RESEARCH ( barry berkman.. ) ✔

o28. just one year older..

Dreamland.

What a fuzzy place to swirl and fall into the second your head rejoins with the primary state of laying down on a roughly soft pillow, after a night of happiness and action, all the stress which turned your stomach upside down. Dreamland. A confusing state to be in, resting, but not quite asleep, because your mind is circling back and forth, running between thoughts and hopes and weird scenarios from the depths of the subconsciousness, turbine turning into spirals of liquid like memories and-

Is that a human sized rabbit?

Adelaide jolted awake, blurred senses fading back into consciousness, starting with her hearing, after she had just fallen asleep back in her apartment. Off-putting as it was, against her moral and hygienic rules, she fell asleep without the proper patience to change herself of the clothes which carried her from a bar, to a dumpster and into the fucking middle of nowhere at all but dust. 

Her hearing focused on the pounding on her apartment's door. 

Awake, but not quite, she turned on her bedside lamp and crawled out of bed with a hand rubbing her eyes, hoping that opening the door will just make the silence return. Her headache heaven with each weighted step on the carpet and not for one second did she consider worrying her dazed mind.

Addie unlocked the door and squinted her eyes to the lights on the hall, keeping it open, wider now that she recognized Barry. Upon noticing her, tired, but seemingly unharmed, the panic washed him over in no longer being able to hold back the tears, ready in case the worst happened, not this very best scenario shadowing all the turmoil he crawled through for two hours into this next day. 

Tears came out soundlessly and while he hoped only to relax the tension of his shoulders, he released it all completely and collapsed down on his knees before Adelaide's door. Her eyes immediately shot right open and though her instinct was to kneel right down with Barry, his sudden embrace in that position, flaying to cling to her, has left her unable to bend her knees.

"Barry? What happened? Are you hurt?" Adelaide asked, voice hushed. Of course, her arms may have wrapped back around him, not in the slightest holding back from giving him the affection he so much desired in that moment of weakness, but confusion and concern were injected into her mind and rationally, she assumed there was something bad looming over them.

She looked down the hall, both sides, scanning for danger. Efficiently discreet, she also gazed down at Barry, trying to see if he was bleeding through anywhere. By the way he sobbed, face hidden in the bottom of her sweater, Addie could half-way understand there was something else happening. "Come on, let's get inside, baby," her right hand drew back through his hair, while the left sneaked behind and guided him into letting go of her and getting up.

Barry was glad she changed the approach to softness, rather than panicked questions, because he was ashamed of everything he ended up exaggerating about that night. He went as far as getting on call with Hank and threatening the most incriminatory of things over phone, only to find out Adelaide was home safe.

And there she was, indeed. Safe. He felt like a fool.

"I...," Barry's voice was hoarse and shattered, trying to see through the liquid emotions while stood tall beside her again.

"Come on," Adelaide urged him to come inside and not speak on the edge of leaving. Her heart was cornered by a certain state of helplessness, until she'd at least know what troubled him so deeply that he broke down at her door. Once she knew what this was all about, she could help ease some of the pain Barry was trying to bravely carry on his own by the looks of it.

Barry did not require to be yanked inside  by Addie. One gentle tug from her was welcoming enough to follow in the dimly lit apartment. She closed the door on a fast forward speed, just to not let him stand awkwardly for too long. All along, to the moment they could both sit down on the edge of her bed, Adelaide made it a mission to not let go of Barry's hand. He was holding on to her just as tight.