...I'm waking up. The ash and dust. I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust. I'm breathing in, the chemicals....ahhhhhhaah. I'm breaking in, shaping up and checking out on the prison bus. This is it, the apocalypse.....

I smile to myself a little as I furiously type on my computer to reorganize and sort the CCPD crime database so that people can actually use it.

"Good morning whoever that is," I say, hearing footsteps come into the lab. "I really need to readjust this so I can see people," I mutter to myself. Aww frick. I'm talking to myself again.

I'm slowly morphing back into Felicity.

Brilliant.

"Hey Rani," Barry and Joe say as he drops a large file box on Barry's desk with a thud.

"Geez, am I allowed to ask what that is?" I ask, turning off my music and Barry and Joe look at each other.

Barry sighs. "That's the evidence from my mother's murder. Joe, I've been through this box a thousand times."

"Before, your story about what happened that night...the lightning storm, the man in the middle of it..." Joe says, gesturing at Barry's board. "I thought that was a kid trying to protect his father from prison. But now that I know it's true, we're gonna go through every scrap of evidence until we find something that helps us."

"It took the jury fifty-two minutes to come back with a verdict of guilty," Barry counters and I awkwardly continue typing, confused if I'm a part of this situation or not.

"They moved too fast, which is why we got to take our time," Joe responds.  "All of us."

"Wait, really?" Barry says.

I spin around on my swivel chair and lose all elements of poise by nearly falling out of it. "You want me to help you?"

"You can work with computers better than anyone else here and have the access we might need," Joe answers simply.

"I'd love to help," I respond. "I guess I was under the impression that you didn't trust me."

"When I first found out about your past I didn't," Joe responds. "But I can see that you're a good person who got put in a tough situation. And for now, until I know you better, that's just going to have to do."

Barry smiles and I nod in understanding. "Thank you, Joe. It means a whole lot more than you realize."

He's about to respond but Eddie walks into the lab.

"Barry, Joe, Rani, we got multiple homicides."

"On it," I say and I start grabbing all my gear, tossing Barry a stray pair of rubber gloves that ended up on my table while he throws me that flash drive from a couple weeks ago. I hook it up to my computer, grab my bag and my coat and the three of us head out of the door like a well-oiled machine.

---------

"Barry, Rani, anything?"

"Only signs of histotoxic hypoxia." Barry responds and Joe gives us a confused look.

"It means that the cells in their bodies were unable to utilize oxygen," I add and Joe nods.

"Exactly, and it's consistent with exposure to poison gas," Barry says. 

"What kind of poison?" Joe asks.

"I'll need to take a lung sample, see if I can narrow it down."

Eddie goes to talk to Joe and I realize something off. Like when you watch a sci-fi movie and physics just doesn't quite work right. 

"Shouldn't they all have fallen in the same spot?" I ask. "It's like the gas-"

"Had a mind of it's own." Barry finishes, nodding.

"I was actually going to say spread from the one side....but that makes a lot more sense in this city." I awkwardly add and he laughs. "God it's like the probability unit AP Stats all over again."

(A/n: I HATE PROBABILITY. Okay you may continue.)

Joe walks back over and Barry explains the rest of the situation, while I pick up the department camera and start taking pictures of the scene for later.

"You ready to go?" Barry asks.

"Where?" 

"STAR Labs, Joe and I think they might be able to help us out with our...........gas problem?" Barry answers, finishing awkwardly and I snort packing up my things.

"You might want to rephrase that," I tease. " Otherwise, Cisco's not going to let that go."

He shakes his head and we walk out together down away from everyone we know before Barry picks me up and races the two of us to STAR labs.

He sets us down the moment we arrive in the Cortex and I almost fall out of Barry's arms because of the sudden stop. I think he notices  because his grip on me tightens protectively.

"You good?" He asks.

"Aww look at that they're soo cute!" Cisco gushes before I get a chance to respond and Barry nearly drops me in surprise, both of us realizing we forgot other people were here.

"Uhh..." I say kinda awkwardly as Barry eases his grip on me and I climb out of his embrace, "Hey guys. Sooooo.....there's a new meta in town. We think that there's someone out there who can manipulate poison gas."

We go over to one of the computers and upload all of the evidence from the CCPD.

"Fascinating,"

"But is it just poisonous gas, or can he control all aerated substances?" Caitlin asks as Joe walks in the door. Barry goes over to greet him as she continues. "And how is he able to formulate the connection? Is it physiological or psychological?"

Dr. Wells grows thoughtful, "This individual could possibly create a mental nexus using gaseous substances."

"You mean that he can connect with gases on a molecular level?" Cisco asks, his excited gaze meeting mine.

"Yes," Dr. Wells answers and he does his best to control his inner fanboy.

"Okay, that is ridiculously cool." He responds.

"That means any name you come up with Cisco has to have that level of awesome," I say and his eyes go wide.

"They get really excited about this stuff," Barry explains to Joe, smiling at our clear excitement.

"The only thing that I'm excited about is putting criminals behind bars," Joe comments. "Except Iron Heights isn't exactly equipped to handle meta-humans."

Dr. Wells sighs. "Then I guess it's fortunate the ones you've encountered so far are no longer with us."

"Well, unless we're planning on executing every super criminal we stop, you geniuses are gonna have to come up with someplace else to hold them," Joe says. 

"A meta-human prison," Cisco says in excitement. "Sweet. Until we figure a way to remove their powers, there is one place here that might hold them." He suggests and I realize what Cisco's thinking of. And apparently, Caitlin does too.

 "You can't be serious," She says. "I mean, we haven't been down there since... it's cordoned off." 

"Cisco is right," Dr. Wells says. "It could be modified to act as a makeshift prison." 

"Wait, I'm sorry but what could?" Barry asks.

"The particle accelerator," I respond. "Is it possible to find the specifications we need without having to go down there?"

"I'm afraid not," Dr. Wells responds. "While we are able to get some of the data from here remotely, we would still have to go down and take data from the data capacitors."

My heart sinks. "Right." I look over at Caitlin and I can tell that she's going through the same internal struggle as I am.

"Caitlin!" Cisco says, most likely for the second or third time. "Did you hear me? We're going down to the accelerator ring."

"Actually, Dr. Wells, I could use Caitlin's help identifying the poison gas." Barry suggests. "And I think Rani still has those photos to develop for Captain Singh, right?"

"Yeah, I do," I say, not having to play along because I genuinely forgot.

"Okay," Dr. Wells says. "We'll see you three later then."

We nod and quickly make our way back to the prescient. Barry and Caitlin run up to the lab to deal with the data from STAR labs, I run downstairs to the computer downstairs and print out the enhanced photos before Singh gets the chance to yell.

I grab one of those manila folders that every police department seems to have, throw the pictures in there and swerve my way around the police officers to Singh's office.

"Sir?" I say, letting my presence known. "Twenty-six developed and enhanced photographs from the murders this morning."

"Suspects, victims and surroundings?" He asks, not looking up.

"Nothing less," I respond.

He finally looks up at the folder in my hand and I give it to him

"Have you ever taken the afternoon of Ms. Raymond?" Captain Singh asks.

"No, I don't have that done-wait what?" I say, realizing he didn't ask me if the reports are emailed in yet.

"Ever since you and Allen walked in here like you both lost a street fight last week you've also been overworking yourself." He says. "Take a break."

I look down at my feet, half-embarrassed before looking up again. "Thank you, Captain."

"You're welcome Rani, now go!" He barks, smiling for the first time since I've met him and I quickly scurry out of his office and up to the lab.

"Well, you're still alive," Barry comments. "That's good."

I scoff and Caitlin looks at me, confused. "Nice to know you care Barry. So long story short, Singh sometimes acts like he wants to rip out heads off sometimes, so I have a theory that when he hits his breaking point between the two of us he's going to come for Barry first." I explain and she giggles.

"Yeah, you'd probably survive the longest." Caitlin agrees.

"Don't encourage her!" Barry tells her before failing to hide his beaming smile back at me. "I still like to think I have a better chance than you."

"I highly doubt it since he's letting me have the rest of the day off," I say in satisfaction. 

"No, way."

"Uh-huh. Take that Allen." I tease. "Anyway, I'm heading to the Big Belly Burger at the mall, anyone want anything? Wait hang on, I got this." I say, trying to guess their orders.

"One Number 3 no pickles, fries and an ice-cold..........leemmonaaadeeee?" I ask, unsure about the lemonade.

"You got it," Caitlin smiles.

"Okay, and then.....two doubles, extra fries and a........why do I always forget the drinks..........a large soda," I guess.

"Sound's right." Barry says, turning back to the computer.

"Alright, see you guys back at STAR labs in like fifteen minutes?" I say, and they nod. 

But little did we know that I wouldn't even make it to Big Belly Burger.

That is without running into a slightly gassy problem.

Haha, you see what I did there?

Okay, okay, I'll stop.