Here we are at last! Final chapter. Not gonna lie, this one's a toughie-but you all have been so great so far, that eases my nerves a bit. There will be more thanks later, but for now, without further ado, the wrap-up!

Enjoy!

"Take it slow," Caitlin said. "Push yourself and you're only going to make it worse."

"Trust me," Barry said. "Going fast is the last thing on my mind right now."

With a comforting squeeze, Caitlin grasped Barry's arm. Shakily he offered her a smile and scooted to the edge of the bed. His right leg slid forward and touched the ground. The damage to that one had been bad, but it had healed faster than the other, the one with the shattered knee. He eased that one over next, but didn't quite touch it to the floor. The apprehension was clear on his face.

"I'm not sure I can do this," he confessed quietly, just loud enough for Caitlin to hear.

Caitlin laced her fingers through Barry's, cognizant of the wounds on his wrists from the razor wire, and braced her other hand against his back. "If it hurts too badly, we'll stop. But I'll be right here. Okay? I'm right here."

Barry threw her an appreciative look and straightened his back. "Alright. Let's do this."

In one hand he gripped the cane, the same cane he'd used following Zoom's attack; the other hand gripped Caitlin's in a vice. The first step off of the bed was shaky, and for an instant Caitlin was certain he was going to sit back down and give up. But, in true Barry fashion, he grimaced through and held his ground.

"Ten out of ten for persistence." From his own bed, Cisco slurped loudly on a smoothie. "Five out of ten for form, though."

Barry, partially doubled up, limping heavily on his knee, glowered. "I don't see you doing anything better."

"I'm not supposed to move, remember? Doctor's orders." Cisco took another innocent sip of smoothie and leaned back against the pillows that propped him up. Two days since the rescue, much of the color had returned to his face, but the bruises around his eyes still gave a distinct raccoon impression.

"Well, you don't have super-healing," Caitlin reprimanded lightly. "And you," she said to Barry, catching him as he stumbled forward with a grunt, "Even your healing has been compromised. It's a miracle you've healed at all given how much that serum's affected you."

"Usually I'd be walking by now," Barry grumbled.

"This isn't usually," said Caitlin. "And look, you are walking."

He'd managed a few steps, more shuffles than anything, using the cane and Caitlin for support. All in all, he too looked loads better than a few days ago. A thin pink line on his face and arm were the only signs that he'd been cut, though the drug injections and lingering low glucose levels had severely impacted his ability to heal up the broken bones in his legs and the stab wound in his shoulder.

Her words must have jinxed it: right as she said them, his knee crumpled, and his full weight fell on her. He gasped, and she squeaked at the effort of supporting him with both arms. He regained his footing just enough to hobble back to the bed with Caitlin's help, Cisco cringing in sympathy across the room.

Once she'd gotten Barry back on the bed, Caitlin allowed herself a hiss of pain, blinking back tears. Barry noticed, and his face fell.

"Your arm," he said. "I'm sorry. We should have waited for Iris to help."

"It's nothing," Caitlin said, despite the fact that a fractured arm supporting the weight of an injured speedster was far from nothing. "You're making progress."

"You don't have to try and make me feel better," Barry said, pulling himself back onto the pillows. He reached for his half-eaten calorie bar and wiped at his sweat-slicked forehead. "Seriously," he added, half-heartedly batting at her hand as she tugged up his shirt to check his stitches.

"I just want to make sure you didn't pull anything," Caitlin said stubbornly. As much as she tried to hide it, an intense throb in her aggravated arm made her wince. She caught Cisco's eye across the room. "What?"

"Really," Cisco said. "Take a breather, Cait. Just because we're both on mandatory bed rest doesn't mean you can't be, too."

"If I was on bed rest, who would look after your sorry butts when you opened up your cuts while trying to reach the remote?"

"That was one time!"

"Mm." Caitlin pulled Barry's shirt back down and cut Cisco's protest off with a withering stare. "Don't test me, Cisco Ramon."

"Don't make her angry, Cisco," Barry said. "Trust me, I've been on the receiving end of the Ice Queen's wrath before, and it's not pretty."

"That's because you've broken your nose four times trying to speed-vault over the fence outside."

But Cisco's comment was all but lost on Caitlin. Barry's words seemed to fill her ears with rushing water, the kind that built up in her head and dropped slowly, weighing her down to the floor, drowning out everything else. The Ice Queen's wrath.

"Cait? I was only joking, sorry. You okay?"

Caitlin snapped out of it just enough to answer Barry's question with a tight smile. "Of course. Listen, you two should have some real food. What would you like?"

"Big Belly Burger," Cisco said, at the same time that Barry shouted, "Three pizzas!"

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "I have jell-o and pudding. Maybe some soup if you're lucky."

She shouldered the dual groans with grace. This kind of abuse she was used to handling.

"Both of you lie back and rest," she said. "I'll be back up soon."

She knew they probably wouldn't rest, but she turned her back like a resolute mother on misbehaving children. Their grumblings followed her out of the cramped med bay and into the cortex, finally ceasing once she had made it to the stairs. She descended with the sound of her echoing footsteps in her ears. It was the only thing to distract from the still-throbbing pain in her arm and the loudness of her thoughts.

Instead of stopping at the floor where their makeshift lab kitchen was, she kept descending. She hadn't made this trip since talking to Canton three days ago; meal duty had been temporarily relegated to Joe while Caitlin and the others recovered, and she didn't make a point of going down to the pipeline if she didn't absolutely have to.

Still, once she reached the bottom level, she squared her shoulders and punched in the entry code to the pipeline.

Almost before the door had even opened, the voice greeted her. "It's been a while," Canton said immediately from her cell, lifting her head at Caitlin's arrival. "How are they?"

"Like you care," Caitlin said. So they were cutting to the chase. Caitlin appreciated that. She tried to cross her arms, realized how painful that was, and settled for resting one hand on her hip. "You're the one who told me that they were better off dead, weren't you?"

Canton was in much the same position as before, sitting with her knees drawn up at the back of the cell. She looked cramped, small—though the pipeline cells would make anyone look that way. Three days in the cell had only made Canton paler and more drawn, her eyes rimmed with sleeplessness. Much of the hostility in her face was absent, wiped away by something like acceptance.

"Maybe I said that," she said. "Doesn't mean I want them dead."

"Right." Caitlin hoped that the sarcasm infused in her voice was strong enough.

Canton readjusted herself. "I've told you, it was Jason. Things got out of control. I never wanted to hurt anyone."

"You just wanted to ruin people's lives," Caitlin said. "Metahuman lives."

"Can you blame me for trying to get rid of the metagene?" Canton said. "Wouldn't things be better without powered people?"

A retort was prepped on Caitlin's tongue, but, before the heat could fully rise to her face, she stopped herself. She knew the root of Canton's argument, and she also knew that arguing it further wouldn't do anything to heal either of them. She closed her mouth and let out a breath, willing herself to stay calm.

"You came down here for a reason," Canton said after the pause. "Or just because you need company?"

Caitlin measured her up. "Barry and Cisco are fine. Well, going to be fine. Jason did a number on them."

The fire also retreated from Canton's face, and she seemed to shrink in relief. "At least they're alive. The detective…he wouldn't tell me anything."

"I wanted to come down here," Caitlin continued without pause, "to apologize."

This, at least, took Canton off guard. "Apologize?"

Superhero Caitlin Snow.

"For the interrogation room," Caitlin said. "I stepped over the line with the poison."

The Ice Queen's wrath.

This registered with Canton. "Some might say you were justified," she said. "Some payback for what Jason and I did."

"Yeah, well," Caitlin said, "maybe that's the difference between you and me."

She let this stretch for a bit, unsure of what else there was to say, uncertain of what her intentions of confronting Canton had been.

As if she could read minds, Canton said, "Did you just come down here to prove your moral superiority?"

"I came down here to tell you that you can be better," Caitlin said. "I don't want to keep you here." Without hesitation, almost without thinking, Caitlin reached over and punched the code for the cell door. With a squeal, the door slid open. Inside, Canton froze, arms still wrapped around her knees protectively.

"What are you doing?" she said.

"Nobody deserves to be locked up in one of these cells for long," Caitlin said. "I've realized that over time."

"What about dangerous people?" It was amazing how quickly she had gone from borderline antagonistic to wholly terrified. She pressed herself back into the wall like a caged animal. "People like me?"

"People like you aren't so different from people like me," Caitlin said. "The metagene doesn't change your character or determine your destiny."

"Doesn't it?" Canton said. "You know what I'm talking about, don't you? You said you had seen what you could become. If you let the darkness in."

For the first time in weeks, Caitlin finally re-allowed herself to consider Killer Frost. While she hadn't seen Earth-2 herself, she could infer a lot from what Barry and (mostly) Cisco had described. And while Cisco had spouted endlessly about how crazy his doppelganger had been, how so totally backwards everything and everyone had appeared, how unlike Caitlin Killer Frost had seemed, Caitlin wasn't entirely convinced.

After all, in that world, Iris was a cop, the very profession she'd dreamed about on Earth-1. She and Barry were still attracted to each other, even married. Harrison Wells was still a genius, still the founder of STAR Labs. Though circumstance had changed some people on Earth-2, most noticeably Caitlin and Cisco, it didn't seem like their hearts were so completely removed from their Earth-1 counterparts.

If the incident in the interrogation room had told Caitlin anything, it was that the metagene was far from the thing that had turned Killer Frost evil.

"I don't think I believe in destiny," Caitlin said. "I believe, and I understand, that you wanted to develop that power-suppressing serum partly for yourself," she continued, "and that you didn't anticipate how much Jason would hurt us."

"So, what, you're just going to let me go?"

"I'm going to give you an improved version of that serum," Caitlin said. "And I'm going to give you what I've been fortunate enough to receive: a chance to redeem yourself."

She held out a vial. Canton looked at it.

"That serum isn't going to be enough to keep Thorn away," she the woman said. "Not for long."

"No, but you'll be enough," Caitlin responded. "You spent, what, two years keeping Thorn out of your head? Or, at least, enough out of your head that she didn't take over," she corrected at Canton's look. "The point is, killing your fiancé was not your fault. And until five days ago, you never hurt anyone else."

"I'll venture repeating myself," Canton said cautiously. "You're going to let me go after what I did to you and your friends?"

"Oh, don't test me too much," Caitlin said coldly, rolling the vial Canton's direction. "Part of the reason I feel obliged to let you go is because I think it's a miracle somebody in this lab hasn't killed you yet for what you did to Barry and Cisco and me. But I also know that the police, and everybody else, knows that you're a metahuman. And once people know you're a metahuman...well." She dipped her chin, hoping Canton would get the message.

Canton, for her part, shifted uncomfortably. The vial stopped rolling near her foot. She didn't pick it up. "Maybe it's for the best. You know what I'm capable of."

Caitlin nodded stiffly, feeling the chill rise in her throat. "And you should know that I'm not afraid of what you're capable of. Not anymore. If you hurt anyone else, if I get any whiff that you're making some kind of name for yourself as a villain, I will find you. And I will put you back in this cell that you likely deserve. But, for now, I'm giving you a chance. And that serum. And my phone number, so you can contact me if you ever feel Thorn rising and need help."

She took a slip of paper from her pocket and held it up. At long last, with a continued dubious glance, Canton stood from the floor of her cell.

"Aren't your friends going to be angry that you let me go?" she said, walking tentatively out of the cell toward Caitlin.

"They'll get over it," Caitlin said firmly. She hadn't decided yet when, or how, to tell everyone else about letting Canton go, but, for some reason, it didn't concern her. "I'm trusting you to not make me regret this."

"Are you going to regret this?" Canton said, accepting the slip of paper that contained Caitlin's cell number.

Caitlin offered her a tiny, wry smile. "Already starting to. You'd better go quick."

There was fear in Canton's eyes, the kind that clouded over the green of her irises that had so much potential to be beautiful. But, despite the inexpressible terror that lingered on her face, she managed a nod. "Thank you," she said in practically a whisper.

Caitlin swallowed. "Take a right. Door at the end of the hall."

After all that had happened, Caitlin figured she probably should have watched her back as Canton left. But she couldn't bring herself to. Instead she just listened to the footsteps fade and disappear.

She stared into the empty pipeline cell for a minute longer, wondering detachedly which meta they had kept there before Canton. When she couldn't come up with an answer, when her brain eased her away from the subject in exhaustion, she shut the pipeline door. Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she glanced at the screen.

Jason transferred out of Iron Heights by higher-ups. Not sure where. Canton okay?

The text from Joe glared up at her. She glanced up at the heavy pipeline door and chewed her lip.

I'll explain later, she replied.

Then she pocketed her phone and banished her unsettled thoughts to the room behind her.

With every step back up to the cortex, she felt somewhat lighter. She even remembered to grab three cans of soup from the pantry on her way up.

"Finally. I'm starv—hey, you didn't even cook it? What took you so long?"

Caitlin fielded Cisco's whine with a wave of the hand. "Relax, there's a hot plate up here."

It seemed Barry and Cisco had at least heeded her instructions to stay in bed, but one of them had managed to reach the remote to activate the sound system. A low hum droned through the room as Cisco toyed with his phone, searching for a selection.

In silence, Caitlin emptied each of the soup cans into the bowls they'd taken to keeping up near the med bay. Once they'd begun heating up, she turned back to the med bay and called, "I've got chicken noodle, minestrone, and tomato."

The boys called out their preference—leaving Caitlin with the canned chicken noodle, of course—and she began ladling out the soup into three mugs. Barry in particular had been having trouble keeping anything down, and he would likely throw up even soup later. Cisco had been doing better in terms of eating, but Caitlin still erred on the side of caution. Technically, she could eat whatever she liked, since her injuries had been far less severe and mostly external, but it had become habit lately to eat whatever her patients were forced to endure. Perhaps it was solidarity, or sympathy, or guilt at being the one doling out pain.

"Bon appetit," Cisco said, wrinkling his nose at the steaming cup of minestrone Caitlin set on his bedside table.

"Nobody ever said healing was pleasant," Caitlin scolded lightly, handing Barry his mug. "Unfortunately, soup is one of the many vehicles of suffering you have to endure."

"All I can say is, I cannot wait for the day when I can eat normal food again," Barry said, blowing the top of his soup, looking more a tragic figure in a drama than anything. Caitlin rolled her eyes.

"Maybe tomorrow," she said. "Things are going to be back to normal before you know it."

The comment was punctuated by a moment of pointed silence, transforming the end of her statement into a question mark. All three of them paused, stagnated, unsure of how to proceed.

Because normal was levity and heroics and something planned. Normal was chocolate bars and music and worry that could be transformed into productivity. Normal was not this.

And perhaps normal could not exist after lightning struck.

Still, Cisco cleared his throat, shifted in his hospital bed. "I've made a new playlist," he said, and the quiet was broken, the three of them unfrozen from where they'd sat, paralyzed. Caitlin re-settled into her chair with a wince, raising the warm mug of soup to her lips, and let time continue. Cisco held up his phone. "Listen to this." And he pressed the button.

And that's a wrap! Like all good end notes by me, this one comes to you in multiple parts.

First of all, I cannot thank you all enough for taking the time to read this story. It means the world to me that people invest energy into my writing with the enthusiasm and care that you do. Reading your comments honestly never fails to light up my days, and it motivates me to write more and to write better. Seriously, you are the best, and I cannot emphasize that enough. I have been writing fanfic on and off for 8 years, and I am so lucky to be a part of this community of extraordinary people.

Speaking of writing more-as usual, I have a one-shot or two planned for the next few weeks, but I am already three chapters in to my next multi-chap fic. And, you heard it here first: it's a sequel to this one! I won't say too much more right now, but I have been so encouraged and inspired by the reactions to this fic (not to mention how much I have fallen in love with Caitlin as a character) that it just took off! It's hard to say when it will be completed and ready to post, but perhaps sometime in September. So, hooray!

If you want to chat about the Flash or anything else, come find me on tumblr at pennflinn! Again, thanks so much for everything.

Till next time,

Penn