A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for all the amazing reviews! You all are the best!
''My...head.'' Grumbled Cisco, slowly coming back to the world of the living with the unpleasant feeling that something was hammering in his head. Where was he now? It wasn't smelling like his bedroom. He remembered being at the Convention Center and... Barry! The hero sat up fast enough to be overtaken by a strong dizzy spell that forced him to close his eyes and take deep breathes under a pair of familiar and delicate hands that pushed him back on the mattress.
''Take it easy, Cisco. You're at S.T.A.R. Labs.'' Explained Caitlin. ''You were completely out by the time Joe took you here.''
''Barr-'' He started, opening his eyes again and scanning the room. ''The Convention Center, there were people ru-''
''The police are still trying to search the rubbles for anyone still buried under and trying to make a headcount on who got captured and who's still missing.''
''Is there any...-'' Trailed Cisco.
''There's many injured, but no, nobody had been found dead so far.'' Informed Caitlin, still looking at her friend's vitals on the computer. ''Wally's out there, looking for Barry and the others hostages as we speak. ''
''I'm sorry, Cait, I should've been faster. '' Tiredly said Cisco, trying again to get into a seated position.
''Take it easy, Cisco.'' Said his friend as the strong hand supported him despite the concern shining in her brown eyes: ''You still have a mild-concussion, some smokes in your lungs, 2 cracked ribs and a pretty gruesome gash on your arm. You're not going anywhere.''
''I should've appeared outside the building and check the parameters first. I could've stopped them before they activated the second bomb and abducted Barry.'' As he was speaking, the superhero hit the bed in frustration with his good arm, his jaw clenching.
''I see that he's back with us.'' Commented Joe, entering the medical bay with the corner of his lips slightly twisting in an unconvinced attempt at smiling under these dim circumstances.
Swiftly turning his upper body as he heard the familiar voice, Cisco suppressed a groan from the pain he just caused to his injured ribs: ''Have you found him?'' He hopefully inquired.
Losing all visual sign of that failed attempt at lighting up the mood, Joe closed his eyes and sighed deeply: ''No, nothing. What happened in there?''
''I tried to help him.'' Started Cisco, forced to stop himself as his itching throat sent him into a sudden coughing fit. Almost instantly a hand carrying a fresh glass of water appeared in front of him.
'Thanks.' He gratefully expressed through a nod, before continuing, after taking a few sips. ''I was training when Barry ran in to take his suit. When he failed at answering to his comms, I just breached over where he was. By the time I got there, they somehow had already taken Barry and a few others hostages. They triggered a bomb and threatened to blow more in the building if I was to follow.'' Narrated Cisco, his head low in shame. ''They detonated another one anyway...I should've gone after Barry, I should've tried harder.''
''Don't beat yourself up, you tried to save as many people as you could, you did your best.'' Assured Joe, putting a gentle hand on his friend's arm.
The detective's ringtone interrupted whatever he was about to add next, making him dig into his pocket to extirpate the device.
''West.'' He grumbled to the phone.
''Joe…'' Answered Singh's voice, without wasting any time for greeting. ''You better put your TV on.''
''Turn the TV on?'' Joe frowned in confusion but still gesturing at Caitlin to go check it out with the TV in the room. ''Which channel?''
''Any one will do.''
As a matter of fact, there seemed to be a breaking news broadcasting across all over the city: Flash and many civilians taken hostages
The streaming was pretty dark, like it was filmed inside an old basement, but thanks to the dim light everyone could discern the bright red suit standing against a wooden pole. The fallen hero was heavily leaning forward with his head down and his arms behind his back, probably tighten together with the same power dampener that had been put on him at the conference center. Behind the speedster, there was a group of four people sitting on the dirty floor, arms also behind their back. In the lighting it was hard to discern their faces and tell which ones of the 7 persons missing in the explosions were prisoners in this place.
"I can't see Allen." Commented Singh, his eyes scanning the group for his missing CSI, his only still missing employee and the one for whom he always had a soft spot for.
'I can.' Thought Joe, clenching the phone between his fingers, but keeping his comment for himself.
"Gosh, I hoped he was among the hostages and not in the rubbles" whispered the captain with his choked voice, full of dread.
"Citizen of Central city," Triumphantly announced a deep voice behind the camera, "may I present to you our guest of honor for today?"
A tall and muscled form walked in front of the camera and carefully approached his unmoving prey who stayed completely inert, a detail that caused Joe to clench his fist even tighter and take one unconscious step forward, instinctively needing to protect his son.
"Wakey wakey flashy" added the voice, advancing toward the speedster with a baseball bat.
Swinging his weapon without hesitation, the man connected it a mere moment later with the hero's side, earning a particularly loud grunt of pain as Barry's eyes snapped open.
"Leave him alone!" Screamed Joe to the screen and forgetting he still had his boss on the line and that the people on the screen couldn't hear him. Deactivating his cellphone's mic, he turned his head toward the bed and pulled the engineer out of his stupor by calling him out: "Cisco! Can you track the broadcast signal?"
"On it!" Said the engineer, pushing through the pain of his ribs and head and ignoring the doctor's protests as he jumped out of the bed. After a couple of shaky, stumbling, steps, he regained his balance and ran to the closest computer, frenetically hitting the keyboard touches.
"They must have find a way to deactivate the suit's tracker...but if I can just hack the news channel and find from where they're receiving the signal, then I can-"
"I don't care about the how, just do it!" Ordered, rudely, Joe before turning back his attention to the live broadcast, reactivating his microphone for one second:
"Can I call you back, sir?"
It was with his ear ringing that he heard Singh's answer, whatever it was, when he realized the captor was about to rip off the hero's mask from off his face.
"Don't be shy, show your face to the world."
The big hand going for the red piece of clothing. Barry tensing up. People in team flash tensing up... Everything was happening at the slowest of motions from Joe's perspective.
The dirty hands went for the mask, trying to peel it off the hero's face. The time stood still and Joe could feel the drop of sweat running down his forehead as his son's identify was about to get revealed to the entire world.
Unless….Oh. Thank God. Most of the technology Cisco had put into the suit was gone, but apparently he kept the lockdown mode. No matter how hard the rogue was trying, eventually helped by his frustrated hooded friend who came from behind the camera to struggle with the red fabric, there was no revealing Barry's identity.
''He looks so young. '' Said Singh on the phone as the captors finally took a step back.
Oh, oops. With everything unfolding, looks like Joe completely forgot to finish cutting off the line.
''Alright.'' Growled the tallest captor, spitting out every word with annoyance and anger as he took out his gun and pointed it at the Scarlet Speedster's head, ''Let's make a deal, Central City, we won't reveal you his face today, but if you don't pay us 10 Millions in the next hour, your precious hero will die, live, and one more hostage will follow every ho-''
A horrifying scream from his side stopped his sentence midway, a distress sound that came right out of the hero's mouth before his muscles started violently moving in all directions. Well, moving as much as they could while being tie-up.
''What the-''
In the cortex, Joe urgently turned toward Cisco: ''Find him, NOW!''
''I'm trying!'' He shouted back, he had been trying none-stop since getting behind that computer.
''Cisco!'' Pressed out Caitlin, hovering over his shoulder, her worry for her friend rising exponentially
''I'm not Felicity, dammit!'' He answered back, furiously typing on the keys, trying to locate his best friend's position.
As the hero's seizure came to an abrupt stop and the man completely ceased to move. At this instant, complete silence filled the cortex. The man with the hood inserted his fingers between the mask and the hero's skin, growling in frustration:
''He doesn't have a pulse. Told you, you shouldn't have woken him up with that! You probably did some internal damages!'' Shouted the criminal to his colleague, furious that they probably just lost their biggest hostage.
Whatever the other man answered back was lost on Joe's ears, but it probably sounded something like 'Shut the damn camera off' since the broadcast stopped moments later. No, not Barry. It couldn't be. He didn't just die right in front of his eyes. No…His knees turned to jelly and he almost went down, face first, on the ground. He would've if it wasn't for strong unknown hands helping him sit on the closest chair.
''Joe? Back with us?''
He had no idea how much time he lost, but as he slowly blinked, the blurry form in front of his teary eyes slowly transformed back into Caitlin: ''Cisco managed to triangulate their location, or close to, at least, before the broadcast ended. Wally is searching the area right now and he's-''
Wait? They found the location? They had Wally searching the area right now? Even if they did find Barry, it was already too-
Whoosh!
The typical sound of a speedster rushing into the room and leaving it with a trail of flying papers in his trail, made itself heard in the room. As it left, in less than a second, it wasn't without a gift. Indeed, there was now a familiar red uniform lying on the bed occupied by Cisco moments before.
''BARRY!'' They all screamed in unison, rushing to the medical bay in a record time, unsure what they were hoping to find.
Caitlin was probably already thinking about a million things she could try to revive her friend and save his life before it was too late…unless it already was. Whatever action the doctor was planning to do got cut short in an instant as the most unexpected miracle just jumped into the face; the red head turned on his own and looked at the group with tired, but opened, eyes.
''Hey.'' He rasped. ''You guys need to remind me to never speed up my heart like that again…it hurt.''
Cisco scoffed and closed in eyes in a mix of pure joy and relief. ''Yeah, don't EVER do that to us again. ''
''Yeah, never again, Barr.'' Agreed Joe, his hand against his still speeding own heart. ''It's my heart who can't take it.''
''How did you even managed to do it with the power dampener cuffs on you?'' Asked Cisco, frowning in confusion.
''Not sure…I just…tried really hard. Couldn't let them kill the hostages.'' Slurred out Barry, his eyelids starting to close.
''Hey! Don't fall asleep on us!'' Said Cisco, slightly shaking his friend's shoulders as he saw the tired eyes blinking slower by the moment.
''Hummm.'' Grumbled Barry with a sleepy voice, clearly unhappy about being forced to stay awake.
''Dammit Barry, you could've trigger a real heart attack!'' Exclaimed Caitlin, her worry jumping back to the roof once more as she pushed her fingers on her friend's wrist. ''You might as well still can, it's so fast I can barely feel your heartbeat.''
''Must be…be…why…it hurt like hell.'' Slowly mumbled Barry, wincing.
''Hey! Stay with me and you can sleep all you want once I'm sure you're fine, alright?'' Suggested Caitlin.
Barry fought to open his eyes again and nodded slightly. Not that Caitlin was really watching; the woman had already run off to gather all the medical equipment she was going to need to monitor the speedster.
''Cisco; mind helping me out?'' She asked before adding: ''After that, it's bed rest for you too.''
The police Captain's voice calling over the speaker on the phone was trying to grab back Joe's attention to inform him about how Kid Flash suddenly appeared in the precinct with the rest of the hostages and the cuffed criminals. Except, Joe couldn't care less at the moment. Later, he could need to call back his boss and let him know that his young CSI was miraculously brought back home and that he didn't get buried alive in the Convention Center, but that could wait just a minute. The important thing right now was that Barry was back, alive.
THE END!
A/N: Leave a comment
This chapter could've easily be 3 times longer or more, but hopefully it's not going to show too much. At first, I wanted to have many live streaming and a big search by the police, but, like I said, I ran out of time. Anyway, a HUGE thanks to Brentinator and SenseiGrace for inviting me in this fun Secret Santa fanfiction. If you do it again, I hope you'll invite me again and i'll be even better at short stories. Promise
Meanwhile, see you all on Friday for the return of Message in a bottle :)