Sweat dripped down Caitlin's neck and chest as she tugged on the restraints wrapped around her wrists. She had been held captive by A.R.G.U.S. for going on day three now and she had lost sense of all capabilities. She knew that Cisco was at least looking for her but Barry and Iris were on vacation – celebrating their second-year anniversary. She knew Cisco wouldn't have been able to get ahold of her other best friend and she didn't want him to. He deserved to be celebrating his marriage with his wife. Just then, the door to the left of her opened and in walked another A.R.G.U.S. agent, black eyes watching her beadily. Caitlin swallowed thickly, looking up at one of her captors. In the three days that she had been there, she hadn't had any food or water and she didn't foresee that changing anytime soon.

"Have you decided to finally give us what we want?" Beady-eyed woman asked.

"You can go to hell," Caitlin spat, clenching her teeth together as the woman smacked her across the face with her talons-for-nails, slicing into her skin. Her captors had been hurting her as a means of getting Frost to emerge, not realizing that Frost didn't cohabit inside of her body anymore so there was no one to turn into when she was feeling threatened. So far, her wrist had been broken, three of her ribs, two fingers, and she had a sprained shoulder. Not to mention a concussion that she was working against falling asleep because of.

"You know, Ms. Snow, the longer you deny us our wishes, the longer you're here for," the woman replied.

"Like you guys won't dispose of me the instant I'm no longer needed," Caitlin said dryly. "Like you won't kill me the instant I'm no longer useful."

"Why not slow down the process then?" Her captor asked and Caitlin huffed an irritated sigh, wincing when it jostled her chest – she definitely thought her sternum was bruised too.

"Just go ahead and kill me," Caitlin deadpanned. "My doppelganger may come and avenge me, this is true, but she doesn't know I'm missing. Not right now. So, that being said, she won't come yet."

"You really don't know how to keep your mouth shut, do you?" The woman asked hostility, punching her directly in the nose and Caitlin felt I shatter. She released an agonizing scream, feeling tears rushing to the surface and spilling over her eyelids. "Keep talking and I'll break your other wrist."

Wisely, Caitlin stopped talking as blood poured out of her nose. What she wouldn't give for her doppelganger to show up just then and kick this woman's ass. She knew that if she didn't have so many broken bones, she'd be right alongside her, helping to kick said ass. However, it as taking everything she had to not pass out from pain and nausea alike. She blinked her only open eye; the other had been shut through the form of a fist, and she looked at the woman before her. "Just kill me."

"Sunshine, shut up," snapped a voice she had been desperate to hear and the woman in front of her screamed as an icicle suddenly got lodged into her leg. Frost was there suddenly, standing over her with murderous look. "You hurt someone I treasure very much. That being said, prepare to take your last breath."

"Frost, no!" Cisco called as he too entered the room. "We're putting them all in the pipeline." Then he turned and let his eyes fall on Caitlin. "God, Cait."

The past three days crashed down around Caitlin all at once and she had to work hard to not cry for anything other than the physical pain she felt. "Can you guys get me home?" Her voice was small, wounded in ways she wasn't sure she'd ever bounce back from. Frost snarled as the woman screamed for help, stomaching bleeding out. Frost drove another icicle into her, fury radiating off her like a tidal wave crashing against the shore.

"Don't you fucking dare ever come near Caity again!" Frost screamed in a tone filled with fury and anguish alike. She shot her hands forward, icicles flying out of them as heavily guarded men ran into the room. She got some ice stuck in a couple of their legs; got one lodged into another's shoulder and then she was running to Caitlin. "Caity? Caity, look at me."

Caitlin's head flopped uselessly to th side; neck unable to support it any longer. "Hurts."

"I know it does," Frost murmured in a low tone, breaking off the restraints that had tied her down. A man come forward jus then, wanting to wrap his hands around Frost's throat.

"Behind you, Frost!" Caitlin screamed gutturally. Frost slammed her elbow into the guy's nose just in time, causing him to shout out in pain as he began to bleed. Falling to the floor, Frost spun on her heel, kicking out her foot and knocked down two guys who were running at her. Then she hopped up and went back to untying Caitlin.

Once Caitlin was free, she stood up from her chair slowly, going to stand over the woman who was bleeding out from her stomach. "P-please, you have t-to help me."

"Oh, I will," Caitlin replied coldly, bending down slowly, and wrenching out the icicle with a grunt. Her ribs were on fire. "You'll bleed out quicker; choke on your own blood. We'll leave you to it."

Then Cisco was there, murmuring soothingly in her ear as he wrapped her good arm around him, Frost taking to her other side. They half-carried, half-dragged her out of the warehouse she was in, (why did all bad guys operate out of a warehouse?) and got her eased into the van Harry was driving. She was surprised to see him. "Good to see you breathing, Snow."

"Good to see you too, Harry," she muttered, clenching her teeth against the onslaught of pain she felt as Cisco eased her into the seat in the back.

"Keep your eyes open, Caitlin," he said firmly, and she nodded tiredly, wincing against the pain that flared up in her head.

"You guys didn't call Barry, did you?" Caitlin asked, voice somewhat hoarse as it had been a few days since she had any water.

"No," Frost replied, tone clipped. Caitlin knew the other woman was mad at Barry for something by her tone alone – she just didn't know what. She looked at her tiredly, nonverbally asking her what was wrong but Frost just smiled and shook her head. "It's nothing, Caity. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about anything other than staying awake until we can get you back to the labs."

"Not the hospital?" Caitlin asked, and it was Harry who answered in patient and methodical voice he wore like a glove.

"No, Snow," he said quietly. "We're going to take care of you at the labs. Figured it might be a bit more comfortable in a space you know and we all three can stay there overnight."

"Oh," Caitlin replied. "You guys don't have to stay overnight. Just give me some painkillers and I'll be fine."

"Sunshine," Frost snorted. "You must be delirious if you think I'm leaving you. You've already been missing for three days. I need to be by my sister."

Caitlin was touched and swallowed the lump in her throat discretely. She was in pain and not in much a mood to argue with her sister. She smiled softly, expressing her gratitude through her look alone and then they were quiet the rest of the drive – giving Caitlin ample opportunity to wonder if she was going to survive this.

XXX

Caitlin lost consciousness somewhere on the ride home and came to when Frost was running next to Harry, who was carrying Caitlin into the labs. She screamed when he jostled her body too much and Harry looked down in concern. "Damn, I was hoping you'd stay passed out. Caitlin, we're going to have to administer anesthesia for you."

"I know," she gasped, tears smarting her eyes as she tried not wiggle around in his hold. "You'll have to use the last of mine. I had it saved for whenever Barry had to have surgery again. If he did."

"Barry can wait," Frost said bluntly, going to push open another door leading down one of their many corridors. "Come on Harry, we got to get her taken care of."

"I know that, Frost," he replied in exasperation. "if you don't think you can handle seeing your sister like this, stay out of the labs. Please."

Frost leveled him a look and opened her mouth, getting ready to undoubtedly pop off a snarky retort but she never made it that far. Caitlin heard the laughter at the same time the rest of them did – at least she knew she wasn't hallucinating it- and they all looked in front of them, spotting Iris and Barry walking down the hallway, hand-in-hand. Barry looked away from Iris, opening his mouth to perhaps greet them, then he paled considerably and darted forward. "Caitlin?"

"Out of the way, Allen," Harry said, walking around him and hurrying into the lab that Caitlin often performed Barry's medical work in. Barry was walking next to her, looking at her in concern.

"What the hell happened?" Barry asked in a worried tone but Caitlin was too tired to answer. She smiled slightly.

"Met the wrong side of someone's fist," she commented tiredly, not wanting to divulge that she had gone missing while he was on vacation with his wife and no one had called him.

Barry looked towards Cisco when the other man snorted. "What happened?"

It was Frost who answered. "Caitlin was kidnapped by A.R.G.U.S. three days ago. They wanted to torture her into turning into me – just didn't realize we had already split. How was your vacation?"

Anyone could hear the burning hostility in Frost's voice and Caitlin thought she understood it. Didn't mean she had to like it. "Enough, Frost."

Her tone was level as could be because she was still in a great deal of pain and Harry threw her an anxious glance. "Almost there." Harry hurried into the room and set her down on the bed. "Cisco, the anesthesia."

"On it," came the long-haired engineer's reply. Caitlin watched as Barry stared at her in concern, eyes flickering to Iris who was looking at her in worry, too.

"Who – what?" Barry asked, seemingly unable to form a coherent sentence it seemed. Caitlin shook her head tiredly.

"Frost and Cisco took care of it," she murmured. Then, mind on the fact that she had let someone die in front of her, she spoke up with a wince. "On second thought, I helped."

"You didn't make me stab that woman, Caity," Frost said softly, automatically able to read her mind.

"Stab – did you kill someone?" Barry asked in horror and Frost glared at him.

"I know you have this holier than thou attitude, Barry, but she was about to kill Caity," she snapped, turning to Caitlin the next moment, and addressing her in a softer voice. "None of that is your fault. Don't, for a minute, think that it is."

Caitlin nodded. "I know. But I don't regret what you did. You saved me. It would have been me who was dead soon enough had you not come in when you did."

Barry still looked like he had more questions and Caitlin wished she could give him the answers but then there was Harry, pressing the anesthesia mask to her nose and mouth and telling her to count down from ten. Suddenly, she knew no more.

Author's note: Yes, I am still updating the other Snowbarry fic I am writing. This was just an idea I got from a good friend and decided to explore it some more. The other story will be updated this weekend. I start my new job on Monday, so writing is going to be limited somewhat. There's probably ten more chapters of Time After Time left, and then this one and any prompts you guys send me. (No beta, we die like the Aglaeca victims).