Cooper sat next to Carla on the couch in her house. Carla was almost hysteric, as she held her head low and shook steadily. Caitlin was reluctantly holding Samantha close to her in a soothing way. She rubbed the younger woman's back. Right now the two women had something in common; they both missed and were scared for Collin. He'd been gone for a week now. And the Tannhauser-Snow family plus Samantha was steadily falling apart into their anguish soup.
The front door swung open and the sound of keys jingling washed up in everyone's ears. They fell into the key plate by the door. Everyone's eyes darted straight forward. Collin looked at them, surprised, with his eyebrows raised high and mouth curved down in an awkward look. "Cait, Sam, Cooper," he addressed them. "What are you all doing here?"
Samantha, going against her own oath to give Collin the cold shoulder the second he returned (if he would), was the first to run up to him and embrace her boyfriend. She was not even sure that he would return and the surprise from him walking through the door, next to the days and nights she spent wondering if he was even alive or not propelled her to leave behind all of her misery and just get to him as quickly as possible.
Collin returned the gesture by wrapping his, now stronger, arms around the girl. But not everyone in the family was as warm as Samantha had surprisingly been.
He swallowed hard under the gaze of his older brother. Which was weird, because up until a couple weeks ago he didn't even known he had an older brother. But now it was like Cooper was there his whole life which really set in the older brother protective role, and glare, Collin was now receiving.
Caitlin and Cooper stood up at the same time. "Collin, where- why?" Caitlin stuttered out. It was clear she was choking on her own words and probably the tears she'd spent hours suppressing.
By the 4th day of Collin's alarming isolation, Caitlin continued to call out of work in STAR Labs, not even letting Killer Frost come out to stop other meta-humans, and not even helping out Barry and Cisco and Ralph. Her little brother was, she hoped, AWOL, because she didn't want to think about the other option. Especially when she found out that not even Samantha had heard from him or been with him the night they lost contact with him. And it would've been ok, after all Collin is 23 years old, but you don't just not answer phone calls, text messages, even emails from your entire family when you just need some time off. That's what really worried them and caused Caitlin to call out of work during the last days. Cooper would have too if he hadn't already taken a month off (to go to Central City).
After Caitlin's immaculate use of Cornell vocabulary, it was time for Cooper to speak.
"Where were you?" his voice was deeper than it'd ever been, or at least that Collin had ever heard it. He actually stumbled back a bit, releasing Samantha.
"What are you talking about? I was-"
"You don't call, you don't text. Do you know how worried we all were? Especially mom?"
But before Cooper could finish the path to Collin, the latter had stormed out of the room and into his own. In the living room, Caitlin, Cooper, Carla, and Samantha looked on in confusion, anger, and bewilderment.
"Did he j-" Caitlin looked at Cooper and nodded her head.
"I'll talk to him,"
"No," Caitlin put out a hand to stop Samantha. "No, it's ok okay, I'll talk to him. See what's going on." After that, Caitlin walked over to her brother's bedroom door, and pushed it open.
To Caitlin's surprise, Collin was already at the door and walking out, resulting in the two bumping into one another.
"Oh," Collin wheezed.
"Sorry. Were you coming back out?"
Collin's response was a nod. "I felt bad about just walking off. Coop's right. And I want to tell you all why I was gone."
Caitlin noticed a difference in her brother's look anyway, and not just the shorter haircut. She nodded her head. "Okay, but first," she held out her arms in a gesture to welcome her brother into a hug, which Collin took quietly. "Ok-thank you-come on."
The walk back into the living room was incredibly short and in a few seconds, Collin was once again caught in Cooper's interrogating glare, but this time his face was a little softer as if he realized he'd just yelled at his little brother.
Collin went to Carla first who stood up and pulled him into a firm hug. And his mother did not let him move or get out of the embrace. She whispered a very faint, "I thought you were gone." Collin couldn't tell if it was for his ears or the air's. But Samantha sauntered over to Collin, immediately losing herself in his welcoming arms. Caitlin crept back over to Cooper.
"I have to tell you all why you haven't seen me in so long." Everyone perked up to hear the rest of Collin's explanation. "I left Central City for Centium." Centium City is where Carla net Collin's dad, and in the wildest way possible too. And hearing this from Collin almost brought tears to Carla. Collin seemed to notice before everyone else when he laid a hand on her shoulder in a comforting way. "I was with Richard, my dad," he clarified for those who didn't know, Cooper and Samantha. "He and I just hung out for a bit, like we used to. I'm sorry, I just didn't know where else to go!" He explained.
It still didn't explain why he hadn't touched his phone to communicate with his family.
"...and I remember just running, running and I realized Centium City was close by—" he looked up at Carla. "But I came back. I came-" he soothed.
But he'd been cut off by his older brother.
"Coll, I'm really glad you're back. But, how- why were you running? What did you mean by that?" Cooper curiously asked, letting his hands speak as well as a new movement came with every word.
Collin was not really ready to say why exactly he ran away, which was because he'd fought off a group of guys and then fled without checking if the woman had even escaped, and without seeing if she was hurt...
"Collin?" He looked at Carla.
"What?" He said absentmindedly.
Carla ignored the word that was substituted for a better one. "We asked why you were running. Daily jog?" She answered with utmost concern.
Collin caught his breath in his throat, choking on the words to come from him. "Samantha," he looked down at his girlfriend who was busy rubbing his mom's back. She looked up at him. "There's something I have to tell you.
"Yeah? What is it?" She asked under her breath. But Samantha could tell that something wasn't right.
Caitlin's jaw fell. She recognized the line, the same thing her first high-school boyfriend said to her. She immediately felt sympathy for Samantha, and for Collin, she was disappointed in her younger brother.
"I cheated." Collin said, revealing the words Samantha knew were to come. The whole room fell silent. "I was at another girl's house-" Collin tried, but Samantha was already speedily walking towards the door and Collin was reaching for her arm but it free fell through the air. And his girlfriend was gone.
