I'll Be There in a Flash

70

Me and Caitlin walk out of the examination room and I walk next to Barry and grab his hand. "What did you find out?" Barry asks me. "I have the same powers as the gorilla." I say and he widens his eyes. "The only difference is that we suspect Tori to have a force field ability that Grodd probably doesn't have." Caitlin says and Cisco nods. "Well, that'll be useful." Barry says and I nod in agreement. "I do not like the fact that Wells rescued Grodd. I don't think it's a coincidence that this gorilla shows up at the same time we're looking for Wells." Joe says and I nod. "Grodd and Wells did have a special bond." Caitlin says. "It wouldn't surprise me if Wells was using Grodd to distract us. If we find Grodd, we find Wells. If we find Wells-", "We find Eddie" Iris says interrupting her dad as she walks in.

"And I'm gonna help." Iris says and I look at Barry.

"Know anything about gorillas?" Caitlin asks.

"I just might." Iris says with a smile and I smile at her.

She walks over to the computer and starts to type in something. "There have been reports of some sort of animal down in the sewers." Iris says. "Mm. Alligators..." Cisco says and we all look at him. "C.H.U.D.'s... R.O.U.S.'s. Am I the only one who watches movies around here?" he asks and I roll my eyes. "Uh, a few months ago, two sewer workers went missing. The search party reported hearing strange, animal-like, noises down in the tunnels." Iris says. "Where exactly did they go missing?" Barry asks her. "Uh, Fifth Avenue and 10 Street." Iris says. "There's an access point to the sewers about two blocks east of that intersection." Cisco says typing on the computer. "We'll start there." Barry says and I furrow my eyebrows at him. "I'm not walking through sewer water. It's disgusting." I say and Barry just looks at me.

"I'm going along with you." Joe says.

"I'm with Tori. Wading through miles of rats, roaches, and human excrement? Count me out." Cisco says and Barry and Joe stares at the two of us.

"Count me in." Cisco says disappointedly.

"I'm not going no matter what you tell me." I say and Barry sighs and nods.

"Just be careful down there." I say again and he nods and kisses me on the lips.

*~*~

Me, Caitlin, and Iris were sitting on the chairs watching the camera on Cisco's helmet. "Cisco, take the rest of these flares, light them, drop them as we go. It's our path back." Joe says to him. "Give me that banana." he says to Cisco again and I smile and shake my head laughing quietly. Then Joe, Cisco, and Barry walk through the sewer while Cisco lights flares and drops them. I look back at Iris and smile at her sincerely. "I'm sorry for lying to you, Iris. Me and Barry both are. We feel really awful about it." I say to her. "You both should. You both were my best friends and you lied to me." she says and I look down. "I'll try and make it up to you, I promise." I say to her and she looks over to Caitlin. "You lied too. About your fiancé." Iris says and I look at Caitlin. "Ronnie. Yes. Uh, I thought he died in the particle accelerator explosion, but it turns out he just caught on fire." Caitlin says and Iris looks at her. "But he's ok?" Iris asks her and she Caitlin nods. "Yeah, he is." Caitlin says to her.

We watch the guys again and see Cisco drop a flare in the dirty mucky water. "To be totally honest, I did not know my boyfriend could handle a gun, considering he's a CSI. It's kind of hot." I say and Caitlin and Iris laugh. "Now you know how I feel." Iris says and I laugh. Then Cisco looks at something on the wall and we see writing on there that says Grodd. "Somebody wanna tell me what we're looking at here?" Joe asks. "Grodd. He's evolving. He's getting smarter." Barry says and I widen my eyes and see all the writing on the wall. "Getting smarter. Great." Joe says as they walk. Then there was a growling sound and Cisco quickly turns. "If I hadn't seen Jurassic Park, I wouldn't be nearly as frightened right now." Cisco says and then there were stomps echoing through the sewer and another growl. The guys look around and I could feel my heart racing in my chest. "So if he's getting smarter, you think he might be getting bigger too?" Joe asks.

There was a louder growl and a rumble and me and the girls just watch the monitor worriedly for all three of the guys. "That must've been a truck passing over, right?" Joe asks. Another growl comes from the tunnel and the helmet on Cisco's head falls. "Cisco?" Caitlin asks in worry and I do too. "Barry?" I ask as I see him fire a tranquilizer dart. I hear Barry scream and I widen my eyes and start to worry and I see Barry being thrown back. "Barry!" I say and we see Joe fire bullets at Grodd. "We gotta get out of here." Joe says as he shoots bullets. "Barry's out cold." Cisco says and I put my hands over my mouth. Then we see Joe get picked up and he screams and I swear if my eyes could be widened more, they would pop out of my head. "Joe." Cisco yells and I look over to Iris. "Dad." she says and I put my hand on her shoulder knowing she didn't need this. Loosing both Eddie and Joe must be heart wrenching for her.

*~*~

Soon Cisco comes back with Barry awake and I hug him tightly. I pull away and kiss him and he pulls back, "Are you ok?" I ask him and he nods. "Iris, I'm sorry about Joe." Cisco says and I look over to her and see her sad reaction. Cisco walks Barry over the chair in the examination room and Caitlin hooks Barry up to the brain scanner and starts to examine it. I grab Barry's hand and we look at the scan. "You're experiencing a spike of activity in your primary motor cortex. It's the same thing we saw in Eiling. The images you saw were some kind of psychic attack by Grodd." Caitlin says. "First Eddie gets taken by the Man in Yellow, and now my dad-" Iris says and I put my hand on her shoulder. "Listen, we're gonna save both of them. We promise." I say to her. "Hold on, I put a tracker in the tranq dart you shot at Grodd with. As soon as it activates-" Cisco was interrupted by Barry.

"No, Cisco. We can't wait for that. I will search every inch of that sewer if I have to." Barry says.

"Me too." I say.

"And what happens if you guys find them? What happens if Grodd takes over your guys' mind the same way he did with Eiling?" Caitlin asks.

"He can't get in my mind. I'm telepathic too. He's not the only one." I say.

"Can you guys build me something? Some kind of tech so he can't get into my head?" Barry asks.

Cisco scoffs and looks down, "I don't know. Maybe if Dr. Wells were here." Cisco says to him and Barry looks away and I grab his hand. "I don't understand." Iris starts to say and we turn to her. "Everyday you guys figure out a way to help people. All of the Flash's and Hummingbird's powers and all this equipment and you can't save Eddie and my dad?" Iris says and she walks away. "We'll figure something out." Caitlin says and we nod. We try to catch up to Iris. "Iris." Barry calls her. "I can't get that sound out of my head. My dad screaming. Why did he insist on going down there with you? He's always preaching about being safe but not once does he think about running into danger himself." she says.

"Iris-" I start to say but she interrupts me.

"No, Tori. He's just a regular cop. He's not some metahuman with super powers. He's not you guys." Iris says.

"You're right, he's not us. And this isn't his fault. None of this is his fault. Look, yes, maybe Joe told me not to tell you that I was the Flash and that Tori was Hummingbird, but we didn't have to listen. We could've told you. A hundred times we could've told you, and we didn't." Barry says and I nod. "Yes, we should've, so you're right to be mad. But don't be mad at your dad. Be mad at us." I say to her and I see tears form in her eyes and I prepare for the worst. "Ok, explain to me how the people I thought I knew better than anyone have been keeping secrets from me. Big life-changing secrets. You guys were supposed to be my best friends." she says angrily. "We are you best friends." Barry says to her and I nod. "How can you say that when the most important things in your life, the things that matter the most, the things you're supposed to share, you both kept that all of them from me? You both lied to me about everything." she says and tears sting my eyes.

"We know, Iris. We know. If you don't want to be friends anymore, then we understand. We gotta go check on Caitlin and Cisco." Barry says grabbing my hand and we walk away.

We walk into the Cortex and Caitlin and Cisco look at us. "If you both wanna go out for a minute, we won't stop you." Caitlin says and I look over to Barry. "Milkshake break?" Barry asks me and I nod. "Milkshake break." I repeat and Barry grabs my waist and we speed out. We head to an ice cream place that serves shakes and we sit at the booth. I got vanilla and Barry got strawberry. "Are you ok, Tori?" Barry asks me and I shrug. "It hurts to know that Iris is pissed at us. I just wish we'd told her sooner." I say and Barry nods. "I know." he says and we take sips of our shakes.