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AN:

I can't say thank you enough for the reviews. You guys are all amazing. The response I have recieved from this story has been incredible and it means so much. I will be trying to answer each reviewer but it might take awhile as I'm putting priority of posting a chapter every day first, so you all have a snowberry advent (chapter) to open. Enjoy number four!

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The One with How to Say Thank You

The alarm rudely tore through Caitlin's sleep, causing her to groan into her pillow as one hand covered her ear and the other swiped uselessly at the offending noise. Finally she managed to hit it and send it tumbling to the floor. Thankfully the thud of its landing was the last sound it emitted.

Five hours of sleep were not enough, especially after the day they'd had yesterday.

It had started out so nicely, with Caitlin on time for work and wearing one of her new lip glosses. She'd picked the Flash shade and even managed to match a red jumper to it. Barry probably wouldn't notice but it meant something to her to show her appreciation for her gifts.

Getting to work had been fine and greeting Cisco was quite funny as he was hugging a large takeaway mug of Jitters coffee with a barely suppressed grin; obviously his form of retaliation after she didn't share her new advent coffee with him. But things had quickly gone downhill from there.

She'd barely even booted up her computer before the system had crashed and then the lights went out. The emergency back-up had come on but it only powered the prioritised systems. Cisco went into hyper-mode, not understanding what had happened and wanting to find out why. He was running a diagnostic when the security alarm went off and they discovered a meta was the cause of all their problems and was in the building with them.

The next four hours had been a high stakes game of cat and mouse, as the electrical pulses the meta could give off also somehow affected communication signals, meaning they had no way of alerting anyone outside the Lab as to what was happening. But midday eventually came and Barry arrived for his usual lunchbreak check-in. Thankfully his own speed-force lightning had helped protect him from the meta's electric abilities.

The rest of the day was spent discovering the full extent of the meta's powers, how to counter-act them, why he was attacking Star Labs in the first place, catching him once he'd realised they were on to him and he legged it away from Star Labs, and then how to restore their systems that had been affected.

It meant a long, long day and Caitlin had tumbled into bed sometime after 2 in the morning.

It also meant she hadn't managed to talk to Barry yet again.

She wanted to tell him what a sweet thing it was that he was doing for her, and just how much she appreciated it. What all of it meant to her. She wanted to tell him how much he meant to her. But those were dangerous words and she wasn't sure she was ready for what the next words would be after that.

Barry definitely couldn't be ready. He was barely over Iris and the team just back to working cohesively without any awkwardness. She wouldn't be the one to make it difficult for everyone again by putting her feel-

No, no saying that. No thinking that, not even in the privacy of her own head.

Deciding she'd done enough wallowing about the epic disaster that was yesterday and all the time it took Caitlin finally moved out of bed and into her bathroom. Morning ablutions of shower and hair brushing done she headed towards the kitchen ready for some wake-me-up strong coffee. Sitting pride of place on her countertop was her new mug, the silver lettering catching the harsh light of the fluorescent and almost sparkling.

And just like that she was back to thinking of Barry and his advent presents.

She stopped in the kitchen and looked towards her front door, wondering… Surely he hadn't had the time? Yesterday had been exhausting and they were all so late last night, or rather, so early this morning.

But staring at the door wasn't going to give her any answers. It wasn't as if she was going to suddenly develop the power to see through things and know the answer to her questions. Besides she had enough going on with her actual powers, ones she already had, without having to sort out new ones.

Caitlin unlocked her front door and slowly pulled it open. There on her front door mat was a square wooden box, the number 4 on its lid.

Oh Barry… she thought.

The box rattled slightly as she picked it up and she carefully carried it to her kitchen, placing it safely on the table. Lifting the lid she smiled when she saw a thin teal-coloured leather book at the top, obviously lying on top of something else. The book was untitled, with vine trail patterns swirling over the cover. Opening it up Caitlin saw the word 'Recipes' on the title page. After that were slot pages with letters on them, where recipe pages could be slipped inside; a way of making you very own recipe book. Caitlin grinned as she leafed through all the pages. It had been so long ago that she'd told him she liked to cook…

Finding a slot where there was a piece of paper already inside Caitlin suddenly knew a way to thank Barry without the worry of where her words might lead.

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Barry glanced at the clock on his desk and told himself five more minutes. That was the earliest time he could leave on lunch break and get over to Star Labs. And it didn't matter that both Cisco and Caitlin had texted him throughout the morning to reassure him, he still wanted to get over there and make sure everything was alright with his own two eyes.

It didn't help that he kept thinking of what was happening there this time yesterday, and that all he'd been doing here was filing reports while his friends had been running for their lives. Thank God, Singh hadn't given him any deadlines yesterday or he wouldn't have taken his usual break and then where would his friends be?

He needed to have Cisco think of a way to send an alert when the system was affected or down. Maybe some sort of hourly check, that if it isn't confirmed would send… What? What could it send if all the electronic devise weren't working? Cisco would think of something. Barry didn't want another situation like yesterday when he was completely oblivious to what was going on and his friends needed him.

What if something had happened to them?

His clock finally struck twelve thirty and Barry was out of there. By twelve thirty-one he was standing in the Cortex.

"Hey man," Cisco greeted, his attention on the computer screen in front of him.

"Hey," Barry said back. "Everything ok?"

"Yup," Cisco answered. "System is back up to full operating ability and I've installed some new breakers so we shouldn't have complete shutdown if anything like yesterday happens again. It'll only affect certain circuits at a time so we'll always be able to run primary systems."

"Good, that's good. I was thinking though. Maybe we should work out an alert system? So we don't get cut off from each other again."

Cisco looked up and pulled a thinking face. "Not a bad idea."

"One we should implement," Barry said. "As soon as we can."

"We're ok Barry," Cisco said gently, looking at him with a knowing reassuring smile.

"And you guys are going to stay that way," Barry replied. "I'll make sure of it."

"I'll come up with something," Cisco answered with a nod.

Barry sighed and felt a small measure of relief.

"Hi Barry."

Barry turned and grinned as Caitlin walked in carrying a plastic box.

"Whatcha got there?" Cisco said immediately.

"The reason I was running a little late this morning," Caitlin answered. "Which considering you made a very big point of that, I'm not sure you should be allowed one."

Caitlin took off the top of the box and immediately a divine chocolate-orange scent spread around the room.

"Christmas chocolate-orange cookies," Caitlin said with a flourish. "A little early in December I suppose but after yesterday I thought we could all do with a treat. Cisco though…"

Barry's mouth instantly began to water and he could see the same response on Cisco's face.

"You know I was only joking…" Cisco started.

"Uh-huh," Caitlin answered, picking up a cookie and holding it so they could see how fat and lovely and chocolate-y it looked.

Or at least Barry thought that must be why. Because it looked a fat and lovely and chocolate-y cookie.

"I didn't make fun of any timings," Barry said.

"Dude!" Cisco hissed.

"You're right," Caitlin smiled. "Would you like the first one Barry?"

Barry was standing next to her before she could finish saying the last syllable in his name.

"No fair," whined Cisco.

Barry leant closer to Caitlin, his lips hovering just over her ear. He felt her shiver as he took a breath and he had to swallow before he could get his words out. "H-How long are you going to make him sweat it out for?"

"Until I think he's learnt his lesson."

"So… at least long enough that he sees me enjoying mine?"

Caitlin smiled, a little evilly in Barry's opinion but she wasn't aiming it at him so that was okay, and replied whilst looking straight at Cisco. "At least."

"Guys I'm sitting right here," Cisco wailed. "Please. I won't say anything again. Ever."

Caitlin rolled her eyes, showing her lack of faith in that promise, but she held the box out slowly towards Cisco. Barry took a bite of his cookie and moaned; it tasted soo good.

"Thanks Cait," he murmured through a full mouth, not waiting until he swallowed to talk as good manners dictated.

"Thank you," she answered softly, a light blush covering her cheeks. "It's a very small Christmas gesture compared to your advent ones."

And Barry had to doubt his title of fastest man alive as he very slowly realised the significance of these particular cookies.

"You're more than welcome," Barry answered warmly. He figured she'd been getting the gifts – he'd seen the coffee and the mug – but this was the first time she'd mentioned it outright.

"They're incredibly kind. The boxes," Caitlin said, her eyes flitting away and glancing around the Cortex before hesitantly meeting his again. "What you're doing for me."

"You're incredibly worth it," Barry answered honestly.

Caitlin smiled, and it was the slow, slightly unsure but totally felt smile that always made his breath catch. When Caitlin let you see her, let you get past that wall she had, you could see how truly she felt things.

Barry opened his mouth to say something else, he wasn't sure what, the words were on the tip of his tongue, just itching to get out-

"Dibs on seconds!" Cisco called out.

Caitlin startled and backed away from him and Barry felt the loss of the moment as you feel heat leave when you went from inside to outside.

"After I've made sure everyone's had at least one Cisco," Caitlin said and she grabbed the box lid and quickly walked off.

Barry stared after her.

"I know man," Cisco sighed. "Those cookies were amazing. How long before she's back with them do you think?"

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