Iris West doesn't have a death wish, okay? (tellsyourstory) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-06-15 10:22:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, iris west |
Who: Iris West, NPC!Francine West
What: Dream!Lies and real!lies coming to light
When: June 15th, 2019
Where: Random cafe
Warnings: Low
Status: Narrative | Complete
Iris was getting tired of the constant Dreams. Especially when there was such a disconnect between what she knew here and what she knew, or more aptly didn't know, in the Dreams. Half the time it was just look at the evidence but for whatever reason, it wasn't connecting in Iris' mind in the Dreams. Probably because if something so major was going on in Barry's life, she would expect him to tell her. They were best friends and these sorts of things? These were the things they always talked about. So the idea that Barry would keep such a thing from her? It had to at least partially explain why Iris wasn't making the connections in the Dreams, even as she was gathering information on her own of all the strange happenings, how they all tied back to the particle accelerator exploding.
So a new Dream started and Iris was first trying to get Barry's help with a story she was working on but he seemed...distracted. Which seemed to be a theme as of late. But then she sent him text about an emergency to get him and laid out her theory and the evidence she had gathered. And again he was being evasive and busy but sure, whatever. Iris was used to Barry being weird and she still had work to do so with him promising to look over the evidence, all Iris could do on that front was wait. So it was back to work and then a nice stroll with Eddie who was...also being weird. Not Barry weird, but he was definitely being weird and she was just waiting to see what he wanted to say.
Only for the Man in Yellow to show up and attack Eddie before he could say whatever it was he was trying to say. And of course Iris would confront him, he had killed Barry's mom. And he was going to kill her, she could see it but she wasn't going to back down but suddenly he was gone with Eddie and the Flash was there, telling her to go home and tell no one and promising to get Eddie back and there was a jolt of electricity as he ran away, a feeling she had only felt once before and everything fell into place.
Barry Allen was the Flash, and he had never told her.
So Iris went home, tried to make sense of it, but all she got was anger and frustration. But she'd give him a chance to come clean. She went to his lab, giving him every opening to tell her the truth and nothing. He just evaded and gave platitudes and how was she supposed to trust him? Which led to her going to Star Labs and confronting him there. About how it felt to be whammied. And it wasn't even anger, not really. Just disappointment. Especially as it became clear that it wasn't just Barry who had kept this from her, but Eddie knew. Her dad knew. And they all had kept this massive thing from her and she just couldn't be there.
Which was why Iris went to work and started looking into the murder of Nora Allen, adding in what she now knew. That Harrison Wells was the Man in Yellow. Her dad showing up and trying to explain his reasoning, his excuses for keeping the truth from her. To protect her, which really was a really sorry excuse. How could someone be protected if they didn't know? She could have helped them if she had just... but it wasn't just the secret about the Flash, but Barry's feelings for her. Which fine, maybe wasn't Joe's place to tell her but it was just another secret. But he got a call from work and left and after some thinking, she went to Star Labs. She wasn't going to be a bystander, she was going to help. And thankfully Caitlin spoke up for Iris and she was able to help.
But it went sideways, her dad was taken and Barry was back with Cisco and everything was just.... there was so many feelings of helplessness and anger and how she didn't even know Barry anymore as he told her to be mad at him since he could have told her despite her dad's desire to keep her in the dark. How they were saying they couldn't do anything without Wells but they'd been helping people all along yet were going to give up? No. But a plan was in motion and Barry was back in the sewers and then the device Caitlin and Cisco came up with was knocked offline and she had to break through the psychic attack on Barry to get him to focus and it somehow worked, and her dad was safe at Star Labs.
I know everything you do is out of love, but love me enough to always tell me the truth
On the roof, her spot, Barry showed up and there was a feeling of....Iris didn't know. Maybe there were feelings for Barry that she never had known how to process or what they meant, but she was with Eddie now and he was missing. But after that, who knew what might happen.
Then Iris woke up and her feelings were again all over the place. The anger and betrayal were there despite her knowing about her dad and Barry lying in them for two months. It didn't help that it had been two months since the kidnapping and start of truth serums and truth 'extraction' experiments of barbiturates in one arm and amphetamines in the other - a roller coaster that the heart could only take so much of - all while being unable to help Cisco. So there was that. There was also the fear for her dad and relief that he was okay. There was the acknowledgement of feelings for Barry - things she hadn't truly processed here because of aforementioned kidnapping and trying to deal with that. Plus she suddenly remembered the things that had been hazy. Living the same day twice apparently. Confessing her feelings for Barry and the kiss. Her dad in danger. There were parallels and way too much to sort through.
Which meant that Iris just...needed space. She couldn't really be around her dad at the moment. He would know that something was up and she didn't know how to explain it. So she just..needed to get her thoughts sorted and back focused on the here and now where she had some control over things instead of being a bystander. Which was why after showering and getting ready, Iris went to a nearby cafe to get coffee and to work on a story.
Or that was the plan at any rate. Because as she was looking over her notes, she heard someone say her name.
"Iris...?"
It was a voice that was like a distant memory, something she couldn't quite place and she looked up and it was someone who shouldn't be there. Because the woman standing before her was supposed to be dead, had died nearly twenty four years before.
"Mom...?"
There was a smile, tentative, maybe relieved? Iris couldn't tell. She didn't know what to make of any of this, or what to do or say. She was still stuck on the fact her previously thought as dead mother was standing right before her and taking her hands, which Iris quickly pulled back from.
"I can't get over what a beautiful young woman you've become, and a journalist? I'm so proud of you."
None of this was connecting and all Iris could do was look at Francine, partially wary, partially suspicious.
"You know I'm a journalist?"
Seeing the opening, Francine nodded, wanting to make that connection with her daughter, to make up for the lost time.
"Of course. I've collected all of the articles you've written. You've covered so much--"
So...her mother knew of her, her work, yet had remained supposedly dead, hadn't come out and only now?
"What are you doing here? Why now? After two decades. Does dad know?" He had to, didn't he? Or had he assumed she was dead whenever she had apparently just disappeared? Though the brief flicker of emotion on Francine's face seemed to point to the fact that Joe both knew Francine was alive, but that she was there as well.
"I want to make this right with you. There's so much that's happened, so much you don't know and that I want to tell you."
Iris was getting real tired of that, partially because of the latest Dream and Barry trying to explain his own lies. But she had spent 24 years thinking her mother was dead and now she wasn't, and not only that, had been keeping tabs on her while never making contact. It was too much. It was all too much.
"I can't do this right now. I'm sure you've been through a lot and appreciate that you suddenly feel that this is the right time for you to want me in your life, but that doesn't mean it's the right time for me."
Closing her computer, Iris started to gather her things.
"Iris..."
Shaking her head, Iris stood up.
"No. I wish you well, but we have lived separate lives for twenty years and now just....I told you. I can't do this right now." Because this just added to the things she needed to work through. Of course she didn't know where to go now, all Iris knew was she needed out of that cafe. She needed to calm down so she could talk to her dad. She needed.... God she didn't know anymore. Either way, the journalist left the cafe in search of somewhere else to go.
This was not the day she had anticipated but there wasn't much she could do about that now.