I wake up in the morning to complete and utter silence. No sounds of wooshing around the room, or a gust of wind blowing through my hair. Instead, I feel an arm wrapped around my waist tightly and my back pressed up against Barry's chest. I turn to face a sleeping Barry and I smile at how cute he looked with his bed head. I feel his other arm go under me and he pulls me in closer making me laugh. "Ok, ok. I get it." I say to him wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him. He suddenly flips us over so he's on top and I was underneath him as his knees touch my thighs making me smile. I push on his chest making him pull away before anything else could happen. "Ok, you and I gotta get to work before we get killed." I tell him, but he just whines. "Can't we just stay here for a bit longer?" he asks me pulling me in for another kiss that was much more intense than the first. I felt my blood heat up inside of me while we kissed, but I pushed him away again. "No, Barry. As much as I want to, we can't." I tell him and he groans and flops onto the other side of the bed. I sit up on the bed and look at him with a smile on my lips as I wrap my legs around him and lean down. "But that doesn't mean that we can't have fun later on." I tell him and he smiles at my words and wraps his arms around me. "I like the sound of that." he says and he kisses me again. "How about date night tomorrow?" he asks me and I smile at him. "I'd like that." I say to him as I get up and head to the shower with him watching me.
*~*~
I was in S.T.A.R. Labs with Barry, Caitlin, and Jay in the Cortex leaning on the table as I watched Barry type on the computer. "Harry's starting to get on my nerves." Cisco says walking into the Cortex. "The silent alarm just went off at the Bank of Central City." Caitlin says and I look at her screen. "That's gotta be Dr. Light, right?" I ask looking at Barry and he nods. "Could be a trap." Cisco says as Barry and I walk over to the suit room to change. "Maybe. Maybe not." I say to him with a shrug. "Trust me, Dr. Light is not a killer. You can talk to her." Jay tells Barry and I and we both nod. We change into our suits and Barry speeds us to the bank. When we get there, we see Dr. Light looking around the room for the money. "Looking for this?" Barry asks leaning on the stack of cash. "I know Zoom sent you here to kill me and probably her. Good news. You don't have to do that." Barry tells her. "Not if I can get out of town with that cash." she says to us. "And then what? Zoom's not gonna like that you ditched him, right? We can help you." I tell her. "Nobody can protect me from Zoom." she says and her hands light up bright, blinding me making me look away. "Alright. Why don't we take it down a lumen, have a normal conversation, alright?" Barry says and she turns her light off and lifts her mask.
I widen my eyes to see the person I had been jealous of before. "Linda? Linda Park?" I ask in surprise as she stares back at Barry and I. "How do you know my name?" she asks us in shock as her eyes widen. "I don't understand." Barry says trying to talk to her. "This was a mistake." Linda says and she lifts her hands, but Barry pushes me out of the way making me fall to the ground as a bright light shines through the whole room. I close my eyes tightly and cover them with my hands to block the light from blinding me. I hear Barry groan in pain and I open my eyes to see the light gone. I stand up quickly and look around for Linda only to see that she had escaped. "Barry, Tori, what's happening?" Caitlin asks as I kneel in front of Barry so he can look at me, but his eyes shifted everywhere instead of looking at mine. "I can't see. Guys, I can't see." he says and I widen my eyes at him. "What?" I hear Caitlin say in the com and I press the com in my ear. "I think Linda blinded him with her powers. We'll be back at S.T.A.R. Labs soon. Hopefully." I say and I look back at Barry. "I really wish I brought my bike now." I say helping Barry up and grabbing his hand. "Well, you're lucky I upgraded the bike. On your belt, I put a button on the buckle. Push it and your bike should lock on to your location and drive itself there with no problems." Cisco says and I push the button.
"How did you do that?" I ask him as Barry and I walk outside carefully.
"A lot of science terms you wouldn't understand." he replies.
"Understandable." I say as my bike appears in front of me and I get on it then help Barry on it and we speed off.
*~*~
After Caitlin had checked on him last night, she wanted a closer check up today. So, Barry and I headed over to S.T.A.R. Labs in the morning to get a check up making me miss my rehearsal time with Jake and Barry had to ask for the day off. "I still can't see." Barry says as I lean on the door frame and watch Caitlin shine a red light in his eyes. "How long is this gonna last?" Barry asks her as he rubs his eyes. "You're suffering from solar retinopathy. Your retinas are severely damaged. You're lucky you're not permanently blind." Caitlin tells him. "But with your rapid regeneration abilities, your sight should return soon. "6.25 hours, by my estimation. All this could have been avoided if you just stopped Light instead of chit-chatting with her." Wells says and I roll my eyes. "She caught them off guard." Jay says and I walk over to Barry grabbing his hand and he tries to look for me. "Always an excuse with you, right? He's the fastest man alive. How could she possibly do that?" Wells asks.
"Because Light looks exactly like his ex-girlfriend. Linda Park." I respond and both Wells and Jay look at me confusingly.
"I thought you were his one and only?" Wells asks.
"We took a break. Long story. Don't ask. She's a good friend of ours now." I explain.
"That's why Zoom sent her. Because he knew you both would hesitate." Wells says.
"Well, that means Zoom had to have known, somehow, that Linda was your ex?" Cisco says to Barry and I just wanted to scream out to everyone to stop saying ex.
"Which is why Barry has to act now, before Zoom sends another double from Barry's life." Wells says.
"Alright. Right now, I'm more worried about Linda. When we saw who was under the mask, Tori said her name." Barry says.
"What if Light didn't even realize that she had a doppelganger here until I accidentally told her?" I ask.
"The first thing Atom Smasher did when he crossed the breach was to kill his doppelganger." Cisco says.
"Yeah, but Light's not like Atom Smasher." Jay says.
"We should keep an eye on your Linda." Wells says and I sigh at the mention of her name again.
It's not that I don't like Linda, me and her actually became good friends on one girls night out with Iris for mani pedis and a movie. "Alright. I'll go." Barry says getting up and bumping into Caitlin. He apologizes to Caitlin and walks off letting go of my hand. "Barry." I call him and turns back to me while bumping into the door frame. "Ok. You can't do anything until your sight comes back." I say grabbing his hand, but he starts to resist. "I'll go talk to Linda, ok?" I tell him, but he holds onto me. "No, Tori. I'll do it. Barry seems to need you more." Jay says. "I'll go with you." Caitlin says walking with Jay and I nod. Soon Iris walks in since I had texted her about Barry's sight, but then looks at Wells. "You look just like him." Iris says and Wells looks at us. "I'm guessing my counterpart did something to offend her as well?" Wells asks. "Her fiancé died because of him." Cisco says and I nod as I walk over to Iris. "Ok, Iris, I know it's weird seeing him. Trust me, I'm still in shock from seeing him." I tell her as we walk over to Barry. "Yeah. It's just a lot to process lately. Well, my mother..." she says as she starts to pace and I stand next to Barry.
"How are you doing with that, by the way?" Barry asks her trying to face her.
"I mean now that she's gone, ok." Iris says as Barry turns to face her and rubs his eyes.
"Iris, you can talk to us about it, or only me if you don't wanna face Barry." I tell her and she chuckles.
"Yeah, I know, but... But really, I'm fine. I should be asking how your boyfriend is doing." she says.
"He's doing ok. But I guess date night's off." I say looking at Barry.
"I totally forgot about that. I'm sorry, Tori." Barry says.
"It's ok. You're blind at the moment. It's totally understandable."
"No, Tori. I don't want to cancel it."
"Yeah, well, going out blind isn't gonna help you out in this case. We can just order take out and eat at home. I'm fine with that."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, Barry. I'm sure. Your health is more important to me than going out on a date."
He smiles at me and I laugh and shake my head. "You two are so cute together." Iris says and my mind clicks reminding me that she was there. "Thanks. I think it's time to get home now." I say grabbing Barry's hand. "Bye, Iris." I say as I wave at her and she returns the wave as Barry and I walk out.
*~*~
Barry and I were sitting in the living room eating our take out Italian food watching, or listening in Barry's perspective, Toy Story. "Ok, I think you made the right call in staying in for the night." Barry says and I look at him and chuckle. "Uh, duh? I'm not gonna let you trip over yourself in public." I say putting my pasta down on the coffee table and taking a sip of my Dr. Pepper. "Are you able to see yet?" I ask him as he puts his pasta own on the coffee table. "No." he says grabbing the back of my neck and pulling me in. "I'm not buying that." I say with a chuckle and he does the same, then he kisses me. He pushes me down on the couch and his hand going up my shirt and grabbing my hip. But before things could go any further, our phones buzzed and I groaned in annoyance. Barry pulls away from me and we sit up grabbing our phones to see that it was Cisco saying that Dr. Light went after Linda at Picture News. I look at Barry with furrowed brows, then I quickly stand up, grab my black leather coat, slip on my converse and Barry speeds us to Picture News.
When we get there, I dash ahead of Barry to see Iris and Linda. "Hey, Linda. I heard what happened. Are you ok?" I ask her putting a hand on her arm and she nods. "A little shaken. I mean, the woman looked exactly like me, and had powers." she says and I frown at her as I see paramedics put the editor's dead body in a body bag. I suddenly see Patty walking in and she takes Linda for questioning while Barry does his CSI stuff. "Dr. Light came to kill Linda, didn't she?" I ask Iris telepathically as I look at a frightened Linda. "Yeah. She said she wanted everyone out except for Linda. Our now ex-boss , Larkin, and I stayed behind, and when he was going to argue with her, she shot him with an energy of light through his heart." she explains. I watched as Linda blamed herself for her boss' death. "Linda, none of this is your fault. We're gonna figure it all out. I promise." Joe tells her and she nods. "How you doing?" Barry asks her as he walks up next to me. "I'm alive. Thanks to Iris. Turns out she's as badass with a gun as she is with a pen." Linda says and I give a smile. "Yeah, she is." I say as Iris extends a hand out to touch Linda's hand. "I'm just happy that you're safe." Iris tells her and Linda nods.
"I've arranged a security detail. Round the clock, just to be sure." Joe tells Linda.
"I can take you to them, if you're ready." Patty says and Linda nods then they both walk out.
"This is because of me. We should've been here." Barry says and I shake my head at him.
"Don't blame yourself for this. You were blind. There was nothing you could've done. Plus we never got an alert about it by Caitlin and Jay. I'm sure if they knew, they would've called." I tell him putting my hand on his cheek as he stares at Dr. Light's mask in his hands.
"You think this mask can help us find that woman?" Joe asks.
"Any evidence on this is just gonna match Linda. I'll think of something else. Light's not gonna kill again." Barry says as he grabs my hand and we walk out.