The Flash: Broken Bonds: A West-Allen Family Story

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Iris West-Allen

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Iris West-Allen

Central City, 2019, Star Labs

Some time later,

Gone.

Iris sat on the ledge in the training room, still firmly clutching the two closest things that she had to her family to her chest as she shut her eyes tightly.

The other Team Flash members, Cisco, Caitlin/Frost, and Ralph had returned a little while ago from their failed mission. All of the speedsters had gotten away, and they had whatever they needed to complete their plans.

And Joe and Cecile had come back to help coordinate CCPD's efforts with the team.

She should've been out there, coming up with the next plan of attack and helping put together what the speedsters were up to, but she couldn't find the strength to do it. She had lost everything she loved at once, and now everything except the pain that she felt seemed to fade into a distant, dull, rumble.

"They're gone," she thought, staring down at the ring and mask.

" I won't ever see them again. I'll never be able to tell them how much I love them."

Her mind was flooded with memories of the two most important people to her as tears slowly started to form in her eyes.

Barry...

A young Iris sat in her pajamas anxiously waiting at the top of her house's staircase, waiting to hear the noise of her front door opening, for the people she was looking for to come inside.

She had just gotten news that her father was bringing one of her friends over, and that he was pretty devastated. He had just lost his parents, and her dad had offered to let him stay with them.

That's why I'm waiting. I want to make sure that Barry's okay.

She heard the door's signature creak that she had heard hundreds of times before, and quickly stood up as she walked down the flight of stairs, stopping at the top of the first flight as she saw Joe and Barry entering the house, the former with his arm wrapped comfortingly and protectively around the latter's shoulder as they walked, though Iris doubted that it was doing much considering what her friend had just gone through.

That's not what matters though. What matters is being there for your friends.

" Why aren't you asleep?" Joe scolded.

" I was waiting for you to bring Barry home," Iris answered.

" Well, it looks like he's going to be staying with us for a little while," Joe sighed, both him and Barry exchanging a quick look with one another before he continued.

" Can you show him the guest room sweetheart?" he asked, Iris nodding her head slightly as she took a few steps down the stairs towards them.

" It's going to be okay son, go head." Joe told the young boy soothingly, as he gestured for him to go with Iris.

" Come on Barry," Iris said caringly, as she held out her hand for him to take.

Barry took his friend's hand and walked up the steps to meet her, looking like he had something important to tell her.

" Iris, my dad, he didn't do it." Barry told her sadly, to which he was referring to the death of his mother, which his father had been convicted of doing.

" I believe you," Iris reassured him, not wavering in her answer.

" Come on," she said, a faint smile on her face, leading him by his hand up the steps and into his new home, and to the new family that he had just found.