Author's Note: Hey guys! So, this is now my third Flash one-shot in a very short amount of time haha. I'm very excited to be a part of this fandom, so you'll be seeing a lot more too! As well as, eventually, a multi-chapter story that I have been procrastinating finishing the first chapter for hehe. Anyways, enjoy this! Fair warning, there are quite a few line breaks where the POV changes.

The Voicemail Disaster

The tension in the med bay at STAR Labs was so thick, it could be cut with a knife.

"Barry, you have a concussion; no electronics until it is properly healed. I will not tell you again! Put. Your. Phone. Away!" Caitlin's voice was stern, punctuating every word as she shot the currently shirtless superhero a serious look from across the room, where she was rummaging through a drawer of medical supplies. Barry, who was pretty banged up, let out an annoyed groan but finally complied with his doctor friend after her umpteenth attempt to get him to listen. He shoved his phone unceremoniously into his pocket, not even bothering to lock it. All he had been trying to do was quell the incessant text messages Iris was sending him, to let her know that he was alright after the unexpected metahuman bank heist he had dealt with. He didn't even bother to lock it.

"Caitlin, come on," he said, almost pouting. "I'm fine."

"Really, Barry!? You are most certainly not fine! You were unconscious five minutes ago!" Barry groaned again, but Caitlin was unrelenting. "What were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed!"

"It's my job, Caitlin."

"But you should have told me and Cisco first!"

"There was no time!"

This time, Caitlin groaned. "For God's sake, Barry, you're the fastest man alive! Surely you could have spared a few seconds to fill us in!" she huffed.

"Cisco's not even here," Barry pointed out, and Caitlin frustratedly ran a hand over her face at the words.

"That's not the point, Barry," the doctor said with a sigh, managing to regain her composure as she finally found what she was looking for. "The point is, you can't - you can't just do things like that. We didn't know anything about the meta: powers, criminal history, not even a name. Nothing," she finished as she grabbed the roll of bandages she had found and stood, walking back over to Barry. "Arms up," she instructed.

Barry sighed and did as he was told without protest this time, lifting his arms as his friend began to wrap the bandages around the bloody gash across his chest. It had already begun to heal, but Caitlin had been insistent that she wanted it covered up until it was completely gone.

"I'm sorry, alright?" Barry told her as she finished bandaging his chest. "I didn't mean to make you worry. But I didn't want to waste any time. If any of those people had died…I wouldn't be able to forgive myself," he told her honestly. "I had to save them. You understand that, right?"

It was Caitlin's turn to sigh. "Of course I understand, Barry," she said. "But that's not going to stop me - to stop any of us - from worrying about you. You may have superpowers, but you're still human; you can still get hurt," she said, looking over his injuries as if making a point.

Barry gave her a soft smile. "At least I heal quickly?" he offered, and Caitlin couldn't help but let out a light laugh at his joking manner

"Yeah, there's that," she said. "But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be careful. You can't heal if you're dead," she said, half jokingly but also half serious. Barry chuckled.

"I know," he assured her, and Caitlin smiled.

"Alright, give me your phone," she said. "I'll text Iris back for you, make sure she knows you're alright. Barry gratefully pulled his phone back out of his pocket and handed it over to her. She took it from his outstretched hand. When she looked at the unlocked screen, however, the smile fell from her face and her features quickly morphed into a look of horror. Barry's smile faded as well as he watched the change.

"Caitlin, what? What's wrong?" he asked her worriedly.

"You - you called your boss! Damn it, Barry, you butt-dialed Singh!"

Barry's face morphed into a look of horror as well, at a loss for words for a moment before yelling. "Oh my God, hang it up!" Caitlin shook off the immediate shock as Barry yelled, quickly pressing the 'end call' button and looking up at Barry, who looked like he might be sick.

"Okay, Barry, calm down, it's going to be okay," she said, trying to keep herself calm in the process. "He hadn't answered - it was a voicemail. Maybe we can delete it before -"

"Hey guys, what's going on?" She was interrupted by Cisco waltzing into the cortex with a Starbucks coffee cup in his hand, a characteristic smile on his face. It quickly disappeared just as Barry's and Caitlin's had as he took in the scene before him: Barry sitting battered on one of the beds in the med bay, Caitlin struggling to remain calm. Barry seeming utterly horrified.

"Okay, what the hell did I miss?" he asked, and Barry looked up at him.

"Cisco, please tell me you know how to delete a voicemail from someone else's phone."

The last thing David Singh wanted to do was to work on a Sunday, but that was exactly what he was doing. Whether he liked it or not, there was far too much paperwork for him to push off until the work week started the next day. Immersed in files and becoming quite frustrated with the lot of them, he didn't answer his phone when it rang. When he heard the chime that signified that the caller had left a voicemail, he sighed, putting his paperwork aside and reaching for his phone.

The name Barry Allen flashed up at him as he unlocked the phone, and Singh raised an eyebrow, looking less than happy.

"Barry Allen?" he muttered to himself, surprised. What the hell did his forensic scientist want from him on a Sunday? David was sure that Barry was not working, as he was. So why would he call him? The captain wrestled with himself for a moment, his thumb hovering over the 'play' button. Did he even want to know? It couldn't be anything good. He sighed, however, as he realized that was exactly why he needed to listen to it. If Barry was calling him over the weekend, it must have been for a damn good reason. For the young CSI's sake, at least, he hoped it was.

With one more sigh, Singh let his thumb hit the play button and waited for the message to start.

At first, nothing could be heard but some indistinct noises from the other end of the line. Then came a muffled, "Caitlin, I'm fine." A pause.

A female voice, angrily, "Really, Barry!? You are most certainly not fine! You were unconscious five minutes ago!" A groan from Barry before the girl, Caitlin, continued. "What were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed!"

Singh frowned. What the hell was this? Evidently, Mr. Allen had not actually meant to call him. Upon this realization, David should have stopped listening. He should have stopped the message, deleted it, gone back to his work. He shouldn't have cared so much about the conversation he wasn't meant to hear. But he found that he couldn't bring himself to do it. Not after he had heard what was being said. Allen unconscious? And what the hell had the kid done to almost get himself killed? At this point, as the captain of the CCPD and Barry's boss, it was his duty to keep listening, to investigate. At least, that was what he told himself as he continued to let the message play out.

"It's my job, Caitlin!"

"But you should have told me and Cisco first!"

"There was no time!"

"For God's sake, Barry, you're the fastest man alive! Surely you could have spared a few seconds to fill us in!"

. . .

"Cisco, would you please hurry up?" Barry said, anxiously hovering over his friend's shoulder as typed furiously on one of the computers in the cortex. The speedster wasn't exactly sure what he was doing, but he did know that he definitely wanted it done faster.

"Barry, would you please stop breathing down my neck?" Cisco countered, his eyes moving steadily back and forth across the computer screen as he continued to type. Hacking wasn't his strongest suit, but there was no time to call Felicity, and he was the best bet out of the three of them.

"Both of you cut it out!" Caitlin said sternly. "Cisco's going as fast as he can, Bar," she told her still-panicked superhero friend. She bit her lip, her eyes following what was happening on the screen to the best of her abilities. She was worrying herself, of course; they all were. But she tried not to visibly let it show, not wanting to upset Barry anymore than he already was.

"I should have locked my phone," he muttered, heavily regretting not having done it. But Caitlin had been pestering him to put it away, and everything had been so tense and -

"Eureka!" Cisco called out suddenly, nearly making both Caitlin and Barry jump as they were startled.

"You deleted it?" Barry asked hopefully, cautious relief seeping into his voice.

"Not yet, but I got into his phone," Cisco replied, his fingers on the keyboard slowing down their pace as he focused more now, looking for his way into the voicemail system.

"Well hurry!" Barry prompted, running a hand through his hair. He knew that he was being unfair to his friend by rushing him so much, that Cisco was already going as fast as he could and that his hassling wouldn't farther speed him along, but he couldn't bring himself to stop. He wouldn't be calm until he was sure that Cisco had found the voicemail and deleted it. A temporary silence settled over the friends as Cisco scanned the monitor, searching until he finally found what he was looking for. But he quickly realized that all of his work over the past few minutes hadn't mattered. With a resigned exhale, he turned around to face Barry, a rare look of defeat written on his face.

"He's already listened to it."

A three minute, accidental voicemail. That was all it had taken for the mounds of paperwork on Captain Singh's desk to be completely forgotten as he stared at the cellphone in his hand as if he couldn't quite believe what was on it; what he had heard. He ran his other hand through his hair, the gears in his mind turning rapidly with an almost dizzying effect.

"You're the fastest man alive," Caitlin had said.

"You may have superpowers, but you're still human," she had said.

Singh took in a shaky breath. Superpowers, the fastest man alive…It was nearly impossible to believe, but it all could mean only one thing: Barry Allen was the Flash.

His young, clumsy, nerdy forensic scientist was Central City's very own masked hero.

And he did not know how to interpret the knowledge that he was not supposed to have.

It took a lot of prodding from Cisco and Caitlin to coerce Barry into going to work the next day. He was quite reluctant, and with good reason. But his friends had insisted; after all, despite the fact that Barry's boss had listened to the voicemail left the previous day, none of them were sure exactly what he had heard, or if he had even heard anything incriminating. The phone had been in Barry's pocket, after all. Cisco, ever the optimist, had been quick to bounce back after his hacking job, telling his friends that the sound might have been too muffled for the captain to hear. Or, he might not even have listened to the entire thing, if he had realized Barry hadn't meant to call. He wasn't entirely sure how sound his logic was, but he had hated seeing the look on Barry's face after he had told him his boss had already listened to the voicemail.

And so, with anxiety settled like a pit in his stomach, Barry got up and readied himself for work, opting to ride with Joe in the car rather than running to the precinct as he usually would. Joe could tell there was something bothering his son the second he asked for a ride, but he also recognized that he didn't seem to want to talk about and decided to let it slide with only a questioning look for the time being.

Barry was silent the entire way there, and it took him far longer than it should have to bring himself to get out of the car and walk to the building. Once outside, he steeled himself up, taking a deep breath as he walked in the front doors.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting to happen when he walked in. Perhaps Singh waiting for him, or for every cop in the precinct to stop what they were doing and stare at him when he walked into the room. But neither of those things happened, and it came as almost a shock to his system to find that everything inside was transpiring as it should be inside. Everything was normal. A few of his colleagues greeted him as he walked past, and Barry gave a nod in response, not trusting himself to speak. He held his breath as he walked by Singh's office, but his boss only spared him a quick glance as he looked briefly up from his paperwork, then averted his eyes just as fast. He encountered no complications as he made his way up the stairs to his lab, and he felt his anxiety start to shrink; maybe Singh really hadn't gotten anything out of the message. Maybe Cisco was right.

As the day progressed and nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be happening, Barry was feeling pretty good about himself, his worries and fears from the morning all but disappeared as he worked on his case files.

They all came back tenfold when Singh appeared in his lab later.

He was almost homefree. It was only about ten minutes before the end of the day when he heard the knock on the door, and turned around to see Singh standing there in the doorway. And suddenly it felt like someone had punched him, because his boss was just giving him this look, and -

"Mind if I come in, Allen?" the captain spoke up, and it was so odd. Singh never asked Barry's permission, he would just walk right in -

"No, of course not, sir," Barry replied with an easy-going smile that was far from easy to put on his face. "Do you need something? I'm just about done with my case files, but if you have another one you need me to look at or anything…" Barry started rambling, but trailed off as he watched Singh close the door behind him as he stepped into the room. The young forensic scientist couldn't seem to find the words to continue.

Singh took a long breath before speaking. "I wanted to talk to you about a voicemail I received from you yesterday," he said, and Barry's heart skipped a beat. But his voice didn't betray his feelings, didn't shake or falter as he replied.

"Voicemail?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't remember calling you…oh! God, did I butt-dial you, sir? Because that would be embarrassing." He was already in deep. Now was the time to figure out what Singh knew, what exactly he he had heard, even if he wasn't quite sure he was ready to hear it.

"...yes, actually," the captain said slowly, eyeing his employee almost warily. He was just as anxious to have this talk, but just as Barry, he worked on not letting it show.

"I'm sorry, sir. What exactly was on it? I hope it wasn't anything too bad," he said, trying for a laugh. It sounded slightly forced, but it was a miracle to Barry that it didn't sound completely phony.

"You're the Flash," Singh said. No more stalling, no easing the information out; the captain wasn't good at that.

Barry stiffened. "Sir, listen. I don't know what you think you heard, but -"

He didn't finish. Singh, taking matters into his own hands as he often did, eyed an empty coffee cup on Barry's desk, and without so much as a second thought reached his hand out and knocked it off. Barry's reflexes kicked in, and he sped to catch it, just as he had when Joe had done the same thing.

And Barry nearly cursed as he straightened up, setting the cup awkwardly back down on the desk as he realized what he had done. He wanted to squirm under his boss' awed gaze. He wanted to run away. But he didn't.

Instead, he looked Singh in the eyes, took a deep breath.

"We need to talk."

Author's Note: Yeah...the ending could probably use some work. But after days of struggling with it, that's the best it was going to get. Hope everyone enjoyed this nonetheless. Leave a review and let me know :) Critique welcomed