"Okay, run through it one more time, and then we can take a break."

"Caitlin, you said the exact same thing thirty minutes ago."

"And your point is?"

"...nothing."

Laura sighed, ignoring the feeling of a piercing glare on the back of her head, and reached for another water bottle. It had been almost an hour since she and Cisco had returned to S.T.A.R. Labs, and since then Caitlin had blocked her every attempt to take a break from freezing bottle after bottle. Even though she knew that the tests were for her own benefit, it was a bit difficult for Laura to not feel like some sort of circus animal, performing the same trick over and over again for someone else to enjoy.

However, just as the water in the bottle began to freeze, an unfamiliar, high-pitched whirring drew Laura's attention to the far end of the room. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see both Cisco and Caitlin stiffen minutely before regaining their composure, and Laura returned her gaze to the doorway, where a familiar face was just starting to emerge from the shadows.

"Dr...Dr. Wells?" Laura breathed, almost unable to believe her eyes. The last time she'd seen Harrison Wells, it had been mere hours from the activation of the accelerator, his calm exterior doing absolutely nothing to hide the excitement everyone in the building had been feeling that night. Now, the man radiated only an aura of exhaustion and weariness that she supposed only the people closest to him would be able to witness. Even though she'd known him for over five years, up until that exact moment he had continued to maintain an appearance that could only be defined as professional and occasionally aloof - arrogant, even. And she couldn't even begin to process the wheelchair.

"Dr. Sanders. I'm glad to see you've finally awoken. Cisco, Caitlin, care to explain?" His attention was momentarily diverted by the large pile of water bottles on the trolley that Caitlin had brought out.

"We-we were just testing Laura's new abilities."

"Abilities?" One of his eyebrows quirked up.

Suddenly, one of her hands was gripped tightly in Dr. Wells', and even as the tips of his fingers started to turn white, he still held on, closely examining every inch of skin available to him. When he finally let go, Laura was relieved to see the tips of his fingers turn from white to bright red before slowly returning to their normal colour. She had not been looking forward to giving her former employer frostbite.

"Fascinating."

"That's what I said," Caitlin exclaimed as she joined the two of them, "Dr. Wells, I have a theory that her internal body temperature might be transmitting through her skin. And there's a possibility that it may be linked to her emotional state."

"It appears that you are correct, Dr. Snow. Laura, how are you feeling?"

Laura took a second, weighing her options. "Cold."

She caught the corner of his mouth lift a bit out of the corner of her eye, which could be considered a win.

"Cisco, Caitlin, we need to run some tests – less theoretical, more practical." Wells gestured to them both, and turned his chair sharply around, which left Laura standing awkwardly in the middle of the small room while they started their tasks. Quietly, Laura made her way towards the small office in the corner of the room, where Wells was currently typing on the desktop set up there. He didn't look up when she poked her head in, but when she started to enter the office, his head shot up.

"Dr. Wells?"."

"Laura – how may I help you?"

"I was-was just concerned, sir. About your-you...I mean-" Laura choked as she struggled to find the right words, choosing at the last minute to instead gesture to her employer in general.

"Ah," he breathed, nodding his head in understanding, pausing in his work to direct his full attention to her, "I suppose Cisco and Caitlin wouldn't have deemed it appropriate to tell you without my consent. So, to answer your concerns, Dr. Sanders, yes, I was injured during the particle accelerator explosion, which managed to permanently paralyze me. It has been...difficult adjusting to my new situation, I must admit, but I believe it is the price I must pay for the damage done that night. But I believe that should be the least of your concerns, considering your current situation."

He was avoiding the topic, that much was clear, but the hard look in his eyes was enough to warn Laura against pressing the issue any further. "...thank you, sir. For everything."

"No need. Now, let's see what you can do about those tests."


Half an hour later, Laura was having second thoughts about testing out her abilities. She stood on the edge of an ice rink in the middle of the city as Caitlin and Cisco flooded the empty rink with hoses. As Cisco had put it, bottles were easy enough, but freezing enough water to cover an entire ice rink? That would be the real test. As Cisco continued to flood the rink by himself, Caitlin made her way over to Laura, carrying a large parka in her arms.

"This is the only thing that we could find. It should resist freezing for the time being, but tell us if anything starts to happen, and we'll stop the test. Okay?" Laura nodded, and Caitlin handed her the parka, which she slipped on. As she zipped it up, Laura's attention was momentarily drawn to the empty space on the third finger of her left hand. Ten months ago, that was where Caitlin's fiancé, Ronnie Raymond, had placed her engagement ring, days before they had decided to announce it to the entire building. Now, it was gone.

"Caitlin?" Caitlin looked up, her mouth set into a thin line, and Laura struggled for a few seconds to find the right words. She hadn't exactly been close with the other woman in the time that they had been colleagues, but she had still made an effort to know what was going on in her life. And from what she could remember, the last time she'd seen Caitlin, she'd been wearing the engagement ring that Ronnie Raymond had bought for her.

"Your...your ring. It's gone. Is Ronnie okay?" Caitlin deflated at those words, and Laura knew then that she had hit a nerve.

"No. No, Ronnie's dead, Laura. He was...he was one of the people who died in the explosion."

"Oh...oh, God. Caitlin, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean-"

"It's okay, really. I'm dealing with it. Anyway, we need to start the test soon." Laura opened her mouth to protest, to offer any comfort she could to her colleague, but Caitlin was already walking away and back towards Cisco, the sharpness in her words sending her reeling. Despite what Caitlin had assured her, the other doctor was most definitely not okay. Even the excellent Dr. Snow had feelings, despite the story her cold exterior told the world. Ronnie Raymond had proven that, and it appeared that with his death, Caitlin had retreated back into the shell he'd brought her out of.

From the end of the ice rink, Cisco gave her a thumbs-up, the concrete surface of the rink covered with about two inches of water. The cooling units underneath had been shut down to properly evaluate the range of her abilities, but Laura was starting to get a bit nervous as she stepped up to the edge of the rink. With a quick glance at her colleagues, she got down on one knee and placed her hands in the water. When the water started to freeze a few moments later, it was a sight to behold. Intricate designs of frost spread throughout the rink as the water froze, and it rose just a bit as it expanded. Cisco and Caitlin made their way up to the bleachers and watched with matching expressions of awe as the water continued to freeze. Laura had to remind herself to breathe as she watched on with what was probably the same expression of wonder.

However, just as the water started to freeze past the halfway mark of the rink, it stopped. It simply just didn't go any further.

"What's going on?" Cisco yelled down at her.

"It won't go any further!"

"Maybe this is your limit!" Caitlin yelled back.

No, that wasn't it. It couldn't be. Laura wasn't exactly rooting for herself to have unlimited freezing powers, but she was positive that whatever powers she did have, their range was much, much larger. She could feel the cold – which was completely scientifically accurate, if anybody asked – tingling underneath her skin, waiting to be let out. Then, she had an idea.

A crazy idea, sure. But an idea, nonetheless. And in science, crazy ideas were often the ones that worked the best. Laura stood up, shaking off her hands of any excess water, and focused her sights on the other half of the rink that was still waiting to be frozen. She let out a shaky breath and steeled her shoulders, stretching out her arm past the edge of the rink, straight towards the unfrozen water. As the tingling grew in her hand, becoming almost painful, Laura closed her eyes, blocking out everything she could sense but the cold.

The bitter, numbing, painful, cold.

Laura's eyes shot open just as the cold left her hand in a stream of white light, flying across the rink and striking the water, the force of it nearly knocking her off her feet. As soon as the beam of cold hit the water, it froze instantly, the rest of it turning into ice faster than she could blink. Laura closed her hand as soon as the water was frozen, and reopened it after counting to five to a perfectly normal hand.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Laura turned just in time to see Cisco barrelling towards her, a huge grin plastered on his face, and she could not suppress her own grin. It had felt amazing, and it still did, the lingering bits of power giving her an adrenaline rush she'd never experienced before. As she stripped off the parka, which appeared to have actually partially frozen along the sleeves from her little display of power, Laura's attention was diverted to Dr. Wells' presence at the top of the bleachers. Even from afar , she could still see his wry smile.

Fascinating.


"I have got to say, you are my favourite metahuman right now." Cisco chuckled as he, Caitlin and Laura made their way back to what Cisco had apparently dubbed 'headquarters' at S.T.A.R. Labs.

"Metahuman?"

"Oh, right. You haven't seen the news. Well, it turns out a few other people were also affected by the particle accelerator in some pretty nasty ways; we call them metahumans. Most of them have been using them rob banks and stuff, so we've have Barry helping us take care of them."

"Wait, hold up. Who's Barry?" Laura was getting more confused by the second.

"Well, um…him, actually." Caitlin stammered out just as they passed the threshold into the room, and Laura followed her gaze, turning away from Cisco to get her first glimpse of this mystery Barry.

He was tall, taller than her, at least. That wasn't too hard. Skinny, too, but it was a deceiving kind of skinny; she could just see the faint outline of muscle underneath his long-sleeved shirt, not that she'd been looking for it. The brown crop of hair on the top of his head seemed to defy gravity. He also seemed to be waiting for someone – his foot was tapping so fast that she could hardly tell where the floor ended and where his foot began. As Caitlin and Cisco entered the room, his head – Barry's – shot up, and his gaze met hers, giving her the distinct feeling of a deer caught in headlights.

"I was wondering when you guys were going to get back, Dr. Wells told me on the phone that you were running some 'tests'."

"You bet we were." Cisco sounded way too proud of himself.

"So, um, who's she?" Laura knew they were talking about her, since he already seemed to know Caitlin and Cisco pretty well. Still, it did seem a bit off that he wasn't asking her directly. Maybe he was ADD.

"Oh! Barry, this is Laura Sanders. Laura, this is Barry Allen. You too have so much in common. I've had way too much sugar, and I've got some stuff to update, so you kids have fun." And with that, Cisco left to join Caitlin at the array of computer consoles in the middle of the room, leaving Barry and Laura to apparently get to know each other better.

"Nice to meet you. So, you work with Caitlin and Cisco?" He seemed nice enough. Not at all arrogant, just a bit…well, she couldn't really describe what vibe he was giving off. It just wasn't anything she'd ever experienced before. Which meant that he probably wasn't a jerk like most of the men she'd met in her line of work.

On another note: Quick, think of a lie.

"Not really. I've been…I've been on medical leave for about ten months and I haven't yet had the time to get back to work. But, yes, I did work them, before the incident." Laura regretted her choice of words almost immediately, and avoided meeting Barry's gaze as her voice trailed off into silence. Luckily, it was soon broken by him.

"That's too bad. Hey, I'm really sorry, but I've got to ask Caitlin something. It was nice meeting you, though." Barry smiled at her, and Laura smiled back before he took off after Caitlin, who had left the room. Cisco, who was sitting at his desk with his feet up on the table, looked up as Laura approached him, his grin shifting into an expression of concern.

"Everything alright?"

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, everything's fine."

"Okay, cool."

"Cisco, what did you mean Barry and I have so much in common?"

"Oh, that. Barry has super speed."

"WHAT?"

Woohoo! Chapter 4! Hope you guys enjoy this one!