Caitlin

Sunday, October 14th

It had been a few months since Devoe had been defeated. Things were slowly starting to get back to normal. The team was back to battling the daily crime in the city and were blissfully unaffected by any major big bad at the moment. Caitlin hoped that it would last forever. She hated the effect they had on the team. Plus, now she had time to focus on getting Killer Frost back. She hadn't had much luck. She had even tried a number of spells but none of them worked. For months she had poured through her spell books, once even attempting to re enter the Spellcaster Realm to find new material but backed out before she could actually do so. Now that she was old enough to face real repercussions for her actions and the actions of her mother she could not risk it.

Still, Caitlin was upset that her hidden abilities would be no help this time. It's not like she asked much of them. She would only use them on occasion in the privacy of her own home. She had never even used them to help out Team Flash though she had come close. It was probably for the best though, using magic around mortals was asking for trouble. There was no way of knowing if she were being watched, the castle had eyes and ears everywhere and Caitlin did not plan on attracting any unwanted attention.

Yet, at 8:30 in the morning Caitlin was sitting, staring off into space, contemplating the implications of trying one last spell before giving up on a magical fix for good, when a breach opened up in front of her. She knew instantly that Cisco was about to pop out of it but she panicked. She was still holding her wand. She was sitting in a lounge chair so she quickly shoved it behind her and tried to play it cool.

"Hey, did you forget about training today?" Cisco asked as soon as he appeared. She had.

"Oh crap, Cisco I'm sorry," was her response.

"Don't apologize to me, Iris is supervising," Cisco told her. "It's really not that big of a deal but you didn't answer your phone so I thought I would come to check."

"Yeah, my phone is dead ," she lied. Well, not entirely, she threw it across the room in frustration and couldn't remember the spell to fix it. Again.

"Okay, well you coming?" he asked.

"Sure," she said. Cisco turned to open a new breach and when he did so Caitlin reached behind her and grabbed her wand and slipped it into the back of her pants. She couldn't risk leaving it out of the safe. At least if it was on her she could keep an eye on it. She had it hidden as soon as Cisco jumped her through the breach. They landed in the speed lab a second later.

"Sorry I'm late," Caitlin said to the team.

"It's fine Caitlin," Iris said. "You're here now. I wanted to do Barry's weekly test, can you run vitals?" Caitlin nodded and went to stand next to her at the consol.

"Ready Barry?" Caitlin called. Barry gave her a thumbs up and Iris gave the go ahead.

It wasn't exactly a hardcore training session. Just a weekly tune up. Cisco and Ralph were basically sparring while they tested Barry.

"He's holding steady," Caitlin observed while Barry ran.

"He's not pushing it, that's for sure but we don't need him too right now. I wanted to see how long he could go before there was a fluctuation, we should have some time," Iris said. "Oh, yeah. I wanted to ask how your Killer Frost thing was going, you said you had some new ideas."

"Oh, uh, yeah they uh, didn't pan out," Caitlin responded.

"I'm sorry Cait," Iris responded. "I'm sure you'll think of something."

"Yeah, I don't know," she replied. "I mean, I have tried so many things, it is like all I think about but I still have nothing."

"Maybe that's the problem," Iris said. Caitlin looked at her quizzically. "Maybe you're think about it too much. You need to take a break and get a fresh perspective. Focus on something else for a little while."

"Focus on what?" she asked.

"Everyone here is always working on something, maybe they could use your help with something," Iris suggested.

Caitlin thought for a second. "I'll ask," she said but then noticed something on her screen. "Barry's starting to wear out."

"Okay Barry, you can slow down now," Iris said as she noted the time. Barry came speeding to a stop and collapsed on the floor of the speed lab breathing heavily. "You good?" Iris asked as she ran to check on him. Caitlin watched as his vitals returned to normal. "Okay, I think it's time for a break."

Cisco said that he was heading to work on something in his lab. Caitlin decided to check in with him a few minutes later,

"Hey," she said as she popped her head into Cisco's lab. He was working on something in a notebook. He glanced over his shoulder and slammed the notebook shut.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked awkwardly.

"What are you working on?" Caitlin asked.

"Nothing, just some calculations," he replied. Caitlin didn't want to push, she knew what it was like to want to keep something secret. She was suddenly even more aware of the wand at her back.

"Ok, well, I was just wondering if you needed my help with anything," she told him.

"Uh, no, not that I can think of," he said. He didn't look certain though. Now Caitlin could press.

"You sure? Not anything to do with that notebook?" she asked. Cisco shifted his eyes.

"Okay fine, maybe I do need your help with something," he admitted.

"Shoot."`

"I have this theory…"

"About?"
"Pocket Dimensions."

"Like Devoes?"

"In a way, yeah," Cisco trailed off.

"You want to breach yourself into a pocket dimension don't you?" Caitlin realized.

"Not just any pocket dimension, I think that I can create my own dimension."

"If you could do that then it would be amazing! Why didn't you tell anyone you were working on this?"

"I was sure that I could do it."

"I'm guessing you're still not?"

"Yeah, but I think I'm getting close. I've been trying to focus on what I want it to look like and then opening a breach."
"Did that work?"

"Not even a little bit but my calculations say that it should so I don't get it."

"I think that it would if you already had a pocket dimension to lock onto. Have you tried just using Devoe's?"

"I've used it to practice entering and exiting pocket dimensions but that's a lot more difficult than making my own. Plus, there is no way that I am using Devoe's permanently."

"Why not, it works fine?"

"Because it's creepy. Plus, I can do this, I know I can."

"Okay, well if you let me look at your notes maybe I can think of some other ways to try."

"Are you sure? I thought you were busy with your KIller Frost stuff?"
"I need to take a step away from that for a while. I can help you instead but I think that you should tell the rest of the team too, we can put our heads together."

"Maybe but not yet, once I'm ready to test it again," Cisco finished and passed her his notebook. "We should probably get back though, more work to be done."