New Earth: Flash

Chapter 38

Caitlin was sitting at a table in a restaurant, checking her watch for the fifth time and groaned when she saw that the person she was supposed to be meeting still had not arrived.

She's not going to show. Frost said in her head again.

"I'm starting to think you're right. She was supposed to meet me here half an hour ago. I'll give her another few minutes before I call Cisco and ask him to meet me here, since there is no sense in wasting a reservation." Caitlin said.

My thoughts exactly Caity. Frost said, right as the person they were waiting for arrived.

"Sorry I'm late. Something came up at the lab." Carla Tannhauser said as she sat down across from her daughter.

"Sure it did. If you didn't want to meet with me, you could've just said so." Caitlin said.

"Caitlin, can we just skip the insults and get to the point of why you asked to see me." Carla asked and Caitlin sighed.

"I wanted to bury the hatchet between us." Caitlin said.

"Wait, what?" Carla asked.

"Mom, I know the truth about dad. About his icy problem." Caitlin said.

"What are you talking about?" Carla asked.

"Mom, I know about Icicle." Caitlin said.

"How?" Carla asked.

"Because I have my own version of him. Frost." Caitlin said and Carla sighed.

"I should've known that was you running around the city shooting ice as criminals." Carla said.

"Technically, that's not me, Frost is her own person, we just share a body and we both agreed that since dad is a lunatic right now, we want to have a better relationship with our mom." Caitlin said.

"So, Frost is a good guy." Carla asked.

"Good might be an oversimplification, but she's not a sociopath. Anymore." Caitlin said.

Hey, I was manipulated by Savitar when that happened, and you can't deny that you didn't deserve to be forced into the backseat for a while like you did me. And you got out a lot sooner than I did. Frost defended herself and Caitlin rolled her eyes.

"You know what, I'm not even going to ask." Carla said.

"Thank you. I admit, when Frost first showed up, I was terrified of her, since unlike most meta powers, she came with her own personality and I was terrified that she was going to take over. It took some time for us to realize that Caitlin and Frost are just two sides of the same person and now we're practically sisters. It's just too bad that our powers only work when she's in control." Caitlin said.

"Well, it's nice to know that at least you have a nice relationship with your icy half." Carla said.

"But mom, I think that if we put our heads together, we can find a cure for dad." Caitlin said.

"Maybe. But that would imply us being able to work together in any cohesive way for a long period of time. Something that isn't exactly our strong suit." Carla said.

"I know and I also know that a large part of that is on me. After I thought dad died, I pushed you away. And I'm sorry." Caitlin said and Carla was shocked for a minute before nodding.

"And I suppose I wasn't the easiest person to get along with after your father died. I threw myself into my work and I didn't stop you from pushing me away. The harder you pushed, the tighter I should've held you." Carla said.

"Let's agree that we both made mistakes." Caitlin said and Carla nodded her agreement.

"Clean slate?" Carla asked and Caitlin smiled.

"Clean slate. And Frost agrees too, even though you never met her." Caitlin said and Carla sighed.

"I do want to meet her, since like you said, she is my daughter too." Carla said and Caitlin smiled.

"She says she'd like that, though she wonders if maybe you have an ice persona too that she can call mom." Caitlin said and Carla actually laughed.

"Not that I know of. I'm pretty sure that Frost is entirely your father's creation, though hopefully she'll take more after me than him." Carla said.

"I think she will. And she's not the only important person in my life I want you to meet." Caitlin said.

"Wait Caity, do you have a boyfriend?" Carla asked and Caitlin nodded.

"His name is Cisco Ramon, he works with me at Star Labs and in addition to being my boyfriend, he's also my best friend. I'm honestly not sure how we never realized just how much we cared about each other for as long as we did." Caitlin said.

"I look forward to meeting him. Wait, he's not a janitor is he?" Carla asked with a smile and Caitlin laughed.

"No, he's the head of R&D and head engineer of Star Labs." Caitlin said.

"I like him already." Carla said as they continued talking.