I'll Be There in a Flash

47

When I get to Picture News, I see Barry standing there chugging down milk and then kisses Linda. I feel tears stinging my eyes and I walk away not wanting him or Linda to see me. "Tori!" I hear a feminine voice call me and I turn to see Iris there. "How much of that did you see?" she asks and I wipe the tears that were rolling down my cheeks. "The part where he was chugging down milk and then kissing Linda." I say and I start to sob. Iris walks over and hugs me and I hug her tightly. "It hurts so much. I wish I never broke up with him." I say and she rubs up and down my back gently. "It'll be ok. Who knows what might happen in the future. Maybe you and Barry will get back together." Iris says and I pull away and look at her.

"Maybe your right." I say calming down and wiping the tears away.

"Come over to my dad's. I'm sure Eddie wouldn't mind me staying over at my dad's for the night to help you." Iris says and I nod with a smile.

"You should get back to work. I'll meet you at your dad's at 8." I say and she nods.

I head back to S.T.A.R. Labs and see Barry standing in the middle of the table. "Are you ok? You look like you've been crying." he says extending his hand out to touch my face, but I move my face away so he wouldn't touch me. "I'm fine." I say and I walk over to Caitlin. I didn't really listen to what the three of them said, but all I heard was that Barry would get Professor Stein. "Looking for the professor?" Cisco asks walking into the room. "Yeah, he's gone." he says and my eyes widen. "Where could he have gone?" I ask them wondering why Professor Stein would take off like that. They shrug and me and Barry head to the suit room. "Tori your gonna have to stay here." Barry says and I look at him confusingly. "No, I'm going." I say and he rolls his eyes. "Tori, please, stay here. You might have telekinesis but there's no way your powers can protect you from that blast and I don't want you to get hurt." he says and I look down and nod. Cisco and Dr. Wells were working on something.

"I found Stein. He's in the Badlands. The middle of nowhere, 30 miles outside of Central City." Caitlin says.

"Minimum safe distance." Cisco says.

"He's sacrificing himself." Dr. Wells says and I look at Caitlin.

"How much time does he have left?" Barry asks.

"Twelve minutes." Cisco replies and I see Caitlin's sad face.

Soon Dr. Wells and Cisco finish the thing they were building. "What is it?" I ask out of curiosity and wonder what it's for. "This is a quantum splicer." Dr. Wells says and I look at it. "Will it work to separate them?" Caitlin asks wondering herself. "We'll know in 12 minutes." Dr. Wells replies and I cross my arms. "Now, Barry, even you can't outrun a nuclear blast so you get this device to Professor Stein and you get out of there as fast as you can." Dr. Wells says extending the device and Caitlin grabs it. "What're you doing?" Barry asks her as she walks out of the room. "Going with you." she says and I widen my eyes at the thought. "No you're not." Barry says walking out with Cisco and I follow behind. "It's too dangerous." I say to her and she stares at us.

"Barry doesn't know how to operate the splicer." Caitlin says.

"Cisco's gonna talk me through it." Barry argues.

"There's not enough time. Let's go." Caitlin says and I look at Barry.

Dr. Wells motions for them to go and they speed off and me and Cisco head to the computers. "I find it unfair that she gets to go and not me. I mean, I know Ronnie's her fiancé, but I could've gone." I say and Cisco puts a hand on my shoulder. "The reason he doesn't want you to go is because if something happens to him out there, you're the only good metahuman the city has left to fight all these other bad metahumans." Cisco says and I look at him and nod. The computer beeps and I wonder what it is, "What is that?" Dr. Wells asks him. "Uh, com systems on the fritz. I'll be right back. Tori, do you want to help me?" Cisco asks me and I look at him confusingly. "I don't know how to fix a com system." I say but he pulls me with him. As soon as we were far from the lab Cisco looks at me "I need to tell you something. Joe said that if I needed to talk to anyone about this that it was you." he says and I nod. "Me and Joe went to Barry's old house to investigate Barry's mom's murder and we found a splatter of blood on one of the walls near the entrance. I took the blood sample and I ran it and I got the results." Cisco says and I nod.

"So, what are the results?" I ask.

"I actually was gonna call Joe, but I wanted you with me to tell him." he says and nod.

"Just a warning you might be shocked by the results." he says and I nod.

Cisco dials Joe's number and puts the phone on speaker. "Cisco." Joe says on the other line and Cisco looks at me. "I'm not proud of it but I ran the samples. One wasn't identified. The other had a match." Cisco says and I look at him. "Cisco, you're hesitating. Was it Wells?" Joe asks and I look at Cisco. "No, it's not Dr. Wells. I told you, he has nothing to do with this." Cisco says and I disagree with him entirely. "But I know whose blood it is. It's Barry's." Cisco says and I look at him confusingly. "We already know Barry was there that night, along with Tori." Joe says and I nod. "No, no, no, you don't understand. The sample had high levels of P-16, a protein that builds up in the blood as we get older. And these levels were way to high for an 11 year old. This sample was from Barry as an adult." Cisco says and I widen my eyes not believing it.

"That can't be true. He couldn't be there as an adult." I say to him and he puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Tori, calm down." Joe says and I cross my arms.

"We gotta go." Cisco says and he hangs up on Joe.

I calm down and we head back in the lab and I watch. A few minutes later, the quantum splicer was activated but time was already up. "He's not gonna make it. He's gonna blow." Cisco says and I widen my eyes. "Get out of there, Bar, get out of there, now." I say in the microphone. I need him to get out of this alive. I'd be nothing without him if he goes. "Barry?" I ask feeling tears sting my eyes. "Barry, what happened out there?" Dr. Wells asks. "Are you guys ok?" Cisco asks and my heart starts to pound in my chest. "I think so." Barry says and I sigh in relief that him and Caitlin are ok. "Oh God. The nuclear explosion. There's no telling how much radiation we're exposed to." Caitlin says.

"Wait, wait. This can't be. The Geiger counter in the suit, it's reading less than one millirad." Cisco says and I look at him confusingly. "But that's normal." Barry says and I look at the screen. "There's no radiation." Dr. Wells says and I cross my arms. "Did it work? Did you separate them?" Cisco asks and I wonder the same thing feeling the anticipation. "I don't know." Barry says and we wait to hear from them. I hear Ronnie say his name and I smile and then we hear Professor Stein say that he needs a change of clothes and we laugh. "We're coming home." Barry says and I smile, "All of us." I look over to Cisco and see his smile wide. We walk over to the elevator and we see the doors open. "Ronnie Raymond." Cisco says with a smile and I look at Barry. "Barry!" I say and run to him and hug him tightly. "You had me worried." I say pulling away and staring into his green eyes. "I'm fine." he says and I smile and wanting to kiss him, but I hold myself back.

I turn to Professor Stein and I smile, "It's nice to see you again, Professor Stein." I say and he nods. I turn to look at Caitlin, Cisco, Ronnie, and Dr. Wells and I smile. "It's nice to meet you, Ronnie." I say and he looks at me. "It's nice to meet you. Tori, right?" he asks and I nod at him. "Uh, excuse me. Are we all planning to sing "Kumbaya" next?" Professor Stein asks and we laugh. "Professor Stein, I presume?" Dr. Wells asks and I look at Professor Stein. "Harrison Wells. Do you have somewhere I can freshen up and get a change of clothes?" Professor Stein asks and I smile. "Right this way professor." Cisco says motioning the Professor to follow Dr. Wells.