The song for this chapter is Cloves – Don't You Wait

IRIS' POV:

A knock on my door woke me up. My eyes went to the clock that read 7:45am then narrowed at the culprit behind the door. With a sneer I stumbled out of bed.

Barry stood there with a sad half grin, a bag in his hand.

Thirteen hours. That was all I had to register and process that what Barry said to me could be true. While I didn't believe he'd lie about something that huge to garner sympathy from me if he wasn't actually with Thea, there was five percent of me that was still skeptical. With his hazel eyes on me now that five percent faded. Even though I know he wasn't undressing me with his eyes or maybe he was, it was Barry, but I could feel them seeing all of me. They had gazed at my body in full length before. He had been intimate with me and I couldn't remember it. Even though he said he didn't tell me to make me feel sorry for him, I still did.

Now it looked like neither of us knew what to say to. We stood there in silence, staring at each other.

My eyes went back to the bag in his hand. "You're leaving?"

He blinked a few times then swallowed the lump in his throat. "Uh, yeah. I have to get back. I only came to help out Oliver." He averted his gaze for a moment, then met my gaze. "Actually, I asked Oliver if I could help." He gave a tiny shrug. "I wanted to see you."

A grin found my lips as I looked to the side.

"Look, I know I can't take back what I told you or my actions and I shouldn't have told you about the other timeline, but I'm glad that you know now." His hand reached down to mine. "I couldn't stand it knowing you thought I didn't love you." His other hand lifted my face up by my chin, his eyes bore into mine. "I do still love you, Iris. You've moved on, I get it, but I didn't want to leave without you knowing that."

"Barry..."

He shook his head. "I'll be here for you, however you want me. No pressure. Just promise me one thing,"

I nodded.

"In the future, when I'm being an asshole for not wanting you involved in all of this, don't forget that I have my reasons. Be patient with me. Okay?"

I nodded again.

He pulled away and I felt like it was going to be a while before I saw him again.

I pulled him back for a hug. "Call me when you get home."

"Sure." He pulled away.

RONNIE'S POV:

"Ronnie," Annie chided. "You didn't have to skip school today to take me to my checkup." She looked around the painfully plain hospital room as we waited for the doctor to return.

She seemed so vulnerable laying on the bed. Her short hair had grown a little more in the last few weeks. Her confidence had grown about her appearance, mostly because Jessie was there to tell her she was beautiful. The kid was okay, he reminded me a little of myself at his age. Although they were only friends, I feared that he was too attached to her and vice versa. My sister's health could go up or down at any moment. I didn't want to have to deal with his heartache along with mine if anything were to happen to her.

My hand squeezed hers. "Banana, I'm ditching because I have a test I didn't study for," I grinned. "Don't think you're special."

She laughed, her eyes scrunched up. "I am special," She stuck her tongue out.

There was a quick knock on the door before the doctor reentered. The moment his eyes met mine I knew the news wasn't good.

He gave a smile anyways. "How's it going in here?"

Annie seemed to notice the sadness too, but she grinned. "I've been better."

He nodded as he sat in the swivel chair, he gave a grim half smile as he rolled closer to the bed. "I'm going to be frank with you, Annie. Chemo didn't destroy all of your cancer cells. We've caught this early on, so we're looking at pretty good odds here."

She gave a stiff nod. Tears brimmed in her eyes as she focused on her lap.

I rose from my seat. "No, there's something we can do. More chemo? Transfusion? Anything?"

Dr. Wang looked at me with understanding eyes. "This isn't the end of the world, Mr. Raymond. This is relatively normal in recovering cancer patients. We have options for Annie."

I nodded, putting on a brave face for Annie. This was one of her worse fears. I would do anything to make her better. With notes from the Dr. Wang, I walked Annie home when she turned to me and said, "I want to see Caitlin."

My anger flared. "Why do you want to see Cait?"

She punched my arm. "You know why. I miss her. Can we go by Jitters and see if she's there?" The wind ruffled her hair.

"No. What can she do for you?"

She punched my arm again and this time it actually hurt. "I don't get why you won't see her. She's obviously trying to be in your life. Why won't you let her?"

I shrugged. "You wouldn't understand."

"And boy does that saying get old. I'm eleven. I think I can get the gist of it." She gestured toward me. "You're in love with her. She's scared to admit she's in love with you because she isn't sure if she's bisexual, gay, or straight now. That about right?"

I gave her a look. "How'd you know all of that? I didn't tell you any of that."

She shrugged as she shoved her hands in her army jacket. "I have eyes you know. Plus, I overheard you venting to Rich about it."

A sigh escaped me. "You're a lot smarter than you look."

She playfully hit me. "Hey," A grin on her face. "Seriously though, go see her so she can stop asking me how you're doing."

Cait asked about me? She was so confusing; I didn't know what she wanted from me. Oh, right. Friendship.

My head shook. "It's not that simple. We just want different things."

She gave me a look that questioned my smarts. "Do you really think that she doesn't feel the same way, Ronnie?"

My initial instinct told me that Cait felt the same way, I could see it in her eyes. I knew my staying away was hurting her. But here we are, she hasn't said in words how she feels about me and that's what holds me back.

"How about you drop me off at Jessie's and you go to Jitters?" Annie proposed with a suggestive brow.

My brow rose. "How about I drop you off at home and I got see Iris."

She huffed. "If you must. You know, one of these days I'd like to meet this Iris. From what you and Cait told me she sounds pretty cool."

"Yeah, she is. Barry was a dumbass and drove her away."

"He's so hot."

My eyes narrowed. "If you ever repeat that I'm locking you in the basement."

She gave me a look. "We don't have a basement."

"Well, our apartment building does, so there you go."

She rolled her eyes.

BARRY'S POV:

With a sigh I walked the short distance to get to Snart. I looked around our usual place, the abandoned warehouse. He stood by the windows with a stern look on his face, like he didn't like what he saw. Having these meetings with Snart I realized there was more to him than I originally thought.

"Let's make this quick." I said.

He glanced at me then back at the window. "You have something for me?"

I pulled the new pair of snow goggles. "Here. Now, about whatever it is you wanted to tell me."

He walked over and placed them on the table. "We have a problem. There's whispers of League members around."

I shrugged. "If you're talking about Merlyn, the Arrow already told me and he doesn't scare me." I reached for the goggles, but he slapped my hand away. "Ow."

His eyes rolled. "I'm not talking about Merlyn, I'm talking about the Shadow Ghosts. I think they're in town."

"The what?" I tried not to laugh. "This is a joke right?"

"If they're in town then the man in yellow is the least of your problems, kid."

I nodded, entertaining him. "Okay, what are these Shadow Ghosts doing here? How long have they been here? We haven't gotten any reports about shadows or ghosts, so…"

He gave me a look. "That's because they work in the shadows and then disappear like ghosts. You won't see them unless they want you to."

My eyes rolled. "Of course. Okay, do you have any proof?"

He placed a picture of a person hanging by their feet tied to a staircase in an alley, he was beyond mutilated. He pointed to the mark on the guy's forehead. "This symbol, I've seen it before. When I was your age there was a string of vicious attacks in a span of months, every victim's throat was slashed, eyes were cut out, and had this symbol on their forehead."

I needed more information than that.

He sighed. "This picture was taken two days ago. They're here, kid. They're after people and I wouldn't want to run into them if I were you. I don't know too much about them, but I'm sure your buddy the Arrow knows a little about it."

It was something to look into. Dr. Wells might know something about it. I could call Oliver, he probably would know if something like this was going on. Wouldn't he tell me though?

"So why are you telling me this? Wouldn't it be convenient for you if I were out of the picture?" I questioned.

His head tilted. "I wouldn't have anyone to spare with."

I pocketed the picture. "Well, thanks for the head's up."

"One more thing," He said as I headed for the door. "I don't know if there's truth to it or not, but from the reports I've read, they usually get a person to do their bidding."

I turned to him. "What do you mean? Like an apprentice?"

"Like mind control. The people that were arrested for the killings all said they couldn't control themselves, almost like they were being forced to do it."

I nodded. "Thanks."

He grabbed his goggles and turned to leave. "Be careful out there, kid."

RONNIE'S POV:

After I dropped Annie at Jessie's I found myself in front of Jitters. I was about ninety percent sure that no good could come from my visit, but the other ten wasn't so sure. As soon as I heard about the not so good results of Annie's cancer Caitlin was the first person I wanted to tell. If she only wanted to be my friend I could handle that, I just couldn't handle her lying about her feelings and pretending that there wasn't something between us when there so obviously was. Seeing her the other day only affirmed what I knew; I was in love with her.

Looking at her now through the glass door I didn't understand how it was possible for my heart to hurt and love at the same time. This was my chance to turn around, to protect myself a little longer, but my hand push the door open before I could stop myself.

Her brown hair bounced as she grinned at one of the customers, but it didn't reach her eyes. When she spotted me it fell for her face, her body frozen in place. I took that as a good sign, a tiny grin on my lips. My feet started to take me to her when a girl came up to kiss her cheek. That wouldn't have stopped me, but this wasn't just any girl. I recognized the blonde hair and bitch smirk. Amy was next to her, touching her. Her ex-girlfriend.

My forehead creased. Were they back together? Was this what she wanted to tell me the other day? She had sorted her feelings out and they didn't involve me.

With a definite nod I turned tail out of there. I couldn't watch them together, not after we'd been together. Not to sound like a total guy, but I missed that feeling. Not just because I wanted to have sex with her, because I did, but that was the closest I'd ever been to anyone. It took no effort at all to conjure up the memory of our heated bodies, my mouth on hers, and her legs wrapped around my waist. Maybe it could've meant more if we hadn't been drinking, but that just meant those feelings had been suppressed, right? Now, I didn't know what she was feeling.

"Ronnie, what's wrong?" Annie asked as I headed for my room.

"Nothing. Do your homework." I slammed my door shut.

I paced back and forth in frustration. Why did I go there? How stupid could I be to actually think she would want me? I was nothing. Not good for her. She obviously saw that. She saw that I was still a kid, too messed up for her liking. Too messed up for my parents. My fist punched into the nearest wall, making a hole.

Someone knocked on my door.

"Go away."

"Are you at least okay?" Annie asked.

No, I wasn't okay. I was in pieces.

"I'm okay, Banana. Just go watch tv or something."

After a few moments she went down the hall.

Time dragged on, leaving me with my thoughts.

My phone rang. Iris' face popped up. I let it go to voicemail. A few minutes later it rang again.

With a groan I answered, "Yeah?"

"Nice to hear from you, too." Iris greeted.

I sat on the edge of my desk. "I'm not in the best mood right now, I don't really feel like talking."

She huffed. "I know. It's weird, I just had a strong urge to call you, see how you're doing." She paused for a few seconds. "So, how are you doing?"

"I'm fine." I told her automatically. "I'm actually behind on homework, so I have to go."

I could feel her disappointment over the phone. "Oh," Her voice saddened. "Well, I'll leave you to it then."

I nodded. "Okay." I was prepared to hang up on her.

"Ronnie," She desperately called.

"Yeah?"

"Don't hesitate to call if you need to. I'm still your friend all the way over here." She gave a forced laugh. She knew I wasn't okay. "I mean it."

I hadn't realized how much I missed her, how much I missed everyone all together since I stopped seeing Caitlin. She was sort of a package deal with everyone. Besides, I was more of Iris and Caitlin's friend than anyone else.

"Yeah, I know. Love you,"

She awed over the phone. "Love you, too." She hung up a moment later.

The dropped the phone on my desk with a sigh. I missed how things were. All of us together. Iris and Barry. Linda and Cisco. Me and Cait. Now everyone was separated. I wondered if we'd ever be like that again, if we'd ever come together despite our relationship attempts not working out.

My eyes slid to the pile of rejection letters on my desk, I just didn't have the grades I used to. Really, what had I expected? That if I got my act together the last year of high school that I'd go to college? Initially, I had applied to see if I could get in, which I knew was a long shot. But then I thought what if I did get in and maybe Cait wouldn't see me as a social reject, maybe someone she wanted to be with. Neither of those things happened. I guess it was community college for me if I could even graduate high school. School work was piling up, I hadn't lied to Iris about that.

Knowing I couldn't study in my room, I grabbed my phone and work and headed up on the roof. I liked to come here quite a bit. It helped me to think, to take a breath, to relax. So I watched the sky turn black as I did as much work as I could before my brain wouldn't comprehend anymore.

So I stood with my hands in my pockets, my eyes focused on the night sky. How did I get here? How did I fall for a lesbian?

My head shook.

This was just the icing on top of the cake called my life.

"Can we talk?"

I whirled around at the voice to find Caitlin standing in the door. With a huff, I turned around. "We don't have anything to talk about."

The gravel under her feet crunched. "So what? You're just going to ignore me forever? I miss you."

Anger surfaced. "You didn't seem so alone to me."

"That's not fair."

I just wanted her gone, I couldn't look at her if I couldn't have her by my side.

"Leave, please."

"Ronnie-"

"Leave, Cait!" I yelled.

My temperature steadily rose; she didn't need to be here for this.

There was a shove at my back. "No, I'm not going to leave! You pushed me away!" Shove. "You were supposed to be my friend. You knew how I felt about you and didn't care not one bit!" Shove. "How could you do this to me? I thought we were going to be there for each other, you asshole!" Shove. "Why?"

Against my better judgement I turned around. "You rejected me, Cait!" I hadn't realized she had been crying.

Her eyes avoided mine as I stared at her. "I thought you knew how I felt about you, that I had to sort things out."

My hands clenched by my side. "You've sorted them out. We've both moved on." I gave a sour chuckle. "So why are you still here?"

Her hand smacked me across the face, a hard look in her eyes. "How dare you."

I stepped back to put a lot of distance between us. I learned to control my abilities for the most part, but I hadn't felt this unstable in a while. She needed to go before I hurt her.

"So you're just going to walk away from this, from us?" She asked. "Just going to give up?"

Although it pained me to say it, I did. "There is no us, you made that clear."

The fire brimmed in me and I knew it wouldn't take much for it to rush out. I edged towards the banister. My hands heated up.

"You want me to give up? Just leave you alone forever?"

I nodded. She could be happier without me in her life. Safer.

"Leave."

After a moment she muttered, "I can't." She neared me. I could feel her behind me, but there was coldness where there should've been heat. "Maybe I should, but I can't." Her hand rested in between my shoulder blades. "You came to Jitters today. Why?"

My eyes stung, I didn't want to cry in front her. I didn't want to tell her about Annie and how I needed her today. I just wanted her to leave.

"Does it matter? We're done."

"Dammit, Ronnie. I'm trying to-" She yanked me around.

"I saw you with her!" I yelled. "So if you have her then why are you doing this? Why are you here?"

Tiny wicks of flames ejected from my hands so I kept them behind me.

Her hand slipped away. Gravel crunched under her feet as she left.

After a few moments my temperature lowered as I calmed down. I leaned on the railing as I breathed in and out. This was for the best. She could be happy and safe. The sooner she let go of her guilt about me the sooner she could move on with her life.

My phone rung as an SUV parked down below.

I didn't recognize the number. "Hello?" I answered.

"You've been ducking us, but you still owe Tribianni the money kid." A familiar Jersey accent said in the phone. "As an incentive, we've got ourselves a new house guest. I'm sure she's going to love it."

Muffled screams sounded in the background. The car door opened on the street. Two guys shoved Caitlin in the car.

Panic filled me. "What are you guys doing? I said I'd have your money! Let her go!" I pleaded.

Bennie looked up at me with a smirk as he hung up the phone. The car raced down the street.

"No!"

I ran for the door, my heart in my throat.

BARRY'S POV:

I ran to Starling City to see Oliver, but now that I was here I couldn't bring myself to talk to him. Maybe I'd just walk around for a bit. Someone walking across the street got my attention. Walking was too calm, stalking was more like it. I recognized her coat and hair. Her attention was directed to one of the many people strolling around town. Or maybe she was deep in thought and I was being paranoid about the lies Captain Cold told me.

I crossed the street. "Iris," I waved.

She ignored me and kept walking. It was a little noisy from the many conversations and passing cars, it was possible she hadn't heard me.

"Iris," I walked beside her with no luck. "Hey," I put my hand in front of her face with no reaction. Worry set in. "Iris, what's wrong?"

She kept walking like she had a mission. Did she even know I was here?

I planted myself in front of her, my hands on her shoulders. "Flower!" I realized to passerbyers this scene would look weird, me yelling flower at a girl, but this was none of their business.

Her brown eyes found mine, her forehead knitted together in confusion. "Barry?" She looked around herself. "What are you doing here?"

My shoulders shrugged. "I don't know. I called to you like five times, you didn't respond." My hands slid down to hers. "What's going on with you?"

"I don't remember leaving work." She ran her hand through that gorgeous mass of curly hair as she gave a forced laugh. "Must've been lost in thought."

I still felt a bit worried, but decided I was a bit paranoid from Snart's story.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

I shrugged. "Wanted some pizza."

Her brow lifted. "You ran all the way the Starling City for pizza?"

A grin played on my lips. "My place in Coast City was closed."

She laughed. "Now I kind of want double chocolate brownies. You in, Allen?"

"I can't, I'm on a pizza diet."

Her eyes rolled. "You can probably just do crunches really fast and get more abs, it's not fair."

My shoulder nudged hers. "You look great. You always look great."

She tried not to smile and I grinned.

"How are you and that Daryl guy?"

She looked a little uncomfortable. "He's my boss."

"Really?"

She gave me a look. "I told you that I wasn't with him. He was just messing with you."

That didn't make me feel any better.

"It sure looked like a date when Thea and I saw you that day."

She smirked. "It was an interview, Bear."

"So, is this new job it for you? Are you going to college?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. This is going well for me so far. I like it here." She grinned up at me. "I mean, I wish I didn't leave Central City on the way I did, but I'm happy here. I'm finally doing something with my life and it feels good. I feel good." She hooked her arm through mine. "Thank you. I know you didn't want to push me away, but the truth was that I wanted to leave. Everything we've been through forced me to grow up, so thank you."

"I aim to please, Flower."

We walked in comfortable silence for a while until we reach a store. We found the baking isle, trying to decide which brownie mix to get.

She looked at me with a mischievous gleam in her brown eyes. "How about double chocolate and peanut butter brownies?"

My eyes widened as I mulled it over. "You're a goddess, woman."

She laughed heartedly until she looked down the aisle.

There was an elderly woman trying to reach a can of icing on the top shelf that she was not tall enough to reach. With a grin I went over and asked her, "Which flavor are you trying to get, ma'am?"

She smiled the sweetest smile. "The chocolate. Always did like to swirl myself." She winked, then glanced back at Iris.

I chuckled as I grabbed the can. "There you go."

"Thank you, young man." She started down the aisle, as she passed Iris she said something that made her blush and giggle.

I walked over to her as I watched the lady walk away. "I guess she thought we were a couple."

Iris nodded. "Yup." She started walking.

"What did she say to you?"

She bit her lip. "Something someone her age shouldn't have said. She was very dirty." She tried not to laugh.

As we waited in line at the register I saw the Redbox sitting by the door. "Hey, go get some movies." I gave her my card.

"Netflix and Brownies?" Her brow rose.

I nodded. "Netflix and Brownies."

She shook her head with a grin as she walked to the Redbox.

As I paid for the brownie ingredients I thought back to all the times we've had our brownies and the in between. We've been through some tough times and I think we were finally at a good place in our friendship.

"Have a nice night." The cashier said.

"Thanks, you too."

I walked over to Iris. "You ready?"

She smirked. "I was born ready, Allen."