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Enjoy
Barry and Caitlin didn't manage to go back to Central City after that night. They slept in the room that was on the executive level of the now new STAR West. They were happy to find out that the room was sound proofed as well, since there were a few times where the volume of the noises went over any … acceptable limits. The two were awakened in the morning by a phone call. Barry picked up the phone seeing Oliver's number.
"Morning, Ollie. What got you up so early?" Barry asked his friend
"I haven't slept at all last night" the reply came.
"I'm guessing you were excited that the meeting Felicity mentioned went well? The one in the park about your bid for the mayor's office?" the speedster inquired. Next to him his fiancée woke up and pressed the speaker button on his phone so she could hear as well.
"The meeting went fine. What happened after did not. There was an attempt on my life. I'm fine, but Felicity …" his voice trailed off prompting the two speedsters to yell into the phone
"What happened to her, Oliver?"
"She got shot. There was a lot of blood and when we got her to the hospital … The bullet hit her spine, Barry. I don't think she will be able to walk ever again, the doctors aren't sure, but we could use a second opinion. I know what you two can do so … maybe you can come give us one?" Oliver said with a voice that was severely cracked and frustrated.
"We'll be right there, we haven't left Star City yet, we decided to spend the night here after the press conference " Barry and Caitlin sped through their morning routine which this time lasted less than 10 seconds and ran toward the hospital passing through a few clothes stores to buy some normal attire. It would have been a bit unusual for them to show up at the hospital dressed for a gala. They found Oliver with Donna Smoak, Felicity's mother, Thea, Quentin and Laurel Lance there waiting for answers.
"What's the news?" Caitlin asked.
"The doctors don't want to tell us anything for certain. So we don't know yet. Could you …" Oliver responded.
"I'll go ask them for the x rays and tests. We can pretty much read them ourselves" Caitlin said with determination in her eyes and left toward the doctor's room.
"What are the owners of STAR West doing here?" Donna asked pretty surprised "I didn't know rich people cared this much about their employees. This is pretty irregular" She knew where Felicity worked and had recognized the couple from the press conference that took place a day earlier.
"They aren't here because Felicity is their employee. She was their friend way before they even bought the company that she works at" Oliver responded to her mother.
"We have known her for a long time. Way longer than us being rich. She is a good friend, actually we would come as close as calling her family" Barry commented leaving Donna with a bit of an open mouth in surprise. She obviously had no idea of the connections her daughter had made in all the time they were apart. While she was pondering, Caitlin came back with the results.
"That was fast. How did you even get them?" a surprised Quentin Lance asked
"I told them I'm Felicity's personal physician. Considering Barry and I are both doctors, that's not so hard to believe" She smiled. Barry took and X ray from his fiancée and cringed. Donna saw the look in his eyes
"Barry, what's wrong?" Thea and Laurel both asked at the same time
"Mr. Allen?" Donna chimed in
"Call me Barry. Any family of hers is a friend of ours" Barry pointed toward the blonde's room "The doctors are right" Barry sighed with visible pain in his eyes. Caitlin made a grimace that could only show dissatisfaction.
"The damage done to her back is permanent. The bullet managed to tear through the spinal column severing the nerve bundles. If there would have been any chance for her to walk again, it would have needed to be partial" Caitlin added.
"With a total break and full nervous disconnection, the chances of her walking again are nonexistent" Barry said with his voice almost cracking.
"But the doctors told us there might be a chance that she can walk again, after a few surgeries" Donna said almost crying
"I'm sorry, Ms. Smoak. That is not possible. Not by the extent of damage we're seeing here" Caitlin replied. Barry sat down with her in his lap. She started to sob with her head on his shoulder. Donna looked at the two and saw their faces, blank, pained, angered and frustrated all at once, they looked back at Oliver and saw the same amalgam of expressions.
"They really are her friends" She whispered to Quentin that was sitting next to her. "Look at them, you can see it on their faces. This news is painful for them as it was for me"
"Oliver, did she have her tablet with her?" all of a sudden Barry asked.
"Yes, it's in the car. Why do you need it?" the archer asked.
"I might have an idea … but I need to confirm something first. Mind getting it for me?" Barry motioned to Oliver that he would like to move, but he was holding Caitlin. Donna looked at him shocked. One of the STAR West owners was telling a mayoral candidate to get him a tablet. She admonished herself, those titles were for the public. They were close friends, she could see that and her daughter was part of this group.
"I'll be right back" He brought back the tablet and handed it to Barry "What are you thinking?"
"Give me a minute" Barry pulled up the list of projects for STAR West and started going through them at a stupid rate of speed, not enough to give away that he was a speedster, but enough to make Donna and Quentin look at him in awe "There. I thought I saw something here. Cait, take a deep breath and calm down. Time to stop sobbing and to start working. We have something to do" His fiancée took her head off his shoulder and read what he was pointing at. Her face suddenly changed. She had a large smile on her face just like Barry.
"You think this would work?" she asked.
"I would say that doing something is better than doing nothing, even if we just try and it's a failure in the end. We can do the bio engineering part at STAR Labs or even here at West, Cisco can help this Curtis fellow on the engineering part and if we need something else, we can always call professor Stein" Barry responded.
"I think Tina McGee might help as well, if we can't reach Martin. She did tell us that if we need anything we should ask" Caitlin concluded. Barry took out his phone and phoned Cisco which responded with a sleepy voice
"What? Come on you two, don't you rest?"
"Cisco, how fast can you get dressed and get to the airport?" Barry asked. They put the phone on speaker so Oliver could chime in.
"What? We just came back, man. What happened?" the engineer said with the same sleepy voice.
"Felicity's been shot. She has a spinal break. We need you to get your ass over here pronto. We found something that might help, but we need your engineering skills" Caitlin spoke with a clear voice. There was a few seconds of quiet time and the same voice returned, but fully woken up now, stern and clear in its intent. Something that again, made a big impact on Donna Smoak. She was beginning to see the extent of what this group of friends would do for one of their own.
"I can be ready in an hour. Do you need anything else from STAR?" the voice asked.
"Stay on the line. Caitlin is going to call Tina. If she has people available they will join you" Barry told him as Caitlin pulled out her phone and called the head of Mercury Labs.
"Hello, Dr. McGee. It's Caitlin Snow"
"Hello, Caitlin. I saw you reopened STAR Labs, I don't think you`re calling to gloat thought, are you?" Tina inquired but by her tone it was clear she was joking
"No, I need a favor. Can you loan me your top engineer, bio engineer and physicist for a few days?" Caitlin spoke quite bluntly
"It's the holidays most of my people are on leave, including myself I might add. What do you need them for?" Tina asked
"A good friend of ours has been shot. We need to help her and we have the minimum amount of people, but more people work faster" Barry added.
"Hello, Barry. I take it this person is really important to you huh? What happened to her?" Tina asked.
"Yes Tina, you would be right in supposing she is important to us. What happened was that she took a bullet to the spine. Motor functions are nonexistent. We might have a project at STAR West that can help but we need to get the people that have the knowledge to get it rolling" Caitlin added.
"How urgent is this?" She asked.
"Very" Barry added they heard a ruffle of papers and her talking to some people on the landline. In less than 5 minutes she came back
"My best scientists are in Bali. Curse them. Sorry Barry, but I don't have anyone at my disposal that could help. Not right now anyway. Although … the lab is empty until the holidays are over. I'm coming and then we can see what we can get done" She added.
"You would do that for us?" Caitlin asked pretty surprised.
"Do not sound so surprised, I have a bit of an engineer in myself even though I'm a physicist at the core. Besides I wouldn't even be here, if you haven't saved my life earlier this year. Where do I need to go?" She asked.
"Central City Airport. Cisco will be waiting for you to take you to Star City. We dispatched the jet to come get you. I suggest you pack for a few days. We'll take care of the living arrangements for the time you`re here. We'll see you when you arrive" Caitlin spoke
"Thank you, Tina" Barry added.
"I said I would help with whatever I can and I meant it, Barry. See you in a couple of hours" she hung up the line
"Cisco, did you hear all that?" Barry asked his friend
"Yea. I'll meet Dr. McGee at the airport and then well come to you. See you when we get there. Make sure Felicity is all right" the engineer replied
"Cisco, Me and Laurel will be waiting for you when you arrive" Thea interjected.
"Ok. See you in a bit" Cisco closed the line while Caitlin dialed another number.
"This is Caitlin Snow. I need to speak to Curtis Holt" she told the receptionist. After a few minutes a voice could be heard from the other side of the line.
"Dr. Snow, what can I do for you?" Caitlin put the phone on speaker.
"Curtis, Felicity has been shot. We need you to tell us at what point are you with Project A372" Barry replied instead of his fiancée.
"The chip? Most of the theoretical work is done, but we don't have the people yet to make a prototype. The project has been mothballed for being too costly to develop as well" He responded.
"What do you need? " Caitlin asked.
"Two bioengineers at least for the neural interface, another engineer to help me build the thing and a physicist to help me in perfecting the power cell required for the chip to run without needing it to charge every few hours. The power cell I was developing when you took over should last a lifetime" Curtis told the two.
"We got Caitlin and me for bio engineers, Cisco for the other engineer and Tina McGee in the physics department. What else do you need?" Barry spoke swiftly.
"20 million dollars? The fabrication process isn't easy and there are only a few places where we can get some components, not to mention that some of the elements the parts require are very expensive. The others that are simpler in nature we'll have to build at STAR West" Curtis told them shocked by the eagerness of his two bosses.
"Money isn't a problem. We can assign that to the project as soon as we get into the office today. Are you up for some work to help Felicity?" Caitlin asked.
"Yes. She was kind to everyone else and very nice and supportive of my research. I think everyone would actually come to work if it was to help her. If needed I can get all the fabrication department online to help her" the answer came.
"Good. We might need that later. We need to resolve the theoretical issues with the prototype first then send it to fabrication. We need to make sure that the science is sound, compared to robotics or anything else, playing around with someone's spinal column is not something we will have many chances to get wrong. Meet us as STAR West in an hour. The rest of the personnel will come by jet from Central City and will join us later" Barry told Curtis.
"Understood. I'll be there within the hour" he closed the line. The two speedsters got up and got their clothes in order.
"Oliver, we're heading back to STAR West. You stay here and make sure Felicity is fine. Don't tell her anything yet, we don't want to get her hopes up. Tell her we came by and we might be back later" Barry commented.
"Leave word for the doctors when they come back that whatever they want to try with her they will need MY specific approval. Ms. Smoak, in case they offer you therapy options or other things, here's my number, call me and either me or my fiancée will come and take a look at them. We don't want them to poke around and maybe do more harm than good" Caitlin told Oliver and Felicity's mother. Donna nodded, but she and Quentin were in a state of shock. As they had been ever since the two speedsters started calling around.
"Got it. What did you two find out anyway that got you so pumped up?" Ollie asked
"This" Barry showed him "It's a project for a chip that Curtis was working on until it got mothballed because the board of directors didn't think it will bring any sort of money and because it was stupidly expensive to get going. Something that would probably cut into their profits. Of course, what would you expect from those greedy bastards" Oliver took the tablet and when he read it his face started to smile.
"Is this real life now? You think you can get this done?" He asked.
"I know we can. Maybe not as fast as we initially thought but … even if her mobility on her own is completely gone. That should help her walk again" Barry gave Ollie a large smile.
"Wait, are you guys going to leave Central City unattended for a few days just to do this for Felicity?" Oliver looked at them with an extremely surprised face.
"It's Felicity, man, come on. Is that even a question? It's nothing you wouldn't do for us if we were in the same situation" Barry replied getting up and holding Caitlin's hand. The other speedster agreed with him. It wasn't even a question, Ollie could see it in their eyes "We'll be at the labs. Call us if there's any change in her condition" the two said goodbye to the rest and left in a hurry toward STAR.
"Don't they need a car to get there quick?" Quentin asked out of politeness.
"A car would only slow them down" Thea started to laugh leaving Quentin baffled. Donna finally managed to get out of the shock of what was happening in front of her and spoke
"What just happened?" She asked.
"Those two might have a way to make Felicity walk again" Thea answered reading over the project file that was on the tablet.
"No ... I mean. Two of the richest people in Central City just vacated their posts for however long it takes to develop something to help my daughter. They chartered their own private jet to fly in people they trust and I'm pretty sure I heard something about 20 million dollars development fees for what they want to do?" Donna was stunned.
"Being rich isn't who they are, although in all fairness 20 million dollars is probably chump change to them. Those two right now have a net worth of around 3 billion. Both are doctors as you saw, but that isn't all they are. Beside that some of their more colorful degrees include bio engineering, genetics, hematology and a few other things. Oh and, just to complete everything they both have Crime scene investigator training as well" Oliver said, visibly proud of his two friends. Quentin's face fell. He had no idea who the two people were, but it was pretty clear Oliver did and hearing it from him just made the whole thing that much more real.
"But why do all this. I understand Felicity is pretty important to the firm seeing that she apparently is the VP of their last acquisition. Still the question remains, that is an immense pull of resources just so that my baby girl could have a chance, however slight, at walking again" Donna couldn't process what the two were trying to do.
"Being VP or their employee doesn't even register as a reason, Ms. Smoak. She is their friend. A close friend I might add and they trust her enough to give her STAR West to run. That's why you probably never heard of them before the press conference. Felicity is doing a bang up job for the company so their presence is seldom required" Laurel added.
"Trust them. They will do everything humanly possible to make sure Felicity is all right. Those two have more qualifications than half this hospital combined" Oliver chuckled exaggerating a bit for comedic effect. Donna still couldn't believe her ears. Two billionaire geniuses left everything and pulled a ton of resources in helping her daughter.
"Oliver, find the time and thank them for me please. In case I don't manage to meet them until they have to leave. I now understand that they are just two people wanting to help a friend. I hope they manage, for Felicity's sake" she asked the archer and he nodded in agreement.
"We're going to go to the airport. The jet should be on its way by now and it doesn't take that long for them to get here from Central City" Thea added "Let Felicity know we haven't forgotten her, but also don't mention anything about what the guys are doing" Oliver nodded and the two left, leaving him with Donna and Quentin, the same three that initially came to the hospital to watch over the blonde woman.
Barry and Caitlin reached STAR West in under 5 seconds. They went up the building to the window they left open when they sped out to go to the hospital. Barry went and got food for them, it had been a bit of time since they last ate. They were both worried about Felicity but that didn't mean they should collapse from starvation. After they finished the 10 pizzas that Barry brought they put on normal clothes and lab coats and headed down to the R&D level where Curtis, which had arrived even faster than he initially projected, was waiting for them.
"Mr. Allen. Dr. Snow. What do you want me to do?" Curtis asked.
"This is your project. I saw who developed the initial designs so as of this moment we aren't your bosses, we are your colleagues and we are going to work with you. Tell us what you need done" Barry told the man.
Curtis, Barry and Caitlin got to work. As long as they didn't have their engineers they decided to focus on the neural interface part. The progress they did in just a few hours before the others arrived was quite impressive. Curtis could see the two work in sync and did exactly what they were told and in some cases offered options that were far better than he thought. It was clear they knew what needed to be done, he didn't have to direct them at all and they were probably as good at bioengineering as he was, if not better.
"Hello everyone. What needs building?" Cisco asked coming into the room.
"Curtis Holt, this is Cisco Ramon. Executive Director at STAR Labs and our resident whiz engineer. You said you needed something built, he can build it for you" Caitlin spoke.
"And this is Dr. Christina McGee, head of Mercury Labs. She's the brilliant physicist who is going to help you with your power cell issue" Barry added. Curtis was a bit taken aback by the last introduction. He had heard much about Mercury Labs and Dr. McGee and at this point was wondering if his two bosses couldn't bring anyone they wanted if it meant helping one of their friends. Tina shook Curtis's hand, took her jacket off and grabbed a lab coat.
"So what do we have to do?" she asked, ready to help
"Curtis, you and Dr. McGee get the power cell working. Caitlin and I will take care of the bio engineering part. The schematics are pretty solid and we can work by them and improve them if we find new solutions. Cisco, you take the device schematics and see what you need to build the chip as well as the casing and the power cell itself. Do me a favor. Everything you want fabricated, do it yourselves, you are the best at what you do and I know we won't have any accidents. I want the best prototype to go into Felicity, as you might know spine surgery has always been very complicated. If it is done multiple times then it can produce irreparable damage on its own. While I don't think there is something worse than a total spinal break we still have to do this as best as we can" Barry told them. Inadvertently he started to give orders, but nobody seemed to mind, the assignment of tasks was satisfactory to everyone there so nobody had anything to comment.
"Everyone ok with that?" Caitlin asked for politeness' sake realizing that Barry had started bossing everyone around without even realizing it. They didn't answer, just nodded and went about their respective business. Caitlin started to admire Barry for his take control attitude when it came to a crisis. She could do that as well in a pinch, but she was the one person that the speedster never had to give any sort of task to. She was almost always on the same page as he was.
At the end of that day everyone went home except the two speedsters who decided to cheat and started working at super speed. They managed to improve Curtis's designs quite a bit, making the connection to the chip that came from the neural net they were building wired instead of wireless. They thought that would be good since a wireless signal could be hacked or potentially shut down entirely or jammed which would leave Felicity helpless.
They managed to pinpoint the areas of the brain which was producing impulses which were required to be transmitted toward the spinal column but they soon hit a snag.
"Barry, how do we differentiate between the signals that have to go to … the hands and the ones that need to go to her legs?" Caitlin asked.
"Can't we just copy all of them and just send them through? I mean the commands that are redundant should not even be taken into account" Barry responded.
"No, that won't work. If we try to do that then I'm pretty sure we can cause some serious damage. Passing signals that can't be interpreted could lead to muscle atrophy, or even worse, the multitude of signals can confuse the limbs and she might actually have problem controlling other parts of her body as well" Caitlin saw that the solution for the chip control wasn't as good as they thought initially.
"Hey, Cait. What if we scrap the neural net completely? In the end we just need to bypass the broken area right?" He asked.
"Well, essentially ... yeah. What are you thinking?" she asked seeing the glint he got in his eyes.
"Simple. We scrap the network and we just make a bypass. Instead of using one chip we use two. One that will copy the signals that arrive at the broken part of her back and the other one that will relay them over that to the intact part of her lower spine. Like a patch in an electric circuit. That way we don't have to worry about static or weird signals that we might convey from the upper part that is intact and still attached" Barry looked at his fiancé explaining what he had thought
"That actually might be way easier than we initially thought. The neural net and the signal differentiation was the big problem in this design" Caitlin replied.
"I'm not entirely comfortable experimenting on Felicity, you know" Barry spoke.
"Neither am I. It's Curtis's idea, we should confer with him and Cisco and see what we come up with" Caitlin off came as the voice of reason. Barry agreed so they stopped working and went to bed. The next morning when they woke up they went out and brought coffee and donuts and breakfast assortments for everyone and they went back to the lab, the others finding them there working on their theory. They had kept in touch with Oliver which told them that Felicity hadn't woken up yet.
"Don't you two ever sleep?" Tina asked coming into the lab.
"We did sleep, but we also came up with something. Curtis, we thought of another way to do this. Remember the biggest problem this project had?" Caitlin asked
"Yes, the neural net had to differentiate between signals to know what to send to the part of the spine that is detached. Why?" The scientist asked.
"Why don't we just jump that? We thought about using two chips. One to copy the impulses from above the broken area and one to transmit it below. That way the impulses that don't need to be there will be gone before they reach the break point" Barry showed him the schematics the came up with.
"That is … actually possible and since we don't need the neural network processor then the power requirements would be minimal just to compensate for the resistance in the wires that will make the connection. How come I didn't think of that?" Curtis smiled but was also surprised.
"Which could mean we would set up a wireless power transmitted from the power cell and a receiver in the circuit which would keep it running without the need for us to actually put the power cell inside Felicity" Cisco smiled.
"Wireless power is pretty lossy sadly. We would need to have something that transmits the power directly through her skin and as close as possible" Tina said eating a donut and drinking coffee "Maybe a belt of some sort would help?"
"We need to put at least a small energy source in her. The belt could be used to charge and keep the signals running, but for example if she wants to take a shower she shouldn't like … fall down instantly" Caitlin said.
"Yes, but the power cell Curtis has showed me is rather large. Putting that under her skin would not be advisable. There is a limit of how big an object can be before the body actually starts to react to it" Barry interjected, making Tina smile
"We can make a smaller version just for input output power? The power receiver will charge the small cell from the large one, but the small one will have enough power to keep Felicity going at least a week. Would a 5 by 5 round cell do the trick?" Curtis asked the two doctors for a medical opinion
"That would be something her body can withstand as a foreign object without a problem" Caitlin responded.
"See? Told you we rock" Cisco smiled "I can build that no problem" Tina was surprised at how much of a tightly knit friendship the three had. They worked very well together and Barry and Caitlin, those two were something that she had no words for. She knew who they were, but seeing the people behind the masks working to save their friend earned them even more respect from the aging physicist.
"Let's get to it" Barry smiled and started to work on the transmission process and everything they needed to convey the signals was what Caitlin was working on.
"This could help a lot of people. You weren't kidding when you said you want STAR Labs to be a force for good and help the common people" Tina smiled.
"Sadly we won't be able to help them with just this. First we need to see if it works, then some way to make the fabrication process more refined and less costly. A common person would have no chance of receiving this if it costs 200.000 dollars to make" Barry replied.
"When we perfect that and we get the cost down, we will release it to the public so that everyone can benefit" Caitlin added. Tina looked at the two. It was obvious they didn't care about the money. Someone who was greedy would simply release the product as a miracle cure and didn't care about how much it costed or if the common folk would have access to it. These two did since it was the first thing that they thought about.
"But first let's make it work and then we can talk about fabrication costs hmm?" Cisco smiled. The scientists worked throughout the day and Cisco managed to build the smaller power cell that they should put inside Felicity. The theory was sound and the cell should be enough for the power requirements of the system they were designing. The materials that were chosen were not the usual steel and magnesium housing, which the larger power cell used. The two bioengineers made it from materials that they knew the human body could accept and not attack them or try to degrade them leading to some sort of heavy metal poisoning later. It was something that was very hard to do, but our two speedsters, with the help of Cisco managed to make happen after a bit of brainstorming and a lot of work.
"In the end, can't we just make like ... a charging pad from a normal outlet that she can use to charge the small cell herself?" Cisco thought with his voice.
"The wireless recharger would be compatible with any sort of wireless power it would just recharge the cell at different rates. Why did you think of that Cisco?" Caitlin asked him a bit surprised
"It's pretty simple actually. The larger power cell will probably not run out anytime soon and she could use it anytime that she isn't around an outlet. But for example when she sleeps, if she sleeps on her back the smaller cell can just recharge then. It's … let's say more comfortable. Besides, the inside power cell has to have a wireless power receiver, you don't really want to cut into Felicity's back every time you want to recharge the smaller one. That would not be advisable" the engineer added.
"You`re right. The smaller one has to have the wireless transceiver, so why not actually make it rechargeable from the source. Sure, Cisco. That can work. As long as we have the smaller power cell and the wireless power conduit then we can always find new ways to help Felicity recharge the damn thing. Just make sure it works and we can build her a recharging station later" Barry told his friend
"It's like were talking about Robocop" Curtis smiled making Cisco hi five him.
The day was coming to an end. So did the next day and the next. In four days they had managed to have an almost workable prototype by working around the clock. Tina managed to solve the large power cell problem, making Curtis start to fanboy about something so simple that he had never thought of it.
Cisco got the chip designs and spent most of the day down in the fabrication room getting done what could be done. Some of the components in the chips would require more time but the science was sound. Now Curtis could simply manage the fabrication process without their help. Barry and Caitlin were putting the finishing touches on the programming that would go inside the chips. They weren't near Felicity's level of IT knowledge but they managed to get around by reading a few hundred books while they were lying in bed. Everyone took off toward their respective places in which they had stayed for the past few days. Barry, Caitlin and Cisco however did not head home. Oliver had told them that the blonde woman had regained consciousness so they went to the hospital to see her.
"Hey, you" Barry greeted "You have seen better days huh?" he asked
"Hey! What are you guys doing here? I thought you left right after the press conference" she asked, but you could see she was happy that they came. True to his word Oliver had not told her anything about their involvement, except for the fact they came to visit while she was asleep and that he was keeping them constantly updated on her progress.
"We didn't really manage to leave. Besides, even if we did we would still come back to see you. What would we be doing here otherwise? You think we love hospitals so much?" Cisco replied to the blond woman in the bed who was looking pretty beat up
"Thank you. So … you probably saw what happened" she looked at the three with a sad smile "You two can probably read an X-ray as well as the people here. What's the verdict, doctors?"
"Yeah. We did. The bullet that they managed to get out had already struck your spinal column. It did some pretty serious damage" Caitlin sat down
"I'm never going to be able to walk again, am I?" Felicity knew that her friends won't lie to her even if the only thing they had to convey was an ugly truth.
"No. Not with that kind of damage. Your spine was completely severed. There would have been a chance if it would have been only partially damaged but … nerves are the only parts of the body that do not reattach when cut" Barry told her
"You will spend a few more days in the hospital. Spinal trauma leads to other problems which the doctors need to monitor. Specifically breathing problems" Caitlin added. "We already had to deal with this when Zoom broke Barry's back" they could see the despair on her face.
"Thank you for being honest with me. The doctors that I have talked to told me that I might have a chance with therapy and a few more surgeries, but somehow I knew that was not the case" Felicity gave them a weak smile.
"It's fine, I'm going to take care of you" Oliver told her, they did not have time to tell him the progress of what they were working on
"Ugh. Getting a wedding dress for someone in a wheelchair will be a real pain in the ass" Felicity tried to lighten the mood in the room making Cisco, Barry and Caitlin make really big eyes at her statement.
"Say what now?" Cisco managed to blurt out
"Oh. I kind of proposed that night at the meetup and she kind of accepted" Oliver managed to tell the people that were still oblivious to what had happened.
"Congratulations, except we don't see the ring anywhere" Caitlin commented.
"It's here, just not on her hand" Ollie pulled a small box from his coat. Caitlin looked at Barry
"Should we tell her? She looks pretty depressed right now. Ignore the smile on her face, her eyes are saying droves"
"I really don't know. This type of thing has never been attempted. What if it doesn't work? Aren't we just going to give her false hope?" the speedster replied mentally
"Some hope is better than no hope. Look at how down in the dumps she is right now. Maybe even a little push will get her spirits up. I say we tell her even if we have to stay here until we finish the prototype. I have been keeping up with news from Central City. It seems that the bad guys took a break so it would be better for us to do this now rather than later" Caitlin retorted looking back at him
"We won't have to. Everything else except the fabrication is done and Curtis can easily take care of that. Felicity was right, that is one smart man. Glad she didn't fire him when those idiots told her to. Without him I doubt we could have gotten this done as fast as we did" Barry smiled at her. Oliver, Felicity and Cisco knew what was happening. The two were extremely quiet and looked at each other like they were talking with their eyes and their expression changed from time to time.
"Hey, you two need to stop doing that" Felicity actually smiled seeing them
"Yeah, that whole mental communication this is pretty creepy. Also really rude" Cisco quipped.
"Sorry, we were debating if we should tell you something or not and we reached an agreement. Felicity, you might be able to walk at your wedding" Barry smiled.
"What? Wait … didn't you just say that my spine is broken and I would never walk again? " Felicity's face fell her expression was frozen with surprise.
"Are you serious? Did you guys manage to pull it off in 4 days?" Oliver stood up with a frozen face not believing what his ears had heard
"Yes, we did, Ollie. We discovered through STAR West's files a project that was mothballed by the board for being too costly. Something that Curtis thought up before he was working on the power cell. We're really glad you stood up for him and didn't fire him when they told you to. He managed to draw up plans for a chip that could be used on people with spinal injuries to help them walk again. Everything that we needed was there, but as you know theory and practice rarely intermingle" Caitlin added.
"We have been here since you were shot working on a prototype. We hit a few snags, redid the designs, recalculated everything and went through all of it again to make sure the science was solid. It was a lot of work, but we can have a workable prototype by next week. The research is done but the fabrication process will take a while for some of the components. I have to stress this has never been attempted before so it might not work at all. But we can make the prototype available to you the day it had been completed and let Curtis work out the kinks after we're done" Barry smiled at the blonde woman.
"Yes, Dr. McGee can only be here till tomorrow and we have to go back to STAR Labs as well before metahumans start to ravage the city. But it seems that they took a break for the holidays. How civil of them, almost like they knew we had to come here to help you" Cisco smiled.
"Wait. You actually managed to get Tina McGee to help? Isn't she like the head of your biggest competitor?" Felicity managed to speak
"She is, yes, but she is also a friend and we kind of saved her life a while back so she owed us one. We just happened to call in that favor now" Caitlin smiled.
"Like we said. The technology is untested, you will need to have surgery for the chips to be implanted. In addition to the chips and the connections between them, you will have a small power cell that should give you no trouble and that can last 7 days implanted in your back. That way you won't have to carry the large one around with you when you want to shower or swim or take a bath. The large power cells that Tina and Curtis finally managed to get working you should have no problems in carrying around with you while you do your daily tasks" Barry told the blond woman.
"Of course, like with all other spinal injuries you will need to learn to walk again little by little and not forcing yourself, but something tells us that Mr. Queen over here will take care of that. Won't you, Mr. Queen?" she smiled toward the archer who nodded instantly "Just one question though. Can you work in your condition? Or maybe you need some time off to recover. Whichever is fine, we just needed to know since without you there, we would have to come over more often from Central City to take care of things" Caitlin asked as an informative point
"Sure I can. All I need is a computer and I can manage STAR West the same way I used to do Palmer Tech. It's even easier now because I don't have to be in lame board meetings once every few days. If there's a problem I can call you directly and I can speak with the employees via the internal system which I have access to from anywhere. So … not a real problem. Besides now that I can't really go anywhere, if I don't do anything I'll die of boredom" Felicity gave the couple a large smile. She then realized how much she meant to them. They spent 4 days to try to give her an out, a chance of walking again after they saw the initial results. They left Central City and took Cisco and Tina with them to help her. Tears started streaming down her face "Thank you. Even if this doesn't work, thank you for at least letting me have the possibility of walking as hope for the near future" she managed to say between the tears. Oliver was completely frozen.
"Ollie? You ok? Earth to Ollie?" Barry asked bringing the archer out of his trance.
"You guys managed to do it. I thought you were kidding but you actually managed to do it. Thank you. Thank you so much" Barry had never seen Grumpy Oliver smile so widely until now
"Remember what we told you that day. It's Felicity, come on, is that even a question?" Caitlin started to laugh and soon the whole room was laughing
"We didn't even use super speed, since Curtis was with us. We could have probably done it in two days" Barry said in between bouts of laughing.
"You two can really do anything if you put your minds to it, can't you?" Felicity smiled brightly through the tears that even after laughing were still streaming down her face.
"Well, not really. We haven't been able to set a date for the wedding. So I guess that throws out "anything" out the window" Caitlin told the group.
"Which reminds me. Walking or no walking. Would you two like to be best man and maid of honor at our wedding?" Felicity asked. The couple nodded instantly. Of course they would be there. They wouldn't miss it for the world.
"That question goes right back at you unfortunately" Barry laughed.
"Wait, you want me and Felicity for that?" Oliver asked. The speedsters nodded and the archer looked at his own fiancée who didn't even wait 5 seconds to nod "You got a deal, you take ours, well take yours then" Oliver replied. They said their goodbyes and headed to the places they were staying at.
The next morning they reconvened in the lab and with all the theoretical things finished they decided it would be a good time to leave back to Central City. They said goodbye to Curtis and told them to keep them in the loop about the chip's fabrication status and went with Cisco and Tina back to the airport where they took the jet back.
"I told you we should have bought a jet for ourselves" Barry smiled toward his fiancée "I don't really care, we managed to make those two turn a tragedy into something happy. At least until we see if the chip works or not" Caitlin replied
"Tina, thank you for the assist. I suspect Curtis would have struggled with the power source for a long time if it wasn't for your help" Barry extended a hand to the doctor that was sitting opposite them and she shook it
"I'm glad that I was actually useful. You did initially ask for anything else except a pure physicist. I was afraid that I might have come and couldn't be of any help. I never wanted glory for myself, like Stagg did. I wanted to use Mercury to make the world a better place. It turns out, I didn't even need Mercury. Just a pair of speedsters and a stubborn engineer. If that chip works, it will change so much in the world. One of the most damaging accidents that can leave someone without the ability to walk would be nullified. Do you understand what that means?" Tina told them with hope in her eyes.
"We're just getting started. We have some new projects that could help firefighters get rid of skin lesions and severe burns in days, a treatment that potentially could help regenerate pancreatic cells and cure diabetics and some other things" Caitlin told Tina which by now was thoroughly impressed
"But why are you telling me this? I'm basically your main competitor. Aren't you afraid I might steal stuff from you?" she started to laugh.
"So steal it. If you can make it faster and better then we can do at STAR Labs, be our guest, we`re going to even give it to you. You do realize the faster these things go out on the market the better it will be" Caitlin told her. Tina was surprised about the candor of her statement. The two really did not care about money. Their hope and their actions could really make the world a better place.
"Tina, we saw that you don't care about money. Neither do we. But the fact that we keep poaching each other's potential hires could be something negative for the both of us. We do have enough money to buy you out. But we don't want that either. I would like to propose that instead of our main competitor you become our main ally. That way we can both focus on stuff that are separate, you can do work that you want and that your lab is well equipped to do and prepared for and we can do work that we're good at. That way if we need help from one another all we have to do is ask and everything we do will more than likely be done faster and better if we cooperate rather than if we step on each other's toes" Barry offered an alternative.
"Barry, you know Mercury doesn't have a quarter of the funding you do. Why even offer me this?" Dr. McGee asked surprised.
"Simple. We can always offer funding for a percentage of the profits of whatever you research. That way you never run out of money and you stop worrying and start making the world of better place and if by some chance you run out of projects to do, we can always offload some of ours and give them to you and we split the earnings halfway. The same is true for the reverse scenario. If you find yourself overloaded we can take some of the work off you and give it to our people. I suspect the discussion about money will not be an issue" Caitlin replied surprising her. She was thinking the same thing that Barry was. She thought about it, the deal was not set in stone, she knew the two drove a hard bargain after she found out what happened to Palmer Tech, but she also knew that they would not stab her in the back, trying to buy the labs from under her. The understanding that Barry was proposing was beneficial for both, but that didn't interest her. What did was the fact that it would be beneficial for everyone.
"You got a deal" She finally said smiling toward the two speedsters "Let's make the world a better place, together"
When they got to Central City, they said goodbye to everyone and rushed them home. Making good time in reaching their own apartment.
"You are right. We didn't even think of setting a date for our wedding. Or even who we are going to invite, who are the groomsmen, the bridesmaids and all that" Barry told her while they were in bed
"I don't even know, this is so surreal to me I still haven't managed to wrap my head around it" She answered
"How about somewhere at the end of summer. Getting a venue and everything else wouldn't be much of a problem" Barry stated quite bluntly
"I would like that. Not too hot not too cold. A beautiful day just for the two of us and our friends" Caitlin smiled brightly.
"Any place specific you want to go for our honeymoon?" he retorted
"Wherever is fine as long as I'm with you. But I do want to visit one place in particular. Your father's cabin. We have been there in that landscape for a long while, but we have never actually visited the place" her face was serious.
"I think that can be arranged" Barry grinned at her kissing her lips.