Hey!

I decided to translate another one of my fics. This is one is five chapters long and I started when we were halfway through Season 3 of The Flash, so there might be some inaccuracies. I also imagine this happening on Season 5.

Thank you for reading and, again, please excuse my grammar.

This are some of the songs I got inspiration from:

Push - Matchbox 20 (Barry)

Torn - Natalie Imbruglia (Caitlin)

Out of Goodbyes (feat. Lady Antebellum) - Maroon 5

"You should really be asking him," Barry said on the phone, sitting at his kitchen table. "If it's a surprise, don't do any modifications to the old one and make a new one. He'll have a spare."

He stopped hearing Cisco's talk the minute Caitlin stepped out of his bathroom in a towel. Realizing that was the first time he had seen her awake since the night before, Barry winked at her.

"Yes, I'm still here," Barry told Cisco. "Yes, Cisco, I know that it would take me ten seconds to appear in the lab and help you decide what to do with Wally's mask, but I won't do it because it's stupid." He shrugged at Caitlin, who smiled and shook her head. "Who cares if anyone thinks that there's a new speedster in town? Just make another mask, same color. Remember that Wally will probably stop by tomorrow. Goodbye."

Caitlin, who apparently didn't want to make any noise near the phone, finally started walking around Barry's new (and smaller) apartment. Barry knew by experience that some women didn't like men they had just spent the night with stared, so he took advantage of the few seconds she spent picking up her clothes, spread across the living room. He could finally look at her without pretending she wasn't beautiful. Damn, she was.

"Right. You need to change," Barry remembered, snapping his fingers.

"Barry, it's not ne…" she tried, but a rush of air blew her wet hair back and the speedster reappeared in front of her, holding a change of clothes. "…cessary. Thank you."

Barry's satisfied smile evaporated when Caitlin started walking back to the bathroom, with the same facial expression she had whenever he tried to talk to her while she was busy.

He cleared his throat loudly.

"Is everything alright between us?" he asked, directly.

Caitlin stopped in her tracks and turned around so slowly that Barry sensed he'd get a no for an answer.

"Of course," she replied, though. Caitlin Snow would never deny a smile to a loved one or a friend, but the one she had in that moment wasn't convincing. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"La-last night…" Barry stuttered, putting his hands behind his head. "You fell asleep before we could really… talk."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Barry knitted an eyebrow, confused.

"You and me. Last night," he repeated, patiently.

Caitlin shrugged, flustered. Barry had to remind himself that the same girl had just used his shower and, since he had to run to her apartment to get her a change of clothes, he was one hundred percent sure he hadn't accidentally time traveled and erased… the act of love.

"Very funny," he laughed, reaching out to grab her hand and feel her body temperature. Caitlin's powers were somehow connected to her emotional state, so they kind of worked as an indicator of mood swings. And she was, indeed, very cold. "I still have some time to buy you breakfast."

In a last attempt to stop things from getting more awkward, Barry leaned his face for a kiss. Caitlin didn't try to stop him or showed any sign of consent, so he refrained himself, resting his forehead against hers. They were so close that Barry could feel her cold breath hitting his upper lip, confirming his theory: that wasn't one of her good days.

"As I said," she emphasized, pulling her forehead away to break their contact. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Barry snorted.

"Don't do that," he begged, with a note of exasperation in his tone. "Not with me."

"What?" she asked, for real this time.

"Don't close yourself off. I am not some random guy."

Caitlin leaned forward and buried her face on Barry's shirt, groaning in frustration.

"I needed some space," she explained, straightening up to look at him. "I wanted to be out of here before you could wake up and make that face."

"What face?" Barry exclaimed, angrily. Hearing that she had planned to sneak out offended him deeply.

"That face, Barry! The Let's-Talk-About-Our-Feelings-Face!"

"Caitlin, I'm offering to buy you breakfast, not asking you to marry me…. And I certainly wasn't planning to make things awkward, I just wanted us to get something to eat before work, like we've done thousands of times before… like any other day."

You tried to kiss her like a minute ago, dude, he told himself, feeling verbally impotent.

"Barry, look around you: this is not how 'any other day' looks like," she said, looking down at the hand he was still holding. "Cisco, you and I… we're a family, and I'm not gonna jeopardize that just because you and I have the same knack for making bad decisions when we feel lonely. And you're right, I don't need to shut you out, so here I go: I don't know what we were thinking, but we're still friends. I don't want to talk about what happened, I don't want to go out with you or have any physical contact I wouldn't have with a brother. What I do want is that, as soon as we cross your front door, we forget about this enough to act normal at STAR Labs. No one, no one should find out about this."

"Cait," Barry mumbled, in protest. "You said you needed some space… but I'm kinda seeing the entire Milky Way in front of me right now."

"Please," she insisted.

As much as Barry wanted to argue and look neutral at the same time, his jaw clenching gave him away. He could feel his own disappointment all over his features.

What had he expected to happen? He should've stayed in bed with her that morning or taken some extra time in the shower to think about what to tell her, considering that it was fair to declare their friendship ruined.

But no, he had spent five minutes discussing speedster fashion with Cisco.

"You're right," he said, broody. "I think it's unfair to say that last night wasn't good or fun…" He paused when he saw Caitlin giving a disapproving look, implying how serious she was about forgetting the whole thing. "But you're right. We are friends."

"Good friends," she pointed out, apparently satisfied with their resolution. "I know you're a gentleman, Barry. You don't need to prove me anything. I'm a grown woman, I'm not fantasizing about dates or holding hands. I'm good. Nothing has to change."

"Nothing has to change."

Barry knew that Caitlin wasn't being unconsidered or selfish. She simply didn't know how he really felt about her. From where she was standing, he was just trying not to break the emotional connection so abruptly. Nevertheless, the only proof he had to validate his recently discovered feelings was the palpable tension that had fell on the living room during the hour they spent watching tv in his couch, and maybe the lame excuse he made to exclude Cisco from the invitation to movie night. Even before that, there were all those times he found himself staring at Caitlin for too long and feeling a strong 'what if?' pounding in his head. She wouldn't buy that, though. He had dated other people and married (and divorced) a girl he had loved half his life.

He couldn't tell her.

She would never believe him.

Hurt as he felt, Barry had nothing left to say. Nothing that didn't sound generic. He just knew he wanted more and, if Caitlin hadn't made the first move in that couch, he would've made it two seconds later.

"My turn to ask: are we good?" Caitlin questioned, with a friendly tone that sounded a lot more like herself.

"Of course we are," he chuckled, in pain.

"Thanks for inviting me over." She tiptoed to place a quick kiss in his cheek. Her lips were so cold that the warmness of a whole night of spooning seemed unreal now. "I know you wanted us to escape routine… but that went a little too far."

Caitlin's smile felt like a punch in Barry's ribs. He could feel the weight of his three previous break ups on his shoulders. Although this didn't exactly count as one, he was having trouble processing.

And maybe he was being too dramatic, but Caitlin was the last person he ever thought he'd break up with.

"I have to go to work now," he told her. "Lock the door, please."

Barry took a step back at superspeed and watched as the room went slower. Carefully, he tried to let go of Caitlin's hand, only to find out that he couldn't, because a string of lightning had been released in between, tying them together. He raised his arm in an attempt to break it, but the little thing pulled him back violently.

Barry sighed and avoided looking at Caitlin's face, even though she couldn't see him do anything at that speed.

"Nothing has to change," he recited.

Barry flashed to the door forcefully. Before exiting, he looked at Caitlin out of the corner of his eye. Once the connection was broken, she got an electric shock that made her jump back and look around, confused.

When you're a speedster, it's very unlikely to find obstacles in your way, because it only takes you a few seconds to go from one place to another. However, Barry suffered from something that hadn't happened to him in years: he tripped.

Luckily, he had fallen to the floor of an alley he used to take as a shortcut, so no one saw a stranger emerging from The Flash's characteristic lightning.

"What…?" he whined, trying to get up, but a burning pain in his leg prevented him from doing so.

If his math was correct, he had dragged his knee half a meter across the concrete floor.

Great. Just great, he thought, rolling up his pants leg.

He had expected to see the bone exposed, but what he found didn't any make sense: the monstrous injury had already been replaced by a long scar that was just starting to disappear as well, with blood bubbling all over it.

Barry rubbed his bloody hands on his thighs and stood up. He had no idea what he had tripped on, but that recently acquired ability wasn't something to complain about. Once the pain ceased, he went on his path.

That morning was slow and tortuous for Barry. The only case he had gotten in three hours wasn't even official: a metahuman that could phase through solids and had been MIA for a month. He didn't even bother to read the file.

Once he finished his lunch in a park bench, he rushed back to the CCPD. Everything promised to continue just as boring and normal, until he reached his de lab and bumped into his desk painfully.

"What? Again?" he gasped, taking a deep breath that made him dizzy. His hands were vibrating against the wood.

He looked down to rest from a sudden and overwhelming headache, when he noticed his watch.

3:05 PM.

How?

He had left the park at three o'clock. There was no way it had taken him that long to get back to the lab. Unless his watch was broken, there were five minutes missing from his memory. He hadn't stopped to catch some bad guy or prevent an accident. He should've been back there at three o'clock.

And what were those symptoms? His heart rate was increased (for him) and the pounding in his temples was already unbearable. Even weirder: he was exhausted, but he didn't feel like resting.

He wanted to run.

Before even realizing it, Barry found himself one meter closer to the south corner of his lab, like his feet had just slid there by themselves. His first instinct was to look for something to hold onto, but he fell to the floor before he could even try. His legs had started shaking uncontrollably.

Although he couldn't fully explain those phenomena, Barry knew them well: he had experienced them in the alley behind the police station, four years earlier. It was him tapping into the speed force for the first time.

But, why was this happening again? And why couldn't he remember the last five minutes?

"BARRY!" Joe yelled, dropping the folder in his hands as he worked his way into the lab.

"Joe!" Barry yelled back, between spasms. "Help me!"

Once he reached his side, cop fell on his knees and forced Barry's legs down with his arm.

"I got you… I got you," he panted.

Barry let out a sigh of relief. Little by little, he felt gravity steading him on the floor.

He looked up at Joe, cracking a smile.

"Thank you," he whispered. "I thought I was…"

"Vanishing?" Joe let let out, frantically.

"Yeah. Seems likely."

"'Seems likely'? You don't know what that was?"

"Not yet."

Joe turned around, exhaling angrily. He had dealt with freaky stuff for four years now, but seeing Barry or Wally in danger was something he'd never get used to.

"I'm gonna call Cisco," he informed, pulling out his phone.

"Yes… NO!" Barry huffed, taking the phone from Joe's hand.

"Why not? I need to drive you to STAR Labs, with a seat belt on."

"Be-be-because Cisco is busy with this… thing..."

Barry stopped himself right there, realizing that there was no point on dismissing the Cisco option, because it wasn't him who would examine him anyway.

He felt some sort of gravity center set in his stomach, like a singularity, increasing his angst with every spin. As a direct extension from that sensation, an intrusive thought broke into Barry's mind: STAR Labs.

"You're right. I have to go," he said; those words coming out of his mouth almost involuntarily. "STAR Labs. I have to go."

"Of course I'm right," Joe hissed, placing a hand on Barry's shoulder. "Is Caitlin there?"

"Yes."

Obviously, being at STAR Labs was a part of Caitlin's routine but, strangely, his answer wasn't based on that. Barry was entirely and overwhelmingly sure that she was there. He could almost see her sitting in the cortex.

Wait, what?

"Let's go to the car then," Joe said, putting his other hand on Barry's opposite shoulder and guiding him towards the parking lot.

Barry only let Joe drive him to STAR Labs because he didn't know what could've happened to him on his way there. At least he had convinced him not to go in with him, because he wasn't exactly planning on telling his friends anything yet. His problem was obviously physical and it would bring him at least fifteen minutes alone with Caitlin, who he was barely ready to see.

As he went up in the elevator, Barry's hands started to vibrate inside his pockets, but the tiny singularity in his stomach begun to slow down. He thought that last thing was kinda paradoxical, considering he was now closer to the source of his anxiety.

From the minute Barry had escaped their conversation that morning, he had also tried his best not to think about Caitlin. At least not too much. But, since Joe had mentioned the lab, he had been imagining (or seeing) Caitlin sitting in front of a computer, with one hand on the mouse and the other twirling around the end of her ponytail. Focusing on that had somehow helped him not to vibrate out of control inside of the car.

The elevator finally reached level 600 and Barry got out of the elevator with a deep sigh.

I'm okay, he told himself. Or at least I'm okay with not being okay.

Before crossing the door, Barry saw Cisco and Caitlin turning around on their chairs.

"Hey, man. You're early," Cisco greeted him. "Everything alright?"

"Yeah," Barry lied.

"Any news on… anything?" Caitlin asked.

When Barry bravely turned to Caitlin to answer, his heart skipped a beat, and the neutral facial expression he had practiced was replaced for one of pure disbelief.

Caitlin had a ponytail.

Just like in his recent 'vision' of her.

I don't have hair dryer, she couldn't do her hair. It doesn't mean anything. Now act normal, he thought, rationally.

"Hey," he said, as he reached out for a handshake.

Caitlin raised her eyebrows when she saw him lower his hand quickly.

THAT'S NOT NORMAL.

"Caitlin," Barry said this time, clearing his throat and nodding awkwardly.

"Yes, that's Caitlin. I introduced her to you years ago, Barry," Cisco commented, standing up to pat Barry on the back. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Barry then felt his hands vibrating again, so he hid them inside his pockets. "I didn't sleep well…" —he made eye contact with Caitlin right after finishing that sentence and, when he saw her frowning, he corrected himself immediately—"I didn't mean…!"—he then realized that talking to Caitlin so directly wasn't too smart, so he turned to look at Cisco—"I had a great night, okay?"

He covered his head with his hands in desperation and almost lost his cool when Caitlin, who remained impressively collected, rushed to his rescue.

"Barry, what did I tell you about those caffeine pills I gave you?" she scolded him, tilting her head subtly. "Half a pill equals a big cup of coffee, remember? Two of them might alter your sleep and your cognitive functions severely…"

"Wha…? Right, half a pill. I didn't get that the first time," Barry said, once Caitlin bumped the tip of her shoe with his. "I'm sorry, I've been doing extra hours at the CCPD because we don't have that much to do here and I'm a little tired…"

Caitlin gave him a condescending smile, like she was trying to tell him that he didn't need to over explain himself. Barry smiled back, admired.

If he hadn't been so afraid of messing up everything again, he would've told her how pretty she looked.

"I know, this place looks like a zombie proof bunker," Cisco agreed, looking around, without realizing he had just broken a silent exchange between his two friends. "I don't even remember the last time we were busy. No new meta sightings, no psycho speedsters… I'm gaining weight", he added, palming his belly.

"Cisco, for the last time: I didn't find anything new in your last medical exam," Caitlin intervened.

"So, I haven't lost weight either."

Barry's chuckle was interrupted by another sudden headache. The back of his head was pulsating.

Trying to be casual, he leaned into the desk, between his two best friends.

"Does anyone want to train?" he offered, almost desperately.

Maybe the physical effort would prevent him from flashing out the lab. There was no point on making anyone worried yet.

"No, thank you," Cisco said. "I did an interdimensional trip yesterday and I am still tired."

"Earth-38?" Barry asked, wearily. "Cisco, I'm pretty sure that Kara is still seeing that guy…"

"Hey, hey. Hop off your pony." Cisco put his hand over his chest, trying to look monumentally offended. "I was visiting Winn."

"Last time I checked, he was seeing someone too."

Caitlin choked on the sip of water she had just drank from a bottle and let out a short laugh. It had always been hard to make someone laugh when Cisco was in the room, especially girls, so Barry couldn't hide his smug smile.

"Alright, Joker, you're cancelled," the mechanic engineer replied, half joking. "Why don't you go to the Speed Room and run in circles for the rest of the day?"

"Because it's just as boring as it sounds," Barry said, turning to his other friend. "What do you say, Caitlin?"

"No. You know I don't enjoy patching wounds I caused," she said.

"Who says you'll hit me this time?"

"The fact I always do. We got dummies for a reason."

"Excuse me?"

"I mean the 'training dolls", dummy."

"Oh, right"

Barry rolled his eyes when Cisco requested a high five from Caitlin and both laughed at him. He couldn't waste more time begging them. His headache was unbearable and he could feel the speed force coursing through his body. If he didn't run immediately, his body would probably force him to.

"Speaking of that room, we need to fix the door," he told Cisco. "I'll open it from here. Excuse me," he told Caitlin, leaning over the computer she was using.

When Barry was about to straight up, his elbow accidentally touched Caitlin's. He had predicted the contact half a second before it happened, as his heart started throbbing in his chest. A strong jolt traveled through his arm and, when it reached the mouse he was holding, it generated a short-circuit that fried the computer.

Both Cisco and Caitlin backed off from the small detonation.

"What just happened?" she asked, watching the broken, flickering screen.

"I don't know," Barry answered, stunned.

He wasn't just referring to the damaged computer, but the fact his headache had just disappeared and his body wasn't craving locomotion anymore.

Barry took a deep breath and looked at Caitlin. Joe had somehow anchored him before, but she had just done way more than that. The electricity had been isolated from his body, like he was an electronic device that had just been unplugged.

Feeling a little itch, he touched the back of his neck and found a thick layer of sweat.

"Barry?" Caitlin stood up and cupped his face in her hands. "You're burning up!"

"I'm fine", he protested, looking straight into her eyes, but doing nothing to escape her touch. He had missed her. "I'm fine."

"You're not fine. You have never been this hot…"

"'I have never been this hot'? And then you complain about your flirting game not being strong at the bar..."

"I'm serious, Barry. You won't walk out this lab before I run some tests…"

"Then I'll flash out of here, because I don't need them."

"Enough, you two," Cisco said. "Barry, I'm sorry, but I agree with Caitlin on this one: you're pale enough to play the next version of Nosferatu."

Caitlin tried to shove Barry to the cortex's exit, but he didn't move.

"Are you coming?" he asked Cisco, who was unplugging the now useless computer.

"No, I'll try and see if I can recover some data from this thing," he answered.

"For real?!"

"Yes, for real. Why? Do you want me to hold your hand?"

Barry rolled his eyes. Being alone with Caitlin was exactly what he had been trying to avoid. Not to mention that, if his not-so-little problem really had something to do with her, she was the last person he wanted to figure it out.

"See what you do?" Cisco told Caitlin, who nervously tensed her grip on Barry's arm. "He's been afraid of you since you removed his wisdom teeth."

"He came to me whining about how they were crooking his teeth. Not my fault that the tissue kept on closing around them," Caitlin said, playing along. Her relief was obvious to Barry, but not to Cisco.

Since there was no point on denying that something was wrong, Barry allowed Caitlin to escort him to the exit and then guide him through the hallway until they reached the med bay.

Once they were inside, she pushed him to the medical table and started unbuttoning his shirt, which triggered a very inconvenient memory from the night before.

Barry crossed his legs, just in case.

"Cold hands! Cold hands" he complained. "I don't think my fever is that high anymore, you don't need to use your powers."

"I am not using them," Caitlin said, reaching for the cart with the electrocardiograph. "I'm sorry. I should drink some coffee."

As soon as Caitlin finished placing the round, sticky pads all over his torso Barry, driven by an impulse, grabbed her free hand. A forgotten sense of vulnerability had taken over him. A vulnerability he hadn't felt since the last time he saw his mother sitting next to his bedside, so many years before. A vulnerability that allowed him to admit when he was sad, sick or disheartened… because he was safe in the hands of the person in front of him.

That was the reason why he wasn't worried about his symptoms: Caitlin would never let anything bad happen to him. And, even when this had always been that way, he had never felt so sure of it like that day.

Nothing has to change… yeah, right.

"I really wanted to talk to you," Barry admitted. That wasn't exactly what he wanted to say, but there was no coherent way of explaining how much he needed her company. He even felt some remorse for trying to avoid her, even though he didn't give her the time to realize he was doing it.

"We talked this morning," Caitlin reminded him, laughing. She didn't try to push him away and even intertwined her fingers with his, but the neutrality in her voice was frustrating. "Wow, your heart rate and metabolism seem to be more accelerated than usual," she explained, looking at her screens. "It's like you had recovered from a major effort, but you weren't doing anything back in the cortex. Has anything else happened?"

"Yeah, this morning." Barry noticed the first signs of disapproval in Caitlin's look. "I lost control… I mean I tripped and fell down to the floor. I never trip."

"Is that blood?!"

Caitlin's eyes had laid on his knees right after he mentioned the fall.

"It's healed. That's what I was trying to tell you," he chuckled, rolling up his pants to show a very tiny pink scar. "Nothing weird happened until my lunch break: when I got back to the lab, I felt a strong desire of running… I could barely control my powers. It took me five minutes to get there from the park and I don't remember stopping. I was tired…"

"If it started this morning, why didn't you call me?" Caitlin asked. Barry had sensed her anger before, but didn't have the guts to lie to her. "Why didn't you come to us immediately?

Barry shrugged.

"I was giving you some space," he answered, trying not to sound resentful.

"BARRY!" Caitlin yelled, pulling the pads off his skin furiously. Barry groaned when part of his scarce chest hair got stuck to the adhesive. "I thought we were good! No matter what happens between us, you have to tell me when something is wrong with you."

"Relax, alright? The worst part is over. Joe appeared while I was convulsing and stopped me from vanishing." Caitlin covered her face with one hand, trying to summon some patience. "I'm not helping," Barry guessed. She shook her head in response and let out a sigh. Barry knew that he shouldn't be enjoying her concern so much, but he couldn't help it. "You're oddly overprotective today. Why is that?"

Barry had expected her to shield behind the same iciness she had displayed that morning, but she looked at him with surprisingly soft eyes.

"Nice try," she said, helping him to button his shirt up, like that was some sort of metaphor. "Nothing has changed, remember?"

"I know that's what we agreed on," Barry said, unsure of how to continue that sentence. "But there are details I can't ignore. I mean, now you know how I look naked…"

Barry cringed at his own stupidity, but he wanted to challenge her to talk about their miscarriage. He knew that, out of his Flash suit, Caitlin was way out of his league. Did she think that, though? Was she only into buffed guys?

"Last night I didn't see anything that I hadn't seen in those nine months you were in a coma," Caitlin replied, shrugging. Barry's eyebrows shot up. "What? Who did you think that took care of you? No nurse would've wanted to set foot in STAR Labs."

"You? Oh, no… you?!" Barry exclaimed, mortified. "You…? Everything?" Caitlin nodded at each one of his short questions. "Oh, crap, that's just gross. How could you sleep with me after that?"

"Lower your voice!"

Barry covered his mouth with his hands a little too late. Caitlin looked around and approached one of her tables.

"Cisco? Harry?" she called out. There was no answer from the speakers. "Thank God this thing wasn't on… Barry, let it go. I'm a doctor… and you're a forensic scientist who knows that I've done worse."

"Worse than me?" he said, slyly.

"Worse than a coma guy."

"I know, it was a joke… and I am sorry if I never thanked you for it. Thank you."

"For what? The sex?" she asked. Barry raised an eyebrow. "What? I can make jokes too."

They both grinned. Talking to Caitlin had always been so easy. Barry couldn't help but imagine how well a first date with her would go, because he had never felt more comfortable talking about uncomfortable things.

Barry had learned the hard way that wanting someone wasn't enough for them to want you back. He wanted to respect her wishes, but couldn't wrap his mind around them. Not with the night before still so vivid in his mind.

He didn't need to know what a one-night stand felt like to know that hadn't been one.

"Maybe we can count that as my way to pay you back," Barry continued, wondering if he hadn't gone too far, but Caitlin tagged along.

"Yeah? That will be your way of returning favors from now on?" she laughed.

"Not everyone's favors…"

Barry failed to find a way to continue. Instead, he leaned towards Caitlin.

With a politeness he'd probably be thankful for later, she turned her head once he got too close to her lips. Disheartened, he placed his kiss in her cheek.

"You're generating too much static," she whispered, like nothing had happened, pulling away from him and placing her thumb on his lower lip to show him where it was coming from. "Do you have any idea of how you fried that computer?"

Barry felt the need to leave the room and punch a hole in the wall. Trying to kiss her again wasn't a smart move on his part, but the way she was treating him was driving him crazy. Why had she kissed him first the night before? Did she already know she would regret it? The worst part was that, despite the anger, Barry was more worried about her than himself. There was a storm brewing in her eyes, something she felt too afraid to share, and the last thing he wanted her to think was that he was just messing around. Maybe the right call was confessing that night meant something to him, without pouring his whole heart out yet.

Swallowing his pride, he decided to cooperate.

"Uhm…" he mumbled, realizing that the entire truth would bring back the awkwardness. "I-I-I don't know… just that I felt better as soon as it happened. My head had been hurting since I stepped into the cortex and my hands were already vibrating. That's why I wanted to do some exercise, to prevent myself from disappearing again."

Caitlin nodded and stared at the electrocardiogram once again.

"Of course," she concluded, waving her hands. "You weren't wrong about the exercise. You've been accumulating energy from the speedforce!" She had placed one of the electrodes back on his chest, and the screen started to flick. As soon as she removed it, the flickering stopped to show normal activity. "See? We've spent the last three years training you to make you faster, but things have been so quiet lately that you don't spend the energy you generate. The computer worked as lightning rod and isolated part of that energy from your body. That's why you feel better."

Right. The computer, Barry thought. He had been sweating since the 'of course', so her resolution was a big relief. She seemed to be right about everything else, though.

"You got all that from an electrocardiogram?" Barry asked, pleasantly surprised.

"I've located metahumans from the particles found in your suit and this impresses you?"

Barry laughed briefly. Even though Caitlin had been low key hurting him since that morning, that last sentence helped him realize why he was the one feeling like a jerk: He had never been conscious of how amazing Caitlin Snow was. At least not enough. Instead, he had always taken her for granted.

Pushing didn't seem a wise thing to keep doing, but Barry had to do something before someone else beat him to it.

He had to be fast enough this time.

"You're amazing," he said, a little choked up by the way Caitlin was still measuring his temperature, double checking that he was okay before finishing her exam. That little thing reminded him of many other little things he had never seen as a big deal, and he felt even more unworthy. "I haven't been a very good friend to you, have I?"

It was in that moment Barry knew he screwed up. Caitlin dropped the thermometer and ducked her head, breathing heavily. Just when Barry was about to hop off the medical table to reach her, he saw it: a pair of icy blue pupils changing back to brown.

He tried his best not to panic, just like Caitlin was trying her best to calm down.

"Caitlin?" he said, approaching her very slowly. "You okay?"

"No, you need to stop that!" she breathed out, stepping back anxiously and pointing a shaky finger at him. "You need to stop that. Right now."

"Stop what?"

"You know exactly what. I gave you an easy way out, what the hell are you doing?"

The brief transformation had left Barry too shocked to answer that last question, because one more of those strange speedforce hunchs was telling him to pretend he hadn't seen what he saw. Caitlin was entirely sure that Killer Frost was gone, but the slightest sign of doubt from anyone else could be enough to break that confidence and bring her back.

"I…"

Before Barry could continue that sentence, Caitlin took a slow step forward and put a finger to her lips to ask him to stop talking. She was staring at some spot behind him with fierce eyes. Before he could ask what was wrong this time, she pointed at the cart with the electrocardiograph.

It didn't take him that long to find the source of her concern: the small, round mirror she used to make throat examinations was reflecting a silhouette whose owner wasn't in that room with them.

"Missed me?" the guy said from behind the glass, once Barry got closer.

Well, it was pretty obvious who that was, but I suck at cliffhangers haha. Thank you! I'll translate Chapter 2 as soon as I can.