A few weeks passed and there were no sightings of the new metahuman. Cisco finished his designs for a mask but didn't bring it up, the entire subject made Barry uncomfortable and he was in such high spirits lately. No one talked about her at all. It wasn't like the team had nothing to do: Captain Cold had been and gone with his new fire-wielding, maniac friend; an evil genius managed to get captured, escape, get captured and escape again; and a teleporting metahuman was now safely locked up in a mirrored cell. Honesty, most of them had forgotten about the brief encounter and possible murder committed by her. She just seemed to disappear.

Caitlin walked into STAR Labs to find Barry and Cisco stood in the training room. She stood behind the glass and watched them with amused annoyance. Barry was dressed in his suit apart from his hood was down and a bright red helmet was strapped tightly to his head.

"I'm telling you Barry its harder that it looks." He typed some digits into his tablet and and his eyebrows shot through the roof. "You'd have to run really really fast." Cisco rotated the tablet and Barry's eyebrows mirrored Cisco's.

He quickly neutralised his expression. "Easy." A cocky smile spread across his face and he got ready to run. "You should have more faith in me." He smiled and crouched close to the floor in a running position. He took a long deep breath, yellow lightning flashed across his eyes and he ran. Yellow lightning raced up the wall and halfway across the ceiling before crashing to the floor. It was over in the blink of an eye.

Barry groaned and Cisco put his tablet on the side and rushed over, offering him a hand. "I guess it didn't work then." He smiled and hauled him up, becoming slightly off balance as he did so.

"Damn that is harder than it looks." Cisco beamed, his smile consuming his face and he nodded slowly with a look that said 'I tried to warn you.' Barry tried to be serious but smiled back. "I'm fine by the way."

Caitlin burst into the room. "Barry are you okay? Anything broken? Are you stupid? What were you doing?" She stopped when she saw them both laughing, obviously not badly injured and realised she may have over reacted. She cursed her self slightly under her breath, she was aware she could be over protective but she couldn't seem to help it.

Barry paused a moment before answering her questions. "Yes, No, Probably, Trying to run upside down." He smiled at the last part.

"It's harder than it looks." Added Cisco from behind and they both stifled a laugh.

"I would still like to check you over though." Caitlin sighed. She held the door open for him and motioned for him to leave. Barry gave a small smile to Caitlin on his way out, Caitlin managed to maintain a stern face, but a hint of a smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

Out in the hall Barry's phone buzzed, and he pulled it out of his pocket revealing a picture and the phone number of Iris West. He smiled and answered the call. "What's up?"

"Hey Bare, you know you wanted to help me with my story? Well I'm free tonight and the detectives are working late, so... What'd you say?"

"Yeh sure." He smiled to himself, after being busy with Eddie the last time he asked he felt second best but to be wanted by Iris was a good feeling. He snapped himself out of his daydream rather abruptly. "So what time?"

"Well it's a good job you said yes because I'm kind of already at the house." She laughed.

"Oh, um, I'll be right there." He smiled and hung up the phone and looked back to Caitlin who was stood behind him, arms crossed. Her expression was one of knowing and said 'don't you dare.' It would have been a lot scarier if it hadn't have been Caitlin. He smiled the most charming smile he could manage and her face softened. "I'm fine, honestly."

She rolled her eyes but didn't protest as he ran off.

Later he was sat with Iris at the table. He watched her closely as she laughed, it brightened the dim kitchen. He loved the way her eyes creased, the way her pearly white teeth glimmered through her smile. He was suddenly brought back to reality as he realised he was staring.

"Seriously?" She cried between laughs.

He laughed back in response. "Yep, all over Joe's shirt, you should've seen the glare."

"Was it like this?" Iris laughed straightening her face and raising her eyebrow as Joe often did when he was giving a disapproving stare. It was so accurate that Barry struggled to agree through his laughter and Iris couldn't hold her face for long before she was engulfed with laughter.

When the laughing died down they both found each other staring, staring at the still beaming smiles on each other's faces. Barry took as long as he could to drink in everything about her before he cleared his throat breaking the silence. "This is nice." She nodded immediately in agreement. Then suddenly there was a slight awkwardness as they both looked away to the papers scattered on the table.

"Okay ulterior motive time." She said looking at him again. He felt slightly saddened as he realised she felt the awkwardness too but he shook it off and smiled quizzically. "How's it going with Linda?" She asked nudging him playfully and then leaned closer grabbing his arm that was rested on the table. "I want to hear all the gossip."

He felt a weird mixture of anxiety and guilt but smiled all the same. "It's going good." Iris rolled her eyes and then signalled for him to say more. He hesitated, thinking of what to say. It felt weird, almost as if he was doing something wrong by talking to her about his love life, he realised she had bed waiting a while. "She's really nice and we get on, we've only been on one date so far-"

"Did you kiss?" Asked Iris, she seemed to be on the edge of her seat with excitement like she had been through those countless chick flicks he'd been forced to watch. He shrugged, smiling at her excitement. "Barry!" She cried and whacked him on the arm joyfully. "Who'd have thought, you a man with the ladies!" They both laughed, but in the background was a looming comment that both of them could see coming yet no one said it.

There was a sudden awkwardness again and this time Barry took it upon himself to change the subject. He looked at her first article in the paper about The Flash. "So do you really just have to write about him?" He looked closely at the image, it was breath taking, he had slowed down enough for her to take the photo but he never thought it would come out that good.

"Yeh but I can't find any more stories, he's a hard man to track down." She sighed and collected up her papers. "I think I might know how to find him though." She smiled mischievously at Barry before looking at her watch. "It's getting late and Eddie has probably finished his shift by now." She shoved her papers into her bag and got up to leave.

Barry jumped up and rushed to the door fumbling with the keys to open it. Once he had he opened the door for her and they hugged in the doorway. He took a long deep breath, embracing the fruity smell of her hair mixed with the soft scent of perfume. When they finally pulled away they both smiled at each other. "We should do this again, soon." Iris smiled. "I love hanging out with you." And then she left.

Elsewhere a woman lay back on the crisp white bed, her blond hair, now streaked with white highlights, was splayed across the plump pillow. She smiled warmly when there was a knock at the door and slowly pulled herself from the bed. A silk, baby blue dressing gown hung lazily on her shoulders revealing her matching silk nighty that ended aboveboard her knees. Her walk across the room was so smooth it looked as if she were gliding.

When she opened the door a man smiled longingly at her. "What took you so long?" She made her voice babyish and then smiled showing her brilliant white teeth. She pulled him into the room, slamming him against the wall and the door swung shut with a wave of her hand. Their mouth entwined as they kissed passionately, their breaths ragged by the end. They stayed there pressed against the wall for a few seconds their breaths tickling each others faces. "Is it time?"

Hartley Rathaway smiled. "Not yet."

...

AN: Okay so yeh I used some of the more recent episodes, I hope you like it. I just loved Hartley as a character so I couldn't resist and I know that he is not straight but don't react majorly over that because I'll give you a spoiler: he is actually just manipulating her so she will do whatever he wants.

So yeh, review, constructive critasism is welcome and let me know what you think of Hartley. Oh and thanks for reading :D