Author's Note: Hey guys! So, this one-shot is kind of me re-entry to the world of fanfiction. I haven't written anything on here in ages, and this is my first ever fic dealing with the Flash! I recently binge watched it and have found myself obsessed. So, anyways, I hope you all enjoy this! Please review, and look out for my next Flash story :)

Revelations

In the hour that he had been sitting at his desk, David Singh had thought of half a dozen different ways to kill his chronically late forensic scientist, and at least 20 different ways he could go about firing him. He had been on the force for years, and he had never, not once, had an employee with worse time management skills than 26-year-old Barry Allen. In the past 2 weeks alone, he had had to speak to Allen on four separate occasions about making sure he was on time for work. But clearly the stern lectures were doing nothing, if today was any testament. Instead of being on time, the young CSI was more late than ever. Singh looked at his watch with a glare; it was now 8:40 a.m. The time was ticking away. Barry was now an hour and ten minutes late. An entire 70 minutes. The captain was angrily on the brink of going to seek out Joe, to see if he could offer any explanation as to where his frustrating foster son was when he heard the front door to the precinct opening. Seconds later, Barry Allen walked in, quickly trying to make it past the captain's office with his head down as if hoping he could make it to his lab unnoticed.

"Mr. Allen!" Singh boomed, and Barry froze in his place; no such luck. David still couldn't see the young man's face, but he was sure that it must have been filled with dread as he was called out. "Get your late ass in here right now," he seethed. Barry's shoulders sagged, and he backtracked, walking into the captain's office. Once he was standing in front of the desk, he finally allowed himself to nervously look Singh in the face, trying to keep himself from fidgeting under his boss' glare.

"Who the hell do you think you are, showing up he -" Singh started, but trailed off as he finally

got a good look at the kid. Barry looked like - well, he looked like hell. His complexion was naturally fair, but now he actually looked pale. His right eye was bruised and swollen and, as Singh studied him more closely now, he seemed to be favoring his right leg over his left, as if the left one pained him to put weight on. David had been simmering in anger from the moment he had realized his young employee had yet to show up to work. However, now that Barry was actually standing in front of him, he felt the anger rush out of him.

"Damn it, Allen," Singh muttered, standing from his chair and coming out from behind his desk, moving closer to the younger man. "You get jumped or something on your way here?" His eyes flicked up and down Barry's body quickly in another short assessment. "That eye's gonna need some ice."

Barry, for a moment, seemed to be at a loss for words. He had expected his boss to show no mercy, to perhaps even fire him on the spot for being so late when he had already been given ample chances to get to the precinct on time. He had never considered the fact that his current appearance would cause Captain Singh to go easy on him. He might even have felt the urge to thank the metahuman who had caused his injuries for Singh's sudden change in mood. That is, if the same meta had not been responsible for Barry's lateness in the first place. The hero had spent the better part of the early morning unconscious in the med bay at STAR Labs thanks to an altercation with the new meta, and had rushed over to work practically as soon as he had woken up, despite not yet being completely healed. When Singh started for the door, presumably to get the ice himself, Barry quickly rushed to talk him out of it.

"No, no, I'm fine, Sir," he blurted. "Really, I heal fast," he added assuredly, praying the captain would just leave him be and let him start on his work; he had a lot of case files he had to get through.

Singh looked at Barry skeptically, but finally let out a sigh. "Alright, fine, get to work," he said, waving the boy off. Barry's face lit up with thinly veiled relief, and he quickly limped his way towards the door. His boss already knew he was injured at this point; there was no reason to try and hide it. He was halfway out when he heard, "Oh, and Allen?" Barry turned slowly to face Singh again. "For the love of God, son, learn to stand up for yourself!"

Barry felt his lips part in an amused smile at the captain's words. "You should see the other guy," he said, allowing himself a soft laugh as he left the office and made his way to his lab. David simply shook his head and sat at his desk once again.

Barry Allen really was a stellar employee, when it came to his work ethic and the passion he had for his job. Singh recognized this, of course, and knew that it would be extremely hard to replace the kid. That was why, despite the issues with his lateness, he had never actually been able to fire the kid, although he had certainly come close to that morning. In all honesty, he had felt angry enough to beat some sense into Allen, though it appeared that someone had beaten him to it.

It was around 12:30 when David felt the alien, compelling feeling to go up and check on his young scientist. Although Barry had clearly been all too willing to ignore his injuries, he felt it would make him somewhat of a bad boss to not do a follow-up and see how he was fairing. Sighing, the captain made his way through the bottom floor of the precinct, weaving around the officers in the busy precinct and climbing the stairs that lead up to Barry's lab.

When he made it up, Barry was sitting hunched over his desk, looking over a case file. He didn't appear to have heard Singh enter and, seconds later, he realized why.

"Caitlin, I'm fine," Allen was saying insistently into his cell as he flipped the page on the file, trying his best to focus on both things at once. "Really. If it makes you happy, I'll let you run whatever tests you want on me when I'm out of work. I was already over an hour late, and Singh was about ready to kick me into next week. I know you're a doctor, but geeze, I do have my healing factor, remember?" he added amusedly. "Now can I please get back to work?" A pause, and then, "Yeah. Call me if there are any emergencies. See you later."

Singh stared at his CSI as he hung up the phone, looking annoyed though slightly perplexed. Healing factor? The hell did that mean? Finally, Singh cleared his throat to signify his presence, and Barry whirled around faster than he had ever seen the kid move, clearly startled. His facial expression changed almost comically to one of alarm when he saw his boss standing in the doorway, clearly having seen him on his phone.

"Captain Singh, I'm sorry! That - that was my, ah, doctor, and I just really needed to -" Barry started rambling, but stopped when he noticed the captain giving him the oddest look. A look that wasn't anger, but...surprise? Disbelief? Barry's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Captain…?" he asked slowly. "Everything alright?"

Singh didn't answer right away. Everything he had been about to say to Barry seemed suddenly stuck in his throat as he stared at him, his face specifically. It couldn't have been possible, but yet...Allen's eye. The same eye that had been heavily bruised and nearly swollen shut just hours ago now showed no traces of injury at all. It was completely normal, as if nothing had ever happened. The words he had heard Barry say moments ago, "healing factor," echoed in his mind.

"Allen, what the hell?" he asked finally, thoroughly perplexed.

Though Barry seemed just as confused, not yet having caught on what the source of his boss' mood swing was this time. "Sir?" he asked, needing clarification.

"Your eye, Allen," Singh said impatiently.

As Barry finally realized what the older man was talking about, his face portrayed absolute horror. Shit. How could he have not thought this through? The captain had seen him injured only hours ago, and Barry had done nothing to try and cover up the fact that he was now completely healed. What on earth had he been thinking? Well, the answer to that one was easy: he hadn't been thinking. If he had, this situation would have been avoided. Barry had to try and think fast.

"Sir, I can explain," he was quick to say, his mind reeling as he tried desperately to think of what a logical explanation could be. He was still panicking slightly when he heard a familiar voice call out to him from the hallway.

"Barry? You up here?" Seconds later, Joe materialized, entering the lab. He smiled at Barry, but it quickly dissipated when he saw the look on his foster son's face, and the way that Captain Singh was disbelievingly analyzing him. The detective crossed his arms, looking between the two once more before speaking again. "What's going on in here?" he asked, raising his eyebrow as he addressed them both. Barry beat his boss to the answer.

"Captain Singh was just asking me what had happened to the black eye I had this morning," he replied, shooting Joe a pointed look that clearly said "help me out." Joe was silent a moment as he took in the information. He hadn't even known that Barry had been injured, and he vowed to himself that they would have a talk about that later. But right now, Joe could see they had bigger issues to deal with.

"Oh, of course," Joe said, walking over to stand by Barry's side, giving Singh his best innocent smile. "You see, captain, it's just a side-effect of...when he was struck by lightning," Joe said, the first thing that had come to mind. "There's this weird thing with his bruises; they look like they fade faster than they actually do. The pigment of his skin just...adapts to the discoloration. It still hurts like hell though, right Barry?" he asked, pressing quickly on the skin around his right eye as if to stress the point.

Barry was quick to go along with Joe's odd lie, desperate to get Singh to believe it. "Ow, God, yes Joe," he said, swatting his foster dad's hand away as if it actually pained him.

Joe shot another smile at the bewildered captain. "Now if you don't mind, I actually came up here to grab Barry for lunch break. I'll bring him back on time, promise," he said, grabbing Barry's wrist and practically dragging him out of the room, down the stairs and out of the precinct.

David stared as they left, feeling more confused than he had before in his life. Even if Joe's explanation had made any kind of sense, it hadn't escaped his notice that Barry was not limping even the slightest as Joe had pulled him from the room.

Barry and Joe were barely ten feet from the precinct when Joe began to lay into his foster son. "What the hell were you thinking!?" Joe questioned. "Why would you come into work if you were hurt!? You didn't think you should have given yourself time to heal first?" he demanded. "Did you not think it would be a dead giveaway to your powers if someone realized you could magically heal in record timing? And why didn't you tell me you were hurt?"

The detective barely took a breath between sentences, getting everything off of his chest. Barry rubbed a hand over his face with a sigh, taking a moment before replying.

"Look, Joe, I'm sorry," he said. "I wasn't thinking, alright? And Singh was already on my ass about being on time, so when I woke up all I could think about was getting to work. I didn't exactly have time to tell you. Besides, it wasn't that big of a deal."

"You were unconscious?" Joe said, demanding once again. "Barry -"

Barry let out a groan, cutting him off. "Joe, I'm fine. You're almost as bad as Caitlin."

With that said, Joe took a moment to collect himself, taking a deep breath and giving Barry a serious look. "I'm sorry, Bar," he said. "That was just way too close for comfort, you know? Do you really want Singh finding out you're the Flash?"

"Of course not," Barry said in response. "It's bad enough so many people know already. There's no point to having a secret identity if everybody knows it."

Joe let out a soft laugh at that. "Well, then don't pull anything like that again," he said, somewhat amusedly. "I'm not good at spouting fake doctor crap, even if it's to save your hide. That's Caitlin's job."

Barry managed an amused smile at that, and Joe let loose another laugh, clapping Barry on the shoulder. "Alright, lunch on me," he said. "Hopefully you're off the hook."

Barry was not off the hook.

After his lunch break with Joe had been cut short due to the detective being called to a domestic disturbance, the speedster had gone back to the precinct alone. Much to his dismay, he found the captain waiting for him when he got back. Singh was waiting outside of his office, and as soon as he spotted his CSI walking through the door, he shot him an odd look that Barry couldn't quite identify and motioned for him to step into his office. Feeling himself fill with dread for what felt like the millionth time that day, Barry walked into the room, and Singh closed the door behind him.

"Have a seat, Mr. Allen," David said as he sat in the chair behind his desk. Reluctantly, Barry did as he was told, sitting in the chair on the opposite side of the desk.

"Captain, sir, what is this about?" he asked, playing dumb, although the 26-year-old had a sinking suspicion that he already that he already knew exactly what it was about.

"Do you realize that I'm not stupid, Barry?" Singh asked in an eerily calm voice that made the young hero feel slightly uneasy. The feeling was amplified by his boss' use of his first name. The captain nearly never used it.

"Sir, I'm not sure I know what you're getting at here. I never implied that -"

"Ah ah, no interrupting," Singh cut him off sternly, although he hadn't interrupted in the first place. Barry's mouth shut, and he looked at the captain apprehensively.

"Joe may be a good cop, but he's a terrible liar, you know," Singh continued. "Not that I doubt your miraculous healing ability isn't a side-effect of your lightning incident, although I'm rather certain it's not in the way that he described it to be. Am I right?"

Barry, for the second time that day, seemed at a loss for words. "Sir, I…" he said, but trailed off, not quite sure where he was going with it. Seeing that the young man sitting before him wasn't going to continue, David took it upon himself to keep doing the talking.

"I'm not going to tell anyone," he said honestly, and Barry felt his heart begin to beat faster in his chest.

"...you're not going to tell anyone what?" he asked slowly, trying to wrap his mind around exactly what Singh was saying, but not sure if he wanted to.

Singh's face morphed to show a look of soft understanding, something Barry was definitely not used to seeing from the older man.

"That you're the Flash."

Upon hearing those words, Barry did his best to keep his cool. His eyes wanted to bug out of his head, and his heart rate picked up even more. But it didn't show. "The Flash?" he asked with a scoff. "Very funny, sir. I didn't know you had a sense of humor."

Singh looked almost amused as the young scientist tried to play it off. "Allen," he said seriously, and the fake, confident front Barry had been keeping faltered. "I'm not stupid," he repeated his earlier statement and sighed a bit, pausing briefly.

"Look," he said after a moment, seeing the look on his employee's face. "Joe's no doctor. Whatever nonsense came out his mouth earlier, it didn't sound right, and I know you know that. I might have been willing to believe it, however, if I hadn't watched you walk out that lab with no problem. You weren't limping, Barry," Singh said. Barry sucked in a deep breath but said nothing, which the captain took as a sign to continue.

"So, I started to do a little bit of digging," he said, watching Barry closely as he spoke. "And it turned out that in the time that you were absent this morning, there was a metahuman attack. The Flash stopped it, of course, but there were reports that he was injured in the process."

Barry was silent still, looking a little pale as he continued to listen to his boss speak.

"And then everything just started to come together," David went on. "How late you were after the attack, that you came into work injured, the fact that you were perfectly fine later. You getting struck by lightning, the same night that the particle accelerator exploded..." Singh trailed off. He was sure that the CSI got the message.

Barry stared at Singh, taking a moment to process everything he had just said; what he clearly knew. He let out a slow breath, running a hand through his hair. "So...you know," Barry said slowly after a moment. It wasn't a question, but a statement. There was no reason to try and pretend at this point, to continue to try and play dumb. He had tried that with Patty once, and it hadn't worked; Barry knew it wouldn't work with Singh, either.

"I know," the captain confirmed. Both men were silent for a moment before Singh spoke up again. "I'm proud of you, Barry. And I…" he paused a moment, looking for the right words. He had never had such an honest conversation with Barry like this. "Thank you," he decided on finally, simply. "What you've done for this city, what you've done for me. You saved my fiancé. I'll never forget that."

"All in a day's work," Barry replied, a soft smile on his face. It was strange, he thought, that he was discussing this with his boss; that Singh knew his secret. But it was something he supposed he would have to get used to. Singh smiled softly back at the young hero sitting before him.

"I won't tell anyone," Singh repeated, and Barry nodded.

"Thank you, sir."

A silence stretched between them again and, slowly, Barry got up to leave, to get back to his work.

"Mr. Allen?" Singh said as Barry began to leave his office. Barry turned back around, giving his boss a curious look. Singh gave him one more soft smile.

"I'll understand if you're sometimes late."