"...Mel's passed out in your room..." said Wally casually, and, just like that, Barry's head fell into absolute confusion again. His world came to a screeching halt when he registered the words, and even then, all he could utter was a breathless, "What?"
His baby girl was alive. Somehow, someway, she was real and living and breathing and sleeping, up in his bedroom. He didn't think past the fact that she was alive. All he yearned to do was grab her and never let go, because, at last, he had something we wanted.
Barry let his fast feet carry him to the door of his bedroom. The meeting between he and his daughter did no longer need to be prolonged. He applied his hand to the doorknob, then twisted it. He stopped before he could push open the door and see their daughter.
"You can't be the Flash and a father, Barry," Flashpoint Parker had told him. Unfortunately, his test run on being a father didn't exactly oppose her point. He neglected to safely balance the Flash life with kids that weren't biologically his, he could only imagine what horrors could lie ahead if he did the same with his own baby girl.
Opening the door meant accepting a life without the love of his life, but with his daughter. It meant being okay with raising a daughter that will never know her mother, or being constantly reminded of the woman he couldn't save, or the two people who were never going to be able to meet her.
Entering his bedroom also brought forth the possibility of having a beautiful baby girl who could, one day, turn out just like her mother. It proposed chances for the Flash family to grow closer to raise the baby girl, because each and everyone knew Barry shouldn't have to do it alone and protect the city. It meant endless amounts of love for his daughter, because she was Parker's, too.
To Barry, it meant all the more reason to be with his baby girl, because a multitude of things could take him away from her. The life he lived was not one for a child, let alone to be raised by a single father, but he had no option except to finally listen to Parker and exercise caution in everything he did from that moment forward.
Barry pushed open his bedroom door.
On his bed, in the middle of two pillows, a baby girl was laying down.She was tiny, no bigger than ten pounds yet. She wasn't long, either; the Chewbacca stuffed animal next to her was longer in height. She was too young to distinguish distinctive traits from each parent, besides the black curls at the top of her full head. Those came straight from Parker.
"Melody Nora," he said softly.
For ten minutes, at the least, Barry couldn't tear his eyes away from her. He observed every inch of her, wondering how in the world something so beautiful and pure could have come from such a couple like he and Parker. She was extraordinary and she couldn't even speak yet. He was in love the moment his eyes landed on her.
Barry noticed a couple photos on the side of his bed as he went to take a seat. One was a selfie taken by Cisco, in which he showcased Barry holding Parker's hair back as she threw up into a garbage can. Morning sickness, he assumed. It had also served as their announcement photo, apparently, based on the cursive writing on the bottom reading: Parry baby coming soon!
The second photo was taken soon after Melody's birth, he guessed, from the obvious hospital surroundings in the back. Melody was passed out in Parker's arms, Parker looked exhausted within her smile, and Barry looked ecstatic, despite the clear bandage around two of his fingers.
In the last photo, the whole team was included. Parker, Barry, and Melody were in the center. Cisco was kissing Melody's cheek, causing her to giggle. Iris, Jesse, and Caitlin were hugging onto Parker, clearly cautious not to crush the baby. Joe and Wally wrapped their arms around Barry, who grabbed a hold of Harry to add him in the photo, too. No smiles were forced. Utter happiness existed within the photo, brought on by the appearance of their baby.
"I'm proud of us, Park," he whispered, offering a smile to the photos of his wife. "I'm proud of the team we put together, of the life we built in the little time we had. I'm proud that we made her."
Barry wiggled the pillows away from protecting Melody and propped them against the headrest. She didn't notice his presence until he climbed into the bed, although he did it with the slightest amount of weight at a time.
She began making quiet noises to ensure her father knew she was unhappy about being woken up. She then opened her eyelids, showing off her pretty brown and green speckled eyes.
Barry's smile caused his cheeks to ache. "Got my eyes, didn't you, pretty girl? I bet your Mom melted when she noticed that... I sure just did."
With careful hands, he scooped his daughter from the mattress and to his chest. He tucked her in her blanket, then threw another over himself. He set his hands loosely around her tiny body, rubbing his fingers up and down her spine to get her back to sleep.
"I know, I know," he said softly, pressing kiss after kiss to her head. "I'm sorry. I just want to hold you tonight, baby girl. Can you let me do that?"
Melody Nora Allen didn't make another noise for the entire night.
YOU ARE READING
Within Seconds: Flashpoint Edition
Fanfiction[ based on season three of The Flash ] || book three of three || Finding and causing Parker Sylas to fall in love with him again wasn't going to be hard, Barry thought, as he had done it once before. What he hadn't planned on was being subjected t...
