In A Blink ➳ Barry Allen/The Flash

44.

Natalie looked at the floor, her lips forming into a tight smile, "That was really cheesy, Bare."

"Come on, Nat. Be serious," Barry urged.

She sighed as she leaned into him, Barry wrapping his arms around her as he pulled her into his lap. Closing her eyes as all of the thoughts and possibilities flooded into her mind, she had no trouble imagining that if Barry went back, they would never meet. Sure, she would still come to Central City to be near Caitlin, but what were the chances that she would bump into Barry? And if he never lived with Joe, then certainly he would fall in love with his best friend, and not a want for love but a real love. "I can't tell you that, Barry," Natalie whispered as Barry rocked her.

Barry shifted so that he could press his lips to her cheek, "And why not?"

"Because if I tell you, it might not be what you want," Natalie answered simply as she held tightly onto his arm.

"I know that," Barry huffed, "I just need someone to tell me what to do."

Natalie tilted her head so that their noses brushed against one another, her brown eyes meeting his green. "Barry, you're a grown man. You have the ability to move faster than the speed of sound but you're taking this long to make a decision?"

Her boyfriend groaned, "You give me this look like you're finally going to tell me and then you make a sarcastic remark."

Despite the situation shadowing the two, Natalie couldn't help but giggle at his comment, "I wasn't being sarcastic so much as asking a real question." She played with his fingertips as silence fell over them, "I want to make this clear that I will not tell you what my opinion is on you going to save your mom. The question you should be asking is what do you think you should do. You said you couldn't make this decision without your whole heart in it, but you do. I'm telling you that after all of your hard work helping others, help yourself. It's okay to selfish, Barry. You're human. I'm not gonna hold you back from that.. And something tells me that you already know what your decision is.

Barry nodded his head against her shoulder, "I'm just scared."

"I know," Natalie said as she looked back up at him from their hands, "But the final verdict is always going to strike fear into people's hearts."

~~~~~

"According to Wells' calculations, Barry super speeds inside the accelerator ring. Once Barry reaches optimum speed, we then launch a hydrogen proton into the accelerator. Once the collision happens, a wormhole forms.. opening a gateway to time itself," Professor Stein explained as the group gathered in the Cortex. After Natalie and Barry's heart-to-heart, the speedster left to have a talk with his reverse, who then explained to him how he was going to travel back in time.

Natalie stared up at the modeled scenario, wincing every time the particle and dot representing Barry collided. She looked back to Barry as he spoke to Cisco, "What do you think?"

Their long-haired friend sat glumly at the computer desk, his hands plastered to either side of his face, "On the one hand, it does make a kind of sense. On the other hand, why? Why? Why would you ever consider doing this?"

Barry sighed, "You know why."

"And you. How could you let him go through with this?" Cisco asked as he focused on Natalie.

She was silent for a moment, the two friend's eyes locking and she desperately wanted to say that she didn't want Barry to go through with it, but instead she smiled sadly. "It's not my choice to make."

"So for this to actually work, how fast would Barry have to go?" Caitlin asked as she sensed the slight change in mood.

"At my estimate, Mach 2 at a minimum," the professor answered, causing Caitlin to grimace.