I sat at the dinner table with Iris and Joe West, at the West Household, placing with my septum piercing, staring into nothingness.

My foot tapped impatiently as Cecile was making coffee in the kitchen, Joe speaking up, looking at me, "Okay, so, ever since Julian moved back to London, they have been short-staffed in the crime lab at CCPD, and I know you and I have been stalling Singh with this whole story of Barry being on sabbatical in the Czech Republic-"

"And they wanna hire someone to replace him." Iris finishes for him, already knowing what he was going to say.

"Yeah, they should." I look up, "They need the help. We can't keep stalling for him anymore. Barry's not coming back."

"You don't know that." Iris looked at me.

"Yes, I do." I stared at her as if she had gone insane.

"Sweetheart," Joe clears his throat, talking to me as if I was his own daughter, "I'm very proud of you for taking the lead with Wally and Cisco at Star Labs, and we all let you have your space, so that you'd have time to deal with what happened."

"Joe, I'm fine, okay? There's no need to worry." I dismiss, taking a sip of my drink, the alcohol burning down my throat.

"You're fine?" Iris questions, reaching over, grabbing a strand of my long hair, looking at the ends of my hair that were dyed blue, "It looks like you've taken a trip down memory lane since we lost Barry, and you haven't stopped."

"I'm fine." I dismiss once more.

"Well we're not." Joe blurts out, "We lost him. My son, Iris' best friend, your everything."

"What do you expect, Joe? I did all the crying I could that night six months ago. I can't do that anymore. Barry told me to be strong. I'm being strong." I stare at them.

"When HR died, we had a funeral. We spoke about his life." Joe suggests, "Maybe we should do the same thing for Barry, give us all permission to grieve."

"And what are we gonna bury? An empty suit in the lab?" I snapped at him, "Because we don't exactly have him anymore."

He falls silent, causing slight guilt to pool in my chest, as I sigh, getting up, "Thank you for inviting me to dinner. But I'm fine. I'm gonna get going, alright?"

-

"There are other superheroes in this town." Wally spoke up, as we stood in Star Labs, after our encounter with this new Samurai, who wanted to fight Barry Allen.

"Yeah, and your boy, Kurosawa, over there blew us away like ragdolls performing his reverse Excalibur." Cisco spoke, "We haven't faced anything like this before."

"Why do you think he only wanted The Flash?" Iris asks.

"He said he wants to fight the best." Wally shrugs.

"He's threatening to destroy the city." I look at them, "Do we think he can do it?"

"I say yes." Cisco says, "Then he has to fight The Flash."

"Who isn't here?" The sentence slips out of Joe's mouth as if it was a question.

"What if he was?" Cisco looks at me, "Zee. you said it yourself. Just us trying to keep the city safe, we're barely getting it done. And this guy, he's no joke. If we don't offer up The Flash, there's gonna be serious damage. People are gonne die, and that's gonna be on us. We need to bring Barry back."

"And how the hell do you suppose we do that, Cisco?" I cross my arms, "If Barry comes out, the Speed Force Prison goes-"

Wally finishes for me, "It becomes unstable."

"It could destroy the city, the whole world." I cross my arms, "Which is exactly what we're trying to prevent."

"What if I can solve that?" Cisco looks at me.

"In the next 24 hours?" Wally questions.

"Yes! Guys, I've been working on this." Cisco admits.

"For how long?" The words seethed through my teeth.

"Since the night he left." Cisco moves towards his huge monitor screen, "I've had help. I've consulted with Harry and- Tina and Tracy and Felicity and Curtis, and I'm pretty sure I figured out a way to stabilize the Speed Force Prison and free Barry without unleashing another lightning storm on the city. I just need a couple more things."

"Maybe we should." Iris starts.

"No." I deny.

"Zee, this is a chance." Joe spoke, "A chance for us to get Barry back."

I shook my head at Joe, "You've been working on this for how long and you never told us?"

"I didn't wanna say anything until I was certain." Cisco stares at me.

"Are you certain that the Speed Force won't take Wally in his place?" I question, "Are you certain that you can even close it before it rips Central City in two? Are you certain that this will even work? Are you certain that it won't malfunction and destroy the city anyway? Are you certain that Barry is even still alive?"

"He's gotta be." Cisco exhales, "Zee, you, of all people, how can you not be in on this?"

"Because I have finally come to grips that Barry is gone." I shot at him, my teeth gritting, "I am not letting you give me the hope that there's a chance to get him back."

"Now, let's do what we can do to come up with a plan to take out this Samurai." I dismiss, leaving my cortex.

-

"You went and did this behind my back?" I snipped, following Cisco into his workshop as everyone followed after us.

"You would've tried to stop us." Cisco sighs.

"Because it was a waste of time." I rudely say, "I don't see Barry anywhere. He's gone, and you need to accept that Cisco."

The rest of the team had went behind my back, including Caitlin Snow, and tried to get Barry back, the attempt failing.

"I don't understand." Cisco sighs, typing away on his computer, "This should've worked."

"Or you could've killed us all." I snip.

"I don't know, Zee." Caitlin spoke, "I think we were pretty close."

"I'm sorry, "we"? Where have you been the last six months again?" I snapped at her, "We have barely been able to keep this city save, and now you've just decided to show up out of the blue- to help with something that isn't possible."

"She was only trying to help." Joe is shocked by my rudeness.

"Look, guys, we need to concentrate on stopping this Samurai who's trying to destroy the city, not on Barry." I instruct, being the Team Leader.

"Dude, what is your deal?" Cisco snaps at me, turning around, facing me, "It's like you don't even want him back."

I open my mouth to speak, Joe's phone ringing, as he answered it, Joe stopping me, "Hey, hey, hey! Cecile, can I call you back in a minute? We're in the middle of something here." Joe's eyes widen, "What?"

-

"State police picked him up on the 112- outside of Ivy City." Cecile told us, as we made our way through CCPD.

"That's 300 miles away." I spoke.

"Yeah, one of the cops is a Keystone vet." Cecile told us, "Recognized him."

"I knew it would work." Cisco says, excitement in his tone, "I knew it."

"You should prepare yourselves." Cecile warned, as I let out a shaky breath, as we walked into the room Barry was in.

My heart fluttered at the sight of him, feeling all the walls I had built up inside me in the past six months break down, tears stinging in my eyes, "Barry-"

Barry looks at us, standing up, "Nora shouldn't be here."

He was dressed in sweats and a t shirt, a beard grown, his hair a mess, I spoke up, "Your mom isn't here, Barry."

"Your Honor, I'm innocent." Barry looks at Joe, "I didn't do this. I didn't kill anyone."

Barry grips onto his head, "Can you hear the stars singing? Rhyming, chiming, timing every hour, every minute. You said the city was safe, that there was no residual danger, but that's not true.What really happened that night-"

"The city is safe. You saved it. You saved us all." I spoke, my voice sounding broken.

He pauses, smiling at me for a second, before going back to completely speaking gibberish, "Stars melting like ice cream, dream, gleam." Barry groans, "Nothing seems- Nora shouldn't be here."

"I'm guessing this isn't just shock." Joe exclaims.

"Shock results from a drop in blood pressure." Caitlin exhales, "This is neurological."

"It's a whole new way of looking at physics. It will change the way that we think about everything, from a single atom to an entire galaxy." Barry spun around the room, then unexpectedly drops to the ground, screaming in pain, "Stars so loud. Loud, cloud, proud."

He looks into nothingness, smiling, "Dad and I are both okay. We're gonna be fine."

He stood up, looking into nothingness again, his face dropping serious, "I'm just not sure I'm like you, Oliver."

Barry goes back to drawing on the walls, Joe looking at Caitlin, "We need to get him back to Star Labs, now."

-

"What's the diagnosis?" Wally asks Caitlin, "Does he have brain damage or something?"

"He's actually scary healthy." Caitlin answers, "His neurotransmitters are functioning at five times the normal speed."

"Then what's wrong with him?" I question, crossing my arms.

"I have two theories." She held two fingers up, "One is that he's suffering from a form of schizophasia. That's where you assign the wrong definitions to words."

"So, from his perspective, all that nonsense he's saying makes sense?" Joe pieces together.

Caitlin nods, as Joe sighs, "It's too bad we don't have a translator."

"No, but we can make one." Cisco nods, as we follow him into the cortex, "If his brain's schizophastic and these symbols represent different words, he could be sending us a message, and we just need the right algorithm to decrypt it."

"You said you had two theories." Iris looks at Caitlin, "What's the other one?"

"We know that the Speed Force exists beyond space and time. To us, Barry was only in there for six months, but to him, it could've been 10,000 years. All that time in isolation, it could've caused dementia. That may be all of him that's left." Caitlin breaks the news.

"So how do we find out which one it is?" Joe asks.

"I could decrease the sedative, wake him up." Caitlin shrugs at the suggestion she had just made.

"I think I've got the perfect song for that." Cisco smirks as we all went back to where Barry laid, Cisco starting to blast Poker Face by Lady Gaga.

"Are you sure this is appropriate?" I question, standing next to Iris.

"Yeah. It's a good luck charm." Cisco shrugs, "I mean, it worked before."

"Last time, he was in a coma, not a pan-temporal extra dimension." Caitlin shot him a look.

"Well, waking up to Gaga shouldn't seem too freaky." Cisco reasons, looking down at Barry as Barry opened his eyes.

"Hey, Barry." Cisco smiles down at him, "Hey. It's me, Cisco, AKA Vibe, BKA your BFF. Yeah. Hey, buddy. While you were gone, I made you a new suit.

Do you wanna take it out for a spin?"

My heart crushed when Barry returns to the gibberish, getting up, "The stars are raining. Draining. Paining. Too soon. I think maybe later. No, thank you. I'm not hungry. He didn't do those things. He didn't hurt my mom. I was there that night. There was a man, plan. No plan." He lets out a distressed laugh, "We're gonna need more diapers."

"Diapers." Cisco chuckles lightly, "You keep drawing, buddy. You keep drawing. I'm gonna figure this out."

Tears formed in my eyes as I quickly stepped out of the room, walking into the hall, pacing. Tears slipping my eyes, no matter how hard I tried to hold them back. The sound of footsteps come from behind me, causing my body to turn, my gaze landing on Cisco Ramon.

"You had hope, didn't you?" Cisco asked quietly, staring at my current state, "You didn't want to admit it."

I let out a small sob, hot tears streaming down my cheeks, as he continued to call me out, "Seeing him like this- it's tearing you apart. All those walls you put up when you became Team Leader- they all broke down the minute you saw him."

"Cisco-" I inhale, "I didn't know what to think when you told me you'd been working on a way to bring him back. It's like every wound I had shoved away that night reopened. That's why I kept lashing out- and why I kept my guard up. There's nothing I wouldn't do to be able to have him hold me again, Cisco."

"I know, Zee." Cisco told me, grabbing onto my forearms, "I'm gonna bring him back for us. Okay? You have to be patient with me. You have to have hope."

"Okay-" I barely nod, sniffling, looking down, "I'll have hope."

-

I had done something stupid. I had given myself up to The Samurai, fear and hope burning in me when I did. I did this in hopes that I would get Barry Allen back. In hopes that my actions would snap him out of his phase, and he would come get me. That he would come save me.

And it worked. Joe had immediately gone to Star Labs when I had pulled the stunt, and eventually, Barry had come and saved my life. We were now in Star Labs, Barry getting checked up.

"Pupils are equally reactive to light. I mean, your vitals are amazing. You're in perfect health, even for you." Caitlin smiles, "I'd like a urine sample, just to confirm, but everything looks great."

"Man, you love urine." Cisco chuckles, quickly going into depth on what he meant, "You love the the testing of urine. The testing of the urine. You know what I meant."

"Why do you have to ruin science?" Caitlin asks.

"It's good to have you back." Barry smiles at her.

"Right back at ya." The corners of her mouth turning up.

"It's good to have you back." Joe pats his back, "How you feeling?"

"I feel great." Barry nods, "Yeah, I feel incredible.

I don't know, it feels like I've been reborn."

"Well, okay, speedy Jesus." Cisco jokes.

"Seriously, though." Wally spoke up, "I mean, it hurts me to admit it, but you may be the fastest speedster ever."

"I mean, you were in the Speed Force for six months.

Maybe you were soaking up its energy?" I shrug.

"Maybe." Barry smiles at me. "How was everything while I was gone?"

"Oh, yeah, it was- it was really cool." Wally answers, "Team Kid Flash had everything under control, so-"

"That's not our name." We all day in unison.

"But still, we have some mysteries left to solve, like our flying Samurai robot" Cisco snaps as we all went into the cortex, "Android Samurai-" He snaps, "Samur-oid. Oh- ho, we back, baby!"

"Yeah, someone created this, and it must be for a reason." Barry nods, laughing.

"Does the phrase, "This house is bitchin'" mean anything to you?" Cisco asks, referring to what he had decoded from Barry's earlier gibberish.

"No? Should it?" asked Barry.

Cisco chuckles, "No. Just know that when you were in your "Beautiful Mind" phase, you were talking straight-up nonsense."

"I don't remember any of that." Barry admits, "Last thing I remember was going into the Speed Force with my mom and then saving Zee."

"So how'd you know Zee was in trouble?" Iris asks.

"I don't know." Barry shrugs, looking at Cisco, a smile on his face, "Well, thanks for bringing me home."

"You're very welcome." Cisco hugs him, before pulling away.

"Guys, uhm-" I spoke up, looking at all of them, "I'm sorry- for everything. I just- didn't want to be crushed like I was that night, ya know? So, thank you- for having hope when I didn't."

One by one, each one of their mouths turned up into a smile, as Cisco places a hand on my shoulder, "We'll see you tomorrow, boss."

-

"Are you tired? Hungry?" I ask Barry as we walked into our loft, as I closed the door.

"No, I feel like I've been asleep for months." Barry admits, looking back at me, as I slowly made my way over to him.

"I've got to say, I was not expecting this." Barry's hand touches the ends of my hair, "Blue? And the septum?"

"I took a trip down memory lane, okay-" I held my hand up in surrender, "I wasn't expecting the gibberish talk when you first came out the Speed Force either, so I'm pretty sure we're even."

"Really?" Barry pulls me into him, smiling down at me.

I stare at him for a second, a small smile breaking onto my lips, "I missed you, so much."

"I missed you." Barry presses a kiss to my lips for a few seconds, before walking further into the loft with me, his eyes landing on the mess that was our loft.

"In my defense, I've been living off ramen and dinner at the Joe's place for the past six months, and I couldn't get myself to sleep in that bed without you." My hands immediately shot up in defense. "It's just been really hard, Barry."

"Hey, well, I'm back, and I'm never going anywhere ever again." Barry grabs onto my forearms, smiling down at me.

"I tried to keep running. To be strong-" I sigh, looking down, "Look at where I ended up."

"You kept everyone together." Barry puts a hand under my chin, tilting my head up so I looked at him, "I'm so proud of you, okay?"

Small tears stung in my eyes as he went on, "Look, it sounds funny, but maybe this was a blessing."

"You being gone for six months was a blessing?" I stared at him, "Me turning out like this was a blessing? Oh my-"

"I just- I can't tell you how I feel, Zee." Barry keeps a smile on his face, "It's like, everything that was wrong in my life, the pain of my past, my mistakes, it's all just washed away, and all I see is you and us and our future together. It's all going to be great."

I hum, a smile breaking onto my lips as I grabbed his collar, standing on my tippy toes, looking up at him, "Is Bart Allen finally making his comeback?"

"Zee-" Barry breaks out into laughter, pulling me into him, wrapping his arms around me, the sound of his laugh making butterflies erupt in my stomach.

"Okay." I give in, a smile on my face, "First order of business, I need to cut my hair and get rid of this septum piercing."

"I kinda liked the blue." Barry chuckles lightly, putting a strand of my hair behind my ear, "And the septum's kinda cute. It suits you."

"What's become of my hair, is a cry for help, Barry." I say, a small laugh coming from both of us.

My hands grab his clean shaved face, Joe being the one who had shaved his face earlier trying to make himself feel better, "I love you, Barry Allen."

"I love you, Zee Young." Barry starts to lean in to kiss me, but halts at the sound of police sirens from outside, looking at me.

"Central City needs The Flash." I look at him, letting go of him.

"I'll be right back, I promise." He kisses my cheek, before running out, leaving me alone in the loft, feeling happy for the first time in six months.