Beta Needed: I need a new beta author, if anyone is interested or knows someone please PM me. This chapter hasn't been betaed, so please forgive any mistakes.
The next morning Caitlin woke up feeling very relaxed and satisfied. She looked over at Barry, who looked very cute when he slept. Looking at the clock she noticed it was 11:00. She hadn't slept in this late for a long time, but she didn't have anywhere to be today, so she figured she let it slide.
She felt her stomach rumbling and she felt famished, deciding to let Barry sleep in for a little while longer while she made breakfast. Getting up, she felt a bit sore. It had been awhile since she had sex, and she may have gotten a bit carried away. Barry was a bit surprised at how aggressive she was in bed, but she wasn't kidding about how she got when she let her wild side loose. After being a bit surprised, he turned out to be very eager. She could tell he wasn't as experienced as she was, but he was a lot more considerate than some of her past lovers and was a very quick learner.
Blushing slightly as she remembered last night, she gave a quick kiss to Barry, who didn't even stir. She really had tired him out. She then exited the bedroom and made a quick stop in the bathroom. Looking down she saw Barry's suit, which was still dripping wet. Looking at the label on the suit, she found that it wasn't dry clean only, so she quickly put on a robe and headed down to the laundry room and threw it into the dryer. She then headed back into her apartment and started on breakfast. Technically it was time for lunch, but she preferred to start the day with breakfast.
As she was finishing up making it, she heard a knock on her door. She went over to it to answer it to find Cisco and Lily standing there.
"Hey Caitlin." Lily says. "Can we come in?"
"Yeah." Cisco says. "You promised you'd call to let us know how your date went."
"I know." Caitlin says. "And I promise I will call you, but now is not the best time to come in."
"Why not?" Cisco asks.
Lily takes a quick look at her friend, who was glowing and looks at her in surprise. "Despite my teasing, I really didn't think you really would." she admits.
"Wouldn't what?" Cisco asks. "And why can't we come in?"
"Really?" Lily asks.
Cisco is about to open his mouth to respond when he finally gets it. "Oh..."
"OK, now that I'm thoroughly embarrassed, would you mind leaving?" Caitlin asks. "I promise I'll call and give you all the details of my date later."
"I really don't need all the details." Cisco says.
"I meant details of the date." Caitlin says. "Now about what happened after."
"Oh, right." Cisco says.
"Well I wouldn't mind hearing some of those details." Lily says.
"And at the risk of sounding sexist, I will leave those details firmly to the realm of girl talk." Cisco says.
"I don't think either Caitlin or myself have a problem with that in this case." Lily says. "Come on, let's get out of here. I'll treat you to a pizza."
"You're on." Cisco says as the two of them leave.
Caitlin then closed the door and headed back to the kitchen and eat breakfast. She debated on whether to wake Barry up or not, but decided to let him sleep and wake up on his own. As she was finishing up, Barry entered the room wearing the robe Jesse had gotten her as a gag gift for her last birthday. It was pink and had hearts and unicorns on it.
"I don't really think that suits you." Caitlin says, trying to stifle a laugh at the way he looked in it.
"Very funny." Barry says. "But it's not like I had anything else to wear."
"Well you could have just come out here naked." Caitlin says suggestively.
"Um..." Barry stammers. "I'm not really the type of guy to walk around naked in their home, especially when I'm not in my own home."
"You're cute when you get flustered." Caitlin says playfully, before returning to his normal tone. "But I totally understand. I'm not the type of person to walk around naked in my apartment either. I made a quick trip to the laundry room and put your suit in the dryer. It should be done in about another fifteen minutes."
"You put my suit in the dryer?" Barry asks. "But won't that ruin it?"
"No. It says it was machine washable and dryable." Caitlin says, then pauses. "It was a new suit, wasn't it?"
"Um, yeah." Barry says. "I'm kind of embarrassed to admit I bought a new suit for our date."
"Don't be." Caitlin says. "The outfit I wore was new as well. Lily, Jesse, and I had a daylong shopping trip before our date yesterday, the first one I've done in ages and you wouldn't believe what I spent on new clothes."
"How much did you spend?" Barry asks.
At this Caitlin becomes slightly embarrassed. "Um, I'll tell you one day." Caitlin says. "Maybe next year on our one year anniversary."
"OK." Barry says.
Realizing what she just said, Caitlin blushes. "Um, I don't mean to be that forward. I mean we just had our first official date and here I'm already planning our one year anniversary." she says.
At this Barry laughs. "I much prefer that type of thinking to the way I thought in past relationships, which tended to lean towards how long I went before I screwed up and got dumped."
Caitlin is not exactly how she should respond to that. "Honestly, you must have really dated some really unintelligent women in the past if they can't see how amazing you are." she finally says.
"Thanks again." Barry says, shying away. He still wasn't used to woman complimenting him or thinking that he was a catch.
"I made breakfast." Caitlin says. "I know you must be famished."
"Breakfast sounds wonderful." Barry says as he. "But you should have woken me up, I would have helped."
"Nonsense this is my house and I'm perfectly capable of cooking breakfast by myself." Caitlin says. "How about we make a compromise when we stay at my place, I'll make breakfast and when I stay over at your place, you can be in charge of making the breakfast."
"That sounds fair." Barry agrees, then sits down. He then starts eating his breakfast. "Last night really was intense. None of my other girlfriends were even as half as... enthusiastic as you."
"Thanks." Caitlin says. "You were pretty amazing yourself."
At this Barry blushes a bit as he remembered last night. Certainly no woman he had ever been with had been as vocal as Caitlin had been. "So do you have any plans for today?" Barry asks.
"Not really." Caitlin says. "I do have movie night with Cisco, Lily, and Jesse tonight. We've been having one or two a week for the past month. Pamela usually comes by as well, but she's out of town. HR and Tess come too sometimes, depending on their schedules."
"That sounds like fun." Barry says.
"If you want you can come too." Caitlin says.
"Are you sure?" Barry asks. "I wouldn't want to intrude."
"No, it's fine." Caitlin says. "Cisco told me I should start inviting you after the party last week, but I've been super busy at work this week. I know that my friends want to get to know you better."
"OK." Barry says. "Your friends all seem pretty nice and I'd like to get to know them a bit better. Although I'd think I be pretty nervous to meet Dr. Morgan-Wells."
"Well don't be." Caitlin says. "I was a bit nervous too during my first meeting with them, I mean they are two of the biggest names in the scientific community. And if all goes according to plan with the particle accelerator, they'll be referred to this centuries' Einsteins. But no matter how famous or successful you become, underneath it, they're still just regular people."
"I suppose you're right." Barry says. "So is there anything you'd like to do today in the meantime?"
"Well now that the storm is over, we could head back to the lake." Caitlin says. "I'd love to see it in the daytime."
"That would be nice. Although we should double check the weat... oh no!" Barry says as a thought occurred to him.
"What is it?" Caitlin asks, noticing that he suddenly has an upset look on his face. "What's wrong?"
"We were in such a hurry to get out of the rain last night, that I forgot to tie the boat back up." Barry says. "With the way the wind was blowing, it could be in the middle of the lake by now."
"That's not good." Caitlin says. "Whose boat was it anyway?"
"I rented it from a small rental company." Barry says, wincing. "If we don't find it, I'll be liable for the whole thing."
"That would suck." Caitlin says. "But that rowboat wasn't that big. Surely it can't be too expensive."
"To be honest, I have no idea how much rowboats cost." Barry says. "But the company is run by a small couple who builds the boats by hand, so it may be more expensive. I suppose I should head back to the lake and see if I can find it."
"I'll come with you." Caitlin says. "Then if we find it, we can finish the boat ride."
"That sounds good." Barry says as the two head into the living room.
"Let me go get your suit from the laundry room so you can change first." Caitlin says.
"Thanks." Barry says. "But I should probably still go home and change into something else for the day."
"Good idea." Caitlin says. "I'll go get your suit, so you can put that on to go home. Then I'll get dressed and meet you out by the lake."
Barry is about to respond to that when there is a knock on the door.
"I wonder who that can be." Caitlin says as she goes to answer the door. She finds that Tess was standing there.
"Caitlin I have big news." she says as she enters the apartment before Caitlin can stop her. "Dr. Volheim of the national medical research institute read about your project and wants to officially endorse..."
She stops speaking when she notices Barry standing there. "Um... hi." Tess says, embarrassed and then turns to Caitlin. "I'm really sorry. I didn't know you had company."
"That's OK." Caitlin says, trying to tamp down her embarrassment. "Tess, this is my boyfriend Barry Allen. Barry this is Dr. Tess Wells-Morgan."
Caitlin looks at Barry who is blushing bright red. "It's an honor to meet you, Dr. Wells-Morgan." Barry says. "I've imagined meeting you for a long time, but this wasn't quite how I pictured it."
"Well I should hope not." Dr. Wells-Morgan jokes. "If you pictured meeting me while you wearing a pink robe with hearts and unicorns on it, you're either psychic or a weirdo."
"Um..." Barry says.
"That was a joke." Tess says, then turns back to Caitlin. "Isn't that the gag gift Jesse got you for your last birthday?"
"It is." Caitlin says. "Barry's wearing it because he took me on a moonlight picnic last night and we got drenched in the sudden storm."
"Yeah, that really was weird. I've lived in Central City for over a decade and I don't recall ever having a storm like that they came out of nowhere." Tess says. "The meteorologists at S.T.A.R. Labs are all puzzled by it too. They haven't been able to find any reason that the storm just suddenly appeared like that."
"That is strange." Caitlin says.
"Um, when you came in you mentioned something about Dr. Volheim." Barry says.
"That's right." Tess says excitedly. "He and his staff go over all new and promising medical research ideas. He read Caitlin's proposal and thinks it shows real promise. He wants to meet with Caitlin to discuss her ideas and give her some recommendations on subjects for the test study."
"Really?" Caitlin asks.
"That's great." Barry says, then frowns. "But wasn't he due to go to the international space station tomorrow for a year long medical research project?"
"He is." Tess says. "But he's making time in his schedule to meet with Caitlin today. That's why I came here personally. S.T.A.R. Labs private jet is going to fly us directly to Florida. If we want to meet with him, we have to leave for the airport within ten minutes. Caitlin, you should get ready and maybe grab a quick overnight bag. We'll only be staying there for one day."
"Right." Caitlin says, then turns to Barry.
"Guess that make-up trip to the lake will have to wait until next week." Barry says, smiling.
"I'm really sorry." Caitlin says.
"Don't worry about it." Barry says. "I get called into work at the last minute all the time. Now you better go get dressed so you don't miss you're meeting."
"Thanks, Barry." Caitlin says, then kisses him quickly. "I'll call you tomorrow to tell you how it went and to reschedule movie night."
"No problem." Barry says. "But also remember that I also start my new promotion tomorrow. Like you I'll probably be busy with work for the next few weeks until things get settled, but I'll make as much time as I can for you."
"I'll do the same." Caitlin says, the turns to go to her bedroom before turning back to Tess. "Um, if you don't mind could you go down to the laundry room and get Barry's suit out of the dryer? I really don't need the rumors that will start if a man wearing a pink robe with hearts and unicorns came out of my apartment."
"No problem." Tess says. Before Barry can respond both Caitlin and Tess leave the room. About two minutes later Tess enters the room holding his suit.
"I think you're suit needs to be ironed, but other than that it appears to be fine." Tess says.
"Thank you." Barry says taking the suit. "You know this is really kind of embarrassing. Having the first time you see me in a pink robe."
"Well I know it must be embarrassing, but don't worry I promise I won't hold this against you when we talk in the future. And this isn't the first time I've seen you." Tess says. "I was with Caitlin at the bar the night the two of you met and saw the two of you chatting."
"You were?" Barry asks, then pauses.
"Yes." Tess says. "And Caitlin speaks very highly of you. I try to take an interest in all of my employees, but Caitlin is especially talented and brilliant."
Before Barry can respond Caitlin comes out of the apartment, dressed for the important meeting she was heading to. She was also carrying a small suitcase.
"Are you ready?" Tess asks.
"I am." Caitlin replies. "I'll call you later tonight or early tomorrow morning."
"OK." Barry says. "Have a good trip."
"Oh one more thing." Caitlin says, handing Barry a key. "Here's a key to my apartment, so you can lock up when you leave."
Caitlin then gives Barry a quick kiss on the lips and heads off with Dr. Wells-Morgan.
Two hours later Barry was back in his apartment. After leaving Caitlin's apartment, he made a brief stop home to change and then headed out to the lake to see what happened to the boat. To his relief the old couple who ran the rental business had found the boat, and it wasn't damaged at all. And they also weren't mad at him at all for loosing the boat as they understand that the storm came out of nowhere.
So now he found himself back in his apartment with nothing to do for the rest of the day. He decided to take this opportunity to work on his mother's case. He started as he usually did by reading the Central City Citizen. He started reading when he noticed an article and let out a curse.
He quickly went over to his calendar and saw that he had indeed circled the previous Monday with a red circle on it.
"Good going Allen." he mutters to himself. "How could you screw this up?"
He quickly grabbed the keys to Joe's car and headed out. He then decided that with his new raise, he would finally buy his own car.
The article he had seen was an article stating that Iron Heights Prison had finally reopened to visitors after being closed for a six weeks after a major prison riot left two prisoners dead and several guards heavily wounded, one of whom would be paralyzed for life. Barry could have sworn that the reopening was tomorrow and not last Monday, but apparently with all that had been happening he got the dates mixed up.
Half-an-hour later he had entered Iron Heights prison, feeling a bit out of sorts. He had been coming here at least once a week since he turned eighteen, not counting the time he was away at college and had never felt this rattled before. In the past few years he had become used to the procedures, but these new measures reminded him that this was indeed a maximum security prison.
"The new procedures have you rattled, don't they Mr. Allen?" a guard asks.
"Yeah they do." Barry says. "Wait you know me?" Barry asks in surprise.
"Well I would know your name as all visitors are required to sign in." the guard says. "But aye, beyond that I know you. Visitors never pay attention to the guards you know. I was actually the first guard you met on the first day you visited here all these years ago."
"I'm sorry." Barry says.
"Nothing to be sorry for." the guard says. "I'm just glad you decided to come here today."
"Why?" Barry asks. "What happened? Is my father OK?"
"Your father's fine lad." the guard answers. "It's just today is my last day. I'm retiring after today and moving down to Florida with my wife."
"Oh congratulations." Barry says, then pauses. "What's your name?"
"Bob." the guard says. "You know coming in this past month was hard. The guard who was paralyzed was a friend of mine. Worked with him for five years."
"Do you know how's he doing?" Barry asks.
"Not too well." Bob says. "His wife is trying to help him as best she can, but he's not doing too well."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Barry says.
"And how about you?" Bob says. "You make any progress in finding you mother's real killer?"
"No." Barry says, despondently. "Wait, you know about that? And more importantly you believe me?"
"You mean about your father being innocent?" Bob asks. "Aye, I believe you. Working this job for thirty years, you get a feel for the prisoners. You see the ones who are defiant and are the ones likely to cause problems, the ones who truly regret their crimes, and then the people who should never been convicted in the first place. I've known your father since he arrived here, and his story hasn't changed since he arrived. He's been a model prisoner."
"Well why don't you say something to someone?" Barry asks.
"Tell what? To who? That according to my gut I think he's innocent. I'm just a guard, people are less likely to listen to my opinion than they were to yours." Bob says.
"You're right." Barry says after thinking it over for a minute. "But why didn't you ever tell me you believed my dad was innocent before now?"
"Because it wouldn't have changed anything. As a guard you're supposed to stay detached from the prisoners and for most of the times you succeed, but some just get to you." he shakes his head sadly. "I knew one of the inmates killed in that riot. He was arrested for a relatively minor offense and had just made parole. His wife gave birth to a girl the week after he was locked up and he was looking forward to seeing her for the first time. Two more days and he would have been out."
At this Barry is silent as the guard continues. "I would do something for your father if I could, but I'm no expert in forensics like you are and his story does sound impossible." he shakes his head. "I wish you luck with your quest though."
"Thank you." Barry says. He then leads Barry to the visitor's area, which had been completely redone since he was last here.
"Your father will be out in a moment." Bob says.
At that moment Henry Allen was sitting in his cell, reading a book when a guard came to his cell.
"You have a visitor." the guard says. "Come on."
Henry exits his cell with the guard looking at him warily. The guards had been on high alert lately, not that he could blame them with what happened with the riot. With a guard being paralyzed for life, all the prisoners were put on full lockdown and visitations were suspended while they reviewed and upgraded security procedures. After six weeks, visitations had been reinstated and starting tomorrow they were going to start allowing prisoners back into the exercise yard. Henry was looking forward to getting out of that cell and getting fresh air again.
After a moment Henry found himself in the visitation room, which had been completely redone. Henry saw his son sitting on the other side of the glass and felt a smile on his face.
"Hey Barry." Henry says as he sits down and picks up the phone that will allow him to. "There he is, my son the hero."
"What are you talking about?" Barry asks.
"I read an article about how you managed to find the mayor's kidnapped daughter." Henry says. "I'm very proud of you."
"Thanks." Barry says.
"Are you doing OK?" Henry asks in concern. "In the letter you sent me before they decided to cut off the mail, you said you would visit me on the first day visitations started up again. I was becoming a bit concerned about you not showing up."
"I'm sorry to worry you." Barry says sheepishly. "I got the dates wrong. I thought visitations weren't starting up again until tomorrow. I only realized it when I glanced at today's paper and saw that visitations started up again this past Monday."
"That's perfectly OK." Henry says. "How has work been lately. Any big cases?"
"There is one that's been giving me a bit of a problem." Barry says. "A group of organized thieves have been hitting scientific labs robbing millions of dollars worth of equipment. They've been leaving virtually no forensics evidence and the detectives aren't having much luck tracking them either."
"That must be rough." Henry says. "How is work going aside from that?"
"Well I just got promoted." Barry says.
"Really?" Henry asks.
"Yes I'm being put in charge of a new sort of test program that will train certain police officers in CSI work, so they can do either and help out when the lab is backed up." Barry says.
"And how are you handling it so far?" Henry asks curious.
"I haven't started yet." Barry says. "The captain only informed me of the promotion yesterday as I was leaving work. I'll be starting tomorrow."
"So how do you feel about that?" Henry asks.
"I'm both a bit excited and a bit nervous." Barry says. "Managing other people is a going to be a first for me. I have no idea of whether I'll get along with them or not. I'll also be working closely with a police detective who will be supervising the police side of the work. Up until now I've worked pretty much on my own."
"I'm sure you'll do fine." Henry says. "But here's some advice I have for you: since you'll be working closely with these people you should try to be more social with them. Don't push if they don't want to, but try to talk with them about their personal lives and invite them out after work sometimes."
"I'll do that." Barry says.
"Speaking of your social life, did you take my advice and go out to try to meet new people?" Henry asks, even though the answer was always the same. Barry was a bit anti-social due to his childhood of being known as a person whose father had murdered his mother in front of him. He told Joe that he should change Barry's last name and move him to a new school where his past wouldn't be known. But Joe had informed him that Barry refused, steadfastly proclaiming his father's innocence. He would always get into fights with the people at school for defending him. He tried to convince Barry himself when he started visiting him, but each time he refused and eventually he gave up asking him. Even after he moved on to college and met people who had no idea of his past, the damage was done and he had a hard time connecting to other people.
He was also determined to find out the truth of what happened to his mother, becoming a CSI and chasing down every impossible case trying to find out how the man in yellow moved. Henry was proud of his son because his work had managed to catch dozens of bad guys and save countless lives, but still he worried about him focusing on his mother's case to the exclusion of all else. He was expecting to hear the same excuse Barry always gave him, so he was a bit surprised when instead Barry smiled and began talking excitedly.
"Yes, I did." Barry says. "I went to out to a new theme bar that just opened up that is meant to cater to the scientific community. I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings when I was walking and nearly bumped into a woman, causing her to spill her drink. I offered to buy her a new one and we started talking."
"Her name is Caitlin Snow." Barry continues. "She's a doctor, a bio-engineer at S.T.A.R. Labs who works on finding cures for new diseases."
Henry then listened for the next half-hour as Barry talked about this girl in great detail. He was pleasently surprised as Barry hadn't talked to him about any girls like this before besides Iris. Henry knew Barry had a crush on her when he was younger, but since he was in here, he had no way of knowing whether or not the crush had faded into mere friendship or blossomed into love. Henry had known Barry had dated a few girls before, but the relationships didn't last long and he couldn't recall if his son had even told him their names. But upon listening to Barry talk about this girl, he could see that he was halfway in love with her already.
"Well she certainly sounds like a nice girl." Henry says, when Barry finally stops talking. "Smart, funny, kind, and beautiful. Are you planning on asking her out?"
"Well I was going to, but she actually asked me out first." Barry says. "She told me I could plan the date though, since she was busy with work setting up her new project."
"So when is this date?" Henry asks.
"It was actually last night." Barry says, smiling.
"I take it from your smile that it went well." Henry says. "So where did you take her?"
"Um..." Barry says, his smile fading a little bit and becoming a bit sheepish. "Well I kind of took her out for a moonlight picnic and then for a boat ride."
At this Henry finds himself a bit stunned. If he doubted how his son had felt about this girl, that confirmed it. He knew that Nora had told Barry about their first date only a few days before she died, so for Barry to even consider recreating it must mean that he had very strong feelings for this woman.
"Are you upset?" Barry asks, when his father doesn't respond.
"Why would I be upset?" Henry asks. "I'm just a bit surprised."
"I worked all week to try to come up with a perfect date idea as I wanted our first date to be special, but nothing I thought of felt right." Barry says. "That's when I remembered what mom told me about your first date and it just felt right. Because of work though, I wasn't able to cook the food myself. I instead ordered take-out from a fancy restaurant. Everything went perfectly, well except for the rainstorm."
"I'm happy for you son." Henry says. "But I would think you'd rather spend your Sunday afternoon with this girl rather than in prison with you old man."
"Well Caitlin and I did make plans for today, but she had to go out of town for a last minute meeting." Barry admits. "But I'll always make time to visit you."
"Thank you." Henry says. "You didn't tell her about your mother's murder yet, did you?"
"Not yet. I kind of let slip that mom died horribly, but I didn't tell her any details yet." Barry then sighs. "But I suppose I'll have to tell her soon."
"I'm sure it will be fine." Henry says. The thing that hurt the most about his being in here was the hurt it cost his son. He knew it hurt him to know that his mother's killer was still free and no one else believed he even existed.
"Your time is up." one of the guards call up.
"Already?" Barry asks, looking at the clock. "I'm sorry, I didn't give you much of a chance to talk at all."
"That's perfectly fine." Henry says. "I'd much rather hear about your life anyway. It's not like much changes in here. I'm glad you're doing so well. I love you, son."
"I love you too dad." Barry says. "I'll visit again sometime next week. And maybe I'll bring a picture of Caitlin to show you."
"I'd like that." Henry says. He then goes with the guards as they come to escort him back to his cell, feeling happier than he had in years. His son had met a girl who he liked and from what Barry had told him, she liked him too. Though he doubted that his son would ever give up his quest to find the person who really killed his mother, at least he was starting to take the first steps towards moving forward and living his own life and that was all he could really ask for.