Normal; A Flash Fanfiction

Challenged

The day Barry Allen met the woman he had saved, the woman who had saved him, he bumped into someone else who had saved him on the steps of the CCPD. Her auburn hair was slightly disheveled and pulled into a ponytail, her arms full of papers. Caitlin Snow wore a Mercury Labs white lab coat over a slightly mussed dress shirt. It was unlike Caitlin to be so out of place, but Barry still smiled when he saw who he had bumped into. A smile spread across his face and he chuckled out a "Hi!"

"Oh- hi, Barry." Caitlin smiled awkwardly. "How are you?"

"I'm good! Off to work." He shyly pointed over his shoulder to the front doors of the precinct. "You?"

She held up her arms full of papers to show him that she was too. "Mercury Labs are keeping me busy."

Barry smiled awkwardly and nodded. He was the reason she no longer worked at STAR Labs... He was the reason no one worked there anymore.
A silence spread for a moment before Caitlin said, "I should probably be off, then."

"Oh, yeah." Barry looked down at his shoes. "See you later?"

Caitlin smiled insincerely. "Yeah. See you later."

Caitlin rushed off in the direction of the Mercury Labs building in downtown Central City. Barry looked after her, wondering if she would ever forgive him. If any of them ever would.

Barry glanced down at watch. "Crap!" He rushed up the steps.

As soon as Barry stepped out of the elevator and into the bustling headquarters of the CCPD, he heard his named yelled across the foyer.

"Allen!" Captain Singh was walking in his direction, looking unhappy, as he always did when Barry was late.

"Yes, Captain Singh?" Barry jogged to keep up with the captain, who was on his way to his office.

"Late again. Are you ever on time, Allen?"

"Well, uh, actually, captain-" Singh stopped and turned to glare at Barry. "No, sir, I'm never on time."

"That's what I thought." He went back to his purposeful march to his office. "I want your report for the Stevenson case on my desk before you leave tonight."

Barry stayed where he was and called after Singh's turned back, "Absolutely, Captain, on your desk by seven o' clock."

"Make it six." Singh called without turning around. He closed his office door without waiting for Barry's answer.

"Yessir, Captain Singh, sir." Barry grumbled under his breath, "I'll just have a report that I haven't even started finished in eight hours after completing a process that requires ten hours."

Joe West set his arms around Barry's shoulders. "Hey Bare, everything alright?"

Barry shrugged. "Yeah, just gotta finish a report for Singh. And I really miss my speed. I'm tired of always being late."

Joe nodded. "Welcome back to humanhood, Flash."

Barry sighed. "Yeah. I better get started on that report."

Barry trekked off in the direction of his lab. Today was going to be a long day.

~~~~

By the time the lunch rush rolled around, Lincoln was tired of taking orders from caffeine deprived businessmen and women. She was arguing with a particularly grumpy, red-faced bank teller who kept telling her that she had made his caramel mocha triple-shot-espresso wrong, even though it was her signature cup.
"Sir," she was saying, "I can remake your coffee if you would just tell me what you think is wrong with it."