In Any Other World

There's no Place like Home...

Barry smiled to himself as he entered Star Labs, the high from helping Moira and Cisco finally get together lingering with him. He loved making people happy, he loved the way their faces would light up when it happened, loved knowing that he had somehow had a hand in making someone else's day better. It was part of why he decided to become The Flash, and it was really the only part that kept him going after he'd realized that his becoming The Flash in the first place was all part of Eobard's evil plan. He did still have his doubts at times, usually when he was alone at night, remembering the past year and all the things 'Doctor Wells' had said to encourage him and realizing that all of it had been a strategy play, a means to his end, and on those nights he would almost begin to feel like he really was just a man who happened to be struck by lightening; but then he would call up Cisco, or Caitlin, and just the sound of their voices would remind him that not everything that came out of that year had been bad, and he would feel better.

"Barry!" Caitlin called to him as he entered the cortex, a worried little frown on her face.

"Caitlin!" he called back to her, mimicking her tone, "what's up?"

"Have you heard from Cisco?" she asked holding up her phone, "I've texted him twice and he hasn't answered, and the last time this happened he'd been kidnapped-"

"Woah woah woah, I'm gonna stop you right there,"Barry interrupted, "I have not heard from Cisco no, but I'm 99.9%sure he's perfectly fine," he smirked a little before adding, "or possibly better than fine, I dunno," then his smirk fell as he remembered he was talking about Cisco hooking up with his sister.

Caitlin's frown of worry became one of confusion, "What makes you so sure?"

Barry rubbed the back of his neck nervously, grimacing as he said, "Lets just say Cisco might have had a sort of....date,last night, and I know for a fact that this time his date was not the sister of a criminal bent on kidnapping him and using him for his brain,"

Caitlin stared at him for a moment, absorbing Barry's extensive explanation, "So what you're saying is Cisco got lucky?"she asked simply, Barry's eyes widening in response, "what? You said he was 'possibly better than fine' and that he had a date last night, the logical conclusion is he didn't go home alone," she shrugged setting her phone down on the nearby desk, "poor Moira though, it must've been awkward for her being there when Cisco brought a date home," her confused frown returned then, "hang on,I haven't seen her since you told her you had something to show her yesterday,"

Barry laughed nervously, "Yeah I didn't think you would have," he replied looking down at the floor as his cheeks flushed.

"Well what did you have to show her?" Caitlin asked,"was it something bad?"

"No!" Barry shook his head, "absolutely not, it was really good actually, she was very impressed,"

"Impressed?" Caitlin's frown deepened "Impressed with what?"

Barry sighed heavily, "It doesn't matter, lets just stop talking about it ok?"

Caitlin squinted at him suspiciously, "Barry..." she said his name in a warning tone that made him feel a twinge of guilt as he shrank slightly under her gaze, but he held his ground.