Chapter 3

Julian woke up to the sound of Caitlin softly snoring, one of the most beautiful sounds he thinks he's ever heard. Her head, with her tangled mess of brown hair, was lying on the pillow beside him and she had an arm draped over his bare chest.

He can hardly believe he's here. He'd nearly lost her, several times, over the past few weeks, mostly his own fault. From pushing her away when she'd betrayed the team with the philosopher's stone, to watching her flatline, to turning her into Killer Frost, he didn't think this was a future they could have. Where he gets to make love to the most incredible woman he's ever known, and wake up in her bed. Where he gets to have a future with her. He's already thinking of his great-grandmother's antique engagement ring and how stunning it would look on her hand. How she'd look on their wedding day. How the round swell of her stomach would feel under his hands when they started a family. Wait. Does she even want children? They hadn't discussed it. Doesn't matter, he thinks. If she doesn't, then not a deal-breaker for him. Frankly, nothing is. He's so utterly in love with her, if she wanted to live off grid in the arctic tundra in an igloo she hand-made, he'd go ahead and start packing the car.

"I can hear you thinking," she murmured. "Stop thinking so much."

"Only good thoughts, my darling, I promise," he said, turning his head to kiss hers.

"Mm. Like what?" she smiled.

"About having children, actually."

She opened one eye to look at him critically, then closed it again. "We used protection, it's statistically unlikely."

"No, I mean hypothetically. Someday. In the future," he said, poking her. "Is that something you want?"

"Oh. Yes. Someday. In the future. Quite a long time from now," she smiled. "You're very pensive the morning after sex. Is that just for first-time sexual encounters, or should I expect you to be so inquisitive every morning after sex?"

"I'm glad to know there will be future mornings after sex," he laughed. "I just realized we've not had a lot of these conversations about long-term life goals. Seems a bit important in a relationship."

"Until this week, I didn't think there'd be a long-term for me that didn't include being locked in the meta-human pipeline or an Argus cell," she said seriously, opening her eyes.

"Well, now that's out of the running, maybe more happier life goals instead?"

She closed her eyes again. "Mmm… I like the sound of that."

She heard a knock on her door and sighed. "Ugh, I don't like the sound of that. We'll just ignore it, they'll go away."

The knocking continued. "Dammit."

She threw back the covers, and pulled on the silk robe draped across her chair so she could answer the door.

She immediately regretted it when she opened the door. "Mom."

"You never returned my calls," her mother said, brushing past her into her apartment.

"My phone is… it needs replaced."

"I take it my formula worked?" she said, curtly.

"Yours?" she asked, irritated at her mother's insistence on taking full credit for everything.

"Well, yes. Didn't that English guy from your lab tell you?"

"Yes, and thank you for helping, but you don't get credit for all of it," Caitlin said, frowning.

"I need the post-serum application data for my research," her mom explained.

"In that case, you should just call Julian," she said, snippily.

"Fine." She pulled out her cell phone and pressed a few buttons. Caitlin groaned as she heard Julian's cell phone ringer from her bedroom.

"I'm assuming that's not a coincidence," her mother said, canceling the call.

"Ahem, good morning, Dr. Tannhauser," Julian said, sheepishly. Caitlin was glad he had the foresight to get dressed. Unlike her.

"Mom, Julian and I are together, we aren't just colleagues at STAR Labs."

"You do seem to find romance in the lab a lot," her mother said. "I'm not sure how you get any work done." Caitlin turned red with fury.

"STAR Labs is more of a moonlighting opportunity for me, Dr. Tannhauser. My day job is as a CSI for the Central City Police Department. Caitlin and I met in that capacity, through our mutual friend Barry. She recruited me to collaborate with her on a few projects at STAR Labs. By then, I'd already fallen for her, I couldn't possibly say no to such an opportunity to work with her too. She's so utterly brilliant, obviously her mother's daughter," he said, laying on the charm. "I am grateful Caitlin had you in her corner, she wouldn't be here with us now if she didn't."

Caitlin's mother seemed satisfied with Julian's answer, and Caitlin calmed down. She marveled at the way that Julian, so often incapable of appropriate social interactions at work, had just completely entranced her mother.

"Well, Julian, it was very nice to see you. I look forward to reviewing your data." She hugged Caitlin and whispered in her ear. "I like him. I'm glad you're well."

"Thanks, Mom," she said. She closed and locked the door behind her.

"You are incredible," she laughed.

"Is that so?" he grinned.

She nodded, putting her arms around him and kissed him. "That was an impressive performance."

He pulled gently on the sash which held her robe closed, until it fell open. He pushed the robe off her shoulders until it fell to the floor. "My darling. There's so much more to come."

STAR Labs was quite solemn in the days to follow, feeling empty first without H.R., then so unexpectedly, losing Barry too. Harry had been kind enough to stick around to help Wally get settled in, and with Jay returned to Earth-3, Jesse Quick had returned as well.

Cisco and Harry were hard at work, looking for a way to stabilize the speed force, and Wally and Jesse were finding that working together and dating was more of a strain than they thought.

Iris wasn't doing well. Caitlin could tell from the hollow look in her eyes, the same one she had seen in the mirror in the days after Ronnie's death.

She went to check on Iris the first weekend after Barry had entered the speed force.

"Right before… Barry had delivered our Save the Date cards for the wedding," Iris frowned, holding one of the extra cards in her hands.

"It's a year from now. You still have wedding planning to do. We're going to get him out, you know," Caitlin reassured her.

"I can't do this without Barry," she whispered.

"Barry won't mind. He'll be happy to just show up in a tux, he'll like whatever you choose."

"I don't mean wedding planning, I mean any of it. Living day to day. I don't know how to do it without him."

Caitlin nodded. "That year I thought Ronnie was dead… I started out the same way. I didn't think I could survive it."

"How did you?"

"By leaning on the people I loved that I still had. Cisco. The Fake Dr. Wells, believe it or not. When things got too hard, I just made sure I wasn't alone. And the same after Ronnie actually died. I had you and Barry and your dad, and Martin, Clarissa and Lily. It made the burden easier. It made getting out of bed each day easier."

Iris nodded. "Thank you, Caitlin."

Caitlin put her arm around her to give her a hug. "Any time."

"So, you haven't told me exactly what's going on with you and Julian," Iris said, changing the topic. "It seems serious."

"It's… unexpected. I know he can be really prickly, but when you get past that, oh, Iris, he's just so wonderful. I haven't felt like this in a long time."

"I'm so happy for you, Caitlin," she smiled. "I can see how much he loves you."

"I'm going to spend this Christmas with his family in England. Is that really soon to make that commitment? That's soon, isn't it?"

"No, I think that's perfect. I wonder what they're like?" she mused. "Very 'Downton Abbey,' I bet."

"They aren't titled nobility, at least, just wealthy. I hope they approve of me," she said, looking down at her hands.

"How could they not? You're beautiful, brilliant, and kind. You're perfect. Julian's really lucky."

"I'm the one who's lucky. You know he worked on that serum with my mother? My horrible, awful mother, who cares more about her research than me. He put up with her to save me! She even likes him! He's nice to her!"

Iris laughed. "He really does love you."

Caitlin grinned. "He really does. Speaking of which, we have a date this evening and I need to go home and get changed. Brunch tomorrow?"

"I'll see you tomorrow," Iris said, giving her a hug. "Thank you for being here."

"Of course," she said. "And Barry would be really mad at us when he gets back if we all just sat around and moped while he was gone, right?"

Iris nodded. "We're still Team Flash, even while Barry's gone. And we're going to bring him back."