"A life for me." He can't even begin to fathom it. Yesterday he was Barry Allen. Today, he was a disposable time remnant. Tomorrow, someone else? "Iris. Is she...did it work?"
"Every life is important; even if they started as a remnant."
Caitlin nods to the corner of STAR Labs and Iris walks over, a little shaken but very much alive. Their little plan worked. Iris was hidden safely away in the Time Vault while everyone went after Savitar. Of course, Barry had no idea where they had hidden her as part of the plan.
The relief on his face is plain to see when he sees her. But he can't imagine what either of them are seeing when they see him. Not Barry Allen, not anymore. "Good. It's...that's good."
He digs his fingers into the sheets of the bed as he accidentally shifts again. Trying to ground himself, force himself to stop moving. "Sorry. I'm sorry." For...moving, apparently.
Caitlin checks the levels of the anesthesia and looks down at him. Her hand drifts to cover his hand with her own, gently squeezing to offer reassurance.
"It's okay. You have nothing to be sorry for," she reminds him. "If you need something to focus on, pick something in the room, okay? Anything in here to help you. Because I would definitely advice against moving."
"I know. I know." And he does know. He takes a breath, then another. Looking for something to focus on. Iris. Caitlin. That weird snow flake sticker on the overhead light. Anything. "Like with Zoom. I remember." He remembers that pain, ten thousand times worse than this. "I remember."
At least with that, he'd eventually just passed out from the pain. Ah. And look at that, he does the same thing this time as more people start making their way back.
That sticker had come from Cisco surprising her with a pack of Frozen stickers shortly after they started training on how to use her abilities. He managed to convince her to stock at least that one in the overhead light. However, if some people looked closely, there was an Olaf sticker hidden somewhere. Caitlin has yet to find it and swears that when she does, she would ice block all of his tools.
For now, she lets the remnant take the slow breaths, watching as his eye flicks over everything before it finally closes. She breathes a sigh of relief and checks on his vitals one more time before meeting with everyone else to debrief what happened.
When the question comes up with what to do with the surviving remnant, Caitlin argues the case that he should have his own life. Somehow. Maybe pass as Barry's twin or family member for the time being. Then they could resettle him somewhere. According to Cisco, it worked for the Tenth Doctor. She just needs to make a few phone calls and reach out through her contacts.
If she could find a home for Magenta, then she could find a life for the remnant.
When he wakes up, she'll still be sitting at his bedside, sipping coffee and working away at her tablet for a better speedster anesthetic formula.
The pain is better when he wakes up, at least. Whether that's the anesthetic or just the fact that he's healing bit by bit that's caused that. He can, at the very least, manage not to move around as much. That helps.
Waking up is slow. Incredibly slow, and that he's sure is the drugs. His eye opens, then shuts again for God knew how long. Then opens again, just as slowly. There is a little bit of sight coming back in the damaged eye, not much but enough that he can make out shapes. Eventually he's awake enough that he makes a sort of 'no, really I'm awake' noise, and twitches his hand up, carefuly touching the gauzed up side of his face.
Over the hours, she's changed the bandage over his head several times and checks on his damaged eye. She also has reapplied the topical ointment to help reduce the scarring.
"The skin is actually healing pretty well for the damage you've sustained there," she explains, keeping a careful eye on him. "I wouldn't move the bandage too much." Healing skin and all. "How are you feeling?"
He'll move his hand, then. Carefully. Thinks about her question. "Wonky?" But that's probably to be expected. All of those drugs to keep him from feeling less pain.
"Wonky sounds about right. I'll decrease your dosage, then." She fiddles with the bags until the drip is a lot slower. "You're lucky I've been working with metas for years in order to get things like anesthesia to work for speedsters."
From her own calculations, it seemed like it might take a while yet, maybe another day, before he would be up and running.
"Thanks." His hand moves to his shoulder, where the blade had gone in. The one injury he has that's completely healed. "Everyone's okay?" Iris, Cisco, herself.
"Iris is a little shaken but she's okay. She and Barry are home right now. He's got a clean bill of health. Cisco got a clean bill of health. Just a lot of bruising from being thrown around." Herself? "Luckily, Frost also heals pretty quickly. Any injury I've sustained has been healed up."
"I'm the only outlier?" Well, isn't that...horrifying to think about, honestly. "You stayed?" Nobody else did, apparently. Not that he expected them to.
"Clean bill after I fixed them up. That next order of medical supplies is going to be a big one." If he looked, he would notice her stock of medical supplies is running a little low. "And of course I stayed. Why wouldn't I? Everyone else just...wanted to go home to their loved ones after an ordeal like that."
Loved ones, huh. Awkward topic, that. He doesn't really say anything about that. What would he even say? That until yesterday, when he was still the 'real' Barry Allen, he'd had one? Yeah. So. Awkward.
"Okay." He's fine. He is fine. Is he fine? If he's so fine, what's with that weird little hitch in his chest? "Crap. I'm fine."
There's a crinkle in her forehead when he is trying to reassure someone that he's fine. Caitlin immediately checks over his vitals. They all..seem...to check out okay?
"Doesn't mean I'm leaving you," she replies. "What are you feeling right now?"
Because it's not a physical pain, more of a mental one. The kind that comes with the self-realization that everyone he loves, everyone he cares about technically 'belongs', so to speak, to the version of him that 'belongs' to this timeline.
"I don't know." There's a strange sense of panic that comes with that, and it's not something he's easily able to get a handle on. Not for the first time, he wishes his dad were here. For the perspective, if not for the calming presence. "Disjointed." Does that even make sense to her? It doesn't make sense to him. "Can I get up? I need to get out..."
That, by far, is the most ridiculous statement. Of course he can't get up, his leg is broken and his back is more than a little damaged.
Disjointed. The realization hits that he carries all of Barry's memories. That, according to him, he was Barry. And for him to hear that everyone else went home with their loved ones must have been jarring. Caitlin puts a firm but gentle hand on his uninjured shoulder.
"You should know that I don't let my patients get up and walk around before I give them the all clear. Your back and leg were broken. You need to rest and heal up," she says in her best doctor voice that did not sound unlike Joe's dad cop voice in tone. This was something she needed to bring up with the rest of Team Flash. What do they do with him? He's not some disposable life. He's someone. They can't give him a new past. His past will always be Barry Allen's. But maybe they could give him a future.
He could nod, agreeing that he did get that, he did understand that. He was hurt, really hurt. Bad enough that even his speed couldn't heal him fast enough. It was good he supposed that Barry Allen, the one that belonged with Iris West and Joe and Wally now in this new iteration of time, wasn't feeling this pain. Wasn't lying here.
Who knew better what a Barry Allen could handle than another Barry?
Satisfied that he'd stay down, Caitlin sits down again with her tablet,
drawing up her e-mail to start the process with establishing an identity
with Felicity. Just to start it and have it all waiting and ready for when
she discusses it with the rest of the team.
"...how do you feel about being called Bart?" she asks.
She receives texts from a few of the others, asking how the remnant is
doing.
"Not...great about it?" He's probably already forgotten, thanks to those drugs, the idea of establishing him his own identity. He's never been fond of 'Bartholomew', so Bart just seems like a harsher version of that.
He does, however, seem to understand who she's talking to. "...does Oliver know what happened?"
She thought she could try as that would be a name that would be close
enough to his own name.
"Iris managed to keep Team Arrow and the Legends updated from within the
Time Vault, actually," she replies, amused at how tenacious her friend is.
"So Oliver knows. What about..." She's interrupted with a message, frowns,
then looks at him. "...as your physician, I think you should wait for
visitors, but Barry wants to see you for himself."
He's honestly surprised the Legends didn't bounce in here and try to fix things themselves. Would anyone have? Probably not.
He looked...well, he looked unnerved at the idea of talking to what was essentially himself. Did he want to? Eventually, he'd have to. Might as well get it over with, whatever the other him had to say. "...okay? Okay."
Caitlin presses her mouth into a thin line and neatly taps on her tablet to
respond to Barry.
"Doctor's orders. You need bed rest and time to recover before talking
about anything." The corner of her mouth quirks up a little. "I will freeze
you to this bed if I need to."
He had, honestly, meant it was fine if she let him come. But. But, he is absolutely fine with her misunderstanding that. He's not really sure he's ready to talk to anyone.
Even if he really, really wants to talk to Joe. Or Cisco. Or Iris.
Her threat, however, gets a slightly amused look from him. "That doesn't seem fair." Or does it? "How long? Will it take, I mean." To recover. The last time he was this bad off was Zoom, and that took...entirely too long.
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Did they at least manage to keep her alive.
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Caitlin nods to the corner of STAR Labs and Iris walks over, a little shaken but very much alive. Their little plan worked. Iris was hidden safely away in the Time Vault while everyone went after Savitar. Of course, Barry had no idea where they had hidden her as part of the plan.
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He digs his fingers into the sheets of the bed as he accidentally shifts again. Trying to ground himself, force himself to stop moving. "Sorry. I'm sorry." For...moving, apparently.
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Caitlin checks the levels of the anesthesia and looks down at him. Her hand drifts to cover his hand with her own, gently squeezing to offer reassurance.
"It's okay. You have nothing to be sorry for," she reminds him. "If you need something to focus on, pick something in the room, okay? Anything in here to help you. Because I would definitely advice against moving."
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At least with that, he'd eventually just passed out from the pain. Ah. And look at that, he does the same thing this time as more people start making their way back.
He'll probably be out for hours.
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For now, she lets the remnant take the slow breaths, watching as his eye flicks over everything before it finally closes. She breathes a sigh of relief and checks on his vitals one more time before meeting with everyone else to debrief what happened.
When the question comes up with what to do with the surviving remnant, Caitlin argues the case that he should have his own life. Somehow. Maybe pass as Barry's twin or family member for the time being. Then they could resettle him somewhere. According to Cisco, it worked for the Tenth Doctor. She just needs to make a few phone calls and reach out through her contacts.
If she could find a home for Magenta, then she could find a life for the remnant.
When he wakes up, she'll still be sitting at his bedside, sipping coffee and working away at her tablet for a better speedster anesthetic formula.
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Waking up is slow. Incredibly slow, and that he's sure is the drugs. His eye opens, then shuts again for God knew how long. Then opens again, just as slowly. There is a little bit of sight coming back in the damaged eye, not much but enough that he can make out shapes. Eventually he's awake enough that he makes a sort of 'no, really I'm awake' noise, and twitches his hand up, carefuly touching the gauzed up side of his face.
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"The skin is actually healing pretty well for the damage you've sustained there," she explains, keeping a careful eye on him. "I wouldn't move the bandage too much." Healing skin and all. "How are you feeling?"
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From her own calculations, it seemed like it might take a while yet, maybe another day, before he would be up and running.
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Barry?
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"Okay." He's fine. He is fine. Is he fine? If he's so fine, what's with that weird little hitch in his chest? "Crap. I'm fine."
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"Doesn't mean I'm leaving you," she replies. "What are you feeling right now?"
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"I don't know." There's a strange sense of panic that comes with that, and it's not something he's easily able to get a handle on. Not for the first time, he wishes his dad were here. For the perspective, if not for the calming presence. "Disjointed." Does that even make sense to her? It doesn't make sense to him. "Can I get up? I need to get out..."
That, by far, is the most ridiculous statement. Of course he can't get up, his leg is broken and his back is more than a little damaged.
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"You should know that I don't let my patients get up and walk around before I give them the all clear. Your back and leg were broken. You need to rest and heal up," she says in her best doctor voice that did not sound unlike Joe's dad cop voice in tone. This was something she needed to bring up with the rest of Team Flash. What do they do with him? He's not some disposable life. He's someone. They can't give him a new past. His past will always be Barry Allen's. But maybe they could give him a future.
"Doctor's orders," she affirmed.
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Who knew better what a Barry Allen could handle than another Barry?
"Okay. Sorry."
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Satisfied that he'd stay down, Caitlin sits down again with her tablet, drawing up her e-mail to start the process with establishing an identity with Felicity. Just to start it and have it all waiting and ready for when she discusses it with the rest of the team.
"...how do you feel about being called Bart?" she asks.
She receives texts from a few of the others, asking how the remnant is doing.
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He does, however, seem to understand who she's talking to. "...does Oliver know what happened?"
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She thought she could try as that would be a name that would be close enough to his own name.
"Iris managed to keep Team Arrow and the Legends updated from within the Time Vault, actually," she replies, amused at how tenacious her friend is. "So Oliver knows. What about..." She's interrupted with a message, frowns, then looks at him. "...as your physician, I think you should wait for visitors, but Barry wants to see you for himself."
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He looked...well, he looked unnerved at the idea of talking to what was essentially himself. Did he want to? Eventually, he'd have to. Might as well get it over with, whatever the other him had to say. "...okay? Okay."
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Caitlin presses her mouth into a thin line and neatly taps on her tablet to respond to Barry.
"Doctor's orders. You need bed rest and time to recover before talking about anything." The corner of her mouth quirks up a little. "I will freeze you to this bed if I need to."
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Even if he really, really wants to talk to Joe. Or Cisco. Or Iris.
Her threat, however, gets a slightly amused look from him. "That doesn't seem fair." Or does it? "How long? Will it take, I mean." To recover. The last time he was this bad off was Zoom, and that took...entirely too long.
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