Hi, and good morning! :) So, this is going to be a long chappie, but, you guys don't mind, right? ;) It starts getting good in this chapter. ;P Real quick, I just wanted to say; I'm not trying to sound like I'm promoting my own stuff, haha, but I'll be making an Ebay account with my family soon, and while they'll be selling random stuff, I'll be trying to sell up-cycled clothes and different stuff like that. So, the reason I'm saying this, is because; if you have like a quote you want done on a shirt or pillow, or something like that, I can try and do it. Or like a picture, or song lyric, or anything like that. I can try and do that.
The price should be reasonably low; I don't know, it's my parent's decision on that. But I'll be going to a thrift shop today, (probably) and the I will be picking out different types of clothes. And I can add different designs, fringe, and different stuff to it, also. So that's just a thought. ;) Let me know on whether or not you're interested! Again, this is just if you would want something custom made that you can't find anywhere; like a quote from a TV show, song, a picture of something. Ya' know, stuff like that. ;)
And also, to Sally(Guest): Awww, thank you! Hopefully, you'll like this chapter as well. ;)
Well, that being said, I hope that you liked it and will leave a review! ;D
Disclaimer: I do not own this hopefully good story. ;P
Barry's eyelids started to droop as his head felt like a ton of bricks. He looked through his cards, but they were just starting to look like blurs. He blinked hard and tried to focus on the game, rather than his sleepiness.
He laid a card down and yawned.
Why was he so tired?
It had only been about twenty four hours since he was injected...then again, it would have been about thirty something hours for when he had last slept. So one day down, and two more to go. Barry felt like he should be more excited about that.
He and Oliver had decided that they would play poker...and then about every other card game out there. Twice. Just to keep them distracted. The room was brightly lit, which just added even more to Barry's headache.
He could tell that Oliver was tried, as well, but he seemed to be handling it a lot better than Barry. He didn't understand this. He'd stayed up for longer than twenty fours at a time. When he was a kid, in high-school at parties, in college when he studied too much, and other nights when he was either working on his dad's case, or just couldn't sleep due to nightmares.
Although, those were all before he got struck by lightning.
And come to think of it, every night since then, he had practically fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow; excluding the nights when it was right after a fight or something was on his mind.
Suddenly, a loud blaring alarm came overhead, and Barry internally groaned. He knew that sound. It signaled a mission alert. He bit back the urge to sigh as he stood up, not quite as alert as Oliver seemed to be. While Oliver went to get ready, Barry flashed over to his suit and had in on in the blink of an eye; even though it seemed to take forever to him.
Snap out of it, Barry.
He mentally scolded himself, tempted to slap himself if it kept him more awake. Even though, he really doubted that it would. If he was having trouble after only twenty four hours, what was he supposed to do for the whole seventy hours?
He speed read the mission report, finding it to take him longer than usual for some odd reason. He made a mental note to check with Caitlin if that was some side-effect of the poison. Oliver walked into the room.
"Okay, I'll explain once we get there; I'll super speed the both of us there." He explained and Oliver nodded, and they were both gone in an instant. Barry frowned during the run there, his powers seemed...weak. When they got there, Barry accidentally stumbled after he had let Oliver go.
"Are you okay?" Oliver asked; refraining from using his real name. Barry nodded, his vision blurring for a second as his stomach churned. He shook his head lightly as he stood up straight, previous signs of nausea and his headache gone.
"I'm fine. Just got dizzy for a moment from the run," He said, frowning. That had never happened before. At least, not after Caitlin and Dr. Wells had diagnosed the cause to be his glucose levels.
"Okay, the mission is about the Destroyers. Someone claimed that they had seen them heading out to this part of the neighborhood, and it was backed up with evidence from somebody's security camera. So, they should still be in this area, as it was merely minutes ago, and none of them have any transporting abilities." Barry filled in for Oliver who nodded and started scouting the area from the top of the roof they were on.
"They're probably trying to steal supplies so they can break into Star Labs for their leader," Oliver said quietly and Barry nodded.
"Yeah, they-" He stopped abruptly as Oliver held up a hand in a gesture to stop. He slowly motioned for Barry to come closer, and when Barry went over there quietly, Oliver pointed down towards the backyard of someone's house.
A mask figure was slowly moving towards the garage of that person's place. Barry was about ready to run down there, but Oliver's hand on his chest stopped him from doing so.
"Wait," He said, voice low. "There might be more. We need to wait and watch for more." Barry sighed irritatingly. If there were more of them, that wasn't really a problem for Barry. But he knew Oliver was right, so he waited. After several minutes, only one more accomplice showed up, and they both decided that they would go now.
Oliver shot an arrow to go down, and Barry ran. Barry stopped abruptly as he ran into the backyard, and Oliver slid down the rope of his arrow. They startled the meta-humans, who, once they realized that they weren't alone anymore, lashed out at them; attacking at first glance.
Barry easily dodged the pipe thrown at him, and Oliver shot out an arrow, that was dodged by one of the meta-humans. They were up against both a boy and girl, who each looked to be around the age of sixteen.
Barry couldn't help but have pity on them, even though he knew that they needed to be captured. Both Oliver and Barry could tell that the kids were inexperienced, so they used that knowledge to their advantage.
Barry sped behind the boy, who quickly turned around and threw a punch, that Barry caught and, using his speed, twisted the arm behind the kid's back. The kid yelled in pain, but Barry knew that he hadn't broken it, or even dislocated his arm. He pulled out the cuffs from his pocket with one hand, holding onto the kid's arm with the other hand.
They had both learned that now with the meta-humans who were teaming up, that it helped to always have one or two pairs of power-dampening handcuffs in their uniform. He slipped the cuffs on, and turned to see Oliver doing the same with the girl. Barry smiled.
"That went well," He said to Oliver once he stood up.
"Do you think you could speed them over to the facility?" He questioned and Barry nodded, grabbing them before Oliver could even finish his sentence, and was back before it ended, too. Oliver sighed.
"Already done. Would you care for a ride, too?" He asked with a smirk, before speeding him over to Star Labs. Barry stumbled when they came into the doorway, again. He then sped off to change out of his uniform, and came back to the facility where he was alone.
He winced, suddenly feeling a lot worse than before. The adrenaline was already wearing off. He clutched his head as suddenly pain and the rushing of blood throughout his skull blocked out any sound from the outside world.
He heard a voice, and knew someone was trying to talk to him, but he couldn't hear it over the excruciating throb in his head. He slowly removed his hands, and shook his head; the pain lessening to the point where he could actually open his eyes.
He lightly shook his head again, only now aware of the fact that Oliver's hand was on his shoulder. "Ugh, that was weird," He muttered. Apparently, he was there in pain a lot longer than he realized, because Oliver was already changed.
"Are you okay, Barry?" Barry nodded with a swallow.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little bit of a headache, I guess. It's probably just because of the poison and my body still fighting it off." He stated, slowly walking over to one of chairs and sinking down into it; fully aware Oliver's worried gaze watching him.
He heard footsteps, and glanced over to see Caitlin and Cisco walking in; Caitlin briskly walking in while Cisco walked behind her, an apologetic look on his face directed towards Barry. That worried him just a little bit.
"What were you thinking?" Caitlin demanded and Barry frowned.
"Um, you're going to have to be a little bit more specific." He said and she sighed irritatingly.
"You. Mission. What on earth were you thinking, going on that mission in your condition?" She asked and he sighed and rubbed a hand over his face; her yelling inducing even more of a headache.
"I was thinking that my city was in danger, and I needed to protect it." He said simply, and she sighed again.
"Barry, Oliver could have done it by himself-"
"I wasn't going to make him do that, not when I'm perfectly capable of fighting a couple of meta-humans." He declared.
"Yes, but Barry, you could have been injured on that mission, which would in turn would cause your body to work slower as it tries to fight off both the poison and heal the wound. And using your speed will waste your energy. Plus, if your enemy would have found out about your current situation, they would have tried to use it against you."
"They could have used tranquilizers. Not to mention that you could have been hit on the head and knocked unconscious, which would be just the same as sleeping, and you would have died within minutes." She declared and this time he sighed.
"Yeah, but nothing happened. So everything's all right." He said as he went to stand up. Oliver, who had his arms crossed during the whole argument, held out a hand in a 'stop' gesture.
"Hold on a minute, Barry. Not everything is all right. What about when I came here just a little bit ago after changing out of my uniform?" He questioned and Barry glared at him.
"That was nothing," He declared and Oliver shook his head.
"Wait, what happened?" Cisco asked, speaking up for the first time during this whole argument/conversation.
"Don't-" Barry started, but Oliver talked over him; making Barry clench his jaw in anger.
"When I came in earlier, Barry was clutching his head in extreme pain. He also stumbled a lot when he was running; and felt sick after doing said running. Almost like he was dizzy or something." Oliver declared.
"Barry, you have to tell us about this kind of stuff!" Caitlin exclaimed and Barry groaned as he sat back down, pressing his fist to his temple as he closed his eyes. "Remember that one time I told you that; 'in science we do not keep secrets from each other'? Because that still stands. Barry, this could be a deadly situation-"
"I know!" He exclaimed in a sudden outburst, and everyone stood shocked for a moment at his anger. "I know, all right? I'm sorry, but I do know that. I just don't want everybody to be hovering over me because of this poison. I'm aware of how bad this situation is, but just stop worrying, okay? I'll be fine." He said, exhaustion starting to seep into his words. Everyone nodded slowly.
"We're sorry, Barry. But we all are worried about you. This isn't something that we're used to dealing with, and we're not sure what to do." Caitlin explained and he nodded with a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair.
"I know, I know. I'm just tired, and I guess that being tired is putting me in a bad mood." Caitlin frowned.
"You shouldn't be that tired, already," She said and he nodded.
"I know. It's only been about thirty six hours since I last slept, but it sure doesn't feel like it. I feel like I haven't slept in ages," He mumbled.
"Barry, you know how your metabolism is so much faster than anyone out there?" He nodded. "And that you burn through things on average three times faster than anybody else?" He nodded again at Caitlin's question. She sighed.
"Barry, I think that it might be the same for your resting. You burn through the amount of sleep in your system three times faster than before." She said, and Barry felt his heart drop.
"So, that means that I've technically only been awake for thirty six hours, but with my enhanced speed, I've been awake for about...four days?" He asked incredulously and she nodded.
"But you must be able to handle it better, because to you, being awake for longer periods of time has become normal. I'm going to run a few blood tests to see if I can figure out why you're experiencing these headaches and dizzy spells. It's hopefully just a side effect of your body fighting off the poison. We can't have you fainting because of it. "
She said and he nodded tiredly. She gently patted his shoulder. "You'll do fine, Barry." She said, but he didn't move or acknowledge it; just now realizing how bad this situation truly is. He vaguely felt her hand lifting off of his shoulder, before she walked out of the room.
"Yeah, I mean, if you can stop Zoom, you can surely do this." Cisco encouraged, before frowning. "We don't want you turning into some twisted version of sleeping beauty," Cisco stated and Barry smiled.
"Sure, man." He said, before Cisco left and followed Caitlin. Barry sighed.
"Well, what should we do now?" Oliver asked and Barry shrugged.
"I don't know. Let's just no play cards, all right? I don't think I could stand to look at another one of those ever again." He said and Oliver chuckled.
"I would suggest training, but we don't want to wear you out even further. So...I can't believe that I'm saying this, but, do you like puzzles?" Oliver asked, and Barry laughed.
"Me, the Flash, putting together a puzzle with you, the Arrow, slash Oliver Queen. Yeah, my life is the perfect definition of normal." Barry said and Oliver chuckled.
"Well, then, Flash? Do you happen to know where a good puzzle is?"
They had already spent six hours putting together a puzzle, listening to music overhead. Laughter and music could be heard from the main room of Star Labs by Caitlin and Cisco as they worked.
Oliver and Barry took turn switching the songs; finding amusement in each of their tastes, laughing at some of the choices, while finding amusement in the fact that they liked a lot of the same songs.
"Katy Perry? Really, man?" Barry asked as he stuck another piece of the puzzle down in it's belonged place. Oliver's face remained relaxed, even though a tug of his lips from amusement showed as he spoke.
"I know a good artist when I hear one," He defended himself and Barry laughed; causing Oliver to grin. "Hey what about you? Mister 'Poker Face'," Oliver accused and Barry put a hand to his chest in mock hurt.
"That is a very well created song, Ollie. I'm hurt that you don't recognize a musical masterpiece when you hear it." Oliver shrugged.
"I never said it was bad, just said that it's funny that the Flash listens to Lady Gaga." Oliver said as he picked up another piece of the puzzle. This was the fifth jigsaw puzzle that they had worked on already.
"Oh yeah? And the Arrow listens to Katy Perry." Barry said and Oliver paused, his piece hovering over the puzzle.
"That isn't..." He paused again. "You keep my secret and I'll keep yours." He finally said and then joined in Barry's laughing.
"Deal." Barry stated once the laughter died down. He picked up three pieces and put them down; one right after the other.
"Hey, I thought I told you to stop doing that." Oliver said, feigning frustration, and Barry chuckled.
"It's not exactly like I can just shut that off. Using my speed with my hands, yeah. But up here," He paused, tapping his finger to his head. "It's not so easy." He claimed and Oliver muttered something under his breath, similar to; 'sure it is', and Barry laughed again.
He would have never have thought that he would be fighting off sleep, from a poison from a girl who can make knives with her hands, while putting together jigsaw puzzles with the Arrow, AKA Oliver Queen who had been lost at sea and claimed dead. Life certainly was crazy sometimes.
Or in his case, all of the time.
It's rarer for things to be normal than to be odd. Then again this all was normal. He lightly shook his head in amusement. These seventy-two hours would be hard, but with all of his friends being there for him, it wouldn't be too bad.
Heck, part of it was even fun.
He had spoken too soon.
After a while, things had quieted down as they got into the midnight hour, and Barry could tell that everyone was getting exhausted at this point.
Which caused him to feel awful, because he was the cause of their exhaustion. Although, Barry was beyond exhaustion at this point, himself. But just as he was putting down a puzzle piece, he yawned.
And suddenly, his world was going unimaginably slow, only for a moment, before it was all just a blur, and he found himself colliding with the wall behind Oliver, a horrendous thud and then a loud crash sounding off as he hit the floor dully.
He groaned as he put his head back; the pain from the glitch seeming to intensify from his insomnia.
"Barry!" Oliver shouted, and Barry was distantly aware of Oliver kneeling next to him and slowly helping him to stand. "What happened?" He questioned, and Barry blinked a couple of times; shaking his head to remove the fuzzy black spots dancing across his vision.
As he stretched his neck with one hand, he noticed Caitlin and Cisco come running into the room; worry evident on their faces. He sighed as he heard all of their questions; his exhaustion suddenly seeping in, full force.
"What happened?"
"Are you okay?" Caitlin asked, and Barry glanced over at her and nodded.
"Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. I just glitched," He said and she frowned.
"Your lack of sleep must be depriving your body of it's necessary energy to keep your speed at bay." Caitlin was saying, but Barry found it extremely hard to concentrate at the moment. He wasn't really aware of what time exactly, it was, but he knew that they were getting very close to the third day.
And that nearly made him want to jump for joy; if he had the energy to do so. "Hey, Barry," Someone said, and he felt a gentle shove to his shoulder. He jerked, and nearly jumped straight back into Oliver.
"Whoa...easy there, Barry." Oliver said, helping him stand up straight again; concern evident in his features and tone of voice. Barry shook his head slowly, and glanced at Caitlin.
"I'm sorry, what were you saying?" He asked, his exhaustion seeping into his voice. Cisco, Caitlin, and Oliver all exchanged a worried glance.
"Every time he glitches..." Caitlin began.
"Must cause him to lose even more energy," Cisco said.
"Which is going to cause his days to go by even faster." Oliver added.
"Which, might even cause them to go by either slower, or faster for Barry." Caitlin finished, and Barry watched on with a confused face; trying to process it all, but having an extremely difficult time doing so with his fog-muddled mind.
"So, you mean that if his speed is glitching, his days will go by either super slowly, or super fast?" Oliver asked and Caitlin nodded. A sickening feeling built in Barry's stomach as he started to process it, not really wanting to process it. "Isn't there some sort of caffeine he can take that'll help him?" Oliver suggested and Caitlin sighed.
"His body will just burn right through it. And even if we did make something, it would only cause his glitching to be worse than it already is." She explained and Oliver nodded. Barry felt his knees getting weaker by the second, so he decided to very weakly sit down on one of the bar stools next to the table.
Just as Barry was starting to sit, however, he felt his hand start vibrating at a rapid pace, and just like before, his world slowed down to almost nothing, before it sped back up to an unbelievable speed even he couldn't quite process. He winced as the only coherent thought on his mind, was the pain in the forefront of his head, and arm.
He nearly wanted to scream at the agony of the pain in his arm, but settled for a quiet mutter of 'ow'; not having enough energy to even open his eyes at this current moment.
He didn't have his usual filter on like he did when he was injured, so when he suddenly felt his arm being jostled just a bit, a whimper came through his gritted teeth.
"Sorry, sorry," Someone was saying, among with many other things; none of which Barry could make any sense out of. Just like how he couldn't tell who was kneeling next to him. When he went to open his eyes, he was shocked to find that they were already partially opened; even though his eyesight was completely black.
"C'mon, Barry, we can't have you passing out right now." He hear another person say as they gently helped him stand up; along with the help of the third person in the room. He lightly shook his head as he opened his eyes, nausea building in his stomach at the intensity of the pain in his arm.
It was sheer agony.
He hissed slightly in pain as his arm was jostled again; quickly earning an apology from a couple of different people. He heard a sigh, from who he could just barely tell from his blurred vision, was Caitlin.
"Well, his arm is definitely broken." She stated and he frowned.
"That broke it?" He questioned, voice slurring unwillingly. Almost as if he was drunk. She nodded, and only now did he realize that his left arm was around Cisco's shoulder, while Oliver supported him on his other side so he wouldn't hurt his injured arm already than Barry had when he glitched.
"You must have collided with the wall in the perfectly wrong position. And I'm afraid that your speed isn't going to be helping it at all; it's too busy fighting off the poison in your blood system." She said, and he nearly wanted to cry.
This pain, wasn't going anywhere for another twenty four hours. And even in his sleep lacking mind, he knew that they wouldn't be able to give him any painkillers; it would only make him even more tired.
"Okay...okay. We can do this, guys. It's only like, twenty four more hours.' He declared, and Cisco chuckled.
"Says the guy who looks like he the should be on the Walking Dead." Cisco stated, and Barry glared in his direction. Or at least, he hoped was his direction. Cisco laughed as Barry shook his head.
"Hey, cut me some slack. I've been awake for like..." He paused, doing the math in his head. "Seven days," He said and Cisco's jaw dropped.
"Never mind, dude. You have every right to look the way you do." He stated and Barry huffed in amusement.
"Gee, thanks, Cisco." He said; thankful for conversation. Even if it didn't really mean anything, it did help to take his mind off of his current exhaustion.
"Come on, let's get him into the medical bay so I can set his arm." Caitlin said, and Barry numbly felt himself being half-walked, and half-dragged into the room next to the one he was in. He knew that the pain was only to get worse when she set it.
This was almost amusing to him; without his super speed, he could break his arm and even though it would be slow for it to heal, he'd at least be able to have anesthetics. And with his super speed, he could have a broken arm, and even though he wouldn't get any anesthetics, it would at least heal extremely fast.
Now...now he's literally got the worst from either circumstance. He sighed as they walk in.
Why couldn't life ever be easy for him?
..Well? Thoughts please? ;)
