"He's late, isn't he?"

"I'm so sorry, Detective. He was supposed to be here ten minutes ago, but he hasn't been answering his phone."

Laura was completely flustered trying to keep up with Joe's pace as he made his way through the crowded bullpen. He had called her a few nights ago, informing her that she would now be working with Barry on the day shift, but the day she arrived, it turned out that the speedster was running late. It was astounding that a man with the ability to break the sonic barrier could be late at all, and judging by Joe's grumbling, he felt the same way too. Apparently, Barry had a habit of showing up late to work, and the snickers from the scattering of officers throughout the room only strengthened that impression.

"I swear, if we weren't so short-staffed, he would have been fired years ago."

"Good to know, sir."

"Listen, you know where the lab is, so you can wait for Barry upstairs. If you need anything, give me a call. And when he arrives, tell him to run for his life."

"I'll get right on that."

So, the detective had a sense of humour. Which was good. Or he was being completely and utterly serious. Which was bad. Either way, at least Laura had something to do now either than wait around for Barry to show up, and she clutched at her briefcase as she made her way towards the elevator. When she had been working at S.T.A.R. Labs, it had been quiet. Everyone had their own workspace, and in many ways, it was a lot more cerebral and less rushed. But with the CCPD, Laura could already tell she was going to be working in a rather aggravating environment. The criminals wouldn't wait for her to discover their identity, and neither would the officers and detectives trying to keep them off the streets. There was no time to take a break or wait for the answer to present itself.

She had to admit, she kind of liked it.

Once she reached the lab, however, Laura was surprised to see someone else up there. Someone who was most definitely not Barry.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah, actually, I'm looking for Barry?"

The man, a detective if his badge was anything to go by, was about her height. He wore a cleaned and pressed suit, which was a stark difference from Barry's occasionally rumpled sweater vests, and the blue in his eyes reminded her of the ocean on a tropical beach. The blond hair was natural - too dark to be bleached - and the grizzle on his chin told her that he hadn't had time to shave. Which was fine. She was pretty sure she hadn't even looked in a mirror since leaving the apartment that morning.

"I'm sorry, Barry's not here. But maybe I can help you?"

It was a few moments before recognition finally dawned in his eyes.

"Oh, you must be the new CSI. Laura Sanders, right?"

"Yes. And you are…?"

"Eddie Thawne. Joe West's partner. I just came up to see if Barry was done with a set of fingerprints from our latest case."

"Well, let's see what I can do." Laura gestured for Eddie to follow her towards the computers set up in the corner of the lab. Luckily, Barry was still logged into the system, so there was no password to wrack her brain for, and Laura quickly brought up the IAFIS. "What fingerprints were Barry supposed to identify?"

"A robbery from two days. It should be in the database by now. So, Sanders, what brings you to the CCPD?"

"Well, I used to work at S.T.A.R. Labs, but after the explosion I couldn't really return to my old job. Barry was the one who put in a word for me with Joe." Laura could see Eddie nod out the corner of her eye as she searched through the multiple fingerprints Barry had put in during his years as a CSI, eventually finding one marked from a few days earlier. Once Eddie confirmed it, Laura put it through the database and sat back in the chair, feeling a bit less strung out. Suddenly, the elevator dinged, and Eddie and Laura were momentarily distracted as Barry stepped out, looking out of breath and more than just a tad flustered. He took a few steps inside before he saw them both staring at him, and Laura couldn't hide the grin spreading over her face.

"Welcome to the party, Barry."

"Eddie! Laura! You've met! I'm so sorry I'm late. I slept through my alarm again."

"Yeah, tell that excuse to the Captain. Again. Anyway, nice to meet you, Laura. See you later, Barry." Eddie smiled at Laura as he sidled his way past Barry, shooting the slighter man a raise of his eyebrows before getting in the elevator.

"Oh, you've already worked out the IAFIS. That's a good start, but the captain wants you to go through this," Barry grunted as he removed a manual as thick as four fingers, which weighed probably as much as a bowling ball, from his satchel, "just in case. You're already cleared to go out in the field but I would honestly recommend going through it at least twice. And using highlighters."

"Barry, how do you think I got my Ph.D.?"

"Right, right. Just go through it when you have the chance. The powers that be like to know that anyone working for them is at least 100% and above competent."

"That reminds me, Detective West told me that you'll want to run for your life the next time you see him."

"Relax. He's kidding."

"Whatever you say, but he does have a gun, and I heard you heal fast."

"Shut up."


"Hey, Barry?"

"Yeah?"

"This - I think there's something wrong with this report."

The whirring of the centrifuge carried on as Barry left his workstation and made his way over to Laura, who had been poring over one of the case reports that had made it over to her pile. They'd been working on reports the entire day, the sky over the city growing dimmer in the past few hours, and Laura had already been down to the bullpen a few times to hand off the case files to Joe, but the one she was currently working on had been on her table was stumping her.

"What do you mean?"

"The burns on this guy are supposed to have been made by hydrochloric acid, the one that his wife bought a few days before, but if you look at the composition of these samples you took, it's all organic." Laura leant to the side as Barry tried to get a better look at the files, though he eventually settled for picking it up to pore over it.

"Huh, that is weird. Is there a chance it could be homemade?"

"Well, I highly doubt a CEO's wife, no matter how accomplished, could find a way to do this. The closer I look at it, however, the more it seems like it's biological."

"Did you run it?"

"Yeah. Went over it twice and then a third time; no matches. It's weird, though, because there is a high concentration level of epibatidine, found in poison dart frogs, but there's also a large amount of human DNA."

As soon as Laura finished speaking, both she and Barry knew exactly what they were dealing with. But only one thing would prove it. With speed barely comparable to Barry's but remarkable for a human, Laura grabbed the evidence box from the floor beside her and pulled out the many pictures Barry had taken at the crime scene. Her stomach churned a bit at the sight of the victim's ruined features, but she rummaged through them until she found the right one. It showed the dead man's shoulder, the veins of blood underneath his pale skin showing just the barest tint of green, but Laura's mind was already working overtime to distinguish the faint bruising pattern that the police had missed.

"You see it?"

"Yeah."

A handprint. A human handprint.


"High levels of epibatidine from the Epipedobates anthonyi with baseline human DNA. Fascinating. It would appear that there is another hybrid metahuman out there, Dr. Sanders. Except this one appears to have DNA spliced with that of a certain species of poison dart frog. Anthony's poison dart frog, to be exact."

"That is awesome. What do you think should I call him?" Laura suppressed the urge to flick Cisco in the forehead before she finally turned to face Dr. Wells, his eyes glued to the screens at the consoles the entire time. As soon as they had reached the conclusion that it was a metahuman, Barry had immediately run both of them to S.T.A.R. Labs, where Cisco and Caitlin were still running tests on the samples of the poison they'd brought with them, tests which had only further confirmed their suspicions.

"Cisco, focus on the fact that he can kill a person just by touching them and that he's on the loose."

"Right. Sorry."

"How are we going to locate him? We don't even know his name."

"But we can find out. Anthony's poison arrow frogs aren't very popular in North America, but we do have several exotic pet stores in Central City, and this one offers a backdoor special on this particular species." Cisco sounded smug as he typed like crazy before the screen was alit with the owner's information.

"John Dawson. He went to the same high school as the victim, and they were in the same graduating class. A guy like that with a disturbing fetish for reptiles and a high-powered executive like in the same high school class? Sounds like a case of a bullying victim out for revenge." Cisco was right. The man on the screen was thin, almost too thin, with a scraggly mop of black hair. In high school, he definitely would have been bullied for even being in the same room as the popular kids, or even breathing, as some of the jocks at her schools had been known to do. Though whatever had happened to him must have harsh enough for him to even think about killing his former classmate.

"Maybe after he found out what he could do, he decided to use it."

"Despite his lack of criminal history, he's still a threat. But you two should refrain from going after him until we can synthesize an antidote. This poison is extremely dangerous and fast-acting, and I'm not sure even your speed will get it out in time, Mr. Allen."

"Alright, whatever you need."

Ten minutes later, they were racing through the city to John Dawson's exotic pet store in the suburbs, two pairs of antidote tucked safely away inside of Barry's jacket as she clung to him. It was dark outside, making it a tad easier to remain inconspicuous, though Barry still did set off possibly hundreds of car alarms on the way there. When Barry finally came to a stop, Laura almost had to do a double take. The store itself was barely distinguishable from the other abandoned store fronts on the block, except that its sign was still hanging on to its frame and there was a small glow that could be seen through the mottled windows. However, before Laura could do anything, Barry had already flung open the door and zoomed his way inside. There was a loud shattering a few seconds later and Laura rushed in after him, the sight before her freezing her in her tracks.

Barry was lying on the floor, choked gasps leaving him as he strained to breathe, and standing over him was John Dawson, his eyes roiling with anger and his face set with rage. One of his hands seemed to be dripping with what Laura could only assume to be the poison, which had a green tint in the darkness, that had killed his most recent victim and was now quickly taking a hold of Barry.

"You - you aren't supposed to be here."

"You killed a man, John. Nobody's going to let you walk away from that."

"He deserved what he got. I'm just the one decided to pull the trigger first. Now get out of my way, or you'll end up like your friend here." Barry's breaths were starting to get shallower, and without taking her eyes off of John, Laura could see that his body was starting to spasm violently. The poison had already started to work, and without the antidote, he was going to be in a heap of trouble.

"John, listen to me. You don't have to do this. Just let me help him." Suddenly, John's face twisted, and Laura barely had the time to cry out before he was slamming her up against the window, one of his hands gripping her jaw. Laura could smell the poison secreting from his hands, acrid and noxious, and she struggled as hard as she could, but there was nothing she could really do against him at that point. Her skin stung where he grabbed at it, and when he finally let her go, it was already starting to burn to the point of becoming numb. She collapsed to the floor, her limbs suddenly heavy with the poison flooding her body, and as John stepped over her, disappearing out of her line of sight, Laura dimly noticed through the suffocating haze of pain that Barry had stopped moving.

The antidote. She still had it. If only she could get it before Dawson came back – if he came back. Laura gritted her teeth as she tried to move her arms, barely registering the worried shouts of Cisco and Caitlin in her ears, and felt a small spark of triumph as her arms started to listen to her brain. The world was starting to grow darker with every second, and Laura wondered if she would make it in time as her hand finally closed around one of the vials. The cap fell to the ground as she fumbled with it, and Laura didn't have time to think about how big the needle was before she plunged it into the outside of her thigh.

For several long seconds, filled only by her own shallow breathing and the stinging in her leg, Laura did not feel a difference. If anything, the world was growing darker even more quickly than before, and it was getting much harder to breathe, every breath sapping away her energy. Just as her eyes slipped closed, however, Laura felt a painful stutter in her chest, almost as if her heart had been restarted, and she curled in on herself as a coughing fit wracked her body. Dawson hadn't returned yet, which meant that he'd probably run for it, but Barry was still lying where the poisonous metahuman had left him, his chest still and his eyes closed. Ignoring the urge to collapse, Laura dragged herself over to Barry, her limbs still weak but the fog clearing away a bit at a time, and pulled out the second syringe. However, just as she was about to plunge it into him, Laura stopped.

"Caitlin?"

"Oh, Laura, thank God. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, but Barry isn't breathing. Will the antidote work?"

"How long has it been?"

"I can't be sure...two, maybe three minutes."

"Okay, you should be fine. Just remember-"

"Leg, not the heart. Got it"

The needle plunged through Barry's suit and into the outside of his leg without any trouble, and Laura watched, her heart beating rapidly, as Barry continued to lie still on the floor of the shop. She wondered if she had been too late, and she couldn't help but wander to the worst-case scenario as she waited for him to breathe. Which happened quite suddenly, Barry convulsing wildly as he sucked in breath after breath before breaking out into a coughing fit, the pale green of his face slowly making way for bright red. Laura held up his head with one hand, making sure he didn't hit it in his thrashing, and couldn't help a weak grin when he finally met her eyes, dazed and pained, before his body went limp. For a while, the only sound filling the room was their ragged breathing, before Barry turned his head to look at her.

"That was exciting."

The absolute nerve of it all, to make a joke after nearly dying, was too much, and Laura collapsed onto the floor as she burst into a fit of laughter. Hysterical and weak, yes, but laughter nonetheless. Barry managed a weak laugh too, and flopped on to his side to begin another round of violent coughing. When he finally faced her again, he was smiling, and Laura found herself simply overwhelmed with relief that she'd made it in time.

They were alive. They'd made it.

"Hey - hey, Barry?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's never do that again."

"...okay."

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