Did everyone see the Iris/Caitlin team-up scenes last night? That's exactly the kind of thing I wanted to see when I started writing this fic, and I'm so glad it came to fruition on the show, if only for a few minutes. More ladies helping ladies, please.
Anyway, thank you for the incredible number of reviews last chapter! I'm glad that you're all taking to the story so generously.
In this chapter, specifically, I might take a few liberties with the floorplan of STAR, simply because I'm not entirely sure how it is all laid out. I may be completely wrong, but I've always imagined the pipeline and the tachyon device being in the lower levels of the building-so that's where they'll be. Feel free to correct me if I've missed something!
Enjoy!
There was definitely frost on the glass now, and it was becoming too cold for Caitlin to safely press her skin to. She retreated to the back corner of the cell, some subconscious part of her convinced that being pressed into a corner would somehow protect her from the chill. As a doctor, she knew full well the effects of prolonged exposure to cold, and right now she wished she didn't.
At least she would recognize when she eventually hit all of the stages of hypothermia. At least she'd be able to track her own decline.
For now, she shivered, buried her face in her knees to shield it from the chill, and tried not to think about how much she'd failed Barry.
"I like your plan better than mine," Cisco said as they pulled into the empty lot across the street from STAR.
"Better than 'storming the castle'?" Iris said, raising an eyebrow. "Not very subtle, is it?"
Cisco shrugged and tinkered with his laptop some more. "Worked in the Princess Bride."
Iris nodded at the laptop. "Are you sure you can make this work?"
"I should be able to tamper with a few of the security cameras without Wells noticing," he said. "I'm freezing a few of them in the basement—we'll go through one of the back entrances of the building, which should take us straight through to the pipeline."
"And Wells?"
"Hey, you were the one who insisted on distracting him," Cisco said. "You'll come up from the basement, too. It will give you some element of surprise, at least. I'll have Barry out in no time, and then we can come up and help you out."
"Any bright ideas for defending myself against Wells before then?" Iris said.
"Actually, yes," Cisco said. He dug around in his pocket and produced three green oval-shaped objects, tipped with nasty-looking needles. "In my timeline, the Arrow helped take down Wells with a speed-dampening serum. He fired it from arrows, but stabbing them into Wells by hand works too."
Iris accepted two of the arrowheads, pushing one back to Cisco. "Just in case."
"Good call," Cisco said. He pocketed the third arrowhead and made a few more taps on his laptop before shutting it. "Alright, cameras are frozen. I wasn't able to freeze the ones in the containment cells, for obvious reasons, but hopefully Wells will be too focused on you to notice me going all Prison Break downstairs." Iris swallowed, and Cisco put a hand on her arm. "Hey, you still good?"
"Fine," Iris said. "Let's just get this over with."
Huddled in her back corner, Caitlin pulled her hands out of her pockets and studied them.
Tears had frozen on her cheeks, and her shivering had turned into tremors, but she no longer felt cold. She felt nothing.
She attempted to curl her fingers. It wasn't even that she felt numb. No, it was more than that.
She felt nothing.
"Here," Cisco said, and he wrenched open the back door.
Iris had never been back here, in these alleys and passageways surrounding STAR. The only times she'd visited STAR, those occasions where she would sneak an hour or two after work to check on Barry while he was in his coma, she'd come through the front, announcing to the world that for some reason she had enough confidence to embrace whatever help the ruined lab could provide. From this back door, she felt as if she were walking in with shame.
"It's not very secure for a lab containing so many secrets, is it?" Iris said.
"You don't even know the half of it," Cisco said, fiddling with the key. "With all of the random people who surprise us by coming through the front door, imagine how screwed we would be if people found out about these back entrances."
The lock clicked, and the door swung open. Iris raised her eyebrows.
"After you."
Cisco, laptop balanced in one hand, crept into the open hallway, and Iris tiptoed behind him. Although the halls were clearly empty, and too far down in the basement of the building for Wells to hear them, she still felt the need to control her breathing, measure her steps. Ahead of her, Cisco appeared to have the same idea—he proceeded slowly, silently.
On his laptop screen he'd pulled up the most important video feeds, as well as a few side programs, which he paused to adjust every so often. He'd wormed his way into the lightboard of the building as well, ensuring that the motion-sensitive lights of the hallway didn't turn on and give them away. As a result, Iris felt herself peering into dark corners, the hairs on her arms prickling. As a child she'd always comforted Barry when he was too afraid of the dark to sleep, but now all that bravado was seeping away. Now she was the one afraid of the dark.
Creeping along in those dark hallways, alone with her thoughts, Iris fought the urge to be sick. Adrenaline pumped through her, heightening her senses, but she was also finally allowed the space to withdraw from the present. She and Cisco had been so active the past hour and a half, the epiphany had not had time to catch up to her.
Barry was alive.
As sick as that made her, as sick as she was in her realization that he and Caitlin were in mortal danger, she grasped at the thought, held it close to her chest, examined every inch of it. She didn't know what she would do if they failed. She didn't know what she would do if they lost Barry again. Then again, if he was killed by the Reverse Flash, they would undoubtedly be next in line.
Thinking about that, in such dark passageways, was not productive.
As they passed one of the large rooms of the basement, Cisco slowed. He lowered the arm supporting the laptop, his attention caught by something beyond the doorway. By the time Iris caught up to him, he had stopped completely.
"What is it?" she asked. "Cisco?"
He didn't say a word, just stared. Iris drew close, looked in the direction he was staring. As unfamiliar as she was with the building, the purpose of the room was not immediately clear to her. Near the back of the room, looming, was a metal stage with tall prongs surrounding it—like the skeleton of a fishbowl. A few computer banks were set up around the room, but the place looked deserted.
Then she saw the body.
"Oh my God," she said, covering her mouth.
"I can think of stronger expletives," Cisco said in a trembling voice. "Much, much stronger."
The figure, lying in a patch of red on the ground, was unmistakable. Shining black hair, sneakers, a t-shirt the same color as the one Cisco now wore.
"We should go," Iris said hurriedly, worried that Cisco would puke there in that hallway. His face had gone very white.
"I don't know whether I should be fascinated or horrified," Cisco said, as if he hadn't heard her. "It's not every day you step into the scene of your own nightmare. I can see the headline now. Cisco Ramon: scientists and psychologists love him."
"This won't affect the timelines, will it?" Iris said. "Meeting your past self...isn't that usually a problem?"
"Only in Harry Potter," Cisco said. "Besides, I'm not really meeting myself, am I?" He gave her a tight, nervous smile, then turned away. Iris took one last look inside the room, at the still form on the ground, before following him.
Before long, they reached another point at which Cisco stopped. This time, however, he held up a finger to let her know to be quiet.
"The pipeline," he mouthed.
Iris looked around. The passage they had turned into looked less like a hallway and more like the inside of a machine. Pipes and wires lined the walls, glowing a faint blue and red. A large circular door stood at the end of the passage. Thick metal, to seal off the particle accelerator itself. Iris remembered Caitlin telling her the story of her fiancé, the one who had been locked inside as the accelerator exploded.
The explosion that had given everyone their powers. There was so much that Iris still didn't know.
Cisco fiddled with his laptop for a few more seconds, messing with alarms and security cameras and God knows what else, then nodded at the unlocking mechanism to the side of the door. Swallowing hard, Iris stepped forward and put her hand to it.
If this went wrong, if Cisco failed to take the proper precautions—if Wells detected them in the pipeline now, it would all be over quickly.
The thought struck Iris, then, that she'd never called her dad, or Eddie. The realization hit her like a blow, reverberating hollowly in her ribcage. It was too late now. It was too late for a lot of things.
She took a deep breath, and the door opened.
Though the pipeline hummed with energy, it was surprisingly cool inside. Iris didn't know what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't this: a cavernous space, curving into dark corners, so vast and empty she thought her footsteps would echo for years. The walls were dotted every so often with small pods. The pods were empty, but Iris recognized them immediately.
"This is where you keep metahumans?" she hissed.
Cisco nodded. "Caitlin and Barry should be down a ways, by the main entrance we usually use to the pipeline. It will be a bit of a walk."
That was an understatement, Iris thought privately. Everything was so uniform, so clean, it felt as if they weren't moving at all. Just walking in endless circles, further into darkness. Cisco paused every once in a while to adjust something on his laptop, but now that they were here, Iris doubted there would be cameras watching them. Wells himself would be the one to find them if they tripped up and made any sound.
"Hold up," Cisco said. "It's right up there."
As focused as she was on being silent, Iris had hardly realized that the light in the pipeline had been steadily increasing. While light was still sparse, she saw now that a few of the pods were lit up, and—her stomach flipped—people moved inside of them.
"Barry's cell is a priority, obviously," Cisco said, crouching against the wall and propping his laptop up on his knees. "That one will be right at the front near the entrance. But Caitlin's…"
"There." Iris' heart dropped like a stone as she pointed. Cisco had repeated often that Caitlin's cell was cold, that the cooling system had been on full blast. It wasn't until now that Iris understood just what that meant, or how to identify Caitlin's cell. She saw it now, the only cell in the pipeline whose glass door was gritty with frost, so thoroughly covered that it almost disguised the small brunette figure huddled in the back corner. They were still far away, but Iris recognized Caitlin instantly.
"Okay," Cisco breathed. "She hasn't moved for a while, so I think it would be safe to freeze the security camera in her cell." He winced. "Sorry, bad choice of words."
Iris was more fixated on his first words. Caitlin hadn't moved for a while. The thought set Iris' heart pounding, her worry for Barry temporarily overshadowed by her worry for Caitlin.
"If you do that, Wells won't be able to see us getting her out, right?" Iris said.
"Theoretically."
"Theoretically?"
"Shh!"
But his warning was unnecessary, for two reasons. One, he clapped a hand over her mouth and drew her back to the wall, effectively rendering her speechless. Two, she could see plainly what he could: the main doors to the pipeline opening, and Wells stepping in.
Thanks for reading! Like I said, I am so humbled and excited by your responses to this story. Please, take a moment to leave your thoughts below!
Till next time,
Penn