Iris knocked on the desk. Caitlin looked up from the computer. "Iris," she said. "Hi."

The ER was actually quiet today. Caitlin seemed to be catching up on paperwork, referring to notes on a clipboard as she worked. She looked like herself. Eyes: brown, hair: brown. Hands: not pouring out mist like a terrifying subzero freezer.

She nodded at what Iris held. "Is Jitters making deliveries now?" she asked.

"No," Iris said, setting the to-go cup on the high top of the desk, within Caitlin's reach. "It's an apology."

Caitlin didn't reach for it. "Given that I tried to flash-freeze you like a bag of peas two days ago, we may be even."

"Oh, I'll accept your apology for that," Iris said cheerily. "But you were right about me. I kept putting off doing the right thing, and making you help me, and it was wrong of me. And I'm sorry."

Caitlin fussed with her nails. "It's okay," she said, in a muffled voice.

"I did tell the truth, finally."

"I know. I heard."

"I kept your name out of it."

"I heard that, too. Thank you." Caitlin picked up a couple of pens marked with the hospital logo and slotted them back into a pen cup, apparently just to fuss with something. Next to the clipboard, her phone buzzed, but she ignored it. "I spoke to the Thawnes myself when I came back to work. Told them it was my mistake to begin with."

Iris caught her breath. "Are they going to sue or anything?"

"No," Caitlin said, looking surprised. "No, they're not. It wasn't a comfortable discussion, but I made my apologies and they agreed to let it stay at that."

"I'm really glad."

"Me too."

Overhead, the speaker squawked like Charlie Brown's parents, a garble of syllables and a code. Apparently nothing Caitlin needed to attend to, because she glanced up and then looked back at the drink Iris had brought.

"Drink it," Iris said, "or it's going to get cold."

Hesitantly, as if she wasn't sure she had a right to it, Caitlin put out her hand and picked it up. She took a slow sip. Her phone buzzed again, and she ignored it again. "Have you talked to any of them?"

"Joe called me that same night," Iris said.

"What did he say?"

"That everyone was still trying to take it in."

She'd cried while on the phone with him, trying to keep it silent so he wouldn't guess that she'd been a wreck all day long, that Gina had even sent her home early for the first time ever. She thought he'd guessed anyway, because he'd told her, Call me anytime, baby. I mean that, when she'd said she had to go.

"How about since then?"

"Nothing."

"Not even from Barry?"

Iris flinched at his name, and Caitlin said, "Oh," very softly. And then, "I'm sorry."

She shrugged. "Wally hasn't blocked me on anything. I keep getting his notifications. So that's something, I guess? How are you doing?"

Caitlin frowned at her for a moment, then nodded a little. "Better."

A medtech with a cart clattered along behind Iris, and she shifted out of the way. Lowering her voice, she said, "Where did Cisco take you?"

"I'm not sure, actually. I woke up in somebody's private lab. Cisco was pulling these out of a drawer." She held up her wrists to show two cuffs. They looked at first glance like step trackers, or very fancy wristwatches.

"What do they do?"

"Dampen my powers." She studied them. "Somehow. I'm not sure how."

"Did Cisco make those?" By now, she wouldn't be surprised at anything.

"Not exactly. He left a note. Said the person they belonged to would understand."

"He told me you probably wouldn't be able to get rid of your powers. That maybe the best you could do is learn to wrangle them."

She nodded. "He said that to me, too. We talked for a long time and I - " She sighed. "I still don't want them. I don't think I'll ever want them. But this is the hand I've been dealt. I've got to work with it. Practice. Get them under control so I don't put anyone in danger ever again."

"If anyone can do it, you can," Iris said. "You're so much stronger than you know."

Caitlin gave her a thoughtful look. Before she could say anything, her phone buzzed again, and Iris asked, "Who keeps texting you?"

Caitlin glanced at her phone, and the glance almost could have been called fond. "Oh - Cisco. He keeps coming up with ways I can use my powers for good. He thinks I should put on a skintight costume and go out kicking ass with him and Barry."

Iris angled her head to read the text. "No more nasty warm beer ever again," she read.

"They're not all epic." She flipped the phone over screen-side down and leaned over the desk. "Listen. What you said to me - "

"Oh no - "

"You were right. Ever since Ronnie died, I've shut down. Which is what I do. Shutting down has always been my defense against pain. But I didn't realize how bad I'd gotten until you asked me why I even was a doctor."

"Listen," Iris said, leaning forward in her turn. "I was not right, okay? Now, it's true, you're not always the sweetest or gentlest person in the room. I'll grant you that. But Cisco told me how you two met, and how you met Barry. And then I think of what you did for me - "

"Oh, god," Caitlin said. "Don't take that as an example."

"But I am," Iris said stubbornly, "and you can't stop me. Because you made a mistake, but if I really had been Eddie's fiancee, the way that you made sure I got in to see him, and how you reassured me - that would have been amazing. It was amazing. You do care about people. You see someone hurting and you help them. It's intrinsic to your nature."

"Medical help is one thing," Caitlin said. "I know how to do that. But you were also asking me to be your friend, and that shouldn't be beyond me. It shouldn't be beyond anybody."

"Well," Iris said slowly. "You show promise. And I think you can improve."

"With practice?"

"Yes."

"Thank you."

Iris waited a moment. "So," she prompted. "There's something you still need to tell me?"

"Oh," Caitlin said. She straightened in her chair and said with all the formality of an international diplomat, "Iris, I'm very sorry that I almost froze you like a bag of peas the other day. That's something I'm working on."

"I accept your apology," Iris said with equal formality. "And, again, I'm sorry that I dragged you into my lie."

"I accept your apology," Caitlin said, sipping her drink again. "This is really very good."

"I've been making your lattes for months, I know how you like them."

Caitlin gave her a sly look. "Cisco says you bring him day-old pastries. I don't suppose there's any chance of coffee deliveries being a regular event?"

Iris looked her in the eye. "Dream on."

Caitlin laughed.

Iris was curled up on her couch, reading and re-reading a message in her email. Not her regular one, but the one posted on her blog that people could use to contact her.

Please contact us about an opportunity to bring Heroes of Central City under the Central City Picture News umbrella. We're very excited about the stories you've uncovered. Sincerely, Mason Bridge, Director of Online Content, CCPN.

She opened up the CCPN website and plugged in the name at the bottom of the email, and found Mason Bridge listed as the director of online content. This wasn't a scam, or at least not an immediately verifiable one.

She clicked back over to her email and stared at it some more.

When a knock sounded on the door, she jumped, and then set her laptop on her coffee table and got up to answer it. Cisco, maybe. He'd taken to checking on her every night. He kept telling her that Barry didn't hate her, but Iris didn't know if she could believe him.

But it wasn't Cisco.

"Hi," Nora said. "I got your address from Joe, I hope that's all right."

Iris clutched her door frame for dear life. "Of course, no, it's fine. D-do you want to come in?"

"Thank you." Nora stepped inside and shrugged off her coat.

Iris shut the door behind her and locked her hands behind her back, unsure what to expect.

"I brought something from Joe," Nora said.

"Oh." Maybe Nora had been on this side of town, completing errands. Pick up groceries, get the oil changed, drop something off with the evil, deceptive girl who'd pretended to be her son's fiancee. "That - thank you."

Iris took the large, flat manila envelope that Nora held out and opened it to pull out a sheet of stiff photo paper.

"Oh," she said, very very quietly. It was a picture of her parents, one she'd never seen. They couldn't have been more than about sixteen, dressed up to go to a school dance. Their clothes were hilariously outdated, their smiles gloriously in love.

"I guess Joe got it from your grandmother. It turns out your grandfather was a cousin of Joe's father. So you are related."

She pulled another sheet of paper out of the envelope and stared down at it. Esther West. And an address in Coast City, a phone number, and a note that Esther was on Facebook.

She'd never really believed that Joe was related to her, or that her father's family would admit it if they were. But here it was, jotted down in Joe's square cop handwriting - her grandmother's existence.

"I sent a card to them," she said, voice shaking. "When my dad died. I didn't hear anything back. Their own son."

"Did you know your grandfather died eighteen months ago?"

She shook her head mutely.

"It's your choice to contact her, obviously, but consider that she's as alone as you've been."

Against her will, Iris felt a pang for the grandfather she'd never known. "Maybe," she said, sliding paper and picture back into the envelope and turning away to lay it on the coffee table next to her laptop. "Thank for bringing that."

"I said Joe sent it with me," Nora said. "That's not really accurate. He wanted to bring it himself, but I begged him to let me do it instead so I'd have a reason to come see you."

Iris felt her cheeks get hot. She couldn't decide whether that was better or worse. "I'm sure you have some things to say."

Nora eyed her. "Oh, sweetheart. You look like I'm about to beat you up."

Iris didn't know what to say to that.

Nora looked down at her hands. "I've had a hard couple of weeks," she said. "A hard few months." She let out her breath in a huff. "Oh, let's just go whole hog and say one hell of a year. Eddie not talking to us, and then Barry's accident and him getting all secretive and distant - it hasn't been easy. When I met you, I thought, this is just what we need. Some happy thing to bring this family back together."

"And then it turned out to be a lie," Iris said.

"But you did bring us back together," Nora said.

Iris stared at her.

"If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have felt close enough to Eddie to be there at the hospital every day. And your blog - I read it, did you know that? Henry and I both do. We did before Barry told us that he was the Flash. After he told me that, I read everything over again, thinking of him doing those things and I - " She bit her lip, then gave a little gasp. "It's not easy for a mother to admit that her children are grown, and making their own choices, and putting their own lives on the line for a good cause. But I'm starting to come around to it."

"I'm glad."

"And that's because of you. Even though it wasn't the way I thought you would - you brought my boys back to me. Thank you, Iris. I can never thank you enough."

She blinked hard, looking away at the bare spot where she'd just taken down her Christmas tree on Epiphany. "How are they?" she asked.

"Eddie's doing pretty well. Working hard at his physical therapy, and his memory's clearing up."

"That's really good."

"You know, he doesn't resent you. Is that what you're afraid of? He doesn't hold any hard feelings. We've been spending a lot of time together, talking a lot, and when it comes to you, mostly he's just relieved that there was a reason he couldn't remember."

Iris let out her breath. "And Barry?" She was proud of herself for saying his name like it was any other name. "How is he doing?"

Nora's brows went up. "You've been reporting on him."

"I know, but that's just the Flash side of him."

"He hasn't talked to you?"

She shook her head.

"Hmmm," Nora murmured. "Well. He's been very quiet, lately."

She waited as if she wanted Iris to press her further, but Iris didn't have to courage to push. She looked down at her hands instead.

"I should go," Nora said. "Visiting hours are up soon. But, listen, Iris. I want you know something."

"What?"

"Whatever happens with your grandmother, know that you have a family with us. With Joe and Wally, obviously - but with me and Henry too."

Iris stared at her, overwhelmed. She thought she might cry.

Nora smiled a little and zipped up her coat. "Don't be a stranger, sweetheart."

Nora's words sat in her heart like a polished gem that she took out and considered every so often over the next few days, even as several things happened all at once to jolt her life all out of alignment. Like it hadn't been off-kilter since the moment she'd smacked an armed robber with a bottle of hazelnut syrup. But this was a whole new course.

A better one, she hoped.

She was cleaning the pastry case at Jitters when the door jingled. She looked up with a jolt, and found herself looking at Cisco. "Hey," she said. "What brings you my way?"

"Gotta send you off in style," he said, grabbing a chair and swinging it around to sit backwards.

"My last day isn't until tomorrow," Iris said.

He pointed at her. "But it's your last closing shift, and I'm gonna miss the sweet, sweet day-olds." He looked acquisitively at the plate of muffins and pound cake slices she'd set aside.

"I guess you'll just have to come in and buy them fresh like everybody else," she said, but handed him the one single cranberry orange scone that she'd set aside with ruthless selfishness.

He made a happy noise and bit in. "With all the cashola I'll be making at my sweet Queen Labs job?" he asked, spraying crumbs. "Whoops, shorry." He grabbed a napkin and wiped the crumbs up.

She aimed a grin at him. "Yes. That." Finally, someone had realized how amazing an engineer Cisco really was. He pshawed that, saying he was going to be an entry-level drone, nobody special, but his grin kept breaking out.

"You'll be raking in the dough, too."

She snorted. "Yeah, right. You have a seriously skewed notion of how much a cub reporter makes in this economy." Just saying the words thrilled her to her toes. Iris West, cub reporter. Soon to be Iris West, investigative journalist - Iris West, Pulitzer Prize Winner - Iris West, Editor in Chief -

Well. Iris West, cub reporter was enough for right now.

She noticed the way he kept glancing at the door. "Waiting for someone?" Barry, maybe? she thought, and had to swallow back the thought. It felt too much like hope.

"Caitlin," he said. "We're getting in some practice time before I go out on patrol."

"Oh, got it. How's that going?"

He leveled a look at her. "She lost her fiance a few months ago. It's not going anywhere. We're just friends."

"I meant the practicing," Iris said, fighting to keep her giggles inside.

"Oh," he said, going red. "Uh - no, that's good. Kinda bumpy and chilly sometimes, but good."

The door jingled, and Caitlin came in, shaking snow off her gloves and brushing it out of her hair.

"Whoa," Cisco said. "Flare? Let me see your cuffs."

"The cuffs are working fine," she said. "It's snowing out. A meteorological event, not me."

"F'reals?" he yelped, and jumped up to peer out the window at the dancing flakes.

Caitlin smiled at the back of his head. "Hi, Iris."

"Hey, Caitlin. Want anything before I put it in the fridge?"

"I'm okay, thanks."

When she returned from putting all the baked goods away, Cisco and Caitlin were whispering together. She raised her brows at them.

He looked up and saw her. "Hey, we were just saying, we'd better take off." He pointed at Caitlin. "I got some good stuff planned for you. You're gonna have fun."

"Ugh," Caitlin said. "Your idea of fun - "

"Is super-duper fun," he said firmly. "Hey, Iris, random question for no reason at all - Do you ever go up on the roof?"

"Hmmm?" she said, shutting the pastry case and turning off the light. It was exactly closing time. She'd already gotten the counters and tables, so she just had to lock the doors, put the till in the safe, and mop the floor, and she could go home. "Oh, it's closed this time of year. We don't open it until the temperatures warm up."

"Maybe you should. Tonight. Just, like, check it or something."

"I'd freeze my ass off."

"Yeah, but I bet the view is amazing. Especially with the snow."

"It'll be amazing in spring. I'm tired and I want to go home."

"Oh my god," Cisco burst out. "Would you just go up to your stupid roof? Barry's hanging out there waiting like some cut-rate Romeo."

Iris's hand went still. "Barry is?"

Caitlin tsked. "Cisco! That was supposed to be a surprise."

"It's still a surprise! Look at her, she's totally surprised." He bounced on his toes. "So? You goin'?"

"I - " she said weakly.

Caitlin stepped forward and took her wrists. "Iris," she said. "Look at me. You've been tying yourself in knots over Barry Allen ever since you met him. Now you know each other's secrets, everything you've been hiding from each other. What could possibly be stopping you now?"

"What if he hates me?" she said.

"He doesn't hate you, oh my god," Cisco said.

Iris licked her lips. "What if this isn't everything that it feels like it could be? What if it was all unspoken because there was never really anything to speak about? What if it was all just the secrets and trying not to be attracted to each other, and - and with that gone - "

Caitlin kept her eyes steady on Iris. "Go upstairs and find out."

Iris pulled out of her light grasp, and Caitlin let her go. "I need to lock up."

"Ugggggghhhhhhhhh," Cisco groaned, but Caitlin shoved him out the door. "Think about it," she called over her shoulder.

Iris flipped the lock behind them and stood, feeling her heart beat in her throat. She went to the register, opened it up, and put the till in the safe.

She looked at the floor, which was grimy and cruddy from a day's worth of winter traffic. It badly needed mopping.

What the hell. She was opening up in the morning. She could come in early and mop it then.

She whirled and bolted for the stairs.

Watching her through the window, Cisco whooped and punched the air. "I've been listening to them agonize over each other for weeks now," he said. "Finally!"

"You're a good friend," Caitlin said as they cut across the empty road and into the park. The snow picked up a little, flakes dancing around them.

"I try."

"You listen to everybody," she said.

"It's my thing." He stopped and peered at her in the gloom. Snowflakes gleamed against the darkness of his hair. "What're you getting at?"

She shuffled her feet. "I'm guess I'm saying - if you ever want somebody to listen to you - "

He had a funny look on his face. She couldn't parse it. Finally, he said, "You mean you?"

"Well," she said, looking everywhere but at him. "I. Maybe. Yes. Me."

He was silent for a few minutes more, still with that strange look on his face, and then he grinned at her suddenly. "That's pretty sweet, but I'm okay."

"Really?"

"Let's not upset the dynamic here, all right?"

She eyed him. He kept grinning brightly back at her. She thought, I bet you fool a lot of people into thinking you're okay with that face. Her mask might not be the same, but she could recognize another mask when she saw it.

"C'mon," he said, cutting open a portal. It looked like it led to a broad, open wilderness they'd been using for a few days now. "Let's go. We've got practicing to get to - Snow Queen."

"No," she said firmly. He might have bamboozled her into practicing with her unwanted powers, but she absolutely drew the line at a ridiculous codename. Especially one as awful as Snow Queen. Really.

He jumped into the portal, yelling, "Crystal Frost!" over his shoulder.

She jumped in after him, yelling, "No!" back.

Cold air swirled around Iris as she opened the door to the rooftop patio. The Flash stood next to one of the metal patio tables, watching snow collect on the wrought iron curlicues. He didn't seem to notice her at first.

Heart in her throat, she said, "Hey."

He looked up. "Miss West," the Flash said.

She bit her lip.

He reached up and peeled off his cowl, the way he had last week, and there he was - Barry, with his hair all ruffled and his cheeks pink with cold.

"Iris," Barry said.

"How are you doing?"

He spread his hands in their red leather gloves, then let them fall back to his sides. "I don't know," he said.

She bit her lip and watched the falling snowflakes swirl in the steam of her breath.

"Iris," he said and she couldn't stop herself from looking up. "Iris, why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't know how," she told him.

"But - we - "

"You of all people know something about secrets that feel like they're going to eat you alive."

He looked down at his red leather suit ruefully. "Yeah, well. But I thought you were with Eddie, and I felt - "

"What?"

He made that same curtailed motion with his hands again and looked away. "I saw your announcement," he blurted.

She deflated, but at the same time, it was a relief to back away. "On my blog?"

"Yeah. That's awesome. I'm really glad Linda came through."

"Linda?" She eyed him. "I met a Linda Park the other day at CCPN - that Linda?"

He went a little pinker than the cold could strictly account for. "Uh, yeah."

"She's in sports. What did she have to do with anything?"

"Awww," he muttered, and she wanted to laugh. For a superhero, he was awful at keeping secrets. "Uh, she - we used to date. Like, forever ago! Strictly buds now. I called her and asked her to show your blog to somebody in editorial."

"That was you? The anonymous tip?"

"Yeah - but that's it!" he said quickly. "Just a tip. The rest, getting that job, taking your blog to CCPN, that was all you and the work that you put in, and you should be proud."

"I am," she said. "I'm incredibly proud. And excited, and - " She swallowed. She couldn't say what it meant that he'd been part of that giant leap forward in her life. It didn't feel cheapened; it felt even more special. "Thank you."

"I knew you were something special the moment we met," he said.

"In the dark, while you were eating a sandwich and I was sneaking out? Or at Jitters when I was about to get shot in the head by a robber?"

He grinned, acknowledging the craziness of their relationship. "Both times." The smile fell away. "And then I found out you were with my cousin."

"But I wasn't - "

"I know, but I thought you were and I - God. I thought, Isn't that my luck, to find someone and then find out she's with one of the people I love most in the world? "

Iris let the words wrap around her. She was his someone. And he - he was hers. She knew it. She'd known it. There had always been something pulling her toward the Flash, toward Barry, toward the man that held both inside his skin.

You know each other's secrets, Caitlin had said, but that wasn't really true. There were so many secrets about Barry Allen that she didn't know. His favorite color. How he liked his pancakes. What kind of father he would be. What he would look like when he grew old.

And she wanted to learn every last one of them.

She said clearly, "And I met you, and I thought, Just my luck, to find someone, and he thinks I'm engaged to his cousin."

His eyes widened.

She waited, as the snow fell around them, still light and feathery.

He swallowed. "Maybe - uh, maybe I can buy you a cup of coffee sometime."

Coffee, she thought. Coffee was a first-date kind of thing. A get-to-know-you kind of thing. Coffee was for figuring out if you wanted more than coffee with the person sitting across from you.

"I think we've had enough coffee together, don't you?"

His shoulders dropped.

"But," she said, and he looked up, "I'll go to dinner with you."

Dinner was the more that you decided whether you wanted, during coffee. Dinner could be more than just dinner, if you wanted. Everyone knew that.

"Yeah?" he said. "When?"

She took a step, so she was close enough to smell his bright clean ozone smell, close enough to see the snowflakes melt in the warmth that rolled off his skin, close enough that she could kiss him.

She looked up into his face - he was so tall. She was going to have to stock up on high heels. "What about now?"

FINIS