A/N: The season finale left so many questions unanswered, and I got the idea to share my take on the origin of Killer Frost.
Set after 'Who is Harrison Wells' (and canon up to), but differs afterwards, basically no Reverse Flash.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything but the laptop I'm writing this on. So shoo, copyright sharks, nothing to see here.
Special thanks to my beta Cavacookie, for making this possible.
Enjoy!
"I really don't think you should do this Caitlin," Barry said. He sounded worried- he now understood how Caitlin felt every time he blindly charged into battle without taking a second look at his surroundings.
"I'll only be away for a week, Barry. You and Cisco can survive," Caitlin assured him. She had a sudden flashback to the time when Cisco tried to electrify Barry in an experiment to make him shoot lightning. Then she thought back to the time when they tried to cook bacon by rapidly vibrating Barry's hands (which ended up with Barry nearly merging with the bacon permanently). However, that experiment didn't compare to the time when Cisco tried to turn Barry's suit invisible- which it did... on Barry. And she couldn't forget the time when they tried to make Barry generate fire blasts during Caitlin's lunch break, from which she returned to find a very guilty looking Cisco and a brow-less Barry. After thinking it through, Caitlin said "On second thought, maybe Cisco should go."
Cisco put his hands up and shook his head. "Nuh-uh. Not happening. I am not going to the Arctic. I don't function in the cold."
"In that case," Caitlin said grabbing her purse. "I should go pack up. See you guys tomorrow." She waved the two a quick goodbye before getting in the elevator.
At the very same second the elevator doors closed, Cisco let the grin that he had just managed to suppress, spread across his face. Barry responded with an enthusiastic smile and the two rushed into the control room. Cisco pressed several buttons and then scanned his hand, making the secret-not-so-secret door to Cisco's weaponry open with an Inception horn sound effect. Barry approved with a "Nice" and a nod.
Cisco seemed pleased. "It's cool right? I added it last week. Now check this out." Cisco grinned as he lifted a rifle-sized gun, which looked creepily similar to Snart's Cold Gun. He turned towards the empty space inside the vault, which Barry knew for a fact that Cisco used to try out his new toys. There were two platforms in the middle, one had nothing and the other one displayed a S.T.A.R. Labs teddy bear.
Cisco aimed and fired the gun at the teddy bear, which got cocooned by a pale purple light, but nothing else happened. Barry raised a questioning eyebrow to which Cisco responded with his iconic grin. "Now, I got the idea from Shawna-"
"Peek-a-Boo?"
"The one and only. So we were sitting in her cell and got talking and, dude, like, she really needs to get over that stupid Clay Parker guy, she babbled on about him for an hour. Anyways, we talked, scratch that, she rambled on and I listened and turns out her powers are cooler than we knew. If something goes wrong during her teleportation, there is an explosion. Sick isn't it?" Cisco was grinning the way he did when he first met Oliver, and tiny part of Barry's brain which Caitlin would have named 'consciousness' was screaming in terror at the signs. Of course, Barry Allen being Barry Allen, ignored that little fragment of useless sense.
"So it occurred to me, what if I make a device that dematerialises an object, and dematerialise it back but this time, bombard the molecules with just enough energy to make them collide with particles in the air?"
Cisco turned, aiming at the empty platform. "The object will teleport but will immediately combust, and with enough energy it can even cause an explosion," he exclaimed, getting ready to fire. "I named it Peek-a-BOOM."
"The maniac that tried to murder me?"
Both men turned to the doorway, startled. Cisco, however, was in the middle of firing the gun and instead of the empty platform, the beam found Caitlin's heels. Barry reacted immediately and grabbed Caitlin. He saw the bear's head starting to materialise as he moved her to the entryway of the control room.
There was an extremely loud 'Boom' and a lot of smoke produced by the weapon. Thankfully, the emergency ventilation system kicked in and the smoke was cleared in half a minute. Caitlin rubbed her temple as Barry let go of her and stood up, helping her back on her feet. He offered a sheepish smile which wasn't returned, much to his dismay.
Cisco stood completely still with the widest and most apologetic grin on his face. This was the same face he made when he got himself tangled up in polymer cables after touching Oliver's arrows despite the glares.
"I trust that you can stay safe for one week. I don't ask you to build up another Lab, or work double time for my shift, I just ask you to keep the building, and the city as one piece until I come back. But you nearly blow me up and I haven't even packed my stuff yet!" Rage was dripping from her voice, 'fury of a thousand mothers,' as Cisco put it. Barry tried to slowly leave, silently stepping towards the entrance.
"And you." Busted. "We no longer have Dr. Wells to guide or clean up after you. You have to be more careful, Barry, we can't afford losing you."
Cisco's head hung low, and Barry moved closer to Caitlin. Sure, he suffered a lot because of Harrison Wells – or Eobard Thawne, whatever he was calling himself these days. But everything Wells had done was to hurt him and only him: Caitlin was just caught in the crossfire. Even after losing her fiancée, her career and reputation, she still stayed with her mentor and trusted him. However, the man turned out to be the man behind everything.
They found out the hard way that they were relying so heavily on Dr. Wells. Cisco was not as comfortable with his gadgets and inventions, and Caitlin was smiling less and less everyday, despite the fact that Ronnie was back. Barry struggled to focus and relied heavily on his underdeveloped team.
Now, they were also running dry on funding. So Caitlin had to go to the S.T.A.R. Labs' Arctic outpost to record and verify some data so that they could send the reports to major companies.
Caitlin gave a weak smile as Barry gently rubbed her upper arm. "How about pizza tonight? At my place?"
"Sounds good, but I really need to pack up."
"We can meet at your place and help you pack up," Cisco offered, looking at Caitlin like a guilty puppy. His face lit up when she smiled warmly and nodded, and he got the courage to ask, "Why did you come back anyway?"
Caitlin uncomfortably pushed a strand of hair behind her hair. "I forgot my lucky mug."
Barry knocked, for the third time, against Caitlin's apartment door. They could hear noises from inside, followed by a loud clatter. "Caitlin!" He started vibrating his hand on the knob expecting a familiar 'click' that never came.
"Won't work, dude. I installed an anti-speedster security system after Reverse Flash nearly killed me. Twice. But I have a key right here." Cisco started searching through his pockets and found a key attached to a blue snowflake. "Get it? 'Cause she's Caitlin Snow?" Barry shook his head with a groan.
"She gave you a key to her apartment?"
"Sure, we could call it that."
Cisco unlocked the door and they both rushed inside, calling her name.
"In here," a reply came from the bedroom. Cisco had known Caitlin for years, but it was the first time her bedroom looked this messy. Well, second, if he counted the time when her fiancée died and Cisco had to break down the door to get to her. The incident that had earned him his well-deserved key. Which Caitlin didn't know about. And would probably be better off not knowing.
"Are you okay? We heard a noise, did you fall?" Barry asked, relieved to see Caitlin unharmed.
"It was the shoe boxes," Caitlin explained, tilting her head towards the mess in the corner of the room where a mixture of empty boxes and an unnecessarily vast number of shoes were chaotically piled together. "I was looking for my boots when they ambushed me."
The doctor was sitting on the edge of her bed with a large suitcase lying open at her feet. The suitcase was empty, but the floor and her bed were both covered in clothing. Some of the items clothes were neatly folded whilst others clumsily swung aside. "You do realise that you are supposed to put your stuff inside the suitcase, right?"
"Ha. Ha. Very funny Cisco," she rolled her eyes. "I can't decide on what to pack. I have a list here but it will take me ages to find everything in this mess."
Barry smirked for a brief second, then there was the familiar 'whoosh' and in the blink of an eye, the room was as tidy as ever and her suitcase standing at the door fully packed and locked. Cisco grinned as Barry leaned against the door frame, examining his fingernails. "Super speed does have its uses."
Caitlin rolled her eyes. "Let's eat, I'm starving."
They moved to her living room, and enjoyed the extremely rare occasion of Caitlin allowing them to eat on the couch. To Cisco's insistence, the Coast City pizza was eaten while watching The Goonies. How Cisco wasn't sick of that movie yet was the million dollar question that both Barry and Caitlin couldn't answer. Of course, as expected, the brightest mind of the S.T.A.R. Labs family dozed off halfway through the movie and Caitlin immediately switched The Goonies to Slumdog Millionaire. She then got up, not being able to resist her sisterly urges, to lay a blanket on Cisco. Caitlin found herself needing to bring another blanket though, because when she turned back, Barry was fast asleep. She turned off the television and lights and set her alarm before smiling at the two sleeping figures. Then she went to her room to get some well-deserved rest.
Barry dragged Caitlin's suitcase, which if his estimates were accurate, was as heavy as her, through the large, glass doors of Coast City Airport. Caitlin's heels clicked as she casually walked past him carrying her purse with one hand. The other hand held the flight information sheet she had printed in the morning – which she was examining right now – and she seemed to be stripped of all other senses, as she did not even notice the struggle happening behind her.
A groan slipped out of Barry's throat when he tried to lift the suitcase to avoid tripping over a platform, while Cisco practically yelped trying to mimic his actions with multiple bags stuffed under his arms and in his hands, and failed.
"Thanks for helping me with the stuff," Caitlin turned to face them. Barry stopped rubbing his throbbing arm and smiled at her, and Cisco dropped the bags and sighed with exhaustion.
"Thanks for letting us sing back in the car," Barry replied with a childlike grin. He had started humming Poker Face as they left Jitters in the morning when Cisco joined in, and were jamming out I'll be There For You as they passed the 'Welcome to Coast City' sign. Of course, a lot of nudging was involved trying to get Caitlin to sing as well, and a line from Summer Lovin' which might have talked about 'a girl crazy for me' but she was not intrigued.
Caitlin grimaced at the memory.
They passed the checkpoint and handed in the luggage. Barry insisted on staying with Caitlin until the boarding time, and Caitlin gladly took on the offer.
"This is the boarding announcement for flight 52N to Blüdhaven. We are now inviting all our passengers to begin boarding."
Caitlin faintly smiled at Barry, who seemed very worried, contrasting 'Cisco's pretty excited to have a week's worth of guy time' attitude. "Barry, it's just one week, I'll be fine."
Barry sighed. He knew she would be fine- she was only visiting another location of S.T.A.R. Labs, and the only difference was that this one would be colder. Much colder. He also knew that Caitlin was fully capable of taking care of herself if anything went wrong. Which it wouldn't. Barry tried to convince himself of this but failed miserably. Even though there was nothing to worry about, he still felt like something was going to go wrong. "If you need anything, just text, or call, or send a messenger bird, and I'll be there."
Caitlin gave him a loving hug, then turned to Cisco. "I wrote down all the procedures you need to follow if something happens to Barry, you already know the basics so you should be fine without me." She turned back to Barry. "Although I strongly recommend you do not get cut open, his stomach can't exactly tolerate with seeing people getting stitched up. Doubt he will be able to stitch you up."
Cisco rolled his eyes, but still tightly hugged Caitlin. They exchanged their goodbyes when she was specifically called to the gate. She started walking but slowed down for a final reminder, "Don't forget to feed the metas! Oh, and, I want the facility intact when I return," she smiled and made her way to the gate as Cisco and Barry kept waving.
"Hey, Barry," Cisco said in a whisper between his grinning teeth. "We might have a problem."
"What kind of a problem," Barry asked in the same silent tone.
"Depends on how fast you can rebuild a control room…"
A/N: No action in this chapter, and there won't be much Killer Frost stuff for a few chapters. But I still hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next chapter! And don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.
Sneak preview: "If I was a flask of illegally fermented ninety-nine per cent fuel ethanol, where would I be?"
Aquixia