Caitlin heard the telltale "whoosh" of Barry entering The Cortex.
"Hey, Barry," Caitlin said, her back still turned to him. "It's barely 10 AM shouldn't you be at work?"
"Technically yes but…" Barry trailed off.
"But?"
"You don't have to know about it."
"Barry, you know you're going to tell me anyway." Caitlin said, turning around. She was closer than he thought and bumped into Barry. Her breathe caught in her throat, he was wearing a red jersey jacket over his shirt which brought out the green in his eyes. She also caught a whiff of his scent; fresh but manly at the same time. They had to stop doing that. It wasn't healthy for her.
"I finished all of the things Captain Singh asked me to do," he told her with a guilty look. "A little faster than usual."
"Why? Are you okay?" Caitlin asked, she was more worried than angry at him for using his speed when he could so easily get caught. "Is there an emergency?"
"No," he said, his voice was full of relief. Caitlin smiled at the thought that Barry did care about what she thought. You have to stop thinking like that. She thought to herself. You'll only get your hopes up which is the last thing you need.
"Then," Caitlin said. Anger was now replacing her earlier worry. "Give me a valid reason why you did that."
"Don't be mad at me." His guilty expression was back paired with that annoyingly adorable sad expression he would give her when he wanted to escape her wrath. Too bad she never let it get to her.
"How can I not be mad at you?" Caitlin asked, voice already rising. "We agreed that you're not going to use your superhuman abilities in the presence of other people."
"I know. I was just having a bad day," Barry said. "Singh was yelling at me because I forgot to give him this report and he decided that Perfect Paul should work with me to give me an example of how a professional should work and you know how I prefer working alone and he just gets under my skin."
"Really?" Caitlin asked, her tone incredulous. "You think that's enough reason? Because you're annoyed at Perfect Paul?" She didn't even want to know what silly reason Barry had to give Paul that nickname.
"I didn't get caught," Barry replied. "Please, just let this go and let me help in the lab. I've got nothing to do for the whole day."
"Fine, I'll let it go." Caitlin said in a tone that suggested anything but. "I'll be in my lab and I don't need any help."
"I don't want this to turn into a fight," Barry said to her retreating back.
Caitlin just continued walking.
"Come on, Cait," Barry continued. "I'm really sorry."
But Caitlin was already gone.
"Cisco," Caitlin said to the mentioned who was a hunched figure on his work desk. He was busy tweaking something on what used to be Reverb's glasses. "Can you help me with something?"
"Kinda busy here, Caitlin," Cisco said not even bothering to turn around. "What do you need help with?"
"It's this sample that Barry gave me from our newest meta," Caitlin explained. "I can't determine if these materials that mixed with the metahuman's tissues enabled him to be intangible or if it's the other way around."
"Okay," Cisco was finally facing Caitlin. "I know I'm the smartest one around here – I'm like you guys' Dumbledore - but shouldn't you be asking Barry about this? I'm pretty sure a forensic scientist will have a more helpful opinion than a mechanical engineer. Even if the engineer was phenomenal."
"I know but he's busy so I thought I'll ask you instead."
"Oh, and I'm not busy?" Cisco was giving her his classic You're-Bothering-Me-With-Your-Stupidity-Look.
"Caitlin, you'll always be a terrible liar."
"Fine, I'll just do this myself."
"You want to know what I think happened?"
"Nothing happened, Cisco."
"Oh, something happened. You and Barry had an argument again." He made sure to give emphasis when he said 'again' as if Caitlin didn't know that already. If being a hero was innate in Barry, arguing all the time was innate to them.
"Cisco, he used his speed to do his work at CCPD! It's full of people. Captain Cold already knows his identity and it will always be a card he'll play. We can't risk somebody else knowing." Caitlin half-shouted. She was the only one seeing sense between the three of them apparently.
"Did he get caught?"
"No but-" Caitlin started.
"Then I'm pretty sure you can let this pass." Cisco said.
"You and Barry are not making sense." Caitlin said. "Someday this is going to bite him on his speeding ass."
"Yada yada. But seriously, Caitlin let this go. You know Barry well enough. He wouldn't have done that for a selfish reason."
"I know," Caitlin said in a defeated tone. "I'll let this one go just tell him not to do it again."
"Nah," Cisco said. "Tell him yourself."
"No, I may have let this go but I won't make it easier for him."
Not to mention it was also a perfect opportunity for her to avoid Barry Allen.
Caitlin Snow was so focused on her work that she didn't notice Barry enter her laboratory. Barry could only see a glimpse of her face because most of it was covered by her soft brown curls. He couldn't help but take advantage of the fact that everything seemed to slow down – he didn't know if this was caused by his metahuman abilities or by the mere presence of Caitlin – and take her face (or what he could see of it anyway) in. Don't think that way. Of course it's because of your speed. You've known this since the start. He corrected himself and the way he was thinking but he just couldn't resist the temptation to remove the hair blocking his view of her face. It was a reckless move and might just add fuel to her anger towards him therefore defeating his initial purpose coming here but he did it anyway.
Caitlin was almost sure she had already solved the puzzle of the intangible metahuman's abilities. Cisco was yet to give him a name.
"The way that the cells are reacting to-" She froze. Somebody was touching her hair. She looked to find out who it was and she was met by familiar green eyes. Only closer this time. Barry was touching her hair. Why the hell was Barry Allen touching her hair? He had tucked her hair behind her ear.
"What-" She meant to ask what he was doing but words became alien to her because his hands were brushing her face. It was sending current after current of electricity through her body. Ignore it.
"Ba-Barry-"
"That's better," he softly said. He was looking at her in a weird way that Caitlin didn't want to know what it exactly meant.
"Why did you do that?" She moved away from him. It was almost painful, voluntarily losing that contact between them. Her words seemed to break his stupor.
"What? Oh, nothing it just seemed like your hair might be getting in your way so I moved it away. Was it?" Barry was talking so fast he might as well be using his speed. "Should I put it back?" He started to walk nearer and Caitlin once again moved away. Hurt and confusion was in Barry's eyes. Was it because she was still angry at him?
"No," Caitlin said. She should just pretend that it never happened. "It's fine. What are you doing here?"
He cleared his throat. Maybe his way of saying he wanted to forget it happened to.
"Cisco said you needed help analyzing some samples." He finally said.
"Oh, that. I can do this on my own. I'm pretty sure I've already figured this out." Caitlin said dismissively.
"Really?" he asked. "Then what else do you need help with?"
"I'm fine on my own, Barry," she said. "Besides, didn't Cisco already give you something to do?"
"He did but he told me that you're still angry at me and we should talk this out."
"Ugh," Caitlin said. "I will need to talk to Cisco about his mouth later."
"Come on, Caitlin," Barry said. "Let me help. Cisco's making me go through old security footage from all the cameras at STAR Labs. I may be fast but it's still boring and there's a lot of footage. I need a little challenge."
Caitlin knew letting Barry join her was not going to help her situation but she also knew that he wasn't going to give up anytime soon. Why did she have to develop feeling for him of all people?
"Fine," she said. She was going to let him help her but she needed to keep it as short as possible and minimize interactions between them. "You up to examining the substance in these vials?"
"Sure," he said moving towards the vials she gestured towards. "What are in these anyway?"
"That might actually interest you," Caitlin said, getting excited at the idea of perfecting the special anesthesia she made for Barry. She needed to work at that after examining the metahuman cell, and then test it on Barry, then test out a new way she came up with to disable metahuman abilities for a longer period of time. She had a lot to do but she didn't need help. "Those are multiple versions of a new drug I've been working on that might work on you as an anesthesia."
"That would be nice," Barry said, already putting on his gloves. "Because every time you patch me up it's like you're doing your best to make sure I feel the pain."
"No, I do not."
"Yes, you do."
"You deserve the pain because of your idiocy but you know I do everything I can to be a good doctor. Also, start working on those vials and stop smirking." Her back was turned to him but she knew he hadn't started yet because she can practically hear his smirk in his teasing tone.
"If you're such a good personal physician then beat me at Operation already."
He did not just bring that up, she rolled her eyes and then they landed on a security camera installed in her office.
No.
No.
How unlucky could she be?
"Barry, did you say that you were deleting security footage?" she asked, her voice deadly serious.
"Changing the topic are we, Dr. Snow? But yes. He asked me to watch anything that might give me an idea how to get faster from Eobard Thawne's work."
"So you have all the videos from all the cameras in STAR Labs?" Caitlin was starting to panic. He can't see that video. Oh, God. Why did this have to happen to her?
"Yes, that's why it was boring because I have to watch it all and the fast forward feature can only go so fast. Caitlin, are you okay?" Barry said in a worried voice.
She needed a way to stop him from seeing that video.
"Y-Yes. Of course," Caitlin stuttered a little. She needed to get it together or risk Barry finding out. "Wow that is boring. You know what? I'll talk to Cisco and ask him to do it himself or maybe I'll do it myself. You have better things to do."
"Thank you?" Barry said in a confused tone. "You don't have to do that. I'm perfectly fine with doing that it's just I prefer doing something with you. It makes more sense that I do it because I am fast."
"I guess that does make sense but let me talk to Cisco first?" Caitlin asked. She hoped desperation didn't show in her voice.
"Again, you don't have to do that."
"I know I just want to. I think Felicity has some new software that she developed that can really help," Caitlin said, making up a lie. "It's my way of making up for me lashing out at you earlier."
"So we're cool?" Barry was still looking a little confused with her sudden change of heart but he was smiling.
"We're cool." She replied with a smile to make him think that there was nothing to worry about.
Caitlin Snow, why did you kiss Everyman-Barry back? Why did you think for one moment that he reciprocated your feelings? Now, it's your ass that's going to get bitten if Barry sees that video. Barry Allen was going to be so pissed at her when he sees that video and find out about your feelings.
Author's Note: I'm really sorry that this took so long guys. I mean it. Life just got in the way a little of my writing and I've been pretty busy. Thank you to those people who hit favourite, follow or left a review. It really encourages me to keep writing. I've had a little writer's block and it didn't help that in the TV show the writers are really trying everything to make sure there is a lack of SnowBarry moments and just shoving WestAllen after WestAllen scenes. Oh, how I miss season 1 SnowBarry. It also doesn't help that the SnowBarry fandom is getting hate for shipping what they want. We know it that WestAllen is canon, we're not dumb we just see the potential of Barry and Caitlin. Geez, they have the upper hand because WestAllen is probably gonna be endgame yet they hate on fans who just want SnowBarry to be given a chance. If their ship was so great why do I feel like they're threatened by SnowBarry? Above all else we love The Flash and viewers should be allowed to ship who they want without being unfairly judged and there should be no animosity that exist between the supported. That's all I have to say. Leave some reviews, follows or favs, will you? To inspire me and help me get in a better mood for writing.
xx
-bookishanonymous