She dreamed of him. Of Barry kissing, snuggling, touching her beneath the fabric of the warm flannel pajamas she wore. His pajamas. Iris woke to find those familiar kisses caressing her neck, turning her on. She moaned, never able to resist the skillful touch of Bartholomew Henry Allen—the man she loved. Not even last night when—

Savitar!

Alarm shooting through her, she jumped up and grasped his face in her hands. Barry's eyes widened as she turned his face back and forth, inspecting for the scars.

"Um, Iris Sweetheart, what are you doing?"

He was lost, confused. She stared for a moment, before relief filled her. This was her Barry. As it should be beside her in bed. On her neck. His hand gently cupping her beneath his shirt.

"Sorry just a nightmare."

His hand had stopped moving against her breast but its warmth was still there. Now that she was sure of who he was, it brought her comfort.

"You want to talk about it?"

His concern was genuine. Always caring about her welfare. Iris wanted to confide in him then, the truth about the incident but again the thought of looking in those warm, loving brown eyes and telling him…that was too much.

"Doesn't matter," she dismissed it.

"What matters is that you're here with me."

She awarded him a kiss to his lips. He groaned happily and resumed his sensual massage of her body. All tension and troubling thoughts fled as Barry shifted her down on her back and climbed over her.

"You can't possibly know how much I missed you last night," he whispered between kisses.

"You can't possibly know how much I've missed you."

Iris pushed the memory out of her head.

"Barry, shhh."

He complied, slowly undoing the buttons of his shirt on her body. His chest was already bare. She ran her hands up his back, reaching into his hair; ready to pull his face into her chest when she remembered the marks his future self had left on her. Dark and prominent and ever so fresh hickies from less than twelve hours ago. She couldn't let Barry see them.

"Wait, wait."

Guilt slammed her at the thought of hiding from him but she had no choice.

Barry slowed down.

"What's wrong?" he frowned.

"I have to get to work."

His mouth flipped into a smile.

"Don't worry about it. I called us both in sick today."

He leaned down to continue their kissing.

"You what?" under normal circumstances she'd be relieved but at the moment she needed an escape. Something to give her a reason to leave before he saw too much.

Barry blinked, that uncertain look he got when he was unsure if he'd made the wrong move or not.

"You were so tired. And you didn't get any sleep. I thought…should I have asked first?"

No, he'd made the right decision. The perfect decision. Because he was perfect.

"No, Barry you're fine. It's just…" she had to think quick.

"I have a deadline. I really need to go and do some research."

He raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"Research?"

She nodded.

"Yea."

When he didn't move she gave him a soft shove. Disappointed, Barry rolled over to his back.

"Anything I can help with?" he offered.

"You know I read pretty fast."

She hurried from the bed and toward the bathroom.

"No thanks. This is something I have to do," she called to him.

Before stepping into the shower Iris did something she'd never done since she and Barry had moved in together. She locked the bathroom door. She hated herself for it, felt like a second betrayal but what could she do? Her shower was harried, as if Barry might walk in any minute and catch her fingers tracing over the evidence of the night before. She needn't have bothered.

"Meta bank robbery, gotta go!"

All she heard was the front door slam then she was alone. For the moment anyway, depending on how big and bad this meta was. Barry could handle himself either way. He had an entire team behind him. And he'd always have her. It occurred to her then that Star Labs was the place to be right now. Regardless of what happened, her place was always with him. She finished her shower and prepared to join the team.

O--O

"Iris is acting weird."

Barry plopped atop the table at Star Labs, waiting to be scanned. This particular meta he'd just locked away had a nasty power of infecting anything he touched with a toxin that increased bacterial development by light-years. One touch and you could grow mold on your face.

"What do mean?" Cisco was preoccupied with adjusting the scanner.

"I mean I thought we'd made up last night. I went home; I apologized. We hugged and all that stuff. But then this afternoon she didn't want to make up. In fact it seemed like she was trying to avoid me altogether."

Cisco clicked the contraption on and proceeded to scan his friend.

"I thought you said you made up last night."

"We did but we didn't make up. That's like the only good part of fighting. It's the making up."

The engineer frowned.

"Oh, that's not good."

Barry's heart jerked.

"Oh god, I'm infected?" he almost freaked.

Cisco glanced up.

"What? No, I meant you and Iris. You guys haven't even gotten to the honeymoon yet but the honeymoon phase is over?"

Barry shrugged his confusion.

"I don't know. Normally everything's fine but today she was just different. You think she's doing that thing where women say it's fine but it's not fine and then when you think it's fine they're mad that you don't know it's not fine?"

His friend looked at him, just as baffled.

"Okay, complex technologies and physics equations I can figure out but women? You came to the wrong guy. This sounds like a Caitlin question."

But Caitlin wasn't home. She was currently being occupied by Killer Frost. Barry groaned his frustration.

"I don't know what to do."

"Well how about talking to her? Just come out direct and ask her."

Yea, right. If she were in the mood for direct then she wouldn't be the one avoiding him.

"I guess."

The scanner made a noise and Cisco shot him a thumbs up.

"All clear. No toxin."

That was good news.

"Hey, you think Joe might be able to get out what's wrong with Iris?" Barry wondered.

Cisco gave him a horrified look.

"You're really going to ask Joe why his daughter is being stingy with the nookie?" he asked.

God no!

"Of course not! I mean he might know if she's still mad. Maybe she vented to him or something."

His friend shrugged.

"Can't hurt. Just leave out the detail about…you know."

He didn't have to worry about that.

"If we're done here?"

"Yea, Barry it's all go—"

He zipped off before Cisco could finish.

Five minutes after his departure, a troubled Iris entered the lab. Cisco glanced over from his screen to wave.

"Oh hey Iris. You just missed Barry. He totally kicked meta ass."

She nodded, suddenly relieved. It must have shown on her face because Cisco cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Where is everybody?" she asked.

"Oh, H.R. is out doing his thing. Julian's at a conference until the weekend and Harry's on his own Earth. It's just me for the moment."

Iris sighed.

"That works out then. Seeing as you're the person I need to talk to."

She'd decided that with his unique ability he was just the person to help her with her Savitar issue. Sort of.

"Me?" he was taken back. Iris didn't often come calling for him.

"I just have a few questions. About Savitar."

He shuddered at the name.

"Creepy right?"

She'd thought so until last night.

"So he's actually Barry right? Just from the future?"

"Yes and no. He's a time remnant, which is Barry but not our Barry. Not directly. Our future Barry is still Barry just a sad Barry instead of a psycho Barry."

Right.

"And you can be sure of that, because you can vibe the future?"

He was giving her a questioning look.

"I guess?"

Iris sighed. She'd have to give him an explanation for her line of questioning. But for now she pressed on.

"Is there any way to tell the difference?" she inquired.

Cisco almost laughed.

"You mean besides the big funky scar on half his face?"

That wouldn't help in the dark. Between the sheets. Or from behind.

"Suppose you can't see his face?"

Now the young genius appeared thoughtful.

"Hmm, well I guess there may be scientific ways. Like with Harry and H.R. they're both Harrison Wells but from different universes so they function on different frequencies. Savitar is from our universe and technically was our Barry at some point so he'd be on the same frequency but he is faster than our Barry. Maybe we could use his speedforce calibrations to—"

Iris's phone went off. Her first thought was to ignore it but it could be Barry. She held up a finger and checked it out. A strange number had been saved in her phone as "S."

S: I need to see you. WentCorp Factory in 30min.

Her stomach fell. She knew who S was. But when had he…speedster. He could've done it right before her eyes and she wouldn't have picked up.

"Iris, are you okay?"

She blinked up from the text to find worried eyes on her.

"Oh yea I'm fine. Just work, you know."

She shoved her phone back in her pocket as if he could read the text.

"If you want I can talk to Harry about us creating a Savitar detector similar to the meta detectors of his world. I'm sure we can figure it out."

That just might do the trick.

"Sure, yea that would be great. I have to go. Do a thing. For work so…thanks Cisco."

She gave him a quick hug before rushing off to her car to be alone. She barely noticed Cisco tense up, he was probably feeling awkward at such a rare gesture from her. Once safe in her car she opened the text and read it again. Anxiety flooded her.

Why did he want to meet her? Did he expect a replay of last night?

Well he's not getting any of that!

Of course an old shutdown factory wasn't exactly the spot for a saucy rendezvous. If that was what he was looking for then he'd have picked somewhere much more romantic. Barry was if nothing a total romantic.

He's not my Barry though.

She shouldn't go. Avoid him at all costs. The man was trying to kill her for god sakes. Not to mention he'd totally violated Barry and her bed by coming in and impersonating him. She should never see him again.

But…

What if there was still a little bit of Barry in there? Beneath the darkness, the anger, the crippling depression that had twisted him into the cold soul that he was. What if there was just one kernel of Barry in there begging to be tended to? To be nurtured.

She couldn't leave any version of Barry in pain. Maybe she could reach him. And if not she could always demand answers about last night. Why he'd done what he'd done.

Iris started her car, her mind made up. She would go to Savitar whether to comfort him or confront him, she had to see him. Maybe then she could put the events of last night behind her.

As she drove off she was completely unaware of a morbidly shocked Cisco staring out of the Star Labs window, totally freaked out by the vibe he'd caught when she hugged him.