A continuation of last chapter. This is the second last chapter by the way, hope you like it!

Not knowing what else to do, Caitlin quietly and gently opened the door at last. As her nervous eyes found his worriedly exasperated ones, she scoured her brain for something to say. She couldn't let the silence last long enough to become too awkward.

"Well… that 2024 newspaper certainly had a lot to say about her," she muttered, almost inaudibly.

"Wait, hold on. Is that what's been bothering you? The damn newspaper? When did this become about that? Isn't this about Everyman?"

"Stop asking me so many questions at once Barry, I can barely breathe, let alone answer them all!" she snapped before briskly walking away from him again.

Letting out a frustrated sigh that ended in a grunt, Barry shouted "Don't walk away from me, please! I am so done with this, just please tell me what's wrong! Is it Everyman or is it the newspaper?"

"It's none of your business Barry! I'm not a distressed damsel that needs the Flash to come and save me. I'll be fine without you."

The last thing she said really struck a nerve in Barry. He'd officially had enough.

"You know what? Fine! Be that way. I can't help you if I don't even know what it is that's bothering you, so I'm not even gonna try anymore. I'm the freaking Flash for God's sake; I'm sure there are plenty of people out there right now who will be a lot easier to help than you, and who will be a lot more appreciative of my efforts!"

"It's both!"

"Excuse me?"

There was no point fighting this pointless fight anymore. Caitlin was relenting. It had been bad enough that Barry's relationship with his best friend had spent months deteriorating from the strain of an unshared, major secret. The very least that Caitlin could do was be open with him.

"I… will explain everything. But it might take some time. Sit down with me? Can we go somewhere that we won't be interrupted, for maybe ten minutes?"

Looking surprisingly calm, Barry took a breath.

"OK," he lightly sighed, "we can go into the Time Vault."

Caitlin suppressed a shudder at the thought that that was the same room that had shattered her heart, still not fully healed from the trauma of Ronnie's "death" and his later leaving her. But she quietly agreed, and soon they found themselves side-by-side against the one of the shiny white walls, sitting cross-legged with Caitlin staring at the floor.

She began with a mumble, "The reason I've been… off lately: it's mostly Everyman."

Vaguely gesturing towards the screen displaying the newspaper article, she added, "But I'd be lying if I said that that had nothing to do with it. And I can't tell you why all of this bothers me so much because I haven't figured that out for myself yet. It shouldn't. But I don't know, I had so much fun doing wasted karaoke with you that one night, and after you dated Linda, I figured that Iris might not in fact be the be-all and end-all. And for so long, I've been so lonely, after losing the love of my life twice. Do I still love him? Of course I do, but with his and our situation so indefinite, so up in the air, I figured that it was time for me to move on. And us, we're so alike, you're one of my best friends. I'll admit that I kind of entertained the possibility of an "us" for a little while, and although I was pretty sure you didn't feel the same way, I was weirdly OK with that. It was just a little fantasy, a little wishful thinking, so it was OK. Then Everyman just strutted in here, wearing your body, and he…

He was shocked at her revelations, but currently all Barry could focus on was her trailed-off sentence. Barry bit his lip in annoyed anticipation; a habit he'd picked up from her.

"…he kissed me."

Barry took that as his cue to let his eyes go wide and his mouth agape, but there was nothing he could say. He felt a little queasy with all the different thoughts rushing through his head faster than he could run, but while he was working out how to react, it became clear that she still wasn't finished yet.

"I was freaked out when it happened the first time, but, I mean, you have tried to kiss me before, and then he did it again and I kissed him back and then it wasn't you. And things weren't the same. I couldn't just happily go back to my little fantasy after that. It was impossible. And now, after seeing that newspaper, whether it's real or not, I feel horrid, because I know Iris, she's the only one you ever see, she's the love of your life, and I can really see why. She is perfect for you Barry, and she's not stupid, so it's inevitable that one day she'll wake up and realise that."

At this point, Barry's jaw was firmly cemented to the floor. He hauled it back up when he studied her face, and found an expression that conveyed a desire to cry, but being too emotionally drained to do so. Immediately, his arm went around her, pulling her close. As he spoke, he turned his face away, not brave enough to make eye contact.

"Look, in terms of my love life, I don't mean to lead you on or anything, but I will say this; I'm not going to let a newspaper that may or may not actually be from the future dictate my life choices. I do love Iris, but things with her and I are currently also pretty up in the air. I think she loves Eddie more than she could ever love me, and I know that he wants to marry her. She is my best friend, but she knows I'm keeping secrets from her, and that's hurting her and our friendship badly. And I do like you Caitlin, I really do, but at this point I really don't think either of us is in a place where we can be anything more than friends. We need to be over our first loves before we can move on. And in the end, we may end up with each other or with other people, we don't know yet. The question of us can't be answered until the questions of me and Iris and you and Ronnie are. I don't think either of us deserves to be anyone's second choice. Does that make sense?"

He finally looks at her and is greeted by a weak smile with straining eyes brimmed by tears. She responds, "That's all I needed to hear. I think you're right, but I'd like to ask a small favour."

Barry gives her a brief nod and an expectant look.

Lips trembling, vulnerability showing, she asks, "Would you mind kissing me, just once, just so I can know that I've kissed the real you, just once? You don't have to say yes if it makes you uncomfortable."

He takes her face gently in his hands, before whispering matter-of-factly, "Of course. Anything for you."

And the kiss isn't magical. It isn't amazing, and it isn't passionate. It's quick and it's chaste but it does the job. Afterwards, Caitlin thanks him, and that's all there is to it.