A/N: Hello, I'm bacckkkk! Sorry for the 2 weeks turns 2 months, but I wasn't 100% sure if I was going to finish that story and, with time, I started to wonder if anyone was still following. So, here we go, giving a shot to see if anyone's still here and waiting!

Real world:

Lying unconscious, and covered with sweet, on the medical bed was none other than the Flash himself. The hero, whose skin was blushing with fever, was struggling with every shallow and uneven breath that was threatening, each one of them, to be the last one Barry would ever take. The nasal cannula was barely doing a thing to ease the constant battle, and all the equipment was ready at all time to intubate if it was needed. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that, but the odds weren't in the speedster's favor.

Artificial life support might very well be the only option remaining in a very near future if things were to continue in the same direction, despite the doctor's tremendous efforts.

Sensors were connected to both sides of the speedsters' head, and they were sending live and non-stop data to the computers while an IV needle was inserted in the back of the hero's right hand. Lying on the desk, near the computer, was an impressive pile of empty fluid bags to try bringing all the needed nutrients and medicament into the hero's body even if, sadly, it wasn't doing much to keep the hero's condition from worsening.

"Are you sure he's not gonna fall into a coma again?" Worriedly inquired Cisco while his only free hand gently reached out for his friend's arm.

"No, he's not going to," assured the doctor, as she delicately walked around the chair and took place on the chair next to her friend as she felt their chat was going to take longer than anticipated. Plus, there was no denying her exhaustion, both mentally and physically.

He's not there, yet, wanted to add Caitlin, emphasizing on the last word in her mind, but choosing to keep that part inside before continuing: "his brain activity is way too high for someone who's about to slip into a coma, hell even from someone asleep. If I only had the test results to analyze and I didn't have access to my patient, I would say these are the readings of a person who's awake," she added while looking from a distance at the computer displaying the sensors' results.

"Why did he get so much worse in the last few hours or so?" Whispered Cisco under his breath.

This battle hasn't been easy; the whole team knew it would be hard for Barry to come on top again, but they still had faith that their friend would find a way to overcome it. At least, they used to 'til everything started to change in the last few hours, and now it was just getting harder and harder to hang on to hope.

"It's like his entire immune system decided to stop combatting all together, almost like it does not perceive the threat."

"What about his Speedforce? Why isn't it fighting back?"

As she answered, Caitlin slightly shook her head, "it's still pretty much dormant for some reason; it allowed the fluids to build up in his lungs."

After nodding silently, Cisco shifted his glance to take a good look at his doctor friend, "do you think he can hear us? Do you think he can feel the pain? Or, felt it earlier," he added, hesitating while carefully pronouncing the last part of this sentence.

Caitlin shrugged.

"Honestly? I don't know if he can hear us, but it doesn't hurt to keep trying and let him know he's not alone," she said before pausing, glancing forward and wishing the second part of the question would be forgotten. But, the way her friend kept on staring at her gave the doctor the confirmation that it wasn't.

Killer Frost's host bit her lips.

"I've got him under as much painkiller as I possibly could," she said. It wasn't an answer, and they both knew it, but Cisco accepted it by staying silent and looking back at his friend, "now it's up to him. And it's time for you to take some rest; I'll need some help cleaning the wound again in a few hours."

Yielding, Cisco took the opportunity to address his unconscious friend one last time before getting up; "you hang in there for me, you hear? We still need you around; it's not time to give up just yet. You're going to be okay."

Closing her fists, Caitlin fought to keep her emotions at bay and ignore the way a silent tear left her right eye and started falling on her cheek. By far, the worst part about being a doctor was the way everyone would look up at her like she was some miracle worker with all the knowledge in the universe. What if she couldn't fix this? Fighting in the field with Killer Frost was way easier than dealing with this kind of issues. Or, at least, that's how she felt at this instant.

No, she couldn't think like that. Barry was going to be okay. He had to.

After barely finishing to speak up, Cisco got back on his feet and started walking out, but not without turning around one last time to ensure his best friend hadn't stopped breathing the instant Vibe's foot arrived at the door. Sighing in relief, he turned around one more time and disappeared into the hallway.

Once the doctor was finally on her own in the room, she gently whispered, looking down at her patient;

"Don't throw the towel just yet, Barry; we're not gonna stop trying. Don't you dare do the same."

Far from the view of any witness, Caitlin finally allowed a few extra tears to trail down her cheeks swiftly and a quiet sob to escape her compressed throat; what would the rest of the team think if she was to fail? But, what more could she do to save the speedster? Barry had to wake up…

Hopefully, when Barry was going to wake up, not if, when he was going to, he wouldn't remember how he almost drowned when the fluids were all over his lungs. Chances are he wasn't conscious enough earlier, or that was what his team was trying to tell themselves.

***FLASHFLASHFLASH***

"What are my options?" Asked Barry who was half-seated on the medical bed and pitifully looking up at the doctor standing over him. Waiting at the door of the room was his newly arrived wife, who was carefully observing the scene.

To say that the doctor looked uncomfortable was an understatement judging by her evasive glance, and the way her fingers were playing nervously with each other. It was highly likely that whatever was about to get out of her mouth wasn't going to please the speedster.

"All I'm asking for you is to consider it before rejecting it," she slowly started.

Uh? Ok. Barry shrugged; yeah, did he have to lose?

"I don't like the idea, but I was thinking we could try medicating your condition," finally let out the doctor.

Medicating his condition? Barry's mouth opened up instantly, intending to tell something, but he couldn't find the strength to make a single sound, so he just closed it again. He was done, done with everything at that point. Barry was too emotionally tired to do anything else other than lying down and giving up like the weight of the world was crashing down on his spine; he indeed was sick, and there was no getting better.

The man who used to save Central City was now nothing more than a worn up soldier who fought and lost his final battle and was the victim of an insurmountable wave of agony overwhelming his mind. At this instant, there was nothing that the speedster wasn't ready to do to end the pain, nothing. And that thought alone was scary.

On the bright side, if there was any in Barry's downfall, it still sounded like his friends were willing to help him. As long as Flash's friends and family didn't mind being around his fragile mind breaking apart, the hero could relax and allow them to take care of him completely. Like they said so many, countless, times, in the last few days; he had to stop fighting. That's what he was going to do. He was ready to give up now.

"I know it's not ideal, but it should help you relax and to finally get some shut-eyes, which, I have no doubts, will help you recover. Plus, It's not going to be forever, I promise, we'll get you back at 100%, with time, " tried to assure Caitlin, even if her hesitation and slightly diminished tone of voice contrasted with the meaning of her words.

Barry nodded; he had enough of it all, so what would he gain by not trying this?

"It will work with my metabolism, right?" He tiredly asked.

It was Caitlin's turn to move her head up and down to answer positively to the question, "I've been working on a little something in the last few days, and we'll have to increase and adjust the doses, but yeah, it will work."

"Alright," almost instantly said Barry without hesitation and too weak mentally to even look at his interlocutor.

Damn, he sounded so utterly depressed at the moment.

Finally deciding to stop being a simple observer, Iris walked closer to the bed and put her gentle hand on the hero's shoulder who exhaled deeply under the touch and slightly shifted his head by a few inches on the side to see who it was. Once again, he couldn't find the strength to make eye contact.

"Are you sure that's what you want to do?" Asked the hero's wife.

With a barely perceptible move, Barry acquiesced, "yeah, that's what I want to try. I'm sure."

"Alright, let's do this," agreed Iris, glancing up at the doctor. That was easy convincing.

After nodding, Caitlin moved away from the bed and headed toward the medicine cabinet to gather what would be needed. Behind her, Barry started shaking against his wife, who wrapped her arms around him in response and drew him closer, letting her contagious warm bring some comfort back into his defeated body. It was going to be ok; there was a treatment all ready to use to ease his symptoms. At that thought, The Flash felt his body filling itself with pure relieved, a sensation that was contrasting with the despair deep inside a part of his brain that he might also never get better.

When Barry first started getting these visions, two weeks ago, he surely never expected to find himself in a position where he'll need to be heavily medicated to gain back some sanity and, some sleep. Oh, sleeping. The simple thought of a full night's sleep was…

Well, there just wasn't a strong enough word to describe the sensation and anticipation.

"I can't wait to fall asleep, finally, and not make dreams like-"

The CSI's lips stayed parted and completely stopped moving while his whole being suddenly froze. Wait a minute. These dreams. That dream, in particular, the one he made before going back home. His rib cage expanded, his breathing quickened and his head twisted in the direction of the doctor who was turning around to close back on his position again.

"Wait, how did you know?" He quickly asked.

Stopping on the spot, only a few strides away from the bed, Caitlin frowned, "how did I know about what?"

"My dream, how did you know?" Firmly inquired Barry who found himself invigorated by a sudden burst of energy that allowed him to extract himself from of his wife's grasp, "there's no way you could've known," he added while maneuvering his body into a new position.

A few seconds later, his legs fall off the edge of the bed, and he found himself facing the doctor with tensed features. Unconsciously, his fingers started to grasp the mattress underneath.

"Barry, slow down, I don't follow," calmly tried to say the doctor as she put down her syringe on the portable medical table. Looking away for an instant, Caitlin shared a slightly worried glance with Iris who looked just as confused as her by this unexplained turn of events.

"When I woke up, after the shadow touched me, and I passed out, you told me that my dream was too much of a blur to be real," continued to ramble Barry, his speech speed picking up the pace a little more with every word.

"Yea...y'ah..'h..I mean, that's possible," stuttered Caitlin, uncertain and shrugging, "I don't exactly remember every word I said, but I still do-"

"What made you think that my dream was a blur?" Accused the speedster. Because, yeah, it came out as an accusation even if the sentence had been constructed as an interrogation. Barry's tone of voice clearly indicated that he already had a theory ready in the back of his mind to answer his question.

"You have to calm do-" tried to intervene Iris, reaching out to her husband who pushed her hand away at the instant it touched his arm without even looking at her. Instead, Barry's glance stayed locked on the doctor's eyes, waiting for an answer.

"I don't know, you probably told me about your dream, plus-"

"No. No, I didn't," pressed the speedster, interrupting again, "how did you know?" he asked one last time while pressing and emphasizing every single one of his words. Pushing hard against the bed, he jumped on the floor and stared straight at Caitlin like a predator about to jump on his prey.

"Who are you? Where's Caitlin? What have you done with her?" He rambled with an explicit tad of aggressivity in his voice.

It was Caitlin's turn to freeze there, moistening her lips and nervously searching for the right words, "Barry, you really, really need to calm down, you're not making any sense."

"One last chance, who are you?" He growled at her, now barely one step away from the doctor who involuntarily shivered.

"Barry, stop! What are you doing?" Almost shouted Iris right behind them, it wasn't a request.

"She's not Caitlin, can't you see? She tricked us" He growled dangerously and barely turning his head around to answer to his wife, before turning back his attention to the woman in front of him, "do you have anything to do with what's happening to me? Are you causing this?"

"Hey, you're sick," reminded Caitlin, pushing aside all the nervosity in her features and reaching out for the man's forearms, "you said so yourself. You're just confused and suffering from sleep deprivation right now, that's why you need to rest and allow me to treat you," she explained, trying to get through.

Except, the hero wasn't going to listen to any of this; "I know what I'm talking about," he said, but not without hesitation and a small pause before he started talking. In the certainty that was there a few moments ago started to crawl doubt.

"Please, Barry, listen to her, you have to calm down. You're scaring me," pleaded Iris just behind him.

"No," firmly added the hero after an extra second of hesitation where he freed himself from the doctor's touch, without even looking at his wife, "I wanna know why you don't want me to see the shadow. Why did you truly lie about capturing him?"

Instead of answering, Caitlin's features relaxed and her voice, when she spoke again, was soothing, like she was talking to a five year old child, "Everything's gonna be ok, you're gonna be just fine."

"Wh-"

A sharp sting sensation made itself feel in Barry's right shoulder and interrupted his sentence.

Inhaling sharply, and widely opening his dilated eyes, he turned his head to the side and saw the one responsible for the needle piercing his skin; Iris.

"You...too," he whispered in shock. No, his wife couldn't be with that thing pretending to be Caitlin. No, not Iris too.

Stumbling back by a few steps, Barry caught the bed to try and stay upright. His eyes were filled with betrayal.

Looking right past his wife, the one person who he thought would never stab him in the back, almost literally, he saw his daughter and Joe both appearing at the entrance and starting to analyze the scene.

Help. Barry wanted to call them out, but a weak whimper was all he managed to get before his feeble knees failed him and gravity took control of his whole being. His hands clumsily tried to grab the medical table, but it was useless, and he only managed to drag many instruments and a soon-to-be-broken syringe full of translucent liquid on his way down. The hero's body went straight to the ground not too long after that, barely avoiding to hit his head thanks to strong arms catching him at the last moment; his eyelids were flickering, and his vision was starting to fade.

The last sensation Barry registered as if all the limbs were growing numb, slowly being dragged into the darkness, was a continuous and increasing whisper;

Barry…

The shadow. It was trying to reach out once again; it was asking for help. But Barry was too tired, or more like too sedated, to keep questioning the last few days. So, instead, he closed his eyes and surrounded.

A/N: Mwa mwa mwa, not gonna let Barry off the hook that easily. Now, if you go back to chapter 6, you'll find again that moment with Fake Caitlin that Barry is referring to and that's the part I hinted in the comments that it wasn't making sense ;)

So...who wants the end of that story and is ready for it? Have a draft for chapter 10 that I could edit and send to my Beta to have it to you in possibly two weeks, or maybe less if you're interested :)

You can also note, if you're not following on twitter and didn't know already, that there's a Zero Hour's sequel in the work. The cover is done and the plan & synopsis are in the work, almost done. Stay tuned!