Disclaimer: I don't own The Flash, nor do I own the characters or the title of this. Credit towards the CW and the people who make The Flash.
Summary: (INSPIRED BY 6x07) Bloodwork managed to infect Barry, and whilst Team Flash are celebrating Ralph staying alive, they forget about their resident speedster until his sleep-monitor just so happens to remind them. Can they save Barry in time? And will he be himself if they do? This is the ONE-SHOT no one asked for :)
Joe, Iris, Cisco and Caitlin were all seated in the cortex of S.T.A.R Labs, the latter explaining to both the detective and the reporter what had happened today. Iris had of course been there during Ralph's recovery, but she couldn't stick around, whereas Joe had his hands full with his responsibilities of being Captain at CCPD.
"So, Ralph is safe at Argus?" Joe asked, his arms crossed against his chest. As much as Ralph would annoy him, he had a soft side for their stretchy friend, especially after he and Barry had made up.
"That's what Lyla said" Cisco replied, he hadn't looked up from his monitor in awhile and they all secretly suspected he was watching the Citizen's security feed to keep an eye on Kamilia.
"Well, I think this calls for a celebratory drink" Joe said, walking out of the cortex towards the lounge, they didn't even know about it until Nora had pointed it out to the others.
Iris, Caitlin and Cisco remained in the cortex, the three of them were more tired then anything after the day's turn. At least Ralph was alive thanks to Barry. They all knew that after the blood transfusion Barry gave Ralph the Scarlet Speedster has become tired so they didn't question him vanishing for the night, they didn't mind that he was probably sleeping, trying to get as much energy as possible to deal with the upcoming Crisis.
Joe walked back into the Cortex moments later, a drink in one hand, his phone in another. He smiled at the trio, the team may be short in numbers but they were a close team, and they trusted one another with their lives.
"So, hows the Citizen going, Iris?" Cisco asked, they all knew he secretly wanted to know more about Kamilla but he and Iris had become closer since they brought Barry out of the Speedforce two years ago.
"It's going well, thank you, Cisco" Iris replied, a smile on her face. Other then Barry and her father, no-one has really asked her how her life outside of Team Flash was going.
They all conversed in small conversations with each other, enjoying the relaxing mood they were in. This was one of the rare times that they are allowed some peace and they were enjoying it.
Barry could feel the sweat dripping down his face, but he didn't care. He was standing face-to-face with the Speedforce, his chest was heaving for breath as he took in the words it was saying. Taking Ramsey's cure would be the only way for their Earth to survive Crisis, and it would give him a chance to be in his daughter's life. He couldn't pass this up, he had to go through with it.
His eyes locked onto the Speedforce, his eyes displaying all different kinds of emotions, but one stood out above them all, hurt. He could feel the Speedforce humming painfully in his body, sending painful zaps of electricity through his cells, clearly trying to shock him enough to calm down.
He blinked blearily, he had no clue as to whether it was from the sudden lightheadedness he was feeling or because of tears welling up in his eyes but he couldn't see straight either way, and he knew something was seriously wrong.
Iris was sitting by one of the monitors when it suddenly blinked to life, an alert system had been activated from something, and only Caitlin and Cisco seemed to understand.
"Meta attack?" Joe asked, his tired body suddenly on full alert.
"No. It's Barry's sleep monitor" Caitlin said, and Iris could feel her stomach drop. What was going on with her husband?
"This can't be right," she said, turning her head towards Cisco, "his vitals are spiking"
"What do you mean his vitals are spiking?" Joe demanded, at least one of the West's could find their voice, Iris thought as she took in Caitlin's words.
"He came to me earlier after having a nightmare, but he didn't think it was like that" Caitlin explained as Cisco ran to go get his goggles and his gloves.
"What did he explain it as?" Iris asked, her eyes showing concern she was failing to hide.
"That it was as if Ramsey was there with him" Caitlin said grimly, "but the only thing I fount wrong with him was that he had a slight drop in Cortisol"
Cisco ran into the room moments later, his goggles on his face and his gloves secured on his hands as he waited for Caitlin. He knew that something was wrong and Barry's heart rate was increasing by the second, they needed to get to him before he triggered a heart attack and fast.
Iris and Joe turned to one another, silently pleading for Barry to be okay. He had to be okay, right? There was no-way he was actually hurt, his sleep monitor was just malfunctioning, right?
Joe walked towards Iris after Cisco and Caitlin had gone, pulling Iris into his arms. They both prayed Barry would be okay, after this, he had to be okay.
Caitlin and Cisco stepped out of the breach moments later, both pairs of their eyes scanning the main room of the loft, it was eerie quiet. They fount him laying on the floor, his breathing was erratic and he was clearly making no attempts at waking up anytime soon.
They crouched down next to their friend, rolling him onto his back so Caitlin could examine him. Cisco noticed how Barry had sweat pouring down his face, his eyes were rolling underneath his eye lids and how he seemed to be gasping for air. It was an awful sight to see.
Caitlin placed her hand against his forehead, she knew it wasn't hard to tell he had a fever but she had to check, it made her feel better if she went through all the stuff she had to.
"He's burning up" she informed Cisco, who was too busy staring at his best friend's limp body.
"Why isn't he speed healing?" Cisco asked and that was the golden question. They had seen his healing singlehandedly save Ralph's life from a fatal injury, so as to why he wasn't healing was a mystery.
Caitlin could hear Frost inside her mind, telling her her thoughts about the situation, she had dealt with this fever before, so Caitlin just had to trust her.
"Frost thinks he's being taken over, that's why he can't heal" she explained, helping Cisco gather the prone body into their arms and lift him through the breach.
At least Joe and Iris would have the medbay set up for them.
Iris waited impatiently for the breach to reappear, she needed to see Barry. It was scaring her them being away for so long.
Suddenly, a blue light filled the Cortex, and a portal appeared, and out stepped Caitlin, Cisco and Barry's unconscious body. Joe felt himself pale at the sight of his son, looking restless and unaware of everything around him.
"Get him on the bed, now" Caitlin ordered, handing over Barry's limp body to Joe, who carried his son with ease onto of the beds in the medbay.
Joe watched as his son's head lolled to the left of the pillow, a reminder that his son had no strength to keep his head in place. His eyes were clenched shut, and Joe wanted to help take the pain away, he would happily place it onto himself just so his son could have a break from it all.
Iris stood from afar as she watched Cisco and Caitlin rush around her husband, hooking him up on all the necessary equipment they needed. She had no idea what went wrong with him though, granted he was exhausted earlier but it had been a hectic couple of days so she didn't see how that was an issue.
"Caitlin, his temperature is rising" Cisco said, his voice slightly high pitched from urgency.
"Can't you use your ice powers to cool him down?" Iris asked, slowly walking towards her husband, her heat beating so fast it might pop out of her chest.
"Ramsey's infection doesn't respond to ice," Caitlin informed them, "we need to treat him medicinally"
Joe stared at his son with worry as his head began thrashing around the pillow, a sure sign of struggle, he had picked up on from Barry's nightmares from when his mother had passed. Caitlin inserted something into his IV and both her and Cisco stared in horror as his temperature began to climb and that's when it all went south.
Barry's body began thrashing around the bed, limbs bending at unnatural angles as both Cisco and Joe tried their best to hold down the seizing man. His heart rate had gone above and beyond what it normally was whilst he was running, there was no way he could make it in one piece.
"Got any sedatives?" Joe asked, his body was slowly becoming tired from holding down his son.
"They don't work on speedsters, we need to wait for him to stop seizing so I can add it into his IV" Caitlin explained, sadness shining brightly in her eyes.
Iris tried her hardest not to run in and scream Barry's name at the top of her lungs, she knew they didn't need the added pressure of keeping her away. Their attention should be directed towards Barry, not his terrified wife.
And then he stilled.
His entire body stilled. The only signs of life was the way his chest seemed to be struggling to bring air into his body.
They had no idea what was happening but they all hoped that the worst of it had passed.
Barry stared at the Speedforce as he could feel the doubts he had locked away become exposed, how his emotions that had been bottled up just exploded, leaving him vulnerable and scared.
He turned towards Ramsey's outstretched hand, not fully comprehending what he was about to do. He had seen first hand the kind of monster people had become after being infected but that didn't even cross his mind, all he wanted to do was survive and he was going to if he listened to Ramsey.
He watched as the black substance filled Ramsey's hand, knowing he had gotten through to the Scarlet Speedster.
Barry was inches away from accepting his life when it all vanished. He could feel the Speedforce fighting back, he could feel how angry it was, and it hurt. Like getting bitten by a shark over, and over again until you're nothing but just bones and rotting flesh.
Next thing he knew, he was face-to-face with the Speedforce once more, begging for forgiveness, wishing for it all to be over with.
He wanted the pain to end.
Everyone remained silent as they battled to keep Barry cool. At some point after Barry's seizure, they had put half a sedative into his IV to keep him under for a little bit. Joe had placed a cool rag ontop of his head, it didn't do much but Joe just wanted to feel helpful. Iris had taken vigil next to Barry's bedside, clutching his warm hand into both of hers.
Cisco had ran out of the room after the seizure, claiming he and Harry had been working on something before he ventured back to Earth-2. Ramsey's infection was slowly taking over Barry, and they didn't know how long he could hold it off.
His temperature continued to rise, it showed no signs of slowing down and it was reaching dangerous levels. Everyone knew Ramsey's infection was bad, but they didn't realise that it controlled people like this.
Cisco ran back in moments later, his and Harry's project in his hand. He eyed the temperature reading before stabbing it into his best friend's thigh. Barry began twitching, his back arching from the feel of the electricity running through his veins. Iris read the label of the substance carefully, the last time a speedster had been injected with it, it began to slowly kill them off.
Joe placed his hand ontop of his daughter's shoulder, sighing in relief when Barry slowly lowered his own back against the bed. It was meant to be a good night, celebrating Ralph's life, celebrating how he was still going to live but now, here they were trying to save their resident speedster's life. It was truly quite the day.
A ping brought them all out of the small daze they had been working in, his temperature reading had reached an extreme temperature, at 111.0, his temperature had finally reached an equilibrium, no longer climbing and Joe didn't know whether to be happy or not.
"C'mon Barry" Cisco said, lightly nudging both Joe and Iris out of the way whilst he clutched onto Barry's hand, trying to rouse his best friend.
Iris stopped registering everything around her, her eyes were only focused on the unconscious man on the bed. She couldn't care less about everything else around her, she just wanted Barry to make it out alive. She hadn't realised that her father had gently pried her out of the seat she was in a they could try and wake Barry, she was focused in on his face, waiting for when he would open his eyes and see the world once more.
Barry didn't realise his situation. He didn't know how this had happened.
He was currently in between both Ramsey and the Speedforce, letting both try and control him, letting both fight one another for the control of his body.
After Zoloman broke his back, he thought pain wouldn't even register on his pain scale but somehow, this had become well known and he hated how much it hurt. Why did everything always want him to be associated with pain? Physical? Emotional? Mental? He had experienced all three of those, most commonly all at once but he still had, and they controlled his life whenever they were given the opportunity to. When would the universe finally give him a damn break and allow him to live his life?
As they neared one another, he could feel it get worse, could feel the battle for control shock each and every one of his nerves, reminding him of when he projected his mind past a wall of Anti-Matter.
And then it all got too much.
He screamed. It was a bloody-curdling scream, and he thought it should cut off, but it didn't..
Everyone froze at the scream being emitted from Barry. They didn't know how to react, one minute Barry was on the brink of death and now he was suddenly screaming as if he was being murdered.
Iris ran towards his side once more as he shot up, his whole body trembling, his eyes were completely out of focus as they darted around the room.
Caitlin was at his side within seconds, trying to coax the hero to lie back down, but he stood up, hands gripping his hair as he mumbled incoherently, swaying on his unstable feet as he backed away from everyone, leaning against a wall for support.
Iris stared at her husband with concern, she had never seen him act like this. It was terrifying watching Barry unaware of everything around him, he didn't even know that he could trust them.
Caitlin and Joe shared a look, they knew what they had to do, to keep him calm and well. He started to approach his son slowly, praying he didn't get startled.
"don't wanna die.. d-don't wanna" Barry mumbled, shaking his head and gripping onto his hair tighter, his eyes were staring at the floor, not like he could see it clearly though, he hadn't been able to see straight since he had almost accepted Ramsey's blood.
"Bear?" Joe asked, taking baby steps towards his son. Caitlin passed Joe a sedative, she knew it wouldn't work on him, but if it could calm him enough then maybe they'd be able to get him onto the bed.
"Iris, lets go for a walk." Cisco said, he knew that he should be there for his best friend but Caitlin and Joe had it covered, they'd be able to help Barry and besides, they were in the way at the moment anyway.
"We're in the way, Iris" Cisco said, approaching Iris, ready to guide her out of the room.
Reluctantly, Iris let Cisco take her out of the room, as much as she wanted to fight him off, she trusted Caitlin and her father to keep Barry safe.
Once Iris and Cisco had left, Joe quickened his pace and grabbed his struggling son, putting him in a grip that he couldn't be able to fight his way out of. He could feel Barry's fatigue wear him down as the struggling lessened, and his head lolled onto Joe's shoulder, resting in the crook of his neck.
Remembering the sedative, Joe grabbed the sedative out of his left hand and injected his son in the neck. Hearing the whimper broke his heart, but he had to push through it, to keep his son from getting more hurt.
Barry had no idea what was happening. He felt arms wrap around him but for no reason, and he could feel himself get weaker by the second, and then he felt the small prick in his neck and he felt his world slowly melt away, leaving a dark void in its place.
Joe felt his son go limp in his arms and he sighed in relief, he could feel how warm his son was and they needed to bring his body back to its normal temperatures. He turned towards Caitlin, a worn smile on his face. Caitlin returned the smile, her's being more exhausted.
They were going to get through this, and Barry would survive Crisis if it's the last thing they do.