vivifier | Lyrics Prompt Open Box

She sets the board aside for a moment and grabs the remote to help elevate the bed up a little so that he could have some semblance of sitting up. Caitlin sets the board up carefully on a table between them and lays out the pieces. She then goes around the bed to his other side to help him shift a little to not put so much pressure on his spine.

"Does that feel all right?"

He nodded, settling in as best as he can. "Thanks. I think so." As much as it can feel alright. There's going to be some pain, it just has to be pain he can stand.

She makes her way back around and takes a seat and starts the game.

"No one's really asked me about Julian," she admits, "I think it's because they're afraid that Frost is going to come out and I'll give them the literal cold shoulder."

"I guess I have more perspective than that?" After getting his ass handed to him by Savitar, anyway? Apparently so. "Or maybe Iris told them to be cool about it."

Pausing. "Uh. Pun unintended."

That gets a laugh bubbling out of her. And here she thought Snart was the only one that did cold puns.

"I haven't even told Iris. And she's the one that helped Frost and I get along." She pauses in her movement. "I guess it just didn't seem all that important. What with everything going on."

He certainly has a patent on them, doesn't he?

"Maybe you should." A slight frown, as something occurs to him. "Did I...we...I make it seem like it wasn't?" Pronouns are going to be a horror show until these identities are straightened out.

"No. It was a personal choice to not talk about it." She looks at him. Yeah, pronouns were going to be an important thing to sort out. "We had to save Iris from Savitar. And we did. I was going to tell everyone eventually."

Was she? There was a long line of bad taste in men after Ronnie's death. Jay being the major one. Then Julian. Probably should stay away from men whose names start with J.

That's clearly the problem right there. The letter J. "We did. Save her." And yet, something still bothers him. "We still don't know who he was."

"Maybe we will, maybe we won't. What's important is that he's not bothering us anymore, Iris is safe." She moves another move, concentrating on the board in front of her. "Who knows? After DeVoe, most bad guys seem like a breeze. And maybe we'll actually get a vacation from superheroing for a little bit."

He makes a countermove, smiling slightly. "Yeah. Maybe." And if not, hey look. More of him to go around.

Ha ha?

They can't just settle back into their regular lives. So much has changed because of Savitar.

Iris is now much more vigilant and cautious. Cisco would continue to work away for new toys to give out to all of them. HR...will continue to own Jitters and assist Tracey. And Joe will be even more wary of metas. They'll work on figuring out who Savitar is. How he got here. Why he is so desperate to kill Iris. But besides the suit being destroyed, whatever body was inside seemed to disappear. No evidence was left behind of who or what Savitar was.

Caitlin would periodically check on his vitals, adjust his speedster painkiller IV. When it began to draw late, she asks, "I've been working on a mild sedative. It's essentially morphine for speedsters so that when this happens...they'd be able to sleep off the healing. Or at least get about nine hours of decent sleep. Would you like me to administer that?"

Barry, this Barry, had no doubts that they'd eventually see him again. After all, he'd claimed to be from their future. Hadn't that been half of his schtick?

He looked at her, thinking about her question. Did he want that? He had no reservations that he'd be able to sleep tonight without it. Too much pain and too many thoughts running through his head. Too many worries, and there wasn't anyone really around to abate them beyond Caitlin. "...yeah. Might be a good idea."

"I'll start you off with a small dosage. Then you can try to get to sleep on your own." It seems like the pain was manageable at the moment. "But I'll be here to keep an eye on your vitals."

Honestly, sometimes, it felt like she had Ralph and Cisco as nurses and they...well, they definitely try but aren't medical professionals. One thing she would miss about Julian would just be having another medical professional around.

His injuries are extensive enough to require round the clock monitoring but Caitlin doesn't mind. She wonders if he would be like Barry. A million thoughts run through her mind as well. He essentially is Barry. With all of his thoughts, quirks, feelings. But those are questions to be addressed when he's not in as much pain.

Making a move with her piece, Caitlin gets up to go through her drawers to find the speedster morphine.

Star Labs absolutely needs another medical professional around here. If only so Caitlin can get some sleep herself. Barry had some training, obviously. He wouldn't have been able to treat Oliver for a poisoning without it. But he could hardly treat himself. Either version of him.

He makes his move on the board while he waits for her. "Think I'll wake up any better?"

"No super speed cheating," she warns good naturedly from where she grabs the medicine.

Caitlin walks back over and measures out a very small dosage to inject into his IV. She grabs new gloves and a fresh roll of bandage and gauze before moving around and carefully peeling off the bandage around his head. She cleans the wound with gentle hands and observes the healing.

"Looks like the skin on your face is taking to this topical ointment all right. You might still have some residual scarring by morning. How's the pain level for here?"

"I'd never." Sure you wouldn't, Barry. Sure.

He holds still while she examines the burns, not wanting to damage anything further. "About a five?" Which is a lot better than the 'Ten-ten-oh my god ten' that it was earlier. He'll admit to that for sure. "The eye seems better too. I can see a little better, anyway." Shapes, mostly, and blurs. But better than literally nothing.

She applies the ointment again to the burns and peels off the gloves, pulling out her pen light to check pupil reactions. Still slow. But more responsive than when he was first brought in. She turns it off and covers a yawn before grabbing a fresh set of gloves and the gauze to cover the burns again.

"You should heal up by morning. At least, this means that you'll stop hurting on your face. And probably your leg. Your spine...might take a little longer," she reports. Coffee is going to be needed if she's going to keep up with observation.

"Hopefully not as bad as...well, as last time." No pressing matters like Zoom, for instance. At least, not that he's aware of. "Thank you. For all of this. Maybe you should get some sleep too?"

She pulls off the gloves and disposes of them.

"I'm fi--" Nope, interrupted by a yawn. "Really, I'm fine. I'm used to pulling long shifts." She gives him a smile. "Plus I need to beat you at chess."

"Try saying that without yawning?" A slight tease. She does look really tired though. "After the game, then."

"I have a patient to look after," she teases back. "And my patients come first."

Caitlin settles in her chair again and moves another piece, taking one of his.

"There are monitors. They make noise!" Moving another piece. "If I win, you sleep. If you win, I'll shut up about it."

She moves another piece.

“I’ll take that challenge.”

A smirk that’s not unlike Frost.

And another, taking one of hers. "At least it's a fair challenge, right?"

She takes a few more of his pieces until they’re locked with her queen against his king.

“Looks like an even match.”

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