"It looks like you had a distal radius fracture," Caitlin tells Barry.

"Had?" Barry asks and I raise an eyebrow from my seat behind the computers.

"It's healed. In three hours."

"How is that even possible?" Barry asks.

"We don't  know. Yet."

Cisco walks by, carrying Barry's helmet and smiles. "You really need to learn how to stop."

I'm about to joke along when Dr. Wells comes rolling over. "What happened out there today?" He asks. "You were moving pretty well, and then something caused you to lose focus."

"I started remembering something," Barry admits. "When I was 11, my mother was murdered." He says and my heart aches for him since I know very well how it is to lose a parent. "It was late, a sound woke me up. I came downstairs, and I saw what looked like a ball of lightning. Inside the lightning, there was a man. He killed my mom. They arrested my dad. He's still sitting in Iron Heights for her murder. Everyone, the cops, the shrink, they...they all told me what I saw was impossible. But what if the man who killed my mom was like me?"

Dr. Wells gains a thoughtful look but seems to shake it off. "Well, I think I can say unequivocally you are one of a kind."

Barry deflates, and I suddenly feel the need to comfort him. So I  get up from my seat and hug him. And at first, I panic, because I don't want it to come off as a pity hug. I've had my fair share of kicked-puppy looks to know that I hate them.

But when Barry wraps his arms around me, I know I made the right decision. 

"Thanks," Barry says. "Didn't realize I needed that."

"I know how it feels to lose a mother," I say. "Anyway, I need to head back to work. God knows how long I've been gone. Want to stop by Jitters with me?" I ask.

He nods before a smirk appears on his face. He speeds off before coming back, fully dressed in regular clothes.

"That's going to make the mornings so much easier," Barry says and I laugh, walking out with him. 

"Well then I expect you to be on time then," I reply and he shrugs. 

"I make no promises," Barry laughs. "Being late is kinda my signature move."

That leaves us in a comfortable silence as we walk down the streets until he speaks up. "You mentioned your mom just now, how did she die?"

"Leukemia," I answer. "I was ten. I never knew how much my dad depended on her until she was gone. After she died, it seemed like all rational thought went out the window with him. He started to drink a lot, and all I knew that if he came home late, it was time to hide. Because if he found me..." I trail off, showing him an ugly scar on my wrist. "Let's just say it was bad."

"I'm sorry," He says, giving me an understanding look.

"Don't be," I say, smiling a little. "That experience is just what made me who I am. And there's no one I'd rather be than me."

Barry shakes his head and I smile. "What?!"

He shrugs. "I guess it's just admirable. You went through all of that, and ended up okay."

A smirk grows on my face and I hold in a laugh. "My story may not have such a happy beginning but that does not make me who I am. It is the rest of my story, who I choose to be."

Barry finally laughs and facepalms at my silliness. "Kung Fu Panda 2? For real?"

"It's a good movie!" I say. "Plus I've been spending too much time with Cisco."

"That explains...." Barry says, trailing off. I look at what caught him off guard and see Eddie and Iris kissing.

Well. That escalated quickly.

____

"So you and Iris huh?" I ask Eddie. Iris took Barry on a walk to explain everything to him and I was left with Eddie back at Jitters.

"Yeah," He smiles, kinda sheepishly.

"Are you blushing?!" I tease. "Oh my goodness you're blushing!!"

"Shut up Raymond, I'm not blushing!" Eddie retorts and I shake my head, laughing knowingly. "Just don't tell Joe, Rani."

"Wait Joe doesn't know?" I say. "That must be hard."

"Oh you have no idea," Eddie says, rubbing his hand over his face and sighing. 

"You're secret is safe with me Thawne," I say and he relaxes.

"Thanks, Rani. You know, when you're not shaming us for our browser history, you're not actually too bad." He says and I laugh.

"I appreciate it," I respond as Eddie's phone buzzes. He answers it and his expression drops.

"What? Oh-Okay I'll be right there." He replies before looking at me. "There was an accident. Barry and Iris were there."

"Are they okay?!" I ask.

"I don't know."

"Then what are we waiting for?!" I say. "Let's go!"

Eddie and I race to his car and he drives us as quickly as he can to the scene. When we get out, we arrive right in the middle of a very heated argument between Joe and Barry. I tap away on my phone, hacking into the surveillance cameras and pulling up the video while we both awkwardly linger until Joe and Barry are done.

"I have done my best to take care of you since that night, and I never asked for anything in return, not even a thank you, but what I do ask now, is that you for once in your life, see things as they are." Joe says before Barry shakes his head and walks away.

"Hey! Barry!" I say, walking up to him and he turns, meeting my worried gaze. "Are you okay?"

"Mardon escaped and a man died because of my screw up and Joe doesn't even believe me. What do you think?!" He says, huffing.

I give him a look as he calms down. "Sorry, I didn't mean too..."

"Don't worry, I got enough angry rants. working with Oliver. Most of which ended up with Felicity sassing him back." I sigh, reminiscing in old memories. "So Mardon's like us? I though Wells said there was no residual damage?"

"You believe me?" Barry asks and my heart hurts on how surprised he is.

"Barry today I've seen sparks fly from my hands, and watched become the fastest man alive. Honestly I don't think anything is going to surprise me anymore. So you want to head back to STAR labs and confront Wells?" I ask, giving him a smile and internally fist-pumping when he smiles back.

"Hold on," He says and then the world becomes a blur. I instinctively, wrap my hands around his neck and watch as the world flashes by. And abruptly the world stops moving and we're standing outside of STAR labs.

I try and calm down my messed up hair and laugh. "That. Was. Awesome. Now let's go get some answers!"

Barry tries to hold in a laugh, knowing he has to be serious before storming into STAR labs.

"We weren't the only ones affected by the particle accelerator explosion, were we?!" Barry asks as we make it into the Cortex.

Cisco, Caitlin and I share a look as Dr. Wells takes a moment to process Barry's sudden appearance. "We don't know for sure."

"You said the city was safe, that there was no residual danger. But that's not true, so what really happened that night?"

Dr. Wells sighs and taps the tablet on his wheelchair. "Well, the accelerator went active, we all felt like heroes, and then, it all went wrong.A dimensional barrier ruptured, unleashing unknown energies into our world, anti-matter, dark energy, - X-elements..."

"Those are all theoretical," Barry cuts in.

"How theoretical are you too?" Wells retorts.

Ohhhh Barry you got burned.

Sorry, back on topic.

" We've mapped dispersion throughout and around Central City," Wells concludes. "But we have no way of knowing exactly what or who was exposed. We've been searching for other metahumans, like yourself."

"Metahumans?" Barry asks.

"That's what we are calling them," Caitlin asks. I look over at Cisco, eyebrows raised. Your idea? I mouth.

He nods and I hold in a smile.

 "I saw one today," Barry says. "He's a bank robber, and he can control the weather."

"Aw, this just keeps getting cooler and cooler," Cisco says excitedly.

Barry, please don't crush his dreams. Don't do it. "This is not cool! All right? A man died." Barry counters and Cisco's smile drops. Dan, it, Barry.

"Mardon must have gotten his powers the same way we did. From the storm cloud. He's still out there. We have to stop him before he hurts anyone else."

"Barry, I think that's a job for the police," Wells says.

"We work for the police!" Barry counters.

"As a forensic scientist and a computer analyst." He deadpans.

"Look, Dr. Wells what are the police force doing so they can handle this?" I ask, projecting the video of Mardon on my phone to the TVs. "They'd be in way over their heads. Barry and I? We have the ability to do what he can do and actually use that to help his city! We could help stop this before more innocent people get hurt."

"You're responsible for this," Barry says. "For him."

"Okay, that's-" I try and say, to calm this situation down.

"What's important is you two!" Wells interrupts. "Not me. I lost everything. I lost my company. I lost my reputation. I lost my freedom. And then you broke your arm, and it healed in three hours. And you were able to use the power of your nervous system and project it to the outside world as a for of energy! Inside both of your bodies, could be a map to a whole new world genetic therapy, vaccines, medicines, treasures, Barry. Rani. Deep within both of your cells, and we cannot risk losing everything because you two want to go out and play hero. You're not heroes. You're just a two people who were hit with their own form of lightning."

"You're not a hero Rani! You're just a little girl who knows how to get herself in trouble. Try a move like that again and you'll see where your heroics take you."

I clench my jaw, shoving my phone in my pocket and that memory out of my thoughts.

"I need some air," I say, before leaving the Cortex and making my way outside into the crisp fall air.

"Hey, thanks for backing me up over there," A voice says behind me and I smile.

"Anytime Barry. I completely get it." I respond. "Working with the team back in Starling, it gave you a strange sense of usefulness and made you feel terrible if something happened that you couldn't prevent. I guess when I heard about Mardon, I got that same feeling again."

"Oliver..." Barry trails off, his bright green eyes lighting up with an idea. "He would know what to do."

"Barry...." I say. "Don't tell me...."

"Want to go to Starling City?" He asks and I sigh good-naturedly.

"You know what? Why not?" I say. 

He smiles and picks me up again before dashing off, the world becoming a giddy blur once again as we dash off to my old home.

I hug my arms around Barry as the world goes by. I could get used to this.

My hair? Not so much.