Barry sighed as he entered his apartment, letting his bag slip off of his shoulder and fall to the floor next to the door before shuffling off to his bedroom, dragging his suitcase behind him. The events of the unexpected extension of his time in Starling City had utterly exhausted him, and he was ready to drop.

At least I still have a job, he thought, contemplating the fact that he'd only just barely made it back within Captain Singh's deadline as he fell onto his bed, too tired to unpack his suitcase or change into pajamas. And I'll still get to see the particle accelerator turn on. That was his last thought before he fell asleep.

The next day, Barry's normal day to day routine resumed. He woke up, got dressed, stopped by Jitters for his morning coffee and a quick chat with Iris, then went to work, where he endured the usual lectures from Captain Singh about his perpetual tardiness. If those lectures seemed a little harsher than usual due to recent events, Barry decided it was in his best interests not to mention it. He was skating on thin ice as it was, and he did want to keep his job.

"What was it this time, Mr. Allen?" Captain Singh asked irritably on the morning of the day the particle accelerator was set to turn on, when he was late to a crime scene yet again. "Did you forget to set your alarm clock? And before you answer, I should remind you that the excuse you gave last time was car trouble. Do you want to know why that one was particularly memorable?"

"I do not own a car," Barry muttered, chastened.

"He was running an errand for me," Joe put in, thankfully stepping in to save his ass. "Barry, did you get me what I asked for?"

"Yeah," Barry said, catching on to the lie. "Yeah, I did." He searched his pockets desperately for something, anything, he could give to Joe. He came up with nothing except a half-eaten candy bar.

"Here," he said, handing it to Joe. "I had a few bites of it, so…" He trailed off, well aware of what a terrible job he was doing of making this convincing. Attempting to dispel the awkwardness hanging over the whole scene, Barry set about examining the crime scene for clues.

"Getaway car is a Mustang Shelby GT500," he said after a few minutes. "Shelbys have a rear superwide tire specific to that model. Twelve inches with an asymmetrical tread. And there's something else." He grabbed a pen from Joe's partner, Chyre, with a muttered, "Thanks" and used it to scoop something that resembled dirt or possibly mud from the tire track.

"Fecal excrement," he said once he'd gotten a good look at it. "Animal, I'd guess." He dropped the pen into an evidence bag and sealed it.

"My dad gave me that pen," Chrye said in a choked voice. "Before he died."

"Sorry," Barry mumbled awkwardly, accompanying the apology with a sheepish shrug. He quickly gathered up the evidence he'd collected and his kit and all but fled from the crime scene. After all the blunders he'd made and the awkwardness he'd caused, he couldn't get away from there fast enough.

"So, how was your trip?" Iris asked him outside of STAR Labs that night, while they searched the crowd for Kara, who was writing an article on the particle accelerator for the Sentinel and they were supposed to be meeting here. "Did you find evidence of the impossible in Starling City, or did you just make my dad mad for no reason?" Barry didn't think it was her dad that he had made mad, but he didn't say so.

"Actually, while I was away, I had time to think about… you know, relationships," he said instead. When Iris looked at him with a question written on her face, he added, "Oh, I'm not in one. And you're not in one either. And you're my best friend, Iris."

"You're mine too," Iris replied. "Why else would I be here?"

"That's not what I meant," Barry said. After seeing Felicity with Oliver and recognizing himself in the way the former looked at and spoke to the latter, he'd realized that if he wanted to have any chance of being with the person he wanted to be with, he'd have to tell Iris how he really felt about her. But of course, his own inarticulateness tripped him up once again, and in the time it took him to stumble through his jumbled thoughts and feelings, Iris had already moved on to something else. Of course, by that time Barry had pretty much given up as well.

"Look, there's Kara," Iris said, pointing. Kara, spotting them, waved a hand above her head in greeting, jumping up and down to ensure that she would be seen over the crowd.

"Hey, you two," she said when they reached her, hugging each of them in turn.

"Hey yourself," Iris replied. "How goes the article?"

"Better once Harrison Wells gives whatever speech he's got planned," Kara said, pointing to where the man in question was stepping up to a podium to cheers and applause from the crowd.

"Thank you," he said. "My name is Harrison Wells, and tonight the future begins. The work my team will do here will change our understanding of physics. It will bring about advancements in power, advancements in medicine, and trust me, that future will be here faster than you think." Barry listened to Wells speak, enraptured, until Iris' cry of "Ow!" jolted him out of his reverie.

"Hey, my laptop!" Iris called desperately, staring helplessly after the dark clad hooded figure slipping away through the crowd. "It's got my dissertation!" Barry and Kara exchanged a look, having a brief and silent debate about which one of them should go after the thief, and then Barry set off after him.

By the time he'd managed to chase the thief directly into the path of a passing police officer- one Detective Eddie Thawne- make sure Iris' laptop got back to her, and get himself back to STAR Labs, Barry had missed the cut off in line and was denied entry. He felt his heart sink. He wouldn't get to see the particle accelerator turn on, the one thing he'd been looking forward to for weeks. Feeling despondent, he headed to his lab, not knowing what else to do. On his way there, almost on a whim, he called Felicity.

"Hi," she said when the line stopped ringing.

"Hey," Barry answered.

"Did you make it?" Felicity asked.

"I made it back to Central City in time," Barry replied, "but I missed the cut off in line at STAR Labs. I was late"- He swiped his key card and pulled the door to his lab open- "as usual."

"But, in the spirit of not being late again," he went on as he walked into his lab, "if you ever decide that Oliver Queen isn't the guy for you, if you decide that you want to go on a date with… someone else, you should know that that guy? He'll be on time."

"Good to know," Felicity said. Barry had only made the stipulation about her deciding that Oliver wasn't the guy for her because he knew that it would never happen, and he could tell by the tone of her voice that she knew that and was humoring him.

"Oh, and I left something for Oliver," he added. "I hope he likes it."

"Bye, Barry," Felicity said.

"Bye, Felicity," Barry replied, and hung up. He had the local news on, and he listened to it with half an ear, the majority of his attention on adding a newspaper article about the Applied Sciences robbery to an investigation board he was building centered around unexplained events.

"Wait, we are now being told to evacuate the facility." The news broadcast cut suddenly into the forefront of Barry's focus. "The storm may have caused malfunction to the primary cooling system. Officials are now trying to shut down the particle accelerator, but so far have been unable to regain control of the system." Barry's eyes widened. Through the window, he saw a brilliant flash of light go off above STAR Labs, then heard a rumble like thunder, accompanying a shockwave that knocked out power on its way across the city. He ran toward the skylight which he, foolishly, hadn't closed when he'd first noticed that it was open upon entering his lab. Yanking on the chain that opened and closed the skylight, Barry raced to shut it against the storm raging outside. Before he could, a bolt of lightning came arcing through it and struck him, knocking him off his feet, and then everything went black.