''Yes man, it's me, you got it!'' Cisco was smiling from ear to ear. ''You're with me?''

Barry shut his eyes tight in answer, swallowing hard like he was fighting nausea, causing his friend to get closer, raising his eyebrows with concern.

''Barry, what's wrong? Do you want me to call for help?''

Cisco was ready to bolt and go search for Caitlin himself, forgetting for a moment that there were people looking at their every moves that he could call in a second. Barry must've sensed the boy was about to leave because he grabbed Cisco's arm. The engineer could feel the tremors in the boy' body, in his voice.

''No wait...Was Joe really there earlier? Is he alive?''

''Yeah, Barry, he is, so is Iris. We're all fine. Killer Frost's not here, she never was.''

Cisco watched closely as his friend was fighting to regain control of the pain and his breathing, despite the confusion in his eyes. Slowly but surely, as he took in all the information, the confusion turned into resignation, like he already knew the answer to the next question.

''What about my parents?''

''They're...they're dead Barry. Reverse and Zoom killed them.'' Cisco answered, uncomfortably.

Cisco closely waited for the reaction as Barry simply nodded, sitting up in the bed, wincing against the pain caused by moving around, before shaking his head. His thoughts were conflicting with one another. When his voice came back it was a little stronger than before, even though the pain could still be heard in it.

''But, but...I don't get it. I came back, the house was empty, Joe emptied it after she died. I thought I failed to come back.''

''Barry, Iris is fine, they had a little roof leaking problem, that's why the room was so clean.''

Barry closed his eyes and nod, before taking a breath deep enough to make himself shake all over.

'I need to see them. I need to see them all.'

Smiling all over, Cisco signaled at the camera for everyone to come over before closing again on his friend who was lowering his head, putting it in his hands as footsteps were heard in the cortex and approaching. Barry could barely make out what was being said, wincing against the pain, tremor going all over his body as his concentration to stay alert rose at his highest.

Images were taking over his mind, memories of everything that's been happening since the night his mother died, images from the last 15 years coming in no specific order, memories there were lost, forgotten or repressed for the last five months. He could remember waking up from a nightmare at Joe's house, remembering running around that tornado on his first fight as The Flash, remembering waking up from the coma in S.T.A.R. Labs or saving people all around the city countless times. His memories of the fights against Zoom floated in his brain before the face of Reverse took over.

Everything was conflicting with the timeline he spent 5 months in, a timeline where, over time, he started to get memories he didn't even lived and where his own world, own remembrances got pushed away. His mind was having the hardest of time to readjust, but now, with all the recollections, he could clearly see his friends and family.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and instinctively moved away from it, shaking violently, trying to concentrate enough to hear the voices that were spoken to him. He found the strength to open his eyes, to witness Caitlin looking at him, her arm put away, uncertain what to do, tension all over. Barry forced a smile on his lips, trying to put his most reassuring face on.

'It's okay, Caitlin, I remember you now.'

His face must look pathetic considering how bad he was feeling, like there was a hammer constantly pounding in his head, but it still worked because the doctor relaxed in a second. All the tension left the room as Barry started to move his head around to finally get a glimpse of Joe and his children who stayed behind Caitlin, all of them on the opposite side of the bed from Cisco.

'Hey guys, I missed you.' He said in the most sincere way, tearing up.

Iris walked up to the bed, putting her hands on the boy's arm.

'We missed you too.'

'Are you ok?' Asked Caitlin.

'Barr, what happened to you?'' said Joe.

'I'll be ok, now that I'm back.'

'Barr.' Repeated Joe, sitting on the edge of the bed. 'You disappeared for 5 months on us and we found you earlier bleeding on our floor, what happened? We thought you were gone clearing your mind.'

'I…'' trailed Barry, being careful not to look at anyone in the room who were now all gathered around his bed, his tone lowering to a whisper. 'I went back in time to save my mom.'

A silence followed, everyone sharing the same *Did I hear that right?* look.

'Man.' Started Cisco, shifting his weight from one leg to another, unsure how to say this. 'But, your mom did die that night.'

'It's because I changed it back.' Barry whispered back, pressing the crowd around him to gather closer so they could hear everything.

The boy just wanted to rest, sleep his headache off, but there was no resting now that the box has been opened.

'I….After I changed the timeline, I found myself in a nightmare I couldn't get away from.' He started, taking a pause to give a chance to everyone to comment, which nobody did, so he continued. 'In this…reality, the particular accelerator still exploded, but there was a group of metahumans who considered they were more advanced than normal people and wanted basically for the metahumans to take over, take on the most powerful positions. They were led by…'

Barry stopped again in his story, uncertain how to spill it out, but, gladly, he didn't have to. Caitlin was the fastest to catch up, reading her friend's expression like a book.

'It was me, Killer Frost, wasn't it?' Caitlin's voice was calm and under control, it wasn't a question, it was an affirmation, despite the formulation of the sentence.

The boy didn't answer, he kept on looking down, at his hands, as he answered. At least his headache was getting slightly better now, even if the throbbing pain in his side was still his constant companion.

'Yeah, it was. She forced everyone to pick a side. Killer Frost didn't care how many innocents would die in the crossfire. ''

As he finished the sentence, the speedster looked up to meet Iris' eyes with his owns.

'Iris, you died trying to cover one of the fight between the factions. The Joe of this world declared war on Killer Frost and she tried making an example out of him, showing up at the funeral. She killed everyone there, except Joe. Even Wally and Francine showed up and got slaughtered with everyone else.'

Iris covered her mouth at that as Wally put his arm around her sister's shoulders trying to protect her from images and thoughts attacking her mind. Barry kept looking closely at Joe's children's reactions, but being careful to no share glances with Caitlin, not eager to see her reaction. Even if they both knew it wasn't really her who did all of this but Killer Frost, it still happened on this Earth, not in another universe. All it took was for her to be in the wrong place at the wrong time to literally freeze her heart.

'I met Joe a week after that, as he was trying to find a way to corner Frost. We got recruited by the opposite faction who just wanted the metahumans to be accepted and be in peace like they used to before they got transformed. It wasn't their fault.'

Without meaning to, Barry felt like he needed to defend his opinion, a war reflex he developed over the last months. He stopped, suddenly being drawn back to the present and the faces surrounding him. Realizing nobody here was going to argue him about that, how could they with two metahumanss in the room? They were looking at him with a mixture of compassion for everything he's just been through and shock at the information of everything that at the same time happened and yet didn't.

Nobody was moving a muscle or saying a single word, waiting to learn the rest, so Barry kept going.

''We worked for months to trap Killer Frost and her minions, thousands and thousands and …' Barry took his breath, tearing up a little more. ''…thousands of people died, because of me, because I couldn't let my mother's dead.''

''Barr…'' Carefully started Joe, his voice shaking. He didn't want to push his son, wanting to comfort him, but knowing that to really help Barry, he really needed to comprehend everything that he lived ''What happened after?''

The boy slowly turned his head away from the group, looking between an empty space between his friends, looking toward the back of the lab, but without really seeing, lost in his thoughts. He didn't even bother to look back at his friends and family to keep talking.

''After months fighting this war, I started forgetting my old life here. But I couldn't bring myself to kill Frost, I didn't know why, I just couldn't... I convinced Vibe and Joe to trap her, not kill her and …we did. After months of tracking her, we finally had her within her grasp, we had her on her knees and we had her chance to stop this madness. But I…I…''

The speedster stopped talking, sniffing. From his point of view, Joe could see the tears falling freely and shared an understanding look with his daughter who moved her hand forward, desperate to do anything to comfort Barry. She stopped when he continued talking with a tearful voice:

''One second, just one second of hesitation, it all it took for Killer Frost to get free and jump on us. She killed all our whole unit, she killed Vibe, she threw her ice through Joe and killed him….she jumped on me before I could react. I thought for sure I was going to die…''

Caitlin bit her lips, looking away from the speedster, hating to hear about the stuff the other her did to all the people she cared about, shiver running down her back.

''I should've ended this, I couldn't even explain why we needed her alive, everybody died because of me.'' By the time he ended his sentence, Barry could barely speak between the tears.

'Oh Barry.'' Simply said Iris, closing the gap and wrapping her arms around her adoptive brother. ''I'm so sorry this happened to you.'' She said before letting go, not caring that the boy didn't respond to the hug.

''Barry…it's not your fault, your subconscious remembered me.' Added Caitlin, trying to sound as gentle as she possibly could.

''How did you survive?'' asked Wally.

''There was this…boy, speedster. He saved me. He helped me get back here. '' Barry managed to say, finally turning back to look at his friends, his eyebrows frowning, as this could help him remember every detail. ''There was something familiar about him, I felt like I should know him, but I'm pretty sure I never met him before.''

''What did he look like?'' asked Joe.

''He was tall, with short and brown hair and was wearing a red and white speedster suit, with glasses. He looked pretty young too''

Barry started unconsciously rubbing his forehead as the throbbing in his head was returning. Quickly turning back into doctor mode, Caitlin decided it was enough stress for her patient and started pushing everyone out of the lab.

''Alright everyone, Storytime is over. You need to rest Barry.''

They all wanted to protest, but kept their words in before any of them could get out, understanding all this talking had probably drained the poor boy's energy. Not to mention they needed time to deal with all the information. All of this was without a doubt the last thing they thought Barry was doing during this whole time away.

Iris was the last one to leave, letting Barry all alone with his doctor, checking one last time at him, smiling fondly as Caitlin was helping the CSI lay back down on the bed. He might be badly shaken by everything, but he was going to be ok, he's a strong kid.

'You're ok, Barry?'' Said Caitlin, getting ready to leave too after making sure her friend was comfortable, laying on his back, his eyes closing.

''I'm back.'' It was all the answer he needed. Caitlin smiled and turned around when Barry made his voice be heard again. ''Bart.'' He whispered.

''What did you say?'' She asked, closing back to the young man's bedside.

It was too late, the speedster was asleep.

Everyone in the labs totally missed the footage on the security camera of a young speedster standing in front of the building, smiling.

''Take care, grand-dad. I'll see you around'' Said Bart Allen, before taking off.


The. End!

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And yes for those who aren't sure they understood: Wally's cell disappeared because Bart stole it to make sure Barry would be find in time :)