A/N: Saying I was overwhelmed by all your reviews on the first chapter would be an understatement! Thank you all! I'm so glad to recognise so many of your names, to see that you came back to give this story a chance! I'll do my best to not disappoint you :)

Keep in mind that this is AU, so it's hard to stay in character. I do hope I'm not doing too bad in this area :)

Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter! Have a nice weekend everyone :D

I don't own anything ;)

The coffee place was buzzing with people. He wasn't sure he had ever seen so many people at Jitters.

Barry was standing in line, jumping from one foot to the other, energy bubbling inside him and he just couldn't stay put. Today was the first day of his new life. Today he would try to meet his target. Today everything would change. And he could already see her sitting at a table in a corner, reading some paper – she was probably working. According to his file, Dr. Caitlin Snow was a real work-alcoholic.

Barry glanced around him again. He knew half of the people here but he had to pretend not knowing any of them. That was all part of the plan. With the rest of his team, they had decided to crowd Dr. Snow's favourite coffee place with lots of agents undercover, so that Barry would have an excuse to sit at her table. Maybe he would even manage to begin a conversation with her.

It was almost his turn to order when he saw a guy not far from his target. He seemed to hesitate and Barry immediately understood that the man was about to steal his place at Dr. Snow's table.

"Someone distract that guy with the bicycle helmet at my twelve, he's going to steal my place before I can even order my coffee." Barry mumbled discretely in the microphone hidden in his right sleeve.

Not even a second later, he saw Eddie Thawne – one of his co-workers – make his way to the man. "Excuse me sir, but are you the owner of the blue bicycle parked in front of the coffee shop?"

"Hum, yes." He heard the guy reply with surprise. Barry took his order and waited for the coffee, keeping an ear to the exchange. Eddie would handle things.

"Cool! I would have a few questions about it, if you don't mind." The agent continued the conversation, pulling the bicycle-guy away from Dr. Snow's table.

Barry smirked, took his coffee and made his way to the table. As he stood next to her, he cleared his throat to make his presence known. "Hum…" The young doctor looked up in his direction and he almost lost his ability to speak. He wasn't expecting the depth hiding behind her brown eyes. It was breathtaking. Barry cleared his throat again. "Sorry, I wanted to know if the place was free. The whole shop is crowded." He showed her with his free hand.

The young woman nodded after looking around. "Sure. I don't think I ever saw so many people here."

"I know right? There's maybe some celebrity here that I don't know." Barry suggested. "It's not you, is it? Because that would be way too embarrassing." He joked.

Aside from a glance to his face, she didn't even react before going back to her work. Damn, that was off to a great start.

"Once, I told a chemistry joke, there was no reaction." Barry muttered to himself, just loud enough so she could hear him.

He heard a very small and cute snort coming from her direction. He looked up to see a very faint smile drawing itself on her features and Barry's ego inflated. That was good, she didn't seem as closed off as his file had said; he just needed to find her triggers. Apparently nerdy science joke could do the trick.

Barry silently took a seat in front of her and she kept her eyes fixed down on her papers. He glanced at it but couldn't make out what was written on them. He took a sip of coffee and took out some pieces of paper to pretend working too.

He saw her peek curiously at his papers from time to time but he didn't pay much attention – at least he pretended he wasn't. After about ten minutes of silence, Barry began fumbling with his documents and let out a loud sigh that caught the young woman's attention. She arched a brow at him and he replied with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, this case is just messing with my head." Barry explained, trying to keep her attention without being obvious about it. He put one particular sheet on the table in plain sight.

Now was the critical phase of his plan. In a few seconds, Barry would know if he still had good deductions skills to read a person. He almost high-fived himself when he saw the young woman take his bait. She looked more intently at the sheet he had put in evidence. "Are these DNA analyses?" She asked curiously.

It took everything in him not to smirk in her direction. It was time to display his acting skills. His eyes flew up distractedly to meet hers and raised an eyebrow. "Oh that? Yes. But they are giving me a hard time." Barry replied faking his annoyance.

"Why is that?" She asked, sitting straighter on her chair.

That was it, thought Barry; he had her full attention now. He had been counting on her being a scientist that she would be one of the curious-kind. Just by putting the analysis in display, he had tickled her brain and she now wanted to know more.

Barry hid his smile behind a pained frown. "I'm used to simple DNA analyses. This one is way too complex for me. I would need an expert to read them… Like a geneticist or something."

He was genuinely surprised when he heard her choke on her sip of coffee. "Are you alright?" He asked worriedly, handing her a napkin so that she could wipe her chin.

"I'm okay, thanks." Caitlin croaked, trying to get her bearings back.

She still seemed a bit dazed so Barry continued as if nothing had happened. "So yeah, I won't get far with these." He showed the analysis with his hand.

"I can help you." The young woman cut him off – a determined look in her eyes replacing the surprised one – the crumpled napkin in her fist.

"You can?" Barry faked his best surprised-face.

Caitlin smiled in response and extended her hand to the sheet of paper. "May I?"

Barry nodded wordlessly and observed her as she began studying the analyses. He could almost see the wheels turning in her head as her eyes flew above the sheet, her lips slightly moving as if she was talking to herself, her finger tracing the words and figures, her brows frowning from time to time as if something was resisting her brilliant mind. Finally, she put the sheet back down on the table and moved it towards him so that he could see what she would show him. The crease between her eyebrows was gone.

"See there?" she pointed to a certain pattern. "It's a distinct mutation we can find in some genetic diseases. It's not a very common one, so that's why you probably didn't spot it, but I wrote part of my thesis on that."

'Oh, what a coincidence.' Thought Barry sarcastically in his head. Of course it wasn't. His team had done a very thorough job on this case, getting all the relevant information that could become handy.

"The person you're looking for…" The young doctor continued, oblivious to Barry's inner thoughts. "Well I guess it's someone you're looking for…" Barry nodded in response before she finished her explanation. "Well he has this disease."

"He?" Barry asked without thinking further.

Caitlin eyed him curiously, like some doubt was creeping up in her brain. "Well… Yes… the karyotype in your file shows a Y chromosome… You knew about that right?"

'Damn, she's about to catch me. Focus Barry.'

"Oh yes yes… how distracted of me." He tried to explain.

The woman shrugged, took back the sheet and scribbled something on it before giving it back to him. He wouldn't have been able to pronounce the name of the disease even if his life had been depending on it. It wasn't important anyway – all of this was faked.

"Look it up, you'll be able to find everything you need to know about it." She suggested to him. "Also, it is a notifiable disease, so your guy would have to report being sick to the authorities. So from there, it shouldn't be hard to find him."

"Wow." He looked up and gave her his most dazzling smile – or so he thought. "Well I owe you one. Let me buy you another coffee as a thank you."

The smile must've worked, if the blush creeping up her neck, the nibbling of her lower lip and the shy nod she gave him were anything to go by. He stood up to take their second orders and soon came back with two hot cups of coffee.

"I'm Allen, by the way, Barry Allen." He said while handing her one of the cups.

"Well, you are quite the spy, Mr. Allen." She replied with a smirk.

Barry gasped, almost dropping his coffee on the table and looked bewildered at her. "Wh… whaat?" he squealed, suddenly not feeling confident at all. How had she already uncovered his secret identity? That had never happened to him before.

Caitlin glanced at him with knit brows. It was her turn to hand him a napkin. "That was an attempt at a joke, I think…" She said shyly. "Because of the James Bond thing you just did?" From the lack of reply from a stunned Barry, she continued, trying to chase away some of the awkwardness with a hand movement. "Anyway, I'm Dr. Caitlin Snow."

That brought him out of his lethargy. She was giving him an open door to a conversation right there. He could've said 'Cute, funny and intelligent' but somehow he felt she wasn't the kind of girl who would appreciate such a comment right away. So he decided to go more neutral with "What is it that you do, to wear such a nice title?" He realised he had to flirt with her brain before flirting with her looks.

Barry saw her relax immediately and they began talking over their second cup of coffee. Barry could see that she was a guarded person. She answered every question as simply as possible, trying not to give him any insight about her private life. They talked mainly about science, which pleased Barry a lot.

He had always had a passion for science but his line of work didn't always allow him to really talk about it. So he was surprise to feel the breath of fresh air this conversation was giving him. He found himself genuinely wanting to know more about the young doctor. So he tried to deviate the conversation towards every day life and she seemed to open up a bit. Caitlin told him about her job at S.T.A.R. labs, about living in Central City for the past 5 years, about her love for reading… But it didn't go deeper than that.

Barry tried to encourage her by talking about his own life. He tried not to go deeper in details either – afraid to say something he wasn't allowed to. So he joked around a bit and she seemed to enjoy listening to him way more than talking about herself, which was a big ego boost for the young man. Every time he managed to coax a tiny smile out of her, he could feel himself getting prouder. He didn't know what it was, but something about her smile made the whole room seem brighter.

The moment came where Caitlin glanced down at her watch and almost jumped up from her chair. "Shoot!" she muttered to herself. They had been talking for about one hour and a half. She gathered her things and threw an apologetic smile in Barry's direction. "Sorry, but I didn't know it was so late, I have to go." He stood up too as she put her bag on her shoulder and put her chair back in place. "Thank you for the coffee."

Barry waved her thanks with his hands as if to said 'no worries'. "I should be the one thanking you for your help. You kind of saved my butt here." He pointed to the DNA Analysis still lying on the table.

Caitlin blushed at the comment and looked away for a second. Barry felt his heartbeat pick up at the sight; he couldn't help thinking that she looked very cute. He shook the thought away from his head. He had to focus, he had a job to do and he couldn't let her go without having a way to see her again.

"I had a great time." He fumbled one hand awkwardly in his pocket for a few seconds and took out a small card to give her. "Here is my card, if you ever want to grab a coffee… or… You know… chat about science and DNA… or something like that… Just give me a call."

He saw a shadow cross her face as she eyed the CCPD card and Barry wondered if it had been the right move. He couldn't mess this up, he had a mission – get close to her, get in S.T.A.R. labs, get the intel and disappear. If she didn't take this card, he would have a hard time seeing her again without blowing up his cover.

She cautiously grabbed the card. "I'll think about it." Caitlin said before scurrying away waving good-bye.

Barry let his shoulders fall down and rubbed a hand against the back of his neck to chase away some of the tension that had been piling up there for the past hour.

Something was telling him that this wouldn't be an easy-to-close case.

Well, who didn't like a good challenge?