𝐒𝐰𝐢𝐟𝐭: ᴢᴇʀᴏᴘᴏɪɴᴛ ² − b. allen ((editing))

∟ 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞.

          Cisco folded his arms over his chest and cleared his throat, furrowing his brows slightly. "She's a strong girl, Barry. She'll come back. She'll fight," he said reassuringly and nodded his head, running his tongue over his lips and another tear rolled down over his cheek. "She'll come back to you, she'll come back to—"

          "I was going to ask her to marry me," Barry blurted out and then cleared his throat, his stomach tightening into knots as he looked up at Cisco who stared at him with wide, teary eyes. He took a deep breath and held it in, wondering if this was the right thing to talk about while the love of his life was in a coma right next to him. "I was so close to asking her weeks ago, but never got the chance, and ever since then, I've been trying to find a way to ask her... but now, I'm not so sure I'll have the chance anymore."

          "You'll get the chance," Cisco stated confidently and nodded his head and Barry, his lips curling up into a small smile. "I know you will. And when she says yes, I better be the best man." Barry nodded and let out a small laugh; the first laugh he had in days. "I, uh, I have to go pick Shannon up from work, but we'll be back. Do you need anything?"

          Barry shook his head and moved his gaze back to Anna, beginning to rub his thumb over her soft skin. "No thank you," he replied softly as Cisco walked toward the doorway of the side room. He glanced over his shoulder, making sure that Cisco was gone before he choked out the sob that he had been holding in since he spilled about proposing to Anna. He stood up from his chair and sat on the bed beside Anna, pulling his legs up so he could lay down beside her. "I'm right here, Anna," he whispered and slid his arm behind her neck, sliding closer so his chest pressed against her arm so that she could feel his heartbeat when she woke up; a thing he had noticed her doing since arriving back from Zeropoint.

          Barry traced his fingers over Anna's bare shoulder, drawing circles over her skin and sending small sparks of lightning through her in an attempt to jolt her awake. He pressed his cheek against the top of her head and closed his eyes, taking in the feeling of her soft skin beneath his fingertips. "You always promised that you'd run back to me, so I need you to hold on to that promise now," he said and opened his eyes, blinking back the tears that threatened to roll down his cheeks as his bottom lip began to quiver. "When you're ready, Anna, you run back to me. When you're feeling better and you're strong enough to open your eyes, you have to run back to me because you always promise that you will. I have so many plans for us, Annie, so I need you to wake up, okay? I can't lose you — not now, not ever. You're the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with, Anna Wells. I want to marry you, Anna, and I want to have tons of speedster babies with you. I want to live in a boring blue suburban house with a white picket fence and a crapload of yard space where our track team star speedster babies can play.

          "I want the cookie-cutter life with you, Anna. I want everything to be perfect for you, and I'll do everything I can to make sure that happens, I promise you," Barry whispered and pressed his lips against Anna's head, squeezing his eyes shut as tears rolled down his cheeks and landed in Anna's hair. "Run back to us, run back to your friends and family, and the team. Run back to me, Anna. Just live up to the promise and run back to me, okay?"

.: ｡

BARRY'S EYES SNAPPED open to the sound of loud beeps coming from his left. He glanced over his shoulder, his eyes widening as he spotted Anna's vitals spike in a way he knew they shouldn't be. He immediately got up out of her bed and left the side room, looking around desperately for Caitlin. "Caitlin!"

          Right on cue, the woman ran into the Cortex and passed along by Barry without even glancing at him. Caitlin ran into Anna's room and began working away as Barry joined her slowly, his eyes stinging with tears.

          Soon enough, Shannon and Cisco slipped into the room, the latter of the two joining Caitlin. Shannon stood beside Barry in the doorway and slid her arm around his, holding his forearm tightly with her hand. "It's going to be okay," she whispered, the words barely reaching Barry's ears. "She'll pull through."

          Barry watched Caitlin speak orders to Cisco as she continued to work on Anna, glancing over her shoulder for seconds at a time to check her vitals. He shifted his gaze to the monitor, his heart plummeting deep into his stomach as a straight line formed across the screen where Anna's heart rate should have been. Every noise around him was drowned out by the constant, mind-numbing hum of the machine that let him know his girlfriend's heart had stopped.

          Tears spilled down over his cheeks, but he didn't sob, he just let the tears tumble. Barry blinked at the monitor, his own heart seeming to stop in his chest. He wanted to help Anna, get her heart started again, but he was frozen in place; his feet seemed to be stuck to the floor and there was nothing he could do to get them moving again.

          It seemed unreal to him that someone could go from stable to near death within seconds. But Barry couldn't let Anna slip away. He wouldn't allow her to, especially when he knew that she didn't want to slip away.

          Barry slipped away from Shannon and crossed the room quickly, appearing beside Anna's bed. He didn't know how much time had passed while he was swimming in his own thoughts, but he was ready to help in the only way he knew how.

          "Barry," Caitlin said and looked over at the boy, resting a hand on his shoulder. "I can't get her back," she mumbled, her own eyes filling with tears as her bottom lip trembled.

          Barry rubbed his hands together and created small sparks of electricity across his palms and fingers. "Get her shirt open," he stated over the steady hum of the flatline that seemed to grow louder and louder by the second, his voice shaking.

          "Barry..." Caitlin mumbled and shook her head slightly.

          Cisco grabbed a pair of scissors from the tray beside him and sliced open Anna's t-shirt with shaking hands, immediately turning away as it came open and revealed her sports bra and bare skin.

          Barry placed one hand on Anna's chest and the left side of her rib cage where faint bruises still coloured her skin purple. "Come on, Anna," he whispered and blinked away the tears in his eyes so he could see the soft features of her face. "Come back to me." He closed his eyes and sent lightning through his body, igniting his nerves in a way he hadn't felt before. When he opened his eyes, lightning danced through his eyes as lightning bolts crept down his arms and stopped at his hands, sending a shock through Anna and jolted her body upward.

          Caitlin looked over her shoulder at the monitor and shook her head. "Nothing," she replied, her voice breaking.

          Barry gritted his teeth and sent another round of lightning through his body and shocked Anna again, her body jolting up. He looked at the monitor and cursed silently when the flatline remained steady.

          Caitlin rested a hand on Barry's arm and sighed. "Barry, maybe we should—"

          "No." Barry repeated the process for the third time, praying to God, the Speed Force and whatever else he could think of, and sent a shock through Anna's body, causing her to jolt upward again. This time, the lightning remained on Anna's skin and danced around in small yellow bolts. Slowly, the lightning turned blue and white and the hum of the flatline was replaced with the steady beep of Anna's heart. "Oh, thank God," he whispered and finally broke down, allowing soft sobs to escape his lips as he sat down on Anna's bed near her hips. He rested slipped a hand into hers and kept the other pressed against her chest, feeling her heartbeat picking up and returning to normal against his palm. "Thank you for coming back to me."