Author's Note: Hey guys, I'm back! I'm proud of myself; I actually managed to get this one up in a week, and I haven't been able to do that for the last few haha. Barry will be having to deal with his secret identity being out soon, and cope with what's happened. Anyways, hope you all enjoy the chapter!
As soon as Iris realized that Barry's eyes were open, her own eyes widened a bit in surprise. Yes, she had been hoping for this, but now that it had suddenly happened she was taken a bit off guard. Her initial reaction was to want to pull him into a tight hug, but she recognized that that wasn't exactly the best idea at the moment, considering his injuries.
"Barry," she got out finally, relief evident in her voice. She grasped her hand in his gently, slowly, not wanting to startle him as he adjusted to his surroundings. "Hey, I'm here, you're okay. How do you feel?"
He looked at her dazedly for several moments, and Iris felt her anxiety creeping back up; he still didn't appear completely with it.
"Hot," he murmured finally, his voice quiet. "Tired." As she watched, his eyelids slowly starred to droop, and her heart beat sped up.
"Hey, come on, stay awake," she said, reaching out to pat his face lightly. In all honesty, she probably should have let him rest longer; he had been through a lot. But the thought of him slipping into unconsciousness again for God-knew-how-long scared her. She also knew that she needed to get Caitlin, but the thought of leaving him alone gave off that same spark of fear. Barry groaned lightly, weakly attempting to move his head away, but giving up as Iris continued to pat him persistently. The speedster looked at her again, his mouth set into a small frown and his eyebrows furrowed.
"What...happened?" he mumbled slowly, confusedly, his voice still quiet. "Everything hurts."
Iris smiled sadly at him, moving her hand away from his face to grasp his own hand again.
"I know, Bar," she said gently. "I know. You're gonna be okay soon, alright?" The speedster attempted a nod and winced, his face scrunching up. Iris squeezed his hand carefully, attempting to provide him some comfort. She glanced towards the door quickly as well, hoping to see Caitlin coming back, but the hall outside was empty. She had said she would be back soon, but now she was wishing the doctor hadn't left. Resisting the urge to bite at her lip, she turned her head back to look at Barry, who was cautiously examining the bandages wrapped around his shoulder. He still appeared slightly dazed, but at least he wasn't trying to close his eyes again.
"Barry," Iris said, still keeping her voice soft and gentle. The speedster's eyes moved slowly to meet hers again. "Listen, I need to go get Caitlin, alright? But I'll be right back. I promise. Just...stay awake, okay?" She paused, waiting for an answer.
"...okay," he said after a few seconds.
Only somewhat reassured, she debated not going. But she knew she could be quick, and she really did want Caitlin to look at him while he was up and for the most part coherent. She patted his hand gently before standing quickly from her chair and practically running from the room, opting to go for the stairs rather than waiting for the elevator. When she made it downstairs a minute or two later and into the lobby by the front entrance, it was to see Caitlin, Cisco and her father in a group talking a few feet away from the door. Talking and other various noises could clearly be heard from outside, indicating the people just beyond the walls of the complex, but Iris blocked it all out.
"Caitlin," she said urgently as she approached, drawing the attention of not just the doctor but all three of them, who all turned to face her. Caitlin's face immediately set into a frown, her eyes betraying worry at the sight of her.
"Did something happen?" she asked immediately, looking ready to run back upstairs at a moment's notice.
"He's awake," Iris breathed, trying to ignore the aching in her chest from her sudden fast movement. "And he seems kind of confused." It was all she needed to say; Caitlin immediately started for the stairs Iris had just come down. She shared a quick look with Cisco and her father before heading after her, trailed by both men. Despite the doctor having a slight head start, the three of them quickly caught up, Joe and Cisco eager to see Barry up and Iris itching to get back to him. When they all arrived back at the med bay, Iris expected to see the speedster just as she had left him. She wasn't sure if it should have been a happy or worrisome moment when the four of them spilled into the room to see him seeming much more alert, judging by the fact that he was attempting to get out of bed.
"Whoa, whoa, hey!" Caitlin was quick to protest, rushing forward to gently but firmly push him back down into a lying position. "Absolutely not!" Barry winced slightly, though Iris couldn't be sure if it was from the sudden loudness of Caitlin's voice in the previous quiet, or from her touch.
As Iris watched, Caitlin acted quickly, speed walking over to the medical cart set up in the corner and grabbing several items off of it. There was no time for Barry to say or do anything before suddenly a thermometer was shoved into his mouth and a penlight was being shined into his eyes. The speedster, looking quite overwhelmed, squinted against the brightness, shrinking away at the eager doctor's attention. Caitlin pulled away slowly as she noticed that he seemed uncomfortable with the sudden intrusions.
"Sorry Barry," she apologized quickly, turning off the penlight and pulling the thermometer out of his mouth. She checked it quickly and, appearing somewhat satisfied with the results, placed it back on the medical cart. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I got hit by a truck," the speedster replied groggily, grimacing.
"And that is exactly why you are not to get up yet, under an circumstances," Caitlin said sternly, crossing her arms. "You need to take it easy." Barry nodded the best he could while laying down, and without stressing his pain farther, almost imperceptibly. Iris stepped forward then, making her way back over to him and sitting down once more in the chair by his bedside. She took his hand gently again, and he turned his head carefully to look at her. He still didn't look great, but she felt somewhat relieved to see that he was at least more aware.
"Bar," she said softly. "Hey, do you - do you remember what happened?" she asked hesitantly. He didn't answer right away, but the way that his body tensed was enough to tell Iris that something had definitely come back to him. She tightened her grip on his hand.
"Yeah," he answered finally, simply. Iris bit her lip then, casting a look at the other three people in the room. Just because he remembered, didn't necessarily mean he knew everything that went on. Specifically the fact that his superhero identity was out; he hadn't exactly appeared in a conscious state during the time that the live video was released. The others seemed to understand what her look was about, as they appeared equally nervous to broach the subject. It was her father who finally spoke up after taking a deep breath.
"Bar, listen. I don't know if you know, but there was a video feed -"
"I know," Barry replied flatly, cutting the detective off; Iris felt a pang in her chest.
"Hey, man, we'll work it out," Cisco said, attempting to be reassuring, and Caitlin nodded.
"It's not the greatest situation, but we'll get through it, as a team," she contributed with a tiny smile. "We'll figure out how to address it and what to do going forward. But right now, I don't want you to focus on that too much; you need to focus on getting better." Barry sighed but managed another small nod. He was clearly, and rightly so, not at all happy with the situation. But he didn't have the energy at the moment to argue, or to put too much effort into worrying.
"Okay," he said. There was a lull in the conversation for a few seconds before Barry continued with slight hesitance, "...what happened to them?"
No one needed clarification to know that the 'them' he was referring to were his captors. Iris ran her thumb gently over the surface of his hand.
"Bivolo and Bliss got away," she said, her tone regretful. "Clay and Tell got arrested. Shawna's back in the pipeline for now, and Mardon's...dead."
Barry's eyebrows furrowed at the news. "Dead?" he asked, clearly surprised. "What...how did he die? What happened?"
"Snart turned him into a popsicle," Cisco chimed in, and Barry's eyes widened.
"Snart," he echoed. "Why - why was he there?" he asked, seeming to recall the incident with the villain. Iris sighed.
"We asked him for his help, when you got taken," she responded. "It was before Oliver and Felicity showed up, and we - well, we were desperate," she admitted. "He's gone now, though."
She left out the fact that Snart had wanted a favor out of the deal, that Barry supposedly owed him now. She didn't want to give him anything else to worry about now, and knowing him, he would probably deduce it on his own anyways. She also decided not to mention the galavant he had participated in with herself and Oliver in order to get the cure; he would definitely not be happy that she had put herself in harm's way for him. The speedster took a moment to process the new information. "Oliver and Felicity left too, but we promised to keep them updated."
Barry's eyebrows furrowed again. "They were here?" he asked, and Iris internally chastised herself; of course he wouldn't have known that. The only time the two of them had had any interaction with him, he had been unconscious.
"Yeah," she replied. "They helped too." The journalist could almost see the speedster make a mental note of that fact, and was sure that when he was feeling better, he would end up in Star City to thank them; that was just how he was. She watched as he seemed to take a moment to process all of the new information. The words that next came out of his mouth, however, were not in the least what she expected.
"I want to talk to Shawna," he said.
Iris frowned at that, her face morphing to show confusion; maybe he still wasn't in his right mind.
"Bar, that's not a good idea," Caitlin said, also frowning.
"She tried to kill you," Joe said, arms crossed, his voice hard.
"But she didn't," he said quietly, and no one could argue with him about that. Despite the fact that she had caused what had happened, she hadn't in fact been the one who wanted him dead.
Joe pursed his lips together. "But her actions almost got you killed," he said harshly. "Absolutely not." The detective stalked out of the room before anything else could be said, and Barry frowned; Iris knew he hated being told he couldn't do something when he set his mind to it, and he had now been told that he could 'absolutely not' do something twice in the few minutes since he had been up. It was a blow to him, especially after he most likely already felt downhearted after everything that had happened to him.
"He's just being protective; you know how he is," Iris said after she watched her father leave, giving Barry a soft smile. "But Bar - why would you want to talk to her? After what she did?" she asked. Just as her father, she didn't understand either, and was also rather against it. Judging by the looks on Caitlin and Cisco's faces, they didn't felt the same. But she couldn't bring herself to tell him so.
"I just want to, alright?" Barry answered vaguely, closing his eyes tiredly. Iris bit her lip, opening her mouth briefly like she wanted to say something more but deciding against it. She simply sighed quietly.
"Get some rest, Barry," Caitlin said gently from behind the journalist, moving forward then to adjust his blankets and run her eyes quickly over his bandages and stitches like a doting mother. She then motioned to both Cisco and Iris to step out into the hallway with her. Iris cast a quick look at Barry as she stood, but he seemed to be asleep already. She got up and followed Cisco and Cait out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her.
"I agree with Joe; I don't think it's a good idea for him to talk to her," the doctor said as soon as both Iris and Cisco were looking at her.
"Why would he even want to?" Cisco asked, looking to Iris for an answer. Iris sighed again, running a hand through her hair.
"I don't know," she admitted. "But I mean, for the past two days, I think he's really felt like everything is out of his hands, like he doesn't have control over anything that's happening to him. Maybe he thinks this will help, or something. But I don't like the idea either."
Caitlin ran a hand tiredly over her face, sighing herself now, and Iris looked at her with pity.
"You need some sleep," she said, but Caitlin shook her head.
"I need to keep an eye on him," she said; Cisco crossed his arms.
"Girl, the last time you got any shuteye was before Barry was taken," he said, and Caitlin frowned; she hadn't thought about it really, but Cisco was right. She had tried to sleep in the early morning yesterday, but then the alert had gone off signifying Mardon, Bliss and Tell breaking out of prison.
"We can keep an eye on him," Iris insisted. "And if anything happens, we'll wake you. But you need rest just as much as Barry does.
"Fine," Caitlin relented. "But only for a little while. And we still need to talk about this more later. And what we're going to do about this whole secret identity crisis."
Iris nodded. "We will," she said. "But for now, sleep." Caitlin nodded as well and gave her an appreciative look before heading down the hallway, presumably to a spare, quiet room. Iris and Cisco spared another glance at each other before heading back into the room.
Author's Note: That's it for now guys! Until next time :)