Author's note: I wrote over 90% of it in late July/early August after seeing the first season 5 trailer where we see Barry coming out of the water with his season 1 suit. My imagination went wild with all sort of scenarios that could lead to this, but the closer we got to the premiere, the less my little draft was making sense. That's why I kept it hidden for a long, long time and almost chose to delete it, but I decided to give it a chance.

Consider that an ''inspired by'' story and not a ''speculation'' story. Hope you'll enjoy it.

''Guys where is he? I can't see him,'' frantically called Nora, panic rising fast as her rapid breathing could clearly be heard by everyone in the cortex.

Moving up and down the river shore, Nora's feet were barely touching the ground as she was scanning the agitated water for any sign of her father. She couldn't lose him, and it wasn't just because she would be erased out of existence if he was to die before her conception, which was already a big downside; the speedster didn't want to imagine losing him again after never meeting the hero in the first place while growing up.

''The suit's sensors are malfunctioning, I can't pinpoint his location at the moment. What's going on out there?'' Loudly asked Cisco

"Barry got stabbed and fell in the river!" Shouted Nora, alarmed, "it wasn't supposed to happen," she stuttered through her panic shaking lips at the team in the laboratory.

It didn't happen the first time around, or at least she didn't remember stories of it happening against that particular Meta. Was all of this because of her? Or was she going into a frenzy for nothing since that was already part of the original timeline?

"By whom?" Asked Cisco's voice.

By who? Who cared? By their meta with the black mask of course! Nora felt frustration rising inside of her and mixing with her concerns, but her still working rational part of her brain reminded her to try and not bite everyone's head off. It was a valid question, but it would be a way better question after they had ensured Barry was going to be alright.

"His powers might have messed up with the suit," she theorized to her new friends before stopping an instant, after running at the top of the bridge to scan the water, desperately searching for any resurfacing form.

"What are you talking about? Where's Barry?" Confusedly inquired Caitlin, apprehension all over her every word.

"He fell off the bridge and into the water after getting stabbed. I can't find him," swiftly resumed Nora just before she heard Cisco's voice calling out to his best friend and urging him to answer.

"I already tried it-," she quickly added, a tad annoyed. All of this wasn't helping, " we need to find him now, he might be unconscious and he might drown,"

"Calm down, Nora, we're coming," assured Cisco before moving away from the mic and speaking words, that the young speedster couldn't quite understand, to someone else.

"Screw that!" Suddenly shouted Nora's voice

The young speedster didn't hear, nor cared, about what got screamed in her ears as she plunged into the cold water and opened her mouth in shock of the sizeable thermic difference. Damn, while this wasn't the hottest day, that water was freezing!

Fighting her way back to the surface, not even remembering falling entirely under in the first place, Nora kicked her legs hard in the water. As she was approaching to the surface, she didn't do it without taking a good as possible look around in desperate search of her father.

Nothing. Maybe the current had taken the Flash away. Maybe Barry had sunken to the bottom. Or, perhaps, he was really close but she couldn't see him because her vision was being too obscured by all sand of the river's bottom moving around. Under these circumstances, it was near impossible for the young lady speedster to see very far around.

Gasping for air as she broke through the surface, Nora's eyes darted around while kicking harder and throwing her arm forward, struggling, as the current was threatening to take her away too. Refusing to let herself fall under the grasp of the elements, the young woman increased her effort to stay above the water and cursed under her breath, swearing at her own stupidity. Why couldn't she think before acting? Her mom used to tell her stories about how her dad used to do the same thing when he was around her age and this little thought was something that made her smile, even in her situation. Except, that reflection wasn't going to help her, nor Barry for that matter.

What pushed her to jump into the water in the first place? She could run on water if she had enough speed gathered before making contact with the cold liquid, but, right now, she had nothing solid to put her feet on to get her motion started. At this very moment, she was just as useless and powerless as anyone else. Her earpiece was filled with incomprehensible voices and statics as she swam against the current.

"N..'ra? ..d...c'py? XS, can you hear us?"

It was Cisco's voice, she was sure of it. Fighting the water, the young West-Allen mentally debated her next action for a few moments 'til her comms finally managed to register a full sentence;

"We spotted him; he's east of the bridge. Where are you?"

Her heart clenched in her chest for a second thanks to a weird mixture of emotions; relief, anguish, guilt...

Vibe had Barry in his sight, which was great, but was he alive? Nora couldn't deny how mad she was at herself for managing to be utterly useless in the rescue operation as her impulsivity led her to make more mistakes. Like she hadn't accomplished enough of these already in 2018.

Fighting against the water, the young woman redirected herself toward the shore. Finally finding a calm enough spot of the river where she wasn't in any more danger of being taken away, Barry and Iris' daughter rose her right hand to her earpiece and said, breathless; "I'm ok, on my way."

***FLASHFLASHFLASH***

Moments earlier:

When Cisco landed on the river's side, alongside the Elongated Man, he didn't lose a second to scrutinize his surrounding and the agitated water in search of his best friend and the newest addition to their team.

"Nora, where are you? Did you find him?" He asked, pressing his earpiece.

Static was the only answer he got.

"Nora? Are you there?"

Nothing, again. Both Cisco and Ralph looked at each other with the same thought in their mind; were they going to need to rescue two members of the West-Allen family on the same mission?

"Ralph, go east and search the river and shore for Barry, I'll do the same going west," instructed the engineer to his friend.

"What about...?"

"Let's locate Barry first," said Cisco before heading in the opposite direction while activating his comm again; "Nora? Do you copy?...XS, can you hear me?"

Sighing as silence was all he got, again, Cisco carefully examined the river, looking for anything, any clue, of his friend's whereabouts. The sight of a red figure slowly making his way to the shore, only a couple of feet away from him, was the most beautiful thing Cisco had ever seen.

Whatever he said to his comms to inform his friends of his finding left his memory the instant he said the words as he was too busy opening a breach and jumping in it. Reappearing on the other side of it, he was just in time to see Barry, on all fours, dragging himself out of the water.

"Hey man," he said, slowly kneeling to be by his friend's level who acted like he didn't even see Vibe.

Instead, the hero jumped on his feet with one swift moment and started looking around, disoriented and exhausted.

Cisco's brow furrowed.

"Barry? You ok?" He asked, getting up. Of course, he wasn't ok, Nora just said he got stabbed! Except, there wasn't any hole in the suit that Cisco could see right now, at least not in the front of the suit.

''Nora-'' whispered Barry for a second before his knees buckled down and gravity claimed his heavy body that started failing forward, only to get stopped by his best friend awkwardly catching him.

''She's ok, you'll be ok too.'' answered back Vibe, fighting his own anxiety, as he lowered his best friend body to the ground before reaching out for his comms, "I got him, going to the lab now!"

A/N: What do you guys think? Comments are really, really appreciated.

I used to have a bit more for that, but I'm not sure I'll write it. Also, remember that this is 100% me, I didn't use a Beta for this as I didn't think I would put it online.