Hello, again! I know, it has been too long. I can never thank you people enough for sticking with me through this monster. My original outline was six chapters but we're already way past that, aren't we? But we're building to that climax, people. Slowly but surely (and hopefully), we'll get there. Anyway, I took some creative liberties (especially with the time constraints) but the tech and the medical procedures here do exist in the real world. I won't keep you waiting with more blah, blah, blah from me so, y'all know the drill. Hope you enjoy! XOXO

Chapter 11

Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs, 9:40 pm

Felicity hadn't liked the way Joe sounded when he clicked off their conversation. There was something ominous – like they didn't have enough of that already – about the way the detective had paused in abrupt silence just before he terminated the call. She had quickly popped into the treatment room after that to ask Caitlin if she saw Barry's phone and all she got was an absent "no" from the doctor who was quite busy with prepping Barry for surgery.

So here she was, hacking Barry's mobile carrier to get a lead on his damned phone. A quick ping would've done the job if its present location was the only information they were after. But no, they needed call logs and a location history at the very least. Hopefully, the battery was still on. If not, she would have to resort to more sophisticated NSA-level hacks to find it – and she just didn't have time for that with everything that was going on. Just because she was good doesn't mean there isn't much time, effort and energy she needed to expend on anything she does. Hacking into something was usually the easy part. The 'not-getting-caught' part was where all the harder work came in.

She sighed. She got nothing on the ping, meaning that the phone was almost certainly dead. The "loss of service" message she got when she called Barry's phone strengthened that assumption. She'd still get more information from the phone company so she went ahead and pressed the Enter key to execute her code. Then her brain began compiling a list of what she needed for the next stage of her 'data acquisition protocol'.

Just then a double beep sounded from the comms. It was Laurel calling from the Arrow Cave.

"Canary," Oliver acknowledged as he tapped his earpiece to put the call on. He had left Felicity before she had dialed Joe and was just coming back from the treatment room after helping Cisco set up some of the signal detectors, monitors, magnets and what-not they needed for Barry's procedure.

"It's packed and ready to go," she said. She already encrypted the data and had plugged in the drive that she had smuggled out of The Gardens into one of the Cave's secure terminals before calling Central City.

"Overwatch?" Oliver prompted when Felicity didn't answer. He knew when she got like this, that she was in the zone – and that usually meant that she needed a little more prodding to bring her back to the present.

A hand on her shoulder pulled Felicity away from her thoughts to the new task at hand.

"Hmmm?"

"Are we ready for the transfer?" Oliver asked as he pointed to his earpiece.

"Oh," Felicity said as she finally caught up to the thread of the conversation. She quickly opened another terminal window to facilitate the secure file transfer between them. To Laurel, she said, "You're going to have to call up a few services to get that over here."

"I know. And you're going to have to walk me through some of the later steps. We both know who's better at this than I am. Unfortunately, he has someone precious drooling all over him now," Laurel cooed as she received a photo from Lyla showing how the ex-ARGUS agent had found Sara drooling on Tommy's chest as they both slept.

Oliver showed her his phone with the picture Lyla had apparently sent to all of them.

"Aww," Felicity gushed as she shared a soft smile with Oliver before they went back to work. Tommy had really gone a long way from his previously mercenary, albeit amnesic ways to being one of Sara's many favorite uncles and to one of the few people she had trusted to work with her babies. Even Oliver didn't have the same level of access to the LAIR system that Tommy now had.

"Those two are just sometimes too cute for their own good," Laurel replied.

Felicity chuckled as she remotely called up a similar file transfer window on Laurel's terminal. "You ready for this?" she asked.

"Uh-huh. Hit me," Laurel said as she began to follow Felicity's instructions.

S.T.A.R. Labs, Treatment Room, 9:45 pm

Caitlin took a deep breath to center herself. She and Digg were fully gowned and gloved and Barry had already been draped and prepped. "Cisco, are we all set?" she asked, her voice a bit muted by the mask she wore.

"Ready when you are," came her friend's reply from somewhere behind her.

"Digg?"

"We're all set," he answered.

"Begin recording," she said as she instructed Cisco to start the camera rolling.

"The patient is Bartholomew Henry Allen, 25 year old male, to undergo percutaneous Tenckhoff catheter insertion for acute peritoneal dialysis under IV sedation with local anesthesia. I, Dr. Caitlin Snow will be heading the procedure and will be assisted by Mr. John Diggle," Caitlin said as she recited all the salient facts of the surgical case.

As Caitlin completed the surgical time out, John looked at the monitors. Everything looked stable. Caitlin looked at him and he nodded his agreement to the time out, "Acknowledged."

"All right. Local," she said, prompting Digg to hand her the syringe full of lidocaine. Once in her hand, she began to infiltrate the operative site from the skin to the deep muscles with the local anesthetic. She tested the area by pinching Barry's skin with a pair of toothed tissue forceps to observe any changes in his vital signs or any visible indicators of pain. When she observed none, she proceeded. "Knife," she said as she asked for the instrument with her open palm. She felt Digg place the scalpel in her hand and saw him strategically position a sponge near the operative site. She took another deep breath, held the knife securely in a pencil grip and positioned it above the left side of Barry's abdomen. "Cutting," she exhaled as she made a transverse incision toward his hipbone.

"Cutting time: 2146 Hours," Digg said as he looked at the clock to mark the time.

Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs, 9:50 pm

Joe hurriedly entered the cortex. He would've arrived sooner had he not taken the time to ensure that he wasn't being followed. The contents of Barry's obsession wall gave them more information and with it another set of questions to be answered. But one thing was for sure – the bodies kept piling up and he'll damn well make sure that Barry didn't end up as one of those unfortunate souls.

"Joe," Felicity huffed in relief. She was just waiting for the secure data transfer to finish when the detective came in. "What happened? You sounded weird over the phone. I was worried."

"I'm sorry for cutting you off abruptly but I really needed you to see this," he said as he showed her and Oliver the photo he had snapped of Barry's evidence wall.

Felicity took his phone and connected it to the network to blow up the high-definition photo on their holographic display. "Oliver!" she exclaimed as her eyes landed on the one thing that was written in big bold red letters.

Oliver's jaw dropped as he took in that one glaring conclusion: Serial Killer or Vigilante?

"Frak!" was all Felicity could say.

"My thoughts exactly," Joe said as he shook his head as he took in the four other case files on the wall. "This goes further than we originally thought."

"Actually, a lot further," Felicity said as she revealed the other five they've unearthed from Barry's encrypted hard drive. An hour ago they were looking at nine victims, Barry included. Now, it seems that Barry had tracked down a few others bringing their total to unlucky number 13. "And if these are all really connected…"

"And this crossed state lines…" Oliver trailed off.

"We could have a federal case in our hands," Joe shook his head as he completed the thought. He didn't know whether to rejoice at the possible addition of manpower and expertise or bang his head against the wall for the added layer of red tape, and worse, the increased risk of exposure.

"Woah," Felicity said at the seemingly disappointed panic that was settling over them, "Before we get ahead of ourselves, let's cross-reference everything we have first and see what we really have here."

Both men nodded as she settled back into her chair.

"I've found another possible lead, by the way," Joe added. "It seems that scopolamine is beginning to be a problem drug in this city – muggings, assaults and other attacks. It used to be traded by the Darbinyan Family as Twilight Mist but ever since they got creamed, CCPD Vice has been getting reports about the docks being the main entry point. Two of the vics, the alderman and the pharmaceutical rep have clear connections to the docks and the drug. The strip club owner is clean so far but he has unconfirmed ties to a human trafficking ring."

"I bet that, if we look more into it, he's probably tied into the docks or the drug or both," Felicity surmised. "Mind if I go rooting around in your system again, Detective?"

"Be my guest," Joe answered, conveniently ignoring his captain's directive for on-site access only. Hell, their network had already been compromised anyway, so he'd rather have his team in it with the perp.

With his approval, Felicity went straight to work, doing what she did best.

"How's he?" Joe asked Oliver as his eyes fell on Barry's treatment room. The door was closed and the glass was fogged up.

"He's stable. Caitlin and Cisco worked up a way to treat him. They're hoping it reverses his symptoms, or at least, limits the damage that's already done. Digg's there to help with the procedure," Oliver supplied. "Didn't Caitlin inform you?"

"John did. He said that this procedure was time sensitive. I told them to go ahead without me."

"I was there about ten minutes ago. Barry didn't look any worse," Oliver said as he tried to placate Joe's worries. "You want to look in on him while Felicity and I see what we have here? Cisco's there, too."

"Thanks," Joe nodded as he made his way to where the rest of the team was.

"Felicity –" Oliver started to say when she held up a finger to shush him. She was speaking to Laurel.

"Uh-huh," she nodded. "We just need to cross-reference all the case files. We're thinking serial murder here."

"Okay, send those reference numbers over. I'll see what I can do," Laurel said.

"I'll do you one better. I'll send over the files we already have and pass Oliver on to you to help," Felicity replied as she bundled the files she had retrieved from their various devices and sent them Laurel's way.

Once done, she turned to Oliver, but before she could speak a word, he said "Files. Laurel. Got it," and sat back down on his side of the embankment.

"Laurel," Felicity said after a beat, "you have the files?"

"I've got them. Has the other transfer finished?"

"Yup," Felicity said as the transfer indicator showed 100%. "Turning you over to Oliver now."

S.T.A.R. Labs, Treatment Room, 10:00 pm

"He's going to be okay, right?" Joe asked as he finally found his voice. He had been silently watching Caitlin and Diggle as they raced against both the toxin and Barry's regenerative powers. They had to work doubly fast and doubly hard to finish introducing the catheter into his son's abdomen. They were lucky that Digg had the arm strength to pry Barry's rapidly healing muscles apart long enough so that Caitlin could correctly position the catheter within their patient's peritoneal cavity. Once the insertion was done and Barry's skin had healed over the incisions on both the catheter entry and exit sites, they introduced the fluids holding the different components of the cure.

"Let's cross our fingers," Cisco said to Joe as he initiated the sequence of magnets and light sources that would hopefully rid Barry of the toxin that continued to ravage his body. As the machines whirred to life, they saw Digg and Caitlin stepped back from the sterile field.

If it weren't for the specialized deep tissue two-photon microscope Cisco and Oliver had set-up earlier, no one would have had a clue as to what was going on. Cisco held his thumbs up at Caitlin and Digg indicating that the process was underway, before he turned to Joe, "It looks like it's working so far."

Joe could only see the explosion of fluorescent color on the screens. If Cisco said it was working, it was working. "Now what?" he asked to no one in particular.

"We wait. If this succeeds, we can get Barry up and running in no time. As in literally, up and running," Cisco said as Digg and Caitlin started to remove their gowns, masks and gloves.

Caitlin immediately went over to Joe after disposing her protective equipment, "His vitals are stable for now and he's healing faster even when I've tried to slow it down. That means his body is recovering but we both know that if we don't do something about the toxin, his supercharged immunity might just trip the whole cascade all over again. So far, everything's fine but we'll know for sure if this is working after we flush out the first batch of the fluid in about"– she paused as she glanced at the clock – "ten minutes." But before she could say anything else, Joe's phone rang.

It was Iris. He excused himself from the group to take the call.

"Dad, I just got your text. How's Barry? Is he alright? Oh My God! I didn't even know he had an allergy," came Iris' worried voice. "My phone's been on the fritz. I just got a deluge of messages–"

"Relax," Joe calmly interrupted his daughter in a bid to tamp down her rising panic. "He's stable for now. Caitlin's got him."

"Are you sure, he's fine?"

"He's lived through worse," Joe said, hoping to God that he doesn't turn out to be a liar. It was a good thing then that Iris was away on a work trip, visiting the other branches of The Picture News. Joe knew that her new boss was making her jump through hoops and this last minute trip was just one of those things she had to do to show that she could suck it up and stick with the job. If he remembered her schedule correctly, she was in Metropolis right now – home of the mainstream media.

"Okay," she answered, her voice still strained but calmer.

He needed something for her to do to divert her panic, so he asked, "Did you find out anything about scopolamine?" He had texted her a while ago about Barry and just before he hurriedly left CCPD about his suspicions about the drug. With limited access to official law enforcement channels because of the hack, Iris seemed to be the next best thing.

"Oh, that second text. Hold on," Iris said over the clicking sound of what he guessed was her keyboard. "There's nothing much. There's one article that I think you'd be interested in, though. Lois Lane wrote an exposé a few months ago that called the drug "The Silent Scourge" of Metropolis. It says that South America is its biggest natural source. I'm forwarding it to you now. As far as mentions, they've had similar incidents in National City and Coast City, too. No perps though. I'll let you know if I find more. And what's this about Barry dating a redhead? Eddie just texted, asking me about that, too."

"Just a person of interest. So is he?"

"What?"

"Dating a redheaded supermodel?"

"Barry? No. No way. Well, not that I know of, anyway. He hasn't exactly been forthcoming about his love life lately, or his life for that matter. There's this case he's working on that has him obsessed. I swear. Herding cats has got to be easier than getting him to focus on a conversation lately."

You don't say, he thought. Looking back, he did note Barry being more than his usual level of engrossed with this case. Now, with the evidence he had seen, he knew why. But before he could say anything to confirm his daughter's observation, a beep on his phone indicated new mail. A quick peak at his phone's screen confirmed that it was the article Iris sent over. "Well, anyway, I've got the article. I'll read through this. You be safe there, okay."

"Don't worry, Dad. They have their own red streak here. Only difference is that this one likes blue… oh, and they say he flies."

Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs, 10:05 pm

Caitlin went straight to her lab after her short talk with Joe. She had test results to follow up, so she was very grateful that Digg volunteered to stay with Barry to keep an eye on things.

She sighed. If this doesn't work, she's going to have to put Barry into suspended animation using more extreme measures like cryopreservation. It was another one of those unvetted technologies with unknown consequences that she really didn't want to experiment with, but short of that, she didn't know what else to do. She had already placed him in a medically induced coma and had tried slowing down his metabolism with cold IV fluids. She even placed a cold blanket over him, but it seemed that his regenerative abilities were recovering quicker than she could regulate them. Usually, that means that he's on the mend and that the worst had come to pass. But with this toxin, she just didn't know.

Caitlin took out the samples Felicity had run on the PCR thermocycler earlier. She'd be running whatever DNA they obtained through a DNA sequencer to find out if they have enough to identify Barry's assailant. Ordinarily, she'd have to fire up one of the big machines down in the Biomedical Wing for that but since time is of the essence, she decided to use her USB-powered nanopore-based mini sequencer prototype instead. It was one of the projects she had been working on before the particle accelerator exploded. One flow cell is no larger than the palm of her hand and is capable of generating sequences much faster than their current top-of-the-line devices. The caveat though is that it produced cruder sequences, with a much lower Phred quality score. That meant that she would have to run the samples again in a conventional machine for more stringent, error-free analyses but she can do that later, when she had the time. What's important now is to have a working profile of the perpetrator.

She already had her prototype hooked up to her workstation, which was running the device's propriety workbench program and was already interfacing with DNA databases via the cloud. All she needed was to prep her sample and pipette it into the flow cell, so she went about her work as efficiently as she could, with the knowledge that she'll be needed in the Treatment Room shortly thereafter. She had just pipetted her sample into her device when an alert message went off on her screen. It was the result of the reverse image search she'd run on several botanical and zoological databases about the morphology of the barbs they got from Barry's neck. She opened the message and scanned it for the information she needed.

There were no exact hits but the query returned several close matches – all of them botanical – just like the toxin. She highlighted the results she needed and appended it to her case file.

"Caitlin, we're ready for the first flushing," said a voice behind her. It was Cisco, reminding her of the next step in Barry's treatment.

"I'll be right there," she called out as she did one final check of her prototype. It was working. This was the advantage of real-time DNA sequencing, she thought as she looked at the seemingly endless stream of information filling her screen. She interpreted the preliminary data as it came in.

Hmmm, she thought. It seemed that they had isolated two samples of human DNA, one from a male she expects to be Barry, and another one from a female. They now had confirmation of a woman being involved, that is, of course, barring any contamination from her or Felicity. And just to determine whether or not they were dealing with a metahuman, she instructed the program not just to run the samples' Single-Tandem Repeat profiles (which she can use to compare against hers and Felicity's and query CODIS, the FBI's DNA database), but also to search the isolated female sample for the sequence of their proteinaceous toxin.

Satisfied with what she had accomplished in just a few minutes, she left her workstation and went to check on her hopefully convalescing patient. Good thoughts, Caitlin, she motivated herself lest she let herself slide into that downward spiral of helplessness again. Good thoughts.

Oh, and guess who's waking up soon...

Please lemme know what you think. I really wanna hear from you because I tend to get lost in the details without feedback from you. Oh, and I might've had a bit too much to drink, hence my almost uncharacteristic chatter, so forgive the typos and grammatical errors that may exist. Will do a line edit when I'm more sober. Cheers!