𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐄 ━━ 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘩

⠀⠀𝟱𝟰. ❛ WELCOME TO THE FIRE ❜

     Coming to terms with that they needed a minute to think to themselves, the redhead had left the Cortex and made her way to the pipeline, which was where she currently sat.

     Her legs were crossed, and she sat with her back to the curved wall near the cell doors. The different compartments of her mind failed to work together, distracting the other and causing her thoughts to run wildly.

     The sound of footsteps approaching caused her to turn her head, the voices disappearing as her eyes locked with Barry's. Guilt contorted her heart, and she looked away, playing with her fingers idly. "This feels an awful lot like deja vu," she mumbled, referring to the night before Zoom and Aureolin's plan took place earlier that year.

     "Just a little," Barry breathed, leaning against the threshold of the cell, his gaze falling to where she sat.

     It was silent as the two remained motionless, neither looking the other in the eye.

     "I messed everything up so badly," Piper whispered, playing with the ring on her right index finger as she shook her head. "I didn't know what it would be like to come back here; came home after I killed Athena. A part of me didn't want to because I'd become the very thing that I feared the most: a killer. I sunk to her level, and I regret it so much. I know I had to save my Earth, but I lost so much that I can never get back. Killing her in front of everyone in the middle of Caruthers City Square was awful. The look on people's faces as I stuck my hand into her chest was heartbreaking. I was supposed to be their savior, and sure, I was seen as that afterward, but in the final moments of her heart beating in my hand, I was a murderer. A villain. My world and who I was, was destroyed in a matter of seconds."

     A tear slipped from the bubbling pool in her eyes, and the redhead quickly wiped it away. "After that, I needed someone who made me feel safe and sane. I needed you," Piper whispered, looking up at the speedster from where she sat on the floor. The second their eyes locked, she felt the tension in her chest loosen up. "I needed you so badly, Barry, but I was too scared to come back. So, I found your doppelgänger on Earth-Four. I thought that if I had a version of you in my life, it wouldn't matter whether or not it was the version that I fell in love with. But it did."

     Barry instinctively pulled his hand out of his pocket and held it out toward her. Glancing from the outstretched hand to the soft look clouding the brown-haired man's face, Piper bit down on her lip as she hesitantly grabbed it. Standing up, she frowned slightly as she felt his hand slip out of hers, sliding back into the pocket of his jeans.

     "Nothing I say, nor how many times I explain myself, will ever make up for what I did to you and everyone else. But please... please know that I'm sorry. Barry, I'm so sorry," Piper whispered weakly, her eyes scanning his face, trying to decipher the conflicting facial expression he wore.

     Darting his eyes in between hers, Barry sighed.

     Everything in him wanted to be angry, to yell and shout at her, explaining how she not only broke his heart but everyone else's, but he couldn't.

     The version of Piper Lita he was angry with wasn't the current one he was speaking to. He was speaking to his Piper, his girl. The woman he continued to fall more in love with every day, despite her recent actions.

     "You were taken advantage of and drugged," Barry sighed, directing his eyes away from hers as he looked to the floor. "We know it wasn't you who did all of those horrible things."

     Piper pushed down the lump in her throat as she noticed how tightly his jaw was clenched.

     He only did that when he was angry.