Part 17
After Iris left Caitlin and Barry sat together on the couch and watched a movie. By the end of it Barry noticed that Caitlin was drifting in and out of sleep.
"Hey Cait, why don't you go to bed. I'm not going any where."
"Bare, you don't have to stay with me."
"I am not leaving you alone. Cait, I care too much about you to leave you alone. You are a strong person, and that is one of the many reasons I love you."
Caitlin bit her lip. There he goes saying that he loves her again. Even though she knew that she was in love with him, there was no way she was going to tell him that. Not that she was ashamed of the fact that she had fallen for her best friend. Hell she couldn't have thought of anyone she would rather be in love with.
"Bare, I know that you love me. I know that it is more than as your best friend too. But I can't be more than friends with you, at least right now."
"Cait, I know that. You need time to heal. You take all the time you need. I am willing to wait forever for you. You are smart, beautiful and I can't think of anyone else I want to be with."
"What if I am never able to be with you the way you want?"
Barry gently reached for Caitlin's hand taking it in his. Then he reached and pushed a strand of her auburn hair behind her ear.
"Cait, you are getting better. You no longer pull away from my touch. But like I said we can take things slow."
Caitlin just looked into Barry's eyes. For the first time in the years that she had known him she saw love in them. Love that had been there for a very long time she had to guess. Not knowing what to say she got up and headed to her room and closed the door. Barry sighed hoping that he hadn't blown his chance with the only woman he had ever loved. Or ruined their friendship.
****%%%%*****%%%%%***%%%%****%%%%*****%%%***%%***
Barry was jerked out of sleep falling off the couch and onto the floor with a thud to a scream coming from Caitlin's room. He got up off the floor and ran down the hall to Caitlin's room. He slowly opened the door.
"Cait! Are you ok?" asked Barry seeing her wide awake crying.
"It was just a nightmare."
"Tell me about it."
"He had me again. But I wasn't the only one. He had Kara, Laurel and Thea too. He was forcing me to watch him rape and kill each of them. Then he told me that it was my fault because I rejected him. Then he told me that he was going to kill you and make me watch."
Barry sat next to her on the bed and gently pulled her into his arms. He held her as she cried.
"It's ok Cait. All of us are safe. We will call each of the girls in the morning. Unless you really need to hear for yourself tonight. Yeah it's like two in the morning. But they will understand you need to know they are ok."
"Call them."
Barry grabbed his phone and called Kara first. He put it on speaker as an annoyed Kara answered her phone.
"You better have a good reason for calling me at two in the morning Bartholomew." Grumbled Kara
"Sorry Kara. Cait had a nightmare and needed to hear your voice to make sure you are ok." Said Barry
"Caitlin, sorry about your nightmare. But I am ok. I will come by tomorrow and we can hang out ok?" said Kara gently
"Thanks Kara. Sorry for waking you. But I had to know." Said Caitlin
"It's ok honey. You can wake me any time if you are scared. You know that if I had superpowers I would come to you in a hurry."
"Thanks Kara."
"I'll see you tomorrow ok?"
"Yeah. Night."
"Night Caitlin."
Barry hung up and called Laurel next.
"This better be good Allen." Said Laurel
"Actually Laurel it's Caitlin. I had a nightmare and had to make sure you were ok." Said Caitlin
"I'm fine. Do you really think that Oliver will let anything happen to me? Or Thea?"
"I guess not. He is way overprotective."
"Caitlin, Thea, Sara and I are ok. Ollie is going to bring us down next weekend. We can get the whole gang together and maybe go out and do some karaoke."
Caitlin smiled when she heard a grumble in the background about never doing karaoke.
"Tell my pain in the ass cousin that it will make me feel better if he sings karaoke for me." Said Caitlin
"I'll pass on the message."
"Thanks Laurel. See you guys next week."
"We love you Caitlin."
"Bye Laurel."
Caitlin hung up and gave the phone back to Barry.
"You don't have to call Thea. Laurel assured me that she is ok. The Star City group will come down for next weekend." Said Caitlin
"I forget how are Oliver and Thea your cousins?"
"Moria Queen is my mom's cousin. My mom's dad and Moria's mom were siblings. I could tell you stories of things Oliver has done as a kid. But he always looked out for me. I was surprised that he didn't get on his motorcycle and race down here to beat the crap out of Hunter."
"Yeah that is something he would do. Maybe when you get healed up you could have Sara teach you some self defense."
"That is a good idea. Though Alex would be willing to do that too."
"True. You think you can get back to sleep?"
"Yeah. Barry will stay with me until I fall back to sleep?"
"Of course."
Barry watched as Caitlin laid back down only wincing a little. She closed her eyes and as she drifted back off to sleep she very softly said something that made him smile.
"Love you Barry Allen."
Once he was sure that she was sleeping, he placed a soft kiss on her head and headed back to the couch. He left the bedroom door open in case she had another nightmare.