A/N: Sorry it took a whole week longer than anticipated; the truth is I ended up writing 2x what I thought I would to end this story, so it took me twice as long to write the draft. Posting the 2nd part now and gonna post the 3rd and last part next week
Please note that:
-I wrote this without my Beta and English is only my 2nd language, so excuse all the typos and grammar mistakes
-This is still an AU from 5x07 (the thanksgiving episode), planned and started before the episode aired and based only on the promo where Nora was holding a dead/dying Barry.
Seated on the sofa in his home, Joe frowned at his cellphone when he saw the caller ID: Captain Singh. Why would his boss call him so early in the day? With the baby at home, it's not like the detective was due back at work anytime soon. Joe sure didn't remember that raising a baby was so exhausting.
"Captain?" Joe quietly asked while picking up his phone trying not to wake up Cecile and the baby who were resting upstairs.
"Humn, Joe-" started Singh, hesitant, "-I'm sorry to bother you, but I've been wondering if you wouldn't have any news on The Flash by any chances."
The question and the way it got slowly pronounced, with a hint of worry in the policeman's voice, froze Joe's blood. What happened to the Flash? What happened to Barry? More than that, why was the captain contacting him of all people about it?
Oh, also, what the hell happened to The Flash?
"Captain?" Inquired Joe with all his strength oriented toward keeping his voice from shaking in fear.
"The Flash went into a fight with Mardon's daughter, and my officers who first arrived on the scene to pick her up said The Flash seemed unresponsive, " started to explain David to the detective who could feel his anxiety rising a tad more with every new word.
Mardon's daughter? Unresponsive Flash?
"The new girl, XS I believe, took him away," finished Singh.
Oh God. Barr, thought Joe. What was going on? Barry's foster father had struggles hearing the rest of the chat because of the blood pumping so hard in his ears thanks to his heart picking up the pace.
"Since you and Iris always seemed to have privileged information on him, I was hoping you would know if he's ok," completed the police's captain with obvious concern.
He knows, concluded Joe. Of course, Singh knew who was under the speedster's mask; he probably always did or suspected it.
"I...I... don't-" rambled Joe as his heart was painfully pumping in his chest.
He hadn't received a single call from S.T.A.R. Lab, so it had to mean Barry was okay, right?
Or he was...
No! He was fine! He had to be. Any other possibly just wasn't an option.
"I'll keep you informed as soon as I know anything," promised Joe.
"Please do."
Hanging up, the detective quick dialed his daughter's number.
"Please Iris, pick up. Please, pick up," he whispered again and again as the ringing tone was resonating in his ears.
***FLASHFLASHFLASH***
"What's taking so long?" Grumbled Iris who was on the edge of losing her sanity.
Her husband was dying and frozen like a popsicle in the North Pole at this very instant and what was she doing now? She was sitting on her ass, doing nothing. All of them were.
Well, more like most of them as Caitlin was desperately working against the clock to concoct an antidote to counteract the poison running in Barry's veins. With every passing second, the chances of successfully resuscitating the hero and restarting his system were diminishing. Putting Barry in the chamber might've slowed his too-rapid deterioration, the one that was about to kill him in a matter of minutes, but he wasn't wholly cryogenized. What this meant, concretely, was that the team only gained themselves a few hours, extending Barry's lifespan roughly by two or three hours. It might be even less than that as these numbers were pure speculation. Who knew how long Barry still had?
Ralph and Nora insisted on staying back to keep a helpless eye on the dying hero while Cisco was trying his best, which wasn't much, to assist Caitlin in her work. But, very quickly, the engineer realized he couldn't do much and ended up waiting for an update, side by side with Iris in the medical room while Sherlocque was somewhere else in the laboratory.
"She's doing her best," reminded Cisco to his friend's wife; losing their patience wasn't going to help Barry.
Forcing herself to calm down, just a tad, Iris stopped her non-stop walking that was making the engineer dizzy and took a deep breath before putting her hands on her cheeks and looking down.
"I know. I know. I'm sorry, it's just-"
"I feel the same way," assured Cisco, getting up and walking closer to the reporter.
Hearing bits and pieces of the conversation going on behind her in the medical room, Caitlin barely took a second to glance over her shoulder before continuing her precious work.
Looking down at her watch, the doctor bit her lips; it had been over an hour already. Almost an hour and a half. How long had Barry left? Was it already too late?
On the room's desk, Iris' phone vibrated for the second time in less than a minute, but her anxious conversation with Vibe and her sobbing that came rushing back through her throat and pass her lips made her deaf to her device's alert. The caller would have to wait for a while longer.
"It's going to be ok," whispered Cisco, fully aware he was in no position to make such promises.
"Got it!" Suddenly exclaimed Caitlin, mere minutes later, turning around and proudly holding high a syringe filled with a transparent yellowish liquid.
"Is that-" started to ask Vibe who turned around to face his best friend while frantically palpating his vest's pocket. Where the hell did he put the breaching device?
If Caitlin was holding what he thought she was, they were going to need it.
"It should neutralize the poison and allow his speed force's healing abilities to take over," affirmed the doctor, but the joy she gathered thanks to finding a possible cure got cut-short, "but we're only going to have one shot at this. If it doesn't work, we can't freeze him again."
"I trust you," instantly and truthfully answered Iris.
"Cisco?" Asked the doctor.
By the time Caitlin turned around to face Cisco, the man had managed to find and take out the interdimensional extrapolator from his pocket. With a quick nod, he indicated he was ready to jump back into action. Let's do this.
"Let's go!" Said Vibe just before swiftly opening a blue portal a couple of feet behind the chair where the winter coats had been piled on earlier.
One by one, the trio entered it and arrived in the polar cold of the North Pole's research facility. Landing on the other side and putting his coat on, the one he grabbed before jumping into the breach, Cisco opened his mouth to get ready to comment about the fact Caitlin rushed in only wearing her thin green dress with a long black sleeve. That was 'till he remembered she was immune to cold. So, instead, he kept his comment to himself and closed his mouth.
"You guys have the cure?" Quickly inquired Nora, panic and worry still reading all over her tired features.
Ralph stayed between the young speedster and the cryogenic chamber.
"I think we do," enigmatically answered Caitlin, biting her bottom lips; they had to try this.
Barry probably wasn't going to hold up long enough for the team to try anything else, they had no other choice.
"How is he?" Asked Cisco, quickly striding over to his friend's cryogenic chamber. The frost and ice covering the glass from the inside were making it impossible to see the person they were fiercely trying to save.
"He's….still fighting, I think," carefully said, Ralph, while walking to Vibe with his arms tightly crossed on his chest.
It was a stupid question and a stupid answer; there was no way to monitor Barry's condition as long as he was in that thing. For all they knew, he might already be gone. For sure, that thought had crossed everyone's mind, even if no one dared to say a thing.
"Open it," instructed Caitlin, swallowing hard and walking straight next to the glass.
The temptation to let someone else, anyone, open the chamber and stay behind 'till they knew if Barry was alive was high; Caitlin didn't want to make that discovery if things weren't going to turn out their way.
The slow pace with which the chamber opened was pure torture, and it was pushing everyone's anxiety to the roof.
Come on, Barry. Still be with us, desperately hoped the doctor when the red boots, covered in frost, came to her view.
Her friend's legs and chest followed a moment later and, finally, the unmasked face got out with blue lips and ice mixing with frost on his delicate skin.
Oh God. Caitlin's shaking fingers almost dropped her syringe to the floor where it would be exploded and lose all his content when her brain registered all the visual details of Barry's condition. There was no movement in her friend; Barry was as still and cold as a dead body. Tightening her grip around her equipment, Caitlin swiftly moved into action and injected the translucent liquid straight into Barry's neck before putting her syringe down and gathering the courage to press her fingers against the frozen neck. An icy sensation spread inside of her when Caitlin didn't find anything at first. Gulping and stopping her breathing altogether, she pressed harder.
The seconds felt like hours for everyone.
"Cait?" Finally asked Iris.
"I can't seem to find a pulse, not sure if he's breathing-" she stuttered, barely holding on. Maybe her overwhelming emotions shaking her to the core were the reason why she couldn't feel a thing.
"We have to bring him back to the lab," urgently said Ralph while walking forward.
Next to him was Nora, also rushing to the cryogenic chamber and already creating lightings around her body.
"I can bring back some heat into him first," said the young speedster who was getting closer to her father, only to bump into the arm Caitlin had suddenly put in the way to prevent Nora from going further.
"Not yet-" interrupted Caitlin, "Let's take him to S.T.A.R. Lab first. I wanna make sure I can give him oxygen and hook him up on the monitors the second we kick-start his metabolism," she said.
"But, your s-"
"Even if what I give him work; it might still take a few moments, or minutes, to start taking effect; he might go into respiratory distress the moment his body will warm up and start requesting more oxygen," urgently explained Caitlin to the hero's daughter. Understanding, Nora nodded and allowed Caitlin to continue, "alright, let's move. Now!"
The ice Meta probably didn't need to shout her instruction this loud considering how they all understood the emergency of the situation, but her commanding voice sure gave a little boost to the whole team. The way the words came out of her mouth made it look like Caitlin had everything was under control, and everything was going to be ok.
Swiftly, Ralph and Cisco gathered the speedster between them just as Iris was opening a breach with the interdimensional extrapolator.
In less than a minute after Caitlin ordered them to move, Team Flash was back inside the lab's medical area and appearing under the surprised eyes of Joe. The detective witnessed them come back from who knows where while carrying an unconscious, way too pale, and blue lips speedster covered in frost all over his suit.
So concentrated on their task and their concern, nobody noticed Joe's presence until after Barry had been put on the closest medical bay and the man decided to speak up:
"What the hell is going on here? "
A/N: What did you think? Leave a comment, always appreciated. Excited for the final part?
Zero Hour is coming tomorrow, who's ready to get more information on Jay's apprentice?