It had now been a couple of years since Barry had decided to give up his speed to Zoom. So far, Zoom had held up to his end of the promise. That he would stay on his earth and leave Barry's friends and family alone if Barry had agreed. "Can't I open just one present daddy?" His ten year old son asked. Barry had been glancing out the window doing some thinking about everything. He of course had already made his choice that he wanted to give up his career as the flash at one point. So he could spend more time with his family. But there was some days that he missed it.
He pulled his thoughts away for a moment as he heard his son's voice and turned giving Henry a smile. "Just a couple of hours till the party." He laughed. "I'm sure you can hang out a few more hours?" Henry sighed a little. "Fine... What am I going to do until then?" "It is quite a nice day out. Why don't we go sit outside for awhile?" Barry asked. Henry smiled. 'Alright..." Barry followed his son out of the house. Iris was at work, and would be home just in time for the birthday party to start.
At the sound of the doorbell, Henry quickly stood up from the table where he and Barry were playing a game. "I'll get it!" He shouted though Barry was right there. Barry leaned back in his chair and sighed then let out a small laugh at his son's reaction. Henry quickly ran to the door and opened it and smiled as he saw Cisco and Caitlin at the door. He smiled. "Uncle Cisco and aunt Caitlin!" 'Hey kid.." Caitlin smiled leaning in to give him a hug then stepped aside so Cisco could do the same. "Happy birthday Henry." Cisco said hugging him. Henry wrapped his arms around Cisco's neck as Cisco bent knee level to hug him. "Thank you Cisco.."
"Sorry just as I left the office I was stopped to check on something." Iris sighed. "I told them I needed to leave early." She said stepping into the house. She smiled as she saw most of the group was already there and gave them all a hug. "Sounds like you've been pretty busy lately." Joe told her as she went to hug her dad. 'Too busy.. How have things been at the office?" Joe nodded a little. "It's calmed down a lot lately since..." He said quietly as they both knew the reason why, there was less meta-humans.
"Mom!' Henry grinned running to her to give her a hug. She laughed. "Happy birthday sweetie." "Can I open presence now?" He pleaded. 'He's been begging all day.." Barry laughed shaking his head slightly. Iris smiled. "Pretty soon Henry. We still have to wait for Oliver, Felicity, Thea, John and Lyla..' Henry frowned a little. "Can't you tell them to hurry? Maybe Oliver needs the flash's powers." He smirked. Barry held his breath for a moment. Iris chuckles a little. "They'll be here soon. Felicity texted me said they would be here in ten minutes."
At the knock at the door, once again, Henry rushed to the door. "That's them!" He opened the door to see the team arrow group standing at the door. "Hey big guy.." Oliver said ruffling up Henry's hair a bit. Henry gave him a small scowl and made an attempt to flatten it back out. Felicity laughed at Henry's expression and followed Oliver inside the house as the other few greeted Henry and made their way into the house as well.
"Hey Henry.." Thirteen year old Laurel said with a small smile as she made her way through the door. Henry smiled back suddenly a bit nervous. "Hello Laurel.." Once everything was settled, Barry and Iris gave Henry the go ahead to open up his gifts.
"I think things went well today." Iris said as she made her way over to Barry once all the other guests left. "Yes they did." He smiled. "And I think Henry is starting to develop his first crush..." Iris laughed. Barry raises his eye slightly. "Our Henry? No! He's too young.." Barry teased back having noticed the same thing earlier. "Well you said you were the same age.." Iris grinned a little as she wrapped her arms around him. He wrapped his arms around Iris in return. "Well. I was younger actually. Just nobody knew about it except Joe.." "My dad is quite smart..." "Yes he is.. It was hard to get things past him." Barry laughed. Iris laughed a little. "That's not true. I found a way to trick him when you came back home late accidentally on that one date with Liiinda..." Iris stated. Barry smirked a little. "The car ran out of gas.." Iris laughed. "Mmm. Whatever you say Mr. Allen.." Barry leaned forward to give Iris a kiss. "Goodnight Mrs. Allen..." Barry smirked leaving her in the dark as he began to walk upstairs. Iris laughed and followed Barry upstairs. She stopped by Henry's room to check that he was still sleeping soundly then headed into the bedroom to get ready for bed.
"Can't I skip school for the day!" Henry mumbled too tired to get up." Iris sighed. "Come on sweetie. I am going to be late for work..." Henry grumbled and got up. He hated school. "Fine.." He muttered. Iris sighed. Just like Barry. She thought.
"Come on big guy..." Barry said coming in a few minutes later seeing that Iris still hadn't gotten Henry up. It was the same old routine every day. "I said I'm up!" He grumbled again. Iris glances over at Barry and he gives her a small shrug. "I'll take him to school. You need to get going." "Yes sir.." Iris teased. She gave Henry and Barry a hug before she walked out of the room.
Barry was in the lab with Cisco and Caitlin when he heard the phone ring. He narrowed his eyes when he glanced down at the number. It was the school. "Hello this is Barry Allen.." Hearing what the principal told him, Barry sighed . "I'll be right there.." He hung up. "Is everything alright?" Cisco asked. "I'm not sure..." Cisco looked at him with a worried expression. "Sounds like he's struggling in school. I'll be back when I can.." Barry grabbed his jacket then exited out of the lab to head to the school.
"Henry calm down okay? Tell me what happened.." Barry said pulling Henry onto his lap once he sat down on the couch and had got back to the house. Barry closes his eyes hearing what Henry was saying. He was following in Barry's footsteps of who he was before he was the flash. The class nerd. Barry wrapped his arm round him. "It's alright. I'm going to speak with the principal and we will work something out. She knows it's not your fault.." "I don't want to go back dad. Can we go to Star City? At least I know Laurel, William Sara there.." He muttered. "Star City is quite a bit a ways away... Let me talk to mom tonight and we can maybe see about homeschooling how about that?" Henry nodded a little. "Alright daddy..."
"Hey what's going on?.." Iris asked as she got home. The school had called her as well. Once Barry explained what happened, Iris lclosed her eyes a moment. "I knew something was wrong. A reason why he didn't want to go... We can see what kind of arrangements we can come up with with the principal first. If we can't come to an agreement, then I can set some days aside to homeschool him.." Barry shook his head. "You can't give up your job with that.. I'm rarely useful at the lab these days. I can stay home to help him if it comes to that." "Are you sure?" She asks. Barry wrapped his arms around her. "I'm very sure Iris.." Iris wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder. "I didn't think it would have gotten that bad." She whispered. "He will be fine. I was the same way..." Iris looked up at him. "But he doesn't have the privilege of becoming the flash..." "He will be fine. We will make sure of that. Things always turn up in the end...". He smiled. Iris smiled back a little. "You're right. I'm going to go check on him." Barry nodded and watched as Iris went to check on Henry.
Barry jumped as he hears the sound of clashing behind him. He whipped around and suddenly his heart stopped. The man who had stumbled into the lab was Jay Garrick. Barry stood up from his chair and quickly rushed over gripping the man. You have a lot of nerve coming back here.." He hissed. Jay smirked at the man. He knew as soon as he showed Henry who he was, Barry would know. But he wanted that to happen for his plan.
"I already told you I was going to stick to your promise. Now why don't you let go of me.." Jay glared at him. Barry kept as he was glaring back at the man. "Woah woah! What's going on here?" Cisco asked rushing over to the two men as he heard the commotion and rushed into the main room. Cisco looked surprised to see Jay back after all these years. He has left without warning after Zoom left and Barry had tried to make up as much excuses as he possibly could when Cisco and Caitlin had asked him where he went. He hadn't wanted them knowing who Jay really was.
"What are you doing back here? After all this time?" Cisco asked a bit confused at the situation. "I left something of mine here. And I came back to retrieve it." He smirked looking more towards Barry's direction as a warning. "Now that I got it, I'll be on my way.." Cisco watched as Jay left and turned back to Barry. "Barry. What the hell is going on? What aren't you telling us?" Barry took a deep breath. "Think about it Cisco..." Barry said in a more stern voice than intended. Cisco was about to speak when suddenly an image came to him. He once again saw Zoom in the cave. "Cisco?" Barry asked as he zoned out. "Oh. No no no.. That can't be. That's impossible. Jay.." Barry nodded slowly. "Yes.. Jay is Zoom.." Barry said quietly so Caitlin couldn't hear, confirming the fact for Cisco.
"If he's back, then something went wrong. He said he's back and he got what he came for.." Cisco stated. Barry's heart pounded remembering why Jay wanted him. "Oh no.. Cisco.. He wants my son... Jay wants Henry!" Barry said motioning for Cisco to quickly follow him out of the lab.
YOU ARE READING
WestAllen Love Story (Book 2)
FanfictionA new villain threatens to take over Barry's life just as Barry thinks he can retire from the flash and have a normal life with his family. I do not own anything, rights go to Flash.
