"Take it easy, Iris." Julian guiding her, as he took over from the police officer who first rushed to help the woman to stay upright, the CSI manoeuvring her to the closest chair.

"Is this... where are they? Oh... no!'' She cried out while her eyes were filling with tears. Her family, both Barry and Joe, was nowhere to be found at first, until her eyes caught a sign of the red suit and her heart skipped a beat of hope. Caught in the emotions, she almost screamed and revealed the Scarlet Speedster's identity; "B-"

She stopped before she could say the name as she realized what she almost done and she also realized that the man walking toward her and the older CSI wasn't her lover, "what is… what's g-" she tried to say.

Once he made sure Julian had taken care of moving everyone else away out of eavesdropping range, Wally knelt on the ground to be on the same level as his sister and whispered to her in his normal voice.

"Dad is fine. He went with Barry at the Labs," he reassured her, placing his hand on Iris' knee in a vain attempt to reassure her.

"H-how's... is h-he...'' She sobbed, trying to avoid looking at all the blood.

"He's..." Julian bit his lips, hesitant as he searched for the right words. What was he supposed to say? That Barry was alive? That he was okay? They had no idea and no way to find it out now that all the electronic components were down, including Wally's comms, "we believe he was still alive when he left here," he finally answered.

We believe. Believe. Maybe he should've said these uncertain words considering how they caused Iris' eyes to open up even more widely and the little remaining colors left her features like she was about to be sick.

"No!" She howled in pain.

"Come on, let's get to them." Wally helped pull her back on her unsteady feet and looked at Julian to know if he also needed a lift.

"Go, I'll stay here to take care of this with the Captain. I'll be joining you as soon as I can."

Nodding, the speedster took off and covered the distance between the police station and the lab in the time to say it. Mere seconds later, he was making a way more abrupt stop than usual in the cortex, almost dropping Iris in the process as his mind was too preoccupied by the fate of his wounded brother. Their father had his eyes glued to the window separating himself from the medical bay, watching every move and following every action inside with eagle eyes. Overwhelmed by concern, he didn't even realize that his hands somehow ended up pressed against the glass or that silent tears were cascading down his wet cheeks before splashing on the floor and joining the little puddle forming in there.

"Dad?" Wally carefully approached the detective, taking his cowl off. To be honest, he wasn't sure if he really wanted to know the news, "is he..."

Wally's voice didn't even register in Joe's mind as the detective didn't move a single muscle, forcing Wally to approach the glass too while his sister just stayed behind; frozen in shock, fearing and dreading what she might find by coming closer. To say Barry wasn't looking too great was the understatement of the year. Ghostly pale, fragile and way too still for him, Barry was laying shirtless and in his boxers on the bed with equipment connected all over and with a nasal cannula sending oxygen in his weakened body. Never should the universe allowed the Flash to be this still and this vulnerable. His doctor was finishing adjusting the blood unit attached to the IV helping to slowly return some of the precious red liquid the speedster lost earlier. Not too far from the bed, Cisco was sitting in a chair and he had taken off the top of his Vibe outfit. Both the engineer and the doctor exchanged a couple of words when Caitlin walked close to him before gently patting the man's shoulder. The next moment, the doctor moved away from Cisco and headed toward the exit of the room.

The second she passed the door, it was stared at by the three Wests like their life was depending on it. Well, their mental state probably was.

"How's-"

"Critical." Caitlin answered succinctly, interrupting the young hero still clad in his brother's red suit, "but he's as stable as he could possibly be in his condition."

Joe's frown deepened in confusion and anguish, "what's that supposed to mean? Is he going to make it?"

There nothing in the world that Caitlin wished more than to say that 'yeah, sure, good as new before dawn. He just need a good night sleep.'

Except, she just couldn't, no matter how hard she was wishing for it. Who, in the universe, decided she was always going to be the one to bring bad news?

"Well, for starter, his heart hasn't given up yet, which is an incredible feat on his own. Now that we stopped the bleeding and put him on a blood unit, he should improve…if he stays with us 'til the morning."

"What about his powers? Shouldn't they help him get better faster?" Iris asked, recovering her voice. Her comment immediately had her brother and father smiling; yes, of course, Barry was a lot stronger than most people when it comes to injuries. Now that he was stable, he could fight this. Easy… right? Crushing their hope like usual, Caitlin sadly shook her head, sighing.

"His powers are doing him more harms than good. Because of all the blood he lost, his heart is working overtime to keep his body working with what little he still has left. All these efforts are putting a lot of stress on the organ and that's without talking about his powers. His speed does help him heal faster, but it's incredibly high demanding on energy. All they want right now is to fix his damaged body, which mean… "

"It's demanding more energy than his heart can give right now," finished Joe, closing his eyes in dread.

"I gave him the remaining speed dampener serum we tried to use on Zoom last year, it should help him keep his powers at bay before they do more damage than the ones they're repairing."

"Wait." Iris interrupted, opening her eyes wide in sudden realization, "if he ever haemorrhages again, with his powers, he might bleed out way faster because of them?"

"If his body can't repair the damages faster than he bleed out, yes." Caitlin admitted, "for now, all we can do is wait. I might not have enough blood units left for Barry's need-" she quickly rose her hands to quieten the protests, "but Cisco already volunteered himself to give some blood. They're compatible and the fact they're both meta should help Barry's body to accept the blood more easily. In fact, I should probably get back to them now."

She barely took the time to finish her sentence before turning heels and heading back to the medical bay without leaving any more time for questions. There would be time for that once they certain the speedster was on his way to recovery.

"You keep fighting, Barr," whispered Joe as he turned back his attention toward the window.

***FLASHFLASHFLASH***

"St…p…sho…ou…shou…tin'…" a weak voice grumbled from the bed as it's occupant fought to open his eyes even the slightest. That simple task caused Barry to groan under the effort; when did doing this simple gesture became so hard?

"Take it easy, Allen," came a voice over him, "you've been out for a long time."

Was that… ah Julian? Last thing Barry remembered was being taken hostage by Officer Jade, fighting him and then that sudden, sharp, and agonizing pain. What happened? Was he dead? Was Julian dead?

"Not… dead yet," he managed to breathe out weakly as he finally cracked his eyes half-open and winced at the light attacking them. Blinking a couple of times, he was finally able to discern the blurry form of the other CSI standing on his right.

"What make you say that?" asked Julian in a futile attempt to be as serious as possible.

''Ya... don't look like an angel." joked the hero, with half a smile on his face. It instantly caused Julian to chuckle.

"Lucifer was an angel too, just sayin'," he protested light-heartedly while pressing his fingers on the speedster's wrists, taking his pulse and comparing it with all the vitals showing on the monitors. Way better than yesterday, "do you remember what happened? Do you know where you are?"

The green eyes closed again, partly to wait it out til dizziness pass and partly to concentrate on his memories.

"Allen?" Asked Julian worriedly after the silence extended itself for longer than he anticipated.

"Jade took the station hostage. And, I got hurt, didn't I?" Barry started saying, frowning in concentration. He suddenly snapped his eyes open and tried to put his hands behind his back to push himself in a seated position, "Joe!"

Two strong hands on his shoulder stopped his motion, that and the way stronger dizzy spell that made it impossible to discern what was up to what was down. Concentrating all his efforts on not emptying the content his stomach on himself, Barry didn't realize his newest friend had put him down once more in a lying position.

"Easy, Barry. Joe is okay. Everyone at the station is okay," reassured Julian before adding the next part with rolling eyes. Of course, Allen was going to worry about everyone else first even if he just woke up in a hospital bed, "You will be too, just in case you actually cared."

Forcing his eyes open another time with his head now directed to his left, he spotted something new. There was someone else sleeping soundly on another medical bed, someone wearing a grey t-shirt and with a blanket almost up to his shoulder.

"Cisco," he breathed out as concern instantly spread all over his face before he turned back at Julian, "what's wrong with him?" Compared to the speedster, the other man wasn't connected to any monitor and he didn't look too bad, but Barry being Barry, he needed to worry about his friends before his own well-being.

"He's fine, Barry, or will be. It's just exhausting trying to save your life," answered Julian enigmatically, earning a frown in response that forced the older CSI to clarify; "you lost a great deal of blood, Allen. You almost died and Caitlin didn't have enough of your blood in stock, so Cisco offered up to give his. Let's say he was overly stubborn about how generous he wanted to be; let's just say it was more than he should've. You're lucky to have great friends."

"I do." Barry agreed, smiling warmly as he made another attempt at sitting up, nice and easy this time while allowing his co-worker to help him. Moving without disturbing all the wires connected to him, nor the IV still in his hand wasn't easy, "Where is everyone else? Caitlin? Joe? Iris?" He rasped.

Julian chuckled at the memory before answering, "practically had to kick them out to go home to shower, eat and sleep in beds now that you were improving. They'll be back in the morning... if they're able to stay away that much time. Guess you're stuck with me as your night nurse."

In the morning? What time was it? Looking past the CSI to check the clock, Barry took notice of the time, just little after 11pm.

"Barry?" A hopeful voice asked from Barry's left side, prompting the speedster to turn around and get meet open eyes on the other bed.

"Hey Bar!" Greeted the engineer. Smiling from ear to ear, Cisco hurriedly pushed his blanket aside to free in legs, clearly with the intention of jumping to his feet and off the bed.

"Hey! Caitlin ordered you bedrest. If you get up, I'll tell her and it'll going to be your problem when she's mad," Warned Julian as his glance locked on his other patient.

"Buzzkill." Cisco grumbled, obediently stopping his movement and returning his legs on the bed. Looking on his right, Cisco moved his attention back to his awake and clearly amused friend, failing miserably at keeping his own smile at bay at the scene, "I'm glad you're happy about that. How are you?" He added more seriously.

"A lot better than-" well, since getting shot. When was that? All he knew was that he had been out for a long time, "How long was I out again?"

A dark shadow passed on Cisco's features as all his joy of seeing his friend finally awake and alert disappeared and the memories of yesterday entered the forefront his mind, "Over a day, man. You gave us quite a scare for the first couple of hours, your heart nearly stopped a couple of times."

"I'm sorry," the speedster replied instinctively, nervously playing with his fingers. There should be a book about what you should say to apologize for nearly dying and scaring the hell out of your friends, again, "heard you saved my life, thank you," he added, gesturing at the empty blood unit on the desk.

"It was a team effort," assured Cisco as his smile slowly, shyly, returned.

"What happened? All I remember is the pain and feeling so weak...how did I end up here? I thought Jade would only let me go if the Flash came? He wanted to kill the Flash," the memories of yesterday were blurry at best, but he remembered particular detail.

"After Julian activated his panic button and we failed to contact you, we tracked your phone at the station and hacked into the security cameras. We witnessed… everything," explained Cisco, pausing to push away the vivid memories of his friend getting shot and the anxious moments wondering if he was even still alive when Barry dropped on the ground, "it wasn't long before we figured out there was something stopping you from using your powers, so we attached a small EMP device on your suit and had Wally tried it on."

Oh, okay. That sounded logical, if not a bit risky. What if what was keeping him from using his powers wasn't something electronic? What if it was a Meta's power? Wally could've been trapped too…But, to be honest, Barry would have done the same if the situation had been reversed, so he opted to smile instead of asking more questions.

"Thanks, man."

"You can thank Julian, he did an amazing job keeping you from bleeding out before we showed up." Cisco acknowledge, looking at the other CSI who had silently back away in the room.

"I guess it really was a team effort." Barry nodded. He really did have the best of friends and best of team. It felt wrong sometimes to be the one and only hero of Central City by the citizen. How many times had his life be in danger only to get his ass saved in more way than one way by his team? They all deserved uniforms, code names and museum to their name. At this instant, Barry just felt so grateful and so happy to have all these people in his life that he started feeling tears burning in his eyes.

"Are you okay? Are you in pain?" Cisco noticed with concern, prompting Julian to turn around and move closer while unconsciously locating his cell on the desk in case he needed to call Caitlin for help.

"I'm great," he honestly said, wiping his tears, "as long as I have all of you guys, I'll be okay."

THE. END.

A/N: Leave a final comment and let me know what you thought of the ending!

I'm having a super, super, super busy schedule for the last 2 weeks or so and it's not going to end 'til next week. So, I'm sorry for the slow updates, but I can promise, starting next week, I'm going back at writing more and I'll have new chapters for every stories. Lots of final chapter coming up.

Thanks a lot for everyone who followed, commented and loved that particular story and a HUGE thank to WolfKomoki for sending me a writing request about Julian taking care of Barry. It wasn't easy at first to find the inspiration and force my brain to picture a story about an outside idea, but it was a really fun anyone feel like sending me writing request, don't be shy. I'm about to finish a lot of my stories, so I'll soon be able to try this again. I hope you had as much fun reading this than I had to write it.

Sending hugs your way. You guys are the best! See you later.