Author's Note: Hey guys! Got this chapter done sooner than last time, so here it is! I actually took it in a totally different direction than I was initially planning to. This was like kind of sort of my way original plan, which got changed, but now I've circled back to it again? Lol, the struggles of a writer. But I think the way I ended up going is a better plot and ties some loose ends together. Anyways, hope you all enjoy! :)

Iris West broke multiple traffic laws driving the van back to STAR Labs. She got multiple horns beeped at her and dirty looks from other drivers, but she didn't care the least bit. Her focus was on one thing and one thing only, and that was getting Barry back to the complex where Caitlin could work on him. She spared several looks in the rearview mirror on the way there, trying to catch glimpses of the speedster. Caitlin, Cisco and her father were blocking him for the most part, however.

What should have been a ten to fifteen minute drive was diminished to only five minutes in the end, and Iris pulled the van right up to the front doors before halting to a screeching stop. As soon as the vehicle was put into park, she was on the move, unstrapping and practically leaping from the driver's seat out of the car, to the back. The back doors of the van were already thrown open as she walked over, and Cisco and Joe were easing him out as the second car containing Snart and Felicity pulled into the lot next to them.

"Caitlin, how is he?" Iris asked urgently as Joe and Cisco started hauling him off into the facility, Caitlin on their heels and Iris right behind her. Felicity and Snart were just getting out of their own vehicle, grabbing ahold of the still-cuffed Shawna and making their way to join the others as well. Caitlin's expression was grim.

"As good as he can be right now," was the only answer Iris got, and it wasn't the one that she was looking for. But it was all Caitlin was willing to say, clearly, and Iris didn't push; she didn't want to break the doctor's focus. She instead closed her mouth and continued into STAR Labs with the rest of them, keeping as close as she could to Barry without getting in the way. It didn't take long for Cisco and Joe to get the speedster laid out carefully on the bed in the med bay, and Caitlin set to work immediately. Joe disappeared with the teleporting meta, to lock her safely in her old pipeline cell.

"Iris," Caitlin's voice rang out as she walked quickly to the other side of the room, reaching into a drawer and pulling out a pair of gloves, which she wasted no time putting on. "Get his suit off, carefully. I need to be able to see everything." Iris nodded immediately as Cait went in an almost frenzy around the room, gathering different supplies and starting to set them up on a medical cart. As the other woman had instructed, Iris set to work on her own task removing the suit from her unconscious friend. As she began to strip it off, she was reminded unpleasantly of when she had had to do the exact same thing the previous day, after his fight with Shawna. However, she would have much preferred that situation over this one. Barry was clearly in much worse shape now, and it became even more apparent as she undressed him down to his boxers once more. She could feel the heat radiating off of him, and she stifled a gasp at seeing the multiple bruises that littered the now exposed skin.

As Caitlin walked over to his side with the medical cart in tow, she gently pushed the reporter out of the way, forcing her to step back a few paces, sparing her a quick, understanding look. There was fear in her eyes, but clear determination as well. I know, her gaze seemed to say. I'm going to fix him.

Iris bit her lip, anxiously watching the doctor's every move as she started trying to patch Barry up. She was aware of her father reappearing to stand close to her side, providing a slim comfort; the others were close as well, Felicity and Cisco standing together on the opposite side of the bed, Snart off to himself but watching with just as much vigilance as everyone else, which was admittedly a little surprising to Iris. But she didn't keep her focus on him; her first - scratch that, her only - priority was keeping an eye on Barry.

Not for the first time since finding out that her best friend was the Flash, she really wished that pain killers would work on him as she watched what Caitlin was doing, poking and prodding and disinfecting and stitching and just so much. She knew that whatever pain he had already felt, it would be doubled, maybe tripled when he woke up with all the aggravation Caitlin's actions were bound to cause. But she knew that everything the doctor did was necessary, and would help him out in the long run.

It was over an hour later when Cait finally seemed satisfied with her work and stepped back, looking exhausted. The shoulder that the knife had been plunged into was wrapped in a thick layer of bandages, and there were stitches clearly noticeable near the speedster's temple, where there had been a long gash from God-knew-what, along with a large purple bruise. There were also one or two stitches in his right cheek from a thin but deep slice that had been opened up in the skin. Overall, he still looked like shit, appearing so unnaturally pale and fragile on the bed as Caitlin pulled the sheet up over his torso.

"Can someone get me the thermometer?" the doctor asked, her voice sounding somewhat strained. Iris immediately moved to get it before anyone else could, grabbing it from the counter it had been previously left on and placing it in Caitlin's outstretched hand. The woman wasted no time sticking it in Barry's ear, pressing the button and waiting. Now that the injuries that needed immediate attention had been dealt with, she knew his underlying illness needed to be processed as well. As the device beeped, Caitlin pulled it out, and grimaced as she read the numbers displayed on the tiny screen.

"What?" Iris asked worriedly, the first to notice Caitlin's sour expression. "What's it say?" Caitlin was silent a moment, still staring at the screen as if hoping the numbers would change; they didn't.

"104.9," she said finally.

"That's - that's really high, right?" Cisco asked, concern evident in his voice; Caitlin bit her lip.

"It's not great," she said. "It's gone up a lot, since last time. He does run a little hotter than normal people, but still. If it keeps going up - which is a high possibility at this point - it could be serious."

"But you can do something about it, right?" the voice belonged to Joe this time, and Caitlin sucked in a somewhat shaky breath.

"Joe...like I said already, this is a complicated thing. If he were left to rest, I would like to say it would have run it's course with few complications, other than what had already developed. But now…" Caitlin trailed off.

"But you said you could make a cure," Joe pressed, hopeful.

"If I had a sample of blood from the meta that infected him. Which I don't."

"So we just have to get it then," Felicity spoke up now, her voice firm despite her face giving away the fact that she was in no way confident over anything at this moment in time.

"Except we don't know who she is or where she is. She disappeared after Barry fought her, before we could get any information on her," Cisco informed the techie, biting at his own lip now.

"But we're going to find her," Iris piped up finally, her voice just as firm as Felicity's had been. "I'll do it myself, if I have to."

"Iris, absolutely not. That's out of the question. If she got the best of Barry, there's no telling what else she's capable of."

"So what? We're just supposed to let him get worse, then?" Iris retorted angrily.

"He might not get worse," Caitlin tried to calm her, but her voice lacked confidence.

"Yeah, but you just said it was a possibility. And a high one, at that." Caitlin bit at her lip again; she seemed torn.

Finding this meta could be dangerous; could be a terrible idea, might not even be needed.

But it could be the difference between Barry healing or not.

"Iris, no. End of story. You're not going," Joe said with finality in his voice, written on his face, in his stance.

Iris found herself storming out of the room, and by the silence she left behind she knew that no one was going to come after. They had Barry to look out for, after all.

Barry.

Iris found herself in the Cortex, promptly slumping down in one of the chairs and seeming to deflate, placing her head in her hands.

Barry.

How the hell had things gotten so bad so fast? How had things come to this? The journalist was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't hear the footsteps approaching her, didn't know that anyone was there until she heard a voice that made her jump, her head snapping back. Snart was standing there in front of her, and he had said something, but she had been too caught up in herself to have comprehended it.

"What?" she asked, watching him, the way he was looking at her.

"I said I'll help you," he said, and Iris frowned, looking at him with mild confusion.

"Help with what?"

The man rolled his eyes, giving her a look like she was dense. But she wasn't exactly thinking at her clearest at the moment, with everything that was going on. She wasn't at her best.

"You want to find the metahuman, right? The one who infected Barry?" Iris eyed the man with surprise, her gaze skeptical.

"And you really want to help with that?" she asked, crossing her arms. "Why?"

Snart rolled his eyes again.

"Have we not already been over this? I -"

"You didn't wish that on Barry, even if you weren't on great terms. He'll owe you. Bla bla, yeah, I know that," Iris replied snappishly. "But you already fulfilled your end of the bargain. There's nothing in this for you anymore. So why?"

Snart let out an almost annoyed sigh. "Because I want to, alright? No strings attached. Do you want my help, or not? No one in there seemed overly keen on working with you."

Iris stared at the villain for several tense moments, still slightly skeptical but moreso...surprised. She didn't know much about Snart, had never even come face-to-face with the man until last Christmas. But she knew he didn't care about much; that he didn't do much for other people, aside from Mick and his sister. Yet for whatever reason, in this moment, he seemed rather genuine. And so despite her previous reservations, she couldn't help but feel compelled.

"...okay," she said finally. "Fine. But I'm calling the shots."

The corners of Snart's mouth upturned the slightest bit.

"I figured."

When Oliver finally made it back to STAR Labs, he was surprised to actually find a fairly sizeable crowd of people camped outside. Many were just normal civilians, but he spotted several news crews in the mix, and a sour look crossed over his face. This was about Barry, then. Or about the Flash, really. How anyone had managed to find out about his involvement with and whereabouts at STAR Labs so fast, he wasn't sure, but he wasn't about to try and deal with them. The last thing he needed or wanted to do was add to the excitement and chaos and throw his own vigilante persona into the mix; if anyone saw the Green Arrow striding into the building, they would go ballistic. And they might attempt to follow him inside. Quite annoyed, the hero found himself having to sneak around to the backside of the building and find a way in through a blown-out window, perhaps damaged in the long-ago explosion and neglected during the repairs. It didn't matter to him, as long as he was in.

It hadn't been difficult to deal with the Clay, Double Down and Mardon. He had used his cell to leave an anonymous tip to CCPD that the two living criminals as well as the frozen corpse of Mardon had been found in an empty warehouse, and waited there until the cops had shown up. He had kept hidden after that, watching to make sure Tell was adequately secured in the power-dampening cuffs and all three of them had been taken away in squad cars. Then he had slipped away and made his way back to STAR. When he made it up the stairs, back to the parts of the compound that were actually still used, the first people he came across were Iris and Snart. The sight of the villain gave him an unpleasant feeling, but for once he kept his anger inside; despite his dislike of the man, he had helped get Barry back, just like he had promised. Why he was still there was another story, but not his top question at the moment.

"Iris," Oliver spoke up, peeling back his hood and stripping off his mask, flinging it onto the desk as he approached. The girl jumped at his unexpected presence and turned to face him, looking oddly guilty. Oliver raised an eyebrow but said nothing about it, yet.

"How's Barry?" he asked instead, face creased with concern. Iris frowned.

"He's, uhm - stable," she said. "Caitlin patched up his injuries. But he doesn't look great. And his fever's back up pretty high." The girl bit her lip. Oliver ran a hand through his short hair.

"Damn it," he muttered, closing his eyes to collect himself for a moment before opening them once more, making eye contact with Iris again rather than Snart. "What are you two doing out here, then? Instead of being in there with him?"

For a moment, Iris looked uncharacteristically unsure of herself, casting a look at Snart out of the corners of her eyes.

"What's it to you?" Snart answered. Oliver scowled at him briefly before turning his gaze back to Iris. It was rather odd, he thought, that she wasn't in the room with Barry, considering how close the two were. Something was up.

"Iris?" he pushed, crossing his arms.

"I needed a break," she answered vaguely. Oliver sensed, however, that it wasn't the full truth. He could see it in her face, in her body language. He was good at reading people.

"That's not it," he said surely. "What stupid thing are you planning?" he then proceeded to ask bluntly. Iris, caught off guard, gaped at the man. She didn't know him well, and vice versa - how the hell had he managed to catch on to that fact so quickly? But there was no coming back from it now; he clearly knew something was up. If she wanted to salvage this, to keep him from bringing it up to the others, she had to spill.

"Snart and I are going to find the meta that caused this," she answered confidently, her tone challenging. Try to stop us, it seemed to say. Oliver frowned.

"Iris, do you have any idea how dangerous that is? Did you talk her into this?" He turned his look angrily to Snart.

"He didn't make me do anything. I want to do this. And I'm a grown woman, damn it. Everyone needs to stop treating me like I'm some goddamn fragile child."

Oliver was thrown for a loop at her words, silent for a moment. She was serious, he realized. Dead serious. She was going to do this, whether she had approval from everyone else or not. And she clearly didn't, judging from the fact that she was out here alone talking about it with Snart. The vigilante closed his eyes momentarily again, pinching the bridge of his nose and letting out a breath. Everything always had to be complicated with Team Flash, didn't it? There was silence for another moment, until Oliver opened his eyes once more, looking between the journalist and thief. Quite the unlikely pair. And soon to be trio.

"Then I'm coming with you."

Author's Note: Yay me! I actually kept my promise and made this longer than the last 2 chapters lol. Anyways, hope this chapter sufficed! Until next time!