A/N: Hi everyone! This is my first fanfiction ever published, and before anyone gets their underwear in a bundle, yes, I am aware that Season Two of the Flash is long past. However, I was looking through my Notes app on my phone to see which of the multiple oneshots I have written to publish, and this one just seemed to scream "Pick me! Pick me!" So I did. It takes place at the very end of season two episode 14 and continues on into episode 15 (Escape From Earth-Two and King Shark, respectively). Please enjoy!

Reality

Part One

Caitlin Snow couldn't have been more excited then she was right now.

The Flash–or Barry, she should say–had burst through the speed cannon with Cisco and an unfamiliar, brown haired girl (who honestly could use a shower, Caitlin thought) not a second ago, and Jay was already reaching behind her to grab the explosive that would close the breach for good.

Caitlin couldn't help but smile.

The joy she was feeling soon turned to worry, however, when the biochemist realized that Harry had never been returned to this world. When she realized that Barry had already gone back to Earth 2 and had yet to reappear. When Cisco started yelling, "Get ready to close the breach for good; Zoom's coming!"

No, she wasn't overjoyed anymore. She was frightened.

Frightened for Barry. For what he might be facing on the other side of that ever folding, blue portal in the middle of their basement. Scared for Wells, and for the reason he hadn't shown up. Sympathetic for the young girl who had just been rescued from Zoom and now might lose her father to the very same man she had just escaped from.

And as the seconds that showed no signs of Barry or Harry agonizingly ticked by, she became terrified.

Everyone else knew it was taking to long, too. Caitlin could see the apprehensive posture that Joe had taken, just waiting for something, anything, to happen. The way Cisco had pointedly shared the obvious thought on everyone's mind, shouting "They shouldn't be taking this long!" just to be heard over the roaring that was filling the room. The way that Jay kept twitching his hands in preparation to hurl the detonation device into the breach, and the way that he looked back towards her in quick, sharp glances to either confirm that she was still existing here, on this Earth, or to be absolutely positive that she was out of danger.

That sweet Jay, she briefly thought. Caitlin adored him. She had finally, finally, found the right guy after Ronnie's demise. Which had, unsurprisingly, taken a very long time to get over. Yet, Jay made loving be so... easy again. He made feeling emotions and sharing thoughts carefree and enjoyable again. No one had been able to do that so easily. Well, no one alive that is. Ronnie didn't count as alive anymore.

Suddenly, the portal flashed a brilliant blue, and the Flash-ever the hero- sprinted out holding Harrison Wells by the shoulders. Now, all that was left to do was close it before Zoom came rushing through and left an even greater path of destruction then before. But as Caitlin glanced over at Jay, she thought she glimpsed... hesitation, in his movements. Why hadn't he thrown the bomb in yet? Was he waiting for a signal to verify that everyone was present and accounted for?

If he had been, he soon got it, as Barry yelled, "Close it! Close it, now!"

That was just what Jay did. The whole room watched as he chucked the bomb into the breach, and it started fluctuating faster and more complex then any other had done when they were shut. Wasn't it just supposed to go... poof? Be gone forever within a snap of a finger? Oh well. It was probably different because of its size.

Caitlin wasn't feeling anxious or frightened anymore. Oh no, now she was proud.

Her team had done it. The had overcome the laws of physics, and even logic itself, to find portals, doorways, hallways even, to other worlds where the laws and customs and people were the same, but different. It honestly sounded like one of the science fiction shows that Barry had told her he liked to watch as a kid growing up in Joe's house. Truthfully, her life sounded like a science fiction show at some points.

Overcome with joy and pride, Caitlin stepped off of the platform to touch Barry's shoulder in a comforting manner. She watched as Jay not-to-cautiously walked up to the breach and, after checking it out for a nanosecond or two, turned around to face the group with a huge grin on his face.

"You did it. You made it!" was all that she could manage to say to Barry as he caught his breath and stood staring at Jay and the portal. He gave her a quick, reassuring smirk before turning around to hug his foster father.

Caitlin couldn't stand to be serious anymore. A ginormous grin split her face as she started her way towards Jay, watching as a smile just as big as her's lit up his face and he slowly started stepping off the platform. She nonchalantly shrugged at him, as if they hadn't just defeated their worst nemesis forever, but had casually eaten an entire Big Belly Burger extra-large combo with a huge fry just for the fun of it instead. Believe her, they had done it a few times when being a superhero's support team had gotten rough. She would always remember this moment as the time that they had finally triumphed over evil, and it hadn't taken a race or a final battle to do it. Yes indeed, she would truly remember this for the rest of her life.

But the moments after that would be ingrained in her brain for eternity.

Jay's smiling face turned to anguish and mild surprise, and for a half of a second, Caitlin couldn't figure out what in the world was wrong. Then she saw the vibrating, black, leather-clad hand sticking out of his chest, right where his heart was, and all she could manage to think about in her confused state was, "No! Not him too!"

Her features frozen in a perfect picture of panic and disbelief, all she could do was helplessly stand by as Zoom stopped the vibrating of his appendage, locked it inside Jay's body, and took away the only thing left on this world that was keeping her sane and happy. The breach closed with a snap, and Caitlin Snow was left all alone.

"Nooooo!" She cried out, desperately, somehow hoping that this was a dream. That she would wake up to reality in a few moments and find her phone with Jay's number and call it. That he would answer her pleading tones with his soft gentle ones, and reassure her that everything was going to be alright, no matter what time of the morning it was. That everything was the same as it had been the night before when she had fallen asleep, and that it was just her out of control imagination going wild again from to many late nights in the lab.

But the reality that she wanted never came.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed!