Always Running

Lies

"Been a crazy few days." Barry says to Caitlin and Cisco while the three of them sit, daydreaming, at Jitters. The two of them grunt in agreement.

Since Harry had been shot, the team had traveled to a safe house on the outskirts of Central City to group with Team Arrow to defeat an immortal known as Vandal Savage. Cisco's girlfriend turned out to be a multi-time, reincarnated Egyptian priestess who then found her soul mate, Carter, who had a similar description. They've decided to go off together and leave a very, very disappointed Cisco behind. Caitlin and Barry saw the trip to the safe house as a wonderful excuse to escape a furious Iris who had just been informed by her dad that Barry was the Flash, and that they'd all been working with him for over a year. Neither of them had talked to her since they'd been back. But that luck was about to run out.

"Iris." Caitlin says to the table as she watches her very determined friend approach the table.

"Can I have a word with Barry?" Iris asks in a serious tone. She's staring at Barry, not daring to look at Caitlin or Cisco.

The two of them stand to walk out. They head to S.T.A.R. Labs to check on Harry and work on Barry's continued speed problem.

"Iris, I-"

"Don't, Barry. You lied to me. From the moment you woke up from that coma you've been lying to me. I'm your best friend. Your family. How could you not tell me?" Iris says quietly, but her tone is furious.

"At first...it was Joe. He didn't want me to tell you. But it was me too, Iris. I didn't want to fight it because...I don't know. Deep down, I didn't want-"

"Me involved? Me around?" She snaps.

"You hurt." He says, narrowing his eyebrows at her.

"But you didn't care about Caitlin or Cisco getting hurt?"

"Of course I did. But there wasn't a way to ever hide it from them. I would've never even gotten to know them if it wasn't for this."

"And now they know you more than I ever will. They've been there for this whole secret second life you have and now I'm what? Your childhood pal? Never helping, always just being saved and writing stories?" Iris sounds embarrassed. Annoyed.

"You were never that, Iris. You helped. More than you could ever know. We couldn't talk to you about specifics, but you helped. Me, Cisco, Caitlin, all of us. And we wanted you there, we wanted to tell you, but...it was dangerous."

"More dangerous than being oblivious? How was it more dangerous for me than for them, or for Eddie? Or Linda?" She spits the last name.

"Linda was an accident. She was never meant to get involved. It ended up being more dangerous keeping her in the dark." Barry defends. "Iris, you know now. There's nothing I can do about before."

"You should've told me." She says quietly. She lets out an angry chuckle. "Guess you just never needed me."

Barry reaches for her hand to argue and convince her that's not true at all, but she stands abruptly and walks away. He sighs and buries his head in his hands. He's exhausted, and now even more so, and now he has to go to work.

******************************************

"Jay! Just the man I'm looking for." Caitlin announces as she walks into the guest quarters. "I need your help with something. Preferably without the comment that it's a terrible idea."

"Well, is it a terrible idea?" Jay asks, sitting up on his bed.

"Of course not." Caitlin says, smiling exaggeratedly. Jay eyes her skeptically. "I need you to take me to Earth 2."