Liz and Barry worked close to the same hours. Unless Barry had an important case to work on they usually went to his house or her apartment around 9 o'clock at night. But tonight Barry wanted to go see the Particle Accelerator stuff with Iris. Liz had no objection.

Liz needed to work late at home anyway. Her patient files had been a little behind lately. So she decided to finish filling out endless paperwork and continued to go over patient files taking audio recordings of her findings. She was concluding her final case when Barry called. She answered the phone after closing the file and putting her recorder away into her locked desk drawer.

"Hello?"

"Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I was staying at my lab late tonight."

"Yeah, that's fine. I was just finishing up some work here. Around what time do you think you are coming in?"

"I don't know. Probably around 11 or 12."

"Cool. Do you want me to pick you up or are you gonna ride the train?"

"Either way is fine with me. Hold on.. I gotta go..." He hung up.

'That was weird. Why didn't he even bother to say 'I love you'?'
She thought to herself.

Barry had never once hung up on her. He always said he loved her and that he would call back.

She shrugged it off before grabbing her desk keys and putting them in their usual place.

She kept her files hidden. She wasn't allowed to let anyone view them. Besides, the patients she was working with would slam a law suit on her with a snap of their fingers. She couldn't risk it. Her job may pay well enough but it certainly didn't pay enough for her to recover from that kind of set back.

She walked over to her computer and open her favourite page she had been glued to recently. It was an engagement ring website. Of course she loved to look at them, but she liked to imagine which one Barry would get when, or if, he decided to propose. She knew that he was her forever guy. However, neither of them were financially stable enough to have a wedding let alone become engaged.

Her phone rang again. It was an unknown number. Usually she didn't answer them, but something told her she needed to answer this one.

"Hello?"

"Hello. May I speak to Ms. Elizabeth Thorne?"

"This is she."

"Your boyfriend was involved in an accident at the CCPD lab. He was struck by a lighting bolt..blah blah blah"

Liz couldn't hear the man anymore all she could focus on was the fact that he was injured, possibly dead. She couldn't breathe. She gasped for breath. Struggling she choked out a single sentence.

"What hospital are they transferring him to?" She started to hyperventilate. It felt as if a weight was place on her lungs.

"Southwest Medical, Ms. Thorne."

She hung up the phone but bothering to thank the man. She didn't think she would have been able to. 

Her thoughts raced. She needed to calm down before she could drive to the hospital. It was a stupid idea to drive in her state.

She called Iris. It rang all the way through before going to voicemail. She started to breathe harder, faster. Her vision started to blur. She was crying. Suddenly the room wasn't big enough. She started to panic.

She didn't have Barry there to help her calm down. He would usually help her take her shirt off and run an ice cube around the top half of her body. When she was cooled down he would grab her a zanex if she needed it.

This time she needed it. She stumbled into her bedroom. She couldn't find the bottle. So she went into the living room and grabbed her phone.

She called Joe. It also rang out before going to voicemail. Little did she know she didn't hang up on Iris earlier and left her a voicemail. She now had a recording of her panic attack. Iris had listened to her voicemail once they stabilized Barry. All she could here was heavy breathing and a loud crash from Liz stumbling through her apartment.

Iris called Liz back. She was annoyed. That while Barry lay in the hospital she was cooking. At least that's what it sounded like to her. For all she knew the crash wash from pots and pans.

Liz answered the phone but didn't speak. Iris could hear her sobs and heavy breathing through the phone. Immediately she felt horrible for thinking so low toward Liz.

"Liz, honey, I need you to take a deep breath. Breathe with me. In. Out. In. Out."

"Iris... B-Barry is in the h-hospital. I c-can't d-drive. P-pl..plea...please. Can you t-take me?"

In that moment Iris felt her heart break. She knew that for Liz to ask for a ride she must really be bad.

"Honey, I am on my way now. Ok. I just need you to focus on breathing while you wait. Ok? I love you." She hung up. Not knowing if Liz had heard her or not.

Iris ran over to the doctor. She informed him to call her immediately with any news. She grabbed her bag before running to her car. She didn't want to take longer than she absolutely needed to.

She sped over to Liz's apartment. When she got there the apartment was a mess. All of the drawers were pulled out and dumped out. She found Liz in her bedroom. When Liz caught sight of Iris she ran to her.

Immediately Iris hugged her. She asked her what she was looking for.

"It's not here!" Liz managed. Iris helped her through the mess in the front room. She walked her out of the building and down to the car.

When they got in and Iris started the car, Liz started to breathe somewhat normal. A few sobs shook her everyonce in a while. Iris turned on some music. Music that Liz had given her to help when she was feeling anxious.

Liz didn't say anything the whole ride over. Granted it was only five minutes long, but still she was embarrassed. She felt that it was so stupid for her to have reacted like that when she heard the news. She felt like she was the most annoying person on the earth, like some huge drama queen.

Iris' silence only reinforced her toxic thoughts. When they pulled into the parking lot Iris put her hand on Liz's shoulder.

"Liz.. Barry.. He doesn't look to good right now.. I need you to be strong in there. Cause the moment you lose it, I will too." She was on the verge of tears. Liz had started to silently cry. She had the puffiest eyes anyone had ever seen. When she tried to speak it was only a rasp. She thought it best to keep quiet.

They slowly got out of the car. Or Liz did. Her body was stiff from exhaustion. She needed sleep. Her mental state was dragged through hell and back again. She knew that she wouldn't be able to sleep without Barry next to her though... They entered the hospital hugging eachother from the side. They asked for news on Barry and the doctor said they were having trouble stabilizing him. He said that he had flat-lined twice so far.

All Liz could do was nod her head. She was numb. An alarm went off and the doctor ran back toward the area he came from. Barry had flat-lined again...