Barry shut the bedroom door behind him.
For a moment he felt the need to run. Run as far away as possible from here. He sat down on his bed, he felt so furious. He was mad at Joe for taking Eddie´s side. He wanted to yell at someone, to punch something… he did none of those things however. Instead he found himself silently crying into his pillow. Anger was replaced by sadness. How could he ever think that Iris loved him back? She never would now… he was too late. Someone had already stolen her heart.
After a while Joe came upstairs to Barry. He sat down on the bed, folded his arms over his chest and gave him a blank look. He noticed Barry had been crying.
"Care to share?", Joe asked.
Barry shook his head. He was expecting Joe to be mad at him. But Joe never could, no matter how hard he tried. He had such weakness for Barry. He just sighed deeply and shook his head.
"Is Iris mad at me?", Barry asked.
"Hmmmm…you know Iris…she´ll get over it….eventually"
Joe was thoughtful for a moment.
"Barry…you gotta either tell her-or forget her…you are hurting yourself, and you will end up hurting Iris as well…not to mention you got me going nuts here, trying to keep everything I know to myself".
"I´m scared", said Barry looking down, ashamed "I´m afraid that if she doesn´t feel the same way, I´ll lose her…"
Joe lifted his hand and wiped away the tears from Barry´s cheeks. He looked him into the eyes.
"Barry, son…", he said very serious "If you don´t, you´ll never know…you have to be really brave here. Think you can do that for me?"
Barry nodded. Joe pulled him into a hug. He always ended up doing that. Somehow Joe was just like a big teddy bear.
"You know…no dad in the entire world would ever encourage any guy to go for his daughter…no matter how nice the guy…so you better solve this thing with Iris before I change my mind." Joe laughed. Barry smiled…a little.
"That´s blackmail", he said.
"Yes it is".
Joe kissed Barry´s forehead.
"You´re still feeling warm, Bear. You need to rest. That fever should be coming down by now."
He gave Barry his medicines and wished him a good night.
Iris wasn´t exactly angry, she wasn´t happy either. Maybe she was rather confused by Barry´s outburst and also a bit upset, since he had made Eddie really uncomfortable and she had felt trapped in the middle of both of them. After Eddie had left she stayed downstairs watching TV until midnight. She did that when she was distressed. She went over the events of dinner again. Why was Barry behaving like a complete idiot? He was probably a bit grumpy because of being sick, though there was something else to it. Joe had already turned off his lights when Iris finally decided to leave it be and go to bed.
She saw the light from Barry´s room. At first she had decided that it was not worth while to even try to speak to Barry when he was in such a childish attitude. But on a second thought, she would definitely have no peace if she didn´t set things straight with him right away.
She entered his bedroom and found Barry curled up, eyes closed.
"Barry?"
Iris approached the bed. She noticed he was sweating and she softly shook his shoulder.
"Barry?"
He didn´t wake. He moaned and murmured a few lose words that she couldn´t understand.
"Barry, what is it?", she shook him a little harder. He was burning up.
"Daddy!", she called. Joe rushed in.
"What is it?"
"Don't know, he doesn't wake!" Iris was scared.
Joe pulled the blankets down. Barry was bathed in sweat. He tried to open his eyes, but they were so heavy.
"Iris", was all he managed to say "Iris..."
He was hallucinating.
"I'm here Barry" Iris said softly, holding Barry's hand.
"We need to get him over to Caitlin" said Joe "Iris, get me one of his sweaters".
They struggeled to get Barry into his clothes. He was only half conscious and could hardly cooperate.
Joe somehow managed to carry him on his own, holding him with one arm around his back and the other under his knees. Iris walked next to Joe, holding Barry's hand.
She remembered the time Barry had been in a coma. Ever since, she used to panic when something happened to Barry. It was the same for Joe. He drove as fast as he could with Iris sitting in the back, holding Barry against her chest.
They came to STAR Labs, where Caitlin was already awaiting them. Together they brought Barry inside and Joe laid him down on the examination table.
"Alright tell me what happened", said Caitlin. She pulled Barry's sweaters off and rolled up his shirt.
"He had some fever when he went to bed but he wasn't complaining" Joe explained.
Caitlin held a thermometer under Barry's armpit. The fever had gone over 103.
Caitlin looked worried.
"Has he been eating?", she asked.
"Not really", said Joe.
"Ok. I'll have to put him on an IV, he's badly dehydrated."
Barry was trying to stay awake, fighting to keep his eyes open but his mind was so tried, he failed to follow up with everything that was going on around him.
He winced when Caitlin put the needle into his arm.
"Shhh, it's Ok", Caitlin tried to calm him "It's over, sweetheart."
She put a cold washcloth on Barry's forehead.
"We will have to wait for the medication to work" said Caitlin "it looks like a severe pneumonia".
Joe ran a hand over his face, he sighed deeply. Then he brought a chair for himself and one for Iris and they sat down next to Barry. Joe noticed the strangled expression on his daughter´s face. He put an arm around her shoulder.
"It´s going to be alright, honey", he said to her "Barry is going to be fine."
Caitlin replaced the bag for the IV.
Barry opened his eyes a little. He stretched out his arm.
"Iris", he said.
Iris took his hand and kissed it.
"I´m here, Bear…I´m here, it´s OK"
It took all of his strength to speak. He turned his head, but he could only distinguish a blurred image of her.
"I- I love you, Iris…"
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