost kissed you anyway when you pulled away."

"Well, why didn't you?"

"Because," he told her, "I figured that if you really wanted to kiss me, you would have done it."

Nodding, Iris mustard up every ounce of courage she had as she moved to cup his face in both of her hands, leaning in closer to him. "I did want to. And I do want to. So, better late than never I guess, right?"

He slowly nodded his head, and without waiting for anymore of an answer than that she closed the distance between them, catching his lips between her own as she wished she would have done at that dance ten years ago. It didn't take him anytime to act, his own hands coming up to rest on either side of her face. She moved her hands to rest on his back just below his shoulders, pressing his body against hers, as his lips moved against her own in response. His lips were softer than she had realized they'd be, and though he was kissing her sweetly and tenderly, it was filled with passion—everything they had ever felt towards the other they had conveyed to each other in that one kiss. It had definitely been well worth the wait Iris decided as she broke away to catch her breath.

Barry was looking at her with doe-eyes as she broke way, his lips slightly parted. Iris was smiling at him in that way that made him doubt all of the science behind what causes human's to fall in love. He could run a mile in three seconds without getting winded, but right now the CSI was finding it incredibly difficult to remember how to breath.

"You okay Bar?" She asked.

"Wow." He breathed out in a soft whisper. Iris gave a soft laugh at his response, and he broke into a wide grin, slowly recovering. "Yea. Yea, I'm great."

A second later and she could feel him smiling as his lips crashed back into hers. The young girl smiled against his mouth as she gently returned the kiss, his fingers tangling themselves in her hair. She liked kissing Barry, it felt perfectly natural to her, and if she was being honest he was exceptionally good at it too. Slowly, the pair separated, both wearing a dopey grin on their face.

"Hey," Iris whispered to him, reaching to run her fingers through his soft brown hair. "How's your head?"

"Still sore." He said, smiling at her touch. "But at least it doesn't feel like its in a vice any more, which is a good sign."

"That's definitely a good sign." She smiled, placing a soft kiss at the coroner of his mouth before leaning against him, resting her head against his chest and wrapping her arms around his waist.

He smiled and kissed her hair before resting his head against hers, wrapping his arms around his new girlfriend and holding her against him. "I do think that the dizziness came back after that kiss though."

"I'm sorry." Iris said with a soft laugh.

"Its okay." He laughed with her, "It was worth it."

She laughed softly, relaxing against her boyfriend. With her head resting against him, she could feel the rise and fall of his chest with each breath and hear the steady yet rapid beating of his heart. As much fun as their earlier game had been, neither of them could think of a better way to pass the time than this. And that was how they stayed, curled up in each others arms, talking and laughing until they heard a familiar voice yelling in the distance accompanied by the clank of the front door opening and closing. Both Barry and Iris sat strait up, turning to look at each other.

"Was that—" the journalist began.

"Cisco." He finished for her, then repeated himself, louder this time so that their friend could hear. "Cisco!"

"Barry!" Yelled a second familiar voice. He sounded worried.

"Joe!"

"Dad!" Iris yelled at the sound of her father's voice.

"Iris! Barry!" Came his response. They could hear footsteps accompanying the voices now.

"Where are you guys?" Cisco was yelling.

"We're over here!" Barry called back as Iris stood, offering her hands to pull him up. "Middle unit on the left!"

She helped him to the door and they both began banging on it to further signal their location. A moment later the footsteps came to a stop just outside of the metal door and Joe was yelling for them to get to the sides and cover their ears. The couple complied, pressing themselves against the wall before hearing the gun shot which was followed by the sound of metal hitting concrete as the lock fell away. Within seconds the metal unit door was being swung open to reveal a worried looking Joe and an extremely relieved Cisco.

"Are you two okay?" The detective asked them, rushing to look over both of his kids, laying a hand on each of their shoulders.

"We're fine, dad." The girl reassured him, "Barry thinks he has a slight concussion, but other than that we're both okay. Nothing life threatening, I promise."

"Thank God we found you guys!" The engineer said, grinning at them as he let out a sigh of relief. Joe too seemed to calm down after his daughter's reasurance.

"How did you find us?" The speedster asked, keeping a hand on the wall for support.

"When nobody could find you and you weren't answering our calls," he explained, "Caitlin suggested we check Iris's blog. We saw the tip about Snart and then Joe and I came here. And by the way, why weren't you answering your coms?"

"Snart busted the coms." Barry and Iris responded in unison.

"I'm sorry." Cisco replied slowly, "He busted... my coms? Oh he's going to pay for that!"

The CSI gave a slight laugh as he looked to his girlfriend. "He said pretty much the same thing when Bette Sans Souci blew up my suit too."

"Our suit." Their friend corrected, "And that was different. Bette was hot. Snart? The dude wishes he was that lucky."

"I'll bet his sister would be that lucky." Joe muttered, joining in on the joke.

"I've told you both a thousand times," the boy said defensively, "I didn't know she was his sister when I kissed her."

"Not the first time anyway." The speedster laughed.

"You're going to fill me in on that later, right?" Iris asked her boyfriend as she looped her arm around his waist to help support him as the group began moving towards the warehouse's exit.

Barry draped his arm over her shoulder allowing himself to lean against her for support. "Absolutely." He said smiling down at her. And for the first time he found that he didn't regret agreeing to one of Iris's fantastic ideas after all.

…...

A/N: Ta da! The end! I just wanted to thank all of you guys for the amazing support on this story. I'm so glad you all liked it, and the reviews were amazing. Seriously, those reviews actually do inspire me to update faster. I hope you all enjoy the ending to this fic as much as you did the beginning. :) Mwah! Please continue to R&R!