While Barry volunteered to search for Clark yet again, Caitlin and Astrid decided to stop in at the local coffee shop for a coffee.
"Why would they call a café The Talon?" Caitlin wondered out loud as they sat at their table waiting for the waitress.
Astrid shook her head. "No idea!" she focused her attention on to the Egyptian artifacts. "But I love the decorations though. They remind me of Kent." She was referring to DR Fate's symbol of magic. She had not heard from him in a while, so it softened her heart a little.
"Thanks, I picked the decorations myself," a young woman with long dark hair said. "My name is Lana, what can I get you both?"
"An instruction manual on men?" Astrid suggested, referring to her earlier conversation with Cisco.
"I'm sorry, we don't serve them here…" Lana smiled. "But if you find one, can you let me know where you got it from so I can buy one, too?"
Astrid and Caitlin both laughed. "I like you, Lana," Astrid said. "Just a coffee and a bagel for me."
"I'll have the same, thank you." Caitlin replied.
Lana nodded and left to retrieve their orders, so Caitlin continued speaking. "Cisco has been acting a little strange lately. I should mention that I saw him looking at houses on the net this morning… They were located outside of Central City."
Astrid shook her head. "How can he think that we can just pack up and leave once we get married? Our entire lives are in Central City… You, Barry, and STAR Labs. We can't just turn our backs on everything that we have worked so hard to build."
Caitlin shook her head. "I think he is focusing on the events that older Barry came back to show us… He wanted to make a remote control that had could control time this morning. It looks like its hitting him hard." Caitlin stared down at her hands and Astrid instantly picked up on her friend's emotions.
"Is everything okay, Cait?" she asked.
Caitlin shook her head and looked away. "I'm fine, Astrid."
"You're lying, Cait. What's up?"
Caitlin sighed and studied her friend. "In that future world, I think I know why Barry and I break up… Why he marries Iris."
Astrid remained silent but waited for her friend to go on.
"A few weeks ago, I ran a test on mine and Barry's DNA cells and I came up with some interesting results… You see, my cells continued to neutralize Barry's DNA cells. Those results point to a few theories, all of which indicate that Barry and I might never be able to have children."
"What are you going to do? Have you told Barry?"
Caitlin shook her head. "No, I haven't. I don't know how to tell him… Or if I should tell him. He really wants kids."
"You need to tell him, Cait. He deserves to know… But you want kids too. You have always wanted kids. Maybe you should come up with some kind of treatment… Something that will work in your favor."
"Astrid, it isn't that simple. If I were to carry a speedster baby in my body, Frost's DNA would automatically freeze the child. It would become a stillborn or my body could reject the pregnancy altogether. The only way would be…"
"…to remove Frost from your body." Astrid finished her friend's sentence softly.
The voice of the waitress Lana returning startled them both. "I'm sorry to interrupt. This probably isn't even my place. But you could always adopt. I was adopted by aunt Nell and a boy I know was adopted by the Kents. Adoption is a brilliant alternative if you really want children."
Caitlin let slip a humble smile and retrieved her coffee and bagel from the waitress. "Thank you. I'll keep that in mind."
"So, you're a friend of Clark's." Astrid said.
"Clark Kent? I like to believe I am. Why do you ask?" Lana wondered.
"Well, we're actually friends of his mothers."
"Oh, I might have met two men earlier when I was inviting Clark out later. One with long dark hair, another very tall with brown hair?"
"Cisco and Barry. So, what is this big event that is supposed to be happening tonight?" Astrid probed.
"A bunch of us want to check out the nearby caves. Someone said they found some old chunks of the meteor rock and some sort of tech… some of the locals believe that it might have been aliens."
"And you don't believe that?" Caitlin wondered.
Lana looked around the café where she saw a blonde woman standing with a young dark-skinned man by the counter. "I like to believe that I am somewhat of a skeptic. I should go… Maybe I'll see you both later at the caves or something?"
Astrid and Caitlin smiled at the young woman. "We'd love to," Caitlin replied.
#
Barry, Astrid, Caitlin and Cisco made their way to the underground caves that they had encountered when they had first travelled to Smallville months ago in silence. They reached the opening of the cave with their phones in hands, illuminating the darkness.
Cisco glanced around at the rocky walls and said "please don't be any clowns down here…"
"Cisco," Barry said, "after last time, I think we would be more inclined to find aliens down here as opposed to clowns."
"You do know that…"
"You guys! Shh!" Astrid interrupted. "Do you hear that?"
"Astrid, we don't hear anything," Caitlin said as she, Barry and Cisco tried to listen for noises.
Astrid focused her senses. She could certainly hear something. But then she realized that they were thoughts. "Oh no! You guys… We got daemonite aliens down again! Switch on your neuro blockers guys. They don't know we're here yet."
Cisco shook his head in frustration but did so nonetheless. "…and here I was hoping for a regular field trip… to the museum, or even KORD industries would have been nice!" he whispered.
"KORD industries, Cisco? Ted is our competition. Why would you even say that?" Caitlin whispered back.
Before he could respond, Barry cut in with. "you guys… I'm going to go on up ahead… Astrid let me know if you can hear Clark's thoughts." Astrid offered him a nod and Barry was gone right before their eyes.
Suddenly, Barry's link when dead.
"Barry!" Caitlin said, "Barry! Answer us!"
"Uh oh! Not good!" Cisco said.
Astrid tried to get a reading on Barry's mental activity, but she had no luck. Instead, she suffered from a serious sudden headache which she started to breathe it through. "That was painful! Someone's trying to get into my…"
Instantly, she collapsed to her feet in agony doing her best to maintain a scream.
"Astrid! Astrid!" Cisco cried out falling to her aid. He brought his hands to her ears as he saw blood emerge from her earlobes. "Caitlin? What do we do?"
Caitlin was confused. They needed to get Astrid out of the cave immediately, but at the same time they couldn't give up on Barry.
Astrid could barely speak as she was groaning through the pain.
"Caitlin! What do we do!" Cisco cried again in a state of panic.
Caitlin got into action. "Cisco, we need to get her out of here, now!"
Suddenly, Astrid stood to her feet and wiped away the blood from her ears. She was no longer suffering from the intense pain. In fact, her entire mannerism had changed. "It's fine guys… let's go! WE need to find Barry."
There was something off about her persona that shook Cisco and Caitlin entirely. Something was not right about her. Nonetheless, Cisco and Caitlin followed her regardless.