Earth 50

Earth 50 4.0

Meanwhile on the other side of the breach, Caitlin is waiting for Kara in the breach room in STAR Labs with the rest of Team Flash.

"I still think that this is a bad idea." Barry repeated for what felt like the hundredth time.

The entire team groaned at Barry's declaration, as it felt like he was a broken record endlessly on repeat until Caitlin and Kara are convinced that going in vacation is a bad idea.

"Barry, we've been over this a hundred times already ever since Caitlin told us that she and Kara are going on vacation to Caitlin's family lake house in Chicago. Wally, Jesse and I will help you while she's gone, even Gypsy agreed to take some time off from Earth 19 to help us in case we need reinforcements. Now, will you please just shut up about it for now because, we all know that there is no changing Caitlin and Kara's mind." Cisco told him with and edge of finality.

Barry was about to protest, but Joe cut him off.

"Barry, enough. We both know that Cisco is right. You, better than anyone in this room, knows that Caitlin deserves a break, especially after  everything that she's been through. Kara too. Plus, this could be a chance for Caitlin to reconnect with her mother after all these years. Not many people have the chance to."

Barry managed to finally shut up at Joe's words. He knew that his foster dad was right. After everything that Caitlin went through in this Team, she deserved a chance to breathe and get her head in the game properly. Kara as well, after hearing about what happened to her and Mon-El.

But most of all, Barry can't help but feel that Caitlin going away is somehow his fault.

He somehow managed to overhear Kara and Caitlin's conversation right before Kara and Alex went back to their earth. It wasn't intentional. He heard how Kara is still in love with Mon-El despite being married to someone else. But, most of all, he heard how Caitlin managed to fall in love with him, and how explicable her timing is that she only realized it when Barry is already dead set on marrying Iris.

Somehow, he wished he hadn't eavesdropped in on their conversation, because what he heard Caitlin say next really struck him,

"Maybe, I'm just not meant to fall in love or be happy with someone. Because lately, I suck at love. I mean, my husband dead, my ex-boyfriend is a psychopath, my almost-boyfriend left the team because I became Killer Frost and became too much for him to handle. And now, I've officially given up because, as luck would have it, I managed to get myself into an unreciprocated love with a man that is now married to the girl he's been pining for 16 years. I have no chance against that."

And how Kara answered her only made it worse.

"You did the right thing, Caitlin. And I can say that because I've been going through the same thing with Mon-El. Well, something similar. When Mon-El came back, I thought that we could go back to where we left off when he fled Earth. But, boy was I wrong. Just when my hopes at me finding love again were at its peak, it just fell into a deep and dark abyss when I found out that he's from the future, seven years later, and that he moved on and is now married. I tried to be okay with it, but I somehow ended up just like you, pining for a man that is apparently moved on and married for seven years now. I can't compete against that. And I feel the same way you do. Maybe the two of us aren't just meant to be happy, or we aren't capable of being loved enough that the ones we do love can either stay with us or at least return our feelings for them."

Caitlin only nodded as a lone tear trickled down her pale cheeks and gave Kara a hug as a way of comfort during their rather depressing epiphany in their doomed love lives. Barry quickly went out of the room before either one of them caught him eavesdropping.

He knew that he needed to make it up to Caitlin somehow. He just didn't know how to do it without hurting her more than she already is.