Three months had passed since the singularity, three months since Harrison Wells had died, three months since Ronnie Raymond had died. A lot could happen in three months; a lot had happened in three months. Eddie and Iris were stronger as a couple, than they had ever been before, though the lack of an engagement ring was worrying Iris. Cisco was enjoying his time working for the CCPD, as well as working with Barry to find the mysterious Cobalt Blue. Caitlin was having fun at Mercury Labs, as well as helping Barry and Cisco, the old team slowly coming back together. As for Barry, there were some things he was still trying to piece together, like Smallville existing, or Gotham existing, he had been meaning to go off an explore these places, but hadn't given himself the right amount of time to do so. And of course, there was always something or the other to come up and stop him from leaving, just when it seemed right.

Today that something was working with Patty Spivot, the new CSI and his partner in the crime lab. Patty was a smart and beautiful woman, and Barry really did like her, as a colleague, and somewhat as a friend. Whilst he hadn't asked her about the Cobalt Blue case or the shooting at Jitters, both of which he knew had gone cold, he had worked with her on other cases, the one they were working on today being of a most pressing nature. Barry looks at the computer screen before him, looking at the information on said screen and sighs. A woman had broken into her boyfriend's flat and found him in bed with another woman, it was a cut and dry case, or so it seemed, but there was something off about the way the gun had been fired. And so Barry had come into the lab to run some more tests, and Patty had decided to join him. His colleague stands next to him, and Barry asks. "What do you make of this then?" gesturing toward the screen. "Do you think she did it?"

Patty considers her colleague's question and then replies. "I think so, there was gunshot residue found on her hands, and her fingerprints are all over the gun. Why? What do you think?"

Barry hesitates for a moment, he's not sure why, but ever since he brought the evidence back into the lab, something's been nagging at him. "I don't know. I just get the feeling that there is more to this than we are seeing here. The man didn't even die when he was shot, the woman just shot him and then fled. There was nothing more there. At least, that's how it seems."

Patty quirks an eyebrow and says. "What do you mean the woman didn't kill her boyfriend? We saw the blood and she confessed to it didn't she?"

Barry sighs. "I know, but she confessed and looked as if she was terrified when she did so. I don't know, everything seems too convenient, too simplistic, nothing is ever that simplistic. Not here."

Patty looks at her colleague, her friend and she tentatively asks. "This wouldn't have anything to do with Cobalt Blue would it Barry?"

"Why would you say that?" Barry asks guardedly.

Hesitating, not wanting to offend him, Patty says. "I don't know, but it does seem as if you're trying to find something that might not actually be there."

Barry wants to protest, to claim that he has been completely professional throughout all of this, but he knows deep down that Cobalt Blue is playing with his mind, making him want to check and double check, seeing his mother's DNA on that woman haunts him still. He looks at Patty and sees her looking at him sympathetically, and he sighs. "I guess you could say so sure. I mean, I don't want to let an innocent woman get put behind bars, if she didn't do this."

Patty nods, she can understand the feeling, but still. "But all the evidence points towards her being the one responsible for the crime. Her boyfriend is dead, and she did shoot him. What more proof do you think you'd need?"

Barry is silent, he knows that Patty is telling the truth, and that she's merely asking him as a friend. Still, something in him wants to find more evidence, to ensure that this woman is either guilty or innocent, but he knows he won't find anything. Everything they've done, all the tests they've run show that the woman killed her boyfriend, and that she is guilty. The woman confessed for god's sake. Sighing he stops the programme on his computer, and then hands over the reports to Patty. "Could you give this to Joe?"

Patty nods. "Sure." She takes the report from Barry, and walks out of the lab, looking back briefly to see just how defeated Barry looks, and feeling her heart ache for him. She walks down the stairs towards Detective West's desk, and nods at the woman with auburn hair and curls walking up the stairs.

Caitlin smiles at the Woman-Patty she thinks is her name- as she walks up the stairs towards the crime lab, and as she gets there, she sees Barry staring at the wall, the wall where he had kept his father's case pinned for so long. She knocks on the open door and calls out. "Hey Barry." She feels her heart quicken when she sees Barry smile.

Barry looks at Caitlin, and feels the sorrow that was engulfing him disappear. "Hey Caitlin." He pauses for a moment and then asks. "Did we have plans?"

Caitlin laughs. "No, no. But I was given the afternoon off, and wanted to see if you wanted to have lunch together?" She sees something pass behind Barry's eyes and suddenly wonders if she might have misread the past few weeks.

Barry smiles again and says. "I'd love to." He moves away from the computer and the wall, and grabs his coat and asks. "Where do you want to go?"

Internally, Caitlin breathes a sigh of relief and says. "I was thinking we could go to Henry Wong's? I hear they do some pretty good dumplings."

Barry feels his stomach grumble then and laughingly says. "Sure, sounds great." Together they walk out of the crime lab, and if they link hands, well they're friends, and friends are allowed to be a bit friendlier on days like this.