Spark

I

Cassie's eyes flickered open and she was immediately temporarily blinded by lights looking down on her. She blinked rapidly and tried to clear the spots from her vision.

"Cait, she's awake!" Cassie heard an all too familiar voice said. Coming I to her line of vision was one of her best friends, Cisco Ramon. Following behind him was another one of her friends, Caitlin Snow.

Cassie looked around. After seeing the STAR Labs logo on the wall, she bolted up in the bed. "Wait, did I fall asleep on the job? Wells is gonna kill me! Wait, no, he's gonna fire me. Then I'm gonna have to get a job as a stripper to pay rent and I'm gonna have to buy all my food from the dollar store and-"

"Cassandra, relax," the familiar voice of Harrison Wells commanded. He came into Cassie's line of vision. Cassie furrowed her brows when she saw that he was in a wheelchair. "I am not firing you."

"But-but I fell asleep on the job."

"No, you didn't," he said. "When the particle accelerator exploded, you got hit with a blast of energy, putting you into a coma."

"A-a coma? For how long?"

"Eight months," Cisco said, chewing on the side of his finger.

"Eight months?" Cassie shrieked. "I missed eight months of work? Wait, my cat. What about my cat? How's my cat?"

"Whoa, Cass, relax," Cisco said. "I took care of Copper. He's fine."

"He better be more than fine," she grumbled. "Wait, I missed almost a years worth of television?!"

Cisco laughed. "There's my best friend. I DVR'ed everything you missed."

Cassie smiled. "You're the best." She looked at Wells. "I take it many people got hurt in the explosion? Yourself included?"

Wells nodded. "Yes. Along with the many injured people, 17 died."

"17? There's no way STAR Labs is still open!"

Wells chuckled mirthlessly. "You'd be right."

Cassie looked over the chair. "Very poetic, don't you think?"

"What do you mean, Cassandra?" Wells asked, genuine curiosity in his voice.

"Dr. Harrison Wells, the man who was always moving forward, sometimes too fast, is now stuck to moving slowly."

Wells smiled. "Ah, there she is. My most philosophical employee. I must say, Ms.  Monte, I missed the way you viewed things."

There were frantic footsteps coming down the hall and Kat, Cassie's best friend from college, was standing in the doorway, panting. She practically shoved Wells's chair out of the way to get to Cassie's bed. Wrapping her friend in a hug, she said, "You idiot! You left me for, like, ever!"

Cassie laughed as Kat pulled away. "Well, I'm here now." It was then she noticed the man in the bed next to her. "Who's he?"

"His name is Barry Allen," Caitlin said. "His friends brought him here when the hospital wanted to let him go."

Cassie nodded thoughtfully, looking the man over. "Hey, Kat, doesn't he work at the station?"

Kat looked at him. "Oh, yeah! He's the CSI!"

Wells glared at her. "You knew him and didn't think to tell us?"

"Well, I'm sorry if I was a bit distracted since, you know, my best friend was in a fricking coma!"

Cassandra went to sit up and Caitlin walked over to her. "I need to check your vitals." As Cait's hand ghosted over Cassie's pulse point, Cassie noticed something off.

"Cait, where's your-" she looked around and noticed everyone was looking down. "What happened?"

Caitlin continued checking Cassie's vitals as Cisco explained, his eyes glossing over a bit. "He-he, uh, saved us. He stopped the explosion from killing everyone."

"Oh," Cassie whispered. She hugged Caitlin close to her. "I'm sorry, Cait."

Caitlin sniffled a bit and cleared her throat. "Uh, I'll be right back." She walked over to the drawers where she kept her medical supplies and pulled out some clothes. "Thought you might want to change." She handed Cassie the clothing with a soft smile.

Cassie smiled back and walked to the bathroom to change. When she came back, her friends and Wells were talking in hushed voices.

"What's going on?" She asked, running a hand through her long, black hair.

"Everything about him is normal," Cisco said, referring to Barry Allen, "but he shows no signs of waking up."

Cassie hummed before walking over to one of the computers, typing quickly. She pulled up his medical records and scrolled through them. "So, tell me what we know."

"He was hit by lightning," Kat said. "His friends, family, whatever, brought him to the hospital. He was there for a while and Wells offered to bring him here, monitor him and make sure he wasn't, you know, dying."

Cassie continued clacking away at the keyboard. She leaned back in the seat. "Huh."

"What? What is it?" Wells asked.

"His body is processing things faster than a normal human being. Look," she traced her pinky finger along the screen. "His blood is flowing faster." She brought up some images of the brain scans they did. "You said everything was fine, health-wise? Even after he got struck by lightning?"

"So far, yeah," Cisco said. 

Cassie rubbed her temples. "What the hell?"

"That's what we've been trying to figure out," Cisco said. 

- - -

"Cassie, come on!" Cisco whined, pounding on the bathroom door. He and Cassandra have been roommates since they got out of college. 

"Cisco, you have had the entire apartment to yourself for the past eight months! I haven't shaved my legs in eight months! I doubt you guys actually showered me or anything while I was comatose, so I'm gonna enjoy this!"

Cisco groaned and said, "But I really need to pee!"

"Go down to the coffee shop or something, then!" Cassie heard footsteps retreating followed by the front door opening and closing. Cassie smiled to herself. She knew Cisco was a pushover when it came to her. She stepped out of the shower and ran a hand down her leg. "I'm like a beluga whale," she whispered to herself. She stood up and pulled her clothes on, not really wanting to bother with her hair quite yet. As she put her towel on the bar to dry, a jolt of electricity ran through her. She looked down at her hand to see little tendrils of lightning radiating off her skin.

"What is this?" she whispered to herself.