I waited here at S.T.A.R. Labs anxiously for Barry to come back here. I don't know where he ran or where he is, but I had my suspicions. "I'm gonna go guys. If Barry comes back, tell him I went home." I say to them and they nod understandingly. I pick up my purse and walk over to Jitters first having the feeling that Barry would be there. When I get there my suspicions we right. I saw Barry there with Iris. Jitters was empty, closing time was soon and I walked in. "Why did you leave me?" I ask Barry from afar trying to get him away from Iris. "Tori, I told you to wait for me." he says and I roll my eyes. "I was waiting for you for god knows how long, and you never came back." I say to him. Barry looks at Iris whispering something to her and walking over to me. "Tori, I was gonna come back for you-" he starts to say, but I don't let him.
"Oh, yeah and when were you planning on doing that, Barry?" I ask him.
"I don't know. I told you I needed to run off some steam." he says and he looks back Iris whose staring at us.
Barry looks at me and grabs my hand and drags me outside. "Can you tell me what's really going on with you, now." he says and I cross my arms. "You think you can run away from this Barry, but you can't. You know inside that you're supposed to be the hero of this city, Barry, but it's like you're cramming your past into what Joe said earlier, and you're giving up to be that hero. I know that you're that hero, Barry. But do you know it?" I ask him. "I don't know." he says and I roll my eyes. "I know it's in you, you just need to find it. You've been my hero since middle school, Barry. That was a long time ago, and you're still my hero. With or without powers, you'll still be my hero." I say and he grabs my waist and kisses me. "Can we forget about this, and head back inside." he asks and I nod with a smile on my face. "So, how's the new couple doing?" Iris asks and I roll my eyes for the thousandth time today. "We're fine, Iris, we just wanna eat. That's all." I say and she nods.
*~*~
After we ate there were at least 20 empty plates on our table and I laugh. "When you said your metabolism increased due to your super speed, you weren't kidding." I whisper with a laugh. "Guess you were hungry." Iris says and I shake my head. "Don't look at me. I had one plate of food." I say and she laughs. "I'm stress eating." Barry says with a smile and a laugh and I smile back at him. Iris sat next to me and looks at Barry. Barry starts to say that he's sorry about being distant with her and I nod in agreement. "Correct." Iris says nodding at him. "Kind of a jerk." he says looking away. "Kind of? More like completely." I say taking a sip from my coffee mug and Barry glares at me while Iris gives me a smile. "What? You know it's the truth." I say and he grabs my hand and he pulls me toward him. "You should apologize more often. You're sensational at it." I say and Iris agrees and he just smiles with his lips pursed and I laugh.
"So, what were you gonna tell me the other day?" Iris asks.
"I thought I had to do something. Something I thought was important. But it turns out that I'm not very good at it." he says and I smack his arm behind the table so Iris doesn't see it.
"But what I am good at is being your friend. So, if you need help with a new topic for your article-" he soon gets interrupted by Iris.
"I found one. Something that actually interests me." she says and I look at her in confusion as she walks to the counter and I turn to Barry and see that he has a smile on his face.
"I know this is gonna sound crazy. It's been all over the internet this week." she says and me and Barry get up and walk over to her.
"At a building fire. At a bank heist. Even the other night when those robbers shot at the security guard he said he was wooshed outside." she says and continues, but I zone out looking at all the newspaper articles about Barry. I look over to him and he has the same expression as me. "I thought you were taking Journalism not Science Fiction Writing." he says and I go with his plan, even though I don't know what it is. "Ever since I have known you, you have believed in the impossible." Iris says and I look at Barry. "What if you two were right about the night your mom died, Barry?" she asks and I just look down trying to think of an excuse. Suddenly Barry's phone buzzes and I look over to him seeing that he's getting a call from S.T.A.R. Labs. Barry turns away and answers the phone, "Look, I told you. I'm through." he says angrily and I turn to Iris with wide eyes. "Sorry about him. Must be something he didn't like." I say to her backing away to Barry slowly and she nods with a concerned look on her face.
"We need to go." Barry says to me and I look at him confused.
"What do you mea-" I start to say but get interrupted by him.
"Sorry, Iris. We have to go. Tori's dad called me and says that he wants to talk to us. We'll see you tomorrow." he says grabbing my hand and pulling me out of Jitters.
Once we're outside I pull my hand away from his and look at him angrily, "What's going on, Barry?" I ask him. "Black's at S.T.A.R. Labs with Caitlin and Cisco, and we need to get there now." he says and I nod. Barry picks me up and runs all the way back to S.T.A.R. Labs and we rush through the door and up to the lab. He puts me down fast and I almost fall over, but he catches me and he stands in front of Black. "Barry, it's ok." Caitlin says and I glare at her until I notice he hasn't moved since Barry got here. "It is not ok. Black is here and he's just standing there. That's not him, is it?" he asks and I shake my head. "It's one of his replicates." Dr. Wells says and I look at the duplicate confusingly. "How did you get it?" Barry asks looking at the duplicate. "I grew him." Caitlin says and me and Barry look at her. "Your making it sound like he's a plant." I say and Caitlin nods but continues with her speech. "I isolated a sample of Black's blood from your suit to see if I could trigger the in vitro cultivation process and learn how Black multiplies." she says and I get confused with all these science words.
Barry was poking at the duplicate and I couldn't help but laugh at how funny it looked. "Why doesn't he-? It doing anything?" he says correcting himself. "We did a brain scan. Involuntary motor functions are active. Little else." Dr. Wells says and I look at him confusingly, but still get shivers up my spine. "We think it's acting as a receiver." Cisco says and that makes sense to my poor brain. "The clones are an empty shell without Black. Shut down the real Black and you might shut them all down." Caitlin says. "How do we know which one's the real Danton Black?" Barry asks and I nod in agreement. "That occurred to me given your own passing out. But Black has limits, just like you. Controlling all of those clones must require a tremendous amount of physical strength. So, look for the one showing signs of weakness or fatigue. He's the prime." she says and I look at Barry. Barry looks at the duplicate when we hear Dr. Wells' voice, "Just a theory you might want to put to the test, Mr. Allen.".
"Plus, I whipped up these high calorie protein bars for you to keep your metabolism up." Cisco says to Barry and I give him a smile.
Soon we hear a grunt and Caitlin scream and soon the duplicate was moving. Barry pushes me behind him getting ready to attack when we hear gunfire and see bullets hit the copy and we look to see Joe. "Any more of them?" he asks and I shake my head. "Nope." Caitlin says. "Why did it start moving?" Barry asks Dr. Wells with me still protected behind him. "The prime." Dr. Wells says and we all stare at the copy, dead on the floor. "My guess is the prime is on the move. This heard the summons to battle." he says. "And I know where he was summoned to." Joe says and me and Barry know what he's talking about. "Stagg Industries." he says and I was right about my predictions again. "You should call it in." Barry says to him and I smack his arm. "Police can't fight this." he says and I nod at Barry. "What Black's become, like Mardon... beyond me. Maybe way beyond them too." Joe says again. "The only person it's not beyond is-" "You." I finish Joe's sentence and everyone looks at me.
"You have to do this, Bar. You said it yourself. The police can't handle meta-humans. Only you can." I say looking into Barry's eyes.
"You gotta do this. I get it." Joe starts to say all eyes on him again. "So, for once in your life, do what I tell you to do." he finishes and I smile at that comment. Barry never did listen when it came to Joe or my dad telling him what to do. He'd just shove it away and do something else. "Go stop him." Joe says and Barry looks at me and I nod. Barry walks away and I see Joe stare at Dr. Wells with a smile. I wonder what Dr. Wells told Joe, because Joe wouldn't be like this for no reason. Barry walks up to the suit and puts it on and runs, but not before getting me. We were a few feet away from the others and he looks down at me. "I can't promise that I'm not gonna be hurt, Tori." he says to me. "That's ok. Just come back alive, for me." I say and he nods and kisses me. When we pull away he speeds off and I look at the direction he ran in and smile. "We saw that." I hear Cisco say through the intercom and I roll my eyes. "I'm friends with a bunch of nosy people. Can't I get one single private moment with my boyfriend?" I ask myself. I get my answer from everyone in the lab, "Nope.".
I walk into the lab and see everyone there staring at me, minus Dr. Wells. "You all disgust me." I say and they laugh. "Well it's about time that you two dated. Me and your father have dealt with you two staring at each other, like a monkey staring at a banana." Joe says. "Hey! I don't have that crazy look on my face when I look at Barry." I say and everyone stares me down. "I'm leaving. Tell Barry I went home." I say jokingly and Cisco stops me. "We were only joking, Tori." he says and I smile and laugh. We all stare at the monitor with the map of Stagg Industries and a monitor with Barry's vitals. "Remember, Barry. Find the prime." Caitlin says to him through the com in his ear. "There's too many of them to fight." Barry says.
"Barry, you need to isolate the prime." Dr. Wells says.
"I can't, it's impossible." Barry says and I bite my lip wishing I could help him.
"Nothing's impossible, Barry. You taught me that. You can do this." Joe says and I look at him and smile.
I get worried when he doesn't talk for a while and Joe sees my reaction. "Barry." Joe calls him on the com. "Barry, are you ok?" I ask this time. "I'm fine. I'm fine." he says and I sigh in relief. "It's done." he says again and I smile. "Black's dead." Barry says and my smile disappears and I look up at Joe. When Barry comes back I hug him tightly and he does the same. He changes really quick and comes back out and Dr. Wells turns the news on. Barry grabs my hand as we watch the news talk about Black falling to his death. I lean my head on Barry's shoulder and watch. "I tried to save him." Barry says and I put my free hand on his arm. "Doesn't sound like he wanted to be saved." Dr. Wells says. "Some people, when they break, they can't be put together again." he says and I lift my head and me and Barry look at him. "Some people heal even stronger." Barry says and I nod remembering that happened to me and Barry when we both lost our moms. We were there for each other and we healed together. "I hope so." Dr. Wells says and I can't help but feel like he has something up his sleeve.
Barry looks at me and I know that he wants to go back home. We start to walk and Barry pats Dr. Wells' shoulder. "Well, at least Multiplex won't be able to hurt anyone else." Cisco says and we all stare at him with a smile. "Told you I'd come up with a cool name." he says again and I laugh quietly. "I may be the one in the suit doing all the running, but when I'm out there helping people, making a difference, you're all out there with me." Barry says and as he says that, he looks at me and I smile. "I finally realized something." he says as he stares at me. "We were all struck by that lightning." he says looking away from me and to the others. My smile grows bigger and he looks at me again. I feel guilty that I'm keeping this secret from him and the others, but I don't trust Dr. Wells. Barry and me walk out of the lab and we go to his lab to work on some stuff. I sit on his desk watching him work and he pecks my lips and I smile.
As he sits in his chair setting the papers down I look at the board with the map and underneath was all of the stuff of Barry's mom. "Hungry?" I hear someone ask and I turn to see Joe walk up to us with three pizza boxes. "Peperoni. Olives. And jalapenos. Just like you like it." he says to Barry. "Other than me. I hate jalapenos. And I'm Latina." I say and they laugh. Barry opens the pizza box and rubs his hands and I laugh a little. "You were wrong." Joe says and we turn to him and see him at the board with the map. "I have been wrong a lot this week. You're gonna have to be more specific." Barry says and I nod. "You said that one of the things driving you to run around out there was that you couldn't help your dad." Joe says and he bends down pulling the map and revealing the stuff on Barry's mom. I look at Barry and he looks shocked that Joe found out about this. "You can help him." Joe says and I look back at him. "We can." he says to us and I smile at him. "We're gonna figure out who or what killed your mother that night. And then we're gonna get your father out of prison. Together." Joe says motioning to the three of us. "Joe, what I said to you not being my father-" Barry starts to say and look back at him in shock. Joe has been like a third father to me and Barry. That was what was so close about our relationship with me, him, and Iris. "Barry, I know. I know I'm not your father." he says putting his hands up then looking at Barry. "You're right. You're not. You're just the man who kept me safe when I would run. You were the one that would help me when I felt lost. Sounds a lot like a dad to me." Barry says and I smile tears forming in my eyes.
"You've always been like a third dad to us, Joe. And we couldn't ask for more." I say to him and he smiles and I swear I saw tears in his eyes. Joe walks over to us and sits across from Barry and they pick up a pizza and take a bite. "I'm still not eating that pizza." I say and they laugh. I look at Barry and smile and he smiles at me while eating his pizza. I know that sooner or later I have to tell Barry and the others about my power, but right now wasn't the right time. I'll tell them when the time comes, and I know that, that time was coming soon.