Dedicated to NoraXSWest-AllenFam, @CamrynKissel, @joshuasmith943, @bloodypunkkk, damianflashpoint, @amorheartz, ThatSpiderKnight, @Nicholas_Thawne, and luciferandchloe2021 for all of their amazingly kind support of my Arrowverese stories! Your words truly mean the world to me :)

"I never really appreciated how nice a shower could feel until now," Barry thought, quietly to himself as he casually combed the last few loose strands of his slightly damp brunette hair back into their rightful places on top of his head, his pantless legs dangling vaguely off of Joe's bedroom's old oak dressing chair.

To the average person, by all accounts the last half an hour worth of activity would've probably been called nothing short of a time suck for it took him nearly half that time just moving himself into and out of the shower's tile containment and somehow felt more exhausting than almost anything else he'd done throughout all the last three days combined.

Yet, just getting to feel the warm water splash against his bare-skinned shoulders had somehow sent a wordless sense of serenity to his fragile form's muscles. Even if said feeling hadn't lasted for more than just a few minutes before he'd had to call for Joe to actually help him get out, that is.

I know Iris and I really wanted to keep most of today to ourselves, but that doesn't mean I won't take Joe's help every once and awhile, too. You know, considering there's certain things you only want your Dad to help you with.

Barry breathed a tired breath as he threw his plain white t-shirted upper chest down against his adoptive father's mattress, letting his motionless legs flop tiredly down below them. If one's body could really feel tiredness in an appendage they were only vaguely aware they still had.

I don't honestly know how I'm supposed to feel about any of this, though.

But as he awaited Joe's re-entrance into the room, his eyes fell unexpectedly down on his lying legs, their attention strangely grasped by the lanky appendages that were technically his own.

It seemed like it had been so long since the last time he'd gotten to actually look down at his own legs without some clothed protection covering their skinny structures. Sure, they looked pretty terrible with all the infinite amount of small bruises which still lined every few inches of his skin which covered their bony frames, but that didn't stop the slightest bit of a relieved smile from silently slipping onto the man's face, nonetheless.

It's crazy because I used to hate these things as a kid. You know, because of the whole fact that they were too lanky to help in any sort of sport, not that my actual hand-eye coordination probably would've let me do that in the first place, but they couldn't even do much of anything to help me run away from those bullies, either. There's just something about seeing them now, about just knowing that I still have them after everything that happened that night, even if I can't really feel them, that is, in the most insane way possible, kinda comforting.

"You need a little help there, Barr?" Joe asked, his heavy-treaded footsteps hitting against the bedroom's tan-carpeted flooring jolting Barry out of his lingering thoughts.

"Hm? Oh yeah, sure. Thanks," he responded as he slowly brought himself back up into an upright position as Joe kneeled down on the ground in front of the bed, carefully pulling one of the fabric holes of his adoptive son's worn navy jeans over each of his stationary legs.

"You don't have to thank me for helping, Barr. It's pretty much been in my job description to do things like this for awhile now," Joe chuckled, soulfully as he gently finished sliding Barry's newly black-socked foot through the second slot before slowly pushing himself back onto his own two feet.

Though, not before giving his kind-hearted kid a reassuring pat on the knee first.

"I mean, I would've felt kinda bad if I'd agreed to spend today with Iris and then, completely blown off your offer," Barry commented, barely holding back the words which had only a few seconds prior wanted so desperately to escape his lips.

It's not that I didn't want his help, I just didn't really want anybody's help. But I guess it's not really my choice who cares about me.

"No, you wouldn't have," scoffed Joe, his wrinkled hands placed on his hips, skeptically.

Needless to say, it wasn't entirely easy for either of his kids to try and slip a lie past him, not only because he knew them so well, but also due to the fact that one of said people was practically the most notoriously known bad liar in the entirety of Central City.

"Eh, probably not. But I guess we'll never know," Barry quickly replied, trying his very best to cover up just how accurate Joe's assumption really was.

"Aha, sure. How about you just finish getting yourself put together so Iris can take your "appreciative" ass outta my house already," Joe retorted, playfully ruffling his adoptive son's brunette hair in just the childishly loving way both he and Henry had since Barry was a kid.

"Sounds good," Barry agreed, a soft smile forming on his face as he watched Joe exit the room to go find Iris.

There's never going to be a world where I'm not appreciative of everything he's done for me. And that includes now, even if I don't always know the right words to say it sometimes.

Barry casually leaned across the bed and grabbed his navy and red flannel shirt from where it lay on top of the older man's right hand nightstand, taking extra care to slowly close each button in order to devote the absolute least amount of time he could on dwelling on his current circumstances until his company returned

"Okay, you ready to go?" Iris confirmed as she strided into the room, her now-loose flowing brunette hair bouncing excitedly against her long sleeve, gray cold-shoulder blouse.

A particular fact which seemed almost magically magnified to Barry's widely watching eyes, a quiet and awkward laugh unintentionally slipping out of his mouth as it, for a lack of a better description, hung open at his best friend's casual beauty.

She's so...Iris...but I have a girlfriend! Patty, yes, that's who I'm dating right now...who's equally as beautiful! Well, maybe not Iris-level pretty but, amazing in her own way, of course!

"Did something happen between you and Dad or..." Questioned Iris, confusedly as she watched Barry's eyes lingering intently on something she couldn't quite decipher what was yet.

"What, us? No, of course not! I'm just really excited to go, well, wherever it is we're going," Barry rambled, jumbled words flying out of his mouth nearly as quickly as The Flash could run as he instinctively slid himself into the wheelchair near the bed.

Only, it wasn't exactly as closely parked as he'd first thought it was for he almost immediately fell back first against the carpeted ground below it.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that didn't make me look any cooler than I was before. Unless, an extra bruise does that to someone and in that case, I must look pretty great right now...

"Barry!" Iris shouted, worriedly as she rushed over to where he'd just fallen to which the injured hero (both physically and in his already small amount of pride) returned her words with merely that of a muffled groan due to the carpet strand currently poking the inside of his mouth.

Iris breathed a sigh of relief at her friend's muted, yet very Barry-esque response as she hurriedly hoisted him back into the wheel chair's padded seat, brushing a loose strand of his short brunette hair back into its proper place along his hairline.

"Thanks," Barry panted, his cheeks still flushed a vibrant red in embarrassment at his own attempts to act "cool."

Note to self, leave the whole "bad boy" thing to Oliver. It's just more natural for him.

"No, don't worry about it," Iris replied, panting slightly back in return for Barry may not have exactly been heavy but, that didn't stop his rather tall height from being a bit more than what the reporter was used to lifting on a daily basis.

"But before we leave, it does look like you missed something," Iris commented as she instantly kneeled down on the ground in front of the speedster, carefully folding the ankle sections of his jeans over just the way he almost never left the house without.

"Oh, yeah, I guess I didn't even realize that," Barry smiled, appreciatively as Iris slowly stood back up, her gentle chestnut brown eyes meeting her friend's for the briefest of moments before they both quickly averted their attentions to various other spots within the wide-spaced room.

Having her here, well, it kinda makes me forget about everything else. Well, as much as I can, anyway.

"But that's enough talking for now. Otherwise, we might not make it to your special surprise," Iris stated, her attention seemingly snapping back to reality as she swiftly grabbed the handlebars of the speedster's wheelchair.

"What do you mean by surprise?" Barry asked, his voice holding a quiet excitement at her words.

Well, that or it was just the typical feelings of euphoria he felt whenever Iris was with him.

Could be either, honestly, right?

"Ah, ah, ah, you're gonna have to wait till we get there for that answer," Iris joked, a mysterious playfulness carrying the entirety of her voice.

"Fair enough. But until then, I'll just have to settle for spending time with one of the prettiest girls in the world," Barry spoke, his heartbeat increasing ever so slightly as soon as the compliment had left his mouth.

Oh my God...why did I even say that?!

"I guess you will," Iris smiled back, her cheeks flushing a bright red at his sweet remark, though she took extra care not to at least look back this time around.

A fact that only made Barry's smile grow a little bit larger, its brightness perfectly matching that of Iris' cheeks as they moved.

Yeah, that feeling? It's definitely Iris. It's always Iris.

"I know I technically told him that he couldn't know where we were going because I wanted it to be a surprise and that's definitely true...just maybe not all of it," Iris thought, guilt silently pricking the back of her mind as she finally pulled her best friend's wheelchair to a stop just around the corner of their special destination, the heavy silver metallic wheels rolling noisily over the dirty concrete pavement that lay beneath the woman's violet-sneakered feet.

She'd initially suggested that they should just drive to their mysterious location to ensure that it would be the easiest possible for the injured speedster (It might not be healthy for him to keep himself cooped up inside S.T.A.R. Labs for days, but that doesn't mean I'm saying he shouldn't rest at all), though that idea was almost immediately dismissed after Barry had insisted it would be weirder to do that than walk there.

A thought which Iris still wasn't entirely sure of the meaning behind, but didn't honestly care so long as he was happier walking, regardless.

"Okay, you can open your eyes now," Iris stated, excitedly tapping her friend lightly on his left shoulder blade ensuring that he had most certainly heard her.

Not that he ever really didn't listen to her, but still, she had to make sure, anyways.

Forgetful? Maybe. But he always listens to everything I say, even if they are just rants about how great and or bad my day at work is.

Barry laughed lightly at her somewhat overdramatic tapping as he allowed his gentle blue eyes to once again see the busy-streeted world around them, a look of confusion slowly tugging at his face as he surveyed his vague surroundings.

"Did you take me to an alleyway in Star City or..." Barry teased, his voice carrying a mutual sense of playfulness and actual bewilderment at exactly the reason why they were standing in the middle of grimy stone-pathed sidewalk.

"Just wait and see," Iris scoffed, rolling her eyes in fake annoyance as she swiftly turned his seat around the three-story, glass-paned office building that was previously hindering the hero's view of his surprise.

Yep, just as much patience as I have.

But as soon as the two friends turned the corner into what Barry now recognized was Central City's quaintly decorated town square, their eyes were met with the towering golden statue of a certain speedy hero, its metallic surface perfectly reflecting the afternoon sunlight's vibrant orange beams onto several of the buildings' glass faces which stood on each of its sides. Iris watched as multiple little kids decked out in Flash-themed apparel ran excitedly to the statue's sturdy slick stone base plate, a young auburn-haired girl immediately pulling out her violet, sparkle-cased phone and holding it high into the air for just the perfect selfie of her friends' Flash poses. A sight which sent nothing short of happiness shooting through Iris' body as she momentarily watched the children's avid enthusiasm building by the second, the quiet sound of their scuffed sneakers' squeaking echoing gently in her ears.

I don't honestly know what's sweeter, how much they look up to Barry or just how cute they look, in general.

Though, Barry did seem to have a much different reaction to the peaceful sight which lay before their eyes, for his bruised hands suddenly began to grip the wheelchair's metal support railings with a new intensity that only matched that of his ever-increasing heartbeat.

His mind suddenly flashing to a particularly recent horrific memory involving the monster who'd nearly killed him only a few weeks prior;

"Look at your hero," Zoom's raspy words echoed loudly throughout the speedster's throbbing skull as his maroon red suited legs were drug carelessly across Picture News' slick tile flooring, the villain's claw-like hands holding the weak man's head partially upright by the thin cowl of his mask.

Vague flashes of white light from what Barry could only assume were some of the surrounding reporters' cameras shone vaguely through the spots of blurriness that clouded his bruised eyes' patchy vision.

Barry suddenly felt his limp body get forcibly lifted up into the air as Zoom's sharp talons dug deeper into the back of his neck, prompting the quietest of moans to escape past his ruby red bleeding lips, the painful substance still dripping rapidly down their exteriors as his lungs once again gasped for any form of oxygen they could possibly squeeze into their tightened, pyramid-shaped organs.

"This man is no God," Zoom continued, Barry's limp form dangling uselessly for all of the scared reporters to bear witness to.

For Iris to watch as it effortlessly shook her best friend/hero's body pointedly in front of his black-suited chest, the latter's head bobbing dangerously between vague shadows of the world around him and the pitch black darkness which surely had to be close to consuming him at this point.

"He is nothing," The Demon declared, his every word spoken with an even harsher tone than the one before it.

Though, not a single person present even for the slightest second believed it came from any place inside him, except pure, unadulterated enjoyable of the torture he was so graciously being given the opportunity to put Earth-Prime's so-called "hero" through.

Barry felt several streams of warm blood trickling down his slowly paling cheeks as his nearsighted eyes vaguely searched through the crowd of faces until they instinctively landed on Iris' shaking form. And even through his head's constantly pounding pain and the dizziness quickly overtaking his vision, he still somehow managed to see the look of utter terror which was held on the woman's face, her hands cupped closely to her mouth so as indicating that she, just like the rest of her fellow workers, weren't going to dare and take another step in fear of being the creature's next prey.

But as the fallen hero started to feel the forceful grip of the monster flaunting him around for all to see, vibrant blue lightning sparking dangerously off of his every muscle, Barry felt only one feeling coursing through his iced veins. The very same feeling which he'd just seen shining so vividly on his best friend's tear-stricken face; fear.

Of losing to Zoom, of failing Harry, of his friends getting hurt, of the monster's agonizingly painful beating he had inflicted, but most of all, of death itself.

And in that very moment, the same words just kept bouncing around the man's fading mind;

I can't die without saving them. Otherwise, my life meant nothing. I'm dying for nothing.

No, right now, dying for nothing seemed like a more tempting option for the hero wasn't dying for nothing but rather now, living for nothing.

Without my speed, I won't be able to save anyone anymore. To protect my friends, my family from people like him. Without it, I'm, I'm nothing