Author's Note: HEEEEEY 2x21. You guys are the best fans a girl could ask for :)

This is the chapter where things really get going for Irisco. You all said ya wanted it, so.. :)

Barry awoke with a start, but then didn't feel like he had ever been asleep.

He was lying in bed. A familiar bed. A bed with a navy blue pillow and striped covers, in a room with a fish bowl and thin beige curtains and planets hanging from the ceiling.

It was his old room.

Barry slowly stood up, getting out of bed and walking through his room towards the door. Everything was exactly how he remembered it, and nostalgia threatened to overwhelm him. It had been a long time since he was in that room.

He slowly walked down the worn wood steps, hang skating over the banister as he moved towards the living room.

He stopped, smile falling off his face, as he caught sight of fluttering yellow police tape and Joe, crouched on the ground.

"Joe?"

Joe looked up, away from his note pad. He smiled, standing. "Good to see you, Barry."

There was something stiff in the way he spoke, not at all like the Joe West he knew.

"But I'm not Joe."

"You're not?" Barry asked, staring at him.

"No."

"Then all of... this-" he broke off, looking around him at the familiar scene of his house. "It's not real?"

"How do you feel? Being back here?" Joe asked awkwardly.

"I feel awful," Barry muttered, tears welling in his eyes.

Joe ducked under the police tape, walking toward Barry. "We thought you'd be more comfortable talking to someone familiar and in a place you knew." he said.

Barry kept staring uncomfortably at him, "We? Who's we, exactly?"

Something about this was just too much like all the horror movies that Caitlin never wanted to watch with him.

"That's a little... hard to explain." Joe said. He gestured behind Barry. "Sit."

Barry sank slowly down on the coffee table and Joe took a chair. "How much do you know about the Speed Force?"

Barry frowned, surprised by the question. "It's the source of my power," he said. "It's what makes me a speedster."

"Yes." Joe smiled. "And no. When the first subatomic particles sprang forth from the Big Bang to form reality as you know it... we were there. When the last proton decays, stops vibrating, and plunges the universe into heat death, we'll be there too."

Barry peered foreword, his brain a mess of theories and ideas and only one really becoming clear. "I'm talking to the Speed Force?"

Joe nodded.

The scientist in Barry was making this very weird for him. "Isn't that like saying I'm having a conversation with gravity or heat or-"

Joe laughed, and nodded again.

Barry shook his head, standing up, and the smile faded off of Joe's face. "You need a minute? It's okay if you do; it's a lot to take in."

"S-s-so you're saying I'm talking to the source of my power? Who just so happens to look like my adoptive dad?" Once again, Joe nodded. Barry let out a breath, letting it sink in. "That's trippy."

Joe laughed. "We pretty much invented trippy here.''

"Look, I'm not sure why you've brought me here, but you need to send me back. My friends are in danger from Zoom."

Suddenly, the lights flickered.

It took Barry a second to realize that there weren't any lights on. Something, outside, was flashing around, causing the sunlight to dim. Something fast. Something... like a speedster.

"Did you see that?" Barry asked.

Joe looked up at him. "You're not going back." He said softly. "Not until you catch... that."

Barry followed Joe's finger and saw, though the sun-streamed window, a flash off black running down the street.

Another speedster. And he needed to catch it.

Flash!

Barry had been running after the mysterious speedster for what felt like ten minutes. He was already out of breath, and stopped in the middle of the road, doubled over, hands on knees.

He turned, looking for some place to take a break, and his breath caught in his throat.

"Caitlin!" he gasped, rushing over to the bench and pulling his fiancé tightly into his arms.

It felt wrong. Caitlin felt cold, distant.

He pulled back.

"I'm glad you made it, Barry," Caitlin said in the same, stiff way that Joe had spoken earlier.

Barry let out a sigh, homesickness and missing-Caitlin filling every part of him. "Not Caitlin. It's just you again."

"Sit Barry," she offered, gesturing to the bench. "You're always on your feet."

She followed her own advice and took a seat on the bench, legs crossed and one arm along the back in a casual, relaxed position. Barry let out a heavy sigh and sat down next to her. It was killing him to see Caitlin, so close, right in front of him, and then have it not really be her.

"Do you remember this place?" Caitlin asked, glancing around the field. "Where you first told me you loved me? I was in STAR Labs, of course, but you were here."

"Yeah, except that wasn't you," Barry mumbled, glancing sideways at her.

"We thought you'd find this place and our appearance less upsetting," Caitlin said softly. "Yet you seem upset."

Barry's jaw clenched. "My friends... my city... my whole world is in danger. Zoom is on a rampage with the power that he stole from me and you are keeping me here. And you just keep reminding me of everything that is going on because you have now taken the form of my kidnapped fiancé."

"You were given a rare and precious gift, and you rejected it," Caitlin said.

"No, I did not reject it," Barry yelled. "I gave up my powers to save someone's life; to be a hero. I nearly killed myself trying to get them back when you brought me here. Wherever here is."

"That's not what we meant."

"Look," Barry took a breath. Even though it wasn't actually her, he still had trouble staying mad at Caitlin's large, intense brown eyes and serious face. "If you had rather given these powers to somebody else, why did you give them to me?"

Caitlin turned, staring hard at him. "Because you're the Flash, Barry."

Flash!

"Cisco says Barry's still alive. Where is he?"

Harry's hand hovered over the forehead of the unconscious Jesse Quick, pausing at the sound of Henry's voice. He let his arm drop back to his side, not turning. "I don't know."

"Harry," Cisco said urgently. "I vibed him in the center of a storm. It was like a- a- vortex or something."

Harry stopped breathing and spun around. "He's in... He's in the Speed Force."

"Get him out then!" Henry demanded, stalking foreword. Harry stuttered something unintelligible, and Henry's face darkened. "You can't get him out, can you?!"

"I don't know if it can!" Harry exclaimed, interrupting him.

"Hey!" Joe caught Henry's glance and beckoned to him. "Come over here."

The two of them spoke quietly for a moment, and Cisco walked over to Iris. His fingers brushed her arm and she glanced up, her eyes still a little red. "You okay?" he asked softly.

She let out a soft sigh, not really answering, and rested her head on his shoulder.

In a couple of minutes, Henry was walking up to Jesse's side and starting his examination.

"Thank God you're here," Cisco said softly. "Caitlin's usually the one doing this but..." he trailed off, unable to finish.

Henry glanced at him, trying to figure out whether to push the topic of Caitlin and what exactly had happened further. He hadn't gotten much out of Barry; whenever the ex-speedster tried to talk about Caitlin his jaw went tight and his eyes hollow.

He chose to drop it for now. There would be another time. "Heart rates normal," Henry said instead. "Reflexes and breathing are fine... she should be waking up. She's just not."

"That was the same with Barry," Iris released. Henry glanced up, and she elaborated. "Um... after the first accident he was in a coma that no one could explain."

Henry's brow furrowed. "What did you do with him?"

"So," Cisco picked up. "They brought him here. Well, Wells brought him here."

"The other Wells," Iris added.

"Right, the Wells who was actually Thawn."

"Eobard Thawn, not Eddie."

"Right."

"It's- It's complicated," Iris hurried on, noticing Henry's expression of total befuddlement. "Anyway, we- they- took care off Barry while Wells -Thawn- treated him."

Henry nodded, picking up and commenting on the only bit he needed to know. "Are there any records of that treatment? We might find clues on how to help Jesse."

Cisco frowned. "Uh... yeah, they'd be downstairs in the storage room and morgue."

Iris glanced at him, giving him a weird look. "Ew, you guys have a morgue?"

"It's not like a morgue, morgue, it's like a- well, it's like a poor man's morgue really, morgue-ish."

"Would one of you go get them, please?" Henry asked, turning back to Jesse.

"Okay, well, I'm not going alone," Cisco muttered, glancing surreptitiously at Iris.

She rolled her eyes and turned to leave the room. Cisco's mouth scrunched as he followed her out. "Thank you."

The two of them walked down the hallway and toward the elevator, and Cisco pressed the down button. They waited in silence, and continued that way until they reached the morgue/storage room.

"Okay, so, it's a morgue morgue," Cisco said finally as they stepped into the chilly basement room, phone lights on. "But, you know, we had to keep the dead metahumans somewhere."

Iris raised her eyebrow as her gaze fell on a few instruments laid out on neat metal tables. "Yeah... looks like you did a lot more then just store them."

She picked something up that looked like a mix between a fork and toothpick, shuddered, and put it hurriedly back in it's place.

"Fake-Wells maybe have done a few dissections for study purposes," Cisco admitted, scanning his flashlight along the desk to look for Barry's medical records.

"This didn't tip any of you off that he might be secretly evil?"

"It was a crazy time, okay? We had a lot going on," Cisco said defensively.

She rolled her eyes, looking away from him, and Cisco turned back to his work. "I tell you what: It's a good thing Thawn was so organized."

A sudden clattering made Iris glance back towards the tech genius. "Would you stop knocking stuff over?"

Cisco scoffed. "You stop- I didn't touch anything."

"Okay, whatever you say." Iris said tolerantly, shaking her head.

"Okay," Cisco shut the door hurriedly. "This is it. This is Barry's x-file."

Suddenly, there was a large crashing noise, followed by the loud, distinctive bang of a heavy piece of metal. Cisco and Iris spun around. There, covered in a tattered green tank-top and looking more dead then alive (as in very, very dead) was Girder.

Cisco's eyes widened, the light from his flashlight reflecting off of metal skin and an angry expression.

"A zombie? For real?"

Girder let out an animalistic roar that echoed in the dark morgue. Iris' eyes were huge. "Tony?!"

"Nope, not Tony, not anymore," Cisco stumbled back a few steps, holding out his arm in front of Iris. "Get behind me."

"You get behind me," she commanded, shoving past his arm and leaping in front of him.

He didn't argue and grabbed a wrench lying on the table beside them. Tony roared again and upturned a bench, causing tools and pieces of metal to go clanking and rolling across the floor.

"TONY!" Iris shouted, shining her light in the zombie's eyes.

Girder blinked, groaning, and held a hand up to block the light. He was momentarily distracted by a mirror, hanging from the ceiling over the table near Cisco and Iris, but then he let out another cry and smashed it.

Cisco and Iris both stumbled back with gasps of surprise, but then Tony turned and stomped towards the wall, away from them. In one easy movement, he smashed through the wall and out into the street.

The two of them looked after him in shock. "Didn't see that one coming," Cisco stuttered. "Zombie Girder."

"No," Iris said breathlessly. "No, no, I didn't either."

They turned towards each other, both in a state of half laughing, half terrified. Then Iris grabbed Cisco and planted a soft kiss on his lips. Cisco whimpered a little bit, hands finding her hips, but it wasn't long before she was pulling back.

"Wha-?"

"Sh," Iris cut him off. "Don't start stuttering and ruin the moment."

"Right..." Cisco mumbled, watching her with wide eyes. "Okay. We should... we should get upstairs."

Iris gave him a quick nod and released his shoulders. Then the two of them walked carefully through the destroyed lab and back to the Cortex.

Flash!

"I don't understand." Barry and Caitlin were still sitting together on the bench in the park, watching the sun through the hazy clouds. "If I'm the Flash, then why are you doing this to me? Why do I have to catch this- this thing before you let me go back?! Please, look, I will do whatever you want, just please let me go back right now so I can help my friends."

There was a sudden echoing noise, one of a familiar voice. Barry glanced up.

"Barry!" Cisco yelled, sounding like he was far, far away and in a large cavern. Over the water, a whirlwind of dust particles and lightning appeared. Barry started to his feet, walking closer.

"What is that?"

Caitlin stood up, too, walking to stand next to him. "Those are your friends," she told him. "They want you to come back."

Barry's stomach clenched like a fist. "Can I?"

"Of course," Caitlin said with one of her beautiful smiles, laughing a little. "But if you do, it'll be without your powers."

Barry looked away from her, back towards the tornado. He took a step foreword, but then a black shape flashed by him, faster then his eyes could almost make out. His head spun, following it. Caitlin looked too, then back at him. "The choice is yours, Barry."

The whirlwind dissipated as Barry turned away from it and started to run.

Flash!

"What the heck is going on in here?!" Iris demanded as she, Joe and Henry came running down the Bunker steps. There was a swirling mass of lightning and particles where the breach usually appeared, and Harry was hunched over the control panel.

"Just a little longer, Ramon... a little longer..." he muttered.

Iris grabbed his shoulder angrily. "Hey! You're killing him!"

With a growl, Harry slammed on a button. The whirlwind disappeared and Cisco came into view, headpiece resting above his ears. He slumped against the metal bars in front of him, breathing heavily.

"Cisco," Iris gasped, running up the steps. "Hey, Cisco, can you hear me?"

Cisco nodded. He looked pale, drained. Iris laid a hand on his arm, concerned.

"I saw him," Cisco panted. "Barry, he turned to me." His shoulders slumped, tears filling up in his eyes and trickling down his cheeks. "I'm sorry. I lost him."

Henry slumped, and Harry's hands balled into fists, his head hanging down. Cisco yanked the headset off of his head, hands trembling as he rubbed his eyes. "I'm so sorry, Iris... I couldn't- I couldn't-"

Iris stepped around the contraption Cisco was holding on to and gathered him into her arms. His curls tickled her nose as he pressed his face into her shoulder, letting out a sob.

Henry, Harry and Joe tactfully took that moment to leave the room. Iris stroked Cisco's hair, kissing the top of his head. "Shh... It's okay, Cisco," she whispered. "It's okay. Nobody blames you. Come on," she tilted his chin up, wiping away his tears with her thumb, and gently kissed him for the second time that day. He let out a soft sigh, leaning into the kiss, the salt from his tears mixing in with their lips. Iris pulled back after a couple of moments, wiping her thumb across his cheek. "Let's get you some water. I think we all need a break."

He nodded, sniffling a little and wiping his eyes on the back of his hand. Iris took his hand, intertwining their fingers, and the two of them walked out of the Bunker together.

Flash!

As Team Flash formulated a plan to catch Zombie Girder, Barry was kneeling by his mother's grave. He could feel the damp from the ground seeping through the fabric of his jeans; the humid, warm, Speed Force air ruffling his hair as Henry -or, the Speed Force, really- stood beside him, both of them staring at Nora Allen's gravestone.

"Why did you bring me here?" Barry asked softly, elbows resting on his knees.

"Your mother's death happened to you, Barry," Henry told him. "It made you who you are. But have you accepted it? Really accepted loosing her?"

For the first time since he had entered the Speed Force, Barry felt actual tears welling in his eyes. It was enough that he was kept away from the people he cared about, enough that he was leaving them to their own devices, enough that he might not ever escape the prison he was in. Being at Nora's grave, however, was just too much.

"Maybe that's why you couldn't come here," Henry continued. "Because that would make it real."

"I know it's real," Barry said hoarsely, another tear dripping down his chin. "Every day I know it. I had a chance to save her. You saw what I chose."

"And your at piece with that decision?"

Barry huffed out a humorless laugh. "At peace? How could someone ever be at piece with letting his mother die?" He shook his head. "Deciding that his life is more valuable then her's?"

He let out a soft sob, wiping his cheek with the back of his hand. Henry crouched beside him, eyes still on the grave.

Beloved Wife and Mother: Nora Allen, 1959-2000.

"You really think your mother would have wanted you to die for her?" Henry asked him quietly. "And all the people the Flash saved as a result of that decision... what about them? Do their lives have value, too?"

Barry glanced up, and his eyes once again caught sight of the shadowy black figure. It hovered in between two other tombstones for a second before zipping off again.

Barry stood up, his hands clenching, the last of his tears slowing. "I don't have to listen to this," he grit out. "I have to get home."

He began to run.

Flash!

The black shape led him back to his house.

He stopped running, breath filtering out in puffs of steam. There were lights on inside, so Barry went up the front steps and opened up the door.

At first the house seemed empty, but as he walked around the corner, his blood froze.

"Mom?"

Nora Allen smiled calmly at him from the kitchen table. "Hi, Barry."

Everything about her was exactly how Barry remembered. Her long, auburn hair, hair that had on more then one occasion reminded him of Caitlin's. Her warm smile. Her green eyes, like his.

But...

"You're not my mother," he rasped, watching the smile fade a little off of Nora's face. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"We're not doing anything to you, sweetheart," Nora said softly. "You're just so tired. Come. Sit."

He felt his shoulders slump, his eyes filling as he moved towards the chair beside his mother.

"You were right all along," he said quietly, shaking his head. "I haven't accepted it. Not for a second. And I don't think I ever will."

Nora reached across the table gently taking his hand. "My beautiful boy," she said in such a familiar, quiet, Nora-like voice it almost made Barry's heart break. "You have to find a way."

"How?"

"I don't know," Nora said. "But I know this: What you've become... it's wonderful. A miracle, even. But it won't make bad things stop happening to you. Even the Flash can't outrun the tragedies the universe is going to keep sending your way. You have to accept that. And then you can truly run free."

Barry nodded, a tear trickling down his face. "I know," he cried. "I just miss her. I miss you, so much."

Nora slipped out of her chair, kneeling on the ground in front of him, their fingers still intertwined. "What if I told you that she's proud of you? And of the man that you've become?"

Her voice choked up a bit, tears glistening in her eyes, and it was hard for Barry not to believe that it truly was his mother crouching in front of him.

"Who's telling me that?" Barry asked softly. "The Speed Force or my mother?"

Her hand reached up, cupping his cheek.

"Both."

Flash!

"Turn it on," Cisco said, walking hurriedly around the small table with Barry's torn suit placed on it. "We have to try again."

Henry's jaw tensed, and Joe shook his head. Cisco glared at him, placing the headset he had used earlier to try to get to Barry in the Speed Force over his head. "You got a better idea?"

"When you look into the Speed Force, can someone else see into it, too?" Henry asked.

"As long as your in physical contact with Ramon while he's vibing," Harry answered. "Yes."

"Let me do that," Henry begged. "I can get Barry to come back."

Cisco's eyes slid down, feeling the heavy weight of his failure from this morning come crashing back down on him.

"No," Iris said abruptly, stepping foreword. "Let me do it. I mean... we all know that Caitlin is the best choice. If anyone can get Barry to come back, it's her. But since she... well, she can't be here. So I think- I think that Cisco and I could do it. Please."

Henry smiled slightly, reaching out to squeeze her wrist. She nodded at him, and slipped her small, soft hand into Cisco's. He tightened his grip slightly, leaning down and gently kissing her. It felt strange to be able to do that, after so long of pining and never sharing how he felt.

Then he placed his hand on the scrap of suit and shut his eyes.

Almost immediately, grey clouds and lightning filled his vision. He glanced at Iris, making sure she was still with him. She had her eyes trained on him, looking calm. He could feel her pulse, though, underneath his fingers, pounding away.

Standing in the living room of his old house, freshly clothed in his Flash suit, having finally caught the dark shadow that had been haunting him throughout the Speed Force, Barry looked up. In front of him was a swirling mass of grey clouds.

"Barry..."

He heard a quiet, echoey voice call from somewhere inside. Iris.

He smiled slightly at the sound of his sister's voice, and took a few slow steps foreword.

"Barry," Iris said again. "Come home to us. Caitlin needs you. Come home."

Barry glanced back. His mother had stood from the couch, her hands clasped and a small smile on her face.

"Run, Barry," she whispered. "Run."

He nodded at her, and then turned back to the hurricane swirling in his living room. He could hear Iris' voice echoing in his head.

Caitlin needs you.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped into the mist, and grabbed Iris' hand.

Flash!

After Girder had been dealt with, Barry found himself at Jesse's bedside. She was still very much unconscious, her condition not having changed at all since she got hit by the explosion blast.

Harry was in his chair by his daughter's side, hand clasped between his own. He stood up when Barry walked into the room, clearing his throat stiffly. "You- you should be resting. You don't need to be here."

"No, that's just it," Barry said quietly, approaching Jesse. "I think I do."

He reached down and slipping his hand into her's. Immediately, there was a small flash of lightning, zipping around their fingertips before vanishing again.

Then Jesse's head tilted to the side and her lips parted. She sighed, like she was just waking up, and her eyes opened.

"Hi."

Barry smiled at her, feeling a strange sense of purpose as watched the amazement bloom on everyone's faces.

The rest of them left Jesse and Harry to reunite alone.

He found himself in Caitlin's lab with his father. Henry gave him a quick checkup, making sure he was alright after his trip to the Speed Force. They talked for a bit, about fate and life and how everything was exactly how it should be.

"While we're on the subject of changing our minds about important things," Henry said, sitting down beside his son. "You know know that part where I told you I was going to leave Central City so that you could be the Flash without you having to be concerned about me all the time? Well... forget all that. You're stuck with me."

Barry grinned, and Henry bumped his shoulder. "I'm not going anywhere."

Barry leaned foreword, pressing his face into Henry's shoulder and wrapping an arm around him. Henry rubbed his back. "And, you know, I can't miss the wedding. Because I promise you, there is going to be a wedding."

Flash!

Barry went to his mother's grave as soon as he could get away from the rest of Team Flash.

It wasn't as if he wasn't happy to see them, he just needed some time alone.

He crouched in front of the tomb, the air not quite as damp as it had been in the Speed Force, but everything pretty much the same. Barry gently touched the stone, fingers rubbing along the engraving. "Joe offered to take me here so many times and- and I always said no."

He leaned back, smiling slightly. "I wanted to... I wanted to come with Caitlin. I almost asked her a few times but... I just couldn't do it. And now I'm here and she- she's not."

Barry's voice cracked slightly and sniffed, once, hard. "Maybe... maybe we can come back. Once I can get her home. I'm going to save her. I have to save her."

Across town at the overrun CCPD, Zoom had just left Caitlin's room with a choice.

Stay here, and you will remained unharmed. Or you can go home. But don't expect me to be any gentler on you then any of your friends.

Cuffs lying open on the floor, Caitlin got to her feet.

It was time to go home.

Author's Note: OH MY GOSH 2x22 IS NEXT! EEEEK I can't wait!