A/N: Hey guys! Here is the new chapter, I hope you enjoy! Tell me what you thought about it ;)

I don't own anything :)


For Caitlin, there was nothing more satisfying than finishing the work you had to do just in time to get ready for the date night that would follow. Caitlin let out a sigh of contentment as she closed all the open files on her laptop before shutting it off. Barry would arrive soon and fortunately she just had to put a last touch of make up on her eyes and she would be ready. They had nothing major planned for tonight, just a quiet night in.

She ran to the door as soon as she heard the knock. She took a moment to straighten back her hair before opening the door. Barry was standing in the hallway, a take-out bag in one hand and a board game in the other. Caitlin immediately recognised the latter as being the operation game.

"You once told me you were very bad at this game so I wanted to witness it with my own eyes." Barry explained when he saw her frown. "It's not every day that I can see Dr. Snow being bad at something." He continued while lifting his eyebrows playfully.

She rolled her eyes as she let him come in her apartment. He dropped a small kiss on her lips as he passed by and Caitlin felt a small blush creep up her cheeks. She slightly bit on her lips to keep herself from smiling and grazed her lips with the tips of her finger while Barry wasn't looking. It had been almost a month since they had agreed to take things slow, but she still wasn't really used to Barry kissing her – her heart still did crazy acrobatics every time it happened.

Seriously, she was acting like a high school girl blushing at the thought of her crush. Caitlin closed the door and followed him into her living room.

"I brought Italian food and I have also some movies, in case we get sick of playing doctors – pun intended." He said while putting his things on her coffee table. She rolled her eyes at his comment, something she seemed to be doing a lot more when he was around.

Ten minutes later, they were both sitting on the floor around the coffee table of her living room. They took turn playing the game and eating their food.

"This is not even remotely anatomically correct!" She complained after a shrilling beeping sound came out of the board game for what seemed like the hundredth time. Annoyed, she let go of the tweezers and went back to her spaghetti.

"That's not the point Dr. Snow" Barry chuckled before leaning forward as it was his turn to play.

"Then what is the point?" She groaned, making a face while leaning back against the armchair behind her.

"To have fun!" He said gleefully, showing her proudly the butterfly trapped in the pair of tweezers in his hand. "See, I just took out the butterfly from his stomach so he can now relax."

Caitlin just rolled her eyes and tried again to remove the apple from the patient's throat. The 'Beep!' cut her off as soon as she got close and she let out an exasperated groan. "It's not as easy as it looks."

Barry had to laugh at her competitive character – she was worrying her lower lips with her teeth and the crease between her eyebrows seemed to have settled there for the evening. He was sure that some people would find her behaviour annoying, but he found it endearing. Although, he knew when to stop teasing, so at the end of the game, they put the patient away and settled on her couch.

They ended up watching some cheesy chick flick, Barry sitting on her couch with Caitlin lying on it, her head resting on his laps. He was absent-mindedly stroking her hair while trying to concentrate on the movie, without much success. Caitlin was very calm and silent and he almost thought she had fallen asleep.

That was until she shyly broke the silence. "Barry?"

"Hmm?"

"You know I told you about our family meetings every first Friday of the month?"

Caitlin felt his body tense up at the mention and his hand went still in her hair. She scrunched her eyes close for a moment to gather the courage to continue. "Yeah?" Barry croaked hesitantly.

She lifted her head from his lap and sat straighter next to him. His hand that had been in her hair fell to the small of her back. Her eyes met his as she took a deep breath. "I thought that... maybe... you would like to... you know... accompany me next time?" Her voice came out weaker than intended.

Barry gaped at her with big round eyes. "You... you're sure?" He finally asked.

She let out a small chuckle. "Of course, you dummy, otherwise I wouldn't ask."

He didn't reply right away, too many thoughts were fighting a battle in his brain. He couldn't go, that would be crossing the line. He couldn't deceive her family too. 'Keep your distance' they had told him. Well that was easier said then done.

"I thought... I thought you wanted to take things slow? Don't you think it's too soon?" He tried to buy himself some time.

Caitlin flushed and looked embarrassingly away. "I know, but we're practically a couple... just without any physical intercourse, but still..." Good that she wasn't looking at him or she would've seen Barry turning crimson red at the scientific mention of their lack of action in the bedroom. "And I would like you to meet them, to show you that I'm serious, that I'm not leaving you hanging and that I'm making progress... that you mean a lot to me."

Barry didn't think it was possible to feel his own heart burst and constrict at the same time. The thing was, he really wanted to meet her family, but he knew it would make things even worse. The lie was becoming too big to carry. But maybe it would help him getting closer and finally gaining access to some S.T.A.R. Labs' documents.

Barry carefully put his hand under her chin and turned her face so that she could stare into his green eyes. He heard her breath catch in her throat as he leaned in to press his lips to hers in a sweet but meaningful kiss.

"I would love to." He whispered as he pulled away.

Caitlin snaked a hand behind his neck to bring his lips back down to hers and he felt her smile into the kiss. She settled back down on his lap after breaking the kiss and they turned their attention towards the movie again. At least they tried to.

When it finally reached to its end, Barry had to keep in the groan of despair for how much cliché the story had been. He finally looked down at Caitlin and saw she had fallen asleep, one of her hands clutching at his right one. He contemplated her for a few seconds before trying to extract himself from under her without waking her up. Naturally, he failed.

She stirred and clutched to his hand with more conviction. "Where d'you think you goin'." Caitlin's sleepy voice stretched a smile across his face.

"You need to go to bed or you'll be all cranky tomorrow morning." He explained as he stood up, her head falling on the couch accompanied by a loud groan. "Come on." Barry put one arm under her shoulder and the other one under her knees to carry her bridal style.

Caitlin cracked an eye open to glance at him. "Wow, you're so strooong." She giggled while her hand came up behind his neck to get a grip on him.

A small chuckle made his whole body vibrate against her and she had to bit her lip to keep the sigh of contentment to escape from it. Instead she nestled her face against his neck.

Barry carried her to her bedroom and finally laid her on her bed. Luckily she was already in stay-at-home comfy clothes (sweat pants and a t-shirt) so that she didn't need to change. He carefully tucked her in and sat on the edge of her bed, one hand stroking softly her hip. "There you go, now you can sleep in peace."

Caitlin nodded happily.

"Barry? Could stay until I fall asleep?" She said after a short moment of comfortable silence.

Startled by her request, he didn't reply right away. She opened one eye to glance at him and he had to admit it was pretty damn hard to resist. "Yes of course."

For a few minutes, they stayed like this, Caitlin under the covers and Barry sitting next to her. But apparently she wasn't quite satisfied with it. "There's place for you to lie in the bed too, you know?" She whispered.

His breath caught in his throat. "Don't do that, Cait... you said you weren't ready." He said seriously. The truth was, he wasn't ready to do this to her. He couldn't bear the thought of her sharing herself with him while he was still keeping things from her.

He saw her blush furiously and she hid further under the covers. "I meant to sleep. You know that's what people use a bed for, most of the time." Caitlin mumbled. "There's a big S.T.A.R. Labs shirt in the left drawer and some sweatpants if you want to wear something more comfy." She added when she saw him hesitate.

Cautiously, he nodded before standing up to follow her instructions and go to the bathroom to change.

Shortly after, he came out and put his day clothes on her chair. The borrowed clothes looked like they had been made for him. "Surprisingly, they fit perfectly." Barry commented as he made his way to the other side of the bed.

Caitlin immediately understood the question hidden under his seemingly innocent statement. "I keep that here in case my brother ever needs a place to crash."

Barry felt some tension evaporating from his shoulders as he slid under the cover. So they didn't belong to an ex-lover or anything…

"Night" she mumbled before turning on her side and sliding into a deep sleep. Barry observed her relaxed features and they lulled him to sleep.


Barry woke up about 2 hours later because of an uneasy dream, beads of sweat running down his forehead, hair sticking to his skin. He had seen himself hugging Caitlin and dream-Barry had turned to face a mirror, but all of his features had been erased, leaving him with a faceless head.

He sat on the edge of the bed, glanced behind him to make sure Caitlin was still sleeping and made his way to the bathroom. He threw some water on his face to wash away any dream-related-anxiety before looking at his reflection. Barry never thought much about bad dreams, never trying to decipher their hidden meanings. But somehow he felt like he would have a hard time getting back to sleep.

He took a last glance at his tired reflection in the mirror before making his way back to the bedroom. Barry was about to get back in bed when Caitlin's laptop caught his attention at the corner of his eye. He checked Caitlin one last time before taking the computer and going to the living room. On the way, he fetched his USB stick from his bag.

He settled on the kitchen table. "Okay, let's see what we can find." He whispered to himself has he opened the laptop. He had absolutely no idea what he should be looking for, but maybe something would ring a bell. He flew over most of her files until one name caught his attention. 'S.T.A.R. Labs'. He double-clicked on it, glancing at Caitlin's bedroom door over his shoulder. The file was filled with project names and numbers. He wasn't surprised to see how good it was organised – there were no 'to be filed'-folders, no stray documents, no untitled folders…

He didn't have time to search deeper for now so he decided to copy the whole file on his stick. After that, Barry went to search in other part of the computer. A guilt knot formed itself at the pit of his stomach as he saw some personal files like 'Christmas Photos 2014', 'Dad and Mom's present ideas 2015' and so on. But the worst was probably 'Wedding Plans – Ronnie'.

Part of him really wanted to open it, the other part just wanted to flee the apartment right away and never look back.

He shrugged a chill away and then went to her Internet browser to look at some of her favourites and history. As soon as the browser opened, he heard movement behind him. As fast as he could, he typed in some name in the search engine.

"Barry? What are you doing up in the middle of the night? On my computer?" Caitlin's groggy voice broke the silence.

Barry turned in her direction, letting her see what was on display on the computer screen. "I was looking for the dude's name from the movie we watched last night."

"In the dark?" She asked suspiciously.

"I didn't want to wake you up." He smoothly explained.

"In the middle of the night?" She asked again. Damn she was hard to convince. And she was half asleep! He should never get caught in bright daylight, he thought bitterly.

"Yeah, it was nagging me and I couldn't go back to sleep without knowing. And my phone died..." He closed the computer to stop the conversation from going further, discretely grabbing the USB stick.

"Hmm..." She nodded, not quite convinced but too tired to search further. "Are coming back to bed?"

A shiver ran up his spine at the question. Barry looked up at her and she was extending her hand, waiting for him to take it. "How could I refuse?" He sweetly replied, grabbing her hand. She led him back to her room and he shoved the USB stick in his sweatpants' pocket.

They buried themselves under the covers and Barry was surprised as Caitlin put his arm around her waist so that her back was pressed against his chest and he could spoon her. He carefully applied a kiss on the top of her head before burying his face in her nape while a sigh of contentment escaped her lips.

'Dear lord, I'm in deep trouble' was the last thing he thought before falling asleep.