distance ⚡ barry allen [1]

42. plot twist after plot twist

So after one of the longest days of his life, Barry found himself ending it knocking on Spencer's apartment door. His heartrate was rapid and his breath was shaky as he waited for her to answer. When she finally opened the door, every opening line he had rehearsed on the way over died on his lips.

She was dressed in sweats and a hoodie, her hair pulled into a ponytail, and she was wearing her glasses. But that wasn't what alarmed him. It was the redness that outlined her eyes and the dry tear tracks on her cheeks.

"Have you been crying?" He asked her hesitantly after a few moments of observing her. He then made an oath to throw himself out a window if she was crying over him.

She sniffed once and crossed her arms over her chest, getting over the initial shock of seeing him there. Though, she really shouldn't be surprised. "Listen, can we get whatever reason you came here for out of the way first? If we start off with why I'm crying, I'm gonna start all over again which will make it hard to speak."

Barry nodded. She nodded for him to come in and he followed closely behind her and she led him to the couch like she'd done dozens of times before. He glanced around the room. For a usually neat person, the room was more cluttered than usual, but he didn't say anything. Instead he turned back to her in concern, "Are you sure you want me to go first? Because if you want-"

She shook her head, "No you go. I could use a distraction."

Barry took a deep breath and nodded again, "Okay, well Caitlin found a way for Cisco to view his dreams and talk us through them at the same time."

Spencer's face changed from a blank stare to one of interest, "Oh? Did it work?"

"Yeah, we tried it a couple hours ago. It really shook him up though."

Spencer frowned, cursing herself under her breath, "I should have been there."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Barry shook his head, reaching out to squeeze her hand.

He tried not to seem too hurt when she pulled her hand away from his grasp.

"Did you find out anything useful?" She asked, not meeting his eye for a few seconds.

"Um, yeah," Barry told her, shaking the moment off, "Apparently, the trap we set for the Reverse Flash all those months ago didn't work because it was all just a hologram Wells pulled on us."

She rolled her eyes at that, "Typical."

Barry scoffed, "Tell me about it."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, one more thing," Barry let out another low breath. "Cisco, in his dream-or memory- was able to get Wells to admit to killing my mother. But also...he really wasn't trying to kill her at all. He was trying to kill me."

Spencer's eyes widened, not sure how to respond to the revelation.

Barry instantly felt guilty again, "I'm sorry if that's the last thing you want to hear right now. I just wanted to-"

She shook her head, automatically reaching out to squeeze his hand before recoiling immediately when she caught herself. "No, it's okay. Barry, that's...I don't know what to say about that other than it just sucks."

Barry chuckled despite the situation, "Well that's the story of my life."

Spencer bit her lip, not sure what else to say, "Did anything else happen today?"

Barry shrugged. He turned to face her head on again and decided it was best to approach the elephant in the room. So he did it in a roundabout way.

"Eddie's planning to propose to Iris."

Spencer sat up a little at the news before slumping back down, "Poor Eddie. We both know how that's going to end up eventually."

Barry shifted himself so his whole body was angled towards her, "Is that why you didn't come to the lab today? Is that why you're so upset? Please tell me it's not."

Spencer shook her head quickly, "No, it's not."

Barry grew even more confused and worried, "Then what's wrong?"

She took a deep breath, already feeling the sadness begin to settle back into her chest. "Roy's...he's dead." The admittance came out barely audible but Barry still made it out.

"W-what?" He shook his head, not believing it to be true. How could that have happened?

She nodded, her lower lip trembling, "I guess he took the fall for Oliver so he wouldn't be arrested. He...He told the cops he was the Arrow and someone in prison s-stabbed him."

The tears quickly resumed falling on her face and Barry didn't hesitate in wrapping his arms around her. She didn't pull away from his touch this time and instead took refuge in it. She leaned into his chest as his hold tightened around her, his hand rubbing up and down her back.

"It isn't fair," She choked out, "Roy didn't deserve that. He's not perfect, he never was, but he was a good person. An amazing person. It isn't fair."

Barry's eyes closed tightly, the sound of her sobs physically hurting him. It quickly became his least favorite sound in the world.

"And I loved him Barry," She cried, "It's been years and things are different, but part of me still does and now..."

She was cut off by her own sobs and heavy breathing. Barry continued rubbing her back as his other hand came to cup the back of her head as he rocked back and forth. He tried whispering soothing things to her, hoping she'd calm down but it only seemed to make her cry more.

It wasn't long before his own tears began pricking his eyes. He agreed that Roy didn't deserve this, but he didn't really have the chance to get to know him. Maybe that's why the news struck a particular nerve in him. Mostly though, he was crying for Spencer. She told him the other day that he deserves happiness even though it didn't come easy to him. But in reality, it was her that deserved every shred of happiness in the world. Past, present or future. And he was going to do everything in his power from here on out to make sure she got that happiness. And if he was lucky enough to be involved in some direct way, then screw the future. He was going to make sure it happened.

~

Author's Note: So this chapter was strange since it didn't involve a lot of the direct scenes from the episode, though the important plot points were mentioned to set up next chapter. All you Arrow fans know the story about Roy from season 3 and all of you of course know the twist to it. Of course Spencer won't go on not knowing the whole time but I thought it made sense for her to have this.

ALSO TO ALL MY PEEPS WHO ARE PROBS SALTY ABOUT IRIS WEST-ALLEN...everything is not like it seems. I've sort of kind of foreshadowed my own twist to that storyline throughout the book so you'll have to be patient to see what happens.

Thank you all for reading and for leaving your lovely comments! I love you all!

xoMegan