Feeling completely worn out by tonight's incident, Caitlin trudged into the kitchen of the West household to make a pot of coffee. Everyone else was still processing what happened and trying to figure out why.
"Hey, you ok?" Looking at the entrance she saw Harry walking closer to her. His expression mirrored her own as he stood beside her, folding his arms across his chest.
Opening the cabinet to retrieve cups, she thought about his question. "Right now, honestly, I think I feel pity for HR more than anything." Caitlin remembered HR's pained expression. He'd been so full of pain. But why?
Unfolding his arms, Harry reached out and grabbed a cup from her and began pouring the much-needed beverage. "Listen, Snow, I'm sorry I didn't listen to your concerns about HR…" His words were growled softly. "I should have listened to you."
Not wanting Harry to think this was somehow his fault, Caitlin reached out her hand and in a reassuring gesture she cupped his face. Looking him in his ocean blue eyes that she seriously thought she could drown in, she said, "Harry, nobody could have predicted what was going to happen." Her voice broke at the thought that here was this brilliant person blaming himself for not listening to her. Self-conscious, she stopped touching him.
He gave her a reassuring nod and much to Caitlin's surprise reached out, pulling her into a welcome, warm embrace. She couldn't help but think about how she could feel his lean but toned physique through the thin sweater he was wearing.
"Thank you," He whispered.
Caitlin wanted to gasp as his soft words sent a shiver down her spine. Hearing the sound of someone clearing their throat made the two pull apart - Iris was standing in the entryway, giving them a weird look, but they ignored it. Caitlin retrieved the coffee pot and walked into the living room followed by Harry carrying the cups.
Taking a seat beside Cisco on the coach, Caitlin waited until everyone else was settled before asking, "How's Julian?"
Barry took a sip of his coffee, then said, "I just got off the phone with the doctor and he thinks Julian is going to be okay."
Caitlin nodded at the new information, glad Julian was going to be okay. She didn't like him enough to want to date him, but she didn't really wish ill on the man.
Joe spoke hesitantly, "I think...maybe, perhaps...until we can figure out what exactly is going on and how to prevent it.. we should put HR in the pipeline."
Caitlin couldn't believe her ears.
Everyone looked at Joe, now close to finishing his whiskey. "You can't be serious?" It was Cisco who spoke up, frowning.
"I agree with Cisco. We can't do that. HR isn't a meta and besides, I don't think he would trust us if we did that." Caitlin's voice resonated with the anger she was feeling.
Harry must have sensed that she was about to blow up at the long-time detective, because he reached out, gently touching her arm. "Caitlin's right. HR might not react well to being locked up..." Removing his hand from her arm, he rubbed his eyes, the movement mirroring HR's from earlier. "I think the best thing to do is find out what triggers these moments." Harry stopped rubbing his eyes and looked around the room.
Cisco offered some hope. "The first time was when we were trying to stop last night's jewelry store criminal, HR clued us in to use magnetism." Caitlin couldn't wrap around her mind around how they'd stopped plenty of metas before, and HR hadn't acted any different with them.
Then something clicked. "Wait - there was a hostage in that situation." She could see Barry nodding his head.
"Yeah, a kid." The speedster spoke up as he recalled the memory.
Iris asked, "What about the second time though, when he was looking for his brain scans?" The room got quiet as everyone tried to think of an answer, but no one seemed to know.
Caitlin was thinking about giving up - but she remembered earlier that day HR had called her something in the hallway at STAR Labs. "Wait, when I was on my way to the cortex to tell Barry and Iris that Harry was coming over, HR was acting strangely."
"Like how?" Harry asked.
She began to think back to the exact moment. "That was the first time he called me Caity Cat which I thought was strange but didn't think too much of it. He just seems the type to give people pet names." Everyone looked at her weirdly. "You know what he's like, he's never met a person he didn't want to befriend!"
"Did he say anything else?" Barry asked, worry foremost in his expression.
Thinking deeper, she remembered that HR looked at her like he regretted something. "I asked if he was okay because he seemed like something was wrong but he said he was always okay." Caitlin wished she had paid closer attention. If only right there she had asked him a question, or distracted him, or just - something!
Letting out a sigh, Harry stood up and started walking around the room, deep in thought. "So no one knows what triggered that one?" Harry started rubbing his jaw. "Nobody?!"
"Wally might know," Iris said looking up from her drink. "He was the last one to speak with him." She looked at Barry to confirm her story. The speedster quickly agreed with his fiancee.
"Where is Wally?" Caitlin asked, she hadn't noticed the younger man's absence in the chaos of the evening.
Setting his mostly drained glass on the coffee table, Joe answered her question. "He said he was going to see some friends back home."
"I don't know about anyone else, but I feel like we're not going to get anywhere with just the information we have..." Barry's voice was full of regret. "Maybe, we need to wait for it to happen again."
Caitlin could tell she wasn't the only one who thought that was a stupid suggestion as she looked around the room, seeing upset faces. Her eyes rested on Cisco who was oddly quiet, using his phone, confused about something on the screen. "Hey, Cisco what is it?"
Prying his eyes from the device he looked at her with worry written on his face, making her stomach drop. Uneasily he said, "I just got a weird message."
Everybody's attention was on the young engineer, waiting with pent breath for a response. "What's the message Cisco?" Harry had his hands clenched into fists, his pacing had brought him almost to the kitchen. He pivoted and made his way back over to Caitlin.
Caitlin could feel her stomach roil and tighten into knots watching Cisco pull up the message onto his screen.
Cisco sighed and spoke slowly. "It says I know who HR Wells really is. I can help you. CW."
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