"I can't lose you because, if I did, I'd have lost my best friend, my soulmate, my everything"
Joe shook Barry awake. He opened his eyes but was blinded by the sunlight pouring through the window. To adjust to the light, he rubbed his eyes as he sat up. Little snippets of last night flashed through his mind, causing a huge smile to form on his face.
Even though it was the weekend, Barry still had to go to STAR Labs. On his pursuit to leave the house and go to STAR Labs, Iris stopped him. Avoiding her was not going according to plan.
"Hey! How was drinks last night with the original team Flash?" Iris asked with a hint of jealousy in her voice.
"What?" Barry asked before remembering the lie, "Oh right! It was pretty fun,"
"That's good," The jealousy in her voice rose to a noticeable level.
Not knowing what else to say, Barry said goodbye and left as quickly as he could. As Joe kept reminding him, he needed to talk to Iris soon. Talking to her was definitely going to be hard with the amount of guilt weighing on him.
His arrival at STAR Labs was expected by his two colleagues. Cisco and Caitlin were both at their long desk typing on their keyboards. Cisco was working so hard that he didn't look up, but Caitlin did. She smiled at him and he smiled back. It was more awkward than Barry expected.
"Ok I'm getting some awkward vibes here," Cisco looked up from his work and then quickly looked back. "Crap! The wifi went out. Be right back."
Barry took a deep breath, turned towards Caitlin, and said, "Hey"
"Hey, " Caitlin got up to give Barry a hug. "Thanks for last night! I only have a slight headache this time."
"But you still remember everything?" He asked in a sarcastic tone.
"Yes! I do remember everything," Caitlin giggled.
Barry spotted something at Caitlin's desk he hadn't seen before, a vase with the rose he gave her last night. Curious at what he was smiling about, Caitlin looked at her desk and spotted the rose she had placed there when she arrived.
"You kept it," Barry pointed out.
"Of course. I was going to leave it at home, but I thought it could give me a reason to smile when you're not here," Caitlin told him.
The two smiled at each other but their gaze was broken by Cisco walking in the room. He was somehow oblivious to the connection that Caitlin and Barry had. Either he was oblivious or extremely distracted.
"Since when does the wifi go out?" Barry asked.
"I don't know started this morning, that's why I'm so focused on work, I'm trying to figure out what is causing this," Cisco explained, not looking up from his computer.
"I suggested we call Felicity, but Cisco said no," Caitlin teased Cisco.
"Yeah, maybe we should call Felicity, she'll know what to do," Barry agreed with Caitlin.
"Ok, fine! I'll call Felicity! Since when did you two become so buddy buddy?" Cisco mumbled.
Barry and Caitlin tensed up. Neither of them knew how to respond. They weren't keeping anything secret but right now felt like the wrong time to clue Cisco in. To fix the wifi, Cisco left the cortex and made his call to Felicity. Barry took Cisco's seat and pulled up next to Caitlin.
"Ok, so this is a lot more awkward than I thought it would be," Barry sighed.
"I was just about to same the same thing," Caitlin laughed slightly.
"I love your laugh," Barry whispered.
Caitlin's face turned a bright red color. She put a genuine smile on her face and turned towards Barry. This time, she was within kissing distance. They sort of just stared at each other for a second until they heard Cisco's footsteps coming towards the cortex. Barry pushed his chair farther away.
"Ok, so, Felicity said that someone was blocking our wifi. She took out the block, but I can't think of who would do this, though," Cisco said with a worried voice.
"I did it," A mystery person with a mask on came into the cortex.
The team turned towards the human currently invading their space. The next few seconds are a little blurry. The lights went out, there was a gust of wind, and a scream that could have either been Caitlin or Cisco's echoed throughout the building. The lights turned back on to reveal only two people left in the room, Barry and Cisco.
"CAITLIN!" Barry screamed before running out the door, leaving a frozen Cisco standing alone in the cortex.
Barry had searched the whole city, every store and every corner. As a last resort, he even called Oliver and the rest of team Arrow, but there was no sign of Caitlin. Felicity had told them that she would hack every security camera in the town until she found her, but Barry wouldn't stop looking. He ran at super-speed for nearly three hours before slowing down.
Caitlin only felt a gust of wind before being knocked on the head, causing her to scream. The blow left her incapacitated so she couldn't try to defend herself. Halfway to wherever she was being taken, Caitlin passed out, only to wake up in a room so dim that she could only see a few feet in front of her. She was sitting in a cold metal chair with her hands and feet tied to it. Trying to slip her hands out of the ropes only gave her one thing, rope burns. She stopped when a person entered the empty room and immediately went silent, no struggling and no moving. There was a person in the darkness, close enough to the light to make a shadow.
"You don't know me or want to know me, but I need to kill the Flash and something tells me you're special to him. I mean how could you not be you're beautiful," The mystery person said in an automated voice.
Caitlin remained silent until the person walked out of the room when she let out a relieved sigh. She knew there was no point in struggling to get out, the ropes were too tight, all she would get would be more intense rope burns. She had faith that Barry would find her wherever she is.
Barry went, as the Flash, to the police station to see if he could get help from Captain Singh and the other officers. When he arrived, Joe stood up immediately. If Barry was at the police station as the Flash that meant something was seriously wrong.
"I need your help. One of my dearest friends, Caitlin Snow, was taken from me today by a faceless and a nameless person and I need your help to find her. I searched every inch of this town and I can't find her," Barry informed them while vibrating his vocal cords.
Captain Singh came over to Barry and put his hand on Barry's shoulder. "Of course, we'll help! I'll tell you if we find something," Captain Singh promised.
Barry nodded as a thank you and then ran to STAR Labs. Cisco was anxiously tapping his feet as he searched for any trace of Caitlin. Along with searching for her, he also had to search for Barry. The tracker and comm system went down when the wifi did so when Barry was gone for hours Cisco had no idea where he was. He was close to having a panic attack when Barry wooshed in.
"I can't find her. She's nowhere!" Barry shouted.
"Hey bro, don't worry we'll find her," Cisco assured him.
Joe walked in with Iris a few moments after Barry's arrival. Iris walked straight to Barry and gave him a hug.
"You should take the rest of the night off. You are in no shape to fight with all the anger built up inside of you. Captain Singh has two squads searching every corner and alleyway for her," Joe ordered him.
Barry was hesitant to agree but he knew Caitlin would have said the same thing so he changed out of his suit. Cisco even decided to go home and get sleep before searching the city tomorrow. The two of them could only halt the search for her because they could practically hear Caitlin scolding them about how being sleep-deprived won't help anything.
At home, Barry went straight up to bed without speaking a word to anyone. He lay in bed for a while looking up at the ceiling, hoping it would tell him where Caitlin was. Instead of getting an answer he fell asleep. He had only been half asleep for a few minutes before the reason why she couldn't be found anywhere.
"Earth 2!" Barry gasped as he sat up .
Barry rushed to get his clothes on and make his way to STAR Labs. Meanwhile, Caitlin was starting to fall asleep. She heard a door open and close, making her sit up, wide awake. Her captor walked into the light, still masked.
"Welcome to Earth 38," Her captor smiled.