Barry woke up to a soft knocking on his bedroom door. "Bear I'm heading off to the station now, if you want a ride" Joe said pushing the door open. Barry sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes, "no thanks Joe, I'll run" he replied stretching his arms out the side. "Rough night ha?" Joe asked noticing how tired Barry looked. He had stayed at S.T.A.R Labs until late the last night researching if there was a way that he could regain some of the speed force that Wells had taken away from him. "No, not really. Just came home later than I wanted to. Didn't find anything either," Barry said yawning. "That's too bad. Maybe you should run through some stuff with Cisco and Caitlin before work today?" Joe suggested. "Yeah" Barry paused, getting out of bed. "I'll get going now" he said before super speeding around the house getting ready, then racing out the door.
A flurry of paper is what announced Barry's arrival in S.T.A.R Labs. "Either you need to stop speeding in here, or we seriously need to invest in some paperweights." Cisco proclaimed. "Sorry" Barry apologised helping Cisco and Caitlin reorganise the papers. "Did you find a solution last night, Barry?" Caitlin asked optimistically. "No… well not any logical answers anyway." Barry shrugged "I assume that recreating the particle accelerator explosion is illogical?" Caitlin pursed her lips at the obviously answered and perhaps rhetorical question. "It probably wouldn't work anyway." Barry muttered under his breath. "Well I'm sure we'll find a way to get it back Barry." Caitlin reassured him. "Yeah, we just have no idea how to do it." Cisco dully stated, earning a dirty look from Caitlin. "We'll figure something out." He quickly corrected himself. "Look Barry" Caitlin said, "There's no point worrying about it now, you've got to be at work in" she paused to check her watch "two minutes. While you're there Cisco and I will do more research. Hopefully by the time you come back here this afternoon we'll have something to work from." Barry sighed "I guess so. I'll see you guys later."
Barry sat at his desk studying pictures from a crime scene rubbing his aching throat. It wasn't until he reached the station from S.T.A.R Labs that he realised that his throat was sore. Initially blaming it on being slightly winded from running (although, come to think of it that would be unusual), he thought nothing of it. It didn't really bother him up until he realised that it wasn't going away. He really hoped that he wasn't getting sick, that would be something he couldn't afford right now. He was so backed up on work from all the meta attacks that he would still be working on the cases he had currently up until Christmas. He anxiously put his hand on his forehead to check if he had a fever. To his absolute relief there was none, yet anyway. Please just go away, please just go away. He tried to will the ache away. Just go away. Interrupting his moping thoughts, he heard a knock on the door. "Bear?" Joe's voice rang out. "Yeah?" Barry replied, seeing Joe enter the room. "Please don't say there's another case, I already have enough of them" Barry groaned spinning around in his chair. "No. No more cases at the moment" Joe reassured him, causing Barry to sigh in relief. "I was just coming in to see if you wanted to have lunch with me and Iris at Jitters?" Joe asked walking over to Barry's desk and looking at the evidence. "No thanks, Joe. I'd love to but I have so much work to do" Barry declined. "That's alright then" Joe said turning to leave the room. "I'll bring you back something!" He yelled over his shoulder.
It was two hours before Joe came back into Barry's lab, carrying a box of food for Barry. "How was lunch?" Barry asked putting a finished case in an envelope. "It was good" Joe said approaching the desk "Iris's report about drag racing is getting good reviews. Eat up" He said dropping the box of food on Barry's desk. Barry opened the box and started to eat the food that Joe had brought him, trying not to show a look of pain every time he swallowed. "What did Caitlin and Cisco say about regaining the Speed Force?" Joe asked breaking the silence. "They didn't really have anything to say." Barry said after finishing his mouthful. "We're all in the dark about the whole thing. We don't even know if it's possible to get it back?" Barry said before taking another bite of his sandwich. "Well I'm sure if it can be taken away it can be given back. It might just not be as simple." Joe reassured Barry. "Well if anyone can think of a solution it'll be Cisco and Caitlin." Barry told himself.
Learning from this morning's occurrence, this time Barry walked into S.T.A.R Labs. "Busy day at work?" Caitlin asked hunched over her desk, mixing chemicals together. "No, just paperwork." Barry said coming into the centre of the room. "Did you guys find anything while I was gone?" "Well Barry, you know that the speed force is a complicated thing. And because we don't understand it as well as some, I went to talk to Harry today." Caitlin semi-stalled walking to the control desk. "You talked to Wells?" Barry blurted out, in disbelief. "It was the best option" Caitlin shrugged. "He knows the speed force better than anyone we know." She defended before sighing "but he doesn't know of a way we could get it back." Barry looked at the floor in defeat. "He did suggest Cisco could vibe you into the speed force. But we wouldn't know what to do from there." Caitlin recounted. "Also, I'm not sure that it would work. I mean I've only ever vibed with someone when it was the last option, and only for a short time. I could get you there I just don't know if I could get you back." Cisco said solemnly. "I wouldn't want to put you in that position." Barry said looking at Cisco. "Do we have any other ideas?" "No. Other than hoping it will come back on its own." Caitlin sighed. "How would we know that would happen?" Barry asked. "We don't. But we're hoping that because you use the speed force to super speed, that when you run it might start to come back." Cisco explained. Barry remained silent in doubt. "We won't know until we try Barry. It's the best option we have right now." "Guess you're right" Barry exhaled. "Right let's get you on the treadmill and see if this works" Caitlin told him collecting some papers.
"All right Barry, push yourself!" Cisco encouraged from within the booth. Barry had been running for a few minutes now, and it was steadily getting harder for him to keep up the pace. He was already so tired before he started running, now that he was running it made his head hurt as his heart worked on overdrive creating a painful pulse behind his skull. And the constant panting was doing nothing to help his throat. "Come on Barry" Caitlin muttered to herself studying his vitals. After a few minutes, Cisco slouched back in his chair, "it's not working!" He exclaimed frustrated. "Just give it a few more minutes. We can't give up this soon." Caitlin told him. "Come on Barry dig it in. Few more minutes left!" Cisco yelled, wanting to get the disappointment over with. As Barry ran faster Caitlin looked closer at his vitals. "Wait a second…" she said quietly after seeing the speed force calculator glow yellow. "Barry! Increase your speed!" she yelled in anticipation. Barry dug into the last amount of his energy and ran faster. "It's working! It's working! It's coming back!" Caitlin yelled, stepping out of her chair and walking in a circle, hand over her mouth in amazement. "Barry keep going! You're almost there, 99%!" She encouraged returning to her seat. Pulling up his vitals again she noticed an abnormality in his breathing and heartrate. It's just a little different Caitlin, nothing out of the ordinary, he has been running for a while now. Nothing to overreact about, she reassured herself. Minimising his vitals she pulled back the speed force calculator, "Come on Barry! 0.2% to go!" She inspired. "0.1%!" Cisco yelled, sliding his chair over to the screen where Caitlin was. Cisco and Caitlin both held their breath. "100%!" Caitlin yelled, ecstatic with the achievement. As soon as she said this Barry's legs gave in and he crashed to the floor. "Barry?!" She gasped, her and Cisco running out to him. "That's no good" Cisco muttered as they left the control room. "Barry, are you okay?" Caitlin said leaning down over him. "Yeah, fine" he groaned rolling over. "Really?" Caitlin asked in some sort of disbelief. "Do you think you can stand?" "Yeah" Barry said pushing himself up to a sitting position. Cisco gave him a hand up and he and Caitlin both lead Barry into a chair. "Cisco, go get one of those protein bars" Caitlin instructed, Cisco obliged and ran out of the room. Caitlin went back into the control room to analyse Barry's vitals, seeing that they were returning to normal. Coming back into the training room she saw Barry eating one of Cisco's protein bars and Cisco shutting down the treadmill. "Barry, are you absolutely sure that you are okay?" Caitlin asked sincerely. "Yes, why do you keep asking?" Barry responded getting mildly annoyed. "It's just that your vitals were reading at an abnormal level." Caitlin told him. "Aren't my vitals always at an abnormal level?" Barry quipped. "They were abnormal even for you Barry. Are you getting sick? You look a little pale" Caitlin asked sympathetically. "I swear I'm fine. That exercise just really took it out of me." Barry said sitting up straighter. "You did well, Barry." Caitlin commended. "We did it! We actually did it!" Caitlin exclaimed putting her hand of her mouth in amazement. "Well Barry did it" Cisco commented. "We did it" Barry confirmed. "That was amazing Barry!" Caitlin applauded, the biggest smile on her face. "You've just opened up so many new possibilities for modern physics and not just that but Biology as well. And…. And" Caitlin was speechless. "Okay enough, enough" Cisco calmed her down, "we don't want to bore anyone to death after an achievement like this." Caitlin remained silent. "Oh yeah! Team Flash!" Cisco yelled, before the team high fived each other. After their moment of celebration Caitlin turns to Barry, "you should go home and rest. You've had a long day, you look tired." Barry wanted to object but he saw the look on Caitlin and Cisco's face. "Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow" he stood up gave them a small smile and walked out of the room before super speeding home. Caitlin looked at Cisco "is he acting…. Weird?" Cisco looked back in the direction Barry had speed off in "Yup."
Barry arrived home to find Iris and Joe sitting on the couch. "Hey Bar, how did it go?" Joe asked. All though Barry didn't really have the energy for it a smile crossed his face as he said, "I got it back." Iris jumped up a squealed in excitement, racing around the couch to hug Barry. Joe followed and they shared a family hug. "How did you do it?" Joe asked. Barry repeated that afternoon's events while Iris and Joe listened intently. When Barry finished explaining Joe said, "I think this calls for some celebratory pizza." "I'll order, what kind do you want Barry?" Iris starts to walk to her phone. "I'm fine actually" Barry sighed, rubbing his hand down his face. "I'm really tired, I think I'm just going to go to bed" He said with a yawn, "you guys go ahead." Iris and Joe looked upon him with sympathy as they said goodnight and he climbed the stairs to bed.