Within Seconds // Barry Allen

Out of Time

Barry

Barry and Parker were scheduled for a date night. The plan was to bowl at the old alley that Iris and Barry used to visit when they were younger.

Barry had already arrived, grabbed his shoes and lingered by the entrance for Parker. When twenty minutes passed and there was no sign of her, he called to check in.

She answered, but there were no words, only the sound of gagging.

"Parker? Are you puking?"

"I'm so sorry," Parker coughed.

"No, baby, it's okay, it's okay. No worries. I'll be there in a second," Barry promised, already moving to return his shoes.

"Don't you dare! You really wanted to bowl, you bowl. Just pretend like I'm there."

Barry sighed, sitting down at a lane. He looked lonely and a little lame all by himself, while everyone else was in groups of two or more. The fun was sucked out of the night without Parker.

"Hey, and tonight was the night I was going to admit it.."

"Admit..?" Barry tried to claify.

Parker's breathing was short for some parts, and long, dragging in others. It took a minute to get out, due to her nervousness for the actual confession.

"I never really knew how to know that I was in love, but then I met you and well.."

Barry's mouth dropped. Never once in his life had someone admitted they were in love with him. There was a million things he was thinking, but the reoccuring one was that he didn't believe her.

"You're in.." he trailed off.

Quite grossly, Parker gagged before answering. "Love.."

"With--"

"You. You, Barry Allen. Yes, I am."

Not many of their romantic moments or milestones in their relationship were ruined, but that night, they were.

On Parker's side, Caitlin found her in the S.T.A.R. Labs bathroom.

"How long have you been in there?" Barry heard from Parker's phone. "Oh, my God! Do you want to go to the hospital? I'll take you home and take care of you, poor girl. Why didn't you--"

He was deprived of saying the words back to Parker because of Iris West. She bumped into him on accident, he dropped his cell phone and it was crushed by Iris stepping on it. Her hands slapped over her mouth in shock.

Iris felt so bad for breaking his phone that she invited Barry to bowl with her and Eddie.

After he explained why Parker wasn't present, she let him borrow her phone to call her, but it only went to voicemail.

Eddie, Iris and Barry bowled together that night. It went on for a couple hours until Eddie had to leave, curtesy to a break in at the morgue. He waved a goodbye to Iris and Barry, then left.

"The morgue is an odd place to attack," Iris mused. "You might be needed there, now that I think about it. You work on dead bodies."

Barry tipped his hand, in a fifty/fifty motion. "Yes, but at the same time no. I'll see you later."

>>>>

Parker

Caitlin grabbed Parker's phone from her hand and set it on the back of the toilet seat, hanging up on whoever she was talking to. She wrapped an arm around Parker's waist, helping the dizzy girl to her feet.