"There isn't a way to do it!" Barry yells.
"Yes there is!" Caitlin argues.
Barry has been trying to piece together a group of twenty shapes into a circle for over thirty minutes. He runs off to resume his game of ping pong with Cisco and make his next move in chess with Wells before returning to the frustrating puzzle Caitlin made for him.
"Checkmate." Wells says triumphantly.
Barry races over. "What?"
"Guess you still have a few things to learn." Wells says, smirking at him.
"I was too distracted by that damn puzzle." Barry argues, running back over to Caitlin's puzzle, staring at it as if it stole his lunch money.
His phone beeps.
"Iris wants to exchange presents now. I gotta go. See you later!" He yells as he runs out.
Cisco and Wells approach Caitlin's puzzle and stare at it.
"It's impossible." Wells says.
"Well Barry sure seems to think so." Cisco laughs.
"No, Cisco. The puzzle doesn't work. There is no solution." Wells corrects. They both look to Caitlin who is smiling.
"You Kobayashi Maru-d him?" Cisco asks.
"Yep!" She says proudly.
Wells smiles at her and they all go back to clean up the cortex.
***********************************************
Caitlin unlocked her car in the parking garage at the mall. She had gone to pick up Wells', Cisco's, and Barry's presents. Well, a copy of Barry's present. She put the bags in the back seat and closed the door, noticing a man's reflection in her window.
She gasps, recognizing the face, and turns around to see Ronnie. Long black hair is hanging over his face, and his clothes are not the last ones she saw him, but they are dirty and torn.
"Ronnie?" she whispers.
He lifts a hand as if he's about to touch her face and winces. Then he runs away. Caitlin runs after him, tripping over her heels down the stairs that he practically jumped down. When she rounds the corner she doesn't see him, but sees a door shut. She runs up to it, disappointed to discover it's locked. She hits the door and leans her forehead against it.
"Ronnie," she breathes out.
**********************************************
"You saw Ronnie?" Cisco yells.
Caitlin slaps her hand over his mouth.
"Yes, now hush. I don't want everyone knowing." She says, looking around them to make sure no one is within earshot.
"He's alive, Cisco. I don't know how, but it was him." Caitlin says, still barely believing it herself.
"Where was he?" Cisco asked.
"In the parking garage below the mall. He followed me."
"So he knows it's you? Or at least he recognizes you." Cisco observes.
"I don't know. He ran, the second I said his name." Caitlin says, recalling the events in the garage. "We'll need to find a way to track him. We can start back down in the garage."
"I can make something for that," Cisco says with a grin.
Barry comes storming into the cortex, plopping down on an office chair and spinning, letting out a sigh.
YOU ARE READING
Collateral Damage (snowbarry)
FanfictionCaitlin Snow and Barry Allen both have traumatic pasts involving Eobard Thawne, or as they know him, Dr. Harrison Wells. He killed Barry's mother, and was the cause of Caitlin's father's death. Will their shared experiences bring them closer togethe...
