Only Because I Need You

Finding Them

When Barry found the caves the Captain had told him about, he knew the Captain had told him the truth. All of the cave entrances had massive plumes of dark smoke that crept upwards and melted into the orange sky. One of the entrances caught his attention in particular. He felt his stomach drop from his body as he skidded to a halt infront of a large, grassy hill that had a metal door embedded in it's side and swung wide open with smoke bellowing out from it. Lying a meagre few meters away from the smoke was two bodies. Two bodies he knew very well. He rushed over to Caitlin's side, kneeling down next to her, he turned on his comms, pressing a finger to his ear, "guys, I found Caitlin," her face was dirty and covered in soot. Her caramel hair lay around her head like a halo and her hand was loosely holding onto the hand of someone Barry was a lot less happy to see. It was Ethan, he too was also covered in soot. His face was slightly downturned in his sleep, "but she is passed out. I also found Ethan too," he replied, watching the steady rise and fall of their chests with vigilant eyes. They were lying close to one another. Barry tilted his head to the side slightly, he wanted to know what they had been through. If Ethan was any different than before he was captured. If anyone could change the stubborn speedster, it would be the mild-tempered bio-chemist.

"What is going in with the caves Barry? I am reading an enormous heat signature from that area," Cisco's voice rattled in Barry's ear.

"I don't know, I think they are on fire, I can't see into the tunnels because of how much smoke is flowing out of it," he explained, a breathy sigh escaped his lips. There was no way he could extract that much smoke from those tunnels by creating a wind funnel. He didn't even know his deep the cave system went. He would end up just wasting his time.

"Is Caitlin alright?" Iris asked smoothly.

"Yeah, she is fine I think," Barry replied. She did appear to be fine, her breathing was consistent and she looked to have no external injuries.

He stood up and cast his eyes back to the smoking tunnel. He knew there was little point to him running in there, if he couldn't see and he had never been there before then he would just get lost or run into a wall. He sped to all the other entrances. Crowds of people had gathered together in large clusters, all of them covered in soot and ash. Most of them were middle aged and red faced men who either had their arms crossed across their chests with their faces warped into a downturned pout, or were stomping around, steam practically flowing from their ears. All of the entrances looked to be the same, a small, smoking doorway that was cut into the side of a grassy hill. There was little else Barry could do but wait until the fire department arrived.

He returned to Caitlin in the snap of a finger. He could help her though. He moved Caitlin first, scooping her up and racing back to the Lab with her. He placed her gingerly on one of the beds in the medical wing before returning to retrieve Ethan. In the crack of a lightening bolt, he had placed his double on the bed just next to Caitlin. He could only hope that the bio-chemist had talked some sense into his evil self.

Team Flash came stampeding into the room. Cisco was the first to arrive, on his face was a wide and goofy smile, but it twitched downwards when he saw the unconscious Caitlin. He made his way to the side of her bed. Barry stood parallel to him on the other side. Their eyes met for a moment. They didn't know what to do to help Caitlin. Barry felt panic set in, Caitlin couldn't help them help her. They were going to have to try for themselves. Harry and Iris stood by the foot of her bed, Iris's arms were crossed over her chest and her eyebrows were pulled into a firm frown. Harry on the other hand, his face was pensive and brooding, "What do we do?" Cisco asked as looked at each of them individually, "we need to help them somehow," he gestured to the unconscious speedster and his best friend. Cisco was right, they couldn't just leave them to recover on their own. Barry had no idea to help either of them, yet he knew that if they successfully brought Caitlin back to consciousness then she could help Ethan recover too if he was still unconscious.

"How do we help them?" Iris asked, raising an eyebrow high.

"The chances are that they have collapsed due to oxygen deprivation, so we need to put them on oxygen," Harry told them. The millisecond he finished his sentence, Barry moved with lightning speed. He scoured the Lab instantaneously for the items he needed. He placed the masks on Ethan and Caitlin's faces that were connected to an oxygen supply and turned the machine on. He was standing back in the same spot by Caitlin's bedside before his teammates even knew he had moved. A rush of air washed over Team Flash and they all sent the scarlet speedster a grateful look, "I don't know what else we could do except wait," Harry told them with a hefty sigh.

Cisco sat back in his chair in the cortex. A smile of satisfaction crossed his cheeky features. Iris and Barry were hovering by his side, he had an arm looped around her waist and a grin of his own carved onto his face. Harry stood on the other side of the desk, his arms were crossed over his chest and he too was desperately trying to suppress a smile. Cisco's eyes kept flicking over to the medical wing's door. The temptation to sit by Caitlin's side until she rose from her slumber was overpowering, but he did have other matters to attend to, "Okay, so the entire complex has finally stopped burning, and all of the meta's from inside have been safely secured," Cisco announced as he checked the messages he was receiving on his work phone. After the fire department had arrived, Barry had been able to run in and extinguish most of the flames, as well as pulling out any remaining people. It had been a tense operation, but they succeeded. Another message popped up from the CCPD. It was long and filled with complex police jargon, but Cisco understood loud and clear what it meant, "however, I think we will have to house one of the metas," he told them. He sat forwards and reread the message.

"Which meta?" Barry asked, his grip around Iris tightened ever so slightly. He tilted his head to the side and stared at his friend with inquisitive eyes.

"Sting," Cisco replied, "I think they want us to find a way to give her back her consciousness," that made sense. Just like a jelly fish has no brain, Sting seemed incapable of forming coherent thoughts. Instead her mind was empty and she acted on pure instinct alone.

"How could we do that?" Harry snorted, small wrinkles, crinkled the skin between his brows and his eyes became full of annoyance. Cisco guessed Harry would react in such a way, he really needed to work more on his anger. It made him predictable.

"We should take her for now," Barry told them, "when Caitlin wakes up we can ask her what she thinks," Cisco felt himself go a little giddy. 'When Caitlin wakes up', such a short but refreshing phrase. His eyes shifted again to the medical wing doors. They could rely on Caitlin once more. It felt like forever since she had been around to help, the team had struggled without her expertise and medical guidance. She was an essential part of their team, and he was ecstatic she was back.