Look who's back!? This is the FINAL part! *wipes brow off with hand* Whew. Thank goodness. The response I've gotten on this story is just, agh, it means so much! I'm so glad you all like it so much! Thank you all! :D I'm kinda' sad that it's over actually, haha, but maybe now I can be more focused on the rest of my stories! Here's hoping. ;P

SavannahSmiles: It totally counts haha. Ahh, Leonard is the best. *thumbs up*

WhiteTigerYay: THANK YOU! And oh, yes he is awesome. ;D

Disclaimer: If I owned all of this, then I wouldn't need a job, so there.

Singh had been correct when he had suspected a lot of questions from his fellow officers. Everybody wanted to know what had happened, and if Barry was all right, and what had caused this 'incident'.

He had said that he wasn't allowed to give out that information, other than being able to say that Barry was, indeed, okay, and that it wasn't serious enough that Barry wouldn't be able to come in the next day. And David and Joe had both agreed over the phone that night, that he wouldn't give Barry as much work; they had other CSI's who were capable of handling it.

And they had also agreed that their cover story would be that Barry had overworked himself with the cases, and hadn't been taking proper care of himself, since he was trying to finish all of the cases due to the Singularity.

That added with stress, and exhaustion had thus caused Barry to collapse in the Precinct. After all, it wasn't a total lie. Singh sighed as he continued to go through the paper work.

Things used to be so simple.

He could never fully protect all of his officers, but he could hold them back when he felt the situation was too dangerous, or he could send in more experienced officers instead of the rookies, and when Barry had been grabbed as a hostage at a crime scene, David had been able to hold him back from going out for a month; putting a different CSI in his place until the heat died down and the guy was captured.

But now...now David couldn't protect him anymore.

And it bothered him. He could only imagine how Joe felt. It still blew his mind how they had managed to keep it a secret from him this long. And how the awkward, and goofy kid with lanky arms and legs who never quite grew into them, could be the Flash. A hero who risked his life every moment of the day for the rest of the city.

It was just crazy to him.

A knock on his open door caused him to look up just in time to see the person he was just thinking about. Barry Allen stood in the doorway, awkwardly shuffling his feet as if he had been standing there for a little bit, unsure of how to get Singh's attention. Barry offered a closed and awkward smile; unsure of what to do.

"Allen. Come in." He said, and Barry glanced behind him for a brief moment, no doubt checking to see if anybody else was coming, because David just knew that officers had been checking up on the poor kid, who was undoubtedly uncomfortable with all of the attention. I wonder what would happen if they found out he was the Flash, David mused.

"Can I close this?" Barry asked, gesturing towards the wooden door and Singh nodded. Barry closed it before walking over to the table and just standing there, causing Singh to gesture for him to sit down. Once he was, Singh inhaled briefly before speaking up.

"So, I'm guessing that Joe told you about what I found out yesterday," David said, and Barry's jaw tensed lightly as he nodded, looking anywhere but at Singh.

"Y-yeah, he told me." He said, obviously uncomfortable. And Singh wondered what it was like, having to talk to your boss about your supposed to be secret superhero identity. "He said that you came to Star Labs after I fainted." This time Singh nodded.

"Mm-hmm." He hesitated for a moment, knowing that he needed to talk to Barry about this, but unsure on how to approach it. "You gave us quite a scare, you know." He said and Barry nodded, brows furrowing in a slight frown.

"Sorry, about that. I don't know what happened, really, I just-"

"I know that you've been fixing the city every night since the Singularity." Singh declared, effectively cutting off Barry's statement. Or rather, lie. Barry's jaw tensed as he finally looked up at him. And there was this look on his face. And suddenly Barry didn't look like the twenty four year old kid that Singh knew, he looked like the Flash, a man who had seen far too many things in his short time of being a superhero.

"How do you know that?" He questioned, his voice unusually low.

"Well, there have been sightings of the Flash working all through out the night, and things don't just repair themselves. And I figured that if the Flash has been cleaning and fixing the city, then that means that you have, also." David stated and Barry nodded slowly.

"Look, I know that being the...Flash," Barry said, voice quieting with the word 'Flash'. "Is like being a vigilante which is...illegal, and would technically make me a criminal, so I..." Barry hesitated with a frown, as if just realizing that he indeed was technically a criminal. "I would understand if you want to fire me. That's why you called me in here, after all, isn't it?" And just like that the kid had managed to once again leave David completely dumbfounded and shocked.

"God, Barry, whatever gave you that idea?" Singh finally asked after a few moments of silence. Barry frowned, obviously puzzled, and slightly shocked by Singh's use of his first name.

"What do you-"

"I'm not going to fire you. Yes, vigilantism is not technically legal, but with all of the good that you do...I'm not going to fire you. And it's not like you just run around killing people; you help people." Barry frowned with a slight shake of his head, not understanding.

"But I caused the Singularity. I'm the reason so many people died. Including E-Eddie." Barry stated, voice hitching at the name. Singh sighed.

"Barry, that wasn't your fault-"

"But it was. You can't blame anyone but me, Captain. I caused that. There's no denying it." Singh sighed. Maybe there was a different approach to this.

"You might have been a part of the reason for it, but you stopped it. You saved so many people's lives, and-" Barry shook his head vehemently.

"No. No, that wasn't me. That was Ro-...Firestorm." Barry said, catching himself right at the last moment of revealing Firestorm's identity.

"But Barry...Firestorm couldn't have done it without your help." Singh declared, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. There was no way that this was Barry Allen; the happy, carefree kid he was used to. This...man was no kid. He was experienced, as if he had seen far too many horrible and awful things, and carried the weight of the world on his already heavily burdened shoulders. His eyes were...tired. Stressed, and no longer joyful.

"He wouldn't have had to if it weren't for me. If I had only been fast enough..." Barry's voice trailed off,; leaving behind the bitterness and instead enveloping the self-loathing tone that Singh was all too familiar with. He had seen it in a lot of his officers when they had failed and lives were a resulting loss. But this...he imagined that this was far worse. Nobody could claim that Barry Allen was a naive and innocent kid. David sighed.

"I'm not going to change your mind, am I?" David questioned, and Barry lightly shook his head.

"Well, then listen to this; the Singularity didn't change any of our minds on how we feel about the Flash, so it shouldn't for you. The Flash is a hero, everyone knows it and believes it. But they don't know that the man behind the mask is a hero as well. And though you might not believe in yourself, we all believe in you. You didn't fail this city; you saved this city." Barry opened his mouth to speak, but Singh cut him off.

"And lives were lost, yes. But that happens, Barry. Look at any story with a hero in it and you'll find that there were lives that were lost. Lives that the hero couldn't save. But does that change how the people view him? No. If anything, it makes him even more of a hero because he will do anything to make up for those lives."

"He will do whatever it takes to save someone; even if it results in him losing his own life. But there will always be those that he can't save. And even though that might cause the hero to lose faith in himself...it doesn't change how everyone else sees him. He's a hero even if he doesn't realize it." Singh declared firmly, watching as the other man stared at the desk, swallowing thickly.

"Do you realize it?" David asked softly, and when Barry looked up, he knew the truth; Barry didn't know it. Singh inhaled deeply. "Okay." He breathed out. "Okay," He said quietly. This wasn't how he had wanted the conversation to go.

"You can...you can go now. That's all I wanted," He said, and Barry nodded before standing and heading towards the door. But when he opened the door, Singh stopped him. "But Barry," He said, and Barry slowly turned around to face him, and God, this wasn't the kid that he knew. "Think about what I said, alright?" David said and Barry nodded once.

"Alright." And with that final word, Barry left the room, leaving Singh by himself once more. This wasn't...right. At all. Someone so young shouldn't have to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. He shouldn't have to go out there everyday and risk his life for people who barely even show gratification for it.

"I guess it's just the life of a hero,", Joe's words resonated through David's mind.

Well, that's a pretty screwed up life to have, Singh decided.

And maybe he couldn't do anything about Barry constantly putting himself in harm's way, but he could do something about his self-care. It had really been slacking lately, which had been the start of this whole thing, after all.

Singh decided that he would start giving more work to the other CSI's, and stop pushing Barry so much. And he would definitely make sure that Barry started eating more and getting more rest. Maybe this was the way of a hero's life...

But Singh would be damned if he didn't do something to make it better.

IT'S DONE! Was this last one any good? Sorry it's a little short compared to the last one, but hey, at least I delivered. ;) Don't forget to leave a review! I adore those things. :P

Final question(!): What's your favorite thing about your favorite character? Mine would probably be Barry's boyish and joyful personality. I just love it. It just hits me with the feels haha. Tough question (again) but I think that would probably be it.

Again: thank you all for riding this short but crazy roller-coaster with me! You all rock. ;D