A/N: Sorry for the delay. It's been a busy month. No context needed for this chap (or any going forward, I'm pretty sure). Enjoy!

*Many thanks to sendtherain for looking this over for me. :)

*I own nothing. No copyright infringement intended.

...

Chapter 4 - Every Hour, Every Minute

"So, you don't want us to try and get his memories back?"

Cisco directed his question at both of them, but he was looking at Iris.

Barry and Iris shared a look.

"Well—"

"See, I'm just trying to wrap my head around this, because I thought Icy Hands over here made a pretty good argument for why getting Barry's memories back as soon as possible is pretty much a necessity."

Barry followed Cisco's blind gesture to the hall where presumably 'Icy Hands' was still working on some sort of device that would restore his memories.

"Ice…Icy Ha—" He lowered his voice and whispered near Iris's ear. "Is that her name—Icy-"

"Barry."

"Sorry," he said quickly and promptly pursed his lips tightly so he wouldn't make a sound.

Iris took a breath.

"It wouldn't be forever, Cisco."

Cisco folded his arms across his chest.

"Just until after I'm… after Savitar…" she couldn't finish, and Cisco sobered. "I mean, there isn't a chance he'll forget and…never remember, is there? I mean, because we haven't tried to retrieve his memories in so long?"

"No, I don't think so," Julian chirped, finally joining the group after presumably having come up with a good enough to reason to leave without causing suspicion from their icy friend.

Cisco glanced over at his shoulder at him. "What'd you do?"

"Apparently recalling all the things I love about her – her being Caitlin, of course – makes her nauseous. She told me to leave."

"Man, that sucks," Barry said without thinking. Cisco and Julian's fixed stares on him made him purse his lips again after a quick "sorry" muttered under his breath.

"Back to Barry's memories," Iris interjected. She fixed her eyes on Julian. "Can you be certain?"

"I'm a CSI, Iris. I deal in forensic science, not…neurology."

"And yet, both of you did a presentation on how to prevent Barry from retaining any new memories," Joe said, stifled irritation in the statement. "And look!" He gestured to Barry. "Long term memory loss."

"I—" Barry tried, but Iris squeezed his hand to stop him, and he retreated back into silence.

"In my defense," Cisco started, but nothing followed, especially not after the simultaneous pronounced eyebrow raising of all the Wests before him.

"Iris," Julian began, his voice softer this time. "I can't be 100% sure, but people lose their memories for a variety of reasons all the time. Whether it's…waking up from a coma, getting hit really hard on the head, going through a traumatic experience and just shutting down, sometimes a side effect from surgery. I'm sure in a lot of cases doctors do whatever they can medically to make them remember, but a lot of times family and friends just try by reminding them who they are.

That hasn't been successful with Barry, and it probably won't be. We need whatever Caitlin is making to get Barry to remember everything about who he is without us telling him. He needs to remember those things as memories from his past, not just memories of us telling him."

"And if we delay?" she asked again, weariness evident in her voice.

Barry felt an inexplicable urge to pull her closer and rub her back. He nearly did it until Iris's hand tightening on his reminded him this was not the time or the place to get even remotely intimate with her. He squeezed her fingers in response and hoped that would be encouragement enough.

"Everything's a risk, Iris," Wally said when neither of their proclaimed 'scientists' spoke up. He gave her a reassuring smile when her gaze fixed on his. "If we do this, you both live. Isn't that the ultimate goal here?"

Reluctantly Iris nodded. "Yes, you're right, of course."

She turned to face Barry. "You still in?"

"Absolutely," he said without hesitation.

"You're the love of his life," Wally said, making them both turn towards him. "He'd do anything for you." He paused, a small smile breaking through. "Even if he doesn't remember why."

"Wally, I…" Iris tried, truly touched by his sentiment, but he brushed it off.

"I need your help," Wally said, now addressing Cisco.

Cisco's pointed at himself questioningly. "My help? Why do you need me?"

"We need ourselves another Flash," he grinned, his smile spreading wide across his beaming face. "You know," he cleared his throat in an attempt to compose himself, "until Barry's up to speed with what he can do again."

"Another Flash," Cisco said numbly. "But we don't know…" He stopped himself, then started snapping his fingers when the realization dawned.

"Yes. Yes." He closed the distanced between them and clutched Wally's arms, giving them a little shake. "You are a genius. I knew she'd come in handy one day."

Wally gave him a borderline offended look, to which Cisco released him and gently patted down his shirt.

"Not that we want her just for her powers… What I meant to say is—"

"Cisco." Joe halted the conversation.

"Yes." Cisco snapped to attention, meeting Joe's glare with a worried look of his own.

"Get Jesse."

"Getting Jesse."

Cisco wrapped his hand around Wally's arm and steered him out of the room. Joe nudged Julian back in the direction of the supervillain who was hopefully unaware of their discussion, glancing back only once at the pair before making his way down the corridor.

"Who is Jesse again?" Barry asked, hating to ask questions but feeling safe enough to do so when it was just the two of them.

"Another speedster," she said.

He waited for the other shoe to drop. "And?"

"And Wally's girlfriend." She smiled.

"Ah." He smiled too, but not just for Wally and Jesse's happiness. He smiled for Iris. He liked how a smile looked on her and wanted to keep it there as long as possible. "That explains the, uh…"

"Yeah." She laughed. "Enthusiasm."

"So, he's got ulterior motives for wanting to keep my brain wiped."

She laughed again. "Wouldn't you?"

Barry sobered up as he took her in; beautiful smile, dazzling eyes, a heart that could melt stone.

"Yeah," he said. "I would."