Christmas At the West House.

It doesn't... feel like you.

Caitlin approached the cortex and began organizing the keyboards, mouses, and markers. She sometimes wondered what it would be like to call Star Labs her own. When she lifted a mug full of Number 2 pencils with the company's logo, she decided that if it was up to her, she would change everything except for the company name.

She also made a mental note to hire Mögna Sigurðardóttir, Iceland's most celebrated modern architect, to open up the space, add more windows to invite in soft natural light, and build a greenhouse on the rooftop deck.

A loud and annoying siren sound from the main desktop quickly snatched her away from her fantasy and brought her back into the cold, gloomy, dark and gray earth tones of the Star Labs cortex.

She inched closer to the desktop and opened the alert that had come in on the Flash Public Hotline. She had asked Cisco to change the sound to a chime, a ring, or something more serene. Cisco promised her he would. Turns out he flat out lied to her face. She immediately disabled the sound.

She read through the message and to her relief, no one was in trouble. The first line read;

Coast City Police Department would like to hire the Flash to train a class of Police Academy trainees in the basics of Criminal Behavior Instructor. Compensation: $22.40 hr.

"Look at that, a 40 cent raise." Caitlin drags the alert to the trash can on the desktop. We see several other trash alerts from the same sender "bob@coastcitypd.gov" in the trash can.

"The Flash is a superhero, not a minimum wage employee." Caitlin sighs.

The annoying alarm sound comes on again. "Ugh, I'm so gonna kill you Cisco!" Caitlin groans.

"Many have tried and failed." Cisco joins her with two cups of coffee from Jitters. Caitlin rolls her eyes at him as she reads the alert.

Loose Meta has taken a hostage at Central City Hospital.

Caitlin gasped, "No. No. No."

Cisco went closer and read the alert. "This. Is. Not. Bueno."

"There's an attachment." Caitlin downloaded and opened it. There is video footage of Tony dragging Iris towards a large window in one of the hospital rooms. Tony punched the window open and lifted Iris over his shoulder as she kicked and tried to fight him off.

Cisco rushed to the other side of the desk and hit the bright red alarm button which has a direct line to Barry.

"Barry, you need to go to Central City Hospital right now! There is no time" Cisco shouted.

"What?" They heard Barry answer back. He seemed confused. "What's going on? I need more -"

Caitlin spat out. "Tony has Iris."

Tony held Iris tighter and leapt out of the 8th floor hospital room window. Iris' fear shut down every single nerve in her body. She tried to estimate how long it would take for them to hit the gravel. All she could do was close her eyes.

Suddenly, a surprising cool breeze swept in and grabbed her. She was now going fast. Scary fast. Was she in a car, a train? No train she had ever been on went this fast. She dismissed the thought that she somehow had shrunk and was inserted into a bullet. That was not possible.

With her eyes still closed, she felt her hair get swept by the wind endlessly as she went up, down, sideways, and even zig zagged. The hand wrapped around her waist felt calm, reassuring, and safe. She forced herself to focus on those calm hands even though there was a huge chance these might be her last breaths.