alltheroads | open } { emily & ella smash post

He might recognize the clothes she's wearing.

Iris has just finished talking to Barry after finding him on the porch steps. Grief and brokenness enveloped him like a fist, and Iris had never seen him so defeated. She'd wanted to give him hope, but it wasn't that simple, and for once, it was Iris West declaring that she would wait for Barry Allen, the way he's always waited for her. She was determined to do just that, too, except the rift has other ideas.

She opened the door to the West residence, and never got to step inside.

The rest happens too fast for her to process. The silence of the solemn night transforms into the glaring light of day. Iris is greeted with the loud honking of cars and a streak that she recognizes by heart. The lurching of her stomach as Barry speeds them to safety is familiar, too.

None of it makes sense, but if Barry is here, then Iris has unwavering faith that all will be explained and resolved.

"Barry? What's going on? How— "

Cisco wasn't doing his vibe-ing thing, as far as she knows, and she wasn't anywhere close to a breach...

Barry remembers that outfit, remembers everything so clearly about the last moment he saw her just like he remembers what his mother looked like tucking him in that night fifteen years ago, or the way his father smiled at him shortly before Zoom showed up and ruined everything. He'd filed away every detail in his mind like a photograph because he thought he was never going to see her again.

And yet here she is, standing right in front of him, almost as though no time has passed at all, when really, there's been too much time.

He pulls her in tightly, hugging her as though letting her go may lead to her disappearing, and he doesn't want that to happen quite yet. He's missed her so much but for right now, he knows she has more questions than he may be able to answer.

"You're in Chicago." Probably the easiest place to start. "But it's another Earth. You fell through a rift - kind of like a breach, but it only really goes one way."

Iris has no intention of letting Barry go any time soon. Her hold on him tightens briefly; even in her confusion, her instinct is to reassure and support him. She seems to understand that he needs that reassurance: the confirmation that she is tangible, real.

Eventually, she'll pull back just enough to search his face.

"That doesn't make any sense, Barry."

"Yeah, well ... a lot of our lives don't actually make sense, but here we are." He doesn't mean to dismiss her concerns, and that's not what his tone is saying. His tone is saying that there isn't really much more that can make it make sense than that.

"Last thing I remember from Central City was leaving home the night we defeated Zoom." He isn't sure what he's expecting her to say, but he's pretty sure either way it won't help make it make any more sense. "That was six months ago, for me."

Iris nods, turning this over in her head. Her stomach clenches helplessly. It wasn't that long ago for her. She's all nerves and discovery, her heart brimming with an awareness that wasn't there before. It simply wasn't there.

"It was five minutes ago. For me."

Give or take.

"Oh."

There's a beat as he processes that because ... wow. that's quite a difference. He knows that he's not the same person she last remembers and that could be a good thing. He could be ready for ...

No. Not right now. Now isn't the time.

"C'mon. I know a place we can go that's less ... public. I'll try and explain everything."

Iris doubts that he'll be able to make sense of everything that's going on, but. She doesn't need it to make sense. It's Barry, and she trusts him with her whole heart. If he asks her to follow, then she'll follow where he leads. She stuffs her hands into her pockets, glancing at the street she nearly got run over in.

"Does the place have deep dish pizza?"

It's a lame joke, but it's not entirely inaccurate. Chicago is the home of deep dish pizzas, right?

He smiles a bit at that because as lame as the joke is, he can appreciate the priorities all the same. He glances up for a moment, scanning the city as though he's looking for something before nodding.

"Not the place I was originally thinking, but I know a place with some good deep dish. If that's what you'd prefer."

It's not necessarily that Iris would prefer it, but she is going to have to shake off her concern a bit. Six months may have passed for Barry, but it was only minutes ago Iris was sitting across from him, heart clenching because of the pain she saw on his face. She wants to make sure that he eats and he sleeps well. So pizza it is.

"Might as well see what Chicago has to offer as you catch me up, right?"

"Sounds good to me."

He still prefers to move as fast as possible, so he doesn't hesitate before reaching down, scooping an arm around her waist, and zooming off towards the direction of his favorite pizza place. It doesn't take them long to get there - it never takes him longer than a few seconds to get anywhere, really - and he slides to a stop with a deep breath as he goes to check and make sure that they're both in one piece.

And that Iris isn't on fire.

"This is the place."

This part is familiar now. Iris grabs hold of him, as though he's a life boat and they're about to plunge into a deep blue sea, only coming up for air once they're standing in front of the pizza parlor. Her hair is a tousled mess, and she's laughing as she pushes it back from her face. "That never gets old," she tells him matter-of-factly.

Linking their arms together, the way she has many, many times in the past, she arches her eyebrow.

"Well? Aren't you going to show me around?"

He smirks a bit at that, before holding open the door so they can make their way inside. Barry's speed might be old hat to him by now, a part of him is always pleased when he sees the amazement it brings other people.

"Pizza first. Then I'll give you the grand Chicago tour."

"I meant show me around the finest pizza," Iris amends, bopping his nose lightly with her index finger.

You're so silly sometimes, Barry.

"Hey, there is more to Chicago than just their pizza," Barry smirks as he leads the way to a booth and slides in across from her. "They're known for their hot dogs too."

Iris rests her elbows on the table and leans forward.

"You realize all your selling points on Chicago so far have been food, right?" she asks. She doesn't even know why he's surprised. Barry has to consume roughly the equivalent of eight hundred tacos a day or something.

He smirks a bit at that as he leans forward to match her. "You realize that without Cisco here to make me my high-cal protein bars, I'm surprised I haven't eaten Chicago out of house and home yet? I'm either using my speed to fight rift monsters, or eating."

Her grin widens when he mirrors her stance and leans forward, catching sight of that cute smile. You're so cute, Barry. A frown sets in shortly after. Without Cisco, without Caitlin, without Wells ... "How have you been okay? There has to be an equivalent here to those protein bars, right? This place is crazy."

He gives a small shrug. "I eat a lot of fast food. It's not the healthiest option, but it does the trick. And I've been working on trying to reverse engineer it, but ... I'm not Cisco. If I ever do figure it out, it's going to take me a while. Mostly I'm just being careful and trying not to work myself into hypoglycemia."

"Good. If you ever did work yourself into hypoglycemia, I think Caitlin would find a way in here to yell at you," Iris says, though the fondness in her voice is unmistakable as she squeezes his hand. "After I'm done with you."

Of course.

Of course. And that makes him laugh, in a bittersweet sort of way. He misses Caitlin and Cisco fiercely, in a way that makes him regret he was so stupid to think he could just fix things the way he wanted them and that the speedforce wouldn't catch up with him somehow.

"If there's anything Caitlin would defy the laws of time and space for, it's definitely to yell at me."

open } { emily & ella smash post

sobs you know the way to my heart

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