[ barry's pov ]

"Bar- we'll find her." Joe reassures me as I pace back and forth, in the cortex with everyone else.

"I'm not getting any leads on this guy. It's like he's totally fallen off the grid. You know, it- any of the stuff he's stolen, I can't find it." Cisco explains.

Harry speaks up, "He keeps them." He starts to walk over to Cisco, "He keeps them the way a serial killer collects trophies."

Caitlin replies, "He's stolen a lot of stuff."

Joe speaks in realization, "Which means he needs a lot of space to store it, right? That's where we start, see if he rented any storage spaces."

Cisco starts to look, then speaks as he searches, "No, no- I'm not getting anything." he types away on his computer, "Wait a minute. His ex-wife used to be a archivist for antiquities at the Naydel Library before it shut down, and it shut down three months after the accelerator exploded."

"That place is big enough to hold Turtle's stuff." Joe says as I get up, walking over to them. "Okay, All right-" I say, a sigh leaving my mouth as I start going for my suit.

Jay speaks up, "Wait- Barry- we haven't even figured out how to neutralize the Turtle's power."

I barely turn as I shrug weakly, still walking to my suit, "Well- I'm gonna have to power through it.

-

[ zee's pov ]

Peter holds his pocket knife to my neck, as a small shaky breath leaves my mouth. I weakly speak, the fear getting the best of me, "Peter-"

"Don't say a word." He threatens, as the cool blade touches my neck, the Turtle on my side. He readies what he is about to inject into me, and reaches, grabbing my forearm.

"No- no-" I try to pull away, as Peter gives me another threatening look, "Don't move."

The Turtle hears something and stops, Peter's gaze is ripped away from me as he looks at the entrance, as the Turtle puts down what he had in his hands and faces it also. In comes Barry, the Turtle using his power against him. Barry stares at Peter, with slight wide eyes, not knowing he would be here to hurt me to, then turns his attention back towards the Turtle.

The Turtle punched him, as he fell to the ground, then ran out.

He turns and looks at me, "I guess he doesn't care about you as much as I thought."

He looks at Peter as he picks up a knife of his own, "Gut her."

"No- no- no-" I start to say as Peter reaches back, ready to do as he was told, but then Barry comes running back in, powering through the Turtle's powers. Before I knew it, Barry had hit Turtle so hard he sent him flying, making him hit the wall, as he grabbed Peter, shoving him as hard as he could also, him landing with the Turtle.

Barry breathes heavily, due to how hard he pushed through, as I stared at him, using everything in me to not start crying. He grabs the knife the Turtle dropped, and cuts the rope, phasing me out of the meta cuffs, as they drop to the ground. I got up as quickly as I could, my hands grabbing his face, and I couldn't help but start crying.

Tears fell from my eyes, a sob leaving my lips, "Are you okay? The last time I saw you- you were crushed under that chandelier after you saved me and- I-" another sob leaves my mouth, as he nods slowly, "I'm okay, I promise. Are you? What did they do to you-" Barry says quietly, as he stares at my appearance, following up, "And why the hell is Peter here?"

I just shake my head, "I'll explain later, okay?" He nods as he picks me up, and runs me back to star labs to get checked up.

-

I sat in Barry's bed, dressed in one of his sweatshirts and a pair of leggings.

I watch Barry as he slipped off his shirt, leaving himself in just a pair of joggers and then sat down on the bed with me. "You gonna explain now?"

I nod slowly, "I haven't told you about this- but it's only because I didn't think much of it." I grab my phone and pull up the text messages, handing it to him, letting him scroll through, "That was Peter. When you pushed me out of the way, he grabbed me and was going to leave, but the Turtle gave him a offer he couldn't refuse. He could do whatever he wanted to me, as long as the Turtle could finish it off in the end." I explain as short and simple as I could.

"He wanted to do to you what he did to his wife- to hurt me- because of how much you mean to me." Barry puts it all together as he stares at the texts, "Peter just wanted to hurt you because you left him and chose me."

I go silent for a while then speak up, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you- I'm sorry I lied about who was texting me- I thought someone was just messing with me-"

Barry cuts me off, "We live in Central City. There is no way."

I huff, "I really am sorry."

"If something like this ever happens again, I want you to tell me, okay?" Barry tells me, "I don't want you to get taken and hurt again."

"I promise." I nod slowly, as he puts my phone on the nightstand, laying back with me, wrapping his arms around me.

I shut my eyes, and a few minutes later, I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up, when I heard small sniffles, and someone breathing really heavily. I turn, and slowly sit up, looking at Barry, a confused expression on my face, my eyebrows furrowed.

Barry stops in his tracks when he sees me staring at him with pure confusion in my eyes, as he tries to catch his breath, his voice coming out weak, "I- didn't mean to wake you-"

"Are you okay?" I was on my feet in a matter of seconds as I walk over to him, grabbing his hand and pull him back onto the bed, both of us seating as I glanced at the clock on his nightstand that read 3:08 am.

"I've been having nightmares since- Zoom came in here and tried to kill you." He starts, a sniffle leaving his mouth, "I keep having terrible nightmares of him killing you- and I can't sleep at night anymore-"

I stop him from talking and just pull him into my arms, holding him as tight as I could, as I laid back, rubbing his back.

He goes quiet, and lets me hold him, and eventually, I hear his breathing even out, and I look down at him to see that he was asleep.

He couldn't be upset with me earlier about hiding the fact that Peter was texting me, threatening me, because he was hiding something too.