Part 9
Barry stood behind Barbara as she typed away at the computer looking for everything on Iris for the past two years. Barbara finally turned and glared at the speedster.
"Barry back off! This is going to take time. Even if I had super speed which I don't. Dispute this computer having not even on the market yet tech. It can only go so fast. When I find something I will let you know." Said Barbara
"Sorry. It's just I don't understand how Iris could change from the one I knew."
"Barry, sometimes we don't see what is in front of us because we choose not to."
Barry smiled sadly thinking back to something similar he once said to Caitlin.
"Sometimes, great possibilities are right in front of us, and we don't see them, because we choose not to. I think that we need to be open to exploring something new."
"Are you ok Barry? You seem a million miles away." Said Barbara
"Just a memory Barbara. I said something similar to Caitlin once."
"May I ask you a personal question?"
"Yeah I guess so."
"Have you ever considered being in a relationship with Caitlin that wasn't platonic?"
"You mean like romantically?"
"Yes."
"If you are asking if I think Caitlin is a beautiful woman then I would be lying if I said no. I have spent most of my life in love with this ideal image of Iris. But I think part of me has loved Cait since I woke up from the coma after I got hit by lightning. Ever since she told me to pee in a cup."
"Not exactly the kind of words that normally bring on romantic feelings."
"No. But she was in full doctor mode. Emotionally detached at the time. It had been nine months since the particle accelerator explosion. Nine months since the man she was going to marry was believed to have been killed. She was grieving and having a hard time getting past it."
"She did eventually."
"Yeah she did. According to Cisco, I was the one to make her smile for the first time since that night. Then right before crisis, she told me that just coming into her life saved it."
"Seems to me that you are someone very important to Caitlin."
"She is important to me. After her powers developed and the Frost personality started to take over. I was able to bring her back to herself. Even though she did try to kill me with a kiss."
"She can kill with a kiss?"
"Uh yeah. She basically pulls all a person's body heat from them."
"Causing them to die of hypothermia. That is rather interesting. Though Caitlin hasn't killed anyone to my knowledge."
"Even when she joined Savitar and was consumed with anger and feeling abandoned she couldn't bring herself to cross that line. At the heart of it she has always been a good person. Frost was never evil, she was just fueled by all the bad things that Caitlin buried. Her grief, anger, betrayal. But most of all fear."
"So once she began dealing with those emotions and letting them show in caused the slow merger of the personalities."
"Well I am no expert in that field but that is my best guess."
Just then the computer beeped. Barbara turned back to the screen and began looking at the files she found.
"Ok Barry, three months after you disappeared Iris filed for divorce sighting abandonment. It was granted nine months later. Two months before that she was caught on CCTV entering Luthor Corp in Metropolis. Right about the time the meta human/alien registration act went into effect. Shortly after that metas who didn't register began disappearing. I can only guess that Iris provided them with a list of metas you have fought. Criminals were the first to start disappearing. Then it was Laurel, Dinah and Lyla Michaels. Lyla had tipped us off and Wally got Cecile and Jenna away. John Diggle and his kids went with them. Caitlin's mom is hiding out at a decommissioned black site she owns."
"Thanks for finding this out for me."
"I'm sorry. I know it hurts to lose someone you cared about."
"I want to know where this prison is. We will release them. All of them. Even if they are criminals."
Barbara just nodded.
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Mark Mardon walked into the office of the director of MARA. He sat down and put his feet up on her desk. Iris just glared at him.
"Get your feet off the desk Mardon."
"Chill out lady. What do you need me to do?"
"You are going with Killer Frost to capture the Hawks. I don't care if you kill them or not. But I want them out of the way."
"I don't need anyone to go with me. Least of all that wannabe hero. You do know she ain't lived up to that name."
"Trust me there is a killer in there. She is no hero. Never has been and never will be."
"Yeah well good luck with getting her to embrace that part of her."
"Given the right motivation she will."
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Somewhere in the Canadian Rockies
Cecile Horton sat watching her daughter play on the floor with John Jr and Sara Diggle. Oliver Queen's son William Clayton was sitting on the couch reading a book to his little sister Mia. The teenager and toddler had been sent to this mountain cabin, well it was actually a rather nice house hidden away in the mountains. From what John Diggle Sr. Told her it had once been used as a ARGUS safe house. But it was not listed in any records that could be traced back to anyone involved with ARGUS. John was currently in the kitchen making dinner for this pseudo family. As for Wally West he was in the small communications room checking on any updates on things with the rest of their family.
"Ms. Horton?"
Cecile turned to see William had come over to her.
"William, I told you that it's ok to call me Cecile."
"I know it's just I was taught to respect my elders. If my mom was here I don't think that she would like me calling you by your given name." said William
"Ok. What do you need?"
"I was just wondering if we will ever go home again. I miss my Aunt Thea and I miss Felicity."
"I don't know. But you have Wally, Dig and me. You are a big help with the younger kids."
"I just want my dad to be proud of me. He was a hero and I know I will never be like him. But I want him to be proud of me."
"I didn't know your father very well. But as long as you do what is right I know he will be proud of you."
"Thanks Ms. Horton."
Cecile hugged the teenager knowing that this wasn't easy for any of them.