Caitlin should be angry. Caitlin should have agreed to leave Central City with Ronnie when he had asked months ago. There isn’t a day that goes by that she doesn’t...think of the what if. There are moments where she can stop as she loses herself in daydreams of what would have happened had she gone with him, had they left Central City and never looked back. Had she put herself first for once.
All of those thoughts vanish, though, when she sees Barry Allen cry.
It’s a matter of seconds before she is up and moving across the space that is between them - nothing else matters except the boy in the suit. She pushes the hood off and she brings her hands to his face, cupping it and swiping under his usually bright cheerful eyes, capturing the tears before they can fall and flicking them away. He does not deserve this pain. It is not his to shoulder.
The doctor isn’t sure how many times they’re going to have this conversation where he apologizes and she tells him that it isn’t his fault, she doesn’t have it in her to keep count. Not anymore. Shaking her head she wraps her arms around him, pulling herself into him and hiding her face in his neck. This is not his fault - it’s hers and she refuses to let him take this onto his shoulders.
“I don’t blame you, Barry.”
Clinging to him she allows her own tears to fall, cold against his warmed flesh as she shakes her head and leans back to wipe at his face again, only pausing to catch her own so that she does not ruin her make up.
“And no matter what you think you’re sorry for - I do forgive you.”
nonsexual acts of intimacy | selectively accepting | @theoreticis