Within Seconds // Barry Allen

Not Too Far Gone

While Felicity and Iris received their seventy-five dollars worth of coffee, Parker worked on ushering Derek and Jen to the car. She wanted to leave before either woman had the chance to speak to her. 

Iris, however, had anticipated Parker's move. She was lingering outside the back door to catch her.  

"Park?" asked Derek.

"You guys go ahead," muttered Parker. She waited for her family to get into the car, then looked to Iris. "I think there's a sign somewhere around the building that specifically says, 'No Loitering.'"

"You were right."

"I'm sure that's hard to admit."

"I told Barry he was being unfair to you. Hopefully, that smart brain of his can process it, and he can mend your relationship." 

"I appreciate the gesture, Iris, but I think our relationship is meant to stay at the friendship level," said Parker. 

Iris' reply didn't come fast enough to be heard over Parker's cell phone. It was an emergecny text from Cisco. She muttered a goodbye to Iris, then dove into the backseat of her brother's car. She ordered him to drop her off at S.T.A.R. Labs.

Parker slid between the Cortex doors before they were fully open. Panicked, she screamed, "Roll call!"

"Caitlin!"

"Cisco!"

"Harrison."

"Barry!"

"...Felicity?"

"No one's dead," sighed Parker, clapping her hands together. "Cool. What's going on?"

Caitlin gestured to Barry. He was sitting on the medical bed, leaning at an awkward position, due to a dark jagged circle on the lower part of his abdomen. 

"It's still numb," he told Parker.

"It's presenting itself like third degree frostbite," explained Caitlin. 

"I thought he had the hyper-healing," said Felicity. 

"It's been slowed," said Caitlin. She pointed to a television on the wall, demonstrating Barry's frozen cells compared to that of a normal human's. "If your cells weren't regenerating at the rate they are your blood vessels would have frozen solid. The nerve damage would have been permanent. You're lucky to be alive."

"Which is basically a motto for this kid, isn't it?" asked Parker. She took a seat in her chair. 

"Snart wasn't another meta-human. He had some kind of gun, it froze things," explained Barry. A sad shake of his head quieted his voice. "It slowed me down enough that I wasn't in time to save someone."

"According to his record, Snart didn't even bother to finish high school. So how he build a handheld, high-tech snow machine?" asked Felicity. 

Not a beat of silence occurred before Dr. Wells blatantly admitted S.T.A.R. Labs built the cold gun. 

"Dr. Wells, Parker, and Caitlin had nothing to do with this," Cisco cut in quickly. "I built the gun."

Barry's shoulders slumped. "You did? Why?"

"Because speed and cold are opposites. Temperature is measured by how quickly the atoms of something are oscillating. The faster they are, the hotter it is, and when things are cold, they're slower on the atomic level. When there is no movement at all, it's called--"

"--absolute zero," completed Barry quietly. 

"Yeah. I designed a compact cryo-engine to achieve absolute zero. I built it to stop you," he said honestly. "I-I-I didn't know who you were then, Barry, what if you turned out be some psycho, like Mardon or Nimbus?"

"But I didn't, did I?!" yelled Barry. 

"We couldn't have known that," defended Parker. 

"You know me, Parker! You've known who I was and how I was since we were kids. How could you let them build this?" he snapped. 

"This is not my fault. It's not anyone's fault that it was made, because it has justification for that. That gun was a precaution made by people trying to do something for the good of the world," she argued. 

"We built the entire structure you're standing in to do good, and it blew up. In the wake of that, you can understand why Cisco would want to be prepared for the worst," said Caitlin. 

"I can understand that, but what I can't understand is why you didn't tell me what you did. After all we've been through, I thought you trusted me, I thought we were friends!"

"We are, Barry," said Cisco. 

"If you had just told me, I could have been prepared! But, instead, someone died tonight."

"And I have to live with that," mumbled Cisco.

"No, Cisco. We all do."