Zero hour

Regrouping

23 hours earlier:

Cisco's groan sounded like music to Barry ears who feared for an excruciating second, or two, that he killed his best friend. Hard to tell how much of Cisco's stillness from earlier was only acting and how much was because of his heart acting out after the mistreatment.

"You're ok, man, you did great," said Barry who was smiling through his own physical pain.

"Oww," commented Cisco, his left hand going for this chest while Barry was keeping a tight hold on Vibe's opposite one to vibrate through the power dampening wristband. Barely a second later, the wristband easily broke.

Barry knew he should probably hurry to get back before his prolonged absence would become suspicious. Dumping a body in a river shouldn't take this long, especially for a speedster. Maybe Barry was just getting paranoid about the time, but with Caitlin still prisoner and Jay still under the couple's influence, Barry couldn't jeopardize the trust he just earned.

"I'm sorry about that, see you tomorrow," he added as Cisco was blinking his eyes and breathing a couple of times profoundly, confused. One thing was for sure; what was coming next was going to wake him up, fast.

Without waiting for another second, Barry finished his task and rolled his friend off the edge. It was with a heavy heart that he watched Cisco rolling off the hills and all the way to the probably cold water. All Barry could do was cross his fingers that his friend would be able to find his way home and mount a rescue mission.

"Good luck," repeated the speedster before taking off.

Present:

"So, I just swam to the shore and breached back here where I was able to get some rest and prepared for the rescue mission," concluded Cisco to put an end to his extensive recap of what truly unfolded in that crucial moment. Or, at least, the parts he actually remembered when he wasn't out.

Understatement of the year to say that the whole part about letting himself get charged with a highly concentrated dose of Speedforce wasn't about to be nominated as the best and safest idea of the decade as Caitlin's eyes widened the second it was mentioned. And, that expression never left her face 'till she could speak up:

"You really let Barry executed that plan?" Asked Caitlin, incredulous, "do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

"Yeah, I get the picture now," grimaced Cisco with his right hand on his still slightly sore chest.

"Cisco!" Shouted back the doctor, unable to believe how his best friend could take the whole thing so lightly, "I'm serious! You're incredibly lucky to be alive, it was-"

"Believe me; I know how risky it was. I do now," interrupted Cisco, "but it wasn't as dangerous as waiting for Barry to turn on us for good. We had to act, and it was the only available window of opportunity we were going to have."

Maybe he had a point, but still. Rewinding Cisco's sentence in her head, Caitlin stopped in her sermon when the part about waiting for Barry to turn caught her attention. Even after the explanations she received about how Cisco managed to escape, something still sounded off.

"I don't...he tried to strangle me and didn't take me into Flashtime," added Caitlin.

She saw the way Barry looked at her and mistreated her wrists; he wasn't himself. Her exhaustion probably wasn't helping her full comprehension of what unfolded.

"Barry was very anxious about the chances of Jay coming back and catching us, he probably didn't want to risk taking you too, plus he had to make it real. I can't blame him. But, that being said, I'm really sorry about scaring you," explained Cisco to his still confused friend.