They don't call him Sherloque for no reason. While looking for Caitlin's father, the newest Wells in the team discovers more than it was expected from him.
Barely had they begun their search, Caitlin was already regretting it. And to think it'd seemed like such a good idea at first!
The newest Wells they recruited turned out to be a very good detective, his official moniker already being laughed at by both Cisco and Ralph; yet, the man seemed not to be bothered by that at all, carrying it with pride. It didn't take long for the team to suggest Sherloque should work with Caitlin as she wanted to find her father. They were all still shocked by her discovery to which she only recently confessed. During her pregnancy, Cecile had picked up on Killer Frost still being somewhere inside Snow and voiced the message the ice queen wanted to pass to her host – the message about Thomas always being this way, which basically meant icy. Cait kept on working herself up over the idea of him being alive and in hiding, knowing herself how hard it must've been for him to leave his family, letting them believe he was dead just so he could protect them. She was no stranger to those hard choices as she'd made a similar one herself, though in the end she managed to get through to Killer Frost and join the team again as herself whereas only calling upon her villainous alter-ego when needed. Maybe Thomas Snow wasn't as lucky, maybe he was someone else, maybe he didn't care or was a monster, she didn't know, but she had to find out. Otherwise she might always wonder.
Here was where Sherloque came into the picture.
Though, at the moment Caitlin was seriously rethinking hiring him for the job because of the way he was just now looking at her. He'd already done a thorough interview and not just with her, but with the entire team, explaining that having all the possible knowledge, all the seemingly tiny and insignificant details might actually make a huge difference in the end.
"What?" she finally asked him as they were going over what he found out that day. He just stopped talking in the middle of his sentence, his French accent still sounding a little weird when she connected him to all the other Wellses she'd met so far. "What is it?" she had to repeat her question, this time sounding annoyed as he just kept on staring and if there was one thing that never changed when it came to the doppelgangers of his, it was the eyes. The same vivid blue eyes that were so incredibly fair and deep…
"This," he eventually spoke, effectively breaking the spell barely by using his voice, his accent shattering the illusion.
"I don't follow," she admitted, yet he immediately picked up on her increased nervousness.
"This," he repeated, emphasizing the word as though it would make her finally grasp what he meant. "This thing between you and me." He then pointed his finger at her before shifting it to himself.
"What? I… There's… What do you mean?" she stammered, immediately losing her cool and starting to panic. "There is nothing between you and me."
"Agreed," he said to her astonishment. "I mean…" He narrowed his eyes at her in a gesture suddenly so familiar that if he was wearing actual glasses instead of contacts, she would half expect him to take them off the way Harry used to do when he was feeling uncomfortable. "You and my counterpart. Were you… are you in love with him?" Sherloque just blurted out in one of his famous techniques. He was known for getting straight to the point and embarrassing the people he was interviewing so they would give everything away in their reactions.
Right now Caitlin Snow might not be saying much of anything, but the look on her face that consisted of pure terror, shock and embarrassment with the dark crimson just coloring her cheeks was enough of an answer for him.
"What gave it away?" she eventually asked, sighing inwardly. It wasn't as though she could deceive him now. Apparently, he was too good at what he was doing.
"The way you react to my presence, how you look at me before you realize I'm not actually him. You can't hide this from me, Cait. Every time I'm near, you tense up and there's this special look in your eyes, only reserved for someone you truly care about, but that also goes away as soon as you remind yourself that it's not me."
"Because you're not him," she murmured quietly under her breath, looking down at her hands, yet he managed to hear her anyway.
"Listen, you gotta solve this out," he advised.
"What?" she immediately met his blues again and forced her body under control so it wouldn't react to seeing those familiar pupils the way it always did when Harry was around. Because Sherloque was not Harry.
"I will help you find your father if you really want me to," he continued, "I'm here for you, I really am, but… something tells me you'd rather be doing this with him. So you gotta solve this out."
"Just let it go," she tried to brush his advice off.
"Why? It's not that hard to achieve. You just make a trip to Earth 2 and…"
"I can't."
"Just do it, Cait. It's easy, really."
"No," the unchanged answer came.
"Cait, I never leave an unfinished business and you shouldn't either. Why don't you just talk to him?"
"I can't."
Sherloque started to feel frustrated, "But why?" he prompted.
"Because he left!" she finally erupted and there was sudden silence. "Because he never told me that he had feelings for me! He didn't care, Sher!" The Wells sitting next to her winced at the nickname Cisco had christened him with and which the entire team seemed to pick up and fast. Caitlin ignored the expression, too worked up now to even care. "He just didn't care. We are his family! And he doesn't care! He just did what he always does, he left. He keeps leaving over and over again!" She finally went silent, breathing heavily and feeling a little bit lighter to have gotten all of this off her chest, yet the difference was subtle because the Wells she just screamed at wasn't the right one.
"Well, I think you should tell him that," he still advised.
"Yeah? And what good will that do except maybe alienate him even more? After this, he might never come back."
"Or the outcome could be entirely different. You won't know unless…"
"This discussion is over," Caitlin just said when standing up from her seat and making a point by leaving the room.
Sherloque only shook his head theatrically, murmuring under his breath, "Gee, no wonder those two still haven't hit it off…" He knew enough about Harry from the rest of the team by now to have a certain picture of the man in his head. Maybe it was high time somebody did something about this sticky situation.
Caitlin had to blink a few times before she believed her own eyes.
Because when she entered the cortex the next day, she saw Harry and idly said hi to him before stilling herself and turning on her heel, needing to check again which Wells he actually was. And she blinked and blinked before realizing that the hair, glasses on his nose and the head to toe black really left no room for a mistake.
The look in the all-too-familiar and dear blue eyes threw her slightly off balance as well as she nearly forgot how deep this particular pair of them was.
"Look who's back! It's Harry!" Cisco chirped happily, seeming to miss up on her reaction.
"Back you say?" was all she said in a cold voice before turning around and heading straight for her lab. "Wonder how long he'll stay this time before he bails," she threw on her way out, leaving her friend stunned.
"Dude, what's her deal?" Ramon asked Harry whereas the older man just shook his head and followed Snow.
Caitlin was surprised when the door opened and closed behind her, the air in the room suddenly becoming heavier. She instinctively knew exactly who that was who just walked in and why he was even here. She suspected it might be all because of Sherloque. Unless this whole visit was just a coincidence, of which she would manage to convince herself if Harry hadn't followed her suit, that was.
"Why are you even here?" she was the first one to speak as he was just this nagging presence behind her, his eyes burning a hole in her back.
"Your new addition to the team paid me a visit yesterday," he said and she thought, that bastard! Sherloque must've quite literally just gone and sought Harry after he'd talked to her! "I mean, it was actually a hologram," the Wells behind her provided, "but we talked."
"Oh, God," she groaned silently when raising her hand to her forehead. "What exactly did he tell you?" she had to ask. Just do it like ripping off a band aid, she told herself. Yet, she still didn't seem to have the courage to turn around and actually look at him. This seemed easier, however rude the position seemed. Then again, he should be the one talking about rude!
"Enough," the short, yet suffice answer came and she'd never felt more mortified in her life.
"Perfect," she murmured under her breath again. "Just fucking perfect."
"Did you notice that every new Wells you invite to the team is only more annoying?" he asked out of the sudden. She wasn't sure why. Maybe he was just as uncomfortable while having this conversation as she was. "I mean, why is that?"
"I can only wonder."
"Must've skipped me," he then added.
"You don't say."
Silence fell and Caitlin's entire body tensed up since she could feel him moving closer and arriving right behind her, his hands hovering in the air just next to her shoulders for a moment before he gave up and let his arms fall down his sides.
"Look… listen," he began in a serious tone and she immediately interrupted, afraid of what he was going to say and desperate to protect her heart from the unavoidable blow.
"It's ok, Harry. I understand. Can we just forget about this whole thing and move past it?"
"Past it?" he seemed surprised. "Snow…"
"Harry, really, you don't have to expl…"
"Do you really think I came all this way just to tell you that I felt nothing for you?" the surprised question hung in the air and the tension in her only increased.
"Technically, you only jumped into a breach. Grocery shopping on your earth takes longer than that," she responded just to unload some of the heaviness, but then she also decided she couldn't possibly let him talk to her back any longer. Even he wouldn't do it to her – or maybe especially not to her - so she turned around and nearly gasped at the vulnerable and troubled look in his eyes. And his face… truly, she'd never seen him so awkward, not even when he'd begun losing his intelligence along with his memories. "Harry…"
"I'm too old for you," he blurted out nearly in the same time, effectively cutting what she was going to say short.
"What?" She could only stare at him incredulously. "What?"
"Yes, I made a hasty retreat to my earth. Yes, I have been feeling the same for you for a very long time now and yes, the recently found balance between my heart and my head made me actually want to tell you, but…" He sighed, running his hand through his hair and looking aside for a moment before he met her eyes again. "In the end, it was what stopped me."
She gasped, suddenly remembering how he said I love you, too before looking at her stealthily and making his chase retreat. Indeed, that was exactly what happened. He wanted to tell her, but he decided against it in the end.
"Too old for me," she repeated after him, nearly tasting the words. "Harry, what are you even talking about? With the life we lead, it should be the least of our problems."
"But you deserve better than this, Snow," he confessed, providing no escape from his radiant blue stare as she couldn't seem to be able to look away even for a second, drowning in them, feeling as though they were hypnotizing her. "You deserve the best, a whole lifetime of love and kids and…"
"We don't have to have kids, Harry," she cut in, not able to stop herself from blurting that out. "I don't know what the future holds for us. All I know is the right now. And all I want is…" she nearly finished, but he stopped her, "Don't. Don't say it." He made a step back and raised his hand, shaking his head. "It's too much. Once you do, I won't be able to hold back."
"Then don't," she encouraged him, feeling braver out of the sudden. She had nothing to lose, did she? He already let her know that he felt the same. She just had to convince this idiot that it was ok to take what he wanted.
"Snow… Caitlin," his eyes were back on her, "you've been through so much in your life that you truly deserve someone younger who would always be there for you," he tried one more time, but it was clear to her that he was slowly breaking that resolve.
"Oh, really? Because it worked so well for me with Ronnie? Or Hunter?" she provoked him. "We never know what's gonna happen to us, Harry. You might end up living to be a hundred years old and someone else, someone younger as you would put it, might die in a car accident tomorrow. There's no use thinking about it. There's only right now and what we want and need and for me… Well, for me it's you."
He reacted so fast that when he cupped her face and crashed his lips against her own, she stilled, shocked by his sudden action, but then she felt nothing but happiness and desire. She felt as though so far she'd been dying on a desert and he was the clear water she craved for. She was finally able to kiss those lips she'd been dreaming about for so long, to feel his hot breath on her face and his tongue sliding along her lower lip before she allowed him entrance, losing herself within his arms completely, letting him penetrate her mouth in a way that left her breathless and shaky and hot and blissful.
When they finally parted, forehead resting against forehead, his breath still on her face and God, she always wanted him there, he whispered, "Snow."
"No, don't fight this, Harry. I'm done fighting. Give in."
He nodded, not able to form another word for now and then he was closing his arms around her, taking her into his embrace, knowing he'd never be able to let her go again.
"Just so you know, I won't mind having it all with you," he said straight into her ear when breathing her in. "If you want me, then yes, I'm done fighting, I'm all yours. In fact, I have always been yours, Caitlin. If you want children, I will give them to you. I will give you anything you want. Because this is all that matters in the end. Family. People. Love."
"And you couldn't figure this out before even with your newly found emotional intelligence?" she teased him, needing to joke a little or else she'd fall apart.
He chuckled. "I need practice."
"Clearly. And I never want to hear about your age ever again, do we understand each other?" she asked when she pulled away, already missing his touch.
He smiled at her. "Yes. Yes, we do."
"Good."
Caitlin knew there was still so much to figure out about herself, about Killer Frost and her seemingly alive father, but now that she had Harry by her side she knew that whenever happened, she would be all right. Because she wanted the truth, yes, but she would not allow herself be hurt by it. She already had a family and whatever happened once she did find her dad and talk to her mom about it, she would be fine. Because Harry was truly all she needed. She knew everything was going to be all right just because he would be there every step of the way.
In the end, she had to admit Sherloque right and maybe even thank him – because all it took was the right person.