They Have Your Back

[run_barry]

Time in Milliways had helped Barry calm down some, but he's still restless and agitated. Definitely not sleepy.

So, instead of heading home, he sticks around S.T.A.R. Labs, logging time on the treadmill; using motion to burn through churning thoughts, and trying to work out the lingering stiffness from the cold gun shot he'd suffered earlier.

"Barry?"

Legs and arms pumping, heart thumping loud in his ears, Barry pours speed out on the machine; pushing, digging for more and frustrated when he can't seem to find it.

"Barry!"

The calling voice finally breaks through Barry's tunnel-visioned focus and he slows down, coming to stop; breathing hard and sweat on his brow.

Felicity, the caller, is standing by, concern in her features as she looks him over.

"What? What are you doing?" Barry asks, hands on knees, trying to catch his breath. "You should go back to your hotel. Get some sleep."

She's been at it all day just as he has, and this isn't even her city, or her team, let alone her problem.

"You should too," she replies, trying to be kind, falling instead into awkward. With a surprised shake of her head she tries to back up and correct herself. "Not go back to my hotel... I meant get some sleep."

Barry can't even dig up a partial smile for her fumbling; frowning instead.

"I can't," he says, sitting down on the edge of the treadmill, "Every time I close my eyes, I see that man's face. I watched him die."

The thought puts a knot in his chest, and even though his wind isn't back yet he pushes back up to his feet, ready to start running again. " I have to go faster."

"Barry, it's not your fault," Felicity tells him, her words ringing with a desperate sound, trying to push them through. "And it's not Cisco's, either. Barry, I know you're upset, but you have to look at this from his point of view."

Barry looks down at her, then rolls his shoulder in a shrug, trying to brush off the hurt he still feels. "No, I get it. He didn't trust me."

Felicity frowns at him and tries to speak next from experience.

"Barry, when you met us; me, Oliver, and Dig, we were this well-oiled archery machine. But, it didn't start out that way. And unlike you guys, we weren't tossed together overnight. We came together one at a time."

He listens as she goes on.

"Believe me, it took much more than watching Oliver do the salmon ladder to make me trust him."

Hearing about Oliver and his biceps isn't what Barry needs and he scoffs at her words and turns away.

He regrets it a moment later when Felicity starts to leave, and he even turns back around, mouth opening as he searches for something to say, but he doesn't find the words.

Pausing in the doorway, Felicity turns back.

"I've seen firsthand what this life can do to people," she says, softly. "It's a lonely path. Don't make it any lonelier than it has to be."

She leaves him alone and Barry stands frowning to himself for a long moment before he turns back to the treadmill and starts running again.

*****

"I figured out a way to track Captain Cold," Cisco announces back in the Cortex where the team, along with Felicity, has been working on the problem of tracking down and stopping Snart.

Barry doesn't exactly feel much like listening to Cisco, but admonishment from Dr. Wells gets Barry to give Cisco an ear, and they all listen as Cisco explains how the cold gun he made works, and how they can get a location from it by sending a false update to the computer inside to triangulate on.

Felicity hacks into Central City's network and Cisco sends the update, a few seconds later they have a pingback with Snart's location.

"He's heading west on Nelson toward the train station," Caitlin announces.

"If he's leaving, it appears Mr. Snart may have gotten what he came for," Dr. Wells muses as Barry puts on the suit.

"When we put our minds to it, dude, nothing can stop us." Cisco grins with excitement, his expression falling when Barry reaches up and taps off the earpiece in his cowl.

"Oh, you turned your earpiece off," Cisco says with disappointment. "How are we gonna talk to each other?"

"I don't feel like talking right now," Barry replies, speeding off and leaving the team behind.

*****

Snart is already on a train and on his way out of the city by the time Barry arrives, but catching up is no problem. Barry runs down the speeding commuter and gets onboard, coming face to face with Snart.

"There's nowhere to run," Barry informs the man.

"I didn't see it before," Snart says, smirk on and by tone unphased, "Your mom know you're out past your bedtime?"

Barry ignores the comment, confident when he says, "If you wanted to get away you should've taken something faster than a train."

"That's if I wanted to get away," Snart replies, causing Barry's smile to waver. "I've seen your weakness; at the armored car, then at the theater."

Snart gives a subtle nod over his shoulder, and Barry's eyes flick to the passengers on the train who are watching on in fear. Suddenly Barry realizes the danger and his mistake.

Snart grins when Barry gets it. "See, while you're busy saving everybody, I'll be saving myself."

Snart opens fire with the cold gun, not at Barry, or any of the people onboard, but at the floor of the train. The bright, white-blue blast freezes the ground, and then the churning wheels below.

"Good luck with that!" Snart shouts. He wrenches open a door and leaps clear just as the train's locked wheels hop the track and the whole thing starts to derail, catapulting into the air.

Barry lets Snart go, focusing instead on the people and the train.

One heartbeat stretches out and everything slows for Barry. It's just like the coffee shop that first day, when the world around him fell out of sync and Barry could see everything happening before him like time was at a standstill. He takes in the startling situation; shattered glass hanging in the air and people suspended in a moment of fright. Lightning sparks in Barry's eyes as he gathers himself to act, and in less than a watch-tick later he's moving.

Racing through wreckage as it's created, Barry speeds through the chaos caught in slow-motion, snatching passengers out of harm's way, moving from one train car to the next and depositing rescued people safely away from the building pileup of twisted metal and exploding debris.

He pushes himself to the limit, legs churning, lungs burning, heart fit to burst as he races to save every single person. He deposits the last soul safely away from danger and manages one final sweep to verify everyone is out before the cascading wreck hits the ground and ignites; knocking Barry to the ground as he barely gets clear himself.

Breathing hard and spent, Barry is struggling in the dirt, trying to find his feet when an icy blast strikes him in the back and knocks him down again. He gets turned around onto his back and finds a solid band of ice encasing his waist and pinning him down; the cold numbing down straight to his bones.

"Pretty fast, kid, but not fast enough," Snart says with a grim smirk, standing over Barry with the cold gun aimed down at the speedster.

"Thank you," Snart adds, tipping his head a little in Barry's direction.

"For what?" Barry asks, trying not to let his teeth chatter as numbness seeps into his legs.

"You forced me to up my game, not only with this gun, but with how I think about the job. It's been... educational." Snart's grin upticks higher and he sights down on Barry, looking ready to finish Barry off.

"Drop it!"

The command comes in from behind Snart and makes the man pause. Looking past Snart, Barry's eyes widen when he see's it's Cisco standing there, a bazooka of a gun held in his hands connected to a large cannister being held aloft by Felicity and Caitlin who stand behind Cisco; all three of them staring down Snart with looks of determination.

"This is a prototype cold gun, four times the size, four times the power," Cisco explains, the contraption in his hands flickering with lights and diodes.

"I was wondering who you were talking to," Snart muses at Barry, cold gun held unwavering on Barry as he glances back at the trio behind him.

"Hey, unless you want a taste of your own medicine, I'd back the hell up," Cisco replies, trying to sound badass and actually kind of succeeding.

"Your hands are shaking. You've never killed anyone," Snart notes, and for his part Cisco manages not to blink.

"There's a first time for everything, Captain Cold." Cisco lifts the gun a little higher, finger itching on the trigger. "I will shoot you."

Snart smirks, thinks it over, and finally takes his cold gun off Barry, pointing it skyward in surrender.

"You win, kid. I'll see you around." Performing a neat aboutface, Snart takes his leave, sauntering right past Cisco, Caitlin and Felicity without sparing any of them another glance.

Cisco keeps his gun trained on Snart as the villain walks past. "Hey, leave the diamond."

Snart keeps on walking. "Don't push your luck."

Wisely Cisco doesn't, and when Snart is finally gone they all heave a sigh in relief; Caitlin and Felicity dropping the tank, and Cisco letting his end dangle from his hands.

"Couldn't shoot him if I wanted to," Cisco admits as they all walk over to Barry. "This is actually the S.T.A.R. Labs vacuum cleaner with a lot of LED's."

Barry can't even begin to voice his relief, or his amazement at the bravery of his friends.

Caitlin immediately starts to check Barry over for injury, and Felicity kneels down beside him to start helping him get free of the ice.

Reaching past both of them, Barry offers his hand to Cisco.

"Thank you."

*****

Barry is thawed out and back on his feet again when Felicity is ready to leave.

Snart proves he's not all dumb; somehow disabling the computer in the cold gun so that they can't use the same trick to track him again. Even so, the day still feels like a win. Captain Cold has left town, lives were saved, and the team is back together, stronger than ever now that Barry knows without a doubt his friends have always got his back.

Seeing Felicity leave is bittersweet, and even after a goodbye at the labs Barry doesn't feel quite right letting her go just like that.

For a second time Barry races to catch a moving train, but this time under far better circumstances.

When he zooms into the train car Felicity has all to herself she startles enough to let out a yelp, setting them both to laughing. As the train trundles on towards Starling City the two share small talk, comfortable with the small space between them.

A short silence falls, and Felicity's expression turns thoughtful.

"You remember when you told me you had a little experience liking somebody who didn't see you the same way?" she asks, referring back to their first meeting almost a year ago. "That was Iris, right?"

Barry's eyes widen, her question catching him a bit off-guard. "How did you know?"

"It's the little things," she notes, tucking a strand of blond hair back behind her ear, eyes not quite meeting Barry's. "The way you linger on her when she isn't looking, the smile you fake to play the part. Quiet dreams you keep to yourself."

Her voice and smile are both wistful, and the empathy is clear to see and hear.

"Like you and Oliver," Barry replies knowingly. Felicity looks up at him with the same startled expression Barry was wearing just a moment ago, and he gives an apologetic chuckle. "Takes one to know one."

They both sigh, and Barry thinks about the situation with Iris for a moment. Between the coma, and Eddie, and the fact that Iris has only ever seen Barry as a best friend, and Barry has never got up the guts to admit to more… it just seems like something that is never going to happen.

"I'm afraid it'll change everything," he says, voicing one of the big fears that keeps him from acting on his long held feelings.

"It will," Felicity replies, "but maybe that's not such a bad thing."

Neither one them can really buy into that without hesitation, and Felicity breaks the moment with a helpless laugh and admonishment for both of them.

"What is wrong with us? We are perfectly perfect for each other."

"Yet we're sitting here, pining for people we can't have." Barry shakes his head, amused, but without an answer. "I guess what they say is true. Opposites do attract."

That seems to be something they can each agree on. Feeling better now about where they are, if not in their lives than at least in their friendship, Barry sits forward; smiling at Felicity.

"If you ever need anything, I will race over in a heartbeat," he promises her.

"Same," Felicity returns earnestly, leaning forward so there's only a small distance between them. And, because the moment can't end without a bit of awkward from one of them, Felicity amends, "Well, as fast I can run, which might take me a while, but I will still come."

Barry smiles, eyes on Felicity. "Bye, Felicity."

The kiss happens on a bit of a whim, but it still feels right, and maybe answers some other questions. The two of them smile at each other after, and in a blink Barry is gone; leaving Felicity to return to her own city and team, while he gets back to his.

[dialogue taken from episode 1.4]