Chapter 2
Caitlin's mother is… clinical, to say the least.
Barry is by no means a stranger to Dr. Carla Tannhauser, having followed her research since his early days in college but it's a surprise for him when he finds out that she's Caitlin's mother.
Dr. Tannhauser looks a lot like Caitlin, brown curly hair, high cheekbones, same petite frame but she radiates a kind of coldness that Barry can't seem to reconcile with Caitlin, despite knowing she was certainly capable of it. Caitlin, despite the walls and the icy exterior, had an inherent warmth to her, a kindness to her, something which Barry had always admired. Dr. Tannhauser seemingly had no such warmth. Even her office, all glass and steel chrome, illuminated by the fading light of the sun, was deprived of any personal effects, the only indication as to who the office belonged to was a small framed photograph on the edge of her desk. A young Caitlin smiled back awkwardly, her small stature framed in by her mother and, Barry presumes, her father.
Dr. Tannhauser seems rather unimpressed at Barry's having gotten past her assistant, setting aside her files with a sigh, blue eyes piercing.
"Gentlemen, I understand you've been assigned to my daughter's case but as I told the previous detective, my daughter and I were… estranged for quite awhile before she disappeared," she pauses, eyes flickering down to her files. "Any information you may require, I suggest you speak with Mr. Ramon, he kept all of Caitlin's personal possessions when I terminated the lease on her apartment."
Joe blinks, bewildered and Barry processes this slowly. Cisco Ramon. The friend that had last seen Caitlin.
It seemed strange to him that she hadn't kept Caitlin's belongings. Wouldn't she want to feel close to her daughter after everything? That they'd even been estranged seemed a foreign concept to Barry, his entire life having been a long arduous trial in trying to get as close to his parents as possible.
Taking a deep breath, he steps forward, fighting back the urge to cringe when Carla's sharp gaze turns to him.
"Dr. Tannhauser, I knew Caitlin. We went to school together. I assure you I will do everything in my power to find her and bring her back," Barry promises earnestly.
She scrutinizes him carefully, looking for something only she knows. She must seem to find it because something in her expression gives, her face melting into something shadowed and weary.
Silently, she stands and makes her way to the windows. She doesn't speak for a long time.
"It's been three years, Mr. Allen. Do not make promises you cannot keep."
Barry glances at Joe, taking it for the dismissal it is. He's halfway through the door when she speaks.
"Nigel Cadrot…" she hesitates, clearing her throat. "My daughter came to visit me, about a year after her fiance died. She needed help with a serum she'd been working on. We got into an argument and Nigel, my research assistant, got caught up in it and I- I don't know what happened exactly but she left and he was furious… He quit shortly after."
Barry mulls that over, understanding what she's trying to offer. It seemed like a stretch but at this point, every lead mattered.
"I intend to keep my promise," he responds and she must understand that he means to look into it because she nods, glancing at him over her shoulder.
Barry blinks, seeing someone who wasn't really there.
Nigel Cadrot, it turns out, returned to Canada shortly after leaving Tannhauser Industries, having opened up a new lab in the past year.
Despite knowing the long shot that it was, Barry feels disappointed, like he's failed Caitlin in not solving her case immediately.
Still, Dr. Tannhauser gave no indication of the kind of serum Caitlin was working on and so he makes quick work of locating Mr. Cadrot's number.
He's expecting the man to be a lot more forthcoming than he is, given he's asking about a seemingly inconsequential conversation that took place approximately fours years ago, but instead he spends a total of ten minutes listening to Cadrot rant about technology and it's ever-persistent invasion of privacy, the lack of regulation for law enforcement both in the US and abroad and the rife egos of rich kids 'playing at doctor'.
"Why do you say that? Did you find Ms. Snow's work to be unfounded?" Barry asks.
"Unfounded?! What else would you call trying to slow cellular degeneration with transmuted radioisotopes? I can see why her mother never brought her into the company, the sheer egotism. That's what our conversation was about, I was telling her how foolhardy she was".
Barry doesn't quite believe that and even though he wants to correct him, that actually it has been proven that radioactive copper transmutations, at least, when bonded with the copper atoms in DNA, are essential for cellular functioning, he bites his tongue.
"Why did you quit Tannhauser Industries shortly thereafter?"
"Well, I realized I needed to make my own name rather than continue to work under another's," he replies rather snootily. Barry suppresses a snicker, imagining the kinds of things Caitlin said to him to have wounded his own ego.
"Well, that will be all for now, Mr. Cadrot. Thank you for your time."
Barry hangs up immediately, not wishing to hear anything else from that insufferable man. He looks down at his notes, the long stretch of white blurring before him. The crime board is sparse too when he looks up at it, only broken links where there ought to be a chain. He scribbles his new lead onto a post it and tacks it up, right next to Caitlin's photo. He didn't know how or why but he felt it in his gut, this serum, whatever it was, was important.
The case takes up every spare minute Barry has. He examines crime scenes and runs tests, he gets results that puts away criminals and gives closure to ailing families, he has dinner at the West house with Iris and Joe and Wally and Cecile, he visits his dad in Iron Heights. But rather than go home and rest, Barry stays and he works, digging and digging until he's found himself in a hole he can no longer climb out of.
He's good at what he does, he can tell a story from the way a wound is inflicted, the way clothes tear, the way a hand trembles and a smile tapers off. Small details are but a thread in a larger woven tapestry and Barry is good at unweaving them. Still, he's not quite so good at separating himself from the ones that hit too close to home.
He solicits Caitlin's research, everything Mercury Labs could give him, in addition to the notes Dr. Tannhauser had from when Caitlin visited her.
He familiarizes himself with the thin scrawl of Caitlin's handwriting, the slanted and overdramatic signature of her name on documents from Mercury Labs, the sheer weight of her research. She was… brilliant, her work transformative, even inspiring.
He wonders sometimes, late at night when he's still in his lab, flipping through her notes, if she ever found it difficult to go home. If she too liked to stay in her lab long after everyone else had gone home, working. Did she dread coming home to a silent apartment? He liked to think so.
Home to Barry had once been his childhood home, his parents still alive and free. Then, it had been the West house with Iris and Joe. To others, home was the place you walked to from the station nearby. Or the saved destination at the end of a long drive. It was a journey committed to memory, as easy as breathing or taking a step. But home, to Barry, was the people he loved.
No one awaited him when he went home to his loft.
His bed when he flops down is cold to the touch, even with the warm summer night breeze coming in through the window.
For a long time, he tosses and turns, mentally reviewing facts about the case until he slips into a restless sleep. He dreams of Caitlin that night.
"Hey Cait, you want to hear a joke?"
Caitlin glanced up, brown eyes bug-eyed behind her goggles, the tilt of her head indicating that he continue.
He smiles and launches right into the joke.
"So a physicist, a chemist and a biologist visit the ocean. The physicist, fascinated, decides to study the fluid dynamics of waves. He walks into the ocean and never returns. The biologist then decides he wants to study the flora and fauna of the sea so he too walks into the ocean and never returns. What do you think the chemist does?"
She scrunched up her face in thought, leaning down to make sure the solution was at the 250 ml line.
"I don't know. What does he do?"
"After a long time, he writes down his observation. ''Biologist and physicists soluble in ocean water'".
She laughs brightly, dissolving into quieter giggles when Mr. Nevins looks over at them sharply.
"Alright, let's see if you know the punchline to this one. A neutron walks into a bar and asks how much for a beer. What does the bartender tell him?"
Barry grins. He knew this one.
"''For you, no charge,'" he answered, slapping the countertop in the rhythm of the classic snare drum and cymbal. Caitlin groaned.
"Nooo. That one doesn't count, I get to go again!" she argued, watching Barry add the solvent.
"No way. You chose a common joke, I knew the punchline. You lose, Snow!"
Caitlin pouted, Barry grinned. It wasn't often he got the chance to trade dorky science jokes with someone but Caitlin, at least, always seemed to enjoy them.
"Alright, you get one more chance," Barry relents. Caitlin beamed.
"Why did Dracula quit grad school?" Caitlin asks, looking sly, tongue in cheek.
Barry shrugs.
"His next-generation sequencing results drove him bat ChIP crazy!"
Barry groaned, shaking his head.
"Biologists have the worst jokes," he mocks, chuckling at Caitlin's face when she turns to him in outrage.
He winks at her and grins, the plastic of his goggles digging into his cheek.
She reddens and turns her head, resolving not to speak to him for the rest of the class period. Barry tries to hide his smile and fails.
The hazy blue of day is melting into the soft shy orange of dusk when Barry arrives. Cisco's house is a modest bungalow with a gabled dark roof and a lush green lawn that reminds Barry a bit of the West house. A smile comes unbidden to his lips at the thought and he's still smiling softly up at the house when the door is yanked open.
"Can I help you?" the woman at the door asks, tucking dark hair behind her ear.
She's pretty, Barry notes, even with the narrowed dark eyes, full of wary. She's wearing a sundress, her feet barefoot, dark brown hair tumbling loosely down her back and over her shoulders.
"I'm looking for Cisco Ramon. Does he still live here?"
He smiles disarmingly, allowing her eyes to dart around his features. After a moment of hesitation, she turns halfway into the house and calls.
The man who comes to the door is just as dark in coloring, coppery brown skin, long dark hair and dark eyes. Barry's eyes flit down to the Star Trek t-shirt and the khaki bermudas.
"Yes?"
"Cisco Ramon. I'm Barry Allen, I'm here on behalf of CCPD. I've been assigned to Caitlin's case. Is this a bad time?"
Cisco stares and then with a start, steps back, allowing Barry to step inside the house. He follows the woman into the house, Cisco shutting the door behind them.
"This is my fiance, Cynthia," Cisco introduces, gesturing for them to sit. "Would you like something to drink?"
"Oh no, thank you. I was just hoping to ask you some questions. I'm sure you're aware that we've received communication from someone we believe to be Caitlin, yes?"
Cisco nodded, settling stiffly beside Cynthia, who nudged him gently, concern in her eyes. Barry glanced away, busying himself with getting his notepad out but still, he could see the way Cisco grasped Cynthia's hand, squeezing it gently before he turned to give Barry his full attention, nervous fingers coming up to tuck long strands behind the ears.
"Do you mind if I record this?" Barry asked, setting his phone on the table, the voice recording app open. Cisco shook his head and Barry pressed the button to begin recording.
"According to her file, you were the last person to see Caitlin on the night of her disappearance. Do you remember why Caitlin was here that afternoon?"
"My brother Dante, he died May 2014. Caitlin came to keep me company on the anniversary."
Barry nodded, scribbling that down next to the list of questions he'd compiled for this meeting.
"Did she seem off to you that day? Paranoid? Mention anything about someone following her?" Barry asked, eyes pinning Cisco in his place.
"No, no. She was supposed to call me once she got home but…." he trailed off, the unspoken 'she never did' hanging in the air between them.
"Do you know anyone who would want to hurt her?"
"Everybody loved Caitlin. She was difficult to get close to, didn't really let a lot of people in but once she did... there isn't anything she wouldn't do for the people she loved," Cisco grimaced, head ducking, his face shadowed by the curtain of hair.
Barry pursed his lips, eyes flickering to Cynthia, who sat with an impassive air about her.
"Was her mother included in that list of people?" Barry asked rather bluntly.
Cisco's head shot up, something akin to anger flickering briefly in his eyes. Barry had the suspicion that Cisco's anger wasn't meant for him. He gave Cisco a minute to collect his thoughts, swallow whatever bitterness rested between him and Caitlin's mother.
"Caitlin's relationship with her mother was… complicated," Cisco spat, as if restraining himself from using a stronger adjective. Or expletives.
"So I've gathered... You don't like Dr. Tannhauser, do you? Why?"
Cisco didn't even hesitate, the words bubbling up and pouring over his lips like acidic bile.
"You know what she said when they first told her Caitlin was missing? She said she'd probably run away. Can you believe that?! Like what kind of mother hears their child is missing and that's their first reaction? As if Caitlin was some recalcitrant child who hadn't gotten her way. And she didn't even want to keep Caitlin's belongings! Just terminated the lease on Caitlin's apartment and told me to pick up Caitlin's things or they were going to be donated," Cisco huffed a breath, Cynthia pulling him back into his seat from which he'd slowly risen as he ranted.
Barry watched quietly as Cynthia smoothed a comforting hand over Cisco's shoulder.
"I actually went to school with Caitlin," he offered, a ghost of a smile rising up on his lips when Cisco blinked in surprise.
Clearing his throat, Barry glanced at the list of questions again, discarding those that Cisco had inadvertently answered during his tirade. His eyes landed on the last one, bolded and circled in red.
"Can you tell me anything about the serum Caitlin was working on?"
Cisco frowned, brows drawing together in puzzlement.
"Caitlin never consulted with me about any serum. But, I mean, my field of expertise was always mechanical engineering," Cisco explained, frowning again. "Do you think whatever she was working on was important enough to someone that they'd kidnap her?"
Barry hesitated, unsure whether to share his findings with them but he got the feeling that if there was anyone truly desperate to find Caitlin, it was Cisco.
"When I visited Dr. Tannhauser, she mentioned that Caitlin had gone to see her for help with a serum. I've been looking at Caitlin's research, all the files I could get from Mercury Labs and it doesn't seem like it was an on-the-books project. Which means, she could have been gotten outside funding and solicitation. Did she, at any moment, mention meeting with anyone new?"
Cisco shook his head, looking crestfallen. "I'm sorry. I don't remember her mentioning anything along those lines."
Barry nodded and after a moment, rose from his seat. He thanked Cisco and Cynthia for hosting him and gave them his business card, promising he'd keep them informed. They bid him farewell and he left, returning to a home that wasn't really home at all.
NOTE: Guess who's back? Just a little clarification on dates because I'm getting lots of them from the canon universe. So December 11th was the night of the particle accelerator, I used that date for Ronnie's death and I used the date of Ronnie's canon death (May 19th) for Caitlin's disappearance. The Flash Wiki placed Dante's death (at least from Earth-2) in May so I stuck with that for the reasoning as to why Caitlin had visited Cisco. Caitlin visited her mom the November after Ronnie's death so almost a year later.
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. We're pretty much done with exposition and now we can get to the good stuff. Until next time!