Within Seconds // Barry Allen

The Opposite of Rejoice

Parker slipped the earpiece in. "Bar? Barry, come on, talk to me, what's going on?"

"Whoa!" said Cisco. "What was that?"

Dr. Wells took one look at Barry's vitals and made his decision. "You get him out of there," he ordered. "Run, Barry!"

"Barry, please,"  begged Parker.

"I can't,"  wheezed Barry. "My speed... It's gone."

××××

To test if Barry's speed was truly gone, they ordered him to run on the treadmill. Only two minutes of watching him try to run passed before the team knew he wasn't able to go any faster than seven miles per hour. 

A brooding look etched on his face, Cisco whispered, "He runs slow even for a normal person..."

"You can't just lose your powers! Your DNA was transformed by the Particle Accelerator blast, there's no way to untransform DNA," said Caitlin, at a loss of explanation. 

Parker sat next to Barry on the treadmill. She handed him a water bottle. 

"Tell that to the Uber driver who charged me sixty-five bucks to take me here. I had to tell him I was coming from a cosplay party," he panted. 

"So, we were wrong. This meta-human doesn't electrocute people, he siphons energy, thereby removing your power," explained Dr. Wells. 

Barry's hands were pressed against each other. He moved his pressed hands to touch his nose, his eyes squeezed shut. He was struggling to grasp the idea of a life without his power.  "So, do we think this is temporary, or--"

"We have to run tests," intercepted Dr. Wells. 

Parker tried to distract his thoughts. She held out her hand. "Come on, Allen. Let's try drawing this guy, yeah?"

"Barry," said Dr. Wells softly. "We will find a way to restore your speed. I promise you that."

Alone in the Cortex, Parker and Barry sat facing one another. Their knees would have clashed, if not for their different positions. Barry's were spread open. Parker's rested against the rim of his seat cushion.

"He looked crazy. Well. That's not descriptive," he sighed. He stopped to relive the memory. "He was tan, close to Cisco's skin color... Uh, black hair, very short..."

God, did he love watching her draw. He adored seeing her forehead crinkle, or the way her head tilted a different way each time her pencil touched the paper. 

He would have smiled, if he was capable of feeling anything except despair. He had gotten so used to using his speed, being without it... Barry was lost.

Parker curled his finger under his chin. "Hey... Don't do that. Don't over think. We're going to get your powers back, Barry."

Barry brought her hand from his face. He wasn't interested in her sympathy. He wanted his powers back. 

"Don't make promises you can't keep," he said flatly. 

He slid her chair back, leaving room for him to stand, then leave her behind. 

××××

Upon the Cortex door sliding open, Parker removed an earbud to hear if the person entering had anything to say. Seconds without noise, she turned her head, then flashed a smile before returning to her intense concentration over her drawing. 

Barry moved around the desk. Standing in front of the glass that held his suit, he stared longingly at it. An entire day hadn't gone by yet, but he was already missing it.

When his ears detected footsteps joining him, Barry asked, "Do you think I'll ever wear it again?"

"I hope," said Caitlin. 

"I didn't have my speed for long. But now that it's gone, I feel like part of me is, too."

"With or without your speed, you're still you, Barry." 

Barry shrugged. He turned his head, resting his cheek against his shoulder. He watched Parker. She was sliding a finished drawing underneath the computer camera. Her lips mouthed the lyrics to the music playing in her ears. 

If he lost the Flash, for good, he couldn't help but feel as though Parker's interest in him would disintegrate. Losing that part of him could have meant losing Parker, which was the last thing he wanted. 

"But I'm not. I'm not the best version of me," he fretted. "I love being the Flash. I love everything about it." Everything including Parker, he thought. "The feeling of running hundreds of miles per hour, wind and power just rushing past my face, being able to help people... I'm not sure I can live without it."

Cisco bounced into the Cortex. He went straight to Parker, ripping out an earbud. She glared. Their conversation was relatively quick. They gave each other very hateful glares. 

She opened her mouth, but Cisco called, "Farooq Gibron!" before Parker had the chance to speak.

"I despise you," she seethed.

"The powers vampire who jacked your speed," continued Cisco, sending a look of victory to Parker. "I hacked into the Substation cameras; Parker found a match using her new tech."

"I would say, the night of the explosion, he fell from one of the electrical towers at the Substation," guessed Parker.

"No surprise where his powers came from," said Caitlin. 

Barry watched as Parker's eyes narrowed at the computer on the end of the desk. Her feet tapped along the ground, pushing her chair to the computer. 

"Oh, shit," mumbled Parker. "Tell me this is so not happening."

Cisco, Caitlin, and Barry hurried to the desk. 

Outside of S.T.A.R. Labs, Farooq approached a security camera. His hands glowed a bright blue. 

"Dr. Harrison Wells!" he shouted. "I need to see you! I just wanna talk!"

Unintentionally, Parker's knee bounced up and down. Streaks of fear cascaded through her stomach as she pondered the likelihood of making it out alive on that night. Accidentally getting shocked hurt. She didn't want to be the test subject who discovered how much more it hurt to be electrocuted to death.

Parker's eyes moved to the flickering lights. Although they desperately tried to illuminate the room, it only took a few flickers for them to completely short, leaving the group in the darkness. 

"Well," sighed Parker tiredly. "Good things never happen in the dark."