Hi there, I'm back! :) Thank you all for your sweet reviews! I live off them! :)
So, I spent the entire weekend typing this baby (after returning from my lecture Saturday noon - yes, Saturday), so get ready! ;) Hopefully, I will be able to write the next chapter soon... and depending on how long that'll be, I'm maybe gonna add some kind of epilogue as an extra chapter... Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this one!
Of Concentration and Coincidences
Barry and Iris arrived at the West's house 15 minutes later. Iris unlocked the door, letting them in.
"So sorry for being late!" Iris shouted before anyone was even in sight, hurriedly hanging her and Barry's coats on the racks. After quickly putting their shoes away, both young adults made their way to the dining room, Barry slightly trailing behind.
The table was already set and Wally seated at his usual spot, grinning at them: "Grandpa texted a bit before the mac'n'cheese was done because he knew that you wouldn't be on time." Iris and Barry exchanged a surprised look, making the 8-year-old giggle.
Right on cue, Joe entered the dining room, carrying a bowl of salad. "You don't need to be a detective to know that 'I won't be late' means anything but that," the cop stated amusedly, putting the bowl down right next to the casserole dish. Wally wrinkled his nose at the sight of the vegetable.
"Yeah... but it was totally Barry's fault, though... His super-tardiness canceled out my halfway decent punctuality," Iris joked, nudging the CSI's shoulder in a teasing manner.
"Well... sorry about that," Barry retorted bashfully, rubbing the back of his neck. Iris giggled.
Wally joined his aunt, while Joe rolled his eyes at his daughter's childish behavior. "Come on, let's eat," the cop proposed, motioning for the two adults to sit down.
Grinning, Iris plopped down on her regular seat, patting the chair next to her. Barry sat down next to her, smiling at Wally who was seated across the two young adults and who beamed back at him.
(And Iris had been right: there were enormous portions of food there, not that Barry minded that. At all.)
After dinner, Wally suggested to play a game (in a fairly obvious attempt to put off his bedtime) and the four of them settled for a quick round of Concentration. It was a hard-fought battle, but in the end, Wally emerged as the triumphant winner, with Barry and Iris sharing second place (as they both had won the exact same amount of cards), closely behind the 8-year-old. Joe justified his quite blatant losing by pointing out how late it already was (which also served as a reminder for Wally to get ready for bed). Pouting, the boy gathered his cards extra slowly before handing them over to Barry who was safely putting the pieces away into the box.
"Aww, come on; there is no reason to look so low-spirited! You just won the hard-earned first place! Though I would advise you not to rest on your laurels... I demand a rematch for some other time," Barry joked, winking,"I'm also pretty good at Operation if you ever feel like taking on a challenge," Barry teased, Wally's face lightening up instantaneously at this proposition before he finally said his good-nights and Joe started shooing his grandson upstairs to get ready for bed.
"Oh you have no idea what you're up against, Allen," Iris joked, stowing the game away back into the shelf where it belonged, "Wally's gonna destroy you, believe me."
"Ah... I wouldn't be too sure of that. Recently, I had a lot of practice," Barry said, remembering his training at S.T.A.R. Labs that had been a really odd hybrid of ping-pong, Operation and chess.
"Well, I just know that I wouldn't want to play Ligretto* against you," Iris replied in a teasing manner, before she became aware of the hidden implication of her remark.
Barry froze, staring at her nervously, "Um.. and why would that be?"
Seeing Barry so freaked out only reinforced her theory but his alarmed expression as well as the awareness that her dad and Wally were just upstairs, probably still within hearing range, made Iris backpedal quickly: "Um... Because you'd flee from me – I swear worse than a sailor when playing this game; your innocent ears couldn't take it."
The CSI relaxed again, though a glint of worry remained in his eyes. Still, he returned her playful tone, "You sure they couldn't?"
Iris nodded fervently – after all, it was the truth; she really had shocked her friends with some pretty imaginative curse words the first time they had played that game.
"Well, then thanks for the heads-up," he joked.
A shuffle of small feet and the sound of opening and closing a door sounded from upstairs, followed by heavy footsteps descending the stairs. Shortly after, Joe peeked into the room: "Alright you two, I'll get ready for bed as well, it's fairly late already," a look at the clock showed that it was 23:06, "good night."
Both young adults wished the cop a good night, awkwardly standing in the dining room after Joe left.
Finally, Barry broke the silence: "Well, I guess I should get going...-"
"I'll see you out," Iris offered with a smile, motioning towards the front door.
They padded outside, standing on the porch again, just like after their first date on Monday, Iris noted. And if she interpreted Barry's expression correctly, the same thought had crossed his mind, too.
He cleared his throat nervously, sporting a hopeful smile: "I was wondering if you were free on Friday? Maybe for a second... date? We could go to the movies... or bowling... or whatever you'd like!" Barry added hastily, gesturing wildly.
Iris laughed, "I'm definitely free on Friday... And I'm totally on board with either of these options; I love movies and I love bowling, so... take your pick, Allen," she winked at him, silently wondering how they both could be so in tune with one another.
The forensic scientist grinned back at her, equally mischievous: "I think we could manage both, don't you agree?"
"I like the way you think." Iris stepped forward, gently grabbing the lapels of Barry's blazer. Her facial expression turned from playful to genuinely concerned: "Are you feeling better now, Bear?" The nickname rolled off her tongue easily, evoking a soft smile from Barry.
"Most definitely... thanks to you, Iris."
It was really remarkable how good he felt now after his devastating low earlier this evening... on the other hand, Iris just had that effect on people... or at least on him. Like his personal sun, chasing the dark clouds of guilt away.
"Y'know, there'd be one thing that would make me feel even better right now..." he grinned dopily down at Iris, making her roll her eyes.
"You are such a dork, Allen." And with that, Iris got up on her tippy-toes, kissing Barry gently on the mouth. Again, Iris's skin tingled pleasantly but this time, the feeling was less like that of an electric shock and more like an all-engulfing warmth, comforting, familiar... a feeling of home.
When they finally parted, the clock struck quarter past eleven.
"Wow...um... I should... yeah, well... um...go... I guess..." Barry stammered, completely befuddled.
Iris smiled, feeling equally light-headed,"I suppose so... a good night's sleep never hurts anyone... Good night, Barry." She gave him a peck on the cheek, enjoying the baffled look on his face.
"G'night," Barry mumbled, a bit dazed. With a fuzzy feeling in the pit of her stomach, Iris watched Barry stagger into the darkness before she headed inside the house herself.
Iris spent the following day at work trying to find a connection between the recent gas attacks, as well as trying to come up with a way to bring up her speedy theory in a conversation with Barry... And she did not really succeed with either matter:
After searching the entire CCPD database, Iris only found one tie between the Darbinyan crime family and Judge Theresa Howard and that was a former hit-man named Kyle Nimbus. But he had been executed over nine months prior the homicides, so... so much for that... Iris even vaguely remembered her dad telling her about this case back then, as he had been the one to arrest Nimbus...
She didn't make any progress on the Barry-front, either. Iris doubted that "Oh by the way, I just had the oddest idea that you might be the Flash – care to clear that up for me?" was the smoothest way to handle the entire... situation, but for now that was all she could come up with.
Slightly disgruntled, she returned back home and was greeted by her dad and Wally who were just about to head for the park to play ball, asking if she wanted to join them. Still deep in thought about both the gas-case and Barry maybe-quite-probably being the Flash, Iris declined the invitation, watching Wally skip happily next to his grandpa, laughing cheerfully.
Iris made herself some coffee and went back to work, something in the back of her mind kept nagging her about Kyle Nimbus...
She went over all the data multiple times but still couldn't figure out what was bothering her. With an exasperated sigh, Iris decided to let this rest for a while and instead turned her attention back to her other problem... The journalist even dug out the notepad with all the findings of her research, hoping to find some inspiration there – and her eyes got caught on the date marking the explosion of the particle accelerator: 12.11.2013. Iris was sure that she had just read this date somewhere else... She took another look at the data about Kyle Nimbus and there it was: Nimbus had been sent to the gas chamber on the exact same day the particle accelerator had exploded... What a strange coincidence...
The ringing of the phone downstairs startled Iris out of her thoughts. The young journalist hurried down the stairs, answering the phone: "Iris West speaking."
"Hey, it's Barry," the forensic scientist's voice sounded from the other end of the line, frantic, "Is your dad there? He's not at the precinct and, um... I need to talk to him."
"Um, no," Iris stuttered, an uneasy feeling settling in her stomach, "he's at Sheldon Park with Wally... - Is everything okay? Is it something important?"
She could hear Barry cursing under his breath, "Oh, no, it's just... work-related stuff, yeah... But I've gotta go... I'll call you later!" And with these hurried words, he hung up on Iris.
Now Iris was really worried. Barry wasn't exactly what you would call a good liar and he had sounded extremely upset. Nervously, Iris dialed her dad's cellphone number, but nobody picked up. She dialed again, a feeling of dread spreading throughout her entire body. This time, the line was busy.
Iris made the decision to go to Sheldon Park to make sure everything was okay. She hurried upstairs, grabbed her cellphone and stuffed it into her purse, rushing downstairs again. She was just slipping into her shoes when the telephone on the end table started ringing. Iris darted towards the phone, picking it up: "Hello?"
"Aunt Iris!" It was Wally on the other end of the line and he sounded like he was crying, "You've gotta come here! Grandpa...-" Wally hiccuped and Iris could feel herself break into sweat, "he was attacked! There was this man – and he turned into green smoke! And, and... he attacked Grandpa! And he fell to the ground and started shaking-" another hiccup, "and then the Flash came and he gave Grandpa something and he stopped shaking and, and then he told me to call 911 and then he ran after the smoke-guy-," a sniffle, followed by a hiccup interrupted Wally's narration this time, "and I did – call 911, I mean – and I don't know what to do!"
"Okay, calm down, Wally!" Iris tried to appease her nephew, a plan forming in her mind, "You did really good, but now listen: I'm gonna drive to the park right now, but I've got to hang up on you for that, okay?"
"No, please don't hang up!" Wally protested hysterically, nearly breaking Iris's heart.
"Shhh, Wally, calm down! I'm gonna call you right back from my cell, okay? I'll talk with you on the way... I won't leave you alone, alright?" Iris already fished her car keys out of her purse, not wanting to waste any more time.
"Oh-o-kay," Wally stammered, hiccuping again.
"I'll call you right back," Iris assured her nephew, then hung up.
So, so sorry for that cliffhanger ^^;
* For everyone who doesn't know: Ligretto is a card game with the aim to get rid of all the cards on your hand. All the players play simultaneously, so this game is ridiculously fast and if you are too slow somebody else will put their card on the stack you wanted to put your card on - a lot of potential for cursing, believe me (I'm speaking from experience; I'd advise to only play it with close friends ;) Funnily enough, there is a similar game by the name of Dutch Blitz ... and especially in older German translations of The Flash, our favorite speedster is also called "Roter Blitz" ^^
Also, I hope the date of the particle accelerator's explosion is correct - I got this information from the Arrow wikia page, so... I'm just blindly gonna trust my source ^^