A/N: Ok. So this is a bit a of a filler chapter, but there's a reason for that. This is, sadly, going to be the second to last chapter in this story. I will be posting an epilogue chapter soon enough, but at the same time, I'm going to get started on the sequel. Yes, there is going to be a sequel and it will be called Hostage Situation: The Oncoming Storm. It, like this chapter, will center on the aftermath of Hostage Situation, as well as the developments that will occur in the final chapter. I will inform you that you will get to look forward to much more Reverse Flash and also Mark Mardon AKA Weather Wizard making an appearance as well as the Rogues again which will include more than just the Snarts and Mick Rory. When I do post the epilogue for Hostage Situation, I will also post the first chapter of Hostage Situation: The Oncoming Storm.

As usual, a big thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and/or favorited this story. You guys are so awesome!

-BG

"Forgive me. But to me, you've been dead for centuries."

Cisco woke with a start and sat straight up in his bed, a cry of horror and pain stifled in his throat as he realized where he was. He was in his own bed in his apartment. He was ok. He was safe.

Cisco let out a heavy sigh, wiping a layer of cold sweat from his brow with one shaking hand. That nightmare had been too real for him. Far too real. Cisco lay back down, trying to catch his breath and relax again. He closed his eyes, trying very hard to forget what he had just seen, but failing greatly. Somehow, after the events with the Reverse Flash earlier that day, he couldn't help, but wonder if maybe his mind was telling him something that he himself had seen, but hadn't realized yet.

Cisco felt himself ever so slowly drifting back to sleep and decided he'd worry about it in the morning. Perhaps he could discuss it with Barry alongside the sudden development of his powers…

Cisco didn't realize that he'd fallen asleep again until he was awakened once more by another nightmare. It was a different place, but the same face and the same end. He sighed once more. It was going to be a long night…

Barry sat in the examination room of STAR Labs, letting Caitlin continue to fuss over him. To be completely honest, he was totally fine with her order for him to stay there for the night so she could monitor him after Cisco let slip about the head-butt during his battle with the Reverse Flash. He was totally fine with not going to sleep again anytime soon to be completely honest.

Caitlin had sent Cisco home hours ago, Diggle giving him a ride back to his apartment. Roy had gone back to the hotel that Team Arrow were staying at and Diggle was keeping an eye on him lest he begin to show signs of a concussion. Felicity was working from another server room with Oliver who was patrolling the city while Barry was on bed rest. Dr. Wells had gone home a few hours ago, saying that he needed to rest. Caitlin had protested at first (just as she had with Roy until Diggle had stepped in), but Eddie and Iris had promised to keep an eye on him for the night and had given him a ride home. They'd called later to inform them that everything was all right, but Dr. Wells had politely told them that he could manage on his own and they had left after a long debate where after Dr. Wells had stubbornly insisted that he was fine and didn't need any assistance. Barry briefly wondered if it was because of Wells' already wounded pride from being in a wheelchair, but decided not to dwell on it.

"Mr. Allen."

Barry turned at the sound of Captain Singh's voice, standing quickly to face his boss. Seeing as the Captain now knew of his identity as the Flash, part of him worried what Singh might have to say to him. "Captain, I can explain-"

Singh held up a hand. "Allen, I'm not here to discuss your extracurricular activities. That can wait until you've recovered. I'm actually here to talk to you about your misadventures over the past couple of days."

Barry's jaw clamped shut automatically. Surprisingly, he would have been a great deal more comfortable discussing his so called "extracurricular activities" than everything that had happened over the past few days, especially discussing them with the Captain…

"Barry." Barry glanced behind the Captain to see Joe entering the Cortex and he faltered. If Joe was here, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. "We need to know what happened. As much as I'd like to give you more time to recover, we need to know more. Eddie and Cisco told us everything they could, but we need to hear it from you too."

Barry hesitated, glancing at Caitlin. "Could…could you give us a few minutes?"

Caitlin nodded wordlessly and let the three of them be, shutting the door behind her so that they might have some privacy.

"So…from the beginning, Mr. Allen?" Singh motioned for Barry to take a seat as he and Joe settled in their own chairs.

Barry sat down on the examination bed again, taking in a couple of deep breaths. "Eddie and I were coming back from lunch at Bart's when Leonard Snart and Mick Rory pulled up onto the sidewalk. They were trying to grab me and use me as leverage against Cisco. At that point, they had no knowledge of my identity as the Flash. They just thought I was a good friend of Cisco and STAR Labs. Eddie tried to protect me and Snart was going to shoot him so…so I used my speed to attack Snart and adjust his aim away from Eddie. Snart figured out who I was immediately after that. He knocked me into Eddie and then knocked me out. When I woke up again, we were in a room with a locked door and a dim light. Eddie was cuffed to a pole and I was cuffed to a different one, but I was also chained to the pole. I used my powers to get free of the cuffs, but I couldn't get the chains off. Then Snart and Rory came in and then Snart's sister showed up a little while later with some set of cuffs she stole from the military. They put them on me and the cuff somehow started interfering with the electricity in my body. Which was a bad thing because it started interfering with my body's normal electrical processes-"

Barry paused realizing that he was beginning to ramble. He took another deep breath and sighed. "The Snarts and Rory left us for a bit before coming back with a camera. They then gagged us and made their ransom video. Leonard Snart called Cisco after that and let him talk to Eddie in order to confirm we were still alive. They left us alone again until Rory came to guard us and then Lisa and Rory took us to Snart who was in the main room with Cisco. While Cisco was working on an ice grenade for Snart, Eddie managed to get free and tried to get me free, but was caught in the process. Snart was about to kill him when the Reverse Flash showed up. He disarmed Snart and then Rory. Sometime during that, the Reverse Flash freed my hands and hit me with some sort of energizer thing. That gave me back my electricity. Then the Reverse Flash was in Snart's face and while he was distracting the Rogues, I managed to slip away so I could attack."

Barry paused, collecting himself. "Snart used the ice grenade Cisco made to immobilize the Reverse Flash and before they could kill Eddie and take Cisco, I took care of them. I got Eddie out of the way of Snart's weapon and then thought I had knocked out Snart. I then got Cisco away from there and knocked out Rory before grabbing Lisa Snart and taking her over to Eddie who secured her. While I was doing that, the Reverse Flash managed to get himself free. I was investigating how he got free when Snart shot me. All I know for certain after that was that Snart was going to execute me and the Reverse Flash took him down before I passed out. I guess sometime during that, the Reverse Flash grabbed me and took me to a bunker where he performed surgery to remove the bullet and stop the bleeding. Then he strapped me down to an examination table and kept me captive there. I don't know when I woke up the first time, but he made it clear that I wasn't going to be going anywhere for a while. I passed out again and then woke up later to see him checking my wound which had almost fully healed."

Captain Singh reacted immediately to this comment. "Healed?"

Barry grimaced. "I have an accelerated healing factor. It's a side effect of the speed along with an accelerated metabolism."

The Captain shook his head in disbelief. "Mr. Allen-"

Barry gave and exasperated sigh and lifted the STAR Labs sweatshirt he was wearing so the Captain could see the faint scar on his chest, all that remained of his wound. The Captain just stared, whether it was at the scar or at the fact that Barry had abs now a debate for a later time. "And yes. Lightning gave me abs."

"I see…" The Captain gave a small nod and Barry pulled his shirt back down. "Continue, Mr. Allen."

"After I woke up the second time, we had a…chat. Mainly about why he saved me and why he killed my mother."

Both Joe and the Captain inhaled simultaneously, sharing a look. They'd clearly had a brief discussion about the Reverse Flash being responsible for the death of Barry's mom. Joe gestured for Barry to continue, clearly uneasy with the whole conversation.

"He said that he's from the future and that…that he hadn't been there to kill my mother that night." Barry swallowed. "He was there to kill me fifteen years ago, but now he needs me for something. Whatever it is, he wouldn't say, but considering his track record, it's nothing good."

The Captain grimaced. "…so…how exactly did you survive the Reverse Flash's attack when you were younger?"

Barry glanced at Joe who merely nodded. "…Joe and Cisco discovered evidence that on that night, I was there, but not just as a kid, as an older, adult version of myself. We believe that at some point in the future, I run so fast that I managed to rupture a whole in the space-time continuum and travel back in time to that night. From what the Reverse Flash was saying, our theory was correct and that that future version of myself saves my younger self from the Reverse Flash."

Captain Singh just stared at the two of them, clearly having trouble even trying to process any of this. "…you realize how crazy that sounds, right?"

"Crazy's just another Tuesday for us," said Barry, smirking slightly as he recalled making the same comment to Ronnie just a few weeks prior, "Which is a surprisingly accurate statement."

The Captain let out a heavy sigh and stood. "…I think that's as much as I can process tonight. Just one more thing though, Mr. Allen. How did you get free?"

Barry nodded carefully. "The Reverse Flash had sedated me before he came here and grabbed Cisco. I came to and they were arguing. Cisco managed to distract him and got the restrain on my right arm loose so I could get free and knock out the Reverses Flash. Then we got out of there as fast as we could."

"If you tried, do you think you could take us back to where you were being held?"

Barry flinched. "I could probably map it out for you… I…" Barry closed his eyes, fighting a shudder of fear. He swallowed and looked back at his foster dad and Captain Singh. "I don't think I could go back there…"

The Captain nodded and put a hand on Barry's shoulder. "Understood. We'll talk more tomorrow, Mr. Allen. For now, you rest and take as much time as you need to recover."

Barry was floored by this. The Captain was even being nice to him? Since when? "Sir?"

"You did good, Allen. Thank you." Barry was startled as Captain Singh suddenly held out his hand for Barry to shake, which Barry did, still stunned. The Captain then left without another word.

"…did that just happen?" said Barry the moment the Captain's footsteps could no longer be heard.

Joe looked between the door and Barry. "Yeah. Yeah, it did."

"…I think I need to sit down."

"You are sitting down," said Joe, frowning.

"Good." Barry let out a long sigh and lay himself back down on the bed. Joe started to leave, probably attempting to give Barry some privacy to sleep. "Hey, Joe?"

Joe turned back to Barry who looked his foster father in the eye. "Barry?"

Barry swallowed, feeling a familiar swell of fear in his chest as he thought of closing his eyes and suddenly waking back in the bunker, the whole rescue having just been some twisted dream. "Could…could you stay here with me tonight?"

Joe merely gave Barry a sad smile and sat down again, putting a gently hand on Barry's arm. "I can do that. I'll just text Iris and let her know I'll be staying here tonight so she's not searching for me in the morning."

Barry nodded slowly, already feeling more at ease just because of Joe's presence. "Ok." He tried to get comfortable. "You don't have to stay though if you need to be with her-"

"Iris will understand. You need me right now and I'm pretty sure Eddie's going to need her." Joe gave Barry a look that seemed to melt all his fears away for the time being. It was the look of a man who loved him like a father and was fully prepared to do whatever he had to for his adopted son.

Barry couldn't help, but smile warmly at Joe, feeling himself tear up. Joe merely squeezed his arm a little, giving him a nod of understanding. Despite everything that had happened, things were going to be ok.

Eddie woke suddenly in a cold sweat for the second night in a row, bolting upright. He could still feel the icy chill of Snart's Gold Gun pressed against his head… The criminal's finger pulling the trigger…

"Eddie?" Eddie turned his head, seeing Iris sitting up next to him in the bed, her hand gently touching his arm. He could see the concerned expression on her face even in the dark. "Did it happen again?"

Eddie nodded, struggling to catch his breath. Iris merely stood, exiting the bedroom and returning shortly with a glass of water for Eddie. She handed it to him, sitting next to him and putting a hand on his leg as he gave her a nod of thanks and took a long drink of the water, slowly calming down again.

"There. Much better." Iris took the glass from Eddie and set it on the bedside table. She gently forced Eddie to lay back down, putting her arms around him and laying her head on his chest. "…you want to talk about it?"

Eddie swallowed, squeezing his eyes shut. "No…"

"Ok." Iris nuzzled her head deeper into Eddie's chest. "I'm here when you're ready. I promise that it'll help to talk about it though. My dad, whenever Barry or I would have a nightmare, he'd come in and tell us that he'd stay with us for the night and whenever we were ready to talk about it, he'd be right there for us. He always said that talking about it helped make the nightmare go away."

Eddie took in a shaky breath, kissing Iris' head as he wrapped an arm around her. "…I don't think talking about it will help make this nightmare go away…"

"Still. I'm here when you're ready to talk about it." Iris looked up into Eddie's eyes and Eddie felt himself falling into them, remembering one of the many reasons he loved Iris so much. She kissed him gently on the lips and lay her head back down on his chest.

Eddie lifted his hand, stroking Iris' hair as he let himself become absorbed in the warmth that bled from Iris' body. He licked his lips, taking in another deep breath. "…did it really help to talk about it?"

"It worked every time," said Iris firmly.

Eddie let Iris' words buoy his waning confidence. He could trust her. He always trusted her. She was his rock and she was standing by him through all of this.

"Ok." Eddie exhaled slowly. "...I'm ready."