A/N: This one was requested by Lex-no-Luther. It was actually a little bit of a challenge to write this one, but that definitely made it more interesting and fun to do. I've never really written for Caitlin before, so hopefully she's not too OOC and I've done her amazing character the justice that she deserves. I really hope you enjoy it! R&R!
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Prompt #45: "Tell me a secret."
Characters: Heat Wave & Caitlin Snow from The Flash.
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It was just another normal Tuesday for the crew at S.T.A.R. Labs. Barry, or rather The Flash, was out doing his superhero duties as usual—helping the paramedics pull civilians out of cars, saving family's from apartment fires, and stopping the occasional street mugging. Dr. Wells had taken the day off under the pretenses of having the stomach flue—he had tried to tell them he would be in later that afternoon but Caitlin insisted he stay home all day and rest in order to heal faster. For that reason it was just Caitlin and Cisco working in the lab to help Barry today.
"Yo, dude. Fire on 53rd St." Cisco was saying into the coms system.
"On it!" Came Barry's response through the speaker.
"Guys, is it just me, or does it seem like there have been an awful lot of fires today?" Asked the female doctor watching the dot that was Barry's GPS signal speed across the screen to the given location.
"Nah. There's lots of fires everyday." The man sitting next to her said. Barry was now arriving at the house fire.
"Yea, I know but, it doesn't seem like there's more today to you?"
"Not really. I mean, maybe one or two more," he conceded, "but it's a big city. Its no big deal. And besides, our boy's got this!"
And right on cue, as if to prove a point, Barry's voice returned on the speaker system to tell them that the fire was out and everyone was safe. "That's taken care of." He said, "What's next?"
"Boom!" Cisco yelled pumping his fist into the air in excitement, "That is how you do that!"
Caitlin gave her companion a pointed look at his over the top enthusiasm before answering the speedsters question. "It looks like there's a bank robbery in progress at Central City Bank. Five hostages."
"Well that's always fun." Barry grumbled sarcastically. "I hate it when they take hostages. I'm on my way."
The young woman leaned back in her seat and folded her arms before addressing her coworker again. "I suppose you might be right. About the fires I mean. It is a big city. A few extra fires in one day are bound to happen at some point, right?"
"Right." The young man agreed happily as he too leaned back in his seat, propping his feet up on the desk and blissfully sucking on his grape lollipop.
Caitlin gave a soft laugh while rolling her eyes, and was just about to tell him to put his feet down before he messed up the equipment when the security alarms went off. Both of the labs occupants sat up strait in their chairs sharing a worried glance as Cisco lowered his feet back onto the ground and pulled up the security footage on the monitor. Inside the elevator stood Mick Rory—also known as Heat Wave—leaning against the wall and clutching a hand to his side. He was clearly injured, yet he still held a wild and sadistic look in his eyes. Moments later he stumbled out of the elevator and both Cisco and Caitlin stood up so rapidly that they almost knocked their desk chairs over as they rushed to the door to block the pyromaniacs entrance to the lab just as he reached the doorway.
"You really are insane if you think we're letting you get in here." Cisco told him firmly.
"Not insane." The older man correct, "Just desperate."
"Desperate?" The younger male questioned. "Really? That's what your going with?"
"You're hurt." Caitlin stated as she noticed the criminals labored breathing and blood seeping through the spaces between his figures where he clutched his side. "You should go to a hospital."
"I think you and I both know why I can't do that." Mick panted. "They'd have the police come and arrest me the second I walked in."
"Uh, yea." Cisco agreed. "Because you're a criminal!" He had enunciated each syllable of the word ''criminal'' as he said it.
"You're right, I am." Heat Wave agreed.
"Glad we can agree on something." The engineer added helpfully.
"But criminal or not, I don't particularly fancy dieing today." He still had that crazy look in his eyes and it unnerved Caitlin a great deal. Her last encounter with the pyromaniac hadn't been all that pleasant, and this was bring back all kinds of bad memories. "And criminal or not, you two are the good guys. You won't let me die."
For a moment Cisco wavered in his certainty, looking at his friend for guidance. "Damn it." She cursed under her breath.
"He's right. I can't let the big jerk die. Cisco, stay on the coms to help The Flash out. Mick, you'll follow me to the recovery room." The doctor instructed leaving no room for either man to argue.
Once they reached the recovery room down the hall she instructed the man to remove his shirt and lie down on the table as she washed her hands and pulled on a pair of rubber gloves.
"So," she began taking a seat beside his bed, "Who'd you piss off this time?"
"The Darbinyan crime family." he replied honestly, an evil glint in his eyes. "Unknowingly burned down one of their safe houses. Apparently they had some guns and drug cartel hidden in there that they weren't to keen to see go up in flame. Sure as hell did look pretty though."
"You are one, sick individual. Do you know that?"
The pyromaniac only smiled at her sadistically as she cleaned his wound. "So let me guess." The doctor continued, "They found out it was you, sent one of their goons to kill you, and they left after shooting you a few times thinking you were dead?"
"He got a few kicks to my ribs in first, but otherwise, not bad." He kept grinning at her in a way that made her skin prickle, the little hairs on her arms and the back of her neck standing up.
She tried her best to push the uneasy feeling from her stomach and focus on the medicine as she looked her patient over. An x-ray revealed no major damage to any vital organs, only two fractured ribs and some minor bruising on his sternum. Feeling satisfied that there was no life threatening internal damage Caitlin got to work removing the bullets from his open wounds and stitching him up. Heat Wave continued to watch her as she worked, that same evil glint in his eyes and sadistic smile on his face. She tried her best to ignore it. Everything about this man just screamed "lunatic" to her. She worked in silence for several minutes, pausing periodically to wipe away the blood as it became to thick around the wounds for her to properly see where she was stitching, before he spoke again.
"Tell me a secret."
"Nope." She replied curtly while continuing her work.
"Why not?" The lunatic asked.
"Because I don't trust you, for starters. And for that matter, frankly, I just don't like you." Caitlin replied.
"Tell me a secret." Mick said again, more firmly this time.
No response from his doctor.
"Tell me a secret." He repeated, this time asking what he really wanted to know. "Who's The Flash?"
That earned him a bitter laugh. "You really are crazy if you actually believe that I would ever tell you that."
The man made a tisk-tisk noise before responding. "So protective over your little Flash." His deep voice prodded. "First you're willing to die for him, now you insult my sanity. All to protect his silly little secret."
Caitlin Snow was finding it more and more difficult by the minute to resist her urge to break the already injured man's nose. She refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing just how much he was getting under her skin however, so she bit down on her lower lip to keep from exploding in rage at the pyromaniac and continued her work in silence, all the while trying to push out the memories of her capture.
Heat Wave was not having this silent treatment at all. He pushed on. "Oh, you care for him. Don't you Dr. Snow?"
The young woman still gave no response. The man before her had kidnapped her, taunted her, and hurt Barry. He didn't deserve a response to his madness as he taunted her yet again. She would not give in.
"You love him even, don't you Dr. Snow?" He continued, and then he tisked again. "Love is a horrible weakness, yes?"
"Love isn't a weakness." She corrected, speaking at last. "It's a strength. It gives you something to believe in, something to fight for. It gives you a reason to hope, and someone to encourage you. And yes, if you must know, I do love him. He's like a brother to me and I would do anything to protect him from sociopathic people like you."
"What's his name?" Heat Wave asked, still wearing the same evil grin with that unnerving glint in his eyes.
"You're just jealous." She said. "Snart knows who he is, and he won't tell you. Wow, I'll bet that's infuriating."
The pyromaniac made a noise just then that sounded far to similar to a grow for her liking. She knew she had struck a nerve for him, and despite her uneasy feeling, she grinned knowing that she'd found a way to get under his skin too now. "I'll take that as a yes." The female doctor muttered as she put in the last few stitches.
Once the task of stitching was done with she used a warm, wet cloth to wipe off some of the excess dried blood and dried the skin around the injuries. Caitlin then dabbed them with some rubbing alcohol and Neosporin before using surgical tape to secure the cotton cloth bandages over the wounds to ensure that they wouldn't get infected as they healed. She had just begun wrapping a medical bandage around her patients mid section to give some support to his injured ribs as they healed when Barry—still clad in his and Cisco's red Flash suit—appeared in the door way.
"Hey, Caitlin—" he began, then upon realizing that they were not alone, his words died off mid sentence.
His mask had already been pulled away from his face since he hadn't been expecting to find Heat Wave sitting on the examination table when he entered the room. Seeing that they had company, the boy blinked a few times in surprise at who there visitor was.
"Does your mother know what you've been doing?" Their visitor asked him with a laugh of surprise The Flash's young appearance.
"I'm 26." Barry replied stupidly. He finally managed to pull himself out of his stupor, shaking his head to clear the fog from his mind before returning his attention to a furious looking Caitlin.
"Uh, you know what. Never mind. You're busy, so I'll just come back later." He told her before turning around abruptly and disappearing in a blur of red and yellow.
"Ha!" Mick Rory laughed aloud, "I saw The Flash's face!" The man was grinning wildly, not that Caitlin saw. She wasn't paying him any attention anymore.
"I'm going to kill him." The girl muttered still glaring at the spot where the speedster had just been standing.
"You're beautiful when your angry." Heat Wave laughed sadistically, "Just like a big house fire!"
His comment earned him a glare from his doctor, who was now returning her attention to him. It must have been a particularly vicious glare this time, because the evil grin died on the man's lips when he caught sight of her face—though his eyes still held their unnerving glimmer. Caitlin pulled the bandage tight around his chest, probably tighter than necessary in her anger since her patient let out a small yelp in pain, his face scrunching up for a brief moment before relaxing. She couldn't help the small grin that formed on her lips, satisfied with herself for the action.
Once she was finished securing the bandage in place, she yelled at the mentally unstable man in front of her to leave the lab, promising to break his nose if he didn't comply.
"And I promise I'll do the same if you do anything to hurt The Flash!" Caitlin added, since he had seen Barry's face. Evidently, he believed her, because Mick Rory made an exceptionally hasty exit that left all three of the remaining lab occupants impressed.
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A/N: And thus concludes this story! I hope you all enjoyed the read, especially you Lex-no-Luther (since it was your request). Let me know what you guys thought by leaving me a nice little review! Also, feel free to make some request! I'd be happy to do them. :) R&R, please and thank you! Mwah!