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It had been a week since Mason Bridge disappeared, and Iris was starting to get worried. Well, not starting to, exactly. Truth be told, she suspected foul play from the minute the clock struck 10 that Wednesday morning and he didn’t show up waving a croissant in front of her face. Mason might love to play by his own rules at the office, but he never missed an opportunity to bribe her into spying on her friends. The problem was, no one seemed to be taking his disappearance too seriously. Sure, it was widely reported in the blogosphere and different rumors abounded. But the authorities generally believed he must have decided on an impromptu vacation, as there was no sign of struggle either at his home or office and his closet was cleaned out of clothes. Somehow, this led Iris to an altogether different conclusion… Harrison Wells. She didn’t know how or why, but she couldn’t shake the feeling. The last thing Mason had asked her to work on before he 'left' was the mystery surrounding S.T.A.R. Labs – and no one would want to protect whatever secrets it held more than Dr. Wells.
The panic that filled her almost nightly now wasn’t just worry for Mason, though. After a rocky start, he had turned out to be a good friend and mentor and she hoped he was alright, but her biggest concern was that if Wells had gotten to him for whatever reason… That meant Barry was in danger as well. Thankfully he was too innocent to believe anything bad about his personal hero. Probably. Still, she wished she could fast-forward in time to whenever she became an ace investigative reporter with all possible resources at her disposal. She’d solve the case and save the day like that. In a flash.
For now, though, she’d have to use the only Flash she had. She took a deep breath and hit post. You know where to meet me, it said. She only hoped he remembered as well as she did.
“Just where do you think you’re going?” Caitlin asked sharply as Barry prepared to speed out the door.
“As if you don’t already know the answer,” Cisco chimed in, momentarily looking up from the automated metahuman dining program he was designing.
Barry tried not to roll his eyes and, as usual, failed. “Iris needs my help, guys. I can’t just leave her hanging.”
Caitlin’s eyes started to do the thing where they bug out of her face, and he knew he was in for a major scolding. But she managed to control it and instead contented herself with: “We’ve been over this a million times. You know it’s a bad idea.”
“What is?” He was being a petulant child, but he didn’t care. “I’m a superhero. I’m supposed to help people. Which is what I’m doing.”
By this time, Cisco had actually gotten up from his chair and walked over to stand next to his partner in judgment. “I think what Caitlin is trying to say – ”
Caitlin turned to him in disbelief. “I don’t think you know what I’m trying to – ”
“Is that we all know Iris loves you, okay? I know it, Caitlin knows it. People who have never met Iris know it. Dude, I’m pretty sure Eddie knows it and just doesn’t wanna let go. Who would, right?” At this, Caitlin shot daggers at him. Really painful ones with her icy cold eyes. Changing tactics, he continued, “What I mean is that… You think it’s freeing to flirt with her as the Flash, I guess, and it kind of is. But it’s not proving anything. It’s just hurting everyone involved. Iris needs to figure out her feelings for you on her own terms, and flirting with the Flash isn’t going to help her do that. You are a real person that she had to turn her entire life upside down for. The Flash is a fantasy that any girl – hell, any person – would want to flirt with.”
This time Caitlin’s eyes went full bug and Cisco grinned sheepishly. “Did I do good, Dr. Snow?”
“Cisco! That’s exactly what I was trying to say. I’m so proud.” The tips of his ears were turning bright red, and she smiled. “A little shocked, too.”
“That hurts.”
“Sorry,” she offered with no apology in her voice. “But you do always say the most inappropriate things.”
“I may not know how to talk to women, but I do know how to respect them.”
Caitlin pulled a lollipop out of her lab coat pocket and offered it to him as a reward. “My hero.”
Now his entire face was bright red. Barry, meanwhile, was nowhere to be found, having left before Cisco even finished speaking.
“Great. I say something awesome and he’s not even here for it!”
A whoosh and a spark later, Iris found herself on the rooftop of Jitters with a vibrating masked man five feet away from her. “Thanks for meeting me.” She sounded way more breathless than she’d like.
“What can I do for you, Iris?” His voice was as masked as his face, of course, and she both loved and hated the sound.
“Iris, huh? I’m a big-time reporter now, you know. You should probably call me Miss West.”
There was that half-hidden smile again. “Alright. Miss West it is. How can I help?”
She remembered her purpose and felt a lot more serious. “It’s about my coworker, Mason Bridge. He disappeared about a week ago.” There was a flicker of recognition in his face, but he remained silent. “I’ve been looking into it, but everyone seems to think he just up and vanished of his own free will.”
Barry tried to keep his voice steady while also vibrating his vocal chords. It was not an easy task. “And why couldn’t that be the case? People do it all the time.”
“I know something happened to him, okay?” Iris answered, her voice full of anger. “I can feel it.” The Flash seemed taken aback by her intensity, so she calmed herself before she went on. “I’m telling you this because I trust you. I know you have to be involved somehow, but I also know you’re a good man.”
His eyes narrowed, and he readied himself for what he already knew she had discovered. “What is it you’re telling me, Miss West?”
“Before he disappeared, he asked me to look into S.T.A.R. Labs. He thinks Wells purposely caused the particle accelerator explosion in order to create metahumans. To create you.” She bit her lip, afraid of his reaction. He didn’t appear to have one yet. She didn’t know why she trusted the Flash so much, but she remembered Barry in the coma all those months, hanging on for dear life, and she knew she had to. Someone had to bring Wells to justice.
“And that’s not all!” She was filled with an eerie sense of excitement now. All the pieces were coming together even better now that she had someone to bounce them off of. “The way Mason disappeared was so perfect. Too perfect. It’s like… Do you know Simon Stagg, the humanitarian? He apparently disappeared a few months ago, too. Everyone knows he’s a shut-in, so no one’s worried about it, but I started digging a few days ago. Harrison Wells was the last person to see him, and no one’s heard a peep from him since. Isn’t that weird?”
He wished he could tell her he felt the exact same way, but he knew that meant she’d keep investigating. Which, if he was right about Wells, could only lead to the realization of his worst nightmare: Iris coming face to face with the Reverse Flash. He couldn’t let that happen.
“All of this could just be a big coincidence,” he responded with caution. “You’re just worried for your friend, which is natural. But Harrison Wells is…” He was wincing as he said it. “A hero. You have to know that.”
All the rage bubbling up inside Iris burst like a flooding dam. “Shut up!” She screeched. “I’m SICK of you telling me what I know or what I feel. No one trusts me to have an opinion or to know anything. Do I look stupid? I’m giving you evidence and you’re treating me like a joke!”
The sick feeling in the pit of Barry’s stomach was taking over his whole body. He didn’t think he had ever felt this terrible. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”
She deflated suddenly, almost crumpling before his eyes. “No, I’m sorry. I’m not mad at you, not really.” (Except she kinda was, wasn’t she?) “It’s my best friend. Barry.”
He swallowed hard. Oh, no. He really did not want to be having this conversation right now.
“He thinks I’m in love with him,” she huffed. Somehow, just saying the words out loud, a huge burden lifted off her shoulders. Now everything came out in a kind of word vomit. “Scratch that, everyone thinks I am. Sure, later they make up bullshit like ‘lightning psychosis’ so they can sweep it under the rug, but I know it’s still there. I mean, lightning psychosis. That’s not a real thing, is it?”
Fuck me. “Um… I’ve never heard of it.”
She smirked at that. “If the guy with the lightning bolt on his tripolymer supersuit doesn’t believe in it, it can’t be real.”
“Fair enough.”
“Anyway, I pretended to believe him because… I don’t want to lose him, you know? He’s my best friend. At the same time, though. I’m scared he’s right.”
Barry couldn’t decide whether he had ascended to Heaven or fallen into the lowest circle of Hell. “You’re… Afraid?” He managed to squeak out.
She looked down at the ground, giggling. Almost like she wasn’t even talking to him anymore. Just having a conversation with herself, which was pretty liberating. “That sounds so stupid, but… I already almost lost him once. And right now, everything in my life is so good. I have a job I’m proud of, a boyfriend who treats me right, and Barry is alive and safe and my best friend.”
She said the words like they were sacred, and he closed his eyes for a brief moment at the sound.
“I guess I’m scared that if I love him too, in that way, I mean – If I say the words out loud, then everything’s gonna change. I can’t be with Eddie if I love Barry, so this last year’s been a lie. And then what if it doesn’t work out with Barry anyway? It’s already so weird between us now that he’s told me how he feels. What if I mess things up between us – just like I will with Eddie – and then he doesn’t want to be my friend anymore? Not having Barry in my life… I already know what that’s like. I never want to feel that again.”
The Flash started to mumble something, then quickly shut up again. But the spell was broken. She looked up from the pavement and found his head bent down in what looked like shame underneath the dim sensor lights. “I’m so sorry for babbling at you. I know you’ve probably got places to be, people to save. I guess you’re just the only person I can talk to about this right now. Anyone else would probably just tell Barry.”
He instinctively reached up and grabbed his neck. Was it possibly for lightning to strike him again, right here and now?
“I bet you feel like an asshole now, don’t you?” Caitlin’s voice hissed in his ear.
He whipped around, his back to Iris, and hissed right back. “What the hell? Don’t listen in on my private conversations!”
“Sorry, dude,” Cisco’s voice chimed in once more. Ever so helpful as always. “The Flash is a public figure. Nothing’s private. Besides, we only heard this last juicy part, promise. Cuz, you know, another little old lady needs you.”
Iris noticed her superhero acquaintance whispering into what she assumed was a headset of some sort. “I guess those are the people in need of saving?”
“Yeah.” His voice was more serious than before, sadder even. “I’m so sorry, but I’ve gotta run.”
She nodded reluctantly. “Before you do, will you at least promise to think about what I asked? I know he seems –”
“I promise.” He cut her off before Cisco and Caitlin could figure out who she was talking about. Looks like he’d have to be more careful in the future, if he didn’t want more of his friends putting themselves in danger because of the good doctor. “I trust your instincts, even if I don’t want to believe it.”
Her smile was so wide it broke his heart. “Thank you.”
Another whoosh and spark, and she was alone inside the closed coffee shop. This time, though, she felt less alone than she had in months.