Within Seconds: Flashpoint Edition

Parker Returns

Parker hadn't aged a day. Her curly black hair was tied into a loose ponytail. Her glasses were  still propped crookedly on the bridge of her nose. She was wearing the same outfit she had on when she was killed: blue jeans, a loose white t-shirt, and his maroon bomber jacket. Her stomach jutted out a little. She looked more alive than ever before, with no bags under her eyes and a perfect smile on her lips. 

"You're not real," said Barry. "This is a dream, or a m-memory--"

For every step he shuffled back, she moved forward. Her smile was making her eyes squint, and her hands were stretched for him. She was just as desperate to feel his familiar touch as he was, yet he still denied what he saw in front of him. 

"C'mon, Bar, how is it a memory if I know about Flashpoint? Or if I know that we have a daughter now, because of Flashpoint? Or about H.R.?" she asked. 

Barry bumped into the arm of the couch. He toppled over it without meaning to. By the time he scrambled to sit up straight, Parker was sitting across from him on the coffee table. She was close to him. He couldn't move his eyes from their knees, which were inches away from touching one another. All he had to do was move his knee closer, then he could know if she was real. 

Parker suddenly sat up straight on the table. She tilted her head, then nudged her knee into his. She giggled, her exertion of happiness like Angels singing in Barry's ears. 

He shook his head. "I have to go. You're not rea--"

Parker tackled him onto the couch. She rested her knees on the sides of his waist, hooking her arms around his neck. She smashed her lips into his, tired of waiting. Kiss after kiss, their hands roamed, their lips tingled, they grew closer, until their breath ran out. 

"Tell me that wasn't real," she challenged him. 

Barry had no words. He just moved his face towards her, not close to being done feeling her lips, or her waist, or the softness of her skin on his hands. He hated himself for throwing himself on her. He spent months easing himself from a life with Parker, only to dive into the deep end when he was reunited with her in a way he didn't bother to understand. 

"We're in the Speed Force," said Parker, trying to speak through his constant kisses. "I came back to life in here."

Barry restrained himself and leaned back, brow furrowed. "How...?"

"I can read your mind now," she said casually. 

For his sake, she continued to kiss him and let his hands roam her body. It was in their heads she decided to explain that when she was killed, she was absorbed into the Speed Force, through the mix of Melody's natural touch of it. 

Time wasn't applicable when in the Speed Force, but she assumed she spent a few months chasing a black form through her life. Towards the end, she discovered her father, a physical representation of the Speed Force. He told her she served her purpose on Earth: to help Barry, to do great things for the safety of the world, to be an impact on the lives of those she worked with. He admitted she was pulled from the world a little earlier than planned, but she would still be granted with the ability to hook onto any speedster she pleased. 

"Whatever else he was going to say, he wasn't able to finish," said Parker. She had pulled away from him to catch her breath. "My world flipped when you changed Flashpoint back to how it was originally."

"Got your breath back?" asked Barry eagerly. 

Parker ignored him. Excitedly, she said, "Barry, I am literally one with the Speed Force. I can connect to anyone who is touched by it. I can see through you, or Melody, or Wally, or I even spent some time spying on the Legends. I tapped into Eobard and got to see the end of when Nate and Ray almost didn't become heroes because of George Lucas."