Cold to the Touch

Chapter Four

(Barry's POV)

I already knew it was coming the second I heard keys outside the door. The lock clicked. Iris was home.

"Wow, nice of you to be home for once." She said sarcastically, walking inside the apartment.

"We need to talk." I sighed. She rolled her eyes and for some reason, I could already tell that this wasn't going to end well. We wouldn't end up making up as I had hoped we would.

"We've needed to talk for a while, Barry. You go off into the speed force for six months like it was nothing. Then you come back and act like you were never gone? You just jumped back in where you left off. Changing things at the labs, not listening to me when you're out in the field. Speeding through things that we should be doing and enjoying together!" She snapped, slamming the door closed behind her.

"Iris, you know that going into the speedforce wasn't my choice. I would have stayed with you if I could have, but the city was in danger and it was my fault. I couldn't just let the speedforce destroy the city. I had to do something about it." I huffed out, standing from my place on the couch.

"Right. Maybe if you hadn't gone back in time and screwed everyone over, you wouldn't have to leave the ones that cared about you to fix a problem that you created in the first place." Iris hissed, dropping her bag on the floor to point her finger at me. She had a lot of nerve to say what she did. Someone who cared wouldn't say something like that.

"It really seems like you care about me right now, Iris. Or were you excluding yourself from the list of people who care?" I snapped. "I was a wreck, I had just lost my father. He was murdered right in front of me, Iris! I didn't know how to cope with it. The only thought I had at the time was to run back and save my mother so that I could fix everything. To stop the pain."

I took a deep breath and looked away from her, feeling my eyes begin to sting from unshed tears.

"Losing a parent can be devastating. But I lost both of them." I whispered.

"You never even came to us though. We could have helped you, Barry. We could have supported you, Instead you made a rash, last second decision and screwed with the timeline. With everyone's lives!"  Iris slammed her hand down on the counter she was standing closest to.

"You could have supported me? After we sat on the porch for ten minutes and you told me you were ready for a relationship? That you wanted to be with me? After almost eleven years of me being in love with you?" I wanted to bang my head against the wall and scream in frustration, she only ever thought about herself. "I was grieving, Iris! Did you ever stop and consider that the last thing on my mind at that moment would be a relationship?!"

"Excuse me? What was I supposed to say? My dad was constantly on my back about how in love you were with me! When I finally found someone to settle down with, he shot himself because of problems that you caused in the first place." Iris scoffed. "I never chose this Barry, it was pushed on me. I thought by telling you I was ready to try something between us, that I was also there to support you."

"Well maybe we never should have gotten together in the first place, let alone married, if this was all forced. If you were pushed into this relationship and are so unhappy." I screamed back at her. She knew I wasn't to blame for the Reverse Flash or Eddie's death. All of that was out of my hands, yet she still wanted to stand there and blame me for things that were not in my control.