Sweep Me Off My Feet(A Barry Allen/The Flash Fan-fiction)

Chapter Ten: The Shots You Don't Take

Barry winced as Caitlin cleaned up his face.

"Sorry. The abrasions are already rapidly healing." She apologized.

"Yeah, we got our butts handed to us."

"Ya think?" I asked sarcastically, holding my side.

"You got blood on my suits." Cisco said.

"I appreciate the concern, Cisco." I added.

"I think some of it belongs to him. Another not-so-friendly meta human."

"Let me see." Caitlin instructed me. I lifted my shirt to expose the purple bruises scattered all over my ribs. "Ooh."

"Dang." Cisco added.

"Let me get you an ice-pack." She left briefly, then handed one to me.

"Are you sure your ok?" Barry asked.

"Not that it's any of your concern, but I'm fine." I replied. I could see the guilt in his eyes, and my glare softened a bit.

"Here." She came back with a wrap and a massive ice-pack and slowly started tying it to my side.

"Danton Black." Dr. Wells told us. "A Bio-geneticist; Specialized in therapeutic cloning-growing new organs to replace failing ones."

"Apparently, Stagg stole his research and then fired him. There you go."

"Thanks." I told her, "We saw Black create duplicates from his own body. There was at least five of him beating the crap out of both of us at once."

"That's pretty ironic. The guy specialized in cloning, and now he can make Xeroxes of himself."

"If he was experimenting on himself when exposed to the dark matter wave released by the particle accelerator explosion-"

"Meet Captain Clone." We all looked at him.

"No, dude. Just...no." He nodded.

"Don't worry. I'll come up with something cooler." I rubbed his arm.

"I know you will." Barry started walking away.

"Where are you going?" Asked Caitlin.

"Joe was right. I'm in way over my head. Yeah, I'm fast, but I am no warrior. Man, I could barely fight one meta-human, let alone six." I stood up, walking over to him.

"Barry...I understand. Today was a setback, but any grand enterprise has them, and we can never learn to fly without crashing a few times."

"You're tellin' me." I replied.

"This wasn't a grand enterprise, Dr. Wells. This was a mistake." I followed Barry out into the lobby of the Cortex.

"So that's it?" I asked.

"I thought you weren't speaking to me."

"I wasn't, but...when I see someone give up on something that clearly makes them happy, I can't really be silent."

"What do you expect me to do?" I shrugged.

"I can't expect you to do anything. You make your own choices. But...if I were you...I wouldn't give up just yet. You miss one-hundred percent of the shots you don't take."

"Who said that?" He asked.

"That? Oh, that was me. But, assuming you meant originally, that was Wayne Gretzky." He smiled. "There's the Barry Allen I know."

"Look, Karen, I'm sorry-" I held up a hand.

"I know. Tell you what...if the old Barry Allen, the real one, makes it through this whole ordeal, I just might let you make it up to me." He nodded.