Here's my little story for Fantasygirl1329 for the 2017 Fanfiction Christmas Spectacular! I will admit it, my idea started really big in my head and kept on getting bigger and bigger. Seriously, I really could've written 6 to 10 chapters of that size instead of two, so I really struggled to keep this as short as possible to meet the deadline of Jan. 15th. I really wanted to put more of Singh and add lot more of Barry's POV, but I couldn't manage to do it in the amount of time I had. I hope you guys still enjoy it, especially you Fantasygirl1329. Despite the result, I can promise there's a lot of sweat and efforts in this :)

Posting the second (and final) part next wednesday. Enjoy!

Absently playing with his pencil between his fingers, Barry couldn't be less interested about the Meta human conference that was about to get started. After being on a sabbatical for 6 months, as far as Singh knew, his boss wanted him to go get a little refresher class on genetic characteristics specific to the people who were changed by the famous explosion. If only his boss knew just how much time he's been spending chasing down these people outside of his official work time, he probably wasn't going to learn a single thing today during that training course. What was taking so long for the conference to start anyway? The room that got rented in the Central City Conference Center was filled with almost fifty people, all sitting behind many long tables placed one behind the other.

Looking down at his watch with annoyance for the 10th time in a row in the last couple of minutes, Barry started unconsciously wishing that there was any criminal activity going on right now. Not that he wanted something bad to happen to anyone or have some honest citizen getting robbed, the hero just needed to excuse to take a quick bathroom pause and get out there. He needed to stretch his legs.

What was the famous idiom? Be careful what you wish for? A phrase Barry should've remembered…

When the wrinkled scientist stepped on the stage, he wasn't alone, it was with a tall man, at least 6'4 tall, harshly pushing him behind. The scientist's dread for his own life was more than obvious and it instantly had everyone's anxiety rising up to the roof. There was no blaming the crowd for their fear since the vast majority of the men and women in the room were civilian scientists, people with no fighting training whatsoever. Some of them tried reaching out for their phone, but got stopped as the man on the stage loudly cleared his throat.

''Unless you don't mind having the floor and the ceiling around you get evaporated and come crashing down on you all, I suggest you restrain yourself from calling the cops. '' He threatened, pressing whatever he had, probably a gun, against his hostage.

So, not rest for the fighters apparently. Once he made a quick scan around to make sure nobody was looking at him, Barry took off running. Not that he really needed to look around, why would anyone be checking him out with was happening on the stage? In a matter of seconds, Barry managed to go get his suit and run the stage, taking control. Under the quick punch that connected with his jaw, the criminal got quickly sent on the ground while his scientist hostage was already running away to safety.

''You guys truly didn't hear about me coming back?'' Taunted Flash, rising the tall man back on his feet.

''Oh no, we were expecting you. Not this fast, but we were counting on you to show up.'' Instantly said the man, a smirk on his face.

Wait, did he just say we?

''If you try anything, Flash, I have someone waiting in the backstage who's ready to do some pretty bad damages in there. You wouldn't want anyone to get hurt, wouldn't you? ''

Barry's clenched his teeth together, there just had to be a way out of this without hurting anyone.

***FLASHFLASHFLASH***

It was with a pit in his stomach of unknown origin that Joe walked inside the police precinct. Something was wrong, really wrong; he could feel it in his gusts. Except, Joe couldn't put his fingers on what exactly was making him feel that way. Before even entering the building, he had already called his daughter to make sure she was ok considering that the last time he had this feel it was when her appendix busted. But, it couldn't be it since she confirmed everything was fine and that she was relaxing alone at home. So, what else?

The instant he put a foot out of the elevator, his feeling that something bad was happening somewhere got confirmed as uniforms were running everywhere, arming and preparing themselves before rushing toward the exit door.

''Captain!' He called out, almost grabbing his boss as Singh, dressed in his bulletproof vest and completely armed, was practically sprinting toward the exist with the rest of his men.. ''What's going on?''

''There was an explosion at the Central City Convention Center.'' Let out Singh without introduction, there was no time for that, nor need as Joe suddenly became pale as a ghost.

''But, that's where Barry is-''

''I know, I'm sorry. We'll bring him back.''

His foster son was not a random citizen; he was The Flash. He was a superhero with incredible abilities and with Superspeed, and yet, it didn't stop the man to worry and greyed his hair every time Barry was standing in the middle of danger. Especially at this instant as his worry was mixed with his earlier feeling.

''Please Barr, please be ok.'' He whispered to himself while running to join the task force already on their way the bombing site. A sentence he kept on repeating as his fingernails were digging in his car wheel all the way to the site after he failed at contacting the young man many times. Nobody was picking their damn, not Barry and not his friends and team at S.T.A.R.

Slamming the brakes, the second Joe's car made it in front of the smoking building, the Detective's dread rose even higher at the sight of the East Wing of the Convention Center. Understatement of the year to say that it was in bad shape; partly collapsed, a fire crackling in the air and people still running out of the building, helped by the firefighters already on the scene. Joe just stood there frozen, strongly gripping his car's open door to stay up as he was watching everyone moving and running in all directions. With each second, his stomach dropped a bit more as he couldn't find a single sign of a yellow lightning that should be there, that should be zapping people out of that place.

''I wasn't able to contact Allen.'' Said a voice to his right; Singh. The anxiety and worry were clear in every word.

''Me neither.'' Said Joe with shaking lips.

If that wasn't enough, the next thing that stole Joe's attention made his knees bend; right at the exit door he spotted a familiar black, yellow and red jacket being half-dragged out of the place.

'Cisco' He breathed out, his body rushing into action and covering half the distance before his mind could comprehend he was moving again. By the time he made it to the young superhero, the fireman that took him out had already given him over to one of the groups of paramedics. The health professionals wasted no time in quickly taking over and seating the semi-conscious, but harsly coughing man on a gurney. The left sleeve was in bad shape, cut all over, and the yellow section was tainted by lots of still flowing blood while the hero himself seemed unfocused and mildly struggling to breath. Cisco's head was hanging low, looking down, and his right hand was pressing tightly against his wounded arm.

''I'll take over.'' Stated Joe, stabilizing his voice and lips while showing his badge to the paramedics. ''Detective West, I'm with the CCPD.''

His voice had the young man instantly rising his head up, his tensed and tightly closed lips opening and twitching into a smile for just a second before tensing up again in obvious discomfort.

''Sir-'' Intervened the paramedic, ''-you cannot interrogate this man at the moment. We need to take care of the wounds and he might have a concu-''

''I'm good, I'm goin-arg.'' Jumping to his feet and off the gurney, the metahuman's body protested when his feet touched the ground and he drunkenly stumbled for a second, staying stable thanks to the Detective rushing by his side.

''I'll take him to the hospital myself.'' Promised Joe, putting a quick end to the conversation by sharply turning around and almost sending the hero off balance in the process.

''Is Barry...?''

Joe almost felt bad to rush to that question first without even checking or asking if the engineer had any real bad injuries, other than his arm or his coughing fit, but he needed to ask.

The way Cisco deliberately made sure to look toward the ground instead of toward his interlocutor had Joe fearing for the worst.

''He's...he was taken.''

Taken? What? It sure beats death by explosion or being buried under rubbles, but taken? By whom? Where?

''I'm sorry...I tri...tr...tried...to stop...stop them.'' Added Cisco, leaning a bit more heavily against the older man with each step, his eyes going unfocused. He wasn't going to be much of help for now.

''Stay with me, I'm taking you to Caitlin.'' Added Joe, grunting under the man's weight and slowly dragging him toward his car that he left with the driver's door wide open. Explanations will need to wait for later; they couldn't afford to lose two superheroes the same day.

''Ba...B...barry.'' Mumbled Cisco, fighting to stay conscious.

A/N: Leave a comment, they're always deeply appreciated.

See you again next Wednesday. Next chapter will be mostly from Joe's POV.

And if you're not following my twitter, I posted a new posting schedule for January; Message in a Bottle is coming back next Friday with regular weekly updates and Long Way Home is going to come back on the following Friday (Jan. 19th) !