Only Because I Need You

Magazine Intel

Iris sat at her desk. Her back was straight and her shoulders were back, making it slightly awkward for her to reach her keyboard. Her hair lay loosely on her shoulders, swinging back and forth with her movement. The soft hustle and bustle of her office, coupled with thundering keyboards, filled her ears but she had long since learned to tune it out. Her eyes were focused on the blank and pale screen. The cursed blinked at her mindlessly on her new document. She bit down on her lip and cursed her writer's block. She was creatively drained. She had written several large articles the week before and it seemed that she no longer had any new ideas. She bit her lip and narrowed her eyes at the screen, there had to be something. She exhaled loudly through her nose and collapsed backwards into her seat. She had nothing.

She glanced around her brightly coloured office. There were lines of cluttered and personalised desks scattered across the room. Many of the desks were occupied by familiar faces but not all. There were several groups of people clumped together all around the room, some eating, some chatting and some watching the news from a small and box television set. Iris would have thought that a company as well off as hers could afford a better TV set than a dusty 50 year old box. Apparently she was wrong, "Iris," a familiar voice pulled her out of her thoughts and back to her body.

A small and petit woman was standing by her side, glancing over her shoulder at her empty computer. The woman's name was Evelyn, she worked as a secretary for Iris's boss and her bubbly personality often made Irises colleges avoid her. According to them she spoke too much and laughed too often. Iris didn't see it though, she always thought the woman was sweet, "What can I do for you Evelyn?" She asked, a wide smile donned her face.

"Oh nothing, nothing," she giggled waving Iris off. Her blonde hair bounced on her chest and her rosy cheeks lit up, "I just couldn't help but notice that you seemed to be struggling a bit to find a good story these past few days," her voice was high pitched, higher than most. Iris didn't mind though, it was refreshing from the normal droning of human voices.

"Yeah, I think I ran myself dry last week," Iris laughed, stretching her arms out in front of her.

"If you are looking for inspiration, I know of a real mystery happening in downtown Central City," she nodded her head furiously and pursed her lips. The last time she had a serious story was when a mother duck got ran over by accident on one of the many roads outside the city, leaving the duckling to fend for themselves. However, luckily the ducks were rescued by an off duty fireman. It may not have made the central pages or the front cover, but it was a good story in the children's section.

Iris raised her eyebrows and signalled for the woman to continue, "rumour has it that women are going missing in downtown. People say that all the missing girls had been at the same club," her face was grave and her features unmoving.

"Which club?" Iris pulled her eyebrows in together. That was not something she had heard of, but if it were true, then perhaps it would interest the Flash.

"A club called Twoot," she replied, drawing out the 'oo' and tilting her face upwards. Her eyebrows were raised and her eyes widened to an unnaturally large size.

"Well, thank you Evelyn, I will definitely look into it," Iris smiled. It seemed to be a good basis for a story and perhaps even a serious issue that would involve team Flash in the long run. Iris had no idea if the information was reliable, but it was always better to be safe than sorry.

"No problem," she sang before twirling around and skipping off to talk to join another group of people, who all gave her a weary eye as she approached.

Iris blew a hot stream of air out of her nose and sat back into her seat. There was times she was very upset that her father's life was on the line as a detective, but there was other times that the perks of having a member of the family on the police force outweighed that upset. A sly smile worked across her lips as she pulled her large bag up from the floor. It was cluttered with rubbish and many things that she no longer needed, which made her job much harder. She found her phone tucked into the bottom of the bag, smothered by an empty water bottle. She rescued the device from its cramped quarter and was quick to put it to use. She dialled the number she needed with inhumane speed and pressed the phone to her ear. It barely had the chance to ring once, "hey, what's up baby girl?" Joe's voice grumbled happily over the line. He was about to become a lot less happy, that she knew.

"Nothing much," Iris replied, placing her bag back down on the floor by her feet, "I just wanted to ask you a quick question," she glanced around the room, no body seemed to be paying her any attention.

"Anything," he replied. Iris felt a smile don her face. Ralph was right, Joe West really was a super-Dad.

"What could you tell me about women disappearing at a club named Twoot?" She asked, raising her eyebrows expectantly and squeezing up her features hopefully.

"Uhh," he drawled, clearly having one of his infamous inner debates, "We have a few missing persons from around that area in downtown, but none that are explicitly connected to Twoot," Iris narrowed her eyes, how did her father know about a night club that she didn't. She hummed under her breath, "sorry baby, that's all I know,"

"No, that's fine, I will bring it up with the team and see what they think," she told him firmly, "thanks anyway,"

"No problem," he replied softly. Iris missed her dad, it felt as thought they had drifted apart, she was seeing him less and less as time progressed. A ache developed in her heart, she was going to have to make time to spend with him because there was no way she would allow for their relationship to be work based.

A/N : I'M BACK! DID YOU MISS ME? NO? ME EITHER! Yes, I am continuing this story and relieving it from its place on the shelf! The best part is that I only have about five more chapters to write hehehe. I will update every three day and if there are any changes to that I will let you know in my handy dandy authors notes! I missed you loads xxx

- Potato 🥔