Chapter 1: Saving Friends
A/N: I am putting Supergirl and those characters in the same dimension as Barry and Oliver. Just because my plans for this story include them too, and they must be in the same universe for this to work. I will also be including other DC Characters but those come later. I am putting this under the Justice League category just because I feel that it will fit better there, but if anyone has any suggestions on that, let me know. As always read, enjoy, and review, preferably in that order. I have not forgotten about my other stories, I just can't figure out where to go from there. I am in desperate need of a beta. Volunteers are welcome to PM me at any time. As always, I own nothing, DC does, I'm just playing with these awesome characters. Hopefully, the characters are not too off. I know more about comicbook personalities than the show, but hopefully I know enough to where they're not too OOC. If they are let me know, and I'll try to fix them. Also, I did modify the stories so don't expect everything to have happened exactly according to the episodes. Thank you.
He didn't know which one was worse, locking a friend up or hearing her false accusations of betrayal. He's sure that there's a place reserved in hell for people like him. Heartless, that's what he is, he's sure of it. After hearing the cell doors shut, he buries his face in his hands and allows himself to fall back against the wall and slide onto the metal floor. These past few months have been nearly impossible to deal with.
"Barry?" The quiet, understanding voice of the woman he loves, causes him to look up.
Her face shows off her exhaustion, her hair is in disarray. After all this, it came down to one day, one horrible but good day. Iris is safe, injured, her arm is in a sling and splinted, and she'll need physical therapy to move on, due to Savatar's sword cutting tendons in her shoulder and snapping her forearm in half, but she's okay. Iris is not the reason why he'll be going rotting in hell. He turns back toward the door to the cell he shoved his best friend inside. Trying to tell himself that it's for her own good, does little to satisfy his revolted stomach.
He just shakes his head and resumes studying the floor. He can't comfort Iris right now, he knows how that sounds, but he just has nothing left to give.
"Barry?" Her hand on his shoulder and close voice causes him jump. He looks at her and when she reaches up to his eyes with her finger, it's only then that he realizes that he's been crying.
"Barry, it's okay. We got her. We'll help her." Iris says finally, after realizing that Barry's not going to say anything.
Barry just gives a idle nod. His head feels more like a bobble head than his head. He just doesn't know what to do anymore. He should be happy, some part of him insists that's the mood he should be in right now. Celebrating. Savatar's back in the speed-force. It's a good day, but in retaliation, Caitlyn killed ten people. People he wasn't fast enough to save. The entire CCPD knows who she is now. They'll come for her. Their entire lives have been changed and he doesn't know if Caitlyn will ever recover from what she did when they get her back and she still has her memories.
"All those people I couldn't save." He chokes out, searching her eyes, desperately trying to find some sort of solace.
"You're not a bad person, it's not your fault."
Somehow, he thinks those two ideas are not co-dependent, that they can exist independently of each other, but her voice makes him hope. He grabs the fingers of her injured hand, careful of her injury. She must be in pain. Looking from their fingers to her eyes, he suddenly sees the pain buried deep inside them.
"What are you doing up?" He asks.
If Iris cared about the change in subject she doesn't say anything about it.
"I wanted to come check on you. I know you've been working hard." Iris says, finally allowing herself to sit beside him on the floor.
Nodding, "Yes, but so have all of us." When another thought comes to mind, "How's Julian?"
"He's recovering. You got to him in time. He'll have to deal with the flu and the lingering effects of pneumonia but he's alive."
For some reason, he feels great that Julian is alive, but upset that he couldn't save anyone else. Ten people die and as the fastest man alive, he can only save one. Wally and Jesse were both occupied with keeping Savatar occupied and saving Iris. He wasn't even able to save the woman he loved. He couldn't, his time remnant would have seen every move he did before he did it. Him trying to save her would have guaranteed her death, that's a thought that he doesn't think he'll ever get over.
"Barry, talk to me, please?" She asks, her eyes filing with unshed tears as well.
He wishes that they'd fall so he could wipe them away, offer her some small comfort that he couldn't do when he couldn't save her.
"I couldn't save you. If I tried, you would be dead."
"Barry, I'm not dead. You saved me." Her voice is comforting, but he can't believe it. "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you. Savatar may have looked like you, but he wasn't you."
Barry smiles despite himself and lets his head hang low, "You know me so well, don't you?"
"That story I told you about when you were a little boy and I held you as you cried, wasn't just a story that happened. I know you, Barry, and I'm there for you. I always will be. Savatar wasn't you. I'm safe now because of you." Iris says using her other hand to reach over and grip his arm.
He squeezes the fingers peeking out of the cast. "Where do we go from here?"
"We just take it one day at a time. My death isn't foreseen by the future now, we can do what we want. We can start to plan our wedding."
Despite himself, Barry finds himself smiling at the prospect of marriage. It's something that was placed at the back of everyone's minds and partly forgotten, even by him. He's ashamed to admit that, but it's true. He's allowed Savatar to take over his life, control it. Now that Savatar is gone, his life can get back to normal, whatever that means.
"I think we should rejoin the others." Iris says, she makes no move to leave, though.
Barry looks at her and when he sees the pain reflected in her eyes, he realizes that she probably can't get up by herself without jostling her freshly broken arm. He remembers now, that she came to him, when she should have been resting and recovering. After standing up, he gently puts his arms around her and gets her to her feet.
When they got to the medical room, Barry sat her down on the nearest bed. He sends a quick and wary glance over his shoulder at the unconscious person occupying the far bed. Iris sighs, "He'll be fine, Barry."
"I know, it's just…"
Iris sympathizes with the feeling. She knows how hard it must be for Barry, being the Flash and being unable to help your friends when they need it, but he has to know that he did everything he could.
Barry prepares a painkiller, hooking her back up to an IV and gently guiding her to lay back on the white sterile sheets. After attaching the IV, they share a moment.
"I wasn't fast enough, Iris." He mutters.
She places a hand on his arm, effectively stopping him from whatever it is that he's doing. She's sure that he was just shuffling things around to keep himself occupied. It wasn't working and it was actually annoying, just a little.
"Barry, you did fine. We're all safe. You did the best you could, but even you can't save everyone."
Barry nods, "Thank you, Iris." He says after a moment of introspection.
She just smiles, but due to the painkillers that she's thankful to be reattached to, she starts to yawn and her eyes grow heavier.
He watches as her eyelids droop and she forces them back up only to have them droop again. This time, it's his turn to place a hand on her arm, "Go to sleep, Iris, I'll be here when you wake up."
Giving an imperceptible nod, she allows herself to drift off to oblivion.
Barry stares down at the love of his life. Hating how her arm is in a sling and a cast and the pain that she's in. If only he could share his healing abilities with her. It's with these thoughts in mind that he walks out to the main computer hub, staring as his friends work tirelessly to build power dampeners for Caitlyn.
"Any luck?" He asks.
Cisco and Harry shake their heads. Harry and Jesse came over from their respective earths to aid in the task of trapping Savatar in the speed-force.
"Okay, well, is there any progress on a cure?"
"No, we need Caitlyn to help with that, not to mention Julian." Cisco adds.
Barry frowns, "We've got to get her back."
"Bare, we will, we're already on our way there." Joe says.
Barry turns to the dark-skinned hand of his surrogate father as it's on his shoulder and nods in response. He fists his hands and places them on the table. "How's Iris?"
Not looking up at Jesse, he just shakes his head, "She's out now. Her arm is putting her in a lot of pain."
Everyone seems to stay silent at that and it for some reason, infuriates Barry. It feels like they're judging him for not being there. He couldn't, he would have condemned, her yet that reassurance does little for him.
"Whoa, no way." Wally's tone suddenly adds much needed levity to a room of all bright lights and brooding.
"What is it?" Despite the light tone, Barry still finds himself instinctually on alert. He pushes off the console and enters a defensive stance. He knows he's probably judging the situation all wrong, but his nerves are on edge right now and different has almost never proven to be good.
Looking up, Wally seems to notice Barry's stance, and he tilts his head in confusion, "It's a friend of mine. He's in Central right now, and he hit me up. He wants to know if I want to catch up with him."
"Oh, who is it?" Joe asks.
"He's from Bludhaven. I don't know why he's here, but it'll be nice to catch up."
"Bludhaven?" At Joe's startled and guarded voice the other occupants of the room seem to frown.
Wally shrugs, "You can relax, he's a cop. His name's Dick Grayson. I ran into him when I was speed racing in Bludhaven. He pulled me over, but was cool about it and let me off. Gotham doesn't have the wide roads that Bludhaven has."
"Gotham? When were you there?" Joe asks again, this time there's an edge to his voice. While Barry's curious and it's no secret that Gotham isn't the safest, he finds himself not to concerned that Wally even spent time around there.
"Relax, okay, I was only there for a short while. Mom had to find work and Gotham looked like it might've had some job opportunities. She and I quickly left there, though when she got a job elsewhere. We were both happy to leave."
"Cecile worked in Gotham for a while, she won't even talk about it. I had no clue that you were in Gotham even for a short time."
"Yeah, it wasn't pleasant, but we were there while everyone crazy was locked up."
"Did you happen to see anything?" Cisco's leering voice breaks the building tension.
Barry had no clue there even was tension until Cisco's voice came into the mix. He even released a breath he didn't realize he was holding. Looking at Cisco, however, he notices that the other man's eyes have suddenly taken on a wistful tone, almost awestruck. Leaving Cisco's dreamy-eyed look to himself, Barry turns back to Wally.
"I didn't." Wally shakes his head, clearly unsure what the other man was referring to, "Anyways, he's in town. I'm going to go say hi." About to speed off, he stops and then after a beat, turns to Jesse.
"Do you want to come with, Babs might me with him, so you could both meet?" Wally asks.
"Babs?"
Wally's not entirely sure who asked, but he nods absently, "Yeah, Dick's girlfriend. They're virtually inseparable."
Jesse nods, "Okay, sure. It sounds fun."
"Well, we'd like to meet him." Joe says quickly.
"Oh, yeah, um…sure. We can plan a dinner for later in the week. He's here visiting his brother, who is interning here in Central, so they'll be here for a while."
"Okay, yeah." Barry smiles, "When Iris gets some rest, we could meet at Joe's place."
"Yes, that would work." Joe nods.
With that Jesse and Wally speed away, and out of the room, leaving the rest to watch over Iris and Julian. Barry runs a hand down his haggard face, "I'm glad that one of us is having fun."
Joe nods, "Yeah."
"Did you know Wally has a friend from Bludhaven or that he lived in Gotham?" Cisco asks, again with that tone, he's all but drooling for information.
"What is it with you when it comes to Gotham and Bludhaven?" Joe asks. To be honest, everyone in the room is curious, even though they've been silent. Cisco's awestruck voice hasn't escaped anyone.
Cisco just shakes his head, "How can you be the father and fiancé of a reporter, work for the police department and have never heard of anything in Gotham or Bludhaven?"
Hearing a groan, quickly stops whatever conversation that was going to happen, everyone crowds the windows of the medbay as Cisco and Barry rush inside to help a rousing Julian.
Coming to, is not an easy task. He realizes that he feels chilled to the bone and when he tries to open his mouth to say something all that comes out is a gurgle, and he finds out that his throat is sore. Hearing something in the distance he scrunches his eyes, he'd like to open them, but it's like his eyes are glued shut. He screws his face and gives it another go.
Opening his eyes is no easy task and keeping them open when the lights threaten to blind him is nearly impossible, but when a face comes into his line of vision and in front of the light beaming down on him he nearly sighs in relief.
"I…" He struggles, "Water."
Cisco nods and Barry is there in an instant with water in his hand.
"Hey, big guy, you've been out for a while." Cisco says.
Nodding, he takes a much-needed sip and pushes it away, before sitting up, "It's cold." He mumbles.
"What do you remember?" Barry asks.
Frowning, he clearly is trying to think, until he nearly launches himself out of bed, "Caitlyn! What's wrong, is she okay?"
Forcing him back to bed, and attempting to hold him there before he hurts himself, Barry and Cisco explain, "She's fine. We got her. She's locked up, we're having trouble with the new power dampeners. When you feel up to it, we'd like your help." Cisco explains.
"I'm ready now, let's get to work." Julian forces himself off the bed and away from the hands trying to push him down.
Joe and HR are quick to stop Barry and Cisco from pushing him back down. "It's good to have you back with us." Joe says with a smile. He's more than happy to see the other man awake. The cold caused him to go down and be scarily still. He was nearly too cold that they lost him.
"Where do we start?" Same old Julian, Barry thinks. Wasting no time on pleasantries, and cutting right to the chase. Everyone is slightly annoyed by this, but very much relieved at the same time. No one on Team Flash lost their lives, even with the civilians that were lost it's a small victory and one in which they can relish.
"We have to figure out a failsafe for them in addition to how we can strengthen them without tampering with her genetics." Harry explains quickly.
It's then that they realize they have two likeminded individuals that will work before they do anything else. However, despite all this, Cisco just starts explaining their progress.
It's only a few short hours later when they finally manage to get a prototype working, something temporary, but enough to where Caitlyn can return to her old self.
"It wasn't your fault." Barry stresses. He tries again to take another step forward, but the cold stare that he gets from the woman in front of him is reminiscent of the stare that Killer Frost would give him. He stops in his tracks and when he sees the stricken look come onto her face and knows that his expression betrayed the fear he felt inside when he saw that look.
"By the look on your face I can tell that you don't believe that." Her voice comes out hollow and nothing like the Caitlyn that they all know and love.
Iris sits, propped up on her bed, her arm in a sling and dismissive of everyone's attempts to put her back on painkillers, "Barry, can Caitlyn and I have a moment?"
Barry nods and tries not to be hesitant about leaving Iris alone with Caitlyn. Inwardly he knows that Caitlyn is no longer beholden to Killer Frost but he hesitates around her. He refuses to look her in the eye as he leaves the room because he's sure that she saw him do that and he doesn't want to face her look of hurt and self-depreciation just yet.
"What do you think they're talking about in there?" Cisco asks.
Harry rolls his eyes and sighs, "For the tenth time, I have no idea." His hands are fisted on the console in front of him. No one is exactly all that positive Caitlyn will ever be Caitlyn again, but they all love her enough to pour their heart and souls into trying to help her find herself again.
Barry lets out a laugh, and Julian just groans, "I think it's best for everyone if we just let them be." Joe finally says, walking over.
The impatient and quickening pace of drumsticks beating on metal seem to be getting louder and louder, until—
"Will you please cut out that racket." Julian all but shouts.
At HR's subdued expression, everyone grows quiet and suddenly the silence is deafening, "You know what you need?" HR says, despite the thick tension or in spite of it, no one is all that sure, "You need to take a deep breath," He demonstrates, "And—"
"—I know what I need, and it's nothing that you can help me with."
Everyone winces at the venomous tone that Julian lets rip from his mouth and even HR seems rightfully put in place.
Cisco's never been one to come to HR's defense, in fact most of the time he finds the guy annoying and for much the same reason that everyone else does, but with no one all that particularly happy, he finds Julian's self-loathing and unhappiness particularly irritating.
"You know, you don't have the monopoly on unhappiness right now." Cisco says, "And another thing, we are all upset about Caitlyn and all want her back. So, you need to get in line, some of us have known her much longer."
Before Julian in his red-faced anger can stop glaring and build a snarky response, a small, quiet voice comes from behind them, causing everyone to be silent for a much different reason.
"I'm sorry." The voice says again, when they all turn to face the two women who are standing just outside the medbay with worried expressions.
"We know, and we also know that it wasn't you." Barry is quick to reply. He wants no reservations to be in Caitlyn's mind about who they blame. Her becoming Killer Frost is no one's fault, least of all hers.
Caitlyn nods, but everyone can tell her hearts not in it, but then her expression becomes unreadable when Julian steps forward.
"I'm sorry…I just couldn't bear the thought of losing you...I—"
"Julian, I can't talk about it right now. I need some time." Caitlyn says, quickly and effectively shutting him up, much to everyone's clandestine relief.
"I never meant to hurt you." Julian whispers.
"I know, it's just I have some things I need to deal with." Caitlyn replies, "I think whatever we had before I became Killer Frost is not something I can jump back into right now."
Everyone knows how hard Julian fought to get her back and everyone rightfully remains quiet, allowing this moment to play out no matter how painful it might be to watch.
"Take whatever time you need." Julian relents.
Caitlyn's face is contrite, and everyone is sure that her expression means that she has no intention of resuming whatever she and Julian had, and everyone is positive that Julian can ascertain this for himself as well, but no one dares says a word.
"I say that we work on being a team again." HR says, this time his oblivious tension breaking skills seem to be welcomed.
Caitlyn's smile suddenly has more life in it, and Barry realizes that everything is going to work out and for that reason he, too, smiles.
A/N: Also, if you're feeling up for it, it would be greatly appreciated if you checked out my book. It's available on amazon. Its name is Valentine Chronicles: Renatus. It's also coming to the Barne's and Noble website and Nook.
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