"Barry! Keep up!" Kara shouted out over her shoulder. She could hear his footsteps get faster as he struggled to catch up with her.

"I'm trying. Its hard when you're using your super speed to get to work faster."

"Well, we're running late," she replied.

Barry finally caught up with her, panting heavily. "I can't help it if my alarm didn't go off."

She gave him a withering look. Most of the time, Kara was up first. Her super hearing could pick up sounds from miles away, and as Central City started waking up, it got louder. So, of course, Kara would get up first. She would sometimes grab breakfast from the local cafe, Jitters, and come back to wake Barry up for work.

Today, though, Kara had accidentally fallen asleep in her hearing dampeners, which meant that she had not been up to wake up Barry. Her cousin, Clark, had a friend who was good with technology, who designed a pair of devices that looked like hearing aids for the young Kryptonian, but decreased the range of her hearing (Kara had had a hard time controlling her hearing when she first arrived on earth, and still did occasionally).

Due to her not being up, both Kara and Barry slept later than usual and missed their bus. They considered waiting for another bus to come around, but that would have caused them to be even later than they would be if they walked/run. So, Kara secured her bag, tossed out her coffee, and started jogging.

"I am not your alarm and, once again, it was an accident. Let's just hope Singh doesn't notice we are this late." Kara checked her watch and cursed in Kryptonese. "We need to hurry up."

"Kara, I cannot go any faster," Barry said. Right. She had briefly forgotten that her roommate did not have super speed like her.

"Sorry!"

A silence fell between them as they raced towards the CCPD headquarters downtown. Kara had to slow down multiple times to let Barry catch up to her. By the time they arrived at the station, it was thirty minutes past the time they were supposed to arrive at work.

"West! Allen! Where have you two been?" Captain Singh yelled out as soon as they walked out of the elevator.

"Sorry, Captain," Barry said. "Alarm didn't go off and we missed our bus this morning...sir."

"Well, don't let it happen again. Get to work. And I need the results from the Jefferson case by lunch!"

"Yessir. We'll get right on that, sir," Kara said, pushing Barry towards the stairs.

Their lab was on the top floor of the station, away from all the drama and shouts from the main office. Not too many people ventured up to the lab, except Joe, Iris, and occasionally Captain Singh when he came to rush them on results for a case. This meant that Kara and Barry were often left to their own devices. In their spare time, they played trash can basketball with scrap paper, doodled (Kara's doodles were much better than Barry's), and went over the newspaper clippings they had collected about Barry's mother. But spare time was rare most days. Most of the time, they were busy running tests on evidence found at the crime scene and writing up the reports for the cops and detectives working the case.

"Hey, Barry, what the hell is the Jefferson case? What was Singh talking about?" Kara asked, tossing her bag on one of the many tables in the room.

"Attempted home robbery by gunpoint turned into a double homicide. Suspect was arrested on scene, but evidence is a little shaky at the moment to prosecute the guy. It happened two days ago," he replied, handing her a thin Manila file.

Kara flicked through the file, reading the file at a pace that none could match. "Two days ago, huh? Sorry I wasn't here."

She had been in Metropolis for the past two weeks helping Clark and Lois with their new son, Matthew. Clark had been busy with his responsibilities as Superman and a reporter to stay with Lois full time, so he asked Kara to hop on a plane to help out. She had basically spent the time retrieving anything that Lois wanted and couldn't get up for. Two days ago, Lois had gone into labor. She gave birth to a beautiful little boy and named Kara his godmother.

"It's alright. How is Matthew anyway?" Barry asked.

"Great. It reminds me of the days that I used to take care of Clark."

"Really?" Barry shouted from the other side of the lab. Kara could see him bent over one of the tables, gathering up papers from several different cases. Nothing in the lab had changed in the two weeks she had been gone.

The lab was still just as bright without needing any lights on, thanks to the large windows and skylight in the room. Tables were still spread out, slightly haphazardly, throughout the lab. All of the tables were covered with papers from open and closed cases (they tended to work multiple cases at one time, which sometimes caused a back-up in reports). A few whiteboards were also spread out in the room. The boards were covered with articles and photographs of famous scientists that the two considered important.

Barry banged something across the room. "What the hell are you doing over there?" Kara asked, dropping the stack of files she had grabbed on the closest table.

"The centrifuge isn't working again. We need to put in another request for new equipment. Soon." Kara groaned, but headed over to Barry. Even without asking, she knew what he wanted. They had been through this process enough for it to almost be a habit.

The lab at CCPD was old. It had been around since the building was completed, but it had only started being a lab during the 90's. The equipment had been updated several times since then. Still, it wasn't enough to keep up the constant samples and tests they had to run. In the past two years, both Kara and Barry had requested updated equipment. Each time they were denied.

Barry handed her the sample as soon as she reached him. "Are we clear?"

"Yep," he replied, looking around the lab. Now granted the all clear, Kara began moving her hand at super speed. Within seconds, the sample was mixed better and more properly than what the centrifuge would have been able to do even if it was working. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," she replied. Kara walked back towards her workstation and opened the file of the case. Based off what she had already seen when she skimmed through the file, Kara could see that she wouldn't have to touch up much on the report. Barry had done a good job running the tests, even with the horrible equipment. She trusted that his results were correct and wondered why the evidence was shaky.

"You told me the evidence for this case was shaky. I don't see anything I would consider shaky. In fact, this is one of our more straightforward cases, if I'm being honest."

"Look at this," Barry said, coming over. He pointed towards the results of the fingerprints he had found on the ring door handle. "There were multiple fingerprints on the door."

"Well of course you did. Multiple people live there."

"I took the finger prints of everyone in the house and compared them all. One of them didn't match the family. Joe asked if the wife if she and her husband had invited anyone over or had any visitors in the past few days. She said no."

"People lie. Maybe she was having an affair."

"We ruled that out, Kar."

"How? There is really no way to-"

"Please tell me that you two are done being nerds." Kara and Barry turned around to see her adopted sister, Iris West standing in the doorway.

"Iris! What are you doing here? Don't you have class today?" Kara said, rushing to hug her. Barry was close behind.

"My professor's mother died last night or something and no one could cover for him, so I don't have classes today."

"That's horrible!"

"Eh. I feel bad his mom is dead, but I'm not unhappy about missing class," Iris replied.

It had taken her awhile, but Iris had finally decided on her major. She decided to pursue journalism. She had been inspired by the stories Clark and Lois would tell whenever they visited Central City and had chosen that as her major. Kara had almost gone that same route, but in the end, her love for science had won out.

"Well, than maybe you can help us settle an argument. I think a woman might be having an affair, but Barry disagrees. He claims that they somehow 'ruled that out'".

"Hang on. Kara, you're speeding again. Try saying that again," Iris said, pointing out to Kara that was speaking too quickly for either she or Barry to understand.

"Right. Sorry," Kara said, slowing down her words. Sometimes her brain ran much faster than her mouth could, so she sometimes spoke at super speed. Most of the time, it only occurred when she was nervous, stressed, or very excited. Kara repeated what she said, this time slower.

Iris nodded as she took in the argument. "Barry, how did you 'rule out' an affair?"

"Uh...I would rather not discuss that," he replied, his face bright red.

Kara could hear Iris groan slightly as her ears perked up. If she had her dampeners turned off, she would have been able to detect the change in Barry's heat rate. "Barry, you really need to come up with a better answer that doesn't spark her interest like this," Iris warned.

"Too late. I'm extremely interested. What happened?" Kara said, excitedly.

"I-I-I c-can-can't say," he stammered.

"Don't push him, girls," Joe West said, entering the lab. "And you two get back to work."

"We are working. Kara and I disagree on some evidence for the Jefferson case. We already ruled out an affair, which is the reason Kara has landed on for an explanation as to who's fingerprints are on the front door."

Joe looked between she and Barry for a minute. Iris stood to the side of them, typing on her phone. As loyal as she was, Iris typically refused to get in the middle of their arguments, especially when Joe got involved.

"Alright. I'll ask the wife about the affair again. Start working on other cases until I get back with an answer. Don't pretend I didn't notice the large stack of files on your desks, either. Iris, I will see you later. Are you going to hang out here for awhile longer?" Joe said.

"Yeah. Someone has to keep an eye on these two," Iris replied. Joe nodded and kissed both Iris' and Kara's cheek before leaving the lab just as quietly as he entered.

Kara walked back over to her desk where Barry had pulled up a seat. He had apparently finished running all the tests he could, so the only thing to do was to wait. But they had too many files piling up to relax. Iris grabbed another chair to pull up to the table. She kept her phone out to entertain herself. After years of doing homework together, Iris knew that they would be more focused with silence.

"Barry, did you see tha-"

"Yes, I did. Here you go," he said, handing her a a few sheets of paper.

They had been able to do that for years now; they just always seemed to know what the other was thinking. Some people thought they were able to do it was because they were fraternal twins. Kara had lost track of how many times someone had said that to either her or Barry. The truth was that they were just extremely close. As teenagers, they had spent hours together, learning all sorts of things about the other. Eventually, that included learning how the other thought. The finishing of each other's sentences was a side effect of learning that.

Hours passed this way. Kara and Barry sitting silently filling out reports, occasionally stopping for coffee refills and to exchange papers that ended up in the wrong file. Iris left after an hour or so; she had to go home real quick to change for her shift at Jitters. Typically, she worked the morning shift, but a coworker had gotten in a car accident and needed someone to cover the night shift for the next week.

It was almost seven when they finished going through the files. After a coin toss, which she lost, Kara had to go deliver the cases to Captain Singh while Barry checked the equipment to ensure that there was no tests running at the moment.

"Captain?" Kara asked, knocking on the open door.

"West. There you are. Are those the pile of files that has been steadily growing in your lab over the past two weeks?" He said, standing up to grab the stack.

"Yes sir. This is most of it. We are still working on some evidence for the Jefferson case at the moment so we need more time for that."

"I want that file on my desk as soon as you walk in through the elevator doors. No more extensions. Got it, West?"

"Got it, Captain."

"And tell Allen that, too," he shouted to her as she left.

"Yessir."

Barry was sitting on the edge of one of the tables, banging the heel of his feet against one of the legs. "What took you so long?" He asked.

"Singh gave us a deadline for the Jefferson case. Tomorrow morning as soon as we walk through the door, so grab the file. Hopefully, Joe figured out whether or not the wife had an affair," she replied.

As Kara grabbed her coat and bag, Barry grabbed the Jefferson case file and stuffed it inside his bag. Then, they started the walk to the bus stop. Unlike in the morning, they had no set time to live the station. The scientists sometimes spent over-nighters working on high-stress cases, but that was rare. They were still scientists at heart, though, so Kara and Barry would sometimes get sidetracked for hours about the latest article in their favorite medical journal, technological breakthroughs, or famous scientists.

"Got it. So, dinner or takeout?" Barry asked.

"What do we have in the fridge at home?" He took a moment to think about it.

"I think we have all the ingredients to make spaghetti, but I could be wrong. Do you remember?"

"Barry, I may have an impressive photographic memory, but none of that goes toward remembering what we have in our fridge. You should know this," she replied.

"Right. Sorry, I forgot. I'll just whip something up with whatever we have."

Thankfully, they managed to catch the last bus just before it left the stop. They took their usual seats in the middle of the bus with Kara sitting next to the window. She sat silently staring out the window, tapping her foot to the beat of some song she had heard on the radio.

Their apartment was twenty minutes away from the station. It wasn't the nicest place, but it was all they could afford with two forensic scientists' salaries. The bus stopped about five minutes from the apartment. Ten minutes later, Barry was cooking in their small kitchen while Kara worked on the Jefferson case.

"Thanks, Joe," she said, hanging up. "He just confirmed that the wife had an affair. You were wrong, Barry. Pay up."

"We never agreed on betting on it."

"Remember the rule we agreed upon in high school? Whenever we disagree on something and someone else goes to figure out which one it is, twenty bucks are one the line. So, I'll say it again. Pay up."

"We really need to go over the rules we created once again. Cause I don't remember them all," Barry stated, reaching into his wallet. He handed Kara twenty bucks and a plate filled high with food. Then, he grabbed a plate for himself with much less food on it.

They sat at their small dining room table and dug in. Kara and Barry switched from the topic of work and "rules" they created to speaking about Iris' upcoming birthday and the STAR Lab's particle accelerator being turned on the next day.

Little did they know that this night would be the last normal night they experienced ever.