Bittersweet Love

13. Fearless

Iris rubbed her sweaty palms on her pants in nervousness. Taking a deep breath, she pressed the tablet to open the barrier to the metahuman cells.

Eddie scrunched his face from the sudden light in his cell that had been nothing but darkness for a few days now. He removed his hand from his face to see the figure standing in front of him.

He returned to his stern demeanour after glancing at Iris. Eddie stood up and faced the other way while his back leaned against the cell door.

"Eddie, I know this is not ideal-" She began.

"Iris please," Eddie interrupted. "Just please, don't start again. I don't want any explanation or excuse from you. I just want to be left alone." He said helplessly.

"Well that's the thing," Iris stammered. "I-I can't leave you alone, Eddie. What we had-"

"What we had, Iris. Had. We cannot have that again no matter how much you try." He turned around facing her. "Some things are better left in the past." He whispered.

"But the past was incredible, we were so happy together." Iris encouraged, stepping closer to the door.

"You are right, it was beautiful. I was insecure when I saw the by-line on the newspaper, but you promised me. You promised me that I was your present and future and that you would never be with Barry. The same Barry that you are now married to." He harshly spat, as his eyes clouded.

"Eddie, you were gone for six years." She tried to reason.

"Yeah," Eddie shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at his feet. "Six years is an appropriate time to move on from someone you loved." Eddie cruelly wiped a dripped tear. "Now if you will please, shut the door on the way out will you? The darkness is comforting." He requested as he sat back down, leaning against the wall.

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Caitlin irritably glared at Cisco who was loudly chewing his liquorice. Ignoring it for the billionth time, she inhaled to calm herself down and got back to work.

"Cisco I have restocked the starchives, is there anything else you want me to do?" Barry asked, flashing into the cortex.

"Nah man, thanks though."

"Huh, that's new." Caitlin muttered.

"What new?" Barry inquired, leaning on the bars of the panel.

"The blood sample that you collected from Ted Willows contains small shards of metal in it." Caitlin informed.

"What metal?" Barry frowned.

"I don't know, I have to do some tests before I can say anything." She said.

"Huh, how come I didn't find anything when I analyzed the sample?" Cisco pointed.

"That's why you are a mechanical engineer and I am bioengineer." Caitlin smirked proudly, swirling on her chair.

"Whatever." Cisco made faces.

Caitlin poked her tongue out at him while he continued to make faces at her. Finally seeing her smile wholeheartedly, Barry couldn't help but feel happy from her reaction. Unknowingly, a goofy smile formed on his face.

"Allen, are you okay?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, why would you ask?"

"Your face," Harry pointed to his lips. "It's doing something...weird." He said for a lack of a better word.