Author's Note: IT'S MY FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY ON ! WOOOHOOOO!
As most of you probably know by now, I have this story to thank for ever getting a fanfic account in the first place. So here's a chapter, as a thank you :)
"What?" Barry asked as Caitlin checked her phone for what had to be the dozenth time. The two of them were sitting quite comfortably on the couch watching Jeopardy, but Caitlin seemed fidgety and anxious. "What's going on, Cait?"
"Nothing," Caitlin said quickly, turning off her phone and placing it on the couch next to her. She tried to focus on the show but after only five seconds was picking the device back up and checking her messages.
"Caitlin," Barry groaned, nudging her. "You're making me nervous."
"I'm sorry," Caitlin winced. "I just have a little surprise, and, well…" She shook her head. "You'll see."
Barry frowned at her, not all that comforted.
The doorbell rang.
"She said she was going to text me when she was close!" Caitlin huffed, shooting up from the couch and hurrying towards the front door. Bewildered, Barry shut off the TV and followed after his wife. By the time he reached the entry hall, Caitlin was unbolting the door and pulling it open.
There stood Carla Tanhausser, and, in her arms…
"Nora!" Barry gasped, face lightning up.
Nora reached chubby arms for him, giggling and squirming in Carla's arms. "Ada!" she cried, and Barry lifted her out of Carla's grip. He snuggled the 9-month-old into his chest, pressing kisses to her cheeks and downy hair.
Caitlin was unable to help the tears that spilled over her cheeks at the sight of her husband and baby together again. She reached out and laid a hand on Carla's arm. "Thank you for bringing her back to us on such short notice."
"Of course," Carla replied. "I'll miss having her around to be sure, but she's been missing her mama and daddy."
Barry looked towards Caitlin, eyes swimming with happiness. "Did you hear-? She's-"
"She's starting to talk," Caitlin confirmed, swiping at her cheeks. "Yeah."
Carla handed Caitlin a bag of items. "I did my best to collect all of her things… if I've forgotten anything I suppose it's just an excuse for a visit," she said with a faint smile.
"Do you want to come in?" Caitlin offered. "I can make some tea."
"No, no." Carla glanced at her watch. "I have a meeting early tomorrow and need to make it back home by tonight. Besides, you deserve some family time." She reached forward and gave her daughter a quick hug, before bending slightly and pressing a kiss to Nora's cheek. "Be good, love bug. Grams will see you soon."
Nora babbled and wrapped her hand around Carla's hair, but the new grandmother soon departed. Caitlin reached into the bag her mother had left. "I got something while we were out of town," she said with a grin, pulling out an item.
"You got a Flash teething ring!" Barry cried delightedly.
"She's mostly done with it now," Caitlin told him apologetically. "But maybe a little lightning-bolt stuffy comes next? She'll be getting into that kind of thing soon."
She shut the front door and shouldered the bag, leading the way into the living room. Nora began squirming, and Barry found a spot on the floor to set her down on her tummy. She pressed at the carpet, raising herself to her hands and knees and managing a few scoots before she flopped back down on her stomach again. Barry watched her hungrily, wonder on his face. "She's gotten so big."
"I'm so glad we're all back together again," Caitlin confessed, pressing a kiss to his cheek and then one to the top of Nora's head. She began to riffle through the bag, returning board books, toys, clothes and food items to their rightful places around the loft. "I missed this."
"Me too," Barry murmured, stroking a finger over Nora's head. "So much."
Flash!
Soon after Mirror Monarch's defeat, the organization Central City Strong had cropped up to help with rebuilding the destruction that had happened over the past few weeks. Caitlin, Barry and the rest of Team Flash pitched in their help in the various construction efforts scattered over the city.
Caitlin dropped off Nora to have a playdate with Jenna under the watchful care of a babysitter and joined her friends in the rebuilding efforts. The weather was nice and the company was even better, but she couldn't shake a bad headache that had been bothering her for the past couple of days.
"You got a latte in there?" she asked Cisco as he and Chester compared their boxes of nails. "I'm about as fried as these wires."
"You know what's in order?" Cisco replied. "Jitters run."
"Make it a double," Caitlin requested, lifting up the electrical wires in her hands with a groan and dragging them over to Allegra.
"You okay?" the meta asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Since our fight with Eva, I have been exhausted. And I've got this headache," Caitlin admitted, pressing a hand to her beanie. "And I can't even blame it on Nora for once- she's been sleeping almost eleven straight hours every night."
Her pained expression must have caught Barry's eye because he crossed the work zone and wrapped an arm around her. "You okay?"
"Fine," Caitlin assured him with a quick smile.
"If you need to recharge, can't you just, like, Frost out?" Allegra suggest quizzically, hoisting a plank onto a nearby sawhorse.
Caitlin eyed her incredulously. "No, not out here," she said. "You and I know she's reformed, but… technically there's still a warrant out for Killer Frost's arrest."
A sudden jolt of pain made her flinch and rub at her head. Barry eyed her in concern. "Hey, do you need to take a break? You just got out of the recovery period for a life-threatening injury… it's okay if you need to take it slow."
"I'm fine," Caitlin repeated, glancing down at the wires in her hands. "Besides, these aren't going to affix themselves."
Flash!
The next day there was an odd attack near Central City's wharf. A disappearing shed, and tiny unidentifiable sculpture that somehow weighed two tons, an entire crime scene infected with massive amounts of futuristic temporal energy, a dead body stuck through with playing cards…
In truth, there was only one person who could be the cause: Abra Kadabra. Barry was stressed. Cisco was stressed.
And Caitlin still couldn't get her gosh-darn headache to leave her alone.
Before long, there was a massive spike in the same temporal energy found at the crime scene, and Vibe and the Flash were showing up to the scene with Frost on standby. Barry zoomed in and immediately slapped cuffs on Kadabra, stopping him from whatever odd thing he was doing with a new two-ton miniature sculpture.
"Flash! I knew it was just a matter of time," Kadabra said in his usual breathy, dramatic way.
"Bad timing for you, Kadabra," Barry shot back.
Kadabra twisted his hands, clearly trying to break his bindings. Cisco smirked. "Yeah, those would be nanotech nullifying cuffs, so… no hocus-pocus this time." He waved at the sculpture in front of them, a perfect match to the one found at the crime scene earlier. "Hey, what's up with all your new toys?"
"A magician never reveals his secrets," Kadabra scoffed.
"It's over," Barry cut in. "You've lost."
"Have I?" Kadabra sniped. "It seems you've forgotten the art of… misdirection."
The sound of clicking handcuffs rang out and Barry looked down in shock to see the meta cuffs that had just been on Kadabra's wrists strapped around his own.
"Oh shoot," Cisco muttered as Kadabra grinned and the two of them readied themselves for the fight.
Cisco was knocked back in moments, leaving Barry spinning frantically between him and Kadabra. "You know what?" the magician said. "I'm doing you a favor by killing you now, Flash. This way, you'll never have to face the wrath… of the Chronarch."
Barry's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Kadabra raised his energy wand. "Alas… you can't run forever."
He waved the wand and Barry shrank back but. Before he could fire, the technology was coated in sudden ice. Frost emerged, smoke billowing around her hands. When Kadabra turned back to Barry, he found Cisco's gauntlet at his throat. "What was that you were saying about the art of misdirection?"
Flash!
ARGUS showed up with remarkable speed to pick up Kadabra and his two mini-obelisks. While Cisco was trying to get their plans for the time traveler out of one of the field agents, Frost casually picked up a piece of evidence she thought might be useful.
"Hey," she said, sidling up to Cisco. "Look what I liberated from one of the transport guards."
"Ice, ice, bandit," Cisco punned, sounding impressed. "What is it?"
"I don't know," Frost admitted, furrowing her brow both in thoughtfulness and against the headache still beating at her temples. "But it was on Abra Kadabra when they took him down. Maybe it has something to do with the obelisk?"
"Yeah, maybe…" Cisco mused, reaching for it.
Frost held the cube back. "Ah! Before you nerd out completely… I need a favor."
It didn't take the too of them long to get set up in STAR Labs' med lab. After a good half hour of tests, Frost found herself waiting anxiously on the edge of the gurney. "What's wrong with me?" she asked Cisco, glancing at the door just to make sure Barry wasn't hovering around the periphery.
It wasn't that she was hiding this from him, but… he'd been so very concerned about her lately, a legitimate reaction after what they'd all gone through, and she didn't want to scare him with what might be nothing at all.
Cisco turned around, face glazed. "So much," he breathed.
Frost's eyes widened. Maybe this wasn't nothing at all.
Then Cisco's expression broke. "I'm kidding. You're fine."
Frost rolled her eyes at him.
"Every dark matter reading I'm seeing is completely normal," Cisco went on, shrugging. "What does Caitlin have to say?"
"She says it's 'just a headache'," Frost groaned.
"Hm. She's probably right."
Frost shook her head. "I know something's off," she muttered.
There was a rap at the door and Frost and Cisco glanced over to see Barry standing in the doorway. "Uh… hey guys," he said, frowning at the wires attached to Frost's temples. "What's… going on?"
"That's my cue," Frost smirked, and faded into Caitlin.
"It's nothing, Barry," Caitlin told him, detaching the wires and making to stand. "Frost is just paranoid about this headache we've been getting-"
"You still have a headache?" Barry broke in, eyebrows furrowing in concern. "The same one from yesterday?"
More like the same one from three days ago, Caitlin thought. She just smiled, patting Cisco's shoulder. "Thanks for indulging Frost."
Barry grabbed at her arm as she tried to make her way out of the lab. "Caitlin, if something was going on, you'd tell me, right?"
"Hey, this is Frost's suspicion," Caitlin protested, holding up her free hand. "Personally, I think it's just a headache and she's massively overreacting. I totally understand her wanting to keep tabs on it, though, but we ran a bunch of tests and there's nothing wrong. Okay?"
All of a sudden, all three of their phones buzzed. Barry got his out first. "Kadabra's just escape custody," he murmured, locking horrified gazes with Caitlin. "He's loose somewhere in ARGUS."
He eyed her uncertainly, clearly not feeling like their conversation was over. "Go," Caitlin assured him, patting his chest. He hesitated. "Go."
Barry nodded and zoomed off.
Flash!
The rate at which events could fall downhill never ceased to amaze Caitlin. One moment, Barry was off to hunt down Kadabra and stop him from fully escaping ARGUS. The next, the time traveler was teleporting at random across the city and…
"He created an antimatter bomb," Cisco realized, sitting back in his chair with a look of horror on his face.
"That kind of power- it could take out another Earth," Caitlin realized, fear spiking in her chest.
"Or another universe," Chester added.
"Wait, what?" Allegra gasped. "Are we about to have Crisis Part 2?"
"No, no," Cisco broke in. "There's not enough antimatter energy for that, thank the sequel gods, but… the core is roughly the size of a baseball."
"A baseball," Caitlin gaped. "Barry, a trace amount nearly took out your leg!"
Barry didn't look at her, staring fixedly at the Kadabra tracker Cisco and Chester had rigged. "Is there enough to destroy the city?"
"I'd say there's exactly enough."
Barry turned towards them slowly. "Abra said his last trick was to make the whole city disappear. Destroying Central City must be his plan. But why now?"
"I don't know, but guys," Chester spoke up, "every time he teleports, that bomb gains kinetic energy. I think he's charging it. And if I'm reading this right… this bomb's already at 47%. At this rate it'll be fully charged within the hour."
"Okay." Allegra took a quick breath. "What do we do?"
"There's gotta be a way to disarm it," Barry said, looking hard at Cisco. "Right?"
He nodded. "I could use one of my Atlanean plug-ins to analyze the bomb's outer hull, determine its density, see if you could phase through it's surface, and…" he trailed off. "Disarm it."
"That's not a good face," Caitlin peeped.
Cisco leaned forward, resting his clasped hands against his forehead. "The bomb is made of the same material as the obelisks. Pure valorium. A Nth metal alloy. It's impenetrable to anything but the antimatter itself. Which means…"
"You can't access the core and disarm it," Caitlin realized, finishing the sentence.
"Even if we could figure out a way to catch Kadabra, his teleportation pattern is completely randomized, so there's no way to catch him until he stops moving… and detonates the bomb," Chester reported grimly.
Barry leaned against the desk, forehead creased. "I should have known Kadabra was up to something when we caught him so easily," he muttered. "He wanted to be in ARGUS. We helped him get the last piece of that weapon. I just let it happen."
Self-loathing scrawled across his face, he pushed off for the exit.
"Barry, it's going to be okay," Caitlin protested soothingly, reaching out for him.
He brushed her off. "How?!" he demanded. "He has antimatter! The most dangerous substance in existence. And now if- if we can't figure something out, the entire city- millions of lives- will be lost." His gaze locked on her. "He escaped and is going to hurt the people I love. Again."
Barry turned and strode out of the Cortex.
Caitlin sighed, bitting her lip. She knew the situation was grim and the consequences if they failed dire but… there was a certain weight in Barry's final statement that felt like something more than all of that.
She glanced around at her Team, all of them eyeing each other uncertainly. "I'll go talk to him," she offered.
She found her husband down in the Pipeline and smiled a bit at the familiarity of the hiding space. "Hey, you good?" she queried as she joined Barry on the ledge at the side of the room.
Barry offered her a weak smile. "No," he admitted quietly.
Caitlin nudged his knee with her own. "What's going on?"
"Do you remember the last time Kadabra broke out of prison?" Barry murmured, eyes skimming her face.
Caitlin felt a shudder run through her. She remembered quite well: the explosion, blinking dust from her eyes to find a metal pole sticking through her, talking Julian through her own surgery as Barry gripped her hand like a vice, the recovery, and then…
Flatlining.
The necklace coming off.
Turning into Killer Frost.
The pieces clicked into place and Caitlin shut her eyes for a second, letting out a shaky breath.
"I had to watch you die, Cait," Barry whispered, resting his head back against the wall. "And now I might have to do it again. You're still recovering from your light wound, and now you've been having these headaches and I just- I can't lose you. Not again. Never again. Fighting against Kadabra is bringing it all back."
"Barry…" Caitlin murmured, reaching for his hand. "I'll be okay."
That promise was so empty. If it was up to her, of course she'd be okay; she'd survive. Of course they all would. But that wasn't how being a superhero worked.
He nodded, gaze distant as his thumb stroked circles across her skin. "Abra said something today, at ARGUS. He said he'd found his light and hope and that I… stole it from him."
Caitlin frowned thoughtfully. "That might be it, Barry," she realized. "That might be the reason he's doing all of this."
Barry nodded. "And it might be the way to stop him."
Flash!
For the one of the first times in Flash history, Barry's pep talk… worked. He reached Abra Kedabra's heart and the magician stood down.
Less than a minute later, the ground began shaking.
"I'm picking up enough seismic energy to rattle us back to the Stone Age," Cisco reported grimly.
"Detecting a massive biosignature," Caitlin added, gaze locked on her tablet screen. "Barry, whatever's causing these tremors is heading right towards you."
The rumbling increased exponentially until a gigantic being stomped forward. It slammed its fist into Barry's chest and sent him flying backward, so hard he bent in the side of a nearby car. "Barry!" Caitlin cried, startled and alarmed.
The being roared. It was a gigantic, vein-threaded female humanoid with a purple jumpsuit and a long brown ponytail. "You are an ugly one," Kadabra muttered, placing himself in front of the giant as Barry struggled to lift himself off the pavement.
"I've got this, Flash," Kadabra assured him and raised his wand. "Stand down, beautiful. Or I'll use every ounce of this antimatter bomb to blow you to kingdom come." He activated the bomb and the giant spun towards it. Then she leapt into the air, grabbed the bomb with her bare hands, and crushed it.
The bomb imploded into sheets of silvery light. Barry and Kadabra flinched back, but the giant simply threw out her arms, skin glowing sickeningly as she absorbed the energy.
"That's impossible," Kadabra breathed, before gritting his teeth and raising his wand again. "Fine. See how you like this trick!"
Before he could make another move, the giant ran forward and slammed her fist into his chin. Kadabra flew backward and smashed into a mailbox.
Barry rose hesitantly. "Philippe?" he asked. Kadabra's grip went lax and he dropped his wand.
He was dead.
"What have you done?!" Barry roared at the giant, who roared right back but with much less intelligible words. Barry let out an enraged scream and generated a gigantic bolt of lightning, which he sent directly into the giant's chest.
Like before, the energy only seemed to make her stronger, absorbing into her grayish skin. She leapt into the air, but before Barry could dart away she'd landed again and grabbed him like a child would an action figure. She crushed him into her gigantic chest, squeezing.
"Respiratory distress, elevated blood pressure," Caitlin rattled off, fingers gripping the edges of her chair. "He's crashing. Barry. Barry!"
Barry let out a scream of agony, the sound of his bones crunching filling his ringing ears.
But all at once, the giant released him, tossing him to the cobblestones before she roared and launched into the air.
"We're coming, Barry," Caitlin told her husband breathlessly, full-body shaking as she and Cisco raced for the door. They arrived at the scene to find Barry trying to push himself to his feet and Caitlin hurried for him, wrapping an arm around his waist. Barry groaned and Caitlin felt her stomach turn at the clear feeling of his broken ribs under her hand.
Speed healing, she reminded herself firmly as she and Cisco helped Barry into the van. He has speed healing.
Even with speed healing, it took a painful hour of setting bones and then another two of rest before Barry could even consider getting back on his feet again. Even once he was recovered, he was still miserable.
"Philippe was trying to heal," he said softly as Caitlin wandered around her lab, tidying things up and occasionally checking on Nora, who was sleeping in a bassinet beside her dad's gurney. It was late, and Caitlin hoped she'd be able to get her daughter home without waking her up. "Just like the rest of us. This isn't fair."
"Death never is," Caitlin murmured, pausing at his bedside to stroke her fingers through his hair.
"What was that thing?" Barry asked aloud, maybe rhetorically. "It absorbed the full power of an antimatter bomb. How the heck are we supposed to stop something that powerful?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe the same way we've stopped all the other crazy powerful bad guys before it?" Caitlin suggested, half-teasingly. She gave her husband a sympathetic smile. "I know tonight was rough, Barry. But you're alive; you made it out. The city wasn't destroyed by crisis part two. Maybe we can be grateful for that, just for tonight?"
Barry nodded, smiling weakly back at her and holding out his arms. "We crashing here tonight?" he asked tiredly as Caitlin sat down on the creaky gurney and curled into his chest.
Caitlin shrugged. "I'm not opposed to the idea," she yawned, casting one last glance over at her baby to make sure everything was how it was supposed to be.
Barry traced his fingers across the back of her head and Caitlin nuzzled her nose into his neck. "If you ever need to talk about things that everyone else might think we've moved past," she began slowly and a bit vaguely, "you know I'd talk them through with you, right?"
"I know," Barry murmured, pressing his lips to her temple. "Thank you."
"I love you," Caitlin sighed. Her eyes slipped shut as the days stress made the gurney feel a hundred times more comfortable than it actually was.
Barry kissed her head again. "I love you, too."
Author's Note: Bruh I haven't done a post-fight-fixing-up-Barry thing in so long, whoa :O Also, I know I'm hecka flaky about whether or not the little triangular breach-making things (I can't remember their names; it's 11pm as I'm writing this okay) exist in this world or not but ah well.
Before anyone freaks out that I didn't split up Frost and Cait… next chapter. It didn't quite want to fit into the end of this episode, but I am DEFINITELY doing it :) Sorry to that one guest who keeps begging me not to. I'm doing it.