A Christmas Flash

One

Barry Stands on a treadmill that lay in S.T.A.R labs. The lab is filled with mistletoe, holly, Christmas trees, stockings, and much more. He pushes the on button on the treadmill and the track begins moving, faster...and faster... then everything blacks out. Barry finds himself in his old living room looking at his young self. His mom lay on the floor with blue and yellow electric lights and a shadow circling around her. Barry hears his young self cry out for his mother constantly. He keeps hearing his mother's voice "Barry!" That's all he hears. "Barry!" Suddenly he is back in the lab standing over the treadmill breathing heavily.

"Barry? Hey, are you alright?" It was the voice of Dr.Caitlin Snow. She leaned over him with her hand resting on his shoulder.

Barry catches his breath and looks over at her, "oh, um yeah I'm fine." He said. He steps off the treadmill and grabs a towel to wipe off his face.

"You were running pretty fast. Are you sure you didn't flashback?" Caitlin asked him worried something might be wrong.

Barry turns around to look at Caitlin. "Yea, I just zoned out a little. I'm fine. So how was Christmas Decorating? With your family?" He wanted to change the subject before it got somewhere he didn't want it to go.

"It was fun. Yea, It was nice to see them since Ronnie died, again" Caitlin smiled. Trying to play off that it didn't bother her. "How was dinner with, uh, Iris and Wally?" Caitlin always felt weird asking about Iris. They aren't the closest of friends but she means a lot to Barry.

Barry totally forgot about the dinner with Iris that he was supposed to attended about a half and hour ago. "Oh. Um It was great!" He lied. Barry realized he probably should go talk to Iris about missing the dinner. "I think I should go shower before the tree lighting tonight." Barry ran out of the lab leaving Caitlin to wonder why he is acting so strange.

"Sure..." Caitlin said to herself. She walked around the lab that Cisco had decorated. She traced her finger against the wall. There were pictures of everyone as children. There was mistletoe everywhere on the ceilings, and the Christmas tree was beautiful. "Wow..." Caitlin look under the tree to see there were already presents under it. She kneeled down to look at them. Caitlin noticed a tag on a beautifully wrapped blue gift. She lifted it up and read the tag:

To: Caitlin
From: Barry
Merry Christmas! I couldn't of imagined my life without you. Stay jolly.

Caitlin smiled and put the present back under the tree. She stood up and walked to the center. She looked around the room. Caitlin grinned then walked out of the lab.
-
"Iris! Iris!" Barry shouted as he saw his friend come out of the CCPD station. "Hey, look about dinn-"

"I don't want to hear it Barry." Iris said interrupting him. Barry knew she was mad at him by the way she spoke. "You didn't come to our once a year Christmas dinner. The one dinner we want you to be at!"

"I know. I don't know what happened one minute I was on the treadmill the next I wake up two hours later with Caitlin in front of me." Barry was hoping she wouldn't stay mad at him.

Iris took a deep breath. "Whatever just don't do it again." Iris hugged him then walked to the street. Barry tried processing what just happened, he didn't want to overthink it so he just decided to head home.
-
Barry took the long way home that night. He thought about what happened with Iris, he thought about how he always screws up everything with her. Barry looked around at the nice Christmas lights. He wasn't planing on going to the tree lighting, he had only said he was because he didn't want to sound pathetic. So Barry headed down to the Central of Central city hoping everyone was there.
-
"Wow. Aren't these lights amazing?" Caitlin said looking around at everything.

"I find them exciting." Cisco replied "dude, if there were a villain based off lights, what would we call him?" Cisco asked as usual.

"Wattman?" Caitlin said.

"No." Cisco tried thinking about it. Until he heard someone walking up behind him.

"LightScreen." Barry said walking up next to him.

Cisco turned to face Barry "Dude." He said disappointed. Barry laughed as they all walked towards the tree.

"It's nice not having any villains in our way for the holidays." Barry said. Caitlin shushed him.

"Shh! Don't say that. There might be a villain!" Barry laughed at her reply. "Wow. That's a big tree." Barry said as they approached the giant Christmas tree. Every person in Central city could be spotted here.

"Great place for a kidnaping." Cisco said. Caitlin and Barry both looked at him simultaneously.

"Dude!" They both said at the same time.

"What! I'm just saying we should always be on the lookout." Cisco said defending himself. Barry knew Cisco was right but he didn't want to believe it. "Oh it's about to light."

On the count of three the tree lit up with all different lights; reds, blues, greens, magentas. It was wrapped in flowers and strung with candy canes. The three looked up and down the tree. Cisco left to go see other sights.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Caitlin said to Barry still looking at the tree.

"Yea." Barry turned to Caitlin. Caitlin turned to Barry. They both looked at each other anyway two friends would.

"Merry Christmas Caitlin Snow."

"Merry Christmas Barry Allan."