Forward ϟ The Flash

Chapter 17: We're Going to Need a Bigger Boat

"He's not dead. He's not dead," she kept repeating. Rose rushed to Caitlin's side. She may have been the most reserved around Jay, but watching him die right in front of them? In front of Caitlin? "This isn't happening. This isn't happening again."

"Cisco," Rose called out to him as she held onto her. She needed to get out of this room. Now.

He came over to them, taking Caitlin from Rose. "Hey, I got you. Come on."

She turned to the rest of the group. They were just as much in shock as she was. Rose's hand went over her heart, remembering that it had happened once to her too. Only this time Barry wasn't going to be able to bring him back. But he looked more determined than ever. "Open it up."

"Allen..." Harry sighed. Even he couldn't help but be hit by the loss.

"I need to go back."

"I can't do that."

"Open it up!"

"Barry!" Rose jumped in front of him. She held onto to his arms, preventing him from going after Wells. Her voice softened as he looked down at her. He couldn't handle another loss. He shouldn't. "We closed the breaches. For good. We made them so they couldn't be opened again."

Harry nodded. "There's no going back to our world."

"Wait," said Jesse, tears welling up. "We're trapped here for good?"

"Yes," her father told her.

Barry shook his head. "No, we can't just let Zoom get away with this. He just murdered Jay right in front of us. There's got to be something we can do."

"There's not," Harry replied. "Not this time. It's over."

"No." He shook his head, storming out of the room. Everyone else watched him leave in silence. Harry was right. There was nothing they could do. Nothing that could bring Jay back. Zoom was behind them now, but he was still able to take one more thing from them.

Rose sighed, pulling off her gloves as she started to walk out as well. "I'm going to go check on Caitlin."

She pulled the blanket further up on Caitlin, being careful not to wake her as she did. In the time that it took for her and Cisco to calm her down enough and get her to sleep, Kol had stopped by and removed the collar from her neck. He looked a bit freaked out by the runes, saying they looked similar to ones Theo had done. But she couldn't think about Theo, not after this. She had to be there for Caitlin right now, not thinking about a deceased ex.

Rose turned back around, stopping across from Cisco who waited in the doorway as Barry came in, asking, "How's she doing?"

"Not good," Cisco told him. "We tried to get her to go home, but she refused to leave, so, you know, I just sat with her until she fell asleep while Rose got that collar off."

"Ronnie, Jay." she shook her head. "How much more loss can she deal with in a year?"

"She'll be fine." Harry snuck up from behind. "Snow's strong. She'll get past this. But in the meantime, I would not say anything to her about her counterpart from my Earth. That goes for Joe and Iris too. Or..."

"Leonard," Rose finished for him. He had been pretty hard to reach anyway so it didn't really matter.

Barry questioned him, "Why?"

"Because you don't want to influence their reality in ways that should not be influenced," he answered.

"Like in the same way as when Barry time-travels?" Cisco suggested.