Disclaimer: I do not own the Flash; I just like to pretend like I can write like the show's writers do.

Feedback of any kind is welcome!

Chapter 1

Barry sits down wearily on the edge of the slowing treadmill. He wipes sweat from his forehead, he frowns, that's a first. Cisco enters from the control room. Barry looks up at him

"I'm sweating?" Barry asks, confused.

"Well you were running faster than the speed of sound, I would be more worried if you weren't" Cisco chuckles.

Barry stands, and begins pacing around the room.

"Why can't I time travel Cisco? I need to be able to control this."

"I think you just need more practice, once we can figure out what the minimum speed you can time travel at is, it will be much easier for us to predict how far into the past or future you can go." Cisco says leaning against the treadmill.

Barry sighs, and starts to step slowly back onto the treadmill.

"I think we should be done for the night, you have to be starving, and I'm already late for family dinner." Cisco looks guilty as he steps back towards the control room door.

"You go ahead, I'll lock up here."

Cisco nods, and steps back through the door. Barry steps off the treadmill and continues to pace the room, running his hands through his hair. The lights dim in the control room, and he hears the click of the door as Cisco leaves. Barry stares determinately at the treadmill, and takes a deep breath before stepping onto it.

"I can do this," He mutters to himself. He begins at a jog. A steady 50 miles an hour, He ratchets the speed up to 100, then 500, He's at Mach 1 now, just a little faster, he finds the strength, deep inside of him, shutting his eyes against the effort. When he opens them, he's back in that blue vortex, what had Wells called it? The Speed Vortex, he sees images flit by him, some the same as last time. There's the blond who looks like Caitlin, the museum. He's slowing down now, and the images disappear. He forces himself to slow even further and finally comes to a stop, breathing heavily.

When he stands to look around, he realizes the lab and the treadmill at S.T.A.R Labs have disappeared. He stands in a dark alleyway, he hears a sound at the far end of the street and he slinks into the shadows as he watches a couple go by, smiling and kissing.

Barry looks down at himself, fully clad in his Flash costume. Cursing quietly. he inches slowly towards the open street, careful to stay hidden. When he can go no further and avoid detection he spies a clothing store. Closed for the night. Perfect. Speeding across the street he picks the lock with a multi-tool hidden in his suit, thank god for Cisco, and slips inside. He grabs a T-shirt, grey sweatshirt and a pair of jeans off a rack, and tugs them on over his suit. His eye catches the red light of an electronic clock, 8:50pm, below the glow of the time Barry reads the date. February 13th, 2025. 10 years? This is not good. He hadn't thought this through. Cisco left, no one knew when or where he was. How could he have been so stupid?

Back out on the street, and now incognito, he's able to take better stock of his surroundings. He looks up and sees the spires of S.T.A.R Labs rising in the distance. He takes off, racing towards them.

He stops short of the front doors, out of range of the security cameras and draws his grey hood around his face. Just in case.

He reaches the front doors of the familiar building and tugs on them. Locked. He frowns, pulls out his keycard and swipes it on the reader. The light remains red.

"Huh?" he mutters.

He steps out of view of the security cameras, thinking. Deciding. Where could he go? How much could have changed in 10 years?

He pulls his cellphone out of his pocket. He can't help but smile as he looks at his background photo; Iris, Joe, Cisco and Caitlin smile back at him from a group photo taken inside S.T.A.R Labs. The time reads 8:50pm. February 13th, 2015, He checks for bars. No Service.

He taps his fingers absently on his phone as he thinks. Where? Where? An idea occurs to him. Joe would never sell the house. He'll check there first.

Moments later Barry comes skidding to a halt at the street he grew up on. The trees are a little taller, a little older looking. The cars parked outside of the homes are unrecognizable and plugged into charging stations. Some of the familiar bungalow houses at the end of the street had been torn down to make room for a shiny new apartment complex. A bright LED sign projected onto the side of the building makes the street glow with an eerie blue light. Central City's Hottest New Apartment Complex - The Pines, Now Leasing. Come see us today to hear about our Special Offers.

He's glad to see that the West Family home looks untouched, albeit a little more weathered, and desperately in need of a new coat of paint. A warm glow emanates from a lamp inside a closed curtain at the front of the house.

Walking slowly up to the house he steps around to the side window that is slightly cracked at the bottom. His breath catches in his throat when he sees her. The years have been kind to her; she looks as though she has barely aged a day. She wears a red sweater and jeans. Her long brown hair falling in perfect waves around her shoulders, it's shorter than the last time he saw it, framing her face in perfect layers.

"Iris" he breathes.

She exits the room and reenters a few moments later, carrying a baby boy who cant be more than a few months old. He has a spot of light brown hair, olive skin like Iris, and her eyes. Something about the child strikes him as familiar. Then he remembers the byline on Wells' future newspaper.

Stepping away from the open window, he coughs audibly in shock. The cooing inside stops for a moment and he claps a hand across his mouth. It couldn't be. Could he and Iris really have a son in this future? He waits until he hears the cooing resume and risks another peek inside the window. Iris has disappeared but the little boy remains in his high chair playfully smacking his hands onto the table in front of him. He couldn't be more than a few months old.

There is a small noise as Iris enters the room carrying another child. This one is a little girl with soft feminine features, shocking blue eyes, his eyes, he realizes. Unlike her brother she is still mostly bald, the hair she has is light blonde fuzz around her head, illuminating her olive skin like a halo.

Twins, he and Iris didn't just have children, they had twins.

She's rubbing her eyes, and Barry suddenly feels a strong urge to pick her up and snuggle her. He pushes it back, resisting, unsure how safe it is to reveal himself. Inside, Iris straps the little girl into a second high chair that Barry had been too distracted to see before. The little boy, Carter she calls him, begins smacking his sister's high chair as well as his own, gleefully cooing and giggling.

They look to be a few months old, and she sets them up in a pair of highchairs that Barry had been too distracted to notice. Barry's eyes widen as she coos to the babies. She laughs when blue sparks erupt from where she touches the little boy.

"Careful with that Carter, that's how I found out Daddy's secret identity." Iris smiles as the baby lets out another coo, and turns his attention to his sister next to him, he puts his hand on her, the sparks still emanating from his fingers. She giggles.

Barry finally manages to tear his eyes away from the three of them. He sighs, pulls his sweatshirt back over his head, and speeds away. He needs to find Cisco, needs to get back to his own time.

He stops in front of Jitters. Happy to see that it still exists in this time he pushes open the door, The little coffee shop is relatively empty at this late hour, and so he goes unnoticed as he steps over to a nook in the corner where he knows the public computers are. But he is befuddled when all he sees are a variety of dark screens with no buttons or keyboards. He looks around, lost.

"The brilliant Barry Allen, defeated by a holoscreen." Whispers a female voice from behind him. Barry jumps; startled. He keeps his face hidden, despite the familiarity in the stranger's voice.

"I think you have the wrong guy." He says carefully.

"Do I? Considering how young you look, I'm guessing you are visiting from maybe 10 years ago?" At that Barry turns to look at her, shocked to see the very large baby bump she is sporting.

"Felicity Smoak, that better be Oliver's."

Felicity rolls her eyes.

"Later," She whispers and pushes him back out the front door of the shop, where a black limo waits at the curb.

"Ah, definitely Oliver's, unless, Oh Ew, Is it Palmer's?" Barry teases.

"Just get in," Felicity replies.

Barry enters the car, and Felicity follows. The car glides away from the curb and into the starry central city night.