wanderess ; barry allen

chapter twenty-seven

"Ah, well, my ears popped, so that's something," Ray joked, wildly opening his jaw. Adley frowned, noticing Barry's obvious discomfort, and immediately gravitating toward him.

"You alright, babe?" She asked him, resting a head on his shoulder and nuzzling against his neck. His arm subconsciously snaked around her waist, pulling her closer. He nodded.

"Glad to see you two finally worked out your kinks." Felicity smirked.

Adley bit her lip before letting the joke slip, "You don't even know."

Adley was out to coffee with Felicity when it happened. Barry had just left, his job as the hero of Central City often whisking him away from her, so at this point she was used to it. Her and Felicity were enjoying when she felt the first sting, one on her leg, and she looked down to see a small bump swelling beneath her black jeans. She froze mid-sentence, her words falling short and silent.

"We need to go," She said through a strained breath, feeling several other stings up her arms.

"What? Is it Barry?" Felicity seemed particularly worried about Barry, and not quite as worried as the girl directly in front of her in equal amounts of pain.

"Appreciate the concern." Her teeth began to grind against one another to prevent pained gasps from slipping through. She stood, slinging her backpack over her shoulder, and stiffly walking towards to door to prevent a limp. Felicity noticed her slight wince, the blonde immediately taking two giant steps to reach her friend, wrapping an arm around her.

"Where do we go? How do we get to your apartment?" Felicity asked, now panicking herself, gaze flitting among buildings trying to assess her surroundings. That was when she noticed Adley had keeled over beside her, hand gripping her stomach. "Oh God, what's going on?" She lifted her head, a hollow look in her eyes, face slackened. "What is it?"

"Can you take me to the lab?" Adley asked numbly, their eyes unmet.

"Adley," Felicity insisted. "What's going on?"

Adley's mouth twisted in a rage unlike any other, "He's dead," she snapped, "Barry's dead."

Felicity said nothing else, for once keeping her mouth shut. Adley almost wished she would talk, to fill the space so that she couldn't herself thinking.

"They haven't called me." Adley flicked through the notifications in her phone. "Why haven't they called me? I'm his girlfriend, for Christ's sake, and I feel every ounce of his pain and they haven't called me."

"I'm sure they're busy, Adley," Felicity muttered from the driver's seat, knowing the brunette was sweaty dynamite right now.

"They should never be too busy for me!" Adley roared, her anger rattling Felicity's head and the dice hanging from her rear-view mirror.

"Adley, calm down," Felicity tried to soothe her friend, a hand reaching towards her, but it never met a body as Adley leapt from the car as it slowed in the parking lot of S.T.A.R. Labs.

"Why didn't anybody tell me?" Adley shouted, once again shocking the people around her with her raw, seemingly untamable rage.

Cisco's eyes were wide, "Adley, we we-"

"That's bullshit!" She shouted, her hands gripping the shoulders of Cisco's shirt, balled cotton in her fists. " You should've called me, first thing."

"Why is it so im-" He was again cut off.

"My boyfriend is dead! What about that doesn't seem important?"

Cisco froze, eyes relaxing at something over her shoulder. "What?"

Adley bit her lip, obvious tears forming in her eyes as she turned to see Barry. "No, how did this happen?" She asked.