A/N: Hey everyone, first of all sorry I didn't get a new mirror Mirror chapter out in the last week, tax season is crazy this year, plus I've worked a lot on my novel, and my mind couldn't stop thinking about the ending of 7x04.
Sorry writers, but you can't have Caitlin saying Barry's crashing and then cut to him being fine. So here we go, I fixed it :) Enjoy!
"Barry! Barry! Answer us! Shouted Iris barely containing her panic.
-Barry, can you hear me, man? Tried Cisco with shaking lips as he did everything in his power to ignore the increasingly worrying data flashing on the monitor straight from the Flash suit.
The engineer swore under his breath, desperately wishing they could still breach themselves from one part of the city to the other. His thought process got interrupted by an icy voice.
-Call Joe and tell him to join me there, said Frost, causing Allegra to slightly jump in the surprise.
When did the Ice Queen even take over?! Especially without her noticing. Maybe, just maybe, it was because of her own increasing panic at the situation. Barry couldn't die while the rest of them just watched and listened helplessly.
Before anyone in the group could reply or say anything, not that anyone had any better idea in their head at the moment, Frost rushed out of the room with the clear intent to ice bridge to the speedster. She was out before Cisco fished his cellphone out of his pocket, barely avoiding dropping it when a particularly loud shout of pain boomed into their comms. He drew a sharp breath.
-Flash? Quietly asked Chester when the silence followed and everyone's eyes found the monitor tracking Barry's vitals.
His heartbeat and blood pressure were off the roof.
Pick up, pick up, thought Cisco repeatedly as he hit Joe's quick dial number and waited anxiously for the man to answer…
***FLASHFLASHFLASH***
Frost landed on the fight scene barely a few minutes later and her breath got caught in her throat at the sight; both Abra Kadabra and Barry were as still as death and maybe, they were gone.
A painful sound came out of Barry's mouth and his head twitched very slightly, very so slightly, simultaneously reassuring Frost that the man was still alive and yet raising her panic even more at the obvious distress the hero was into. Making a snap decision, she ran toward Abra Kadabra and dug her fingers on his throat. Except, when her fingers made contact and her expert eyes fell on the reformed villain, she swallowed her saliva; Kadabra's neck was clearly broken. He was gone and there was no coming back.
Wasting no more time on the death, Caitlin's frosty counterpart straightened herself before almost instantly kneeling next to the hero's chest, trying to triage the priorities. The speedster's breath was itching at the back of his throat, clearly struggling to get enough oxygen in his lungs. Plus, his barely open eyes were unfocused and staring into the sky, utterly unaware that help had arrived.
-Barry, can you hear me? Gently asked Frost, sounding nearly precisely like the doctor.
Her hand slid inside Barry's, but he showed no reaction. Instead, each and every one of his breaths was shorter and more uneven.
-Barry? She worriedly asked, moving forward and gently pressing her hands on each side of the injured hero's side, feeling his rib cage to confirm her fears. He definitely had numerous broken ribs, including at least one detached bone that might've performed his lung.
His lung's collapsing.
The white-haired woman cursed under her breath, realizing how in her hurry to rush to the hero's side, she completely forgot to bring any sort of medical bag with her. What was she thinking?!
-You don't need a needle, whispered Caitlin's solid and reassuring voice in her head. Her calm, even if she sounded a little shaky, was like a solid rock to grip in a losing fight against a raging current.
A flash of understanding passed to the meta's brain, comprehending almost instantly what the doctor meant. In the next painful second, where Barry still managed to sound even worse, Frost created the smallest circumference ice pique she's ever done. Barely taking a pause to position herself above the speedster's chest, stabilizing her other right next to her target, Frost shoved her newly created weapon into the man's chest. The gasp of pain was instantaneous.
The head rose barely a few centimeters above the ground before the eyes rolled into their sockets, and everything went still.
In all of that, the metahuman's brain barely even registered the screeching tires from behind her, nor did she saw Joe's opening the driver's door. Instead, she was all too focused on the next step. Considering how her patient had been obviously crushed beyond what any person should ever feel, crush syndrome was the obvious yet scariest thing they had to fear.
-Frost! What's going on?! Shouted Joe, his strong yet panicked voice boomed from right behind her.
-Flash's been crushed by something, she blurted out without introduction. We gotta get him back to the lab NOW, I can't risk moving him around on my ice bridges, not with his injuries.
-What about…? Said Joe, eyeing Kadabra's corpse while still obeying the woman and rushing to the other side of his foster's son.
-He's dead; you can call someone to pick him up while we're on the road, she answered.
Carefully, very, very carefully, they picked up their precious cargo off the ground and took him into the car. For a normal person, it could usually take a good four or six hours before severe issues like rhabdomyolysis would appear after the release of a crushed victim. Except, in that case, their patient was everything except normal.
-Come on Bar, hang in there, whispered Joe in the car, speeding up with his police lights on. Speed limits and red lights were a mere suggestion at that point.
Every few seconds, he couldn't but glance at his rear view mirror to try and keep an eye on the wounded man, the newly shaking man. It never is a good idea to take the eyes off the road, but it's even riskier when you're basically breaking every rule in the driving book.
-Stay with us, Barry, stay with us, said the girl whose hair turned from white to brown, allowing the medical expert to take over just a moment ago.
In his unconscious state, the speedster threw his head on the side, then on the next, before doing it again as tremors increased.
-He's going into shock, shouted Caitlin, we need to get there faster!
-I'm trying! Shouted back Joe, his fingernails digging into his steering wheel as he barely avoided a distracted red car who didn't see the police flashers and passed on his green light like he was the only one in the world.
Shaken by the sudden turn in the car to avoid a crash that would mark a death sentence on the already crushed CSI, Caitlin almost lost her grip on the speedster who barely avoided rolling off the lap and off the seat.
-Dammit! She cursed loudly before getting her attention back to Barry.
As she feared, his fast metabolism played against them once again. The dying cells had already released a dangerous amount of potassium, myoglobin and countless more elements and toxin in the speedster's bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream, these elements could overflow the blood too fast to be treated by the liver, especially if that organ had been damaged too.
And, let's not get into the possibility of cardiac arrest in the worst case of blood poisoning.
Just as the thought crossed the doctor's mind…
-Barry? Barry! Stay with us! Shouted Caitlin to the man whose tremors increased to the point of a full blown-seizure. Call STARS NOW, she screamed at Joe.
They were still a good 3 to 4 minutes out and it was three minutes too much.
***FLASHFLASHFLASH***
-Hey, man, welcome back, whispered Cisco, the first voice Barry registered when he came back to consciousness with a heavy feeling on his chest.
A an-elephant-is-resting-on-my-chest kind of feeling.
Breathing was definitely tricky, his chest was in pain all around and he couldn't shake away the sensation of someone or something squeezing his heart. However, he was still alive, so how bad could it really be?
-You're with us? Asked Caitlin's soft voice.
-Are you guys sure he's awake? Inquired a third person, Iris. She sounded so worried.
That alone had Barry's aching heart picking up his speed very slightly, his wife needed to be safe, he needed to keep her from worrying after everything that happened to her in the mirror verse. With every ounce of energy he somehow conjured from deep within, the speedster slowly opened his eyes.
-Hey, he muttered softly, just barely above a whisper.
A massive sigh of relief was heard all around the bed in the medbay at the lab.
-I'm still not used to these, Flash, nervously added Chester, you mind not dying as often in the future?
The man chuckled awkwardly, trying to relieve his own fears in his way.
-Happened? Asked Barry to the doctor who bit her lips. Before she could speak, the speedster noticed the IV inserted in the back of his hand.
-You ...you went into traumatic rhabdomyolysis, Barry. Your bloodstream was so filled with toxins that you went into cardiac arrest on the way back, and you almost went into liver failure. Barely made it in time to get you to the lab, kick back your heart and give you enough fluids to dilute everything flowing in your blood.
On his left, his wife squeezed his hand a little harder than intended, but it sure helped her husband move past all the fog in his mind trying to drag him back under. It also took this for the man to realize Iris was indeed holding his hand.
-I'm... I'm sorry for the scare, he apologized, lowering his head.
-You'll be ok, that's all that mattered, man, said Cisco, jumping back into the conversation. But we're so gonna have a conversation about what the hell was that.
Yeah, yeah, we do, thought Barry as he deeply exhaled. Why was it that every single time they found the way to do the impossible and get rid of a menace, another one would instantly jump at their face, something literally?
Good thing they still had each other.
A/N: Let me know your thoughts in the comments, already deeply appreciated