Cold Truths

[run_barry]

"It's still numb."

Barry sits on an exam table back at S.T.A.R. Labs, in plain clothes now, fingers gingerly feeling out his side. There’s a big, black patch of skin where Snart's cold-ray struck Barry and Barry still can’t feel anything within the spot.

"It's presenting itself like third degree frostbite," Caitlin informs him, going on to explain if it wasn’t for Barry’s hyper-healing the damage would be permanent, and Barry might not be alive.

Cisco and Dr. Wells look on with Felicity standing by. They all know the situation, what happened, how Snart got away.

"Snart wasn't another metahuman," Barry says, pulling down his shirt to cover the frost-bitten flesh; frustrated and angry. "He had some kind of gun. It froze things, slowed me down. Enough that I wasn't in time to save someone."

Felicity has taken it upon herself to hack police files and pull Snart’s record, trying to help with the case. What she finds only raises more questions.

"According to his record, Snart didn't even bother to finish high school," she says, reading over her tablet. "So how did he build a handheld high-tech snow machine?"

From his wheelchair Dr. Wells finally speaks up. "S.T.A.R. Labs built the cold-gun."

All eyes move to Dr. Wells, then switch to Cisco when Cisco steps up and announces, "Dr. Wells and Caitlin had nothing to do with this. I built the gun."

Stunned, Barry stares at Cisco. "You did? Why?"

Cisco takes a breath, then tries to explain. "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 they’re cold, they're slower on the atomic level. When there's no movement at all it's called-- "

"-- Absolute zero," Barry finishes, trying to put together Cisco’s motives, not a physics lesson.

"Yeah. I designed a compact cryo-engine to achieve absolute zero," Cisco goes on. He looks at Barry, voice wavering. "I built it to stop you."

Barry's expression turns incredulous, and Cisco presses on, desperate to make him understand. "I didn't know who you were then, Barry. I mean, what if you turned out to be some psycho, like Mardon or Nimbus?"

Hurt breaks through to anger, and Barry throws out his arms, "But I didn't. Did I?"

Stepping in, Caitlin tries to be the voice of calm and reason. "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."

That doesn’t mollify Barry and he shakes his head at the both of them. "I can understand that, but what I can't understand is why you didn't tell me what you did. I mean, after all we've been through, I thought you trusted me. I thought we were friends."

Honestly that’s what hurts the most. Not only was Barry too late to save someone today, but the friends he’s come to count on and trust with everything apparently don’t trust him.

"We are, Barry," Cisco says plaintively, stepping forward.

Barry keeps the distance, stepping backwards. "I mean, if you would have just told me, I could have been prepared. But instead, someone died tonight."

"And I have to live with that," Cisco says, throat working with guilt.

"No, Cisco," Barry replies, flat. "We all do."

[ooc: dialogue taken from episode 1.04]