Author's Note: Alright! This is the final chapter in this story! Yes there are loose ends! That is intentional. They will be addressed in the sequel A Storm Of Fire, which will hopefully appear in the next couple of weeks. It's in progress. But A Flash In The Dark is done after this! I own nothing.

60. Merry Christmas

Barry and Joe arrived home to find Iris, Eddie, Caitlin and Cisco already waiting for them. Iris hugged her sister tight and frowned when Barry flinched slightly then shrugged off her questions. Instead Barry turned to Caitlin and Cisco with a smile.

"What are you guys doing here?" They smiled and hugged her a bit more gently as Joe grinned and responded.

"I invited them. Where's Dr. Wells?" Joe asked taking Barry's coat.

"He wasn't feeling up to a social gathering, but he sends his apologies and a gift." Caitlin said gesturing to three small boxes under the tree, neatly wrapped in deep blue paper covered in stars. Barry grinned at them before stepping into the kitchen to grab some eggnog. Once they all had a mug Iris had Barry pull out the Angel out of the final box. Barry handed it to her sister who plugged it in and handed it to her father who smiled trading his mug for the glass and wire decoration. As they watched he placed the Angel on top of the tree and flicked the small switch that turned on the lights inside the frosted glass. They all cheered as the final decoration glowed. Joe stepped off to the side as Barry congratulated Iris and Eddie on moving in together and apologized for not being there when Iris told Joe, she'd had a breakthrough in a case and lost track of time. Well that's what she claimed anyway. Iris could tell there was something else going on but no one in this room seemed likely to tell her. Well Eddie didn't seem to know any more than she did. She sighed as she watched Caitlin and Barry talk about something sciency that she didn't quite understand while Cisco and her father whispered in the corner. Something was going on and she was going to figure out what.

Dr. Harrison Wells smiled to himself as he stood from his wheelchair and walked into his hidden room off the main hall at Star Labs. He glanced down at his hand, the ring still glinted on his finger, bright gold and shining like the day he'd stolen it. He pressed the lightning blot into a sensor on the wall and a compartment opened showing him an empty mannequin not dissimilar to the one Barry used to store her costume. He pressed the ring onto the small symbol in the device in front of him and his costume sprang into place on the mannequin. He stepped back over to his wheelchair and pulled the seat aside with a smile. He lifted the tachyonic device out of the hidden compartment and stepped back into his small sanctuary. He carefully placed it over the red symbol on the chest of his costume. He let out a low nearly relieved laugh as the device powered up and his costume began to ripple with red lightning.

"Merry Christmas." He said to himself with a smile letting his vocal chords vibrate as he had when he and Barry had fought earlier that night.

Barry got back to her apartment late that night, much later than she'd planned. Eddie and Iris were staying the night at Joe's and despite him insisting that she could stay too she hadn't really wanted to. She hadn't wanted to deal with anyone else looking at her like she would shatter any moment. She stepped out of her elevator and walked quietly down the darkened hall. Everyone was asleep by now. She went to pull her keys out of her pocket when she spotted something sitting by her door, well two somethings actually. One was a package she recognized as the scarf her neighbor Mrs. Price always knitted for everyone on their floor every Christmas. The other was a single item that she couldn't quite make out in the dark of the hallway. She unlocked her door and flicked on her light and gasped. A single ice blue rose sat on her doormat, a bright blue ribbon tied around it in a neat bow. She glanced around, there was no one around. She scooped up the two items and locked her door behind her. She set the wrapped scarf down on her table and stared at the flower in her hand. It was just like the other flowers he'd sent her. She sat down in one of her kitchen chairs and threw the rose onto the table. She buried her head in her hands.

She didn't have time to think about this, about him. Bad enough Lisa Snart had decided she was going to go against Len's word and contact her but now he was leaving her roses? She really didn't have time for him, for his cute little smirk, and his shining blue eyes and quick wit. She growled at herself as she sat back in her chair and looked over at the flower sitting innocently on her table.

"When did my life become so very thoroughly fucked?" She wondered aloud to no one in particular.

TO BE CONTINUED IN A STORM OF FIRE