Disclaimer: I own nothing Flash related. Absolutely nothing.
"And four plus seven is…?"
"Um… eleven!" Ella said proudly. I smiled at the seven year old and nodded.
"Exactly. Good job! Alright, what's the next one?" Looking over her shoulder at her homework, I scanned the amount of problems she had next. But before we could move on, a shout from downstairs alerted us that our parents were home.
"Katie! Ella! We're home! Could you both come downstairs please?" My heart instantly filled with dread at my dad's nickname for me that he used.
Walking towards the door, I yelled back. "Coming!" and turned to grab Ella's hand.
Ella stopped me before we could go downstairs though. "What do you think Mommy and Daddy want? He called you Katie, so it must be bad." I stared in shock at my sister. I almost couldn't believe that she picked up on the same cue that I did. But she always was a bright one, so it wasn't really surprising at all.
I knelt to my sister's level and looked her in the eye, "Hey, it's probably nothing. Don't worry, okay?" She nodded and I exhaled in relief. We both quickly ran downstairs, Ella beating me to hug Mom and Dad.
"Daddy!" Ella squealed, running and jumping into his arms. He of course picked her up and squeezed her tight, kissing her forehead affectionately.
"How is my Ella-bug?" My heart was already in my stomach, but it seemed to drop to the floor at those words. He hadn't used that nickname for Ella since she was five.
That's when I knew the conversation we were going to have was definitely not a good one.
I turned to Mom and hugged her, my face resting in her vibrant red hair that mine resembled so much. Everyone said that I was practically the spitting image of her— same sharp cheekbones, sloped nose, red hair, and brown eyes. But her hair practically tumbled in waves down her back, while I naturally had my dad's texture— curls galore.
"We need to have a family meeting. Let's talk in the living room." I let go of my mother and looked at her, her eyes were practically glazed over. This wasn't like her at all.
We all went into the living room and sat in various spots. Mom and Dad sat on the loveseat, while Ella and I sat across from them on our couch.
Our parents looked at each other and seemed to have a silent conversation with each other before looking at each other.
"Okay girls, we may have lied when we said that we were going grocery shopping today." Dad started off.
"I figured as much, since you didn't have any bags with you when you came home." I quipped lightly, trying to lighten the mood for the inevitable blow that would come sooner or later. However the room stayed somber.
"We went to see a doctor today."
Ella instantly gasped, "Are we getting a brother? Or sister? I've always wanted a brother. I mean, I like Kate plenty, but a little brother would be cool too."
Mom and Dad looked shocked at Ella's outburst. Dad smiled sadly, while Mom looked about ready to burst into tears at the innocent question from their youngest child.
"No baby, we're not having another kid. I'm sorry." Mom's voice cracked as she let Ella down gently.
"Oh." Ella looked a little downtrodden at the news.
"Your mother… Your mom is… Mom is sick, kids." Dad seemed to struggle to get the words out. He looked like he was about to burst at the seams.
I froze at my dad's words. "Sick? Sick how?"
Mom breathed out slowly, before seemingly composing herself and answering my question.
"I have stage two breast cancer."
Cancer.
The word bounced around in my head for what seemed to be years. I hadn't moved an inch, I didn't breathe. My world had stopped.
Of all the things in the universe to plague our family, cancer wasn't expected to be on the list. It was like someone had cursed us.
"—I know this is going to be hard for your mother and for all of us. We just have to stick together."
Suddenly, I snapped out of it. "We're gonna fight this, right? There's something we can do about this, there has to be."
My parent's head turned to me. "Of course we're gonna fight this. Your mother starts chemotherapy treatment in a couple of weeks."
I nodded, "What else can we do? I did a project on breast cancer for my biology class. I know there's the option of a mastectomy or—"
"Katie, even with your mother's income and mine combined, we wouldn't be able to afford the surgery. Which is why we're going with the chemo." I nodded in understanding, not wanting to make this more difficult by complaining or whining. "This also means that we're gonna have to make some changes around here in order to pay the hospital bills."
"What kind of changes?" Ella asked, having been quiet up to this point.
"Well, we're gonna have to cut back on spending for things that we don't really need. We might have to sell some of our things as well. And Katie, I know that you're almost done with your freshman year of high school, we don't want to ask too much of you, but—"
"As soon as the school year's over, I'll find a job." I assured my parents, wanting to help in any way that I could.
"No, no, you can keep whatever percentage of your wages that you want. John, this is too much to ask of her." My mom protested, but I stayed firm in my claims.
"No, Mom. I'll do whatever I can to help. 75% of my paycheck will go towards your treatment. And I'll sell some of my clothes that don't fit anymore, and my old toys as well." My back was almost pin straight as I wanted to be taken seriously.
"Yeah, I don't even want some of my Barbies anymore. We're here for you, Momma." Ella backed me up, adding a childish sort of humor to the room's atmosphere, loosening everyone up instantly.
My mom chuckled as tears ran down her cheeks, opening her arms for a hug. Ella and I ran towards our parents, making a large family hug on our loveseat.
"We're gonna get through this." I said, and Mom's arms seemed to tighten around us even more at my statement.
"Yes we are, baby. Yes, we are."
My eyes opened slowly to the sound of beeps of a familiar EKG. That particular memory was a bittersweet one. Bitter because it was the start of a long, hard battle for my mother, but sweet because it brought our family closer together. The pain from that memory slowly faded as I became more aware of my surroundings. I started moving my fingers, only to feel something restricting my right hand. Looking over, I spotted a familiar mop of brown hair lying face down on the side of my bed, hand clutching mine for dear life.
"Hey, Barry. Bar—" As I tried to wake up my best friend, I started coughing frantically as my mouth and throat felt like the Sahara Desert. But it seems like my effort to wake Barry up weren't in vain, as he sprang up at the sound of my coughing and shifted to look me in the eye.
"Hey, Kate, I'm here. What do you need? What's wrong?"
I would've almost melted at his adorable rambling, but I felt like I had a dust storm in my chest, so I restrained myself. As I finally stopped coughing and managed to find a moment to breathe properly, I wheezed out one word.
"Water."
Barry's eyes widened as he smacked himself in the forehead. "Right! Barry, you idiot…" I felt a burst of wind on my face as he sped off and back, handing me a glass with nothing but a few drops of water on the inside.
Taking the glass and holding it up to his eye level, Barry's head looked behind him and back at me, where he smiled sheepishly before taking the glass from me. "Whoops." I took a peek around his form, where I saw a trail of water on the floor lined up in the direction that Barry came in.
"Maybe you'd be better bringing water to me at a human speed." I cringed at the sound of my voice, as it sounded like I had gravel stuck in my vocal cords.
"Yeah, probably…" Barry jogged off, but not before slipping on a bit of the water he spilled. He quickly caught himself and continued off, as I gave a dry giggle.
This time, Barry didn't come back alone. Caitlin followed behind him, touch pad and file in hand. Handing me my glass of water, I almost gulped it down until Caitlin advised me not to.
"Sips, Kate, sips. Don't gulp it down or you'll feel sick."
So I restrained myself from downing the entire contents of the glass and took small sips. My body started to cool down and I sighed at the content feeling my throat and mouth got from the water.
"Vital signs are normal, heart rate is back to normal… So is your blood pressure. It was almost scarily low when Barry first brought you in. This…gas-man… almost killed you. Luckily the elevator door opened just in time." Caitlin continued to tap various meters on her touch pad and the pad on the wall next to the EKG.
"We're just glad you're okay. You had us really scared there for a while." Barry piped up.
"I feel fine now, I promise." He seemed hesitant with my affirmation, but nodded in acceptance. "So, what'd I miss?"
"Not that much. Barry zoomed in with you in his arms, screaming for help. Then after you passed out, he got pissed at the meta, ran after him, came back with some of the gas in his lungs and a bit of blood on his face; and at that point we stuck him in another hospital bed and stabbed him in the chest with a giant needle. I also named him The Mist—that's his name, end of story." Cisco's words were practically mushed together as he walked in the room, lollipop hanging from his mouth. But I managed to get the gist of what he said.
"What?! You went after him?" I practically screeched.
Barry's shoulders slumped as he groaned, "Dude…" He gave Cisco a disbelieving look. Cisco's mouth formed an o shape as he seemed to recall something.
"Oh… right… We were supposed to keep all the details on the DL. Whoops haha." Cisco cringed before moving to help Caitlin with one of the machines I was still hooked up to.
"Barry, why would you risk yourself like that? Was it just to get a sample?" Barry stuttered trying to answer, but I didn't give him a chance to fully respond as I kept babbling. "You could've gotten some from me, you know. I was unconscious, a big needle wouldn't have been so bad. I just don't think—"
"I couldn't help it!" Barry finally exploded, stopping my rant entirely. After a beat of silence, he exhaled and continued in a more level voice. "He just made me so angry! Attacking you like that… I almost thought that I had lost you. Again." I tilted my head in understanding of my best friend's worry. "Seeing you fall out of that elevator door, I thought you were gone for sure."
"Nah. It's gonna take more than a toxic fart to end me, you hear Allen?" Barry chuckled at my normal placement of sarcasm, patting my hand as Caitlin ran up to my bedside and started taking out my IV and giving me instructions on how to take care of myself until I'm 100% better.
"—and you'll need to get a full eight hours of sleep a night. Drink tons of fluids, it'll help flush the rest of the poison out of your bloodstream. Your IV did most of the work, now it's up to you."
"Okay." I sat upright and swung my legs over the side of my bed. As soon as I was on my feet, I sighed and clapped my hands together. "Alright, I'm gonna go train."
But before I could even get over the threshold and into the cortex, a hand grabbed my arm. Looking back, I saw that it was Barry who was holding me back, another disbelieving look on his face.
"What? Kate, you just got off your IV. You were poisoned. I think what you need to do is go home and rest, drink lots of water like Caitlin said."
I rolled my eyes, but not maliciously. "No, what I need to do is stop this guy. Before he gets his next target." Gently releasing myself from Barry's grasp, I walked to my normal training room and slipped on a different shirt.
"Actually… we kinda already stopped him…" Barry mentioned, hands in his pockets as he cringed as I slowly turned around to face the group.
"What? Aw man, I always miss the action." I humphed, temporarily put out. But I soon got over it and straightened up. "Oh well, I'm still training."
"You're actually letting her do this?" Okay, that was Caitlin.
"Not like we could stop her. Once she puts her mind to something, she doesn't stop until she's satisfied with the results." Barry. Ah, he knows me so well…
"That sounds like one of your basic super villain traits." Did Cisco just call me a villain? Or even worse, a basic super villain?
"No, I think it's just called persistence."
"But just imagine Kate as a super villain. She could take down an entire room of guys with her bare hands! Is it wrong that I'm finding these thoughts kind of attractive?" Alright, this "whispering" was getting out of hand.
"I'm gonna become a super villain if you keep calling me one, Cisco." I paused in my current position, straightening my legs and standing upright.
I saw Cisco jump practically a foot in the air, screaming in a voice that didn't quite match his demeanor. He turned to give me a glance, then turned back to Caitlin and Barry, who were snickering at Cisco's jumpiness.
"Does she have super hearing too?" Cisco whispered harshly.
"No, you just whisper loudly." He jumped once again as I fell into step right next to him.
"Aye dios mio! We need to put a bell on you. Like, right now." Lighthearted laughter rang throughout the cortex at his exclamation.
The next couple of weeks were pretty quiet, we didn't have any major metahuman villains to catch. My normal day job was running smoothly, Barry and I would patrol the streets at night (sometimes with him carrying me, other times I'd run right beside him).
On a random Friday, I was in my office doing another analysis on an attempted truck robbery scene that I'd taken earlier that day. Getting up and putting my findings in a file, I walked over to Barry's lab to drop it off on his desk. As I entered the room, I stopped short at the sight of a woman with bright blond hair and a bright pink dress and white blazer standing in the middle of Barry's lab. The stranger's hair was pulled up into a ponytail and she had thin glasses perched on her nose.
"Umm…" I started awkwardly.
"Oh, hi! You're not Barry. I'm not breaking in to do anything bad, I promise. I didn't even break in at all! Joe let me in…" The woman started to ramble, fidgeting with her hands as she tried to explain herself. "I'm Felicity Smoak. A friend of Barry's." Her rambling was kind of adorable, to be honest.
I suddenly broke out of my reverie to shake the beautiful woman's hand. "Hi, you're gorgeous! I mean, I'm Katherine Steele. But you can call me Kate." I giggled at the woman.
"Oh, so you're Kate! Barry talked about you a lot back in Starling City." Her hair practically flowed from her ponytail and I was almost blinded by her captivating smile. Then her words finally processed mentally, and my expression went from overly chipper to confused.
"Really? He did?" Felicity nodded.
"Yeah, he said such great things about you and Iris. We worked together on one of Barry's cases."
"Oh, yeah! He told me a little about that. I hear you're an absolute genius with computer sciences." I dropped the files on Barry's desk and initiated a conversation with Felicity.
"It's no big deal, I mean, I love science just like every other scientist. Right? Because we love science or else we wouldn't do it for a living." I understood about half of what I could catch.
I chuckled, "Yeah… I think?" I opened my mouth to say something else, but stopped when I heard Barry coming down the hall.
"You never know what weirdos are trolling around on the internet!" Barry and Iris stepped into the lab, but didn't notice both Felicity and I until the former spoke up.
"I can vouch for that." There was a quiet clacking as Felicity stepped towards the pair in her heels. "The internet is full of weirdoes, and nerd rage. Lots and lots of nerd rage."
Barry's eyes widened as he set sight on the beautiful blonde, then he chuckled. After a half awkward pause, Felicity decided to take initiative and introduce herself to Iris.
Felicity put her hand out to Iris, "Hi. Felicity Smoak."
"Iris West." She replied with a huge smile, shaking Felicity's hand. "I see you've already met Kate."
"Barry Allen." Our boy wonder said in a daze, but then snapped out of it once he caught wind of what came out of his mouth. "But all of you already knew that. Felicity is—"
Iris interrupted Barry's introduction by stating what we already knew. "The girl that you met in Starling City. The computer-er, right?" Felicity smiled and nodded.
"You two worked on one of Barry's unexplainable cases." I chipped in.
Felicity chuckled lightly, and turned to me. "Which was, in the long run, definitely explainable." She stepped back and turned around to point up at the ceiling.
As she asked if the lightning came through the glass on the roof, I turned to Barry and Iris and mouthed "Oh my God, she's gorgeous!" to my two best friends.
Barry looked between all four of us, then breathed out a short reply. "Yeah."
"Why don't we go take a walk, Barry? You could show me Central City's coolest landmarks." Felicity suggested. I nodded, and pushed Felicity towards Barry.
"Absolutely! We'll meet you guys later, okay? Have fun! But not too much fun." I winked at our new blonde friend and watched her and Barry walk out of the lab. I sighed and turned to push Barry's desk chair in. Turning around, I saw Iris with a cocked eyebrow and hand on her hip.
"Okay, what was that?"
"What was what?" I asked confused.
"You basically throwing Felicity and Barry together. I thought you'd be a little jealous of her showing up to be honest."
I scoffed, "Jealous? Yeah, I am. Of Barry. I mean, have you seen Felicity? She's freaking gorgeous! And she's super smart and kind and kind of adorable, if you didn't already notice. I mean, she's perfect for Barry." By the time I was done with my rant, we were back in my office and I was gathering up my supplies for the day. Getting my coffee cup, I started to take a sip.
"I meant that you might be jealous of Felicity because you like Barry." My eyes widened and I spit out the rest of the frappachino I was sipping on, getting a napkin to wipe the dribbles of coffee off of my chin.
"You think I what?" I balled up the napkin and threw it away as Iris explained herself.
"You. Like. Barry. Don't try and deny it, I know you, Kate. You may not see it now, but you're falling for him. Or you've already fallen for him."
"Okay, first of all, Barry and I are just friends. He could never see me that way. Second, did you see the way that he looked at Felicity? He's practically her dream girl. They're perfect for each other. Third, I DON'T LIKE HIM."
"But Kate..!" Iris tried to continue, but I stopped her by shoving the both of us out of my office door, and locking it shut.
"Nope. We are not having this discussion. See you later!" And I bolted out of the station and to STAR Labs to train.
"HYAH! HUH HUH HYAH! HAH. HAH. HYAH." I brought my leg down from it's high kick position, finishing the martial arts drill set on the dummy, and moved to cool down. I was currently sweating my butt off in a black sports bra and sofee shorts. I had black bandages wrapped around my hands to protect my knuckles and palms from cuts and abrasions. Stepping out of my training circle, I walked to my water bottle and started to chug it.
As I walked into the cortex barefoot, I was met with the sight of Barry showing Felicity the cortex. Caitlin and Cisco rushed over to do some damage control because Barry seemingly just blew our whole operation for no reason.
"It is, of course, so wonderful to see you again, Felicity. Although I'm just wondering how much of our operation she needs to know about?" Caitlin worded hesitantly, hinting to Barry about his double life. But Felicity started to reassure us that our secret was safe.
"Don't worry, I'm really good at keeping secrets."
"Yeah, Felicity works for the Arrow." Barry's attempt to back the beautiful scientist up backfired however, judging by the burning glare she gave him not seconds after he said it. Cisco worded his approval immediately.
"Wow, nice job Bear." I chipped in, before Felicity lightly scolded him.
"…And you, apparently, are not."
Cisco rounded the desk, waving his twirler wildly. "Now it's all making sense. You know who the Arrow is." But then he stopped short of himself. "Wait. Do you know who the Arrow is?"
Both Felicity and Barry obviously knew who he was, but opted not to tell us because they immediately set into an awkward silence slash mumbling moment. Then Felicity found the right words to say.
"Let's just say that my team has a similar setup, but with more pointy objects." Cisco nodded slyly. All of our heads turned to the cortex entrance as Dr. Wells welcomed Felicity to the facility. At the same time, he listed all of her credentials and achievements that she's done so far, and it's quite an impressive list.
"…And I foresaw great things in you." Felicity looked over the moon at the compliment from the doctor. Barry quickly nudged her shoulder, bringing her attention back to the speedster.
"Speaking of great things…. wanna see something cool?" He smirked as Felicity nodded. "Alright, follow me."
We all walked over to the treadmill room as Barry got his running shoes on and instructed Felicity to stand at the window and watch him run. As he started to get faster and faster, sparks started to trail behind him every time he waved his arms. Pretty soon, he got into a grove and just kept running.
Felicity stayed near the window and watched in pure fascination at the unique sight in front of her. But I could tell something was bothering her.
"How fast can he run?"
"He hasn't reached his top speed yet, theoretically speaking." Dr. Wells answered.
"So is he really okay?" There was a touch of concerning the question, and I had a feeling that she wasn't talking about his health.
"His heart range is within normal level for him." Caitlin pitched in, eyes on her screen showing his vitals.
But Felicity shook her head and persisted. "No. I mean, the lightning bolt changed him. Do any of you really know how much?"
Cisco decided to add in on this inquiry, "We know a fair amount."
"He's managing pretty well so far. Hurdling over every obstacle that tries to get in his way." I smiled as I tried to placate Felicity's worries.
"Yeah, so far. If everything about him is sped up, does that mean he's gonna age faster?" After that question, she started rambling about a lot more theories that I hadn't even thought of in my mind. Aging? Turning to dust? This is a whole other field that we'd have to tackle. Unless, Dr. Wells already had the answers?
Because it seems like he did, judging by his answer.
"Everything we do here at S.T.A.R. Labs is to protect Barry Allen. Trust us, Felicity. He's in good hands." Felicity seemed to calm down at his answer, her shoulders loosening up and her hands stopped fidgeting.
"Five bucks says that tries to impress her by running backwards." I muttered to Cisco. He turned ever so slightly in my direction and smirked.
"Oh, you're on. He would never do—"
"Hey! You wanna see how fast I can run backwards?" Right on time, Barry.
Not even 5 seconds after he started running backwards, he slipped and was thrown off the Cisco'd treadmill, flying into a stack of boxes right behind him.
"Don't worry. He heals quickly too." Caitlin chirped as chairs squeaked and wheels turned to go assist Barry. But an alerted clearing of the throat rang throughout the room.
Following a defeated sigh, a wrinkled 5 dollar bill was smacked into a waiting palm.
A/N: Ha! You'd probably thought that I'd disappeared, didn't you? I'm still kicking—or typing? Well, I'm not giving up on this story. Not at all. I have TONS planned. Especially now that season two is over and I have an exact notion of where the show is gonna go in season three (no spoilers here folks). I now have a solid plan of how I'm gonna execute this story in the future. And who else is mega excited that Tom Felton is joining the show in season three? I definitely am. I love Tom's work, he's amazing.
Also, I may be skipping over some episodes, mostly because I think that the filler episodes won't really help the plot of this story progress (unless I really like the story of an episode or I can find a way to make an episode give Kate more depth). Because as you can see in this chapter, I had NO clue as to how to wrap up The Mist plotline. I tried several different things, none of them worked, so I used a cop out ending (I know, I'm sorry). I feel like Kate is a bit 2D at the moment, and these flashbacks (like the one in this chapter) should give us a little insight into her backstory and how she became the person she is today.
Last news, and probably the most important, I'm planning and currently writing a spin-off/side piece to this story! It's going to be multi-chapter, and I know for a fact that it is not going to be as episode-centric as this story is. I'm not going to reveal exactly who it's based around just yet, but it is a Flash Character/OC. Here's a hint if you want one: taillights.
Anyways, sorry for the long, boring note. PLEASE REVIEW- your reviews mean the world to me and give me more inspiration to write! See you guys next update :)