Part 44

Barry watched as Caitlin started to doze off at her computer. He caught Carla's eye who signaled for him to follow her into the hall.

"Mr. Allen, you truly love my daughter don't you?" asked Carla

"Yes. It took nearly losing her forever to realize it." Said Barry

"You treated her pretty badly from what Caitlin told me. Why should I believe you won't do it again?"

"Well two reasons. Cait will freeze my toes off and a friend from another Earth that Cait helped out said she would drop a mountain on me if I hurt her. Kara, I think has adopted Cait as a sister."

"You will also have to deal with me. I may not have been the best mother to her as a child. But I never stopped loving her. Of all of my accomplishments Caitlin is my proudest."

"I can't tell you the number of times she has saved my life. Do you know how I knew she really cared about me?"

"No. Want to enlighten me?"

"She yelled at me for being reckless. That was before she admitted it. There was this meta we called him Blackout. He was basically living electricity. He could even absorb it from things. Including me making me powerless. The man we believed was Dr. Wells but turned out wasn't had the idea to shock me with the equivalent of a bolt of lighting to jump start my powers. Cait was the only one that could throw the switch. She told me that she didn't want to risk losing someone else she cared about. The first being Ronnie."

"I never was given the chance to meet Ronnie."

"He was the kind of guy you would have wanted for her. He gave his life to save the city not once but twice. I live with the regret that I couldn't save him for her."

"If I know my daughter at all then she doesn't blame you. Barry, even a hero can't save everyone."

"I know. I should probably get Cait home. Make her eat something and gets some sleep in her bed."

"Might be a good idea."

Barry went back into the cortex and picked up Caitlin and carried her to her car. He gently strapped her in and got in the driver's seat to drive her home. He heard her start to stir as he parked her car in her parking space fifteen minutes later.

"Hey, I fell to sleep at work right?" asked Caitlin

"Yeah. Your mom and I thought that it was a good idea to bring you home so that you can get proper rest and of course eat."

"Maybe a warm bath too. I am a little sore. Most likely from sleeping in a chair."

"Yeah. How about I make dinner while you take that bath."

"I am just not sure what I have in my refrigerator. Oh as of this morning no eggs."

"Not a problem. What if the eggs are cooked into something where you can't smell or taste them?"

"That is fine. I had a scone from Jitters today."

"Great."

Caitlin let them into her apartment. Barry headed for the kitchen while Caitlin got ready to take her bath. Barry moved around Caitlin's kitchen after finding everything he needed to make grilled lemon chicken with long grain wild rice and spinach and kale salad. As he cooked he turned on the play list on his phone. It was forty five minutes later that Caitlin walked into the kitchen and found Barry dancing as he placed dinner on the table.

"So you're not only fast, can sing but can dance too?" said Cait leaning on the wall.

"Uh yeah. So you feeling ok?"

"Yeah not nearly as sore. Though the water never stays warm too long."

"Maybe Cisco can whip something up to help with that."

"Yeah I will bring it up to him."

"You know if you are cold I can warm you up."

"I don't think so Flash. We are no where near that stage in our relationship."

"What I meant is I can hold you and let you have some of my heat. I can vibrate so that you don't freeze me."

"So you are saying you just want to cuddle later?"

"Only if you want to."

"I will think about it. Ronnie liked to cuddle. Savitar not so much."

"Cait, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"No I need to. I haven't really talked about that time I spent with Savitar."

"Did he hurt you?"

"Well when the team erased your memory he did try and choke me. But I was able to freeze him enough to get away to come and fix your mind."

"I am sorry about that."

"Barry that wasn't you. Not the you I know and care about. The one I fell in love with. It had only been a couple days I was with him when he asked if I would be willing to be with him sexually. I thought about it for a few minutes. I almost said no. But knowing that he was nothing like the real you, I was afraid he might rape me. Or see through my act of being Killer Frost and possibly kill me."

"Cait, you may have said yes. But you did it out of fear."

"Yes Barry, I was scared. But I knew what I was doing when I said yes. Barry do remember that night I got drunk and we sang together?"

"Yeah."

"Do you know why I let myself get that drunk?"

"I just thought that you couldn't hold your liquor."

"I only let myself get drunk like that once before. When Barbara took me out when I graduated med school. I let myself get that drunk those two times because the person I was with was someone I trusted. You gained my trust faster than anyone. Even faster than Ronnie did."

"Why did you trust me? I mean from what I know about you. You don't just let anyone behind the wall you put up to protect yourself."

"Because you are you Barry. Just being yourself the real you not the one blinded by the perfect image you had of Iris. You pulled me out of my grief and made me smile again. Cisco will tell that I was not easy to be around before you woke up. But being my best friend he was not going to leave me alone. Before you I never would have thought of paying a trick on Cisco like when I pretended to be turning into Killer Frost after who we now know was a fake Jay was killed."

"He was so freaked out that you would be like your doppleganger. But also he would turn out like his Reverb."

"That would never happen."

"Until Savitar did you think any version of me could be evil?"

"Good point."

Caitlin yawned. Barry could see that she was getting sleepy. They finished dinner. Barry stayed until Caitlin fell to sleep before heading back to Joe's. He decided with Iris now committed to the psychiatric hospital that he would clean out the apartment and give it up. He would stay with Joe until he and Caitlin found a house to live in.