In A Blink ➳ Barry Allen/The Flash

21.

chapter twenty-one ; the past or the present

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Natalie felt the push back from the pressure and leaned into Barry, tightening her hold around his neck. She felt the wind pushing against her, the howling as they rushed past, unable to open her eyes due to fear, felt her hair whipping around. Natalie found herself automatically holding her breath and eventually pulled in a breath of air as she faced Barry's chest. She focused on his heartbeat, pressing her ear closer to his chest, hearing it drum abnormally fast as he sped on.

Shortly, the pressure stopped and Barry set her down. Natalie opened her eyes and fixed her hair as she saw Barry turning in circles looking around at the intersection he stopped in. Natalie did the same, noticing two people holding back their barking dogs, a man spinning a sign in a circle, a frustrated woman failing to hail a taxi. Barry was breathing heavily, looking around like he couldn't believe where they were.

"Barry? Barry, what's wrong?" Natalie asked, getting a bit scared at the way he was acting. "Barry! The morgue."

Barry snapped out of his trance and walked towards her, placing both hands on her shoulders. "I'm gonna leave you here and you need to hail a cab to the morgue. That way you won't be in any danger when I face whoever is breaking in there. Okay?"

Natalie nodded and gave him a soft kiss, trying to calm him down a bit from whatever was scaring him, "Remember, do good. Stay safe."

Barry nodded and pecked her lips once more before speeding off and leaving Natalie in the intersection. Natalie ran over to the same side of the street the woman was yelling from and had more success hailing a cab. Once the cab came to a stop, Natalie yelled out at the lady and waved her arm, motioning for her to come over, "Hey! You need it more than I do. I'll get the next one."

"Thank you. Thank you so much," the woman praised as she ran over and slid in the cab, pulling the door shut behind her. Natalie didn't wait to see the cab pull away and had a bit more trouble getting another one.

The driver hesitated to pull over when he arrived at the scene. A few cop cars were pulled up to the morgue, caution tape blocking the way in, and a crowd of people surrounding the area. "Ma'am, I'm not sure you should be here-"

"I work at the CCPD," Natalie interrupted, quickly paid the driver, and jumped out of the cab. "Joe. Joe! A little help here?" Nat called as she ran up to the tape.

Joe chuckled as he saw one of the cops on crowd control eyeing her, "She's okay." He chuckled even more when she was by his side, "We've really got to get you a badge soon. So Barry said you know.."

"About his special talent? Yeah I know. It's..strange, coping with all of it," Nat muttered as they walked up to the entrance of the morgue.

Joe stopped her before they went in, "I just want to warn you, there's a dead body in there-"

"Yeah I know. It's a morgue," Nat stated as she looked at Joe.

Joe sighed and spoke again, "That's not what I meant. The coroner, he was murdered."

Natalie felt a pang in her chest and suddenly looked around, "Where's Barry? Is he okay?"

"He's fine. Let's just go in and remember, it's just a shell," Joe said as he gave her shoulder a squeeze and took tentative steps inside so that he made sure Natalie was alright.

Natalie took deep breaths and muttered, "It's just a shell," trying to numb down her emotions a bit.

Joe carried his coffee in his free hand and stopped to take in the scene. Natalie still hadn't seen Barry but was looking at the protrusion of a body on a table, covered by a thin blue sheet and another body uncovered on the floor.