It's finally time. After two and a half seasons, I have finally made one of these idiots admit their feelings. Now, that's out of the way, hope you enjoy. My co-authors are Brightburn1985 and ThomasMarieAmell2.0. Check out Thomas' Superflash one-shot series if that's what you like. I know I do.

Disclaimer: I don't own The Flash

Caitlin was sitting in the Pipeline, drinking from a bottle of water she'd picked up. She just couldn't stand being around Barry right now. He was being completely irrational, having absolutely no point of arguing against Julian being offered a spot on the team other than Barry just not liking him. That didn't stop the two of them from working together. But then again, they were forced to work together.

Maybe that's why this situation bothered her so much. That if Barry wasn't forced to work with her all these years, that he would choose someone completely different to be his partner. That he didn't even like working with her, and that he was forced to or just felt obligated by now because of how long they'd been working together. That he felt they didn't work out together. That he didn't care about her at all and only tolerated her. Or worse, he despised her just like he'd said.

Caitlin took a sip of water to push down the sob waiting at the back of her throat.

Someone cleared their throat behind her. "Hey," they called out.

Caitlin didn't even need to turn around to know who it was. She suspected it would be Barry who would initially try to reach out to her after the argument they just had.

"Why are you here?" she asked.

"I came to see you." Barry replied. "I'm going to give Julian the offer of being part of the team. He deserves that much after everything he's been through."

"Good. If that's all, you can leave now." Caitlin said, pointing behind her towards the exit, still not facing Barry.

Barry's footsteps came closer until they were directly behind her. "I still want to talk to you about letting your new boyfriend on the team." Barry said, bending his knees to sit down beside her.

Caitlin rolled her eyes. Barry still believed she harboured feelings for Julian. Could he really be that oblivious? Or maybe it was her who wasn't making her feelings known well. "I'm not in love with Julian. I never said that."

"Oh come on," Barry said incredulously. "You've actually been a downright saint lately, considering your usual attitude these past few years. The only time this happened was when you were in love with Jay. You wanted to talk to me about something that concerns me about your feelings. The only guy I know that would be a problem should you start dating is Julian. Ergo, you have a crush on Julian."

"Why is it you assumed I have a crush on anyone? Is it because I'm a girl? I have to talk about the latest guy I think is cute?" Caitlin asked angrily.

"Was it?" Barry raised an eyebrow.

"Well… it was, but that's beside the point. You didn't know that at the time." Caitlin answered.

"Please, after all these years, I'd like to think I know you pretty well."

"Not enough apparently." Caitlin glared at him. "I don't have feelings for Julian. You think all those things mean I'm in love with him?"

"Well you hate me." Barry said.

"I've never said I hated you." Caitlin mumbled quietly, but loud enough that Barry could hear.

"Yeah you have. On an almost daily occurrence. I remember when I brought you coffee the first time with the sugar. After you spit it out, you said, quote, 'I can't believe you managed to find the perfect coffee to encapsulate how I feel about you. I hate it,' unquote. The most creative one I believe. I have a lifetime of insults and arguments in my head and they're all with you." Barry said.

Caitlin hanged her head to avoid looking at him, remaining quiet because she honestly didn't know what to say to that. She remembered that time, and now she was filled with regret. She would eat pounds of raw sugar if it meant that Barry would forget about all the bad memories he'd ever had with her and they could just start anew.

"Hey-te Caitlin!" Barry said as a pun, trying to regain her attention.

Caitlin sighed in frustration. "Just leave!" she insisted. If he still couldn't tell how she felt about him, then she didn't ever want to see him.

"Fine. I'll leave." Barry agreed.

"Bye," Caitlin bid him farewell.

"But before I go-" Barry was saying.

"That's it," Caitlin stood up, "leave before I freeze every blood vessel in your body and leave you here to die." Caitlin emphasized her point by raising her hand with mist swirling around it to make her intimidating.

"You can threaten me all you want." Barry stood up to swat her hand away, knowing she didn't actually mean it. "I'm not leaving until I make my point.

"Look, I know this seems terrifying right now. You're confused and you don't know what to do. And I know it's scary to put your feelings out there because you don't know if the person you like feels the same way," Barry said softly, getting closer to Caitlin to make sure she didn't run.

The close proximity of their faces was making Caitlin's face feel warm. Her heart was beating erratically and her legs were starting to feel like jelly. Her gaze kept flickering from Barry's bright green eyes to his full lips that were producing sounds that she wasn't listening to anymore. If he didn't go away soon…

"Everyone feels that way from time to time. Nobody thinks any less of you for that." Barry continued, ignorant to what was going on in Caitlin's head. "You've had to endure so much heartbreak these past years, and I think you are amazing to be able to show such strength. But you need to put yourself out there one more time because you're never going to know what might happen if you don't-"

Caitlin couldn't take it any longer. She grabbed Barry's shoulders and pulled him toward her to meet their lips in the centre. Caitlin closed her eyes and put forth every emotion she'd felt into that kiss in the hope that Barry would convey how she felt.

Barry was just frozen in shock. Caitlin Snow was kissing him. She was locking lips with him. Her mouth was attached to his. And neither were drunk, an imposter, or in a life threatening situation. Maybe the imposter was a possibility but he highly doubted it. Caitlin Snow was kissing him of her own free will. What did this mean?

This continued for a few more seconds before Caitlin released them, feeling Barry being completely unresponsive to her kiss. She didn't know what to think.

Caitlin took a step back in worry, leaving herself completely open to Barry Allen.

"Wh… wha… yo… I…" Barry stuttered as he looked at Caitlin with wide eyes. His frame impossibly still as he tried to process what just happened.

"Sorry," Caitlin apologized. Though whether it was for the kiss, or the shock he was experiencing, Caitlin wasn't sure. Maybe both, maybe neither.

"It's cool," Barry meekly responded. Still unsure on how to go from here now that this happened. That Caitlin Snow kissed him. That Caitlin Snow had feelings for him. And how did he feel about that? Did he like her as well?

Caitlin didn't give him a chance to respond as she ran to the exit of the Pipeline and away from Barry. Away from everything that would remind her of Barry.

Barry was still too shocked to move as he watched her retreating form leave him and STAR Labs behind.

Caitlin Snow had feelings for him. But did he feel the same way? Should he have stopped her from running regardless? Barry just didn't know.

It was an awkward next few days between Barry and Caitlin, they would try their best to avoid each other which was hard since they are in the same team. The change of behaviors between the two went unnoticed by the team, thinking they are just having their daily disagreement.

Up until an alarm sounded at the Cortex, a meteor just entered the atmosphere before S.T.A.R. Lab's satellite alerted the team.

"Cisco, is that what I think it is?" Caitlin asked as they watched the meteor fall from the sky.

"Yes, that is a meteor and yes, it is headed for downtown." As soon as the words left Cisco's mouth, Barry was already in his suit and was currently running after the meteor, ready to get civilians out of its way.

The meteor had already crashed by the river when Barry finally showed up, but this wasn't like any meteor he'd seen before. For one thing, it was extremely large. Large enough that it would create much more destruction upon its landing than just upturned dirt. For another, it didn't seem to be of natural design.

That was confirmed when a piece of it opened like a door and several beings swarmed out of the spacecraft, not taking any note of Barry when they rushed past him.

"You've got to be kidding me. Aliens?" Barry groaned out loud.

"We call them Dominators. They have been around for thousands of years and the last time we had an encounter with their kind was in the eighties. We were in the middle of a war with them before they offered a truce and left our planet, since then we haven't heard or seen them up until last night." Lyla told them, showing off the few pictures they have of the Dominators.

"What is the truce about?" Barry asked.

"I don't know yet and they won't tell me. I'm still new at this job, so Waller's friends aren't exactly happy that I replaced her."

"So, what's the plan?" Caitlin asked.

"There is no plan. The three of you aren't strong enough to handle this kind of threat, leave it. We will handle it." Lyla packed up all of the information about the Dominators, except for the hard drive that was plugged into one of the televisions.

Once Lyla was finally gone, Cisco grabbed the hard drive from the back of the television and looked at Barry with confusion. "Why did you think she left this?" He asked, holding up the hard drive.

"I don't know but whatever the reason is, we need to do something about this invasion." Barry replied.

"But you heard what Lyla said, Fleet Feet. And how much I wish she was wrong, she actually made an extremely good point. We can't defeat a whole army of aliens with just the three of us." Caitlin pointed out. She really wanted to help out but Lyla was right, they can't do anything with just the three of them.

"I don't plan to Ms. Frosty."

Barry had sped to Star City and picked up the Arrow gang as they were getting shot at.

Once they were all safely in Oliver's apartment, Dig rushed to the nearest trash can to unload his lunch.

"We had that," Oliver complained.

"I don't think you did," Barry denied.

"You really didn't," Felicity walked in the room.

"What are you doing here?" Oliver asked.

"Barry picked me up,"

"Guys, I really need your help right now. We're under an alien invasion," Barry informed them.

"Are you serious right now? That is so cool," Thea walked in as well.

"Thea? You're not even part of the team anymore," Oliver said.

"I just dropped by to send you some documents from City Hall, but apparently it can wait. What are we doing?" Thea asked.

"You are not doing anything," Oliver shot her down.

"But it's aliens," Thea whined.

"We're going to need all the help we can get," Barry agreed.

"I have The Flash's approval," Thea pointed at him.

"You can call me Barry,"

"The Flash sounds cooler in this context," Thea said.

"Can't argue there," Felicity agreed.

"So can I rely on you guys to help?" Barry said, trying to get them back on track to why they were here.

"How do we even know that there's an alien invasion?" Dig asked.

"Your wife came by STAR Labs with information about them. It's on this hard drive." Barry pulled out the stick from his pocket. "They're here, and we don't know what they want. We have a truce with them, but we don't know why they came back,"

"I swear, my life was somewhat normal before I met you." Dig muttered. He went off to make a call to Lyla about this to confirm what Barry had told them.

Barry handed the USB to Felicity who plugged it in a laptop to watch the video and pull any information she could about them.

"Even if we do, it's going to take more than just us to take on an alien invasion," Oliver said after watching the video.

"Cisco is calling up the Legends and I think I know someone who might help turn the tides in this war," Barry said.

"Where are we going to meet?" Oliver asked after a moment of silence.

"An old STAR Labs hangar. I'll text you the address. Be there as soon as possible." Barry said.

"This better be the right place, 'cause if this isn't the right place then somebody's about to be real confused." Cisco said.

Barry took a look around the apartment. "I was never in her apartment so I have no idea," he admitted.

The door opened to reveal a blonde girl wearing glasses carrying several bags of groceries, but she froze when her eyes laid on the pair in her apartment. One of them she had no idea, but the other she recognized. "Barry?!"

"Hey," Barry waved a hand, happy that they were on the correct Earth.

"I knew it was you. I thought those were breaches popping up all over the city," Kara exclaimed. "Come here," she pulled Barry into a hug.

"Yeah, sorry. It took us a couple tries to get here." Barry returned the hug. "This is my friend Cisco Ramon. I told you about him,"

"Well…" Cisco trailed off. He wasn't sure what their relationship was right now. Cisco hadn't fully forgiven Barry yet for altering the timeline, but after these past few months, he'd calmed down and looked at the situation more carefully. Cisco hadn't forgiven him, but he understood why Barry did it. He didn't approve, but it was understood.

Cisco wasn't friends with Barry right now, though they tended to act as if they were to put on a front. At least, he was. But they were more than acquaintances. So what did that leave them with?

In the end, Cisco decided to keep quiet. There was really nothing he could say here that wouldn't make this situation awkward.

"I wish we were here on a social call, but I've come to collect on that favour you owe me," Barry said.

"We're friends Barry. We don't owe each other anything. Just ask me and I'll be there for you," Kara answered.

"Good, because my Earth is dealing with an alien invasion. I kinda figured this was your area of expertise. Can you help?" Barry asked.

"Let me just get my suit," Kara replied.

When the three of them arrived back at the STAR Labs hangar, the rest of the heroes had already arrived and were waiting for them. Team Arrow and The Legends were assembled in front of them.

"Barry, I thought you were bringing an alien to help us," Oliver commented at the pretty girl that appeared extremely human.

"I did." Barry nodded his head. "Everyone, this is Kara Danvers, or Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl,"

"What makes her so super?" Sara asked.

Kara smirked at their doubts and raised herself into the air with her levitation. She then activated her laser vision and burned the symbol on her chest into the floor.

At the display shown, everyone just stared in shock. "I'm convinced," Mick Rory said, stupefied as he was eating a sandwich.

After that, they all introduced themselves to the new hero.

"And you must be Caitlin, right? Barry talked a lot about you when he was on my Earth." Kara said.

Barry was instantly filled with horror when Kara said that. And it wasn't true. He had only mentioned Caitlin that one time.

"What did he say?" Caitlin said dejectedly. Her eyes filled with sadness but an almost desperate plea at the prospect that Barry might actually return her feelings in some way. Anything to break the silence that had plagued the two for the past several days.

Barry hadn't spoken to her at all after she had kissed him, which just meant that to her, Barry had as good as rejected her feelings for him. But still, he hadn't said anything, which might just mean he was still sorting out his feelings for her and there was a chance, but in Caitlin's mind, it was already hopeless. He was just trying to find a way to let her down gently that there was no way in hell that he would ever be in a relationship with her.

"You should ask him yourself. He'd really appreciate it," Kara stated.

"Somehow, I don't think he will," Caitlin said.

Barry just pulled Kara away to introduce her to the rest of the team before they could get into a further debate. Barry had been avoiding Caitlin so he wouldn't have to deal with any of this. Because frankly, he didn't know how to deal with any of this. He'd always been at odds with Caitlin and he just didn't know how to have a cordial conversation with her that didn't end with one of them screaming or crying.

"What's going on between you two?" Kara asked as she was being dragged off.

"It's best if you just don't ask. I don't really know myself. And I hate me for that," Barry whispered.

"Did something happen?" Kara continued to press. Her reporter drive showing.

"Later," Barry briefly dismissed her.

They brought the rest of the team up to speed on what was happening. They showed the video that Lyla had left them of the Dominators back in the 80s.

"They're called Dominators. They showed up last night with no explanation. We're not sure why they're here, but we need to be prepared in case it's not for peace reasons." Barry said.

"I've heard of them before." Kara spoke up. "Back on my home planet, they invaded and captured many of our people. We were never sure what happened since we never saw any of them again, but lots of people thought it was for experiments. But they were gone soon and we hadn't heard of them since. And this was before I was born."

"Anything you can tell us? Information of any kind, even from another universe, could prove beneficial." Oliver asked.

"They have powerful psionic abilities. That's how they were able to apprehend us so easily." Kara supplied. "Sorry. That's pretty much it. I was never sure whether any of the other stuff I heard was just exaggerations or something. Like I said, it was before my time,"

"Alright then, Kara you'll be our substitute. None of us, I'm assuming, have ever fought an alien. You're going to give us some first hand experience. Don't hold back. We need to be prepared," Oliver instructed.

"And why should we listen to you Robin Hood?" Mick growled.

"I think what Mick's trying to say, in his own way, is that it would be nice to know who is in charge here," Jax butted in, hoping to defuse any tension that Mick's rude outburst may have caused.

"Well, Oliver has been in the business longer than any of us. We could put him as leader," Cisco suggested.

"While I appreciate the support Cisco, but since Barry was the one to bring us all together, I think it should be him that should be the leader." Oliver added his own two cents.

Seeing as how nobody was showing an averse to Barry being the leader, Barry stepped forward and decided to take charge. "Okay, the first thing we need to do is prepare. We don't know when these Dominators are going to show themselves, but we need to be there when they do. For now, we should take Oliver's suggestion. We'll train against Kara, and believe me. She's more than a pretty face. She can handle all of us,"

"What about their psychic abilities? Just because Supergirl is an alien, doesn't mean anything when the aliens we're facing have completely different powers." Ray Palmer pointed out.

Barry thought about it for a second before coming to a possible conclusion. "I might have an idea for that, but I'm going to need to pick someone up. I'll be back in a Flash," he said before speeding away.

"Yeah, that's not going to get annoying," Caitlin commented on Barry's new phrase.

Barry had returned to the hangar with a person in chains, a face mask, and tied to a cart. He was even wearing a blind fold so the person wouldn't be able to see.

The sight that greeted him was slightly humorous and concerning at the same time. Kara was flying over the rest of the team with all of them sprawled out on the ground.

"How can someone so small hit like a truck? It doesn't make sense," Ray groaned as he pulled off his helmet.

"I know. It's kinda hot," Sara commented.

"Red, you're back." Mick noticed his return.

Everyone's attention was pulled to him. It was strange to see their usually kind hearted friend carting a person as if they were deranged.

"What have you got there Barry?" Oliver asked.

"The answer to one of our problems. But first, any news from Lyla about what these Dominators want?" Barry asked.

"Lyla's in a meeting with the president right now. They're discussing whether they should take action against the Dominators, but they're not sure right now since all's been quiet on the other side," Dig informed him. "Now who's the one in the mask?"

"Guys, this is Charles Howlett. A metahuman from Earth-2. Nicknamed Hypnotick for his mental abilities," Barry introduced him.

"I still do not agree with that name," Cisco chimed in.

"Why did you bring a criminal here? Do you not realize the danger you are putting everyone here?" Oliver asked.

"Which is why I've blind folded him for the meantime. We'll put our masks on and take off the blindfold. His powers work through his eyes. He's able to create hallucinations in his victims. He was the safer bet between the two psychic metas we have in custody."

"Who's the other?" Felicity asked.

"Rosalind Dillon and she's currently in lockup at Iron Heights. Can't exactly take her out without raising suspicion." Caitlin spoke up.

"His powers are harmless, and I figured we could use him to help strengthen our mental shields. At least give ourselves a taste of psychic abilities." Barry said.

"You'll hold up your end of the deal Flash?" Howlett said.

"Yes. One hour of TV privileges per week in exchange for your cooperation." Barry said.

"Fine. Masks on everyone," Oliver reluctantly agreed.

Everybody put on their disguises to not be recognized by the criminal in their midst. At least, the ones that had them. Once everyone was ready, Barry pulled off the blind fold to unleash Howlett's power on all the heroes in the room. Luckily, he was still immune to Howlett's powers, so once everyone was in their trance, he placed the blind fold back on Howlett.

"Now we just wait to see how long this is going to take," Barry commented when he saw everybody frozen with smiles on their faces. Even the ones not participating in the physical training had been affected. Barry had underestimated Howlett's range for his abilities.

"I wonder what they're all seeing," Barry wondered.

"How should I know? I don't see into their visions, I just cause them," Howlett said. "They are the ones that make them."

"I honestly have no idea what to do now," Barry said awkwardly as he gazed upon the still forms of the superheroes.

"You guys got a Big Belly Burger?" Howlett asked.

Barry studied the chains that were holding Howlett. They should restrain him long enough to get them some food without his supervision. "Yeah, sure,"

Well, that ending wasn't as good as I hoped but I hope you all liked Caitlin's 'confession'. Let's see how many of you can tell how I blatantly ripped it off from one of my favourite shows when I was a kid. But I had that in my mind since I started this story so I hoped I met all your expectations.

As for the Dominators, I will say that I will be doing it slightly differently. Barry and Caitlin will be together by the end of the Invasion. And for the training, I hated how they did it. Just because Kara is an alien, and the Dominators are aliens, does not make them the same thing! They are completely different species with different powers. That would be like Kara saying the Dominators and humans are the same, because to her, they're both aliens. That just doesn't make sense. So I brought back Howlett because he has similar powers in mental manipulation as the Dominators.

So I'll see you all next week.