"WHAT?"

Laura's voice echoed throughout the control room without any difficulty, and she was momentarily distracted from the incredibly important information Cisco had just presented her with as Caitlin and Barry rushed back into the room. "Cisco, what did you do?"

"Well, well, I just might have toldherBarry'ssecret." His voice reached an impressively high pitch he finished the end of his sentence, and Laura felt herself start as the confused expression on Caitlin's morphed into one of furious indignation.

"Cisco! We talked about this! We were going to tell her when Barry was ready! He's not ready!" Caitlin looked absolutely furious as she stalked over to Laura and Cisco, and Laura was almost tempted to take a few steps to protect herself from Caitlin's infamous wrath. Barry, however, remained silent at the doorway, his eyes comically wide and glancing back and forth between her and Cisco too quickly.

"I know, I know, but she asked and it just came out. But, hey, now that she knows, she can tell Barry her secret now, right?"

It didn't really work.

As Caitlin and Cisco continued to argue loud enough to bring the entire building down, Laura quietly slipped away from the two of them to join Barry, who looked like he was going to bolt at any moment. For a while, without looking at or speaking a word to each other, they watched Caitlin and Cisco argue so badly that eventually they unanimously decided to shuffle backwards out of the room. As the arguing died down the farther they got away, Laura turned to Barry, fighting for the right words to say in a situation that she had never expected to be in.

"So – Cisco told me that you have super speed."

Barry stopped so suddenly that he very nearly face-planted on the floor. It was lucky that he didn't, judging by how hard the concrete felt underneath her borrowed sneakers, and she turned back to check on him.

"Super-super speed? That's ridiculous, completely ridiculous, why, why would he say that?" Barry was suddenly talking faster than Laura could comprehend, and as he continued to ramble on and on to himself, Laura stepped a bit closer towards him. She avoided reaching out to him because at that second, he looked as if he were going to go into a full-blown panic attack.

"Hey, Barry, relax. I'm a metahuman too. I think."

"Wait - really?"

"Well, I'm not entirely sure what I'd call myself, I just found out this morning that I'm not so normal either. Really not normal, actually. But, hey, I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

Slowly, Barry looked up, and she could see the gears in his head starting to turn, slowly but surely. Laura couldn't stop a grin from working its way on to her face as she watched. Maybe being a 'metahuman' wouldn't be so bad after all.


"Are you sure about this?"

"Positive."

Laura was practically brimming with nervous energy as she and Barry entered the abandoned warehouse that S.T.A.R. Labs had used to store some of their outdated or incoming equipment in, only a few miles away from the official building. Now, it was empty, with nothing a few wooden pallets scattered around to keep the mice company. The electricity had apparently been cut off, but there was enough light shining in through the windows that both Laura and Barry could see where they were going. Barry looked a bit nervous, possibly about showing a complete stranger whatever the accelerator had done to him, but Laura could not care less. The thought of the adrenaline rush from earlier that day made it all the more exciting.

"Okay, you first." Barry nodded and stepped back a bit. Laura watched as he bounced up and down on the balls of his feet for a few seconds, building up into a light jog, and she was just about to ask him what was wrong when he suddenly disappeared in a flash of yellow lightning. The resulting wind nearly blew her off her feet, sending her hair flying in multiple different directions, and almost a second later, he returned, his face lit up with what could only be described pure, unadulterated joy. For a moment, she was speechless; she was also pretty sure that her brain had stopped functioning. Cisco wasn't wrong when he said Barry had super speed.

"...holy crap."

"Now, come on, I want to see you. I mean I want to see your abilities."

Laura had to stop for a moment to think. "What else would you mean?"

"Nothing – just go ahead."

Laura smirked at the embarrassed tone in his voice, and faced the wall farthest from her as she focused on the cool air that filled the warehouse. Suddenly, the temperature around her started to drop, and Laura caught her breath turning into mist over the bridge of her nose. With as much energy as she could muster, she directed her hand towards the far wall of the warehouse. The beam of frigid energy that burst from her hand was much more powerful than the one at the ice rink, and Barry stumbled back with a yelp as it flew past him. Laura reigned it in as a wave of dizziness overtook her, but the blast continued until it hit its target, covering most of the wall in a thick layer of clear ice.

"Whoa." Barry breathed, sounding more than a little bit awed, but as Laura started to sway on her feet, he zoomed over to her and held her upright. Her vision flickered in and out a few times, but after several moments, the feeling passed and she was able to stand on her own again.

"I guess I'm still a little new at this."

"Tell me about it. I passed out my second day out of my coma and fell off of Cisco's treadmill. Packing peanuts everywhere." Laura couldn't stop herself from chuckling at the thought, and Barry laughed breathlessly, probably still a little bit giddy himself.

"So…do you think they've stopped fighting yet?"

"They'd better be, or I'm going to lock them in a room and make them work it out."


"So, the radiation from the explosion irradiated the clouds above the lab the night of the incident, creating a thunderstorm which created a lightning bolt that struck you at the same time you were doused in chemicals, which somehow accelerated all of your bodily functions and now allows you to run over three hundred miles per hour?"

"Yup. Your turn."

"Well, I was working on discovering a new type of microorganism when the explosion went off, and the DNA of that organism is now actually fused with my own DNA, making me a weird genetic hybrid that can freeze things from afar and apparently maintain a sub-zero internal temperature without my blood freezing in my veins."

"…okay, you win."

Laura smirked to herself as she and Barry lounged in the office chairs they'd temporarily borrowed from Cisco and Caitlin's desks. They'd returned to the lab almost an hour ago, and somehow, Cisco and Caitlin had still managed to keep their fight going for what was now bordering on a world record. It was starting to get a bit annoying, but then Barry had produced Cisco's special stash of Twizzlers and they were now watching the fight, which had moved into one of the side rooms, eating the candy as if the second-largest fight her colleagues had ever had were a movie.

"Hey, Laura?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we should break them up? I have a family dinner in like, thirty minutes."

"…aw, and miss the big finale?"

She heard Barry chuckle behind her as she stood up, and she briefly considered freezing him to the chair as she walked over to the room. Caitlin and Cisco were so deep in their argument that they didn't notice Laura opening the door.

"Guys-guys! It's been almost an hour. I told Barry, Barry told me. So, please, can we wrap this up already?" She didn't mean to sound so sharp, but it did the trick. Caitlin and Cisco froze, cheeks flushed in embarrassment and shock; a minute passed before they took turns mumbling apologies to each other, and she gestured for them to exit the room, which they did begrudgingly. As they did so, Barry stood up and brushed any stray crumbs of candy off his lap.

"Well, I've got to get going. It was great getting to know you, Laura."

"You too, Barry." was all Laura managed to get out before he disappeared in a streak of yellow lightning, and her words were lost in the blast of wind that followed. When the wind finally died down, Laura turned to Caitlin and Cisco, who seemed a bit less on edge than they did before, which was completely fine by her

"So. Metahumans, huh?"


Several hours later, Laura wandered into her apartment. Just like Dr. Wells had promised, nothing appeared to be out of place, although Laura's memory was a bit fuzzy considering the circumstances. The only thing that was new, as far as she could tell, was a fresh bowl of fruit on the kitchen counter and a stack of mail that towered by the door; apparently, Caitlin and Cisco had visited the place weekly while she was unconscious. With a sigh, she dragged herself towards the bedroom, also unchanged, and groggily changed for bed, relishing in the familiar feeling of her favourite pyjamas settling around her. Using her new powers all day had surprisingly drained her to the point of becoming comatose again, and she made a mental reminder that using them took an enormous physical toll on her.

As she settled into bed, Laura's mind drifted to how much her life had changed in the course of a day. Before the explosion, she had been making breakthroughs in the world of microbiology that might have won her a Nobel Prize, if she was being idealistic. Now, she was living a life that was straight out of the pages of a good - or terrible - science fiction novel, and looking at herself, she was taking it rather calmly. Then again, she'd never really been the type of person to have a breakdown. At least, not for a while.

But as she drifted off into sleep, the only thought on Laura's mind was that, overall, despite all the craziness she had encountered in the last 24 hours, it had been a pretty good day.

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