For 9 months Caitlin had been putting on a brave face each day at work. In reality she was broken and felt hollow inside. Ronnie was her everything, the two of them were going to be married and spend the rest of their lives together. At least that was the case, until the particle accelerator malfunctioned and Ronnie died while protecting the city. The two of them were so close to becoming married and living happily ever after that she could taste it. Caitlin could not help but wonder why things turned out as they did, was she being punished for something she did? Was she not worthy of happiness? Whatever the case was Caitlin made a decision, she would not grow attached to anyone ever again. All that comes from relationships is pain and suffering and she was not going to put herself through that kind of pain again. Everything started to change on that day though, the day that Barry Allen woke up from his coma.
His boyish charm and hopelessly optimistic outlook on life were second to none. It was hard to believe that at the ripe age of 11 years old he went through the trauma of witnessing his mother's murder. In Caitlin's mind he was the younger brother that she never had, so she would watch out for him no matter the cost.
For six months Barry had been living a double life as both a CSI and the Flash. Living a double life is definitely not easy, but he did not want to give up either job so what can he do? During this time he met some amazing people Harrison Wells, Caitlin Snow, and Cisco Ramon. Barry had been a fan of Dr. Wells for years so working with him every day was a dream come true. On the other hand Caitlin and Cisco were the best friends that he never had. Of course there was Iris, but he has always been more interested in dating her than being her friend. Sadly though he never had his chance to confess and since waking up from his coma he found out that she was dating someone from his work named Eddie Thawne. The guy looked like prince charming and it absolutely pissed Barry off. Just when he was building up the courage to ask her out he fell into a coma for 9 months while someone else got close to her. Eddie does not seem like a bad guy though, and his personality is very similar to Iris's personality so it kind of makes sense that they ended up together. Joe has known about Barry's true feelings for years so he was the one who broke the news about their relationship. Even though he's not his real dad he has treated him like his own son and he can never repay him for that. Two other people that could see that he was wallowing in depression were Caitlin and Cisco. In order to distract Barry from Iris the trio had weekly hangouts whether it was seeing a sci-fi movie, playing nerdy games, or just talking in general.
All in all Barry's life since being struck by lightning was better than before. He used to be an antisocial CSI that only ever talked with Joe and Iris. Now however, he was the Flash and had actual friends. Sure fighting bad guys is dangerous and tiresome, but if Barry was not willingly to do it who would?