"Barry Allen don't you dare!" Iris could already hear Caitlin telling off her best friend and knew, before she even stepped into the lab, that Barry wouldn't listen.

Iris was panicking just a little and picked up the pace as she made her way into the main room at S.T.A.R. Labs where she was greeted by the sight of two thoroughly exasperated scientist and one amused Cisco.

"Oh my God, Barry what happened? Cisco said you're blind again? Are you okay?" The reporter quickly made her way to the superhero that was sitting in his sweats on the hospital cot and held his face in her hands so she could inspect his eyes for herself; despite the fact that she had no idea what she was looking for.

"Yeah I'm okay, it was an accident in the lab it's not even that bad but Caitlin won't let me leave even though we have a new meta human on our hands."

Having known Barry for most of her life Iris knew that Barry had a habit of talking with his hands when he was particularly riled up about something and had to duck out of the way of his blind flailing. Though apparently Dr Snow had this habit as well because she stared gesturing wildly at some of the scans on the monitors.

"Barry you are blind! You're going to need at least eight hours for your sight to return and we don't even know what this new meta human can do yet, you're not going to run in literally blind. I'm calling Oliver and Felicity and you are not leaving that bed!"

The woman stormed off while Barry huffed grumpily on the cot.

"Dude I'm with Caitlin on this. Just hang out in the lab and we can have the Arrow team come hang out with us for a bit. Oliver can take care of the meta and you can just chill till your fully healed."

Iris was about to agree with Cisco when Barry started to shake his head and jumped off the bed.

"I'm fine, I don't need Oliver doing my work for me. I'm perfectly capable of doing this on my own."

Despite his reassurances the scarlet speedster lasted less than a second as he raced through the lab. Iris assumed he was aiming for his Flash suit but the loud bang and groan turned her towards the wall beside the suit where Barry was laying on the floor clutching his head.

"Barry! What the hell man? Caitlin!" Cisco and Iris ran over to their friend and got him off the floor, leading him back to bed and Caitlin came storming back in.

"What did I say about staying in that bed?" The doctor checked the speedster over as he sulked but found no further injuries to the poor idiots head.

"I know this sucks Barry but it won't even last a full day and you'll get to see….. have the Arrow team around again."

Barry said nothing as he twiddled his fingers in his lap, the bruise on his forehead already disappearing.

Dr Snow sighed and put a hand on his shoulder. "Look, I'll call Oliver and get them to come down and Joe said he'll be coming once he finishes up work at the station so we can get pizza's and order some Chinese food or something and just catch up with everybody okay? How's that sound?"

Flash nodded sullenly, still bummed out about being benched from superhero duty, and lay down on the bed.

"Wait, Oliver Queen is the Arrow?" Cisco looked to Iris and winced at the secret they had all accidently let out.

"We didn't tell you that? Oliver isn't going to be happy." Barry let out a small smile at Iris' excitement however and that made it sort of worth it.

….

Iris had gone to greet their team Arrow guests at the door and brought them back to the lab to find Barry sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor.

"Hey Bar, whatcha doin?" The kid looked up to where Felicity's voice was coming from and gave a little pathetic wave.

"I'm blind again and I was supposed to hold onto the rail but I let go for a second and then I couldn't find it and so I'm kind of lost. I don't know where I am. But it's nice to have you guys here again."

Iris laughed at the sight of her best friend sitting like a child on the floor, but only a little laugh because he was blind.

Taking his hand and helping him up she led him back to the railing and waited till he had a firm grip before letting go. While Barry was greeting everyone Felicity started talking to Iris.

"So how did he get like this again?"

"Dr Light briefly escaped from the pipeline and did her light thing but he'll be fine it shouldn't last longer than today."

"Oh right, and I'm guessing he's not very happy with it?"

"Not at all. He tried getting his Flash suit and smacked into the wall so he's been banned from super speed until it's over."

Felicity laughed and watched as Barry talked to the air rather than people's faces.

"He's such a lovable dummy."

"Yeah, but he's our lovable dummy."