~Author's Note~

Now turned into a five-shot! This could also fall under the categories romance and angst. Zoom would also be a charater tag for this, if it was one of the choices. Read, enjoy and review! :)

Rated Teen because of mild language, slight violence, suggestive themes and creepy Zoom.

Notes: Takes place after 2x09. Patty isn't taken yet, and she doesn't know Barry's the Flash.

Streaks of Blue

"Are you sure you're gonna be okay, Iris? I can come with you if you want me to, I mean Cisco and I were just going to have a movie marathon at the Lab but he'd understand if I canceled—"

Iris waved her best friend off, rolling her eyes at this new overprotective trait Barry had gained since Wally had shown up. With a dismissive exhale she handed him his cup of hot chocolate (which he took appreciatively) before taking a sip from her own and ignoring the scorn as the scalding liquid slipped down her throat (she didn't mind the feeling either, because it was at least ten degrees outside and snowing).

"Barry, I'll be fine. Wally's been around for five days now and he's not capable of hurting a fly. Though this new overprotective side of you is something I've never seen before," she teased, Barry sighing as they headed towards the front doors of Jitters.

He tugged his coat closer to his body before balancing his cup of hot chocolate with one hand and using the other to push open the door, the two getting smacked by a chilly gust of wind as they headed outside.

"It's not that I don't trust him, it's just that I don't like you going off alone after what happened on Christmas with Weather Wizard and Trickster. Plus, Zoom is still out there."

It was a sore topic and Barry's tone of voice switched instantly over to one of stiff abhorrence as soon as the evil speedster's name was approached.

Iris shivered as a burst of snow washed over them, petty snowflakes falling into her curled hair and landing in Barry's disheveled locks. The coat she was wearing didn't seem to be doing enough to conserve her body heat and Barry noticed her discomfort immediately; moving close to her and slinging an arm around her shoulders. Iris huddled into his chest, grateful for the warmth now encircling her (as she had discovered a few weeks before, her best friend was like a walking heater).

"Thanks Bear," she whispered, feeling him nod against her as he rested his head on top of hers and guided them down the snowy street.

The only sounds surrounding them for a few moments was the muffled chatter of people hurrying home around them, the soft whistles of wind from the storm and their shoes squashing into the snow below them in gentle footprints.

His warmth was alluring to her and she almost forgot the conversation at hand, until someone's horn blared from the busy road besides them and caused her to jump. Barry chuckled softly, rubbing a hand over her arm in a soothing motion. "Hey, it's alright," he murmured, "it was just a car. You're good."

Iris snubbed the butterflies in her stomach at his words, as she had been doing since his confession so many months before.

Something had happened to her when he told her that he loved her, either something broke or something clicked because whenever he was around—whenever he showed her the slightest amount of extra affection—her heart would beat wildly and her stomach would be overtaken by a trillion petite butterflies (and yes, she knew how cliché it sounded and yes, she was ashamed by her high-school-crush-like-emotions).

The answer was already written in stone, because she understood it so damn clearly now, and the answer was that she loved him too. She always did, but Iris was a stubborn one and she didn't want to risk their friendship; to believe that they had something more.

But they did and now it was too late, because Barry was with Patty (and as much as Iris wanted to hate her, she couldn't because Patty was a nerdy little sweetheart—just like her Barry) and he was happy.

Iris would never shatter Barry's happiness, not after all he's been through.

Barry kept a gloved hand resting on the side of her waist as they headed towards CCPD, where they had decided they would part ways (with Barry heading to S.T.A.R Labs for a movie marathon with Cisco and Iris out to dinner with her little brother).

Iris had listened to Barry talk energetically about Cisco and his plans since Christmas, because it would be a rare night where Caitlin wouldn't be there with them because she was going out with Jay for a little while, and listening to him was like trying to grab a kid going haywire in candy store.

Though Iris didn't mind, she could listen to Barry for hours without issue.

"I won't be alone though, Bear," she commented, attempting to direct her mind towards the conversation they were having before she got sidetracked by her own musings, "Wally will be there and I'm sure he's perfectly capable of sending death glares at muggers waiting to take my purse."

Barry glanced down at Iris, shaking his head in dismay at her playful attitude about the matter.

He was worried about what Zoom's next move would be, considering there had been no activity near the portals or any new meta-humans around since Cisco had shot him with the speed reducing serum. Barry was beyond worried (freaking out, actually) about what he was planning.

The speedster's silence wasn't comforting. It was terrifying.

"But he doesn't know about how dangerous Zoom is, or half the crap we've been dealing with this past year." He tugged her closer to his chest as they crossed a hectic intersection, Iris responding once they avoided getting hit by a careless truck.

"Barry. We'll be fine. If it makes you feel better, I'll text you throughout dinner, okay? We haven't heard from Zoom since," she stops short, her next words dying on her lips.

Barry senses her unsaid apprehension on the subject and finishes for her, "Since he broke my back."

Iris bites the inside of her lip as another surge of bitter wind plows into them, screeching in their ears.

"We haven't heard from him since that. If he was going to do something, he would've done it already. Central City choose a side and it choose the Flash. Zoom's ultimate goal is to turn everyone against you and he failed. I think he's staying away for a little while. I also think you need to let yourself relax for once. Everything's fine. Take a breather, Bear, alright?"

Barry said nothing for a few tense seconds and Iris could tell he was inwardly debating the right words, trying to figure out if it was truly okay to just let himself relax or to continue worrying day in and day out. It wasn't until they turned the corner and the police department building stood proudly in front of them did Barry reply.

"Okay."

Iris smiled at his agreement, reaching a hand down to the ground when he wasn't looking and grabbing a handful of snow. "Iris what are you—"

Before he could finish, he ended up sputtering from the snow that had been thrown in his face, wiping at his eyes as Iris laughed childishly from her spot next to him. Barry sent her a pointed look, lips splitting into a beam as he bent down and grabbed a wad of snow, making a perfectly rounded snowball.

Iris' eyes went huge as she held her hands up in surrender.

"Barry, no. Don't you dare, it is freezing out here and I don't want to have to pick out any more snow out of my hair than I already have to."

He smirked, "You started it."

Then an all-out, classic West-Allen snowball war commenced in the parking lot of CCPD.

Iris won.

Barry got a total of fifteen bruises for getting snow in her hair.

"I swear to God, Barry, if your phone goes off one more time I'm going to throw this bowl of popcorn at your head." Barry sent Cisco an apologetic smile, unlocking his phone and dodging the un-popped kernel his friend lodged at him anyway.

"I'm sorry man, I'm just worried about Iris."

Cisco scoffed, swallowing the handful of popcorn before raising an eyebrow in question and speaking. "Dude, she's at dinner with her brother. What's there to be worried about?" Barry shrugged, sending a text back to Iris before locking his phone and stuffing it back into his jeans pocket.

The two were seated in front of the row of computers towards the front of the Lab, where Cisco had rigged the screens to play as one huge movie-theater-like playback. So far, they had made it through The Matrix, Inception, Back to the Future II, and now they were halfway through the lineup of Star Wars movies next on their list.

All throughout their movie marathon, however, Barry had been texting Iris nonstop.

His worries hadn't eased in the slightest.

"I'm worried about the unknown, Cisco. I mean, Zoom could come back any moment with an army of meta-humans behind him. Or he could bring over our doppelgangers and cause literal hell. Speaking of, where's Harry at?"

Cisco shook his head, "Out checking the portals or whatever. I'm just about done with any version of Wells at this point."

It was close to midnight on December thirtieth and Iris' last text to Barry was about how Wally and she were just finishing up talking and about to head home (which was a relief for Barry to hear, his nerves were shot by now). Barry's phone vibrated again and he pulled it out in lightning speed, speed-reading the text from Iris and loudly exhaling in reprieve.

Cisco groaned noisily, throwing a handful of popcorn at the speedster's head, all of which Barry avoided easily. He typed back his answer to Iris before sliding his phone across the table and crossing his hands behind his head, leaning back in the chair peacefully.

"She's heading home now. Wally isn't walking her but I figured as much because Iris is as stubborn—"

"See dude? I told you, nothing was gonna happen. Now, shush my favorite part is coming up!" Barry chuckled as he directed his attention to the movie playing on screen, finally able to unwind.

The calm didn't last long however, because not even five minutes after did beeping start to come from the corner of one of the computer screens, signaling that a live broadcast was loading onto the emergency alert system for Central City.

Cisco and Barry send confused looks to each other, Cisco dropping his feet from the table and pausing the movie as he brought up the channel, black and white static staring back at them. Barry stood up slowly and walked over next to his friend, leaning down next to him and gazing intently at the screaming screen.

Cisco typed a few codes in, clicking his tongue when nothing changed.

"Maybe the channel has a glitch and the government's trying to fix it. I mean, 12:01 in the morning would be a great time to do it?"

Barry shook his head, "No, the channel isn't supposed to be used unless an nationwide—"

His voice catches in his throat when the fuzz disappears and is replaced by Zoom's face on screen. He's holding the camera himself and Barry can see each separate crevice in his mask, blue electric fizzling and zapping around his form, eye slits holding malice-filled eyes behind them and suit ominous in the dim lighting of the room he's standing in.

He chuckles lowly as he directs the camera away from himself, flipping around so that it is instead focusing on the gagged woman slumped on the floor behind him.

"Holy shit," Cisco breathes, already typing away rapidly on the keyboard to try and triangulate Zoom's location, Barry's hands shaking as they hold tightly onto the table (so tightly that his skin is pulled taut and phantom white).

"Hello Central City," he growls, and it seems like his abysmal voice is rumbling through the Lab, trembling down Barry's spine, "I hope you all had a joyful Christmas."

The clacking of the computer keys is mute in Barry's ears and all of his senses are deaf to everything else happening around him—he can't hear the constant ping from the computer attempting to track Zoom's location, he can't smell the buttery popcorn spilled forgotten on the polished floor next to them, he can't feel the cool metal under his fingers and he can't see Zoom.

All he can see is Iris.

Zoom has her thrown sloppily in the corner of the room they're in; her wrists are bond behind her back with punitive white rope snug around them, a dirty gag tied around her mouth so she can't speak and her eyes are filled with so much fear that it causes Barry's blood to boil.

"I'm sure some of you thought my absence meant the Flash had defeated me. You. Thought. Wrong. I know who the Flash is under the mask. If you strip away the suit, the mask, the powers," he laughs and it causes Barry's stomach to churn with uneasiness, "you will find nothing but a spineless man underneath. The Flash is not your savior, Central City. I am."

Barry gritted his teeth together, barely able to get out four words to Cisco without exploding. "Where is he, Cisco?"

"I-I don't know, the signal keeps bouncing around like mad. I'm not a professional hacker—"

"Do you have the remote area, Cisco?"

Barry's attention is caught by the live feed again when Iris tries to speak from behind her gag, the only thing escaping being muffled exhales. The camera shakes and Barry can just picture the wicked grin behind the demon's mask, the malevolent sneer hidden there.

He can feel himself vibrating with so much anger and the next thing Barry knows is that he's running out of S.T.A.R Labs and into the city—without his suit. Cisco's frantic voice over his ear-comm reaches him not even a second later as Barry weaves through moving cars with ease and races through the city's crowed streets. "Barry! Dude, your suit!"

"I don't care Cisco!" Barry snaps without meaning to and he can just visualize the man flinching from his harsh tone.

But he doesn't care, because Zoom has Iris.

Zoom has Iris.

"J-Just give me a location!"

The rage is clouding his vision, burning through his veins, thrashing in tenor with the speed force vying within him. Barry can hear the live feed through the ear-comm and he feels like it's repeating around him from all of the televisions scattered through Central City—he feels like he can hear every single one.

"I'm going to show you why heroes always die. I'm going to show you your hero, kneeling broken before me. Heroes like the Flash," Zoom drags out each letter like it's poison spreading through his mouth, like a sour aftertaste from a bad meal; "care too much about others. About keeping them safe. I said I knew who the Flash was under the mask, when he's stripped down to just a man."

Cisco's worried voice cuts through the broadcast like a sharp knife in Barry's ear, "Start searching near the park, I have the location narrowed down to the bottom of Central. From the looks of it, they're either in a warehouse or old garage."

Barry says nothing, pushing himself as fast as he can go as he zooms to the bottom half of his city; zipping up each street and checking each place he can find as fast as he can. "And the most important thing to the Flash, when he's stripped down to just a man, is this woman. Iris West."

"You're getting closer Barry, the signals almost locked on, just hold on."

"Central City, if you didn't already know, heroes are nothing without the thing they treasure most in the world. Isn't it funny that you can end someone with something so . . . simple?"

"Barry, I got it! The warehouse to the left of you, thirty blocks down, hurry!"

"Your hero is nothing, Central City. The Flash is nothing without this woman."

"Barry he dropped the camera. Hurry, I think he's about to run."

"I will take away everything you love Flash, and I will destroy you."

The feed cuts out with a deafening click throughout the city, a whoosh of blue the last thing everyone sees. Barry makes it to the warehouse Cisco had guided him to but it's too late and Zoom is gone. Iris is gone.

"Barry," Cisco mumbles anxiously, reaching up and running his hands through his hair, "they're gone."

"Joe, I've searched everywhere. A hundred times over. Zoom's taken her and it's all my fault! I can't find her!"

It's been a week. A week since Iris' disappearance.

New Years passed without celebration wine and heavy with despair. Everyone had taken the news different. Joe had been keeping up a near impeccable nonchalant façade, working nonstop hours at CCPD to try and find any leads about where his little girl was. Barry knew he was close to breaking, but he was already at the breaking point—already so lost, already so deprived of hope.

Joe took Barry by the shoulders, shaking him slightly. "Don't lose hope on her, Barry, don't. You're the fastest man alive. We are going to find her." And the sincere tone in Joe's words had Barry's heart aching. Aching for Iris.

"Joe, I've tried everything. I've searched as far as Coast City. Oliver's checked everywhere in Starling. Felicity can't track her."

Patty took the news from a police officer's stance—reviewing the facts, staying closed off as to not get attached to the case (she didn't want a repeat like with what happened with Mardon) and making sure Barry didn't stray too far.

"Zoom has to have a point with that. He must be trying to send us a message—"

Barry cuts Joe off by shoving his hands off him, angrily carding them through his hair. "Yeah, that I will always loose! That I'm not fast enough to save Iris! That he's won, again, and this time he didn't have to break my back to break me!"

Caitlin took the news to heart, because she understood Barry and Iris' dynamic probably better than they did. Wally didn't understand and within a day of questions to Joe, he spilled everything. About Barry being the Flash, about Zoom breaking his back—about everything (and Barry was damn lucky Wally was more of a nerd than a narc). Jay stepped up and offered any help he could, while Harry dragged Cisco to work on building a better serum. A better way to stop Zoom.

Team Flash was hurting, the Flash was hurting.

Barry was dying inside without his other half.

"No son!" Joe shouted, pulling Barry by the forearm, "We are going to get through this and hell if I allow this to destroy you! This is what Zoom wants, Barry! He wants you to break! That's why he took her! To make you his own personal puppet! Son, I need you to not lose hope. We are going to find her. Okay?"

Barry felt the tears before he could process it, Joe pulling his surrogate son into a bone-breaking hug. He patted his back as some tears escaped from Barry, the latter holding tightly onto the back of Joe's shirt.

"I miss her, Joe, a-and I can't . . . I can't stand to imagine what he could be doing to her, what's he's done to her. I don't know who the hell Zoom is but he knows me. He knows me."

His voice cracks a few times and Joe feels his own tears building up, his own wisely-built walls shattering. "We're gonna find her, Bear. We are going to get our girl back."

"I'm always gonna protect you Iris, you know that."

"You can't promise that, Bear."

"Like hell I can't. If something happens to you Iris, I'll never be able to forgive myself."

"Well, nothing is going to happen to me. I've got you as my protector, right?"

"Always."

It's two weeks before Barry finds her.

Cisco, Caitlin and Jay are manning the computers at S.T.A.R Labs nonstop when they get a ping of abnormal speeds at a warehouse just outside the city.

A portal is then used five seconds after that.

Caitlin calls Barry and tells him to get to that warehouse right that second and he does—filling in Joe with jumbled words before getting out of sight, changing into his suit and running. He gets to the warehouse in record time, zapping to a stop outside and looking all around before vibrating the door so that it falls off the hinges.

He takes two steps forward before his eyes lock on a curled up Iris huddling in the grimy corner.

He speeds over to her side, gently removing the bloody rope from her wrists and gag from her mouth, Iris flinching at his touch but Barry calming her effortlessly with his soft voice (that is shaking so much he's surprised that not the first thing she comments on).

"Hey, hey, Iris, it's me. It's Barry. You're safe now, I got you, alright?" He gently slides her stiff body into his lap, her eyes hands shaking as one of them lifts to touch his cheek—to see if he's real or just a figment of her imagination.

"B-Bear?"

He smiles, grabbing her hand with his own. "Yeah, you're alright Iris. It's me."

She lets out a sound that's a mix between a sob of relief and a hysterical laugh before burying her face into his chest, finding comfort in the indulgent leather of his suit; finding comfort in the warmth that is her Barry.

"Barry . . . y-you came."

He rests his head on top of hers, cradling her close before nodding. "I promised you years ago that I would always protect you and I'm sorry I couldn't, God Iris, I'm sorry I let this happen to you. Did he hurt you?" He feels her shake her head gently against his chest (and his heart is racing so fast Barry's astonished it hasn't jumped out of his throat yet).

"I'm so happy you're here Barry," she whispers, "I was so scared."

Iris lifts her head enough so that they're looking each other in the eyes, green clashing against hazel. Neither know if it's the dense emotions around them, or the fear from what could've happened if they never got to see each other again but within seconds their lips are connected. It's powerful, the kiss, filled with longing and worry and release.

Because they're both safe and Iris is safe and Zoom didn't kill her and Barry's her savior once again.

Barry strokes her mud-ridden cheek with his thumb, the kiss deepening for a moment before they both pull away breathless. They stare at each other a moment more, and Barry's mind is slowly going erratic.

Because his first thought isn't Patty for once. She's not his priority. His priority is getting Iris out of there. That's all that matters to him.

Because if she dies, he dies too.

With a soft grunt he picks her up bridal style and zips her out of there, not stopping until they reach the inside of S.T.A.R Labs. He almost doesn't want to let her go so that Joe can hug her but he does and that's when he sees the small piece of paper Iris is clutching in one shaky hand.

"Iris," he murmurs, the woman in question turning slowly in her dad's arms to face him, "what's that?"

He sees the worry flash across her face, the fear fit across it. With a slow hand Barry reaches forward and grabs her gently by the forearm, pulling her back into a hug. She's still holding tight to the card in between trembling fingers and Barry smoothly takes it from her, shushing her by kissing the top of her head and holding her even closer as he attempts to read Zoom's scratchy handwriting.

This is a reminder, Flash, that I can kill anyone you love faster than you can run.

This is a reminder that being a hero will kill you faster than anything else.

After reading it, Barry drops the scrap of paper onto the ground and just buries his face into Iris' hair, doing his best to burn the sight of her blood spattered on the card from his memory.

Zoom would not take anyone else on his watch.

And Barry would die before letting him near Iris again.