Legacy » Snowbarry

04

Barry glanced at them, shocked at the revelation at what the future held for him. He was silent for a couple of minutes until he finally thought of something to say. 

"How old were you two when it happened?"

"I was born, um, a few years before you vanished. Penelope was born months after me. But neither of us have any memories of you."

"So the wedding-"

"Was pretty much the first time I met you. I'd imagined so many different things to say to you. I guess things don't always go the way you plan them."

Barry glanced at Penelope. "And when you came to Joe's house. That was your first time meeting me."

Penelope nodded silently, her eyes focused on the floor, and Barry thought of something and glanced at Penelope.

"When we were talking about Happy Harbor, you began to say something. What was it?"

Penelope closed her eyes. "As Nora told you, I was born after her. Years before you vanished. You never returned, and my mom," Penelope paused, "Mom was pregnant when you vanished."

Barry felt his chest tighten and didn't reply. He had thoughts running through his head and glanced at them. 

"You're not stuck here, are you?"

Nora pulled out a chip from the device on her arm. "I found it in the museum archive. Negative tachyons, harnessed on demand. Really should work on that poker face, I guess. But I don't know why Penelope's here. Or how she got here."

"This didn't have to be a secret. Why did you keep this from us?"

"You would've sent us back if you knew the second we walked into the house. It's like you said. Speedsters have to be responsible." Penelope had a saddened expression that Barry noticed. "We just wanted to meet you."

"But- but we're not responsible. We're just selfish."

"And really bad at being speedsters."

"You guys aren't bad."

Nora started to walk over to the wall. "I mean, I can do some cool things, you know. Sometimes, I run so fast, I reverse time a bit. But I can't do the things you can. I don't even know how to phase yet. Guess there's only so much you can learn from a museum."

Barry glanced at Nora as she leaned against the wall. "What about your mom?"

"Yeah, I- she's around, you know? It's just, uh, just me and her."

Barry let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry. We shouldn't have lied to you. I just wanted to see you so badly, and I know Penelope wanted to see you too. We wanted to spend a day with you. Go for a run for the first time together."

"Because it's kind of hard to do that when you're not there."

"I missed all of your firsts." Barry glanced to Penelope. "And I missed a couple more."

Barry glanced back to Nora. "I was so worried about screwing up your childhood and screwing up our family, but... I'm not even there. Not for you and Iris, or Penelope, Caitlin and the rest of our family."

Penelope walked closer to him and hugged him, wiping a tear from her eye. Nora joined in and they all hugged each other.

"I'm sorry, Dad."

"Yeah. I'm sorry, too."

"Barry, we need you in the Cortex. It's about Gridlock."

Penelope and Nora let him go, and they stayed in the time vault, sharing a look.