Chapter Text
"I get to have my own desk?" Allegra asked with wide eyes that looked back and forth between her boss and the nice piece of furniture.
Iris couldn't control her wide smile. She was so proud to be able to offer her new employee what she herself had never received back at Central City Picture News.
Not having a desk for two years had been such a depressing experience for Iris. She'd been on an intern's salary while she'd been producing the same amount of work as junior reporters, and secretly finishing the work of a Pulitzer Prize journalist: her mentor Mason Bridge, who'd mysteriously gone missing. His case would've never been solved without Iris.
Identifying her mentor's murderer had been her self-appointed mission, and after half a year of investigating on her own dime, her hard-earned work had been rewarded with none other than an Investigative Journalism Pulitzer Prize. She was only the second one hailing from Central City holding the award, and the only one alive.
The piece that had made her nationally famous had been an expose on Eobard Thawne, the wealthiest entrepreneur in the state at the time. The man had been acclaimed as a philanthropist for decades, and if she hadn't found her mentor's coded notes about him Iris herself would've been fooled by Thawne's charisma.
In reality, Thawne had been the most dangerous criminal in Central City, having a hand in most of the organized crimes and owning a huge share of the black market. He'd had dirty cops on his payroll, had secretly owned multiple businesses to launder his dirty money, and had been responsible for record crime rates for nearly a decade by instigating violence between local gangs.
Saying that Iris hadn't rested until justice had been served to that imposter was an understatement. She'd literally broken the law to get the evidence needed to nail that murderer, and had only gotten away with it because the only law enforcers who'd caught her in the act had been her parents and boyfriend of the time.
A boyfriend who'd broken up with her a few days before she'd been able to prove that his very own uncle was a monster.
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"There's been three parties in this relationship: you, me, and your obsession for my uncle! I'm sick and tired of defending you to my mom! You're just a junior journalist, yet you act like you're the next Pulitzer Prize going after someone high profile!"
"Mason was a Pulitzer Prize, did you know that? He was a brilliant and committed investigative journalist who died in the middle of an investigation. It's my duty as his colleague to finish what he started. All the senior journalists are busy with their own stories!"
"No, it's not your duty! You're working off the clock! We haven't had a date in weeks..."
"Mason's family hasn't seen him for eight months, and they will never see him again! They deserve answers and closure!"
"What about my family, huh, Iris? They welcomed you with open arms, and now my mom's on anti-depressant because you're on this mission to ruin her brother's reputation!"
"Either he's guilty and he deserves to be seen for who he really is, or he's innocent, in which case I would've ruined my own reputation, just like Eobard himself claim will happen."
"Well, I won't be there to support you when that happens. You've gone too far, Iris. My uncle is a respected member of our society because he worked his ass off to make enough money to help those our government is too overwhelmed to serve. And you're breaking the law left and right just to pin the murder of your lousy boss on him? Bridge probably got shot by some petty thug from District Three, because he got too nosy!"
"Too nosy? Is that what you think of me too? That I'm just some nosy chick? I've helped CCPD solve crimes long before you transferred here, you newbie! Who helped you and dad arrest Bellows and his guys, huh?"
"That was the one time, and you didn't break any law to provide us the evidence we needed!"
"Because Bellows' a dumb dirty cop who didn't know how to cover his tracks! Eobard Thawne is the mastermind behind at least fifty percent of this city's organized crime! If playing by the book could get him behind bars, he'd never even have attended your high school graduation...Oh, wait, he didn't anyway! Because he was probably burying or drowning someone! He didn't even bother with Mason, just dumped his body in some dark alley like he was trash!"
"I didn't know that you were capable of so much hatred and pettiness, Iris West. When we met, I thought that you were an angel come to remind me that I could still find peace and happiness amidst all the crime and violence I face on a daily basis because of my job..."
"Eddie, we've been dating for five months, officially just three months because my dad doesn't approve of our relationship. Don't act like you were about to propose in the middle of breaking up with me. That's so cheap."
"I was going to propose last month, before I found out that you were on a witch hunt for my uncle! I'm serious, Iris, I was gonna...but you would've said no, right? Guess I dodged the bullet."
"Good for you...Mason wasn't that lucky."
"Bye Iris. Take your time to pick up all your stuff. Text me or email me when you're ready to drop the key..."
"Eddie...Eddie I'm so sorry. I like you, I do, but I can't let my feelings for you get in the way of doing what's right!"
"That's the thing, Iris: you're not even doing the right thing. You're doing whatever will get you recognition because you've been underappreciated and underpaid for too long. You could've just found a better job..."
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That had been the worst break-up ever. Usually Iris wished her exes well, and she never avoided them when she saw them walk on the same street. But she'd refused to see Eddie at the hospital when he got shot during a face off with some gang. Even Iris' dad, who was a police officer and Eddie's partner, had begged her to go see him. Funny how he liked the guy now that she wasn't dating him anymore.
Iris couldn't forgive the way Eddie had doubted her until the moment his uncle confessed in a video he'd recorded before supposedly jumping off the Gardner Bridge. That showed that, just like Iris' dad, Eddie had never taken her seriously as a journalist. It didn't even hurt, because he wasn't the first boyfriend to claim that she was the sun shining light on his life with her beauty and kind heart, yet who in the next breath would belittle her career—a career she'd chosen after her dad prevented her from joining the police, she must add. Joe West wasn't happy that his daughter had found another dangerous way to deal with criminals. Poor him.
Iris had actually taken Eddie's recommendation to heart, and had quit CCPN. Technically, she'd been fired, but her Pulitzer Prize had ironically changed that part of the story. It had been five months since she'd become her own boss, and she was finally able to hire a new employee after being in the red ever since she'd opened her own newspaper.
Now that her professional and financial lives were in order, Iris was ready to get back in the dating scene, though she was opting for something casual at first. Her other employee and good friend, Kamilla Hwang, was having the time of her life hanging out with some rich I.T. guy that she forbade Iris to call her sugar daddy because he was only a week older than her.
Iris wanted the same kind of easy fun. She knew that she wouldn't have time to commit to anything serious for a while. Work had to come first, because by looking into Thawne's criminal activity she'd learned about his criminal rivals, who now must be celebrating that he was out of their ways. There seemed to be a trinity of powerful ones, because Iris had seen those three names not only highlighted in Thawne's own files, but also in Mason's notes, who had them listed right next to 'Reverse Flash', the supposed codename for Eobard Thawne. Those three big bads were 'the Chemist, 'Savitar', and 'Black Flash'.
Iris would expose them all, starting with those three.
"So, what crime are we exposing this week?" Allegra asked, her tone too enthusiastic for the words she'd just spoken.
"At the Citizen we don't just focus on the evil pervading our city, Miss Garcia," the founder and chief editor of the Central City Citizen informed the newbie. "In fact, today we're focusing on the bright future of our community."
"Meaning?" The younger woman questioned, a skeptical frown splitting the space between her eyebrows.
"You'll see when we get there," Iris answered cryptically. "Kamilla's already on site."
As expected, Allegra wasn't too thrilled to go around Central City University's largest plaza and ask questions to college students coming from all over the state about their most brilliant science project at the annual science fair.
As professional as she tried to be, Iris couldn't help lingering at her younger brother's stand. Wally West was basically a genius, so he knew his stuff, but he wasn't that good with public speaking. Iris had helped him rehearse his presentation and she knew that he was still nervous about getting all the major points of his low-cost, energy-efficient engine, mostly built with Central City's top three unrecyclable materials.
Just like she'd feared, Wally forgot to sell the environmental component of his project, so she made him say it when he allowed his audience to ask questions.
At first Iris was surprised by the wide-eyed look that her brother gave her when she happily clapped along with the rest of the crowd, but then she realized that he was looking past her shoulder. Maybe one of his professors had been watching? Iris was glad that she'd been there to nudge him in the right direction, then!
When the crowd rushed to catch someone else's presentation, Iris almost sprained an ankle trying to keep her balance against the current of people. Thankfully a large hand gently gripped her upper arm to stabilize her.
"Thanks," she said as she turned around to face her savior.
She couldn't even tell what about him struck her first: his smile? The auburn highlight of his chestnut hair? The fraternal twin freckles sitting a few inches under each eye, or the freckles on his neck peaking out of the collar of his dress shirt? His cheekbones?
No, it had to be the eyes behind those nerdy glasses—nerdy as in 'cute and sexy at the same time'.
It's not just that those eyes were a gorgeous shade of green, but they reflected so many layers of emotions, chiefs among them curiosity and passion.
"You're okay?" the young man half-whispered, and even his voice was multi-layered: there was concern in it, for sure, but amusement too, and again that curiosity.
"Yeah," the journalist managed to utter, and she'd actually been a cheerleader in high school so she straightened up very easily and flashed him her best smile.
A smile that faltered when she saw his pupils dilate behind his glasses, and Iris almost awwed at the way his cheeks went a little pink.
"Then you're very welcome," he replied, his voice actually half an octave lower, almost seductive, rather than higher in shyness. "Pardon me."
He walked past her to approach Wally, who was still looking shell-shocked...Because of that handsome stranger? Iris refrained from getting closer herself to hear what the two of them talked about, but she saw the stranger hand out his card to her baby brother.
Oh, a recruiter? Wow, that was amazing! Well done, Wally!
"Brilliant invention, isn't it?" The journalist couldn't help engaging the man as he walked away, well actually he walked back towards her. "Especially the environmental aspect of it. Pollution is such a huge problem for a big city like ours. I've seen a landfill site before, and I feel guilty every time I throw away any container that's not recyclable. If I learned to cook, maybe I'd do better by—anyway, yeah, great idea, building an engine with trash!"
If the handsome man hadn't chuckled in good fun at her admission that she couldn't cook to save her life, s he would've been mortified at the way she'd embarrassed herself so quickly in front of someone she might see again through her brother.
"Indeed, that was very insightful of your boyfriend," he confirmed. "Many of the projects here are environmentally-friendly, but Wally's engine is the only one that seemed tailored to our city. It must have taken a lot of research for him to make all the components fit the criteria of an efficient generator."
Iris was nodding along until she belatedly processed the word 'boyfriend.'
"Oh, no no no, Wally's not my boyfriend!" She said almost too loudly, drawing her brother's attention even as he chatted with a classmate who'd come to check out his project because of the lighter traffic in this corner of the plaza.
"Ah, apologies," the recruiter said, not looking or sounding one bit sorry. Quite the contrary, he was fighting a smile as he glanced at Wally, then tilted his head in reflection. "Best friend then? You sounded quite knowledgeable about his project, but you don't seem to be presenting yourself so I ruled out classmate...Oh! You have the same forehead. How silly of me! You're his sister."
Iris was actually impressed that he'd figured it out. Wally perfectly took after both of their parents, but somehow Iris looked exactly like her great-grand-aunt...especially her diminutive height. All the other members of the West family were taller than average height, and Iris was stuck with wearing heels for the rest of her life in order not to look like the one odd out in family pictures.
"Are you an inventor too?" Handsome stranger inquired with some excitement. "By the way, I must thank you for prompting Wally to elaborate on the components of his engine, I might have missed the genius of his idea."
"Ah, no, I'm a journalist," Iris corrected his assumption, bringing her hand down a bit too sharply when she realized that she was playing with her hair.
Calm down, West, she thought to herself. Just because you're single and searching doesn't mean that he is too.
"A food critic, I hope?" The recruiter chanced, to Iris' confusion.
"So that my invitation to dinner at the new Japanese restaurant on Infantino won't sound too forward," he added with a sheepish smile while rubbing the back of his neck, the freckles on his cheeks almost fading away because of the deep blush that painted them.
How could someone be so bashful and bold at the same time? Iris couldn't help teasing him.
"A food critic who can't cook?" She asked with equal part skepticism and amusement.
"Well, yeah, why would food critics bother learning how to cook?" The recruiter actually argued. "They literally get paid to eat out. Pretty sweet life, if you ask me."
They both laughed at his somehow valid point.
Iris was completely charmed. That handsome stranger sounded like a lot of fun to be around...And fun was exactly what she needed to get back into the dating scene.
"I do happen to be an amateur critic of Japanese cuisine, so technically I could indeed write a short feature about the dining experience. Let's do it, then?" She smoothly agreed to his invitatation with a casual tilt of her head, taking advantage of that angle to peer at him from under her lashes.
She knew that her eyes were one of her best physical assets...that was polite to stare at. And stared, the handsome stranger did. Oh, by the way, what was his name?
"And what day would work for you..." He coincidentally prompted her to reveal her name first as he proffered another business card.
"Iris," she let him know as she read his name. "And tomorrow would suit me perfectly, otherwise this weekend sounds great too...Bar—Bartholomew."
"Oh, please, call me Barry!" He corrected her with a laughter that didn't reach his eyes.
Yeah, she'd be embarrassed too if she was called Bartholomew Henry Allen. Goodness, what had his parents been thinking? Not that Iris' parents could claim to being any better. They named their son Wallace Rudolph West. Iris was very grateful for her own short yet memorable name, and yes it was a pretty one. Iris, the name of the Greek goddess of the rainbow, whom the multi-color family of flowers was named after. Or Iris, the colorful part of the eye, so it was just as poetic.
A short chime resonated, and Barry took out his cellphone from his pants pocket. His eyes went blank as he checked the number calling.
"My boss," he announced with a small smile that suddenly went brighter. "Who will hopefully be Wally's mentor this summer, right? I do hope that your brother will apply to our internship program."
Right, right! Iris eyed Wally, whose eyes were throwing daggers at her. Huh?
"I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow, Iris," Barry added as he kept his boss waiting, and oh, the way he said her name...
His tongue had rolled around it so carefully, as if it held power that wasn't to be played with. Iris liked that.
"I'll make reservations, then. Please don't stand me up!" He requested cheerfully as he walked backwards, and Iris opened her mouth to tell him to watch out, but she was relieved that she didn't need to: without looking, he stepped aside to avoid colliding with a group of distracted students.
He turned around after waving at her with the hand holding his phone, which he subsequently placed against his ear to finally pick up the phone call.
"Were you seriously flirting with him?" Wally questioned over Iris' shoulder.
She rolled her eyes at his disapproving pout.
"Please stand him up," her baby brother demanded as he crossed his arms over his chest. "He's too good for you! He shouldn't waste his time with someone who can't keep up with his genius."
"Says the boy who needed my help to showcase his own genius!" Iris reminded him with righteous outrage.
Iris loved her brother, but he was just like her dad: he looked down on journalism. His reason for it was that non-scientists reporting on scientific research always got the main points wrong or so dumbed down that it didn't even educate the readers. Ergo, all journalists were stupid. Iris aced all her science classes just fine! She just didn't find it exciting to spend her days solving equations and risk bodily harm via caustic products or sharp tools.
"I'm just a genius in mechanical engineering," Wally argue with what sounded like sincere modesty, "but Doctor Barry Allen? He should be on scientific magazines' covers next to Mr. Ramon. He's not just the CFO of Ramon Industries, he's also one of the heads of the research and development department. He's got such a well-rounded scientific education that he can talk about all of his colleagues' projects in depth, but they can't do the same even though he specialized in biochemistry, which is admittedly too boringly abstract to be hyper about."
"Ramon Industry?" Iris repeated, dumbfounded, before she looked back down at the card, and yes that was their logo. The full company name wasn't even written on the piece of paper, but of course there was no need for it. Barry must have different business cards, though, because while this one did say 'Ph.D.', it claimed that Barry was the 'Community Outreach Coordinator' of the Innovative Scholars Program. Which was still a big deal, because it was Ramon Industries.
The multi-billionaire company. The pride of the city, founded and run by locals only, who not only employed twenty percent of the population, but signed huge paychecks to any legit organization who asked for funding. The guys who were in a legal battle with the state to get the monopoly of the District Three real estate so that out of state companies couldn't do as they please when the inevitable day came for the area to be gentrified. The main sponsor of the science fair happening right now.
Iris had just accepted to go on a date with its CFO?
"Holy shit," Iris whispered as she started looking around for Kamilla.
Hopefully her friend had enough experience now to share a few tips on how to casually date a rich and high IQ guy.