Timeless ❄️ColdFlash⚡

Chapter 1: Second Chances

But maybe he could save the rest and try again.

Don't like the future, Flash? Change it!

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Barry's eyes flew open with a shock to his newly solid system, and a small conscious part of him saw his friends, his dear beloved friends who he was so happy to see again, and he smiled-

Before the din, connected still to the endless everything, but displaced now and unable to sift out the chaos, roared.

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"Pulse 120, pupils equally reactive to light."

"Hey there, buddy," Cisco tried to speak over Caitlin, because techy talk was not what their mutant potato needed to wake up to. "Everything's okay. You're at STAR Labs. I told you he liked this song," he commented about the loop of "Poker Face" still playing over the speakers.

"Not now, Cisco. Mr. Allen, how are you feeling?" She put her penlight away and spoke seriously at the blinking hazel eyes and surprising smile looking up at them.

"Call him Barry, geez," Cisco leaned over the man in similar fashion to get a good look, because a small part of him had feared he'd never get to meet the guy who he only really knew through his family, some odd friends in Starling, and the dirt he was able to uncover from Facebook and personnel files. "We've only been his babysitters for months. Right, Barry? Or is it Bart? Your family calls you Barry, but man, I could totally go with Bart if you prefer that, just not Bartholomew, coz you deserve better."

"Cisco," Caitlin said with more urgency, tilting Barry's head this way and that to get a reaction that seemed to simply not come as he kept smiling at them. "Barry, can you hear me?"

He smiled wider for a brief, blinding moment, then looked off distantly. "I'm the fastest man alive."

"Okay." Cisco shot Caitlin a confused glance. "Maybe not something to put on your dating profile."

"You know I'm not much of a singer," Barry went on as he attempted to sit up, still covered in electrodes and his IV, with breathing tubes wrapped around his head, shirtless in just the sweatpants they changed out regularly when they washed him.

"Also interesting," Cisco said, while Caitlin pressed a hand to his chest to keep him from getting up too quickly, gently removing everything connected to him to prevent him from getting tangled in the wires. "Not judging or anything."

"Barry," meanwhile Caitlin kept trying to get his attention, "do you understand what we're saying? Do you know what happened to you? You were struck by lightning. You've been in a coma for nine months. We're at STAR Labs."

Barry just blinked at her, then at Cisco, before the smile fell to something serious and angry. "No, you won't. You're never getting out of here. And you're never going to hurt anybody ever again. I have everything back that you took away from me. I have everything Zoom took. I'm finally free. I'm home." He struggled to sit up, and Caitlin had to make a final lurch to yank out the catheter for his IV so he wouldn't tear it out himself.

"Barry!"

"Zoom?" Cisco questioned, trying to help Caitlin hold him to the bed, "that would make a great superhero name," but Barry was larger than them and, just like they'd known from months watching his test results, he showed no sign of muscle atrophy.

"We are not going to hurt you!" Caitlin tried again.

Barry ignored them and moved for the nearest desk, grabbing a marker and glancing around like he knew what he was looking for but couldn't remember where it was. When he spotted their translucent whiteboard, he rolled it closer to the middle of the room and started drawing-Cisco had no idea what, but they were strange symbols, mostly circular with tiny inconsistencies like some alien language.