Yep, yet another multi-chapter story headed your way. ;P But don't worry; I've got it all written, I just need to fix certain parts, and kind of "sparkle it up" for you guys. Does that even make sense? Eh, whatever. I just woke up so I'm probably not thinking clearly, lol. Anyway, this is for all of you Singh lovers, and lovers of Singh finding out Barry's secret. Ya' know who who you are. ;P
And this is set pretty much right after the Singularity, but a little ways from it so that everybody has had time to grieve. Well, except Barry. You'll find out what I mean by reading the story. ;) And also! I want to give a shout-out to who is awesome, and has some killer stories going on, so yeah, go check out that account after this. ;D (Okay, so apparently the name isn't showing up. :/ It's a "g" and then a "c", and then a period, before the word "flash".)
Disclaimer: I own no part of this, now, or probably ever, so stop grillin' me.
"Barry, I'm not going to say this again; you have got to start taking better care of yourself!" Caitlin exclaimed as Barry slowly sat up from the hospital bed, clutching his head gingerly with a grimace on his face.
He had just come back from another mission against a meta-human whose only power, was basically to use somebody's own injury against them. As in, if somebody was lightheaded, the villain would make it ten times worse, and/or escalate it into something much worse.
Or if somebody had a sprain in their wrist, the meta-human could either make it feel like a fracture, it was broken, or it was entirely shattered.
And Barry had just rushed right over, much to his team's dismay, and had tried to capture the guy because he was terrorizing a small neighborhood right off of Central City's borders. Nobody had even known exactly what the guy could do at that time.
Needless to say, Barry had gotten beaten rather unpleasantly, barely making it back to Star Labs before he collapsed. He thankfully had made it out all right, but it was while he was unconscious and recovering that Caitlin and Cisco had made a discovery.
He hadn't been eating near enough, and had pushing himself way past his limit. Including running too much, and not getting hardly any sleep. Barry sighed as Caitlin continued to fuss; Cisco watching from a little ways away, sympathy for Barry written on his face, even though he one-hundred percent agreed with Caitlin.
"You have got to stop acting like you're invincible. Going after that guy, when you were already beyond exhausted, was a stupid move, Barry, and you know it. You are not invincible. With all of your fatigue, and everything else that is going on with you, he could have killed you in an instant."
"I can not stress enough how important it is to take care of yourself, Barry. Like I said before; you are not invincible." She declared and he sighed as rubbed a hand over his face before looking up at her.
"I know that I'm not invincible. I'm fully aware of that. But that-that man was injuring innocent, and helpless civilians; I couldn't just stand by and let that happen when I could do something about it. At least distract him. I'd rather take the beating myself, rather than let others get inured and you know it." He said, and she and Cisco shared a look, before Caitlin sighed.
"I know. It's just, try to think a little bit before, next time, okay?" She asked, the exhaustion seeping through in her voice, as he nodded distractedly, jaw clenched and a look on his face that they were all too familiar with. He'd been this way ever since the Singularity.
He was almost more...selfless?
If that made sense.
It was almost as if he was, taking more and more chances, working himself to the bone. And it was starting to get out of hand.
They both knew that Barry wasn't about to start listening to them; he would continue to wear himself down, further and further, until his body couldn't take it anymore and eventually gave out. And as much as they feared that happening; they knew it was coming.
She walked back over towards Cisco, looking back for a moment to see Barry lying back down, closing his eyes with a small wince. She sighed, before turning her attention back towards the monitors in front of her.
The only way Barry would learn, was if he learned it the hard way. And both Cisco and Caitlin, not to mention the others like Joe and Iris, knew that it was coming.
And it was only a matter of time before he collapsed.
Barry jogged down the stairway and into the kitchen where both Joe and Iris quietly sat eating breakfast. It had been that way for a while, now. Nobody talking, nobody smiling.
"Hey, Joe," Barry started, causing Joe's head to come up at the mention of his name. "I'm going to go on in to the CCPD early. I've got a case that I want to get started on." Barry said and Joe frowned as he looked at him.
"Aren't you going to eat breakfast?" Joe questioned, and at just the mere thought of food, Barry's stomach felt nauseous.
"Uh, no, I'll make up for it with lunch. I'm not that hungry." He stated. It was true. He wasn't hungry at all. In fact, he feared that if he ate anything, he might just throw it back up. After saying that, Iris looked up, worry furrowing her eyebrows.
"You're always hungry. Plus you have to eat; with your metabolism the way it is." She said and he sighed.
"Yeah, I know. But I also know when it's best and necessary for me to eat, and right now is not that time." Barry stated simply and Joe and Iris exchanged a glance.
"You skipped dinner, last night." Joe declared and Barry sighed while rubbing a hand over his face.
"I know, just, look, I'm going to be late at this rate, so I'll tell you what; I'll make up for breakfast and dinner with lunch. Okay?" He questioned, and after a few moments hesitation, Joe and Iris nodded.
"Okay. But I'm gonna' make sure that you make good on that promise," Joe stated and Barry nodded absently as he headed towards the door.
"Alright, see ya' guys later." He said before opening the door and flashing to work; leaving Iris and Joe shaking their heads. He stumbled as he came to a stop by an alley a block away from work. He pressed his forearm to the brick wall to balance himself, and blinked several times; trying to erase the fuzzy, black spots dancing across his vision. He swallowed thickly, feeling overly nauseous suddenly.
He waited a few moments, taking a couple of deep breaths to erase his nausea and lightheadedness.
Barry slowly shook his head, before taking a careful step and continuing his way to the CCPD. He rounded the corner of some old hotel, and walked down the sidewalk to the CCPD; ignoring everything that had just happened.
He was probably just tired...since he had hardly slept at all the past two weeks for various reasons.
He walked into the doors, smiling at every officer that greeted him, before heading up to his lab. He opened the door and walked over to his desk, glancing out the window once, before sitting down and sighing.
Barry pressed his knuckles to his forehead, clenching his jaw as the pain radiated off his head. He didn't understand how his head could feel like a cement block was pounding against it, yet feel as if it was floating, due to his lightheadedness. He winced once, shaking is head lightly, and ignoring his headache, before beginning to analyze the case on his desk.
This was going to be a long day.
He had been correct.
The day had turned out to be even worse than he had expected.
His headache did not want to go away, in fact, it seemed to be worsening by the hour. And it wasn't exactly like he could take any Tylenol or anything for it. And then, to make matters worse, Joe had shown up an hour or two later, and had brought Barry lunch; sitting down and watching him eat every last bit of it.
Which, as soon as Joe had left, satisfied by his accomplishment to get Barry to eat, Barry had thrown the sandwich back up into a nearby trash can. He hadn't meant to...but right now, he just couldn't seem to keep any food in his stomach.
At all.
So, after disposing of his trash can without Joe or anybody else noticing, thanks to his super-speed, which was a definite curse and blessing, because it had both gotten him into that predicament and out, he had gone back up to his lab; somehow feeling simultaneously better and worse after throwing up.
But to make matters even more worse, Captain Singh had called him into his office to go over the case with him.
So he slowly made his way over to Singh's office, feeling nauseous yet extremely lightheaded the whole way, until he had walked into his office. He closed the door behind him, wincing as the contact between the door and the frame connected, aggravating his headache even more.
"You wanted to go over the case with me?" Barry questioned and Singh nodded as he looked up from his desk.
"Yeah. We just got some more Intel, and we suspect some foul play was involved." Singh stated and Barry nodded, ignoring the blackened spots on the side of his vision from the movement. He reached out and placed a file of the case on the table, his vision darkening even more.
"I had figured that, because if you look at the," A sharp pain suddenly shot through his head and he stumbled forward as he walked, somehow managing to upright himself by gripping onto the table as his vision turned to basically nothing. He grimaced with a taut jaw as the pain coursed through his skull. His knuckles were turning white because he was gripping the table so hard.
"Allen, are you okay?" Singh was apparently asking, but Barry could barely hear it over the ringing in his own ears. He swallowed hard and blinked several times, clearing his vision for only a few moments as it came pulsating back. It was just enough for him to notice that Singh had gotten up from his chair and moved over to his side.
"Yeah, I, uh," He swallowed hard, knowing that he would normally be embarrassed for showing such weakness, except that the pain would just not go away.
It had been bad enough that the pain had been in his head, but suddenly an overwhelming white hot pain seemed to stab the back of his skull, before abruptly coursing through his limbs; sending fire across his entire body. His knees buckled slightly, but he refused to fall.
He could distantly hear Singh's voice in the background, but as another sharp, and abrupt rocket of pain exploded throughout his entire body, he found it impossible to even begin to comprehend what he was saying.
He felt the hand that was on his shoulder-how did that even get there?-leave suddenly, and vaguely heard footsteps moving away from him.
His stomach and heart seemed to simultaneously lurch, as the pain blossomed in his head, and it was then that his grip faltered, and he unceremoniously stumbled to the floor in a heap of pain.
The last thing he heard was somebody shouting his name, before he fell into a world of oblivion.
...Well? What'd ya' think? I swear that I end all of my stories like this...so let's try something new. I'll start asking you all a question at the end; I love getting to know you guys. ;) Let's start off simple:
What's your favorite color? It's a toss up for me; probably either blue or red, though.