Collateral Damage (snowbarry)

Engaging Realizations

Hours have passed by. Caitlin has searched every inch of Wells' house for any indication of what that blue tube might be and how to stop it, or why he needs the particle accelerator. She even walked around the whole house with her hands on the walls in case there was another secret door. Nothing.

The boys have been back at the labs working on transporting the prisoners. So far, they haven't had any luck.

Caitlin admits temporary defeat and heads to Jitters for a caffeine and sugar break. She walks in to see Iris abruptly standing from her table and walking away, leaving a tired looking Eddie sitting by himself. Caitlin turns to avoid being seen by Iris. She grabs her coffee and slowly makes her way over to Eddie. She leans down to get his attention away from the floor when she gets closer. He looks up and gives her a weak smile.

"As your doctor, I gotta say relationship troubles are not good for recovery." She jokes.

Eddie lets out a half-hearted laugh. "I ended things."

"What?" Caitlin chokes on her coffee. "Eddie you were minutes from proposing when Wells took you. What happened?"

"He...showed me the future." Eddie says, raising his eyebrows, not making eye contact with Caitlin.

"What does that mean?"

"He showed me a newspaper from the future. From his time. Iris doesn't marry me." Eddie says, sounding defeated.

"How would you be able to tell that from a newspaper? Who does she marry?" Caitlin asks.

Eddie looks up at her. "Barry." He says flatly.

Caitlin takes a deep breath. "What makes you say that?"

"An article about the Flash. It was written by Iris West-Allen."

"Flash vanishes in crisis?" Caitlin asks, referring to the headline.

"Yeah, something like that." Eddie says.

Caitlin takes out her phone and opens up a picture from Cisco that he'd sent her a couple of weeks ago. It was the picture of the newspaper Gideon showed them. She double checks the byline.

"Eddie?" She turns her phone to him. He looks up. "Look."

He narrows his eyes to look at her phone and sees the paper. "Yeah that one."

"No, look at the byline, ya idiot." Caitlin scolds.

He looks closer. "Iris West-...Thawne?" He looks at her with wide eyes. "Why is it different? Where did you get this?"

"Gideon, an A.I., showed it to us when we found that vault of Wells' a couple of weeks ago." Caitlin explains.

"Wells showed me his on some watch-like device."

"He could've altered it to get to you." Caitlin guesses.

"Why? What would be the point?" Eddie says, still sounding down.

"Maybe..." Caitlin's thinking hard. "Maybe Wells' was the original one. Maybe things have changed. Surely him coming back has affected his time, right?" Caitlin is getting excited. "I bet Gideon can account for the changes, that's why the byline is different. That's why Wells kept it around. To make sure he didn't change too much."

"What does the byline say now?" Eddie asks.

"I'm not sure." Caitlin admits. "But I know how we can find out."

Eddie perks up and follows Caitlin as she hurriedly exits Jitters. Eddie follows her as she drives back to Wells' house.

"What are we doing here?" Eddie says, a panicked look on his face.