"Cisco! What happened in there? Were you able to make contact?" Asked Joe, barely able to keep control of his nerves.

"I don't understand, he was right behind me," softly whispered Cisco, keeping hold of his friend's cold hand, "come on, buddy, come on. Come back to us."

"Cisco…" Iris started, only to get interrupted by a sharp inhale from the bed as Barry suddenly took his first breath on his own power since this whole ordeal started.

It was the most beautiful sound all of them had ever heard. They just wanted to scream, cheer or cry, or all them at the same time.

"Oh my God! Barry!" Exclaimed Joe, inadvertently pushing Cisco as he rushed forward to be by his son's head and get in position for when he'll open his eyes, which was hopefully about to happen in a moment or two.

Their joy was short lived when the second breath, and the following ones, came out in a coughing fit. No, not coughing, choking, Barry was fighting the ventilator and desperately struggling to get air in or out despite the tube down his throat that was blocking his airways.

"Caitlin!" Screamed Cisco, successfully putting the woman out of her trance and back into full-on doctor mode.

"Out of the way!" She ordered, instantly clearing the needing space to work her magic, "Cisco, with me. Everyone else out!"

Reluctantly, they all complied and rushed outside. On their way out, they all heard Caitlin giving swift and specific instructions to her friend while trying to diagnose if her patient was conscious or not.

"Barry, can you hear me? Can you open your eyes for me? Cisco, go grab me the-"

***FLASHFLASHFLASH***

How long have they been waiting? Five minutes? Ten? Thirty? More? Less? Time had stopped the moment they all got kicked out of the room and got left wondering if Barry was back or if something went terribly wrong, again. A couple of hours ago, Caitlin was about to declare the speedster brain dead and throw the towel. Later, barely moments ago, the team suddenly learned that they almost destroyed the speedster in their efforts to contain the damages. Catching a break wasn't in their vocabulary. What were the consequences of having your conscious transferred into a computer and back? Could there be brain damages of any sort?

Iris' reflections came to a stop when the corner of her eye spotted the doctor getting out of the medical room to join them. Caitlin didn't have to walk too far since, once the group knew she was heading their way, Iris, Joe, Wally, and H.R. all rushed in to join her midway.

"How is he?" Asked Joe for the rest of them.

"He's awake. You can come in to see him," she answered, with a tired but relieved smile on her lips.

Her relaxed expression was all they needed to breathe out before moving in the direction of the med bay. The speedster was in a half-seated position on the bed, his back comfortably slumped against an impressive pile of fluffy pillows while his face was facing the other side of the entrance, quietly discussing with Cisco who was seated next to the bed.

"Hey," greeted Joe, knocking on the side of the room's entrance to announce himself and, when Barry turned his head to face him, the detective just smiled like he never did before in his life.

His son looked a little pale and tired, ok, more like completely exhausted, but there was no more ventilator breathing for him, nor any monitor attached to his chest. The only medical equipment's still in place were the pads on each side of his head to survey his brain waves and the finger clip monitoring some of his vitals.

"Barry," Exhaled Iris as she rushed past her father to gain her boyfriend's bedside first. Reaching her destination, she stopped, unsure if she could touch Barry without breaking him like glass.

The only response she got from the hero was a confused and blank expression before the man finally opened his mouth to rasp the words that made Iris' stomach drop.

"Who's Barry?"

Every visitor opened their eyes in shock and paled like a ghost. Oh no, not this... Well, more like everyone except his two best friends.

"Barry..." growled Caitlin, while Cisco shamelessly smacked his best friend's arm.

"Hey! Watch the merchandise!" Protested Barry.

"Not funny, man," retorted the engineer under the confused and unamused looks of the other members of the team who were left to themselves to put the pieces together.

Obviously, judging by Caitlin and Cisco's annoyed reactions, there wasn't much to worry about.

"So... you're not amnesiac?" Concluded Wally, playing with his hands.

"I'm fine. Sorry guys," assured Barry, serious again and apologizing, "you're right, it wasn't really funny… but you should've seen your faces," he added with a small smirk at the corner of his lips, almost earning another smack on the arm, all be it from Iris this time.

But, instead of getting angry and going physical, Iris decided to exhale in relief.

"You had us all really worry there," Joe said, still working on slowing down his racing heart after that not-so-funny joke attempt.

"Are you really ok?" Gently asked Iris, sitting in the uncomfortable chair next to the bed and taking the man's hands between her own.

Barry nodded as he answered, "yeah, I am. I'm having the biggest hangover of my life at the moment and my head hurts like hell, but I'm ok. I will be."

Uncertain about how much they could rely on the young hero's information, considering how prompt he was to hide injuries to protect the rest of the world, the West family all turned to Caitlin in a not so subtle motion for confirmation.

"I'd like to keep him for observation 'til tomorrow, but yes, he'll be fine," she assured them, smiling.

"Barry," Wally started, moving closer to the hero, "do you remember anything about what happened to you?"

"Bits and pieces," he said instantly, "Cisco had been trying to fill me in, but, honestly? It's mostly one big blur of darkness and cold. That and just that overwhelming loneliness."

"You truly don't remember sending us an S.O.S. message through the lab's lights?" Curiously asked Wally.

"'Not really," Barry replied truthfully, slowly shaking his head, "'I remember being desperate to reach out to you and communicate, but I couldn't find a way to do it. I'm sorry, I wish I could be more helpful."

"That's ok, man-" Cisco patted his shoulder, "-while I would be the biggest liar in the world to say I'm not curious to know how it's like being in a computer, the most important thing is that you're ok and that you're back. You scared us good for a moment," his usually bright eyes had a shadow passing in them at the thought of what he almost did or what could've happened if it wasn't for Iris' computer needing to be recharged.

"Plus, your memories might come back too, eventually," Caitlin added with a slight tease.

"Yeah... not sure if I really want to remember, to be honest," It's not like the flashes and bits of memories he had were so fun and great.

"What's your last clear memory?" Inquired Joe.

Barry frowned as he dug deep into his own mind, which would already be a difficult enough task under the circumstances, but that was way harder thanks to his killer headache.

"I remember clearly vibing the future. I was with Cisco, in May..." he recalled, slowly. Without warning, his whole body tensed up and he started looking around, alarmed, "wait! What date are we?"

"Calm down," Caitlin comforted him, rushing into action and gently, but firmly, pushing him back against the pile of pillows, "you've only been out for a couple of days."

"We'll figure it out, together, as a team," added Joe, understanding, like the rest of the team, the reason for his son to panic about the date. Of course, his first concern was going to be about Iris instead of himself.

The break Barry gave his body, allowing it to relax and sink back on the bed, was short-lived as another thought hit him hard and had his eyes sharply opening. He threw an interrogative look at Cisco, hoping his best friend would catch up on his reflection. Maybe it was thanks to his semi-psychic abilities, or maybe simply because he knew way too well how to read his friend, but Cisco instantly decrypted the dread all over the hero's face.

"Joe already knows. Everything."

Oh...

"Joe, I'm s-" Wanted to apology Barry, turning his head and upper body in his foster dad's direction, only to get cut halfway.

"I'm not mad, Barr. Not anymore," he clarified. Of course, he had been pretty upset at first, but now he was just happy to see that Barry will live to fight another day, "let's just make sure that we stop keeping secrets, all of us," he said, turning his glance all around the room to make eye contact with everyone, one by one.

"Promise," said Barry, earning nods of approval from all around the room, "we're going to fix this, we're not going to let this unfold," he assured, turning toward his girlfriend, and smiling tenderly for a second before his expression turned into a wince as his body slightly leaned forward.

"You okay?'' Worriedly asked Iris, letting go of Barry and delicately putting a comforting hand on the CSI's back.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine. It's just my head that's killing me right now," he grimaced.

"We should probably let you rest, it's good to have you back, B.A," H.R. grinned as he overly ceremoniously showed the exit to the rest of the group with his drumsticks.

"All right, I'll be back later," Joe got up, moving forward first to take his son in the strongest and warmest hug he ever did, "you need to stop doing that, Barr," he said, almost choking up.

"Believe me, I'm trying," lightly chuckled Barry, returning the hug.

Letting go, he waved and nodded at the people greeting him on their way out, leaving one by one with their head high, grateful for the turn of events. Well, almost all of them looked completely satisfied about the way everything unfolded. The way Cisco's shoulders fell forward as he was following the group wasn't lost on Barry who frowned.

"Cisco?"

His best friend froze and turned around, "yeah?"

"Don't blame yourself, man. You did what you thought was right," calmly requested Barry.

"I didn't-"

"You didn't have to say anything, I know you, man. I know it's probably eating you inside what you did. You were trying to help me."

"I almost destroyed you, killed you, completely when I rebooted the system," depressively grumbled Cisco under the careful eye of his best friend who was silently watching his movements as Vibe moved closer to the bed before moving away again, rubbing his eyes, "how can you be so calm about all of this? Get mad. Do Something. I don't know..." his attitude was slightly building toward annoyance seeing how his friend wasn't realizing how close they came to lose him because Cisco couldn't use his brain.

"Cisco. You're not the only one making mistakes… remember Flashpoint?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Inquired Cisco, frowning, but stopping his circle to look at his friend's features, curious to see where Barry was heading with that.

"I came back to this timeline because I wanted to fix things for all of you guys and, doing so, only ended up making things worse. I know what it's like wanting to help and, making mistakes in the process because I was in a hurry. You forgave me for that, didn't you?"

Yeah, Flashpoint. That one hit close to home to the young engineer who lost his brother in the process and saw Caitlin starting her long fight against becoming Killer Frost. No argument that Barry messed up on that one.

"Yeah, yeah I did. Because I knew-" Cisco stopped midsentence, realizing the point Barry was trying to make, "-because I realized you only did what you thought was right at the time."

Barry smiled, "sometimes doing our best isn't enough or isn't taking us on the right path, but it's all we have and it's good enough for me. You just wanted to help me so bad that you did a mistake, we all do, we all did."

Barry was right and the important thing, like they said earlier, was that Barry was going to be ok.

"So, we're good. Right, man?" Asked Barry after a few seconds of silence.

"Yeah. Yeah, we are," Cisco smiled as he gently putting a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder, "just rest, alright? I'll see you tomorrow."

Barry nodded, feeling the weight of the world being lifted from his shoulders. He was going to be ok, as long as his friends would be by his side, nothing could take him down.

The. END.

A/N: Last chance to leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on the story :)

Thank you SO MUCH all of you for reading 'til the end and for taking the time to comment. Even if I'm not the fastest keyboard alive and sometimes I take a moment to answer, answering back to every comment is the best part of writing.

I'm kind of sad this story is over...but Long Way Home is going to keep getting updated. I sent 2 full new chapters to my Beta, hopefully she'll have time to correct one before Friday. If she doesn't, I'll keep you updated on my twitter account .

Other than that, I have a couple of options for what I'll do next. I'm thinking about either:

1) Rewriting What makes him tick ; because, seriously, my writing has changed so much I can't barely look at that old story anymore, plus I have a LOT of ideas to make a new version

2) Write a Darkest Hour sequel

3) Write a new story

If you have a preference, don't be shy to let me know in the comment or with the poll on my account. See you later everyone!