If Beca was given the choice, she would readily slip back into her coma. She had spent only one day in Central City yet when she woke up, the entire city knew her name, except not her actual name. Her first day at Central City University consisted of many students nicknaming her Coma Girl, sounding like some kind of superhero who spent most of their time sleeping. Having to endure constant questions about her comatose state was bad enough but the difficulty of her classes, all chosen by Damien, made it ten times worse. She would have been excited to attend classes if she understood more than five words spoken by the professors.

Going back to her elementary school days, she used colored highlighters in her notebook and textbook: yellow to indicate parts she understood, green to indicate parts where she was slightly confused, and red to indicate parts that made no sense to her. By the end of the first day, all of her books were redder than tomatoes. Damien was not much help either, brushing off her concerns with assurances that she needed time to adjust to the classes. The only upside to her time in a coma was that her professors were much more lenient, never asking her questions and offering her extra time to prepare for quizzes in case she was still suffering some side effects.

When she was not desperately staring at the clock, waiting for a class to end, or at work, she was visiting Barry at STAR Labs. He had not yet woken up from his coma but it did allow her to get to know Caitlin and Cisco. Being super geniuses, they were the perfect people to help her with her homework. To someone like them, with their high IQs, it was easy for them to solve a math problem or describe some scientific process though they needed to use basic terms to help Beca understand it herself. The two of them seemed to be great friends yet complete opposites of each other. While Cisco was the goofball, Caitlin tended to be more straitlaced and rule-abiding. She rarely cracked a smile but Beca imagined that if she had lost a loved one from the explosion, she would behave in a similar manner.

Upon learning that Beca was spending her free time at the lab, Damien was furious, not wanting her to be anywhere near Wells and his team. She was certain that he was resentful of Wells for his accident putting her in a coma. Despite his objections, she continued to visit the lab, lying that she was studying in the campus library.

Beca had just entered the convenience store a block away from her apartment. She spoke to Damien, holding her phone against her ear, as she walked along the aisles.

"I got the money. Why are you angry?" she asked, grabbing a carton of milk.

"Beca, I'm not—it's been happening quite frequently. It's odd."

"Well, they're kind of old. Maybe they shouldn't be out that late." Busying herself with which flavor of chips to choose, she refrained from mentioning that last night's customer was not the first in the past two weeks to end their session early. "What other reason could there be?"

"I haven't a clue. Where are you?"

"I'm just getting some milk and bread at the store before I meet Caitlin at Jitters for help with that physics assignment. Just Caitlin and no one else."

Damien's aversions to her visit at STAR Labs had to do with Cisco as much as Wells. He only gave her permission to see Caitlin outside of the lab, on the condition that they were working on school assignments.

"I don't want to keep you from your work. I um…I promise I'll be home for lunch."

After getting bread and a box of chocolate pretzels, she waited at the end of the long line. It felt like she was standing in line for hours before she reached the counter. The boy behind the register, in his mid-twenties with tousled dark hair, smiled at her. She placed her items on the counter, shyly asking for the snacks to be placed in a separate bag from the boutique next door.

"Thanks, Kyle. I know it's a weird thing to ask but my uncle…he really hates junk food."

"Hey, I get it. When I was fifteen, my mom forced me to go on a diet with her. I thought I was turning into a rabbit from all those carrots. It comes to 13.96."

Beca reached into her purse. "And don't say it's free this time. I'm not getting you in trouble. My bag's a mess. Sorry."

"Take all day if you want. I don't mind having to look at that pretty face." His smile made her pale cheeks turn bright red. "If you have your own place, why's your uncle up your ass about what you eat? Are you a model?"

She giggled. "Definitely not. He'd never let me—not that I wanted to but…I guess he's just being really protective. If he knew I had a single chip, he'd probably make me puke it up. T—that's a joke. I have a really bad sense of humor. He wouldn't actually—I'm shutting up now."

As she counted out the money, she silently wished that the store had a special lottery where the hundredth customer of the day won a lot of money. It would easily solve her problem of Damien giving her such a tiny allowance, just enough for her to sustain her throughout the week, and maybe even enough to move far away from Central City. To her confusion, Kyle refused to take her money. She suspected that it was his way of getting a date from her, an intention he made obvious since her first time in the store.

"Kyle, I already told you—"

"I forgot what my boss told me last night. We're running this secret contest. The hundredth customer is the winner. That's you, Becs."

"I didn't think it was possible but I think you're worse at math than me. It's only ten in the morning. There's no way you've had a hundred customers yet."

"Ha ha, I know how to count and it's you. Winner gets all the money in the register." He opened the register and handed her nearly three hundred dollars in cash. "You should be more excited than that. I remember what it's like to be in college. Three hundred dollars to us is like winning the lottery."

"Seriously, is this some grand gesture to lead into you asking me out? Because most guys just say I have pretty eyes. They don't give me hundreds of dollars."

Kyle was insistent that the contest was real. Though she doubted that he would risk losing his job over impressing a girl, a small part of her wondered if he was honestly that crazy. No matter how much she tried, offering the money to someone else, he asserted that she was the contest winner and earned her prize. She hesitated to take the money before leaving the store. Returning to her apartment, she placed the money in a jewelry box under a loose floorboard in the closet.

"I'll never have enough," she whispered, counting out the money.

She spent the next hour in her living room, watching cartoons and savoring the taste of sea salt chips. Her time away from Damien allowed her to live life as a normal person, not a health nut. In the middle of flipping through channels, she heard a loud knock and nearly spilled the bag of chips on the couch. She darted to her bedroom, hiding the bag in the bottom drawer of her dresser. The knocking was getting progressively louder, and to her surprise, a middle-aged, balding man in a police uniform, not Damien, was standing in the hallway.

"You Beca Pierce?" he asked in a gruff voice.

"Y—yes. Can I uh help you?"

"I need you to come to the station with me. We'd like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind. Follow me."

Beca's heart raced as she sat in the back of the police car. The man was not very talkative, playing the radio instead of answering her questions. She contemplated texting Damien but before she could type one word, the man snatched her phone. Fearing that she was about to be thrown in jail, she bounced on her heels in the elevator on the way up to the police station. Her stomach twisted into knots and housed a thousand, raging butterflies and she thought that at any moment, the chips she had devoured would soon be a stain on the floor.

The man led her to the desk of another officer, who she recognized from the night of the explosion. He was the officer who interrogated her date outside the liquor store.

"Thanks, Charlie. Have a seat, Beca." Flashing a kind smile, he pulled out a chair. "I'm Detective Eddie Thawne. I don't know if you remember me. We briefly met at—"

"I remember you. Why am I here? Am I in trouble?"

He turned the screen of his computer towards her. A small screen showed the inside of the convenience store with a timestamp of 9:58 AM in the corner. In the screen, she was speaking to Kyle though neither of their voices were heard, only silence. She pinched the inside of her wrist as the video showed Kyle handing her the money.

"We got a call from Mr. Daniels, who owns the Central City Mart, around 10:15. He was checking on his employee, Kyle Rayner, when he noticed that all of the cash was suspiciously gone from the register yet there were no signs of a robbery. He sent us this security footage not too long ago. As you can see, that's you talking to Mr. Rayner."

"I—I didn't…I won the contest."

Eddie paused the video and shot her a puzzled look. "Contest?"

"Kyle said—I know it's going to sound weird but he said that I was somehow the hundredth customer and they were having this contest. I didn't want to take the money but he kept saying it was the prize. Didn't you ask him?"

"Yes. He had no recollection of giving away the money and he never mentioned any contest."

"H—he probably just made it up to…well, I don't know why. Okay, I kind of maybe do because he likes me and maybe the money was a weird way of getting me to like him as more than a friend. I mean, we're not really like best friends. We just met like last week so it's uh—do you seriously think I stole that money?"

"Footage doesn't lie, Beca. Do you want to know what I think? You said that he had a possible crush on you. Who's to say you didn't use that to your advantage? A pretty college girl in need of some quick cash…" Despite her repeatedly shaking her head and saying "No", he continued with his crazy theory that she manipulated Kyle's feelings to trick him into giving her money. "Maybe he's saying that he doesn't remember because he doesn't want you to get in trouble. Maybe you offered to—"

"You're a buttface!"

Her insult and raised voice caused several heads to glance in her direction. She shrank in her chair, looking up at a stunned Eddie.

"I—I didn't mean to say that out loud but you are like a total buttface. If you thought some old guy stole the money, you wouldn't be asking him if he like flirted with Kyle. You're just accusing me of that because I'm a girl. That's not fair. I told you what happened."

"And your story makes no sense. Perhaps it would if Mr. Rayner remembered anything past talking to you in the store but most of your conversation is a giant blur. I find that convenient."

"Well, I find you being a sexist buttface, Detective Barbie…and yeah, I said Barbie. You're way too pretty to just be Ken. See, I can be mean too. That video doesn't prove anything. Unless you can travel back in time, I can't prove that we talked about the contest. If you want the money, I can give it back. I can—"

"What's going on here?"

A dark-skinned officer, with a receding hairline, walked towards the desk. His eyes flickered between a red-faced Eddie and a sheepish yet angry Beca. Eddie, still reeling from her insult, stuttered out the details of the case at the convenience store.

"Beca, right? You were at STAR Labs with—glad to see you're awake. You gave your uncle quite the scare. He visited the lab with me and my daughter Iris. It was a long nine months. I'm Detective Joe West."

"Are you Barry's dad?" she asked, curiously.

"Heh, well, it's uh a little complicated. I don't think there's much of a case here. You were just in a bad situation. Do you have the money?"

"B—back at my apartment, yeah."

"Bring it to the station later and everything will be fine."

"Joe, you can't seriously let this slide. The Stone incident was one thing but come on, we have security footage," hissed Eddie.

"Let it go, partner. I believe her. Boys do crazy stuff at that age to impress a girl."

After thanking Detective West over a dozen times, she headed over to the elevator. Beca was relieved that she was not being arrested on robbery charges but the knots in her stomach remained intact. She was curious about Kyle's odd memory loss and why he would lie about the contest. If it was all to impress her, he had fallen for her very quickly in just over a week. As she texted Damien that she was on her way to his apartment, she bumped into someone, knocking her to the floor.

Barry was outside the elevator with a beautiful, dark-skinned girl. "I am so sorry, m—" His eyes widened, seeing Beca. "B—Beca? Hey!"

She was taken aback by him pulling her into a hug. "I heard you were at STAR Labs too but you woke up before me." The girl looked amused by his reaction. "Are you okay? How are you feeling? Did Cisco and Caitlin make sure that—"

"Yeah, I'm okay. It's weird that I was asleep for nine months but I'm getting used to it. I was going to stop by the lab after lunch. My uncle kind of doesn't want me around Wells so I have to get creative with my excuses."

"Cisco mentioned that you were visiting me too. That's really…uh you haven't met Iris, have you? Iris, this is—"

The girl shook her hand. "Beca. I heard you before, Barry. It's nice to finally meet you. I think we were supposed to meet that night at STAR Labs. Barry kept going on and on about how you were new to Central City and he wanted me to help you out. I can still do that, if you want."

"That'd be great. I've been going to classes for two weeks and most people still call me Coma Girl. I'm thinking I should make a t-shirt…get a mask and cape. I haven't had much time to explore the city with my uncle being even more protective than usual. I actually have to go meet him now but maybe I'll see you at STAR Labs, Barry. Cisco and Caitlin kind of help me with my homework because they're geniuses. Nice meeting you, Iris."

Damien's penthouse apartment was more than ten blocks away from the police station. She sat on the bus, avoiding the lecherous stares of the elderly man sitting across from her whose eyes had not left her chest from the moment she stepped onto the bus. Hugging her jacket close to her body, she glanced out the window as several police cars sped down the street. In the seat in front of her, two teenage girls were reading updates on their phones about a bank robbery, the third robbery this month. One of the girls mentioned that an employee posted a video where it seemed to be raining inside the bank.

As she opened the door to his apartment, she overheard him speaking with another man. The man, who spoke in a gravelly voice, was insistent on continuing their business together. Hiding behind the wall, she peeked around the corner. Damien was glaring at a blonde man with disheveled hair that fell over his eyes and light stubble, most of his face disguised by a baseball cap. He spotted the tip of her boot sticking out from the wall.

"Beca, you're here. There's no reason to hide. My friend was just on his way out."

"This isn't over, Damien. You'd be smart to take up my offer. It isn't like the last time," the man hissed.

On his way out, he glanced over at Beca with a smug smirk and slammed the door behind him. Damien apologized, calling the shifty man an old acquaintance.

"Lunch is almost ready. You can help by setting the table," he said, entering the kitchen.

"Wasn't that Clyde Mardon?" He tensed up as he opened one of the cabinets near the sink. "I recognize his face from a picture at the university. It's on this wall of people who died on the night of the explosion. He was a criminal or I guess he still is since he didn't die. How did he survive a plane crash?"

"He's…a very lucky man."

"Did you just find out that he's alive? What was he—"

"Beca, that's enough. He's simply a man who survived a terrible accident and won't be bothering us again. No more questions. You know what they say…curiosity killed the cat."

"And satisfaction brought it back." Her eyes darted down to her boots as he turned towards her. "That's the…full phrase. My mom—I uh I think I read it somewhere. You're right. No more questions. I'll set the table."

Another two weeks had passed since Barry woke from his coma and the city was dealing with numerous strange events, including Mardon being killed for real this time and reports of a red streak being seen around the city and saving people. No one was able to see the person behind the amazing rescues, only noting that it was a quick blur. Damien deemed the stories as nothing more than tabloids messing with the easily fooled citizens of Central City but despite his scoffing at the stories popping up each day, Beca knew that he was interested in the mysterious blur's identity.

The other strange thing was that Beca was no longer allowed inside STAR Labs, due to ongoing renovations, which meant that she could only hang out with Cisco, Caitlin, and Barry at other places around the city, making her very anxious. Whenever they just went to Big Belly Burger or Jitters, where Iris worked as a waitress, she was constantly glancing over the shoulder, worried that she would bump into Damien or one of his 'acquaintances'.

As much as she appreciated getting to know Iris, one downside to spending time at Jitters was seeing her with her secret boyfriend, Eddie, who had not forgotten Beca's visit to the police station. Unlike Detective West, Iris's father and his partner, he believed that she was lying about the supposed robbery at the convenience store and his refusal to disregard the matter strained her burgeoning friendship with Kyle.

The first time seeing Kyle after the incident at the store, he forced one of the other employees to take his place at the register while he conveniently sneaked into the back room to find some random item. It was not until Beca confronted him that he apologized a hundred times for getting her in trouble with the police, blaming his memory loss on a batch of pot brownies from his friend that he ate before work.

Beca was at Stagg industries, dragged to an award ceremony by Damien. The head of the company, Simon Stagg, was a philanthropist and scientist receiving a fancy award from the university. She leaned against the wall, holding a glass of champagne, as he spoke with his colleagues. Iris and Barry walked over and greeted her. Neither of them expected to see the other at the awards ceremony, with Iris only being there to write an article for her journalism class and Barry as her science translator and Beca being forced to attend to give her a glimpse of her potential future as a scientist.

"How did it go with that art club meeting?" asked Iris, interested. "You said you loved drawing so I thought it would be a good place to start."

Beca bit her bottom lip. "Well, I went and uh apparently, being famous for being in a coma for nine months isn't enough to let you through the door. The girl in charge said that I wasn't the right fit."

"What? How could she know that? She can't just judge you by—"

"She didn't. It was my uncle. I'm pretty sure he intimidated the whole campus into not letting me join a club. With my job and just recently waking up from a coma, he's in maximum protective mode. I'm kind of surprised he hasn't got a security team watching my every move when I leave the apartment. He's—"

"Beca, it's about to begin. We should get—hello, Mr. Allen."

Damien interrupted the conversation and shook Barry's hand. She remembered Damien once mentioning that Barry was in some of his classes when he attended the university.

"I didn't realize you knew my niece."

"Yeah, we met the day of the STAR Labs incident, actually. We were at Bi—"

"I was exploring the campus and he was passing by to go to the library." She subtly tapped her heel on the floor, as a sign for him to back up her story. "He helped me find all my classes."

Barry nodded. "Yeah, I remember how confusing it was for me the first day."

"How noble of you. I'm afraid I have to steal her away," said Damien, placing his hand on her lower back. "Beca, there's some people here I want you to meet. Wonderful to see you, Mr. Allen."

Before she could even open her mouth to say goodbye, Damien pulled her into the crowd. She winced at his fingers digging into her wrist. For a moment, he held back a yawn but continued dragging her towards two men near the stage: one, dark-skinned, muscular, and very tall, and the other, middle-aged with greying brown hair. Both men were dressed in dark suits and the taller of the two was unmistakably a bodyguard.

Damien shook the older man's hand. "Simon, good to see you again. You must be quite proud of this award."

"Someday, it'll be your turn, Barnett." the man replied with a chuckle. He noticed Beca beside him and she soon felt uncomfortable by his penetrating gaze. "And who is the lovely woman with you today?"

"This is Beca. Beca, meet Simon Stagg, the guest of honor."

"Even prettier than you described, Barnett." Stagg planted a wet kiss on the back of her hand. "Certainly seems worth the price you gave me but I've met plenty of beautiful women in my lifetime. How do I know she's worth it? Maybe that coma messed around with her."

"I guarantee you that she's worth it, trust me. She's worth every last penny."

Stagg grinned. "I'll take your word for it. We'll make the arrangements after my speech."

As Stagg stepped onto the stage, to the applause of the crowd, Beca was mere seconds away from covering the floor in regurgitated champagne. She listened to his long speech and caught Barry staring at her out of the corner of her eye. It was not the lecherous stare of a man sitting across from her on the bus. She was not used to the expression on his face but she briefly thought it was one of concern.

Damien left her to discuss the latest arrangement in Stagg's office. Being left alone allowed her to talk to Iris and Barry without him breathing over her shoulder. She walked towards them in hopes that she was not interrupting a personal moment, considering Barry's awkward expression (though he usually had that expression on his face most of the time).

"Hey, is everything okay with your uncle?" he asked, his gaze tearing away from Iris.

Beca crossed her arms. "Yeah, why wouldn't—why makes you think he isn't okay? He's always okay. I can't imagine why he wouldn't be."

"I just didn't understand why you lied about how we met. It's not like I saw you naked. N—not that I would want to—I'm sure it would be—oh, that came out really wrong." Iris giggled under her breath. "I didn't mean it that way. I just…you can ask, Iris. I can embarrass myself and the people around me in less than a minute."

"You didn't do anything, Barry. He uh doesn't like me eating fast food. He's on a bit of a health kick so if he heard we met at Big Belly Burger—"

Loud gunshots rang throughout the room. Six men, all wearing black ski masks and carrying guns, surrounded the crowd and one of the men on the stage ordered them to hand over all of their jewelry. The six men moved through the crowd, stashing the jewelry into small duffel bags. Barry stood protectively in front of both Beca and Iris, quietly assuring them that they were safe. Iris stopped him from pursuing the robbers, who were all heading towards the front doors.

A lone security guard emerged from the crowd, ordering them to drop their weapons. All of the guests crouched down in a panic, their arms over their heads, as the men shot at the guard. Peeking through her fingers, Beca saw the guard vanish in a split second, the bullets striking a glass sculpture of the Stagg Industries logo.

"Beca, where's Barry?"

Like the security guard, Barry was nowhere to be found inside the room. They eventually discovered him outside the building, very lightheaded and sitting against a dumpster. Beca helped him back inside the building, looping one of his arms around her shoulders. Panting heavily, he explained that he fainted after chasing the robbers to find the license plate of their van.

The police were already questioning people about the attack. Beca rolled her eyes when she heard a trio of women in their early forties fretting over their expensive, stolen jewelry. Detective West and Eddie were comparing notes and seeing Iris, Eddie's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Do you want me to get a paramedic, Allen?" he asked, hearing that Barry had fainted outside.

"No, I'm fine. Thanks, Eddie."

Beca checked that he was able to stand on his own two feet. "Aren't you such a Prince Charming? Did you ride here on your white horse?"

Eddie's nostrils flared at her remark. With a heavy sigh, Detective West reached into his pocket and held out a Ziploc bag, Beca Jar written over the plastic in black marker.

"Put a dollar in there." She looked at him strangely. "This has been going on for two weeks. Whenever you make a sarcastic comment or give him some nickname, you put a dollar in the bag. I've got one for you too, partner...for when you bring up that convenience store incident, give her a suspicious look, or make your own little comment towards her. The way it's been going, I'll have enough for pizza by the end of the day. I can't carry around jars all the time so this is the substitute."

Not bothering to argue with a police officer, she placed a dollar inside the bag. She nudged Barry's side when she heard him and Iris stifling their laughter.

On their way home, Damien was in a chipper mood, having convinced Stagg to pay triple the original price. He did not elaborate on why Stagg was willing to pay such a hefty amount, only telling her that he offered an extra incentive. Her stomach twisted into knots as she imagined what he meant with the knowledge that it involved her, Stagg, and an unpleasant situation.

The following night, Beca was pacing around the alley beside Stagg Industries, waiting for her pills to take effect. Her short dress was covered up by her black peacoat and her high heels clicked against the asphalt. She shivered from the slight chill in the air.

"Waiting for me, beautiful?" A man in his thirties, one of Stagg's bodyguards, left through a side door, his eyes traveling up and down her body. "Wearing that dress, you're definitely here for me," he said, licking his lips.

"I'm waiting for a friend."

The man smirked. "I doubt Stagg's a friend. Are you his newest little plaything? Prettier than the last one Barnett sent."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Just leave me alone." She began to walk towards the parking lot when he grabbed her arm roughly and pinned her against the wall.

"I guard that pompous jackass all day. I don't think he'll mind if I get the first taste. You like it in the back, blondie?" he asked, the smell of whiskey all over his breath.

Beca squealed when his lips pressed against hers. Being far too strong to simply push away, she settled for kicking at his shins. She grabbed his wrist, stopping his hand from even touching her thigh. Her fear soon turned to confusion as his lips slowly stopped sucking off her face like some alien monster and his entire body slumped forward, crushing her into the wall. Squeezing out of the tight space, she watched as the man collapsed to the ground, his face ghostly pale. His veins were protruding under his skin, especially in his cheeks, and his gaunt appearance reminded her of a crushed, empty juice box.

She tapped his side with the bottom of her heel. "A—are you okay? Of course you're not okay. You're not even—are you breathing? Why do I keep asking you questions?" Her fingers rested on the side of his neck and felt a faint pulse. "You're not d—not that I thought you were…I need to do something. Call Damien. No, bad idea. Get you to a hospital. They can—no, very bad idea. I'll figure it out."

Retrieving his keys from his pocket, she pressed the alarm in the parking lot and hauled him towards the black sedan, moving him only a few inches within ten minutes. She was startled by the sound of breaking glass as she managed to lift him into the backseat. Quickening her pace, she sat in the driver's seat and fumbled with the keys, her nerves making the easiest task a hundred times more difficult. The car kept stalling as she attempted to move in reverse and she smacked into the curb in the middle of making a slight turn.

"I can't do this. I can't—I just have to call Damien. He'll know what to do—or he won't and he'll freak out. I don't want that. I need to—I just need to take a breath."

A red blur burst out from the front doors. She left the car, seeing a man in a dark red suit speaking to himself.

"I couldn't stop him from falling. I tried. I'm heading back now."

"Psst," she whispered.

The masked man turned around and upon seeing her, his head whipped back and forth so fast that it looked like it was about to fall from his shoulders.

"D—don't mind me, miss. I was just leaving a super hero club meeting," he said in a deep voice, giving her an awkward wave. "We uh talk about our favorite comics and dress up as characters for fun. Whatever you think you saw—"

"Barry, I need your help. Come here."

"W—who's Barry? My name's—"

"I know you're the streak! Stop making up really bad excuses and come here before someone else show up!"

Her hair was blown back by a gust of wind when he moved from the front doors to the man's car in the blink of an eye. He lowered his mask and stared at her, speechless.

"Beca, why are you—how did you know?"

"You woke up from a coma and then a few days later, there's a report about some freaky blur rescuing people. I know I'm blonde but I'm not that dumb. I'm actually really…what's the word? I read it in my dictionary app. It means observant. Per…perceptive. I'm very perceptive. How are you so fast?"

"I'll explain everything to you later. Why are you at Stagg Industries?"

"I was passing by on my way to meet a friend and I saw this guy in the alley. I found him like that and I don't know what to do. He has a really weak pulse and he's…" Barry glanced at the man in the backseat. The man's hair had now turned from dirty blonde to grey. "Please don't make that face. I'm freaking out enough. What do we do? He looks—can the hospital even do anything?"

"Relax. We can take him to STAR Labs. I'd take us there by running but I don't know if that's safe. Let me drive."

Within a matter of minutes, they arrived at STAR Labs. Barry slung the barely conscious man over his shoulder and carried him into the lab, Beca a couple steps behind him. He gripped her hand as it trembled at her side, instantly giving her the tiniest sense of relief. Cisco, Caitlin, and Wells were sitting in a control room.

Cisco jumped up from his seat. "Man, that was awe—" His voice faltered as he saw her. "B—Beca. Hey Beca. I see you found out about Barry's love of cosplay. He's really into it. That's uh why you couldn't visit the lab. He wanted time to figure out how to tell you since some people are weirded out by it. He's a character from this really obscure comic book from the—"

"Cisco, she knows," said Barry, passing by him to place the man on an empty cot in the next room. "She found this guy near Stagg Industries. I have no idea what happened to him but I thought Caitlin could figure it out."

Caitlin gestured Beca to follow her into the room and asked all kinds of questions about the man, including how he initially looked when she found him and if she saw him eat or drink anything before collapsing. Beca gave the same cover story: that she was on her way to meet a friend when she spotted the man in the alley.

"You can fix him, right?"

"I have to find the cause of his condition but when I do, yes. He still has a pulse, which is a good sign."

Cisco handed her a water bottle and pulled out one of the chairs. "Hey, don't worry. Caitlin's got this. Just sit and relax. If you want, you can help me come up with a better name for our new metahuman. He's dead but he still deserves a name and Captain Clone wasn't my best idea."

"Metawhat?"

"Cisco, can you come here? I could use some help," said Caitlin, inspecting the man's mouth for any poisonous substances.

While Caitlin worked on saving the man, Beca busied herself by tapping her fingers on her lap in a rhythmic pattern. Wells rolled over to her, looking intrigued.

"Miss Pierce, do you know what a tell is?" She shrugged, a sense of dread traveling up her spine. "It's commonly associated with poker…a sort of action that betrays someone who is trying to be deceptive. They're quite easy to spot. Yours, for instance, is when you scratch the back of your ear, which is what you did before telling Caitlin how you found that man."

"Pfft, that's—okay, I know you're like some super genius but you're not tricking me with fake science talk. People can just scratch their ears. It doesn't mean anything."

"Perhaps not but you are certainly not being honest. I think you know what happened to this man and Caitlin can't treat him unless she has all the facts. I doubt you wish for him to die."

"I think I did it," she mumbled into the sleeve of her coat.

"What was that?"

"I—I think I…maybe it wasn't me but it's not the first time something like this happened." Caitlin, Barry, and Cisco stepped into the control room. "Not this bad but—ever since I woke up, weird stuff's been happening. When Da—my uncle touches my shoulder or something, he'll yawn and it's happened with other people too. They just get really tired. I—I was waiting for my friend to pick me up and that man was bothering me. He kissed me and when I tried to get him off, he started to…I don't know. That happened," she said, pointing at the man lying on the cot.

Cisco excitedly exclaimed that she was another metahuman, like Barry, the man who attempted to kill Stagg, and Clyde Mardon who was able to control the weather. Wells agreed with him, explaining that the sudden spikes in her vitals in her comatose state only occurred whenever one of them made physical contact. He suggested that physical contact allowed Beca to siphon off a person's energy, in turn strengthening herself. She was panicking on the inside while Barry and Caitlin looked surprised and Cisco was moving around the room like a child after eating tons of candy.

Her thoughts drifted to the day at the convenience store. "C—could someone get more than one power?" she asked Wells.

"Well, I'm certain that Barry can do more than just run very fast. Once we get a better grasp of your abilities, we'll understand its potential. Why do you ask?"

"Something else happened. Maybe it was more than once but I don't know." She opened up about the strange encounter at the convenience store, how she had been thinking about winning a lot of money and then Kyle told her that she won a contest. "But then he didn't remember any of that conversation. Detective West thought he was just lying because he was embarrassed but what if he really did forget?"

"And you can make people do stuff with just your thoughts? This is awesome. Beca, I'm not sleeping until I find the perfect nickname for your badass powers."

"T—that's nice but how do we help him if we don't even know how I…hurt him."

"Beca, don't say it like that. You were scared and it was self-defense. You didn't hurt him on purpose," insisted Barry, hearing the fear in her voice.

"I may have an idea. Miss Pierce, if you'll come with me," said Wells, going into the other room.

Beca hesitated to join him by the cot. Knowing that it was her fault, she could not even look the man in the face. She overheard Caitlin arguing with Cisco over his possible nicknames and telling him to be more considerate. Wells shut the door to give them some peace and quiet.

"It's merely a hunch. I want you to place your hands over his."

"B—but if you're right, that'll make things worse. You said touching him—"

"Miss Pierce, I wouldn't want to put you through more grief. Now, place your hands over his," he said, guiding her hands on top of the man's own left hand. "Close your eyes and focus…imagine all that energy flowing through you and back into his body. Take slow, deep breaths and concentrate."

She struggled to follow his instructions, too concerned with hurting the man. "You're not concentrating. You're letting fear take over. As I said, imagine that energy…you can feel it right now, pulsing through you." His hands touched her shoulders and moved down her arms. "Feel it in your arms and traveling down to your fingertips."

A warm sensation trickled down the inside of her arms. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes and was stunned to see that the man looked relatively normal. His hair was back to its dirty blonde color and his veins were no longer protruding under his skin though his face remained ghostly pale.

"H—he's better. Did I really—"

"Yes. You see, your gifts don't need to be seen as something frightening. I can only imagine what you'll find yourself able to do when you truly begin to understand your abilities. Cisco, Caitlin, and I…and of course Barry, we'll be there to guide you, Miss Pierce," he said, moving his hands from her arms.

"Just Beca's okay." She hugged him, careful not to touch his skin. "Thanks, Dr. Wells. If you didn't—I don't know what I would've done if he…y—you really helped me."

"And I will continue to do so. I have no intention of letting you figure this all out on your own. I want to be there for every step of your new journey."

As Barry used his super speed to take the man to the hospital for further treatment, she hurried back to her apartment, worried that Damien would react poorly to her, for lack of a better word, adventurous night…