Barry could hear talking, feminine voice saying something to him, something he couldn't quite comprehend. Maybe it was because of the buzzing in his ears, the fog in his mind or just the staggering pain in his leg. Unless it was the feeling that his heart was being crushed, like there was someone sitting on his chest? He made all the efforts in the world to keep the pain to himself and stay as still and silent as possible, acting like he was still unconscious.
A gentle touch appeared on his unhurt shoulder, even with his fuzzy mind Barry could still feel the woman's face getting closer to him. That was it! Barry felt the Speedforce in his system, it was weak and uneven but there. He connected to it for the split second he needed it, quickly raising his left arm and landing a hit, connecting with delicate skin. He heard a scream of surprise and pain as the figure moved away, stumbling, before hitting the ground with a thud.
Seizing his chance, Barry rolled his heavy body to the opposite side of the bed, feeling needles getting out of his arms and nasal cannula tearing themselves out of his nose. Barry tried, he really did, to open his eyes and get off the bed on his feet, but the second he put his right leg on the ground and added his body weight on it, pain exploded from his thigh and he awkwardly fell on the ground.
As if the pain wasn't enough, within seconds his chest felt a lot more heavier than when he woke up and his heart started to hurt. His eyes were too heavy to open, despite all the effort he made to call up energy. He only ended breathless, his body couldn't find enough air to answer to the task. He found himself as much an easy target than when he was still on the bed, his back mostly against the bed, his eyes closed, unable to get up and move.
Barry heard more voices calling from far away. The woman was working with others? All hope of ever getting free faded away.
***FLASHFLASHFLASH***
''Joe! So great to see you up and around!'' cheerfully started Cisco, greeting Joe and Iris at the elevator.
''Good to see you too, Cisco.''
Joe couldn't help but smile at the warm welcome as he slowly got out of the elevator, one step after another, supporting himself on the cane that was helping him stay on his feet. His back was killing him, so were his ribs and his head was pounding like a fanfare having a concert in it, but he couldn't care about this now. Iris nodded gratefully at Cisco for holding the door as she was on the other side of her father, hands on his arm, helping him move forward.
''I need to warm you'' Cisco added, leading the way toward the cortex, ''Barry doesn't look too good, but he's mostly better. ''
''What about his heart? Iris told me it's been damaged'' reluctantly inquired Joe, not really wanting to hear the bad news, but wanting to get ready when he'll enter the room.
Cisco stopped walking to look at them.
''He's….he's slowly starting to get better, his healing powers are mostly back. Caitlin thinks that his heart started healing and if we can just keep him still for a day or two he'll be out of the wood. Which shouldn't be too hard if he keeps up his sleeping beauty act. His temperature is still very high, but it's also starting to stabilize. It stayed between 104 and 104,5 all night, it finally stopped rising.''
Despite the fact that the situation could still go bad, hearing Cisco cracks jokes again with the sleeping beauty reference filled Joe with confidence his son was on the mend.
Before they could continue, Caitlin's scream surprised them all, followed by a loud sound, all coming from the cortex. Their heart jumping in their throat with dread. But it couldn't be, Amelia died, Joe made sure of it. Cisco ran ahead of them, taking one quick look at the empty, messed up bed and Caitlin on the ground, pumping herself on her shoulder, her other hand going to her already reddening cheek.
''Caitlin! What happened? Where's Barry?'' hurriedly asked Cisco in a panicked voice, kneeling next to his friend, scanning for any signs of other injuries or blood on the doctor.
The poor girl looked out of it, whatever or whoever hit her was probably making her see stars now. Iris hastened to the scene, hurriedly maneuvering her dad toward the closest chair, naively hoping he would stay put for a second or two. At least she tried running to the scene; halfway there she heard her father's voice booming:
''You! You did this! How the hell did you survive?!''
Iris and Cisco both turned around, letting the sound steal their attention for a moment, only to witness Wells walking into the cortex, probably following Caitlin's scream like the rest of them, and Joe struggling to get up. Oh crap!
''Dad! Stop! It's not him, it's not Eobard!'' Iris screamed, running back to her father.
''What did you do to my son?'' continued Joe, anger consuming him. First Amelia taking, torturing Barry and now, Wells coming back and taking him too?
Joe's daughter came between her father and Wells, trying at the same time to keep them both separated and hoping to keep Joe from straining himself.
''Dad!'' she repeated. ''This guy is from the same Earth than Jay. He's not who you think he is. He saved Barry's life, twice!'' Iris added, glaring at Harry in a *Mind helping me there?* way as he just stared at them silently.
Cisco was mentally arguing with himself on whether he should go help or stay with Caitlin 'til he saw Jay rushed into the room and give a hand to Iris.''She's right, detective. That man's from my world.'' he added.
During all the commotion, nobody except Cisco noticed Caitlin slowly coming back to her senses, mumbling something about Barry and pointing behind her. That's when Cisco finally heard it, heavy breathing, venting from the other side of the bed.
''You're ok?'' He asked Caitlin who nodded, still scrubbing her painful cheek. Squeezing her shoulder in reassurance before moving to the other side of the bed, his eyes finally landed on the final pieces of the puzzle of what just happened there.
There it was, Barry sitting, collapsed, against the other side of the bed, hidden from the view outside the room. While his eyes were closed, it was clear he wasn't exactly unconscious. Barry's form was tensed, his head turning weakly, yet sort of violently, from one side to another, his eyes moving under his eyelids, incontrollable tremors spreading through his whole body every time he tried to move away. So much for keeping him calm and resting. If Barry didn't calm down soon, this could become dangerous considering his precocious condition.
''I found Barry!'' He announced as loudly as he could before lowering his tone, directing it as his friend. ''Hey man, it's me, you're safe now.''
Desperately wanting to calm his friend down, Cisco kneeled next to him, trying to ignore the increasing tension in Barry's body as he closed in the distance separating them. The second Cisco's hand came in contact with his arm, Barry's difficult breathing pace increased, his face contorting in fear and pain. Cisco took his hand off as quick as he could, not wanting to aggravate the already dangerous situation, the heavy breathing sound burning his ears.
Before Cisco could say or do anything else, Iris and Joe both joined him on this side of the bed, taking place on each side of the young speedster.
''We need to calm him down. Now'' Urgently instructed Cisco.
Nodding in understanding, Joe grabbed his son's hand in the gentlest way possible, softly speaking to his son.
''Hey Barr, you're at S.T.A.R. Labs, you're ok. Open your eyes for me, Barr.''
Iris simply put her own hand on Barry's other arm, trying to be as comforting as possible.
''You're safe Barry, come back to us. Come back to me.'' She simply said, her voice shaking with fear as Barry kept struggling against their touch. It seemed to work since slowly but surely, his breathing slowed down and his eyelids started opening, inch by inch. He seemed to finally get on the right path to relax and start catching his breath.
''That's it Barr, keep going. You with us?''
Barry stared at him with confusion in his eyes, frowning, trying to put the pieces together. How did he end up there? His head turning slowly from Joe to Iris and from Iris to Joe.
''Barry, can you hear us?'' Apprehensively asked Iris.
Looked for a second like he was finally looking ready to talk, but his breath started to become shorter and faster. Removing his hand from Joe's grasp, Barry put it against his heart, opening and closing his fingers as he was trying to grab his own heart and tear it out of his chest. His eyes blinking rapidly as he looked straight into Iris' eyes. The young woman could see the call for help, the panic in his eyes as Barry struggles to breathe increased with each second. Iris frantically looked around in terror, desperately looking for help.
''Caitlin! Help!''
The young doctor finally found the strength to get back on her feet, rushing at Barry's side, pushing Iris out of the way. All pain and disorientation forgotten.
''Oh my god, he's going in cardiac arrest. Put him on the bed, NOW! Someone brings the crash cart!''
Barry was rapidly losing his battle to stay conscious, going under again, losing himself in the emergency of the moment. Joe got himself out of the way to allow Jay and Cisco to grab the speedster' arms and put him back on the bed, not caring at the moment about his injuries or any pain they would be causing. In the seconds the transport took, Barry went completely limp in their arms and his breathing was cut. Cisco and Jay exchanged panicked look at they finished their task.
They barely had time to lay him flat on the bed that Caitlin was connecting back all the monitors, only to confirm her diagnosis; the speedster' heart had indeed stop again. Without wasting any second, she started doing compression, duplicating the scene at the explosion site when Jay and Wells first took him back.
Cisco took the crash cart next to the bed, gratefully looking at Jay who was pushing everyone far from the bed, letting the young doctor work. Iris was already crying, putting her head on her father's shoulder, forgetting in the moment Joe was having trouble to keep his own weight upright, but he didn't seem to care at the moment, oblivious to everything except his son coding in front of him.
''Come on Barry, don't be so stubborn!'' Screamed Caitlin, doing the first set of compressions while Cisco was already placing the bag mask in place and getting the defibrillator pads ready.
Joe felt like the heart monitor alarm was piercing his ears, making him feel numb. He couldn't detach his eyes from what was happening in front of him, but he could barely make out a single word that were being spoken, as he was watching the whole scene from another dimension, from outside his body. Everything was surreal. He came there to see his stable and improving son, not watch him on the verge of dying again.
By the time his mind connected back with the rest of his body, Iris was shaking badly by his side while Cisco and Caitlin looked like they were barely holding it together.
''Dammit to hell!'' sweared Cisco as he watched Caitlin finished another unsuccessful round of compressions. ''He's been out of 5 minutes!''
''I know! I know!'' Irritably answered the doctor. ''Just ventilate again .''
By the time Caitlin started compressions again, she winced when she heard a crack under her palms. That was going to be painful once the speedster wakes up, because he was going to.
''Charge it to 400! Clear!''
Everyone kept their breath as they've been at every discharge for the last couple of minutes. The flat line on the monitor transformed into one heartbeat, and another, and another. Everyone finally releasing their breath at the same time.
Joe started stumbling, bringing Iris back to reality in an instant, going from supporting herself to support her father, all the way to the closest chair. The chair that just happened to be the one next to the bed. Joe slowly, shakily, reached for his son's arm, needing to feel him again. It's been one hell of a week. Even if she needed the space to work on her patient, Caitlin didn't say anything and worked around Joe's sitting form to connect back all the remaining medical equipment and medication while Cisco was helping cleaning the mess.
It was only when she was halfway in her work that the doctor noticed that everyone was still close to the doctor, watching every move, even Wells.
''He's ok now and probably not gonna wake up for hours. You guys should go rest a bit.''
Everyone else, except Joe gave the doctor the room, even if Iris only left to sit in the cortex, where she still had her father and Barry on sight. Caitlin finished her examination making sure her patient was stable again. If Barry could stay still and calm for a couple of days, they might just make it out of the wood.
A/N: Leave a comment!
And aawwww, you're going to make me blush with your great comments. I'll try my best to have another chapter for the next weekend