Second Chances: Flash

Chapter 2

The first thing Barry heard as he finally woke up in the new reality was the all too familiar tones of Lady Gaga's Poker Face. Always would be a classic.

"Really Cisco?" Barry said under his breath as he opened his eyes, trying to blink any sleep or exhaustion out of them as he felt breathing tubes up his nose again.

But that wasn't what he was focusing on. No, what he was really focusing on was the two faces looking down at him. The same two faces that had been there the first time he'd opened his eyes as the Flash. It only felt right that he got to see them again.

"Welcome back Barry." Dr. Caitlin Snow said with a smile as she helped him sit up.

"Isn't this the part where you ask for a urine sample?" Barry asked, remembering their original first meeting and the other person laughed.

"I told her that we should've recreated your original waking up exactly, but Caitlin felt it was too unprofessional." Cisco Ramon said with a grin.

"I'm more than happy to take one if you'd like, but we both know it's not needed." Caitlin said with a smile as she and Cisco then proceeded to hug Barry.

"Guess we found a way to save you from Crisis after all." Cisco said.

"I wouldn't go that far, but hey, we're all back, we're all alive, so I'll take the win. But there is something I'll need from you." Barry said, looking at Cisco.

"I'm already working on your suit, especially since I have a few ideas for some new upgrades. However, I will need you to run to the future and get a quantum computer gauntlet." Cisco said and Barry rolled his eyes.

"Should we really be talking about that with Thawne so close by." Barry said.

"Barry, take a look around you. Does this look like Star Labs?" Caitlin asked and Barry quickly looked around and saw that it was not.

"Where are we?" Barry asked.

"Long story, but let's just say that things are different in more ways than one in this reality, since in this reality, after he blew up the city, instead of pretending to need a wheelchair to fool us for months, Thawne vanished without a trace. Most people think that he died in the blast." Cisco said and Barry growled.

"When in reality, he's hiding out somewhere. The question is why." Barry said.

"Among others, but with Thawne and by extension, Harrison Wells, presumed dead, Star Labs was shut down and we were put out of jobs. So instead I went to work for your stepmom as a member of Mercury Labs R&D team and it is candyland." Cisco said with a grin.

"What about you Cait?" Barry asked.

"I was going to work at Mercury Labs with Cisco, but then I got a different idea. I decided to start up a nonprofit clinic that focuses on helping people the system rejects, specifically metahumans." Caitlin said, much to Barry's surprise.

"Really, how did that happen?" Barry asked, since while he wasn't complaining about that one bit, he was surprised by the turn in Caitlin.

"Because one change in my personal life is that I'm a mom and no I did not get pregnant. A few months after the explosion, I found a little girl named Kayla living on the streets since her parents actually kicked her out of the house just because she'd become a metahuman and don't worry, said parents are now in prison, but anyways, I took the girl to Central City Hospital, but imagine my surprise when a lot of the staff there had an attitude like Dr. Ambres." Caitlin said.

"Wait, they refused to treat a little girl just because she was a meta?" Barry asked, since that was one change from the old reality.

"Yeah, tell me about it, so I treated her myself and realized that a lot of metahumans likely suffer due to the negative reputation the criminals get, so I started up this clinic to provide them with a place where they can get the medical care they need and Cisco told your stepmom about it and she actually offered to fund it, as long as I agreed to treat you while you were in your coma, which I agreed too." Caitlin said.

"Okay, now that you've explained that, mind telling me how Frost feels about having a daughter?" Barry asked.

"Actually, that's another change in this reality that I have somewhat mixed feelings about." Caitlin said.

"What, Frost doesn't exist?" Barry asked.

"So she does, but now she has her own body. We're now literally two different people in two different bodies. In this reality, we grew up as twin sisters instead of two people trapped in one body." Caitlin said.

"Wow, that's big. I'm guessing she's thrilled about it, just because of how eager she was when you let her take the wheel to build her own life?" Barry asked and Caitlin chuckled.

"Yeah, in fact, I'm pretty sure she'd ice blast me for even considering trying to merge us back into one." Caitlin said.

"So she remembers?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, I asked J'onn to pay her a visit after he restored my memories. I think he's also restored the memories of Iris, Joe and Cecille, since Ralph isn't in the city anymore." Caitlin said and Barry nodded.

"So Iris and Joe know that Thawne is still alive?" Barry asked, wanting to confirm.

"I talked to Joe this morning, he's looking into every possibility about where Thawne could be hiding, especially since you're now fast enough to kick his ass with his crappy unreliable speed." Cisco said and Barry sighed, since while that should comfort him, it didn't.

"Still, knowing Thawne, we need to find him and deal with him before he does something to turn the tide back into his favor. His greatest advantage has always been that he was one step ahead of us. We need to catch him while we still have that." Barry said.

"I should be able to help with that, since another bonus of this world is that no metahuman cure exists yet, which means I still have my powers and after being reminded of how good they feel during Crisis, I've got no plans to give them up again." Cisco said and Barry smiled.

"Good, because Team Flash felt different without Vibe. We're gonna need him to stop what's coming." Barry said and Cisco and Caitlin both nodded in agreement at that.