A/N: I've decided to make longer chapters for now, that way it's easier for the story to develop. Tell me what you think!


It had been almost a week since Eva had woken up. She was slowly accommodating to living alone again. It was really hard at first, even though her parents came by twice a day to check on her and sometimes have lunch with her. But at night, as soon as she fell asleep, she had horrible nightmares that made her wake up screaming and soaked in sweat. And as soon as she opened her eyes, she could never remember anything about these nightmares, except for a strange and eery silhouette that was following her around and from which she was always trying to get away. She hadn't talked about these nightmares to her parents; they were already worried enough about her without piling on it.

She was in the shower when it happened for the very first time. The sun was barely rising, and she had just woken up from one of these horrifying dreams. She had her head up, eyes shut, letting the warm and strong stream massage her face and the steam relax her tense muscles. She was just starting to calm down when she felt it again. That… thing she had felt in the street a few days ago after leaving Jitters. She quickly turned off the tap and froze, her heart beating out of her chest. It was that same uncomfortable feeling that someone was watching her. And then it spoke to her. Not exactly with words, but through a flow of thoughts and emotions that weren't hers. It was a confused and swirling mixture of pain and happiness and relief and sorrow and it just wouldn't stop and Oh my God stop- please make it stop! Scared out of her mind, Eva let out a scream of terror and fell out of her shower, ripping off the curtain and hitting her head on the sink with a muffled sound in the process.

Groaning from the pain, she wrapped herself in a towel and put a hand to her forehead, which came back bloody. The unknown source of thoughts had stopped the moment she hit her head. Shaking and hurt, she brought her knees to her chin and let warm tears dripping down her bright blue eyes for the first time since she had woken up. She kept crying until she lost track of time, letting go of her fear through her silent sobs.

...

The sun was shining high and bright in the beautiful blue sky, as if it was mocking Eva's depressing mood. She had decided to go for a walk in Central City gardens to clear her mind. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking after her terrifying experience in the morning and she couldn't stay alone in her apartment a minute longer. She needed to be surrounded by people. She put on a short burgundy dress that underlined her strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. She was slightly cheered up when she noticed that she liked most of the clothes she had found in her wardrobe. At least her tastes didn't seem to have changed too much. Before going out, she had also covered up her cut with a large bandage. It was a little sketchy but she didn't feel like calling her parents or waiting for hours in the ER just to get patched up, and probably yelled at for not being more careful after waking up from a year long coma. Which, granted, would have been justified.

The square was absolutely gorgeous. The large patches of grass were bordered by beautiful and fragrant flowers and led to a blue lake in a downward slope. She immediately felt the fresh air fill her lungs and relax her.

She was slowly strolling on a narrow dirt track, taking deep breaths and enjoying the smell of freshly cut grass, when a man in front of her caught her attention. He was bending over, leaning on a tree. He seemed to be shaking and in pain. A strange alarm went up in the back of her head, but the need to help others overcame it and she made her way to the man.

"Sir, are you alright? Do you want me to call for help?" she gently asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

The man didn't answer. Instead, he fell to his knees with what sounded like a scream of pain. Eva stumbled back in horror as the man's skin was pierced by countless spikes that seemed to be coming right from his bones.

How…?! Thought Eva, too stunned and fascinated to move. But she should have. As the man's screams became louder and louder, he raised his arms to the sky and dozens of 3 feet long spikes were ejected from his body. Eva raised a hand in front of her –pointless attempt to protect herself- certain to end up like she should have a year ago. Dead.

And then everything happened too fast for her to even realise it.

A yellow streak appeared in a gust of wind. As she felt two arms behind her back and legs picking her up, the same thing that talked to her this morning sent her another warning sign. Then for a split second she felt like she was flying through Central City's streets at an unimaginable speed and before she had time to be scared, that thing in her mind surrounded her with a warm cloak of energy.

And she was thrown to the ground.

The violence of the fall made her roll a couple times on the hard pavement before she finally came to a stop, gasping in pain.

"What the hell?!" groaned a voice next to her. She looked over to her right to see a man entirely dressed in red and wearing a mask, laying on the ground and sounding very upset.

"I don't know what happened!" he yelled, apparently responding to someone, a hand on his ear. "It's like I hit a wall or something."

He got back on his feet and came closer to Eva, helping her up. She grimaced as she could already feel bruises all over her body. But it was still better than a giant spike going through her stomach.

"Are you ok? I'm so sorry about that, that wasn't supposed to happen…"

His voice sounded like it was being artificially modified so it wouldn't be recognised. But the second he put his gloved hand on her arm, that presence in her mind sent her a word, very clearly this time.

Barry.

"Barry?" she repeated, completely overwhelmed by the situation.

The strange man in red's face was blurry, moving so fast that she couldn't tell what he looked like. But she could clearly tell he was stunned. Without a word, he turned around and left so fast that the blast almost made Eva fall back down. She stood there frozen for a whole minute, trying to make at least a little sense of the inexplicable things that just happened in a matter of seconds, maybe even less. She raised her eyes only to realise she was standing in her street, right in front of her apartment.

"What? Just- what?" she whispered, completely lost. It was at least a 20 minute walk between her place and the square.

She ran back in her apartment –well, walked as fast as she could since both her knees were scratched and her whole body was aching- and turned her TV on. It was the first time she'd done so after awakening, taking her parents' advice. She already had so much to take in, she didn't want to pile on with the depressing news that were broadcasting every day. But now, she was deeply regretting not doing so. A lady with a perfect brushing and bright red lips appeared on the screen and she religiously listened, eager to finally have answers.

"A wave of panic hit the Central City gardens only a few minutes ago, as an unknown metahuman unleashed his powers in the middle of the square. As you can see on these amateur videos, it didn't take long for The Flash to intervene, preventing this attack from turning into a massacre and once again saving many lives."

As the lady kept going, Eva stared at the shaky video apparently taken from a phone, in which she saw herself, standing there like an idiot, and disappearing in a red blur just as the white spikes were about to hit her. She slowly sat down and tried to even her breathing. What was wrong with these people? How was this even possible? And that… thing in her mind, it told her that this Flash guy was Barry?

Following her fuzzy train of thoughts, she picked up her phone. "We need to talk." she texted Barry. Then she dialled her parents and as soon as her mom picked up, she burst out in anger.

"How could you not tell me this?! A bunch of freaks are running around in Central City attacking people and you didn't think to mention it?"

"Eva honey, calm down. We are trying to protect you, there are so many things that have changed in the past year, we're trying really hard not to overwhelm you with the news. And we honestly didn't think you'd go out on your own so often." she paused, and Eva heard her gasp. "Wait, did something happen to you?"

"I'm fine, mom, don't worry about it." sighed Eva. And as her mother was still asking her millions of questions to make sure she was ok, Eva cut her off and hang up. It was a jerk move but she was still furious at her.

As she expected, Barry didn't answer her text. She sighed, grabbed her purse and left her apartment again, without even taking the time to clean up. She wasn't scared anymore. She was pissed.

...

She easily found the Central City Police Department. It was an imposing building with cream walls and dozens of people buzzing in and out. After climbing the large stairs and getting inside, she was making her way to the front desk when someone called her name.

"Eva? Is that you?"

She turned to see a dark-skinned man with a short beard and soft black eyes go down wooden stairs and head towards her, a bunch of files in his hands. She hesitantly smiled. Of course, she didn't recognise him.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"Oh I'm Iris' dad, Joe. Joe West? She told me about your huh- your condition."

"Right! Sorry. Nice to meet you, Detective" she added with a smile, noticing his badge. "Well, to meet you again."

"Please, you've always called me Joe" he said with a warm smile. "It's good to see you up and about! Iris and I were just about to invite you for din- " he stopped talking, noticing her scratched knees, dirty dress and bloody bandage on her head.

"Are you ok?" he asked as he put a hand on her shoulder.

Eva realized how crazy she probably looked. She tried to smooth her messy hair and smiled.

"I just had a little… incident. Nothing important" she added with a wave of her hand, hoping that Joe wasn't on the team that responded to the alert in the square and that he wouldn't put two and two together. "I'm looking for Barry, do you know where I can find him?"

Joe's eyes narrowed –he wasn't a detective for nothing, he could tell when someone was lying to him, especially when they were such bad liars- but he didn't insist.

"He was headed to star labs last time I saw him."

"Thank you. I'll see you around, Joe." she said with a smile, trying to hide how nervous she was.

"Hey Eva" shouted Joe as she was hurrying back outside. She held her breath as he seemed to hesitate. "Take care of yourself, ok?" he finally said.

She discreetly sighed, nodded and left the building.

...

Finding Star labs was a bit more complicated. She asked for the address on her way to a couple people but they all seem to have either forgotten about this place, or didn't want to acknowledge its existence. What the hell happened here? Eva asked herself as she decided to look up the address on her phone. She was at the facilities a few minutes later. The large circular building with two tall towers was bigger than she thought. Unlike CCPD, it looked almost abandoned. She didn't meet anyone on her way in the lobby. The place was strangely calm. She could hear her steps echoing through the long hallways as she hesitantly went down to what appeared to be the laboratories. She finally arrived in a large white room, filled with computers and equipment which she wouldn't even know how to describe. Four people were standing there, staring at her. Well, three of them were standing. The fourth one was in a wheel chair. Barry was one of them, his arms crossed on his chest, looking worried. The man in the wheel chair peered at Eva through his round glasses and came closer to her.

"Miss Day" he finally said, breaking the awkward silence. "We were expecting you."

"… You were? And who are you, exactly?" answered Eva, whose anger had dissipated, making way for surprise and forgetting everything she wanted to ask them.

"Yes. We've heard a lot about you. My name is Harrison Wells and this is my team: Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon. I believe you already know Mr. Allen."

She frowned but didn't say anything, and neither did Barry. She thought he was going to ask her about her previous encounter with the Flash, but instead Wells asked her a question that completely destabilised her.

"How did your accident happen, Miss Day?"

She opened her mouth, not really sure how to answer.

"How do you know-...?" she whispered, only to see Barry look down, a glimpse of shame in his eyes. She sighed. There was really no point in hiding what happened to her, but she thought her friend would have the courtesy not to tell half the city about it.

"I'm- I don't really know actually. I forgot everything that happened during and before the accident, but my parents told me I fell off a building."

"Do you know when it happened?"

"It was the night your particle accelerator exploded. It pushed me off the edge." she answered with a shaky voice, just now realising that this man was probably responsible for everything that was happening to her.

Wells nodded with an all-knowing smile and didn't add anything. The short young man that had been slowly walking around Eva for the past few seconds, eyes narrowed, suddenly threw a magazine he was holding at her.

"Ow!" she squeaked as it hit her in the face. "What was that for?"

"Cisco!" yelled the pretty woman named Caitlin. "What are you doing?"

"Sorry" mumbled Cisco, running a hand in his long dark hair and picking up the projectile. "I was hoping we had found our own Jason Bourne, but no freaky reflexes. My bad."

He awkwardly smiled at her, cleared his throat and went back next to Barry, mumbling a last "sorry". The latter was pinching the top of his nose, looking desperate.

"How did you know it was me?" he softly asked Eva.

Okay. So he wasn't denying anything. Which actually freaked Eva out even more. She had hoped to be wrong about him.

"So it's ok to talk about this? You guys are all cool with the fact that there are some kind of... mutants running the streets? And that Barry is one of them?" she questioned, pointing at the others.

"Metahumans." corrected Cisco.

"What?"

"We call them metahumans. And Barry is not one of them. Unlike most these guys out there, Barry chose to use his powers –which, by the way, are pretty awesome if you haven't noticed- to protect the city."

Eva and Barry's glances met.

"Right." she whispered. "The Flash." she took a deep breath. "So why exactly are you telling me all this? With the mask and everything, I gathered this is supposed to be a secret."

"Exactly." stated Wells. "Which brings us back to Mr Allen's first question. How did you know it was him?"

Eva was starting to understand why it had been so easy for her to get into the premises. If she hadn't come to them first, they probably would have come to her, looking for answers. She had just stepped into a complex and dangerous organisation and was way over her head. She decided they absolutely couldn't know about the weird stuff that was happening to her, not until she knew if these people were friendly or not. She trusted Barry, but she wasn't so sure about that Wells character. This strange alarm in her head had rung again as soon as she had laid eyes on him.

"A feeling." she slowly said. "Maybe it was the way you were standing, or talking, I don't know. To be honest, I wasn't sure until now."

Wells constant smirk widened. Yep, this man definitely made her uncomfortable. And he clearly didn't believe her.

"If that's ok with you, we would like to run a couple tests on you." he glanced at her wounds. "Besides, it looks like you could actually use some medical attention."

"Tests? What kind of tests?" she asked, taking a step back.

"Just a regular check-up" said Caitlin, gently putting a hand on her arm. "And- maybe take a few DNA and blood samples" she quickly added under her breath. She caught Eva's alarmed look and nervously smiled back. "Don't worry, I'm a doctor."

Barry joined the two girls.

"You can trust these people Eva, I promise. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, you know that."

"Oh you mean besides throwing me on the ground in front of my apartment?" countered Eva, raising an eyebrow.

"Say what?" said Cisco, slowly turning on his swivel chair towards them.

"I- like I said, that wasn't supposed to happen" stuttered Barry, running a hand through his hair.

"Actually, this is one the reasons we're doing these tests" added Caitlin, already leading Eva to the med bay. "We need to know what happened."

"Wait, you think I'm one of these freaks?" asked Eva, concerned.

"Who are you calling a freak?" replied Barry with a sly look on his face.

"Sorry, no offense. It's just... it's all really new to me. I'm going to need some time to process it all."

"You'll see," Cisco butted in, "once you dive in the meta-madness, you'll realise it's the coolest thing in the world. Except- you know, when crazy metahuman criminals come after us and try to kill us in all kinds of creative and disgusting ways." he added in one breath.

Caitlin, who was carefully patching up Eva's scratches, rolled her eyes.

"I would usually advise you not to listen to him, but he's got a point. Barry told us you were a biologist; well as a fellow scientist, I can promise you the endless discoveries about the human body we make here are something to be looking forward to." Her beautiful brown eyes were sparkling with excitement as she talked.

"Um okay, that all sounds very cool guys" said Eva, "but I wasn't exactly planning on sticking around."

"Oh yes." said Dr. Wells wheeling in the med bay, causing Eva to jump. How can a man in a wheel chair be so silent? And creepy? "We may have forgotten to mention: we'd like for you to stay. Work here with us."

"Work?" questioned Eva, raising an eyebrow. "Thank you for the opportunity, Dr. Wells, but right now I'm pretty much useless, unless you want me to scrub your toilets for a living. In which case with all due respect, I decline your offer."

Dr. Wells ignored the others' chuckles and gave her his weird smirk again.

"That's too bad. You see, I needed your thoughts on what organism would be more appropriate to apply PCR on metahuman DNA. Oh well."

"Well for starters," mumbled Eva without thinking about it, readjusting the bandage Caitlin had just put on her knee, "you would need to find the appropriate temperatures the molecule could handle during the PCR, assuming that your particle thingy heavily modified the DNA's very structure. Only then you can start looking for the right micro-organism to use."

Dr. Wells' smile widened. The others were looking at Eva, their mouths shaped in a perfectly round 'o'.

"What?" she asked, looking back at them. When what she just said finally hit her, she put a hand over her mouth, completely stunned.

"Like riding a bike." smiled Dr. Wells. "It's settled then. I'll see you tomorrow at eight. Don't be late."

Before Eva could say anything, he casually left the room.

"I told you it would come back," finally said Barry, shoving her shoulder with a huge smile. Eva smiled back, unsure of what just happened but filled with a new hope that she might get her old life back some day.

"Welcome to the team, Miss Day" solemnly said Cisco, mimicking Wells' voice. "And enjoy your daily dose of ass-kicking and awesomeness." he added with his own.

Eva smiled back, enjoying the young man's energy and positivity. She thought she saw a little redness appear on his dark cheeks before he turned, going back to his computer. Then she sighed, suddenly feeling exhausted.

"He just wants to keep an eye on me, doesn't he?"

Everyone looked embarrassed as a heavy silence fell upon the room.

"What happened earlier," softly said Caitlin. "When Barry was carrying you and his speed suddenly… stopped. It wasn't harmless. There could be more to it. Plus, you happened to survive a deadly fall the very night the particle accelerator exploded, and you woke up from a long coma just like Barry did. It can't be a coincidence."

"Yeah," sighed Eva. "I don't believe in coincidence."

"Has anything… weird happened to you lately?" asked Barry, coming closer to her, a hand on his chin.

Eva took a small breath, unsure if she should talk to them about what happened the very morning. These strange thoughts she had heard seemed to be coming from the outside, not from her, so she couldn't be a case of a new meta-human… right? To her, it just looked like she was slowly going crazy. She decided to stay on her first decision not to talk about it for now, and dodged the question.

"I just woke up from a yearlong coma with no memories at all, pretty much everything I've seen in the past week seemed weird to me." she said with a nervous laugh. He let out a quick laugh as well.

"Yeah trust me, I know what it's like. Don't worry, you'll find your own 'normal' eventually. It's just going to take some time, but we'll be here to help you find it." he added, slowly patting her on the back in an attempt to comfort her. Cisco raised an eyebrow and loudly cleared his throat. Eva quickly ran a hand through her short hair, got up and straightened her dress, ignoring the burning feeling in her cheeks. Caitlin was done with her tests, so she started to snoop around the lab.

"So for how long have you been doing… this, exactly?" she asked, motioning to the room around her.

"About four months." answered Caitlin. "We pretty much started after Barry woke up. We're still not exactly running like a well-oiled machine but we're getting there."

"It's pretty quiet," continued Eva. "Doesn't seem like your days get too bus-"

"NO!" screamed the three partners in unison, cutting her off. Just as they did, a loud alarm went off on one the biggest screen in the room.

"Ugh! You never say it's not a busy day in this room. Never." groaned Cisco, rolling his chair towards the desk where the screen was flashing in red. "It's bad mojo."

"My bad" mumbled Eva, biting her lip and watching the three youngsters transform into crime-fighters in a matter of seconds, their faces turning into focused and serious masks. Bad ass, she thought as adrenaline started running in her veins.

"There's an ongoing armed robbery at Central City Bank." said Caitlin, staring at her screen. She paused. "That's weird." she whispered, as Barry had appeared in a… well, a flash, dressed in his red suit.

"What?" he asked, putting a hand on Caitlin's chair.

"The number of attackers keeps changing."

"Metahuman?"

"Most likely." answered Cisco. "But I'm not sure what we're dealing with here."

"I'm going in." said Barry, nodding.

"Be careful." whispered Eva, watching the not very reassuring scene play out in front of her.

Barry nodded again with a smile and disappeared in a gust of wind, sending every piece of paper flying in the air.

"Don't bother, rookie" said Cisco from his computer. "He's never careful."

Eva let out an anxious sigh and came closer to Caitlin. They had an open mic system, Barry could hear everything they were saying and vice-versa.

"Well?" eagerly asked Cisco as they could see on the GPS that Barry had arrived at the bank. "How's it looking in there?"

They heard a commotion, and Barry finally spoke out, sounding out of breath.

"Definitely a metahuman."

"A metahuman?" asked Caitlin, looking at the numbers she was directly getting from the CCPD.

"He seems to have the ability to clone himself" said Barry after groaning in pain, apparently receiving a bad punch. "There- there's too many of them- of him. He's too strong!"

"Get out of here Barry!" yelled Eva, looking on the screen at Barry's vitals that were quickly dropping.

"I second that" said Cisco, just as worried. "Get the hell out man."

They heard some glass breaking and they sighed in relief when they finally saw the red dot on the GPS head back to Star Labs. A couple seconds later, he was back in the room. Eva was already walking to him, a half "happy to see you alive" half "y'all crazy for doing this" look on her face, when she noticed Barry's was covered in blood. She ran to him just in time to break his fall as he was already crumbling to the ground. She put his arm around her shoulders and Cisco got to them to support the other side. They quickly dragged him to the bed in the med bay, Caitlin not far behind.

"Barry?" called Eva, softly shaking his shoulders after carefully removing his mask. "Barry wake up. You alright?"

She started cleaning up the cuts on his lips and forehead as he was slowly coming to, groaning in pain. Apparently her years spent in med school had left some good reflexes. Caitlin watched her give him expert and precise care, pleasantly surprised by her experience.

"Barry, what happened in there?" questioned Cisco.

"I got my ass handed to me." he mumbled, causing the others to chuckle. All except for Caitlin, who was deep in her thoughts.

"Your vitals were dropping fast" she mused, "just like when you were experiencing low blood sugar, remember?"

"Yeah, except I'm not anymore. We solved that problem, didn't we?" he sat up and let his legs hang on the side of the bed, slowly rubbing his torso with a grimace of pain. His injuries were already healing but he had taken a pretty bad beating and was covered in bruises.

"It must be coming from something else." mumbled Caitlin, dozens of hypothesis already swirling in her brilliant mind.

"It's me, isn't it?" sighed Eva, putting a hand to her forehead. "Whatever happened this morning, it did something to you."

They all looked at each other, unsure what to say or think.

"You got blood on my suit" moaned Cisco, breaking the silence.

"I think some of it belongs to him" replied Barry, miffed. He sighed, looking back at Eva who was biting her nails, very conscious that she may very well be the reason why her friend almost got killed.

"Let's not draw any conclusions until we get the test results back ok? And even if you did do something this morning, you obviously didn't mean to. This isn't your fault."

Eva didn't answer, knowing she would feel guilty no matter what Barry said.

"Get some rest." she eventually whispered, grabbing her denim jacket and heading towards the exit.

"Where are you going?" asked Cisco, his arms outspread.

"I need to clear my head. I'll see you guys tomorrow." she added with a quick smile, as the rest of the team watched her leave.

Lost in her thoughts, she failed to notice the quiet silhouette watching her leave the building in a hurry. When sure to be out of sight, Dr. Wells wheeled out of the dark corner is was hiding in. This girl was probably going to cause him a lot of unnecessary trouble.

But not for long.


A/N: And that's it for chapter 2, I hope you enjoyed! I will try to include more scenes from the show in the future. Til next time!