Dedicated to NoraXSWest-AllenFam, @CamrynKissel, @joshuasmith943, @bloodypunkkk, damianflashpoint, @amorheartz, ThatSpiderKnight, and luciferandchloe2021 for all of the amazing support they've shown all of my Flash-themed stories! Love you all so much!

Without a second's thought, Barry instinctively threw his long arms around Iris' shoulders, shielding her upper body as if there was about to be an explosion. An action which the strong reporter would typically have protested against if not for both the suddenness of the noise and the comfort which his beating heart brought to her ringing ears as she momentarily pressed her head closer to his chest, the sound of its uneven beat almost shaking her form just as much as the speedster's was. Screams of various volumes echoed vaguely throughout Barry's head as the surrounding citizens ran in multiple different directions, pleading they'd escaped the criminals' grips, though the men didn't seem in the slightest to actually care about any of the people in the square, but rather, what they were standing next to.

"You all have thirty seconds to leave if you don't want to be filled with lead," one of the two armed men declared as he dangerously waved his gun's front sight in the air above his scruffy, black-haired head, his thick gray trenchcoat's sleeves brushing vaguely against his partially bruised wrists with nearly every movement.

A sign which almost instantly alerted the scene's resident CSI as to who their attacker was.

Marcus Spitz! That's why he looked so familiar! I remember Patty briefing me on a case she was following a few weeks ago about him vandalizing parts of the city and then just disappearing for months. But he always left a single body with no fingerprints at every crime scene as a sort of means of making a point to the police.

"And that includes you too, lovebirds," the second man commanded as he pressed the head of his pistol harshly against the back of Barry's head, the feeling of the cold metal touching his skin immediately jolting the speedster out of his racing thoughts.

He hadn't even realized that Iris' upper body was pressed against his navy blue-shirted chest until she was forced to stand back up beside him, leaving an oddly lonely feeling to linger behind in her minimal warmth's absence. Not that the man's comfort was even in the least bit a present focal point for anyone in the vicinity to be paying attention to at the moment.

Especially Barry, most of anyone.

"You don't have to do this, Marcus. There's still time for you to change," Barry reasoned, his eyes cautiously searching the crowd of kids dispersing from the area, his mind trying its very hardest to ignore their cries of fear in favor of focusing his attention on the criminal.

Though, that task was so, so much easier said than done.

"Ah, so you've heard of me, kid. Huh, not really surprised considering how famous I am in these parts, after all," the long-haired man boasted, scoffing proudly at the young man's remembrance of his name.

"But how 'bout' you just stick to leaving. Unless, you wanna be the next guy to join my resume?" Marcus sneered, his sarcastic remark prompting a loud laugh out of his partner as the latter easily leaned back against the golden statue's base.

An object that only finalized the quickly building case forming inside the CSI's mind.

That's why they're here. To destroy the statue. But the actual question is why would they go out of their way to do it now? Did they think it would be less crowded than it was or did they want more witnesses for what they're going to do?

"You're not going to get away with this," Iris stated, her voice holding a determination even stronger than that of the two criminals' cocky ones as she stood firmly beside Barry.

"Oh really, princess? And why is that?" The second man inquired, curiously glaring across the square at her as he casually grabbed a few cans of various-colored spray paints from within a nearby black duffle bag lying on the concrete pavement.

"Because there's always going to be someone who's willing to stand up to people like you," Iris answered, her left hand quietly reaching inside her purse for what Barry could only assume was most likely going to be the gun Joe had given to her solely for self-defense the year prior after she'd taken up a particularly strong interest in The Streak.

Barry wanted so badly to silently stop her, only the moment he even slightly tried to move closer to his left, Marcus only pressed his weapon against the back of the CSI's head harder than before, wordlessly telling the speedster that if he moved a single inch more, it would be his final action, ever.

Iris, no, this isn't worth it...

"And just who is that? The Flash?" Because last time I checked, our city's so-called hero pretty much got murdered by that new monster guy the last time he showed his face," Marcus spat, incredulously, his words nearly instantly sending another wave of unacknowledged pain throughout the speedster's body.

"Yeah, well, failing every once and awhile doesn't make him weak, it just makes human," Iris stated, firmly, her eyes meeting Barry's with quiet honesty before they returned their gaze onto the dangerously armed man behind her.

Does she really believe that? Does she really still believe in me? Even after everything that happened?

"But I was actually talking about someone else," she added, her determined eyes glaring at the idling criminal across the way, despite her hand's silent shuffling inside her bag.

"And who exactly is that?" The second man questioned, almost saying the words more as a means of absentmindedness rather than actual care as to what was being spoken.

"Me," Iris announced as her hand swiftly whipped a small energy pistol out of her purse and blasted it directly at Marcus' chest, sending him flying several feet backwards, his back slamming roughly against a tall oak tree's bark.

And I guess we're doing this now, anyway...

But just as Iris was about to turn around and fire at their next attacker, another resounding noise of metal soaring through the air echoed inside the pair's heads. A very projectile which was aimed directly at the woman's chest as she slowly spun around on the heels of her sneakers, her eyes growing slightly larger at the sight as the smallest amount of fear crept its way onto her face.

And that's when Barry felt it.

Felt the familiar wave of electricity course through his every muscle as if a sudden surge of power was striking a million little lightning rods inside his cells all at once, luminescent orange energy running delicately across his pupils. The sensation started at his shoulders, shocking their otherwise slouching form suddenly upright before it ran swiftly downward towards his chest, jolting his already rapidly beating heart to an even more awakened state at just the sight of Iris' peril.

The sensation ended its brief, yet exhilaratingly magnificent journey at his lower appendages, igniting their otherwise completely feelingless nerve endings on fire with excitement. Freeing his purposeless legs of their confinement as the hero immediately darted to the side, instinctively catching the small round within the palm of his bare hand.

I can't believe I did it...I did it! I can feel my legs, I can run again!

Though, the man's feelings of freedom only lasted just long enough for him to catch the bullet for the second his racing form stopped in front of woman, his legs practically instantaneously fell completely numb once more, knocking his weak-muscled body face first onto the pavement a few inches away from her.

Okay, that wasn't perfect but, I still ran a little so that's gotta count for something, right? Also, side note just to keep at the back of my head for later...ow...again...

Iris felt her trembling breath blast out of her lungs as a feeling of relief washed appreciatively over her entire form, her right hand momentarily pressing its palm against the middle of her chest.

"Wait, what happened?" Questioned the second man in bewilderment, his eyes darting confusedly around the almost empty area that surrounded him until finally both his and Iris' gazes were caught by the slightly moaning form of the once again-paralyzed Barry.

"How'd he even do that?! I thought he couldn't move his legs or somethin," he remarked, furiously throwing his hands down as Iris quickly leaned down, gently flipping her best friend's form over so as to allow him to breath without a concrete barrier covering his face.

"Are you alright, Barry?" Iris asked, gingerly wiping the light mark of fresh blood off the corner of his forehead, revealing the small cut on his temple from the fall, though he didn't even in the slightest seem phased by what she would've assumed would be a somewhat painful sensation.

"Yeah...I'm fine...just glad you are," he panted, his words spoken with genuine relief at her safety, despite the small smile of happiness creeping its way onto his face.

I know it was just a few seconds, well not even if you include the fact that time slows down when you're moving that quickly, but still! The feeling of getting to move my legs again...it was almost like the first time after I woke up from my coma. Like I wasn't being weighed down by anything, except the wind rushing past me. Which is crazy because I moved like two feet, but still, it felt so good!

"He won't be when I'm done with you two," Marcus snapped as he grabbed Barry by the hair and yanked him upward into a halfway chokehold within his left arm, making the latter's lanky legs lay awkwardly against the ground below.

Barry tried as hard as he could to will his legs to move, but once again, no amount of willpower was making even the slightest bit of difference, aside from giving his captor a greater reason to grip his muscular arm tighter around his neck, that is.

Yeah, now would be a really great time for them to start working again...

"Let him go now," Iris commanded, her energy gun's small front sight pointed directly at Marcus, worry slowly creeping its way into her voice, though that didn't in the slightest stop her fingers from holding the weapon possibly containing both hers and Barry's lives steadily in her hands.

"You see, if you really knew who we were, princess, then, you'd know that we only have to kill one person per job," Marcus remarked as he slowly walked backwards towards where his partner stood, dragging Barry along with him.

I swear, if he calls her princess one more time...

"And since your friend decided to play the hero, tonight, I figure I'll be generous enough to let you live instead," he finished, shrugging mockingly at the woman as his partner noisily popped the plastic top off of one of the spray paint cans' metal bottles.

"I'm not going anywhere until you're back behind bars," Iris stated, determination carrying her every syllable as her eyes momentarily met Barry's, the slightest hint of love hidden behind her pupils before she returned her gaze to the two criminals.

Of course, he wanted her to get to safety, but there was something about the look in her eyes that, in some unexplained way, told him that everything was going to be okay. The very same feeling she'd given him since practically the first moment he'd opened his eyes earlier that day.

She does believe in me. And I believe in her, always.

"Then, I guess we'll have to make an exception this time around won't we, Travis?" Marcus commented, sarcastically, gaining a near-immediate cackle of laughter from his partner.

Yeah, it's definitely clear who's in charge of their operation...

But before any of the combatants could release their next attacks, Marcus felt two metal prongs electrocute his back, sending both his unconscious body and Barry face-first onto the pavement previously beneath their feet.

Only, the blast didn't come from Iris' energy pistol, but rather, from the small handheld device gripped in Harry's outstretched hand.

"Yes! That actually worked! Not that I didn't have complete faith in you or anything," Cisco exclaimed, his words of relief swiftly being followed by an eye roll from his fellow scientist as the latter easily stuffed the weapon back inside one of his black denim jacket's lower pockets.

"You say that as if I actually listen to any of the stupid words that come out of your mouth, Ramon," Harry remarked, sarcastically.

Yeah, those are definitely my friends...

"Great to see you, guys, but what about him?" Iris questioned, her arms crossed skeptically over one another as she gestured over to Travis' running form for it seemed that he didn't need more than a second to notice just how unmatched they now were.

"Wait for it," Harry answered, his eyes remaining casually focused on his jacket's slowly closing silver zipper.

And to everyone's astonishment (except for Harry's, that is), in almost five seconds on the dot, there was a sudden scream of pain as he slammed roughly into the scientist's intricately placed invisible electrical shock field.

One which was effortlessly clicked off with a single press of a tiny remote's button, the very object he'd been extracting from his bag as they spoke.

Is it bad that I kinda wish I got to see that? Nope, nevermind, of course it is...but still...

"Yep. Told you they always run, Ramon," Harry stated, confidently, though he took extra pride in Cisco's gaping mouthed-expression at the man's quick thinking.

"Okay, I'm officially impressed," Iris announced, her gaze still lingering unintentionally on the man's unconscious body that laid several feet away before she heard the muffled grumbling otherwise known as her best friend's request for help.

"Oh, sorry, man. We got you," Cisco replied as he and Iris quickly flipped the speedster's halfway still body over, the latter of the two having already done the exact same thing two other times throughout that day.

Hey, in my defense though, none of them have been because of clumsiness. Not that I really want to jinx that or anything now.

"No problem," Barry dismissed, his lighthearted smile immediately bringing one of equal happiness to both of his friends' faces.

"Yeah, well, clearly you needed the help," shrugged Harry, his voice holding an even more placid tone than usual as his eyes took extra care not to meet the hero's.

"Doesn't mean I still can't thank you," Barry countered, honest understanding shining in his gentle blue eyes as he extended his hand out for the older scientist to take.

A gesture which Harry only obliged to begrudgingly solely for the injured CSI's sake as he pulled him back up into the nearby wheelchair.

"Trust me, this is the least someone can do," Harry commented, his words remaining intentionally vague to everyone except for the speedster.

"Well, then I guess it's a good thing that we still have more time," Barry half-smiled, softly at Harry, their gazes meeting with a mutual mixture of sorrow and thankfulness for the things they still had.

It's okay for us not to always be okay, but that doesn't mean we have to go through that alone. That doesn't mean that he has to go through it alone. And maybe I don't have to, either.