Author's Note: O. M. G. OMGGGGGGGG... That summary was SO amazing! I'm so proud of me :)
I have figured out my trick to writing whump. It has to be whump with a plot. It has to have actually something happen, have a relationship move foreword, whatever, because if it doesn't, I will just quit on it after a couple of pages.
So, hey! I came up with a plot. Go me :)
After Savitar's defeat, metahuman cases poured in from all sides. Julian had already been to 4 crime scenes that morning- and it was only 9:00. He arrived back at the CCPD with a stack of no less then 16 case files to go over on his desk, and no Barry Allen in sight.
Legs suddenly feeling jello-y, like they would after someone had just experienced immense relief, Julian sank into his chair. He rubbed at his head, pounding with a headache that no amount of overdosed Advil would help, and opened up the first case file.
He got through three before the words started to blur and the lead of his pencil began to wobble in diagonal lines across the page. Julian leaned back in his chair, dabbing sweat off of his forehead and shrugging off his coat. He blinked, slowly, dazedly, suddenly not able to remember what he was doing.
As soon as the haziness cleared, Julian panicked. He pulled his phone from his pocket with shaking hands and quickly texted Barry.
Could u please cover for me? Need to head home.
Of course! B right there.
Barry was, of course, "right there", and he was soon bursting through the doors to their lab, grinning as bright as the sun shining through the window.
Julian got to his feet immediately, but the motion sent a sudden rush of blood to his head. It burned with pain, skin prickling as everything began to tilt. Julian grasped for a table, or the wall or a chair or something, but every stabile object in the room seemed to had disappeared except for the floor, which was rushing up faster then he could brace himself-
Darkness consumed him.
"Can't you give him anything?"
Cisco shook his head, staring at Julian's vitals as he and Barry stood around the gurney in Caitlin's old office. "What if I mess up on the antibody proportions, or don't give him the right stuff? With the way his body is reacting right now, it could make things worse. I could kill him, Barry."
"Then we've gotta bring him to a doctor or something." Barry pressed, nervously watching the blond in the bed.
"What, and have them identify him as the newest meta in Central City? Oh, great, then General Eilling comes rushing and and runs a million tests on him, keeping him in captivity for the rest of his life!" Cisco gritted his teeth and pushed his hand through his hair. "His temperature is 108 and he's not dead. I don't think that's particularly human."
Barry puffed out a sigh, trying to remain calm and keep a clear head. "So you think he's a meta, then? Like Firestorm, maybe?"
"Yeah, but not Firestorm." Cisco glanced over his readings and frowned. "I remember running tests on Ronnie, and then on Stein when he hadn't merged in awhile. Julian's problem isn't metabolic transfusion loss- it's more like his skin cells are starting to burn up."
"That sounds pleasant." Barry muttered dryly, watching Cisco change out the ice pack on Julian's forehead.
Julian muttered under his breath and shifted on the bed again. His cheeks were a vibrant red, sweat staining his forehead and soaking though the thin sheets on top of him. He had been locked in a restless sleep for the past few hours, once Barry brought him back to STAR Labs with the hasty excuse to Singh that he was sick and would need a few days off.
Cisco and Barry hadn't gotten much done since Barry had arrived in a whirl of panicked speed lightning, with Julian limp in his arms. The two men had attached him to everything necessary to keep his status from getting worse, but there hadn't been much they could do.
"If she was here..." Cisco's voice filtered out. "We might be able to help him."
"Caitlin." Barry said softly. It wasn't a question; he knew exactly who Cisco was talking about.
Cisco nodded, the memories attached to that name still to fresh and painful to dwell on for very long.
Barry refused to be downcast however. He straightened his spine. "Then let's get her back. I can text her, right now-"
"We texted her for a whole month after she left." Cisco cut him off. "What makes you think that she's going to respond now?"
"It's Julian." Barry reminded him confidently. "She'll come back because it's Julian. If it was life or death, she'd do that for any of us."
"It just doesn't feel right, man." Sinking into a chair, Cisco rubbing at his face. "She devoted her life to helping us, never caring about herself. Then she asks us for this one thing -the chance to have some space and figure herself out- and we can't even give that to her?"
He shook his head, getting to his feet. In his opinion, the decision was already made.
By 2 AM in the morning, Julian's condition had gotten worse. His fever had risen to 109, and as Barry paced back and forth at the foot of his bed, it continued to tick up, decimal by decimal.
Barry's hands clenched and unclenched obsessively as he traded out ice packs every few minutes. They steamed upon contact with Julian's skin, heating up after an alarming amount of time. Finally, Barry had enough. He sent Julian an apologetic "Be right back" (even though Julian was unconscious and couldn't hear him. It just felt right), and flashed down the hallway toward the room where he and Cisco had switched off resting between their shifts.
"Cisco. Cisco!" Barry shook his friends shoulder, shifting anxiously as he waited for his friend to awake.
Cisco sat up quickly, bleary from recent sleep. "What's the matter?" He mumbled.
"Julian's getting worse." Barry said gravely, pulling him up. "C'mon."
They ran back down the hallway, racing into Julian's room as a frantic beeping filled the air. The previous sound of the heart monitor, the steady: beep... beep... beep... had turned into more of a: beepbeepbeepbeep.
"His temperature is at 110. We're losing him, Barry!" Cisco yelled, rushing toward his friend and starting to strip off any covering he had on, attempting to let out as much heat as possible.
Nothing worked, and Cisco whipped to Barry, face grave. "Call her. Now."
Author's Note: What an intense start, huh? I was considering only making it one long oneshot, but then I was like, no, I'll space it out over a few chapters (all are written, don't worry about incompletion. I would never post whump without previously finishing it), prevent too much binge reading :)