Half an hour after the West-Allens had been left to themselves and their despair in the library's main room, Caitlin made her entrance in cortex while wearing her now utterly blood-stained lab coat and looking mentally and physically exhausted beyond words. Upon seeing their friend enter, Iris and Barry got up from their seat on their shaky legs filled with adrenaline, scared of what they might hear.

"It's bad," the doctor dryly said without introduction and before anyone could say a single word as there was little doubt about their first question, "we've done what we could, but the next 12 hours will be critical."

For a split second, Barry closed his eyes. No matter how gruesome injuries seemed to be among Team Flash, Caitlin always managed to be a real miracle worker, so the hero had, in the last 30 minutes, managed to trick his mind into thinking everything was going to be okay. As always.

"What's wrong with him?" Questioned Iris, still in the dark about the extent of the damages.

"He got... shot," slowly announced Caitlin, hesitating on the last word as if pronouncing it was going to seal the deal on her friend's fate like some mystical spell. She had no choice but to pause for the second time in a row when the reporter gasped. Quite a vital detail Barry somehow forgot to share. Not that anyone could blame him, considering everything. Once she was sure her friends weren't going to say another word for now, despite Iris' partly opened lips, Caitlin continued.

"The bullet ruptured his spleen and caused major internal bleeding. I was able to stop most of it and to temporary repaired the biggest part of the damaged organ-"

The doctor stopped talking for a second as her shaking lips was making it incredibly harder to continue speaking. It just felt unreal, except it was happening; she wasn't talking about some random patient who fell off the stairs, she was talking about her best friend being in critical condition. Critical condition. Two fancy words doctors loved to use when they didn't want to use the word dying.

Barry exhaled profoundly and clenched his fists in an attempt to keep his body from shaking too much. Why? What had they done to the universe to deserve this?

"What's the plan?'' Iris inquired. Whether it was or wasn't their Cisco or not, it didn't matter, she wasn't ready to give up hope.

"I'll see how he responds, but I might have to remove part of his spleen, if not completely," grimly announced Caitlin, "but he's too weak to be operated on again at the moment. All we can do now is hope he'll stabilize enough for it in the next twelve hours or so."

They were a team of superheroes and yet they were powerless to do anything else than hope and cross their fingers. What good was superspeed if it was no use for saving his best friend? Barry just hated this feeling that was taking over his body and making him shiver all the way down his spine. His mind was spiralling, quickly. Reading him like a book, Iris immediately understood what was going on and approached her husband to gently rub his back in a vain attempt at comforting him.

"We really don't know what happened, don't we?" Caitlin asked after a moment of silence.

Both people next to the computers shook their head in an almost synchronized fashion, both of them too exhausted to say a word. Should they share their earlier theory with the doctor now? Should they tell her now about their thought it might not be their own Cisco?

Caitlin's lips parted open, probably getting ready to add something and interrogate them more about the details of what unfolded right before she found herself zapped at the lab, but her sentence got cut up as a blue breach formed on her right and caused her to jostle in surprise. Right close to her, her companions opened up their eyes widely. Could it?

When, in the next moment, the familiar form of Cisco Ramon, their Cisco who was wearing his Eclipse of the heart's shirt, jumped out of it and gracefully landed on the grey concrete floor, Barry moved forward without hesitation to wrap his arms around his friend.

"Thank God," breathed out Barry to his best friend as he was crushing him in a tight bear hug.

Frozen up in evident surprise from Barry's unexpected reaction, Cisco didn't respond to the gesture.

"Where's the fire?" Cisco asked after a moment over Barry's shoulder who let him go and moved back just enough for Vibe to notice the blood on his friend. Gasping, the breacher's instantly jumped into high alert, "you okay, man? Are you hurt?" he asked worriedly.

While Barry's mouth and features twisted in confusion, Caitlin took the opportunity to jump on the confused breacher and to hold him as firmly as she possibly could. She was, in fact, holding him so tight that her fingernails started digging in the dark blue t-shirt. The time it took for the doctor to hug her friend was the moment Barry needed to look down and understand Cisco's reaction toward him. It was only now that Barry noticed how he looked; shirtless and in yoga grey pant, all stained with blood. Caitlin also looked pretty much the same with her bloody white lab coat over her pyjama tank. Letting go, Caitlin backed up.

"It's not our blood," dryly informed Barry to his friend who frowned a bit more in confusion

"Whose blood is it?" slowly asked Cisco, still unsure about the wellbeing of his two friends.

"It's yours. Well, not yours yours," started to ramble Barry in true Felicity fashion, "it's from another Earth's Cisco who showed up in our loft tonight."

Seeing the way Vibe opened his mouth to protest, Barry continued, "we didn't know if-"

Cisco deeply exhaled as he put two and two together and understood what happened here. Between his doppelganger showing up and the unanswered calls, no wonder his best friends looked at him like he was a ghost when he breached in the room, "oh gosh," said Cisco, "I'm so sorry…. my phone died. When I woke up with this horrible feeling something was wrong, I checked my phone, saw the messages and I came instantly."

That could possibly win the worst excuse of the month award, but that's all Cisco had. And, considering how he was still wearing his sleeping outfit like the rest of the group, it was apparent he was telling the truth about rushing straight to his friends the instant he saw the calls.

"We're just relieved you're okay," said Barry genuinely, landing his hand on the other meta-human's shoulder and gently squeezing it.

As most of the tension was leaving the heroes' shoulders, the engineer took the time to look around the room and scan it for any sign of his doppelganger, "where is h... me?"

If he weren't so exhausted from their last night's final stand against Devoe and the little sleep he managed to get before this new emergency, he probably wouldn't have asked that question. With all the blood staining his friends' clothes and the way they were all overwhelmed with relieved when he arrived at the lab, the other Cisco was obviously in the med bay, in the best-case scenario. Unless he was…

"He's in the medical lab," answered Caitlin, stating the obvious and brushing away the lock of auburn hair that had fallen in front of her eyes. "It's not good, at all."

The answer was enough for the young engineer to suddenly pale up, "is he going to make it? Is he awake? Is-"

Lying was tempting, but what would be the point? "Odds are he might not survive the day 'til sunset," said Caitlin. "I'm keeping him sedated to avoid the agony he would probably feel if he was to wake up and cross my fingers he'll stabilize soon enough for another surgery," she added.

Cisco closed his eyes; how was he supposed to react to his dying doppelganger popping up on his Earth for some reason? How were they all supposed to respond? Slightly turning on his heels, he faced his best friend;

"Do we know where he's from? What was he doing on our Earth?"

"My best guess would be he's from Earth 3," said Barry who shuddered out of the blue, probably from all the adrenaline still floating through his vein from everything that just unfolded. Now, he just needed to get a grasp on his nerves, after all, their Cisco was alive and well. But, what about Jay?

Picking up on the total absence of hesitation and the subtle nod from Barry's wife on his side, Cisco quickly frowned and inquired, "why Earth 3?"

"When he showed up at our apartment, he rambled something about Jay and needing help," explained Iris, though it was unclear if Jay was the one needing help or if that other Cisco was talking about himself considering he wasn't in the best of shape at the moment.

"Okay..." trailed Cisco, "so, we're thinking he's speaking about Jay Garrick?"

Caitlin shrugged and walked a couple of steps closer to her friends to close the tight circle they were now forming, allowing everyone to see each other without moving their head like they were watching a ping-pong game, "honestly, I don't know any other Jays."

"And something tells me he thought we would know what he was talking about and who he was referring to," added Barry, "it's possible Jay sent him to find us. If he needs help, we have to go."

It hadn't even been a full twelve hours since they destroyed Devoe's satellite and here they were, planning another possibly dangerous adventure. When were they ever going to get a rest? No matter how tired they already were, they couldn't let their friend down.

"As much as I enjoy your enthusiasm and as much as I agree we need to help Jay if he's in trouble, I'm not completely eager to get shot too," argued Cisco while moving his head toward the medbay where he now knew was laying his doppelganger. "We can't go in blind, we're going to need a plan."

"Which might be hard when our info can pretty much get resumed at one name," pointed out Caitlin. Thanks, Captain Obvious. They had nothing, no denying that.

Cisco growled in annoyance, standing still and doing nothing wasn't an option, but they couldn't jump on Earth 3 without any idea about what they were walking into either, "we have to wake me up," he concluded by turning toward Caitlin and staring at her.

A stare back was all he got for a second. Was he serious? Doppelganger or not, the unconscious and severely wounded man was her patient and the last thing he needed right now was to be disturbed.

"Oh, did you become a doctor overnight or did I miss something?" She bit sarcastically while crossing her arms over her chest and hardening her look. Combat wasn't her strong point and, in a situation where there was no choice but to kick and claw their way out of trouble, she would mostly rally to her friends' best judgment. But, when it comes to all the doctoring, she was in charge, "he's suffered from a lot of internal injuries and if, stressing the if here, he makes it 'till darkness takes over, he's going to need to be rushed into surgery again. He's in no shape to talk."

"But h-" tried to argue back Cisco, only to get interrupted again by the doctor determined to finish what she had to say.

"He's in no shape to talk, and if I do wake him up, he'll be in terrible pain. Unless I give him so much pain medication that he won't be coherent enough to have a clear discussion," Caitlin firmly keeping her ground.

Slightly turning himself to his left, the engineer stretched his arm to touch his friend's shoulder, forcing her to look straight at him, "listen, Caitlin, I know you think you're doing what's best for him, but I know him. I know myself. If he came here to deliver a message despite his condition, it has to be very important. You said it yourself that he might not make it and if he doesn't, whatever warning he had for us will be lost. And, even if he does make it, he's not going to be in shape to say anything for a while, isn't he?"

Caitlin bit her lips, knowing where her friend was heading and knowing he was right, but it doesn't mean she had to like it.

"If I were in this situation, I would want to be given a chance to transmit what I have to say," Cisco concluded before turning to Barry in search for support. The speedster wasted no time turning toward Caitlin.

"I get where you're coming from, but Cisco's right, we need to know why he came here and if he's anything like our Cisco, he would want that too."

Iris nodded in agreement next to her husband. They had to do it. Admitting defeat, Caitlin sighed, "alright, I'll decrease the sedative and his pain medication. I hope you guys are right about this."

Without adding more, the doctor turned her back on her team and headed back into the medical room, only to realize midway that she was still wearing her red stained coat. So, right before disappearing into the other room, she took the time to take it off.

It took less than half an hour before the breacher opened his eyes again, which gave enough time for Cisco, Barry, and Caitlin to all change into matching black S.T.A.R. Labs t-shirts and grey sweatpants. Better than pyjamas. As Cisco's doppelganger slowly came back to the world of the living, wincing and groaning in pain from the simple task of opening his eyes, it became quickly evident that he was under a great deal of pain. Moving his head just a tad to his left, Earth 3's Cisco managed to get a better view of the people crowded next to his bed. At the moment, Caitlin was the closest to the bed, in front of Cisco, Barry, and Iris.

"I know you're in pain, just try not to move too much," said Caitlin as an introduction to the man who frowned and squinted his eyes while scrutinizing her features and the environment surrounding the woman.

"I'm Doctor Caitlin Snow and you're at S.T.A.R. Lab. You're safe," When she said her name, the man on the bed returned his attention to her with his chest already painting in an apparent effort to contain his pain from taking control.

"Snow… you're... Fr... ro'... Frost's host," he mouthed with difficulty.

Haven't been her for a while, thought Caitlin, but chose not to say anything about this. Instead, she opted for, "Jay Garrick told you?"

The other Cisco nodded at an agonizingly crawling pace which sent tremors of pain down his spine, "he sent me," he finally said with his hoarse voice, confirming the team's suspicions.

"What's happening on Earth 3?" Barry asked, joining the conversation and moving forward to stand right next to Caitlin. When Earth 3's Cisco tried to move his head to get a better look at the other person who talked to him, his attention got stolen away by the sight of his doppelganger standing just behind the two friends.

"Jay told me… I was going to meet you," said the wounded breacher to the other Cisco who also approached, feeling sorry for being the reason Caitlin took that badly injured man off the sedative and most of his pain medication. He was looking so thin, so pale and in so much pain.

"What happened to you? Were you taken?" Gently asked Cisco while reformulating the Flash's question that got ignored. Not that the young people in the room could really hold the man's short attention span against him considering the enormous amount suffering the breacher found himself in.

"He took us both. He wants to harness Jay's powers to save his wife. He won't stop," quickly rambled E3 Cisco, well, as soon as he could. It didn't sound too good.

As soon as he was done talking, E3 Cisco groaned again in pain and his back arched slightly on the bed, desperately trying to avoid the agony seemingly burning away every cell in his body. His reaction almost caused Caitlin to push everyone out of the room on the spot and give her patient all the pain medication in the world at once. It would make it less coherent, for sure, but it would also take off the edge. Except, before she could do it, a hand weakly grabbed her arm, and it wasn't the hand she thought it was.

"Wait," said her patient, puffing between his tightly closed teeth, "I need to tell you-" His sentence got cut short by an unexpected coughing fit.

"Who is he? What does he want with Jay?" Asked Barry once the man on the bed stopped coughing.

"He's named Daniel Galway a... an' h... needs Jay's… his-" the wounded Cisco had to stop himself to cough a couple of extra times and wipe his mouth before continuing, "he needs Jay's time travel ability to save his wife," he exclaimed, his voice weaker by the minute as the last bit of energy was getting drained for the effort of explaining it all.

Oh great, more time travel. Just what they needed.


A/N: Just when you thought it couldn't get worse. Let me know what you think in the comments, are you happy our Cisco is alright? I can promise you that Jay himself will make his first appearance in the 4th chapter, get ready.

Having a bit of a writer's block, so I might need an extra week for chapter 3, but after you'll have your weekly update for sure. Don't be shy to leave a comment; I'll need all the motivation available.