Scarlet

"What did you see?" Caitlin asked urgently, moving over to Barry's microscope to look at his blood sample herself.

Barry didn't answer. He just stood there next to her as she looked through the lens.

"You're anemic," she said, finally looking up from the microscope, "You have hardly any red blood cells."

"But my white blood cells are off the charts," Barry said seriously, "It has to be an infection, right?"

Caitlin gave him an uneasy look.

"It could be," she said slowly, "I'll be able to tell you for sure tomorrow. But Barry, your red blood cells…"

"I know," he said quietly, "But that could be anything. It could just be because I haven't been eating enough."

"Barry," Caitliln said sadly, "Have you…have you been having any other symptoms? Besides the nausea and lack of appetite?"

Barry shook his head.

"I mean," he said in a strained voice, "I haven't been sleeping well, but that's more because of…earth two."

Caitlin gave him an uneasy look.

"What are you thinking, Caitlin?" Barry whispered.

"Barry," she said quietly, "Have you been having night sweats?"

"What?"

"Have you been waking up in the middle of the night in a sweat?"

"Y-yeah," he said, "But that's only because of the nightmares."

Caitlin bit her lip then as she looked at him.

"Have you had any nosebleeds?" she asked gently.

"Caitlin," Barry said seriously, knowing where she was going with this.

"Have you?"

"No," he said honestly, "I haven't had a nosebleed since before I became the Flash."

"Okay," she nodded.

Her eyes flitted to his neck then.

"How are your lymph nodes?" she asked seriously.

"Caitlin," Barry said in a hard voice, "Don't. I know what you're thinking, and it's ridiculous. That can't be what's causing this."

"Let me feel your lymph nodes, Barry," she said quietly.

Barry sighed and rolled his eyes, tilting his chin up so she could assess his lymph nodes. He stood there silently as her hands traced over his neck, gently pressing on his skin.

"They're swollen," she whispered, pulling her hands away from his neck.

"Also a symptom of infection," Barry pointed out.

"Do they feel tender?" Caitlin asked seriously, "Does it hurt when I touch them or when you swallow?"

"No."

Caitlin's expression grew more serious then.

"Barry," she said in a strained voice, "That's…not a good sign. If it were an infection, your lymph nodes would feel sore. They would feel swollen and soft. But yours…they feel hard, and they're nontender…"

"Caitlin," Barry said seriously, "If you're trying to scare me, consider yourself successful."

"Sorry," she said quickly, "I'm sorry, Barry. I'm not being a very good doctor, am I? I just…"

"There's no point in worrying until we know for sure what it is," Barry said firmly, "There's no bacteria in my blood, which is good—it means I'm not septic—but that doesn't mean there isn't a virus or bacteria in my throat culture. We'll find out tomorrow, after it inoculates."

"Okay," she said quietly, "In the meantime, I'll run a full blood panel."

Barry nodded, his expression growing serious.

"Please, don't say a word to anyone else about this," he said, "This has to stay between us until we know what's going on, okay?"

"Okay," she whispered.

It wasn't lying, not telling the others about what was going on. Really, Barry didn't know if anything was going on. It could all just be in his head. Either way, not mentioning it certainly wasn't lying.

That changed, however, with one simple question from Joe over dinner that night.

"So, how did your appointment with Caitlin go?" he asked casually.

Barry looked up from his dinner plate, freezing at the question. After a moment, he cleared his throat and answered, speaking in barely more than a whisper.

"Fine," he mumbled, feeling his stomach churn with the lie, "She said everything was normal. Must have just been something I ate."

"Hey!" Iris said indignantly.

"No offense to your cooking," Barry laughed, "Like I said yesterday, it was probably just that I ate too much."

"So you're feeling better today then?" Joe persisted.

"Yeah," Barry lied, "I feel completely fine."

As if to prove his point, Barry then took a large bite of the cassrole Iris had made. It seemed to placate them.

"Where's Wally?" he asked then, strategically changing the subject.

"Out with friends," Joe sighed, "He's spending the weekend on campus."

"Probably getting into trouble," Iris added seriously.

"He's a college student," Joe shrugged.

"Seriously?!" Iris retorted, "Since when did you adopt such a passive parenting style? You were always Mr. Strict with me and Barry."

Joe just laughed.

"And that wasn't entirely unwarrented," he chuckled, "You two together gave me your fair share of trouble. I wasn't strict for no reason."

Barry hardly listened to Iris's retort to that. He had felt okay a moment ago, but now, suddenly, the room was spinning again, and the food he was chewing tasted like ash in his mouth. Barry took a sip of water to wash it down, but as he was lowering the glass, he noticed a single drop of red, mixing in with the water. Barry stared at it for a moment before quickly setting down the glass, reaching up to touch his face. He pulled his hand back to find his fingers coated in red.

His nose was bleeding.

Before Joe or Iris could notice, Barry quickly grabbed a napkin and pressed it to his face.

"Excuse me," he muttered, shooting up from his seat.

He left the room before either of them could say anything, making his way to the bathroom as fast as he could without using his speed. Once Barry closed the door tightly behind him, he turned and looked into the mirror. Blood was flowing steadily from his nose.

He had a nosebleed. He actually had a nosebleed.

Barry tried not to panic—tried not to think about what Caitlin had been implying earlier. No. The air was dry, and he was dehydrated right now. Really, the Flash was just as susceptible to nosebleeds as anyone else. The only difference was that his speedhealing would cause it to stop sooner. When Barry pulled the tissue away from his face, however, it was still bleeding steadily.

It wasn't anything to worry about, though. Nosebleeds often looked scary and dramatic, but really, they weren't a big deal. If he really did have some sort of infection, it could be causing his speed healing to be less efficient. It was just a virus. It wasn't…

Barry took a deep breath and tilted his head back, just wishing the bleeding would stop. He groaned internally when he heard a quiet tap on the door.

"Barry?" Joe's voice came through the door, "Are you okay? Did you get sick again?"

"No, I'm fine," Barry answered immediately, "Sorry, I bolted like that. I just couldn't hold it any longer."

Barry was surprised how convincing he managed to make his laugh sound.

"Okay," Joe said simply, "Sorry, just checking."

"I'll be out in a sec," Barry said in an easy voice, turning on the water to the sink.

The bleeding was starting to slow now. Barry used a wet tissue to wipe all the blood from his face, and he was sure to bury the bloodied tissues in the waste basket so no one would see them. With one last check in the mirror, Barry finally left the bathroom, acting as if nothing had happened.

He made it through the rest of dinner without any problems, and Joe and Iris didn't seem to suspect anything was wrong. Really, nothing was wrong. He was fine. Just because Caitlin happened to mention nosebleeds earlier and he had gotten one only a few hours later, it didn't mean anything. It was just a stupid coincidence.

As Barry was brushing his teeth before bed that night, however, he couldn't stop thinking about what the nosebleed might mean. Neither he nor Caitlin had actually said the word, but they had both been thinking it. Barry had thought the idea of it silly at first—he hadn't even considered it a possibility—but after Caitlin started asking all those questions about his symptoms…

No. He was fine. Everything was fine. One nosebleed didn't exactly mean he was on his death bed. He was being overdramatic about all this. So he had been feeling a little under the weather lately. That didn't mean it was something serious. For all he knew, he had a simple cold.

With that thought, Barry finished brushing his teeth and spat into the sink. He froze then, as he looked down at the white porcelain. There were now streaks of scarlet swirling down the drain. Barry's head flashed up then to look at his teeth in the mirror.

His gums were bleeding.

Caitlin sniffed and wiped her eyes. She had gone over her test results countless times, hoping she had made some sort of mistake.

She hadn't, though. She was sure of it.

How was she going to tell him? She had delivered bad news to patients before, but Barry was more than just some patient. He was her friend. He was Barry. It seemed impossible that this could really be happening to someone like him. Caitlin didn't know how she could possibly tell him. She was still in shock from it herself.

Caitlin shakily pulled out her phone to scroll through her contacts until she came across "Barry Allen." She took a deep breath before finally hitting the call button, her stomach in knots as she listened to it ring.

"Hey, Caitlin," Barry answered after the third ring.

"Hey," she said, trying to sound normal and not too somber, "I was just wondering if you could come in after work today."

"Yeah, I was already planning to," Barry said casually, "How are my test results looking? Did you find anything abnormal in the throat culture?"

"Um…no, Barry," she said softly, "I didn't find any abnormal bacteria. I was hoping to run a few more tests today if that's alright."

"Yeah, sure."

It made Caitlin's heart clench to hear how casual and carefree he sounded. In a few hours, that would change. Obviously, she wasn't going to tell him over the phone. No one should ever hear something like this over the phone. She would tell Barry in person.

"Okay, I'll see you later, Barry," she said in a strained voice.

"See you," Barry said simply before ending the call.

Caitlin pulled the phone away from her ear with tears in her eyes. She quickly wiped them away when Cisco suddenly entered the room. It was too late, though. He had seen.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowing in concern.

"I'm fine," she lied, "Just…just thinking of Jay. I'm alright, Cisco."

Really, this was the first time in weeks she had cried over something other than Jay. She missed him, sure, but right now, Jay was actually the last thing on her mind.

All her thoughts were for her sick friend.

The few hours that passed between their phone call and Barry walking into STAR Labs were both the shortest and the longest hours of Caitlin's life. Barry walked into the lab with a serious look on his face. He wasn't smiling, but at the same time, he didn't seem troubled. He thought he was just coming in for more tests. He didn't know the heavy news she was about to drop on him.

"So, you really didn't find any sign of infection?" Barry asked seriously as they both settled in the med bay.

Caitlin closed the door behind her, making sure Cisco, Harry, or Jesse couldn't walk by and overhear them. She was trying to remain calm, not wanting to make this more horrible for Barry by freaking out in front of him, but as soon as she turned around and looked at him—at his curious, unsuspecting eyes staring at her—she couldn't help the tears that formed in her own.

"What's wrong?" Barry asked her immediately, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"Barry," she said in a strained voice, trying to reign in her emotions, "I…I've gone over your blood panels multiple times."

Barry stared at her, waiting for her to continue.

"And?" he whispered.

Caitlin sucked in a shaky breath, choking back the sob that was threatening to escape her. She just had to say it. Just get it over with. Beating around the bush would only make it worse.

"It's cancer, Barry."