Hey guys! Happy Monday!
So, believe it or not, I finished the book! And warning, you might want some tissues.
Anyway, thanks for all of your support and love and that little bit of hate when Zoom kidnapped Charlie.
So, I hope you all enjoy the final chapter.
Chapter twenty. Dé-jà Vu.
Barry looked up. "Cait?" He began. "What is it?" He asked as he had a wave of nervous energy fill him and he felt sick to his stomach.
Caitlin bit her lip. "I did some testing on Charlie." She told him. "Zoom..." She stopped as she choked on a sob.
"Caitlin, what did he do to my daughter!?" Barry cried, tearing up. She had to be okay, she needed to be okay. He couldn't lose her.
Caitlin inhaled shakily, then wiped her eyes. "He did something horrible..."
···
Barry paced around the Cortex as he rocked Charlie in his arms. Since she had woken up she had been sobbing uncontrollably. He was trying everything to soothe her, but nothing was working. And it was breaking his heart.
"So, Velocity 9?" Barry asked, gently bouncing Charlie in his arms as she sucked on his shirt's collar, a way Barry believed was to try to relieve her pain.
Caitlin shrugged. "Something of that nature." She told him, then ushered him over to the computer.
Barry looked at the computer he could see two sets of cells, both being destroyed at an alarming rate. "Cait? What is this?" He asked, feeling his stomach twist and cramp the longer he looked at it.
Caitlin pointed to the one on the right. "This is Jay's, aka, Zoom's cell degeneration disease. It was caused by the velocity serums." She explained, then sighed and pointed to the one on the left. "These are Charlie's cells. Zoom must have injected her with some version of the velocity serum, and it's killing her. Quickly and painfully."
Barry felt like he had been punched in the stomach, and not a normal punch, a supersonic punch. He felt like the wind had been knock right out of him. Even the pain of breaking his back wasn't as painful as this. "H-how long does she..?" He asked. He couldn't say it, he couldn't believe it.
Caitlin bit her lip. "Three months."
···
"There has to be something we can do!" Barry exclaimed as he fed Charlie her bottle. He couldn't lose her.
"Barry, we can look for a cure, but it would take more than three months." Cisco told him. "We just don't have the time..."
"Let me go to the future, I'll find the cure, then come back with it." Barry said, beginning to pat Charlie's back.
"No!" Iris said. "Do you have any idea what that could do to the past? And not only that, but the future? It could erase her, and everyone else in this room from existence!"
Barry sighed and slumped back in his chair. "There has to be something..." He whispered as he teared up. "I... I can't lose her."
Charlie looked up at him and cooed, making Barry feel even worse. He wasn't her real father, but that didn't mean that he didn't have a bond with her. He had spent one and a half months calling her his baby girl, making time for her, caring for her. She was his. And Zoom had done the unthinkable, he had injected her with a serum that would destroy her from the inside out. Zoom had done that to his daughter. To get to him- no, to get to The Flash.
"What if you slowed down the degeneration?" Oliver suggested from where he stood in the corner with Felicity at his side and his bow and arrows at the other, he wasn't taking any chances and was ready to shoot if needed.
Caitlin looked up at him with interest. "What do you mean?" She asked. "How would you suggest doing that?"
"Put her in a coma." He suggested, hesitantly making eye contact with Barry. "Take control of her organs and make them go as slow as possible without killing her. Would that work?"
Cisco stood up and typed a command into the computer. "Caitlin, it works."
"Wait!" Barry cried, protectively holding Charlie closer. "You want to put her in a coma!?"
Iris nodded as the rest of them slowly looked at him. "Barry, honey, it would save her." She explained. "It would give them more time to find a cure."
Barry looked up at them. "How much longer would it give her?" He asked. He absolutely hated the idea, he barely remembered his coma, but he remembered coming out of it confused, scared and missing out on too much. He couldn't do that to her.
Caitlin looked at the screen. "It would give her a year, as opposed to the three months she has now." She told him. "It practically quadruples her chances of survival."
"Guys, I've played this game before. The repercussions..." Barry began, stroking Charlie's cheek. "She's not a meta, she won't be fine afterwards the same way I was. She'll miss vital parts of her development..."
"Barry," Oliver began, walking over and placing his hand on Barry's shoulder. "She can catch up. But she'll die if we don't do this."
Barry nodded, then looked down at Charlie, his little Charlotte. This really was the only way. "Okay, let's do it."
···
Barry rocked Charlie in his arms. After hours of begging, he was allowed to get her to sleep before they put her in the coma. An idea he still wasn't very comfortable with. "Its gonna be okay, Charlie." He told her, more as a way to reassure himself. "Daddy won't leave your side. You'll be safe the whole time. And when you wake up, you'll be all better."
Charlie yawned, then looked up at him as she began dozing off. And with another wave of heartbreaking realization, Barry realized that this would be the last few minutes he would see Charlie awake until she was cured, or... it would be the last time ever.
Barry smiled at her weakly as he teared up. It wasn't fair, this was his daughter! Why did this always happen to him!? Why did he have to be unhappy!?
Charlie reached up and touched his neck, cooing quietly as she did. "I love you, Charlotte Olivia Allen." He whispered, taking her hand in his and kissing her fingers. "I'll miss you."
Charlie closed her eyes, then her breathing evened out.
Barry sighed sadly, his heart never feeling more broken. She was asleep.
···
Caitlin sighed as she connected Charlie to one last machine. "There we go." She said. "She's comatose and stable."
Barry nodded sadly as he looked up at Caitlin, then back down at Charlie. "Will you give me a few minutes alone with her?" He asked, his voice cracking as he spoke.
Caitlin nodded. "Yeah." She said, then smiled a half smile at him.
Barry pulled his chair closer as Caitlin left the room. He couldn't believe everything that had happened in the past two months. He had adopted a daughter who had been orphaned in the worst of circumstances, he became completely enamored with her and her mannerisms. Then, in a turn of events, she was ripped from him. And even though he had saved her, it didn't really feel that way. He still felt like he had failed her.
Barry leaned over and stroked Charlie's hair, then her little cheeks.
Then he began singing as he held her tiny little hand.
"You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy,
When skies are gray.
You'll never know dear,
How much I love you..."
Barry choked up on the last line, saying it more as a prayer to whatever god or deity ruled over the universe than as a song for his comatose daughter. "Please don't take my sunshine away..."
The End.
Yeah, I bet none of you expected that. Even if you did expect a sad ending.
So, as stated in a previous chapter, I will most likely be starting the sequel this summer. But I could literally do that crazy thing where I just randomly start a book!
So, if you want. Until then, you have my permission to write stories about Barry and Charlie and post them here on FanFiction. Just please give me credit for Charlie, and PM me with a link once it's up. :)
Anyways, thanks for reading this story. It means so much to me that this story got such a warm welcome and was received so well.
It would be awesome if you could review and tell me what you thought of the final chapter and the book as a whole. Thanks.
Thanks for reading!