Collateral Damage (snowbarry)

Start to Live

Caitlin and Cisco are sitting at their desks in the cortex, slurping their coffee, having an unofficial competition for who can slurp the loudest. They keep looking up at each other each time one outdoes the other. Cisco goes for the gusto and chokes on his coffee. Caitlin almost spits hers out laughing and rushes over to make sure he doesn't choke too much.

Barry's voice through the comms interrupts Cisco's coughing. Cisco and Caitlin run over to the control panel and listen in as Barry pulls a woman from a burning car.

"Thank you, Flash," They hear the woman's husband say through the comms. Wells wheels in behind them as Cisco and Caitlin smile at each other.

"Trouble already this morning?" He asks

"Taken care of," Barry says as he appears in the cortex.

He puts his suit on it's stand and comes back in, wearing his work clothes.

"You singed my suit." Cisco says, narrowing his eyes at the suit and dusting it off.

"When are we gonna start calling it my suit?" Barry asks.

"I'd be comfortable calling it our suit." Cisco answers.

Caitlin and Wells smile at each other behind the two boys.

Cisco starts coughing again and runs over to grab his coffee and takes a big drink.

"That didn't help," he spits out between coughs.

Barry walks over and hits him in the back, hard. Cisco gulps and stares at the ground with wide eyes. He looks up again and smiles.

"All better."

Barry heads to work and Caitlin and Cisco return to their work which currently consists of maximizing their ability to track metas, and getting faster alerts about meta attacks.

"We haven't had movie night in a while," Cisco says, still staring at his computer.

"We haven't." Caitlin echos.

Cisco looks around his computer at her for a second, then looks back at his screen.

"We haven't gone out for drinks for a few weeks either." He observes.

"You're right, we haven't. Weird." She says flatly.

He dramatically looks around his computer this time.

"Caitlin," he exclaims.

She looks over at him. "What?"

"You've been acting weird." He says.

She looks down and when she looks back up, Cisco has rolled his chair over in front of her.

"What's wrong?" He asks, saying it like a little kid.

She looks at him for a few seconds, then looks around the room to make sure no one else is there.

"I just...it's Ronnie." She says.

"Having second thoughts about looking for him?" Cisco asks.

"No," she admits. "I'm just feeling a little guilty recently I guess."

He looks at her confused.

"I just...I want to start living my life again. Some days I feel like I am and I just feel guilty the second it stops, and I go back to feeling lost." She tells him.

"Caitlin," Cisco says putting his hand on her shoulder. "He would want you to live your life. If you're ready to move on from him, then I think you actually have to move on."

She looks at him with sad eyes.

"Not that I'm an expert on love," he says more lightly, rolling away from her. "Last girl I liked was a walking bomb."

Caitlin raises her eyebrow at him and smiles. They both go back to work.

Around noon, Barry appears in the cortex holding pizza from a few towns over.

"You went to Keystone?" Cisco yells running over to Barry and grabbing the box.

"What's the occasion?" Caitlin asks.

"Just in a good mood." Barry says, smiling.

They all sit down and eat while Barry tells them about his morning, including the escaped prisoner, and him getting to see his dad while they were at the prison.

"Barry, that's amazing," Caitlin says.

"Yeah, I really needed it," he says, smiling and taking a bite.

"How are him and Joe?" Cisco asks with a full mouth.

"What do you mean?" Barry asks.

"Well I noticed Joe was one of the cops who helped convict him and refused to testify as a character witness. No hard feelings?" Cisco says.

"Cisco," Caitlin scolds, kicking him under the table.

"There used to be." Barry answers. "Once Joe found out about me, he realized my dad was innocent and went and talked to him."

"That's good. It's nice to know when you have people supporting you," Caitlin says, smiling at him.

They finish the pizza and go back to work. Caitlin and Cisco get to work trying to help figure out how the prisoner might have escaped.

They aren't given much time. Minutes after Barry leaves the labs he yells through the comms.

"She can teleport!" He yells.

"What?" Cisco asks as him and Caitlin sit down at the control panel.

"Shawna, the girl that broke Clay out of prison. She can teleport. She just keeps popping up places," he explains, sounding pissed.

Caitlin and Cisco look at each other, confused.

Barry barely avoids being shot and collapses while chasing her, and she gets away. He appears in the lab seconds later.

"What the hell?" He says, sighing. "How?"

"We have no idea." Cisco answers.

Barry walks over to the med bed after changing out of his suit. Caitlin starts working on the spot where the bullet grazed his neck.

"This was close." She says, looking worried.

"Still faster than a bullet," he says, smiling.

"Teleportation, huh?" Wells asks as he wheels into Caitlin's lab.

"Yep," Barry says, sounding unimpressed.

"She must be untangling her particles and reassembling them in another location. If that's the case then she can only teleport to places she can see." Wells explains.

"Maybe," Barry says. "Every time I got near her she would disappear. It was like we were playing a game of"

"Peek-a-boo!" Caitlin exclaims.

Wells and Barry look at her.

"What? Can't I name one?" She frowns.

"That's a terrible name," Cisco says from the cortex.

"Too bad it's already decided." Caitlin calls back.

Wells chuckles and turns around to wheel out.

"We'll get to work on a way to stop her." He announces. "For now, work on trying to find out more about her and where she might show up again."

Barry nods and heads back to work.