Important: This story has been rewritten. You can find the much better version, Vitality, through my profile. This was my first fanfiction, so the writing style is mediocre at best. Per readers' requests, I decided to leave the original version up for those who wish to peruse it.

…..

Overwhelmed

As Barry worked tirelessly to finish his case reports, he tried to remember the last time he slept. Somehow, time seemed to be playing tricks on him lately, the days of the week melding into each other until it felt to him like one long day. One very long day. Even with his speed, he found he simply didn't have enough time in a day to do all that he needed to.

Ever since his first fight against Zoom, Barry had been working day and night as the Flash to be the city's hero again, making sure that his presence was known and his life-status no longer questioned by the citizens of Central City. Caitlin had advised him to exercise caution, seeing as his speed had only just returned and his back was still adjusting to it, but Barry was more driven now than he had ever been before to prove himself and be the city's hero again.

Now, here he sat during the early hours of the morning at the CCPD, trying to get his case reports completed before Captain Singh came in. He downed his fifteenth cup of coffee, frustrated that no matter how much of it he drank, his body would metabolize all the caffeine in it before he felt its effects. Still, after years of coffee addiction, just the taste of coffee seemed to have a sort of placebo effect on him and helped him stay focused all the same. He had finally signed off on his last document for Singh when Joe entered his lab.

"Wow, Barry," Joe said, looking around the room, "What happened in here? Your lab's a mess."

"Good morning to you too," Barry said before flashing around the room, leaving it spotless and organized within a matter of seconds, "Sorry, I've been working on these files all morning."

Joe frowned at him.

"Bar, it's six AM," he said, "Have you been here all night?"

"Just since three," Barry answered, organizing his case reports into a neat stack for the captain, "I was already up on Flash duty, so I decided to just come here right away. I didn't see any reason in going home at that point. Besides," he added when Joe opened his mouth to argue, "Singh wanted these reports from me first thing today, and I didn't have time to do them yesterday thanks to that incident with Snart."

"Alright, I understand," Joe agreed, "But Barry, you can't keep doing this to yourself. You're not eating, you're not sleeping, and you're hardly ever home anymore. You're always either here or running around the city as the Flash. This is the third all-nighter you've pulled this week. Don't start making a habit out of it. It's not healthy."

"I know. It's just been so crazy since everything that happened with Zoom," Barry said, pouring another cup of coffee, "I think after all that they were saying on the news…about the Flash being dead…it seems that criminals are trying to take advantage of my alleged absence."

"Yeah, I've noticed," Joe nodded, taking the coffee that Barry offered him, wondering absently when Barry had brought his own coffee maker to work, "We've been getting flooded with calls. The crime rates have spiked significantly over the last few weeks."

"It's making for a lot of work as the Flash out on the streets and a heavy case load for me here. I'm just trying to keep up, but I'm sure it will all settle down once the city is assured that I am alive and that I'm still able to protect them…apart from Zoom," he added bitterly.

"Bar, you can't keep blaming yourself for that," Joe said seriously, "We all weren't prepared for Zoom. It's not all on you."

"I've come to terms with it now," Barry assured him, "and next time I will be prepared. I've been working hard doing extra training in my free time, trying to get faster."

"Barry, you need to slow down. You're not doing yourself any favors by overtraining and pushing yourself so hard. You still need to rest."

"I'm just doing my part, Joe," Barry said defensively, "and so is everyone else at Star Labs. We're all trying to keep things under control in the city, Cisco and Wells are working on closing the breaches, and Caitlin is working on a serum to increase my speed."

"Wait, what? What was that last part?" Joe asked, giving Barry a concerned look, "Caitlin is creating a serum to make you go faster?"

Barry nodded.

"Bar, you shouldn't be messing with this," Joe said worriedly, "You just recovered from a life-threatening trauma. You shouldn't be experimenting on yourself with some unknown speed drug. You don't know what it's going to do to you. What is Caitlin thinking?"

"She's thinking what we're all thinking of. Stopping Zoom. I trust Caitlin and her judgement, and once she and Wells finish perfecting the serum—"

"Wells?!" Joe exclaimed, "You didn't say Wells was helping her with it."

"Well, what does that matter?" Barry asked impatiently.

"It matters," Joe said, his hands balling into fists, "because hasn't Wells already proven himself to be untrustworthy? He threw you into Zoom's line of fire without a second thought, even though he knew what he was facing you up against. Hasn't he already shown that he doesn't care who gets hurt, as long as Zoom is defeated? He'll sacrifice you in a second, Barry, if it means saving his daughter, believe me."

"None of that matters now, Joe," Barry insisted stubbornly, "Zoom will be coming for me now anyways, with or without Wells' influence. All we care about now is that we're all ready when that happens. Dr. Wells aside, I trust Caitlin completely, and I'm willing to risk taking the serum if there's even a slight chance it can help me defeat Zoom."

"You're being reckless, Barry," Joe said quietly, "You need to think about your family too. Iris and me. We don't want to lose you, Bar."

Joe stared sadly at him for moment before turning and heading for the door.

"Joe," Barry called out when he reached for the handle, "I am thinking of you and Iris. I'm thinking of your safety and the city's safety and what I'm willing to do to protect that."

Joe turned around and looked back at Barry, his eyes filled with sadness.

"The city's safety doesn't fall on just you, Barry," he said softly before turning and disappearing through the door.

Barry sank back down into his desk chair and tried to rub the exhaustion from his eyes with the palms of his hands. When he lowered his hands he noticed they were shaking slightly, and he was starting to feel lightheaded. With Joe's words still echoing in the back of his mind, Barry resigned to himself that during his lunchbreak he wouldn't be doing his normal surveillance loop through the city as the Flash but would instead be running home for a quick nap to refresh himself for the evening. Cisco supposedly had an intense drone exercise planned for Barry this afternoon, and knowing Cisco, Barry thought it would probably be best if he had all the energy he could get.

…..

Barry was winded. He was actually getting winded. It was a strange feeling for him. Normally he barely broke a sweat when he ran these drone drills with Cisco, but today was different. Today, he couldn't get air in his lungs fast enough, and his legs were started to feel fatigued. His joints ached with each stride, and his mouth was dry. Even so he pushed himself to go faster.

He outran the first drone and dodged the second, looping back around it, causing it to swerve sharply to collide with the other one. Cisco's face froze in horror as he watched his precious drones crumble and fall towards the unforgiving ground. Barry ran and came to a stop in front of Cisco and Caitlin, grinning but bracing his hands on his knees and gasping for air.

Caitlin, who had been monitoring his vitals on her laptop, rose quickly to approach Barry, placing a hand on his back.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked concernedly, "Your vitals are a little out of whack today, and you look exhausted."

"I'm. Fine." Barry breathed, his words strained as he caught his breath, "I just wasn't expecting it to be that much harder to outrun two drones instead of one."

"Well," Cisco said, "You may have beaten the first two, but I still have three more. Wanna give it a go?"

"No!" Caitlin said forcefully, "We should probably be done now for the day. He needs to take it easy."

"Easy isn't going to defeat Zoom, Caitlin," Barry said, standing up straight and getting his breathing back under control, "Let's do it again."

"Fine," Caitlin said after a moment, "but only with one drone. No arguing," she added when she saw that Barry was about to protest.

After a few minutes when Cisco set up and programmed one of his drones and Barry recuperated, they started up again. Barry had whispered to Cisco to hit him with his best shot, and Cisco had definitely risen to the challenge. This drone was not only fast, but also made sharper turns and fired faster missiles than the others. Barry tried his best to outrun the drone and confuse it, but it managed to stay with him. Running harder than he ever had before, Barry pushed to go even faster, but the missile was gaining on him.

When he reached over seven hundred mph, Barry felt like his lungs were tearing apart from the massive amounts of air that he was forcing through them. The muscles in his legs were on fire, and he could feel himself getting dizzier with each passing second. A moment of disorientation was all it took for one of the drone's missiles to find its target. Barry's shoulders and neck exploded with pain as he felt the missile hit him square in the back, knocking the wind out of him.

The pain soon spread to his entire body as he fell forward and was unable to stop himself from being sent flipping and tumbling across the hard ground at seven hundred mph, his momentum causing him to go quite a distance before stopping. When his limp body finally came to a stop, it was a few moments before Barry could process what had happened. He lay in a crumpled heap in the dirt still unable to move as his brain tried to process all of the pain that seemed to be radiating from every inch of his body. He could hear Caitlin shouting as she reached him, her and Cisco having ran from their place of observation to attend to him.

"Barry! Barry! Can you hear me?" Caitlin asked him loudly, trying to assess his injuries.

He was laying on his side, and his eyes were open, but Barry felt like he was looking through a tunnel, and Caitlin's voice sounded like it was coming from far, far away.

"What happened?" he gasped.

"You got hit by one of Cisco's missiles," she answered, shooting Cisco a glare, "And you wiped out over the distance of about a hundred yards."

"Yeah, but what hit me?" Barry slurred.

Cisco and Caitlin exchanged worried looks.

"I think he might have a concussion," Caitlin whispered to Cisco.

"Let's get him inside," he said quickly.

"His leg looks broken. I don't think he can walk."

"I'll get a gurney," Cisco replied, "You see what you can do for him here."

With that Cisco ran off for help, leaving Caitlin to tend to an injured and very confused Barry Allen.