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AN:

A little bit of science is mentioned in this chap and I am not a scientist so please just go with it. I tried to research it but it just hurt my brain so I am taking full advantage of creative license and saying that's how it works.

As ever thank you all for the fantastic reviews – they mean so much! Hope you like.

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The One With Cisco and the Parcel

"There's a parcel for you."

Caitlin glanced up at the words but didn't really register them. She was going over data from the last few days and had just found possible a link between Barry's healing ability and an enzyme reaction. If it did what she thought it did, that could mean she would be able to synthetically create an injection that could increase the enzyme's efficiency and therefore be able to aide Barry's healing ability when it was affected by other factors.

"Caitlin? Did you hear me?"

"Hmm?" She looked up at Cisco but didn't really see him, her mind's eye on a mental whiteboard as she played with chemical bonds in her head.

It would be amazing if she could find a way to boost his healing ability when it was down, or even give him a boost before he went into a fight so it wouldn't be affected as badly. She'd have to run tests on every possible scenario. It was a great breakthrough in finding this enzyme and she wanted to make sure they could sue it in the best way to help Barry.

"You. Have. A. Parcel," Cisco enunciated each word loudly.

"What?" Caitlin asked, snapped back into attention by his brash voice, and looking up at him as she refocused on her friend.

Cisco sighed. "There's a parcel for you."

"Oh. Who's it from?"

"No idea. There's no note. Just your name and a number."

Caitlin blinked in surprise. A name and a number? Was it…?

"Where is it?"

"In the med office," Cisco replied. "I saw it when I went to your fridg-"

"When you went to my where?" Caitlin asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Nowhere," Cisco said hurriedly. "I just saw a parcel for you. And then I stopped talking. Shall we go see what it is? Wow what a great idea."

Caitlin found herself being grabbed and dragged down the corridor by her now very over-enthusiastic friend. And all in an attempt to hide he was stealing sweets from her supplies.

But she would deal with that later, as right now her thoughts were very distracted by her 'parcel'.

Last time he had brought a gift to Star Labs, its discovery by someone other than her had caused him worry and panic. Quite a lot of humour for her in the situation, but definitely not Barry. Had he decided what the hell and just let it be out there as no-one other than her knew it was from him? Or had Cisco stumbled across it by mistake?

"Hey guys."

Caitlin bumped into Cisco as he suddenly stopped to address Barry, who had just appeared at the end of the corridor.

Caitlin looked at him closely, trying to gauge his reaction. All she could tell from his eyes were they were alert and happy; the rest of his face was held in a smile but it was slightly forced, almost as if that was the expression he wanted everyone to see. In other words, Barry was up to something.

"Hey man." Cisco greeted.

"Where are you headed off to so quick?"

"Caitlin's got a parcel and it doesn't say who it's from," Cisco said.

"Oh really?" Barry drawled. "How interesting."

Definitely up to something.

"Come with us and see," Cisco invited and the started dragging Caitlin off again.

"If it's my parcel don't I get to say who sees it or not?" Caitlin asked.

"Well I found it so…"

"Remind me, what it is you were doing when you found it?" Caitlin asked sweetly.

"So how's your day been so far Barry?" Cisco asked quickly.

"Quiet," Barry answered after coughing. A cough that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle covered up. "Managed to catch up on all the work I missed yesterday when I was still recovering. Singh was happy for me to take a long lunchbreak for once. So here I am."

"How are you feeling?" Caitlin asked, looking back at him over her shoulder as Cisco still dragged her forwards. "Any aches, pains, dizziness? Feelings of fatigue or extreme hunger?"

"I'm all good Dr Snow."

"And yet you didn't answer the questions Mr Allen."

Barry just grinned at her, a proper grin this time, but didn't say anything more.

"Here!" Cisco exclaimed as they entered the office next to the med bay.

On the table was a large box, spanning the width of the work surface and half that as high. Caitlin stopped in her tracks as she stared at it. How on earth did he get this in here? And without anybody seeing? And when had he done it?

"There's your name," Cisco said, pointing to a label hanging down. "And the number's on the other side. It's eighteen. Are you gonna open it?"

Caitlin slowly walked around the table, trying to take it all in. This was way too much. Whatever was in there must be insane.

"I…" she said and then trailed off, looking between the box, Barry and then Cisco, totally at a loss for what to do.

She wanted to open it and see what was inside, she wanted to reprimand Barry for getting her something that was obviously a lot of effort to go to, she wanted to hug him and thank him for making her feel so special, she wanted to kick Cisco out so she could actually talk to Barry… It was all too much and yet not enough at the same time as the box still stood there, waiting to be opened.

"What do you think Cait?" Barry asked softly.

"This is too much," she answered, dazedly staring back at him.

"I guess whoever got this for you must think you're worth it," Barry said simply.

"Definitely," Cisco said, his eyes roaming over the box as if he could see what was inside. "I scanned it when I first saw it, just to make sure there was nothing nasty inside. But it came back clean of anything we would label hazardous."

"Good to know," Barry said. "So are you going to open it Caitlin?"

Caitlin moved forwards slowly and ran her fingers across the edge of the box. Unlike all her others this one was made of cardboard and not wood. It also didn't have an opening, just what looked like a hinge fold at the back. Taking a deep breath Caitlin slipped her finders under the edge and lifted it up and back.

A sweet aroma tickled her nose as the scent of Christmas filled the room.

Laid out on the bottom of the box and revealed now it had been opened, was a small-scale replica of Star Labs made out of gingerbread.

"How cool!" Cisco exclaimed.

"It's beautiful," Caitlin murmured. "A work of art."

She turned to look at Barry who was watching her with an intense expression. Cisco was babbling in the background, something about attention to detail and wondering what type of icing had been used to glue all the pieces together. Caitlin didn't think about him as she walked over to Barry and wrapped her arms around him, tingles flittering up her back as his arms came around her in response.

"Thank you," she whispered. "It's wonderful. But you shouldn't have."

"I wanted to," Barry said and they pulled back enough just to see each other.

They were so close their noses were almost bumping and Caitlin couldn't help her body's response of heartbeat increasing, wetting erh lips and eyes flicking down to look at his lips. Barry's eyes seemed to have darkened when she looked back up and her breath caught as his eyes then looked down at her lips. Caitlin tightened her hands on his shoulders, where they had gone when she'd hugged him. Now they were pulling his body further into her, their breath mingling and being shared. Barry's eyes glanced down and again and Caitlin felt hers fall close, so sure about what would happen next…

"Can we eat it do you think?" Cisco said and his voice was overly loud in the room.

Caitlin stepped back quickly, heat rushing to her face, and turned to the gingerbread structure so she would have that to concentrate on.

"I think I'd like everyone to see it," she said.

"Ok, cool," Cisco replied. "We can keep it for the Star Labs party on Christmas Eve."

"Great idea." Caitlin said and looked back at Barry. "What do you think?"

"I think it's your present and you do what you want with it."

Caitlin looked back at the beautiful display of food art. Cisco was pretty much salivating at the mouth and she did think it looked delicious…

Barry's phone suddenly bleeped. He pulled it out of his pocket with a frown. "Damn, station needs me. So much for my long lunchbreak. I'll see you guys later?"

"Sure thing," Cisco replied, still looking at the gingerbread.

Caitlin turned to look at Barry as he began to back out of the room.

'Thank you', she mouthed.

He grinned and then turned and sped away.

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