Author's Note: Hello my lovelies! Ready for 1x04? I sure am! May the writing begin!
"This isn't even remotely atomically correct." Caitlin complained, trying, and failing to get another piece out of the "body" she was "operating" on.
"That's not the point Dr. Snow." Barry told her, flashing over and neatly picking a piece up. He gave her a wink that sent a tingle down her spine, then rushed away again to hit the ping pong ball back to Cisco.
"Then what is the point." She asked him in exasperation, pushing her hair out of her face from where it had blown when he ran away.
"To have fun!" Barry cried, hitting his ball back and forth with Cisco a few more times, waiting for her to try again.
She did, but the buzzer rang out and filled the room with noise. Caitlin blushed and humphed. Barry ran over and gave her a mock pout. "Not used to be worse at something medical then anyone else are we?"
Caitlin reached out a hand to hit his shoulder but he was already on the move again. She rolled her eyes.
Dr. Wells rolled his wheel chair into the room. "Your accuracy is getting better, Mr. Allen. I'm impressed."
"Thank you!" Barry beamed.
Caitlin laughed at his facial expression, and tried once more to lift out a piece. BUZZZ. "Oh, I give up." She groaned. "You win Barry."
"Maybe on that he does!" Cisco crowed triumphantly, taking advantage of Barry's distraction and scoring another point in their ping-pong game, "But he just LOST with this! Burn..."
Just then, the police report blared into their room. Barry was off and running.
Felicity Smoak. Caitlin had met her a few times, when she had come to visit Barry after he got struck by lighting. She was spunky and smart, but talked so much. But Caitlin still met her with a smile. "It is, of course, so good to see you again Felicity. I'm just wondering how much of our operation she needs to know about." She sent a significant glance at Barry.
Felicity nodded in understanding. "I'm really good a keeping secrets."
Barry glanced at Felicity and then back at Caitlin. He grinned. "Yeah, Felicity works with the Arrow."
"And you, apparently, are not." Felicity muttered with a fond shake of her head.
"Sweet!" Cisco commented from behind his desk. "Now everything makes sense! You know who the Arrow is!" He glanced at Barry. "Wait.. do you know who the Arrow is?"
"Well, um..." Barry stuttered.
Felicity cut him off, rescuing him from an awkward situation. "Let's just say that my team has a similar set up. But with more pointy objects."
"Welcome Mrs. Smoak." Harrison said, surprising him all with his entrance at the doorway. Felicity's ponytail whipped around as she turned, nearly slapping Barry in the face.
"Dr. Wells? The Dr. Wells?"
"Please, call me Harrison, Felicity." Dr. Wells smiled graciously.
"You know who I am?" Felicity's eyes turned round as saucers and she gaped in surprise.
Wells continued to list everything that Felicity had ever accomplished, and a beaming smile stretched across the blonds face. Caitlin looked at her high-heeled feet, suddenly feeling very unaccomplished. What had she really done since meeting Barry? Well, you met Barry. A voice in her head reminded her. And looking up at him, she was glad she had stayed.
As Barry ran at super speed on his treadmill, Felicity questioned Caitlin worriedly about his vitals.
"They're completely normal." She assured her. "For him, anyway."
"Hey, Felicity!" Barry yelled out to the group. "You wanna see how fast I can run backwards?"
Before anyone could tell him how stupid that idea was, he had crashed into the wall. "Don't worry." Caitlin smiled at how high Felicity's eyebrows were on her forehead as she turned in alarm. "He heals fast, too."
True to her word, Barry was fine and on his feet a few minutes later. Cisco had offered to show Felicity around the city, so it left the two of them alone. Caitlin walked over to Barry. "Hey, you still haven't given me that date I asked for."
Barry slapped his forehead, looking guilty. "Right! Sorry. We never rescheduled after Joe called me in." Then he brightened. "Iris and Eddie invited me to a trivia night. I was going to bring Felicity, but you could come instead!"
Caitlin tried not to frown at the fact that he was going to bring Felicity instead of her. "Well, if you had wanted to bring her..."
Barry smiled. "Caitlin, it wasn't me picking her over you, don't worry. I just figured that she would want to go do something, other then helping us save the world, of course, and that would be a good thing to try out."
"How about we both go?" Caitlin asked, feeling like a dramatic high-schooler after her brief moment of jealousy. It was unlike her. "It will be fun, and then we can always go do something after, unless something pops up."
"Great!" Barry beamed. "You really are fantastic, Caitlin Snow."
His phone buzzed, and he frowned at it. "It's Joe, I have to go. See you tonight?" (A.N: I'm sorry if I took too much of a twist of off that scene. I couldn't find the order of things in videos online, so I had to do it from memory and make it up. And the rest of this might be really out of order.)
"Party people, who's ready to get this trivia on?" The announcer yelled into the crowd. "Alright everyone we have some new challengers; everyone please welcome E=MC Hammer!"
The crowd cheered again, and Barry beamed excitedly at Iris and Eddie. They both looked confused. "You know, because E=MC squared..." He launched into a fast paced explanation, which neither Iris nor Eddie (A.N: or me!) understood.
Then he noticed Felicity and Caitlin walking over to them. Felicity grinned. "E=MC Hammer. I like it."
Caitlin shrugged. "And you too are the only people here who get it, so, you know what? It's all good."
Barry couldn't make a coherent sentence. Both girls were beautiful, yeah, but Caitlin looked like a rose in a field of dandelions (not that Felicity was a weed). She had on a stunning green dress that stopped just short of her knees, and had thin straps, decorated with sequins. The dress was low cut, but not drastically so, so it still reflected who Caitlin was.
"Did we totally overdress?" Felicity asked self-consciously.
"No, you look great." Iris said with a smiled.
"Yeah, yeah you do. Both of you." Barry stuttered, though he was only looking at Caitlin.
She gave him a shy smile and sat down beside Barry. "Sorry we're late. Felicity convinced me to do something with my hair other then curl it." She wrinkled her nose at the other girl.
Felicity laughed. "But aren't you glad you did?" She plopped herself down next to her friend and patted her messy, but pretty, bun.
Caitlin shook her head. "Alright. When does this thing start."
"It's actually already started." Iris said, and Barry quickly grabbed the tablet. He, Felicity and Caitlin launched into a heated debate as a high level, both of speed and intellect.
Eddie leaned over and asked Iris, "Are they even speaking English right now?" She shrugged, but then the announcer started dramatically, "And the points go to... E=MC Hammer!"
The three major nerds at the table gave each other high-fives as Iris and Eddie shook their head in amusement. "I knew you guys would make a good team." Iris smiled.
Eddie started to talk to Felicity about her job, which she answered with practiced ease, not even coming close to the topic of the Arrow. Barry turned to Caitlin. "Is this working for you? The three of us."
"Barry." She smiled gently. "It's fun." Then she playfully tapped his wrist. "Though I'm still looking foreword to my alone time with you."
Barry's heart rate elevated, even for him, and he gulped. "Uh, yup. Yeah, that will be great."
Eddie strode off to get drinks, and Felicity and Caitlin got up to use the bathroom. Iris turned to Barry. "So... what's the deal with you and Caitlin?"
"What? What do you mean?" Barry asked, eyes wide with face innocence. "Nothing's up with me and Caitlin."
"Uh huh." Iris didn't look convinced. "Sure, Barry. Sure."
"How are you and Eddie doing?" Barry questioned quickly, trying to get the attention off of himself.
"We're good..." Iris looked at him through narrowed eyes. "You're trying to change the subject."
"I am not!" Barry cried.
"Yes you are."
Thankfully for Barry, Eddie returned with more drinks. He pecked Iris on the lips. "Alright. What is the next question E=MC Hammer?"
15 minutes later a buzzer rang out. "I'm sorry guys. I thought I knew it and I got excited and I just hit it." Iris giggled.
"Well.. maybe they'll get it wrong too." Barry tried, and Caitlin had to commend him for his effort to be supportive.
Felicity didn't even try. "Oh yeah. I'm sure that the team with the name Pride and Padawan doesn't know the name of Han Solo's ship."
Caitlin sighed. "Cisco would be so disappointed in us."
The dinger rang out, and Eddie looked devastated. Iris took his face in her hands. "You know, honey, you're so cute when you're confused." They kissed and Barry and Caitlin exchanged awkward glances.
Then Eddie's phone beeped, and the smile was wiped off his face. "Somebody spotted Snart. I gotta go." He grabbed his coat and ran off toward the door.
The other three looked at each other and were quick to follow. "I'll cover for you." Felicity told them.
"Well, what're you going to say?" Barry asked putting on his coat and holding the door open for Caitlin.
"I usually tell people that Oliver's at a nightclub with a girl or nursing a hangover."
"Neither of those are going to work for me." Barry shook his head, and Caitlin bit back a laugh at how true it was.
"Ok, I'll just say that you two ran of to make out or something!" Felicity gestured at the two of them. "It's realistic."
Both Barry and Caitlin's faces turned as red as Barry's suit. "No." Caitlin stated firmly. "Think of something else."
"How about you got explosive diarrhea and had to leave?"
"Both of us?" Caitlin raised an eyebrow.
"Just go!" Felicity yelled.
Barry picked up Caitlin and whizzed off.
If he got hit by that cold gun... he had barely healed the last time. And now he wouldn't even speak to Cisco. She had tried to talk to him about it, but she didn't want to push too hard. She really hadn't known Barry all that long, so what could she say? It wasn't as if he valued her opinion over everyone else's. Or, at least she didn't think he did.
Barry was rushing into danger again. Danger that included the change of frostbite, or even death. Caitlin bit her lip unconsciously as Felicity hacked into the street cams, barely even able to appreciate how talented her friend was.
Felicity gasped as the sight of a train hurtling down the track. Caitlin glimpsed a figure in parka leap from the train. Then the train broke apart. Cisco leapt to his feet and ran out of the room. Caitlin stared after him, wondering what he was doing.
Flashes of speed lightning flitted in and out of the train, and people seemed to pop up as if from nowhere on the muddy ground. Caitlin bit her lip harder, fighting the urge to speak into the com, even though it was turned off.
There was one more streak of light and Barry was spit out of the train, landing hard on the ground. "Oh my gosh." Felicity breathed. "Look." She was pointing towards the corner of the screen, where Captain Cold was striding towards Barry's form. Felicity zoomed the camera in to get a better view, though Caitlin didn't really want to see what was going to happen next.
Then she was being grabbed by the arm, and Cisco was tugging her, with Felicity running behind. Dr. Wells was left calling after them, asking what they were doing.
Cisco leapt into the car with his machine, which Caitlin had just noticed he was holding. He sped at 90 miles per hour down the road, horns blaring from every direction. Caitlin was glued to her seat, sure that they were going to get in an accident.
They arrived in record time at the site for the train crash. Caitlin and Felicity grabbed part of Cisco's machine as he hurriedly explained his plan, and they all ran to where Cold and Barry were.
"Drop it." Cisco commanded.
Caitlin held her breath. It wasn't going to work. But Cold turned slowly around, his attention moving off Barry. "This is a prototype cold gun." Cisco stated, so confidently that Caitlin almost believed him. "4 times the size, 4 times the power."
Barry's expression was disbelieving, and Caitlin hoped with all her heart that maybe he would trust his friend after this.
"I was wondering who you were talking to." Cold said, glancing at Barry, gun still trained on him.
"Hey!" Cisco cried. "Unless you want to taste your own medicine, you should back the heck up."
"Your hands are shaking." Snart noticed, and Caitlin closed her eyes. "You've never killed anyone before.
Cisco didn't miss a beat. "There's a first time for everything..." He growled dangerously. "Captain Cold." Snart tilted his head back with a smile and Cisco re-adjusted his grip on the gun. "I will shoot you."
There was a long, tense, pause. Then Snart raised his gun. "You win, kid. I'll see you 'round." He turned and strode off.
"Hey!" Cisco called. "Leave the gun."
"Don't push your luck." Was all he said, and then he was gone.
Caitlin and Felicity gently set down the machine they were holding, and Cisco grinned. "Couldn't of shot him if I wanted to. This is actually the S.T.A.R. Labs vacuum cleaner." He chuckled maniacally. "With a lot of LEDs."
Caitlin ran over to Barry and helped him sit up. "Hey, let's get you warm."
He didn't respond, instead reached over and clapped Cisco on the shoulder. "Thank you."
Cisco grabbed his hand and squeezed it, and Caitlin felt something warm blossoming in her chest. Things were going to be just fine after all.
Back at the Lab (A.N: It's almost done, I promise!) Caitlin was busy monitoring Barry's healing process. "You should be good." She smiled.
He poked his bare abs and frowned. "Will it always be this blue?"
She laughed and shook her head. "No, your skin should return to normal with time. Here." She handed him a warm rice pack, which he took and pressed to his stomach with a sigh of happiness.
Then he stood and pulled her into his arms. Caitlin was a little startled, but let him hug her, burying her head in the crook of his neck. "You ok?" He whispered in her ear, and shivers danced up and down her spine.
"I'm glad you made up with Cisco." She told him honestly. "I wasn't sure what was going to happen to our team for a bit there."
"Even if our team falls apart..." Barry paused, then continued. "It doesn't mean we have to, Caitlin."
She smiled. "I didn't even know we were a we yet."
"Do you want to be a we?" He asked tentatively. "Maybe actually go on a real date? Without any interruptions?"
"You promise me this so much I think it's becoming a trend." She teased, and Barry laughed, chest rumbling against her cheek. "And you know there will be interruptions."
"There will always be interruptions." He admitted.
"But that's just our life, isn't it?"
"What's our life?" Came Cisco's voice from the hallway. The two of them leapt apart as he came to the doorway.
"Just craziness." Caitlin said hurriedly, before grabbing her purse and squeezing past him. "See you guys tomorrow."
She turned just before she was out of Barry's line of sight and winked at him. He turned red, and she felt a smile stretch across her face. Then she walked down the corridor and out of S.T.A.R. Labs.
Author's Note: HOLY SMOAKS. Guys. That was a REALLY long chapter.
Here is the question. Would you prefer shorter chapters and more updates (like I break up the episode into multiple chapters), or do you want me to keep it the way it is?
