Dead Beautiful (A Harrison Wells Fanfic) *ON HOLD*

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 14.
The One In Which Barry Wakes Up And Harrison Acts Really Bitchy (Although In Fairness To Him, I Did Kinda Off His Friend)

The call came in at around 12:30 PM, just as I was sitting down at the work desk in my studio with my copics in one hand, and inking pens in the other. I had been expecting it, but what with my Abhorsen duties and my little metahuman murdering side-job, I had been a little distracted lately. "Lee here," I said, cradling the phone between my ear and my shoulder as I started working on a fresh page.

"Hey, it's me, Caitlin. So listen, I have some pretty big news." She sounded really excited.

I dropped my pencil with a thwack! onto the desk. "Oh, my god. He's awake, isn't he?"

"Yes! Well, if you're talking about Barry, that is." I was already up and running down the stairs, my editor shouting profanities after me. It was the first time in months I had actually sat down to work on a commission, and my poor editor had been rather excited about it; my additional job as a mass metahuman-murderer had been keeping me quite busy. "He's awake and in peak mental and physical condition. It's a miracle, really."

"Okay, I'm on my way." I had reached the lobby by now.

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to be necessary."

I was about to ask her what she meant, but then I saw him. Standing at the entrance of the lobby. With a bouquet in his hand.

Oh, my god he SO remembered. I had kind of been hoping that the lightning bolt had zapped the memory of our little one-night stand from his mind. Quite obviously, it didn't.

Well, this was definitely going to be awkward.

"Ba-Barry!" I exclaimed, hanging up on Caitlin as I walked up to him. "What are you doing here? You should be resting back at the lab!"

"I know, but I had to see you." The poor kid looked even more nervous than me. Although on him, nervousness was a trait that actually looked kind of adorable. "I, um, brought you these." He more or less thrust the flowers into my hands, which he had been holding do tightly that the stems had begun to droop. "Er, I swear they were in a much better condition when I bought them."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "They'd better have been." We looked awkwardly at each other, not quite sure what to say. But at this point, I couldn't help it - I burst out laughing. And after a second of surprise, Barry followed my suit, too.

"Oh god, Barry, I missed you so much!" I exclaimed, pulling him into a tight hug. "Don't you ever go around getting hit by lightning bolts again."
I pulled away and grinned happily at him. "Wait, let me grab my coat and then we can go out for lunch."

"Yeah, I could sure use a Big Belly Burger right about now," Barry agreed. I turned around to run back to my studio, but he grabbed me by my shoulder. "Nova, wait."

I looked up at him. He was quite a bit taller than me. "What is it, Bear?"

He couldn't even look straight at me as he muttered, "I, um, I think we need to talk, about, you know..."

"About how we slept together right before you went into a coma for nine months?" I finished his sentence for him. "Yeah, I gathered that much from the flowers, Barry." I shuffled my feet nervously, my eyes on the ground as I continued, "Look, you don't have to worry about that, okay? I don't expect anything from you. Really."

"Oh, alright." He actually sounded kind of disappointed.

I kissed him on the cheek. "I'll be right back," I told him, before racing up the stairs and grabbing my red leather jacket. When I made my way back to the lobby again, though, Barry was still standing at the entrance, but he looked kind of... weird. His clothes and hair were disheveled, and he had a deer-in-the-headlights expression on his face.