Flash Frozen

Coma

Iris lies next to Barry through the night, warming him with his body heat. As she dries her tears, Joe steps closer. "Is there something you're not telling me?" Joe asks.

"Dad, I think- I think I'm in love with Barry," Iris says. "I think I've always been in love with Barry. I was just scared. Scared of losing him. Scared of pushing him away. But I'm too late. I'm not sure of anything after Eddie. What if this is just me trying to fix myself, not actually find love?"

Joe walks over and runs him hands through Iris' hair. "They just take your time. Tell Barry when you're ready."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

That night, Iris wakes up shaking. She looks at Barry and see him shivering. Smiling, Iris pulls the blankets further up so that they're covering Barry to his neck. As she tries to fall back asleep, the shaking only gets harder. "Barry?"

"Iris, what's wrong?" Joe asks.

"Dad, go get Caitlin. I think something's wrong." Iris gets up and sees Barry vibrating and seizing up on the bed. Joe tries to hold Barry down but not hurt him. Iris rushes to the other room, waking Caitlin up. "Caitlin, something's wrong with Barry."

She gets up immediately and runs off. "Wake the others."

Iris does as she asks and they all run to the Cortex where Caitlin is trying to keep Barry still. "Cisco go get the thing we've been working on. The medicine."

"Got it." Cisco rushes over to the lab and grabs a small needle and gives it to Caitlin.

Caitlin looks nervous as she goes to inject it. "What's wrong?" Iris asks.

"This isn't tested. We have no idea what it could do to him, especially in this state."

"Will it calm him?" Henry asks.

Caitlin nods. "It should but it's not for certain."

"Then do it," Henry says. "I'm his father and I say do it. He'll pull his stitches out at his rate if he hasn't already."

Barry gets worse, the vibrating making him look like a fish out of water. Caitlin injects it into Barry's IV and he slowly calms down, before lying back and just shivering lightly. "It's working," Cisco says.

"Cisco, we need to run a scan. We have no idea what's happening," Caitlin says, honestly.

"Got it." He runs the scan and puts it onto the screen.

"It looks like it's already burning off, but it's lasted longer than even the Flash Poison 2.0," Caitlin notices.

"The what?" Henry asks.

Cisco and Caitlin give each other a look before smiling sheepishly. "Flash Poison 2.0. We were trying to give Barry a buzz. His metabolism keeps him from getting drunk. It lasted a couple seconds before it was gone. This is lasting minutes."

"Hey, according to this, Barry is trying to breathe more on his own. That shouldn't be possible," Henry comments.

Caitlin looks at the scans. "You're right. It's his powers, they're coming back and working to heal him." Caitlin walks over and looks at the stitches. "These stitches are already ready to come out. And WE can switch him to a nasal cannula." She starts to remove the stitches, easily pulling them out before removing the breathing tube. "Because of how advanced his powers are, and that his body isn't trying to adjust to the powers like last time, I'd bet he'd wake up within the month at the latest."

"Maybe if I turn on some tunes like last time," Cisco says.

Caitlin smiles and lets out a weak chuckle. "Poker Face," she recalls. "Found by stalking his Facebook page."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Captain," Joe says.

"Joe, how's Barry?" Singh asks.

Joe sighs. "He's in another coma. They don't think it's as bad as last time, though. All his injuries are healed up."

"Any predictions on when he'll wake up?"

"Dr. Snow thinks in less than a month but nothings for sure."

"Thanks for the update. Keep me in the loop if you can."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The next day, Barry's stopped shaking and his color has returned. He's started shifting around and moaning in discomfort as he coughs and sneezes.

"The good news, the hypothermia is gone. The bad, he's still sick for some reason."

"Can't you run some blood test or something to figure out what's wrong?" Henry asks.

I ran tests on the sample I got before Barry was taken. It's just a stain of the flu. The normal flu that everyone gets. I think being tired from the wormhole event weakened him and made him susceptible."

"So, we just treat it like a normal flu?" Iris asks.

"Exactly," Caitlin says.

"Alright, easy enough." Iris walks over to a sink and gets some ice water and a rag. She sits on the side of the bed.

She starts to dab at his forehead as Cisco makes the bed lean up so Barry's sitting up slightly. "It should help with his breathing a bit," he says. Iris nods and goes back to what she was doing before.

She, Joe and Henry rotate in taking care of Barry as he gets better. By the end of the day, his fever is already gone. In fact, the entire flu is gone. "Now, it's just up to Barry. He'll wake up when he's ready."

"Isn't there something else we can do?" Henry ask.

Caitlin shakes her head. "Not really. It's up to Barry's subconscious."

"The guys who's always late," Joe jokes.