After "Welcome to Earth 2" I am officially Deceased, and I need more fanfic in my life. Can't wait to continue sharing this one with you.

Disclaimer: I know the adrenaline-shot-to-the-heart is pretty much a Hollywood myth, but sometimes you've got to go full Hollywood.

Enjoy!

Time passed strangely in the medical bay. Without her phone and without a watch, it was hard to tell how long they'd been in there working. Since pocketing the adrenaline shot, everything seemed to move even more slowly; with every movement Caitlin felt the weight of it in her pocket, the dread of discovery. When they finally took a break, she glanced up at one of the computer monitors for the time. They'd only been working a few hours—it felt like days.

On the second computer monitor, Wells had pulled up security footage from throughout the building, and it blinked there in shades of gray. Her eyes were drawn to one video feed in the bottom right corner—an overhead view of Barry's pipeline cell. He had not moved from where he had been deposited.

"Barry should've woken up by now," she said. "It's been hours. He's still unconscious."

"Like I said, time coma. People are affected differently."

"Time coma or the fact that you kicked him in the head," Caitlin snapped. She shrank back as he moved to inspect the monitor closer, then softened. "Please," she said. "Let me go down to him. Just to check his vitals, make sure he's not undergoing permanent damage." Wells stared her down, and she forced herself to stay still, stay passive. "If you want him in any kind of decent shape for your plan, you need to let me help him. He's no good to you if his body or mind is seriously compromised."

Wells' eyes bore into her, his mouth a hard line, and she felt herself collapse in on herself, once again a frightened girl summoned to the principal's office. But so, so much worse.

"Fine," Wells said. "Do your examination. Just remember your precarious position, Dr. Snow. I'll be watching."

They kept their eyes locked a moment more, then Caitlin turned away. She strode to the doorway in quick, determined steps, not daring to look back.

Down in the pipeline, she pressed her hand to the button that would open up the main doors. They slid open with a whine and she stepped cautiously through. There was Barry, lying awkwardly in his cell; even the concept of Barry in a cell seemed wrong. She was reminded uncomfortably of a bird with clipped wings, or a fish in a small tank.

As she approached the pipeline cell itself, she glanced upward. The cameras that Cisco had installed in each cell were small, almost unnoticeable, but because she knew what she was looking for she could see the glint of the small device. The most valuable commodity on earth, she'd begun to realize, was time—and she would have precious little of it if she wanted to pull this off.

At the glass door she wiped the sweat off of her palm and pressed it to the locking mechanism. It beeped and turned green under her fingers, and the large glass plate that separated the cell from the outside world lifted open. She wanted to run into the cell, to pull Barry out, but she forced herself to be calm and collected, professional. She could still feel Wells' eyes on her every move through the camera.

Gently she touched the side of Barry's face.

"Barry?" she whispered. "Barry, can you hear me?"

Nothing. He was as still and silent as before, his skin so white he may as well have been dead.

Even though she had a plan in mind, and even though she was sure Wells wouldn't knowingly risk Barry's life, Caitlin still went to work checking his vitals. By her rough estimations, everything was fairly normal, for Barry. Whether or not Wells was bluffing about the time coma, there didn't appear to be any physical damage to Barry's body aside from the head wound.

She certainly hoped that there was nothing wrong with him. This would all be a painful waste of her time if it went wrong.

Her back was to the camera, and, as stealthily as she could, she pulled out the adrenaline shot from her pocket. One hand she kept on his neck, on the pretense of taking a pulse, and with the other hand she lifted the packaging to her mouth and ripped the plastic open with her teeth. With her head bowed low, she prayed that Wells couldn't see what she was doing.

Once the shot was out of its packaging, though, she knew she needed to act fast.

She removed her fingers from Barry's neck, grasped the shot, and took a deep breath. She sent up a prayer, vague, to whoever might be able to help her most. As she clutched the shot, she almost laughed at the absurdity of it. A long shot.

Then she lifted the needle and plunged it into Barry's chest.

Time was up—there was no way to hide that from the video feed—but the effect was almost instantaneous. She removed the needle and Barry's eyes flew open. He scrambled to a sitting position, gasping like he had that time he encountered the Mist, and his hands began to vibrate.

"Barry," Caitlin said, grasping him by the knee desperately. His eyes were unfocused, traveling around the entire cell, so she shook him. "Barry, I need you to listen. We need to get out of here. Now."

"Caitlin," he said. "What? What's happening?"

"I'll explain later," Caitlin said. "Right now we need to leave. Fast. Can you do that?"

Barry pressed the heel of his hand into the space between his eyes, scrunching up his face in pain, but he nodded. Caitlin's urgency had bled into him, and she helped him to a standing position.

"We're in STAR?" he asked, blinking rapidly to clear his vision. Caitlin kept a hand on his arm to steady him, but there was no time, no time...

"Take us anywhere," she pleaded. "As far away as you can get."

"Okay, okay." They both stumbled forward over the threshold of the containment cell and he put his arm around her shoulders, ready to lift her.

At that moment, a rush of energy crackled at the end of the corridor, and she and Barry were ripped apart. Her shoulder met the unforgiving floor of the passage and she rolled a few seconds before coming to a halt. She dragged herself up again, launching herself forward, but thirty feet in front of her, Barry was propelled into the back of the cell. A blur of lightning emerged and wrenched the cell door bodily down. It sealed shut with a whir, and in an instant Wells was back at Caitlin's side. He gripped her arm, the arm that had been injured in the fight with Mardon, and twisted it behind her back, and his other arm clamped over her throat.

It was all over in an instant, too fast for her to comprehend. She sputtered against the chokehold, but it was useless. In front of her, Barry rushed his cell door, banging his fists uselessly against the glass.

"See how easy it is for me?" Wells said, both for Caitlin and Barry's benefit. "See how effortless it is to destroy you?"

"Let her go!" Barry yelled, throwing his shoulder against the glass. Caitlin knew it would do no good. They'd been thorough in their design of the cells. There was no way he could get out—they'd been designed for that very purpose, after all. "Do you hear me, Thawne? Let her go!"

"Thawne," Wells said, stepping closer and forcing Caitlin to shuffle forward with him. "So you've discovered me. The timelines are not quite parallel. Interesting."

"I know what you want," Barry said. "I know you want to go home. But not like this."

"Ah, but there's so much you don't know," Wells said, taking another step forward. Caitlin jerked, wheezing against the pressure, but he did not relent. "I see you've learned the general premise of my plan. It's simple enough, and you see why I need you. The details—the world I've brought you back into—those may need some explaining."

"The world you've brought me back into?" Barry said. He looked away from Wells and locked eyes with Caitlin, desperate. She tried to explain with her eyes, tried to apologize, but all she felt was fear. "What do you mean?"

"I think it would be best if I explain after I've taken care of Dr. Snow, here," Wells said. "Don't go anywhere."

Though she couldn't see him, she could hear the sneer in his voice. She and Barry kept eye contact a moment longer, Caitlin now the desperate one, but then her world became a streak of color and light. When she felt stable ground again, it was a hard metal floor, and her back hit a wall. A whirr of machinery rang in her ears, but by the time she realized what was happening, it was too late—she sprang to her feet and ran to the descending glass, but it was already closed. Her shoulder struck the door of her own containment cell, and on the other side, Wells looked on dourly.

All pretenses of a smile were gone. He observed her a moment, then reached over to the control panel for her cell.

"I suppose you'll never appreciate the irony of this," he said, pressing a few buttons. "But it satisfies my own need for amusement."

A few more button presses, and then Caitlin realized what was going on. A chill prickled on her cheeks, and she recognized the faint humming of the temperature controls in the cell. Cold air trickled in from one of the vents and slid down her spine.

"See, Mr. Allen?" Wells yelled. Caitlin peered out of her cell and realized that she could just see Barry's cell, on the opposite side of the pipeline and further down. He, too, was pressed to the glass, looking down at her. They were far enough apart that she couldn't read his expression, but she had a reasonable guess as to what it was. "Incentive. That's all you ever needed, right? Incentive?"

"Leave her out of this." Barry's voice came faintly down the pipeline, warped through the layers of protection surrounding the two cells.

"It will take a while for her to die," Wells continued. "But I imagine the stages of hypothermia are quite unpleasant. The sooner you help me, the sooner you help her."

Caitlin pounded at the glass, and Wells turned back to her with false pity in his eyes.

"I'd make yourself comfortable," he said. "Who knows how much longer my serum will take without your help?"

He strode away, the smirk plastered on his face, and Caitlin's fists lowered. The cooling system continued to whine, and she felt her very bones absorb the chill.

Sorry friends, I'd forgotten that this chapter had no Cisco in it. Next time, for sure!

In the meantime, please leave a review and/or join me in losing my mind over Earth 2. I am also always open to prompts on my tumblr, especially now that so much crazy stuff is going down on the show.

And, as always, thank you so much for reading!

Till next time,

Penn