skinny love | barry allen

38

"He's not dead." Caitlin stared ahead, her eyes filing with tears, "He's not dead-"

I slowly began, "Caitlin-"

"He's not dead." She continued, "He's not-"

"Caitlin-" Iris tried after me.

"This isn't happening." Caitlin slowly turned, looking at us, "This isn't happening again-"

"Hey, I got you, come on-" Cisco came to her side and slowly left the breach room with her, comforting her.

Barry took a step towards where the breach once was, "Open it up- I need to go back."

Harry shook his head once, "I can't do that-"

"Open it up!" Barry raised his voice.

"Allen!" Harry does the same back, "The breaches are closed- all the breaches are closed."

Joe's eyes were slightly wide as well, "Why can't we just open one of 'em?"

"The quark matter energy that we used to seal the breaches, it prevents them from being opened, ever again." Harry replied, "There's no going back to our world."

"Wait." Jesse teared up, looking at her father, "We're trapped here for good?-"

Harry looks at her, "Yes."

"No, we can't just let Zoom get away with this." Barry was in denial, "He just murdered Jay right in front of us."

Joe adds in, "There's got to be something we can do."

"There's not." Harry denied, shaking his head at them, "Not this time- it's over."

"No." Barry shook his head, and left the room.

-

"How's she doing?" Barry asked Cisco and I a little while later when he came by us, Caitlin laid on the medical bed in the Med Lab.

"Not good." I crossed my arms lightly, sighing a little, leaning into Barry when he wrapped his arm around me, "We tried to get her to go home, but- she refused to leave, so, Cisco and I sat with her until she fell asleep."

"First Ronnie, now Jay." Barry sighs deeply.

"Yeah." Cisco nodded, "I'm afraid what this double dose of grief is gonna do to her- I mean, she's pretty shell-shocked."

"She'll be fine." Harry joined us, "Snow's strong."

"She'll get past this." He continued, "But in the meantime, I would not say anything to her about her counterpart from my Earth- that goes for Joe and Iris too."

Barry asks, "Why?"

"Because you don't want to influence their reality in ways that should not be influenced." Harry said, then gestures to me, "Same reason why I didn't tell you about your doppelganger- I didn't want to influence you- especially when you were around all that energy back on my Earth."

"Pleased to know you're looking out for me, Wells." I say just to lighten the mood, but, him mentioning my doppelganger made me thing immediately to Zoom.

How I thought he was Jay.

Cisco questions, "Like in the same way as when Barry time-travels?"

"Exactly, but- also, what's the point?" Harry replied, "Those people are not your people- their lives are not your lives, never were, never will be."

"Bury it." Harry told us, "Move on."

-

"Hey, so- I've been thinking." Cisco walked over to Caitlin, as I was seated by his desk, jogging down different notes about Zoom and Jay, "You've been working around the clock- maybe you want to get some rest, go home, you know, a good night's sleep wouldn't be the worst thing in the world-"