Nighttime came sooner than Caitlin had hoped. Soon she found herself getting ready, not even knowing what to wear, for an unanticipated family night. Caitlin was happy to see Collin again. Mind you, this is the brother that was a time aberration, but Caitlin didn't know this.

"Caitlin, you did not have another brother," Barry confessed after months of bringing along the time aberration and hiding what it was.

"What? Barry, you're crazy." Caitlin said, not believing a word from him. She began walking away from the man she loved.

"Caitlin, I'm serious! It's my fault!" He said through tears. He was sad about betraying her.

Caitlin got into her car and waited for Cooper to do the same. God, she really did not want to spend an evening with her horrid mother.

Cooper thought she was over-reacting. But who was he really to judge? He'd only known Carla for a few months, well plus the first 3 years of his life. After throwing on a black long-sleeved shirt, grey jeans, and all-green sneakers, he made his way to Caitlin's car.

"You really don't do anything with your hair." Caitlin noticed.

This earned a nod from her brother. "I mean, it's fine the way it is." The style matched his face, but it was constant. Nothing new to it, unlike Caitlin who did something different with her hair almost every day.

Caitlin chuckled to herself, before driving off in her car.

Along the way to the place, Cooper gave Caitlin the directions to get here. "take this left," and "take this exit". Caitlin actually enjoyed the time with him. Central City and Bestowed City were many miles apart, so the ride took a while.

Caitlin made a pitstop. "I'm gonna run inside really quickly." She gestured to the Burger King in front of them before running into the fast food place.

Cooper was left alone in the car. He felt relieved. Quickly, he rolled up a sleeve of his long sleeve shirt. His arm revealed a red tint of color. This was the secret he kept from as many people as he could. The only person who knew was his father.

Cooper wasn't sure how the powers came along. He just remembers waking up one day, at twelve years old and in a bed of fire.

-19 Years Ago-

"Dad! I'm heading to bed, g'night."

Cooper, who had been previously playing Build-A-Bear on his computer decided to retire for the night. With a last say of goodnight to his father he was off to bed.

However, slumber didn't come easy to him as he couldn't help but be enveloped in a strange heat sensation.

Cooper, having enough of it, threw his Star-Wars comforters off of him. He shot upright in his bed. From his hands were streaks of blue and red blinding light. Eventually it came into focus and revealed floating embers of fire. He expected his skin to melt off, but the fire was dancing on it. It was as hot as the surface of a light bulb, but the fire didn't feel hot enough to burn him. Even though that's what fire usually did.

Playing with the newfound ability, Cooper danced his fingertips along his sheeted mattress. The only aftermath of this was his sheets slowly catching on fire.

"OH SHIT!" He screamed in utter bewilderment. He fumbled until successfully removing the sheet and stomped on it, letting out a breath of relief. "Holy hell..."

When he was able to regain his composure Cooper drifted off into a much deserved slumber. Only to be met in a bed of fire five hours later. His father heard his screams and immediately knew what had happened.

Ever since that day in 2000, Cooper has had to live with the occurrence of the fire ability.

Now that Caitlin was out of the car, the thirty-two-year-old was able to finally relieve himself of the burning feeling.

He felt bad about hiding it from Caitlin but he couldn't risk anyone else finding out. And she would just think him a freak and find being blood-related even that more preposterous.

Cooper's fingers shook as he ripped out a short-needled syringe from his jacket pocket. This mechanism was created by his own father to help him with the ability. He plunged it into his skin and felt the pain diminish. He threw his head back with a sigh.

"Shiiiiiiiit," He droned.

Noticing his sister coming out of the building, Cooper quickly dragged his head back from the head rest and hid the syringe in his pocket.

"Hey," Caitlin greeted him quietly, to which Cooper replied with a quick nod. He smiled at her, taking away any suspicion she may have.

"Let's get going?" She offered.

Cooper followed his sister in plugging in his seatbelt. He smirked at her, knowing she didn't entirely want to go up to Bestowed. "Of course."

Caitlin tried not to show her slightly amused emotion and simply held back a smile from her brother. Then she pulled out of the parking space.


"One more step... c'mon Caity, you got this!" Cooper urged his sister to the front door of their mother's house.

Caitlin rolled her eyes at her older brother's antics. Cooper was well aware that he was slightly annoying Caitlin, but he found it quite amusing.

She finally got to the door and stood in front of it.

Cooper honestly wasn't sure if she knew what to do next. He raised a confused eyebrow. "You just gotta kno-"

"I know!" Caitlin rudely cut him off. She rolled her eyes, and with a grunt, knocked on her mother's door.

They were greeted by none other than Carla Tannhauser. She smiled without showing teeth and looked straight into her daughter's eyes.

Yeah, they clearly weren't very happy to see one another.

Cooper spoke first, wanting to break the awkward silence. "Mom! We made it!" This broke Carla out of her trance and she hugged her son.

"Oh Cooper! Hi Caitlin." She said after pulling away. Caitlin plastered the most faked and pained smile on her face.

"Hi mom." She enthusiastically said. Fake it 'til you make it, right?

Carla smiled. "Okay. Collin's inside. I'll go get him now and then we can get going."

Carla walked, swaying her hips, to her 23 year old son.

"Collin, they're here."

Collin took his attention off of the Looney Toons marathon on tv. He looked up at his mother who was now walking over to various parts of the living room and kitchen in an attempt to find something.

He trailed his eyes wherever she went. "You mean my long-lost brother? The one I haven't ever met or heard of until yesterday?" His words had hints of venom in them. The thing with Collin is that he isn't really like Caitlin or Cooper. He isn't wickedly smart, and in high school he was the spoiled rich boy. That's what landed him one of prettiest girls in school--who he's since lost, by the way. "I already told you, I don't want to go." He slung his arm across his girlfriend, Samantha's, shoulders.

"Yeah sorry Ms. T." Samantha said with a grin lacking sympathy.

Carla rolled her eyes at the two, mostly the rich girl. She finally spoke after a while. "It's not up for discussion." She said with a deep, stern voice. Collin groaned and rolled his eyes. "Collin! You told me you wanted to see your sister again and you even insisted that your girlfriend come along. You kids always want to wait 'til 'day of' to finally back out of something. Now get out the door, both of you."

The young adults rolled their eyes and stood up from their position on the couch. Collin couldn't stop rolling his eyes.

He finally got to the door with his hand holding Samantha's. He looked at Cooper with a blank look. "Sup," he offered blandly. He wasn't completely excited to say the least.

Cooper smiled wildly and pulled the boy in. This completely caught Collin off guard. He widened his eyes at the sudden contact. "Nice to finally meet you, Collin. I'm Cooper Snow." Cooper couldn't stop smiling.

Collin rose his eyebrows. "Like Caitlin?" Oh yes, that part.

Caitlin met eyes with Cooper and gave him a look. The simple moment gave Cooper a lot of clarity. He immediately knew about Collin's oblivion. He didn't know about the whole 'Thomas' thing. It made sense.

"I thought you were my brother, not married." Collin joked. Then he stopped smiling, remembering Ronnie Raymond. This didn't affect Caitlin, and Collin was grateful for it.

Caitlin pulled him in for a brief hug and smiled at him. "Nice to see you again, Samantha." She said, turning her attention to the blonde.

Samantha smiles. "Clockwise," She dumbly says. Cooper and Caitlin both widened their eyes.

"Okay," Caitlin mumbled with a generous smile.

"I'm Samantha. I introduce myself since my very handsome and lovely boyfriend can't do it himself." Samantha said, glaring at Collin. "And I don't know the story, but it's nice to meet another Snow or Tannhauser any day." She smiled again.

"Haha, thanks. Nice to meet you Samantha. And you too, Collin."

Collin and Caitlin felt the same way about the situation. Caitlin was just a tad better at hiding it. And to be fair, she was kind of getting used to having another brother. Carla finally appeared in the doorway.

"Okay. Shall we get going?"