The warm sunny weather was too inappropriately perfect for today.

It was perfect because Iris West was an impersonation of sunshine, the light that helped her friends on their darkest coldest day. She was smart, kind, quick-witted and daring—the combo of charming traits packed in a gorgeous lady who would be all too happy to chase after a robber while wearing a pair of motherfucking six inches high heels.

Everyone loved her.

This beautiful weather was perfect for her departure.

But it was inappropriate because she left, forever.

Caitlin gritted her teeth, holding back the needs to scream. She forced the ice in her veins to recede, not wanting her secret identity been revealed here, in the midst of the mourning friends and family. Iris was her best friend, her partner-in-vigilante, the first person in her team after she woke up from her coma with a meaner second personality and ice-power. Iris didn't judge, never did the other woman saw Caitlin's more brutish and violent side as a potential threat. But instead, the woman treated Frost like how she would treat Caitlin—friendly and kind—like an understanding, perfect best friend she was.

Even Frost has softened up in these two years since the particle accelerator's explosion.

After all, the two of them pioneered the original Team Frost.

The Frost who was residing at the back of Caitlin's head screamed in sorrow when they lowered the casket into the ground.

No, scratch that. Frost loved Iris. Loved her as a friend, loved her as a sister. The deadly frost has warmed up to soothing ice for the one and only Iris West.

Thus, Iris' brutal death was a harsh slap to her face.

She failed to protect her best friend. She failed to protect her sister.

Some hero she was.

She stood there, head-bowed low, eyes on the ground as she was frozen, unable to move even after the crowd departed. Joe's embrace felt cold around her body, her guilt was overwhelmingly deep in her chest when she saw how broken the man was.

"Don't blame yourself, Cait, Frost," he choked, his voice almost inaudible at the second name as he tightened his embrace on her. "And please don't go looking for him. Please."

Caitlin's eyes flashed white-blue. "He is just a man."

"Please," Joe shook his head, choking back a huge sob of tears. "He is not your average menace. You're not safe either," his embrace tightened on Caitlin's body, adding in hushed whisper as he stared straight into Frost's eyes. "Both of you."

Caitlin said nothing, completely avoiding eye contact.

"Dad," Wally called, giving Caitlin a half-hearted smile as he pulled his father into his embrace. The boy's face was a strong façade, but Caitlin had known the engineer well enough to notice the sorrow in his eyes before it vanished as he smiled and squeezed Joe's shoulder. "Let's go home."

For a moment, Caitlin was grateful that she had agreed with Iris to keep Wally out of Team Frost. The boy was headstrong, just like her sister, and the last thing Caitlin wanted was to have the engineer chasing after his sister's murderer and dying the same way as her sister—yet another victim of The Scarlet Ripper.

Caitlin gritted her teeth again, willing all her willpower to not let Frost completely out.

She was going to have her vengeance. The Scarlet Ripper would be brought to justice soon.

"Barry?" she heard Wally called out, and her heart clenched a bit, not knowing how to face her late best friend's boyfriend in the light of recent events.

Frost was the one who found Iris's body after all.

Barry had called her using Iris' phone, telling her that he and Iris had an argument and she had stormed away from their apartment without even bothering to bring her phone. Iris saved her name with 'BFF' tag, so he figured that she would be the first Iris would try to contact after storming out of an argument. He sounded earnestly worried on the phone, calling Caitlin so that she would inform him if Iris come to sleepover at her place instead. It was a reasonable worry, with the menace of serial killer still on the loose, he was just being a nice boyfriend by trying to look out for Iris' safety.

The face that Barry made when she told him of Iris' death was heart-breaking, that even Frost couldn't help but pity the man.

But none of them could stop him from looking at Iris' body just before the mortician tried to restore her body back to its original state. Caitlin didn't know what Barry felt when he saw the dreadful state of Iris' body. He was a surgeon himself, so he was used to the sight of blood and gore—but the dreadful sight of the victims of Scarlet Ripper could weaken even the strongest of men.

The Scarlet Ripper started terrorizing Central City since last year, starting out with one or two victims for every three or four months before it escalated to the point that he had a schedule for when the next body would turn up.

They always found the victims on Monday of the first and third week of the month.

As if anyone needed anymore reasons to hate Mondays.

Though, the serial killer's MO was consistent since his first murder. The victims were completely random, men and women of all ages and races and social statuses but they were always found naked in the most unexpected locations such as a church, a hospital and even the forensic lab of CCPD itself, their clothes would be neatly folded beside them—washed, dried and ironed like they were fresh from dry cleaners. Strangely enough, the victims were untouched, unlike other prominent serial killers that got off on their victims' pain, The Scarlet Ripper killed his victims in the gentlest way possible. The forensic reports stated that they died without experiencing pain—it's like as if they were peacefully put to sleep.

It was a good thing though. Caitlin didn't want anyone to feel it when their skin was carefully ripped open and been turned inside out, their organs taken out and arranged in an almost OCD manner according to its colour—usually the ones with the lightest shade of red will be arranged on top followed by darker shades—as they became a horrifying statement of art.

The Ombre of Gore, as Cisco called it. Not the brightest comment from the scientist, but Frost and Caitlin whole-heartedly agree.

Caitlin hated art museums after they started working on Ripper's case.

It's difficult to look at normal art when her brain associated it with the way the serial killer referred to his victims as his art pieces in all those little notes he sent to the police.

The arrangement of the internal organs was indistinguishable most of the time, too abstract and unpredictable to be understood, though criminal psychologist suggested that it was a reflection of the Ripper's mood—and this suggestion came out when the Christmas victim was arranged in the shape of a Christmas tree, the deranged menace has even taken the effort of using the finger bones to make a three-dimensional star that was placed on top of the pile of organs, muscles and bones.

Some people just had a weird way to bring out the festive spirit….

"Barry," Wally called again, snapping Caitlin from her thoughts. She looked in the direction of the newly erected gravestone and couldn't help but flinched upon seeing the way Barry's lips pressed at the top of the marble stone, his eyes squeezed shut. "You're coming home with us?" Wally asked, offering his hand.

Barry stood and shook his head. "I need time alone."

Wally looked hesitant, as if he didn't want to leave Barry alone.

"Call us when you got home?" Joe said, his voice was thick with tears and worry as he staggered to the young man and gave him a gentle hug. "Don't do anything stupid, okay?"

Barry gingerly nodded, waving once when Joe and Wally left, leaving the two of them at the graveyard. Barry returned to the grave once the father and son had disappeared from their sight, resting his temple against the cold stone, his eyes shut close with a sigh. There were no tears—suitable to the famous genius doctor that even Dr. Wells respected, he was perfectly composed and calm—but something clawed in Caitlin's chest when she saw how white his knuckles have been when he gripped on the edge of the stone.

It must be hard. That was the first argument they had ever since they started dating six months ago, and it ended with his girlfriend being murdered.

To make it worse, Iris was the first victim that has been reported to be raped before being dissected. It was weird, that the police had even considered her murder as a copycat case. The Scarlet Ripper never sexually abused his victims, but the evidence of rape was there on Iris' body. Her corpse was the least distorted among the victims, having only her skin been turned inside out, but her organs were arranged back to their original place—the Ripper little note to the police stated something along the lines that she was so beautifully perfect that she didn't need to be altered too much. Regardless, despite the evidence of rape, they didn't have any DNA samples, since her body was meticulously cleaned and disinfected before she was turned to gory statement of art—the Ripper was nothing but thorough.

Imagine hearing such thing happened to the woman you loved.

Caitlin grimaced at the thought of Barry's feelings when he listened to the details of Iris' death.

Frost mumbled something at the back of her mind, something about keeping an eye on Barry. Joe was right to ask Barry to call him when he reached home. Such little argument about work and lack of time spent together had ended up with death….Caitlin didn't even want to know what the man was thinking—and potentially regretting—right now.

Caitlin briefly wondered if things would have been better if they told Barry about Team Frost.

Perhaps the perfect couple wouldn't fight that night and Iris wouldn't left the safety of their apartment.

Caitlin didn't know him that well, as she only met Barry whenever she went to his talks or whenever she saw him at either CCU or the hospital. They simply didn't belong to the same crowd despite both being involved in medical fields. He was a well-known surgeon, graduating with double PhDs in medic and pharmaceutical at such green age of 22 years old. He was a genius, skipping grades and achieving so many for a twenty-eight years old man while Caitlin did everything like a normal intelligent student—only one or two grades skipping but no early PhDs.

They were in a completely different type of crowds.

It almost didn't make sense when Iris requested for the whole team to keep Barry out of the Team Frost loop despite Len and Dr Well's disagreement. Having Barry on the team would be a great advantage. Not only they would have one of the greatest mind on Earth on their side, but his expertise would be super helpful whenever Frost, Len, Lisa or Cisco got hurt while protecting the city.

It sucked when Caitlin had to treat her own wounds and immediately attend to her teammates' injuries after that.

They need a proper medical expertise in their team.

But Iris was so persistent on keeping her boyfriend out of the loop.

Iris must have loved him so much to not exposing him to their dangerous night life.

"Caitlin….," Caitlin jerked a little when he was suddenly in front of her, his voice was hesitant when he added, "…right?"

"Ah, yes," Caitlin nodded almost robotically, having caught off guard when she didn't notice him moving from Iris' gravestones. "Caitlin Snow, Iris' best friend," she said, offering her hand.

The corners of his lips quirked to a little smirk, though it didn't reach his eyes. "Barry Allen," he said, taking her hand and Frost whistled at the back of her mind when he didn't even flinch at her naturally cold hands. "It's ironic that I met you on her…departure. I expected to meet you when she thought it's time for me to gain your seal of approval..."

He seemed so reluctant to use funeral in his sentence.

Caitlin naturally reached a hand to his upper arm to comfort him, squeezing gently in assurance, all the while berating Frost to stop whistling about the firmness of his muscles—something that was not commonly associated with a busy doctor that have a regular teaching schedule at CCU.

I can see why Iris didn't introduce us sooner, Frost commented dryly, and Caitlin felt mortification and embarrassment rose to her cheeks when her other personality gave an approving once-up to Barry. Doc is superhot.

We were just at Iris' funeral and you're already checking out her boyfriend?

Didn't break the girls' rules since he is single again.

Frost, NO.

"Dr. Snow?" Caitlin was again caught off-guard when he waved his hand in front of her face. "Are you okay? You looked…," he let his sentence hanged, a frown emerged on his face.

"Distracted?" she offered with a tiny grin, mentally scolding Frost who was giving out inappropriate comments to egg her on. "I'm talking to Dr Allen. THE Dr. Allen. The whole medical community respects and worships you. Pardon me for restraining myself from fangirling right here."

He laughed upon hearing her words—the realest sign of amusement he showed today—his eyes crinkled and his lips stretched to a huge grin. "I'm not anyone significant…," he murmured once his laughter subsided, but his smile remained on his face.

The smile suited him more than when he was brooding.

Oh? I thought girls' rules said that he is off limits? Frost cackled.

Caitlin hushed her other self half-heartedly.

"Says the man who developed cure for cancer," she retorted, surprised when he gave that statement. God knows how many years of her university life she had to bear hearing her lecturers talking on and on about him and his continuous success and revolution in medical field. He was a favourite role model for the faculty members of her university that Caitlin was positive that she could recite his biography word to word since everyone talked about it all the time.

"Experimental cure," he corrected, suddenly sounding more like a teacher. "We don't know how it would work in long term, or if it is even an effective cure. We don't even know if my patients could remain cancer-free until the end of their life. It's a fairly new medicine. There are still so many things that could go wrong."

Wise words, Frost commented, and Caitlin noted the impressed tone in her other self's voice. Wells is right when he said he wanted this guy on the team.

We are not endangering his life, Frost.

"I read your works," Caitlin said when he started leading her to leave the graveyard. "And the journal updates of your project. Everything seems to be good so far," she smiled kindly. "You're a good man."

His lips quirked in that cocky mysterious half-smile that seemed so similar to Len's when the older vigilante knew something that she didn't.

"If something do go wrong, will you still say the same?" he asked, his tone was almost taunting. He stepped in her path, leaning into her personal space, his green eyes seemed strangely dangerous that she had to stop the ice in her veins from reacting defensively. "If my projects killed my patients….will you still say that I'm a good man?"

Caitlin felt uncomfortable. Frost felt threatened.

Barry continued to stare down at her, his gaze was challenging and taunting.

"You're trying to do good, your patients signed up to be part of your project," she finally blurted out, trying to not blow breath of ice to him. "It is wrong to condemn you when you have no intention to hurt anyone."

His eyes lit up, almost looking dangerously manic before they switched to the warm amused gaze of an impressed teacher. He didn't say anything as he walked away, letting her to follow his steps in complete confusion.

"Wise answer," he finally said as they reached his car, surprising Caitlin. He opened the passenger seat door for her, tilting his head as if instructing her to get in. "Want a ride home? It's gonna rain. It will get dark."

He said the last sentence in a hushed tone, almost like it was a taboo for him.

And the reality hit her again when she casted a quick wary look at the clouds, seeing the foreboding black clouds paraded right above their heads, ready to pour its content on them. At this rate, it will get a bit too dark to be safe.

The Scarlet Ripper loved to strike when it's dark anyway.

"If it doesn't bother you…," she agreed with a tiny little smile, more concerned of his safety rather than hers.

Len did theorise that since Iris was the first and only victim that was raped, perhaps the Ripper had his sight on her all along—and his sudden change in MO was probably because she had gotten herself a boyfriend and no longer had her sole attention on the serial killer. She didn't pay too much time investigating and chasing after Ripper since she started dating Barry after all. Perhaps her murder was jealousy-driven, as the note he left at CCPD hinted an extreme infatuation towards Iris.

Thus, Barry wasn't safe either.

No. Caitlin would not let the man be harmed. For Iris. And for the world.

The world couldn't afford to lose a great mind like Barry to a deranged serial killer like The Scarlet Ripper.

"Nah," he shrugged, opening the door a little wider. "I have nothing scheduled for the rest of the day. A de-tour from my usual route home isn't a bother."

"If you say so…," Caitlin agreed with muted thanks, climbing into the passenger seat of his car. She took note of the sleek interior, and the general design of this two-seat car that screamed 'speed' everywhere. This was the first thing that showed him as a young man in his twenties rather than the prodigal genius doctor people knew him as. Most of men his age usually preferred sleek fast cars rather than the more conservative functional ones. "You like fast cars," she stated as he was pulling his seatbelt.

"Oh?" he smiled sheepishly, seeming to be caught off-guard by her observation. "I guess so," he agreed, averting his gaze. "My brothers aren't exactly a good influence. They like speed."

"Oh, you have brothers?" Caitlin blinked, shocked at that tidbit of information.

She had never heard of that. In his biography—be it the published ones or the one in Wikipedia—it was always stated that he was the only child of the famous neurologist Dr. Henry Allen, and his scientist wife, Dr. Nora Allen. There was no record of any siblings.

But then again, the Allen family was a secretive one despite their fame. Even Nora Allen's death had went under the radar for a full month before the stories leaked out. Barry's birth too was almost unknown to the public, if not due to a charity event when the late Nora Allen suddenly appeared with a pregnant belly and went into labour right when her husband was giving a speech. Their family matters were so hushed, until the sudden disappearance of Henry Allen that made the media crazy.

The media had went crazy when someone in CCPD leaked information that the elder doctor had went missing, leaving his then eighteen years old son alone.

It was a mystery, as no one had any idea where the old doctor went, but Barry has started to be more open to the mass ever since that, so that was the silver lining for that cold case.

Caitlin shot a questioning look at him when he remained silent, his eyes were on the street, through the splatters of rain that started falling, but Caitlin could figuratively saw the cogs in his prodigal genius brain working. She was curious, but she also didn't want to pry since this was technically the first day they officially introduced themselves to each other.

"I have brothers," he finally chuckled, completely avoiding meeting her gaze as he added, "a few of them, actually. All are outside of domains."

In another word, illegitimate brothers…., Frost commented dryly. Make sense, with all the secretive bullshits going on with the Allen's family.

Frost, Caitlin warned.

Just pointing out the obvious, Frost deadpanned. Outside of domains'. What a nice phrase to say it.

Before Caitlin could berate her other self again, his phone suddenly rang, attracting her attention instantly. He had placed his phone on the holder between their seats, so it was pretty close for her to read the name on his phone—oh, he had two phones.

Annoying Bro #2, Frost completely burst to a laughter upon seeing the name, amused with such childish name he had saved the caller as. I want to meet these brothers of his. They seem like fun bunch of people.

He glanced just briefly to the name and quickly returned his gaze to the street, Caitlin could feel the thrum of his car as it significantly slowed down as he used only one hand to plug in the Bluetooth piece to his ear, an exasperated smile was on his face when it was obvious that the caller didn't even wait for a 'hello' and straight-up started ranting to his ear.

It was five minutes later when he finally spoke;

"Savvi, slow down. I don't understand speed-talk."

Caitlin's brows rose. That was not a common name. Perhaps his brother was in a weird gang or something?

Cute.

You called yourself 'Frost'. Do not judge the poor boy, Frosty.

To be fair, Cisco named me, Caity.

Caitlin rolled her eyes, resting her back at the plush softness of the leather seat, keeping her eyes on the jam-packed streets in front of them. It was the peak hours, the office hours have ended so the probability that they were going to be stuck here was a bit high; no matter how fast his car was, it couldn't breeze past a traffic jam.

Thus, she inevitably had to eavesdrop on his phone call. It was difficult to not do so. He was right beside her and didn't even seem to bother to hide his conversation from her.

"I did the test twice. There is nothing physically wrong with him."

There was a pause and suddenly, irritation smeared across his face.

"Bitch, I'm a surgeon. A doctor whose expertise lies in human's body. Not a motherfucking psychologist…," his voice sounded annoyed and exasperated at the same time. "This thing...that he is experiencing...it's psychological. It's out of my field."

His completely out-of-character speech surprised Caitlin but impressed Frost. He seemed to not notice her change of eye colour when Frost tried to come out to introduce herself to him, as he was completely focused on the street and to the caller.

He then let out a long suffering sigh.

"You're troublesome, you know?" He muttered, though his words afterwards were resigned. "Fine. Enlighten me."

There was a rather long pause as Caitlin noticed his frown grew more and more concerned, his lips pursed into a tight calculative line.

"And how often would he go into that trance?" He asked, his voice low and almost inaudible.

Pause.

"And he only allows you to come near him?"

Pause. And then, he suddenly sighed.

"Look, I'm coming over soon, okay? Just…," he suddenly paused, his eyes darted in her direction, quirking a little smile when Caitlin blushed sheepishly and avoided his gaze, pretending that she wasn't eavesdropping. He exhaled, shifting his gaze back to the streets. "…Just try to keep things under control... so that he didn't hurt anyone…," his gaze darted to her again, and he added, uncaring, almost like an afterthought, "…or himself. I'll call you back when I got home—"

He paused, before he suddenly broke to a humourless laugh as he carefully swerved his car into the empty parking space in front of Caitlin's apartment. When he had stopped and pulled the handbrake, a dry smirk was on his face.

"You know that breaking and entering is very frowned at in my society."

He stated that so casually, with a little fond smile like they had an inside joke there that made Caitlin wondered if his brother often broke into his house. Huffing, he bid his last goodbye to the caller and switched off his Bluetooth piece.

"Sorry about that," he smiled at her, resting one arm over the steering while the other rubbed his neck sheepishly.

Nervous tell, Frost provided unhelpfully.

"Handful brother?" Caitlin offered with a tiny grin.

He rolled his eyes. "Handful didn't even describe him," he unlocked the door, his eyes crinkled with the bright smile as she climbed out of the car. He stretched slightly over the seat, half-leaning over the passenger seat as he bid her good bye. "Have a nice day, Dr. Snow."

"You too," she responded like an automated response, almost regretting her words right the next second when she remembered that he just lost his girlfriend to a gruesome murder. How could he even have a nice day after that? Biting her lips, she hesitantly said, "Barry...you know that Joe still sees you as his future son-in-law, right? You don't have to grieve alone."

His smile was unreadable, face a complete poker face while there was a strange glean in his eyes when he looked into hers.

"I know," he murmured, voice somehow dropped an octave lower, almost sounding cold and uncaring just for that slight short second before his bright smile wiped those all away. "Thank you for the concern."

With that, he retreated to his seat as she bid proper good byes and closed the door.

Only when she was fumbling with the keys did both she and Frost realised that they didn't even tell him her address.


A/n: Your comments and thoughts are greatly appreciated! Thank you for reading!