By the time Barry returned to the apartment, it was nighttime. The kids were asleep in their bedrooms. Parker, with free time, resorted to grading. Papers were spread across the bed, sorted into different piles for all different class periods.
When Barry skidded to a stop in her bedroom, the papers went flying, smashing together all the class periods into one huge mess.
Parker stared at the bed. Second by second, her shoulders slouched, until her body fell forward and she fell face first into the mattress. She didn't move, either in frustration with the idea that she would need to organize the papers later, or with Barry.
He didn't dwell much on it. Hurriedly, he said, "I need you."
Parker sat up. "Okay, no. This is what we need to talk about, Barry," she was trying to say.
Barry couldn't postpone the awaiting meeting any longer. He swept her from the bed, adjusting her briefly in his arms, then running back to Ramon Industries, where he had left Iris, Wally, and Cisco very confused.
"Who are you?" asked Iris instantly.
He took of his hood. "The man who's gonna help you stop the Rival."
"Barry?" gasped Iris.
"Barry!" screamed Parker, turning from frustrated to distraught. "I can't leave my babies alone when they're sleeping! Take me home right now! I did not give you permission to lift me and sweep me off to wherever you please!"
In response to her panic, Barry handed her a cell phone, which was connected to both his personal cell and hers, too. She listened. She could hear each child breathing. She pressed the mute button on the cell phone in her hand.
"I cannot believe you just stripped me away from my children--" said Parker, oddly calm.
Barry took a cautious step away.
"--especially when they're sleeping. You know Evee has nocturnal asthma."
"You and I are literally seconds away from her," he defended.
"That's supposed to make me feel better?!" shouted Parker.
"You're a father?" wondered Iris.
Barry tilted his head. "Technically, yes."
"How can that be technical?" asked Wally.
Parker turned to answer in a snippy way, but her eyes caught onto the other person in the room. She calmed for a brief second, nodding to him. "Hey, Cisco."
"Nice to see you, Park," said Cisco.
Barry's jaw dropped. "You two know each other?"
"Our older brother's used to be friends," said Parker, at the same time, Cisco said, "Yeah, I'm the godfather to her kids."
Barry couldn't help his smile. "Some things never change."
"Except the timeline, right?" snapped Parker.
"What?" asked Iris.
Ignoring Parker, Barry breezed through important parts of his past, starting with the death of his mother and ending with the death of his wife and daughter. He explained how and why Flashpoint was creating, and that they had previously never existed until he did so.
By the end, Iris took a seat. Next to her, Wally leaned on the chair. The pair of siblings stared at the floor, letting the information soak in before one decided to speak their thoughts.
Cisco, however, continued to raise an unimpressed eyebrow at Barry.
"Okay, so I can tell by the, 'I don't believe you' looks on your faces that you don't believe me," decided Barry.
"We believe you're a speedster, but you're gonna have to explain that part about Flashpoint again," said Wally, looking at Iris for confirmation.
"All right, look," tried Barry, grabbing a dry-erase marker. "This is as simple as I can put it. I'm gonna use this glass, Mr. Ramon."
"What, no--" tried Cisco.
"Imagine this line as time," interrupted Barry, drawing a straight line across the board. "I went back in time, stopping the Reverse-Flash from killing my Mom. In doing so, I created an alternate timeline; a whole new existence where you're Kid Flash--"
"Flash," corrected Wally.
"Kid Flash," corrected Barry, Iris, and Cisco.
"--and where my wife used to be my high school sweetheart and where Cisco's a billionaire," finished Barry.
"So you're saying there's a whole timeline out there where I'm not rich?" confirmed Cisco. With Barry's nod, he frowned. "Boy, that's a glitch in the universe."
"No, I'm not buying it. My life is my life. it didn't just start three months ago, okay? I've always been me," denied Wally.
"I don't know what to tell you, Wally, it's complicated," said Barry.
Iris said, "Even if we did believe you, why are you telling us this now?"
"Because I've been hiding here for too long. The Rival needs to be stopped. I stop the bad guys, and we can all take him down together," explained Barry hopefully.
Defensive, Wally said, "I can get him myself."
"Then why haven't you?" asked Barry.
"All right, well, I'm not interested," said Cisco flatly. "I don't know how many times I have to tell you freaks, I already did my bit for Queen and Country."
Barry looked around, then said, "Wait, we're missing something..."
"My children?" asked Parker.
Ignoring Parker once more, Barry zipped to the computer by Cisco. Using his speed, he clicked away on the keyboard, searching through files while Cisco nagged him for using the computer without permission in the first place. A few seconds passed, then Barry asked to be excused. No one had time to answer, let alone protest, before he was gone.
His return brought a woman in a lab coat into the Cortex.
"What just happened?" she breathed, utterly confused.
"Stop bringing stranger's into my Lab!" shouted Cisco, pointing his finger at Barry. "Who is this?"
"This is Dr. Caitlin Snow. In my timeline, she's apart of our team," explained Barry.
"You just kidnapped this woman!" said Cisco and Parker together. They looked at each other, surprised by their aligning thoughts.
"No, I didn't," said Barry by default. His brow came together. "Well, yeah, I guess I... She's a scientist, we need her."
"I'm not a scientist," denied the woman.
Barry did a double-take. "You're not a scientist?"
"I'm a ophthalmologist," she explained.
"An eye doctor?" asked Barry, scrunching his face.
"A pediatric eye doctor," she said proudly.
Wally widened his eyes. "And we're done."
Iris tapped Parker's shoulder, then nodded to Barry. Quietly, she asked, "Did you believe him?"
"I did when he first told me," grumbled Parker.
"How'd you know?"
Parker watched Barry. She observed him going back and forth with Caitlin and Cisco, trying desperately to help them understand the situation at hand. That was just it: Barry was desperate for his old life back. He wanted to force these people together for the same goal as he had in his timeline. He, despite the truth he didn't want to admit, was hopeful that they would work as well as his old team did.
"From the way he acted with me," sighed Parker. "He came to me, and I didn't realize it until later, but a part of him was missing. I knew it by how desperate he was to wiggle me back into his life. Then, he told me about everything, and it made sense. He was just trying to fill the hole in his heart, you know? I was trying to do the same... It just... I don't know."
"You were something else in his timeline?" asked Wally.
"She was my wife," said Barry, entering the conversation.
"And you two are together now?" asked Iris.
"Well... Uh..." stuttered Parker.
"I..." muttered Barry awkwardly, after hearing Parker's response.
Saving the awkward day unknowingly, Cisco called, "Hey, turns out Kiddie Eye Doc here actually had a good idea."
"I have always wondered why no one turned the speed cameras in the city to register near sonic velocities," explained Caitlin, shrugging. "It seems like a ready-built early warning system,"
"So I reprogrammed the cameras, and.... Babadook!" said Cisco proudly. He tapped the computer screen to show a map. "There's your Rival. The old Sawmill out by Williamson."
Barry looked to Wally. "Follow my lead."
"The Flash doesn't follow anyone," said Wally.
"Listen to him, Wally. He's the Flash," ordered Iris.
Caitlin, however, had been staring underneath Cisco's glasses the entire conversation. She took the silence as a chance to say, "You know, you would be an excellent candidate for Lasik."
Parker grabbed Barry's wrist before he could zip away. "Take me home," she ordered.
"What? No, I need you here," he said.
"And my babies need me, Barry," she snapped.
"Okay. Uh, okay, just hold on," he said quickly.
Barry Allen decided the solution to her issue was to run to the apartment and bring the kids to Ramon Industries. He set one kid in Cisco's arm, the other in Parker's, then ran away to meet Wally and fight the Rival.
Cisco shifted an awakening Evelyn in his arms. Distastefully, he muttered, "You're letting him father your children?"
"Rethinking it now," mumbled Parker.
Shifting Nathan into her shoulder, she approached Cisco and grabbed Evelyn in her other arm. Both kids cuddled into her automatically, barely waking. She brought them out of the Cortex, into the hallway, where a couch was placed against the wall. She settled the kids into the couch, throwing her jacket over them, since no blanket had been brought.
"Mommy?" yawned Nathan.
"Sorry, baby. Mommy had to take an unexpected trip," said Parker, bending down to kiss his forehead. "Go sleepies, okay?"
Nathan nodded and set his head on Evelyn's shoulder. His eyes closed.
Parker returned to the Cortex, frustrated beyond belief. She took a seat, resting her head in her hands. She had no thoughts to think other than how careless Barry had been. She was unable to draw her inner voice to say anything besides, 'What the fuck?'
"Wally!" gasped Iris suddenly.
"Suit's telemetry says he's still alive," said Cisco.
"Barely," added Caitlin.
Parker raised her head, brow furrowed. For some odd reason, the conversation felt familiar to her. A sense of alarming deja vu stirred within her. She scooted the chair closer to where Iris, Caitlin, and Cisco were huddled around the computer.
"Barry, talk," she ordered, pressing the speaker button.
"I'm losing them!" he groaned.
"Losing what?" asked Parker.
Barry neglected to answer. All that was heard was the wind rushing past his earpiece as he ran. For a response, Parker looked to Cisco.
"Oh, my God, it's like Twister in here. The movie, not the game," said Cisco, clearing confusion quickly. He continued, "Satellites picking up two distinct funnel patterns. Both measure F3 on the Fujita Scale. This guy's, like, a Weather Wizard or something."
Nathan padded around the corner, tugging at his Mother's hand. "Mommy?" he asked.
"Hush, baby, Mommy's concentrating," she said, patting his head.
"Mommy, Evelyn--"
"Losing what, Barry?!" said Parker impatiently.
Seeing as his mother was busy, Cisco scooped Nathan up from the floor and brought him into the hallway to settle him down again.
"My memories, my speed... The more I use my speed, the faster I forget my old life. I'm forgetting about..." he breathed, horrified. "I can't beat him!"
Parker rolled her eyes. "Come on, Bar. That's a little dramatic."
"Thanks!" he said sarcastically.
"I don't know what you want me to say, Barry. I don't even know if there's anything I can say that's going to make you feel like you can do it," snapped Parker.
It was then she saw her reflection in the computer screen. Staring at herself, she raised her eyebrow. She shared the same face as the love of his life. Coincidentally, the same voice, too. Parker couldn't give him the same motivational speech his Parker could. However, if she could give him what he wanted to hear, what he yearned to hear for the last three months, perhaps she would be able to trick him into the right mindset for the issue ahead.
Softly, she said, "It's been three months since I've seen you, Barry Allen. I know you miss me more than anything in the world. I know you think about me every minute of every day. You should know that, up here, I've done nothing but watch over you. I watch you now, I watch you struggle to find the motivation to beat this speedster. I want you to find a different way to beat him, okay? Use your damn brain, think of a different way. Think like me. Be the Flash, my hero, for me. And you beat this guy."
Barry's heavy breathing filled her ears. Every second he didn't respond, Parker bit her lip harder, hopelessly praying her trick worked.
"I'm the Flash."
"Mommy!" cried Nathan.
Cisco ran into the Cortex, frantic. "Park, where's Evee's inhaler?!"
"It's in my purse, go ahead and I'll be right..." said Parker, without thinking. She then realized why her baby would need it, and that her purse was left at home when Barry took her. Panicking, she screamed Barry's name into the speaker.
"Baby, I'm a little--"
"Bartholomew, get your ass home and find Evee's inhaler, now! She's having an asthma attack!"