Summary: Patty gets dragged into one Iris West's life when she's recruited to help investigate a murder. The twist? It's Iris own murder and it hasn't happened yet. (750 word snippet)
Notes: I didn't want to post this on AO3 until I made it longer, and then I never did (or haven't yet, IDK). Set in an elseworld where Iris has nightmares of Eobard killing her in other worlds and she decides to be proactive about it. Featuring her being her usual crime junkie self and Patty matching her freak and tagging along.
Nothing explicit in this snippet, but rating is M so ya know, proceed accordingly.
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There was a stain on the hotel room ceiling shaped like Idaho. Patty hadn’t noticed it until she put her glasses back on and now, it was the only thing her scattered thoughts could focus on as she tried to catch her breath, her heart still thumping away at her chest.
They’d made quite a mess of the bed. The pillows were somewhere on the floor, and Iris had somehow ended up laying next to Patty but in the opposite direction, her head at the foot of the bed. They’d dragged the blanket back over the both of them to protect from the chill of their cooling sweat. Iris’ fingers ran up and down Patty’s inner thigh and knee, the gentle scrape of her nails sending shivers up her spine.
“That stain looks like the blood splatter in the Candace case,” said Iris, breaking the silence.
Patty almost laughed out loud, unsurprised that this was where her mind went. Of course, it would take more than a few orgasms for her… friend? Girlfriend now? Lover? to shut her mind off.
“How do you know the details of the Candace case?”
“A journalist never reveals her sources,” intoned Iris, teasingly.
Patty didn’t need to see her face to know she was smiling. Iris almost sounded carefree for once, and she wished she could bottle away the moment, because if she knew Iris, the line of her thoughts would soon dip to darker ones. The Candace case was a ‘closed room, no clues’ type, rapidly sliding towards the cold cases pile and those never failed to remind Iris of the tragedy lurking in her own future.
“I’m sorry I dragged you all the way here for nothing,” said Iris, suddenly far more serious, proving her right.
Patty closed her eyes against the wave of sorrow that washed over her. She was in deep trouble, because she usually wouldn’t follow any girl to a dingy hotel because it resembled the place of her dreams where she got murdered. Yet, she’d gone ahead and gotten infatuated with someone convinced she would be dead within the year and that meant dragging her CSI kit to the strangest places without a second thought.
“I won’t let that happen to you,” mumbled Patty.
From the other end of the bed, Iris lifted her head to stare at her, a deep frown creasing her eyebrows.
“Patty,” she said, ready to pick up the argument that had led them here.
Patty rolled further into the dip of the mattress between them, pressing herself closer. She didn’t look at Iris, but she wrapped her fingers around the closest ankle and squeeze gently to stop her. It didn’t matter how many times Patty tried to tell her that they’d find a way to stop it, that they could use the dreams to avoid the tragedy instead of running towards it, Iris never found any comfort in that.
“Whatever happens,” said Patty, a knot forming in her throat, “I won’t let you become a cold case.”
Perhaps a bold promise when Iris said her murderer would be a man who moved faster than the eye could see; but Patty was tired of arguing and she desperately needed to say something that would make her feel less helpless.
Iris stayed quiet for a long moment, before the covers were shoved aside again and she crawled back up to Patty so they were eye-level. She was smiling again, her eyes glinting with delight and her messy hair cascading over her shoulder. She was beautiful.
“That is the hottest thing you’re ever said to me,” she purred.
Patty scrunched her nose in protest and lifted a hand to brush a stray strand of hair behind Iris’ ear.
“It is not,” she huffed, “I distinctly remember saying several much hotter things a few minutes ago.”
“mmm I don’t recall,” said Iris.
She laid down fully on top of her, and tangled their legs together, her skin soft and warm. She plucked the glasses from Patty’s nose so she could lean down close, her lips brushing over Patty’s but not quite committing to the kiss.
“Why don’t you remind me,” whispered Iris.
Death could wait another day. In fact, if Patty had anything to say about it, Iris’ death would wait for many years yet, but for now she would be content with chasing all thoughts of it away from Iris’s mind. She leaned up, closed the circuit of their bodies with a deep kiss and threw a leg over Iris’ hip to roll them over and do just that.
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I'm a sucker for happy endings so of course Iris doesn't die, and they get to live long lives investigating weird crimes together. The end.
*Cracks knuckles* I DO. The past months has been super busy so I have been sitting on this ask until I could answer it properly and the time has finally come. So HERE GOES:
Their first meeting is of course, case related: Iris manages to learn that Patty the CSI on the case for a particularly high-profile quintuple murder and manages to track her down for info. In the regular/more comic canon timeline, Iris will then just keep going to Patty when Barry is not available (and then more and more as they get to know each other). In the elseworld for my snippet, Iris will be so impressed with Patty’s professionalism straight up ask Patty if she can help with a weird case without telling anyone else about it. Patty accepts to help because Iris looks genuinely stressed out about it and it’s not technically breaking any rules if the murder hasn’t happened yet.
Iris starts flirting first, and it takes a WHILE for Patty to realize what’s happening. Even after she catches on though, they stay stuck in the flirting phase for a full year because ‘oh no, what if she’s just being friendly’. Patty finally ends up being the one who actually asks Iris out and she’s very blunt about it: “Here’s the info you requested, also you’re pretty, can we please go out on a proper date?”
Once they’re finally on the same page, they get a bit competitive when flirting and try to one up each other for the small affections. For example: Patty will bring Iris her lunch one day, and the next Patty will find flowers at her desk.
They move in together within six months; Iris drives the Uhaul. Iris does NOT know how to cook, so Patty takes over in that department. Iris gently helps Patty dress more stylish/in a way that she actually likes instead of just wearing “whatever looks alright” (inspired by Briarmoon’s decision to re-design Patty’s look a little bit, because yeah let’s be honest… she can do better than whatever she’s wearing in New52).
In my elseworld snippet, Barry isn’t in the picture yet: Patty and Iris are already dating when they bump into him during their hunt for Iris’ killer. But an alternative scenario I find pretty funny would be if they’re both Bary’s exes. In the very beginning, they both use him for insider info about the best gifts to get or each other’s favorite restaurant etc. Barry helps both of them, of course so it ends up cancelling out.
Iris will text pictures of random stains to Patty to quiz her whether that’s blood or not. 9.5 times out of 10 it’s not, but sometimes it is and Patty will drop everything to go see what Iris is up to now. Patty reads every single one of Iris’ articles; and Iris will know when Patty is mad at her when she’ll read Lois Lane’s version of events instead of hers.
They both love their jobs and tend to get very busy with it, but when that happens, they’re both excellent at still taking a moment to let the other know they love her. Patty will order takeout to be delivered home for Iris, and Iris will run her a hot bath.
They go to each other’s formal work events: Iris helps Patty survive through the hell of networking, and Patty is quite good at spotting when Iris is no longer having fun and has no issue giving her an excuse to leave. “Oh I’m sorry my girlfriend is tired and I must drive her home”. (They don’t actually own a car and will walk home just to hold hands and talk for a while longer).
Later on in their dating life, they get very serious about having a “proper” date night at least once a month: being in the general periphery of superheroes teaches you that you never know when something might happen and so they make the time for each other.
They sometimes fight because Patty needs hard evidence before coming to a conclusion while Iris tends to consider all the possibilities and jump to conclusions faster. So in the elseworld AU, Iris gets irritated at Patty’s initial resistance to accept that a man with superspeed will somehow kill her, while Patty wonders why Iris is so convinced her own murder is inevitable when there is no hard evidence of anything yet. Patty does believe Iris about the danger from the very start though, and they eventually they meet somewhere in the middle. This also translates in smaller domestic disputes though: Iris tends to replace a piece of technology that no longer works very quickly while Patty will try to fix it for way too long before giving up.
Potential spoiler for my AU, but right now I’m thinking Patty’s the one who kills the Reverse Flash, a bit like Iris does at the end of Running Scared. OR another idea, is that when it becomes clear Iris is about to die, Patty manages to trick Eobard into coming after her instead – which shakes Iris into acting and either killing or maiming him. Either way, Eobard does not have a good time.
And that’s it for now! It’s a bit long sorry, but if you have any additions, I absolutely want to hear them!! Thank you for your wonderful ask.
Everyone else, please check out Briarmoon’s wonderful art and read the snippet I wrote back in December if you’re interested!!
