Freshly showered and dressed and already done with make up, Caitlin began her very last day of filming, only having her death scene left to shoot. She'd dreaded it since morning during which she'd woken up alone, feeling the sudden need to go and search for Harry as she had to have him before her big day started. Maybe it sounded silly, but their little moment of intense intimacy in the gym followed by an equally hot shower was definitely what she needed to get through it. She just couldn't think about what she would play later on and needed her mind taken off of it. Normally, yes, it would be just another scene to shoot and one that she would welcome since it would mark the end of the movie for her, rendering her able to take a breather and recharge. Yet, the fact that she was going to play said scene with the man she loved and was in a relationship with was a whole other matter.
Before she knew it, she heard the all-too-familiar words yelling action and she was to begin, first shooting the scene in which she got injured straight in the chest, close to her heart and then tumbled down the side of a small building; the latter, of course, played by a stunt girl.
The most difficult part was the moment in which Harrison got to her, begging her to hold on, begging her not to leave him alone, but she did. Well, at least Sara had to, so Caitlin pretended to finally die and despite it being the easiest part since she was basically playing possum, just minding her chest so it wouldn't raise and fall, indicating she was breathing; she still found it hard to do. Because the man she loved, though he did play a fictional character, was just mourning her death, ready to take his nemesis down, ridden with guilt and blinded with heartache. And yet, in the end she knew that John wouldn't exercise his revenge as he planned in his head the moment the woman he loved died and in the last possible moment he would actually save his opponent, not letting him perish because Sara would never want this dark path for him. She always wanted him to be a hero and he was to decide that he would, indeed, become one to honor her memory, so her death wouldn't be in vain.
If Caitlin couldn't seem to stop her tears now, she was afraid what would the movie do to her once it was released. She would be overly emotional even if she and Harry weren't playing the parts.
"That was great, boss! Maybe one more take?" Cisco suggested once the scene was over and Caitlin could finally breathe deeply into her lungs as she opened her eyes and… froze, seeing Harrison just getting to his feet, wiping his face. It did say in the script that John was crying over the body of the woman he loved, but those tears seemed so real and genuine to her that she forgot how to breathe all over again, gasping at the magnitude of his feelings for her. Though she couldn't really blame him, because if their roles were reversed, she would have trouble getting through this, too. The only surprise was that it was the same man she's found gruff and rough around the edges at first. And he still was that person, she reminded herself. Just not with her anymore. She'd seemed to open something up inside of him and she was happy about that. She just wished this scene hadn't caused him so much pain.
"Harry?" she asked him when he helped her to his feet, but he just shook his head at her, needing a moment to himself before another take. And she understood. She really did. He wished he could just let it all go so they could drive into the sunset together, but he still needed to repeat the whole scene and maybe even more than once, so he couldn't possibly let her make him feel better now.
Sucked to be an artist, right? Maybe that was why he'd rather write. Then again, he turned out to be such an amazing actor that she felt as though his talent was wasting only behind the pen.
"You're either such an amazing actor, Oscar worthy, really," Caitlin said from the door to his trailer, "or that scene really got you hard."
"Maybe a little bit of both," he eventually sighed before turning to her and seeing her closing the door behind her. They had just finished the shooting for the day, only a day or two more for Harry to finish his own scenes and the movie would be ready.
As soon as they wrapped Caitlin for the movie, he disappeared, needing some time to compose himself again and probably not wanting her to approach him in front of so many people and she understood that. She was just glad that now they could finally be alone and away from the cameras.
She made her way to him and put her arms around him, pressing her body into his, breathing him in as she buried her face in his neck.
"You know I'm not going anywhere, don't you?" she just asked him.
He nodded against her skin, but didn't say anything to that.
"I saw that the scene took a lot from you," she then pointed out when letting him go and now looking up into those amazingly blue eyes of his.
"What are you talking about?" he joked just then, lighter tone being what they both seemed to need, "I'm a fantastic actor, did you forget that?"
She smiled at him briefly before her expression changed again and became serious.
"You're not going to lose me, Harry. I'm in this for the long haul," she assured him when bringing her hand to his cheek and caressing the skin there gently, feeling a slight prickling of stubble.
"And how long would that be, exactly?" he asked her in a deeper, huskier voice which only indicated one thing and she smiled, not able to wait for what was to come, because honestly, after such emotionally draining day, they needed nothing more than a bed for anything but sleeping. She couldn't wait till the shooting would be all over and they would get a few preciously free days just for themselves and maybe for visiting his daughter as Caitlin couldn't imagine he wouldn't like that. Then he would be back in the studio, putting the movie together whereas she would probably be figuring out what would come next. She really needed to change apartments, now finally able to afford something better than the hole she technically still lived in since she spent most of her days on set anyways. She kind of suspected he would ask her to move in with him or maybe – considering his divorce – they could get a place together. That would be nice.
"Indefinitely, I hope," Caitlin finally responded to his playful question and just when her needy lips finally touched his in a blissful kiss that took away all of their worries, someone knocked.
Harrison tore himself away from her lips with a heavy sigh before turning to the door and calling out, "Come in!"
They saw what seemed to be a very disturbed Cisco making his way inside and then he met his boss's eyes when saying, "Can I ask you for a moment, Harry? It's… it's important."
Wells frowned on seeing the younger man behaving so strangely. This all-too-professional, nearly scared look on his face was truly unbecoming, so he knew something bad must've happened.
"Sure," he finally responded, reluctantly letting Caitlin go as he made his way to the door. "I'll be right back," he still threw her way apologetically.
"No worries," she assured him with a small smile, though she did feel kind of disappointed.
Once she was left alone, her cell rang and she noticed it was her agent, so she picked it up immediately.
"Hi, Carla! I just finished shooting, but I'm gonna stick around for a little while longer… What is it?" She then frowned just like Harry had done a moment before when her agent interrupted with, "Did you see it?"
"See what?" Caitlin still didn't understand and then she paled, quickly hanging up after hearing the silent 'Caitlin, I'm so sorry this happened to you. Call me so we can talk how to fix this' and immediately typing her name into the search engine in her phone.
The article popped up right away. In fact, by now there were more than just one, all publishing the scandalous picture with some certain parts blurred. Though it was still clear to everyone that the woman wrapped into Harrison Wells' naked arms was her. And she was clearly in the throes of passion if judging by the look of deepest of pleasures on her face and her mouth opened as he fucked her.
Fuck, Caitlin thought and her entire world spun.
She just couldn't understand. She had closed the door, hadn't she?!
She stumbled out of the trailer, her legs feeling like jelly and she could swear everyone she met on her way to Harry and Cisco was staring at her. Either it was just her imagination or the truth, that didn't seem to matter now. What mattered was her own personal doom of a career.
Cisco was the first person who spotted her walking in, paling as he shifted his eyes from Harry to her and then the worst came as she met the loved blues, looking at her with care and obvious guilt.
He immediately made his way to her, saying her name in a hoarse voice and she fell into his arms, finally starting to cry.
Her body shook as she let it all out, desperately holding onto him, her hands closing over his arms.
The shame and mortification was the worst. Because it was one thing to don some parts of her clothing for a movie in a sensual, yet powerful scene like the one she'd done with Harrison, but completely another to get caught red-handed and have her pictures all over the papers.
"Caitlin, I'm so, so sorry this happened," Harrison whispered into her ear, glad that Cisco closed the door so no one could see them. "I already made a call to my lawyers. They're taking care of it as we speak. The pictures will be taken down. Stein is onboard, too. Well, technically he actually congratulated me for saving the movie some more as in his opinion this will only boost its popularity, but he already got a piece of my mind. The movie is all done. He can't afford to drop me now. So I took the opportunity and..."
"Finally yelled at him good, didn't you?" she sighed and then actually chuckled, glad at least for that since she could totally imagine Harry losing his cool with Stein and it definitely wasn't pretty. "He most certainly deserved it. But… Harry, what are you going to do now?" she asked when finally more or less pulling herself together and letting him go, looking at him while wiping her eyes.
Cisco gave her a tissue and she felt the need to hug him, too for being such a good and not judging friend. Then again, Harrison knew how to choose them.
"We have two options," Wells began while scratching his head, "we either keep quiet and pretend this never happened or we give an interview, come clean about the whole thing, just go public with our relationship, telling people that it's real and the picture was made to bury us. But we won't let ourselves be buried," he then added after a moment of thought. "I think we shouldn't just be passive and keep quiet. This is your honor, Snow, we're talking about. I'm going to defend it."
She nodded, taken aback by the intensity of his words. She knew they would most definitely meet with some backlash, but then again, they would eventually be seen in public anyways as it was unavoidable. They could as well come clean now. About everything.
"For this to work we need to know who snapped the picture," Cisco pointed out. "We have to find that person. Now, tell me exactly what happened… I don't mean that," he immediately added, his cheeks coloring crimson as his boss shot him a look while folding his arms over his chest. "I mean the circumstances."
"I really thought I closed the door," Snow still wrecked her brain around that fact.
"Oh, well… the lock is broken," Cisco provided the answer, "so there's that."
"How do you know? I didn't even know that!" Harry called out.
"I did sneak in there once to exercise and you know me," the younger guy pointed himself, "not exactly great physique here, so I wanted to close the door so I could work out in private and… Wait a sec… What time do you usually work out?" he asked his boss.
Harrison shrugged. "Around six? Though that day I was late. I arrived at the gym before seven."
"Seven! Seven thirty is usually the time only one person goes there!" Cisco snapped his fingers. "A stuntman. Ronnie Raymond!"
"Oh my God!" Caitlin covered her mouth with her hands and the eyes of both the men in the room settled on her.