⚡snowbarry Book 1⚡

Capter 1: Pilot

It was strange to think that she had watched him sleep for 9 months. She knew Cisco would make some kind of movie reference, of that she was pretty sure. She stood next to his bed, took his hand, stroked his hair, and just stared at him. And now, she was actually having her first conversation with him.

And she had told him to pee in a cup. Who does that? That's not something people usually say. Then she went full doctor mode and started pressing the muscles on his chest. That had been strange. Yes, technically she had known him for 9 months. But for him, it was different, they had just met.

He was a person. And he was actually pretty cute.

Caitlin pressed a few buttons on the tech on Barry's chest, syncing them with her tablet. She looked up to see him watching her.

"What?"

He seemed a little embarrassed.
"Nothing. I just noticed you don't smile much."

Inside, she was grimacing. Of course, his first impression of her had been her gloomy side. She tucked her hair behind her ear and opened up to him. "My once-promising career in bioengineering is over. My boss is in a wheelchair for life. And the explosion that put you in a coma also killed my older brother. So, this blank expression seems to be the way to go." She blinked quickly and walked away, heading towards Dr. Wells.

But once Barry started running, she forgot all about that. It was the most incredible thing she had ever seen. She watched him through her binoculars, murmuring, "That's not possible." But it was. And she, Dr. Caitlin Snow, was witnessing it firsthand.

But ten Barry crashed into a pile of cones. Her heart jumped into her throat. Crashing into something like that at his speed... who knows how badly he could be hurt. Wouldn't that be perfect? Finally meeting her patient after 9 months in a coma, and then he... what? Dies? Goes back into a coma?

Cisco jumped into his van and sped down the empty track. When he came back, Barry was groaning and holding his wrist, but he seemed to be okay enough.

Catlin, Cisco, and Harry took him back to STAR Labs, and Caitlin quickly did an X-ray. She was amazed by what she saw. His bones, which had definitely had a distal radius fracture when the X-ray was taken in the van, were now completely healed. She explained this to Barry, adding, "You're healed. In 3 hours."

He looked at her, alarmed and searching for answers. "How is that possible?"

"We dn't know. But can I run some tests on you now?"

As she stood by her desk, she overheard Barry talking to Dr. Wells. "When I was 11, my mom was murdered." Caitlin looked up, surprised. Barry continued with the story of the streaks of light, how he ended up a few blocks away... and how no one had believed him. She felt a sudden wave of pity for the young man, and when he glanced in her direction, she gave him the smallest of smiles. It was the tingling sensation she felt when he smiled back that took her by surprise.

"Metahumans?"

"That's what we call them," Caitlin confirmed.

I saw one today," Barry said. Caitlin and Cisco exchanged looks of astonishment. "He's a bank robber, and he can control the weather."

"This is getting awesome," Cisco said, his voice full of excitement.

Barry, on the other hand, looked very upset. "This isn't awesome," he shouted. "A man died. He must have gotten his powers the same way I did, and he's still out there. We need to stop him before he attacks again." Cisco's smile disappeared.

Barry looked at Caitlin, but his eyes landed on her desk. After a long, silent pause, he turned and walked out of the room.

She didn't see Barry for a while. When he returned to STAR Labs, bursting in with a surprising gust of papers, he was carrying a lot of boxes filled with case files and documents. "I've been looking at unsolved cases from the past nine months, and there's been a huge spike in unexplained deaths and missing people." He glanced at Cisco, but Cisco’s gaze was locked on the papers in front of him. "Your metahumans have been busy."

Cisco exchanged another meaningful look with Caitlin, but she looked away. Deaths. This wasn’t just some fun game of "Look how fast Barry can run." The particle accelerator she had helped create had made these other things possible.

Barry seemed to read her mind. "I don’t blame you. I know you didn’t want any of this to happen." Now, it felt like he was speaking directly to her. "Everyone lost something." He looked down again, his mind filled with images of Ronnie, her older brother. "I need your help to catch Mardon and anyone else like him, but I can't do it without you."

Once again, he looked at Caitlin. "I can't do this without you."

Caitlin glanced at Cisco, and he looked back at her. Then he started grinning. "If we’re doing this, I have something that might help."

Cisco proudly revealed Barry’s suit. "This is something I’ve been playing around with. Designed to replace standard firefighter suits. If STAR Labs can do something nice for the community, maybe people won’t be so mad at Dr. Wells."

Barry stepped forward to inspect the suit more closely. "How is this going to help me?"

"It’s made of reinforced tripolymer. It’s heat- and abrasion-resistant, so it’ll hold up when you’re moving at high speeds. The aerodynamic design will help you stay in control. Plus, it has internal sensors to monitor your vitals and keep you in contact with us from here."

Barry examined the suit. "Thanks. How do we find Mardon?"

Caitlin stepped forward, clicking through her tablet. She didn’t show it, but inside she was jumping with excitement that Barry had liked the suit. She knew how disappointed Cisco would have been if he hadn’t. "I reprogrammed the STAR Labs satellites to track weather anomalies across Central City."

Barry and Cisco moved closer to look over her shoulder.

"We have a lead," she told them. "The atmospheric pressure dropped 20 millibars in seconds. I traced it to a farm west of the city."

She noticed Barry slowly walking toward the suit and looked up. A econd later, the suit and Barry disappeared in a flash of yellow lightning.

While Barry fought Mardon, she remained silent, monitoring his vital signs. She was pretty sure they were normal... at least for someone like him.

Mardon created a tornado with his weather powers, and Barry stood there, trying to think of a good plan. Suddenly, he shouted into his communicator, "What if I unravel it?"

"How are you going to do that?" Caitlin asked.

"I'll run in the opposite direction, cutting through the base."

Cisco leaned in and spoke to Caitlin. "He would have to run at a thousand kilometers per hour to do it."

When Caitlin turned toward the communicator, she found her heart racing. "It's possible your body can't handle that speed. You would die."

"I have to try."

Those four words would be his death, Caitlin thought as she sat on the edge of her seat, waiting for the fight to end.

Finally, after she thought he might explode or simply drop dead from the strain that such high speeds were placing on his body, Barry unraveled the tornado. Caitlin leaned back in her chair, and for the first time in nine months, a small smile spread across her face.