Right, apologies for the slight delay. Things are kinda crazy these days, as if you hadn't noticed. Anyway, here we go!

Hearing was the first thing to return, a gentle humming noise that resonated in his very bones. Barry swam back to consciousness as if through thick mud, and at some point

realized that it would probably help if he opened his eyes.

Sitting up, he gasped and looked around. Judging from the "round things" on the walls, he was in the TARDIS. He'd never actually been to the infirmary before, but judging by

the beds, half-open cabinet full of medical supplies, and white walls with gently glowing lights, it couldn't be anything else.

"Doctor? Jack?" he called. Rolling off the bed, he sat up shakily and pulled an IV out of his arm. The metal of the TARDIS floors felt pleasantly cool under his bare feet.

"What…"

Stumbling into the console room, he at first thought it was empty, until he noticed that Jack was on a ladder on the far side of the room, wearing a tight pair of jeans that left

little to the imagination and fiddling with some wires, while another pair of legs stuck out from beneath the console.

"Hey, guys?"

"Barry!" Jack called, sliding down the ladder and coming over to hug him.

"What about him?" the Doctor asked from under the console.

"He's up," Jack called. There was a thump, and the Doctor muttered something indistinct before he rolled out from underneath, looked up, and grinned.

"Fantastic!"

Jack looked him up and down, and Barry blushed as he realized he wasn't wearing a shirt.

"Liking the new look there."

"I, uh, I should cover up."

"Don't do it on my account," Jack almost purred.

"Stop it," the Doctor ordered, clapping Barry on the shoulder. The young man looked down at himself, realizing that his torso was a lot more defined than it had been previously.

"I…have abs now?"

"Yes, you do," Jack agreed, then shut up at a glance from the Doctor.


"So what happened to me?" Barry asked as the three of them sat around the kitchen table, each nursing a mug of tea.

"You were stuck by lightning," the Doctor explained. "You've been in a coma for…a few months?"

He and Jack shrugged at each other. "Time doesn't really apply in the vortex. Especially not the way you think of it."

"And Margaret? What happened to her?"

"Turned back into an egg," Jack told him. "She opened the heart of the TARDIS, and the energies de-aged her. We dropped her back off on Raxacoricofallapatorius, and we've been traveling around since. First production of The Importance of Being Earnest, visited Atlantis, started a fiction revolution on an alien planet, got in a bar fight with Jonah Hex…"

"Got married to each other," the Doctor nodded casually. "You should've been there, it was a great ceremony."

"Wow," Barry frowned. "You guys've just been having a whole lot of fun without me, then."

"Yeah," the Doctor admitted, and grinned. "Missed you, though."

He tossed Barry a jelly baby, but he fumbled the catch. Barry watched it fall in slow motion, as if tumbling through molasses. When he straightened up, he noticed that the

Doctor was watching him oddly.

"You okay, Bar?"

"Yeah, yeah, fine," he shook his head as the strange feeling passed and time went back to normal.

"So!" the Doctor announced. "How about a nice relaxing trip to the Eye of Orion? Fantastic place. Haven't been there in centuries."

"Sure!" Barry rose and headed for the doorway, leaning over to put his cup down. Suddenly, his hand shook, and the cup fell and shattered on the floor.

"What…" he began, looking down. He took a couple of steps towards the entrance, and suddenly felt full of energy, like when he'd been ten years old and on a sugar high, or a can of soda shaken to fizzing, ready to explode.

He took a step forward, then another, and suddenly, the world seemed to blur. He felt as if every cell in his body were suddenly charged with energy, and in the blink of an eye,

the wall of the console room was right in front of him.

"Ow!" Barry exclaimed, clutching his nose.

"Barry?" the Doctor called from behind him.

"Okay, what just happened?" Jack wanted to know.

"I'd kinda like to know that too," Barry agreed, hands over his face.

"I think Barry hurt his nose," the Doctor said, coming into the room and gently pulling his hands down to examine it. "Not broken, don't worry."

"Yeah, I know that," the young man grumbled. "I mean, how did I teleport from there to there?"

"I don't think it was teleportation," the Doctor mused. "I think you just moved super-fast."

"How?" Jack asked.

"Well, there was all kinds of radiation and exotic particles coming out of the Rift when it opened. Dark matter, artron radiation, things even I don't fully understand. Must've changed Barry, sent his cells into a constant state of cellular regeneration, enhanced and accelerated his metabolism…"

"So, basically, I got struck by lightning and it gave me super speed?" Barry asked.

"Yup."

"And abs?"

"Yup!"

"Are you serious?" Jack gaped.

"Not always," the Doctor smiled. "But in this particular case, yes. Tell you what! Have this friend, met him a while back. Max, his name is. He knows a lot about the Speed Force."

"The Speed Force?"

"My fifth grandmother used to tell me bedtime stories about the Speed Force," the Doctor said wistfully. "It's this, this, mystical extra-dimensional energy source. Once in a while, it'll choose a champion somewhere around the universe. Gives 'em a link with the Speed Force, accelerated metabolism, ability to move faster than a speeding bullet…I think there've been a few on Earth. Avery Ho, Thjalfi, Lugalbanda, Max Mercury...couple others. I always thought it was just a myth."

"And it just, kinda, randomly chose me?"

Why don't we head over and talk to him?" the Doctor asked, already skipping over to the console. "See what he has to say?"

"Single?" Jack asked hopefully. The Doctor rolled his eyes at Barry, who grinned back. He reached up to touch his nose, and found…

"Doctor, I think it's healed already!"

"It would be," the Doctor agreed absent-mindedly, focusing on the controls. "That accelerated metabolism'll help you heal faster from pretty much anything."

"Fantastic!" Barry exclaimed, and they grinned at one another.

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