A/N: This takes place between the Crossover episodes and The Man in the Yellow Suit/The Climb.

The last thing Barry remembered was light... A bright, hypnotic blue light...then nothing...

He awoke slowly to a deep voice over his head, gentle, baritone, and familiar. He suddenly realized that he was being shaken, and the movement combined with the sound startled him into wakefulness. He sat up suddenly, blinking until his vision cleared. "Huh, wha-"

"Up and at 'em, Barr," said the voice. Barry looked up and saw that it was Joe. He stretched and rubbed his eyes. Now that he could see that he was in his lab, it was all coming back to him.

Ever since Oliver had pointed out several areas in which he had room for improvement, Barry had taken every opportunity he could find to practice. That meant going out into the field more often, which in turn meant that he was saving more people now than ever before. That also meant, however, that he was almost running on empty. Then, just when he was ready to give it a short break and get some good rest, he was assigned to a new case. It was completely mundane as far as anyone could see, but the urgent need to spend hours in his lab at the precinct-going over evidence and running tests so the police could capture the killer before he hurt anyone else-meant that he had had no time to rest. He must've fallen asleep at his desk at some point, and now here was Joe, probably looking for him after he skipped coming home last night.

"What time is it?" Barry asked with a yawn, gathering up the few papers he had been using as a pillow and pushing them into a neater pile.

"Almost one in the afternoon," Joe replied. He held his phone out to Barry. The scientist looked confused for a moment, but still took the device.

"Hello?"

"Dude, we've been trying to call you for an hour," answered Cisco's voice from the other end of the line.

"Oh, sorry. I was...sleeping. Sorry."

He could practically hear the eyeroll in Cisco's voice. "We're in the Arrow Cave, and the party don't start 'til you walk in, man."

Barry smiled a little. "Alright, give me a few seconds, I'll be right over." He handed Joe back his phone and gathered up the papers he had been working on. He skimmed through them quickly before picking out the results he had gotten on a blood test and handing that to Joe as well. "Can you get this to Captain Singh for me please? They're from the stains we found on the handle of the knife. I've gotta get going."

Joe put his phone back in his pocket and accepted the results. "Sure thing. Go get 'em."

Barry grinned and then was gone, detouring to his closet first to change into something clean.

THISAINTASCENEITSAGOSHDAMNPAGEBREAK

Cisco hung up the phone and put it in his pocket. "He's coming."

Oliver did not look very pleased. After trying and failing way too many times to reach Barry through his cell, they had called Joe. Oliver had all but entirely lost his patience a while ago; he expected a very, very good explanation for Barry's tardiness when the speedster finally arrived. Caitlyn and Cisco's expressions seemed more than a little sympathetic, so he assumed that there must be a good one.

Almost a full minute of stiff silence later, Barry came to an ever so graceful half-skidding, half-stumbling halt in the Arrow Cave, a blast of wind announcing his arrival and scattering just about every single paper in the room. "Sorry, sorry, sorry, I know, but I'm here now, so..."

Oliver looked over Barry. "Excuse please?" The kid didn't look too hot... Not as alert as he usually was, leaning just a little too heavily on the stainless steel desktop he had stopped by for his liking.

Barry shrugged and massaged his left shoulder with the same hand. "Uhhh... Sleeping. I know, I know, lame, but I've been busier than usual recently and the overnighter I just tried to pull didn't agree with me."

Oliver heaved a small sigh, but he obviously wasn't as irritated as he could've been had he been given a worse excuse.

Barry cleared his throat awkwardly. "So... Wha'do we got?" he asked, eager to change the subject into something more interesting.

"It's complicated."

~MPF

A/N: So yeah, that was a really short really boring chapter... Don't worry, I promise the second one is more interesting, and I know because I actually wrote it before I wrote this one. xD And in case you were wondering, that page break is a reference to the song this whole storyline idea was inspired by, so consider that a bit of a teaser because I'm nice/horrendously Evil. ;)

-Mumble

EHEHEHEH. Sorry. Now I get to torture you about updating instead of the other way around! Oh, I changed your page break. We don't take the Lord's name in vain, Mumble. On another note...I see no armadillos O.O

-2whitie

And I'll be changing it back because it's not me who's taking it in vain, it's Fall Out Boy. That, and the way you changed it screwed over the perfect syllable count. If it makes it any better, though, I'll censor it (ish). And no, no armadillos yet... GASPE, idea! I hope I'll get to use it later... :D