[Warnings: Discussions of sex, Implied sex, 'family-planning' type discussions.

Notes: This is the last official chapter, there is a sequel that I'm excited about too. Man, I had a blast writing this and i've learned so much along the way! Thank you to everyone who followed me on this journey! Now, to start rewrites! Then I'll finish up the sequel 'Out of the Dark']

Barry sat down in the medbay. He anxiously rubbed his hands together. He still had a while before the imposter was set to arrive. He didn't know what to do with himself. He was focused on protecting Caitlin.

After waiting around a bit longer Barry's phone started to ring. He answered it quickly.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Barr. Pat just left," Iris's voice came through the phone, and his nerves settled slightly. "How's everything at the lab?"

"Things are alright. The imposter hasn't shown his face yet."

"That's good. Listen, Barr. I know you're really anxious about this but it's going to be fine. You'll get him and when you're done you can come home and we can talk, okay?" She smiled a little but was honestly worried about Barry. He'd been through hell in his last twenty four hours.

"Okay … well. It's almost time I think. I love you," he took a deep breath and rose from his seat, preparing for the days events.

WA WA WA

It had been relatively easy to ambush Everyman and they locked him up in the pipeline with little repercussions. When he finally settled everything with that he decided to head home and catch up with Iris.

"Do you have time to talk?" He asked, appearing in the apartment with lunch, her favorite of course.

"Absolutely!" she called from the sofa. "Just let me save this article."

"If you're working I can wait," Barry said quickly, not wanting to interrupt her work. "I can go grab dinner while you finish up- you up for Coast City pizza?"

"I might need a little more time, maybe something from London?" she mused, still typing away.

"Um," he laughed, she had never asked him to cross the ocean for food before, at least not seriously. He briefly recalled a joke she made about 'authentic Chinese food'. "I can do that, but I'll have to like, find a bank out there and stuff …"

"Barr, I was joking, sorry I'm absorbed in my article. Coast City pizza sounds great," she smiled and felt a breeze on her face.

By the time he returned Iris was finished with her article. She joined him at the table. "Thanks for taking care of dinner, homey."

"Of course! I can't wait to read your article when it goes live," he replied and opened the first pizza box. "Now for the topic of the evening, what do you want?"

"Can you be more specific?"

"With us … I mean in the next five years. Do you want a dog? Do think you want to get married eventually?" he mumbled the last part a little lower than the rest.

"I hope that wasn't your idea of a proposal, Bartholomew," one side of her mouth turned up in a sly smile.

"I'll take that as a yes?"

"Yes, Barry," she laughed softly. "I would marry you if you asked. We haven't exactly had your average relationship," she shrugged and took a sip of her water. "So, I don't see why we couldn't get married in the next five years, sooner or later."

Barry swallowed. He tried not to show a reaction to that, but he couldn't help it. He was grinning like an idiot and Iris noticed right away.

"What?" she demanded, slightly amused.

"That's just … exactly what I want too," he admitted, getting started on his fifth slice of pizza.

"A dog sounds nice too," she mused. "Maybe a couple of humans," she winked.

"Then we'll start looking this week." he picked up yet another slice of pizza.

"Okay," Iris stood. "We need house rules too," she moved around the table and sat herself in Barry's lap. "You have to eat first because I actually want to sit down and have dinner with you. I'm done after three slices and you're still going strong with seven." she kissed his cheek.

"This is my last one," he laughed. "I don't eat that much more than an average person, I just eat more frequently," he rolled his eyes and started to pack up the rest of the pizza at a normal pace.

Iris help him, as there were still several unopened boxes. "I know we've been living together for a while … but I'm really excited about picking a new place together."

"For us, and hopefully our future extended family," he kissed the top of her head and moved to the fridge, starting to shove in plastic bags of square pizza slices. Iris came in behind him and they managed to find room for the rest.

"How much money do you spend on food in a week, anyways?" Iris shut the fridge and went to wash the pizza grease from her hands.

Barry gave a deeply uncomfortable laugh.

Iris spun around and put her hands on her hips. "How much?"

Barry swallowed and avoided her eyes.

Iris decided to repeat herself. "How much?"

Barry mumbled inaudibly.

"Hmm?"

"It's a lot, okay? It's a lot. S.T.A.R. Labs pays for my power bars but I still use a lot of money on food."

"Then why do you insist on buying me food too?" she sighed and put pressed her temple. "When we buy a house together you're going to suck up your ego," she rolled his eyes.

"I don't have an ego, Iris," he rolled his eyes and closed the space between them, wrapping his arms around her middle. "I just like taking care of things for you," he kissed the top of her head.

"Yeah, uh-huh, Mr rooftop Rendezvous 'What other girls?' doesn't have an ego?" she pulled back and cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Okay, I don't have an ego about money ," he corrected himself.

"I'll take it," she stretched up and kissed his cheek.

Barry leaned down and caught her lips with his own, his hand coming up to gently cup her face in his hands.

Iris kissed him back, pulling him closer to her.

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They spent the next day discussing details. "So, there's a two bedroom one and a half bath in Danville in our budget," Barry took a sip of his coffee.

"How about three bedrooms?" Iris suggested, coming to stand behind him.

"Three?"

Iris kissed his cheek. "Just in case," she shrugged her shoulders and pulled her hair back into a loose bun. "I'm heading into work, but I'll see you tonight."

Barry nodded and crossed off the two bedroom he found, moving onto the find ones with three bedrooms. He marked a few off before setting it aside to show Iris later.

A few minutes passed before Bohr woke up. The creature yawned and extended its front legs efore bounding off the sofa and an aged to easily find his way into Barry's lap on the other side of the room.

"Do you wanna play?" Barry asked affectionately and grabbed the cat toy from where it was laying on the floor. With the aid of the speed force he didn't disturb the cat. He flocked the feather across the floor and Bohr leaped off his lap after it.

[One Month Later]

When Barry returned to the now completely packed up (except for the cats) apartment on a sunday afternoon, a strip of fabric was splitting the doorway in half.

"Iris?" Barry called inside. "I can't get into the apartment."

"Crawl!" she laughed and Barry sighed, getting on his hands and knees. He crawled forwards and came to a fork in the sea of fabric. one went left and the other went right.

"Are you left or right?"

It was clear to him that Iris spent quite a bit of time on this. His phone went off, he pulled it out of his pocket.

Iris: You have to find me.

Iris: No superspeed!

Barry rolled his eyes but found himself smiling. He headed left and kept crawling until he started to smell ... cookies?

He took a sharp left, his only option and found himself by the television. The blankets in this area nearly clung to the ceiling so Barry was able to stand.

Iris stood in the middle. There was a few blankets on the floor but apart from that there was just a big sheet hanging from the ceiling, creating a tent like structure.

"What's all this?" he asked curiously, a smile creeping across his face.

"I had had some of our friends help me out. I think we were right about living in a box." she started, "I think before we start our lives together officially in the new house, we let our friends in."

"You're right." he nodded.

"Alright, Is the ceiling high enough?" Cisco asked, coming into view from the other side. He held a tablet in his hands and didn't glance up from it.

"Cisco is already here." Barry observed, unsure of why he said that outloud.

"Yeah, what is this even for?"

Barry looked at Iris. "I didn't get the chance to tell him. I said 'adult sized blanket-fort' and he hung up, I thought he wasn't coming then he was over here in fifteen minutes."

"Thanks Cisco," said Barry with a smile.

"No problem!" Cisco glanced at his tablet and seemed to be adjusting things.

"Hello?" came a familiar, friendly voice. Eddie. "We brought wine!"

"Sorry we're late. Detective Pretty Boy is so indecisive." said Bett and she soon appeared in the living room. Barry greeted them both with a hug.

"I've never been to a blanket fort party! How do you expect me to know what to bring?" Eddie asked with a light hearted chuckle.

"You two showed up together?" Cisco observed, his tone accusing.

"We live in the same building and gas is fucking expensive." Bett emerged from the tunnel first. "You better not have been looking at my ass, Detective."

"Not willingly," Eddie emerged behind her.

"Liar," She shot back.

Eddie didn't say anything further.

"Is Caitlin coming?" Barry asked as Bohr settled into his lap. He was now seated on the floor to greet the cats.

"Hello?" came Caitlin's voice from the door.

Barry went back through the tunnel until he reached the door.

"Hey Caitlin!" he laughed. "Sorry I guess you have to crawl in. This wasn't my idea."

"Oh… I mean… when in Rome?" Caitlin pulled off her heels one at a time and got on her hands and knees.

"Just take a right then a left."

"I made it." Caitlin appeared after a solid minute.

"Let's play spin the bottle." suggested Cisco.

"I am not playing." said Caitlin.

"No thanks." Iris spoke up.

"Sorry Bud, no thanks," Barry laughed.

"You're all lame," said Cisco before he crossed over to the television and put on a DVD.

"Thank you guys for all coming out." said Barry after a bit.

"Iris said you could use your friends right now."

"Great! Everyone is here! I can now explain why I dragged you, our adult friends, to this blanket fort!" Iris clapped her hands together once in an excited gesture. "When Barry and I were in the first grade, I went over to his house one day. His parents helped us build a big blanket fort and then his mom made us a big batch of cookies." Iris started, taking Barry's hand. "We were each other's first friends and we've been stuck together ever since."

"Yeah," Barry nodded. "I didn't really branch out at all. Neither did her. Bett was my first friend besides Iris, and now you're all stuck with me." he laughed a little. "I first got my powers. When I ran, I used to have these flashbacks of my mom- and it was hard but Cisco and Caitlin were there for me." Barry's eyes started watering.
Caitlin hugged Barry tightly before pulling back. "You have been the best edition to our team, Barry."

"Oh, Barr," Iris laughed softly and kissed his cheek.

"It's just really great to have you guys here. I think Iris and I had a lot of walls up for a long time."

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"So," Iris began, peeling herself away from Barry's chest. "which afterglow is better?" she smiled down at him.

Barry reached up and cupped her cheek, chuckling softly. "I need a minute to get over the fact that we just had sex on the floor of our new house. Twice ." he sat up and kissed her cheek

Iris ran a hand through her hair and rose to her feet, grabbing Barry's shirt and throwing it on before tossing him his boxers. "Come on, we still have a few boxes to unpack."

Barry pulled on his boxers but quickly wrapped his arms around Iris's middle and kissing her cheek. "We can do that later. Let's go hang out in the master bedroom."

Iris turned around in his arms, stretching up on her toes to press her lips against his. "Wow, you might actually be able to keep up with me," she chuckled softly and pulled back. "but we really need to unpack. We're having a housewarming party to soon, remember?"

"Ughh," he sighed and pressed his face against her neck. "Do we have to?"

"We have all night to christen the the house, babe," she pulled him down into another kiss before slipping out of his arms.

Barry felt a bit colder with the loss of contact but didn't say anything, he moved across the room into the living room area and started to unpack some of his books to put on the shelf.

"I put your old Jay Garrick dolls in the basement. I was thinking you could renovate it into a little nerd carve. I have one of the bedrooms for an office so I'm all set."

"They're action figures, Iris … but that sounds perfect."

"Dolls is less words, I'm not mocking them," she kissed his cheek and pulled out a photo of them with Joe, setting it on the mantle. "I wish we had some more pictures with our friends," she added another framed photo if them with the twins on their last birthday.

"We'll have to take more," he returned to the box and placed some of Iris's books on the shelf.

"Don't put my books there!" Iris complained.

"What's wrong with it?" Iris reached up with her arm and her fingers just barely touched the shelf they sat on.

"Oh, right." he switched them with a stack of his own books faster than Iris could blink, grinning widely.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Iris pushed his arm.

"Nothing," he dealt with another stack of books. "It's silly."

"Shut up, it's not silly. Tell me."

"This is everything I've always wanted."

"I'm sure you're grand dreams consisted of unpacking boxes half naked," there was a hint of snark on her face that Barry wanted to kiss away.

"Iris, I've wanted to build a life with you since we were twenty-two." he turned to look at her and smiled. "This really is everything I've always wanted."

She stepped closer and wrapped her arms around him tightly. "I think part of me always knew this was how things would turn out … no matter what way it was, I always wanted it to be you and me against the world."

He kissed the top of her head, one, then a second time in quick succession. "I wouldn't have it any other way." As he began the mental calculations of his chances of getting Iris upstairs she pulled back. "Let's put the rest of these upstairs," she suggested, glancing at him over her shoulder. He followed her with one of the boxes of books.

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They didn't last very long just putting away books upstairs. Sometime later, they were huddled together under the blankets of their bed. Barry still pressing light kisses to her neck and shoulder.

"Ready to give me a verdict, Barr?"

"Hmm?" he hummed, pressing his face into her neck as they laid facing each other.

"Which afterglow is better?" she pressed.

"Okay, well," he smiled when he felt her fingers trailing up and down his arm gently. "Am I superhero afterglow-ing with you or without you?"

"Let's say 'with me'," her hand came up to play with the hair at the nape of his neck.

"About a sixty/forty," he decided.

"Superhero afterglow without me?" She smirked slightly. Barry couldn't see it, but he could hear it in her voice.

"Doesn't even compare to this," he grinned against her skin, his hand trailing gently up her side. He moved to look at her, still grinning. "I'm so ready for the next five years," he pressed his lips against hers.

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The next day Barry was shuffling through some more books when there was a knock at the door. He pulled himself away from the books and headed to the front. When he opened it, Oliver Queen stood before him.

"Is everything okay?" Barry asked quickly, his eyebrows pulling together.

"Yes, everything is fine-" he stepped aside and revealed Parker and Pat. "I dropped him off and they both insisted on seeing you."

Parker rushed up to Barry and hugged him around the middle. Barry hugged him back tightly. "It's so good to see you!" a sense of relief flushed over him. He feared Parker would resent him for sending him away. He was relieved that it seemed to be the opposite.

"Can you help me apply for the S.T.E.M. academy, Barry?" he asked suddenly.

"Of course. We can do that this week."

The next few weeks were a bit busy, between getting the house ready and getting Parker ready for school. He and Iris barely had extra time to themselves.

On his day off Barry was leaned back on the sofa. Phone in hand as he tried to keep up with his friends. Cisco's instagram was filled with photos of the blanket fort he had helped build about a month ago, as well as another replica he hand painted from some show Barry was behind on, as was the way.

Caitlin's feed was dead aside from a few photos of Bohr that she had taken the last time she was over. The rest were years old pictures of her and Ronnie, or her desk.

Bett's instagram was nothing but art updates. There was a sketch of a coy fish that caught his eye. He double tapped it.

CryptidCSI: Wow! Love this.

DragonFireart102: Thanks, Barr.

He started to glance through her art. He frowned when he saw no paintings or even drawings of humans. Even with the meta bracelet Cisco had made her, it seemed that she was still reluctant to go back to painting portraits, or humanoids at all, like she loved.

He got a notification.

{DragonfireArt102 tagged you in a photo}

Dragonfire102: Personal post! Shocker, right? I never do these. Anyway. #ThrowBackThursday! So, bit of a story here. 4 years ago I moved in across from these absolute dorks. CryptidCSI and FlowerPower11. We've had some ups and downs but they stuck by me through all the craziness and I don't know where I would be without them and ItsEddie! I love you guys so much, thanks for being the best!

Above the text was a photo of the four of them earlier in the year. After Barry got out of the coma. They were on Bett's sofa and Iris had her arm slung around Barry's shoulders. He smiled and 'liked' it.

CryptidCSI: We love you too Bett. It's been a wild few years, huh?

ItsEddie: You're okay too I guess. :P

FlowerPower11: We love you too, girl! That old complex was way too quiet without you. Miss you roomie. ItsEddie smooth. That's really your reply to your girlfriends sweet post?

ItsEddie: FlowePower11 We aren't dating.

DragonfireArt102: FlowerPower11 We're not dating. We're married and you missed the wedding because you were too distracted fawning over CryptidCSI.

FlowerPower11: ItsEddie. A girl knows, Edgar.

ItsEddie: It's EDDIE.

DragonfireArt102: No, it's Detective Pretty Boy.

ItsEddie: Look at what you've done, FlowerPower11

Barry laughed softly and shook his head. He stood from the sofa and headed into the kitchen. Iris stood by the sink, music pouring out of her phone as she set it on the counter. She was done bothering Bett and Eddie for now. She seemed focused on her cheese cake.

Barry crossed the room, taking his time. He could have easily sped up behind her. He didn't though. He strode into the kitchen and his long arms encircled her. "Iris West," he smiled, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "You look beautiful," he hugged her back against his chest.

"I'm standing in the middle of our kitchen eating cheesecake, and I look like death."

"You look amazing in our kitchen in my shirt," he pressed a soft kiss to her neck and rested his chin on her shoulder.

"and how is it different from a month ago when we were in our kitchen at your apartment?"

"It was just different-" his phone dinged. He glanced at it with a sigh. "It's a metahuman."

"Get 'em tiger."

He brought his lips to hers for a brief moment- then he was gone.

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"I trusted you," Bett's tone indicated a betrayal. "You cannot leave paint brushes like this! I want to cry."

"What? It's what they're made for!" Eddie shot back.

On the table in front of them were hours old paint brushes with paint still on the bristles.

"No, no, no. You poor babies, what did he do to you?"

"They're dollar store paint brushes," Eddie shrugged and picked up a new one.

"Never leave paint in the brushes. I talked to you about this," with an exhale she took the brushes to the sink and began to do some recovery.

Meanwhile, Eddie grabbed another brush from the the pile of brushes he'd bought at the dollar store. He dipped it into dark red paint and started to fill in one corner of the canvas.

"What are you painting, anyway?" came a voice from the kitchen area.

"I don't know. You always look relaxed when you paint so I wanted to try."

"I miss painting people," with a sigh she returned with the brushes soaking in something Eddie didn't pay attention to. "but we don't want another Todd, now do we?"

"Well, we have tech for that now-"

"I use it when I paint other stuff but I-I don't want to risk it."

"What do you mean?" Eddie asked with a frown.

"Todd wasn't wasn't a full person … but he was real enough to realise that, it bothers him. That's why he's never around. He's trying to find himself, and he can't because I made him an incomplete person. He's complete enough to know there's something missing and he just … I can't do that to another being. Even if he's not technically real . His emotions are."

Eddie reached out to place a hand on her arm but stopped short. Instead, a deep, hollow, silence filled the space between them instead. Eddie set down his brush and looked up at her. "Listen to me. That isn't your fault. You can't control a mad scientist."

"I know but-"

"Bett, you can't care that around with you. Okay?" he honestly didn't know what to say.

Bett was harder to get through to than Barry or Iris. He wasn't sure if it was just him, or if it was.

"Listen, I know we bicker, but I'm here for you. Okay?" He smiled softly.

"I know, Eddie," Bett nodded, for once not joking. She wanted to let her friends in, but she didn't know how.

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"Hey, Barry?" Iris turned over in bed so she could look at him. "Can we actually have kids? With your new DNA?"

"I never thought about it before. I would have to ask Caitlin," his hand danced through her hair idly. "Is it okay with you if we can't ever…?"

"We can always adopt in the future if we want."

"That's true," Barry mused. "Sorry, am I being too intense?"

"I was the one who told you I wanted two kids," Iris pointed out, referring to their conversation at the old apartment. "Don't overthink it."

"I just want to give you the life you deserve."

"Well," Iris turned over to look at him. "If I'm with you, I already have it," she curled up slightly on her side, slinging one leg over Barry under the blankets and cuddling up. "I'm tired. Goodnight, Barry."

"Goodnight, Iris."

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Barry took a deep breath and scratched the back of his neck. He stopped in front of the door to collect himself. As he ran a hand through his hair he tried to remind himself that Joe supported him and Iris.

He opened the door and headed in. "Joe?" he called.

"I'm in the kitchen! Come help me."

Barry made his way into the kitchen and stood awkwardly in the doorway. His tall body leaned against the frame. "What am I doing?"

"Get started on Grandma Esther's sauce, for the noodles," Joe didn't look up from the boiling pot on the stove.

"I wanted to talk to you, about Iris," Barry rubbed the back of his neck, and when his eyes met Joe's a look of understanding flickered in his eyes.

"Oh, oh , that talk? Already?"

"Yeah, I mean … can we say this is surprising?" he gave a soft laugh to accompany the rhetorical question.

"Alright," Joe took a deep breath.

When they finished cooking, Barry sat across from Joe. "Listen, Joe. I know Iris and I were in a rough patch, but I love Iris more than anything and we've come really far in the last few years. I want to marry her one day, and I hope you'll give me your blessing."

Joe stood and walked around the table. Barry stood and Joe gave him a quick hug, patting his back. "You have my blessing son, whenever you two are ready."

Barry nodded. "Thank you, Joe."

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It didn't take Iris and Barry too long to become completely settled into their new house. In that time, Cisco had also discovered his metahuman status. He began working with Caitlin on ways to refine them. That took up most of their time outside of Team Flash business.

Barry awoke, cool sweat clinging to his skin. He sat up, long legs swinging onto the floor. He hunched over and out his head in his hands. It was nearly the end of the first week of March.

Iris reached out and felt around tiredly for her boyfriend. When her hand didn't find him, she forced herself up and found him on the other side of the bed. "Honey? You okay?" she reached out but in a move too fast for her eyes to register, her touched was dodged.

"I'm fine, I'm sorry I woke you up," he moved closer to her and kissed her cheek.

"That's alright. Do you want to talk?"

"I don't think there's anything to say. This time of the year is always hard."

"How about we go out to that diner again?" her hand found its way into his hair, pushing it back gently out of his eyes.

"Yeah," he paused for a a few seconds. "we should invite our friends."

"We should," Iris nodded.

"I'm going to go shower," he stood. "You should try to go back to sleep."

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Barry and Iris sat down at the diner. They already knew what they were going to order, but Barry flipped through the menu anyway. "Do you two already know what you'd like?"

"We're waiting for a couple friends," Barry smiled, though he started to feel nervous.

It was like he was seven again and waiting to see if anyone would shown up to his birthday party. He felt stupid, he knew his friends wouldn't just ditch.

Cisco was the first to walk through the door. He patted Barry's shoulder before sliding into the big booth beside them. Caitlin arrived next, a gently squeeze on his shoulder and a soft hello. Eddie and Bett arrived at the same time.

The server smiled. "Oh, big crowd today, what can I get you all?"

They ordered in a circle and soon they were talking and laughing like it was any other day. It didn't take long for the next hour or so to drift by like a pleasant dream. This wasn't as hard as he had expected it to be. He felt just a little bit at peace.

[Six months later]

Barry awoke with a start to sound of a scream. He jolted upright and saw Iris wasn't in bed beside him. He rushed downstairs and what he saw made his heart stop.

Iris screamed again as the man in yellow surrounded her. Barry ran headfirst into the trail of lighting. He didn't look back. Iris watched as the lighting bouncing off the speedsters blurred together into a bright light she had to shield her eyes from.

This isn't happening. Not again.

He ran into the lightning.

[[AN: Please feel free to let me know if theres anything you want to see more of in the sequel! I'm trying to learn from the last one as I move forward. Thanks again for all the support!

Current rewrite plans: More scenes with the Codwells, especially more Heather. I'm going to find a way to flesh out Bett a little more, she became a little too meme-y for me at times. Add more Ricky, there were sevralmscenes of him that I had planned but just never found a place for. Oh, and fixing timelines! I'm worse than Barry Allen about those pesky timelines.]]