Beta'd by Quartic Moose
Before any visitors had a chance to arrive, Dr. Engels talked with Barry in order to judge whether his brain had completely recovered yet or not; apparently it was a part of some consciousness test to see if someone can hold a conversation.
Barry's thoughts got lost once, but he managed to pull himself back together. In the end, he didn't do too badly. At least not as badly as the first time he'd woken up. Considering he didn't even remember waking up, Barry could believe that he'd been pretty out of it. After that piece of information, Barry didn't find it entirely surprising that the Wests would be eager to come over. The hospital had notified them earlier, but they were also told to wait until they determined whether he had any lasting brain damage. The hospital wanted the Wests to know what they were getting into before letting them visit.
After the conversation test, the hospital staff moved Barry out of the coma ward into a new room, which was not single. Well, his previous room had had three other patients, but because they were not just asleep but comatose, Barry had been able to ignore their presence. Not that his new roommate was obtrusive or anything; he was just there.
That, and he was hogging the TV, keeping it on sports channels. When Barry had asked him to change it to some more intellectually-stimulating programs such as the science channel or, god forbid, the news, the other man looked at him with an expression that clearly read, "How could you not like sports? What's wrong with you?" Barry decided not to push it. He wouldn't be so bothered, if he had anything else to do. Eventually he called the hospital staff, and asked if they could scrounge up something.
The hospital left him some magazines with which to entertain himself until his first visitor arrived. The magazines were nothing special; Barry figured the hospital staff had rustled through the various waiting rooms to provide him with some entertainment. They didn't even have a copy of Scientific American in the batch, and there were now ten different issues which he hadn't read; Barry would have to remind Iris or Daniel West to bring him some issues of that and Science Showcase to their next visit. Still, however inadequate the hospital's selection was, it did give Barry something to do to pass the time, which was an improvement over yesterday.
Even alternating between the pile and the television, Barry found himself going through the magazines quicker than he expected. He'd finish reading one magazine's articles and expect half an hour to have passed, but when he glanced up he discovered it was only fifteen minutes later, even though he had been trying to drag each magazine out. Perhaps reading slowly was impossible when the material was as superficial as what this particular actor or actress was wearing.
Fortunately, the Wests, or at least Iris and Daniel, arrived before he finished the pile. He wasn't surprised that Daniel's wife hadn't shown up. She had never been mean, but they had never been close. She hadn't been looking for a new child, especially a child picked up from one of her husband's cases. Barry didn't mind, though; he hadn't been looking for a new mother.
Daniel wore his civilian clothes, which were still rather formal, while Iris wore a pair of slacks and a blouse. Iris held her hands behind her back. She looked a little nervous. "I hope you're feeling ok enough to see us."
Barry laughed. "The only reason they have all these machines hooked up to me is because apparently the first thing you are supposed to do when you wake up from coma isn't ask for food, especially if they are feeding you through IV tubes." Seeing the worried look on his visitors' faces, Barry tried to give a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. I don't feel bad at all. The hunger's creeping in again, but it's barely there now. I'm fine."
Iris's lips rolled. "Are you going to get out anytime soon?"
Barry let out a sigh. "They want to keep me under observation for a few days to see if anything else pops up, and I'll have to be doing some physical therapy to get my muscles used to moving again." The smallest of relieved smiles graced his lips. "That won't take very long though. I was only out for a year. People have come back from longer comas." His visitors didn't look completely convinced, but what else could he say? He wasn't going to deny the incident after he woke up.
Iris nervously shifted her weight. "It was still a long time."
Barry could feel a sudden silence between Iris and Daniel. It hadn't truly sunk in how hard it must have been for them, waiting for him to wake up.
Suddenly a question occurred to him. "It's kind of weird asking you guys this, but did you ever consider pulling the plug? I wouldn't hold it against you either way. It just feels like something I should know." Barry wasn't even sure what he wanted them to say. On one hand, he was alive and glad to be so, but on the other hand, he could sympathize with the reasoning behind not wanting to live only through the aid of machines. Moreover, he hadn't given the question much thought before going into a coma, so the Wests, who were legally his family, would have had to make the decision themselves.
Daniel sighed, "Son, I understand, but that is a question for another time." A weight settled over the older man's shoulders, which visibly dropped. His face settled downwards.
"No, Dad," Iris said flatly. "He deserves to know."
Daniel shot his daughter a short glare and shrugged. He didn't disagree with Barry's right to know that information. But, not knowing when, and for the longest time even if, Barry would wake up had been hard enough. The pieces of hope that had been laid out for them only made things harder at times. At this point Daniel just wanted everybody to focus on and appreciate the fact that Barry was awake.
Iris didn't pay attention to the reprimand, though. She turned to Barry and explained, "For two whole months, you made close to no progress. Another two weeks in, and doctors started to drop hints that we should consider cutting you off life support. They didn't say it outright but the message was clear." She took a deep breath. "For a whole week, the family debated. Most of us decided that you wouldn't want to live like that; it wasn't life. But…" Iris paused. The words lingered in her mouth and refused to leave.
Daniel filled it in. "We didn't want to be the ones to sign off on your death warrant."
Iris gave the smallest of nods and continued. "And then, just as we were about to work up the resolve to do it, you started getting better. Barely. In the smallest of steps. But, it was there, and it was steady. So, we couldn't; we had hope."
Barry glanced down then back into Iris's eyes. "That was the only time?"
"The only time the talks got that far," Daniel nodded.
Iris cringed. "The thought was always there like a dark cloud, especially during that week in the middle of the summer. You started plateau-ing. Physically you had recovered, but your brain still wasn't doing much then." She shook her head. "It wasn't as bad, though."
Barry sat there for a moment. He took a deep breath and nodded. What was he supposed to say? He didn't know how he felt about the situation. How could he comfort them for what they went through? What did they want him to say? Finally he decided to open his mouth. "Well, I'm alive now, and I'm fairly certain I'm all right. You don't need to worry over me anymore. Thanks for worrying when you did." It wasn't perfect, but at least it was something.
The family stood in silence. It wasn't the most pleasant of silences - nothing could be after the previous conversation. At the same time, it wasn't the most uncomfortable of silences either. Every half-formed sentence tasted awkward after everyone had swallowed a thought so heavy.
Finally Daniel decided to speak. He was always the least comfortable with silence. "Considering you will be here awhile it's a good thing we brought gifts then. I was worrying you would be getting out and not needing them." Iris took a bag out from behind her back and set it on the table next to Barry. Her movements were still tense, but Barry could see her slowly relaxing. "Look inside."
Glancing in, Barry immediately noticed a couple books. Smiling he reached in and carefully took them out. Barry's smile only grew. The bag contained Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert, Foundation by Isaac Asimov, and The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin. Books he had been meaning to get around to for ages but never did because of his busy work schedule.
But, those were only the books. Unnoticed at first glance because of their thinness, two comics lined the bottom of the bag. One was an old issue of Green Lantern, while the other was a Flash comic. Barry grinned.
If pressured, Barry would admit that the lantern and helmet were goofy. A little more pressure would reveal that sometimes the two series revealed their ages in less-than-flattering ways; AC Entertainment had stopped printing them part-way through the eighties. However, no one could make Barry deny that he was a longtime fan of both. While everybody knew that Peter Parker was Spider-Man and that Steve Rogers was Captain America, Barry knew very few people who could say that Jay Garrick and Alan Scott were the Flash and Green Lantern, respectively, and could also go on about their personal and heroic lives.
Barry did not read the series in an attempt to be hipster. During middle school, he had stumbled into an old comic shop, and the owner had shown him some of the old series including Green Lantern. He'd gotten hooked on the hero's mystical adventures. He couldn't read it as often as he could the current series, because the issues were getting more expensive and harder to find, but he always saved up some of his money specifically for a Green Lantern issue.
Two years after picking up the Green Lantern series, Barry stumbled across an issue where the titular character teamed up with the Flash. Barry was instantly hooked. Here was somebody, albeit a fictional somebody, who specialized in super-speed but, unlike his mother's killer, used his powers for good. Of course, after all the criticism he received for saying the truth about what had happened, Barry didn't give that reason for his sudden interest when explaining it to his friends. His family quickly caught on, however, and had reactions that ranged from frustration to support.
Barry kept holding the Flash comic, still in its plastic sleeve. "Thank you."
"We thought you'd have some time to enjoy the classics of the genres you've decided to call home," Iris shrugged. Barry knew she had mysteries as her novel of choice, but she'd also kept track of his reading list around gift-giving time, even if she didn't personally want to read the books.
Daniel West gave out a hearty laugh. "That and you've missed Christmas and your birthday, so we had to get you something."
"Oh, and something else," Iris picked up another bag. Unlike the first bag, which could easily have come from Barnes & Noble, this one was more of a messenger bag. It was functional and could hold a decent amount of stuff, but it also was somewhat decorative and worn over only one shoulder. "On the way here we stopped by your apartment and grabbed your laptop, your cell phone, chargers, etc. The essentials." She handed the bag over. "You can't keep the case. I usually keep my notebooks in there."
"Finally! A connection with the outside world," Barry halfway joked, while retrieving his electronics.
Daniel West raised an eyebrow at Barry with a mock expression of seriousness. "See, that spare key I had you give us came in handy after all."
The conversation continued onward from there. How was the rest of the family doing? Did you know Wally insisted on visiting you when his family came to visit over the summer? He's in high school now. Your dad missed your annual visit. Iris and Daniel informed him about the small but important pieces of information regarding the group of people Barry had eventually come to consider a second family. They were still second to those that had raised him until he was eleven, and the extended biological family he rarely saw. But, while it wasn't his biological family's fault for being absent, the Wests had actually been there through middle and high school.
Eventually, because both Daniel and Barry shared the same workplace, the topic of conversation drifted there. Daniel started towards it first, "Have you heard about all these unexplained cases that popped up since the incident at S.T.A.R. Labs?" Iris's eyebrows knit together.
Barry shook his head in confusion. "No. The TV has been on ESPN all day, and I doubt any of these mentioned it." Barry picked up a couple of the magazines. "The nurses and doctors don't really have a reason to tell me, but then again, for all I know the Lower East Side could have burnt to the ground after the particle accelerator explosion." The only reason Barry knew that neither World War Three nor the zombie apocalypse had struck while he was asleep was that he really hoped people would be a little less worried about the home football team and what dress Scarlet Johansson was wearing in those circumstances.
Daniel laughed. "Well, they wouldn't know just how weird these cases are anyways, though some of it does get to the media." The smile that always accompanied a good story was creeping onto Daniel's face, "Some of these cases have had the department stumped for months."
He paused, obviously trying to build suspense. When Iris didn't chime in with her quip, Barry hesitantly provided it himself. "We're lucky Iris isn't a reporter." Numerous times Iris had used this to make her father notice that he was accidentally providing information the department hadn't cleared for the public yet. Often Daniel would just get carried away telling an interesting thing that happened at work. Fortunately, the family had also been trained since a young age not to repeat their father's stories to their friends.
"Anything I'm going to tell you Iris has probably already heard."
Daniel was doing one of his storytelling pauses, which lasted just a little longer than normal breaks in conversation, when Iris interrupted, "Dad, can we just not?"
Daniel's eyes widened and his eyebrows rose. "I have mentioned all of these during our weekly phone conversations. I swear."
Iris's eyes narrowed. "This isn't about that. These won't just be unexplained cases for Barry, and you know it." Iris made a sweeping gesture towards the bed where Barry lay. "It's just going to encourage it." She purposefully looked at the two men in front of her. "Fine, you're going to talk about it anyway, but I don't want to be there for it, pretending like I approve." She looked Barry in the eye- "I'm sorry" and left the room.
Barry had heard that "I'm sorry" a million times before. I'm sorry your mother died. I'm sorry your father killed her. I'm sorry you can't move on. I'm sorry you were in shock and invented a crazy story. Iris was not always apologizing for something, but when Nora Allen's death or investigations into the unexplainable came up, it always seemed like she was. Barry really couldn't blame her; he probably did sound pretty crazy. But, the statements always hurt, and suddenly it would feel like a brick wall had landed between him and her. He didn't like it.
Daniel stood there, a little put off. His eyes hardened and looked somewhere in the distance. Barry had watched Daniel and Iris disagree over him before. Iris couldn't believe his story and accepted that his father must have committed the crime. She couldn't see why he couldn't accept it as well. While Daniel didn't quite believe Barry's story, he thought there was some kernel of truth at the heart of it. Not all of the evidence had completely added up in his opinion, and the kid had seen a blur attack his mother. Somebody else had been in the house; Daniel was willing to respect that.
After the awkward silence had dragged a bit too long, Barry decided he had to say something. "What exactly were these cases?"
Daniel sighed. It wasn't the same story it had been before, having had its enthusiasm deflated. "The most recent one involves a series of arsons. The buildings are going up so quickly, we think that there must be something high-powered behind it like explosives, but no one can find the trace substances something that big would require."
Barry gave it a moment's thought, then shrugged. "Couldn't the arsonist have used a flamethrower or a similar device? Because the flammable substances are contained inside the device, CSIs wouldn't find any at the crime scene. Plus, those are more likely to use gases anyways, so even if something was left behind, it would be fairly dispersed by the time any CSIs arrived. Not that they would make a habit of taking air samples anyways."
"The people assigned to the case don't think so," Daniel answered shaking his head. "Apparently, the buildings are just going up too quickly. If somebody was starting the fires with a handheld device, they'd be caught in the blast. Nobody would be able to get away without serious burns, not since we discovered that it would a bad idea to make suits out of asbestos."
Barry furrowed his eyebrows together. "The people side of things is not my specialty, but has any progress been made at that end? Maybe the guy is crazy, and you should be looking for somebody who actually has severe burns. Or, depending on how many arsons there have been, a whole group of people."
"We did have a psychological profiler come down from the FBI. Apparently, they have some agents specifically assigned to work on cases like this. In fact, if I remember correctly, they worked on your mother's murder. The guy asked about you, in fact, wanted to see how you were doing."
"I think I know who you're talking about." Barry narrowed his eyes trying to remember. It had been almost a decade and a half since the incident, and while he might remember the murder itself in vivid detail, the investigation afterwards was a blur of people in a completely different way. "Were they the nice tall guy and the scary redhead?" He did remember a man who had believed him and actually encouraged him to hold onto the memory. The man had also reassured him that while the road to finding answers was hard, they were out there. Barry also remembered a super-skeptical lady trailing the man around. While he couldn't remember whether the man was from the FBI or even recall his name, he remembered the man's words giving him a lot of hope.
"I think so," Daniel laughed. He took a deep breath. "The guy said it was probably an escalating pyromaniac, who just wants to see things burn, and unfortunately he's smart enough to choose targets he doesn't have a close connection to, at least from what we can tell. Still, we've detected a small pattern, so we're quicker to respond.
"That, however, is not the most dramatic example. Part-way through July, when we were having a wave of hundred-degree weather, bodies were suddenly turning up frozen. The victims were mostly criminals, but we suspected something closer to a turf war than a vigilante. There was one attack per criminal group, and we figured that if it was somebody with a vendetta, they would finish off one group before moving onto the next one. In another set of instances, illusions would pop up, providing distractions during robberies. Witnesses and cops would say they looked so real, but that after the robbery ended or something hit the illusions hard enough - such as a bullet - they would literally fall apart.
"Unfortunately, most of the time things quiet down before we can get a lock on these guys. There's still a stunt every once and a while, but it's not enough."
"Are you guys worried about a cop tipping these guys off?" Barry asked, before pushing his lips together. Nobody on the force wanted to admit that a fellow cop could do that, but with such coincidences…
Daniel shook his head. "It's a possibility, but it looks unlikely. There doesn't seem to be much of a connection between these events like there would be if there was a cop working for a particular gang. Funnily enough, the only connection seems to be that they generally happen in the portion of the city closest to the broken particle accelerator, the Lower East Side."
"Really?" So his sarcastic comment earlier turned out to be true.. "You mentioned that 'the people working on the case'. You're not on the cases yourself?"
"Nah, but I know someone who is. 'Figured you'd want to hear about it when you woke up."
Barry smiled. "Thanks." A comfortable silence drifted over the pair. "I guess we should fetch Iris now that we're done talking about this."
"And ruin the perfect moment to gossip about her love life?" Daniel West was only half joking. Neither man wanted to gossip in the usual connotation of the word; they were not trying to find a juicy scandal or work against Iris in anyway. However, while Daniel would approve of a relationship between Barry and Iris, he wasn't going to interfere too heavily, and at this point that included notifying Iris of Barry's feelings. Unfortunately, the kid he had already come to see as a son obviously needed a push when it came to relationships. A girl could probably ask him out to his face and he wouldn't believe it.
"She only sees me as a sibling and a friend, and if she is happy elsewhere then so be it." Barry was getting tired of his father figure's nudges, but though they filled his voice with exasperation, they also gave him a little hope. At least if he and Iris ever got together, he wouldn't have to hide from a disapproving father.
"Well, she switched boyfriends twice while you were out, so I wouldn't count on that happiness elsewhere just yet." Daniel was already walking toward the door to fetch Iris. They had had this conversation before. Most had already been said.
Iris returned; the family talked some more. The conversation flowed pleasantly, and eventually Daniel West left to give Barry and Iris some time.
As soon as Daniel left the room, Iris's expression turned deathly serious. The muscles which had been pulling Iris's lips into a wide smile suddenly relaxed, leaving what others would think was a neutral expression. Barry knew better. Iris's eyebrows dropped a full centimeter, and her eyes narrowed. If Iris had been looking at a piece of paper and perhaps tapping a pencil against her lips, Barry would have guessed she was working on a particularly hard homework problem. Unfortunately, she was looking at him. A shiver went down his spine.
She stared at him for a full moment or two. Barry was getting confused about how long a moment was supposed to last anyways, but this dragged on longer than was comfortable. Finally, she spoke, "Barry, tell the truth. Are you really ok?"
Barry blinked several times; he hadn't been expecting that. Typically Iris was very good at telling whether Barry was telling the truth, dodging around something, or actually lying, and he had been telling the truth earlier. There were some things that should have bothered him. The fact that he had been so hungry earlier and managed to eat more than he thought his stomach could hold provided an example. How slow everything seemed to be going came at a close second. But, now that he had food in his stomach, the former didn't seem so bad, and the latter didn't bother him too much so long as he didn't pay attention to it. In fact, if anything he felt physically better than when he went into the coma.
Not knowing what else to do, Barry shrugged. "I'm fine." A pause. Iris didn't look totally convinced. "What makes you think something's wrong?"
"You just…" Iris twirled her hand through the air, fishing the ideas out of her skull. "seem on edge." Barry raised an eyebrow. "You jump too quickly at things. Talk too fast." She titled her head. "I know the speed at which you roll, and this is not it. What's wrong?"
He was going too fast? Barry didn't know how to respond to that, so he didn't, letting it mull over in his head. Everyone else did seem slower than usual. If he hadn't been trying to ignore the change of pace, Barry might have asked Iris the same question in reverse. He had been ignoringit though, so he hadn't considered what it might look like from the other side.
Before he had a chance to say anything though, Iris started in again. This time she looked down rather than into his eyes. "I should have expected this or something like it. It's not exactly my field of study, but I decided to look into comas while I was out. The readings said things like this could happen. People take a while to recover. Some never completely do.
"But, you've always been there for me. Even if we weren't having our study parties like we did in college, you still provided a shoulder to lean on when I needed it. You'd hear out my problems even if you didn't have the answer, and that was enough." Iris gave a half-laugh. "I came in to talk to you most Fridays, while you were out, but it wasn't the same. I wanted you to wake up, so we could get back to life the way things were. I kept on imagining you'd get up and come visit the campus like nothing happened, even if I knew how unlikely that was."
"Iris," Barry sighed. "I'm sorry for being away for so long."
Iris laughed. This was a hearty laugh that contained a trace of an amused giggle. "You couldn't help getting struck by lightning and covered in chemicals. Even if you were doing something stupid," Iris gave him a look that clearly read 'and you occasionally do,' "The odds of that happening are phenomenal. I mean, that was the night you got back and the night of the particle accelerator explosion. The night of improbable events." She continued with a shallower laugh. "You know I thought someone was pulling a prank on me when I found out."
A smile spread on Barry's face involuntarily. It was nice to hear Iris laugh. After enjoying the moment for one of his elongated seconds, he put a serious face back on. "Point is, I also want to get back to my life, and Dr. Engels said there's a good chance I'll be able to. However, I probably am a little frazzled."
An amused but also withdrawn smile crawled onto Iris's lips. "I can hardly imagine. Being in the lab one moment then waking up in a hospital room. I'd freak."
"Oh, that isn't even the half of it," Barry groaned. "I mentioned that I woke up feeling hungry." Iris nodded. "We're still trying to figure out why. At first the doctor thought that something might be wrong with my brain chemistry, but now he thinks that the chemicals messed with my basal metabolic rate. They hadn't noticed earlier because I was already in a coma, so my body had no way of telling the world that it was starving."
Iris's amused expression immediately dropped. "Why didn't you mention it earlier?"
"I did somewhat, but you guys were already freaking out. I didn't want to push it." Barry glared for a moment. However, he wanted to comfort Iris, not chastise her, so he also gave an apologetic shrug. "Physically, I feel fine now, so don't worry too much. I'll keep you posted."
"Yeah, well, if anything comes up, tell the doctor immediately. If you don't I will drag you to him myself. You need to rest."
Barry flinched. That didn't sound too restful to him. But, with the threats out of the way, the conversation could continue in other directions. Barry practiced talking slower, partly to let Iris calm down and partly so other people wouldn't catch onto him operating at the wrong speed. At first, Iris would occasionally give him odd looks after he finished a sentence. Barry guessed that if you sped up somebody trying to speak whale you wouldn't get normal speech. However, by the end of the conversation the awkward glances had stopped, and Iris looked more relaxed: mission success.
Eventually Iris got up to leave, but Barry stopped her before she reached the door. "Thanks for coming. Not just now, but while I was comatose as well. It means a lot."
"The visits helped me as well," Iris shrugged. "Plus, I wasn't the only one who showed up."
"Really?" Barry offered playfully. They both knew that while he wasn't Mr. Popular, he did have one or two good friends in the family and at work.
Iris rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, the rest of the family came by every once and a while too. I heard some of your friends from work occasionally stopped by as well, especially somebody named Julio." Finally, Iris put on a mischievous expression which frightened Barry. "I even saw a pretty blonde from Starling City several times. You should call her up. She seemed worried."
Barry's eyes bulged in surprise. "Really?" He hadn't expected Felicity to stop by. A millisecond passed. "You guys met?"
"Yeah, she seemed nice." Iris shrugged before walking back over to Barry's bed. With this new conversation, it didn't seem like she'd have much of a chance to leave. As with many close friends, there was always something more to say and talk about or at least to share in silence. Barry was glad he could lose his time with Iris like that. Then, Barry noticed that her mischievous smile hadn't gone away, and he didn't know whether to feel comforted or scared. "So, how did you get involved with Oliver Queen's secretary?"
Barry's face burned bright red.
Iris laughed. "Just messing with you. We only met a couple times, but she did seem interested." Iris looked at her watch. "I'll call you up later. I still have some experiments to write up by tomorrow. Call you later? There's so much to talk about."
A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Though it gets a bit dark at times, it was fun to write and points at some things to come. Plus, that is what happens when you get into a coma for 10 months. Your family has to wait and worry, and overall it's not fun.
In the meantime, I included some cool references as well:
The Glasgow coma scale includes a section on talking.
Science Showcase was the magazine Barry used to cover his head in "The Scientist"
When I started high school my parents decided that if I was going to be into science fiction and fantasy I should read some of the classics, so I read Dune and Children of Dune. Barry is obviously past that point. Recently I've gotten into the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, though Barry hasn't started that. I remember reading something by Ursula L. Guinn, but it was a while ago, so I actually had to look that one up.
Showcase # 4, which was Barry's debut in the comics, shows Barry with an old issue of the Flash (as in Jay Garrick). Thus, the multi-verse was created (while technically they had to later come out and say it when Jay and Barry met, but the point is, it is in that moment that they would have had to exist in different universes)
The FBI agents were a total reference to the X-Files, though they might require moving the dates for the X-Files forward a bit to get it too work. Barry, the truth is out there!
And many other references I don't have time to list.