A/N: Wow, thanks so much for everyone who reviewed, alerted, and favorited. I'm glad you guys like what came from a random idea. But for those that favorite/alert but don't review, don't be shy, please let me know what you think. Constructive Criticism is welcome.

Joe couldn't bring himself to go into the room.

That room, that fucking room down at the end of the hallway that wasn't very far from his own. That room that haunted him so much more than any of the worst cases he'd ever seen on the job. And there'd been some really tough ones to move through. Ones that would have him curled up in bed and crying his eyes out for those affected by it, for the families left behind, for the lives lost. He knew how that felt, many times over.

And now this?

This?

Why was life so unfair? Why was life so cruel? Why was life able to continue to move on when the ones suffering through tragedy were stuck in the thickest, deepest, darkest mud that wouldn't wash off no matter how many times they tried to stay clean. That continued to drag them down even on a good day, that came back when the sun would blot out and the sky would open up and shoot a torrential downpour to create that mud all over again.

Joe couldn't bring himself to walk down that hallway when he knew there was the chance he'd risk a glance at the door, waiting to see him inside. To hear the sounds of him racing back and forth around the room trying to figure out what to wear that day. To hear the sound of the door—which was perpetually squeaky—blast open and close when he would go off to face whatever was attacking the city.

So night after night Joe slept on the couch. He moved his clothes downstairs and bathed in the bathroom sink so as not to go up there. Anything not to go up there and risk taking a peek.

Iris watched him with concerned eyes when they weren't welling up with their own tears. She knew what it was like to be a parent now, in a way. She took care of her dad as much as he could now that he took leave from work. She made sure he ate, noticing he was starting to thin out even though it had only been a week and a few days, she made sure he shaved, bathed, actually got some exercise even if it was walking around the block. And she would walk with him, looping her arm through his, holding his hand, making sure he was there.

She took that for granted with Barry. He was always there for her, she could jump out of a window after being chased by some goons and he'd be there to catch her. But she never took the time to make sure he was there, in the present, that he was there for her to hug when either of them needed it. That she could turn around and smile and hang out with him like they used to.

So they could be Iris and Barry; best friends.

Not Iris and The Flash; co-workers.

He was her absolute best friend, a piece of her world and that world was now gone. Forever. She had never seen it coming. Sure, she made jokes about it; 'We better hand out now before someone sweeps you up and takes you away', 'Be careful Barry, you may have these powers but you're still you', 'One day you'll realize that compared to you everyone around us is so boring and you'll leave Central City in a burst of lightning'. And they'd always laugh because it was ridiculous.

Barry would never get tired of Central City. He would never get tired of his friends. He would never get tired of hanging out with Iris. Yes, they worked together in a very dangerous and thankless profession—was it really a job if you weren't getting paid for it?—and worked to make sure that Central City was still the safe haven they grew to love.

And now he was gone.

She didn't have him to turn to.

So many times within that past week she would hear a sound in the hallway—maybe the house settling—and she'd get excited, knowing that Barry was back to tell her what had happened on that mission.

Then there'd be silence, continued silence she hadn't grown used to.

Barry was never quiet.

He fumbled around a lot, always dropping something.

And it always mad her laugh.

Now whenever she laughed, which was at little videos on the internet, or small memories she'd come across while looking at photos she'd burst into tears, feeling she was betraying him. How could she laugh like that when he was gone? Like he was forgotten. She did forget, forget that he couldn't laugh with her. Sometimes she thought she heard him laugh with her and it'd send a shiver down her spine much like the large bursts of wind when he'd run by would.

But her hair wouldn't shoot back from her face, her eyes wouldn't water from the onslaught of near gale-force winds, clothes wouldn't have to be fixed time and time again because he wasn't there anymore.

She tried not to cry in front of Joe, Joe tried not to cry in front of her, and they continued to play this cat and mouse game of who could leave the room before they burst into tears.

They came back from one of their daily walks to feel that something was different. The house was as quiet as ever, no one was moving around, but there was a certain presence there. A presence that only Barry had.

Joe and Iris slowly moved through the front door, looking at each other then looked to peer around the doorways that lead to the kitchen and the living room. How silly, no one was there, why would they expect something. And then Iris noticed it by the front door, a package they had missed coming up the stairs. She turned over and grabbed it, clutching it tightly to her chest as Joe closed the door.

"What's that, baby?" Joe asked in his low rumble. Since Barry passed he barely spoke higher than a mumble. Almost as if his ability to completely function had gone.

"I don't know," Iris replied.

She turned the box over in her hand and gasped as she saw the note on the front. To Iris and Joe. In Barry's handwriting. She knew that handwriting anymore as she dubbed it 'eligible chicken scratch' like his brain moved faster than his body. How ironic, she thought, realizing later that he worked that way even before the lightning strike.

"Dad," she turned it towards Joe.

Joe took the box in shaking hands, looking over the handwriting.

Tears clouded Iris's vision, making everything shimmer and swim as she tried her hardest not to cry. She took in a deep breath and wiped at her eyes, watching as Joe continued to stare at the words on the front of the package. Finally, he turned and walked to the couch, dropping down on it and holding the box in his lap.

"Well…" Iris sniffed. She sat down next to him. "Open it."

Joe cleared his throat and nodded. And nodded again. Finally, he took a deep breath and popped open the sides, revealing a laptop inside. Joe carefully released it from the box and placed it in his lap. He opened the lid and pressed the power button. The screen immediately brightened, coming up on a desktop, no password required. There was no background picture; Iris felt her heart sink when she realized it.

She had at least hoped there'd be some sort of a memory they shared. Or just a picture of Barry. Anything. As it was, she didn't recognize the laptop, it wasn't Barry's, his was still in his room. She still knew the password to it—as they shared passwords in case something happened and they needed to wipe off any 'questionable' content—but couldn't bring herself to do it.

This laptop didn't have anything on it other than a video file that sat in the center of the screen saying 'OPEN ME'.

Iris reached forward and clicked on it before Joe could stop her or Iris could stop herself. It immediately started to play, showing Barry onscreen. Tears immediately came back to Iris's eyes as she laid her eyes on her best friend. Joe reached out and grabbed onto her hand, squeezing it tightly.

On screen, Barry raised his hand. "Hey Joe, hey Iris," he greeted. He started off with a smile that quickly turned serious. "Wow, I guess I don't really know where to go from here. I bet you know why you're getting this message now and not before and what it means…I hope you never get to see this but if you do…well, that's good too. Because then you'll know how I feel about this and everything. The first thing I want to say is 'I'm sorry'. I'm sorry for all of the pain and hurt you're going to go through. I'm sorry that there's going to be a lot of unanswered questions left behind that may never be answered. I'm sorry that I couldn't have done more."

"God, Bare," Joe murmured.

Iris squeezed his hand.

"Joe…you've been the best father I could have had. And I know it was hard over the years with both of us knowing that I'm not really your son. But in many ways I am your son and I am a West. I'm a…a WestAllen, because our families have been brought together for a long time, even before what happened. You and my mom and dad were best friends and you were just as hurt as I was when what happened happened. I know I was…so pissed at you when you were one of the people that didn't believe me about the Reverse-Flash, but even then I know how hard it had to have been. You just lost both of your best friends to what may or may not have been a murder attempt from someone you knew for a long time, and I was stuck in the middle. You took me in and helped raise me when my dad couldn't.

"You did everything you could to make me feel like I was really part of the family, like I wasn't different from Iris in any way. You even helped me try out for the football team and I never thought I would ever do that. But you always pushed me out of my comfort zone and that's something I took in with me in all areas of my life. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have become the Flash that very first day that I needed to be. I wouldn't have stopped that tornado. I wouldn't have saved Iris's life so many times."

"Idiot," Iris murmured.

She said that a lot about Barry's Flash shenanigans. He would come back from every sense of danger with a smile on his face, after scaring her half to death.

And she's reach out and knock him on the arm, calling him every name under the sun for worrying them all—worrying her—so much.

And yet he'd laugh and give her a reassuring smile.

He couldn't do that anymore.

That hurt more than anything.

"I wouldn't have become a great man without you raising me the way you have, without you sacrificing so much for me. Your time, your effort, your home. I knew every time I went somewhere that I could come back to you or Iris and I'd be home. You're as much of my family as my own family is and I love you as much. Joe, you're my dad for life. I know we had some bumps along the way what with my attitude and everything, and when you'd get frustrated when trying to help me with homework when I knew more than you did—"

Joe and Iris laughed.

"—But I wouldn't trade any of those memories for anything. Thank you so much for everything you've done. I don't think I would've turned out even a fraction of the way I have if it wasn't for you. And I don't think I can ever accurately show that gratitude so I hope you know it."

On screen, Barry ran his hand through his hair. "Iris," he said. "You're my absolute best friend in the world. We've known each other since we were kids. And as much as…as much as it hurts to think about my m mom being one all the time, if it hadn't have happened and I hadn't moved in, I don't think we would've been able to be best friends. You wouldn't have made my stronger by beating me up all the time-"

"—I never beat you up," Iris heard herself saying. Then she was surprised when on screen Barry said, "Yes, Iris you beat me up. Every time Joe tried to teach us boxing and self-defense you would wail on me each and every time. I think you got some sick sort of entertainment out of it. Or you just got to be too competitive. Remember when we broke the TV playing video games?"

"I do," Joe grunted.

Iris winced. Okay, so maybe they both got a little mad and shouldn't have thrown those controllers at the TV. But geez, it was a terrible game and they hated to lose and they kept screwing each other over and…

Iris could at least now smile and laugh at the memory. Her father, on the other hand, probably not. That had been an expensive TV, an expensive video game system that he had gotten Barry in the first place, and they both got an ass-beating—literally and figuratively—over it.

She focused on the video once more.

"But you know what I thought every time you beat me up? That you're a strong girl. That you're never going to let anyone push you over or walk over you. And you proved that o me every day. I admired that about you. I know I never said it, but I really did. I was always so surprised that you could go into any situation with a bright smile and an air of confidence that I could only ever dream of having. So I tried to do what you did. It didn't always work but I felt myself getting better for it. I could feel myself growing more and more confident as the days passed just by following your lead. It's what made it easier to go away to college; I knew you were going to be okay without me there. Let's face it, I never really had to protect you over anything. You protect me more than anything else.

"Most guys would be embarrassed by that but I'm not. I would never be embarrassed by it or you. I'm proud of you and everything you've done and everything you will continue to accomplish. I'm just so sorry that you have to lose someone so close to you again. I'm sort I couldn't come back with a smile and have you call me an idiot like you always did. I actually looked forward to it believe it or not, because it would remind me of our childhood. Of how we would run around and get into stupid things whether or not it was yours or my fault, even though it was mostly your fault."

That was certainly true. Iris worked hard to bring Barry out of his shell after he got to the West house. The first couple of days he didn't speak. Her father took time off work to be there for him if he was needed and Iris could admit she was a little jealous. But she felt for him all the same. So after the first few days she made the executive decision that she was going to take the day off school and stay with him. And they talked. She was the only person that talked to him about his mom because everyone else was so afraid he'd be upset.

They talked for a long time and then Iris took him to the backyard so they could kick a soccer ball back and forth. Barry soon got into it, smiling wider and wider as the seconds passed. How was she supposed to know that on her neck kick she would hit him directly in the face, giving him a black eye? The first of many, as it turned out.

But he didn't blame her when Joe asked what happened.

Instead he made up some sort of an explanation of falling to the ground and hit his face at a certain angle to do it. He used so many big and scientific words, even for an eleven year old; that Joe didn't question it and Iris didn't understand.

All she knew was that Barry had lied for her and that made them close friends. Friends covered for each other with their parents all the time. They continuously reminded each other of that at certain times and would burst out laughing without Joe knowing why.

"I often wondered what life would be like if I hadn't moved in with you guys. I wondered if we'd still be friends. I sort of had that when I went to college because I didn't have to walk around with everyone knowing me as 'the murderer's son' or 'that poor boy' instead of Barry Allen. But that's the part where things were weird because you weren't there for me to hang out with all the time. We come as a pair, there's no Barry Allen without Iris West and there's no Iris West without Barry Allen. I'm sure we've annoyed Eddie and other people about that all the time, with our history and that we can sort of leave people out, but they wouldn't understand."

Barry took in a deep breath.

"There were many times over the years where I felt like giving up. Where I would want to do something that…that would take me back to my mom. I got down to some really dark times if I'd have too much time to think about it. But you guys would always bring me back. Everything I did as The Flash was for you guys, to show you how much I cared and wanted to be sure you were safe. I couldn't stand the thought if anything happened to you guys."

Barry looked at his watch and grimaced. "Oh, geez, I'm running late. What else is new." Then his cell phone rang and he looked at the screen, grimacing even further. "Captain Singh…" he let out a long sigh and answered the call. "Allen."

Even from the video Iris and Joe and could hear Captain Singh's loud demand to know where Barry was.

"I'm on my way I'm…just…stuck in the…bank, trying to withdraw some money. Long lines and all of that." Barry paused and said shamefully, "Yes, I know I could just use the ATM outside…I guess I just didn't see it. I'm on my way."

Joe and Iris laughed then started to cry. Iris turned and grabbed onto her father, holding him tightly as she finally allowed herself to grieve.

Barry hung up and let out along breath. "That's…annoying." He turned back to the screen. "But I wouldn't be me if I didn't have Captain Singh after me, right?" He laughed. "I really do have to go. I love you both. Please, please try to be there for each other, okay? I know you're hurting but…be there for each other. I know how you can both get, you're really stubborn. Don't be stubborn with your feelings."

And with that Barry raced off screen with a flash of light, but not before ending his video with,

"My name is Barry West-Allen."

A/N: So now Joe and Iris are done, next is Cisco and Caitlin. Who do you think will be after that?

Cheers,

-Riles