Collateral Damage (snowbarry)

Training

Barry emerges from a trailer wearing what looks like a bright red, male leotard and some sort of helmet on his head. Cisco usually is one for aesthetics, but apparently he was rushed with this one. Barry walked out onto the tarmac to the small tent the other three had setup with all their equipment underneath. He looked over their shoulders, not completely understanding what was going on, but at this point, any help was welcome. Cisco approached him and explained as much as he could, but really, all Barry had to do was run. How hard was that? 

Caitlin approached him next, syncing her tablet with the devices attached to him so she could monitor his vitals during the tests. 

"Are you sure you all know what you're doing?" Barry asks, more jokingly than condescendingly. 

This was the first time he had spoken directly to her since he woke up. She'd talked to him for so long and never heard his voice. This wasn't exactly what she imagined, but that wasn't a bad thing. It was a distinct voice. A calming voice. 

"Not even a little bit. But not any less than you." She says a little more snarky than she meant for it sound. 

He notices. "You know, you don't smile much." He points out. It's not that it was a big deal, but he was a little nervous with everything happening and she was a doctor right. She was supposed to have good bedside manner, or tarmac side manner. She could smile a little. 

Caitlin takes a deep breath. It's the one thing no one has dared to point out since the accident. Her mood. 

"The explosion that gave you this speed, almost killed Cisco and I, put my boss in a wheel chair for life, and brought my entire career to a halt." She told him. Leaving out the detail that she wasn't quite sure she could say. 

He offered her a sympathetic smile. She hated that. She's glad she didn't tell him about Ronnie or that smile might have turned into a sympathetic hug and that would've been worse. Now for the 'I'm sorry'.  

"Thank you for taking care of me." He said instead. 

She looked up, surprised to hear that. She didn't take care of him, not really. She just...watched. If anything, he took care of her. 

She nodded and offered a half-ass smile that didn't reach her eyes, and she walked back to the tent. 

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Caitlin echoed Barry's concerns. 

Dr. Wells looked up at her with a mischievous smile on his face. She smiled back, only slightly, not having seen him look this young and excited since the early days of S.T.A.R. Labs. Truth was though, Dr. Wells knew exactly what he was doing. And when Barry Allen took off, 200 mph down the runway, Dr. Wells' smile grew. 

"That's not possible," He heard Caitlin mutter. Her mouth slightly dropped open, staring at the the man in front of her. Staring at the Flash. 

*********************************************************

Once back at the labs, Caitlin and Cisco become obsessed with this idea of the impossible. 

"If Barry was affected, and he was who knows how far away from us when the accelerator exploded, what's to say people all over the city weren't affected?" Cisco excitedly states as he starts typing away on the computer. 

He pulls up a map of Central City and after a little more typing and few more sips from his Big Gulp, the map starts showing bright spots all over town. 

"What do those indicate?" Caitlin asks.

"Those are areas where the effects of the accelerator had the greatest impact." He explains. "Most likely." 

"Most likely?" Caitlin raises her eyebrows. "So this is a maybe map? Its a guess?"

"Everything in science is a guess until proven one way or the other." Cisco defends. 

Caitlin rolls her eyes. "How many people do we think may have been impacted? Yeah Barry can run fast, yeah he's nice so far, yeah it's a fairly containable effect. What if someone's isn't?"

"We don't even know that anyone else was affected. And it will most likely be symptoms like Barry has. Everyone can run. He can just run fast. Maybe someone else can see really far. They're just like extra-humany. Humany humans. Meta humans." Cisco states, smiling proudly at his creation of the name. 

"Well whatever these 'meta humans' are," Dr. Wells starts, placing quotes around Cisco's new term, "are not our concern. We can't understand anyone or anything about this if we don't understand Barry. He's in our corner already. Lets use that." 

"I wasn't the only one affected by the explosion was I?" Barry exclaims as he enters the cortex unexpectedly for the second time today. 

"Your entrances just keep getting more and more unpleasant, don't they." Caitlin mutters so only her and Cisco can hear. Cisco tries not to laugh, able to hear the seriousness in Barry's tone. 

Barry informs the team about Mardon who has decided use his newfound weather powers to rob a few banks and kill someone. He wants to help, Caitlin understands, but doesn't get how in the world they would help. Cisco has superheros on the brain always and is a little giddy in his seat. Dr. Wells maintains a serious composure and informs Barry that it is not an option. They cannot help. Those people are not their problem. 

"They are your problem!" Barry states. "You did this. Your mistake did this." He doesn't just look at Wells. He makes a point to look at Cisco and Caitlin when he makes the accusation. 

"And we are trying to make up for it, but we are not cops Barry. We do not reprimand criminals. What do you expect from us?" Dr. Wells states calmly. 

"A little remorse. Regret? I don't know. Someone is dead now because of you." Barry accuses. 

"A lot of people have died because of my mistake" Dr. Wells starts, emphasizing that the accelerator was his fault.

"Yeah, and they're just numbers to you aren't they? Collateral damage in a botched experiment. Doesn't matter who they were or that people out there lost people they loved." Barry stops when he sees a sharp movement out of the corner of his eye and turns to see Caitlin pushing out of her seat and storming out of the room. 

"Don't presume to know the extent of what was lost to us, Mr. Allen." Dr. Wells states as he wheels out of the room after Caitlin. 

Confused and still enraged, Barry looks at Cisco, the only person still in the room. Cisco has his head down staring at the map on his screen. Barry rolls his eyes, scoffs, and starts to exit the cortex. 

"Caitlin..." Cisco starts, and Barry stops just beside the control panel, not looking at Cisco. "Her fiance, Ronnie, died in the explosion." Cisco barely gets out, this having been the first time he's actually spoken about it. 

Cisco stands up and walks toward Barry, not making eye contact. He stops in front of him, looking at him from out of the corner of his eye. 

"We want to help Barry. We just don't know how." Cisco says flatly as he exits the room to go find his friend. 

Barry stands there for a moment and looks to the computer. He sees the map and a title in the corner of the screen that reads "Accelerator Impact on Central City". He sighs. Not quite feeling bad, but understanding a little bit more. He looks down and sees a small note scribbled on the desk in neat, but rushed handwriting. 

We have to help. Any ideas?

Underneath it was a response in sloppier handwriting. 

What can we do?

And another response in the first handwriting. 

You have to have something in your toy collection.

Barry laughs at the reference to toys. Cisco had told Barry during testing that he made the toys. They wanted to help. Right now, that was enough for him.