"Barry, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be sick?"

Joe was still at the bank crime scene, where The Flash had apprehended the yet unnamed toxic meta culprit. He'd been startled to see Barry pop up beside him in civilian gear.

"I need to talk to you about Iris."

Joe went on immediate alert.

"Is she all right?" he loved his daughter with every fiber of his being. He'd already lost a son to Savitar. He wouldn't lose her too.

"Oh yea she's fine," Barry assured him.

"It's just, did she say anything to you. About being mad at me?"

Joe gave him his patented Are you kidding me look.

"You came all the way down to a crime scene on your Sick-day just to ask me if your fiancé who you live with is mad at you?"

Well when he said it like that it sounded silly.

"Technically I came back to the crime scene," he reminded the detective.

Joe did not appreciate the fact.

"Barry—"

"She's avoiding me and after that fight yesterday I figured maybe she'd said something to you."

His future Father-in-law softened slightly.

"Well did you apologize?"

Barry nodded.

"It seemed like she accepted until she started avoiding me today. You think she's doing that thing—"

"That women do when they expect us to read their minds? Maybe. Try getting her flowers or something. You know what she likes."

Barry frowned.

"So she didn't say anything?" he'd hoped for insight, something to explain his fiancé's behavior.

Joe shook his head.

"Not to me. Listen some of us didn't play hookie from work today so if you'll excuse me I need to get back to my crime scene."

Joe left him to his own devices, catching up to a uniformed cop to question him. Barry sighed, ran his fingers through his hair in contemplation. Flowers, huh. Could it really be that simple?

"Hey, Allen I thought you were sick," another detective called.

Barry quickly covered his mouth in a fake cough.

"Uh, yea—" cough "—off to bed now!"

He backed around the corner, still performing until out of sight. He caught Joe shaking his head at him before he dipped behind an office building and sped off.

Flowers. If that was all it would take to get things back to normal with Iris then that was what he'd do. Anything to make her happy.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"You came."

His voice was monotone, void of emotion as if making a casual observation. Iris glanced up from shoving her car keys in her pocket to see his face, that horribly scarred yet handsome face and saw that his eyes reflected something different. She remembered the look he'd given her the other night and her entire body flushed.

"You summoned me," she responded.

Summoned, like he was the court of law or something. Then again, in his head he was. He did plan to orchestrate her execution. And he was certainly judge and jury toward Barry. Her Barry. The sweet, undamaged version of himself.

He nodded in agreement.

"I just thought, after the other night you would…" he seemed vulnerable then, his voice trailing off.

"You mean when you tricked me into making love to you," she'd meant her voice to sound harsher.

His lips barely formed a smile but his eyes lit at the wording.

"Making love."

She felt a smidgeon uncomfortable at his light chuckle. As if he were making fun of her.

"I don't make love, Iris. I fuck."

She would've believed him had she not seen his eyes after the deed, the unmistakable blaze of emotion. Of love. It was the only reason she'd shown up to this meeting at the old WentCorp factory. If he could still feel love then there was still hope for him.

She leaned against her car, feeling the breeze pick up.

"You keep telling yourself that."

He responded with a sneer. But now she knew better.

"Why did you call me here?" she demanded to know.

He folded his arms under his chest.

"Maybe I called you here to kill you."

When he saw that she wasn't convinced he glanced away.

"I…I wanted to see you," he finally murmured.

An honest answer, she knew.

"Why?"

Briefly he met her gaze, an agitated look as if to say you know why. But then it was gone. He shifted awkwardly, a maneuver so Barryesque that she had to concentrate on his scar to remember that he was not Barry. Not her Barry anyway. Iris wondered if he realized just how much of the younger self he hated so much still dwelled within him. In his mannerisms, even the way he nervously scratched the back of his neck when directly confronted with feelings he was reluctant to admit. Feelings for her. She knew better than to point that out though.

"You didn't tell him."

Of course he knew that.

"I couldn't."

His eyes darkened bitterly.

"Protecting the man you love," he didn't hide the acid in his tone.

Iris folded her arms this time.

"It's better than killing the woman you love," she confronted.

He blinked at the accusation.

"I don't—"

"That's not what you said the other night. After you—"

Demonstrated the best tongue techniques known to civilization. Just the memory of it made her walls contract. She involuntarily clenched her legs.

"—did what you did."

He smirked naughtily.

"You mean ate you out?"

Clench.

"Cunnilingus?"

"Stop!"

She didn't need a reminder of how good he'd felt. Savitar watched her with knowing eyes. He knew her too well. Could read the color in her cheeks. She had to take the power back in this conversation.

"You said you love me. Do you remember that?"

It worked, the teasing heir left him immediately.

"My memories are all intact, Iris," was his clipped reply.

"Then why are you still doing this?" she had to ask.

Terrorizing Barry. Trying to kill her.

"Doing what?" he remarked, "trying to survive? To exist? To become a speed god? Why not Iris? Why the hell not?"

"Because you'll kill me," she came back.

"The man I saw last night didn't seem like he wanted that."

He took a threatening step closer.

"What makes you think you know what I want?" he hissed.

She met his challenge with a forward movement of her own.

"Because I know you. Inside and out. You may be Savitar now but deep down inside, at your core you are still that little boy that my dad brought to live with us all those years ago. You will always be Barry Allen."

That was the wrong thing to say. In a blur of red lightning she found herself pinned to the hood of her car, his hand wrapped around her throat. Iris gasped as he glared down at her, his body looming with a menace that her Barry never could.

"I am NOT BARRY ALLEN!!" he raged.

In that moment she believed him.

Savitar's face drew to hers then and Iris trembled at his proximity. Out of fear, she told herself, which was partially true but, there was something else, something she dared not acknowledge. Something she'd never have imagined until the last night.

He was still technically Barry…

He paused not even an inch from her face, his nose brushing hers as his angry breath fell upon her skin. She felt her lip quiver. Felt something else clench and contract below. Dark eyes glared into hers, angry and frustrated and aroused. The next thing she knew he was kissing her, hard and demanding. Iris gasped and his tongue forced entry. She could feel his hips between her legs as they began to move directly against her center. There was no mistaking the hardness there. He was brick solid.

For a moment she fell into it, her body responded instantly and she returned the motion. Her hands found his face and she cupped both cheeks as their tongues wrestled with passion. His taste was manna. She couldn't get enough. Then she felt the scar and remembered. This Barry wasn't hers to have. Guilt ridden, she jerked her face to the left.

"I can't!"

He paused, his breath heavy.

"Iris."

She shut her eyes so as not to see the desire on his face.

"I love Barry. I could never cheat on him."

He scoffed.

"How is it cheating when I was once him?"

She bit back the moan his hot body encouraged.

"You just said yourself that you're not him."

He didn't respond. A second later his weight was gone. Iris opened her eyes to find him back at the old factory's entrance, where he'd originally appeared. He rested against the post, a miserable scowl on his face. She sat up.

"Is this why you called me here? To get in my pants?" she accused.

The future speed god glared back.

"Do you realize how insulting that statement is after all my memories of your begging me to get into your pants? I was your fiancé for god's sake! That thing you and Barry did last weekend—I remember every detail!"

When Barry had done—oh! Yea, thinking about that would not help her current situation. Again her walls tensed below, eager to be invaded. Savitar gave her another knowing look.

"But you're not Barry. You're trying to destroy him. By killing me."

He pushed off the post, straightened his posture.

"What would you have me do, Iris? Lie down and die? Particles disperse as if I never existed? The woman I see in front of me now doesn't seem like she would want that."

Iris didn't answer because he was right. Now that she'd met him, seen how much of Barry he truly was she couldn't stomach the thought of his dying.

"We can find another way."

His laugh was bitter, harsh.

"Iris West, are you trying to save me?" he taunted.

Maybe she was.

"If Reverse Flash could find a way to exist after Eddie died--"

"Only to be hunted down by Black Flash," he reminded her.

"I'm sure Cisco can come up with something. We have a lab of brilliant minds at our disposal. Harry, can even cross back over. There has to be a way we can help you."

Skeptical eyes watched her, dark and too jaded to be Barry's.

"Let me guess, if we work together we can find a way? Just have a little faith?"

He was making fun of her again. That struck a cord and she suddenly snapped, "This isn't a game! I'm trying to keep you alive!"

He smirked.

"Listen to you, fighting for my life. Careful, I might start to think you love me."

It wasn't his words that unnerved her, it was that expression, the sure of himself knowing expression that Barry used to get when he knew the answer before anyone else in class. When he'd seen the end of a movie before she had and just couldn't resist giving it away. Like he knew something. That look caused her to harden her gaze.

"I'm in love with Barry Allen, not you."

Just like that, it was gone. His jaw clenched, exactly as Barry's had during that awful fight. She should tread lightly.

"I won't ask to see you again."

Then he was gone, leaving her with the shadow of his kiss still on her swollen lips.