A/N: Hey everyone, so it occurred to me that I was in such an excited rush to publish my first ColdFlash story that I didn't do an author's note! I just want to say thank you all for the lovely reviews and that I hope you do bear with me with this. I'm currently studying at uni and working alongside my course so updates may vary but I will try and make sure there are regular chapters being posted. Also in this story all of S1 has happened but it's kind of going by my timeline now.

'I know I'm finding it hard to breathe and I've been drowning in my own sleep'

"No!" his mom screamed "No!"

Barry woke up breathing heavily and covered in sweat as his mom screaming "No," still rang clear in his mind. "Mom," Barry breathed out as he looked around his bedroom hoping to slow his racing heart. It was a dream, just a dream. He pulled himself up into a sitting position and ran a hand through his slightly sweat dampened hair.

Barry couldn't remember the last time he'd had a decent night's sleep. Even as Barry glanced at the time on the clock on his bedside table, he could already predict how his day would go, he'd go to his job at CCPD and then in the evening either track a meta-human or do a quick search of the city then he'd be back in bed to repeat it all again tomorrow.

The first thing Barry noticed as he walked through the crime scene was how confused all the bystanders seemed to be, one woman was gripping to a police officer looking frightened as she kept repeating "How did I get here?"

Barry moved to stand beside Joe who seemed to be deep in thought by the frown currently in place on his face "What's going on?" he asked as he glanced around the room once more at the confused bystanders and increasingly confused looking officers taking statements or consoling the people gripping to them looking terrified.

Joe ran a hand down his face as he shrugged "A robbery took place and no one remembers what happened let alone how they got here," he said "It's as if the robbery is the least of their worries… they're all more concerned about how they got here…"

Barry frowned slightly "That'd be one hell of a stunt to pull," he said slowly "unless-" he started to add when Joe cut him off.

"Maybe STAR labs should look into this one," Joe said in a low voice "it definitely fits being unexplainable."

Barry nodded his head "I'll call Cisco and Caitlin," he said "I'll start looking for anything that can point us in the direction of who could have possibly pulled this off."

"A meta-human that can induce amnesia, man I have so many questions like-" Cisco said and Barry could tell he was about to start rattling off a million questions that Barry had himself and was unable to provide any answer for which is why he cut Cisco off before he could even start.

"Cisco, is there any way we can track them down?" He asked as he paced around his lab "Joe's not had any luck with the CCTV and all the eye-witnesses don't remember a thing." He added before letting out a sigh.

There was a pause on the other end which suggested that it wasn't going to be as easy as he had previously anticipated "I don't know man," Cisco said sounding hesitant "we know next to nothing about this person, the best we can hope for right now is The Flash being there when the next robbery goes down."

"The next robbery?" Barry questioned.

"Yeah, if you could walk into anywhere, steal a bunch of expensive stuff or money and then make all the eye-witnesses forget it even happened and walk right out without anyone thinking twice… wouldn't you assume they'd do it again?" Cisco said.

Barry cocked his head to the side "I guess," he said "I know it's a lot to ask but-" he started to say when Caitlin cut him off.

"Don't worry, we're on it Barry." Caitlin said before the line disconnected.

Barry placed his phone on his desk and rubbed his eyes for a moment, there were some meta-humans that Barry had encountered where he'd wondered if anything could top their odd abilities such as being able to turn oneself into a poisonous gas or being a human bomb… but being able to induce amnesia seemed to be up there with the strangest of all the one's he'd encountered.

Maybe Cisco was right, maybe they would try again and perhaps it was too much to hope they would somehow slip up.

Eventually Barry managed to force himself to concentrate in order to get prints analysed and reports made for the other officers in the precinct and his super speed may have had a special part to play in some of it but it helped ease the workload piling up on his desk as well as keeping his mind occupied from everything that had been getting him down lately.

Captain Singh had looked surprised when Barry had walked into his office to hand him a report which he hadn't been expecting for another day, he looked like he was about to offer some form of praise until he said "Thanks Allen," and motioned for him to make his exit. It had been worth seeing the look of surprise on Singh's face though. Barry grinned his thanks in response before almost tripping out the Captain's office.

"Woah Bear," Joe said looking amused "you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Barry said as he righted himself and internally hoped that no one other than Joe had witnessed his moment of clumsiness.

"I honestly wonder how you can trip over your own two feet and still manage to keep Central City safe from meta-humans," Joe murmured as they walked to his desk.

Barry chuckled "Thanks for the concern Joe," he said.

Leonard sat back in the arm chair and looked at the glass tumbler held lightly in his hand with the same dark amber liquid as the night before as his mind drifted back to the previous night and all those nights ago. He wasn't much of a drinker, he hated what it turned some people into but in the moment it was what felt an appropriate thing to pour himself.

If Leonard had one ultimate accomplishment in his line of business then he would tell people it was his ability to pull every heist off perfectly but on a personal level his ultimate accomplishment would be having gained Barry Allen's trust enough to be able to study the other to the point of watching Barry sleeping beside Leonard.

It wasn't an accomplishment though when it made Leonard feel shitty inside. It wasn't an accomplishment when he was the cause of Barry's pain, adding to the betrayal.

"It's a bit early for that don't you think?" Lisa asked breaking Leonard from his thoughts briefly.

He glanced up at her before he returned his gaze to the tumbler in his hand again "Perhaps," he answered.

"Barry?" Leonard murmured softly as he looked down at the sleeping figure leaning against him "Barry?"

"Hm?" was the response from a somewhat sleepy Barry.

"You're falling asleep," Leonard informed him in a whisper.

"Mm." Barry said before he started to snore softly leaning against Leonard.

It was random memories like that which pushed their way to the front of Leonard's mind to add to the shitty feeling inside. It was pretty ironic when Leonard thought of it really, how he had screwed over Barry but in doing that he had screwed over himself as well.

"Len are you even listening to me!?" Lisa questioned sounding similarly like a petulant child.

Leonard exhaled as he stood from the chair and placed the tumbler on the coffee table as he said "No," and then proceeded to leave the room with yesterday evening still playing on his mind.

His shift at CCPD had long since ended and here he was sat in a chair at STAR labs spinning around aimlessly because he was bored "Are you guys sure you don't mind staying up and monitoring any robberies?" he asked for the fourth time since he'd arrived an hour and a half ago.

"It's no big deal man," Cisco said "it'll be like a stake out where pizza can be ordered." He added with a grin that could suggest he was actually looking forward to staying up all night.

Caitlin on the other hand pulled a face before she said "If it helps find this meta-human,"

"I hope so," Barry said as he contemplated doing a final sweep of the city before heading home to bed.

"Oh," Cisco said as he tapped on something on his computer screen "hold on… it looks like a silent alarm has been tripped."

"Could be our meta-human," Caitlin said sounding hopeful.

Barry was already on his feet and out of STAR labs with Cisco hurriedly telling him the location of the robbery. If there was anything joyful about running as fast as he could, it would definitely be the rush that ran through his veins as he felt the breeze on his face. Barry had almost overshot the location by a block as he allowed himself a moment to just feel the breeze whipping over his face. Coming to a stop inside the jewellery shop, Barry was immediately met with the sight of the sales assistant on the floor looking particularly confused about where they were.

"It's going to be okay," Barry assured her in a soft voice when there was a loud crashing sound and another woman appeared. She was of medium height and definitely not what Barry had been expecting.

"Flash," She said sounding disdainful as she said his name.

"The one and only," he replied.

She cocked her head to the side "Do you ever wonder what the people of Central City would do if The Flash were to… disappear? Or perhaps forget he was even The Flash? Can you imagine how much of a pain in the ass you've been for people like me?" she asked.

Barry resisted the urge to chuckle in case it provoked her "I have a pretty good idea," he said nodding his head lightly "but you don't have to do this." He added.

The woman looked surprised for a moment "I don't have to do this…" she said, her tone implying she was mocking him "I can take what I want and no one can even remember it happening, I'd say that's a pretty good reason to continue."

Barry shook his head lightly "There are people who can help you," he said as he took a step towards her slowly.

She threw her head back and laughed "I don't want your help," she laughed before she moved quickly and threw an object in Barry's direction.

In the split of a second Barry had moved and had a hold on the woman's wrists "I really-" he started to say when she interrupted him with a grin on her face.

"Perfect," she said before making eye contact with Barry.

He frowned for a moment not understanding until something about her eyes caught his attention, it was like he couldn't look away from them yet he wasn't able to get a focus on them.

"How about we forget about the past year," Barry heard a woman say faintly as he was transfixed on those eyes "whatever you can do… we'll just forget it all. The past year is just gone."

"BARRY!?" Two voices in his ear shouted. What, voices in his ear, what?

Something hard connected with the side of his head, blind siding him immediately and everything went dark just as he hit the ground.

Oh wow, Barry's head hurt like hell. He had such a pounding headache.

"Barry?!" He could just hear Joe ask with concern lacing his tone.

Barry let out a small groan "I'm sorry Joe," he said "It must've been some… party. I don't know I don't remember anything, I must've had too much to drink." He added before letting out another groan.