A/N: Enjoy! This chap is a good one.

*Many thanks to sendtherain for beta'ing.

*I own nothing. No copyright infringement intended.


Chapter 14 -

So. Barry Allen loved her.

It had been three days since he heartachingly declared it right before the static hit, and for the last three days she'd been pretending not to have heard it.

She didn't know why she did. After the miserable day she'd had, those words said so sweetly and sincerely had made her heart flutter. And, okay, maybe part of her wanted to hear them again. So, when he changed his tune to 'miss' instead of 'love' immediately after, she started to get worried.

Did he regret saying it? Did he just wish he had said it in person, and that's why he didn't repeat himself? Maybe he didn't love her after all, and the excuse of static gave him exactly what he needed to take it back.

If he wanted to. Did he want to?

All signs pointed to a yes.

But after two days of moping around, Stacy decided to set Iris straight.

"Maybe he's just as scared as you are," she suggested, taking a bite out of an apple.

"Scared?" Iris scoffed. "I'm not scared."

Stacy gave her a look.

"I'm not."

"Oh, no, of course not. Just your brother came in a few days ago, and, you know, you thought he was at least kind of on your side. Turns out he's not, and he may be even more anti-Iris than your parents. Why in the world would that make you afraid to love someone?"

"I love you, Stace," she said defiantly.

"And I appreciate that, darling." She patted her shoulder. "True besties are hard to come by."

"Mhmm. See!"

"But we've never really had any problems with each other."

Iris sighed. "That's true."

"Meanwhile, you and your brother are having problems, and you guys were thick as thieves once upon a time. He defended you to your parents in the beginning, remember?"

She nodded forlornly. "I remember."

"And Barry? He is a mystery. You two just met a week and a half ago. He won't tell you exactly where he is or what he does for a living, and he goes and gets beat up in the middle of the night? I'd be hesitant to tell him I love him back too."

Iris' eyes widened, and she turned to face her friend.

"Wha-? But I…I don't-"

Stacy gave her a sympathetic look.

"Honey, please. It's written all over your face."

Iris' shoulders slumped.

"I'm that obvious?"

"It's not a bad thing," she hurried to say, and Iris raised her brows. "I mean, only if you don't want him to know. You still have two and a half weeks to work on hiding it if you're really sure you're not ready for that yet."

Iris sighed. "I don't know what I want."

Stacy looped her arm through hers.

"I think you do, Hun." She paused. "And I think he wants it too."

"Then why did he take it back?" she exploded, throwing her arms around.

"Maybe the same reason you pretended you didn't hear it?"

"What does he have to be scared of?" she demanded.

"Well, that's just it, isn't it? You don't know, because you hardly know him. Maybe you should talk about it, have a conversation the next time you actually see him. Do something other than have sex."

Heat flooded her face.

"That's not all we do."

Stacy chuckled. "I'm just saying."

Iris thought about it for a minute.

"Won't that ruin our first I love you, though? If we have a long conversation, decide we're both scared and we're not going to say it yet, isn't it going to be awkward until we do? And when we do?"

"Only if you let it be."

She grumbled. "Ugh. I hate this. I shouldn't have pretended I didn't hear it. Now everything's ruined."

Stacy rolled her eyes. "Everything is not ruined. Why don't you have phone sex tonight? That'll help you blow off some of your steam. If the chemistry's still there, you have nothing to worry about."

"And if it isn't?"

Stacy smirked and wrapped an arm around her best friend.

"Trust me, it will be."

Due to the time difference, it was almost morning when his call to Iris turned into phone sex.

Things had felt a little awkward over the last few days, so when Iris jumped in wanting phone sex as soon as he said his hello, he decided not to question it.

"Where are you?" he asked huskily, pulling his tie free from his neck in his room as he talked to her.

"In my bedroom," she said, twirling a lock of her hair around her finger like a schoolgirl, though he couldn't see it. It was all about getting into character.

"Are you alone?"

"Patty's in the kitchen reading a book. I'll have to be quiet."

He grinned mischievously. "Is that so?"

Patty wasn't in the kitchen. She'd been called in for a late shift at the last minute and still hadn't come home. But Barry didn't need to know that.

"Mhmm." She bit her bottom lip. "Any other questions?"

He chuckled, and it was the sexiest sound she'd ever heard.

"What are you wearing?"

"What do you think?"

"Some lacy lingerie? Either white, black, or red?"

She laughed. "Only if you give it to me."

"Oh, I'll give it to you." His voice turned dark. "Tell me what you're wearing."

"Nothing."

That much was true. It felt a little scandalous, even if she was alone in the apartment, but Iris was stripped down to her bare bottom and lying across her bed with the door to her bedroom locked and the drapes hanging over her windows down.

"With Patty just down the hall?" he asked, his voice a little strangled.

He had definitely bought into her little white lie, and she smiled. There was no way she'd ruin the fantasy at this point and tell him she wasn't as brave as she'd portrayed herself to be.

"I wish you were here, Barry," she whimpered, trailing her fingers down her belly to play with herself.

He groaned and did the same thing. "Me too."

"I wish you were touching me, kissing me, making love to me…"

She gasped, and loudly too, but he was apparently too lost in the moment to notice the reaction she'd had to her own turn of phrase. Maybe he thought the gasp had been caused from something else. Her touching herself maybe, which was valid.

She decided to be grateful he hadn't noticed the significance and put it out of her mind, which was difficult given part of her wished he had noticed it. Maybe then he could've prompted the conversation and told her he loved her again. If he still did, of course. He loved her body, at least. Maybe he didn't know her well enough to know if he loved her. Maybe that's what he'd realized over the last few days. God, what if he never said it again?

"Iris?" he asked, sounded concerned and confused, and she realized he'd been saying something to her – probably something dirty – and she'd been so lost in her insecurities and paranoia that she hadn't registered it at all.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Barry, what did you say?"

She could practically feel the frown on the other end of the line and knew the mood had been killed.

"Oh, nothing much…just that I also touching you, kissing you, and making love to you," he said dryly.

There was that word again. Love.

"But somehow I don't think it would feel quite as potent if I said it again."

She sighed. "I'm sorry, Barry. I guess I'm just-"

"Tired? It is pretty late by you."

That was as good a reason as any.

"Yeah, talk to you tomorrow?"

And there was a very long pause after that. She wondered if he hadn't expected her to cut the phone call short so suddenly. To be honest, she hadn't expected it either until it happened.

"Sure," he finally said, what felt like a millennia later. "Sweet dreams, Iris."

"Sweet dreams," she said, and hung up the phone.

Annoyed with herself and her failings, she got out of bed to put her pjs back on and tried with all that was in her to fall back asleep.

At 2 a.m. she called Stacy and confessed her sins.

"You did what?"

Later that day – Barry's time – he sat practically twiddling his thumbs in the main quarters of the agency. He'd been trying to figure out for the last several hours what had gone wrong in his conversation with Iris, but nothing was dawning on him.

It bothered him a lot that things were already started to go wrong, communication-wise, when they were apart. If things got any worse, Iris wouldn't even want to be in a relationship with him by the time they saw each other again.

He needed to fix this, and fast. He couldn't afford to sit around for two more weeks waiting for her to get over whatever was holding her back that she was only too eager not to tell him about.

"Assignments!"

Ah, yes, new assignments. There had been a couple days break, but now it was time to get back to work. Which meant he'd have less time to talk to Iris and even more space between them. He hated it, but he didn't exactly have a choice, so with one barely attentive ear he listened for whatever case sounded the most interesting.

Number one through three were duds, number four through six required too much physical activity and were on the other side of the world. But number seven, that struck his attention as soon as he found out where it was located.

Barry's eyes widened, and he was across the room in a matter of seconds, sending papers flying around the circle of people eager to take their assignments.

"Central City, Sir? Did you say Central City?"

The Captain's eyes narrowed, but he nodded.

"Yes, Allen. Central City."

"I'll take that one." He paused to take a breath. "Sir. Please."

The Captain raised his eyebrows.

"Why so eager, Bartholomew?"

Barry opened his mouth to explain, but there was no need.

"That's where his girlfriend lives," snickered Hartley. Barry glared.

"That wouldn't be the same 'girlfriend' who was the source of all your inappropriate behavior last time, would it? The initial target?"

Barry paled.

"I think that's a yes, Cap," Hunter gleamed.

"I learn from my mistakes," Barry said, pushing his way past the pests trying to pull him down. "Just give me 24 hours to spend however I want, and I will get the job done without involving any civilians."

"Including Iris West?"

Barry nodded, determined. "I swear."

He gave him a once-over then nodded his approval.

"Hope she's worth it," another not so friendly agent jeered as Barry pushed past the lot of them.

It wouldn't do any good to respond, but he knew his response with all his heart.

She is.

At Jitters, exactly two weeks from when Barry left, Iris found herself sighing for the umpteenth time.

Stacy immediately sidled up next to her and took the broom from her hands.

"What are you sighing about this time?"

Iris shrugged, walking across to an empty table to wipe it down. Stacy followed her without hesitation.

"We have exactly two customers right now, and they're both occupied in the far corners of the room. You have twenty minutes until you get off. You should be ecstatic."

"Ecstatic about what?" she asked, halfheartedly washing down the next table. "About another failed conversation with Barry?"

"It wasn't that bad," Stacy tried delicately.

"It was a disaster!" Iris proclaimed. "I zoned out while he was talking dirty to me. How much worse can it get?"

"I'll admit it's not your best moment, but-"

"But what? We're never going to last another two weeks if I can't get a hold of myself and function. I love him, Stace. I know it's been only two weeks, but I just…I feel a connection with him that goes beyond the physical, and I-" She stopped when she noticed Stacy staring off into the distance. "What?"

She turned to look in said direction and found herself dumbfounded, only able to say one thing.

"We've got to get those bells fixed."

Stacy smiled to herself and took the wet rag and the broom with her as she backed out of sight.

"Barry?" Iris whispered, her eyes filling with tears.

He stood there just inside the opening with a beautiful bouquet of multicolored roses.

"I really hope you were talking about me," he said, grinning as he walked towards her.

"Oh, my God! Barry!"

She ran towards him, jumped into his arms and gloried in the feel of him as she buried her face in his neck. Then she pulled back a little, smiling brilliantly, and kissed him.

She gloried in the feel of his arms around her and his lips against her, his breath on her skin when they parted and the beautiful glint of gold in his glorious green eyes.

"I missed you," she said when he finally set her down and let her take the flowers, inhaling them instantly and practically purring at the pretty scent of them. "I missed you a lot."

"Me or the roses?" he joked, and she opened her eyes to look at him.

"Barry."

He sobered up. "Iris…there's something I need to tell you, and I need you to let me, and I need there to be no interruptions."

She tensed. "Okay."

"Can we go somewhere…?"

"Uh…"

"The rooftop!" Stacy whisper-yelled from behind the counter.

Barry and Iris caught each other's gaze and laughed.

"The rooftop it is," Barry said and took her hand in his own.

Iris' shook her head at Stacy as they passed her, but Stacy pretended to be fascinated with the cash register and didn't catch the embarrassed look on Iris' face. She probably thought she was doing it for her own good, so she let it go. Especially when Barry stopped them halfway up the stairwell to kiss her.

"Your lips taste delicious," he said, and she melted into goo.

"God, I've missed you."

"I've missed you more," he said, then kissed her cheek and pulled her the rest of the way up the stairs.

He pushed the door open and gasped almost the same time she did at the sight of the city before them.

"Well, it's no hotel view, but it is pretty spectacular."

Iris nodded her agreement and only very reluctantly looked away from him when he tugged at her hand.

"What…uh did you want to tell me?" she asked when he simply just stared at her for a while, eyes soft and yearning, smile gentle and concerning.

"Promise you won't run away from me? There's no phone you can hang up this time, and I bet I can beat you to the door if you try to make a mad dash for it. My legs are long, you see."

"Barry."

"Okay, okay…" He tightened his grip on her hands and swallowed hard. "I uh…actually have you told you this already, but you didn't hear me. There was static. Or maybe you didn't want to hear it. And I've been scared, and been wondering if you are too, and what that means for us. I've never said this to any other woman. I've never felt this deeply this quickly, and I just-"

"Barry?" she interjected, and he took a deep breath, exhaling with a smile.

"I love you, Iris."

Her eyes went wide, her heart beating a mile a minute.

"I'm in love with you," he emphasized. "And it's okay if you don't feel the same way. I just wanted you to kno-"

"I love you, too!"

His eyes went wide as saucers at her urgency.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Yes. Of course, yes! I was talking about you downstairs. Who else could I be talking about?"

Amidst tears, she leapt into his arms again and kissed him madly.

"I love you. I love you. I love you."

He shivered in her arms, feeling more at peace and jubilant than he had in his entire life. Like he'd finally come home.

"I love you."