Runnin' Home To You

Barry knew that he needed to talk to Alex, but he truly needed to do so. He scanned the crowd for her, which was pretty difficult since she was shorter than him, but only a few inches and let out a breath of relief when he spotted her. “Alex,” He said once he approached her. “How are you doing?”

“So we need to go to S.T.A.R. Labs and get my suit, because I need to get back out there.” Barry said as he slipped on his shoes and grabbed his light coat as he looked at his friend. “Are you up for it or am I going to do it myself?” Which he was obviously okay with doing, but it would be nice to do something with his best friend, since he just came back from the dead.

Barry didn’t know what to do, except for looking like a crazy person dressed in a blue zip-up hoodie. He walked around, hoping he could find Danny out of sea of people and stood on his tip toes before he spotted the other boy. He let out a breath, glanced around and quickly made his way to him. “Hey,” He breathed out, glanced behind his shoulder and looked over at him. “How’s it going?”

“I came as fast as I can,” Barry breathed out when he saw Black Canary, letting out a breath and glanced around, taking in the damage then looking at her. “How many people are still inside? Are there people still inside?” He glanced at the building then back at her. 

Barry was in the middle of making Mac & Cheese when he saw on the news about people getting out of Stark Towers. He turned off the stove, moved the pan and knew that he would have to reheat it once he came back, he grabbed his jacket and ran over to the scene. 

Once he arrived, he saw Roy and quickly came up to him. “How can I help?” He asked, knowing that he looked ridiculous, but he didn’t have his costume anymore.

“Not long,” he sighed, his eyes rolling up to the ceiling in search of some sort of answer. Even now it felt strange to talk about. He had died. Experienced the nothing and now, well now he had more fears than he ever thought possible. 

“She felt it snap, I guess. She used it to bring me back, it was…” he trailed off with a cold laugh, “really fucking uncomfortable. It was like the white hot branding on my soul or something. It’s hard to describe.” 

He ran a hand through his hair before he chanced a glance at Barry. 

“Well,” he lifted his hand, showing his bare ring finger, the only indication that something was wrong being the stark tan line from years of lack of exposure. It made him feel vulnerable, almost naked, but he understood. The ring had chosen another and it was probably for the best but Hal didn’t know who he was without the ring. 

Maybe that was the problem. 

“So not great. Last I heard you had hung up the suit, and I haven’t heard of the Flash saving the day lately. How are you holding up, Barry?” 

Barry listened to him talk, hopeful he would never experience that. It was bad enough he had lost him, along with his mom and dad, but he hoped that he wouldn’t feel that. The fears were enough for him a couple months ago.

“I can believe it was uncomfortable. It’s all good, I got the idea.” He reassured his friend. He saw the line, swallowed thickly and thought to gather his thoughts, well lack of thoughts to say the least.

Barry was still getting used to things. Well more like he was getting used to his new life situation. So here he was, wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, hoodie and shopping for food. He walked around the store, not knowing if anyone was looking at him. So he grabbed what he was craving, trying to keep a low profile and accidentally ran into someone, again. “My bad, Im sorry.” It took him a minute to realize it was Miguel and gave him a small smile. “Whats up?”

Barry was getting tired of staying inside and was pretty hungry, so he slipped on a zip-up hoodie and left his apartment. He put the hood on before he left the building, slipped his hands into his pockets, headed down a bit towards the Chinese place and glanced back behind him, hoping that he wasn’t being followed. He ran into someone, letting out an oof before he looked ahead and swallowed hard. “Im sorry.”

It was weird, walking around as himself again. He almost felt like a newborn deer, unsure and walking on wobbly legs. He had never felt quite as directionless as he did now but somehow his aimless wandering through the streets of New York led him directly to Barry’s door. 

He scuffed the sole of his shoe against Barry’s wood floors absentmindedly as his fingers curled around the mug Barry had all but shoved into his hands. It burned but he couldn’t find it in himself to pull away. 

“Yeah, I guess it is.” He sighed, his eyes squeezing shut as his head dipped. “Carol is back. She, uh, felt it in the heart tether. My death.” 

Barry took a sip of his tea that he had made and placed the mug back down onto the counter. “Oh.” He said when he mentioned Carol, knowing that he had long history with her. “How long has she been back? I, forgot that you guys had a heart tether. Im sure it was pretty painful, I know it was painful to hear about it. I didn’t want to believe it and then something happened about three months ago, I relived losing you again as memory, well more as a fear that came true but.” He paused, not knowing to say. “How are you handling everything, though?”

Perhaps it was a cliche horror movie when a hand shot out of the dirt of the grave. Then another hand before clawing through the loose dirt. The woman’s face finally rose and let out a loud, sharp gasp as if it was the first breath she had ever taken. Slowly and surely she dragged herself across the ground before she safely collapsed to the ground as she gasped for air. This felt wrong. It felt like she shouldn’t be here and yet here she was. Slowly standing up, she stumbled out of the cemetery and anyone would see her would have quite the fright. This woman looked mad and head to toe in dirt. She stumbled to a nearby parked car and looked at herself. Who even was she? Hearing footsteps, she slowly stood up straight but her gaze was like she was in a dream. Was any of it real? Should she even be here?

Barry was taking a stroll, getting out and getting fresh air helped him in many ways more than one. He slowed down when he noticed someone covered in dirt, furrowed his brows. “Hey...” He said softly as he looked at them. “Can I help you out somehow? Are you okay? I mean, obviously, you’re not okay since you’re covered in dirt.”