Collateral Damage (snowbarry)

Trick and Trap

Caitlin calls Wells to cancel their dinner. "I'm gonna stay at the lab tonight. Cisco has been stressed about what happened in the bunker since Christmas. I want to figure out what happened. Maybe cheer him up."

"We can look at it together tomorrow." Wells suggests.

"I'll run what I find by you tomorrow, but...I wanna do this myself." She hangs up.

Caitlin makes her way down to the bunker. She turns on the generator, displaying the fake image of the Reverse Flash projected inside it. She takes a deep breath and goes to sit on the steps leading up to the force field platform. She waits.

After a few minutes, Wells wheels into the bunker, his face panicked. "Caity." He lets out a deep breath when he sees her.

"No need for that anymore then huh?" She asks, pointing to his wheelchair.

He sighs and moves to stand, slowly lifting himself from the chair. He carefully walks toward her. She was expecting it, but the sight still takes her by surprise. He sits down next to her, putting one hand on her knee. She turns to look at him.

"Why?" She says, her voice high and strained.

"It wasn't meant to happen this way." He admits, his voice shaky. "I have been fighting the Flash for as long as I can remember. It was never my intention to kill Nora."

"Then why did you do it?" Why did you want to kill him? Why are you even here?"

"I failed at killing him. I got mad. So, I killed Nora instead, to get back at him." He doesn't look remorseful, but he does seem to have a hard time telling Caitlin the reason.

"And me?" She asks, looking away.

"You were never meant to get hurt." He admits.

She stands and paces into the center of the platform. He stands and walks toward her. "Caity, I'm sorry." He whispers.

She looks at him, a hurt look in her eye. She walks up and hugs him for the first time in over a year. She buries her head in his chest and he wraps his arms around her the way he used to when she was a kid, one arm round her back, and one hand resting on the back of her head. She takes a deep breath and reaches behind her to pull the remote out of her pocket. She presses the button, turning on the force field.

He pulls away, a look of disappointment in his eyes. Her face is straining to keep her from crying as she backs away from him outside of the field, where Barry, Joe, and Cisco are waiting for her. Barry holds up the drive holding the recording of Wells' confession. "It's over, Thawne."

"And then you'll arrest him." Caitlin says, looking up Barry, Joe and Cisco who are sitting across from her in Barry's lab. "Piece of cake."

"And if he hurts you?" Barry asks.

"He won't."

"He hurt me. Went all Temple of Doom." Cisco says, eyes wide, as he mimics the motion of Wells stopping his heart in the previous timeline.

"He won't hurt me." She insists. "Not any more than he already has." She whispers so only she can hear. She stands, grabbing her things. "When do we want to do this?"

"Tomorrow night." Cisco says. "That'll give me time to get the bunker set up." Caitlin nods and walks out, bidding them all goodnight.

Cisco walks up to stand next to Barry as they watch her leave. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

"Absolutely." Barry says, not taking his eyes off her.

"She won't be happy about it." Cisco turns to Barry.