Happy Tuesday! Have a chapter before an episode tonight! :) I really enjoyed several bits in this, so I hope you will too. I am already working on the next chapter, and it's going to be a whopper. Your reviews and support mean the world to me, thank you so much! (Brenda, don't break your phone, lol.) Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy! :)

Chapter 13

"Hi." Caitlin was peeking in the barely opened door. "Doing okay?"

Iris couldn't bring herself to smile. But she nodded and tried to look slightly friendly. "I'm done. Thank you." She pushed the pile of files across the small table.

Caitlin looked a bit wary, but she came in and picked up the files. As she put them back in the safe and secured it behind the false floor again, she searched for something to say. Finally the look on Iris's face was too much. She stood up. "I'm sorry."

Iris nodded. She didn't have to ask what for. "It's okay. You were just doing your job. I know it wasn't your secret to tell." But she still couldn't look at Caitlin.

Caitlin stood awkwardly a moment, and then left the room. Iris wondered if she was going to get her father, but a minute later Caitlin returned with another chair. She maneuvered it into the room, moving carefully into the cramped space. Iris shifted her chair to allow her some room. Caitlin shut the door and sat down.

There was a small silence. Finally Caitlin spoke first. "It doesn't make it better, does it? Knowing all of it?"

Iris shrugged. "It helps. But it also makes me feel worse."

Caitlin nodded. "For my part, I am sorry. I don't like lying to a friend."

Iris raised her eyebrows. "We're friends?"

Caitlin nodded. "Yes. I consider you my friend. I'm actually so glad you know now. It's hard not having another girl to talk to." She smiled timidly.

Iris finally smiled a bit. "Thanks Caitlin."

Hesitantly, Caitlin asked. "If you don't mind, was it the night you came here? How did you find out?"

Iris gave her a look. "The heart monitor."

Caitlin's face got red. Caitlin was nothing if not cautious. But her caution had given it away. "Of course." She mumbled. "Cisco will never let me hear the end of this."

Iris shrugged again. "Cisco has plenty to be embarrassed about."

"Oh I'm not going to tell him." Caitlin was shaking her head. "No way. No need to give him extra ammo."

Iris looked at her in surprise. Then her face spontaneously cracked into a smile. Caitlin answered it, and before they knew it they were both laughing.

"Then I won't tell him either." Iris was still smiling when she asked her next question. "Do you think he should have told me?"

Caitlin looked at her a moment, her smile fading. "Well, yes he should have told you." Iris nodded in agreement. "But…" Caitlin's voice faded away. She shrugged.

Iris couldn't stop her eyes narrowing. "But what?"

Caitlin shrugged again, looking a bit helpless. "What we do here is actually pretty dangerous sometimes. I mean yes, for Barry mostly, but sometimes for us too. You've read the files. I haven't told my parents about this. I'm pretty sure Cisco hasn't either. The more people that know about this the bigger chance Barry has of getting exposed."

Caitlin could see Iris was gearing up to interrupt, so she rushed through her next sentence. "I know you'd never give him away." Iris sighed and closed her mouth.

"But if people know who he works with and who he cares about, they could use it as leverage. In a completely rational way it makes sense to only tell the fewest people you absolutely have to."

Iris was looking a bit hurt. "You mean you agree with it?"

"No, but I see how it happened." Caitlin gave her an apologetic look. "But I never agreed with him meeting you as the Flash. That's just reckless and foolish."

Iris could feel her cheeks burning. Great. "How much do you know about that?"

"Only the bare minimum. The rest I've only guessed at. I've spent some time turning down the comm. volume too, Cisco doesn't need to know any of that." Caitlin was doing her best to show she'd been discreet. She hadn't heard the majority of their meetings, but she had heard a few, like the one before he attacked Eddie. She pressed her lips together. "Did he come to talk to you, after The Arrow died? He turned his comm. off that night. He almost never does that. Almost."

Iris nodded. She was quick to realize that Caitlin knew a lot less than she had been worried about. She was glad about that. Their regular visits on the rooftop and the night he'd come to tell her that The Arrow was alive were special memories, and she certainly didn't want to think of others listening in. "Thanks, Caitlin." The other woman nodded.

Iris studied her a minute. "If you suddenly had these super powers, and you had people you were close to in your life, would you tell them?"

Caitlin considered the question. "If I was worried it might get them hurt I think I might…." She stopped in mid-sentence, staring at nothing on the wall. Her face was suddenly full of anguish. Her voice came out a whisper, almost talking to herself. Iris had to strain to hear it. "Maybe he was protecting me." She tried to blink back tears.

Iris scooted her chair closer to Caitlin, who was wiping her eyes. "Okay, what's going on?"

Caitlin's story came out. Ronnie was the burning man. She and Cisco had tracked him down, but he wasn't the same. Then he had turned up at S.T.A.R. Labs in time to defend Barry. And told her not to look for him again. Iris was busy processing the fact that the burning man was Caitlin's dead fiancé, but she still didn't miss the pain Caitlin felt being told by her fiancé that he didn't want her to find him. Caitlin cried a bit as she talked. Iris put a hand on her shoulder, offering her a tissue from her purse.

"Maybe he is protecting you." Iris said when the story was done. "Do you think he's dangerous?" Caitlin hesitated, hating to admit it, but nodded.

"He's not the same Ronnie he was. Maybe he thinks he'll hurt me." Caitlin looked at Iris.

"You're actually lucky."

Iris raised her eyebrows. "Why, because I have a best friend who won't even tell me when he wakes up from a coma with super powers?" Her tone was wry.

Caitlin shook her head seriously. "No, because when your best friend got powers, he stayed the same Barry he always had been. It changed what he could do, not who he was."

Iris didn't have a reply to that. Maybe Caitlin was right.

"Caitlin, I think you and I need to go to lunch together really soon."

Caitlin smiled. "I'd like that."

Iris nodded, smiling too. It was definitely nice having another woman to talk to.

Joe grilled Cisco for extra information and got new details about the night Barry had come in with a concussion. He was shaking his head by the time Cisco's story was done.

"She was out there with him before you even got there?" Cisco nodded. Joe rolled his eyes. "I don't know why I even bothered. Those two can't stay away from each other, not even when one doesn't know it's the other."

Cisco laughed. "I think I remember thinking something like that. By the way, your daughter can be really tough when she wants to be. She was pretty awesome."

Joe's face melted into a look of fatherly pride. "Yes, she can be. Hope she'll forgive Barry at some point. I never meant to put distance between them."

Cisco gave him a look. "What did you think was gonna happen?"

Joe had no answer to that. He moved to the computer Cisco had been working at. "Okay, so tell me what you've got on our elusive metahuman."

Cisco allowed the change in topic. "Well, we don't have enough to go on to lock into a particular concrete company. So I've re-tasked a satellite to zoom in on the main seven in the area. One day at a time I'll monitor a single sand pile at one of them. I've got a program that will alert me if there is movement. If he's pressing against a sand pile to hide himself, but then moves away we should know it. Or vice versa."

Joe frowned. "But only if he's at that particular sand pile you're focused on."

Cisco rolled his head in a circle. "I didn't say it was a sure thing. There's nothing about the sand sample that can narrow it down. It's too general, there's nothing unique about it. These seven companies each have a large pile of that kind of sand, though. It's the best we can do without more information."

Joe nodded. "Okay. Eddie and I have been re-interviewing store owners and employees of the places that got robbed looking for a connection. Nothing yet, but the owner of the first one that got robbed is coming in tomorrow. If there were anything personal about the thefts, he would have started at a place that meant something to him first. Keep your fingers crossed."

Cisco looked up at him. "Dude, you get me a connection between the jewelry store and any one of these concrete companies and it would help a lot."

"I'll do my best. Hey, thanks for looking out for both my kids the other night. I appreciate it."

Cisco's face registered pleasant surprise. "Sure thing. That's what I do."

At that moment the sound of rolling chairs echoed down the hallway, and Iris and Caitlin appeared. Both men immediately noticed that the two women seemed on better terms. Cisco didn't move further away as the chairs were placed at their usual places, but he didn't move closer either.

Joe moved towards Iris. "You ready to go?" Iris nodded. But she looked at Caitlin instead of the door. "Next week?" Caitlin smiled and nodded. Iris returned it in full.

Iris headed towards the door, Joe following. Cisco gave Caitlin a look clearly asking how she'd ended up on better terms with Iris. Caitlin just shrugged and smiled a bit smugly. Cisco's face settled into grumpy lines.

That was when Iris's voice, raised slightly due to the increased distance, interrupted their nonverbal exchange. "Oh and Cisco, I might still bring you some coffee." She gave him a friendly look.

Cisco's huge grin reflected his gratitude at her forgiveness. "Thanks Iris."

"Sure." She gave him a smile in return as well, then left ahead of her father, who lingered long enough to give both of them a double thumbs-up before he hurried to catch up with his daughter.

Cisco jumped out of his chair, fists in the air. "Oh yeah! We're in! Forgiveness is sweet!"

Caitlin giggled a little, before a look of concern crossed her face. "I sure hope she saved a little of that for Barry."

Cisco made a face. "Yeah. If she hasn't he might wish he was up against Girder again by the time she's done with him."

Joe drove home while Iris sat deep in thought. After a few minutes he glanced her way. "Sooo, seems like there are a few details you've left out. Like how you even put together that Barry is The Flash. How did you do that? And what's this about Cisco and Caitlin lying to you?"

Iris rolled her eyes. "Please Dad; don't pretend you didn't talk to Cisco. You already know."

Joe waggled his head in agreement. "True. But I find it interesting that you didn't tell me anything about it in the first place." He gave her a pointed look.

Iris returned it. "What are you saying?" She already knew, but she pretended not to.

Joe assumed a look of slight superiority, even though the corners of his mouth kept twitching. "I'm just saying, you're being pretty hard on Barry and me for keeping secrets when it's obvious you've been keeping them too."

Iris knew it was coming, so she had her own counter attack ready. "Are you ready to compare the size of your secrets to the size of mine? Because I can tell you, you'll lose every time there."

Joe couldn't restrain his smile any more. It broke free, but then he gave her a serious look. "No, I don't want to compare. But seriously hon, I think you understand that sometimes it seems like the best option to keep something quiet, because you don't realize later it's going to blow up in your face."

Iris sighed. He was so right. She'd had her own secrets. Her father and she had kept secrets from each other, many involving The Flash, ironically. Secrets hurt. But it just felt so one-sided between her and Barry. She hadn't told him about her interactions with The Flash, but he'd known anyway. His secrets had been pretty huge. She still got angry thinking about it.

She spent the rest of the ride home quiet. As they pulled into the driveway, Iris finally spoke again. "Dad, I'm still a bit mad at you."

Joe had expected it. "I know."

Iris looked his way. "I don't think you do. I'm mostly over you keeping it from me. Mostly. I've seen why you did. But part of me is still mad you didn't let me join the academy. I should have been able to make my own choice there."

That was unexpected. Joe's eyebrows were high in surprise. He couldn't think of a thing to say to justify himself that he hadn't already said. Maybe he had been over the line there, even if his fear for her safety had been his top reason. He waited for her to continue.

"But that's okay because I think I would have been a good cop, but I know I'm going to make a great journalist. And I am going to help people." Her voice held such fervent enthusiasm that Joe found himself smiling with pride again. His kids, out to help people and save the world.

"You know honey, I really think you will." He tried to show her he really believed it.

She smiled at him. "Thanks, Dad."

As always, Henry Allen's face brightened immediately when he saw his son seated on the other side of the glass. He sat down and picked up the phone. Barry followed suit.

"Hey, slugger! How are you doing?"

Barry couldn't help but smile back. "Okay, I guess." His dad waited with a fond smile still on his face. It was obvious he could tell his son was upset. Barry laughed slightly, and then grew serious. "I told Iris how I felt about her. And… some other things have come out. A lot has happened lately." Barry leaned his head against the partition that separated him from the next booth and closed his eyes. "I'm so tired."

Henry could easily see what Barry meant by "tired", and it wasn't physical. His smile faded, replaced by one of concern. "How can I help, son?"

Barry just opened his eyes and looked at him for a moment. Finally he lifted his head and readjusted in his chair. "What was it like for you when I was in the coma, Dad?"

Henry's face changed multiple times in as many milliseconds. Barry could read the emotions playing across his face. Surprise, followed by distress, covered by concern and love. Barry waited. Finally Henry answered. "It was… hard."

Barry could tell that his dad didn't really want to discuss it in detail. But for some reason he needed it. He said nothing, giving Henry no possibility of a new topic to divert him.

Henry finally relented. "It was hell, Barry." His eyes were shadowed with pain that was not usually there. "It was hell."

Barry nodded, pursing his lips to show he understood. He could imagine the darkness that had swept over his father during that time; falsely imprisoned, having lost his wife and now possibly his son. It must have been hard to find a reason to live.

"I never thought about it. What it was like for you. I'm sorry, Dad."

Henry shook his head. "Nothing for you to apologize for, it's not like you got struck by lightning on purpose. I'm just glad to have you back." They smiled at each other.

Henry quickly moved on to other things. "So, how did things go after you told Iris?"

Barry shrugged. "Things were weird for awhile. Then I thought maybe we could work it out, even if we just stayed friends. Then…other things got…revealed." Barry was finding it hard to go into detail without giving too much away. "I don't know, I think things might be over for good between us, even as friends."

Henry was studying his son. "Give it time, Barry. Time can help." Barry nodded. Henry's voice lightened a bit. "You never know, this might be a good thing in the long run." Barry's expression held doubt. Henry put up a hand. "Hear me out. Most of your life, since I ended up in here, you've been wearing masks." Barry's eyes came up to meet his. "I see you come in here and try to pretend it doesn't hurt to see me like this, pretend that everything is fine out there so I won't worry about you. You've pretended for years that you didn't love Iris like you do. But I've always seen through those, and I always will. Because I'm your dad." Henry leaned forward, very intent, staring into Barry's eyes. His voice was suddenly lower and deliberate, enunciating the syllables so Barry would understand the deeper meaning they held. "I see you through all your masks, son."

Face slack with surprise, Barry stared at his father with his mouth open. His eyes flicked behind him to the guard leaning against the wall. The guy probably wasn't listening in; on the whole inmate visits must be pretty boring. But they were still supervised visits, and Barry was well aware that their conversations were also recorded like every other inmate visitor conversation. He hadn't spent a lot of time worrying about it the time he'd visited and told his father he'd lost the man in the yellow suit. The authorities hadn't believed him as a child and now he'd just sound like a rambling idiot who didn't need to be taken seriously, same as before.

But he had never felt secure enough to tell his father about his new powers, or his second job as a crime fighter. In addition, he had never been sure if he should tell him, because he didn't want his dad to worry. There was nothing he could do from in here.

And now as he stared into his father's eyes, he realized that Henry already knew. He must have recognized Barry the night he'd come to save Joe with the antidote, in the second he'd looked at him before he'd vibrated his face to cover it. He should have realized his own father would always know him, even under his mask. The light had been brighter there than he usually allowed for people he knew. He had been thinking about other things, like Joe dying.

Then it occurred to him that even if Barry's words had been deliberately vague and nonspecific, his father was well aware of the other thing that had been revealed to Iris. Even behind visiting glass, Henry saw so much. Just like he'd always seen through Barry's excuses not to go to bed as a child. Barry felt like he was ten again. Was there no one close to him he actually could keep this secret from?

Eyes wide, Barry gave a short laugh, leaning back in his chair. "Wow, Dad you really do know everything. Is there anything about me you don't know? Do you know about that cigarette I smoked as a teenager? Do you know about the time I almost burned down Joe's garage with an experiment when I was 14?"

Henry let out a genuine laugh."Well now I do! Glad it was just the one! Those are bad for your health, you know." He winked at his son; leaving it deliberately unclear which event he was referring to. That got a hearty laugh from Barry, and they both laughed again.

When their merriment finally abated, Henry leaned forward again. "So is it safe to assume that all secrets between you and Iris have been revealed? There's nothing left that you're hiding?"

Barry shrugged. "Nothing I can think of. That last one was pretty big."

"Good." Henry's face lit up with enthusiasm. "I mean it; this might be a good thing, Barry." Barry's face was registering doubt, if not outright skepticism. "For the first time in so many years, there are no secrets between you two. Everything is out in the open now. Don't let this opportunity go. You may never get it again."

Now instead of doubt, Barry's face was just showing confusion. "I don't see how there's anything good about this, Dad. She's really angry with me for keeping it from her. I was figuring I should just lie low until it passes and see if she gets over it."

"No." Henry's voice was emphatic. "Don't go into hiding over this, much as you'd like to. Don't make her guess at how you feel or what you want. All the secrets are out in the open now. Lay it on the line. Make it clear what you think is important. If you pull back it will give her the opportunity to move on without you and things will never be the same for you two."

Just the thought of confronting Iris if she didn't want to see him made Barry's stomach knot. He never enjoyed it when she was angry with him, and this was by far the worst it had ever been. "I don't know, Dad. Are you sure?"

Henry played his ace card. "Barry, when I first met your mom, she had plenty of guys around her who would have done anything to get a date with her. They saw her as beautiful. They saw her as a catch. I saw the woman I would love for the rest of my life. She was smart and kind and so much fun to be with. I had two options: I could let her know I was interested and risk rejection, or I could melt away and never tell her how I felt. I figured I should go for it. So I put myself out there, and I let her know how much she meant to me. She was the one I wanted. She still is. I was lucky enough for her to return my feelings." Henry's eyes were soft with memories. Barry swallowed. "Don't make Iris wonder if she's that important to you, if she really is. You need to go talk to her."

Despite the nervousness the idea created in him, Barry could see his father was right. Telling Iris he loved her had been a similar thing, and he'd managed to do that. After everything he'd been through with Iris, the last thing he wanted to do was let his fear take away any chance he might have at putting things right between them. He exhaled a huge breath, running his hand over his eyes. "Okay, but what if she never wants to see me again? What if she hates me forever?" He felt so young and unsure all of a sudden.

Henry's smile held gentle laughter that he didn't verbalize. "Somehow I doubt that. But if she told you to leave her alone, you would. You'd respect that. Because that's who you are. But don't run away before you know." Barry nodded, meeting Henry's eyes to show he understood.

Henry wanted more than anything to hug his son. Times like this were when he hated that visiting glass more than usual. He held Barry's gaze with his own. "You have been given a beautiful gift, son. If I know you, and I do, you won't waste it."

Barry understood the double meaning in his father's words and accepted it gratefully. He couldn't stop himself from putting a hand up to the glass so his father could put his up too. "Thanks, Dad. I'll try to make you proud."

Henry shook his head. "You already have. I'm so proud to have you as my son."

Both felt the echoes of an earlier visit as they kept their hands pressed to the glass. And for just a moment, it felt like the glass was no longer separating them.