Collateral Damage (snowbarry)

Perfectly C[ape]able

"Cisco, I swear if you tell me to look harder one more time I'm breaking into your house and trashing your comic book collection."

"You wouldn't dare." Cisco challenges through the phone.

"The whole thing. I'll rip them all up. Don't try me." Caitlin responds, slumping down in a chair in Barry's lab. She's been there all morning trying to find the cameras that Wells installed so Cisco can disconnect them.

"Would it be crazy to just keep them?" Caitlin hesitantly asks.

"It would be easier." Cisco responds.

"Might help us in the long run? Y'know, if we ever need to check...on...things." Caitlin says.

"Yeah if like a meta thing broke into the...places we could...we could look at them." Cisco says, equally uncomfortable.

"I just really don't want to do this." Caitlin admits, sighing.

"Me neither. Rain check?" Cisco asks.

Caitlin mumbles her agreement and says bye to Cisco, sinking further into the chair. Surely Wells doesn't have those cameras feeding back to his house, right? She's been everywhere in that house. She would've noticed. Of course, she thought she'd been everywhere in S.T.A.R. Labs too. Maybe he fooled her again. Maybe she's just blind. Oh well. Her place isn't bugged. They can just talk there if they need to. Why...why wasn't her place bugged?

She diverts her attention to the door when she hears footsteps coming. She's not ready to see Barry. She's still mad at him for going behind her back with the plan to capture Wells. She already gave Cisco a piece of her mind this morning, but it apparently wasn't his idea. Just Barry's. Cisco then informed her about the cameras, and she's been able to distract herself with that all morning.

She turns to see Joe. He jumps back a little when he sees her before his face softens. She stands to leave, and he stops her.

"Come here kid." He motions for her to come over. She holds her breath to keep from choking up, but when he hugs her, she lets out a shaky sigh.

"We're here for ya Caitlin." He says softly. "We're gonna get through this."

She sighs again, more steadily this time. She pulls away and gives him a weak smile before she turns around and sees Barry walking in with Iris who has clearly been crying.

"Cait." Barry breathes out. He takes a step toward her as she takes one to the side to go around him.

"I gotta get back to the lab." She says flatly and walks around him and out the door.

He follows behind her, grabbing her hand and turning her around. "Are you alright? I didn't expect to see you out today." He admits. He figured she'd stay holed up for at least a day.

"Well." She says, motioning around her. "I'm out."

He nods, sighing. "Are you...alright? Do you wanna talk?"

"No. Not right now. I gotta go, Bar." She turns and walks out. Barry stands and watches over the railing until she leaves the station. Part of him is glad she's out and about. The other part is nervous about what she might do. Would she go talk to Wells? Surely, she wouldn't risk it. What if he hurts her?

Barry walks back in to hear Iris rattling off her theory to Joe. She told him all about it this morning. It was pretty much the same thing she told him a few days ago, but with more evidence. Wells knew about the accelerator and has something to do with Simon Stagg's murder, and now Mason Bridge's disappearance. The metas, including the Flash, were created by the particle accelerator. By Wells. On purpose. She just knew it. And now, for some reason that she's unsure of, they've taken Eddie.