Here it is. Sorry for the long wait. Real life. Crazy things happened. But I won't keep you long. All previous disclaimers apply. Hope you like this! XOXO

Chapter 16

Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs, 11:46 pm

Caitlin!

Barry screamed as he jolted awake. Or at least, he thought he did because no sound came out of his mouth.

The surreality of the moment was quickly overtaken by the pain that seared his chest. It burned. More importantly, it knocked the breath out of him.

No. Not knocked. Squeezed. Each breath came in short gasps. He tried to calm himself down but his body was clawing for air.

"Oh, no, no, no, you're not," Felicity muttered as she rushed to his side. She had just come back into the treatment room after dragging an unconscious but breathing Joe with her. Barry had been unconscious but stable when she saw him a minute ago. Now, he was awake but he was gasping.

"Cait. Ta–" Barry whispered, "taken."

"I know, Barry. I know," Felicity answered shakily. She knew in her gut when she first came into the room a few minutes ago that Caitlin had been abducted. And she also knew that she didn't have the medical training to handle this situation. "But I need you to save your breath, okay?" she said as she scrambled to retrieve her phone to call Digg.

"Felicity!" a familiar voice called out. It was Oliver.

"Over here!" she responded frantically.

The guys had taken ten minutes to get to the docks. Oliver made it back in five. He'd left Digg and Cisco to deal with their perp while he sped through the streets of Central City. The edge in Felicity's voice put his body on high alert. He hurried to her. His heartbeat trebled as he neared. He had a feeling it wasn't going to be nice.

And it wasn't.

Joe was on the floor – clearly knocked out, Barry was gulping air like he couldn't get enough and Caitlin was nowhere to be found. What happened?

"I don't know what's happening. He was fine a minute ago," she said as she pulled his attention back to Barry.

Holy shit. A quick look at Barry told him that he needed help – fast. "Call Digg now," he directed Felicity as he picked Barry up from where he lay and carried him hurriedly back to the bed.

"One step ahead of you," she said as she waited for the call to connect.

"Blonde. Scar. Ne–" Barry tried to say as he choked on air.

Oliver couldn't make out what he was really saying, but he needed Barry awake. "It's gonna' be okay. Just stay with me, buddy," he said as he quickly reassessed his friend. He found a hole on his shirt – right over his chest – that was caked in blood but with no wound to be seen on his body.

"You're on speaker," Felicity said as she put the phone near Oliver. She then focused her attention back to Barry, who looked like he was trying to say something to her.

"John, Barry's choking on his own breath. It looks like his right lung's been punctured but the wound outside already healed," Oliver reported while Felicity tried to calm their very anxious and visibly dyspneic patient.

"Is his trachea deviated?" Digg asked over the phone.

Oliver ran his fingers along Barry's neck to trace his friend's wind pipe. "Yes, it's deviated to the left. And his neck veins are bulging."

"He might be decompensating from a pneumothorax. You're going to have to work quickly. There's a special needle in the third drawer of the crash cart. It's packaged in a white tray," Digg said urgently as Felicity hurried to find it amidst the scattered contents of the crash cart. It sure looked like a scuffle upended it.

"Got it," Oliver exclaimed when she handed him the said tray.

"Check if the needle shows a red indicator near the pointed tip and see if you can roll the valve on the other end. If not, get a new one."

"It's red. And the valve's good."

"Okay, put Barry on his side so that you have the affected lung topside," Digg instructed. Oliver and Felicity complied and rolled Barry on his left.

"I want you to feel for the rib from the nipple to just below his armpit. Mark the upper part of that rib. Swab the skin with the antiseptic that's also in the tray. That's where you're going to push the needle in."

Oliver hurriedly slid his finger from Barry's chest to the where Digg told him to. He felt for the superior aspect of the rib and marked it by denting the skin with his finger nail. He would later notice that he'd lost his glove but it didn't matter to him right then.

"I've swabbed it," Oliver reported after running the moist cotton pad against his friend's skin. To Felicity, he said, "Hold his arm. I need it out of my way."

Felicity quickly complied as Digg said, "Now, get that needle. I need you to push it in slowly at an upward 45-degree line that's aimed at his heart."

"The whole thing?" Oliver asked, his hands trembling.

"No. Go slow. Wait until that red indicator pops green then tell me."

Oliver aimed the needle towards Barry's heart, exhaled to steady his hand and plunged the needle through his friend's chest.

He heard the hiss of air and saw the indicator turn green. "It's in! It's green."

"Just air? No blood?" Digg asked.

"All air," Oliver answered.

"Okay. Slowly take the needle out but leave the catheter with the valve in place."

"It's out," Felicity said as Oliver finally removed the needle and secured the catheter.

"Roll the valve and make sure that catheter doesn't fall off. See if he's breathing better."

After the valve let out a longer hiss, they rolled Barry unto his back and waited.

A tense second passed. Then another. And then Barry's gulping wheezes turned into relieved and easier breaths.

"You okay, buddy?" Oliver asked.

Barry nodded and when it looked as if he wanted to speak, Felicity quickly preempted him. "Don't even try talking. Breathe first," she admonished as she placed an oxygen mask on him.

"He's okay, John. He's okay," Oliver stated.

A relieved sigh escaped Digg before he answered. "Keep an eye on his breathing. You might have to let the air out again. We're two minutes out."

"Copy that," Oliver responded as he cut off the call.

He turned to Felicity, only to see her waver on her feet.

"Felicity!"

Central City, en route to S.T.A.R. Labs, 11:48 pm

"He's fine, right?" Cisco asked worriedly as Digg clicked the call off. He had taken the wheel when they upped and left the docks because Digg had to keep their perp secured – meaning knocked out cold.

"He's breathing," he answered diffidently because who the hell knew how long that would last. "But you better get us there quick."

Cisco nodded his agreement and punched it. "You got it!"

Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs, 11:49 pm

Felicity felt her world stutter at the wooziness that suddenly slammed her. She tried to blink it off a couple of times and thought that she had successfully controlled the dizzy spell, only to realize later, once she was safely in Oliver's arms, that she had almost fainted.

"Hey, take it easy. Here, take a seat," Oliver said as he guided her to a nearby stool. He squatted in front of her to assess her injuries. "What happened?" he asked as he noticed the bump on her forehead.

She sighed. She took a few moments to steady herself and get the facts straight in her head before she answered, "She just came at us. I just saw Joe's body flying through the door and hitting the floor and then she threw a bat at me. Next thing I knew, I was waking up with this" – she said as she pointed at the bump on her forehead – "and a bad headache… I think I hit the projection system and knocked it out before I hit the floor," she gingerly continued as she winced at the pain on her shoulder.

Oliver brushed his fingers against the bump and shook his head. "Who's she?" he asked as he made his way to the small fridge they used to cool Barry's IV fluids. He remembered seeing an ice pack there somewhere.

"I think she's our killer's accomplice. She's the one who followed Barry this morning, not the woman in the sketch," she explained as she took the ice pack Oliver handed her. He then made his way over to where the detective lay unconsciously on the floor.

"That's the glitch we were having. The facial recognition program was trying to pin a face on the wrong gait profile," she recounted as she watched him work.

Oliver checked Joe's pulse. It was steady and so was his breathing. Good to know, Oliver mentally sighed. But his relief was short-lived. When he checked Joe for other injuries, he found two small holes encircled by red marks on his shirt. It looked like the detective met the business end of a Taser.

"How's he?" Felicity anxiously asked, interrupting her own story.

"His pulse is steady. He's breathing fine," Oliver answered even as he hoped that Joe hadn't suffered a heart attack or a stroke. He didn't tell Felicity any of that because he didn't want to agitate her further and trigger another near faint. He continued working on Joe instead, loosening the man's tie and shirt buttons before he moved the detective into the recovery position.

Mollified by Oliver's answer, Felicity continued, "Anyway, when I came to, Joe was still out but breathing so I moved on to the Treatment Room. Barry was banged up. Then I called Cisco because the comms weren't working."

"And Caitlin?" Oliver prompted.

Felicity averted her eyes.

It was Barry who answered him. "She took her. And I tried to stop that crazy woman but she was strong, Oliver – picked me up like I was nothing," he said after he chucked his oxygen mask.

Felicity agreed. "And with how she destroyed this place, it looks like she was. Just like someone hopped up on Mirakuru... and Speed," she said.

"What did she look like?" Digg interrupted his friends as he came into the room. He had caught the tail-end of their conversation. And he wanted this other woman found. Except for Cisco, all of them – including himself – were all hurt and banged up. Someone has got to lock this place down and tight.

Three pairs of startled eyes found him but he went on nonchalantly. "Cisco and I secured the perp in her cell. He's on his way – said he just needed to make sure that the whole area is sealed securely," he explained before he repeated his question. "So, what did she look like?"

"Tall," Felicity supplied.

"Blonde," Barry said.

"Crazy," Felicity offered.

Digg raised an eyebrow at her.

"What? She had wild eyes!"

"She talked funny," Barry interrupted. "And she had a scar – an 'X' on the back of her neck."

That revelation had Digg and Oliver sharing a look.

Then Cisco came rushing into the room, "What did I miss?"

Starling City, The Diggles' Apartment, 11:52 pm

"…In business, WayneTech experiences another solid week as it launches its first advanced genomics and biotech facility in Central City…"

Lyla clicked off the TV. She had been trying to fall asleep for the past hour-and-a-half but she couldn't. It could've been just the excess energy from the impromptu mission they had run but deep down she knew it was because her husband was not beside her.

She rolled to look at the empty half of their bed, but before she could settle down, she felt her phone vibrate. She retrieved it from her bedside table. It was John. A cold dread settled on her stomach. They'd already said their goodnights over the phone just after she came home this evening. This couldn't be good.

She answered the call, "Johnny?"

"Lyla, we have a problem."

Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs, 11:57 pm

"It's not even that bad anymore," Felicity complained as she and Oliver waited for Digg's pronouncement. Cisco, Digg and Oliver had loaded her and their friends one after the other into the CT scanner located in one of the enclosed areas adjacent to the treatment room. Barry and Joe went first owing to their more serious conditions. They'd just finished her scan and were awaiting the results. Oliver was adamant about her taking a seat but she was getting antsy with all this sitting-around-and-not-doing-anything – especially when Caitlin was missing.

"You only say that now," Oliver admonished as he switched the hand that was holding the ice pack against her forehead.

It was only then that she noticed the rash. "Oliver!" Felicity exclaimed as she grabbed his arm. "What happened?"

He remembered just then that he'd lost his glove. And that probably happened during his fight with their suspect. But he was still alive so it was probably nothing. "It's probably nothing, Felicity," he shrugged, trying to head off any additional distress on her part.

"Doesn't look like nothing to me," Felicity challenged.

"Not to me either," Cisco said as he returned from having pushed Joe back to the Treatment Room. Digg had cleared both Barry and Joe. They were all waiting for Felicity's results. "Looks like bad poison ivy," he said just before a jolt seemingly went through him. "That's it! That's it! Poison Ivy!"

"It's not poison ivy, Cisco," Felicity snapped. "It's that woman!"

Cisco looked at her just like she grew another head. But her obvious anxiety stopped him from making an ill-timed dig.

It took two blinks for her to realize what that could mean. "What did she do to you?" she frantically asked Oliver as she worked herself into a fine panic. "Frak! Did she get the toxin on you? She got the toxin on you! Oh my God! Oh my" –

"Felicity!" Oliver interrupted her as he threw the ice pack to Cisco – who almost didn't catch. Oliver used his uninjured hand to hold her shoulder, "Don't worry. It's not even painful – only a little itchy and I'm still alive. I'll shoot it up with the nannites if you want. And I'll even let Cisco get the UV lamp so we can see for ourselves, all right?"

When she huffed and nodded her head after a second, he let her go and looked meaningfully at Cisco. The engineer nodded at him and went to the Treatment Room to get the UV light while Oliver used the jet injector gun to dose himself.

Digg's shadow diverted his attention from the pinch of the gun.

"Your scans look clear – at least from what I can see. There's no overt bleeding and there aren't any fractures," Digg addressed Felicity as he came back from the viewing room after looking at her cranial CT scans. He expected her to shrug it off so he looked at her sternly to pre-empt her, "A concussion is nothing to shrug off."

To his surprise she just nodded distractedly. Digg didn't even know if she heard him. "Felicity?"

"Just please take a look at his hand, will you?" she huffed as she pointed at Oliver. "Looks like she got to him despite the suit."

Oliver presented his hand for his inspection. "I think I brushed against her skin."

"Looks like the one Barry got on his neck," Digg said. "But we won't know unless we look at it with"–

"This!" Cisco cut in as he came back into the room with the UV lamp.

Digg motioned for the engineer to hand it to him. Felicity nervously squeezed Oliver's other hand while everybody else held their breaths.

The lamp bathed Oliver's hand in an iridescent violet hue but the lack of the tell-tale red glow of the deadly toxin had them all mentally heaving a sigh of relief.

"Feeling dizzy? Sick?" Digg asked his friend.

Oliver shook his head. Except for the weird weakness that overcame him whenever their murderess was near, he felt fine – for the most part.

"So he's good?" Felicity asked.

"As long as he doesn't develop symptoms over the next few hours, he's good. I don't see any of the barbs sticking out anymore," he said as he reached into his pocket and retrieved a foil packet. He ripped open the package to retrieve a cotton pad soaked in antiseptic and proceeded to wipe the affected area.

Oliver held back the hiss his throat was trying to make.

"Wait, didn't she like, choke you too?" Cisco remarked as he replayed the whole mission in his head. But he stopped himself from saying anything else after catching the glare Oliver was giving him. Oh, if only looks could've killed.

Oliver had wanted to leave that particular detail out to keep Felicity from worrying more. But well, the rabbit was let out of the bag. He looked at her to gauge her reaction. But before he could figure her out, the sting of Digg's swabbing virtually all of his exposed neck with antiseptic interrupted his thoughts.

"You're going to be fine," Digg said as he finished. To Felicity, he said, "You're both going to be fine but you' – he said as he looked at her pointedly – "are gonna have to take a breather. You hear me?"

Digg waited until Felicity nodded before he took Cisco away to help him check on Barry and Joe.

xxxxXXXXxxxx

Barry quickly changed into a new set of sweats right after Digg had cleared him. Digg said that he had a couple of cracked ribs and to take it easy but hell if he can do that now. Caitlin was kidnapped. She was in danger. There was a lot they needed to do. He felt his breath tighten and his chest seize with the rising tide of anxious energy that emanated from him. The pain forced him to take a deep breath, so he did. He took another to center himself just before he went back to the Treatment Room to meet his friends and figure out how they were going to get Caitlin back.

He came back ready to get started, only to see the room empty except for Joe, who was trying to escape his bed.

"Woah, you should stay in there," he told his surrogate father. He moved to help settle Joe back, but the detective waved him off.

Joe seated himself on the edge of the bed instead. "I'm better, Barry."

"Glad to see you up. You all right?" Digg asked Joe as he entered the room with Cisco.

The detective nodded. "At least I'm awake now. Looks like I missed a lot," he said as he indicated the mess around him.

"Blacking out after being tased would do that to you," Oliver quipped as he ushered Felicity into the room and sat her down on the nearest available horizontal surface.

"What do you remember?" Cisco asked.

Joe could only shake his head. "I was doing a sweep of the main hallways. All of a sudden I heard some noises, followed it. I remember taking a blow to the chest then nothing," he recounted as he swept his gaze around the room. "Where's Caitlin?"

A heavy silence met his question. Clearly something was wrong.

It was Barry who spoke up. "She was taken by the woman who did this," he said as he swept his hand towards the fallen equipment.

"Not to mention she also stabbed Barry, knocked Felicity out and trashed my holographic display system," Cisco muttered to himself.

"You should stay in bed," Digg cautioned as he tried to get the detective to stay where he was and rest.

"I'll have plenty of time later," Joe said as he stood up despite the bigger man's protest and started taking off the wires that connected him to the only remaining cardiac monitor instead. "Do we have any idea who she is and where she has Caitlin?"

"Yes and No," Felicity answered. "I think she's our killer's accomplice. She was present in Starling City during the seminar. There's video of her that's confirmed by facial recognition. And gait recognition points to her as the one tailing Barry this morning." She let that sink in for a moment before she added, "We don't know who she is yet. But I think we have enough for an ID. And no, we have no idea where she could have taken Caitlin."

That meant they had to scour a large area – which means they would need manpower and therefore, the additional resources only the CCPD can provide.

"You guys have another place where you can do your thing?" Joe asked Felicity, Oliver and Digg.

"What do you mean?" Cisco asked.

"We're going to have to call the CCPD," Joe said. "You all know there's no way we can't. We need manpower and all of you can't be here when they arrive."

Cisco looked at his friends for confirmation that this was the best course of action. The archer, the speedster, the soldier and the hacker nodded their agreement.

"I have enough left here to set-up an auxiliary site," Felicity responded. "But we'd have to make do with a lot less processing power."

"Why can't we relocate to somewhere else in this whole place? It's big enough. That way we can maintain processing power and be in close coordination," Cisco suggested.

"This place is going to be crawling with CSI," Barry remarked.

"And we need somewhere more covert to run the Flash and the Arrow from, when needed," Digg added.

"Aren't we exposing ourselves too much?" Cisco pondered aloud.

"We'll say that Felicity, Digg and I are your friends who dropped by earlier so you'll have a reason for why our prints are all over the place. The rest, I think, Joe can set up," Oliver said.

Joe nodded at him. "I'll need Cisco and Barry with me for a while to sell our cover."

"What if they ask how we followed our leads?" the engineer pressed.

"Then you tell them that you're beta-testing new software for a friend," Felicity supplied as she stood up. "Hmmm… I think we better cover you with an NDA. I'll get Laurel on it."

Cisco just realized how much more adept his Starling City friends were with cover-ups. "Okay, okay," he conceded. To Joe, he asked, "How much head-start do we have?"

"Ten minutes, then I call."

When everybody disbanded to get to work, Oliver turned back to Joe. "Detective?"

"Yeah?"

"Make sure you keep your distance from our suspect. I think she can compel anyone to do her bidding, especially when she literally gets her hands on them. I don't know exactly how, but, better safe than sorry."

Starling City, Arrow Cave, 12:00 mn

They always ended up like this – with at least one point of their bodies touching. Sometimes it was just their pinkies that overlapped; sometimes it was her head on his shoulder. This time, Laurel's feet were cushioned on his thigh. And it was more than okay, Tommy thought as he flipped to the next page of the document he was reading.

Since they were pretty much in for a long night, he and Laurel had decided to relocate to the couch on the far end of the lair. The team had repurposed that corner into a living area for him all those months ago when all of them hadn't been really sure whether it was safe or not to let him out into the real world. It had been his holding cell. The perimeter of the area used to be lined with metal bars, but those have been retracted beneath the floor – ready to spring back up when they needed it again.

Laurel had asked him if he was okay with being back in what used to be his prison. God knows, there had been some pretty dark times then. But he didn't really mind being back in this space and he had to reassure her twice. He might've sounded crazy to her, but it was actually one of the very few places he felt the safest in.

His thoughts were interrupted by the ringing noise of Laurel's phone.

"Hello?" Laurel asked as she sat up to take the call.

He was just about to settle back into reading his stuff again, when a stunned "What?!" left Laurel's mouth.

That had his body stilling. He knew right then that something was up.

"Okay, okay," she said after a minute. "I'll draw it up."

He looked at her expectantly as she finished the call. At her continued silence, he raised an enquiring eyebrow.

"That was Felicity. They were attacked at S.T.A.R. Labs. Caitlin's been taken. And I need to draw up a non-disclosure agreement in five minutes," she rattled off.

Before he could even begin to process that, the sounds of footsteps and a baby drew his attention to the lair's secondary entrance. It was Lyla with little Sara in tow.

Oh boy! He muttered. This was going to be an even longer night.

Don't forget to let me know what you think! Kisses!