First of all I have to say thank you to Siddystar101 and AmazonaZafrina for their tremendously sweet reviews on my last chapter. Your words of encouragement mean so much to me and were a huge part of my motivation to sit down and write not only this two-shot, but another one-shot on Put Another Dime in the Jukebox. I can't wait to hear what you guys think of these most recent installments!

I mentioned a few installments ago a piece I was working on that involved a traumatic occurrence in Barry and Cal's life together, and I've finally sat down to finish working on that and get it posted. It started getting fairly long, so I decided to split it into two parts, the second of which will be posted by Sunday. Sad feels incoming :(

I don't own the Flash. Consider yourselves disclaimed.

"Barry, Cal, we've got another body, let's go." Joe was in all business mode as he and Eddie entered the lab.

"Already?" Cal asked, horrified, looking away from her computer screen. "That's three in as many days!"

"I know, and we're no closer to catching this guy, even with Barry doing Flash patrols. What about those blood results?"

"We only just finished isolating the different blood samples," Barry said, pulling away from his microscope and gathering his field case. "The first one just ran, it's the victim's, but the second sample is still going through the system to find a hit."

"I'll stay with it," Cal offered. "It shouldn't be more than another twenty minutes before it finishes, I'll tell Singh and call you when it's done." Barry kissed the side of Cal's head as he left with the detectives.

The crime scene was only a half mile from the police station, just around the corner from Central City Hospital. Joe and Eddie were speaking to the older man who had found the body in the back alley outside his convenience store. Barry pulled his collar up against the February morning chill as he pulled out a pair of gloves and began working.

After several minutes Joe's phone rang and he excused himself to walk a few yards away to answer it. "West. Yeah, Singh, why?"

Barry tuned out the rest of the conversation as he packed up his case. Eddie walked over, asking if he'd found anything.

"Maybe a blood sample, but that won't help since we've already got one. Has Cal called with the results yet?"

"Barry!"

Barry swiveled around where he knelt on the concrete. The voice that had called his name didn't belong to detective Joe West, it belonged to his foster-father Joe. "What is it, Joe?"

"Where is your cell phone, Barry? Cisco has been trying to call you!"

Barry patted his pockets. "I must have left it back at the lab, what's wrong?" Joe didn't answer him immediately, and Barry noticed for the first time that he looked sick. "What's going on?"

"Cal fainted in the police station, they came to get her in an ambulance. They're probably almost to the hospital, we have to go now!" Barry felt the blood drain from his face, and it was all he could do to run at a normal pace with Joe, knowing they were only a block from the hospital. Eddie stayed to finish at the crime scene, promising to follow in the car in a moment.

The paramedics were just unloading the stretcher from the ambulance as they reached the emergency room entrance, Cisco climbing out after them looking terrified. A tall, black man was waiting by the door, presumably the doctor.

"I'm her fiance!" Barry called as he approached them. "I'm her fiance, what's going on?"

"Has she been displaying any strange symptoms?" the man asked in a strong Kenyan accent as they passed through the doors and moved through the halls. Barry couldn't get close enough to touch her, but she was pale and breathing shallowly. The crotch of her jeans was stained dark, like she'd urinated on herself.

"No, I mean..." Barry racked his brain. "She's been complaining of a dull ache in her lower left abdomen, she thought it might be a cyst, she scheduled an ultrasound for next week."

"Nausea, vomiting, lightheadedness?"

"No."

"Is she allergic to anything?"

"No, but she doesn't want narcotics."

"Could she be pregnant?" Barry gaped at him.

"I don't think so, she had her implant replaced a few months ago. What is wrong with her?"

"I won't know for sure until I get her into surgery, someone will be out to talk with you soon."

"Surgery!" Barry tried to get more details, but a nurse was stopping him in front of a door that said Restricted Access and then they had taken her out of sight. He whirled around to face Joe and Cisco, noticing Eddie running through the doors. "What happened, Cisco?"

"I don't know, Barry! I was showing Singh the new Boot upgrade, and she came in to give him some blood results. She kind of winced, and he asked her what was wrong. She said she'd been having those pains, but that they were getting a lot worse. Then she got kind of pale, and just kind of slumped over. She woke up for a few seconds in the ambulance and said something about her shoulder hurting. She was...she was bleeding, Barry. Vaginally. They said probably internally too." Cisco looked like he was about to cry - Cal was his best friend, and seeing her collapse and then watching her vitals go haywire in the ambulance made him feel helpless.

Barry was shaking, and he was grateful for Joe steering him into a chair before his knees gave out. He dropped his head into his hands, mind racing with possible diagnoses. While each one he thought of seemed worse than the last, he was grateful that precious few of them had any possibility of being fatal. He focused on his breathing as he felt Joe sit next to him, rubbing his eyes with his palms to clear away any unshed tears, and looked up as he heard familiar voices.

"We were having breakfast when Eddie called, what's happening?" Iris came immediately to the seat on Barry's other side, and he was instantly comforted at being surrounded by his family. Caitlin was on her heels, clearly having slipped into the role of calm professional.

Barry shook his head. "Cisco was with her, they don't know exactly what's wrong."

Cisco relayed the story again, mostly to Caitlin, who furrowed her brow as she cataloged the information. "She said her shoulder hurt?"

"Yeah."

"When she was laying down in the ambulance?"

"Yeah."

"Caitlin?" Barry asked. "Do you know what's wrong?"

Caitlin turned to him, brow furrowed. "I have an idea, Barry, but I can't know for sure. We should wait for the doctor."

The doctor didn't reappear for another three hours, and the only information they could get in the meantime was "She's still in surgery." Joe called Cal's parents while Iris called Henry, and the former were currently on a plane while the latter was in his car, all due to arrive sometime in the afternoon.

"Family for Cal Parks?"

The doctor was instantly beset upon by six people, but to his credit he only blinked and continued.

"First, she's fine. She's in recovery, but we used non-narcotics as you requested, and they can take a while to clear the system so she may be out for a while. I can take two of you to see her in a minute. Second, she's going to need each and every one of you very much - more than you know - to help her get through this."

Barry sat at her bedside with Joe, holding one small hand in his own and brushing his fingers through the hair at her forehead. He hadn't said a word since the doctor had finished explaining a few minutes ago, and Joe was watching him closely.

"Whatever you're thinking about asking, just ask," Barry said suddenly, still not looking away from Cal's face.

Joe was surprised. "Now's not the time."

"Dad, right now I'll talk about anything that isn't the reason she's in this bed."

Joe felt his heart break a little more. He hated to see his kids going through this, for Cal had very much become his kid. But it was precisely because she was his kid that he had to ask. "Non-narcotics?"

Barry sighed, sitting back in his chair to look at his foster father, rubbing his thumb over Cal's knuckles absentmindedly. "She gets her five year coin next week. She wanted to have it in her hand when she told you."

Joe blew out a long breath. "Good. Good for her."

Her fingers suddenly twitched in Barry's hand, and when he looked back to her, her eyelids were fluttering. "Cal? Sweetheart?"

Her eyes were heavy and opened sluggishly. When she had blinked several times and begun to squint, Barry gently slid her glasses onto her nose, and the world came into focus.

"B? Whass goin' on? Why's my head all fuzzy?" Suddenly her eyes widened, as panic burned away the lingering drowsiness. "Why is my head all fuzzy?"

"You're fine, Cal, they're non-narcotic," he soothed, then did his best to grin. "It doesn't count if it's for medical reasons, you know."

"Does to me." Cal began to look around and saw Joe for the first time. "Joe, I-"

"No, kiddo, you don't owe me an explanation," he said, coming forward to lay a hand on her head. "I love you."

Cal's eyes furrowed. "I love you too, Joe. But...why am I in the hospital? Oh!" She suddenly winced, hand coming to rest lightly on her abdomen. "Oh, that hurts. What happened to me?"

Joe and Barry exchanged a glance, and Joe leaned down to kiss Cal's forehead before slipping silently from the room. He closed the door behind him, leaning against it for a moment and wiping at his eyes before walking down the hall to the little waiting room where the rest of their family waited. Cisco stood immediately when he entered the room, intent to take his turn, but Joe held up a hand.

"Not yet. He's telling her, so just...not yet."

He sat heavily in the chair next to Cisco's, taking up the silent vigil with the rest of them. They weren't sure what exactly they were waiting for until they heard it coming from down the hall - a high, keening wail, raw with sorrow, that made them all flinch.

Singh said his goodbyes to Joe before hitting the end button and letting the cell phone clatter to his desk, passing a hand over his face. Allen and Parks were only 26. They were too damn young for this, he thought. They didn't deserve this.

Professionally speaking, it was an unusual situation. While anyone would worry if one of their coworkers was seriously ill or injured, Parks prided herself on being able to charm her way into anyone's good graces. She'd made many friends at the precinct, and made a point to know everyone by name. It was hard not to have affection for her, and seeing her health in serious risk had been hard on all of them. While he knew his top available officers were still working the serial case, he rather thought everyone else was mostly pretending to work. He couldn't bring himself to blame them - he was worried himself. Parks was a good kid, and he liked Allen a lot more than he let on.

He rose and exited his office swiftly, rapping his knuckles on the glass of his window to gather everyone's attention, and the previously bustling station was instantly still and quiet.

"I just spoke with Joe, he's still at the hospital with Barry. Eddie and Cisco are there as well." He was purposefully using first names - now was not the time for professional distance. "Cal is fine. She's awake, Barry's with her, and she's going to be okay. Their parents are all headed this way."

The relief in the room was palpable, and Singh could see many sets of tense shoulders relax. It had been hours, after all. Patty was the first to speak up. "What happened to her, Captain?"

Singh took a deep breath. Joe had been reluctant to share the details with him, but Singh reminded him that Parks wasn't just part of his family, she was part of the police family as well, and the family was worried. Joe had gotten Parks and Allen's permission to share the details, and Singh was happy to spare them the trauma of explaining it themselves when they returned.

"Cal miscarried a tubal pregnancy today."

There were quiet gasps around the room, and more than one mother brought a hand to her own abdomen.

"She was about 8 weeks along, Joe says they had no idea. It caused the tube to rupture, and the doctors performed emergency surgery to remove it. She will make a full recovery, but it'll take time, and I don't just mean physically. Most of us can't begin to imagine what Cal and Barry are going through right now - whether this pregnancy was planned or unexpected, it doesn't matter - they just lost a baby. They may not have badges but they are two of our own that just lost one of their own, and we will take care of them. She doesn't want visitors outside of family right now, but we will be ready to be there for them when they need us. Understood?"

A chorus of yes sirs answered him, and he nodded at them at large. "Good. Back to work."

It was another half hour before Barry reappeared in the waiting room, red-eyed and sniffling. "She, uh, she's asleep again. This has been really, uh...really hard on her body, she might be out for a while. You guys don't have to stay."

"The hell we don't," Cisco said, rising from his chair. "She doesn't have to be awake to need us." He clapped Barry on the shoulder as he walked quickly down the hall, disappearing into his best friend's room. Barry smiled wanly after him.

"Someone else can go see her, too," he continued, turning back to them. "I'm sleeping here as long as she is, so I don't need to monopolize her bedside chair right now."

"One of you go," Iris said to Eddie and Caitlin. "I'm going to sit with Barry and my dad for a while before I go see her." Eddie turned to Caitlin, offering her his arm.

"But the doctor said only two people," she protested even as she let him lead her away.

"Watch this." Eddie flashed his badge and the attending nurse waved them both through.

Barry sat heavily in a chair between the members of his foster family, wrapping an arm around Iris and leaning into Joe, who reached around his son's shoulders to hold his head securely against his shoulder. They sat like that, as they had many times in the past fifteen years, quietly taking and giving comfort.

"I'm so sorry, Barry," Iris whispered after a few minutes. His arm tightened around her shoulders, and they held him as he began to shake with sobs.

This seemed the most suitable place to end this. Poor Barry and Cal :(

They're strong though. They'll get through it.

Will be continued in Part 2.