Short on Time

Chapter 48

"What kind of idiot still thinks I can't outrun bullets?" Barry asked overly chipper.

"That guy should be the criminal poster boy for what not to do against The Flash," Wally said.

"So what are we gonna call him?" Barry asked.

"You mean like a nickname?" Caitlin asked.

"Yeah. Cisco does it for all of them, he's like the master of it," Barry said.

"Um, babe," I said trying to stop him.

"Can't just call him Suspect on a Motorcycle, Right? What do you think?" Barry asked Cisco.

"I don't know," Cisco said.

"I'll take this one. Uh, The Crook. Lame? A Five-Finger," Barry suggested.

"How about Thief? He robs stuff. Let's just call him Thief," Cisco said making all of us stop whatever we were doing from the awkwardness. "Gotta get to the gym."

"Excuse me. The gym? Is he is he, like, working out now or..." 

"You know, Barry, sometimes your jokes just aren't very funny," Caitlin said.

"I should, I should get back to the paper," Iris said.

"It's okay. I was just leaving," Joe said.

"Hey, guys," Barry said. "Hey, Joe.Look, hey, I'm sorry. Look, I just, I know you guys aren't speaking to each other right now, but I was just thinking maybe we could talk about why that is for a minute."

"Dude," Wally said.

"No, we can't," Iris said.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I just look. I'm sorry, I just thought, I don't know, maybe it would be good for you guys just to hear it said out loud," Barry said.

"This is because of what he did, Barry, not me," Iris said.

"Iris," Joe said.

"What? What could you possibly have to say?" Iris demanded before she stormed out.

"I'll just see you at the station, all right? Nice job with, uh, Thief," Joe said.

"Uh, give me a lift to CCU?" Wally asked.

"Sure," Joe said.

"So you're still taking engineering classes," Barry said randomly.

We all gave him a look, "yeah..."

"Yeah, cool. All right, well, good luck with that," Barry said as Wally and Joe left.

I looked at Barry concerned, "are you okay? Do you have a fever?"

"I'm fine," Barry said when I touched his forehead.

"Are you sure? Because it looks like you're trying to make Iris as mad at you as she is at Joe," I said. 

"I'm sorry, I-I guess I don't fully understand why she's so upset at him," Barry said.

I sighed, "then maybe you shouldn't bring it up again."

"Maybe, there are other things I should bring up," Barry said.

I looked at him confused, "like what?"

"Like how I promise you we would get married after I beat Zoom," Barry said.

"Barry, your father just died. I don't want you to do something because of something you said. I really don't mind waiting. I'll wait for you to be ready Barry," I said rambling on until Barry cut me off by kissing me.