By the time Caitlin was completely done patching Cisco up, they were into the early hours of the night. She was as exhausted as Barry and Cisco. Wells had left earlier, confident that the worst of the situation was resolved, leaving only the three of them in the lab.
Caitlin had determined that Cisco had a mild concussion, and that someone needed to stay with him for the next twenty-four hours or so to monitor for symptoms that could change the diagnosis to a more severe one. Barry volunteered to stay.
Barry had offered to let Cisco stay the night at his house, but the nausea and headache told Cisco that moving anywhere would be a bad idea, so they remained in the lab. Barry set up a cot for himself in the hall next to Cisco's room.
"Alright, Caitlin told me to wake you up every two hours to make sure you aren't, y'know, dead, or in a coma." Barry smiled, adjusting the STAR Labs sweatshirt he was now wearing. "Trust me, I've been there and it sucks."
Cisco smiled at the joke. He was tired, and everything hurt, but Barry made him feel a bit better just by being there.
"Yeah, I gotcha. I was there for that bit too." Cisco said. Barry left the door to the hall open and got into his cot. He set an alarm on his phone for two hours. "G'night, Barry. Thanks for saving me today." Cisco murmured, closing his eyes.
"All in a day's work, dear citizen." Barry said in a deep voice with a cheesy grin, mimicking the heroes from cartoons he used to watch. "Goodnight, Cisco. I'm glad you're safe." Barry whispered, as Cisco had already fallen asleep.
Cisco was chained to the ground in the dark. He could hear footsteps coming closer, menacing thuds that seemed to come from every direction, yet with the certainty of dreaming he knew it was one person. His heart raced and he struggled to get free, but there was nothing he could do.
Bodies fell from the air and cracked onto the hard floor, illuminated as if under a spotlight. One body fell for each of the Exterminator's victims. They were broken and bloody, entire chunks of skin missing. Cisco struggled more as the footsteps grew louder.
With a sickening thwack, a body fell directly in front of him. It was Barry, dead and covered in blood. Cisco shook his head.
"No, no, no." He whispered, face twisting in despair. "No!"
Barry gently shook Cisco awake, more tapping than actual shaking. Cisco looked up to see Barry's face staring at his own, several inches away.
"I have to keep you up for at least fifteen minutes, now. Sorry, dude, doctor's orders." Barry whispered. Cisco sat up in his bed and stretched his sore body, blinking away the dream.
He looked over at Barry, now sitting on the end of Cisco's bed, whose hair was rumpled in odd directions from laying down. A faint smile came to his lips and he turned away so Barry wouldn't be able to see it.
"So, how are you feeling?" Barry said after a minute or so, breaking the silence.
"Like shit."
"That's kinda what I thought." Barry nodded his head. Cisco slumped against his pillows and turned to Barry, carefully adjusting his injured hand so it sat in his lap. "Anything I can do to help?"
"Let me borrow your speed healing for an hour or so?" Cisco jokingly suggested.
"If only I could, dude." Barry checked the time on his phone. "Alright, I think thirteen minutes is good enough. Get some sleep."
"Awesome." Cisco layed down, shut his eyes, and almost immediately fell asleep.
He was back in the warehouse, tied to the pipe in the basement. The Exterminator walked towards him, eyes cold and emotionless. Cisco struggled against his bonds and tried to call for help, but no sound came out. The Exterminator pulled out his knife and grinned sadistically.
"Too bad, your little hero couldn't save you." He tilted his head towards the mound of flesh rotting in the corner. Cisco looked over.
It was Barry, dead and decaying. Maggots writhed through his skin, digging into his eyes and face, while flies crawled over his body, occasionally flitting to new places. Cisco gagged, the smell of expired flesh combined with the sight was overpowering.
Tears welled in his eyes. The Exterminator brought the knife to Cisco's throat, pressing hard. Cisco wanted to scream or cry out for help, but he could only manage to whisper Barry's name, over and over.
"Goodbye, Cisco Ramon."
Cisco eyes shot open and he gasped, heart pounding. He looked around wild-eyed and tried to move his arms, but something prevented him.
"Cisco!" Barry was leaning over him, holding him down by his forearms. "It's okay! You're safe!"
"Wha...?" Cisco swallowed and focused on Barry's face. Barry let go of his arms and sat next to him, pulling him into a hug.
"You're okay now. I'll keep you safe." Barry whispered. Cisco returned the hug and let his face rest on Barry's chest, listening to the other's heartbeat while his own breathing returned to normal.
Cisco pulled back after a minute and took in the sight of Barry's face, alive and healthy. The gruesome image from his nightmare stayed in his mind everytime he blinked, like the orangey-blue afterimage of staring directly at a light for too long.
"What happened?" Barry asked. "In your dream, I mean. Was it...?" Cisco nodded.
"If he was Freddy Krueger, I would be dead." Cisco took in a shaky breath. "You were... You were dead too." The image of Barry's decaying corpse returned. Cisco could still remember the smell.
"That's awful, I'm so sorry, Cisco. But, we're both okay now, and that creep is locked up. Besides, I'd never die before I could save you." He smiled and rubbed circles on Cisco's back.
Cisco smiled slightly at him. His thoughts wandered to when Barry showed up at the warehouse. Cisco had been so afraid when he saw Barry unconscious, he'd thought for a moment then that Barry really could be dead. Fortunately, that wasn't the case. Then Cisco had helped get the collar off Barry, and then they had almost...
"Hey, do you remember earlier, when I helped you get free?" Cisco asked. Barry's hand stopped.
"Uh, yeah." Barry pulled away. "What about it?"
"Well, right after, we had that," Cisco paused to find the right word. "...moment. What exactly was that?" Cisco knew what he himself thought that moment was, but he was afraid of how Barry's thoughts might differ.
"Uh," Barry cleared his throat. "Just, um, heat of the moment, I guess. Yeah, it was... it was nothing."
"Right." Cisco gave Barry his best fake smile and a nod. "Heat of the moment. That's what I thought. Just checking."
"Yeah." Barry replied weakly. He returned to his cot. "See you in two hours."
Barry laid down on his side, facing away from the open door. Cisco sighed quietly.
"Night." He layed down and stared at the ceiling.
Cisco didn't want to go back to sleep. It wasn't that he wasn't tired, because heaven knows he was, but rather, he didn't want to have that nightmare again. Or any dream of a similar nature.
His brain couldn't get rid of the images and the feelings of seeing his friend's rotting corpse. Plus, dying in a dream is never a pleasant experience. Cisco tried to distract himself.
He thought back to the almost-kiss, or the "heat of the moment" from earlier. Cisco couldn't deny he was disappointed at Barry's response. He'd almost thought it was possible that Barry liked him in a more-than-platonic way. However, he thought, he also knew he tended to read too much into things like that. Especially when it came to extremely attractive people who paid him more than two-seconds of attention. Cisco decided he needed to distract himself from sleep with something that made him feel less sad.
He got up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. Cisco stood up and started walking towards the window, but he didn't get very far. The world seemed to start spinning, and the nausea returned. Cisco's legs felt like jelly and he stumbled into the wall, bracing himself against it.
"Cisco?" Barry whispered. In less than a second, he was at Cisco's side, supporting him by grabbing his waist with one arm and pulling Cisco's arm over his shoulders with the other. "What are you doing? You shouldn't be up and about like this yet."
"Relax, mom, I was just going to the window to get some fresh air." Cisco knew Barry had a right to be worried, but he couldn't help but poke fun at him.
"That can wait until the morning, young man." Barry retorted in his best mom-voice. "You need to rest and heal." He brought Cisco back to the bed.
"Come on, dude. I don't want to go back to sleep." Cisco pleaded. He sighed and swallowed. "I- I can't."
Barry looked confused for a moment, then he understood. Cisco was afraid of experiencing the nightmare again. Barry looked into Cisco's eyes.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Barry asked, leaning closer, face full of sincerity. Cisco paused for a second.
"I don't know. Just... stay here with me." Barry nodded.
"Okay."
Cisco moved over to let Barry crawl in next to him on the tiny bed. Barry got in and wrapped his arms around Cisco so that he became a human pillow, being careful not to accidentally provoke Cisco's wounds. Cisco leaned into him and closed his eyes.
After a few minutes, he could feel Barry's breathing become slow and regular, indicating sleep. The steady rise and fall of his chest lulled Cisco into a dreamless but pleasant slumber.