Struck by Lightning

by alpha087

Hayley Parker is Hydra's answer to Captain America. When the plane goes down, she gets frozen as well. Found and woken 4 years before Cap, she spends two years at SHIELD before being sent off to "rehabilitate". Instead, Hayley finds herself in Starling City as the newest member of Team Arrow. When she moves to Central City, she meets Barry Allen and realizes that once you're struck

22. Midnight Phone Calls

Barry lay in the dark for two hours before realizing sleep wasn't coming. He sat up in bed and grabbed his phone from the stand beside him, and hit Hayley's number.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Hayes," Barry greeted. "I know it's early, but can we talk?"

"Sure?" Her voice was rough with sleep, and Barry felt a bit guilty for waking her up. "What's up?"

"I couldn't sleep," he said.

"You're upset about today," Hayley guessed.

Barry nodded, then realized that she couldn't see him. "Yeah. I would have killed Eddie if Oliver hadn't shown up."

"Not necessarily," Hayley said. "And what happened wasn't your fault. You were affected by the meta."

"But it was still me, I still did it," Barry insisted. "I could do it again. He didn't change what was inside of me. What if next time Oliver isn't there to stop me?"

"Barry, you are the least likely person to kill anyone that I've ever met," Hayley told him. "And a meta making all the anger come to the surface all at once does not make you a murderer."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know you," she said. "And I know what it takes to kill someone. Trust me, Barry, you aren't a murderer."

Barry winced, remembering his harsh words earlier. "Neither are you."

Hayley laughed. "Thanks Barry, but my hands are permanently stained in red."

"Hayes, you know that what I said earlier, when I yelled at you..."

"I promise I'm not going to kill you, Barry."

"No, no, I know," he said quickly. "I know you'd never hurt me, Hayes. I just wanted to say again that I'm really sorry and I didn't mean it."

"I know that, Barry."

"Well, I just wanted to make sure because you didn't really say anything about it earlier and I don't want you to think that I really think... that about you, because I don't," Barry paused to breathe, then continued in a quieter voice. "I think you're pretty amazing, actually." Hayley was quiet. "Hayley? Are you still there?"

"I think you're pretty amazing, too, Sonic," she answered.

Barry's face warmed and he was suddenly glad he wasn't around Hayley at that moment. "Thanks, Hayes."

"You should get some sleep," Hayley said. "We both still have work in the morning."

"Right," Barry said, glancing at the clock. It was nearly 1:30. "I'll see you tomorrow, then. Good night, Hayley."

"Good night, Barry."