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snowbarrytrashh · 1 year

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Time Will Tell - Chapter 8

Summary: When Barry goes back in time to try and save Oliver and the other worlds that were erased from the multiverse he creates a new flashpoint. He has no idea he’s coming back to a life he doesn’t recognize at all. (this is a snowbarry fic)

Author’s Note: Once again I am sorry for the long updates, but school has been kicking my butt this semester. This chapter takes place about a year from when Barry originally came to this timeline. It’s shorter, but sweet. I feel like this is a sweet and good ending for Time Will Tell, but I would write one more if you guys aren’t satisfied with the ending. Sorry if you’re not a fan of time jumps, but this has always been how the story went in my head. I really hope you guys like it! I have appreciated you guys liking and commenting so much! You all are great:)

It was a day like any other day since this past year of being in this new timeline. He was at work like usual and had actually gotten used to his new life. But as everyone started to leave the room, leaving just him and Iris together he felt something was weird as she walked toward him. They might not have been together in that way for a year now, but he still knew when something was bothering her. “Everything okay?” he asked as she reached him.

“Yes, I’ve just been trying to find the right words to say and the best time to say this for a while now and I haven’t been able to so I'm just gonna do it now.”

“Okay.”

“Look Barry I know this year has been so hard on you. I know it’s been weird and hard for everyone, but we all know you’ve had the worst of it. And I’ve just seen you be happy recently, like the same happy before you came back with Oliver that day. And I just really love seeing you happy Barry. And I know this is going to sound weird and maybe I don’t even need to say this, but I did know you pretty well even if it was just as your best friend and not your wife. And if I had any guess as to what goes on in that head of yours I would guess you feel a little guilty. But Barry please hear me when I say, you don’t need to. I’ve seen the way you look at her and I can tell that you love her Barry. And you might not need to hear this but you have my blessing. I’ve always loved the two of you together and this year has made me love you both even more. The way that you both took the worst situation and leaned on each other and made it the best it could be. I know I don’t remember our life as husband and wife but I know that this me and whatever version of me that was your wife would tell you the same thing. Go for it. Go get your girl and tell her how you feel and don’t think for one second that you’re somehow betraying me. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but you’re kind of stuck in this timeline and there’s no point in you going around any longer not being with the girl you love in the way you want to be. You’re not being unfaithful to me and the life we lived together. It doesn’t mean that you loved our life together any less, it means you’ve moved on and Barry that’s a good thing. And I’m sorry if this was awkward or if you didn’t want to hear any of that but I felt like I needed to say it.”

Barry looked at her for a second and wrapped her in the biggest hug. “Iris I- thank you. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now go get her.”

Barry wasn’t going to waste any more time. He didn’t realize it, but he really needed to hear Iris say those things. That he wasn’t doing something wrong by being with Caitlin. It lifted a weight off of his shoulders and now he could finally be with Caitlin in the way he wanted to be. He was home faster than he expected, he wasn’t sure if he had run that fast against zoom. But now that he could be with Caitlin he couldn’t wait any longer. He opened the front door to see her working on dinner just like she does almost every day.

“What are you doing home? I thought you were working a little late today.”

He just smiled at her and slowly walked towards her. “Change of plans.”

“Oh did you get done early?” she asked.

“No, I just had something more important I realized I needed to do.” He was almost to her now.

Caitlin, oblivious to what Barry was hinting at, asked, “What’s that?”

He had finally reached her when he responded, “This,” as he pulled her in and kissed her.

He pulled away only to look her in her eyes with the biggest smile, he’s ever smiled. “I love you, Caitlin.”

She matched his smile, “I love you, Barry.”

“Thank you for waiting for me.”

“I would have waited forever,” she responded. But now that Barry had finally opened the door to this she wasn’t wasting any more time. She grabbed him and kissed him.

“I love you,” he said, feeling free now that he could voice his feelings. Stealing another kiss immediately after the words left his lips. Caitlin matched his response, taking slight breaks from kissing only to fill it with those three words. They continued smiling so much it became hard to even purse their lips to kiss.

“I love you, I love you, I love you,'' continued to fill the room. There was no going back now, but neither of them wanted to.

#snowbarry #snowbarry fanfic #Barry Allen #Caitlin Snow #The Flash

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snowbarrytrashh · 2 years

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Time Will Tell - Chapter 7

Author’s Note: Once again I apologize for being the absolute worst at updating this. But here’s to the day after that kiss:) This chapter is shorter, and I think it would feel complete to me with one more chapter. I’d be willing to write 2 more chapters though so you guys will just have to let me know if you want one more after I get around to writing the next and maybe last one. And again I appreciate your likes and comments more than you know:) A sweet comment was actually what finally gave me the motivation to upload this today! I hope you enjoy:)

Caitlin and Barry woke up to Marie knocking on their door telling them that breakfast was ready.

They woke up cuddling again which Barry took as a good sign.

As they woke up Barry lightly brushed his hand over Caitlin’s arm. “Good morning,” he said softly.

“Good morning,” she replied, turning toward him.

He looked down, avoiding her eyes, and shyly asked, “So about last night…”

Before he could continue, Caitlin interrupted, “Really don’t worry about it. We both played a role in that kiss, and you already apologized for leaving. You don’t need to feel bad or awkward about it. I mean unless you were gonna ask for round two because then things would be awkward,” she smirked at him.

He started laughing. “You’re so good at that.”

“At what,” she asked.

“Well for starters, making me laugh but also being kind, forgiving, patient, and so many more good things.”

She smiled a goofy grin at him. She liked when he complimented her.

“I have a request,” Barry said firmly.

“What is it?”

“I hate to cut our trip short. I’ve genuinely had the most fun of my life, but after breakfast would you care if we went home? I have some things I need to take care of that I just can’t wait any longer to do.”

Caitlin thinking she understood what he was implying brought her eyes to meet his. She looked at him with shy eyes and a soft smile, “I don’t care at all.”

She was letting herself hope that maybe just maybe they did have a future together. That maybe he would figure everything with Iris out and they could build a life together. But she didn’t want to get her hopes up, so she pushed it aside and focused on one thing at a time. First, she was going to have to deal with her own grief.

They took their time and enjoyed their breakfast with Marie. They thanked her for her hospitality and all that she had helped them with.

They took one last little walk taking in the views and talking about how much fun they had.

Barry and Caitlin then tried to consolidate as many of the shopping bags as they could to make Barry’s run a little easier. They zip-tied most of the bags onto the back of the backpack they brought, and Caitlin held the last two in her hands.

Barry and Caitlin then got dressed for the run and he clumsily picked her up and finally started running towards his problems with the hope that he could move past them and find something new to run towards.

— —

They made it home and Barry helped Caitlin unpack all their bags.

Once everything was unpacked and put away Barry got in the shower and got ready.

— -–-

“Hey, I really appreciate you letting us come home early.”

“It’s really not a big deal, no need to thank me,” she responded.

“Well it was a big deal to me,” he said and smiled at her.

“I have to go deal with some stuff from my old timeline. I don’t want to push it off anymore. I don’t really know what all that means yet though, so I don’t know when I’ll be back, but I’ll definitely be back before you go to bed.”

“Take all of the time you need,” she said.

He leaned in and hugged her. Holding her close to him and trying to get the courage to face what the day had in store for him. “Seriously thank you for everything, Caitlin. And call me if you need anything at all.”

She smiled at him, “You do the same.”

— —

Barry walked out of the front door still unsure of just what he was going to do. He walked around the block a few times before deciding he might as well head this straight on. He walked towards Iris’.

He knocked on the door.

“Barry,” Iris said as she answered the door, looking a little surprised. “I honestly wasn’t sure if you were going to want to talk to me again. But I’m glad you’re here, come in.”

“Actually, would you mind coming with me? I was thinking we could maybe take a little walk and talk about some stuff.”

“Yes of course,” she responded as she stepped onto the front porch, closing the door behind her.

“I want to start by apologizing for my behavior the other day. This has been really hard, but none of this is your fault and it wasn’t fair for me to make you feel guilty about it.”

“No, you reacted how anyone would. Actually, you reacted a lot better than I would have,” she said as she gave him a little nudge and a smile.

This made him smile. “I tried to just push all of my feelings away and not think about them, but I don’t think that’s what’s best for me.”

“You can talk to me about anything.”

“I was wondering if I could maybe just tell you some more about us from my timeline and you could tell me about us from yours? I just feel like it will help me to move on if I can talk about everything. And I also think hearing about us from this timeline will help me get used to us as just friends.”

“I think that sounds perfect. Why don’t you start?”

“I might as well start strong. Did you know we had kids?”

“Kids as in multiple?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he laughed. “They were actually from the future though we never got to actually have them yet before I got to this timeline yet.”

“So we had fully grown adults before we ever had a baby?” she asked.

“Yeah, we did,” he said laughing.

“Sounds like we only know how to do things complicated,” she said laughing with him.

“That is an understatement.”

They both laughed and cried as they told stories from their timeline. Barry went on to tell her countless crazy stories that only seemed made up.

Iris told him about all the fun they had. They truly had been the best of friends. She also told him about how giddy he would get when he talked to her about Caitlin. And how much fun they all had on their double dates.

This surprisingly made Barry feel better than he thought it would. Hearing these stories and how life was in this timeline, didn’t sound bad at all. He knew he would never be able to survive without Iris in his life, but he was now seeing that it was possible to survive with her only being his friend.

They laughed and cried some more, and Barry thanked her for today. It was something crucial he needed to be able to survive with the pain he had been feeling. He thought he would need to do more, but to his surprise, he just wanted to go home and see Caitlin.

— —

“Hey,” he said with a smile as he walked in to see her cooking in the kitchen.

“Hey,” she said and smiled back at him.

Barry walked over to her, “Can I help with anything?”

“No, but thank you,” she smiled. “I already have almost everything done. I didn’t know when you would be home, but I figured you would still be hungry even if you got back late so I went ahead and made lots.”

He smiled at her with a new easiness he didn’t know if he’d ever felt before. Him being with Caitlin just felt so right, so natural, so easy. “Actually, I’m starving. I haven’t eaten a thing since breakfast.”

The oven timer then immediately went off.

“Looks like you’re in luck then,” Caitlin said as she moved to take the dish out of the oven.

She prepared them both a plate and they sat down at the table to eat.

Before Caitlin started eating, she asked, “Do you mind me asking how today went?”

“It went better than expected actually. I felt like it was going to take forever to even start healing, but today helped me to move along in the process more than I thought possible so fast. I mean obviously, I still have a lot to deal with, but that pain I’ve been feeling in my chest isn’t there anymore. It’s like I can breathe again.”

“Barry, I'm so glad to hear that. Truly.”

“Yeah, me too. But what about you? I know I’m not the only one that has stuff to deal with,” Barry said showing his concern for Caitlin.

“Actually, Frost came over today. I got to talk to her about a lot and I feel like I’ve started to heal more than I thought I would too.”

He smiled at her, “And I’m so glad to know you’re healing too.

She raised her glass, “To us.”

“To us.”

— —

They finished dinner and spent the rest of the evening talking about their days with Iris and Frost and how they’re moving forward.

As they crawled into bed for the evening, Barry looked over at Caitlin, “Um I don’t really know how to say this so I’m just gonna go for it. I think it’s safe to say in the short time we’ve been together that we’ve developed feelings for each other. But I meant what I said when I said I don’t want to start anything until we’re both ready for that. I really do want to see what we have one day, but I don’t want to ruin it by not being patient. Are you okay with that?” he asked.

“I’ll wait as long as it takes.”

He leaned over and kissed her forehead softly. He then pulled back before wrapping his arms around her, cuddling her before they fell asleep. He wanted to wait to start a relationship, but he wasn’t going to wait until they fell asleep to cuddle her. He wanted to enjoy it when he was awake and could appreciate what this meant to him. He was going to enjoy and soak up every moment they had together until they were ready to take the next step.

“Goodnight, Caitlin.”

“Goodnight, Barry.”

#sorry for totally not uploading after my last post #please forgive me #snowbarry #snowbarry fanfic #Caitlin Snow #Barry Allen #The Flash

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snowbarrytrashh · 2 years

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I might mess around and upload chapter 7 tomorrow, but no promises haha. Also will probably finish the fic with chapter 8! With what I have planned, I’d be satisfied with only one more chapter, but would write one more after that if you guys aren’t satisfied with the ending

#don’t hold me to it though guys #chapter 7 is superrrrr rough right now lol #will honestly still be rough when I’m done lol but oh well #I will try though guys #might have another fic in mind for when I’m done with this butttttttt #I don’t want to get ahead of myself lol #especially with how slow I upload this lol

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snowbarrytrashh · 2 years

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Time Will Tell - Chapter 6

Author’s Note: This is some more of Barry’s and Caitlin’s trip to London! Please don’t hate me for this chapter haha. I hope you enjoy it! Again I’m very sorry about the super slow updates. But to all who comment and like, I appreciate it more than you know!

Caitlin woke up before Barry this morning. She felt his arms around her and sunk into them. She then turned ever so slightly to face Barry, trying not to wake him. She looked at him as he slept and smiled at the man lying in front of her. He might not have all the same memories and they might not be exactly alike, but she loved him all the same. Even the things that were different from the Barry in her timeline, she loved. She hadn’t found one bad thing about him yet. She wanted so desperately to just pick up where they had left off in her timeline. But even Caitlin could realize that wouldn’t be the smartest option.

She decided to get up and get in the shower; they had a long day ahead of them.

— —

“Good morning,” Barry said while rubbing his eyes, as Caitlin walked out of the bathroom.

“Good morning. I went ahead and got ready since we promised Marie we’d be down for breakfast,” Caitlin responded.

“Oh yeah, we’re supposed to tell her about how we fell in love,” Barry said smiling.

“Yeah, and I think that story just might be slightly too complicated to tell over breakfast,” she said with a laugh.

“Oh don’t worry, just let me do the talking,” Barry said with a grin.

“Fine by me,” she said, smiling back at him.

— —

“Good morning, Marie,” Caitlin said.

“Oh, good morning, you two,” she responded with a huge grin. “I’m so glad you’re eating breakfast with us.”

“We’re excited,” Barry said.

After they all filled their plates up with food, Marie looked at Barry and Caitlin and blurted, “Okay, I simply can’t wait any longer. How did you guys fall in love?”

Barry and Caitlin looked at each other before Barry reached over and grabbed Caitlin’s hand and said, “Let me tell it, honey,” with a smile.

Caitlin gave him a smile and a nod. She couldn’t wait to see where he went with this.

“Caitlin and I met at work. I umm-,” Barry paused as he thought of what to say next. “I happened to get a job at the place Caitlin worked under, not the most normal circumstances. But it was actually my dream job. And Caitlin quickly became my best friend, saving me from all kinds of trouble,” he started, smirking at Caitlin.

“And I fell for her almost immediately. I mean, how could I not,” Barry started to get more serious now. “I was too afraid to ever tell her how I felt, though. I didn’t want to complicate things.” Barry now brought his eyes to meet Caitlin.

“Until one day, I looked her right in her eyes and told her that she’s everything I ever wanted. That I couldn’t go one more day without being with her.” Barry’s eyes moved down to look at Caitlin’s lips, “And then I kissed her.”

Caitlin let out a cough and swallowed the lump in her throat, forcing herself to look away from Barry.

“The rest was history from there,” Barry said, deciding to wrap up the story.

“Oh my goodness, look at you two. Still as in love as that day. That is just such a lovely story. Thank you for sharing,” Marie said.

“Happy to share! Now I have to try this breakfast; it looks delicious!”

– –

“Marie, this breakfast really has been lovely, thank you. But we have a busy day ahead of us, so me and my beautiful wife are gonna have to get going,” Barry said as he took Caitlin’s hand in his again.

“You guys have a fun day now,” Marie said smiling.

Once they got outside of the inn, they looked at each other a little sheepishly.

Barry weighed his options. He could apologize for grabbing her hand or take advantage of the moment and go with the whole husband and wife thing. He decided to indulge himself a little bit.

“Well wife, where should we start first?” he asked with a smile.

Caitlin’s eyes brightened, and her smile widened as she said, “I was thinking the Big Ben?”

“That sounds perfect to me.”

— —

Barry and Caitlin walked through their door at the bed and breakfast, laughing and smiling.

“You know we usually don’t buy so much stuff,” she said, smiling at Barry as they laid their numerous bags down at the end of the bed, “means you have to carry a lot more home.”

“I’ll carry 20 bags if I have to,” Barry said with a grin. “This is my first trip, and I want to remember it. Which again, I’m sorry about taking an absurd amount of photos, but I don’t have all of the other memories of the trips like you do. So I want to remember every second of this trip with you,” Barry said as he moved closer to Caitlin. “I seriously can’t thank you enough for this trip; it has meant the world to me.”

She smiled at him as Barry went in for a hug.

He hugged her tight, pulling her into him.

Barry kept holding her. He knew the hug was getting a little past the standard hug time, but he couldn’t let her go just yet. Being here with her has been the most fun he can ever remember having. They had laughed and enjoyed every second of their day together, and he wasn’t ready for the day to be over.

He was starting to think it wasn’t his brightest idea to have kept up the whole husband and wife act all day with everyone they met; it was even starting to fool Barry. But he had so much fun pretending and just enjoying his day with Caitlin. Pretending they were normal and didn’t have an unbelievable and very sad history. But all of his pretending made him want to be real with Caitlin.

Barry pulled away slightly to look Caitlin in the eyes. His eyes moved to her lips for a second before meeting her eyes again. Man, those eyes and the way she was looking at him made Barry want to kiss her even more.

Before he could think, he leaned in and kissed her. Softly at first, with his lips brushing against hers. They then pulled away to look at each other before Barry couldn’t stand it anymore and firmly placed his hands on the sides of her head and pulled her in again. This was even better than he had imagined the day she told him about their first kiss in her timeline.

But as he kissed her, he remembered that he had promised himself he wouldn’t do this. It wasn’t fair to either of them. Barry pulled away.

“I- I’m sorry this was a mistake,” Barry said before he sped off without giving Caitlin a chance to say anything.

— —

A little over an hour later, Barry walked back into the room. “Caitlin, I’m sorry I had no right. I had no right to kiss you like that, and I had no right to run off without an explanation and be gone so long.”

Caitlin couldn’t bring herself to look at him, so instead, she stared at the wall in front of her holding onto a pillow.

He moved a little closer to the bed. “I really am sorry. This has been a very crazy few days, but that does not excuse my behavior. Look, over these last few days we have grown so close. I mean the only reason I am surviving is because of you,” Barry said as Caitlin finally managed to look at him after hearing these words.

“And again, I know it’s no excuse, but after talking to Iris I quite literally shut that part of me off. I haven’t let myself think about the life I lost because it hurts so much. But while I was ignoring those feelings, I was growing close with you and wishing desperately to only remember this timeline with you. And in my timeline while we were never anything more than friends, that doesn’t mean I never thought about you in that way. What I said this morning at breakfast wasn’t completely made up. I genuinely liked you, Caitlin but honestly, I never made a move because I was so scared about what might happen if I did. I could see something real between us, but I didn’t want to take the chance of ruining our friendship. I was too scared. And then when I got to this timeline and we were married, I allowed myself to see what it could have been. And I allowed myself to feel those things again and I-” Barry paused and looked away from Caitlin, holding tears back.

“But I promised myself I wouldn’t act on anything yet because that wouldn’t be fair to either one of us. I haven’t dealt with what I need to with Iris yet and it’s not fair to start something with you before I have. I’m just not ready.”

He brought his eyes back to her, “But Caitlin, I really have fallen for you in these few short days that have felt like lifetimes I’ve spent with you. And I got caught up in the moment because I do want that one day. I want us one day. I’m just not ready for that day to be today. I know it wasn’t okay to kiss you and leave like that. I am truly so sorry.”

“Well, I originally had something a lot meaner to say, but I’ll give it to you that was pretty good,” she said, giving him a slight smile.

“Besides, I can’t let you take all of the blame. I mean, running out was definitely on you,” she said, giving him a side-eye and smile. “But the way I acted today definitely didn’t help in the lead up to that moment. It was fun playing husband and wife and I let myself forget that this wasn’t real. I just really wanted it to be real.”

Caitlin was now the one that had to look away or else she would cry. “I wake up every morning with you next to me and as much as I love it and need it, it still hurts. To know that you’re here but not really here. That my husband is standing right in front of me, except you’re not really my husband.”

She managed to look at him again, “And Barry, I have fallen for this version of you as fast as you got here, but my heart still aches knowing that I’ll never get to see the version of you that I knew. The version that I married, that I tried to start a family with. He’s gone. And with all of that pain and with everything the two of us have gone through in a few days, I let myself get caught up in the moment too. So I’m sorry for that. But please don’t leave me like that again, I can’t handle it. We can work through anything, whether that be as just friends or something more, but you just can’t leave me like that. Okay?”

“Okay.” Barry stood there for a minute before shyly asking, “So am I allowed to sleep in the bed tonight?”

“Yes.”

He crawled into bed a little farther away than usual. He didn’t want to push his luck. “Are we okay?” he asked softly.

“We’re okay.”

“Goodnight, Caitlin.”

“Goodnight, Barry.”

#snowbarry #Barry Allen #Caitlin Snow #The Flash #snowbarry fanfic #snowbarry fanfiction

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snowbarrytrashh · 2 years

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I might mess around and finally upload chapter 6 today

#I have been the absolute worst at updating this #I’m so sorry #I hope you don’t hate this chapter too much lol

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snowbarrytrashh · 2 years

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Time Will Tell - Chapter 5

Author’s Note: This chapter was fun to write! I hope you enjoy it! Feel free to leave comments:) I’m sorry if some of the culture things or location of things is inaccurate. I did some research but probably not enough, so forgive me and just pretend haha

Barry woke up first this morning. He was holding Caitlin in his arms again, but today it wasn’t as weird. He had woken up from a dream of them being together with no other timeline so he was enjoying the fact that just for a moment longer, he could hold her here and forget that he had an actual whole other life of issues to deal with. He pulled himself a little closer, enjoying this moment for as long as he could, until Caitlin woke up.

Caitlin moved out from his arms and turned to look at him, “Good morning,” she said with a smile and soft laugh. “Don’t worry I won’t kiss you today.”

Barry pretended to just be waking up when she moved from under his arms, he didn’t want to let her know that he was actually enjoying the fact that they were cuddling. He knew it would complicate things too much.

Barry laughed, “Well I’m sorry I can’t say the same about cuddling you. I’ll try harder to control my unconscious actions while I’m sleeping,” he said laughing.

She smiled at him, “You won’t get any complaints from me. I happen to like your unconscious actions.”

This made him smile. He wouldn’t tell Caitlin but since it wasn’t an issue for her, he was actually looking quite forward to waking up with her in his arms every morning. “So I have a request,” Barry said a little sheepishly.

“And what would that be?” Caitlin asked, very curious.

“I had so much fun yesterday and was wondering if maybe we could have another day where we do what we would have normally done if things were normal. But maybe you could kind of surprise me and I’ll just follow along,” he asked kind of shyly. He was afraid Caitlin would think he was weird for asking such a question.

She started beaming, “I would love that! This is going to be so much fun! I know just what we’ll do,” she said as she got up from the bed in a hurry. “Okay I’m gonna hop in the shower and get ready first since it takes me longer. Usually if I’m getting ready first and you don’t have anything to do, you’ll read or there’s a documentary on Netflix you’ve been watching but you’re free to do whatever,” she said in a rush, clearly excited about the day and what it had to offer.

“Okay,” Barry said with a grin. He loved seeing Caitlin like this. Now he couldn’t wait to see what they would get into today. He was regretting asking for it to be a surprise though, he wanted to know just what had Caitlin so excited.

Before he could make up his mind on what to do to occupy himself, he looked over to see Caitlin undressing as she started the shower. With her being so excited she forgot to close the door and it probably wasn’t a habit for her either. He remembered in his timeline when he once had to put Caitlin in pajamas after she had a few too many to drink. She asked him then if he had taken a peek and when he said no, he meant it. But this time he wasn’t just peeking. He was fully taking in every curve of her body. He felt like he was intruding but he couldn’t bring himself to look away. Man, she was beautiful. Thankfully she was too focused with her new motivation and excitement about the day to notice his wandering eyes. She finally stepped in and closed the curtain.

This gave Barry some time to think about what just happened. He was clearly thinking of Caitlin in a way he never had before. But as he explored these feelings, he realized more than he had yesterday that he couldn’t act on these feelings yet. Not only would it be bad for him because he would feel so guilty and feel like he was cheating on Iris even though he wouldn’t be able to be with her again. But just two short days ago Iris was his wife and while he was currently trying not to think about that, when he did, he knew he wasn’t close to being ready to start something with Caitlin. And he knew it wouldn’t be fair to Caitlin to start something when he wasn’t ready for it.

But he still knew that he could never be with Iris again, so he didn’t want to close himself off to Caitlin. While it might have only been two days, under the circumstances he and Caitlin had grown very close, very fast. He decided he would stick with his original idea of forgetting about his current situation and just have fun with Caitlin. He wouldn’t act on his feelings, but he wouldn’t hold back from feeling them either.

Now that he had sorted through his feelings it was time to decide what to do with his spare time. In her rush, Caitlin forgot to mention what book he was reading or what documentary he was watching, but there was a book on his nightstand, so he decided to go with that option. The Book Thief, one of the classics. He didn’t do much reading for fun in his timeline, mostly just academic and research stuff, and of course comic books. He figured he would see what his other self found so enjoyable. He sped through the book in seconds, it was really good. Because he had taken so long to figure out his thoughts, Caitlin was already getting out of the shower as he closed the book. He took another glance as she reached for her towel, but this time she caught him. She blushed and then said, “All yours if you want it.”

He coughed and fumbled over his words for a second before Caitlin added, “The shower I mean.”

“Oh, right of course. Yeah, I’ll take one,” he said while trying to avoid eye contact.

“Okay, I’ll get everything we need ready,” she said with a smile as she passed him.

Her not making things awkward let him be a little less embarrassed, “I’m really excited to find out what you have planned.”

“I’m hoping you love it. I think you will,” she said with a big grin.

“I’m sure I will,” he said, smiling just as big as she was.

“Okay well I’m gonna get things ready out here so no peeking until I say. You’ll have to stay in there until I have it all ready. I don’t want to spoil anything.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said with a soft smile.

— —

“Okay, I think I have everything ready. You can come out now,” Caitlin shouted to Barry as he waited in the bathroom.

Barry stepped out to see Caitlin wearing a heavy wind jacket, some type of wind pants, and a huge backpack.

“What exactly do you have planned today?” Barry asked, very confused by seeing Caitlin and her new outfit.

“Do you trust me?” she asked.

“Of course I do.”

“Okay then I’m going to need you to put on this suit,” she said as she gave him a smile and nod that said you’ll see.

“That looks a lot like my flash suit, just without any design.”

“Well, you’d be right.”

“Okay, now you have to tell me what we’re doing. I’m completely lost.”

“It will be better as a surprise trust me. But I’m gonna run downstairs and get one last thing while you put your suit on.”

Barry just stared at the suit and then back to Caitlin, contemplating if he should really listen to her.

“Hey, don’t forget this is what you asked for,” Caitlin said.

“You’re right I did. I won’t put up a fight.”

“Good,” she said with a smile.

After Caitlin headed downstairs, he stared at the suit on the bed, trying to think of just what in the world they were doing for him to need to wear this. He was especially confused because it was supposedly something they would have normally done if they had time off. He decided that as confused as he was, he really did trust Caitlin, so he put the suit on. It really was like his flash suit, just all black and with no lightning bolt.

He heard Caitlin shout from downstairs, “Whenever you're ready come down.”

He looked at himself in the mirror before heading downstairs. He kind of liked the look of this black suit. He took a deep breath and headed down to Caitlin.

Once he reached the bottom of the steps, he could see that Caitlin had a pair of eyeglasses that people would use for skydiving or something hanging around her neck and was holding a similar pair in her hand but with what looked like some tech features. He was more confused than ever.

“Okay, I know you’re probably completely lost as to what’s going on but I’m gonna need you to keep trusting me. I need you to put these glasses on and they’ll give you directions of where to run. You’ll have to carry me,” she said as she started to give him a smirk.

He started smiling, thinking he may just know what Caitlin was up to. He wasn’t sure where they were going but he had a feeling he would love it. He moved towards her fast, smiling at her while looking her right in the eyes. He took the glasses from her without breaking eye contact and put them on. He then picked her up swiftly and held her in his arms giving her one last smile before speeding off to wherever Caitlin had planned.

These glasses were pretty cool, he just had to follow the red line the glasses put in front of him. He started running over the ocean pretty soon and was kind of surprised with his ability to carry Caitlin like this while running on water, but it was like it was natural to him. He stopped as his glasses told him he had reached his destination and read a sign that told him just where he was. He set Caitlin down gently and then wrapped her in a big hug.

“I can’t believe we’re actually in London,” he said ecstatic.

“Me either, but let’s change really fast before anyone notices us in these clothes,” she said laughing, pointing to the public bathrooms the glasses had brought them to.

She pulled her backpack off and opened it and gave Barry some clothes to change into.

Once they both came out of the bathroom in their new clothes Caitlin gestured to the table and chairs just a little bit away and Barry followed her.

“So I guess I can tell you now,” she said, giving him a smile. “I know that you saw some of our photo albums and if you remember there were a lot of us on different trips. We do this kinda thing pretty frequently actually. It started about a month after we had gotten back from our honeymoon. We were talking about how we wished we could take trips like that all the time and we were joking around talking about all we would do and where we would go when you looked at me and asked, ‘What’s stopping us?’ I was pretty confused, but you just looked at me and asked if I could go anywhere in the world right now where would I go. When I said Greece, you sped off and were back downstairs in seconds with this backpack and a map. Then you picked me up and took us to Greece. It was obviously a little less smooth back then,” she added with a laugh. “We didn’t have your fancy glasses to give us directions and we just took off in what we were wearing, but it was spontaneous and fun, and we had the time of our lives. So any chance we get we pack what we can on this backpack and travel around the world. We usually take turns picking and this is where you had told me you wanted to go next which is why we’re here.”

“I can’t believe that was our normal lives. I never did anything like that in my timeline. I’m starting to figure out that this other me is a lot more fun.”

“Hey now, don’t talk like that. I think this version of you is quite fun actually.”

“Well I appreciate that. I do still want to do whatever we would have done though so you lead the way and I’ll follow.”

“Well you’re usually starving by now, especially after the run so we try and find a local to recommend us a place.”

Barry stood up from his chair and reached out his hand to Caitlin, to help her up.

They walked just a few blocks until they ran into tons of people walking around and going into shops.

“So how do you pick who to ask?”

“If I’m being honest, I usually try to find a sweet old lady,” she said and smiled at Barry. She looked through the crowd of people and locked her eyes on someone. She then looked back to Barry, “Okay I think I found someone. Wish me luck,” she said as she headed off in her direction before Barry had a chance to respond.

Barry looked at her and smiled as she walked over to an older woman and started talking as if they’d been friends their whole life. Barry really did understand how he ended up with her in this timeline. It had only been two days since he got to this new timeline, and he’d already seen so many new and wonderful sides to Caitlin. Not that he didn’t see these qualities in his timeline, but he had never put himself in the position to see them exactly how he is now. He then noticed her pointing his way and the two of them started walking in his direction.

Once they reached him, Caitlin gestured towards him and looked at the woman and said, “C'est Barry. Il ne parle pas français.”

He turned to look at Caitlin in shock, he had no idea she could speak French. Before he could make a comment about his amazement, the woman spoke up.

“That’s okay, I speak English. Hello Barry,” she said with a gentle smile. “My name’s Marie.”

“Hi Marie,” he said, smiling back at her.

“So your wife tells me you guys are looking for a nice restaurant to eat at.”

Caitlin looked flustered and went to speak up, probably to correct her, but Barry spoke up before she had the chance. “Yes, my wife and I love to try different places that the locals love when we go on vacation.”

Caitlin looked at him and gave him a soft smile. A smile that said thank you for not making me explain this awkward situation we’ve found ourselves in. He hoped it wouldn’t cause problems, but he really didn’t see the point in explaining that they weren't husband and wife, it really was a complicated story he didn’t want to explain either. And honestly the idea of pretending he actually was married to Caitlin on this trip was also very appealing. And technically she was legally still his wife.

“Well I just think that’s lovely. I hardly ever see any tourists trying to have a genuine experience with the place. They’re always just doing whatever the biggest trend is, so I already adore you two.”

“Aww thank you. I really appreciate your kindness and showing us to your favorite place,” Caitlin said.

Marie looked to Barry and said, “You got really lucky with this one I hope you know,” gesturing towards Caitlin.

He looked at Caitlin and smiled big, “Yeah, I really did,” he responded. Thinking that maybe the change in timelines was a blessing and not a curse.

“Alright well, follow me so we can get some food in you two, you both look like skin and bones.”

They looked at each other and laughed, “We’re right behind you.”

— —

It was only a few short blocks, but it took them a little longer to get to the restaurant with all of the talking Marie did and the stories she told about the places they passed. Neither one of them minded though, they actually quite enjoyed her stories. As they finally reached the restaurant, she looked at them and said, “Here it is! Amelio’s. This was the place my husband took me on our first date. This is a magical place to me, and I hope it will be to you all as well.”

“Thank you so much Marie. This has been so lovely,” Caitlin said as she leaned in to hug her.

“Thank you guys! You’ve restored some of my hope in people again. Oh and before I forget,” she said as she reached into her purse and grabbed a pen and paper. “My husband and I own a little bed and breakfast and if you guys haven’t made official plans, we would love to see you there. I’ll write the address down for you. I’ll make sure and save the honeymoon suite just in case,” she said with a wink.

Barry took the paper and thanked her. “Hopefully we’ll see you soon, Marie.”

She smiled and headed off as they went into the restaurant.

They walked into a beautiful restaurant with low lighting and candles at every table. This was definitely a very romantic restaurant, and this was going to make Barry struggle even more with keeping his new \found feelings to himself. Caitlin bringing him on this trip was so much fun for him and just the escape he needed. And now this romantic restaurant on top of everything he’s already been feeling. This was going to be a very difficult night.

They sat down at the table with the candlelight hitting Caitlin perfectly. Man, she really is beautiful, Barry thought to himself. And her hazel eyes sparkled in the candlelight. He couldn’t help but stare into them and smile.

“So I think this would be the perfect opportunity to hear about some of our other trips like this. Which ones were our favorites, which ones had the best food, which ones did we laugh the most? I want every detail, as much as you can remember.”

Caitlin smiled at Barry’s request, more than delighted to tell him about all of the good memories they shared.

— —

After dinner they walked out of the restaurant laughing as Caitlin finished telling the story of when they went to Guam and tried paddle boarding. For as good on his feet as Barry usually was, he couldn’t stand up on a paddle board and stay to save his life. They spent all day on the water while Barry tried to stay up, with no avail.

“Well I’m sure this version of me definitely could do it,” Barry said with confidence.

“Well on our next beach trip we’ll just have to find out,” Caitlin said smiling before she started to look nervous instead of happy.

Barry could see the nervousness she now felt after implying there would be another trip for them to go on, that they would still be together. Without telling her how he felt right now he could still calm her nerves about the future so he responded, “Well I don’t remember you saying we’ve been to Hawaii so that’s where I’ll prove I can do it,” he said and playfully nudged her arm with his.

This made Caitlin smile and drop the look of worry that was on her face, “I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” she said smiling.

They spent the rest of the evening walking around the streets and going into little shops, buying clothes for their trip, and trying different food from carts and vendors along the way, all while telling each other stories from their timelines.

As the time passed and they both became tired Barry looked to Caitlin and asked, “So did you have any official plans for where we were gonna stay or?”

“No, I usually find somewhere but I got a little caught up in the day and completely forgot.”

Barry pulled out a piece of paper from his back pocket, “Well it’s a good thing you made us a new friend today then huh?”

Caitlin smiled as she remembered Marie offering them a place to stay, “That actually did work out pretty well huh?”

— —

After a short walk Caitlin and Barry found themselves at the door of Marie’s bed and breakfast and walked in, excited to see her again.

Marie walked in from the other room after hearing the door open to see her new favorite people standing in front of her.

“Oh my, I’m so glad you guys ended up coming! I was holding on to hope that you would,” she said smiling. “Oh I told my husband about just how great you two are, I better get him in here to meet you. Charles, Charles hurry get in here!”

Charles walks in from the other room, “Everything okay, Marie?” he asked.

“Honey, this is that lovely couple I was telling you about today. Aren’t they the cutest thing in the world?”

Charles smiled at his wife and the joy she had from telling him about these new people, “Yes, they sure are sweetie.”

“Oh and I did save the suite, hoping you guys would come, I’ll show the way,” she said smiling, practically skipping up the stairs.

Barry and Caitlin looked at each other smiling as they followed up the stairs behind her.

“And here we are. Feel free to come and go as you please. We have breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, but you don’t have to come to any of them,” she said, still smiling at them.

“Thank you so much, we really appreciate it,” Caitlin said, smiling back at her.

“This is truly my pleasure. How long will you guys be staying with us? Feel free to stay as long or short as you like.”

Caitlin looked at Barry and back to Marie before saying, “We’re not really sure. This was actually a spur of the moment trip.”

“Oh my look at the two of you being young and in love and just living in the moment. You two really are something special. I don’t want to keep you talking too much longer but I have to hear about how you guys fell in love before you all leave!”

Caitlin and Barry looked at each other and laughed and then Barry looked at Marie and said, “Maybe we could tell you over breakfast tomorrow.”

“Oh I would just love that! Okay well I’ll let you guys finally get some sleep…or not,” she said with a wink as she laughed and headed back down the stairs.

Barry and Caitlin shared an awkward laugh and headed into their room.

Once they got in the room Caitlin started laughing again, “If only she knew our actual story.”

“It’s definitely entertaining,” he said laughing with her.

“Without a doubt,” she said as she laid the backpack down and started to pull some things out. Caitlin looked up at Barry with that look of awkwardness before she spoke. “Umm Barry… I’m sorry I was kind of in a hurry packing and was honestly just packing what we usually do and not really thinking about it and um well, I kind of forgot to pack you pajamas. I didn’t think about it at the shops when we were buying clothes either.”

Barry laughed at her and her worry over something so small, “That’s okay Cait. I can just sleep in my underwear, as long as that won’t bother you, but I would assume that’s rather normal for you.”

“Yeah, it is. I was just worried you would feel uncomfortable.”

“It’s fine with me.”

“Okay, good. Ummm are you also okay with me just sleeping in an oversized t-shirt?”

“Yes, Caitlin,” he said smiling and shaking his head, still laughing at her being this way.

“Okay well I’ll at least go change in the bathroom, I won’t make you too uncomfortable,” she said and went straight into the bathroom not giving Barry a chance to say anything.

She came out and Barry was already under the covers. She walked sheepishly across the room, like she was nervous for him to see her even though he knew she saw him looking at her this morning, even though she didn’t say anything about it.

He smiled at her and her goofiness. Every second he spent with her he understood a little more just how they came to be.

As she slipped under the covers Barry turned to her and asked, “Any big plans tomorrow?” he asked as he scooted just the slightest bit closer to her.

“We usually see all of the famous sites on our second day. So, the Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, The Tower Bridge, the museums, and all of those fun places. I’m sorry if you wanted to go to those today. We usually just spend our first day in the less known parts of the city.”

“That sounds great. And don’t apologize, I loved what we did. It was perfect.” He now made sure to look her in the eye before adding, “Thank you for today, and this trip. It means more to me than you know.”

“Thank you, Barry. I think I might have needed this trip more than you did.”

He smiled at her, “Goodnight, Caitlin.”

“Goodnight, Barry.”

#snowbarry #snowbarry fanfic #snowbarry fanfiction #Caitlin Snow #Barry Allen #The Flash

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snowbarrytrashh · 2 years

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For all of you reading Time Will Tell, I’m sorry for being so slow at updating but it’s the end of the semester and school has been extra busy. I promise I’ll finish and upload the next chapter sometime next week though:) But seriously thank you all so much for reading and liking and commenting, it really means a lot!!! What I’ve written so far for this next chapter has been so fun so I hope you guys will like it!

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snowbarrytrashh · 2 years

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Time Will Tell - Chapter 4

Author’s Note: Sorry again for the delayed upload, school and life only got busier. There’s lots of snowbarry content this chapter though:) Feel free to leave reviews! I hope you enjoy:) Also for any Chuck fans reading, I hope you like some of the references!

Barry and Caitlin made it home after finally telling everyone about the changes in the timeline. He didn’t let go of her hand the whole drive back. He was finally realizing just how much he appreciated her and how happy he was to have her through all of this. This was such a terrible situation and he didn’t think he would be surviving right now if it wasn’t for her.

Once they got inside Barry looked at Caitlin, “Are you okay? I know that was hard.”

“It definitely was hard, but you made it manageable. Thank you,” she replied with a soft smile.

“We’re in this together.”

That statement made Caitlin’s smile travel to her eyes which made Barry smile too. He loved to see her smile, to see her happy. He hadn’t seen it much since he got to this new timeline, but he hoped he would start seeing it more.

There was now a little awkward silence as Barry realized they were alone together and he had no idea what they would do with the rest of the day. “So umm are you hungry?” he asked, figuring eating was a safe bet. Plus he was starting to get hungry again already.

“Yeah. We could order in or I could cook something. We could also go out, totally up to you.” She seemed a little nervous like she was talking to someone she barely knew and had no idea what they actually wanted. He thought she was also starting to feel a little intimidated by all of this new found time they had together and the fact that in a way they were kind of strangers. The two people in this room have lived different lives. They might know versions of each other but neither one actually knows the person standing in front of them. There might even be some things about them that are the same over the different timelines but there was still so much more that they didn’t know. But Barry wanted to know. He wanted to get to know this version of Caitlin and wanted to hear more about the life that they lived together.

In hopes of getting to understand their dynamic a little more he asked, “Well what would we usually do on a day we had off?”

He tried to figure out what was going through Caitlin’s mind because she looked at him with eyes that asked what are you up to and then smiled and answered with, “Since we have the day off we’d usually order in for lunch and then I’d fix dinner later tonight.”

“Well then that’s what I want to do,” Barry said with a firm nod. “Why don’t you order something we both used to love. You can surprise me.”

Barry was getting excited. He was loving this idea of getting to not only know Caitlin but know parts of himself he didn’t know. He could see that Caitlin was getting excited about this too when she said, “Okay, I’ll call it in,” almost giddy.

It was weird how it took almost no time to move past that awkward moment and to be so comfortable with each other. It did make some sense since she was his best friend and he was her husband but under the circumstances he felt like most people would probably be feeling a little more awkward right now. He decided to leap with this excitement and comfortability and tell Cailtlin how he was feeling, “I’d actually love to know as much as possible about our lives together and get to know this version of you better as well as this version of myself.”

There she went looking at him with those eyes again. Those eyes that screamed I love you. This time was different though. This time he was actually excited to see them and not just because it's nice to be looked at that way. No, this time he was excited to see the history behind those eyes. To see and learn just how she came to have those eyes for him. He was by no means moving on from Iris or over that fact but today he was pushing that far from his mind. This week was going to be just about him and Caitlin. He didn’t want to spend one second thinking about just how crappy his life was right now, because honestly life didn’t seem so crappy. It actually seemed pretty good.

“Well I’d really love to show you.”

Show you. She didn’t say tell you she said show you. That meant she didn’t want to just tell him but actively live more of the same with him right? He wasn’t reading too much into it? He actually wanted nothing more than to just live it out. To finally get to experience some of this life he’d heard so much about and had been desperate at times to remember. He was actually going to experience this now and it made him happy. Probably the first time he’d been truly happy since he got to this timeline.

He gave her one of those big toothy grins to really show her just how happy he was. “Maybe after you call you could show me around the house, give me an official tour and tell me some stories?”

That made her smile again, “That sounds like fun! I’ll go call in the order now.”

Once Caitlin called in the order she looked at Barry eagerly and said, “Okay, I’m ready!”

She started off in the living room showing him the drawer where they kept some flashlights, keys, and other random items they didn’t have a specific place for. She looked out the window of the living room to the front porch. She gestured to the porch swing and said “You and Cisco actually built that and hung it up yourselves. I had been mentioning how much I would love to have one for like two weeks and then one day you and Cisco disappeared from work and when I came home I found both of you swinging on it with the biggest grins on your faces.”

Barry was absolutely loving this, hearing these stories of their life. She continued taking him through the house showing him around telling stories of all of the memories they’ve made in the rooms they traveled through. Also funny stories of how scratches got on the wall, why there was a chip on their kitchen table, and how the stain got on the rug. They were almost about to finish the tour, only one room left after their bedroom. That room made them both laugh when Caitlin said, “I don’t think you want to know the stories of this room.”

But Caitlin’s laughing stopped abruptly when she saw Barry move in front of the last room. Barry could see the quick change in Caitlin’s mood and become confused. They were having such a good time but then he noticed her staring at the door. He could tell that this is what caused the change in her mood. “We don’t have to go in if you don’t want to.”

She took a deep breath and then walked in front of him to open the door.

He suddenly understood why Caitlin’s mood changed so fast. She just opened the door to a nursery. “Did we… were you…”

“No. No. Umm we had been trying for a year and I had finally given up hope and got kinda distant there for a bit… and then I came home one day and you had done all of this. You told me that you didn’t know when or how but that we would have a baby and to not give up hope and to not push you away.”

She looked at him and he could tell this was causing her pain, but she continued, “You brought me out of that dark place, gave me hope again. We tried again for about another month and then you went back in time to save the world.”

“Cait… I’m so sorry I-“

“I didn’t say any of that to make you feel bad. You really helped me to see just how important we were and,” she paused for a second realizing that she wasn’t actually with Barry in the same way. “But I’m really fine, I promise. I’m okay. I just thought I should tell you.”

Barry walked up to her and wrapped her in a hug, holding the back of her head in his hand.

Caitlin let herself let out a soft cry and then the doorbell rang.

“That should be the food,” Caitlin said as she wiped a tear away and headed down the stairs with Barry behind her.

— —

As Barry and Caitlin sat down to eat their food, he looked at her and said “I actually had kids in my timeline.”

Caitlin looked up quickly to meet his gaze, clearly taken aback by his statement.

“They were from the future though. Iris and I never had a baby, but our daughter and son visited us from the future.” He started to gaze off, finally realizing that being in this timeline means never getting to see them again either, never getting to see them be born and watch as they grew into the incredible adults he had gotten to know and love.

Caitlin looked at him with so much sympathy, “Barry I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

“It’s okay. I think I’m finally realizing that this means I won’t get to see them again… but I do have a lot of hope knowing that they’re out there in some timeline. I’m just so glad that I got to meet them and know them even if it was for a little bit.”

Caitlin reached out and squeezed his hand in hers, he squeezed it back. There wasn’t much to say, not about this. Knowing she was there for him was enough.

“Okay no need to sit and feel sorry for ourselves about things we can’t control, what we need to be doing is digging into this food because it looks and smells amazing.”

And just like that, Barry had brought some light back into the room. He didn’t know how but being with Caitlin made everything seem manageable. She made him feel like despite all of the pain that he was going through that he would be okay. And he was so grateful to her for that.

Barry’s new found perspective allowed Caitlin to give him a soft smile.

“So what is this place anyways?” Barry asked.

“It’s a little Chinese restaurant downtown called Bamboo Dragon, it’s our favorite. We honestly probably eat it a little too much,” she said smiling.

“Well I can’t wait anymore,” Barry said and then took a big bite from his container.

“Oh my gosh, this is amazing.” Barry said as he went in for another bite.

“I’m glad you like it.”

“I love it! This is already my favorite place. I don’t care that I haven’t tried anything else, nothing can be better than this.”

Caitlin was smiling again now and he liked that. He didn’t like to have to talk about the hard stuff but he was also grateful that they could do that too. And after seeing that he actually did like this food he was even more excited to see what else he and Caitlin got into in this timeline.

Now that the mood was a bit lighter they started telling more stories from their timelines and laughing a lot. They were having a really good time and before they knew it they had eaten every last bite from the containers.

“We ate a lot of food,” Barry said laughing.

“Yes, but you are definitely responsible for eating the majority of it,” she responded, laughing with him.

“Maybe,” he said, giving her a smirk. “So what should we get into next?” He asked eagerly.

“I was thinking maybe I could show you around the city, maybe take you to the places you don’t have in your timeline and show you around?”

“I would really love that,” he said, getting up from the table immediately. “You ready?”

“Ready,” she said excitedly.

— —

“No, the Nerd Herd was definitely the best store.” Barry argued as they walked in the front door.

“First of all, Science Galore is the best. Second of all, the version of you I know always loved the Inner Geek the best.”

“Well I don’t know what was wrong with the other me because did you see the 80’s section the Nerd Herd had? That was incredible.”

Caitlin smiles at him now, she likes seeing him excited and happy and surprisingly even likes seeing and learning new things that are different from the Barry she knew.

They laughed and Caitlin made her way to the kitchen, “Are you okay with steak for dinner tonight?”

Barry’s eyes got really big and he smiled from ear to ear “Yes! Do you really cook like this all the time?”

“Yeah,” she said with a giggle at his shock.

“Don’t I ever help you?”

“Well cooking isn’t really your strong suit,” she said laughing, “but you always do the dishes for me since I cook. I quite like the arrangement,” she said with a grin.

Barry looked over and noticed some dishes in the sink and walked right over and turned the water on.

“I didn’t mean for you to do that. I was just telling you about what we used to do.”

“Well I want to do this,” he responded.

She smiled at him, ”Thank you.”

“Thank you.”

— —

As they were finishing up eating and Barry was carrying the dishes to sink he asked, ”So what do you usually do while I do the dishes?”

“Depends on my mood,” she said laughing. ”Sometimes I’ll go get in the bath, other times I’ll turn on some music and start dancing, but mostly I hop up on the counter and rant about whatever’s going on.”

“Tonight I definitely think you should do the dancing thing.”

“No way!”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want to embarrass myself.”

“Oh come on please, for me?” he asked with puppy dog eyes.

“Okay, fine. But no laughing.”

“I would never,” he said a little sarcastically.

She turned on the music and started dancing all around him, not very gracefully. Barry knew he shouldn’t, but couldn’t help himself and started to laugh.

“Hey, you said you wouldn’t laugh.”

“I'm sorry, I can’t help it,” he said sincerely, but with a little grin on his face.

“Well, no more show for you.”

“Oh come on now I loved it. You can’t quit.”

“Nope, you lost your chance.”

Barry started laughing again.

“Why are you laughing now?”

“Cause you really can’t dance.”

She playfully hit him on the arm.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t love it!”

“Whatever, just finish the dishes. I’m changing things up tonight and I’m going to the couch and watching tv.”

As soon as Caitlin sat down Barry walked in and sat down right beside her, “You didn’t finish the dish-” she said as she looked over and saw not one dish left in the sink.

“I completely forgot you could speed do that.”

“Do I usually not?”

“No, you actually don’t do most things with your speed except for at work and a few other occasions. Always said you preferred to do things at regular speed, because it helped you appreciate it more.”

“I actually do appreciate things more when I do them at normal speed, I just never got in the habit of actually doing them. I want to try though.”

“You don’t have to, I was just thrown off for a second.”

“I really do want to though.”

“Okay,” she said smiling.

“Okay, I totally understand if you don’t want to tell me yet but I’ve been dying to know. How did we end up together?”

She looked at him and smiled again, “I was wondering when you would ask that question.”

“Me, you, and Cisco would all hang out after work most of the time and one night you asked where we were going and Cisco said he had a date and couldn’t go with us. It kinda threw us off but we just told him to have fun. Once he left you jokingly asked me why we didn’t just go on our own date. You said it would be the best date I’d ever been on. And since it was a joke I laughed and said yes. But you actually used your speed then and picked me up and we were at the door to my apartment in just a few seconds. You told me to get ready and that you’d be back in 30 minutes to pick me up. Sure enough 30 minutes on the dot and I heard a knock on the door. You brought me flowers and you looked very handsome. I figured we were just gonna go on a fake date for fun so I went with it.”

This made Barry blush a little. He obviously knew that since he was married to Caitlin they were attracted to each other, but to hear her say it now gave him butterflies.

“You followed me in and was patient while I put the flowers in some water and then we were out the door. I lived downtown then, so we actually walked. It was such a beautiful evening. You took me to LaFontaine’s, one of the fancier restaurants we have and you even pulled my chair out for me when we sat down. When the waiter came over you looked at him and back to me and said ‘Isn’t my date the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen,’ but you didn’t say this like it was a joke. That was when I finally thought about the possibility of what that night could mean.”

Barry was hanging on to every word she said, trying to live this memory out in his head.

“Because the truth is while we kind of started out the night as a joke, I was not upset at the possibility that it could be real. I honestly had liked you for so long but never let myself actually feel those feelings because I didn’t want to jeopardize our friendship. That night though I finally let myself feel every feeling I had for you and think about the possibility of us together.”

Barry was actually thinking the same thing as she told him this story, the possibility of them together. He knew he wasn’t ready to actually start anything with Caitlin right now but he knew he’d be lying to himself if he pretended he didn’t want to.

“We laughed and had such a good time at dinner. I mean it made sense, we always had gotten along so well. And then after dinner we were walking downtown and opening up and telling things about ourselves we had never actually talked about before. We passed another couple on our walk who were holding hands and you said, ‘What kind of date have I been? I haven’t even held your hand’ and laughed a little but then took your hand in mine. Then you did that thing again where you looked at me like it wasn't just about a joke that we kind of started out doing the date as. And then we passed my favorite ice cream shop and I told you how much I loved it so you insisted we go in. Then after ice cream you walked me back to my place with still to this day, the prettiest night sky I’ve ever seen. We walked extra slow to appreciate it and I think part of us didn’t want the date to actually be over.”

Barry didn’t want this story to be over either. Hearing this made him wish even more that he could remember his life here.

“When we finally got back up to my door we hovered by the door for a second and you told me you had the best time and I agreed. I invited you in and suggested we could watch a movie and we ended up watching Singin’ in the Rain. Then after the movie when you went to leave, before we opened the door you said, ‘You know if we were on a real date this would be the part where I’d be forced to kiss you goodnight.’ I wasn’t sure where you were going with it so I asked, ‘Forced? Would it be so bad?’ and you said ‘I’m sure I could suffer through it.’ Then when I said ‘Me too,’ you actually leaned in and kissed me. At first it was slow, gentle. You pulled back to look me in the eyes and you smiled and then kissed me again. And then kept kissing me until it wasn’t so slow and gentle anymore but as we moved towards my bedroom we both stopped before we went in.”

While Barry listened to her words his eyes wandered down to her lips. Barry couldn’t help but wonder just what it would be like to actually kiss Caitlin. And right now he wanted to, really bad.

“That would have changed a lot between us and I think we both knew it wasn’t the best decision we could have made so we actually walked back to my front door and opened it.”

This snapped Barry out of his daydream of wondering just what it would be like to kiss her. He knew that it would complicate things too much.

“This time you said ‘I really did have the best time tonight’ and kissed me goodnight. I literally could barely breathe after I closed the door. I had finally let myself feel my feelings and explore them and there was no going back.

Barry could understand a little of what she meant cause while Barry wasn’t acting on his feelings he sure wasn’t fighting them as hard as he was when he first got here.

“I was a little nervous going to work the next day because I was afraid maybe it was just because of the date and maybe you really did go more as a joke and you didn’t actually want it to go anywhere. And that next day you walked in like nothing was different. I think I almost cried then and there but then Cisco came in and said his date went terrible and asked if we had a crappy night too without him. But you said, ‘No, I actually had the best date of my life.’ He looked kind of shocked and asked, ‘With who,’ but you wouldn’t tell him. When he asked me if I knew I just shrugged cause you didn’t want to tell him and so I thought maybe you did have fun but it was just the one night. Later Cisco had to go to work on something and you came over and kissed me. Didn’t say anything, just kissed me. And then we kept stealing kisses when no one was around.”

This was killing Barry a little bit. Her talking about kissing him. He wanted so badly to kiss her but he knew he couldn’t right now, not yet. But her continuing to tell him about it made it hard, especially since in this story they were the ones kissing, he just didn’t remember it.

“We hadn’t actually talked about what it meant yet though. Cisco had made us go out with him those next two days after our date so we didn’t really have a chance to talk about it yet because you lived with Cisco and I lived with Frost. She just happened to be in Star City the night of our first date but she was back. On the third night though Cisco asked us to hang out and you looked at me and told him you actually had to run over to my mom's lab to start some new research and that I was going to help you. It kind of caught me off guard but I just went with it, hoping I knew where you were going with it. Cisco asked why we hadn’t asked for his help and you responded saying you needed my Bio Chem and medical background. He seemed a little skeptical and asked what we were working on and you looked at me so I just made something up and said we were working on cell cultures for metas and studying them compared to regular humans. Since Cisco is more into making gadgets he didn’t want any part of our research and didn’t put up a fight. We ended up going to dinner and you told me that you couldn’t go back to just being friends and I said I couldn’t either.”

This made Barry realize the actual sacrifice Caitlin was currently making. He was her husband, the man she loved and she was settling for just being friends and not even making a big deal about any of it.

“We weren’t ready to tell everyone yet. We wanted to ya know, figure out our new relationship without everyone else involved. So we actually did start doing that research to have an excuse to be spending so much time together while we still stole kisses when no one was around. And then one day Cisco and Frost came up to us and said that we weren’t fooling anyone and that they knew something was going on. But we really did keep them in the dark for a while. I was quite impressed with us, they didn’t find out until about 2 months of us dating. After that things just went really well. We did take things slow though in some areas though. In other areas not so much, you proposed only 8 months after we started dating. You said we had been best friends for so long and you already knew that you wanted to spend the rest of your life with me and there wasn’t any point to waste time. And we had the most beautiful wedding which I know you saw some photos of in the photo album. We had been married 4 years when you came to this timeline.”

Barry was looking at Caitlin in a way he never had before. This story helped him to remember how he had once felt about her in his own timeline but was too scared to see where it went. But after hearing this story… how they fell in love, he was finally admitting to himself that he wanted to know this side of Caitlin for himself. And he was still desperate to know just what it would be like to kiss her. He wanted so bad to just kiss her now and figure out now what it really would be like with Caitlin. But he actually thought that there really could be something real and amazing between them and he knew if he started something now, before he had dealt with this whole situation he was in, it wouldn’t be how he would want it to be. So instead of kissing her, instead of telling her that he wanted to find out for himself what it was like to be with her in that way, he gave her a smile and looked at her with eyes that said I’m falling for you without having to say the words.

“Promise me you’ll tell me more of the story one day. More details and even more details leading up the wedding and after and every second of every day. Every story, no matter how small, I want to know. I want to remember.”

Caitlin looked up to meet his eyes, “I will,” she said with a warm smile that showed her hope.

They looked at the clock and it was getting late, both of them were yawning.

“I’m getting pretty sleepy and it looks like you are too, ready for bed?” Barry asked.

“Yeah,” Caitlin stood up from the couch and was now a little awkward, “Um I’ll just head up.”

Barry was being awkward now too as Caitlin stood there and he wasn’t sure if he should stay on the couch or go with her and he didn’t know how to go about asking or even how to go about saying goodnight.

“Okay, I know we both feel super awkward right now so I’m just gonna go ahead and say what’s on my mind.”

“Please do.”

“Again, I know this is weird for you, but I was wondering if maybe for this week that we have off if you could maybe keep staying with me while I get adjusted ya know?”

“Yeah of course.” Barry immediately stood up and smiled, “After you.”

They climbed into bed and kept at least a foot of space between each other, even though Barry wanted to wrap her in his arms. He would have to settle for dreaming about the day when he was ready to show Caitlin just how he felt. They looked at each other and smiled. Caitlin leaned over and kissed his cheek, “Goodnight Barry.”

#snowbarry #Caitlin Snow #Barry Allen #snowbarry fanfiction #snowbarry fan fiction #snowbarry fan fic #snowbarry fanfic

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snowbarrytrashh · 2 years

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Time Will Tell - Chapter 3

Author’s Note: Sorry this one took a little longer to post, I’ve been so busy with college and life in general. This chapter will have a little more Iris in it, but he’s finally getting to tell everyone else. There’s also snowbarry too though so don’t worry. Feel free to leave any comments. I hope you enjoy:)

The alarm went off and they both woke up a little groggy. Caitlin moved out from under his arm a little bit and turned the alarm off. She then pulled his arm tighter around her, wrapping him around her. Caitlin then turned to face him, “Good morning,” she said as she helped him wake up with a kiss. This made him flinch.

“Oh no. Oh no. I’m so sorry. I forgot. This is hard. You’re still Barry, you just don’t remember, and I just forgot. I’m sorry.”

“Caitlin, it’s okay I understand. I’m sorry for reacting like that, it just took me by surprise. But really please don’t feel bad. I mean I’m sure waking up with me cuddling you didn’t help you remember. I would have forgotten myself,” he says and gives Caitlin a smile. “I’m sorry if that made it harder on you. It wasn’t intentional, I guess just something I did in my sleep. Which is weird, I usually don’t even cuddle. Iris can’t fall asleep if we’re cuddling, she says it makes her feel smothered.”

“No, don’t apologize. I actually have a hard time sleeping if we aren’t cuddling. It was actually a comfort that I really needed last night. Again, I’m sorry for kissing you, it's just a habit.”

“No, I’m glad that this version of me always made sure to kiss his wife first thing in the morning,” Barry said with a smile.

Caitlin grinned a little, trying to hold back a laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. It’s just, the other version of you usually liked to do more than just kiss your wife in the morning.” She’s laughing out loud now.

“Caitlin, you dirty dog,” he says in a serious voice but then breaks out laughing.

“It takes two to tango, cowboy,” she says, continuing to laugh.

“Yes it does,” he says, still smiling.

There’s a little awkward silence when she says, “Sorry. I don’t know if this makes you uncomfortable or not, talking about our life.”

“No, it’s good. It actually helps make this a little easier. I mean sometimes it can be hard, feeling like I’m missing out on two lives, but it’s good.”

“I know this is something that this timeline version of you isn’t ready to hear, but just for the record, you can join in on this life anytime you want.”

Barry hadn’t really thought about that, what his life would look like after today, after everyone knew about the past timeline. Somewhere deep inside him he just assumed Iris would remember their life together and everything would be okay, but he knew that’s not how it worked. The only chance for him to be with Iris would be for her to leave Eddie or for him to go back in time. He knew one wouldn’t happen and the other couldn’t happen. What was he going to do? He was glad to have Caitlin with him while they went through this, but he hadn’t actually thought about them starting a real life together. Now he really didn’t know what his life would look like.

Caitlin could see he was getting lost in thought and panicking so she interrupted his thoughts, “So uh the reason I set the alarm so early was because I figured you might want to head to see Iris and Eddie at their house and tell them privately instead of in front of everyone. Figured that might be better for you and them.”

“Yeah,” Barry responds and nods his head in agreement, “I hadn’t even thought of that.”

“Umm I’ll go make some breakfast while you get ready. Like I said yesterday, your clothes are in the drawers on the left and all of your bathroom stuff is in there. Towels are under the sink.”

“Okay, thank you.”

While Caitlin went down to make breakfast Barry was thinking about what Caitlin had said. What would his life look like? Just from last night and this morning he could see that his life was here. All of his belongings, all of his memories, from this timeline at least, had taken place here. But what would a life with Caitlin even look like? To her she was his husband, but she was just his best friend. Could they be more one day? No. He couldn’t think about that. He was about to go tell Iris that in his timeline they were married. But yet again, there really wasn’t going to be a future with Iris now. This was killing him; he couldn’t think about all of this. He drowned his mind with thoughts of running.

He got out of the shower and got dressed. As he walked down the stairs, he could smell the breakfast Caitlin was making, “Mmm, that smells so good.”

“The eggs, bacon, and toast are ready. I’m finishing up the pancakes now.”

“You made all of this?”

“Yeah, you’re usually really hungry in the mornings. We have some fruit over there in that bowl and orange juice in the fridge.”

“Thank you,” Barry said with a huge smile.

“You’re welcome,” Caitlin said with a grin.

Barry got a big plate full of food and started to devour the breakfast. “Oh my goodness this all tastes so good.”

“Thank you. I’m glad you like it.”

“I’m not used to having good home cooked food, Iris wasn’t exactly an expert in the kitchen.”

Caitlin laughs, “She’s not an expert in this timeline either. They usually come over here for dinner when we get together.”

Barry is laughing too, “Good. That would have been too big of a change to handle.”

Caitlin starts laughing even harder.

Barry finishes up his food and looks at Caitlin and sighs.

“I’m sorry Barry. Is there anything I can do?”

“No, I’ll be okay. It’s just going to be hard.”

Caitlin gives him a half smile, showing her sympathy.

“So where do they live anyways?”

“Well, she actually lives two blocks down at 3833. When we got married, we looked for a house close to Joe and ended up getting one just a block away. Then when Iris got married the next year, she ended up finding a house a block away on the other side of Joe. It’s been really fun all of us living so close.”

This makes Barry mournful. For the life he lived and the life he can’t remember. Once again, he lets himself wish that he didn’t remember his timeline and only remembered the one Caitlin tells him about. Everything seems so nice here and he wanted more than anything to not have to go explain this to Iris right now, to not be going through this hurt and to just be happy. But he knew he didn’t actually want to forget. What he really wanted was to go back. Not that this life wasn’t appealing, this pain was just all too much.

Caitlin sees that this has upset him, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said all of that.”

“No, really it’s okay. I’m just nervous about going over there.”

“I wish I could make this easier for you.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, you have enough on your plate.” As he said this Barry realized something, he hadn’t even asked Caitlin about her talking to Frost about all of this. “And there I go again being so worried about me I didn’t even think about you. Do you need me to go with you to tell Frost? I’m so sorry, I didn’t even think.”

“No, I’ll be fine. You staying here and being with me, you’ve been helping me more than you know. I actually texted Frost earlier, I was going to call her and talk to her once you left. I’m not quite ready to talk about it in person yet.”

“Do you need me to be here? I can wait to go over there.”

“No, it’s really okay. I promise.”

Barry gives her a hug. “I guess we really have to do this huh?”

“I’m afraid so.” Caitlin gives him a nervous look and then asks, “Um are you just going straight from there into work or?”

“I was actually thinking maybe I could come back, and we could ride in together. I noticed you had driven when we left yesterday and I’d like to go in with you, if that’s okay.”

“I would actually really love that.” Caitlin leans in and gives Barry a kiss on the cheek, “Good luck.”

This makes him smile. “You too,” Barry responds and heads out the door.

– –

On his walk over Barry’s mind was racing. He was officially about to have that small hope of things going back to normal, crushed. He was about to have the hardest conversation of his life. Before he knew it he was already at their door. He didn't have any more time to think, if he didn’t knock now, he never would. He reached out and knocked on the door.

“Barry, good morning. Is everything okay?” Eddie asked after opening the door.

“Yes, I just needed to talk to you and Iris before work today.”

“Yeah, of course.” Eddie shouts up the stairs, “Hey honey can you come down here?”

When Iris makes her way down the stairs and Barry sees her, he gets hit with a shock of pain. He wants to go hug her, for her to hold him and tell him everything is going to be okay, but he can’t. Barry sits down and looks away from Iris.

“Barry, is everything okay?” she asks, looking worried.

“I just thought I owed it to you guys to tell you before I tell everyone else today.”

“Something is different about the timeline, isn’t it?” Iris asks.

Barry nods his head. He takes a deep breath and tries to push down his emotions, “In my timeline Eddie… Eddie, you died a few years ago.”

Iris and Eddie look at each other worried, “But in this timeline he’s safe right?” Iris asks, clearly concerned as she’s gripping tightly onto Eddie’s arms.

“Yes, no need to worry Eddie will be fine. That’s not the only difference though.” He makes eye contact with Iris now, “In my timeline we were married. You and me.” Barry is clearly showing that he’s in pain but holding himself together.

Iris looks at him with shock, “Married?”

“Yes.”

“So, the Iris you know is your wife?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, Barry, I'm so sorry. Um Eddie, can you give us some time to talk? Maybe I can just meet you at work?”

“Yeah, yeah. Of course.” Eddie grabs his jacket and keys and gives Barry a pat on the arm on his way out the door.

Once Eddie is gone Iris runs over and hugs him. “Barry I really am so sorry.”

He grasps her tightly; he soaks in every moment. She still smells the same. He desperately wants to cry right now, but he doesn’t let himself.

She eventually lets go and heads back to the couch to sit down. “I can’t imagine how hard this is for you Barry.”

“One of the hardest things I’ve ever gone through.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“No, no it’s okay I’m just going to have to adjust.”

“Well, if there’s anything I can do to make that easier, say the word and I’ll do it.”

“I appreciate that.”

There was some awkward silence until Barry finally spoke up and asked the same question Caitlin asked him, “Was there ever anything between us in this timeline?”

She looks at him with pain. “In this timeline you did used to like me, well thought you did anyways. We were hanging out like normal one night when you told me you couldn’t keep it in anymore and that you loved me. That you were in love with me. I told you that I didn’t think you actually were, that you were taking our closeness and friendship and love we had for each other and putting it there, but that I didn’t think you were actually in love with me.”

Barry looked at her intrigued, letting himself have a little hope that there was something between them in this timeline and maybe there could be again.

“So, I told you to kiss me, and you hesitated. I tried to tell you that that proved it that you loved me like a friend and nothing more, but you insisted you did and finally kissed me. But there wasn’t anything there, not for you or me. We actually ended up laughing a lot about it. You said there was a kind of freedom in realizing there wasn’t anything like that between us. It allowed us to keep our friendship without so much baggage. You ended up telling me about how you thought you’d been in love with me for years and we laughed. Since that day we actually got closer as friends since there wasn’t that hanging over our heads anymore. But I’m sorry Barry. I realize that’s not how it was in your timeline, and you really are my best friend so I hope you know that I really will do whatever I can to help.”

Barry was hurting. All of his hope was officially gone. He would never be with Iris again. She didn’t see him like that and the fact that she was married meant she never would. Barry went to get up.

“Barry, wait. Talk to me.”

“I’m sorry I need to go.”

Iris got up to reach for him, but he was out the door too fast and suddenly back to his home with Caitlin.

– –

He opened the door to find her on the couch. He didn’t know what took over him, but he ran over to her and fell into her arms, crying and letting himself feel every emotion he’s been pushing down. He was sobbing and Caitlin cried with him as she held him in her arms.

After crying until they had no tears left Barry raised up and looked at Caitlin. “Thank you. I’m so sorry to dump all of that on you, I just-”

“It’s okay, you don’t need to apologize.”

Barry shook his head and asked her how her call with Frost went, “Are you okay?”

“I am now.”

Barry gives her a smile. “I guess it’s time to go tell the rest of them.”

“I guess so.”

Barry helped her up and they walked out the door.

– –

Barry and Caitlin looked at each other while everyone gathered around them waiting for what Barry had to say. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Iris and Eddie. Barry gave Caitlin a nod and turned to the group.

“As I’m sure most of you have guessed there are some things that are different about this timeline from the one I came from when I went back to save Oliver.”

Everyone’s eyes were on him, instantly. He took a deep breath. “Caitlin and I weren’t married. Eddie had died saving all of us a few years ago and Iris and I were married.”

Everyone looked at him and back and forth between each other in shock but couldn’t bring themselves to say anything.

“I don’t know if there are any other changes with anything else but if there’s anything else I find out I’ll let you guys know. I’m sorry for reacting like that yesterday and leaving you guys in the dark, but it was a lot to process.”

Cisco finally speaks up, “Barry don’t apologize we understand. Why don’t you take a week or however long you need off and we can cover things here.”

“No, it’s okay I won’t let this affect my job.”

“Barry, we promise it will be okay. I don’t know about your timeline but here the metas aren’t actually too bad. Most of them work on using their powers for good. We can hold down the fort if anything does come up.”

“No, it’s okay I can work.”

“Barry, take the week okay.” Joe now chimes in but he’s more telling than asking.

Barry nods his head and sees all of these faces looking at him and Caitlin with pity. He turns to Caitlin and can see this is hard for her. “Okay. Thanks, guys, for understanding, we’re going to go ahead and get out of here.”

This time Barry is the one to look at her and say, “Come on let’s go home,” and reaches and takes her hand in his.

Caitlin smiles as she walks hand in hand with Barry towards the door. Before they can reach the door, Cisco and Frost catch up to them.

“Hey if you guys need anything at all just say the word and we’re there. We can hang or bring food, or anything really just let us know.” Cisco says while Frost nods her head saying, me too.

Barry looks at Caitlin and then turns back to them, “Thanks I appreciate it. I think we’ll be okay though.”

He doesn’t know exactly when it happened but some time in this short amount of time that he’d been here, Caitlin had become his person. She was the only one he wanted to be with right now and for the foreseeable future, he wasn’t quite ready to be around everyone else again yet. He hoped he wasn’t making this harder on her by being like this but by the look on her face he thought she was thinking the same thing. They were the only two who understood what they were going through and they just wanted to be together.

They smiled at each other as they finally made it to the door, hand in hand.

#The Flash #snowbarry #snowbarry fanfiction #Barry Allen #Caitlin Snow

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snowbarrytrashh · 2 years

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Time Will Tell - Chapter 2

Author’s Note: Finally getting to some more snowbarry content! Hope you enjoy:)

Barry and Caitlin finally make it to their house, neither one said a word the entire ride home. Barry walks in behind Caitlin trying to take in details of his supposed home. This home that Caitlin has lived in and created a life with him in, but it’s a version of himself that he doesn’t remember. He had a home and a life but now it’s gone and he’s the only one that remembers. He sees photos of them together all over the house. They look happy. Really happy. Barry wasn’t ready to shatter her world, but he knew he had to do it. Even if he wanted to just pretend nothing happened, everyone knew something was wrong after today, especially Caitlin.

Caitlin turns around to see him looking at photos, she’s confused by his expression. “Barry,” she manages to get out, but her voice is shaky and at a whisper. He looks up to meet her eyes, he can see she’s worried. She’s doing that biting her lower lip thing she does when something’s bothering her. He smiles at the expression and that at least some things don’t change even when whole timelines are different. But his smile fades quickly because he knows she’s already scared and he’s about to break her heart.

He moved toward her and put his hand on her elbow, reassuring her as he sat down on the couch. “Cait, I’m so sorry I know you’ve probably been worrying out of your mind all day, but I just needed a little bit of time. I-”

“Wait,” Caitlin cuts him off before he can continue. “I’ve been dying to know all day but now that I’m actually here I think I want to wait just a little while longer. Can we just lay here for a minute?”

“O- okay.”

Caitlin lays her head on Barry’s chest, cuddling up next to him. He just lays there for a second, not used to Caitlin being this way with him, then wraps her up in his arms. Yes, this is weird for him, but he wants to do whatever he can to make this easier for Caitlin. And he can’t blame her, if he was in her shoes he’d want to hold Iris a little longer before things got turned upside down. Iris. A pain shoots through him as he realizes again not only is he not with her, she’s with someone else. He pushes the thought aside; he can’t think about this right now. He needs to be here for Caitlin. She's about to be going through the same thing he is, except he’s going to be the one hurting her.

After a while Caitlin finally sits up and brushes a tear off her cheek, “Okay, I’m ready now.”

Barry sees her wipe the tear away and it causes himself to tear up. He looks away from her. He can’t stand what he’s about to do to her.

She puts her hand on his thigh, “Hey, look at me.” He turns to meet her and it takes everything in him not to burst into tears. Tears from his own hurt, tears for the hurt he’s about to cause Caitlin. “Whatever it is, it's going to be okay. You can tell me.”

Barry wishes he could have the same braveness he sees on Caitlin’s face right now and he wraps her in a big hug. This hug is for him, not for her. He might not remember the life she does, but Caitlin was a big part of his life all the same. She was one of his best friends. And he knew he was supposed to be comforting her right now, but he needed a little comforting himself. He finally let her go, it was time to tell her.

He takes her hands in his and looks her directly in the eyes, “I’m so sorry Caitlin.” She nods her head letting him know she understands and that he can continue. “This isn’t the life I left when I went back to save Oliver… we… we weren’t married.”

Caitlin closes her eyes and takes a deep breath; she’s shaking a little. She opens her eyes but can only manage to look at his hands holding hers, she can’t look him in the eyes right now. “Who was I to you, in your world?”

“You’re the one who saved my life. You saved it when I first became the flash and then plenty of times after that. You were my best friend.” He’s trying to will her to look at him, to get her to understand that he does really care for her, even if it's not the way she wants him to and that he doesn’t want to hurt her. But she doesn’t look up.

“We were never anything more?”

He hesitates, he knows this will hurt her, but he has to be honest, “No. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t very important to me because you are Caitlin. I really am so sorry.” He can see the tears falling from her face now and this hurts him. Really hurts him. He hates that he had to do this to her.

“Did you have someone… in your timeline, were you with someone else?”

She’s crying but her voice is steady and it’s taking everything in him not to break down right now, but if Caitlin can be strong so can he. Man he doesn’t want to tell her. He knows this will make it even worse. The person you love, your spouse, not remembering your life together and on top of that them having a life with someone else. He was about to cut her deep, but he knew he had to do it. “Yes,” he manages to get out but now he can’t look at her. “I was married to Iris.”

She releases her hands from his and heads for the stairs, almost running. “Caitlin, wait.”

“I’m sorry I just need a minute,” she says through tears, not looking back as she runs up the stairs.

– –

And now Barry breaks down. But the last thing he wants is for Caitlin to see him struggling so he runs. Before he realizes where he was running, he finds himself outside of his apartment, what he remembers as his apartment anyway. He doesn’t know what takes over him, but he knocks on the door.

He waits, but no one answers and before he can think he’s phasing through the door into the only place he knows as home. But when he gets in he realizes this isn’t his home. None of these things are his. Nothing is the same. These people in the photos on the wall he doesn’t recognize. And then it hits him. “Caitlin.”

Man does he feel bad now. Yes, he’s in pain but he knows Caitlin is too and he just ran off and left her all alone after shattering her world like his currently is. He speeds off back to Caitlin.

– –

He reaches the living room of his supposed home and takes a minute to compose himself. No more feeling sorry for himself right now. He’ll have time to do that. He needs to focus on Caitlin. He walks up the stairs, taking in the home and imagining the life Caitlin remembers, the one he just shattered into pieces.

He can hear Caitlin sniffling and walks up to the door. He braces himself and then opens the door. She sits up on the bed and turns her head away from him. He doesn’t know what to do so he just stands there, waiting for her to say something. She slowly turns to him and finally looks him in his eyes, “I’m sorry, Barry.”

“Why are you apologizing to me? I’m the one that needs to say I’m sorry a few billion more times.”

“Because while yes, this sucks, like really sucks, it’s not your fault. I mean it kinda is since you time traveled and stuff,” she’s laughing a little now which brings a smile to his face. “But you also did that to save countless lives because that’s who you are. A hero. A man who will risk everything to help others. A man who also came back to a world he doesn’t recognize. A world where his wife is married to someone else and he’s in pain but he’s here checking on me. I guess not everything is different from our timelines.”

The words Caitlin just said, Barry didn’t know how to take. He just crushed her world, and she was apologizing to him and complimenting the kind of man he is. He wanted to break down and he also wanted to hug her so tight for saying these things to him, but he just shed a small tear and wiped it away.

“How are you going to tell her?”

“What?”

“How are you going to tell Iris?”

“I- I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought about that part. I was trying to figure out how to tell you.”

“Of course you were.”

“Would it be wrong if I told her?”

“No. I mean everyone knows something is different we just weren’t sure what it was. They’re all going to be expecting an answer tomorrow.”

“There’s something I haven’t told you yet.”

“I doubt that it can get much worse so just hit me with it.”

“Eddie… He’s… he’s dead in my timeline.”

Caitlin starts laughing uncontrollably. Barry looks at her confused, “Did you hear me right?”

“I- I am so sorry,” she’s having a hard time getting her words out from laughing so hard. “I know this is terrible for you and that’s awful Eddie’s dead. It's just, it’s a little funny that your wife is now married to a dead guy. I mean it’s not, but it is and this whole situation is honestly something to laugh at.”

Barry looks at her, “He’s actually her dead ex,” Barry starts laughing now. “They were together in my timeline, but he died. So, my wife is with her dead ex.”

They both are laughing uncontrollably, and Barry falls to the bed laughing with Caitlin about how terrible these circumstances are and that they really are laughable. Caitlin rolls over and puts her head on his chest, laughing and then pulls away. “I’m sorry I don’t mean to make things weird for you, I just forgot for a second.”

“Caitlin it’s okay, really.”

“That laugh was good, it was needed. Thank you. I really am sorry about Iris and her dead ex.”

“Thanks.” With a smirk on his face he adds, “I really am sorry your husband came back to you and told you he doesn’t remember your life together and that the wife he remembers is with her dead ex.” She laughs and playfully hits him on the arm.

They sit on the bed just staring at the wall when Barry finally says, “Well I guess we better get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be another big day. I’ll just uh, head downstairs and crash on the couch tonight.”

“Yeah, yeah of course. Um I’ll get you some pillows and blankets. Oh, and your clothes are in the left drawers of the dresser if you wanted to sleep in something more comfortable. I’ll just uh, go and get the couch ready.”

“Okay, thanks. I’ll meet you down there in a minute.”

– –

She made up the couch with a sheet and everything even though Barry insisted it was okay. “Um if you need anything I’ll be upstairs.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Caitlin went to walk away but turned back, “Um, I’m sorry I forgot this is actually your first time here. The kitchen is in there, obviously, and the bathroom is right over there. I know we got so distracted that we didn’t even eat tonight but there’s some leftover baked spaghetti from dinner yesterday and a pizza.”

“Okay, great. Thanks.”

Caitlin went to awkwardly give him a hug and then went to step back but Barry pulled her in for a hug. “I’m really sorry, Cait. Thanks for helping me through today. I don’t know if I could have made it through without you.”

She looked at him how Iris used to look at him and he smiled. It was a little odd for Caitlin to be looking at him like that, but he didn’t know anyone who didn’t like to be looked at like that. “Goodnight, Barry.”

“Goodnight, Caitlin.”

– –

Barry tried to go to bed but he couldn’t sleep. He decided to take a look around the house. He started looking at photos first. He found some photo albums in the cabinet by the fireplace. So many photos. There were tons of photos of them laughing, hugging, kissing. And they seemed to have traveled lots of places. Barry always loved the idea of traveling but the only time he ever seemed to was when he was on a mission. But these photos seem like they went on vacation. They went sightseeing. They ate fun foods. For just a moment he longed to remember this life.

And then he found them. Wedding photos. She looked beautiful. The whole wedding looked beautiful. And they looked really happy. It was so weird to see all these photos of this life he lived with Caitlin. Not that the idea of him and Caitlin together was all that crazy to him. He had thought about the possibility in the first year of getting to know her in his timeline. But it was too hard. Barry had to put the photo albums away. Looking at photos of him in this life he didn’t remember was too much for him to handle tonight.

He went to lay down but realized he was starving; they really hadn’t eaten all evening. He made his way to the kitchen and opened the fridge. There was the leftover baked spaghetti Caitlin had mentioned and the pizza. He grabbed them both and when pulling out the pizza he noticed a note on the top of the box. The note read, “Passed King’s Pizza while running some errands and thought you might want this for a midnight snack,” with a little heart drawn in the corner. He grabbed the pizza box and opened it. Pepperoni, jalapeños and olives, his favorite. He didn’t have a King’s Pizza in his timeline, but this was still his favorite pizza.

Just this little note made him think so much. But he couldn’t think about the life they shared together and how she knew him so well. Today was already full of so many emotions and he couldn’t handle any more. He was just going to focus on eating. He ate the whole pizza and the rest of the baked spaghetti. It was delicious. And then he heard footsteps. He ran over to the couch and pretended to be asleep.

“Barry?”

He hesitated to answer. “It’s okay, I heard you up. You usually get out of bed and eat around this time. Hope you liked the pizza. In my timeline it was your favorite.”

He sat up to look at her, “It’s my favorite too. Thank you.”

He catches Caitlin staring at something, so he turns to look and realizes he left the photo albums out. “I’m sorry I just couldn’t sleep and found them, but they got to be a little too much for me to handle so that’s when I decided to go get some food. I hope I didn’t overstep.”

“This is your house too, Barry. I know you don’t remember it, but this is your home. These things are yours. You don’t need to apologize for going through things.”

“Okay, I’m sorry this is all just so weird. I don’t really know how to go about it.”

“I don’t either. We’re in this thing together.”

Barry gives her a nod. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”

“No, I couldn't sleep. I haven’t slept alone in four years. It was too weird with you not being with me and knowing you were down here.”

“I understand.”

Caitlin looks at him a little nervous, “Hey, um I know this will be weird for you, but would you mind sleeping with me tonight? I know to you I’m just a friend, but to me you’re my husband and I just really need you tonight.”

Barry looks at her and feels so sad. She’s been so strong throughout this but it’s obviously still super hard. He should have known. He would love to cuddle up with Iris right now if he could. “Yeah, of course.”

He follows her up to bed. As they get under the covers she says, “Big day tomorrow. Are you ready?”

“Not even close, but what choice do I have?”

“I’ll be there for you, whatever you need. I am still your friend.”

He reaches over and squeezes her hand.

As she’s about to fall asleep she looks over at him one more time, “Thank you Barry.”

#the flash #barry allen #caitlin snow #snowbarry #snowbarry fan fiction

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snowbarrytrashh · 2 years

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This is just the link to the last fan fiction I posted on FFN. I’ll probably upload the next chapter sometime tomorrow:)

#snowbarry fan fiction

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snowbarrytrashh · 2 years

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Time Will Tell - Chapter 1

Author’s Note: Even though most of the past is based on canon, the details regarding Crisis on Infinite Earths I have changed. To understand the story just know that Oliver dies and so do billions of other people on other earths that have been erased. I also don’t explain how Barry saves the multiverse and I won’t because I don’t have that level of creativity, so just know he does lol. Some things like time travel and the effect it has might be different from how it would happen in canon but this is an AU. I also don’t plan on writing much about missions, this will mostly focus on personal lives. Also snowbarry people bear with me as I make it to snowbarry scenes. There will be things about Barry and Iris but in this AU Barry remembers what was actually canon so it only makes sense to include things about Barry and Iris. I hope you enjoy:)

Barry comes back through the portal holding onto Oliver tightly. He risked everything trying to go back and change the timeline to bring back all of the lives lost when only one Earth remained, but if he was honest with himself the pain from losing Oliver and watching Felicity and the kids grieve was more than enough to make him risk it. He scans the room looking for Iris. He finally spots her and smiles because she gives him a sense of calm, that everything will be okay.

Barry goes to make his way towards Iris when Caitlin finally pushes through the group and gets to him. “Barry!” she shouts as she wraps him in a big hug.

“Hey, Caitlin,” he says smiling and laughing a little, confused by her excitement. Then he hears a voice down the hall shout, “Is he back?” Barry turns his head in the direction of the voice, not exactly being able to place it but recognizing it. He racks his brain and it finally hits him. But it can’t be. That’s impossible. Eddie Thawne is dead.

“Barry, good to see you made it okay!” Eddie exclaims.

“Eddie?” Barry says in disbelief. He starts scanning the room trying to read everyone’s face but they all seem to think nothing of Eddie Thawne being in the room, except for Oliver who looks at him worried.

Cisco comes running into the room shouting, “We did it! We actually did it. I just called and all of the Wells from the other universes answered. They say their worlds are fine! Barry you saved the multiverse! And I see you managed to bring a special someone back with you.”

Everyone starts shouting and congratulating Barry but he can’t focus. Barry turns back to Eddie and sees he’s made his way to Iris. He wraps his arm around her and she smiles up at him leaning her head on his shoulder. No. No. No. This can’t be happening. Barry turns to Oliver sharing a look of hurt before he speeds off.

“That definitely wasn’t the reaction I was expecting,” Cisco stated. Everyone starts talking at once confused by Barry’s actions.

“I’m going to go check on him,” Caitlin exclaims.

“Caitlin, wait. Everyone wait. Let me go talk to him. Just stay calm and give me some time to talk to him. But first I need a word with Cisco,” Oliver commands.

They go to argue but Oliver was stern and no one feels like picking a fight with Oliver Queen.

Oliver walks with Cisco over to the side, trying to get some privacy from those trying to listen in. “Something's wrong isn’t it? Did this create a new flashpoint? We knew it was a possibility but we thought it was worth the risk with all the lives we’d be saving. What changed to make Barry react like that?”

“Listen, Cisco, I know you have a lot of questions just like everyone else, myself included but I need to know a few things first before I go talk to Barry.”

“Okay.”

Oliver lowers his voice making sure no one will hear him even though he doubts they can over all the shouting everyone else seems to be doing. “Iris and Eddie… are they together?”

“Yes, they’re married, why? Are they not supposed to be together? What’s going on?”

“And Caitlin. The way she hugged Barry… are they together?”

“Yes, they’re also married. Are you telling me none of this happened in the original timeline?”

“Cisco, look I know you’re freaking out here too but I need you to stay calm for me and wait a little longer to get all these answers because I need to go talk to Barry now.”

Cisco looks annoyed but understands that Barry is more important right now, “Okay, I’ll wait.”

“Once I go I need you to keep everyone calm. They’re going to have questions and I can see you’re already putting pieces together but you can’t tell them anything yet and whatever you do don’t let anyone come back here and try to talk to Barry, okay?”

“Okay,” Cisco nods as Oliver makes his way to the hallway to look for Barry. Cisco turns around and faces the group as everyone turns to look at him. He takes a deep breath as he approaches looking specifically at Caitlin, Iris, and Eddie, knowing that things are all about to be turned upside down before long.

– –

“Barry?” Oliver calls out as he approaches him from behind.

Barry turns around gripping his fist tightly, crying and moves his hands to his head, shaking his head back and forth in disbelief. Oliver walks over to him and embraces him in a hug. “It’s going to be okay,” Oliver reassures him.

After the hug Barry slides down on the wall and tilts his head back, continuing to shake his head in disbelief. After a few seconds he looks up to Oliver, “I’m sorry, Oliver. I’m so glad you’re back, truly, I just-”

“It’s okay, I understand. Thank you by the way for saving me.”

“Of course. But, um do you remember the same timeline I do? Because no one else looked shocked to see Eddie there and then him and Iris and I- I just couldn’t be in there any more I had to come figure everything out.” He was rambling now but he couldn’t bring himself to calm down after seeing his wife with her dead ex.

“Yes, I think so. I remember Eddie dying. In my timeline you and Iris were married. Then we were all trying to save the multiverse and you showed up and pulled me into the speed force to explain things. But I’m so sorry, Barry, I can't imagine what you’re feeling right now.”

“I just don’t understand when the last flashpoint happened, nothing like this happened. The thought never occurred to me that it could.”

“Time travel is a messy business. I mean I am very grateful and I’m sure the countless lives and worlds you saved are too, but there are consequences to time travel.” Oliver’s words might have sounded a little harsh with the circumstances but the look he gave Barry showed that he really did feel sorry for him.

“Oliver, what am I supposed to do?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure.”

“She doesn’t remember Oliver. She has no idea she’s my wife. She doesn’t remember our life together. She has a whole new life that I have no clue about with Eddie. I can’t. I can’t face her. I can’t face any of them and just go on like nothing happened. She’s my world, Oliver, and she’s gone except she’s not. She’s right here living our life with another guy.”

“Hey, I know this is incredibly difficult but while you focus on the terrible right now I need you to think about something. You just saved billions of lives and dozens of universes. You have brought back so many people’s loved ones. Including me to my wife and kids. Barry, I really can’t thank you enough. And I am deeply sorry that you restored so many lives only to have yours torn apart but we have to focus. Where do we go from here? What’s the next step?”

Barry thought about all of the possibilities, trying to figure out what to do. He could just not tell anyone and suffer as he watched her with him. She did look happy. He obviously wanted her to be happy. But he also knew she was happy with him and he couldn’t stand the idea of living a life where she was with someone else. No, he definitely had to tell her. It would cause some problems in the meantime but he was confident he could win her back.

“I’m just going to tell them. I’ll apologize to Eddie and then win Iris back. Once I tell her about our life together she’ll want to be with me again.”

“Okay, but Barry there is more to this story. More to this new timeline that you need to know but I think you need to hear it from someone else.”

“Oliver just tell me.”

“Barry, trust me you’ll want to hear this from someone else. But before I go get them I need to know. Where are Felicity and the kids? Are they okay? How long has it been?”

“Oh I’m so sorry I was so worried about myself I didn’t even think. They’re waiting at your house. They didn’t want to be in front of all of us in case something went wrong and you didn’t come back. They didn’t want to have to go through the grief again in front of everyone so they’re with Diggle and Lyla at your place, assuming that hasn’t changed since I left. But it’s been 6 months. I can run you there.”

“No, it's okay. I’m just glad they’re okay. You have your own stuff to deal with. I’ll take the train. They won’t be worried if I don’t get home immediately right?”

“I gave them a few hour window because I didn’t know how things would go. As long as you’re back in 3 hours they’ll be fine.”

Oliver nods at Barry, “Thank you. I’ll try and come back as soon as I can to check in. I’ll send Cisco back here to fill you in on the rest. I really am sorry Barry.”

“And I really am glad you’re back. Tell everyone hello for me.”

Oliver headed back while Barry tried to figure out what could possibly be worse than his wife being with her dead ex boyfriend that Oliver couldn’t tell him himself.

– –

When Oliver gets back into the room full of people they all start crowding him, asking him questions but he shushes everyone. “Listen I know everyone has questions but right now Barry needs to talk to Cisco and I need you guys to respect that because I need to get home to my wife and kids.”

Everyone quits arguing because as much as they want answers, Oliver’s just put them in their place. Things could be so much worse right now. Barry is alive and Oliver’s alive and they can wait a little longer for some answers.

Oliver and Cisco walk over to the side again. “Look I’m sure you’ve figured most of it out, but Barry wasn’t with Caitlin. He was married to Iris. Eddie wasn’t even here. In our timeline he died years ago. And I know this is crazy but Barry’s world is turning upside down right now and he needs you. So I need you to focus on being Barry’s friend right now and helping him through this.”

“Okay. Okay, I can do that.”

“One more thing. Barry figured Iris and Eddie were together but he doesn’t know they’re married. I also couldn’t figure out how to tell Barry that Caitlin thinks they’re married. I figured it would be better coming from you. Do it gently.”

Cisco takes a big sigh and shakes his head. “We all are really glad you’re back.”

“I’m really glad to be here. Now, I’m off to see my family. Good luck, Cisco.”

“You too,” Cisco responds and heads back to see Barry.

– –

“Cisco, finally!”

Cisco and Barry hug each other tightly. “Now what’s the news that Oliver couldn’t tell me?”

“Listen, I want to start by saying I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine how hard this must be for you.”

“Yeah, it’s terrible. Now quit stalling, I need to go tell Iris about my timeline so just tell me the other news.”

“Oh boy. Okay. I need you to think about how awful this is for you. How your heart is breaking and you wouldn’t wish this upon anyone.”

“Cisco spit it out.”

“In this timeline… Iris and Eddie aren’t just together, they're married.”

“What? No. But that means-” Barry’s mind was racing. This was bad, really bad. If Iris was married he couldn’t just tell her they were meant to be together and win her back. If he told her he’d be putting her through the same pain he was currently dealing with and the last thing he wanted to do was cause Iris pain.

“Barry that’s not all.”

“What else could there possibly be?”

“In this timeline you’re also married… to Caitlin.”

“Caitlin? Me? Married?” Now things were really difficult. He wasn’t going to just hurt his wife, he was also going to hurt one of his best friends.

“Yes, she’s been dying trying to get back here and see you to find out what’s wrong. She’s really worried about you.”

“No one knows the timeline is different?”

“No. I mean they all have their suspicions with the way you reacted, but no one knows for sure. I’m the only one that knows anything and I still don’t know everything.”

“Cisco what am I going to do? How do I tell them?”

“I’m not sure.”

“I mean do I just walk out there and tell them that basically none of this is real.”

“Except it is real to them, Barry. Your timeline might be different but to us this is our life. We don’t remember anything else.” Barry looks at him with so much pain. “Look I know you’re hurting, but a lot of other people are about to be hurting too so just do it gently okay. To Caitlin, you’re her husband so if the roles were reversed think about how you’d want to be told.”

Barry sits and racks his brain for a little bit. Cisco is right, he’s only said what Barry has been thinking this whole time. People are going to get hurt and he wants to do whatever he can to soften the blow. “Okay, I think I’m as ready as I’m ever going to be.”

“I’m here for you man. Whatever you need.”

“Thanks.”

– –

As Barry and Cisco enter the room all eyes turn to them, searching for an answer. Barry speaks up, “Look I know I’ve probably confused you guys and you all want some answers and I’ll give them to you. But time travel can just be really exhausting and it’s been a long day so I’d appreciate it if you guys let me go home and get some rest and maybe explain tomorrow?”

All eyes turn to Barry and they can see that something is very wrong but no one pushes. They all nod and say of course. “I appreciate it,” Barry says and locks eyes with Iris, clearly in pain. She goes to speak but Barry sees that and looks away to find Caitlin. “What do you say we go home?”

Caitlin gives him a smile, hiding her concern as she scans him over looking for any clue as to what’s going on. “Yeah let’s go home,” she says as she wraps her hand in his and heads for the door.

#snowbarry #barry allen #the flash #caitlin snow #snowbarry fanfiction

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