A/N: This is another one-shot ficlet that comes with a moodboard that sadly I can't post here but it's post 650116843569332224 on my tumblr if you want to see it. I wrote it a while back for Mermay 2021.
Warnings for dark themes, violence, and non-main character deaths. Some of it is best summed up by saying it's General Eiling typical sort of themes, but if you've seen the tv show Siren you'll probably catch the drift too.
Home Is
Wells always comes back from his meetings with Eiling looking tense. Apt to take off his glasses and pinch the bridge of his nose in exasperation. However, that never makes him any less tense, carrying it in his brows the rest of the day. Caitlin can't help but be curious, and a little worried, because she's seen a look like that before. Right before S.T.A.R. Labs exploded when he realized his miscalculation. It isn't a good idea to pry, not when they're talking government special projects she distinctly does not have clearance for, but she really doesn't want to ignore the feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something inside her demands answers.
She gets on Eiling's good side. She talks up her ambition to Wells and him, hints about wanting to get more involved. How she wants to be a part of groundbreaking research again. She doesn't like the answers she gets. Standing in front of a large tank, containing what she can only describe, despite the impossibility, as a merman, she watches the lab techs poke and prod him. When he resists, they're not kind, subduing him with electricity. She doesn't want to see this but now she knows she has to decide what to do.
Unfortunately, appealing to Eiling about the ethical implications of experimenting on a creature with potentially equivalent to human intelligence gets absolutely nowhere. According to him, progress is paramount and this is exactly the kind of research she wanted in on, "Isn't it?" he asks, throwing her own words back at her.
She tries to argue for more humane protocols, appealing factually, "Think about how the adrenaline spikes will affect the data." She has only limited success. She finds herself drawn to the lab more and more, keeping tabs on the others, making sure they know someone is watching them, ready to report them even if what she can report is trifling compared to what bad they might do. None of it makes this right, but it's all she can do. Until she enters the lab to find it strewn with bodies, a naked man standing there panting, obviously in pain from the fresh wound of the side of his face.
"Have my access pass, it'll get you through any door. You can take the service elevator up to the docking bay."
He tilts his head at her and stumbles forward a few steps.
"You're not…afraid of me?" he asks, eyes flicking around the room to the bodies.
"I'm sorry they're dead - I don't like it - but I understand. They hurt you. Over and over. They wouldn't stop. So you stopped them."
He says nothing in return and her heart skips several beats. Realizing in his eyes she's probably more or less the same, complicit.
"Are you going to kill me now?" she asks, not wanting to draw it out if it's coming.
"No," he says simply. "You're going to help me."
Caitlin nods curtly and turns to leave the room, looking back to see him still standing there regarding her strangely. She motions for him to follow her and racks her brain for where to get him some clothes to start with.
After that, Caitlin helps hide Savitar from the authorities, helps him heal and gets the food and seawater he needs to survive on land. Even though the urge to go back to the sea is strong, and he has a natural dislike of humans, Savitar accepts her help. He knows Eiling has other sites and is holding more of his siblings hostage. He won't stop until all his siblings are free and Eiling pays. Caitlin is incredibly curious about Savitar's nature, but she also begins to appreciate the rare moments he lets his personality shine through that darkness of his mission of vengeance. He says he hates being on land, but that doesn't quite mesh with the evidence of his own curiosity and the grins in excitement at learning something new about life here.
When it's time for Savitar to go home, Caitlin feels hollow. Like the warmth is leeching from her life. It had been so long since she let anyone into her life as closely as him. Not since Ronnie. And it had been good to have such a clear purpose for a while. Savitar isn't happy with her thanks to her interference, getting Eiling put behind bars with Iris' help, rather than let Savitar kill him. She did the right thing. Too late but better late than never.
She has to work hard to keep up with him as they walk to the dock, having to jog a bit to match the pace of his long strides. He scowls the whole way, which isn't good but at least she knows how he's feeling. It used to be hard to tell what he felt, back when he first came on land and was unfamiliar with the changes to his body.
Reaching the dock, Caitlin's stomach sinks and she tries to plaster on a fake smile. "Bet you're happy to go home."
"Something like that," Savitar says non-committally, not looking at her, focused purely on the ocean. It's as if he's already gone, thinking of being rid of her, just another human even if she was one he had reason to tolerate.
"Sorry it took so long to tie everything up."
"It is what it is. And it's done."
"Guess this is goodbye, hopefully forever if you have anything to say about it, right?" Caitlin says, not meaning to sound so resentful as it comes out. She just wants to stop feeling so wretched and the easiest way to that is to get it over with.
He looks to her then, brow furrowing. "You want me gone?"
"No, I didn't say that. Just, you didn't want to be here in the first place, so it'll be a relief to go and never have to come back."
"You don't understand. I can't go home forever, because of you."
She doesn't know how to take that, if she should read resentment into it. But he's right, she doesn't understand. Will they think him tainted by his time here? What is she missing?
He closes the distance between them, leaning down, pressing his forehead against hers, noses aligned. He whispers the answer to her as they stand there touching like they never have before. Just like she has seen him do with his family when they found each of them - a grateful greeting and a show of affection all in one.
"I can't go home forever," he repeats. "Because of you, I have two homes."