Within Seconds: Flashpoint Edition

Where You Lead

"You know," sighed Parker blissfully, "it makes no sense for you to go home, if you could just spend the night here and be with us in the morning."

Barry, completely missing her point, said, "Eh, I guess, but I have to go home. I need my swim shorts, my sunscreen. I might even need to break out the mandals!"

"Oh, right," she mumbled as she distanced herself. 

"Oh. Oh!!" said Barry suddenly. "You wanted me to... Wow. I'm sorry."

"At least your clueless trait stuck with you."

"Timeline jokes, hilarious," he rolled his eyes. "I'll be back in five minutes, probably under. Yeah?"

"Yeah," smiled Parker. 

A few minutes later-- three, if we're being exact-- he returned. He had offered to stay on the couch. She shrugged it off, saying she didn't mind where he slept. She then trailed off into her bedroom.

So, there they were in her bed. On separate sides, sharing separate blankets, Barry and Parker lay. Parker was on her stomach, as per usual. Barry was on his back. He watched the ceiling, imagining the stick-on stars his Parker used to have on her ceiling. 

He hated thinking it, but he liked this Parker. Sure, part of him did like her. He loved seeing children that were his. But, any day, he would sadly admit that the majority of why he liked her was because she was a distraction from his pain. He despised the idea of grieving over his Parker. He just wanted to fill the hole in his heart. What better way to do it than find her other self?

What struck him as odd was how quickly she allowed herself to fall for him again. After all, she was the one in the relationship who left; a story she had yet to tell, or Barry to ask. So, at long last, he did: "Why did you do it?"

"Do what?" she whispered. 

"Why did you leave this Barry?"

She paused. He heard her sigh against her pillow, which alerted him to the abruptness of his question. Instead, he rambled off a series of replies, explaining that she was free to avoid the inquiry, if she wanted to. 

"It's fine, it's natural for you to be curious," said Parker softly. "Uh, it was our senior prom. We had been dating for two years, so we decided we were both ready to do it, so we did. We graduated together, we applied to colleges together. You-- er, my Barry, got accepted to Central City College. I hadn't decided where I wanted to go. I planned to take a year off to think about what I wanted to do..."

Barry took her pause as a chance to ask: "Did you have any ideas?"

"All I knew was I wanted to be where he was. I didn't care what I was doing, as long as I came home to him," admitted Parker shyly. She smiled. "I could have been a garbage man and been happy..." 

"I would have let you take me out," he offered. 

Parker rolled her eyes. "Right. Anywho, in June, I found out I was pregnant. I was gone a month later. I hadn't told Barry where I was going, or why I ended things. I left him a long letter telling him I was going through some stuff that I wanted to take care of by myself, you know."

"But that wasn't the real reason," denied Barry.

"No. Not at all," she agreed. She struggled to find the words to continue, which caused her to roll on her back, fists roughly digging into her eyes. "He was so smart, Barry. He blew me away. He was the sole reason I made it through school with good Math and Science grades. On top of all his Honors courses, he tutored me. He was going to be successful somewhere. And I knew he would give it all up for me, if I told him. I couldn't watch him, in ten, twenty years, regret that he never became a big name in forensics, or whatever, because I got pregnant. I wanted him to live his dream."

"Even if it meant being without you?" 

Parker scoffed. "Yeah." 

"If your Barry was anything like me, that wasn't the right choice," he said softly. 

"It wasn't the right thing to do at all. I regretted it everyday. I still do. But it was what he needed. I mean, look at him. He was successful because of it, and he--"

"--still lived with his parents," interrupted Barry. 

"That doesn't have to measure success," chastised Parker.

"Maybe not," said Barry. 

"Maybe," said Parker. 

In a soft silence, the two stared at the ceiling. He thought about his Parker. She thought about her Barry. They missed each other's soulmates, how things used to be. But there was no going back, they both quickly were reminded. The closest they were going to get was where they were now. That would have to mean something. 

"I'm sorry I took him away from you," whispered Barry.

"I'm sorry Zoom took her away from you," whispered Parker.

It was then they decided that one day what was taken from them could be returned, in some way or another. Maybe through each other, they could find the parts that used to make them whole.