Sorry this is so many weeks late...work has been kicking my butt for 60+ hour work weeks the past month :( but here you are! And at the pace this story is going...I've added another chapter LOL. Thank you guys so much for all of your continued support and your kind words in reviews!

Hope you guys enjoy, and are STAYING SAFE out there! Sending you guys all the love and am praying for y'all! If anyone has anything specific they need prayer for, feel free to leave it in a comment below as well3

Summary: "He's slowing down," she murmured, watching him on the treadmill, her hand covering her mouth in horror. There was something just so sickening, so wrong watching something that wasn't supposed to happen…happen.

A glass shattering into pieces on the floor.

A car accident in slow motion.

The Flash losing his speed.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Flash/DCTV

Seven weeks ago

Christmas at the West house was always a lively event, and it gave Caitlin and Barry time to decompress from their run-in with Grodd to just spend time with their family, as little as it was—but growing, in oh so many ways.

For one thing, Jay joined them this year, making the atmosphere even livelier. Barry seemed to get over his initial distrust of the man, after working together on several different occasions and catching a few metas. From her vantage point in the corner of the room, a steaming mug of tea in hand and curled up in the armchair, she could see the two of men engaged in a friendly conversation with Patty Spivot, Joe's new partner at the CCPD, who was also there that night. Taking a sip, Caitlin watched as Patty and Barry both laughed at something Jay said, and she found herself feeling so, so glad that the two of them still ended up as good friends despite the relationship that never took off…

Because she had gotten pregnant.

Caitlin swatted the thought away, sounding almost like an accusation more than logical reasoning. Because despite everything, she chose him, tripped and fell and then chose to plunge headfirst into love with him, and Barry chose her. He chose them. That thought warmed her more than the hot lemon balm tea she had her hand wrapped around.

For another thing, Wally made an appearance at the party, another welcome addition, despite the surprise curveball they were all thrown.

Harry had joined them as well, gripping a glass of something in his hands as he stood away from the hustle and bustle of the living and dining rooms. Instead, after a few moments, Caitlin found him standing next to her armchair and looking down at her with a scrutinizing gaze. There was a tense minute where the two scientists simply existed side by side with one another before Harry turned to look back at everyone else in the room, taking a swig of his drink. Caitlin carefully sipped at her tea.

"Congratulations."

Said tea nearly spilled all over her front, the doctor whipping her head around to look at him before she could finish taking her sip.

"On what?" she asked, clearly not expecting that remark. He glanced back at her from the corner of his eye, the tiniest smirk in the corner of his mouth.

"Snow," Harry started. "It's Christmas. Everyone here is in agreement that the eggnog is fantastic, and yet, here you are, drinking tea."

There was no actual snark in his words, just an interested lilt as the conversation continued. "Maybe I just like tea."

That was what managed to finally draw the grin out of him. "While that might be the case, you also wouldn't have looked so sadly at the eggnog earlier in the kitchen with Allen. And—"

He paused here for dramatic effect. It worked; Caitlin narrowed her eyes at him. "And?"

"And Snow…" Harry continued, now actually half-smiling. "I remember my wife before Jesse was born. You're glowing."

He raised his glass to her after that and left her alone, downing the rest of her tea as she continued to watch from her armchair. With all the people present at the party, it meant she and Barry didn't get a whole lot of time to themselves, finding one or the other always dragged into some sort of (still welcome) conversation…after she had enough and got up to make a circuit around the room on her way to the snacks on the dining room table before returning to her seat. That was all right though; in her second trimester and just starting to show more than a flat stomach with a minuscule bump, Caitlin was feeling more tired than ever, happy to soak in the cheerful atmosphere in her armchair with her mug of tea that Cisco magically kept bringing more of whenever she ran out.

Jay walked toward her a few minutes later, a warm smile directed down at her.

"Merry Christmas, Caitlin," he said, tone too soft, eyes too fond.

Five weeks ago

"It means a lot," Caitlin said, a bright smile on her face as she and Jay watched Barry train from outside of the Speed Lab. "You looking after Barry."

Without hesitation, Jay turned to her, and she nearly stepped back in surprise at the intensity of his gaze, his words. "Barry's not the only person here I'm keeping safe."

It had been like this since Jay made it back to Earth-1, their Earth—Caitlin could see Jay's growing feelings towards her, plain as day, without knowing that she was already involved with Barry. They had both been relatively busy anyway, and hadn't spent much time together during the day other than training or capturing metas, so in not wanting to exactly spell it out for Jay, who really was just so sweet and protective of their team, Caitlin tried to let him down easy. She didn't respond to his rather flirtatious remarks, didn't encourage his charm other than offering a friendly smile in return, and sticking by Barry whenever she could.

There was something—call it motherly instinct—holding her back from letting Jay in on too much, on the full extent of her relationship with Barry and on her pregnancy, which could still be very easily hidden at four months along with the layers thanks to the cold weather.

Jay looked at her with all this tenderness written on his face, but Caitlin only smiled and looked away.

Two weeks ago

Caitlin had many regrets in her life—they all did. It wasn't until Trajectory's appearance did she feel that icy dread of regret flowing in her veins, Velocity 9's effect turning the meta's lightning a very, very familiar shade of blue that she and the rest of the team had mourned not long ago.

"I did this," she whispered, curled up in a tight ball in bed that night. "I created Velocity 9—I didn't know…I didn't know Zoom…I wouldn't have…"

"You were trying to help," Barry murmured, dropping a kiss on her head as his hands ran soothingly up and down her back. "That's one of the best things about you, Cait. No matter what it is, you always try to help. Because you're good. You're a doctor, you save people. Don't let Zoom take that away from you."

Her eyes were filled with uncertainty in the darkness, but he was there to see it and remind her of the truth, over and over, until she believed it herself. After all, she had done the same for him so many times over, and it was finally his turn.

One week ago

"Hoo, yeah! I feel that!"

Barry's excited voice came over the comms, filling the Cortex. Caitlin couldn't help but grin.

"That is the tachyon device powering up the Speed Force in your cells like a quick charge battery. How do you feel?"

There was no effort needed to hear the smile in Barry's voice. "Different."

The three of them in the Cortex looked at the screens in front of them, Cisco barely reining in his excitement. "Let's see how long it takes you to get back here. On my count."

The second Barry sped into the Cortex, papers again flying every which way (seriously, they had to get those paperweights they've been talking about for two years now), Caitlin and Cisco stood up and walked around the console as Iris stood rooted in her spot, a wide smile on her face, all three—four, including Barry—of them completely dumbfounded.

"How long was I gone?"

"Let me put it this way," Cisco started, unable to contain his enormous smile. "You just annihilated your old record."

On the other side of the console, Caitlin was filled with so much pride she felt like she was about to burst. "Yeah, you went four times faster than you've ever been."

Barry raised his eyebrows in disbelief, managing to not drop his jaw. "Four times?!"

She nodded her confirmation, realization dawning on his features. "That's as fast as—"

That one moment was all it took, his unfinished sentence making her smile fall and her stomach drop as she came to the same conclusion he did—as did Harry, who just walked into the Cortex.

"As Zoom."

Twenty-four hours ago

Now well into her second trimester, Caitlin started in on and took full advantage of the looser shirts and afternoon naps, feeling tired around 3pm every day like clockwork. This, of course, was tempting enough for Barry to more often than not take late lunch breaks to leave the precinct and join her back in what was very clear now their apartment instead of just his—Caitlin had basically moved all her stuff in there anyway, her old apartment now up for rent. At least, on the days she felt awake enough to make it back to their apartment instead of just laying down on the cot in her lab.

There were few things that Barry really, truly found rest in. He loved his job, he loved his superhero persona and getting to help other people in such a big way, he loved running around and being the Flash and feeling the wind whipping past him; he loved sitting on the couch or at the dining table with Joe and talking, he loved hanging out and catching up with Iris, just like they used to all the time, still as thick as thieves and the best of friends, at Jitters or wherever her reporter adventures took her, and he loved being geeky and nerdy and science-y with Cisco, but he was convinced that there was no other moment that was quite as restful as just being there with Caitlin, one arm around her and the other hand resting on her stomach, waking up and seeing her sleep-addled face as she slowly floated back into consciousness.

"Morning," Barry greeted her, grinning. She gave him a small smile, then shifted closer and snuggled back in, not quite ready to wake up. Unfortunately for both of them, though, he had to get back to work before Joe noticed something odd about his time off, and she had to get back to…whatever insane plan she and Cisco had cooked up that day. They discovered pregnancy brain sometimes made for the worst ideas, but it was good bonding for the two of them to try the ideas out anyway, resulting in a loud bang and a big laugh most of the time.

"Hey, Cait?" he said, gently nudging her awake.

"Hmmm?"

Caitlin turned her sleepy doe eyes at him, and Barry grinned so wide, he nearly melted on the spot. He pulled her close, their family completely held in his arms.

"I love you."

She let out another soft, contented hum. "Love you."

He pressed a soft kiss to her mouth, both of them smiling at the other, then dragged his attention from her face down to her stomach, where the bump was growing a little bit more every week. "We're going to have to tell them soon."

It wasn't that they were ashamed—on the contrary, they wanted their family to know, but at the same time, it was the tiny little corner of the very big world they had carved out for themselves, holding their secret and their child close before having to share the news with everyone else. Caitlin nodded in agreement.

"How do you want to do it?"

Barry had asked her a serious question, she knew, but sleep was still clinging to her mind, and she moved closer to him to take in his warmth. Speedsters ran warm, after all.

"Together?"

He answered her with a quiet laugh, and then at the exact same moment,they both froze, staring at each other.

"Did you…did you feel that?" Barry croaked, his eyes wide, hand splayed over her stomach.

Caitlin was wide awake now; she nodded slowly, afraid to ruin the moment. Both of them looked down at her stomach, and barely a second passed before their heads snapped back up, their gazes meeting as broad smiles appeared on their faces. Barry's mouth dropped as his eyes got even wider in wonder, and then to Caitlin's complete amusement, started misting over.

"Cait?"

"Yeah?"

"Cait, it…it kicked." His voice was suspiciously thick. "We're having a baby."

She couldn't help it—a laugh really did escape her this time, her excitement and absolute love for the man next to heir and their unborn child filling her heart to the brim.

Twelve hours ago

Funny how things could change in a matter of hours.

They had him. They had him. Everything was going according to plan, but Barry couldn't stop kicking himself about it, angry that he had overlooked the very simple possibility that Jay—Hunter—could break out of his restraints. He was strong, but they didn't think he was that strong, and using his parents against him had been a foolproof idea, and he still got away.

"He was right there," Barry said dejectedly, drained and worn out after that disaster. He had sent Caitlin home first, deciding to go back to the West house with Joe and Iris to attempt to figure out another way to trap Zoom.

"I know," Joe replied. Iris unlocked the door and flipped on the switch, letting them inside.

"I mean, we had him." He was still so frustrated and so done that he didn't even notice the Wests' silence as he shut and locked the door behind him. "I can't believe it."

The moment he turned and saw the house a mess, with tables and lamps overturned and papers and books laying strewn across the ground, Barry's senses kicked into overdrive. He swung his eyes over to Joe, who relayed a silent command for him to check upstairs; he set aside his frustration and obeyed without another thought, flashing up the stairs to search for any traces left behind by whoever was here and ransacked their home. He heard Joe call for Wally just as he found the answer staring him in the face, his stomach dropping like lead as his family ran up the stairs.

YOUR SPEED FOR WALLY

Standing next to Barry, Caitlin crossed her arms protectively over her stomach as she and the others waited in a silent dread while Harry recalibrated his equipment. Every second spent listening to Hunter talk about his grand plan sent her spiraling deeper into her terror, and Barry and Cisco, on both sides of her, shook with silent anger. To her left, both Iris and Joe looked at Hunter with hard, angry eyes, their quiet fury radiating from their voices when they forced their questions out through gritted teeth.

"Why the charade?" Joe finally asked, getting to the one question that had been burning in all their minds since the truth came out. "Running around dressed like the Flash."

Hunter didn't even hesitate. "To give people hope, Detective," he replied, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Joe looked at him in disbelief. "Hope?"

"So I could rip it away from them."

There was no second of that exchange where he even stopped to think about his answer, exposing him to truly be the heartless person who had put them through so much in the past few months, who had hurt them so much in so many ways. Barry's anger grew at his answer; he gripped the table behind him tightly to keep from lashing out.

"It's so…fun," Hunter continued, standing up with a smile. "Pretending to be a hero."

Everyone was shocked into silence, unable to believe that those words had actually passed his lips. Caitlin's brow furrowed, her voice coming out in a whisper when she spoke for the first time during his whole tirade.

"You are no hero. You're nothing but a monster."

Hunter's face visibly dropped; his eyes, filled with arrogance and glee, dimmed and held a frozen sort of shock and terror before he shook himself out of it, smiling confidently when Harry walked back into the room.

It was time.

Every instinct in Caitlin screamed for her to stop him, but she knew better, knew that Wally's life hung in the balance, and for a true hero like Barry, whose strength was never in his speed, but in his heart, he wouldn't be stopped from doing the right thing.

"Barry," Joe started to say, calling out to him one more time as his foster son stepped onto the treadmill.

"It's all right, Joe."

There was nothing he could say to make it better. Joe couldn't apologize, not for trying to save his son's life while his other son willingly paid the price, and Barry couldn't reassure, couldn't console him in any way. They all knew it had to happen. Wally—his life could not be risked again.

He hit the button on the treadmill, and Harry activated his device at the same time with a somber sort of silence. There wasn't anything Harry could say either, his apologies already sounding louder in the words never said even as he helped Zoom take down the Flash.

Cisco was as close to the glass as he could be, watching on with worried eyes while Caitlin stood behind him, pressing her fingers to her lips to help keep herself grounded in the moment. She couldn't falter. She couldn't. Everyone in this room loved Barry, everyone was worried, terrified for him, and everyone, at this moment, had to be strong for him.

Caitlin watched on as he kept running, his lighting crackling around him, and then—

"He's slowing down," she murmured, watching him on the treadmill, her hand covering her mouth in horror. There was something just so sickening, so wrong watching something that wasn't supposed to happen…happen.

A glass shattering into pieces on the floor.

A car accident in slow motion.

The Flash losing his speed.

There wasn't even a need to look at the readings on the panels.

Harry's voice came out ragged when he spoke. "The Speed Force is leaving his body."

"He's becoming human again." Cisco swallowed past the lump in his throat, shaking his head.

He had never looked so tired, even on the nights he had gotten no sleep and was up catching metas or cracking cases in his lab—Barry was panting with exhaustion, sweat glistening on his forehead as he dragged breath after breath into his lungs, and then…

He fell. Iris, Joe, and Caitlin raced into the room, Iris reaching him first and pulling him up. "Barry, are you okay?!"

"I'm okay," he tried to reassure her breathlessly. "I'm okay."

For a split second, all of them could breathe again. Barry lost his speed, but was otherwise physically unharmed, though Caitlin would need to haul him into her lab to run tests to make sure. She put a hand on her stomach, taking a deep breath and trying to reassure the life growing inside her that the worst was over.

She was wrong.

Hunter's maniacal laugh brought their attention back to him to see a terrifying sight—lightning coursed around his body, a mix of his Velocity-tainted blue and Barry's natural red, his eyes darkened and demonized, and then as soon as it started, it was over. Before anyone could even blink, he was there, holding Barry in a chokehold against the wall with Barry completely powerless to fight back.

"Thank you, Flash!"

Heart in her throat, Caitlin immediately ran to them, tears building in her eyes as her fear squeezed her so tightly, she felt ready to pass out.

"Jay, stop! Please."

Her memories of Barry that night, that first night they had tried to trap Zoom and instead had gotten Barry so gravely injured instead, came rushing back to her all at once. The sound of his spine snapping rang in her ears, and her stomach heaved, feeling as though she was going to be sick right there in the Speed Lab. She was shaking and cold and terrified, between having to face what was happening now and relieving her trauma all over again while trying her damnedest to save her man she loved and make sure their baby still had a father by the end of the day.

There was nothing she could do, no bargain she could make with Jay—Hunter—but this one, the one card she had in her hand to play. Caitlin thought back on all of his advances to her, his clear infatuation with her over the course of the months they had known each other.

"If anything you ever said to me was true, then please just let him go." Her voice gave way, fear closing up her throat. "Please."

She had called him a monster before, but at this moment, she desperately prayed that he retained some sort of compassion—after all, he couldn't have fallen for her if he didn't, right? If he couldn't feel anything anymore, he wouldn't have been able to have feelings for her, to approach her even though she never addressed or reciprocated, right? "I know some piece of you did care for me, so if you have any humanity left, then please, let him go."

Hunter hesitated for a moment, and then, finally, he threw Barry off to the side, fixing his dead gaze on her. She barely had time to feel relief before she was caught up in that sickening shade of blue lightning.

Cisco was the first to react. "Caitlin!"

Barry's wide, terrified eyes were left staring at the doorway Zoom had just taken her through, still in shock, still trying to process, still trying to move despite the fact that his body was entirely drained of energy. He was completely powerless without his speed, and for a brief, awful second, was thrown back into Harrison Wells' wheelchair during their brief encounter with Grodd and the spiraling despair he felt at being unable to, once again, saved the person, the people, he loved.

"We're going to get her back, Barry," Joe said, immediately putting a hand on his adoptive son's shoulder. It didn't work, didn't soothe the frantic superhero who was now panting from exertion, exhaustion, and sheer terror.

"No…no…" Barry mumbled, stumbling over to the door. "No!"

Joe looked to Cisco for backup, but the man stood stock-still at the doorway, still unmoving. He tried again, putting a firm hand on both of Barry's shoulders as Iris made her way over, placing a hand on his forearm. "Barry," he said patiently, calling on his years of expertise as a police officer and as Barry and Iris' father. "Barry, listen to me. You have to calm down. We're going to get Caitlin back, just like all those times we did before. We're are going to get her back."

"No, no, no, no!"

He brushed both Joe and Iris off, harsher than he had intended to, but he couldn't, he couldn't stop, he couldn't listen, not to them; there was only once voice he needed to hear, and she was gone, and he was powerless—quite literally—to save her. Barry's hand came up to his forehead, running his shaking fingers through his hair.

"Barry…" Iris whispered, and that was when Cisco finally turned to face them, when Harry opened his mouth to tell them the truth about his deal with Zoom, about Caitlin and why Barry was so desperate to get her back, and when Barry exploded, the words tumbling from his mouth before he could even think.

"She's pregnant!"

Dead silence. No one moved; the only sound in the Speed Lab was Barry's labored breathing.

Completely in-character, Joe was the first person to break from his trance, setting aside his shock for what needed to be done.

"I have so many questions," he clarified. "But first, we need to get her back. Harry?"