Author's Note: Please note, this fic is not an endorsement of the Flash or the CW. I despise both with a burning passion considering what they've pulled this week.

This fic IS an endorsement of all the people who were destroyed by Frost's death. Killing her off in the way they did was cheap and cruel and lazy, and I simply won't have it.

She opened her eyes into a cloud of grey mist.

"Hello?" she called, and her voice, distant, spun and spiraled around her.

There was no answer, just the vast sea of grey mist.

She tried to sit up, but she didn't move. In fact, she couldn't feel her body at all. Her mouth didn't seem open when she called out again: "Hello?"

Hello?

Hello?!

HELLO?!

Her voice slithered into the mist. Endless, consuming mist.

It was then that Frost knew that she was dead.

W / T \ Y

Caitlin seemed to cry for hours.

She cried until her face was soaked and she was crumpled on the floor, panting, moaning softly, almost too weak to speak. Joe, Cecile and Iris had all gone home. Sue had left the room to call Ralph. Mark hadn't moved since he'd heard the news, but he'd been silent for a good forty minutes now.

"Hey," Barry said softly, kneeling down by Caitlin's prone form. "Hey, let's get you to bed."

He carefully slid her into his arms and stood up. She would sleep better at home, he knew, but her apartment was saturated with memories of Frost; her clothes, her paintings, her perfume, her toothbrush. The last thing Barry wanted was for Caitlin to wake up, alone, surrounded by all of that.

So he carried her to a spare room in STAR Labs, easing her out of her shoes and jacket and tucking her onto the thin mattress. Her eyes were closed but her breathing was stilted. Barry would like to think that she had drained herself enough to pass out, but he knew from personal experience not to expect rest to come that easily.

When he returned to the lounge, his eyes landed on Mark. He didn't know the man very well, but he knew how much he'd loved Frost. Frost had changed his life, had made him a better man, and the life they'd shared together had been wild and unpredictable and made them both the happiest he'd ever seen them.

But it would be a lie to say that Barry couldn't imagine what Mark was going through. He had been there, time and time and time again. What he didn't know was exactly what to do.

"Hey, man…" he began, walking over and putting a hand on Mark's shoulder.

The instant he made contact, Mark stood up and strode away, out to the balcony. He leaned against the railing, his back to Barry.

The speedster let out a sigh and sank onto a couch. He could remember sitting there with Frost the day he'd told the team about Crisis, how they'd spent the day together afterwards. He remembered her leaving her birthday party just so she could come check on him, thank him, and confront him about the fact that he knew he was going to die.

White water rafting.

She'd never gotten to go white water rafting.

Barry put his head in his hands. This might have been the hardest loss they'd had to face.

W / T \ Y

How could she breathe?

When Frost tried to blow out or even exhale at all, the mist didn't ruffle. There was no sign that there was any air moving, or any air at all. But she could see, she could think, and those things required oxygen to the brain.

Did she even have a brain? Who was to say she wasn't just a floating consciousness, a scientific anomaly? None of the rules had to make sense; she was dead. The laws of natural physics and science no longer applied.

Frost wondered if she was in Hell. Those were the two options, weren't they: Heaven and Hell? She'd always imagined one to be all white, peaceful, flowery, calm, while the other was burning fires and hot coals. Or was Hell cold? She'd heard it both ways and never had needed an opinion before now.

Well, whether it was cold or hot, Frost wouldn't know. She couldn't feel anything at all. Just an endless, empty longing even thicker than the mist.

W / T \ Y

Sue's eyes were red when she came back into the lounge.

"I told Ralph," she said quietly, sinking onto the couch next to Barry. "He's on his way."

"Oh, God," Barry breathed, realization hitting him. "Cisco. Someone needs to tell Cisco."

He chest seized, unable to handle facing the extreme grief that knowing Frost was dead would bring his best friend. But Cisco deserved to know. Besides that, Caitlin needed him. Cisco could help her much better than he could; he'd always been able to.

Sue eyed him sympathetically. "You want me to do it?" she offered.

"No, this is something I need to do." Barry got to his feet, knees stiff. "And it's something I need to do in person."

His gaze landed on Mark. Before he could psych himself out, he walked towards the balcony.

"I'm, uh… I'm going to STAR City to tell Cisco what happened," he said quietly, joining Mark at the railing. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Mark didn't look at him, his eyes trained vacantly on the ceiling. "We had so many plans," he said, voice rasping in his throat. "I've got a- an entire calendar, just for me and her." He turned his head, locking eyes with Barry. "I'm nothing without her."

"Then be her memory," Barry advised. "Be the person that always remembers her, who she was, what she loved, no matter what."

"I didn't even tell her I love her," Mark went on as if he hadn't heard. "I… loved her."

"She knew, Mark," Barry told him, resting a hand on his shoulder. "She knew."

W / T \ Y

Frost really, really hated being dead.

There was nothing to do, nothing to look at. The mist didn't even change, it just hovered like a thick blanket, perpetual suspension. It was strange and unearthly…

And also familiar.

If she could have tilted her head or wrinkled her eyebrows, she would have. Mentally, consciousness-ly, Frost peered forward, inspecting the mist. It was grey, there was no refuting that, but Frost could also make out a sort of ethereal teal glow. It was like minuscule strands of energy were woven into the blanket of mist, a sparkly thread wound through a piece of fabric.

That color… the grey, the teal… It had come from her. She had felt it swirl inside of her, as thick as it was here.

Deathstorm.

The mist reminded her of Deathstorm.

W / T \ Y

When Caitlin woke up, she was alone.

She turned over on her back, staring unseeingly at the ceiling. It had to have been a bad dream, right? Frost couldn't be dead. It just wasn't possible.

But no dream, no matter how powerful, could make her feel this sort of crushing despair. She had lost Ronnie three times, her dad twice, she had lost Jay, HR, Harry, Jesse, Stein… and now she'd lost Frost.

Nothing, nothing, could be worse than this.

There was a knock at the door. Caitlin didn't respond, but it swung open anyway.

"Cisco-" she half-wailed, flying out of bed and colliding with him. They sank to the floor, both crying, both shaking.

"Caitlin, I'm so sorry," Cisco babbled, rocking back and forth. "I should have- I should have been here- I got here as soon as I could."

"I just can't believe she dead," Caitlin sobbed. "She can't be, she can't be."

"Can I-" Cisco hesitated, leaning away from her slightly. "Could I see her? I know that she's… I know she's gone, and there's nothing I can do but I'd- I'd like to say goodbye."

His voice cracked, more tears leaking down his cheeks.

Caitlin, nodding, wiped her face. "Could you help me up?" she asked, hating how pathetic she sounded. "I don't know if I can-"

Cisco stood immediately and wrapped his arms around her waist. The world spun as Caitlin changed levels and she let out a shaky breath. She needed water, badly, but couldn't seem to find enough energy to look after herself at the moment.

Cisco helped her down the hall, towards her lab. She and Barry had covered Frost's body with a sheet, unable to do anything more before telling the team what had happened. Caitlin didn't think anyone had been in the room since them.

They reached the lab, and Cisco grasped the door handle before letting go again with a hiss of surprised pain.

"What is it?" Caitlin asked, heart rate picking up a notch. She felt dizzy again and tried to steady her breathing, but too much had just happened too quickly.

Not responding, but moving much faster now, Cisco wrapped his hand in his shirt and quickly pulled open the door. Caitlin let out a shriek as an explosion of icy smoke barreled out of the room. Cisco shielded her with his body but the moment the fog cleared the two of them were racing inside.

Everything was coated in ice. All the computer monitors had gone dead, the sink faucet was clouded over, and the floor as a slick as a skating rink. Cisco and Caitlin slipped forward, of the same mind as they made for the bed and yanked off the sheet.

Frost looked like she'd been mummified. But instead of beige strips of fabric, her entire body from head to toe was covered in inch-thick ice.

"Oh my God," Caitlin breathed, hand over her mouth as she fumbled for a chair. "Oh my God, Cisco-"

The room spun again; she slipped and crumpled. Cisco grabbed for her as she crashed to the ground, vibrating with shock. "Caitlin," he gasped out, grasping her shoulders. "You know what this means? Do you know what this means?"

"She's healing herself," Caitlin managed. "Somewhere in there, somehow—she's still alive."

W / T \ Y

The one nice thing about being dead was that Frost had a lot of time to think.

As she floated, bodiless, through the mist, she laid out the facts one by one. She'd taken Deathstorm's unique energy into her own body. He'd said his power came from a place even further than Hell, his own universe of sorts, and he'd been stuck there until Ronnie's death. She consumed some of that power and had been able to contain it, but only for a certain amount of time. She collapsed, overwhelmed, and after that all she could remember was the power fading and a fuzzy image of Caitlin's face.

Knowing Caitlin, the first thing she would have done was supplied Frost with her cryogenes once more so that she could ice-heal. So what hadn't that worked? She'd still died, and ended up in Deathstorm's universe.

But if she was, in fact, in Deathstorm's universe… could there be a chance that she wasn't actually dead? And if so… could she still be saved?

W / T \ Y

As soon as she'd collected herself somewhat, Caitlin pressed the Flash alert button.

Barry came rushing in immediately, all in a panic. He saw Frost's body, frozen over on the gurney, and his eyes blew wide. "What happened?" he demanded, striding forward and catching himself on the bed as he slipped on the icy floor. "What did you do?"

"Nothing! We found her like this." Cisco was trying to get the monitors around Frost's body to work with minimal success.

Barry looked at Caitlin for confirmation to find her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparking with a new life. "My current theory is that, when we injected her body with the cryogenes, it was just enough to fight off the lingering effects of Deathstorm's energy, but nothing more. That's why she flatlined. But, given a bit more time, her body was able to start producing its ice-healing abilities on its own and sent her into a stasis state to heal. Because we have no idea how long she can survive in this state, what we need to do now is figure out how to accelerate the process."

She paused, a little out of breath. "I'm loathe to admit it, but… Barry, I think we need Mark's help. He's studied Frost's powers more than almost anyone. And besides, he deserves to know."

Barry nodded and flashed off, returning with Mark in an instant. The redeemed criminal staggered once Barry put him down, looking around him with barely contained terror. When he laid eyes on Frost, his face drained of color and he raced to her side. "Frost? Frost!" He spun to Caitlin. "What's going on, what's she doing?!"

"We're not entirely sure, but we think she's trying to heal herself," Caitlin told him rapidly. "And we need to figure out how to help. Mark, is there anything that you know of that could help her ice-healing to increase?"

Mark thought for a moment, hands gripping the edge of the gurney for support. "When I first met Frost, she stabbed me through herself because the one edge she had on our fight was her ice-healing," he recounted. "After I broke out of prison, I started looking into it almost obsessively, trying to find a way to recreate it."

"So did you?" Barry pressed.

"I did," Mark confirmed, starting to smile as he turned to Caitlin. "Is there any chance you'd allow me to use your lab?"

Caitlin gestured. "Lead the way."

W / T \ Y

Frost had tried everything she could think of.

She'd screamed at the top of her lungs, tried to blow the mist away, tried to move, tried to reach out to Caitlin with her mind, tried to use her powers, tried to wake up.

What if she was alive, and savable, and no one knew it? How long would she stay alive? She needed to get a message to her friends to alert them to her situation but she couldn't, and it was about to drive her insane.

Being not-dead sucked.

W / T \ Y

Ralph, ever a man of good timing, arrived just as Mark and Caitlin were finishing with their homemade serum.

'What the- Frosty?" he gaped as he stepped into the lab to find it in the same state that everyone else had. "What's going on?"

"Good to see you, Ralph," Barry greeted with a wide smile, clapping him on the shoulder. "There's been a bit of a change. We're saving Frost's life."

"If you wanna stick around you can, just stay out of the way," Cisco advised. "Or you can go wait in the lounge with everyone else. Sue's there."

"I'll… stay," Ralph decided hesitantly. "I, uh… I wanna make sure she's all right."

He pulled off to the side with Cisco and Barry, shaking his head. "I couldn't believe it when Sue called and said that she'd- that she'd-"

"Trust me, we all felt the same way," Barry said, face falling. "I'm really… I'm not sure what we'll do if it turns out we can't get her back."

Ralph blew out a breath, nodding his agreement as he crossed his arms tightly over his chest. The three men waited, watching anxiously.

"We need Allegra," Caitlin said, glancing up with the syringe still in her hands. "To reach Frost, we're going to need to melt some of this ice, and I know for a fact she can do that."

Barry nodded, playing delivery boy once again as he retrieved Allegra. She, like the rest of the team, had been informed about the development in Frost's situation, but she still looked amazed as she hurried towards the bed.

"Melt it as close to her wrist as possible," Caitlin directed. "And as small as possible. I have no idea how fragile her state is."

Allegra let out a shaky breath. "I'll do my best," she muttered, and carefully used her light powers to start melting away the ice near Frost's wrist. The moment she'd made a space, Caitlin dove forward and injected Frost with the serum, pulling away the needle just as the ice on her skin began to reform, sealing up the gap.

Allegra grabbed her hand, squeezing tightly. Everyone watched with bated breath.

"What's supposed to happen?" Ralph asked after a good minute of this waiting.

Caitlin and Mark exchanged glances and the latter shrugged. "I guess we'll find out."

W / T \ Y

Something was changing.

Once more putting her mental-peering to good use, Frost studied the mist. For the first time since she'd opened her eyes, it was moving, swirling before her. The teal threads began to pulse, glowing brighter and brighter.

Then a rush of white sped towards her bodiless-face. It ate up the mist, transforming it into a white crystal fog, which surrounded Frost's nonexistent body in a blurry haze. All at once, she could feel. Aching, bitter cold, pressing against each limb and inch of skin. Even her eyeballs grew cold, her vision blurry, blurrier-

Then dark.

W / T \ Y

Caitlin let out a scream as the ice on the bed exploded into a million frozen fractals. Barry sped forward, dragging all of them out of the way and safely to the other side of the room, but Caitlin and Mark were soon rushing forwards again.

Frost was sitting up, coughing and thrashing, ice still clinging her her body and her breath misting in white puffs. She stared around her, bewildered, then fell into Caitlin's arms as her sister rushed towards her.

"Yes," Mark said vehemently, before he kicked a chair and whooped at the ceiling. "Yes! Yes yes yes!"

"I'll go tell the others," Barry said, beaming, before he flashed off to the lounge.

"I thought I'd lost you," Caitlin sobbed, collapsing onto the gurney without letting go of Frost. "I thought you were gone."

Frost hugged her tightly, lifting her chin and locking gazes with Mark. She let out a shaky breath, eyes swimming, and reached out a hand for him. He grasped it, pressing her fingers to his lips for a long moment. "Frost, I love you," he told her, without even a hint of a hesitation.

"I love you, too," Frost croaked, letting out another tremulous breath as she shut her eyes and clutched Caitlin tightly.

For the next twenty minutes, Frost was passed around from person to person for hugs and a lot of tears. Then friends and family finally dispersed, leaving Caitlin and Mark alone with Frost in the lounge. Caitlin fell asleep immediately with her head on her sister's shoulder. Frost curled up into Mark's side and he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You scared the hell out of us, Snowflake," he said quietly, unwilling to let her go for more than a few moments at a time. "Never do that again."

"Trust me," Frost assured him wryly, stopping for a second to let out a jaw-cracking yawn. "I'm not planning on it."

Author's Note: I wrote this whole thing in two hours and one sitting because I guess I felt like if I wrote it things would change?

But they haven't. Frost is still dead and I don't even know how to cope with that.

If anyone wants to cry or mourn, my PM box and DMs are always open. Love you all dearly.