"Good morning!" Barry cheered as he walked into S.T.A.R. Labs.
"'Morning!" Caitlin said to him while shuffling papers on the desk.
"Why are you here so early?" Barry asked.
Technically, it wasn't that early in the morning. It was 9 AM on a Saturday, but normally no one went to the lab until noon during the weekends.
"I just wanted to get a head start on re-organizing everything in here. As you know, it was a mess." Caitlin replied. That mess was due to the Flash on the previous night. Barry looked around and noticed that everything was spotless compared to the night before when he accidentally knocked over a table. It was all a chain reaction. Barry zoomed in, hit the table and knocked the papers off, the table then hit a lamp, which then hit the medical supply table, and it was all chaos after that. Really, Barry only knocked over one thing, and he blamed the rest of the mess on gravity, but he still promised to clean up everything the next morning. Though he could now see that Caitlin had already done that for him. The medicines were re-organized, the light bulb from the lamp was fixed, the papers were stacked, and everything just looked immaculate. Remembering the huge mess from before, Barry realized that Caitlin must have been at S.T.A.R. Labs for hours to make so much progress.
"Wow. Umm, thanks Caitlin! I really appreciate you cleaning up everything, but you know that I was planning to clean everything. You didn't really have to do any of this." Barry said.
"I know," Caitlin responded sharply, "I just figured I'd help you out a little bit."
"Caitlin, you realize that you cleaned up everything, right?" Barry questioned.
Caitlin looked around with wide eyes.
"Barry, what time is it?" Caitlin asked with a surprised tone.
"It's only nine o'clock." Barry replied.
A look of shock flashed in Caitlin's eyes, and Barry didn't miss it.
"Caitlin how long have you been here?" Wondered Barry, now becoming curious.
"Umm. Not that long." Replied Caitlin with an innocent voice. She knew if Barry knew had long she had been working, he would argue with her and try to make her go home and rest. And there was absolutely no way that Caitlin was going to go home, especially so early in the morning. They had an important metahuman to catch that day, and she was not going to miss it.
"Caitlin." Barry pressed. He knew she was trying to hide something. Caitlin was always telling Barry how sleep was one of the most important things for a person, and that everyone should at least get eight hours of sleep per night, so Barry wanted to make sure that she got her allotted amount of sleep the night before.
Caitlin still didn't respond.
"Caitlin, how long have you been here?" Barry asked again.
"Since five o'clock." Caitlin replied guiltily.
Barry's eyes bulged and Caitlin could see him doing the math in his head. Considering that the whole team went home around 12:30 in the morning the previous night, it meant that Catlin only got four hours of sleep at the most, because it took her about 30 minutes to get from her house to the labs.
Barry sighed and just then noticed the darkness under her eyes.
"Caitlin you should really go home." Barry said, which earned him a glare.
"No. I am going to stay here today and work. I will get sleep tonight."
Barry just looked at her and knew that it was no use arguing. He figured that she would get more sleep later.
"Why did you feel the need to come here so early and clean, anyway?" Barry asked.
"Just because I did, Barry. I thought it would be nice of me to help." Caitlin said with an almost undetectable waver in her voice. Barry knew that there was more to the story, but he decided to let it go. A few minutes later, Cisco and Dr. Wells walked in, and the team went on with their day, but Barry still kept a close eye on Caitlin. He was determined to figure out why she was acting weird.
For the next few days, everything ran smoothly. The team caught two new metas, but Caitlin kept getting distracted, and Cisco and Dr. Wells noticed this.
Caitlin and Dr. Wells were sitting at the computers tracking Barry as he trying to stop multiple robberies at banks across the city, and they only had to stop one more. Cisco was standing behind them and watching what was going on.
"Okay, Caitlin," Barry said through his earpiece, "where do I have to go next?" But Caitlin didn't respond.
"Caitlin? Hello?" Barry said.
Dr. Wells and Cisco looked at each other, and then back at Caitlin. She was staring at the wall across from her, not even blinking.
"Caitlin, I need a location now." Insisted Barry.
"Caitlin!" Wells and Cisco said at the same time.
Caitlin snapped out of her daydreaming and tried to work out what was going on. Cisco saw that Caitlin had no idea what was happening, and took her place and gave Barry the location.
Ten seconds later, Barry zoomed into the room and glared at Caitlin.
"Caitlin, what was that?" Barry asked angrily.
"Did you get the robbers?" Asked Caitlin ignoring his question.
"No. I didn't. I didn't get the location soon enough because you weren't paying attention." Barry replied while trying to calm down. He noticed how tired Caitlin looked, and wondered how much sleep she had gotten that week.
"I'm sorry everyone," Caitlin said with an exhausted tone, "I don't know what happened. You know that nothing like that ever happens to me." Referring to her daydreaming.
"What were you thinking about?" Asked Dr. Wells with a calm tone.
"It was nothing. Again, I'm sorry. It won't happen again." Answered Caitlin before she walked out of the room. Barry watched her walk away and wondered why she was so tired.
The next Saturday, Caitlin walked into S.T.A.R. Labs in the afternoon. She had been forgiven for her mistake, thought it didn't take much apologizing. They all knew that everyone makes mistakes and Caitlin was quickly forgiven for hers. Barry was still determined to figure out what had her so tired and unfocused.
Caitlin was checking Barry's vitals on the machine, and Barry kept staring at her. He saw the darkness and the bags under her eyes. He noticed the lack of usual makeup on her face, and he also saw how her eyes kept drooping and that she was trying to keep them open.
"Hey, Caitlin, can you come look at this for a second?" Cisco asked from behind her.
Caitlin turned around quickly and started to sway. Her vision started to blur and the whole room got darker. All she heard before she fainted was her name being called.
Caitlin woke up the next day in an unfamiliar room. She had an IV in her arm and she saw flowers on the table next to her. She quickly realized that she was in a hospital and groaned.
"Hey, Caitlin. How are you feeling?" Said a voice that Caitlin recognized. It was Barry.
"Barry what is going on?" She asked the superhero in the chair next to her, obviously not remembering what happened the day before.
"Caitlin, you fainted yesterday. The doctors said it was caused by exhaustion."
"Oh." She replied slowly.
"How much sleep have you gotten in the past week? Be honest." Barry asked.
"Only about ten hours in the past seven days." Caitlin replied quietly.
Barry gave her an incredulous look.
"Why haven't you been sleeping?"
"I've just had a lot on my mind."
"Like what? Caitlin you know you can always talk to me, Cisco, Wells, or even Joe if you want."
"I know I can, Barry. I just-I've been thinking about Ronnie lately. I miss him and I just wish he could be here."
Barry looked at Caitlin sympathetically.
"I know you miss him, Caitlin. But you can't let your health deteriorate over that. And you'll see Ronnie again. I have no doubt about that. But you shouldn't dwell on the sad stuff. Think about the happy things and live in the moment."
Caitlin just smiled at him.
"Hey, you're allowed to leave tonight, so how about we both go home and get as much sleep as we can and then we'll go out for breakfast tomorrow morning." Barry suggested.
"That sounds like a plan." Caitlin replied and Caitlin and Barry smiled at each other until Wells and Cisco walked in to visit.