Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my OC!

The people of Central City were abuzz with excitement. History was about to be made right there, tonight, in their own home. Most didn't quite understand the specifics, but they knew things were going to change forever.

They just had no idea how much.

Emma Waters, who was still relatively new to the city, couldn't think of a better way to try to make this place her home than to partake in watching the biggest thing to happen there maybe ever. That, and physics had become a hobby of hers as of late. She had been unemployed until recently, and spent her time reading books of all kinds at the local library. Physics had sparked her interest so she had spent the better part of the last few weeks reading all the books the library had on the subject.

Thinking back on it now, she realized how big of a nerd she truly was.

With a shrug she continued walking down the street towards STAR Labs where their new Particle Accelerator was about to be turned on. Hardly anyone was on the street now, everyone probably was already there; the accelerator was about to be turned on any second now and Emma was running incredibly behind. She had stayed a little late at her new job at the CCPD and now she was afraid she'd miss it turning on. Just her luck, to get carried away and miss such a huge moment in time.

On top of all that, a thunderstorm had begun brewing and she forgot her umbrella at her new apartment. She picked up the pace, both to get out of the now pouring rain and in an attempt to make it in time.

A giant flash of light and a loud explosion at STAR Labs, just two blocks away from her, stopped her in her tracks. Her brown eyes just about bugged out of her head when she saw it, and she felt her heart stop when a ripple of energy burst out of the explosion. She turned to run away as it headed towards her, deep down knowing it was futile.

At the same time, a thunderbolt struck a car parked two feet from her, causing it to explode. The moment the ripple of energy collided with her, the flames from the car engulfed her completely.

The feeling of being burnt alive and the agonizing scream that tore from her lips was the last thing she would remember before everything went black.

10 months later

Barry Allen had been awake from his coma for just over a month and couldn't believe how drastically his life had changed.

Sure, the coma part sucked, but now he was the fastest man alive and it was more incredible than he could put into words. His life had a purpose, he actually could make a real difference in the world now. He was saving lives, preventing disasters, and he loved every second of it.

He thought of his powers as a gift and he thanked whatever higher being allowed him to have them every day, but as Barry sat in the med bay in STAR Labs staring at the unconscious girl lying in the hospital bed in front of him he couldn't help but wonder why he got so lucky? She had been in a coma even longer than he had and his heart hurt that she had missed so much time. Caitlin had found her unconscious outside STAR Labs the night of the explosion, skin burnt so bad it was black but somehow still alive. Now, 10 months later, her skin was almost completely healed, save for her face, and Barry found himself wondering for the hundredth time if she was going to wake up.

"Hey, Barry," Caitlin greeted him, walking over to the girl to check on her.

"Hey," he mumbled, his mind still preoccupied.

"We've finally been able to get a DNA sample from her," she told him, effectively peaking his curiosity. They had been struggling to get testable DNA from her thus far; at first her skin had been burnt so badly that they couldn't get any skin cells and had been too worried to try to draw blood, and her hair had been singed off completely. Once her skin started healing, they hadn't been able to break the skin with a needle. "See? Her hair has started growing back."

Sure enough, small follicles of brown hair were popping out of the girl's bald head.

"Have you gotten an ID?" At the question Caitlin smiled, nodding her head excitedly.

"Yep. Her name is Emma Marie Waters," she explained, pulling up a picture of the girl. Barry couldn't help but admit that she was incredibly cute. It seemed to be a Facebook profile picture: she was pulling a goofy face and throwing up a peace sign with her fingers. In the picture she had long, curly brown hair that gradually turned lighter towards the ends, and large brown doe eyes. Large square-framed glass were perched on her nose- those kinds that people normally associated with hipsters. She didn't seem like a hipster, though. In fact, she looked like she was a total dork, wearing a Star Trek t-shirt.

"Wait, she actually looks kind of familiar," Barry mumbled, her two-toned hair suddenly jogging his memory. He knew he had seen her somewhere before, but couldn't quite put his finger on where or when.

"It's funny, actually," Caitlin chuckled. "The day of the explosion was her first day of work at CCPD."

"Ah!" Barry shouted, pointing at the doctor in an epiphany. "Yes! I saw her in the precinct! She's, uh...oh! She was the new Computer Forensics Specialist! That explains why everyone has been talking about the missing computer girl."

All of a sudden the monitors attached to the girl-Emma, he reminded himself- started going off like crazy. Jumping up, Barry asked Caitlin what the hell was happening.

"She's crashing," she exclaimed, rushing to grab the crash cart. She did a bunch of doctor-y stuff that Barry missed completely, too panicked to pay much attention to the specifics. Apparently nothing she had tried worked because she grabbed the AEDs.

"Clear!" she shouted, placing the device on Emma's chest. The girl's body jerked off the bed in response to the jolt.

What happened next left Barry speechless.

The jolt seemed to set off some kind of reaction in the girl's body. The monitors normalled out, which was great but not what startled him. Instantaneously the skin on Emma's face healed itself, her hair grew back to how it looked in the picture he had just seen, tattoos she must've had beforehand drew themselves back on her skin.

A second later she was sitting upright, voice breaking from a terrified scream. Her eyes were wide as she took in her surroundings, panting hard to catch her breath.

"Where the hell am I?" her voice rasped, panic laced in her words. "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Caitlin Snow, and this is Barry Allen," Caitlin said gently, trying to calm her down. She handed the startled girl her glasses, apparently which had fallen off her face before she was burned. Cisco had fixed the cracks that had been formed when they fell on the ground. "You're safe; you're at STAR Labs." Emma's eyes squinted in confusion, trying to remember what had happened.

"The last thing I remember…" she whispered, racking her brain. "I remember walking in the rain to see the Particle Accelerator...but then nothing. What happened?" The panic had returned to her voice, not liking that her memory was blank. Caitlin sighed.

"The accelerator exploded," she explained softly. "I'm not sure exactly what happened to you, but I found you lying outside the building. You were," she paused, struggling with what exactly to tell her. She didn't want to worry her by telling her that she was quite literally burnt to a crisp. "You were unconscious."

"Just started a new job and already I've missed a few days," she grumbled. Just her luck.

"Uh," Barry drawled out. "It's been a bit more than a few days." Emma looked at him, really looked at him, for the first time. He had the most beautiful green eyes she had ever seen.

"How much longer, exactly?" He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, unsure how to break the news to her. Like ripping off a bandaid, he decided.

"Ten months," he finally said. If it was possible, the girl's eyes grew even wider.

"Well fuck me," she groaned, putting her head in her hands. Her casual profanity threw Barry off; she didn't look like the cussing type. "Ten whole months? Are you serious?"

"Your injuries were...extensive," Caitlin explained vaguely. "It's honestly a miracle that you were even alive."

Emma took in the news silently, mulling it over in her head. She wasn't stupid, she knew they were hiding something from her. Given how she felt about what they did tell her, though, she figured that maybe it wasn't such a bad thing she didn't know the full extent.

Suddenly another person entered the room, a man in a wheelchair. Emma immediately recognized him as Dr. Harrison Wells.

"Welcome back, Miss Waters," he greeted her kindly. "It's good to see you awake."

"Thank you, Dr. Wells," she politely responded, a little star struck. "It's nice to meet you. And, uh, thanks for taking care of me for...ten months apparently."

"Not a problem, Miss Waters, I assure you. You weren't our only patient," he smiled, looking at Barry.

"You...you were also hurt?" she asked, eyebrows pulling in confusion. "What happened to you?"

"Hit by lightning," he said simply, as if it wasn't a big deal that he was struck by lightning and lived. "I was in a coma for nine months. Not quite ten, so you're the big winner there," he chuckled.

"Yay for me," she snorted. Suddenly a fragmented memory flashed before her eyes: lightning hitting a car, flames, heat.

When the memory passed she saw the blankets over her legs were on fire, the other occupants of the room frantically trying to put them out. A screamed erupted from Emma's throat and she jumped out of the bed. She looked down at her hands and saw them on fire. She started to panic, shaking her hands to try to put them out. When it didn't work she stopped for a second, realizing that the fire wasn't burning her. She started at her hands in awe. The same look was mirrored on the faces of the other three people staring at her.

"What...is...happening?" Emma whispered, eyes darting up to meet the eyes of Barry, who was approaching her with a giant smile on his face.

"Emma," he began, reaching out to put a hand on her arm, careful to stay away from the flames. "What's happening is you're a meta-human...like me." With those words and an even wider smile, Barry took off running so fast he was a blur, leaving lightning in his wake. Within half a second he was back, now clothed in a red suit.

That's the last thing she saw before she passed out.