A/N: Sorry for the long wait between updates… Anyway, the credit for the meta's name goes to AgentMaryMargaretSkitz - thanks for the wonderful idea! Enjoy the chapter =).
Caitlin slumped down on the lab table in frustration. "It's hopeless," she muttered into her arms.
"No, it's not," Barry told her immediately, moving from where he was leaning against the wall to come stroke her hair. "We're going to get there." They had been working all morning in the lab, trying to figure out how they could nullify her powers, but nothing they had thought of had worked so far.
His fingers felt amazing in her hair, but also intimate in a way that made her feel both confused and comforted. The more time she spent with Barry, the more confused her feelings towards him became. However, with everything that had happened with Ronnie, and then with Jay, the thought of falling for anyone ever again was painful. Especially someone she could hurt accidently with her powers.
Finally, Caitlin shifted so that she could look up at him. "What if we don't?" she whispered. "The only time I've felt any control was when I freed you from the mirror, and even then, I nearly lost it. I can't keep putting everyone at risk."
Barry didn't look surprised at her admission that she had released him from the mirror. 'I'm here for you, Cait," he said simply. I won't let you hurt anyone."
"But-" she started to ask, but she was cut off by a blast of energy that threw both her and Barry across the lab. Her body slammed into the far wall, knocking the breath out of her lungs and making her vision blurry.
"Caitlin!" she heard Barry's voice cry. "Leave her alone." That wasn't directed to her, but her vision was still impacted badly enough that she couldn't tell what was going on.
She struggled to her feet, one hand pressed against the wall to help her balance. "I'm fine," she forced out, just in case Barry was wondering.
Standing up cleared her head. The meta from the jewelry store - Cisco had named him 'Blockade' - was standing in a shimmery force field of his own making while Barry sped around him, looking for a way in.
"Why are you doing this?" Barry demanded, before a shot of pure energy hit him and he went tumbling to the ground. Blockade's force field shimmered for a brief moment before stabilizing.
The man grinned. He was tall and had dark hair, but it was hard to make out specific features through the shimmering of his shield. "Getting rid of my opponent is a smart move. Then, Central City will be mine for the plundering."
"Ever thought of an original motive?" Barry gasped, turning back into a blur just as a lance of pure energy struck where he'd been lying and impaled itself in the floor. Caitlin gasped, and her eyes widened as she saw Blockade's shield flicker again. If she could hit him right at that flicker...maybe… But then she would have to use her powers, and that thought terrified her.
Blockade chuckled as Barry tried to get close to him and was again repelled by the force field. "Give it up, Flash," he threatened. "You know you can't touch me." The meta shot out another bolt of energy, and this one struck Barry in the shoulder. He went tumbling to the floor, screaming in pain.
Caitlin saw her chance as the shield flickered. "Maybe he can't, but I can," she yelled, channeling all her fear and anger into her powers and directing them in a stream of extreme cold towards Blockade. At first, nothing happened, but then the shield cracked and broke, sending sharp shards of energy flying across the room.
Something struck Caitlin in the thigh and she screamed, but she pushed through the pain and kept directing the ice towards the meta.
He yelled incoherently, in a voice filled with anger and pain, but then his cries cut off as her stream of ice entombed him completely, trapping him as a life-sized ice sculpture.
"Caitlin," Barry raced to her side and knelt next to her, and she realized that she must have fallen. There was a searing pain in her leg that made it difficult to focus, though.
"Did we get him?" she mumbled the question penetrating the fog in her head. She felt someone scoop her up gently.
"We got him, thanks to you." Barry's voice told her before she slipped into the darkness.
…
Barry sat on a chair beside the bed, holding Caitlin's limp hand. Cisco had taken care of defrosting Blockade and putting him into the pipeline while Barry had rushed Caitlin to their medical area and tried to tend to her wound. Normally, Caitlin was the doctor, and so it took him a while of frantic googling at superspeed to figure out how to treat the gash in her leg. Though he had taken a lance through the shoulder, his heightened healing had already caused it to fade to just an angry red mark. In a couple hours, it would just look like a nasty bruise, and by tomorrow it would be gone entirely.
However, Barry wished more than anything that he could give Caitlin his super healing instead of seeing her unconscious and injured like this.
"How's she doing?" Iris asked, coming into the room and laying a hand on Barry's shoulder. Before, Barry's heart would have leapt at the contact, but now, he was so wrapped up in Caitlin that he barely noticed.
"Better, I think," Barry replied, not taking his eyes off the woman lying in the bed. They had dyed her hair back to its usual colour before coming to the lab, but there was no way that Cisco and Iris wouldn't have noticed her using her powers on the meta. "She hasn't woken up, yet, though."
"Did you know?" Iris asked. "About her powers, I mean?"
With a sigh, Barry answered, "Yes."
"And you didn't tell us?" Barry looked up and found Iris glaring at him accusingly. "Cisco's really upset up there and scared that she's about to go all Killer Frost on us-"
"She won't," Barry defended her immediately. "We're figuring out how to control her powers."
Iris sighed. "You still should have told us. I don't like that you're keeping secrets, Barry."
"It wasn't my secret to tell."
There was a touch of hurt in Iris' eyes that made Barry feel bad, but at the same time he wouldn't have changed his actions. "I have to go," she said finally. "Take care of her."
"Will do."
Barry spent the next couple hours by her side, alternating holding her hand and stroking her hair.
Finally, her eyes fluttered open and her hand squeezed his very slightly, alerting him that she was awake.
"Barry?" she asked immediately, before her eyes were even fully open.
"I'm here," he responded immediately, coming closer. "How are you feeling?"
"Like someone stabbed me," she responded dryly with a weak smile. Then, the smile disappeared. "Did she take over?"
Barry shook his head with a proud smile. "Nope. It was all you - no Killer Frost at all."
"Did anyone else see?" There was flash of fear in her eyes, and it killed Barry that he had to tell her the truth.
"You froze Blockade completely," he admitted with a comforting squeeze of her hand. "They figured it out."
Her eyes closed. "Are they mad?"
"Only that we didn't tell them. Mostly, they're just glad that you're okay and that Blockade is in the pipeline."
"Good." Caitlin's eyes fluttered open again and Barry could see just how hard she was trying to stay awake for his sake. "Thanks for rescuing me. Again."
Barry chuckled. "This time, you were the hero, Cait. You figured out how to stop him."
"And nearly killed myself," she wrinkled her nose. He found that gesture extremely cute.
Reaching out, he stroked the side of her face gently, his heart warming as she leaned into his touch. "Rest now, Caitlin, okay? You need to sleep."
"You're not leaving?" she asked sleepily.
"I, uh, might get something to eat, but other than that, I'm not going anywhere," he promised.
The corners of her lips turned up in a small smile. "Thanks, Barry. I don't know what I would do without you."
"You'll never find out," he promised, brushing back one lock of hair that had slipped onto her face. "Now rest."
While she slept, Barry kept watch over her and tried to sort out the tumult of feelings inside of him, especially the little voice that told him that he was slowly falling in love with Caitlin Snow.
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