AN: This wasn't supposed to happen today, but I got so crazy inspired that I needed to produce this chapter! I hope you'll love it as much as I loved writing it!
Caitlin had never travelled between dimensions before so the world spinning sensation was completely new to her. It was as though the middle of her stomach was the centre of her body and it was turning and turning and before she landed on the other side she actually thought she was in danger of throwing up. That would be just great, she thought, fighting the nausea. She couldn't land right in front of dr. Harrison Wells of Earth Two and throw up on his shoes, could she? How unprofessional and lacking of tact that would be!
Only when she did actually land on all of her fours – which she was still embarrassed about, by the way – she heard a completely different voice than she was expecting. In fact, it belonged to a woman.
"Are you all right?" she asked and then Cait felt a pair of hands on her shoulder, helping her up.
Once she got to her feet and straightened up, her bag left forgotten on the floor; she stumbled, feeling dizzy out of the sudden.
"Easy there," the same voice said in concern, yet Caitlin could also tell it was slightly giddy, if that made any sense. "We haven't actually worked this inter-dimensional travel out yet, so… yeah, you might be a little nauseous there. I'm just glad the portal was stable enough to actually get you here and not throw you somew…"
The string of words kind of died out when Caitlin started blinking, trying to clear her view, to calm herself down and to actually find her centre again. When she finally managed to do just that and looked at the woman standing in front of her, still chattering away, she frowned since she turned out to be a teenager. She might've been sixteen, seventeen years old? That was odd.
"How impolite of me… I haven't introduced myself. Hi, I'm Jesse," she then said when reaching a hand to Caitlin and when Snow shook it, she took a look around.
They were in a room looking similar but different to the speed lab she was familiar with on her earth. She would have to get used to all those subtle differences, she knew that, but there also seemed to be a completely different style to things here, reminding her of retro.
"Are you all right? Do you need anything? Like water or…?" the girl kept on rumbling.
"I'm sorry. I thought there'd be more people welcoming me here. Maybe that's silly of me, but where's your team? I came here to work, right?" Caitlin just asked.
"Right," Jesse repeated that last word. "Right," she did it again when nervously wriggling her fingers and suddenly, Caitlin had the worst of feelings. "Yeah… listen… the team is kind of… well, the Flash team is kind of nonexistent just yet, but… but hey, you're the first member, so that's a start!"
Snow raised her eyebrows, now just feeling plain stupid. Oh, wait, she'd been feeling that way ever since she'd crossed over and that sense only deepened.
"Jesse… whatever your last name is… why do I have the strangest feeling that dr. Wells didn't really send that note through dimensions?" she finally found the courage to ask, but seemed to already know the answer. And boy, was she in trouble!
Jesse was already opening her mouth when they heard a deep, husky male voice coming from the door. "No, he did not."
Both of the women turned in that direction and Snow froze, seeing the man in question himself. Somehow, she couldn't seem to stop staring even though she knew it was impolite. He just seemed so similar to the one she knew, yet there was something different about him, too. For starters, he wasn't in a wheelchair. His hair was more messy than she remembered dr. Wells's had ever been. He was dressed in a suit as though he just walked out of a business meeting, hands in the pockets of his pants. He was slim and tall and yes, very handsome with a rough look to it, but that only added character. She always wondered whether versions of people on different earths varied only in character or maybe in age, too, but he seemed to be in the exact same age dr. Wells she'd known was or it was close by anyway. There was also something else. Something that Snow had missed at first, too fascinated with seeing a doppelganger of a person she'd used to know. Then again, that dr. Wells hadn't even been real, just wearing the body of the original person, so maybe she had never known him, after all.
The thing was that his eyes didn't seem kind at all. In fact, he was just glaring at the teenager in the room, beyond furious with her.
"What were you thinking when recruiting a person behind my back; added to that a person from a completely different universe, and revealing your secret identity in the process?" he just asked in a voice that was seething with rage.
"Wait… You're the Flash?" Caitlin picked up on that. What he said wasn't exactly clear, but she was always quick with connecting the dots and Jesse actually being the Flash seemed like the only logical explanation here.
There came another awkward moment when dr. Wells's eyes actually set on her in a disapproving manner.
"Gee, thanks dad," Jesse just turned to him in exasperation. "Just so you know, I didn't, but you did just that right now."
Before he managed to react to that piece of information, Caitlin gasped again, "Dad?" Ok, that was definitely the most interesting news. This Harrison Wells actually had a daughter. She wondered whether Tess lived in this timeline and honestly, she felt a weird sensation inside of her on the very thought of that. She couldn't understand it just yet, so she let it go since she had more important things on her mind anyway. Like trouble. Lots and lots of trouble coming from this so far unpleasant version of dr. Wells. She had to admit this so was not what she'd expected when making the trip.
"Dad," Jesse spoke to him again, ignoring Snow, "she's actually been working with the Flash on her earth! Isn't that cool?! I mean, we do need help around here and she was willing to come!"
"Oh, really? Am I not enough of help to you?!" her father nearly growled. "Why do you insist we need more?! Oh, wait, I get it. You're still angry that I won't let you face another metahuman, but it's dangerous, Jesse, ok? How many times do I have to tell you that I am not losing you after we already lost your mom?!"
Caitlin felt even worse now, being the unwilling witness to the father-daughter quarrel. Apparently, Jesse's mother was dead and Harrison was just an overprotective father. Yeah, that wasn't something she had experience with and she suddenly wished she'd never come to this earth in the first place. What had she been thinking anyway?!
"You're just desperate to find a way to convince me that you're ready, which you are clearly not!" Harrison continued, raising his voice. "You can't let some stranger into our lives and our secrets just so she would support you! Protecting this city is a very dangerous task and you can get hurt!"
"So I hear every single damn day!" The girl argued louder as well and Caitlin just felt like crying. It was obvious to her now that she wouldn't be able to stay here. That she would have to accept her failure, come back home and face her friends after they'd already read her letter. What a disaster! She was ashamed and she actually wished it all to just be a bad dream so she could wake up already.
"Fighting metahumans isn't just pushing some pedestrians out of the way and running away, nor stopping someone from stealing, Jesse!" Harrison continued, clearly working himself up.
"But, dad!"
"It's not your job and I won't change my mind! Leave that to the police."
"But…"
"This discussion is over!" dr. Wells growled again and Jesse was finally silenced. "Now, do you realize that you put me, not to mention this poor woman here, in a terrible position? You can't just do things like that behind my back! You can't just hire people without my knowledge and uproot them from their homes!"
"It's all right," Caitlin decided to speak just then. "It's all right," she repeated. "Don't punish her for this. I'll… I'll just go…" She hated herself for that, but her voice did break at the last word, betraying her true state. But no, she decided, fisting her hands and then releasing that hold when she reached for the bag still forgotten on the floor. She would be strong. She would not cry. She would exit this situation with dignity.
She grabbed her baggage and turned to the portal, only… it was gone.
"It's gone," she said, surprised by that.
"Yeah, that one's closed," dr. Wells pointed out.
"You don't say," Caitlin murmured under breath, scared that if she said that a little louder, she really might start crying.
"We can't open it right away," he explained, "the technology is still new to us. I can't believe you, Jesse," he then turned to his daughter again. "Do you have any idea how many things could have gone wrong while you were operating this thing? You know well that it's all still very unstable and…"
"It turned out to be just fine. My note got through. Actually, I'm not sure how many earths it reached, but…" The girl paled under her father's scrutiny. "I'm sorry," she finally apologized when looking down at the floor.
"Excuse me," Caitlin spoke again, finally having found her voice, the tears gone. Quite frankly, she was angry now. "You let me get into a portal that is still unstable?" She turned to the girl.
"I had it all under control. I swear! I have PhD in bio-chemistry and physics and…" the girl started and Snow was just rendered speechless.
"I'm sorry, but how old are you exactly?"
"Sixteen."
"Yes, she's a very bright kid," Wells said quickly, dismissing that information and then he glanced at his watch. "I have a meeting I need to attend and I'm already late. And I am never late," he then threw Jesse's way, his anger returning. "Better take care of this... situation," he told her and before he finally left, he added, "My office after. Don't be late."
While Jesse left still shaken up Caitlin in one of the empty labs, she ran to meet her father. She did feel awful about the whole thing, especially now that she saw that the woman who'd come through the portal was actually so pretty and nice and caring. She hated that her father was so mean to her and she wanted to fix it, but she wasn't sure how to. She could've sworn miss Snow had tears in her eyes by the time Jesse headed for the meeting, so that made her only feel worse. This was so not how she imagined it. Then again, she should've known she wasn't really good at all those socializing stuff, meeting new people or… putting two people together, she admitted. She'd spent most of her life running from one class to another, doing what she loved, being completely invested in science and somehow she'd missed on social interactions on her way, finding herself studying with people whole decades and even more older than her. And she didn't even blame her father since he'd told her at the beginning that he would prefer she just went to school like any other girl her age. The thing was that she didn't want to. She wanted to lean more and more, become smarter, more intelligent and he would do just about anything to make her happy, because she'd already been through so much when watching her mother die. She knew that her father loved her above everything and anything and she always came first, but sometimes he could also be such a jerk that she hated him for being shortsighted. She just wanted to do something nice for both herself and him and it all backfired. Like always.
Maybe she should just give up and stop trying altogether.
She finally entered his office, seeing him already waiting when sitting behind his desk.
"Dad, we really do need help!" she started right away before he even managed to say anything. "We're grasping in the dark and you know it! And Caitlin… she has experience with the Flash! I mean, medical experience, so she can tell what's happening to my body, what I need, how do I work on my speed… Why do you have to be so stubborn about it?"
"And you think that you won't be able to find anyone on this earth with similar expertise?" he just asked. "Jesse, listen," he then sighed, "I know what this is all about and don't even try to deny it. I don't need you to find me a girlfriend, ok? So drop that one. It's time," he added in a surprisingly soft voice. For the last few months Jesse had been trying to introduce him to such a string of women that he'd been going crazy with what was in the girl's head. Maybe she was desperate for a mother figure in her life, but that was the one thing that couldn't be easily fixed and probably would never be, so it would be for the best if she just stopped.
"It's not about me, dad. It's about you. You can't be alone for the rest of your life. Do you have any idea how painful it is for me to see you just hang out all by yourself, spending hours in the lab when not going out at all? You're not living. You're hiding, burying yourself in work."
"Jesse," he sighed again and then took off his glasses as though he was tired of wearing them. "How many times do I have to tell you that you are all that I need in life?" he asked her and then put them back on, having nothing better to do with them.
"But I won't always be here, dad. One day I'm gonna move on and have my own life and what then?"
"Don't you worry about that now. I have S.T.A.R. Labs. This place will always need me."
"Yeah, you got your job," Jesse actually snorted at that. "And that will actually make you happy? Just think about it! You'll be tinkering alone in your empty lab for the rest of your life?! You're not that old, dad! You can still…"
"Stop this, ok?" Harrison was getting angry again. "And what were you even thinking? She's too young for me even if I was willing to get interested, which I am clearly not!"
"Well, I didn't exactly ask for her age when I sent that note…" Jesse admitted when scratching her head.
"Oh, that's right. You didn't think," Wells reminded her.
"But she did include her resume and you should really take a look at it. It's very impressive! She's majored in my number one field of expertise and I hope…"
"Jesse, stop." Harrison raised from his seat. "My decision stands. We don't need her. You're gonna have to send her home."
"You can't ask me to do this! I mean… she's gonna be so let down!"
"She already is!" he reminded her when throwing his hands up into the air. "I promise you that this poor woman probably already feels more humiliated than she did in her entire life and it's on you! It's time you'll do some growing up, young lady, because having four different degrees, though it's impressive, has nothing to do with it."
Jesse knew the portal could be safely opened soon, but she decided against staying downstairs with Caitlin and waiting for that to happen. Despite everything she just heard from her father, she wasn't ready to give up that easily, because yes, even though she hoped her dad would like this woman, that wasn't the reason why she'd reached out. He was really being too hard on her when not letting her reach her full potential and become the hero the city so desperately needed. She was so sure she was right on this one, that he was the party who was actually wrong when blinded by his fatherly feelings. She understood he was just trying to protect her, but he wouldn't be able to do this forever and he had to understand that, too. She was almost an adult and the last thing she needed was an overprotective father as it wasn't hard on her already that she was a Wells and that boys usually ran away when hearing that and knowing who Harrison Wells was, not to mention the fact that they were so intimidated by her knowledge and all those degrees she had. And so what that Caitlin was so much younger? Jesse then thought when getting to the woman and asking to come with. Maybe she herself one day would have to settle for a man much older since she was so many years ahead of her peers.
"Jesse, I don't think that taking me for a tour of the place is a good idea. You should just send me home," Caitlin protested when the girl told her to leave the baggage behind for now.
"Sure, I will, but I won't be able to open the portal again in a few hours, so you may as well enjoy your stay here, right?"
"And why exactly is it taking so long?" Caitlin asked with a frown, already feeling very suspicious of the whole thing. She couldn't just trust Jesse on this after everything she head from her father.
"As my dad said, it's still all new to us. Come…" The girl took Caitlin's hand and pulled her down the long corridor.
"Isn't S.T.A.R. Labs on your earth all up and running?" Curiosity got the better of Caitlin as always and the woman just had to ask that question since so far she'd seen no one else beside the Wellses.
"Yes. But this part is closed off. It's always been private, only for my father's eyes. All those labs scattered in here are for his convenience since he doesn't really want to work with his employees."
"Go figure," Caitlin murmured under her nose. So far this version of dr. Wells seemed angry and grumpy to her; not to mention lonely, but not in the way that would mean he was in a need of company. He just didn't seem to want it.
"He used to work here with my mom, but when she died… well, he just works alone now," Jesse continued and Caitlin felt sorry for the girl again. She had to keep reminding herself that Jesse had been growing up without her mom and having a jerk for a father. She then kind of wondered whether he'd always been a jerk or life just made him into one. Either that or the tremendous amount of money he had, that was. It must've been hard to let people close to him when he always had to wonder whether they wanted to use him or just wanted to be with him for him.
Then Snow brought herself back to the ground. She would not feel sorry for the man since he was so mean to her. It was no wonder, really, that he had a whole private part of the Labs to himself.
"Then when I got my speed, we just turned half of it into headquarters," the girl continued, oblivious to Snow's thoughts. "I always expected we'd eventually have a whole team helping me out when saving the city, but… yeah… that never happened. My dad's idea was to just keep me here so no one would know my secret and no one would ever know the Flash."
"But you are the Flash, right?" Caitlin picked up on that. "How come the name stuck?"
"Oh, I just run very fast and sometimes push people on the streets when I see they're in trouble. That sort of things. You know, when someone crosses the street and there's a car they didn't see coming and they're suddenly standing on the other side. A few people saw a streak of red – that's my favorite hoodie – and some reporters joined in and called me the Flash."
"Oh, so you don't have an actual suit," Caitlin said.
"Does the Flash from your world have? That's so cool!" Jesse got interested immediately. "You see? We do need you!... Oh, this is the operations," she then said when they stepped into a room that reminded Caitlin of her own cortex. She wanted to tell Jesse that she wasn't really going to stay, but then she forgot, too interested in picking up on all the differences in this place.
"Where I come from, we call this room the cortex," she then informed when walking around.
The thing that stroke her as missing the most was the lack of a suit in the bay, but that was easily explained.
"How fascinating," she then heard the all-so-familiar hard and husky voice belonging to Harrison Wells.
She turned on her heels just to see him standing in the door and leaning against the frame with arms folded on his chest. He'd changed, now dressed all in black sweater and pants. Something told her he didn't really know any other color beside white for a business shirt.
"I… I'm sorry. Jesse brought me here while we're waiting for the portal to open again. I hope that's ok," Caitlin quickly said.
"For the portal to open? That's interesting." Wells shot his daughter a look.
"Which is totally a lie, I get it," Snow then caught up. "I'll be out of your hair in a second. Don't you worry."
She walked straight to the door, hating that she had to pass right by him on her way. She felt like crying again and she hated this man. Who did he think he was when being this mean?!
"Good riddance," she heard him say.
"You know what?" She came to a sudden stop. "I was just gonna return home without saying anything and never think of you again, but… I won't do that. You, mister, are a jerk!" She pointed a finger at him. "I understand that your daughter went behind your back and did something you do not approve of, but that doesn't give you the right to speak to me like that! You need to learn some respect! Just because you're this huge tycoon with billions in your pocket and S.T.A.R. Labs in your possession, doesn't give you the right to treat people like this! I deserve some respect. I'm just as smart as you are!" She kept on going, oblivious to the delighted expression on Jesse's face and the shocked one of the girl's father. "And even if you now told me I could stay, I still wouldn't! You know why?! Because I have my freaking dignity! Goodbye, Harry, I hope to never see you again!"
After that, she strode off, heading straight to the speed lab. She didn't care if they didn't call that room this way here. She just wanted to go home. And she would. Even if she had to figure out how to turn that stupid portaling device on again all by herself!
"Damn it," Caitlin cursed when tinkering with the device.
She hadn't figured that one out yet, but the truth was that she wasn't even sure she wanted to. Once she pictured herself her comeback home so soon after leaving, the faces of her friends registering that she'd already got kicked out, that no one on that other earth actually wanted her to begin with, it was just horrible, shameful and awful. She didn't want to come back. She actually considered just grabbing her bag, finding an exit and disappearing on this earth, becoming someone knew, starting somewhere different. She knew it was crazy and actually unmanageable since she didn't even know this earth's customs or if they even have the same currency when it came to money, but…
She just hated feeling so hopeless, so… unwanted, unneeded.
In the end, she decided to come back home, after all, but not to S.T.A.R. Labs. She would have to cut herself off from the team, maybe accept a job in a different city. Yes, that was the best idea, she could see it now. She could also see how crazy and desperate it was of her to just come to this earth, having nothing but a silly invitation and no knowledge of this world whatsoever.
Then, finally, with a decision made and cheeks still wet from her tears, she managed to turn the portal on. She just had no idea whether it would take her where she wanted to go, she just then realized and cursed again. Should she just risk it?
She considered actually getting Jesse to help when she heard footsteps in the corridor. Someone was running.
Next thing she knew, Harrison Wells stood in the door and said, "Snow! Thank God you're still here!"
She stared at him for a while, trying to decide what changed and why he suddenly needed her help. Why he was so out of breath and… terrified? She realized. For the first time he actually seemed human to her.
"I need your help! It's Jesse! She went off to face some metahuman and she got hurt! Please!" he explained and all the pieces fitted together.
"What happened?" Caitlin just asked in a professional voice. She was used to this. With this she could work. It was clearly a medical emergency and she had the needed experience to help. This was truly not a time for arguing or yelling at this man. Now he was just a father worried sick about his daughter.
"The infirmary!" He led the way and they both ran in that direction. "She ran off and then she barely came back! She just collapsed! I think her leg is broken or fractured… I couldn't really tell. The man was made of steel!"
Caitlin frowned. A metahuman of steel? That sounded familiar, actually. And yes, very, very dangerous.
She finally reached the infirmary which didn't differ that much from the one she remembered except for the instruments. All of them were designed differently than she was familiar with and she had the worst feeling that she would have to figure out which one did what before she managed to use them and then it might be too late.
Jesse was lying on a lab bed and it was clear that she was in a lot of pain.
Snow disregarded Wells completely, just heading to the girl and pulling up her pant leg, studying the injury.
"My guess is a fractured bone, but I need an X-Ray machine. The shoulder… definitely dislocated. Dr. Wells, quickly, hold her up…"
It was remarkable, really, how this man could change when his child was in pain. He did everything Caitlin told him to without asking any questions and listening to every piece of information she gave him.
"Speedsters heal very quickly," she informed while working on the foot, "so you're lucky I'm here. If the bone healed without me setting it up, someone would have to break it and then put back together again."
By the time Snow was done and Jesse was sleeping it all off, her bones already healing, Wells just stood by the door, watching it all happen with eyes widely opened. He didn't move even when Caitlin came closer.
"Are you all right?" she eventually asked him.
Finally, he seemed to have woken up from his stupor and his eyes met hers. His were a nice and fair shade of blue and she might've been looking into them for a little bit too long than it was appropriate, she realized.
"You saved her life," he just said in a hoarse voice.
"Hardly." She smiled at him. "I just set a few bones."
"But you did this many times already, didn't you? You saved the other Flash's life before?" he asked.
She suddenly felt uncomfortable with that question since it sounded like he was considering actually hiring her for the job Jesse had intended for her.
"Well… yeah, that would be correct."
He just nodded in response and shifted his eyes back to his daughter.
"Will she be ok?"
"Definitely. Her bones will be all healed in a just a few hours."
"Hours?" he asked, having trouble actually believing that.
"I assume you did do some tests on her when her powers manifested," Snow said.
"I did," he admitted with a nod, shifting his eyes back to her, "but my background is technology, not biochemistry."
"Then I dare say you're lucky I'm here. At least right now," she quickly added, because that, on the other hand, sounded dangerously close to agreeing to stay.
She walked right past him and found herself in the cor… the operations, she reminded herself.
"Hungry?" dr. Wells suddenly asked and she turned around quickly, looking at him in shock. "It's the least I can do to thank you," he added when avoiding looking at her. He must've been feeling awkward.
"Sure. I'm starving," she answered because she actually was now that the adrenaline in her veins ran off.
"Is Big Belly Burger all right?" he then asked another question.
She laughed to his astonishment and just said, "Some things never change."
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing. Yes, Belly Burger will be just fine. Thank you."
When Jesse woke up, she was shocked to find her father and Caitlin Snow just sitting in the operations and talking over empty boxes with Big Belly Burger logo on them. She would rather expect to wake up in a hospital and have her father furious with how reckless she'd behaved, but this… this was so much better.
"Oh, you're awake!" Wells turned to her as soon as he spotted her. "How are you feeling?"
"Like new. Just starving," Jesse admitted when holding onto her stomach.
"That's normal, too," Caitlin told her with a smile. "I was just telling your father everything I know about the speedster on my earth, Barry. You need to eat, Jesse, and a lot. Healing exhausted your body."
"I left you a few boxes," Wells pointed the untouched ones on the other side of the huge desk they were sitting by. "Eat on."
"So… you're not mad at me?" Jesse dared ask when tentatively coming closer and finally taking a free seat and reaching for the boxes.
"I am. I am furious," Harrison's voice grew serious, "but I am also glad you're all right, so as long as you promise not to act like that ever again, I am willing to let it slide."
"I do. I just… I wanted to make you see that I… that I was ready…" Jesse confessed and her lip actually trembled since she felt like crying. "And you were right, dad. I'm not. And that's why I need help. I can't just keep having those powers and not use them to help, don't you see that? The Flash from Caitlin's world is actually a real hero. He does whatever he can to help and I wanna be just like that, too. This world needs me. People need me. People who lose their loved ones every day and we should know how that feels."
Harrison, on hearing that, seemed to have closed off out of the sudden and Caitlin didn't feel welcomed there anymore. In fact, she felt as though she should leave those two to talk it all out and maybe finally return to her earth. After all, her job here was done. The knowledge she had, passed on.
She got up from her seat and left the room while Harrison was hugging his daughter.
"You're just gonna let her leave like that?" Jesse asked her father when he let her go and she noticed the older woman gone. "Dad, ok, I admit that I wanted her here because she's so pretty and so super nice and definitely your type, but… there's so much more to that now. Just give her a chance. You saw how much we need someone like her here. You can't deny it any longer. What would you have done if she hadn't been here?"
"Lock you up in your room and never let go?" Harrison tried his poor attempt at joking, but then he just sighed and scratched his head.
"Dad, please. For me."
Caitlin didn't think it would be this hard. She was just standing right in front of that damn portal, ready to take off now with no interruptions, but… but she didn't really want to. For the first time in months she actually felt like she was appreciated. Not only needed for her expertise, but also for the company. Yes, she'd decided Harrison Wells was a jerk, but then she got to actually talk to him and she discovered he wasn't all that bad and despite the conversation being mostly about what she knew about speedsters and how she worked on her earth, she could also tell he needed company. Jesse was right, after all. He was lonely. They both were and they were just running blind when trying to get a handle of those powers of hers.
So no, Caitlin didn't really want to leave. But she had to. Because she would not ask them to let her stay. She would just not.
And then, just when she was reaching for her bag with a heavy sigh, she heard, "Did you adjust the settings?"
She turned around only to see Harrison Wells standing there.
"I'm just showing my concern," he assured her when raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. "You don't want to end up in a completely different universe, do you? I guess you have enough of that like for one day."
Snow couldn't help it and she actually smiled to him.
"Well, thank you for being so concerned about me, Harry," she emphasized the shortage she came up with just so she wouldn't think of the other Harrison she'd used to know. But honestly, it was mostly because she wanted to annoy him. He deserved it, after all.
To her satisfaction, he did frown.
"Listen…" he then started when spreading his hands and putting them together again, "I should apologize to you. I…" It was so clear that he had trouble admitting to his own mistake and it actually gave her a pretty grand satisfaction to discover that. "I was wrong," he finally got it out with difficulty. "And Jesse was right, so… will you stay?"
Caitlin expected an apology, yes, but she so did not expect this.
"What?" she ended up asking stupidly.
"Well, don't make me beg here," he then tried joking, but seeing her serious expression, he gave up. "Ok, here it goes. I'm generally a jerk, so you shouldn't take any of what I said to you before personally."
"Oh, gee, how wonderful!" she teased. "You know, out of all the features of your character, being a jerk was one that I never actually thought of."
"You knew the Harrison Wells on your earth well?"
"Yeah. I actually worked for him. Well, until he turned out to be someone else, an evil speedster from the future who killed Barry's mom and then tried to kill him, too."
"Oh," was all Harry could say to that, suddenly taken aback by that news.
"But he's not you, obviously."
"No, he is not. I may be a jerk, but I am not evil."
Snow actually started to laugh and she could see that the corners of his lips were dangerously close to elevating and doing that as well. He held on, though and then just said, "So I took a look at you resume and it really is impressive. I already admitted my daughter right and I already asked you to stay. What else can I do, Snow?"
The question hung in the air between them and she hesitated, thinking of what her answer would be. Then, in the end there was only one way she could reply.
"Nothing. I'm in."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Why not? Since you apologized so nicely," she teased him again with a smile and then she truly couldn't make out his expression. This man was really a puzzle to be solved, she decided.
"Great. You know, for Jesse," he added.
"Definitely," she agreed. "For Jesse."
When Caitlin came back to the operations with Harrison carrying her bag, Jesse squealed in joy and ran to hug the woman.
"Well, I believe we still have SteelMan to fight," Caitlin pointed out when smiling. "What?" she then asked, seeing the frowns on both the father's and daughter's faces. "I have a friend on my earth who always comes up with all those cool names for metahumans…" she started explaining, "so I thought…"
"Well, I certainly hope his ideas are much better," Harrison just said.
What a jerk, Caitlin thought.