Im so sorry for not posting but I've been extremely busy with school. To make up for it I have a very long chapter all written down and ready. Enjoy!
Iris could see he was trying. Trying to act more normal, more like Barry. The problem was it was difficult for him, to talk more than one word at a time, to not forget how to do the most simplest tasks, and to not lose his touch of reality. But his efforts didn't go unnoticed, not by the Team and not by Iris. Within a few days of his return, they fell into a routine. Iris began working from home and everyday her and Barry would go to Star Labs, feeling that it was better for him to be out of the house. Joe would come by on his lunch break or sometimes phone in to see how everyone was doing. Caitlyn even started doing speech therapy with Barry, trying to help him talk more.
"Ok ready?" She asked sitting next to him in the cortex. "Try to take it slowly. I want you to say: "My name is Barry Allen".
"-and I'm the fastest man alive!" Cisco added with spin of his chair he sat on, his hands up.
"Yeah, don't worry about saying that part" Caitlyn told him, putting a comforting hand on his arm and putting on a warm smile.
Barry took a deep breath, "my..." he started but then stopped, while putting a hand to his forehead as if trying to think. A few seconds later he shook his head.
Caitlyn had said that his inability to speak was probably just another side effect of his time in isolation, another reason of his bad memory.
"Hey, it's okay" Iris said, wanting to be able to help him more then by just saying a few words of comfort. But there was nothing she could do.
One morning, exactly a week after Barry's home coming Iris woke to find his side of the bed empty. Immediately she felt her stomach drop and her heart start racing, as she imagined all the worst case scenarios that she could.
"Barry?" Iris called out, but with no response. Then she smelled something burning.
Iris ran down the stairs two at a time in only a tank top and shorts, not even having bothered to throw on her robe or put anything on feet. And then she saw him, hovering over the stove, surrounded by a hazy cloud of smoke. "Barry?" She called again. He turned around holding a frying pan and a spatula and with the biggest smile on his face. "Breakfast" he said.
On the counter top was a plate filled with almost perfect round pancakes yet Iris could see the garbage can piled high with burnt ones, charred black. That must've been where the smoke came from. Iris saw that even the table was set, mismatched silverware, tablecloths and all. And it all gave one simple message: he was trying.
"Babe-" Iris said. "You...did all this?" She asked, pulling out a chair from the table and taking a seat. He nodded, turning off the fire and placing the pan in the sink. Barry then picked up the plate of pancakes and set it on the table before joining her.
"I love you" she said placing a kiss on his cheek and Iris knew, that if he could, he'd say it back.
Suddenly a loud alarm sounded from Iris's phone. "Meta?" Barry asked.
"Yeah" Iris said. "We gotta-" but in the familiar flash of lightning Barry and Iris were both standing fully dressed. The clothes weren't exactly matching, very much like the table but Iris couldn't very much argue as they needed to get to Star Labs immediately.
"Guys whats going on?" Iris asked running into the cortex, where Cisco ,Caitlyn and Joe already stood.
"Bank robbery" Cisco said looking at the computer screen. "Wally's already on it".
"Doesn't look like it" Iris said as she moved Cisco out of the way. "Wally, she's getting a way in a Prius!" She called through the communications system.
"Last I checked, Kid Flash is faster than a Prius" Wally said and Iris could imagine the grin on his face as he ran. But just then a yell could be heard from the speedster.
"Wally. What happened?" Iris asked.
"I tripped. On marbles" he said hesitating the last line. "She got away".
"Sounds like something straight out of a cartoon" Cisco said but he wasn't smiling.
"Someone want to tell me how that happened?" Wally asked, though not through the coms. Instead he now stood in the cortex after coming in a blur of yellow lightning.
"This girl walking into the bank like she owned the place with no one able to stop her? I don't know?" Cisco said. "Found her" he announced looking up from the tablet that he held in his hand. "Her name is Rebecca Sharp, goes by Becky, and get this; she wasn't in Central City four years ago" Cisco said.
"Same as Kilgore" Iris said, then she looked towards her currently silent fiancé. "He was a new meta we fought, when you were...away" but Iris doubted he was listening. A vacant expression was on his face and his eyes were glanced up at the ceiling.
"What I wanna know is where all these new metas are coming from? Unless there from different Earths?" Joe asked.
"No. Both her and Kilgore are from here" Cisco said.
"So how did they get there powers?" Iris asked.
"Bus" Barry said. He'd been quiet since the short lived breakfast that he and Iris had, but only now spoke.
"What?" Iris asked, not sure if she quite heard him.
"Bus" He repeated, his facial expression was nothing like the blank expression he had on before and his eyes were locked on hers. And this time he said it with a sudden urgency that Iris hadn't heard him use for a long time.
"What bus?" Cisco asked.
"Speedforce" Barry insisted, everyone stared at him wondering if this was just him saying nonsense once more. Everyone except Iris.
"There was a bus in the Speedforce?" Cisco asked skeptically, though not daring to laugh.
"Bus" Barry repeated, his hands going to both sides of his head, clutching it in pain. He was trying to say something and Iris knew it.
"Barry" she said, going on her knees to be level with him in his chair.
"Iris, I don't think he-" Joe began.
"No dad!" Iris said whipping her head around to see her father. "He knows something" And then she turned back to face Barry. "Try Barry" she said. But instead of answering he pushed himself up from his chair and almost ran to the computer screen. His fingers began rapidly typing on the keyboard, the images on the screen were no more then a blur of color. And then he stopped, taking a step back from the monitor, his breathing heavy. Cisco and Iris were the first to step forward.
"What is it?" Iris asked, looking at what Barry was so desperate to show.
"It's a heat signature for a Central City bus" Cisco said. "Each of those red dots represent a human body" he told them.
"What does that have to do with the new metas?" Wally asked.
"I don't know" Cisco answered, slightly doubting that this had any meaning, remembering the last time he tried to translate Barry's words.
"Wait," Iris said. "Look at the date" she pointed to the top corner of the screen.
"October 10th 2017" Caitlyn read aloud.
"That's the day Barry came out of the Speedforce" Joe said.
"Cisco" Iris began. "You don't think that when we let Barry out, some dark matter could've come with him?" She asked.
"Yeah. And how much do you wanna bet that this busload of people was in the line of fire when that happened?" Cisco asked.
"My fault" Barry said quietly, the first real two consecutive words they've heard him speak.
"No it's not" Joe said, looking at his son. "It's ours, Bar. You're the one that helped us out" at that Barry smiled.
"But now we have twelve new metahumans to deal with" Caitlyn said, eyeing the twelve red dots on screen.
"Well eleven actually. Kilgore is locked up" Cisco said. "And now we have Becky whatever her last name is, to deal with. And she's a real hazard. Hazard" Cisco looked up and high fived Caitlyn. He even went to high five Barry but it seemed as if the speedster was much more interested at looking at the dry erase board to the groups left.
"Yeah, Iris can I talk to you for a minute?" Joe asked looking towards his daughter.
"What, sure dad" she said, taken by surprised of the abruptness of the question, especially now. But she followed him into the hallway wondering what this could be about.
"Dad?" She asked raising her eyebrows.
"How's Barry been doing?" Joe asked.
"You sure this is the time now?" Iris asked looking back into the cortex.
"Well, I've been the thinking" Joe said taking a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolding it. Then he handed it to her.
"These are therapists" Iris stated, her eyes scanning the paper.
"Good ones too, Singh recommended them" Joe said. "But...there's something else I was thinking" he added slowly, "I think we should get Barry an aid".
"An aid?" Iris said resisting the urge to rip up the paper in her hand. "Dad he's not..." but what word to describe what Barry wasn't could not come to her. Iris fell into silence.
"Plenty of sane people need help, Iris" Joe said, filling in what was currently in her mind. "But I was just thinking, that once you go back to work I don't think we should leave him alone. And I think this would be good for the both of you" Joe reasoned.
"Barry wouldn't want this" Iris said.
"I think he needs this, Iris" Joe said. "And so do you. Might make things easier".
"What are you talking about?" Iris asked.
"I know this may be hard on you, Iris. Having him back like this, you two were going to get married-"
"Were?" Iris was yelling now.
"I just thought-"
"That because he was different, I wouldn't want to marry him? Or that Barry wouldn't want to marry me?" Iris asked.
"Iris" Joe said.
"I've been planning that day for the past seven months and I'm not canceling it now" Iris said. "And we're not getting him an aid".
Barry and Iris went back to their apartment after the fight. Iris had an article to write so Barry decided to draw, the same shapes as always, again and again. When she was finished Iris pulled out her wedding planner and joined Barry on the couch. For the rest of the afternoon they went through the whole book, Iris reading off what she had written and Barry, more often then not, staying silent. She couldn't get her father's words out of her head and as Iris thought about it more, maybe a therapist was a good idea but she wouldn't bring Barry to speak to a random stranger without telling him first and as she looked at him Iris could see that this wasn't the time.
"Thank you for the breakfast by the way" Iris told him later that night. Barry looked at her and smiled. "I'm going to go make some coffee, you want?" She asked, pulling herself up from the armchair which she sat in. But as she walked to the kitchen and picked up the metal tin that usually held her favorite brand she found it to be empty. Barry noticed and before she could stop him, he was gone in a blur. "It's raining!" She called after him as the door swung close, waiting for the few seconds later when he'd come back drenched but grinning. Except those seconds past and Barry didn't return. Then a minute, then five. Iris didn't allow herself to worry, thinking that there was possibly a line at CC Jitters. But a voice in the back of her head told her that at almost nine o'clock a line at a cafe, on a weeknight no doubt, wouldn't be so likely. And yet Iris waited, watching the clock and waiting for her speedster to return.
As the half hour mark passed Iris knew something was wrong. Someone who can run faster than the speed of sound doesn't take that long to come home, no one does. She had just decided to reach for her phone to call Cisco or Caitlyn when a gust of wind blew in with a flash of orange lightning.
"Barry!" She said, but when she saw his soaked figure standing there, the lighting around him appearing to be sputtering out like a broken flashlight, Iris knew something was wrong.
Thanks for reading, please leave reviews and tell me what you think!
Oncersm.