A/N: Hello and welcome to my story Microfiche! I've been pondering writing this story for a few months now. After watching the season 2 premiere, I just couldn't take it anymore. I had to write this. I haven't seen too many Barry/OC stories, so I thought I'd have a crack at it. This story will be canon with the tv show more than the comics (even though I wanna be sneaky and stick in some comic characters, *cough, cough* Wally West and Doralla Kon). There's gonna be a lot of big time skips in this chapter, desculpe.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Flash related. At all. Except for this story and my OC, Kate.

CH 1

"Tilt your head in my direction just a tad. Ah, yes! There. That's perfect thank you." I held a camera delicately, inching it closer and closer to my eye, lens focused on my subject model. My project partner and I were out in the quad of Central City University completing our assignment for our photojournalism class. We were supposed to shoot throughout the day for a final presentation that was due in a couple of weeks.

"Do you think we'll have enough time to go to the lab and edit these in time?" My partner Ana asked as she moved naturally while I took shot after shot. "I mean, we do have three other classes that we have to do projects for. We might just barely get this in on time."

I took the final frame, then lowered the camera. "Relax, Ana. We've got this. Don't stress over the deadline and everything will come to us naturally." The tension in her shoulders fizzled out at my words. I smiled at her as she cocked her hip playfully.

"How are you so calm? I mean, you're a sophomore in college! Aren't you supposed to be pulling your hair out over midterms like everyone else is?"

I smiled even wider, "See, the difference between me and everyone is that I actually pay attention in class. So I don't have to jam a bunch of information into my head in a week." Ana lightly snatched the camera from me, muttering in Spanish. She looked at the photos I had taken, her brown hair in a curtain over her face. Looking back up at me, she praised my work.

"These are great! The shots aren't too tight or too loose, and you found the perfect angle for lighting. Okay, now your turn." I groaned reluctantly, trudging over to another random spot in the quad. I hated having my picture taken, but it was a requirement that we both be a part of the photo set. I pondered sitting on the grass, but thought better of it and I just signaled to Ana to follow me.

I tucked a lock of wavy red hair behind me ear, looking back at Ana to check if she was still following me. She was, so I continued. After walking around for a while, I got bored and walked backwards, looking at the camera. I didn't think anything of my safety or where I was walking, so I kept taking big steps.

"Kate, look out!" I saw Ana's eyes grow wide as I felt myself fall backwards as someone ran into me. I sucked in a huge breath as I gasped, preparing myself to hit the ground, crack my head open, and die.

Okay, so I was being a bit melodramatic.

I was stopped by a pair of lithe, but firm arms around my waist and shoulder, catching me and saving me from my fall. Looking up, I saw a gaping face staring down at me. Short brown hair stood in a swirl on top of his head. A pair of wide green eyes scanned my body, checking for injuries I'd presume. Then they locked onto my brown ones and I was frozen.

"Hi. Nice catch." I breathed out, referring to his saving my skull from cracking open and my brains splattering down the staircase. He blinked once, twice. I heard a faint clicking sound, but the sound instantly went to the back of my mind as time seemed to start again. My mysterious savior pulled me back into a standing position and started rambling.

"I am so sorry! I was just-I'm late to my biochem class and I looked down to make sure that I had the right textbook with me because Professor Larson would skin me alive if I didn't. It was only one second, I swear, I really didn't mean to run into yo—" He was cut off by my light chuckle. I looked up into his eyes, becoming very endeared as his slightly awkward demeanor.

I smiled encouragingly, "It's totally fine. I get that panicked rushed feeling sometimes too. It's super normal. Plus, if it makes you feel any better, Larson's just miffed that his third wife makes him go to church now." I spotted a peek of a laugh line, so I knew that I had succeeded in calming him down a little.

He suddenly stuck his hand out, "I'm Barry. Barry Allen."

I took his hand and shook it. "Kate Steele. Don't you have a class to get to?" Barry suddenly jumped at my reminder and gathered himself again. He started to run off yelling mid-stride,

"It's nice to meet you, Kate!"

I cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled right back. "You too!" I watched his figure grow smaller as he ran to the Math and Science building.

"Well, that was entertaining." Ana said, walking up to my side, camera in hand. I looked at her and spotted the smirk right away.

I rolled my eyes, "What now?" She giggled.

"He was kinda cute. You should ask him out." I scoffed as she waggled her eyebrows.

"Okay, stop trying to set me up with every guy that's nice to me! You have a problem."

"Whatever you say…" Ana singsonged as she started walking away from me. "Come on, let's finish this portion of the story for today."

But before I went to follow her, I looked down at the ground to see a stack of papers with the top of the stack entitled The Magnetic and Chemical Properties of Hemoglobin.

With Barry's name in the header.

After doing some investigating, the next day I walked into the lobby of Brennar Hall. I tapped a blond boy on the shoulder, using my sweetest voice, hoping that he wouldn't get too angry at me for interrupting his study time.

"Do you know which room Barry Allen is in? He dropped his paper earlier." The guy who I was speaking to had nodded quickly. He started to gather his stuff.

Getting up and putting his bag on his shoulder, he put a hand out towards a hallway. "Yeah, he's my roommate. I'll take you to him." I smiled gratefully at him.

We turned down a few halls and soon arrived to a dorm labeled 232. The guy who led me there pulled out his key and unlocked the door, revealing a room covered in papers and textbooks. Somehow through the mess, I spotted Barry sitting at his desk.

"You have a visitor, Allen." He didn't look back as he re-read a paragraph out of his textbook.

"Joe, I told you, I'm fine on the mac and cheese. I don't need any more than nesseca—Oh, hi!" Barry had turned around halfway through his sentence and did a double take at seeing me at the door instead of whoever Joe was. I waved.

Holding up his paper, I stated my business. "I'm hoping this wasn't too important." Barry's face lit up at seeing the papers in my hand as he leaped up to grab it.

"Oh thank God. Where did you find this? I've been looking for it everywhere, that's why the room's such a mess."

I put my hands in my jean pockets, rocking back and forth lightly. "It probably dropped out of your bag when you ran into me." He nodded understandingly.

"Yeah, I need to be more careful. Thanks." We stood in sort of an awkward silence for a moment, then I bursted out with what I've wanted to say since I read through the paper.

"I like your paper. It's very informative." Barry nodded as if that were the normal thing everyone says to him. "Although you did miss that another possible mutation of hemoglobin is sickle cell anemia." Barry give me a surprised look, then facepalmed.

"Of course! That's what I was missing. It's only a rough draft, thank goodness, and I've had this feeling that I'd forgotten something on this paper ever since I wrote it." He scribbled something on his paper, then paused and stared at me, "You know biochemistry?" I nodded.

"Yeah, that's how I knew Larson. It's probably one of the few things I know really well from that class."

Barry looked down sheepishly, "Oh, that's right."

"Hey, I heard that STAR Labs is developing plans for a particle accelerator. And they have a mini-physical model of it that they've released to the public… You wanna go look at the plans?" My voice sort of dwindled down as I became more and more insecure at the prospect of him saying no.

His face brightened up again and he nodded, "Absolutely! Let's go." He grabbed his jacket and guided me out of the door. Once we reached the end of campus grounds, we were already conversing as if we'd been friends forever.

"—and the greatest part of this accelerator is definitely gonna be the…"

"Diode-capacitor voltage multiplier." We said at the same time. Pausing and looking at each other for a second, we started laughing at the coincidence.

"Barry Allen, I think this is gonna be the start to a beautiful friendship."

TWO YEARS LATER

"Congratulations, Class of 2013! You did it!"

All of us on the main floor cheered, holding up our fake-degrees. Our family and friends applauded us from the bleachers surrounding us. We switched our tassels and started jumping up and down in joy. The recessional music started playing, so we exited the arena where we had the ceremony.

"Katherine!" I spotted my Dad and sister who called out for me. I walked to them and hugged my father immediately.

"Oh, I'm so proud of you, my sweet girl. Your mother would be too." A tear fell at the memory of my mother. I lost her my senior year of high school to a long battle with breast cancer. I almost dropped out because of the toll it took on me, but my remaining family kept pushing me to finish my education.

I smiled at him, turning to my sister and hugging her. Ella is a sophomore in high school now, very talented and bright. I'm beyond proud of her and how well she's done. She was only 11 years old when we lost Mom, while I was 18. Ella's been very focused and motivated to do her absolute best at everything.

"Incoming…" She whispered in my ear. I pulled back from the hug, cocking an eyebrow before she pointed behind me. I turned around and grinned from ear to ear at the sight of my best friend. My heart skipped a beat as Barry locked eyes with me.

Barry smiled at me and started walking over with Joe and Iris a little ways behind him. I jogged to him and jumped up and hugged him. We laughed as he spun me around, overcome with glee at completing another milestone. I'd completed a Bachelor's degree in Photography with a minor in Forensic Science and Barry received his Bachelor's in Forensic Science.

After the day we both went to check out the particle accelerator, we found out that we have a lot of the same interests and the same major. We hung out as much as we could, whether it was studying for an exam, treating the other to something that wasn't ramen noodles, or even braving a few college parties together. We went as far as signing up for some of the same classes. Barry and I have spilled a lot of our baggage to each other. I've comforted him on the anniversary of his mother's death and he's comforted me on the anniversary of my mother's passing. We've seen each other cry at least twice, whether it was over midterms or a result of sleep deprivation or both. Barry Allen is definitely a friend that I'm keeping for life.

I shook the thought out of my mind as my Dad and Joe went and shook hands and started talking. Iris trudged over to us, looking happy, but jealous. "I wish I was graduating with you guys. I just wanna get out there already!"

I smiled encouragingly at her, "Oh come on, Iris. You have a couple more years! Soon, you'll be out and at it in no time. You know that time flies by quickly." She nodded at me, then held her arms out for a hug. I walked into her embrace. I was genuinely happy that she was here.

I used to be jealous of the friendship that Barry and Iris have. I was afraid that I would have to compete with her for his attention or that she would just keep him from hanging out with me, but that changed after I met her. Barry introduced us a year or so ago, and I soon learned that she's the absolute sweetest girl in the world, so my worries instantly ceased. All three of us are friends now and I couldn't be happier.

We pulled back from the hug and invited Barry into the circle. He joined us, making us a trio of smiling, gleeful faces. Joe interrupted us and we turned to pay attention to him.

"Alright, let's take a couple of pictures, then we'll go to the house to celebrate. Cake included." Our two families cheered at the mere mention of food. Today was a day of smiles.

Once the picture session was over, we started to walk to our cars to drive to the West residence. But I was stopped by someone calling out my name. I turned and found the speaker to be Ana. I grinned at her, as I hadn't seen her in a day or two.

"Hey Ana, isn't this exciting? We're starting our lives soon." She bounced in front of me nodding.

"I almost forgot to give you this. I'm actually leaving the city today, I got a job over in Starling City at Queen Consolidated." My eyes widened in surprise at the company name.

"Queen Consolidated? Wow, that's amazing!" I hugged her enthusiastically. When I pulled back, she held out a small envelope to me. Confused, I reluctantly took it and opened to see the contents inside. I pulled out a lone photo of me and Barry. I was tilted back, Barry's arms wrapped around me, we were staring into each other's eyes like there was no one else in the world. Scanning it for a moment, I was quick to recognize where the photo came from. "This is from when Barry and I first met, isn't it?" Ana smiled and nodded.

"I thought we trashed all of the photos that we didn't use for our project."

"Well, I decided to keep a few. No need to waste that much film. Anyways, I just wanted to give that to you. Don't be a stranger, okay?" We hugged once more and she walked over to her family.

"Hey. What's that?" I jumped when Barry snuck up behind me and stole the photo from my hand. He smiled when I tried to reach up and grab it, his 6'2" frame towered over my 5'3", so I didn't even come close to grabbing it.

"Oh, come on, Allen! What are we, in the second grade?" I continued to huff and puff as I tried to get the photo from him. My red hair continued to bounce around my shoulders and I kept jumping. He smirked at me, then tilted the picture so that he could get a good look at it. I froze when he lowered his hand, smiling nostalgically at the photo of us. He looked up at me.

"Well, that was a hectic day for me. I'm glad Ana took this, I'm gonna have to get a copy of it." He smiled at me, while I playfully shoved his shoulder. I grabbed Barry's hand gently and pulled him along, saying "Come on, our families are waiting!"

ONE AND A HALF YEARS LATER

"Where's Allen?" I rolled my eyes as Singh yelled out to the crew. I focused my lens on another mark left on the victim's body, then snapped the picture. Getting up from my crouch position, I walked over to the three officers just as Barry ran up.

"You're gonna have to carry on without him…"

Barry was practically wheezing as he tried to apologize, "Sorry I'm late, Captain Singh."

The agitated Captain faced him and started shooting off questions. "What was it this time, Allen? Forgot to set your alarm clock? Before you answer, let me remind you that your last excuse was car trouble. Wanna know why that one was memorable?"

Barry's shoulders slumped. "I do not own a car."

Joe swiftly cut in to try and salvage Barry's job, "He was running an errand for me." Joe turned and focused his stare on him "Barry, did you get me what I asked for?" Barry started patting his pockets and pulled out a half-eaten chocolate bar. I covered my mouth to try and conceal my laughter, but my snort was still audible, which made everyone glance at me sternly.

"Ah, yeah. I had a few bites of it." Barry continued to stumble through his explanation. My shoulders were trembling from silent laughter at this point.

"Great! Now that our full CSI team is here, let's get a move on with this please." The Captain motioned towards the crime scene and Barry and I both started walking over there.

"You know, I'm half surprised that you still even have this job. Singh looked like he was gonna blow a gasket." I commented to Barry as he was putting his gloves on.

"Wouldn't be the first time, would it?" Barry asked as he lowered himself on to the ground to get a different angle of the scene. I watched him stare at a few points that even I couldn't see, then get up and come to a conclusion faster than I could sing the chorus of "Jingle Bells".

"Getaway car is a Mustang Shelby GT500. Shelby's have a rear super-wide tire specific to that model. Twelve inches with an asymmetrical tread." I glanced up to see Joe looking impressed and proud at the same time, taking notes on a notepad to keep for records. Barry had such a natural talent and a sharp mind and that made him a natural fit into the world of science.

"And there's something else." Barry swiped a pen from Chyre's jacket pocket and scooped up a sample from the small pile of the unknown substance and sniffing it. He recoiled quickly and put the sample into a baggie. "Fecral excrement. Animal, I'd guess." I scrunched my face up in disgust.

"My dad gave me that pen… before he died." My eyes widened as Barry gave Joe's partner an apologetic glance.

"Sorry." I grabbed Barry's arm, telling Joe that we were going back to the station to look at the samples and rushed him off with me.

"Oh my God, you just can not win today." I shook my head, snickering as we continued walking down the sidewalk. "So, how was your trip to Starling?"

A couple of hours later, I exited my office and walked next-door to Barry's lab space. Papers were strewn on top of boxes full of cases files, various chemicals in glass beakers and Erlenmeyer's flasks on various shelves (to be quite honest, I think it's a bit dangerous for all those chemical to be out in the open), several computer screens open and glowing with life.

"Hey Bear, I just sent you a couple of photos that I thought would be a bit more resourceful to your search. Feel free to check 'em out." I slumped in one of his chairs, exhausted from all the work I had done throughout the day.

"Alright, thanks." He took off his gloves and went to look at the database on his computer. I saw Iris walk in and waved to her.

She waved back while proclaiming her arrival. "Hey! I am ready to see this atom smasher—Smashing." Looking at the both of us, she smiled.

"There was a shooting today. Your dad needs us to process some evidence. Which means I don't know if we're gonna be able to make it to STAR Labs today." As sad as it was, Barry was right. We were both shuffling around our spaces trying to get more evidence for this case, and it was really time consuming.

"Seeing this thing turn on is like, your dream. Your sad little, nerdy dream." I gasped, faking offense. Iris turned to me, smiling innocently. "Besides, I canceled a date for this." She munched on a fry from Barry's lunch stack.

"Hands off my fries." Barry snatched them up playfully. He walked around her. "Unbelievable."

"I'm stress eating over my dissertation. We started selling cronuts at Jitters today. I ate two today. If I don't graduate soon, I'm gonna be more muffin top than woman."

I saw Barry scan Iris' body. "You look amazing." Iris' eyes flitted over to me for a second, back to Barry, then she scoffed as she looked at Barry's paperwork.

"What's so important about this particle accelerator, anyway?"

I breathed out, "Oh no, now you've done it." I walked up next to Iris and bumped hips with her. Barry put on his ranting face on and started explaining.

"Harrison Wells' work in Quantum Theory is light-years ahead of anything at CERN."

Iris interrupted him, "You're doing that thing again where you're not speaking English." Barry looked at her, then at me. I nodded in agreement with her, even though I understood every word that he had just said. He walked around us to his writing board.

"Okay. Just imagine…" He drew a dot on the clear board. "…that this dot is everything that the human race has ever learned up until this moment."

"Does that include twerking?" I chuckled as Iris crossed her arms. I sat down at Barry's desk and watched him explain.

Barry drew a circle around the large dots. "That is everything we could learn from the particle accelerator." He looked at us with an ecstatic grin.

Resting my head on my hands, I chipped in my two cents. "It's essentially a whole new way of looking at physics." Barry looked at me and nodded his head excitedly. Iris looked between the two of us before putting a hand on each of our shoulders.

"You two have got to get into relationships. Heck, you two would make the best nerd couple Central City has ever seen." She smirked as I snickered into my hands.

I nodded jokingly, "Oh yeah, absolutely. And we'd get married and have little clumsy ginger babies that would come out of the womb spouting on and on about Harrison Wells and heavy ion fusion." Iris and I laughed at my attempt at painting a picture of me and Barry having children.

"Okay, hold up, I'm not that much of a nerd..."

"Hey, leave him alone, he's working."

Iris smiled warmly at her father "Hi Dad." We all heard a beeping sound. "Oh, your test thingy is done." Barry walked over to his computer and waved me over before we surveyed it closely. By the time we turned back around, Joe was sat down in a chair with Iris right behind him.

"From what we've gathered, and this was 99% Barry's doing, we think the Mardon brothers are staying at a farm." I started off. Joe nodded at us, signaling to explain further. Barry continued.

"The fecal matter I found on the street, it was cow manure, which contains traces of oxytetracycline. It's an antibiotic." We switched off in our explanation.

"There are only four farms in the area that still use it in their feed."

Barry held out a list of the four locations to a proud-looking Joe. "Bet you'll find a really sweet Shelby parked at one of them."

Iris took this opportunity to swoop in, "Dad, seeing as Barry and Kate solved your poop problem, how about letting them go to STAR Labs?"

"Fine, go." I jumped with joy as the three of us gathered our stuff and walked out of the lab.

"Thanks, Joe!"

We sped to STAR Labs, where a crowd was slowly building outside. Iris turned to Barry as we pushed through the crowd to make conversation.

"So Barry, how was your trip? Did you find proof of the impossible in Starling City, or did you just make my dad mad for no reason?" Barry sighed before answering.

"You know, while I was away, I had a chance to think about you know, relationships." I perked up in confusion. Barry hadn't told me anything about this earlier. "And well, I'm not in one, neither are you two."

"Thanks for the reminder, Barry." I droned as Iris shoved me slightly.

"And you guys are my best friends…" A thought suddenly came to my mind and I gasped so loud several people looked at me to make sure that I wasn't dying or injured.

"What? What's wrong?" Iris put her face into my vision as I suddenly calmed down again, not wanting to freak anybody out. Barry looked concerned too. I waved them both off, telling them my sudden epiphany.

"It's nothing life threatening, I just remembered that I have a shoot to do. Sort of a side gig that I signed up for, I forgot about it. I'm gonna be late." I was really sad that I couldn't be here for the unveiling of the project Barry and I had discussed so many times over the course of our friendship. "I'll see you guys later." I walked through of the crowd and in the direction of my apartment, hoping that I wouldn't get penalized for being not exactly on time.

Almost an hour later, I had some personal equipment of mine set up outdoors by the track at the local high school. I was supposed to shoot the varsity cheer squad doing some of their routine.

"Don't know why your school's multimedia team isn't doing this. Could've gotten a grade for it. Added it to the yearbook." I continued to mumble frustratedly as I finished adjusting my set up. Guess I'm still bitter about having to miss the particle accelerator going online. I straightened up and called everyone to pay attention to me.

"Alright! Now, just don't mind me or the weather, just do your routine as normal. I'll be going around taking shots of you guys during, okay? You can start whenever." I held the camera up to my face, ready to take the first shot.

Not even a second later, it started raining again.

I heard a bunch of high pitched squeals and complaints about their hair and make-up as I put my camera down. I rolled my eyes as the coach directed the whining girls inside to the gym while I just stayed outside, ready to gather my equipment again. Thank goodness I put a waterproof cover over everything just in case. I had thought for sure that I had caught us in a dry time patch, but I guess the particle accelerator was messing with the weather. Something did catch my eye, though.

There were two students, not even phased by the torrential downpour, who were getting their marks ready on the track a couple of meters away from me. Intrigued by the power this scene had to offer me, I held the camera up to my face.

Then something strange happened.

The second I pressed the button and heard the clicking sound of my camera, a rush of energy hit me, causing patterns of light to run across the lens. My body felt a jolt from the energy that had swept over me and I collapsed. I saw the two kids running towards me just as my world went dark.

So, that's the first chapter! What do you guys think? Great? Awesome? Terrible? Let me know by reviewing this story. It helps me write and post chapters quickly.