The Empath Metahuman

007. GORILLA WARFARE

☆☆☆

THERE ARE MOMENTS WHERE PEOPLE FACE THEIR WORST MOMENTS. Where they're pushed down to the weakest version of themselves. Defenseless, afraid, and with a lack of confidence in themselves. That's something that can happen to anyone. But being able to stand back up, by your self or with the help of others, that's something that not a lot of people can do.

Bella's hand traveled to the back of her neck, her fingers brushing against the end of her bandages. It had been a week ago since the incident with Zoom, and a couple of days since Bella had been able to move around without so much discomfort from her bandages. Her cuts and wounds were healing well, but there were still times where if she stretched too much it hurt.

Shifting in her computer chair that Cisco had pulled to be next to her father's electric wheelchair, Bella watched the scene in front of her. Her father stood in front of her with Joe to the side. He was wearing a S.T.A.R Labs sweatshirt with grey sweatpants, his left hand out in the air to keep steady and his right hand holding a cane to help keep him up.

"All right, I got you," Joe mumbled softly from Barry's left, his hands holding onto Barry's arm to give him a little support. Everyone was watching as Barry struggled to walk. Caitlin behind the computer desk, Cisco behind Barry's wheelchair where the speedster was trying to walk towards, and Iris from where Barry started. Cisco and Bella were side by side, standing a couple of feet away from where the suit was displayed.

Bella could see her father struggled when he nodded his head at Joe to let go. Joe took a step back, and Barry handed the cane to Joe. His whole body was on its own, and he tried to take a couple of steps on his own. In the first couple of steps, he struggled like he was forcing and yelling at his legs to move and not fall. His face was scrunched up in slight pain, a groan passing through the lips with each step. He was able to take the five steps with pain, but by the sixth step his whole body gave out and he began to slowly fall forward.

"I can't do it right now, all right?" Barry groaned, his hands out to steady himself with the arm support of the wheelchair at arm's length from him. Joe rushed behind him and grabbed him by the elbows, helping him turn around and sit.

"Oh, yes you can, Barry," Joe encouraged his son.

"No, no, no." Barry shook his head, collapsing on his seat that had created an imprint of his butt from how often he sat on it.

Beside him, Bella softly pushed her rolling chair closer to him and rested a comforting hand on top of his. Barry turned to look at his daughter and tiredly smiled at her to which she smiled back. From in front of them, Joe sighed as he looked down at his son, "We've been making so much progress."

"Yep, six whole steps." Barry rolled his eyes like it wasn't a big deal, "Someone get me a Bozo button."

"Hey, give yourself some credit." Cisco said from behind Barry's wheelchair, "You just broke your back."

"Yeah," Iris added in, leaning back against the front of the computer desk, where she had been watching from for the last couple of minutes, "a normal person would've been paralyzed the rest of his life."

It seemed like the woman's words didn't reassure Barry at all. Instead, they were like the rest of the voices that kept encouraging him since the day he woke up and couldn't feel his legs. Coming in one ear and coming out the other. Looking around, it was like the mood in S.T.A.R Lab's cortex had changed in the last week. Her father had lost the spark in his eyes he usually got when talking about his speed. Joe had been at the top of his feet when dealing with possible sightings of Zoom. Cisco and Caitlin had been spending more time together, whispering between one another and giving glances at Harry when they thought no one was looking. As for Harry, he was in the same state of isolation, if not more, from when he first came in.