Alter Egos

See Me

Description: Missing/AU scene from part 1 of Elseworlds.

...

Everything was wrong, completely and totally wrong.

Barry would've liked to have been able to say that his day had at least started out normal, but it hadn't. He had gone to bed as Barry Allen the previous day and had awoken to the next as Oliver Queen. Well, at least to the rest of the world, anyway. He (and the real  Oliver) still knew who he was, but nobody else did and that included his team.

Barry leaned heavily against one of the surfaces in the lab, rubbing his eyes and face in frustration. The others had dispersed a few minutes prior and Oliver had followed not long after, with the intent of trying to talk to Iris.

Truthfully, the whole situation was bothering him a lot more than he liked to admit. It wasn't like Barry hadn't dealt with the impossible before, he was just used to doing it with his friends by his side. But now they didn't even know him as the person he was, and they didn't believe him either.

Barry's thoughts were suddenly broken by the faint click of heels, his gaze immediately darting to the door. That seemed to be a bit of a side effect of his newfound skills, he found himself hearing and noticing things he hadn't before. The hitch of a breath, the crack of a joint, or even a change in a person's voice seemed to be enough to set off alarm bells in Barry's mind. Caitlin came into view a moment later, and Barry felt some of the previous adrenaline melt away. The doctor walked in slowly and calmly, now adorned in her white lab coat.

"Hey, do you mind if I run a few more tests," Caitlin inquired, an apprehension in her words. "I'd just like to take a DNA sample."

"Of course, anything you want," Barry assured, trying to make his own tone seem as open and relaxed as possible.

Caitlin nodded and began to move about the lab, collecting the supplies needed. There was a stiffness to her demeanor though, something about it left an odd twist in Barry's stomach. Maybe it was the way she seemed so unsure when she spoke, or the way she gave him such a wide berth as she moved around him.

She seemed calm, but not exactly comfortable, not like she usually was with him. Barry kinda hated it. She was as kind and courteous as always, but her guard was up in a way it had never been with him. Because to her, he was a friend and a guest at S.T.A.R. Labs. But he wasn't Barry, he wasn't her Barry.

The former speedster had been gifted (or rather cursed) with a perspective he had never had before. An outside one. Caitlin had never really had to ask him if she wanted to run a test, and she knew that. Even when he had been a comatose stranger, she hadn't even hesitated to ask for a urine sample. His health and his well being had just always been something she had taken care of, and Barry always found a strange comfort in that. But now it wasn't and it bothered him a lot more than it probably should've.

Caitlin soon approached him, slipping on her medical gloves and producing a cotton swab. Barry opened his mouth before she even had to say a word and the doctor quickly and efficiently swabbed the inside of his cheek. After that, she put it in a sterile tube and discarded her gloves. Caitlin slipped the sample safely in her pocket and gave him a quick 'thank you,' before heading for the door.

Barry would've been lying if he said he didn't feel his heart sink a little. He wanted to talk to her, he wanted her to help him make sense of the whole thing, to find out what had happened. He wasn't even sure he could do it without her help.

"You don't believe me, do you?" Barry spoke up, causing her to turn back.

The beat of silence that followed gave him the answer.