Author's Note: Now a series of one shots centered around crazy!Barry, because apparently, I have little self control and absolutely no shame.

Summary: Eddie had known Barry was a little… off. Even if Captain Singh hadn't pulled him aside and broken every rule in the book by showing him Barry's psych eval, he would have known. He just never realized exactly how bad it had gotten. For Barry, Eddie was his trump card and Harrison had finally stepped over the line. (Set after Barry-Prime's visit)


Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot. Nothing is going to get better. It's not.

-Present Day (One Year and One Month After the Tidal Wave)-

The chair was extremely uncomfortable and getting worse by the hour. Eddie wasn't sure how long he'd been tied up down there, but it had to have been days. Dr. Wells was a metahuman, a crazy, evil, metahuman from the future and Eddie had no idea what he'd done to get the attention of said madman, but he knew it had something to do with Barry Allen. Maybe. Probably.

The last thing he remembered was Barry wanting to go out for drinks after work and then talking about Iris and one drink led to five or six until he'd blacked out and woken up in a basement, tied to a chair with Wells ranting about how he shouldn't touch things that don't belong to him and honestly, the whole thing was really confusing. At least Wells hadn't done anything other than torment and starve him. Yet.

Behind him the hatch opened and Eddie tugged at the ropes again. He really didn't need another lecture on how unimportant he was in the grand scheme of things. If he was so unimportant, why the hell was he there in the first place?

"Eddie? Eddie, are you down there?"

Eddie twisted around as much as he could. It didn't let him see all the way up the hatch, but he didn't need to. He recognized Barry's voice. "Barry, thank god!"

"Finally." Barry descended the steps slowly and stopped at the bottom, wiping his hands off on his jeans. "I've been looking everywhere for you."

Eddie sighed in relief as Barry jumped down off the platform and started looking around the room, checking the shadows and corners. If anyone could get him out of this, it was Barry, but they had to hurry. "Barry, we need to get out of here. Dr. Wells, he's a metahuman like you. We need to…"

"I know."

He knew? It took a second for Eddie to process that and a second longer to realize that Barry had stopped looking around the room and was analyzing the tube thing Dr. Wells had been building. A deep sense of wrong settled in the pit of his stomach.

"You know?"

"Yup. What's he making? Has he told you? It looks future…ee? Futuristic. Is it from the future?"

"What? No. I don't know. Barry, what do you mean, you know he's a metahuman?"

"Well, I live with the man. It'd be hard not to notice."

Okay, that made sense, but Barry wasn't moving to untie him and Eddie decided that how and why didn't matter right now. "Okay, fine, you knew, but can we get out of here?"

"Nope." Barry hopped up on the table and held the tube in front of his face, tipping it to the left, to the right, upside down, scrutinizing the contents.

"What do you mean, no?"

"If I take you out of here, he'll just find you again." Finally, Barry made eye contact. "Sorry about this, though. It's my fault you got dragged into it."

"How is this your fault?"

"What do you remember about the other night?"

"Not much. Alcohol. Lot and lots of alcohol and that's about it."

As much as he wanted to yell at Barry to untie him now, he knew that wouldn't do any good. After the psych evals, Captain Singh had pulled him aside and given him the run down on Barry's results. It was strictly confidential, just between them, but Captain Singh had wanted someone to back him up, someone who had Barry's best interests at heart.

The short version was, Barry wasn't firing on all cylinders – maybe even more so than the psych eval had let on, considering recent events and the fact that he seemed entirely unfazed by finding out his boyfriend had kidnapped Eddie. Fortunately, most of the department already thought he was a little weird, so it was easy enough to smooth over the new quirks. In the long run, though, Captain Singh had said he'd prefer to keep interactions with Barry as much between the three of them as possible – himself, Eddie, and Dr. Wells – the people Barry already knew and trusted. Although, again considering recent events, it might have been better to keep Dr. Wells out of it.

So, yelling and pushing weren't going to get him anywhere. If Barry got annoyed that someone didn't understand him, he'd leave, which normally wasn't that much of a problem, except Eddie was tied to a chair in a basement somewhere and he really, really needed Barry's help.

Barry sat with his legs swinging back and forth a few times before he set the tube down, jumped off the table, walked over, and knelt on the floor in front of Eddie with his chin on the detective's knee.

"So, Harrison is the Reverse-Flash…"

"He's the Reverse-Flash?"

"Don't interrupt. It's distracting. He's from the future and he wants me to help him get back, but I'm not going to, because screw him, he doesn't get what he wants." Barry crossed he arms over Eddie's thighs. "Anyway, he's almost done with his little particle accelerator and he's been pressuring me to try and run faster."

Barry sat up and leaned forward, a wide smile on his face as he dropped his voice to just above a whisper. "Just between us, I can run a lot faster than he thinks I can."

There was something in Barry's voice, his smile, his eyes… oh, god. "Barry, when was the last time you ate?"

"Harrison's pissed. You're not listening. Shhhh. He'll hear you." Eddie closed his eyes and when he opened them, Barry was sitting again, chin back on Eddie's knee, looking up at him with an almost glazed over expression. Barry had come to him within a month of the disaster, confessing that he was the Flash, because he needed someone on the inside to cover for him when he had to ditch work. It had been a shock, but at least it gave Eddie something to focus on other than his own lose, especially when Barry kept forgetting to take care of himself. The hypoglycemia in particular, was a problem, because while Barry could come across as almost normal most of the time, he went almost manic if his blood sugar dropped too low and there was something very unsettling about a manic Barry Allen.

"Barry. Barry, you need to eat."

Barry shook his head and his eyes cleared. "No, look, the problem is, he's been pressuring me and threatening people, but the one person he can't threaten is you."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You're…" Barry stopped, his eyes shifting up and to the left and Eddie knew that whatever he heard next was going to be a lie. "We have a deal. He can't touch you. So, anyway, I've been teasing him about sleeping with you…"

"Wow!" Seriously? He didn't understand half of what was going on here, but he understood the part where Barry was openly threatening to cheat on the homicidal maniac with him. "Not cool, Barry!"

Barry gave an apologetic shrug and Eddie made a mental note to try and talk Barry into seeing a psychiatrist after they got out of this. A real one, not the CCPD mandated Grief Counselor he was still going to every other Wednesday that kept trying to prescribe him pills his Flash metabolism burned through in minutes.

"I said I was sorry. Anyway, he was being mean the other day and I told him he'd regret it and he said 'I highly doubt there's anything you could do to make me regret eating the last of your Oreos.'"

"This is over Oreos!?"

Barry's hand was over his mouth in an instant. "Sh! It's not just the Oreos, it's the principle of the thing. They were mine. My Oreos. Not his."

Eddie raised his eyebrows.

"Fine, okay, yes, it's about the Oreos. I have very few things I put my foot down on, but my cookies are one of them. If it had been the Keebler Fudge Stripes, I would have understood, but Harrison doesn't even like Oreos." He dropped the hand, but Eddie just cocked his head to the side and tried not to glare. "So, in an admittedly childish attempt to make him jealous, I took you out, got you drunk, and…"

The pause was significant and it was clear Barry was searching for a delicate way to put it. That was really, really bad. Barry didn't do delicate very often anymore, not unless he was expecting a negative reaction. "Barry, please tell me we didn't sleep together?"

"Would that really be so bad?" Barry sat back and gave Eddie his sad eyes, which wasn't fair, because Barry had grown up with Iris and after the last few months, Eddie was convinced the two of them had practiced that look together in a mirror.

"I've been tied to a chair and starved for days because you had a fight with your boyfriend over Oreos and decided to get even with him by cheating and you used me to do it, because you don't think he'll kill me. Apparently, it didn't occur to you that torture was an option."

The sad eyes wavered. "Fine, and, no, we didn't actually get to the good stuff. Harrison showed up and took you before I could even take your pants off. I've been trying to find you ever since. So, like I said, sorry about that, but!"

Barry shot up the ladder and back down, holding a backpack. "I brought snacks."

It took every ounce of self control Eddie had not to yell at Barry to untie him and get him the hell out of there. The manic gleam was still there and yelling would only make it worse. If he could get Barry to eat something, maybe he could talk some sense into him. To that effect, "I'll eat if you eat."

"Done!"


[]


Barry sat on the floor next to Eddie with the back of his head resting against Eddie's thigh and a half eaten bag of chips open at his feet. It had taken four sandwiches, most of a liter of soda, a few bottles of water, and several bags of chips, but Barry had finally come down off the mania and was lazily finishing off the last bag.

A hand popped up in front of Eddie's face, the sour cream and onion smell making his stomach roll. Eddie had managed half a sandwich and water before he'd had to stop. "I'm good."

The sound of crunching followed and Eddie decided it was probably as good a time as any to try his luck. At this stage, Barry would be tired and easily suggestible. A fact which had come in handy when convincing the speedster he needed rest or to just go home when he'd been at the precinct for over twenty four hours running samples that didn't have a rush on them.

"Barry."

"Mhm?"

"You think maybe you could untie me now?"

"Nope."

Baby steps. "What if I promised not to leave?"

"You would be lying." Barry rolled his head to the side to look up at Eddie. "I know you, Eddie Thawne. The second I turned my back, you'd hit me over the head and drag me off with you. You wouldn't even be doing it to have your way with me. You'd be trying to save me. Can't let you do that."

"Why's that?"

"Because I don't need saving." Barry rolled his head back, then gasped and turned around fully, eye wide. "Oh, what if I dyed my hair? Think that would piss him off?"

"Barry, I love you, but I'm not helping you piss off Harrison Wells."

"A wise decision, Detective Thawne." Eddie cringed and tried not to be disturbed by the way Barry's face brightened at Dr. Wells' voice.

"Hey, baby, look who I found."

Dr. Wells jumped down the last three steps. "I told you to stop calling me that."

Barry winked up at Eddie as he stood. Oh, god, this was going to get weird. It always got weird between the two of them. Eddie should have realized something bad was going on long before now, but he'd always been too busy trying to give them their privacy to really look.

"Baby. Honey. Lover. Sweetheart. Sugar Lips. Cupca…"

Wells shot forward, taking Barry with him until he was pressing the young man into the wall, hand wrapped around his throat. Eddie couldn't see Wells' eyes, but he could hear the vibration in his voice. "I said, stop calling me that."

He could also see Barry grind up against Wells and that was why he never looked. He turned his head away and focused on the table in front of him rather than what was going on in his peripheral. He couldn't, however, cover his ears.

"Come on, baby." Eddie wanted nothing more than to tell Barry to shut the hell up. Just run, seriously. He was the Flash, he could get away if he needed to and he really, really needed to. "Do it. You know you want to. You know I want you to."

"What you want, Barry Allen, is becoming more and more irrelevant."

"While you, Harrison Wells, won't be relevant for another hundred and thirty six years." Barry chuckled and Eddie almost didn't hear what he said next. "Sucks to be you."

There was a crash, something hitting the wall, hard enough that Eddie did look over, but they were already gone, up the ladder and out of the room and Eddie couldn't decide if he was grateful he didn't have to watch whatever Dr. Wells intended to do to Barry or horrified with himself for not noticing how wrong things were between them. What he did know, was that he wasn't leaving it alone.


[]


It was hours before anyone returned and when they did, it was Dr. Wells, alone, hair damp and clothes changed. He paused at Eddie and clapped him on the shoulder before moving back to his work table, where he picked up the tube, to the far left of where it had been earlier and sighed. "Did Barry tamper with this?"

"He just looked at it."

Dr. Wells nodded and set it back down before turning to face Eddie again, hands in his the pockets of his stylish jacket, his lips pursed in thought. "I suppose it would be too much to hope he didn't enlighten you as to the reason you're still alive despite Barry's… indiscretion."

For a moment, Eddie honestly considered lying, but he doubted it would do him any good. "He said you have a deal."

Wells visibly relaxed. "You know, despite his little tantrums, he really is a smart boy. You, on the other hand, are not."

Eddie didn't bother responding.

"However, you can still be useful. So, I'm going to make you a proposition."

"I'm not making any kind of deal with you, Wells."

"Don't be so quick to dismiss my offer before you've heard the terms." Wells closed the distance between them and leaned in so they were inches apart, his hands clenched tightly around Eddie's bound forearms. "Barry has gotten very good at curbing my impulses. He knows when I'm on the edge and he knows how to push me over and how to direct where I land, which is usually on him. Now, while he does have a remarkable rate of recovery, taking all of this on himself is wearing him down. I don't need him worn down."

Eddie scoffed. "Somehow, I don't think Barry really cares what you need."

Wells smirked. "No, he doesn't, but you do. If this keeps up, I may very well do permanent damage and you don't want that anymore than I do. So, Detective Thawne, if you promise not to do anything stupid, I'll let you put him back together when I'm finished."

Eddie choked a little on the implication that Barry was in bad enough shape to need putting back together. He'd never seen open signs of abuse before, but Wells talked like this had been ongoing and Barry would have told them, wouldn't he? Or maybe not. Barry healed fast and while Eddie had been assuming his occasional day off was for Flash business maybe it had been something more. As for Barry telling them, there were plenty of times Eddie had questioned his relationship with Dr. Wells when it went public and Barry had always said the same two things. "He's all I have left" and "I love him." Of course, Dr. Wells wasn't the only thing Barry had left, but whether Wells had convinced him of that or Barry had convinced himself, Eddie had no doubt Barry believed it was true.

"Are you listening, Detective?"

"Yes."

"Good. Now, the ground rules are as follows. Feel free to try and convince Barry to leave me – he won't – feel free to try and hide him from me – I will always find him and, barring that, he will find me – but don't bring anyone else into it. My relationship with Barry is to remain untarnished to the public at large. It would be extremely… inconvenient this late in the game to draw the attention of certain people that Barry is quite fond of. He would do anything, let me do anything to him, to keep them from getting hurt. While I don't need the boy sane, I do need him alive and relatively whole. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"The only other rule – and I think it goes without saying, but I want to be perfectly clear on the matter – this," he gripped Eddie hard between the legs, "stays in your pants. Barry Allen is mine and I don't share. If you think you can manage that, I'll allow Barry to come to you when he needs to lick his wounds. Which is, regrettably, often."

Eddie only managed a nod this time, but Dr. Wells relinquished his grip and stood, going to the ladder.

"He'll be awake soon. Take him with you, clean him up, let him rest. He'll come home when he's ready."


[]


Barry stumbled down mumbling apologies while he untied Eddie's ropes with fumbling fingers. Eddie couldn't make out half of what he said, but he got the part where Dr. Wells had hooked Barry up to an IV, which apparently meant Barry had gone too far. All it told Eddie was that Barry had been in worse shape before coming down and that did absolutely nothing to make him feel better.

Between the two of them they somehow made it up the ladder and out of what was apparently a subbasement of the particle accelerator. Eddie's keys were on a desk and his car in the parking lot. It probably wasn't all that safe for him to be driving, but Barry could barely stand, let alone run them both back to his loft, so he took it slow and got them there in one piece.

As soon as they were in the front door, Eddie made for the bed and threw himself down on it, taking Barry with him. The speedster curled up around him, snuggling close with a head on his chest. "This is good. Imma sleep for a while, 'kay?"

He put his hand on the back of Barry's head and felt the curve of Barry's mouth as he smiled against Eddie's chest and asked, "What do you think of blue?"

"What?"

"My hair. How do you think it would look blue, not dark cobalt, but a bright, electric blue?"

Eddie tried to imagine it. "That… no. I'm really not sure electric blue is your color."

Not to mention there were rules about that kind of thing with the CCPD. Of course, Barry was a behind-the-scenes tech and Captain Singh had a soft spot for him, but still.

Barry sighed happily. "Perfect."

As Barry's breathing evened out, Eddie tried to figure out what the hell he'd gotten himself into and, more importantly, how he was going to get them both out.