wanderess ; barry allen

chapter nineteen

chapter nineteen;
demons

       Adley woke the next morning to a grinning Barry by her bedside, his hands pushing a white, steamy mug in her face. She quirked an almost-smile before flopping back onto her mattress, shoving her head under a soft pillow and using her arms to pull her gray blanket over her covered head.

"Adley," Barry whined, "I made you a pot of coffee."

"I'm tired. I never want to get up again. I wish I was in a coma," she grunted, Barry frowning at her clear bad mood.

"Well I sure don't," Barry put the mug by her bedside before climbing on top of her over the blanket. "Gosh I've had an awful long day, I think I'll just..." He groaned, stretching his limbs mockingly.

"Stop!" Adley cried, giggling, "Quit it, wonderboy!"

"What? Adley's bed speaks. Adley! Your bed talks."

"Barry!"

"Oh my! Adley are you stuck in the mattress?"

"Barry, I swear to god, I'll get up!"

"Alright alright." Barry laughed breathily.

Adley sat up, wrapping her hands around the warm mug. "You're heavy," she pouted.

"Hey, that hurts," Barry poked his chest where his heart is, "Right here."

"Why'd you wake me, Allen? I quit my job yesterday, I should be able to sleep in."

Barry frowned in thought. "S.T.A.R. was never your job, Ads."

"It always was, they wrote the paychecks. Now I'm some lonely twenty-three year old living solely off of her dead dad's trust fund, how pathetic."

"Adley they wanted you around."

"So that Wells could make himself feel better about being the reason my brother's dead."

Barry could feel her sadness weighing in his chest, sitting down next to her and pulling her tight to his chest.

"I'm sure it wasn't all like that. Caitlin and Cisco really like you as their friend. Plus, Wells is about to do something big. A grand gesture, you could say."

"Really?" Adley had that hysterical look in her eyes, the one she had when she got angry while trying to hold back tears. "That's what you woke me up for?"

"If it doesn't make you feel the slightest bit better I won't ever make you see him again. But I'm asking you to try." The pleading look in Barry's eyes made Adley think about it for a moment, her lips pursing.

"Fine."

Barry flashed the two of them to the precinct shortly after Adley finished her coffee, her hair bringing the wind outside with them into the building before Barry lightly pushed it back down.

"Thanks," she smiled awkwardly, and he leaned down to kiss the top of her head.

By the entrance to the offices there was a small podium set up, and around that several news reporters. Dr. Wells sat behind the mic, tapping it twice to silence the room. "Thank you for coming on such short notice." He coughed. "And for those of you that read the ten-volume report issued by the Norris Commission, well, I commend you on your tenacity. You already know, then, the circumstances that led to the explosion of the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator." Adley's eyes widened, turning to Barry, who smiled faintly and nodded. "Or rather, you think you do. Now, the Commission's finding was that the catastrophe was caused by a chain of events that nobody could have predicted, including myself. The truth is I was warned there was a chance the particle accelerator might fail. I was warned by a former colleague... a friend. I chose to ignore the warning and in so doing, I let down all of you. As a new friend pointed out I failed this city. I failed this city and I failed those who trusted me the most. By coming forward today it's my hope I'm taking the first step toward regaining that trust."