Chapter 4: Not afraid anymore
Wells
Oh, no. Wait! What did I just do? Shit!
Surely she can't want this, wasn't expecting me to kiss her like that, out of nowhere, like a cretinous moron, taking advantage of her confidence and trust. She came to me in her time of need and this is how I repay her, by being totally thoughtless, heedless of anything but my own ill-advised desires and wishes.
"I'm so sorry," I say, raising my hands up like a criminal surrendering to the police. I can't look at her anymore, so I just turn and leave, incapable of thinking of anything further to say that wouldn't make a bad situation even worse.
That seems to be what I'm good at, after all.
I'm rushing through the lab doors to get the hell out of there as I hear her call, in a kind of shock, "Wells?" A pause. "Wells!" She can't entirely despise me if she's calling me to come back instead of cursing me out. A silver lining I won't tarnish by sticking around. In fact, I wish a breach would open up in front of me right now and save me.
Of course, once I get outside, where it is, naturally, mercilessly, freezing cold, I know I've got no idea where the hell I'm going. I have nowhere to go. When I'm on Earth 1, I crash at the lab. The lab is my home. I certainly can't go to Jitters and seek advice from "the gang. Their sympathy and weirded out reactions would make me feel even worse.
Fuck.
She finds me a half hour later at Big Belly Burger, alone in a booth in the back, a full mug of black coffee sitting untouched in front of me. I wish I could sink into this booth and disappear, but no such luck. If I had to describe her expression, I'd go with, annoyed.
"Thought I'd find you here," Caitlin remarks, sliding into the booth seat in front of me. She's still clad in her Star Labs sweatpants and t-shirt, a winter coat thrown haphazardly over her "training" garb, the bracelets back in place. Her hair tumbles in glossy, blonde-strewn brunette waves over both shoulders, and her lips, pressed together in an unspoken question, are as tempting as ever.
"Where else?" My attempt at humor is pathetic and I brush it aside, jumping straight into my next apology. "Caitlin, I am so sorry. I don't know what you must think of me. That will never happen again."
"Harry," she begins, but I cut her off, continuing my tirade, needing to get this off my chest.
"I know that we're friends, we're colleagues, we could never be anything more, and I'm too old for you," Now I'm gesturing wildly with my hands, "and, and, and you're too young for me, and I never should have kissed you, and…" I get overwhelmed with the cacophonous sound of my own rambling in my ears, so useless and absurd. "And…I'm sorry."
She smiles, like maybe forgiveness is on the horizon. I'm saved! But the annoyance has yet to leave her eyes.
"Are you done?" She asks me, crossing her arms.
"And, it will never happen again." I feel like restating this is important and helpful.
"Now are you done?"
"Yes," I reply sheepishly, praying to some heretofore presumed nonexistent God for redemption.
"Terrific." Her tone is dry and blunt. She grabs my hand and yanks me up, leading me outside with just barely enough time for me to toss a few Earth 1 dollars on the table for the coffee and tip.
We're just a few steps out the door when she leads me to the nearest brick wall and presses me against it, her body so insanely close that I can't seem to get my breathe back. And I'm still wondering what she could possibly be doing when she pulls me even closer and claims my mouth in a searing kiss.
Caitlin
I don't know if I've ever been quite this reckless before.
It's everything I imagined it might be and more, the feeling of his lips on mine, his hands on my body. Something in my brash removal of every pretense aside from what we both want has liberated us.
Wells melts into my embrace and slips his hands under my jacket, running them up and down my figure, finding the bottom edge of my t-shirt and pushing it upward so he can touch my skin, his movements so perfectly skilled, every single hot, relentless kiss combining with them to tear me splendidly to pieces.
Somehow, I've gotten inside his defenses at last, and he's surrendered, becoming perfectly and purely shameless in his actions, bold in a way I've only ever fantasized about.
His lips brush my ear as he murmurs, "Do you wanna get out of here?"
My eyes lock with his, and the intense passion between us is heavy in the air. "Of course I do," I breathe, and soon we're hand in hand, heading for my apartment.
It's a mad stumble through the door, which I laughingly slam shut by backing into it while Wells resumes reinventing the art of kissing and unraveling me. We slip out of our coats and they fall to the floor.
He's lowered me onto the couch and I'm reaching up to take off his shirt, to run my hands over his stomach and chest. He shivers and groans.
"Sorry," I whisper, pulling my hands back slightly, sure my frosty cold charms have reasserted themselves to make me just so unsexy at that moment.
"It's not that you're cold," Wells reassures me, "it's that you're driving me crazy." He kisses me again in a way that leaves me in no doubt of his sincerity, and my hips rise to grind against him, the friction immediately making us both cry out slightly in arousal.
"Oh my God," I can't help but moan at the sensation, the heat at my core intensifying.
"I know," he says hoarsely in my ear, making me weaker by the moment, "I wanted this for so long. I thought it was just me."
"It's," I reply, biting his neck lightly, "not." I pluck his glasses off and place them lovingly on the coffee table beside us. Next to our phones, which right then both light up and buzz.
"Oh, no," Harrison growls, while I sit up and place my hands against his chest, breathing heavily.
"No!" I agree, as our eyes both flit over to where Cisco's Meta App is blazing on our phones, as continuous calls and texts from the team flood in.
"They're not going to leave us alone," I state, and we both know it's true. There's a case, there's danger, there's trouble, and we're needed right now.
I toss him his t-shirt and wink flirtatiously, reaching for my coat on the floor. "Just don't think you're getting off that easily," I assure him.
"Just how are you going to be getting me off?" He grins naughtily.
"Harrison Wells!" I cry in mock astonishment as he pulls me close again. I downright giggle, blushing furiously. "We have to go."
There's a sadness in his eyes that I can't figure out the meaning of right then, a sudden change. "Yeah, I know. I just don't ever want to forget this. This, right here, right now." Our foreheads meet and before we go, I brush one more kiss against his irresistible mouth.
"Me neither."