Chapter 2
It's not that it's never occurred to him that he can "pause" the people around him by moving at Flash-speeds, it's just that there's generally a morality to doing it—people that need saving, metas that need stopping.
There's no morality in this.
Iris stands before him frozen mid-stride. Her white pencil skirt is snug along her hips and ass, her well-muscled legs extending for miles before slimming into heeled feet. The "v" of her black silk blouse is pulled open by the wind he sweeps around her, exposing the top curve of her breast, the delicious line of her neck as it dives into her shoulder. She's between blinks. Her brown eyes are closed leaving him to look at thick lashes and angled cheeks and full lips. The heady scent of her skin thickens the air as it mingles with the shea butter smell of her hair.
He rotates her like a curate appreciating a cut of marble, unconsciously tracing her in the air, careful not to touch.
He rotates her like a shark hunting a seal, steadying itself to strike.
He could have her. He could whisk her away right here and no one would know. No one could stop him. He could lay her bare and taste her before she could even finish blinking.
He could.
Iris' black heels click against the pavement. She adjusts her blouse and hair recovering her well groomed appearance from the unexpected breeze, oblivious to the source. Her hands press into the door and she disappears inside the Central City Picture News headquarters.
What else is there to say to someone who's already rejected you twice? Someone who insists they love you, but isn't in love with you? Someone whom you need more than anyone—
"—what do you think, Barry? Barry?"
"Sorry?"
"What do you think about making these adjustments to the jump spots we created to re-open the breaches," repeats Caitlin in a stiff monotone. Even though he's not quite here, Barry can tell Caitlin is still hurting. It's my fault, we shouldn't have trusted Jay. Barry speed reads the document in front of Caitlin and examines the series of equations scrawled across the whiteboard. He doesn't want to think about how hurt Caitlin is, or about Jay, or Zoom.
His mind returns to the only safe haven it can find. He thinks about the cling of Iris' skirt. The memory is tantalizing, if not tainted with accusation. He shouldn't do it again, but he's already forgetting the how the light reflected off her skin. He rereads the sentence on frequency shifts.
By altering the Gaussian filter to include multiple…
He strains to remember whether the Iris he kissed in the alternate timeline tasted the same as Earth 2 Iris', and whether the Iris here on Earth 1 now tastes like either. He wonders what Kafkaesque timeline he's living in.
By altering the Gaussian filter to include multiple…
He imagines the swell of Iris's hair as it floats suspended in time. Like an ink blot, he thinks, in a Rorschach test that indicates 'obsession'. He laughs derisively.
"Did you say something," asks Caitlin typing.
"Nothing, sorry."
By altering the Gaussian filter to include multiple…
He remembers that Iris's lips are warm and soft when they part over his. The heat of her mouth as she slides her tongue against his too much to bear. Her smell washes over him as she pulls him closer, her hips colliding with his. His skin is on fire and he's out of breath. But this is the wrong Iris. She looks like same, but she has no idea who he is, or she doesn't exist anymore. But why does he care, isn't it all real? Why is his mind reminding him of this when his body wants to continue to live in the memory of her.
Return to S.T.A.R Labs, he tells himself. You're helping Caitlin.
By altering the Gaussian filter to include multiple…
"Barry," purs an imagined Iris. His phone vibrates with an incoming text. He nearly jumps out of his skin. He's taken this too far. He should have said something to Iris years ago when she might have said yes. Iris doesn't want me, he admits to himself for the first time. Iris doesn't want me. She doesn't want me. She doesn't. The room is stifling all of a sudden. It's like he's being squeezed. His hands shake.
"Caitlin, I think you should have Dr. Wells look at it," says Barry heading for the door.