Wake up. Go to S.T.A.R. Labs. Get poked with some needles by Caitlin. Answer some seemingly unnecessary questions from Cisco. Get a lecture from Dr. Wells. This was the life of Barry Allen since he woke up from his coma. Or so it seemed at first. Eventually it turned into morning coffees with Caitlin while she went on about some new medical advancement that she read about. Barry didn't mind. He always enjoyed interjecting with his random knowledge of interesting things he's read about. 

Cisco would usually join in the morning coffee after he woke up from his thirty minute power nap he took after him and Caitlin arrived at the labs. The three of them would laugh about some movie, or get an extremely detailed tutorial that neither Caitlin nor Barry asked for, over one of Cisco's new toys.

Dr. Wells would roll in just enough time to witness them all laughing over something or to see Barry and Caitlin silently mocking Cisco to each other while Cisco remained too distracted by his own world. He would smile because she's smiling. Caitlin is smiling again. All the time. Sure he would catch her zoning out every now and then when she was bored and her face would turn sad, but when she was present, she was happy. He would look to Barry and be grateful for how he's impacted her life. Then he would remember, and he would scowl. 

That was Barry Allen. The Flash. His enemy. Any affection Dr. Wells might be developing for the young boy needed to be stopped. He would not let anything interrupt his plans. 

Wells cleared his throat. Then the daily grind would begin. Caitlin would take a blood sample everyday as his powers progressed. Barry would run on Cisco's high powered treadmill while the three S.T.A.R. Labs employees would monitor him in a windowed room next to him. Once or twice a week they would work on his ability to multitask. Caitlin and Cisco liked to come up with new ways to do this. Wells was partial to board games. Cisco loved model building and small activities (e.g., ping pong, hopscotch, etc.) and Caitlin liked puzzles and riddles. Each time, Barry would do a combination of these set up by each of them. Barry was partial to the riddles Caitlin would set up and the activities Cisco would have. Those were the most fun. 

After his morning training was over, Barry would head to his day job at the CCPD. He'd comb through files and boxes of evidence until lunch time came around. If Iris didn't have plans already arranged, he'd usually run back to S.T.A.R. Labs and eat with Cisco and Caitlin. They liked to monitor his calorie intake to make sure he didn't pass out, and they just liked having him around. He had to admit, he enjoyed being around them too. He never really saw eye to eye with people his own age. They thought he was weird, nerdy, and weak. 

Caitlin and Cisco were like him though. They liked this science stuff. They got excited over little things that he did. But they were different enough that they didn't clash. Caitlin was laid back. She didn't get worked up unless she was talking about something that excited her. She was calm. She wasn't much for cracking jokes, but she could laugh all day with her friends. Cisco especially made her laugh. And Cisco, he was quick with the jokes. Had a movie reference for everything. And he got excited about everything. He wasn't as calm as Caitlin, but they balanced each other out well. Barry's personality fit right in with the two of them. The three of them together meshed so easily. He may have only known them for a couple of weeks, but when they were all together, he felt like their relationship had developed over years. 

Even when he was done with work in the evening, he found himself wanting to go hang out with them. He always heard them talk about their movie nights and ice cream runs, but he wasn't sure if they wanted him to tag along. He was waiting for an invitation. 

***************************************************

"What do you mean 'no'?" Cisco asked, annoyed that he was rejected yet again. 

Caitlin turned to glare at him. "I mean no, Cisco. We are not calling him 'The Blur'. It's so...bleh." 

She spun in her chair, a Tootsie Pop sticking out of her mouth. "What about...'The Scarlet Speedster?" She said, opening her hands in front of her like she was envisioning a headline. 

"Ha! Good try. That's too long. Doesn't slide off the tongue, ya know?" Cisco scoffed as he walked by her, grabbing the sucker out of her mouth. "And stop stealing my candy."

She frowned at him. "Stop stealing my Jello."

Cisco returned the frown. 

"What are we talking about?" Dr. Wells asked as he entered the room. 

"What superhero name we should give Barry." Cisco answered. 

Dr. Wells laughed. He supposed this was at least slightly more productive than their conversation yesterday that involved them trying to figure the maximum amount of calories Barry could physically consume in a day before puking. Then they got off topic to whether or not Barry could puke at super speed. He knew they needed something to kill time. 

Dr. Wells turned to the entrance to see Joe and Barry walking through deep in conversation. 

They proceeded to describe the events of the previous evening to the team. A gang of men were poisoned with gas, presumably by a meta who can control gas. The issue that was currently being discussed though was where the hell they were going to put these metas when they caught them. 

"We have one place that might work," Dr. Wells offered up. 

"You can't be serious. It's cordoned off!" Caitlin complains. 

Barry looks between the two of them, confused. "What's cordoned off?"

"The particle accelerator." Dr. Wells says with one of his mischievous smiles. 

Caitlin zoned out. Her eyes grew wide and she looked down at the desk. Barry could tell something was wrong. The tone in her voice. The look on her face. It was off. 

"Caitlin are you coming?" Barry and Caitlin were both brought back to reality when Dr. Wells questioned her. 

"Actually, Dr. Wells, I could use Caitlin's help identifying this gas." Barry offered. 

Caitlin gave him a grateful smile, and stood up to follow him to CCPD. 

"Thanks. You didn't have to do that." Caitlin said to Barry as they rode the elevator down. 

"Happy to. I've been meaning to invite you to my lab anyway. You're gonna love it!" He says with a proud smile on his face. 

"So this is where you go everyday?" She says as she looks around CCPD in awe. It's small, but weirdly grand. 

He lets a proud smirk appear on his face. He always thought S.T.A.R. Labs was incredible, so it was nice to see Caitlin excited by his small little place of work. Some of the cops made some condescending remarks to him, as usual, and handed him some more work to do. He looked to Caitlin as she smiled at him, enjoying seeing him in a new atmosphere. 

"Allen! Do you have that ballistics report ready yet?" Captain Singh, Barry's boss, asked. 

Caitlin looked nervously between the two. Knowing Barry, no, he probably didn't have that report ready yet. 

"Yes sir. You stay here, I can run up and grab it right now." Ha, she knew it. He still needed to finish it. 

"No, I'll come with you, or I might not see it for three more weeks." Singh said. 

Caitlin stepped slightly in front of Singh to follow Barry, hoping to slow Singh down. 

"Who are you?" Singh asked. 

"I'm Dr. Caitlin Snow. Barry's personal physician." Caitlin said proudly. She turned in front of him to stop him and stuck her hand out for him to shake. "And you're Captain Singh right? He's told me a lot about you." She said with a soft smile. 

He offers her one in return and shakes her hand, not catching on to her tactics. "Personal physician? What does he need that for?" Singh asks. 

"He was struck by lightning. People who survive that experience are rare. He's been allowing us over at S.T.A.R. Labs to monitor his progress since then to learn anything we can from him. And make sure there aren't any lasting side effects of course." She adds in with a smirk. 

He chuckles at this. He suddenly remembers what he was going to do. Caitlin notices and turns to walk with him back to Barry's lab. When they get there, Caitlin can tell from the paper that has just landed on the floor meters away from Barry, that she was right in assuming he needed time.

Barry hands the report to Singh and lets out a sigh as he walks away with it, mouthing a 'thank you' to Caitlin. She smiles back at him. 

"Least I could do, now let me see your gas." She says, completely straight-faced. 

They look at each other for a second while what she says sinks in. Then they both start laughing. 

"That came out wrong, but you know what I meant." She chuckles out. 

Barry and Caitlin get to work on identifying the gas. Barry keeps looking up. He laughs to himself at the way Caitlin sticks her tongue out slightly when she's concentrating. She seemed different than she did when he met her. Not in a bad way. She seemed lighter. More at ease. Maybe it was because he was just getting to know her better, but part of him wanted to believe that he had this positive impact on her. Then he remembered something important. 

"Hey Caitlin," he started. "can I ask you a question, that you do not have to answer." 

"My least favorite kind of question," she answers with a smirk. "Shoot."

"Ronnie, what was he like?" Barry hesitantly asks. He felt like Caitlin and Cisco were such big parts of his life now, and there were still parts of their life he didn't know about. People in their lives he didn't know about, and he wanted to know. Starting with Ronnie. 

"Ronnie was the structural engineer on the particle accelerator project. That's how we met. We were very different. We had very different upbringings. Very different skill sets and interests. He was the first person I met who was really able to bring me out of my shell. Make me laugh. That was before I met Cisco of course." She laughed, and Barry joined. 

"Who knows, maybe it was just the fact that we worked together every day, or the fact that Wells really took a liking to him too. We both liked to make fun of our coworker Hartley who was the buzziest of buzzkills to be around. At the time, I couldn't picture myself being with anyone else." She finishes. 

"And now?" Barry says, not realizing he was voicing his thoughts out loud and wanting to take it back. 

"He loved me. I loved him. He made me...more confident. More open to letting people in. He didn't leave me here with no one. So, yes I wish he was he was here. I miss him every single day. I'm kind of waiting for him to walk into the cortex and tell me he just got lost somewhere in S.T.A.R. Labs after the explosion. But at the same time, he gave me a lifetime of love while we were together. I think I gave a lifetime back. He made me strong enough that I know I can move forward and be happy. He would want that." Caitlin finishes with a genuine smile on her face and nod to Barry. 

He wouldn't admit it, but he was a little jealous to hear her talk about him this way. Not because he was jealous of Ronnie being with Caitlin, but because, he's not sure he's ever felt that. The kind of love that makes you stronger, even when they aren't around. The kind that doesn't leave you broken when they're gone. And...maybe a part of him was relieved to hear she wasn't closed off from love forever. 

A/N:

So Caitlin's personality is going to be a little different in this than in the show. She has a very different past here, and they're all going to be slightly different, and honestly, show Caitlin annoys me sometimes so we're getting rid of that. I'm sure she'll still be annoying in someways because who isn't, but she'll be different. So just don't read something and be like "Caitlin wouldn't do that!" 'cause this Caitlin would. 

THOUGHTS!? 

We're almost done with establishing background stuff with the characters, so hopefully within the next couple of chapters it will be onwards and upwards!

Peace and Love! -Ali