ColdFlash- Soulmates

Chapter 18: Hero

  It was on the news that night a week after they had come up with the idea. Captain Cold saving the day. Big headlines because it was such an uncharacteristic thing to do.
  There had been a fire, a genuine one that had nothing to do with Mick, and Len had been there to help. He had been pulling people out of the flames before the Flash had turned up (only slightly delayed). There had been children, a party of some kind in the apartment building and Captain Cold had managed to ferry every one of them out through the smoke and burning rubble. 
  Headlines like "Hero Cold" and "Savior Snart" we're appearing in the newspaper, online and on the live news. The story was spreading just like Leonard and Barry had hoped.
   Team Flash as a whole hadn't been too keen on the idea of making Snart a hero. Cisco sat firmly with the belief that Snart was a villain and that he was too cold hearted to actually mean any of the good that he did. That it would all be an empty and false ploy. In the end it had been Caitlin adding her support to Barry's that had changed their minds.
  The news report, the rescue, it was only the start of their plan though. Barry was determined that Central City would see the light in Leonard Snart. See the light that shone so bright for him. They needed to see it because Cisco was wrong, the empty act wasn't the saving the day bit, the false impression that Leonard Snart Gaven over was his apparent love of being bad.
  The whole of Central City, and Cisco in particular were going to see just how amazing and good Leonard Snart was. Because Barry had never been as sure of anything until life as he was sure that Leonard was a good man.

***

Eight years later

  It had been years since anyone had seen Leonard Snart as anything other than a savior. He was still Captain Cold of Central City but no one seemed to remember the origin of that name because the things that Leonard Snart had stolen, the people he had kidnapped, hurt, killed... they were remembered by the families but there were more families that remembered him for the loved ones he had saved. All the acts of good that he had done had eclipsed the bad. Barry's goal had long ago been achieved: he had shown Central to good in the man he loved.
   On the shelves beside the Flash action figures stood the ones of Captain Cold and even Heatwave. The three were known to work together, wherever the Flash was there would be Captain Cold and Heatwave, where there would be Captain Cold there would be the Flash and Heatwave. They were the saviors of Central.
  The team and his family had all excepted Lenard as Barry's partner in life, had accepted him as one of them . Even Cisco had long since got over the business with Dante and the kidnapping. Leonard himself had come to realize that Barry was right about him and who he really was, what he really felt accomplished doing.
  Three years previously Len and Barry had gotten married. By that point the city had long ago accepted Cold as a hero, as had all of Barry's loved ones. Iris thought their relationship was adorable and Joe had gladly welcomed someone who had turned their life around so drastically, who made his son smile so much. It was at a point in there relationship where they had seen that there really was no backing out, that they had become two parts of a whole and that they wouldn't ever be without the other. Marriage just seemed to make that realization final. They had made it through all of the stressed over the years together, mopping up from Len's old life, the betrayal of Harrison Wells and then Jay Garrick who was really Hunter Zolomon. The death of Henry Allen... In the end they decided that really maybe they deserved the wedding.
  Their actual ceremony was quite, no one dressed up, no one felt the need. Barry Allen and Leonard Snart had practically been married for the past five years anyway. Joe, Iris, Cisco, Caitlin, Wally West, Harry, Jesse, H.R, Team Arrow, Lisa and Mick were all there. Barry just wished that his dad had been alive to see it, but Zoom had seen to that. It was just nice to tie the knot though, make everything even more really, tied firmly to reality... it was really nice. Everyone was so happy when the vows were said and the newlyweds had kissed. They were the ones that had survived, they were alive and a family. They were the ones that would stick together no matter what. It made it the happiest day ever for Barry, because despite the absence of loved ones like Eddie and his dad, those that were alive were all there, they were all still on the same path. They were all there including the people from his secret life those years before the Flash, he had joined everything he had loved, a sign that he had accomplished what he had set out to do.
  Through it all there was still the danger, it was the reason that Barry and Len had never got  kid. Out fighting there was always the chance that one night they just wouldn't come home, and that wasn't fair on a child. It didn't matter though because they had each other, all the risks they took just made each moment more precious. They were heroes and they had everything that they could ask for.

End