"Okay, so last night I was working on a fabric that wouldn't freeze when you used your powers, and I came up with this."

"You called me here for a jacket? Cisco, do - do you have any idea what time it is?"

Laura was having a hard time keeping her eyes open, or even being civil. At six in the morning, her phone, one of her many possessions which had been replaced since the incident, had rung rather loudly, and the only thing she'd been able to make out of Cisco's caffeine induced babble was that he wanted her at the lab, as soon as possible. Now, just as the sun was starting to rise over Central City, he wheeled out a mannequin wearing a black leather outfit into the main room, and she was starting to wonder just how much caffeine he'd had, as well as the effects of caffeine on sanity. The answer probably wasn't safe for non-Cisco-Ramon humans. Or him.

"Not just any jacket, Laura. It's a special blend of carbon fiber and polymer that should be able to withstand anything from 15 degrees to 24 degrees Fahrenheit. Oh, and it comes with matching pants."

Despite the fog of sleep that still crowded her mind, Laura found it impossible not to get mad at Cisco's unbridled enthusiasm for his project, and held out her arms as he removed the set from the mannequin and handed them over to her. Both the jacket and the pants were a sleek black, and neither were very heavy, but they weren't insubstantial. There was also a pair of black combat boots made of the same stuff Cisco had mentioned, and Laura fought down the urge to ask him how he knew her foot size.

"Oh, I also calculated that the intensity of the light from your ice blasts would eventually cause blindness within three to four years, so I made you these." Cisco held up a pair of goggles with a black rim and a pair of piercing blue lenses. "The filters will keep your eyes safe and protected so you won't get glaucoma in, like, five weeks."

"...wow, Cisco. I can't believe you did all of this."

"Are you going to try it on?"

"Oh, definitely. As soon as you sit down and get some sleep."

"m' fine, really." He answered with a yawn, losing all coherency in a matter of seconds, and Laura smiled knowingly as she guided him towards his desk.

"Alright, Cisco. Just sit tight." Laura patted him on the shoulder as she sat her friend down in his desk chair, propping up a pillow from one of the hospital beds behind his head, and ducked into an alcove to change. The jacket and pants fit comfortably and weren't too big, and the boots were so comfortable she was legitimately considering wearing them with everything. The goggles were a bit tight, but as she soon found out, the strap was adjustable – as were the filters. All in all, Cisco had done a fantastic job. When she changed back into her regular clothes and re-entered the lab, Cisco was snoring loud enough to scare off an entire herd of bears. She carefully folded up the jacket and pants while he slept and put them in her handbag, but decided to keep the boots on. Normally, she would have never worn cargo boots, much less so much black. But they had already grown on her, and she was never one to let such fine engineering go to waste.

"Sleep tight, Cisco." She whispered to him and smiled as his snores grew louder, and she left the room with a spring in her step.


Later that morning, Laura was sitting in Jitters, a coffee shop that she recognized only from the multiple coffee cups decorating Cisco's desk and workspace. The place was a bit too modern for her taste, with its white concrete walls and square everything, but the people at the cash were rather friendly, especially the waitress, Iris, who brought her the muffin and coffee she'd ordered. The copy of Central City Picture News she'd picked up on her way was propped up in her lap when Iris came by, and Laura was so focused on one article that she barely noticed her approach.

"Must be a pretty interesting article. More Coffee"

Mysterious Graffiti May Be Linked to New Gang - she had to admit that the article was indeed riveting, although the fact that Central City's gang activity could be spiking soon was more than a bit unnerving.

"Yeah, thanks. Just trying to catch up on current events; I've...I've been out of town for a while now."

"Well, I'll leave you to it then."

As Iris left, Laura's attention was drawn towards a small article in the back of the newspaper. According to the author, a red streak had been seen saving the civilians of Central City, going so far as to pull people from burning buildings and incapacitate robbers on behalf of the police. There wasn't much to go by in ways of description, but a certain brunette speedster she had recently met came to mind. So, it seemed that Barry was using his powers to fight crime. That was admirable, if she allowed herself to think about it in a positive light. Reckless and potentially life-threatening. But admirable, nonetheless.

When she was finally done with the paper, Laura quickly finished what was left of her muffin, and folded up the newspaper, which she placed in her bag alongside her jacket and pants. However, once she was outside of Jitters, Laura was at a complete loss of what to do. Since S.T.A.R. Labs had been officially closed down, she was officially out of a job and out of anything to keep her occupied, or self-sufficient. As she mentally ran through a list of possible remedies to her situation, she walked for a while, turning down random streets and mulling over her options, and just as she decided it was time to return home, Laura's phone started to ring.

"Hello?"

"Laura?"

"Cisco?"

"Yeah, it's me. Are you okay?"

"Of course, I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Our police scanners just picked up a robbery and hostage situation near you. We were worried you'd been hurt."

"Oh. Wait, how do you know where I am?

"...I haven't been tracking you, if that's what you were about to ask."

Well, didn't his voice go suspiciously high.

"Can't the mysterious red streak handle it?"

"Oh, you've heard. Yeah, he's dealing with some drag racers down by the lake. Do you think you can take care of this guy?"

"What, stop the robbery? Cisco, I can't even do a proper roundhouse kick. What do you expect me to do?"

"Relax, t's just one guy. If you don't go full freeze, it should be enough to stop him."

"…fine. Just give me a minute to change. But we are going to talk when I get back."

Barely two minutes later, Laura was sprinting through the back alleys of downtown Central City, straight towards the bank whose address Cisco had provided her with. Her bag was safely stashed away, but as the police sirens grew louder and louder, she started to sprint faster, a little voice in the back of her head reminding that there was little time to spare in situations such as these. When she finally reached the main street, Laura could just barely see beyond the wall of police cruisers the criminal in question walking out of the bank, a gun pressed to the temple of a woman, who was shaking and most likely in shock.

She heard one of the officers yell over a loudspeaker for the robber to let his hostage go, and the robber turned towards the source of the voice, momentarily distracted. Her hands were shaking, but she stilled them and took her chance.

Laura slipped through the blockade of officers, most of them focused on the problem at hand, their guns all pointed directly at the robber and his hostage. Nobody noticed her until she was almost a quarter of the way to the gunman, when one by one, the officers began to call out to her. The robber spun around, the red of his eyes indicating that he was probably high on something, and Laura's hands flew up, ideally, to protect herself as he pulled the trigger. The gun went off with a shattering bang, and Laura flinched, waiting for the inevitable impact, but she felt nothing at all. Slowly, she opened her eyes, and barely managed to rein in her gasp when she saw what had happened.

A wall of ice, about as tall as herself and just as wide, had apparently risen up out of the ground in front of her. She could quite clearly see the bullet, frozen in the ice like a fly fossilized in amber, and Laura would have given it more thought if she'd had the time. The robber was still silent, his drug-addled brain distracted by the sudden appearance of what must have seemed like a hallucination, and she quickly sidestepped the wall just as he was starting to come back to reality. As he turned towards her, Laura aimed her hand downward, bracing herself as she felt the cold begin to burst forth from her palm.

"Ah, ah, shit!" He screamed as the blast hit his feet and formed a thick layer of ice over them, the pain overriding what little rational thought he had left, and as he howled in pain, the woman broke free and was quickly scooped up by the officers. Laura could only watch, the scream drowning out all other thoughts, as the officers swarmed him, handcuffing him even though he was doubled over in pain and frozen to the concrete, the dictionary definition of useless. Nobody seemed to even notice her as the crowd thickened, and she supposed it was just as well. Just as she was starting to get caught up in the commotion, her hands shaking almost violently, Laura suddenly found herself moving so fast she couldn't even think straight, before she was standing in the middle of S.T.A.R. Labs.

The man who stood before her was dressed in a suit made entirely out of red, a bolt of gold lightning emblazoned on his chest, and a cowl that hid his face but not his eyes nor his lower jaw, which made it fairly easy to recognize him immediately.

"Barry?"

"Are you okay?" He asked her insistently, as Cisco and Caitlin appeared, apparently out of thin air, and led her towards a bed set up at the far end of the room.

"Yeah, just a little nauseous, but I'll be fine. Cisco, any chance we could have a talk? In private?" He froze on the spot, suddenly looked like a deer caught in headlights, but he let her lead him towards the hallway at any rate.

"Okay, you've been tracking me. Why?" Laura didn't want to sound angry towards really anybody at the moment, especially towards Cisco, but the adrenaline in her system was pretty high and her voice came out sharper than she would have liked.

"I-it was just in case something happened to you, so I would know where you were. I mean, it helped, didn't it? God, I'm so sorry." He suddenly very sounded tired and very ashamed of himself, and as she looked at him, Laura felt her anger quickly leave her. Cisco had been looking out for her - he had spent ten months watching over her, probably wondering whether she was going to wake up or spend the rest of her life as a vegetable. He hadn't meant any harm, he never did. That's what made him Cisco. He probably hadn't even had a decent amount of sleep this week. Now, she was the one who felt ashamed, and rightly so.

"Come here." Cisco looked confused for a moment, until Laura opened her arms wide, and he stepped forward until his head was resting on her shoulder. When they finally pulled apart, he looked a lot more like himself again. "Cisco, you don't have to apologize, not about this. Just...just tell me the next time, okay?"

Cisco nodded and cracked a smile at her – Laura was infinitely glad to see the familiar Cisco spark in his eyes returned – and she followed him back to the main room, where Barry and Caitlin were waiting in silence.

"So, you saved a life today. How does it feel?" Barry asked her as she approached him, and Laura took a moment to think. Everything was still so hectic inside of her head, it was hard to tell whether it had all been a dream or whether she had actually frozen a man's feet to the ground.

"Good, I guess. I never thought I'd see the day where I had to take down a robber, but apparently that day has come."

"Yeah, I mean, I used to catch criminals with the police, but that was just from my lab. You did really good out there today, Laura."

"Indeed; excellent work out there today, Dr. Sanders." All four of them turned to face Dr. Wells as he entered the room, and Laura was pleasantly surprised by the small smile on his face, despite the wary look in his eyes. "I must admit, for your first time in the field, you did exceptionally. Perhaps you would consider joining our little team?"

"Team?"

Cisco butted in before anyone else could explain. "A lot of people have been affected by the particle accelerator, and the police aren't able to deal with them. And even with the streak around, the city still needs help. Barry's been going out in the suit for a few months now. You could join us; work with us. If you want to, I mean."

The room went silent. Laura couldn't find any words to express the turmoil of emotions she was experiencing. Barely ten minutes ago, she had taken down a criminal and saved a person's life. The image of the robber howling in pain was still burned fresh in her mind. She knew that she should probably respond, but she wasn't entirely that what would come out make sense. So, she remained silent. After a while, Dr. Wells spoke for her.

"Caitlin, Cisco, Barry; could we have a moment alone?"

"Of course, Dr. Wells."

Laura let Dr. Wells lead her out of the room, as Barry, Caitlin and Cisco started to talk about the robbery. He was silent as he continued throughout the hallways of his formerly prosperous research center, and Laura had the vague sense that she was trespassing into a sensitive area. When they finally exited the maze of doorways and halls, Laura recognized where they were. The walkway she and Dr. Wells were travelling along had once overlooked the viewing section of the particle accelerator, the one place in the entire building deemed safe enough to show to the public. Now, below them, Laura could only see twisted, charred metal that looked nothing like what it had once been, only a grotesque mockery of the lives it had taken.

"Laura, I have done many, many questionable things in my life. Seventeen people died the night of the particle accelerator explosion, all because I was too blind to see that it wasn't ready. I thought I would spend the rest of my days in a wheelchair, condemned by the world to suffer for everything I did. But then Mr. Allen woke up. And I realized that the explosion didn't just destroy lives, that it made something good. It made him. And it made you, Laura. I know that this must sound so strange to you, but I believe that there is a reason you survived the explosion. I believe that you can do so much good for this world, Laura, and if you don't want to, none of us will push you. But I don't think someone like you would ever pass up the chance to save lives. And you know it too."

Laura mulled over his words as they stood there in silence, and after a long time, she knew exactly what she needed to say.

"A lot of things have changed. Just yesterday I learned that my DNA has been spliced with an extinct species of bacteria. I can freeze things just by touching them, and literally blast cold from my hands. My life won't ever be normal again, not by a long shot, and my life's work is now a part of me. But, my life isn't over just yet; I can still do something. Honestly, it's not my first option, but I wouldn't be able to live knowing that I could have done something, that I could have saved someone's life, if I just stood by and watched."

"Is that your answer?"

"I think so."

"Very well. I suppose I should tell Cisco that you're going to need a nickname."

"Nickname?"

"It's his newest hobby."


"Icicle."

"No."

"Absolute Zero."

"Catchy, but it's a bit long."

"That's why I said Icicle!"

"And I already said no. Moving on."

Laura could not be more frustrated. She and Cisco were sitting across from each other at a table in Jitters, a pile of crumpled papers growing between them as Cisco scrapped sheet after sheet from a small notepad he'd brought along with him. The number of names for a hero with ice powers was getting a bit ridiculous, and some of them were already taken, most of them by crazies in other cities that had shown up during her coma. Still, each and every one of the names Cisco had proposed so far irked Laura somehow.

"Alright…how about Killer Frost?"

"Really? Killer Frost? That's the name I'm going to use when I save people? They'll run away screaming, Cisco."

"This is harder than I thought. I mean, Captain Cold, the Mist, those were easy – they just came to me. But you, there are so many different things to think about. And you actually have input in this."

Laura just chuckled as Cisco gathered up the balls of paper and made his way over the garbage to throw them out, just as Barry slipped inside, five minutes late. It was a bit of any oxymoron that the fastest man alive could be late for anything, but it did provide many great opportunities to joke about it at his expense. She waved him over, and he sat down just as Cisco returned, already completely immersed in his brainstorming.

"So, I guess the name game's stumping Cisco, huh?"

"Yeah. Apparently, people with ice powers are a lot harder to name than a guy who can turn himself into mist. At least it's fun to watch."

Barry and Laura chuckled softly, watching Cisco with amused smiles as he sat down, muttering to himself in Spanish, and looked up as their waitress came over. Laura recognized her – Iris – from that morning, but she was mildly surprised to see that Iris was focused intently on Barry, as was he.

"Hey, Barry. You going to introduce me to your new friend?"

"Oh right. Iris, this is Laura Sanders. Laura, this is Iris West."

"We've met." Barry suddenly looked less happy to see Iris and a bit more confused, looking between the two women, and Laura butted in before he stopped talking for too long. "I met Iris this morning. I thought I'd try Jitters out, since Cisco seems to like it so much."

"Right. That makes sense."

"So, wait, Laura, how do you know Barry?" They both froze for a split second, possible explanations that were the farthest thing from the truth running through both of their minds. In the end, it was Laura who spoke first.

"I actually used to work at S.T.A.R. Labs with Cisco and Caitlin. But…um…when the incident happened, I had to take some time off. I just got back a few days ago."

"Ten months off work? How did you survive?"

"It - it honestly defies explanation."

"Okay, well, it was nice to see you again, Laura. Bye, Barry."

As Iris left to go serve some other late-night customers, Laura turned to Barry, only to see him watching the other woman intently. There was a lost, longing look in his eyes, something akin to desperation and deprivation, and Laura was itching to figure out what was bothering him, so she decided to take the direct approach.

"So, what's the deal with you and Iris? How do you guys know each other?" Barry's head whipped around so fast Laura almost got whiplash herself, and she suppressed a chuckle at the wide-eyed expression that was starting to become familiar.

"Um, well, Iris is my adoptive sister. Her dad, Joe, was the one who adopted me after my...after my mom died." As he faltered, Barry's eyes dropped to the table, and the smile that had been working its way up on to her face suddenly faded, and Laura couldn't help but feel a bit ashamed that she had been laughing at him. She knew the ache of losing a mother, of losing a parent in general, and she wished that she had the nerve to comfort him, but her memories of the night she'd lost own mother were starting to grow in strength.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything. Cisco, you come up with a name for Laura yet?" Laura was surprised by how well Barry threw off the sadness she had just witnessed, even though he stumbled a bit over his words as he tried to return to their previous conversation, and she wondered briefly as they both turned to Cisco how many times he'd had to put himself through something like that. It saddened her, and even though she wouldn't be able to say it out loud, Laura empathized with Barry; far too many times had she had to do the same thing to avoid breaking down.

"What? No, no, not yet. Actually, there is one name we haven't tried yet. It's a bit out there, but I think it could work."

"Okay. Hit me."

"…Frostbite."

Frostbite. Laura couldn't even begin to voice how much it she liked it. Something about it just seemed right – it rolled of the tongue, and it didn't make her sound like a complete psycho with a fetish for ice cubes.

"Frostbite and the Flash. I like your style, Cisco. I'll take it."

"Well, I guess it's settled then. Welcome to the team, Frostbite."

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