Barry must have sped around the city a thousand times. He must have gone faster than he's ever gone. He searched every dust spec of every room of every floor of every building of every street in the entire city hundreds of times. Still not a single hint of Iris. He ran to the abandoned part of town and punched the road with all the fury inside of him. The entire street cracked, but he continued to weep. He collected his sanity and tried to calm down. His face went back into a sneer. The sun was setting now, 6:43 pm. Iris had been gone for 16 hours. Once he had put his mind to peace, he ran back to S.T.A.R. Labs. Cisco and Caitlin looked up at him. They looked down immediately. Ralph, who was still sleeping with Jenna, was snoring. Joe wasn't anywhere to be seen and Barry assumed Cecile was still looking up the men who took Iris. A memory of Iris sleeping before their wedding day flashed all throughout his brain, it was quickly replaced with the emptiness of her not being in the room with him. Oh how he wished it was him.
"Any updates? Things I should know about?" Barry questioned, noticing their strange lack of worry for Barry. They both shook their heads in unison.
"Nope. Not. At. All." Cisco articulated. Barry's eyes narrowed, they shouldn't be hiding things, especially right now. "Nothing to report. We're waiting for Cecile to get back and we are still trying to find Thorn's chemical signature." Caitlin smacked his arm. She shushed him.
"Are you sure there's nothing? Nothing at all? Absolutely nothing to hide?" Barry interrogated. He got in Cisco's face so much that he could smell Cisco's cheeto breath.
"I don't think so, Barry." Caitlin gulped. Barry glared at Cisco.
"Tell me." He hissed.
"Tell you what? Nuthin' to tell." Cisco defended. Caitlin nodded, she tried to focus back on the computers. Barry stepped back, glaring at the two of them. How could they be hiding something at a time like this?
"If you know anything about Iris you better tell me know or I swear to G-" Barry yelled. At this time Ralph had woken up, and saw that an argument was about to happen. He laughed nervously and carefully ran the baby to the lounge to give her back to her father.
"If you're asking if we know where she is, we don't! And we wouldn't hide that! Barry, I get how you're feeling right now, but don't blame us." Cisco interrupted him. Caitlin stood by his side.
"That's the thing, no you don't! You have no idea how I feel right now. Iris, my wife, who I promised to protect, is gone! And we have no idea where she is! And because you are hiding something, you are just as bad as Puppetmaster and Thorn. Tell me or I'm going and not coming back until I find her."
"Barry, we can't. You just need to trust us, right now okay? Right now, the best thing to do is to track Thorn, Puppetmaster, and Iris. Not to argue, guys." Caitlin mediated. Cisco agreed, and backed off. Barry still stood his ground.
"Really? You expect me stop that easily? My feelings will just disappear that quickly?"
"I didn't say that, listen we care about Iris too-" She calmly said. Barry turned his angry gaze at her.
"No, no you don't. She is my family, she is my best friend, she is my wife, she will be the mother of my children, she is just 'Barry's girlfriend' to you!"
"No, no she's not, Barry you know that." A tear dripped down Caitlin's cheek. Cisco was just mad.
"Listen we are helping you get her back. We don't have to be here! We could be sleeping! I have been awake for over a day. We are helping you, and we are here for you and Iris. You know why? You guys are our best friends!"
"Then why can't you get her back." Barry whispered. Tears were sprinting down his cheeks like rain pouring on windows. Caitlin had wiped her tear. Then, Cecile, Ralph, and Joe who was holding Jenna, walked into the room. The tension was obvious to the newcomers.
"Um… Guys I found Thorn and Puppetmaster's identities." Cecile said. Barry swiftly wiped his tears away. Joe came over to him, and gave him a side hug.
"Okay… Tell us." Joe sighed. He squeezed Barry's shoulder. Cisco then projected their faces on the monitors. Barry clenched his teeth.
"Thorn's real name is James Winston, he was a botanist until the day of the Enlightenment when he was fired for mishandling plants."
"That must've been when he got his powers." Cisco commented. "The Enlightenment."
"So he started using the plants to steal things. But why?" Ralph thought out loud.
"Well because he lost his six year old daughter, Jada Winston earlier that night."
"So The Enlightenment happened, killed his daughter, he goes into a rage and destroys the plants where he worked. In hopes of revenge? Why would he take Iris? And who is Puppetmaster?" Joe added.
"Puppetmaster is August Winston." Cecile answered. "Thorn's husband."
"Wait… They're married?" Ralph asked incredulously. Cecile nodded.
"It makes sense." Caitlin replied. "How they can work together so easily and how they both have a motive."
"Their daughter's death." Barry finished.
"Winston was a pilot for the Central City Airport until about a week after The Enlightenment. He was also fired but for missing work, and then the next day his former boss killed himself."
"Doubt that." Joe retorted.
"Yeah, Puppetmaster probably took control of him in a rage." Cisco said.
"Neither of them have any criminal records."
"Again, what's their reason for taking Iris?"
"I don't know. But they have a history for murder, and her situation doesn't look good right now."
There was a beat of silence, then Barry sped out of the room. Joe ran his direction, but eventually Jenna started crying and he had to go back to the Cortex.
"He's gone again." He mumbled.
"Where did he go this time?"
"He went to the bank again."
"He's going after Puppetmaster."
"Alone."