"What are you doing?!" Caitlin yelled over the loud music that had just began to play.

"He likes this song, I checked his Facebook page!" Cisco yelled back as he repositioned one of the three speakers around their unconscious coma patient.

"You do know even with his cochlear implants, he's still deaf?" Caitlin pointed out.

"Yeah but just like Iris said, he can still feel the vibrations right?" Cisco asked. "Might help him wake up".

And Barry did feel the vibrations, coursing through the mattress on which he lay and reaching through his fingertips. The song came through his ears sending the static song through his implant and hearing aid which were kept on during the day and off at night. He recognized the familiar beat, remembering the two week obsession he had with it in college. Iris had laughed as he danced to it in his dorm room, recording him on her flip phone as he did so.

The song played on, louder and louder. Barry suddenly realized how numb his body felt laying down, as if he'd been punched numerous times over. But wait... where was he? How did he get here? What was he doing before he got here?

Barry's eyes snapped open, he tried sitting up but only made it half way before falling back onto the pillows.

"Where am I?" He asked speaking aloud, the words feeling strange in his mouth which ached. The two unfamiliar strangers that stood in front of him jumped back, and Barry could just make out the words coming out of one their lips, "he's back".

"Who are you guys?" Barry asked, again only with his mouth as his hands were feeling to heavy to talk. They looked both to be in their mid-twenties. One of them, a female with light brown hair was checking the heart monitor next to his bed and the other was a guy with shoulder length hair and surprisingly when he answered Barry, his hands were moving with his lips.

"Hey calm down" he told Barry. "I'm Cisco Ramon, she's Caitlin, Doctor Snow" he signed, rolling his eyes at the girl.

"You sign?" Barry asked, rather confused.

"Well, nine months with a lot of free time on your hands, you learn some things" Cisco told him with a geeky smile spread across his face.

"Nine months?" Barry asked, using his hands once more.

Caitlin gave Cisco a stern look. This is not how you're supposed to break the news to someone.

"You were in a coma" Caitlin said, a look of concentration in her eyes as she was trying to remember all the medical terms she had learnt in ASL.

"Yeah, you were struck by lightning dude" Cisco added in as he stuck a red lollipop in his mouth. Then Barry remembered, the thunder, the dark clouds. He had just gone to close the window over head when...

Caitlin was waving a hand in front of his eyes. He looked up at her not realizing the tears in the corners of his eyes. Nine months of his life...gone.

"Are you ok?" She asked, looking back at the heart monitor, for a few seconds Barry had gone into shock and had a minor panic attack.

"Water?" He asked, using a shaking hand to form the letter W and putting it sideways to his chin. She placed a cup in his hands, standing over him as he drank because of how unsteady he was. "Thanks" he signed. Then he realized, they were alone. "Cisco?" He asked.

"He went to go get Doctor Wells, and call Joe and Iris" She explained.

"Iris" he repeated. Even though he was unconscious for the whole nine months he still felt a sense of how much he missed her, even though part of him felt like they hadn't been a part for long.

Iris couldn't believe it when she got the call. That Barry was awake, that he appeared to be in almost perfect health. It was the exact opposite to the one she had received nine months ago, telling her the accident that had occurred. For the next few weeks she wouldn't leave his side, wanting to be there when he woke up. But his condition wasn't improving, instead she watched his heart stop multiple times and have more seizures than she could keep track of. Then came the idea of moving him to Star Labs, and Iris agreed to anything that had the possibility of bringing back her best friend. Yet again she refused to part with him and held on to the side of the stretcher as he was wheeled into the huge building and to the main cortex where they were met by two young adults, both of whom couldn't have been older than twenty-five and Harrison Wells, wheelchair and all. Once Barry was hooked up to all the necessary equipment and the ambulance left, Joe had asked to have a private conversation with Wells and Iris was left with the two new strangers as she pulled up a chair to Barry's side.

"You should try talking to him" The female doctor had told her at first. Iris turned around, to stare up at the doctor wondering if this was some type of sick joke. "I know this may be hard for you, but a lot of people believe that coma patients can still hear everything around them. I'm Caitlin by the way and this is Cisco".

Iris wanted to scream at her, but thought against it. "He...he didn't tell you?" She asked quietly, her voice shaking slightly and her eyes filling with tears.

"Tell us what?" Cisco asked, looking nervous.

"Barry's deaf" Iris said and Caitlin's eyes widened as she now knew how previous comment to be highly inappropriate.

"I am so sorry, I didn't-" the doctor began.

"I know" Iris replied. "Normally when he's...awake he can read lips or we would use sign language".

"Dr. Wells didn't tell us. All he said was that Barry was struck by lightning, he didn't mention any other details" Caitlin said.

"It's okay" Iris said as she took one of Barry's limp hands into her own and opened his palm. She had then formed the familiar "I love you" sign with her one hand and placed it down on his, hoping that even if he couldn't hear he would still get the message.

9 months later

"Barry!" Iris said running into the cortex, not stopping until she reached his bed. Her arms wrapped around his body, pulling him into a spine crushing hug.

"Ow" Barry said with his voice, and then he laughed.

"You have no idea how good it is to see you awake" Iris said, signing rapidly as tears ran down her face.

"Yeah, you scared the hell out of us kid" Joe signed as well but he too looked as if he was going to cry. "How're you feeling?".

"A bit sore, probably from lying in a bed for months, but give it a few hours and I'll be up on my feet" Barry replied.

"I'm sure you will, Mr. Allen" a voice said in the door way. Harrison Wells sat in an electric wheelchair, a grin on his face and Cisco standing behind him.

"Harrison Wells?" Barry asked in awe.

"So is that what my sign name looks like?" He asked with a smile as he rolled his chair in.

"Yeah...um..I made it up when I was...eleven" Barry told his nervously. "I could change it if you don't like it...do you like it?" He asked.

"Wait a second, is a sign name like a code of honor or something?" Cisco asked, hands moving in swift motions. "Cause if it is, I want one" he said with his hands up.

"As you can see the efforts used by the three of us here to learn ASL has not been put to waste" Wells told him, again with sign as well as speech. And Barry couldn't help but appreciate all of this.

It could've just as well happened that he had woken up in an unfamiliar place, and having to guess everything they all were saying. But the fact that they took effort to try and learn some sign language, Barry couldn't help but smile. He had gone to more than a few doctors appointments where he couldn't just read lips and their interpreter was late or couldn't read fluent sign. In those moments he would call Iris to help him out, but even she couldn't be there all the time. As for all the other places he had to go in his daily life, he was used to it. The baristas at Jitters knew not to turn around when they were talking to them and so did most of the police officers at CCPD. But even Barry had to admit that lip reading got tiring after a while and he wished that more people would just learn some basic signs as it wasn't that hard. Caitlin, Cisco and Wells had done exactly that and more, and Barry couldn't be happier.