#thatkillervibe

Beth was a force to be reckoned with. She knew that a lot sooner than anybody else around her did, and didn't even realize that she was as strong as she ultimately turned out to be. She was doing things that she never imagined and always came out on top.

Her daily words of affirmation, an extensive system of self care, and a small but very close network of friends that she loved like family made her unstoppable. Fearless. The GOAT in recent history...

Then, she would see Rick Tyler. Her main weakness.

They were friends, so she didn't think too deeply into the way he made her feel at first. She was happy to have friends! They were teammates, so it didn't Dawn on her how much he had her back when stakes were high and her fighting skills were low. She was relieved to have survived the battles! They were close, so she overlooked the gazing, the gleam in his eyes when he smiled, and convinced herself that she was overanalyzing the soft touches and tender whispers of support.

She would call him up, "Where are you?" And merely expect an answer. She would compliment him as naturally as she breathed, "Rick has AMAZING super strength." In all those times, she missed something. Granted, she had things going on that kept her attention scattered, but if Rick showed up, her attention found it's resting place.

He had gotten a broken rib in his defense of her.. or maybe he got it afterwards, but in her mind, he went through a lot specifically because of his protective nature. That was when it happened. When she could no longer explain away the feelings. When she thought back on all of the looks, the tone of voice and gentleness he now had with her. The way that they gravitated to one another mentally and physically.

That was when she realized that she liked him, maybe more, and she figured that she probably wanted him too. But, there had been so much going on.

Facing off with Eclipso, Rick's jail stint, her parents' relationship... She had a lot keeping her from going after her heart's desire. She promised herself that when it was over and they were all safe and victorious, she would make a move. They. Were. Now. IN. That. Era.

Rick was at his locker, trading out books. She watched him adjust his hair, apply lip balm, reapply cologne, and then linger on a photo of her in his locker. She smiled, took a deep breath and marched over, telling herself that this was the time. She could do it. Just walk up to him and make her declaration!

"Rick!" She said louder than she planned. He looked up from her photo and smiled. Weakness. Once again. She stared at him, frozen in her place with her smile frozen on her face. He squinted and she stepped even closer, clearly with something important to say.

"Beth, are you okay?" He wondered. He reached out and took one of her hands, which normally would steel her nerves, but today made her feel even more anxious.

"I just.. wanted... To say.. to ask.." she laughed at herself. She's faced the devil and won, but when it came to Rick Tyler, her defense system was non-existent, because usually HE was a defender. But, his face was so concerned, she bit her lip, twisted her face in a most uncomfortable smile and for one of the very few times in her entire existence, timidly asked, "Would you be upset if I kissed you?"

That was NOT what she had planned to say at all. It was on none of the note cards. It wasn't in any of the saved docs. It hadn't been practiced in her mirror or with a hologram of Rick from her goggles. But, when he smiled like Christmas morning, pulled her tense body into his arms and responded with a kiss - all was lost.

She had no clue of where she was or who, for a moment. Only enraptured with his hands gently rested on her waist, his lips, so soft and recently moisturized, and his intoxicating cologne wrapping her in a cloud of sensation.

Her elbows were bent and unmoving, her hands clenched into fists, and she was making sounds that drove Rick wild and only made him kiss her more and harder. Several students had stared, a few began whispering and Rick suddenly became conscious of the fact that they weren't alone. He withdrew his mouth, but kept her in his arms and she made a whining whimper when his mouth left hers.

Immediately, she covered her mouth and giggled uncontrollably. Then she began tracing her lips with her fingertips as Rick collected her with one arm and helped her move forward. She seemed to still be in her.. weakened state. "No," he said. "I wouldn't be upset at all."

Beth smiled brightly at him and snuggled into his side. "Good to know!" She cheered, slowly redeeming her will from his hold. "I've gotta say though... I think when we kiss from now on, it should probably be in private."

He laughed, "I agree. You did not have control of your functions back there." Rick teased, but his eyes were full of the warmth of love that his kiss sent radiating through her body.

"I had not properly prepared myself for that.. I don't know if I COULD prepare for that.. but, privacy will give me more practice!" She smiled and raised her thumbs, unable to shake all of the electric impulses Rick made her feel.

"Mmm. I'm going to be eager to assist you with this."

"I don't know," she said quietly. "I hope so. At least until my mom gets back to me."

She'd called her mom and left a message, clearly trying to strike a balance between asking for help and sounding like she didn't really need it, not really. Ralph and Cisco had exchanged the looks of men who had experienced Caitlin's mom in person.

Dr. T hadn't called back yet.

He brought her another mug, this one piping hot, drowning a tea bag, with a thick layer of honey at the bottom. "Well, I'm here."

She gave him a smile. "Thanks." She considered her half-full mug of broth and traded it to him for the tea. "I'm just glad that your plan worked to bring my temperature back up."

Cisco frowned down at the broth. He'd brought it to her less than ten minutes ago, fresh from the microwave, and it was stone cold. "You done with this?"

"Mhm," she said, stirring the tea.

He took it back to the kitchen and dumped it out in the sink. As he was stashing it in the dishwasher, a yelp of surprise and distress came from the couch.

He whipped around. "Caitlin?"

"I froze it," she said, staring into her tea. 

"You froze it?"

She held the mug out to him and sure enough, the tea inside was frozen solid, the handle of the spoon sticking up straight, the string of the tea bag sadly flopping around the surface like ice fishing gone wrong. It was a wonder it hadn't cracked the mug.

He picked up the thermometer and aimed it at her forehead again. 4 degrees, he saw, and his throat locked up for a second before he realized it had switched to Celsius. He hit the button, and it converted to Fahrenheit: 39. Still not great, but not freezing, either.

All he could think to ask was, "Need another blanket?"

"I think it was a flare," she said, carefully setting the mug down on her end table. She held her hand out in front of her. "I'm not misting."

Her fingers were shaking.

He went and got another blanket anyway, tossing it over her feet when she wouldn't allow him to wrap it around her shoulders. He wanted to cuddle her for comfort, but she was worried that she'd freeze him next, and he wasn't one-hundred-percent pooh-poohing that notion.

He texted Barry to bring him a set of dampener cuffs, and got a text back that their friend was in the middle of something. He said, 911 Caitlin needs them and got no reply.

"I'll be okay," Caitlin said. "He needs to conserve his speed and the cuffs would be a last resort anyway. It took me by surprise the first time, but I know the warning signs now and I can turn things over to Frost if it gets really bad. She thinks she can handle it better."

Cisco sent out a group text asking for someone to bring him the cuffs, just in case, and stuck his phone back in his pocket. "Maybe you should call your mom again," he suggested.

She shook her head, pulling the second blanket up over herself. "I've called her once. She'll get back to me."

"Call her again. Please."

She looked away, and it might have been a really long-winded argument except that her phone rang at that moment. She grabbed it and informed him, "It's her," before answering. "Mom? Hi. Thanks for returning my call."

Seriously. Who said that to their mom? What kind of mom made their kid feel like they had to say that?

He tried not to listen in, but the open layout of her front room made that pretty hard. He focused on washing dishes and figuring out how to thaw the frozen mug enough to dump the tea-block out. When that was done, he busied himself texting Kamilla that he wouldn't be home tonight. 

"Okay," Caitlin said. "Okay. Uh-huh. No, that's all right. Yes. I'll keep you informed. Okay. Bye, Mom."

At the sound of her sigh, he put his own phone down. "What'd she say?"

"She'll be here in a few days."

"A few days!"

"It's fine, I'll stay home until then. I'll take care of the wound and switch to Frost if I need, and if someone can bring by the cuffs, I can have those, too."

"But - "

"She has to get things in order at the office so she can take the time off."

He stopped dead, mid-protest. He couldn't think of the last time Mama Snow had ever taken time off work for her daughter. He was pretty sure that when Caitlin had been born, Carla Tannhauser had popped her out during a board meeting and stashed her in a file cabinet.

Caitlin looked up. "She's very concerned."

"Yeah." He sat down on the coffee table, ignoring the way she hissed at him. She hated when he did that. "So she's going to like, come here?" He pictured Mama Snow at Star Labs, snipping at all of them. "How long?"

"No, she - " Caitlin cleared her throat. "She'd like to take me to the lab in the Arctic."

"Hang on, Icicle's cryotastic lair of chilly evil?"

"Don't call it that, and yes."

"You're leaving?"

"I agree with her. We'll need the specialized equipment there to figure out what's going on, and maybe to stabilize it."

"How long?"

"As long as it takes, I guess."

How long would that be? "You want I should come with?"

"You just got back," she said. "And no offense, this is really more of a biomedical issue than a mechanical one. If it turns out we need some kind of device built, I can always call you."

"Yeah, you got my digits," he mumbled. "So what'll you do until then?"

"The wound did close up before my immune system went haywire," she said. "So now it's a matter of taking it easy. The antibiotics should start to work, and I'm taking in lots of fluids. I'm not concerned about that part, it seems like it's just a matter of time."

She was the doctor. He nodded. "Okay. But I'm staying here tonight to look after you."

"You don't have to do that!"

"Yeah, I know, I want to."

"What if I freeze you?"

He grinned at her. "Baby, I'm too hot to ever get that cold."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Seriously. You don't have to stay."

He squatted down next to the couch, as close as she would allow him to get. "Caitlin," he said, looking her in the eye. "I'm not sure you understand how much I care about you."

"I know you care about me."

"But you still think I'm going to see you in this condition and go swanning off back home."

She chewed her bottom lip. "What does Kamilla think?"

The rebuttal should have come easy. She's fine with it. You're my friend, you need help. It wouldn't be the first time he'd put in overtime to help a friend. It was one of the things Kamilla said she liked about him.

But for some reason he couldn't get the words out. "She understands," he said. "I filled her in. She says get well soon."

She doesn't have any reason to be jealous, he thought, and then immediately thought, Jealous? Why did that even cross my mind?

Caitlin studied him, and he tried not to squirm. 

"Anyway," he added. "We should get in some concentrated bestie time, since I was on the road and you're going to be off in the Arctic. Hmm?" He looked around and found her remote. "Here, I'll even let you pick the first movie."

"Oh, really," she said archly.

"Yes, really, here."

She took the remote with a pleased hum. "I should get injured more often."

"Umm, hard no on that."

***

By the time they'd finished “Always Be My Maybe” and “The Old Guard,” she'd downed some egg flower soup and a mug of tea without flash-freezing either, and taken some antibiotics as well. The cuffs had arrived too, courtesy of Allegra, who'd stayed long enough to eat three egg rolls and watch the end of Caitlin's rom-com. 

When Cisco finished cleaning up the Chinese delivery boxes, she was snuggled into her pillows, eyes closed.

"Hey," he whispered. "You awake there?"

She snored a little. He snickered.

He considered her couch. He'd had occasion to sleep on it before, and he knew it was decently comfy. But she would probably prefer her bed. 

On the other hand, she was asleep now, and she clearly needed the downtime. He didn't want to wake her all the way up just to steer her into her bedroom a few feet away. Especially if it would break open her wound again, or her suddenly-uncertain powers were under shakier control in her sleep.

He decided to leave her where she was and claim the futon in her study. He knew where all her extra blankets and pillows were. 

He held his hand a few inches away from her cheek, testing. When it failed to freeze over, he pulled the extra blanket up over her, then leaned down and kissed her forehead. Her skin was unsettlingly cool under his lips, and he paused until he saw her chest rise and fall. Then he brushed her hair back and murmured, "Sleep tight, frosty girl. I'll be right here if you need me."