Second Chances: Flash - Rough Draft

Chapter 2

Fair warning, this chapter will really just summarize all the new changes made in Barry's life in this rewrite and some parts of it will deviate from the canon heavily, but honestly, I think that is what makes this story even better. Hope you guys like it.

While Barry was unconscious, he had some time to process all the new changes that had been made in this reality. The first and foremost change was that in this reality, while his mother had still be murdered, surprisingly, while his father had been arrested for it, his name was quickly cleared in court thanks to the existence of not only Superman, but around that time, a new version of the Justice Society of America had existed, including Jay Garrick, aka, the Flash before him, and so Henry's lawyer had managed to convince both the judge and the jury that while the reasons for the attack were unknown, it was perfectly possible for a metahuman to have been the one to attack his mother and after the CCPD had run the proper tests, they had confirmed that there was some kind of metahuman presence at the scene, his father had been cleared of all charges and fairly compensated for this misunderstanding. That alone was a very big relief to Barry, since it meant that his father had not been wrongly convicted, though from what he remembered, it had caused some tension with Joe, who'd been the arresting officer. Luckily that hadn't prevented him from having a close relationship with Iris and since they'd grown up in separate households, it had been easier for Barry to express his feelings for Iris and they'd gotten together in high school, which had helped heal the friendship between their fathers.

Speaking of Joe, in this reality, there'd been no Francine and he'd married Cecille in this reality, who was both Iris and Wally's birth mother, though they still looked the same as they had before in the old reality, though Barry wasn't going to question that. Cecille had also given birth to Jenna West a year ago, so that was the same, though Barry had to smile inwardly since now both Iris and Wally had grown up with both of their parents and that Joe hadn't had to go through the pain of losing a wife that honestly in Barry's opinion never deserved him in the first place.

And that wasn't all. Based on these memories, a few years after Henry had been exonerated, he'd once again met Dr. Christina McGee and just like in the old reality, they'd shown in attraction to each other, but this time around, they'd actually had more than enough time to actually explore it, which had led to them getting married and McGee becoming Barry's stepmom, though she never tried to replace Nora as his mom, which Barry definitely appreciated and having a motherly influence around did make it easier for him to express his feelings towards Iris.

Speaking of which, this time Barry had been quick enough to ask Iris out while they were in high school and they'd stayed together even after graduation when they'd kind of gone down different paths for a bit. While Barry had still gone on to become a CSI, even though his father had been falsely imprisoned in this reality, since he still wanted to find out what had killed his mother, even though he already knew that now and it made him sick to think of the fact that his mother's killer had actually been over to their house for dinner several times, since Thawne posing as Wells had still been one of his stepmother's friends.

Anyways, while Barry's career had pretty much stayed the same, Iris's had changed a bit, since instead of going straight into college after graduating, Iris decided that she wanted to get some kind of action first and since her parents refused to let her join the CCPD, which was honestly kind of hypocritical of Joe now that Barry thought about it, since the whole reason Joe had become a cop was because his father had been one before him, but anyways instead of just dropping the matter like she had before, this time around, Iris had decided to go over their heads and enlist in the air force, where she'd served her country proudly during her first and only tour, since she'd said that had provided him with more than excitement, though he knew she'd be getting more of it very soon, but anyways, after that, Iris had settled down and begun focusing on journalism, which was paid for by the government, a perk of her military service, and after graduating, she'd actually already started the Central City Citizen, which was on its way to becoming a very large provider of news for Central City and would probably become number one after they got the first exclusive interview with the Flash.

Anyways, he and Iris had been living together when the accelerator blew up, killing and hurting countless people and giving even more of them, including himself, unnatural powers. Though that would become the new normal of Central City and the world.

Anyways, before Barry could give much more thought to the matter, Barry once again heard the sounds of Lady Gaga's Poker Face bringing him back to the land of the living and just like when he'd woken up from his coma the first time around, Cisco and Caitlin were now standing over him, but this time they were silent as he opened his eyes and they both had knowing looks in their eyes, meaning that they somehow remembered the old world too.

"Really, Gaga again?" Barry asked as he woke up.

"What, it never fails to wake you up." Cisco said with a grin as he and Caitlin helped Barry up.

"So, you guys remember?" Barry asked and they both nodded.

"Yeah, J'onn arrived this morning and gave us splitting headaches." Caitlin said.

"Do you know if anyone else in this city remembers?" Barry asked.

"As far as we know, the only other people who know are Joe, Iris and Frost." Caitlin said.

"Of course Frost knows, since isn't she in your head?" Barry asked her, but to his surprise, Caitlin shook her head.

"No, in this reality, Frost and I were born as twins with our own bodies, not two people stuck in one body, which is kind of a relief, since that means that I won't have to keep dealing with her in my head anymore." Caitlin said and Barry nodded, deciding not to question it.

"Good, we keep it that way. But where's?" Barry asked.

"He's in the Time Vault. My guess is he's trying to figure out how your connection to the speed force is already so strong." Cisco said and Barry nodded as they then proceeded to make it look like they were treating him like another patient for when Thawne showed up.