Hello, and thank you for checking this fic out! A bit of background:

I wanted to take a break from the super heavy stuff and do something a bit more episodic, which is why I turned to the real gem that is the 1990 Flash TV series. A few months back I marathoned the entire series and was struck by the episode "Sight Unseen," which had actual suspense and character moments and a focus on the interactions between two ladies. I decided it would be a great episode to update for the modern show; I did a similar thing back when I wrote for the Star Trek fandom and it was good fun.

Much of the dialogue in this fic is ripped directly from the 1990 episode, but there are notable changes and additions. Thanks for giving it a shot, and I hope you enjoy!

An eye-roll was suitable for the situation, Caitlin decided. An eye-roll was usually suitable whenever Barry began babbling at speeds almost too fast to comprehend. She allowed herself a private one as she continued walking, Barry trailing anxiously behind her.

"Okay, so Cisco and I doped all the races, right?" he was saying. "Now, Gumlags is a long shot in the fourth, but I…"

Caitlin dumped the stack of papers she'd been carrying on the desk with a satisfying thud, then turned to face the speedster. "Barry, I'd love to go horseracing with you and Cisco, but I can't."

"What do you mean, you can't?" Barry said, emphasizing the last word as she had.

Caitlin sighed. "Look at all this. I have to finish it."

It wasn't even a lie. She'd been working on this project for days, and she was one breakthrough away from completing it. Barry shouldn't have been complaining; she'd been working on developing a new drug for him that would allow for the administration of painkillers without compromising his speed.

"A few weeks ago you broke five ribs and got stabbed in the shoulder," she reminded him. "I'm surprised you're not begging me to keep researching."

Still, Barry waved the newspaper clipping he'd been marking up. "Aw, come on, Cait. It's tote bag night. Don't you want your free tote bag? With the…you know, the lucky horseshoe patch?"

"Yes I do," Caitlin said drily. "More than anything, I've been dreaming about that free tote bag. But you and Cisco go on without me."

"Come on, you've been working on this project all week," Barry whined. "One more day is not going to matter."

"Oh?" Caitlin said, raising an eyebrow. "And what if one of those horses at the horserace is an evil meta horse who tears your arm halfway off of your body? I bet you're going to want painkillers then."

Barry crossed the arms in question and pouted.

Caitlin gave him a once-over. "What is this really about? Why the sudden interest in horse races? Is this some part of your personality that I somehow missed for two years?"

Barry shrugged. She knew his body language well enough by now to sense the discomfort, and she softened.

"No," he said. "It's just...it's been so long since we've done anything exciting, all of us."

"Just two days ago we fought a metahuman who could transform into a giant snake."

"Exciting but not life-threatening," Barry amended. "You know, like the old days. Just us poor awkward millennials against the world."

"Most poor awkward millennials wouldn't consider horseracing the solution to any problem," Caitlin teased, but she knew that the sentiment was heartfelt. With all of the craziness that permeated their lives nowadays, they hadn't had much time to simply exist as friends. Not like they used to. "I promise, once this is over, we'll make a point of it. I just…really can't tonight, okay? I think there's roller derby happening this weekend. I've always wanted to see roller derby."

Barry considered, cocked his head to the side in thought. "I suppose roller derby could work."

"What about Iris?" Caitlin said. "Didn't you invite her?"

"Doesn't like horses," Barry said. "Trust me, I know."

"Did someone say something about horses?" Like many of the unexpected visitors who walked into the STAR cortex, Iris' timing was impeccable. "You know I hate those suckers."

"Just because you got bucked off of one at a Girl Scouts camp—"

"I would say that's a pretty valid reason for being terrified," Iris said, shooting Barry a reproachful look before turning to Caitlin. "Is he trying to convince you to go to the horseraces?"

Caitlin nodded. "I can't. I've got to stay here and finish this."

"Mind if I hang out here, too?" Iris asked. "Some of my neighbors are throwing a party tonight, and I need to finish an article."

Caitlin waved toward a chair—Go ahead. Barry threw up his hands. "Okay, I get the hint. Don't work too hard tonight, okay?"

This time, the affectionate eye-rolling was synchronous between Caitlin and Iris. "Good night, Barry."

Realizing the battle was lost, the speedster zipped out, leaving only a trail of fluttering papers in his wake. With him gone, the lab was again draped in quiet, in stillness.

Instead of sitting, Iris leaned over the desk toward Caitlin to get a look at the stack of papers. "Is this the same serum you've been working on since Saturday?"

Caitlin ran a hand through her hair, letting out a long breath. "I got a little distracted by the giant snake meta."

"That's fair," Iris said. "You're close, though, right?" Caitlin nodded, and Iris pushed herself upright. "Well, let me know if you need any help, okay? I'm going to head down to the break room to work on this. I'm always inspired by a full fridge."

Caitlin grinned. "There's leftover pizza in there from last night. Help yourself."

"And you," Iris said, brandishing a pen threateningly at Caitlin, "don't forget to eat. I will be checking on you in one hour to make sure you're not letting yourself starve, alright?"

"Deal," Caitlin said. "Good luck on your article."

Iris made an exaggeratedly pain-filled face before turning toward the door. She disappeared without another word, her heels clicking all the way down the hallway beyond.

Caitlin settled into her work, resigned to at least an hour of uninterrupted focus. The pages full of text, her text, threatened to blur together. With a twinge, she wished she was out with Barry and Cisco, or at least out of STAR doing karaoke with Iris, something—but obligation pushed her head down toward the page, her fingers tapping idly against keys.

With her nose buried in her work, she didn't notice the flickering of lights in the hallway behind her, nor the door that swung open, then closed, of its own accord.

With a giant snake-man on the loose, Central City faced one of its most formidable and unusual foes yet…

Iris frowned at her laptop screen, mouthing the words to herself, then backspaced viciously. She would've thought that after a year of helping out a team of superheroes, she would be better at writing about metahuman crime in the city. But hell, she hadn't studied any of this in grad school. Back then, the strangest thing she'd had to write about was people dressed as superheroes trying to pull pranks on Halloween.

She needed a catchy name for this meta of the week. What had Cisco called him, again? Although his nicknames were usually cheesy at best and punny at worst, they always sold well in the papers. With Iris there to funnel his creations into the media, he had attained a sort of anonymous fame.

Though Iris always privately treasured the fact that she could take credit for naming Central City's most famous metahuman.

She picked up her phone to text Cisco, to ask what his name for this particular creature had been, but found that her phone had died. That was odd. She'd had at least a twenty-five percent charge when she'd come to STAR. And she hadn't been there all that long, had she?

She flung the now-useless object back on the couch and closed the laptop. Caitlin would know Cisco's ridiculous meta name, surely, and it was about time that they both ate—

Before she could stand, a screeching of a siren startled her so much that the laptop clattered to the floor. The lights of the break room cut out, leaving Iris in shadows, and the alarms pulsed continuously like a deafening heartbeat.

With every sense on edge, Iris stood and bolted for the door, then for the cortex. It wasn't just the break room lights that had gone out; it appeared that the entire building had gone dark. Iris ran, deaf against the concussive warnings bombarding her, mind jumping to a thousand different conclusions at once. None of them were good.

She nearly screamed when she ran into Caitlin halfway to the cortex. Caitlin was running her direction, perhaps with the same idea in mind, but she didn't stop. She grabbed Iris around the arm and pulled her forward, the two of them continuing in a sprint down the curved corridors.

"What's happening?" Iris yelled. Her panic levels rose to new heights when she saw where they were running—the exit of STAR, which was slowly being blocked by a descending wall of steel.

"Contamination lockdown," Caitlin called back, gesturing wildly toward the wall. "Come on!"

They weren't going to make it, and Iris knew that from the moment the wall began to descend. By the time they reached it, no amount of Indiana Jones level sliding would get them underneath. Caitlin still dropped to her knees hopefully, futilely, as it hit the floor.

"Damn it," she said under her breath.

Contamination lockdown, Iris thought, semi-detached amid the adrenaline rush. We're being quarantined. "Another exit," she said desperately. "We can try getting out another way."

"It's too late," Caitlin said, doubling over, panting. "The building will seal itself off." She looked up at Iris, face flushed. "Looks like we won't be leaving tonight after all."

Thanks again for reading! Please let me know what you think in the comments below; I really appreciate it. (Also if you stick around you'd best prepare yourself for this message every single chapter.)

As with all of my fics, update schedule is Sunday/Wednesday!

Till next time,

Penn