The One They Left Behind

Chapter 4

[A/N]: Alrighty peeps. I am so so very sorry for the delay in this story, if I thought 2020 was rough, 2021 was an even worse year on me. But here's to a new year, a BETTER year. My dearest co-author @annnacarina2 has helped me in the writing of this chapter (seeing as how I was struggling immensely) and is responsible for half this chapter. Thank you so much for your help sis, and for your understanding in my delay. I can't express how much I appreciate your patience. With all that being said, Please enjoy the chapter everyone! Cliffhanger warnings apply!

xoxo

A. J.

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[Barry]

Barry Allen was only eleven years old when he suffered the greatest losses of his young life, losing both parents in a single day in a completely unrelated accident. His father died of an heart attack and his mother after being struck by lightning. The strangest part was that it wasn't even raining that night and there was no explanation for the fire that suddenly engulfed their house and razed it to the ground.

Till date people who lived in his old neighborhood at the time of the incident refer to it as a freak accident and no one can actually pinpoint the origin of the storm cloud that seeded the lightening bolt that struck his mother or the fire that hungrily razed his house to the ground.

When he was eleven years and eight months old, he was lucky to meet a generous man who was kind enough to adopt him and if he wasn't already a young man when his birth parents died, he would have never believed that he wasn't his real dad. His new dad is a real standup guy who doesn't only love him like his very own but who would stop at nothing to keep him safe and he never asked for anything in return. He never even asked him to take his name.

A week after his twelfth birthday, he was taken to the park by his nanny who abruptly left with some friends and told him to stay put. He wandered around the park looking for what game he could play while he waited for Liza to return. He approached the monkey bars hoping to overcome his fear of heights by practicing as his daddy told him.

Just as he was psyching himself up, he heard a frightened voice yell "Daddy!" He looked around and located the little girl in distress and found himself walking towards her before he could realize what was happening. He wrapped his arms around her ankles and found himself staring into a pair of beautiful brown eyes that was so deep you could literarily drown in them but what struck him the most about her eyes were the sadness he found in them.

"It's ok, I've got you. You can let go." He said to her but she just sniffed and blinked in disbelief. "Are-are you sure?" She asked him looking quite unsure herself. "Mm-hmm" he nodded. "Let go, I'll catch you." He assured with a certainty unbecoming of his age and when she looked back at him, determination blazing in both eyes, he knew that she trusted him unconditionally and it made no sense even to his young mind that she would trust a stranger so completely but at the same time, it made perfect sense because he had utter and complete faith in her. It was at that moment that he realized that they were both halves of a whole, a puzzle that could not be completed without the other piece, his very own heartbeat and lifetime companion.

His Dad always said that some people were always meant to be a part of your life whether you want them to be or not and that when you meet someone who completes you, you do everything to keep them with you forever. His Dad felt that way about his first love and if Barry was being honest, he'd tell you that he believes the reason his Dad never married was because he'd never found anyone who could compare to his first and only love and he never completed that particular love story because it wasn't really meant to be and even though she was meant to be a part of his life, she wasn't meant to be his "life".