Only Because I Need You

Chapter 45: Hangover

Caitlin had never been one for drinking, but she knew what a hangover felt like when she got one. Peeling open her dry eyes, she nearly yelled when the scorching light attacked them. With one hand she propped herself into a sitting position and rubbed her face with the other. Pounding rattled in her head, making it feel as though something was pressing against her temples. Her throat felt dry and itchy, as well as every muscle in her body aching, "I was beginning to think you were dead," a monotone, gravelly voice spiked the pain in her head.

Caitlin glanced around, her eyes landed on her attacker. Ethan. Of course it was Ethan. After figuring out she was in the medical wing, she began to question how she got there. There were several things off, another bed was pushed up close to hers, Iris was sitting in that bed with her back to Caitlin and Barry was seated by her side. The strangest thing of all was that Ethan was sitting in a small armchair by Caitlin's bedside. The biochemist rubbed her eyes and sighed, "who moved the beds?"

"You," Ethan retorted, "with a little help from Iris," the woman in question swivelled around on her bed to face Ethan. Barry scooted around the edge of the bed so that he too could see Ethan. Iris didn't look too good, her face was greyed and her entire body slumped over, not to mention the dark circles that had claimed her eye bags. Caitlin could only imagine.

"We moved the beds?" Iris raised her eyebrows, the girls shared a look, "what happened last night?" Caitlin inspected her body. She was still wearing the clothes from the night before, which was a reassuring thought, she couldn't have been out of it for too long.

"You were drugged and then a breacher tried to lure you into the ocean to drown," Barry summarised. He did not look amused. A dark scowl was etched on his features and his entire being shook with unease, "the whole night we were running after you, stopping your from killing yourselves one way or another. It was like taking care of a toddler with a knife instead of a hand. You sat on the floor together and just laughed for half an hour," He shuddered.

"Sounds like some night," Iris chuckled. Barry frowned at her, but she payed him no heed, "did we get anything useful out of it?" She raised her brows expectantly at her husband. Grimly, he shook his head.

Caitlin felt her stomach drop. She pinched the bridge of her nose, that was a royal waste of time and effort. Anger burned in her veins. How could she have been so stupid? She risked both Iris and her life to follow an inconclusive lead that was merely based on assumptions. Not only that but she had been drugged. Drugged enough to follow the command of a breacher. There could only have been a few people who would sell drugs like that in Central City. A ping of epiphany sparked in her head, "Are you Okay-" Caitlin cut Barry off by raising her hand, "it's like you were hypnotised acting like children with a death wish,"

"One minute," she mumbled a reply. Pulling herself of the bed, she ungracefully stumbled to her feet. From the corner of her eyes she noticed both Barry and Ethan twitch upright. Did she really look that bad? After giving herself a quick debrief on how to walk, Caitlin walked (sort of) over to her storage cupboard. Finding the items she needed took her double the time it should have, but she got there in the end.

Caitlin's mind began to wander as her body continued to work. Whatever had happened the night before must have been eventful, "the day we go looking for the leader of the Breacher's Brotherhood, an unnamed breacher tries to lure us to our death right after our drinks were coincidentally spiked," she mumbled to herself more than anyone else. Feeling the sharp prick of a needle in her arm was what brought her attention to the present. Half turning to the curious others in the room she continued, "whatever our drinks were spiked with was different from most drugs. From what you described it was almost as though we had a hardcore case of the giggles and became suicidal. There are not many drugs out there that can do that without inducing hallucinations and aggressive behaviour, " she grumbled, "and of course it didn't effect you two. This drug was able to make us impressionable for a short period of time, and as you say, act like a child." Caitlin checked over the apparatus she had secured to her arm and then attached the vile to the needle that was stuck into the crook of her arm in her favourite vein. Dark blood began to pool into the tube.

"So you are taking a blood sample to test for specific drugs or ingredients?" Barry's voice bounced around the room. Caitlin was glad she could tell the two Barrys apart, otherwise it would have been really confusing.

"Exactly," Caitlin sang in response, pulling the vile out of her arm and laying it onto the countertop in front of her, "it's worth a try." A few moments of silence passed as Caitlin connected another vile. Once again she watched the inky blood pour into her next tube.

"Do you guys... do you guys really not remember anything from last night?" Ethan's voice sounded smaller than Caitlin was used to. Was he nervous? If he was, she couldn't blame him. Being in the same room as a man who scarred him for life (had he been a normal human) could never be easy. On that note Caitlin began to think. If Barry could heal a severed tendon in a few days and a broken spine in weeks, then that scar on Ethan's face should have healed. Caitlin guessed that in time it would. Yet the reason it was taking so long must have had something to do with the speed-force lightening future Barry threw at him. Maybe Barry's speedster body couldn't cope with it? She would need to do more research on that later.

"Earth calling Caitlin!" Irises soft voice washed over Caitlin, pulling her from her day dreams. Caitlin turned to the woman, raising her eyebrows. "I was just saying that I don't remember anything, do you?"

Caitlin hummed under her breath, "not a thing," she barely even remembered entering Twoot, which was interesting. It was some thing she would definitely have to consider when she was doing testing on her blood.

A/N: HELLO! I am aware nobody ready these, but I'm gonna make one anyway. So, I have finished the book at 52 chapters. I want to know, should I stop uploading for a few days and publish them all in one? (They need to be proof read), or should I release about one, maybe two a day? I don't mind either or, and if nobody comments then I will just do one a day or something, but I don't really mind xx