Destiny

Twelve

When Barry came to, he called a team meeting in the cortex. 

"God Speed is too fast even with this tachyon enhancer," Barry said frustrated playing with the invention in his hands. "If we are gonna beat him we need help." 

"Who?" Joe asked.

"Jesse and Harry," Cisco answered. 

"Yes, Cisco open a breach as soon as you can," Barry ordered. 

"Wait, Barry don't you think you should rest for a bit. You just got impaled by a metal rod," Julian suggested, more friendly than he has been in the last few months. 

"I'm fine," Barry responded pushing himself up from the chair, them clenching his shoulder in pain. 

"Julian's right babe," Caitlin quickly rushed to his side, "You can go to Earth-2 tomorrow. Doctor's orders." 

Reluctant, Barry responded, "Fine. But I'm going to run a few laps in the speed lab." 

As Barry headed out, Cisco followed him to keep an eye on him, and Joe and Iris went home. 

"You did a great job in there," Caitlin breaking the ice with Julian. 

"You did most of the work. With my clumsy hands, well, you know from last time...," Julian responded. 

"Julian, that wasn't your fault," Caitlin said, "It was no one's fault. It was destiny, time said I had to become Killer Frost." 

"Yeah, and time also say our speedster friend ends up with someone else," Julian sniffed, looking away. "Future's a funny thing, ain't it?" 

"Yeah...," Caitlin softly responded, "Look, Julian, I know from all the drama you probably hate me but I still hope that we can be friends. Barry too,  but I understand if it takes a while, I've been such a jerk to you."

Julian stayed silent for a while, before saying, "As long as you're happy," then left. 

..............

After Caitlin had her moment with Julian, she headed to the speed lab to check on Barry and Cisco. Barry was running laps as Cisco monitored his vitals. 

"Hey, how's he doing?" Caitlin asked, looking at the monitor beside Cisco. 

"Something weird is happening," Cisco responded, "I just amped up the power on the enhancer with some of the dark matter from evil Well's secret room, but he still seems to be going slow." 

"How was I?" Barry asked running off the track, bent over tired and sweating. 

"Not horrible," Caitlin said, walking over to him with a towel. "You are feeling tired Barry, which is odd since you are only going three quarters your maximum speed with the enhancer." 

"So what's wrong?! I've been doing everything to try to get to God Speed, but he's always a little bit ahead of me," Barry complained wiping the sweat off his face. 

"Maybe we'll find an answer when visiting Harry and Jesse tomorrow, Jesse apparently has a new team to take care of all the metas Zoom left," Cisco suggested. "For now we should all rest."

They all left to go home. Barry and Caitlyn returned to their small apartment, pushing away their troubling thoughts of Earths or speed. Not having much of a dinner, Barry threw something together in the kitchen as Caitlin went into the bedroom to go change.

Although the had been living there for a few months, Caitlin still had boxes from her old place she hadn't unpacked. She had run out of clothes, so she opened up a box to find an old t-shirt she could wear. She picked up a box and put on the bed and cut it open. Opening it, she found an old oversized black sweatshirt, an old rusted golden watch, a box, and an old picture of Ronnie on one knee at Hudson Falls in front of Caitlin. Taking out the picture, Caitlin held it close sitting on the bed trying to hold her tears so Barry wouldn't hear. But he still knew something was going on.

"Caitlin?" Barry said walking into the room, "what's wrong?" He sat beside her holding her in his arms, looking at the picture she was holding, then holding her tighter. "My gosh, Cait."
She cried into his chest, and he consoled her.

Later when Caitlin couldn't cry any more tears, the two sat across from each other on the bed. Barry stared at Caitlin, looking down and twiddling her fingers.

"I'm sorry I'm doing this, crying over a late ex after four years," Caitlin said.

"You don't have to apologize Cait, I understand. Sometimes, I still miss my parents," Barry said rubbing her knee. "Plus, we all miss Ronnie, he saved us all. Twice."

Caitlin looked up and smiled at Barry.

Barry continued to ask, "But, I just want to know. Do you still love Ronnie?"

Caitlin took a deep breath before responding, " Of course I still do Barry, and I probably will always. But, I know he will always be the one who runs into the storm for me and you will be the one who helps me find shelter."

Barry smiled and kissed her.

When they pulled away, Caitlin then asked, "How about Iris?..."

"Well," Barry started, "she'll always be my first, she is my best friend, but sister now. But Cait, you will always be my last everything. I Love you, Dr. Snow."

"And I love you, Mr. Allen."

The two pressed their lips against each other, pulling closer after each breath...

What's wrong with Barry's speed? Who is God Speed? How long until Barry and Caitlin's relationship leaves the honeymoon phase? How's Earth-2's Scarlet Speedster doing, and her father?

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How was it? Still, a long way to go. I wanted to resolve most of the basic relationship drama before going deep into the true purpose of superhero stories, the villain arc. Leave comments please, it really does help me to continue to write.