This was a prompt from fountainofaffection on tumblr, who asked 'caitlin is injured and barry has to treat her, feel free to put in married-couple bickering'

I don't know why every time I write Barry/Caitlin it just turns into shameless fluff, but this is no different.

Enjoy!

"Damn it!" Caitlin's voice sounds through Barry's earpiece. He's on the other side of Central City, hot on his target's trail.

"What's going on?" he asks, only to be met with silence. "Caitlin, you there?"

"Uhhhhhhhh," Cisco appears on the line. "Caitlin can't come to the phone right now."

This stops Barry. The man he had been chasing through the hospital, a dangerous ex-surgeon known as Murmur, disappears around a corner.

"Can I take a message?"

"Cisco," Barry says, voice low and serious. "What happened to Caitlin?"

There's shuffling on the line, and Barry can only pick up bits and pieces of what's going on. He swears he hears a zipper being pulled undone and something like a shower head sputtering on.

"Caitlin might have accidentally come into contact with a hazardous chemical," Cisco answers nonchalantly. Barry can't help the sudden fear that clenches his heart. "But don't worry. Everything's fine. She's already in the emergency shower, and we now have a sedative strong enough for Murmur that's ready to go, so all in all I'd say this is a really great situation for us to be in."

"I'm on my way," Barry states, hearing the fear laying underneath Cisco's indifferent tone. He's about ready to take off when Caitlin starts speaking again.

"Don't even think about it!" Her voice is loud, so loud that it sounds like she's speaking into her own earpiece when really she's yelling into Cisco's from across the room. "I just nearly killed myself getting this sedative ready, and if you miss this chance to contain Murmur, I swear to god, Barry, I will end you."

This is a side of Caitlin that, Barry knows from experience, should not be messed with. So he turns back around and makes quick work of picking up Murmur's trail again. Having thought that he lost Barry, the doctor made the mistake of exiting through a side door to make a quick escape, leaving him wide open to Barry's attack.

Barry makes it back to S.T.A.R Labs, even with Murmur slung over his shoulder, in impressive time. Cisco barely waits for him to lay the body down on the table before he's sticking a syringe in his arm to keep him knocked out. Barry hardly registers what he's doing, his attention elsewhere.

"Oh my god," Barry remarks at the sight of Caitlin, sweaty and shaking on top of her desk. Her contaminated skirt and blouse sit in a pile at her feet, and she has nothing but a towel wrapped around her, exposing the red blotches covering her skin. When her eyes meet Barry's, he feels the weight of her pain instantly.

"Will you do me a favor and get me some..." She's interrupted by a strong gust of wind as Barry disappears, only to appear at her side seconds later with a pair of S.T.A.R Labs sweatpants and a matching t-shirt in his hands. "...clothes."

Barry smiles as she finishes her sentence. She reaches out with a shaking hand, the other clasping the towel tightly to her chest, and takes the clothes from his hands. Longing to feel the comfort that only warm sweats can bring her, she can't even be bothered to bring herself to the bathroom across the room.

"Turn around," she orders Barry, who quickly obliges. With a hasty look over her shoulder to make sure Cisco's still preoccupied with Murmur, she slowly eases herself to her feet. She hesitates for a moment, looking around at all the glass and reflective surfaces that Barry could catch sight of her in. She's not sure if it's because she trusts him not to take advantage of the situation or if it's because she's just so damn sick of feeling like a human experiment, but suddenly the towel's at her feet and she's sliding the clothes over her body.

"Ok," she sighs, feeling instant relief. Barry takes that as his cue to turn back around. His face falls at the sight of her skin, a closer look revealing that the red blotches he had thought to be some sort of rash are actually burns.

"How are you feeling?" he asks, the concern he feels for her evident in his tone.

"A bit like college freshman me on her first day of organic chemistry," she answers. He's glad that she's joking, but noticing the way she shudders every few moments, he can't help not being appeased by her answer. Sensing this, her tone becomes serious. "I'm going to be fine, Barry."

He nods, trusting that she's telling him the truth. He considers leaving then. There's still a lot he needs to do - he needs to check in with Joe to make sure everyone at the CCPD knows Murmur's been contained, he needs to talk to Cisco about clearing a temporary space in their metahuman prison for him, and there's another case on his desk at the lab waiting for him. But even with all of this, and even knowing that Caitlin is more than capable of taking care of herself, he can't bring himself to leave her.

"Woah," she holds a hand between them as he lowers himself to sit beside her, scooting to the other side of her desk. "Be careful. There could still be traces of the chemical on my skin."

"Caitlin," he laughs, "I know you. You are nothing if not thorough. I'm sure that you got it all."

She seems pleased at hearing this. "Well, you're right. But I still don't want to take any chances."

"Ok," Barry remarks, holding his hands up in the air. "I won't come near you."

Caitlin nods, satisfied, and crosses her arms across her chest. She should have known that he was up to something by how quickly he surrendered - Barry's always seemed to love doing the opposite of what she tells him to do - but she doesn't realize it until suddenly he's on the other side of her, gently poking at her side.

"Although, I guess there's really nothing you could do to stop me," he adds.

"Barry." Her voice comes out low, threatening.

"Yes, Dr. Snow?" he responds from behind her, his lips dangerously close to her ear. She reaches around to smack him, but he's quick to dodge it, appearing in front of her with a smirk. Suddenly it's like they're five years old and he's yanking her pigtails to get her attention, and she should be annoyed. She should be really annoyed. She should be scolding him for interrupting her recovery process and, worse, for putting himself at risk.

But, despite herself, she's laughing. She's loving every second of it, and soon enough the tremors racking her body have stopped and she forgets about the burns on her skin. Noticing how relaxed she's become, Barry settles down and slowly sits himself back beside her. She lets him this time.

"I'm glad you're okay," he says, lightly bumping his shoulder against hers. Her lips curl into a smile she doesn't try to stop.

"That's a good look for you, Caitlin," Cisco jokes from across the room, pulling her attention away from Barry. She looks down at her clothes, the sweatpants and t-shirt she had forgotten she was wearing. She can't remember the last time she was at work without a dress or skirt.

"Yeah." Barry's voice is soft beside her, and he's smiling when she turns back to face him. "It is."

It's then, looking at Barry, that she realizes it's not just the clothes that are making her feel better. It's also the man beside her. Slowly, sometimes without her even noticing, Barry's been knocking down the walls she had worked so hard to build up around herself. And even on her worst days - days where she can't pull herself out of bed, days where she lets her emotions get the better of her, days where she makes a novice mistake in the lab - Barry makes it clear that he cares and that he's there for her.

And she'd never admit it, but she wants him to be.