distance ⚡ barry allen [1]

42. plot twist after plot twist

Spencer wasn't sure how long she continued crying that night. All she knew was that when she woke up in the morning, she was curled up in a ball on the couch and her eyes stung with dryness from all the tears she lost. She looked around, taking in the TV that was still on and the phone that was lighting up with messages from her friends, asking where she was. She reached out for it and scrolled through the various texts. Most were from Caitlin and Cisco but that newest was the only one from Barry. Her two friends were asking where she was while Barry's just read a simple 'Are you okay?' That was it, like he was afraid to ask her anything else. She assumed it was about last night and not Roy, because if he knew about that, then all of them would probably be over there right now.

She let out a loud breath and shut off her phone. She knew how important it was that she be there with her friends right now and whatever it was they were building in the lab to help Cisco remember his dreams, but the last thing she wanted to do was leave her apartment. Too many things were happening and she just needed a freaking break. So, she grabbed a pack of pop tarts from her kitchen before heading to her room to hibernate for the foreseeable future.

~

To say that Barry was worried about Spencer was an understatement.

For the first half of the day, she wasn't returning Caitlin or Cisco's messages. She didn't reply to his either. Cisco wanted to check on her when she didn't show up to the lab when she usually did, but Caitlin stopped him saying she probably needed time to absorb all the information they learned the previous night. She shot Barry a discreet look as she did this, hoping he'd listen to her too.

Barry understood that she was probably feeling horrible right now. Along with all of the stuff about Dr. Wells definitely being the Reverse Flash and not even Dr. Wells, they found out that Barry would most likely marry Iris someday- unless the last name thing was some sick coincidence. But he doubted it. He was so sure he'd never be able to erase the devastated look on Spencer's face when she saw the byline from his mind. She looked about as heartbroken as he felt, after finally getting so close to being with her. And that's what made no sense at all. His feelings for Iris were gone. Why the hell did he still end up marrying her? He really didn't want to know the answer to that question.

Reluctantly, he didn't do anything but send her that single text all day. Luckily he had a lot of distractions.

First, Caitlin informed Cisco and Barry of a way for Cisco to essentially watch his dreams as they happened. And wouldn't you know it, after overhearing part of their conversation, Wells was the one who assisted them in figuring out how to communicate with Cisco while he dreamt. Of course, Dr. Wells didn't know the real reason behind why they were doing it.

Second, he bumped into both Eddie and Iris at the precinct, which was uncomfortable enough. But it got worse when Eddie pulled Barry aside only to show him the ring he planned on proposing to Iris with. He also asked Barry to get Joe to change his mind about being against the whole thing which made things even more awkward.

Then later that night, they put Caitlin's idea to the test and had Cisco relive the dream- or moment from the alternate timeline- where Wells killed him. The two of them had a whole informative conversation beforehand which revealed a lot. And of course, the newfound info made Barry want to talk to someone about it- that someone being Spencer.

Before he even had the chance to process anything, Wells was sending him to the scene of a fire, where the man helped him put it out with his oddly supportive words that continuously made Barry question his every word. After that, he had a heart to heart with Joe, to ensure his foster father that he knew what was happening wasn't his fault. Joe had blamed himself since he let Wells take over looking after Barry while he was in the coma- but Barry would be dead if he didn't.