(Author's Note: I really do like reviews. A LOT. Give me all your thoughts and feels. -Doverstar)

Caitlin felt as if she'd just fallen asleep when her phone burst into the chorus of Grease's Summer Lovin' on her nightstand. She nearly fell out of bed trying to reach it, mind late to the party with exhaustion. She was already sleeping horizontally rather than vertically—it must've been the dreams she'd been having.

She'd dreamt of Killer Frost and Ronnie in Iris' place on Infantino Street. One moment Barry had been beside her, they had both been in the grass, begging Savitar in his hulking armor to let Ronnie go. Caitlin had turned to Barry, only to see her own reflection in his eyes—she was Killer Frost. Where was her necklace? Caitlin had heard of people drawing an X on the backs of their hands, in an experiment designed to enhance one's dreaming. The theory was that if you had something—like an X on your hand—every day before sleeping for a few months, and noticed it gone, your brain would realize that a physical development that it had been becoming used to was now missing. In the wake of this revelation, you would become aware that you weren't awake, thus able to control the outcome of your dream.

Caitlin had hoped, after Julian and Cisco had gifted her with the necklace, that it could work like that, and fight off the bad dreams she'd been having since she discovered her powers. But it hadn't. She had looked for the necklace in her nightmare, seeing the white, frozen ends of her hair too late, but it hadn't been there. And she hadn't woken up, or realized that what was around her wasn't real. Ice covered her boots, ran up her legs, past her waist, encasing her torso. She fought to free herself, so cold, but Caitlin couldn't move an inch. The Flash was still beside her, but he didn't seem to notice what was happening to her, who she was. His eyes were locked on the pavement several yards away, where Savitar held Ronnie by the neck.

"Let him go!" Caitlin had screamed, as the ice claimed her shoulders. Her voice sounded rushed, shivering with something else—echoes chasing up and down her words. Killer Frost's tones.

Barry was saying something, bent double, ready to dash, but though she saw his mouth moving, Caitlin couldn't hear any of it. She saw his fingers curl into his palms.

A glance back at the villain told her Savitar was aiming the metal spear at Ronnie's chest. Ronnie was saying her name, she knew, but smoke rolled from his open mouth and she couldn't make it out. His eyes were shooting sparks. The metal spear was inches from his back.

"Barry, save him!" Caitlin had shrieked. In desperation, she gave one final jerk, and the ice shattered around her. Yes! She moved to approach the pavement, the cold swirling from both palms. "Flash!" She needed him.

Suddenly he stood in her way. "That's not my name."

Now she could hear him? Caitlin slammed into his chest, her momentum and his unexpected movement causing a collision.

"No—" Caitlin stared into Savitar's one good eye. He was wearing Barry's S.T.A.R. Labs sweatshirt, looking triumphantly over his shoulder at the steps. The true Flash was nowhere to be seen; he'd abandoned this dream.

Savitar's armor took its cue, stabbing Caitlin's fiancee through the heart. Ronnie burst into flames, and when Caitlin screamed, it sounded like the vibrating of a cell phone.

Then she'd jolted awake.

Now she untangled herself from the sheets, reaching for her phone as the blasts of Summer Lovin' rocked it against the wood of her nightstand.

"What is it, Cisco?" she groaned, sitting up straight.

"Meet me at S.T.A.R. Labs! I think I solved our paradox problem."

When Caitlin first met Cisco, employed by Dr. Wells, she'd had to grow used to the unorthodox ways he came up with most of his genius devices. Hartley had been jealous with good reason. An IQ number like Cisco's could be found elsewhere, of course, but the code his head and imagination had been written in wasn't likely to be copied in this universe or any other. The first time she'd noticed this, Cisco had swaggered past her workstation, heading straight for Wells' office, holding a box of Lite Brites and wearing 3D theater glasses tucked into the collar of his shirt. When Caitlin had asked why he was bringing toys to work, Cisco had chosen to demonstrate rather than give her an earful. He'd figured out how to charge the particle accelerator's power source without giving half the city a blackout, something that had been a roadblock for the S.T.A.R. Labs team for months until then.

It was for this reason that she wasn't surprised when, joining the team in their usual croissant-shaped gathering stance in the Cortex, Cisco rubbed his hands together and said to them, "So this morning I spilled orange juice on my pants and I figured out how to save little mister Mirror Match."

Iris' eyebrows dipped. "You spilled orange juice on your pants?"

Joe grunted. "Done that before. 'Cept mine was coffee. Hot coffee."

Everyone immediately looked Cisco's lower half up and down. Wally was hiding a smile with a fist, no doubt trying to look mature. Barry's head was cocked like a puppy's.

"Obviously I changed before I got here." Cisco rolled his eyes heavenward; for someone so goofy, he seemed to become exasperated with the smaller minds around him more and more often. He must have picked up a few things from Harry. "Okay, forget the OJ, people, all right? Let's talk about this."

He held up what looked like a very heavy, bronze slap-bracelet, the kind you could get at a convenience store to entertain the kid waiting in the car. It wasn't a perfect, whole band; there was an opening to accommodate all wrist sizes.

Cisco's face told them all it was Christmas morning. Their faces told him Game of Thrones had dropped another plot twist.

"It's not finished—still got some bugs to work out, but this is totally the answer." He looked around at them, wide-eyed. "It's a frequency equalizer, y'all."

Barry glanced at Caitlin with raised eyebrows. Caitlin looked back distractedly, mind whirling to translate. There was a beat, then Family West, with their same average, loving genes, all started talking at once.

"Mm." Iris nodded hard. "You're gonna have to—"

"—need to break it down a little more—" Joe was saying.

"I only speak English, bro—" Wally showed his palms.

"He means," Barry began, gesturing with one hand and holding his coffee in the other, "that he's gonna...it's..." He paused, rolling his head around to look at Cisco. "Yeah man, I'm sorry, what is it?"

"Please," chimed Caitlin, who was still trying to understand without additional information.

Cisco sighed, long-suffering. "This explains why you all go to bed before midnight. Okay—think of it like Jurassic Park."

Caitlin looked to the floor, picturing a buggy in the rain. Barry was squinting at Cisco. Family West did not seem any less frustrated. Caitlin's eyes cut longingly to her workstation, wondering how long it would be before Cisco's presentation was wrapped up and she could get back to things that made sense, back to her element.

"So you know how they keep saying in Jurassic Park that if you move, the big bad tyrannosaur's gonna see you and you dead?" Cisco raised his eyebrows practically to his hairline. "It's the same kind of thing with Savitar and the paradox. If it can't detect him, it can't erase him."

"And that thing keeps it from seeing him?" Joe demanded, pointing with his phone to the bronze band in Cisco's hand.

"Exactly." Cisco pointed back with said band, delighted someone was understanding his genius. "It's all about the temporal zone, friends! Our timeline's all screwed up cuz of Savitar losing when he wasn't supposed to lose—congrats, Team Flash—and it's a big wave of Laws of Time energy coming after him. But, if we give him something to shield him—"

"Like camouflage," Barry interjected, eyes bright.

Cisco beamed at his buddy. "Like camouflage, the energy won't come near him and he's safe. We basically had to toss a blanket over him so the paradox couldn't see him."

"You're talking like the paradox is sentient," Caitlin interrupted. She was fingering her necklace's pendant. "It can't see where he'll be. How can we work off of that theory? It's too risky."

Cisco held up a hand to her, his usual chill, girl pose. "Work with me, Caitlin. This shield thing was your idea, remember? It's like a disease—diseases aren't sentient, right? But they just 'know' where to go and what to hit to compromise the body. If Savitar can't be found, he can't be zapped, problem solved." He paused, another eye-roll coming on, muttering as an afterthought, "His problem, anyway." Cisco waved his hands, returning to the point. "So I started thinking. How do we hide him from the paradox?"

"You said it's all about the temporal zone," Barry offered, letting Wally steal his coffee for a sip so he could fold his arms.

Cisco nodded, clapping his hands together. "And what is the temporal zone, you may ask?"

"We do ask, Cisco," Iris confirmed impatiently.

This only seemed to make him cheerier. "It's Limbo, you guys. It's this little tunnel outside of time, like a subway to get whenever you wanna go. Time doesn't touch it. How do you think the Legends get around history without a Speedster?" Cisco wiggled his eyebrows at Barry, who was looking surprised. "Uh huh, yeah, I'm up to date." Everyone else ignored this, clearly ready for the explanation to end. He stepped forward, holding his band aloft for all to see. "All the different Earths vibrate at a different frequency. This little baby will allow Savitar to vibrate at the same frequency as the temporal zone."

A lightbulb exploded in Caitlin's brain. She could practically hear it pop. Excitement surged through her, the exact feeling she'd gotten when she started understanding algebra for the first time at a mere eight years old.

"So as far as the paradox can tell," she managed, grinning with discovery, "he'll be outside of time!"

"Just like the temporal zone," Barry added, in that breathy way that told Caitlin he was impressed.

"Standing still," Cisco finished, practically dancing. "So the T. Rex don't see him." He handed Barry the band. "I call it the Hammond Cuff."

"That's brilliant, Cisco," Caitlin praised.

"But we'll see him, right?" Iris checked, obviously still a step behind the room's biggest nerds. Her eyes were glued to the Hammond Cuff.

"No worries." Cisco waved a hand at her for spoiling their moment with technicalities. "You can see me when I'm vibing, but I'm moving at a different frequency than this Earth—it'll be the same for him."

"And...how do we know for sure this is gonna work?" Joe cleared his throat.

Cisco's eyebrows puckered defensively. "Oh, because my stuff's always so unreliable?"

"Yes," they all answered. Barry coughed something that sounded suspiciously like cold gun, and, strangely, Caitlin wanted to laugh. It was good to be winning again, to have something figured out. She could tell the others were lifted too.

"We'll find out if it really works in two days, no matter what," she announced. Dr. Snow shrugged a shoulder, physically apologizing to Cisco for taking his tell. "Cisco did some Vibe calculating. The paradox won't wait longer than that."

"I'll go wake him up, let him know." Barry handed the Hammond Cuff back to Cisco, heading for the door.

Wally shook his head. "You know, for a psycho super villain, he likes sleepin' in."

Iris joined her father and brother as they, too, moved for the exit. There wasn't much the three of them could do here; they were hardly the brains of the operation. "I guess thousands of years in the Speed Force going crazy really takes it out of you."

"He can sleep all he wants," Joe grumbled. "I like him better unconscious."

Caitlin knew Barry could be impatient. Anyone with super speed would be. But Barry, according to stories Joe and Iris told over dinners and holidays, had just always wanted things to get started, even as a kid. He wanted to be more, and everything went too slowly. A lot of people, especially intelligent people, knew that time could just drag on and on some days. Magnify that feeling about three hundred times—that was how Barry must have felt daily. When you were faster than the whole world...what could be more frustrating than that?

And it seemed to Caitlin that all of Barry's negative traits—pride, bitterness, and yes, impatience, to name a few—were the threads used to stitch together Savitar. Barry had proven that his true personality, his humanity, was still somewhere inside that scarred, broken shell with his face and his wit. But everything acting as the organs, the bones, the skin around that heart—it was all Barry's worst qualities.

Telling Barry Allen to take a day to heal before heading back onto the field was like keeping a younger sibling from touching the stove while you weren't looking.

Telling Savitar he had to wait two days to find out of he'd be allowed to exist anymore was like praying the Lord would end the suffering as the kid searched for other forms of entertainment.

At first, they hadn't seen him. Not after Barry went to fill him in on Cisco's Hammond Cuff. Barry had assured them he wasn't a threat over and over, and if Barry said it, they had to believe it. That didn't keep them from feeling just a little off as they worked through the day, knowing he was wandering the building with nothing left to do now that he wasn't plotting to make them miserable.

Barry had gone to be a forensic scientist—which was apparently something he still did—with Joe at the CCPD. His real job. Iris had gone home, probably to plan the wedding. She'd been recuperating at the apartment a lot since H.R. had taken her place. Barry had explained she'd need time. Wally was out saving the day as Kid Flash, and Caitlin had one eye on his vitals in the Cortex as he stopped robberies and saved cats from trees. The other eye was on Cisco, who was on the other end of the room, hard at work on his Hammond Cuff.

Every step in the corridors had Caitlin looking over her shoulder, expecting dark hair and a darker outfit, expecting Savitar to come around the corner.

Each time she saw him, her brain and her emotions had a full-blown Presidential debate. Because it was Barry, her emotions said as she recognized him. Her own personal superhero, her friend, her confidant, the man that made her angrier than anyone and completely safe. A flashlight of a person.

And then her brain would shove her emotions out of the way, because no, it was Savitar. Savitar, who terrorized Julian and took H.R. from them, the man who would kill Iris West and split Team Flash down the middle as if they had shared nothing at all, ever, with his smirk and eyes that said he was out of his mind. Complete, unlimited wickedness.

Now that complete, unlimited wickedness knew he may or may not have had two days left to live, he was all the more intolerable. Clearly unenthused by the wait time.

Caitlin didn't realize how long he'd been lingering in the doorway until she glanced at the dormant monitor to her left, seeing him behind her in the reflection. She turned in her chair, a little too quickly.

Savitar didn't seem to want much conversation. He'd become one with the wall, friendly with the shadows, staring at what little he could see of the Hammond Cuff past Cisco's hunched form.

Caitlin watched him, wondering if he'd notice...well, that she'd noticed. Noticed him. He couldn't lounge in the corner forever. It was childish, but she felt if he knew she was aware of him, he wouldn't be so smug, standing there. So nonchalant and detached, uncaring while they worked. He wasn't sneaky, this wasn't her first rodeo, she knew he was there, she won. But he didn't look at her. Boy, she missed Barry when he was gone.

They had faced the Reverse Flash, Zoom, time wraiths, all kinds of evil. It was so new to have that kind of inhumanity living among them. Yes, Thawne and Zoloman had done it for a while, but that was when they'd deceived the team. They hadn't known there was a serial killer beneath their roof, making friends.

This was different. The worst foe they had ever faced, the jolt behind every sleepless night and the sting behind every helpless tear. The reason Iris had spent early mornings at Jitters with Caitlin because Barry was being the Flash and his fiancee could not be alone in that apartment. The reason Wally had cried in his sleep every night for the past month, according to Joe. The reason Barry would slip away, into his own mind where none of them could see him, more often now than ever before. Glazed green eyes, fixated on what he could become and the possibility of losing the girl he couldn't live without.

And he was just standing there. Savitar. Cisco could barely handle breathing his air, Iris avoided his eyes, Joe refused to look at him altogether. Wally's face lost all arrogance and color when they shared a room, even for a minute; Kid Flash just seemed genuinely afraid. Only Barry seemed undaunted, and Caitlin knew it was because he was the one person who knew exactly what was happening in that mauled brain. He knew what Savitar was feeling—because Barry knew what he could feel, the potential, what he had felt before, and Savitar was all of that times a thousand.

That was all Caitlin had to hear. If Barry promised Savitar was done punishing them, then that was all there was to it. No one else could make a better argument; seeing the two speedster standing in the same building was argument enough.

Of course, this didn't make it easy to have him around. Especially when he had a very obvious expiration date.

"How's it coming?" he asked suddenly, each word a dull brick dropping into the air, making both scientists jerk.

Cisco shook his head, not turning around to acknowledge him further.

Savitar unfolded his arms and craned his neck to catch another glimpse of the device that could save his life. "It's running on temporal energy, isn't it?"

Everything he said was sandpaper. Caitlin was so unaccustomed to hearing Barry say anything without the maximum amount of emotion. Deadpan was so not him, it was fascinating to watch it come out anyway.

Cisco was not giving Savitar anything. Caitlin's eyes followed the speedster as he made his way to Ramon's workstation. She felt her arms tingle, ready for the inevitable smartmouth face-off about to get underway. Savitar got off on making Cisco uncomfortable. The engineer was very easy to disconcert. Cisco's lungs and tone had been longing for a punching bag. Wells' murderer was the perfect target.

She wanted to say something, every time they went toe-to-toe. Killer Frost would've gotten right into the thick of things, she knew. Probably would've taken over Cisco's side completely, matching Savitar insult for insult, cutting deeper and deeper. But she wasn't Killer Frost. She wouldn't allow it, never again. If that meant knowing when to let her own tongue loose, well, wasn't that wisdom? Cisco and Savitar could argue until the two of them were blue in the face. Caitlin and Killer Frost were both good at picking their battles. She bit her lip and stayed silent.

Savitar reached for the Hammond Cuff, and Cisco jerked it away like a toddler protecting its favorite toy.

"I want to see it," Savitar said, as coolly and simply as if he were saying the sky was blue.

"There it is," Cisco replied in an undertone, eyes like chips of shrapnel. He uncovered the Hammond Cuff for a split second. "You can see it fine."

The speedster chortled. Savitar's hand moved at superhuman speed, of course, and in a heartbeat he was turning the device over and over, examining every inch of it. His finger ran over the lightning bolt carved into the inside of the band, Cisco's chosen signature on any tech made for the Flash. Caitlin wondered briefly if he'd done it out of habit or because, in a way, this Hammond Cuff had been made for the Flash. A version of him, anyway.

Savitar was looking at the signature bolt so long, it was as if he'd gone to sleep standing up. His right eyebrow was a little lower than his left, and his nose wrinkled very slightly—you guessed it—just like Barry's. Barry had worn the same expression when he showed Caitlin Joe's old photo albums that past Christmas Eve, pointing to a picture he couldn't remember posing for. It depicted a seven year old Allen on his front porch with little Iris eating ice cream, his mother in the background. Barry had looked at the photo as if drinking the last drop of water after spending all day in the heat.

Savitar was studying the lightning bolt sign with just as much desperation. And only Caitlin was seeing it.

"It's not finished yet," she explained, voice hoarse from hours without use.

Savitar's eyes tore from the band and met hers, and she wished she hadn't said anything. They were so guarded—no, it was impossible he could ever be Barry Allen. Nowhere, nothing could make Barry, their Barry, look like that. Those eyes had never been that locked and empty and cold, not when they were looking at her. Barry wanted to help, he just wanted to help everyone, and those mismatched eyes said there wasn't anyone in the world to help. Logic was abandoning her; her brain would not accept what was standing several feet away. That wasn't Barry. That couldn't be Barry and probably had never been Barry.

But it is. How could he get this way? As his personal physician, Caitlin wanted to analyze the problem and prescribe a solution. Not that he would ever allow that. Because that wasn't Barry.

It was like he could feel her curling away from him, when she had been stepping closer to observe just moments before. Savitar dropped the Cuff back onto Cisco's table, more gently than he could have, and went on gazing at Caitlin as if he were now watching a dying insect in the corner.

"When will it be ready?"

Caitlin, relieved he had released Cisco's all-important device, found her voice again. "We're not sure—"

"It'll be done a lot faster if you quit interrupting," Cisco muttered to the former god of speed, pulling his Vibe goggles from around his neck and strapping them on.

Savitar rolled his eyes across the walls and up to the ceiling, the perfect image of the Flash during a lecture from the Arrow. "I can help you," he said tartly. "You don't think I know a thing or two about temporal energy? You trapped me in the Speed Force for decades, remember?"

"Uh, no, Doc, no, we don't, we don't remember that." Cisco ripped his goggles off and slapped them down on the table, gesturing patronizingly between himself and Caitlin with a finger. "See cuz, we aren't there yet, welcome to the past! Where we ain't done nothing to your medium-rare hiney!"

Savitar watched him, unimpressed. Not rising to the bait.

Cisco scoffed. "You're not getting anywhere near this thing, okay? Like I'm gonna let you get your hands on another piece of our tech. It's done when it's done." Back on the goggles went. "Go bother somebody else, Daddy's busy."

There was a sickly flash of yellow light, and Savitar wasn't beside Cisco anymore. Caitlin waited for her partner to turn around, maybe rave about the nerve of the murderer, or at least search for comfort in a glance. But Cisco bent over his work and stayed there, tunnel vision, fully focused again. Shutting it all out.

Caitlin would talk to him later; she had work of her own to take care of. Wally's vitals were no longer onscreen. He must've taken off his suit. She checked the time—2:15. He was probably at school, she surmised, rolling in her chair and turning to the other screen to boot it up. Time to get back to...

A gasp made her throat cold. "Yes?" she forced out.

Savitar was leaning over the screen, standing on the other side of the desk with his arms folded across the top of the monitor. "What do we have going on over here?"

Caitlin blinked at him, not comprehending. He just made her stiff, like Ronnie had just died yesterday. Everything he was was incorrect.

"What are you still doing in this room?" she hissed icily, lowering her voice so that Cisco wouldn't be disturbed. His goggles were on; he was probably tapping into some of that temporal energy. He shouldn't be able to hear them.

Nevertheless, Savitar glanced carelessly over his shoulder at Cisco, talking in an equally hushed tone. "Daddy's busy."

He flashed to the chair beside her—she blinked and he was on her left. His scars were like looking at toasted bread through a microscope, and she fought the primal urge to make a face at the close-up she was being given.

"What's Mommy working on?" he demanded. The question was a lemon—bright on the outside, sour on the inside. Thinly coated by Barry's teasing, motivated by Savitar's general contempt toward her and the entire team.

Caitlin closed her eyes for a moment. Her heart was pounding so loudly; he'd hear it and feed on the fear of him that was still all too present. Calm your nerves, come on. Deep breaths. One...two...three..four...five...six—

Savitar snapped his fingers inches from her ear, over and over, clickclickclick. "Hey."

Caitlin felt the wheels of her chair roll three paces from his, heels shuffling across the floor to put distance between them at the sound of his hand anywhere near her head. Her eyes snapped open.

Savitar paused, arm still aloft to snap some more, as if her movement surprised him. His face very intentionally told her it didn't. He shifted back into that relaxed, tired teenager posture he was so fond of. "It's kinda rude to shut down and count to ten when someone's talking to you, don't you agree, Doctor Snow?"

Caitlin felt rather than saw Cisco turn to look at them. Her gaze traveled all over Savitar's face, but it gave away nothing. She shouldn't have been so startled by his words. But she couldn't help it. She knew the answer, and yet: "How did..."

"Come on, Caitlin." Savitar raised his eyebrows, tone adding really? to the response. The corners of his mouth curled into another horrible grin. "Who taught you that?"

It was the smile. Every time. It froze her blood. What he was implying had Caitlin shooting to her feet, unable to be that near to a face she loved so well and a gray voice she really, really hated. "Barry Allen taught me that," she snapped.

Caitlin switched off the monitor and stormed from the room.

(Next chapter is in the works! -Doverstar)