I'll Be There in a Flash

48

Caitlin was checking Ronnie's vitals and I see her smile bigger than I've ever seen her smile. I look over to Barry and he walks over to me. "You ok, Tori?" Barry asks and I nod. "I'm fine, Barry. Really." I lie and he looks away. I wasn't ok. Seeing my ex that I still love kissing another girl breaks my heart into a billion tiny pieces. If you asked me, on a scale from 1 to 10, how much does my heart hurt? I'd say a million. I see Professor Stein walk out of the room and walk up to Barry. "I would like it if you would take me home, Mr. Allen." he says and I look at Barry. "I'll see you later." I say and he nods. "I hope to see you again Ms. Gomez." Professor Stein says and I smile and nod. I head home and grab the carton of cookie dough ice cream and watch The Vow. How come I always do this to myself? I hear the doorbell ring and I put the carton down and answer it to see Iris there. "What're you doing here, Iris?" I ask and she walks in. "I wanted to make sure that you're ok." she says and sees the movie on and the ice cream on the coffee table. "And I see that your in pain." she says and I nod.

I sit back on the couch and grab the ice cream and take a spoonful of it. "Ok, you need to stop this, Tori. You can't just keep moping around eating ice cream and watching sad movies." Iris says grabbing the remote from the couch and turning off the TV. "Well, what if I wanna stuff my face in sorrow, because the boy I love doesn't seem to love me anymore." I say and eat another spoonful of cookie dough ice cream. "Tori, this isn't healthy for you." Iris says and I eat another spoonful of ice cream. "I don't care." I say and then she takes the ice cream from my hands. "Hey. I was eating that." I say to her as she puts the ice cream back in the freezer. "Being obsessed with Barry has gotten you depressed for who knows how long and everyone knows it, Tori." she says and I look down.

"I can't move on. Every time I look at him, I feel butterflies. But when I see him with Linda, I want to run away and cry." I say and she hugs me.

"Just relax. I'm sure you can think of something to get your mind off of him. I mean, you don't have to move on from him, but just think of something else every time your mind starts to think about Barry." she says and I pull away, smile, and nod.

*~*~

I headed to S.T.A.R. Labs because Barry texted me that it was an important meeting. When I get there Barry and Joe start to explain that adult Barry was there the night of her mother's murder with the Reverse-Flash. "Time travel." Dr. Wells starts to say and I look at him. "If the last five months have proven anything, it's that anything can exist. But actually travel through time?" Barry asks and I cross my arms. "Well, the greatest minds in human history put their collective genius towards solving that puzzle." Dr. Wells says. "So, is it possible?" Joe asks and I wonder myself. "Yes, it's possible." Dr. Wells replies and I look at Barry. "But problematic. I mean, assuming you could create the conditions necessary to take that journey, that journey would be fraught with potential pit falls. Novikov principle of self-consistency, for example-" he starts to say and I get confused. "Wait, the what now?" Joe asks and I'm happy that I'm not the only non-science person in this building right now.

"If you travel back in time to change something, then you end up being the casual factor of that event." Barry replies and I finally get it.

"Like Terminator." Cisco says and Joe nods.

"Or is time plastic? Is it mutable, whereby any changes to the continuum could create an alternate timeline?" Dr. Wells says and I look at Cisco to explain.

"Back to the Future." Cisco says and me and Joe nod.

They compliment on the movie and I roll my eyes. "So, what's the answer?" I ask and I look at Dr. Wells. "I might be a clever guy, Tori, but if you're asking me to give you a theory on how to travel through time, I'm afraid I just can't do that." Dr. Wells says and I look at Barry. Barry shrugs and I look away, "There is someone else you can talk to about this." Cisco says. "Professor Stein." I say and Cisco nods and I look at Barry. "Ok, I'm gonna go and talk to him." Barry says and I walk up to him and he knows what I mean. "Ok, you can come." he says and I nod and walk with him out of the building. Barry picks me up and I stare into his green eyes and he stares at my brown ones. We snap out of our gaze and Barry speeds us to Professor Stein's house. I ring the doorbell and Barry turns and looks at the night sky and I do the same feeling the cold hit my skin and I shiver. Barry takes his jacket off and puts it around me and I look at him and smile. "Thanks." I say as I slip my arms into the sleeves and he nods. Soon the door opens and we see Clarissa there. "Barry. Tori." she says and I smile at her and so does Barry.