Author's Note: Holy smoaks, back so soon? That we are! And now with the new excitement about how I'm actually going to be doing Season 4... PRETTY AWESOME!

As you know from the ending of Season 2, Barry didn't create Flashpoint. You guys NEED TO KNOW THIS! Caitlin still has powers, and Julian and Savitar are still characters, but Dante didn't die, and all of that stuff.

I am going to be doing 3x07 (obviously) and then hope to do maybe 3x03, 3x13, 3x18, and 3x23. I am, unfortunately, going to have to make the scene where Caitlin "dies" (just because of necessity for the rest of the season), BUT she will be redeemed by 3x23 and not go on her "self-finding" mission.

YOU MAY BE WONDERING ABOUT THE WEDDING: I will be replacing WestAllen with Snowbarry for their wedding in the Crossover (Season 4, Crisis on Earth X). It may seem like an awfully long time for them to not have a wedding, but not much time has passed between 2x23 and 3x03 in this storyline, and also their wedding DOES take some time to plan :)

Barry drummed his fingers against the table top and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

He glanced at the door. Then at the clock. It had only moved about 12 seconds since he last checked.

Where was Caitlin?!

She was supposed to meet him at 5:00, after his shift at the lab was done. It was currently 4:58 and 22 seconds. She was basically late. Except not actually.

He bounced his leg a few times and glanced at the clock. 4:58 and 28 seconds. Was time actually moving slower then usual?

Sometimes Barry Allen really hated being a speedster. Times like when he was waiting for his fiancé to come meet him for dinner. Barry was practically starving. Besides, he had been crazy busy at the CCPD lately, and he and Caitlin hadn't been out to dinner just the two of them in at least a month and a half.

Ever since he had stopped Zoom, things had been in a lull. Metahumans didn't show up quite as much, and the only thing he was terribly worried about on the superhero front were strange husks appeared at random spots. It was like the person inside had been sucked dry, leaving an empty shell behind.

Footsteps on the stairs made Barry look up. 4:59 and 2 seconds. He grabbed his coat, hurried toward the door, and-

"Allen!"

Barry stopped and looked back. There sat Julian Albert, a new CSI that now worked in his lab and basically liked to dictate everything he did.

Barry let out a long, slow sigh and turned back around. "Yes?"

"What are you doing? Your shift isn't over," Julian huffed, shuffling a few papers around on his desk.

Barry glanced at the clock. 4:59 and 26 seconds. He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well it will be in, like, half a minute."

"Then you should use that half a minute wisely," Julian said. "Because your job hasn't ended."

Barry huffed out an annoyed breath and moved back to his chair, sending Julian a There you go, I'm doing what you asked, happy now? look that the other CSI sedately ignored.

A small, light knock came at the door. A large grin bloomed unconsciously over Barry's face. "Come in!"

Julian's mouth pinched. "No visitors in the lab-"

Caitlin poked her head in, smiling when she saw her fiancé. "Hey, Barry! And uh, hi, Mr. Albert. Caitlin Snow, in case you didn't remember."

Julian grunted something and Caitlin exchanged a look with Barry.

He refused to let his bad mood be messed with, and pulled her in for a quick hug. "How was your day?"

"Good," Caitlin said, sending an afterthought kind of wave at Julian as Barry pulled her out the door.

"Allen-"

"It's 5:00 Julian!" Barry called back. "Night!"

He shut the door behind them and released a sigh. "An entire month has passed and he still manages to annoy the heck out of me."

"You guys will learn to work together eventually," Caitlin assured him. "Now where are we going?"

Barry grinned, taking in her red, flowered dress and and long ringlets of perfectly curled hair. "You look beautiful."

"Interesting restaurant name."

He frowned a moment before getting the joke. "Oh, haha, Miss Literal. Or should I say Mrs. Almost-Snow-Allen?"

Caitlin giggled, nudging his shoulder. "You could, but it wouldn't make much sense. Unless my last name is suddenly 'Almost-Snow-Allen'?"

Barry rolled his eyes. "You're in rare form."

"I'm happy," Caitlin admitted, taking his hand and squeezing it as they set off down the street. "We haven't done this in a long time."

He smiled down at the top of her brunette head, swinging their hands. "Me too. Besides, you helped me escape from Julian Albert, so that always gives you points of favor."

She shook her head and he tugged her down the street a little faster, pulling her to a stop in front of a restaurant. The smell of fried food and french fries wafted out as Barry pulled open the door, and his stomach let out a terrific growl.

Caitlin giggled. "You going to be able to wait until our food arrives to eat?"

Barry wrinkled his nose as the host seated them and handed them menus. "Um... maybe?"

"Don't worry; I got you covered." Caitlin reached into her purse and discreetly passed him a calorie bar. He gave her a grateful look and inhaled it, trying not to attract any attention from waiters.

"You are a life saver on some many levels," Barry told her, waiting for the food to make him feel like his stomach wasn't trying to eat him from the inside out. "Except you aren't the candy kind of life saver."

Caitlin's brow furrowed. "And you thought I was in a strange mood?"

They both looked over their menus and ordered, before Barry started back up the conversation. "How was work?"

"Busy," Caitlin sighed. "We're trying to figure out those husk samples you sent, and..." she paused, stopped, then hurried on. "Yeah, just a few other things."

Caitlin glanced down at her hands, hoping that Barry hadn't caught her slip. In truth, she hadn't just been working on the husk samples that much that past day. She had been trying to figure out her powers.

For over a week now, Caitlin had known that she was a metahuman. She had told absolutely no one, too scared to face the facts that she was a meta and hoping to cure herself before anyone even had to know.

There was a reason she was so afraid. She wasn't just any meta. She had ice powers, just like her doppelganger on Earth 2. Caitlin knew firsthand how evil that woman had been, even if she may have redeemed herself in the end. She was afraid that if her powers took hold, she might turn that bad, too.

She spoke again, trying to break herself out of her thoughts before Barry caught on that something was wrong. He had almost figured her out a couple of times, and she wasn't sure how long she could keep her powers a secret from him. "How about you? Good day?"

"Well, uh, Julian had me write up a Carbon Dating report, then a DNA sequencing report, a couple chemical compound reports..." he trailed off. "So, he pretty much gives me all the work he doesn't want to do. I know- it's really boring."

Caitlin raised her eyebrows. "Boring? Barry Allen, science is never boring."

He grimaced. "I would have rather been working on the husks. Have you guys made any new advancements on what caused it?"

"No, not really," Caitlin admitted. "I've tried testing it for all sorts of different things, but..." she stopped and smiled at him. "But we don't need to talk Team Flash tonight, we can do that any day."

"Right! Yeah, of course," Barry said, nodding quickly. A sudden siren made them both look up, and Barry caught the attention of a passing waiter. "Uh, excuse me- what's going on?"

"Robbery across the street," the waiter reported. "Sorry, I've got to go."

Caitlin and Barry exchanged looks. Caitlin raised her eyebrow. "What are you waiting for?"

"Well, I just thought that it's our date night-"

"Barry," Caitlin groaned. "Go."

He nodded and quickly flashed away. A second later, he was back in his seat and the sirens had stopped blaring. "Sorry about that."

Caitlin shook her head. "Barry, it's our life, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

He smiled, and was about to respond, when both of their phones buzzed. "It's Cisco,'" Barry reported as he read the contact.

Caitlin sighed a little, staring wistfully at the other couples eating dinner inside the restaurant. But then she steeled herself, because as she had just said, this was their life, and she wouldn't want it any other way.

She glanced away from the screen and nodded at Barry. "We should go."

Flash!

Barry and Caitlin appeared down at the bunker, where the rest of the team was gathered.

"What is-"

"That!" Iris interrupted, pointing at the swirling blue mass in the center of the room.

"Why did you open a breach?" Barry demanded, coming down the steps.

"I didn't," Cisco replied, eyes trained on the gun he was holding.

"What?"

"That's why we called you," Joe said. He was standing beside Cisco, also with a gun in his hands.

"Can you close it?" Caitlin asked, staring in alarm at the breach.

"Once again, wouldn't have called if I could," Cisco called back. "Sorry, I know it was your date night tonight."

The breach began to swirl more frantically, and Wally's mouth twisted nervously. "Somebody's coming through."

"Step back," Joe commanded Iris, Wally and Caitlin, holding his gun higher.

Barry squinted into the breach, prepared to break into the run at the slightest need.

Then out popped Earth 2 Harrison Wells, panting a little, hands raised. "Allen."

"Wells."

"I need your help-"

In the next second, another figure popped out the breach and ran a couple of laps around it in a stream of yellow lightning. Then the figure stopped, and Jesse Wells grinned out at all of them.

"With that." Harry completed, gesturing at his very-speedster daughter.

"Hey guys," Jesse said, grinning.

"Jesse," Wally stared at her, looking shocked. "You're a speedster?"

Jesse shrugged, unable to keep back her smile. "Yeah, pretty cool, right?"

Wally looked down, and Iris hurriedly jumped in, "Uh, yeah! I would say so."

"When did this happen?" Caitlin asked, excited for the young Wells.

"A few days ago."

"So, when I got Allen his speed back, Wally and Jesse were hit with the Dark Matter- turns out she was effected- she was totally effected-" Harry babbled. He looked a bit stressed.

"But I didn't get speed," Wally spoke up. "So could it have been from something else?"

"No," Harry said, then reiterated. "I mean, I doubt it. Dark Matter effects different people in different ways at different times- and sometimes not at all, so you can be thankful. But she was affected and I want to run some tests and find out just how much."

Caitlin grinned. "Well, then you've come to the right place."

She led the way to the speed lab, a new addition to STAR Labs. It was something that Cisco had been working on in his free time, and included a track around the perimeter of the room and spots to run drills and monitor vitals and speed.

"Okay!" Caitlin said, smiling at the young female speedster as she and her father looked around the room in amazement. "Let's get Jesse on the track and see what she can do."

"Let's do it!" Jesse agreed excitedly, pulling off her leather jacket and sending a confident smile at Wally. "Check this out."

She flashed up the on ramp and began to wiz around the room. Wally watched her, a wistful, jealous look on his face. No one seemed to notice but Iris, who patted his arm and gave him a sympathetic smile. She knew how much Wally wanted his speed, and how hard it must be for him to see that Jesse had gotten hers instead.

"Daaaang..." Joe let out a low whistle. "She really can move."

"Yeah, she can," Wally muttered. "Um, I gotta... go."

He turned and walked out of the room. Iris let out a sigh. "I'll talk to him," she offered.

"He looked pretty disappointed," Caitlin commented to Barry as she watched Jesse's vitals. She was impressed- the teen was fast.

"Yeah," Barry agreed. "But it's better this way."

"Don't have to convince me," Joe spoke up. "Last thing I need is both my kids zipping around at super speed."

"Keep an eye on him," Caitlin advised. "I can't imagine this is easy."

"Who knew you had such a brain for kids," Joe said, grinning at her teasingly. She shook her head, amused, and he nodded. "I'll watch him, though. Hopefully he'll adjust to the change soon."

Flash!

"Baer!"

Barry paused in the lobby area of the CCPD, turning towards Joe.

His dad had been in an interview with Frankie, a girl who had been in the room that her foster father had been attacked in. Or rather, attacked by a lamppost in. Joe was obviously thinking meta, and Barry had to agree.

"What did you find out?" Joe asked in a low voice.

"Okay, get this," Barry said. "So the outer layer of the lamppost is a half an inch thick, but to bend even a quarter inch of steel requires 177 tons of tensile strength, so..."

"So we're looking for a meta with super strength."

"Well, I'm not sure yet," Barry cautioned. "But that's as much as I could find."

"What?" Joe squinted at him, confused. "Why?"

"Because I showed up."

Both of them turned as Julian Albert walked up. He looked extremely displeased... but then, he always did.

"Yes, the only problem with Barry's little theory is there were no fingerprints found on the post."

Barry let out a frustrated sigh, turning to glare at his partner. "Again, Julian, not my theory." He turned back to Joe. "And the meta could have been wearing gloves."

"Yes, perhaps," Julian pressed. "But the curvature on the post suggests that equal amounts of pressure we applied to the whole thing at the same time. So, unless our strongman has a wingspan of over 20 feet..."

He trailed off, and Joe nodded. "Something else caused it."

"Yes." Julian's eyes slipped past Joe and over to Frankie, who was sitting in one of the offices, drinking a glass of water as she waited for Joe to continue her questioning. "Who's that, sir?"

"That's Frankie Cain, the victims foster kid," Joe said. "That poor girl's been in and out of homes for years. Listen: she said she "blacked out" during the incident."

"Blacked out?" Julian squinted at Joe, hands on his hips.

"Yeah."

"Repressing memories is a coping mechanism for lots of foster kids," Barry commented. He felt, somewhere in Julian's gaze, that he was starting not to trust Frankie, and he didn't like it. There was some very small, very odd protective feeling over her that Barry didn't quite understand at the moment.

"Is it?" Julian said in a low voice.

"It 'tis," Barry said back, mimicking his British accent in a way that was probably childish. He didn't particularly care.

"Hm. Could be something else."

"Where are you going?" Joe asked as Julian pushed past them and into the interrogation room.

"Hello there," Julian greeted Frankie as he walked into the room.

She glanced up at him, her large eyes filled with that same scared, overwhelmed sheen as Joe had seen before. Barry's gut clenched.

"Hi," she breathed, staring up at him.

"You okay?"

"Yeah."

Julian's gaze flicked to the glass in her hand. "Can I get you some more water?"

Frankie looked down at the glass and then back up at him, seeming surprised that he had asked. "Yes, thank you."

Julian flashed a quick smile at her and took the glass. "Sure."

He turned and strode out of the room, passing Joe and Barry with an offhanded, "Gonna need another glass, detective."

Joe's mouth pinched and he exchanged glances with Barry. "Follow him," he ordered. "See what you can get."

"Mmhm. What're you gonna do?"

"I'm going to finish this up," Joe said, nodding in Frankie's direction. "And convince my son that he's not meant to be a superhero."

He clapped Barry on the shoulder and the forensic nodded. "Good idea."

Then he turned and set off after Julian.

He found his "partner" wiping a cotton swab around the rim of the glass.

"What are you doing?" Barry asked with a frown.

"I'd assumed you've taken a DNA sample before," Julian replied sarcastically.

"Okay, yes," Barry let out a sigh, trying to keep his patience. "I know what you're doing. I mean: why are you doing it?"

Julian kept his back to him, scrubbing his DNA sample across a microscope slide. "Looking to steal another sample?"

Barry rolled his eyes.

"I've isolated an element in all five of the husks that we've found, including Edward Claris's."

Barry frowned. "You mean the Rival?"

"Mmm, that's what the papers are calling him, yes."

The Rival had been a dark speedster that Barry had fought a couple of weeks back. Cisco's newly developed vibe blasts (a trick he had been working on for awhile and was just now getting used to) had saved his life, but the Rival had been found dead soon after they fought him.

Barry peered over Julian's shoulder, trying to see the microscope slide. "What's the element?"

"I don't know..." Julian muttered, focused on his work. "But it's not one that I've found in any other metahuman samples that I've studied."

"So you think that Frankie -the girl downstairs- has the same element in her DNA," Barry finished. He had to admit that it was an interesting test, but a larger part of him was annoyed for Julian even suspecting a young, scared girl of being a harmful metahuman. It was making him oddly defensive of her.

"Well, I wouldn't be comparing samples if it wasn't a possibility, would I?" Julian retorted, peering into the microscope. Barry rolled his eyes. "Well," Julian continued, straightening and turning around. "It's a good thing for both of us that I did."

"What?" Barry asked, confused.

"Come on." Julian strode past him, ignoring his question and heading purposefully for the door.

"Calm down, okay?" Barry said, hurrying after Julian as he charged down the steps.

"Where is she?!" Julian demanded.

"Ju-"

"You- YOU!" Julian had caught sight of Frankie and suddenly his voice raised to a yell. "Girl! Stop!"

"Hey- stop, Julian!" Barry protested and Frankie turned around, her eyes wide and startled.

"Stop!" Julian cried again, taking the last few steps as one and ignoring Barry.

"Me?" Frankie backed away from him, her brow furrowing. "What...?"

"The lamppost." Julian walked towards her. "You did it, didn't you?"

"What? No- No!" Tears sprang into Frankie's large, eye-lined eyes and she looked positively terrified. "No- stop-"

She clutched at her ears, hunching over.

"You're a liar!" Julian bellowed.

"Julian!" Joe yelled, coming out of his office and glaring angrily at the metahuman specialist.

"You're a metahuman," Julian accused.

Frankie clamped her hands tighter over her ears, gasping. "Stop- no- no- stop please."

"You put your foster father in the hospital, didn't you?"

"No- no-" Frankie let out a throaty sob and Barry stared at her in horror. This was making him feel sick. He remembered all the times in school when kids would tell him that his dad was a murderer, that he had killed his mother. He remember the feeling of tears burning behind his eyes as he had yelled at them to shut up and told them it wasn't true. And it was playing out again, right before him, except this time Frankie was being accused, not her dad.

"Didn't you?!" Julian yelled.

Suddenly, Frankie's cries stopped. Her back straightened, head rolling back. "Oh... I wanna do more then hurt him."

She held out her hands, splayed at the fingers, and growled, "Now I'm gonna do the same thing to you."

All of the metal in the room began to bend. The bars lining the second floor hallway... the railing Barry's hands were on... the giant CCPD sign... all of it bent inwards at Frankie's command.

"Frankie!" Joe yelled. "Frankie, stop!"

Frankie was seething now, trembling, panting. The huge, metal CCPD plaque came leaning foreword and Barry moved before he thought.

He changed into his suit, grabbed Julian, and flashed him away from the impact point of the metal slab.

"You okay?" Barry asked Julian, vibrating his face so the other man couldn't recognize him.

Julian nodded seriously, and Barry turned back to Frankie.

But she was gone.

Flash!

While Barry was dealing with Julian at the CCPD, Caitlin was getting through to a whole different type of stubborn... Harry Wells.

He was convinced that Jesse could not be a superhero. Too dangerous, too risky, too... well, too everything, even though Jesse was completely fine, health wise, and very fast. Caitlin would have to check, but she thought that she might have even been faster then Barry when he started.

"Snow," Harry pleaded. He had already tried to talk Cisco into having a conversation with his daughter, and now it seemed it was Caitlin's turn. "Caitlin. You and her- You've always had such a special relationship. You talk to her."

"No we don't," Caitlin said hurriedly. She was not going to be wrapped up in this family drama.

"Yeah-"

"And I don't know anything about having powers, so I'm the last person she should talk to. So. Don't ask me." She hurried down the steps and out of the room as Harry stumbled over his protests.

She turned the corner in the corridor and released her breath. The more powers were getting brought up, the more defensive she got. Eventually one of her friends was going to see that she was hiding something.

Caitlin looked down at her hand, biting her lip as she sent a small stream of frost out of her fingertip. Then she hurriedly cut it off. The less she used her powers, the better. There was still a chance she could fix this.

Flash!

Joe and Barry headed to STAR Labs for their lunch break. Barry approached Joe and asked him how his talk with Wally had gone. When he wandered back into the Cortex, his nose was scrunched in confusion.

"What's up?" Caitlin asked, trying to fight her smile. He looked adorably confused.

"Joe just said..." Barry trailed off and frowned. "Do you think I'm like a girl?"

Caitlin choked on the breath she had just been inhaling and broke into a coughing fit. "A- A- what?!"

"Joe said I was like having a second daughter," Barry huffed, sitting down in Caitlin's swivel chair and spinning it around.

Caitlin burst into uncontrollable giggles. "That's priceless," she laughed, unable to help herself even as Barry's face fell into a pout. "I can totally see that, though."

"Not you too..." he groaned. "He said I like to 'share my feelings'."

Caitlin laughed harder, doubling over and leaning against the desk for support.

"Caitliiiiiin..." Barry moaned, head lolling back as he stared at her with his most endearing puppy dog eyes. "I'm not a girl."

"Of course not," Caitlin reassured him, reached foreword and combing her fingers through his bangs. "No one thinks you're a girl, Barry. Or even girly. You are just a much more emotional guy then you usually see." She smiled at him, cupping his cheek. "It's one of my favorite things about you, so don't you dare ever change."

Barry nodded and sighed, seemingly satisfied. "If you say so." He eyed her for a moment, head tilted. "So... how did talking Jesse out of her speed go?"

"How did you know about that?" Caitlin gaped.

Barry grinned. "It was pretty obvious that that was what Harry came here for, and since he hasn't asked me, the next best option would be you and Cisco. In case you haven't noticed, you're not very good at letting people down, so you probably did what he asked."

Caitlin let out a groan, dropping her head into her hands. "I think that I have failed as a female friend," she mumbled into her fingers. "If anything, I just made Jesse more upset. Not only that, but now she thinks that I think she should jump right into things just because she's a girl."

She huffed, and lightly shoved Barry in the shoulder. "This is all your fault. If you hadn't gone and rushed into everything when you started being a speedster, she wouldn't think that it's a good idea and perfectly normal."

Barry cracked a smile. "Well, I apologize for trying to save the city."

Caitlin shook her head at him and he stood up, planting a kiss on her lips. "I love you."

She sighed against his mouth. "I love you too. Even if you used to be a very bad example."

Flash!

When Frankie (or Magenta, as Cisco was now calling her) was found, so was a giant floating cruise ship.

Barry flashed on top of a building, watching the huge boat soar slowly over his head and towards Central City Medical "Guys," he said, speaking into the com. "There's not enough time to get out of the hospital; this thing's coming down."

It made sense. This was the hospital that Frankie's adoptive father was held in, the one that Magenta had already tried to kill once. Not only that but..

"Barry, Iris' is still in there," Joe said seriously though the com.

Barry let out a breath, trying to focus. "What if... what if I create a wind funnel?"

"You won't be creating enough updraft to keep that tanker up."

"No- not with my arms," Barry pressed. "If I run."

Back in the Cortex, Harry, Caitlin and Cisco exchanged looks. "That could..." Harry trailed off, and Cisco nodded."That could work. Barry! Run in a figure eight fashion. It will act like a propeller. The wind will build upon itself and it'll create the supersonic resistance we need. Could work."

Barry took a deep breath, staring up at the barge. "Alright," he breathed, and started running.

After a couple of seconds, it seemed like their plan had worked. The barge was slowly floating upward, and was no longer in danger of hitting the hospital. Over by the building, patients, doctors and nurses were beginning to stream out of the space, Iris and John (Frankie's father) included.

"Okay, well that worked, but now what?" Cisco spoke up. "He can't stop her if he's up there."

There was a long silence, and then Harry sighed. "Cisco's right," he said softly, before turning toward his daughter. "Go help him."

"Dad..." Jesse started.

Harry's jaw was tight, his face resigned. "Get out there. Now."

"You sure?"

"Yes I'm sure." Harry smiled a little, walking toward her. "I know you can do it. You're more then fast enough. Now run, Jesse. Run."

A giant grin crossed Jesse's face and in a couple of seconds she was running by Barry's side, still in human clothes. "Hey," she said, beaming. "Thought you could use a little help. I got this- you go take care of Magenta."

Without speaking, Barry nodded and took off. He raced down the side of the building and skidded to a stop, right out front of Magenta.

"Magenta!" Barry called, holding out his hands in a calming gesture. "I got a little help, so I could help you."

He really didn't want to fight her- a girl that was only a teenager and seemed to be not entirely in her right mind. Something was controlling her, he could tell by the way her eyes were glowing and her face looked harsher and angrier then it had when she was at the CCPD.

"Okay, killing your foster father and everyone else inside that hospital isn't going to give you what you need," Barry continued, stepping a little closer.

"You have no idea what I need!" Magenta growled, her hands still out, fingers splayed and trembling. "It's not just John I want to get rid of. I want them both gone."

A creaking noise from above them made Barry look up. The ship tilted, starting to dip towards the top of the building.

"Barry, you got to stop her now. That tanker's coming down," Harry cautioned.

"I know you're still in there, Frankie," Barry said, refusing to be distracted. "Don't let John destroy the good that's still inside of you."

"He said I was weak," Magenta seethed. He saw so much pain on her face, pain of misuse and abuse and things that a girl her age should never have to go through. "That I was pathetic! He said I was a horrible person."

"He's just blaming you for all the bad things he's caused in his life," Barry said, taking another step closer. He could see Magenta's resolve weakening, the purple-pink color lighting up her eyes started to fade as tears swam in them. "It's not your fault. This isn't because of you."

"I just want him to stop hurting me," Magenta whispered, her voice trembling.

"This isn't the way," Barry insisted, pointing up at the barge. "Your foster father never forgave himself for his mistakes. That's why he took them out on you. He couldn't face who he really is- couldn't move foreword. But you can."

Magenta released a shaky breath, a tear running down her cheek.

And that's when Barry knew he had gotten through to her.

The ship began to move again, away from the top of the building, until it touched safely down on the ground.

"They did it," Joe murmured, and everyone in the Cortex sat back, letting out sighs of relief. Caitlin couldn't help the smile that spread over her face. Barry Allen was truly an amazing person.

The light faded from Magenta's eyes and Frankie was left on the pavement. She looked around in shock, then dove foreword into Barry's arms. "I'm so sorry," she sobbed, burying her face into his suit.

"It's okay," Barry breathed, stroking her hair as people began to stream out of the hospital. "It's going to be okay."

Flash!

Barry arrived back at STAR Labs with a tired, scared, pitiful figure. He passed her off to Caitlin, who met them in the hallway, and she quickly wrapped Frankie in a hug.

"Hey, sweetheart," Caitlin said softly, an overwhelming maternal instinct taking over and making her want to hug Frankie until all of the hurt she was feeling dissipated and stopped looking so lost. "How about we get you a chair, okay? Maybe a glass of water?"

Frankie nodded, tucking her head against Caitlin's shoulder as the doctor led her into the Cortex.

Once she was settling, Frankie handed the glass of water to Cisco and looked up at them. There were still tears on her cheeks, pooling in her eyes and making some of her makeup run.

"So no one else got hurt?" she confirmed shakily.

"Luckily, no," Caitlin told her, smiling gently. "You don't have to worry about that."

"What about John?"

"The DA is prosecuting him for what he did to you," Joe told her. "So I think he's gonna be serving time, and he's not going to be anybodies foster father ever again."

Frankie nodded, another tear traveling down her cheek as she shut her eyes for a moment.

"It's just so... strange being responsible for all of this," Frankie said softly. "and not remembering any of it."

Barry tilted his head, watching her. "What do you remember? About how you got your powers. How this all began."

Frankie let out a sigh. "Um... I started having dreams. At night. Of Magenta."

"Dreams?" Wally spoke up, slowly straightening from his lean against the desk.

"They were more then dreams," Frankie continued. "I dunno- it was- it was like I was living another life or something. And then I started getting them all the time. During the day. And the more it happened, the more painful they became. Then I started hearing a voice."

"What voice?" Cisco murmured.

"It was a man," Frankie said. "Named Alchemy."

Barry exchanged glances with Caitlin, and was surprised when she hurriedly looked away, biting her lip.

"He said he could give me what I wanted," Frankie continued. "That he could make me powerful again. I didn't understand. I thought I was going crazy." Her voice broke and Barry gave her a soft smile.

"Trust me; Magenta is not here because of anything that you did," he said soothingly. "There may be a darkness inside of you, but if you face it, it'll make it easier for the good side of you to win."

Caitlin glanced at her feet. It was impossible- Barry didn't even know about her powers- but some small part of her felt like that message was directed towards her.

"You're letting me go?" Frankie asked in a soft voice, breaking Caitlin out of her thoughts.

"None of this is your fault, Frankie," Barry said again. "Caitlin found you a good home in Keystone. People that will never hurt you."

Caitlin nodded in agreement and Frankie smiled a little at her.

She turned back to Barry. "But what if Magenta tries to come back?"

"Fight her," Barry said. "And if you need help, we'll be here. We have faith in you, Frankie."

More tears welled up in Frankie's eyes, but this time, they didn't seem quite as sad.

"Thank you."

Flash!

Caitlin and Barry saw Frankie out. Joe was going to drive her to her new home, and Caitlin gave her a long hug before she left. "Let us know if you need anything, okay?" she said, slipping her phone number into Frankie's hand. "I know a guy who can get me there in a second."

Frankie smiled, and gave Barry a hug, too. "Thank you," she said again. "For everything."

They watched her go, and Caitlin rested her head against Barry's chest. "You did good tonight, Flash," she said softly.

"Frankie's a good person," he responded, sliding his arm around her shoulders. "The light side of her can win- I can feel it."

Caitlin nodded, before turning suddenly to Barry. "I know that we've... I know that we've never really talked about it before, but- Would you- I mean, would you like to- ever have kids? The two of us?"

Barry's eyebrows went up and he glanced at Frankie's retreating back before looking down at Caitlin with a soft look in his eyes. "Yes," he said, vehemently. "Having a life with you- with kids, with a family, with a house that we can call our own- that's all I've ever wanted."

Caitlin nodded, smiling at him as he leaned down to kiss her.

"But," Barry continued. "I don't know if we're ready for that yet. There's still a lot of things that I need to sort out, and not only that, we haven't even gotten our wedding completely planned yet."

"Yeah," Caitlin agreed quickly. "Yeah, totally."

Her mind flashed to her cold powers, how the demon inside of her was growing every day, and she wondered if that would effect a child. She shivered a little, tucking closer to Barry.

"Someday, we'll make those dreams happen," Barry told her softly. "I promise."

Author's Note: Admittedly not my best chapter... which is too bad because it's the first of Snowbarry- Season 3. BUT! Next chapter is 3x07 so that's pretty awesome :)