Caitlin POV

I'm walking back in S.T.A.R labs with the pizzas when I hear Cisco loudly typing at a keyboard. I realize exactly what's going on when I walk through the entryway into the cortex and see Barry's suit is gone. Cisco hears my heels and turns around with a guilty look on his face. I hurry over and set the pizzas on the desk and take the microphone.

"Barry, you promised you wouldn't go after him alone!" I reprimanded through the microphone.

"Uh, Cait, hi. I can- um- explain, just not right now.. Where's Cisco?" Barry asked through his headset.

"Next to me. He's currently very concerned with the pizzas you sent me to get while you snuck out."

"Yeah, sorry about that." He chuckled sheepishly. I sighed and smiled a bit despite my annoyance.

"So where is he hiding?" I ask him, settling into my chair at the desk and grabbing my soda.

"Starling City. Oliver and Felicity say hi." He tells me and I cough, trying to swallow down my drink.

"You went to Starling City without me? I- mean us?" I asked him accusingly. I hear Oliver speaking in the background. Barry sighs and argues with him a minute before he exhales deeply.

"Barry? What's going on?" I ask him, not sure why he isn't answering. I hear a swish and papers thrown everywhere and turn around to see Barry standing there in his Flash suit.

Barry POV

"You went to Starling City without me? I-mean us?" Caitlin splutters accusingly.

"I told you she'd be mad. Just go speed there and get her." Oliver tells me as we sit in Palmer tech.

"No way. It's too dangerous, Oliver. Would you do it if it was Felicity?" I ask him and he smirks.

"So you're saying that you love her, Barry?" Oliver asks, and I sigh, defeated. I flash back to Central City and Caitlin turns around to look at me. She crosses her arms and looks annoyed and hurt.

"So, how was your trip?" She asks and I smirk. I walk over to her and pick her up, much to her protests.

"It's not over yet, just needed to flash back here and get someone." I tell her and I speed back to Palmer tech, and carefully set Caitlin down, but she keeps her grip on me, to steady herself, I think.

Caitlin POV

Once we get to Palmer tech, Barry sets me down but I hang onto him. It's mostly to keep myself from falling over, but also because I love the feeling of my arms wrapped around Barry's waist. Felicity looks over at me and winks and I blush and step away from Barry. He raises an eyebrow but turns back to Oliver and I head over to Felicity. She smiles and stands to hug me. When we pull apart something catches my eye on her left hand. I gasp and grab her hand. The guys look over and Felicity grins, chuckling slightly. I examine the ring that caught my eye, an engagement ring! They're engaged!

"When?" I ask, not needing to finish my question. She looks at Oliver who's smiling.

"Last night. Isn't it perfect?" She says and I nod enthusiastically. It's a beautiful circular cut emerald ring with silver entwining infinity loops on each side of the stone, which is about 2 carats. It's so stunningly Felicity.

"It's amazing. And I love the emerald. It's really symbolic. So how'd it happen?" I ask looking up, as Felicity walked over to the computer by Oliver, which beeped, and Barry walked over to me.

"Well, last night was our 2 year anniversary since Oliver quit being the 'Arrow' and was dubbed the 'Shadow Archer' and he took me to dinner where we had our not so successful first date and we went on a walk and ended up in the entryway of the Queen mansion where he told me he loved me for the first time. It was perfect." She told us and she and Oliver entwined their hands while we stood there smiling.

"So much for not getting the girl, huh man?" Barry asked and Oliver shrugged.

"I was wrong about that Barry. We can get the girl if we really want her." Oliver says pointedly looking at me. "I realized that I needed her because she kept me grounded and in our line of work, that's the key." He finishes and I nod at his words.

"Exactly Oliver. She keeps you from making stupid mistakes like getting shot with a weapon that could kill you, or I don't know, running into a black hole, or facing the league of assassins without telling me!" I say glaring at Barry, who cringes at my words. Oliver, Dig, and Felicity stare awkwardly.

"Cait, I was going to tell you." Barry starts and I wave him off.

"No, it's fine. It's need to know right? I'm not the crime fighting part of the team, I'm just the one that patches you up when you nearly get yourself killed. It's not like I don't have a right to know that you might not come back. It's not like I don't care about what happens to you or anything." I tell him and he looks hurt and annoyed.

"You are every bit as much a part of the team, even if you aren't physically out there with me. You talk me through everything on my headset, and you save my life when I make stupid decisions. Caitlin, I didn't want you to worry. You have enough going on right now, and I didn't want to add to it."

"Just because you don't tell me doesn't me I don't worry. When you ran into that black hole I swear my heart stopped. I was so scared I'd lost you. Why do you think that I- Nevermind." I stop myself before I say something embarrassing to Barry, especially I front of Team Arrow. Felicity sighs and walks to me, taking my hand.

"Seems like we need some girl talk. There's a bottle of whiskey in my office. I keep it for when Oliver goes on patrol. Let's go get you buzzed, okay?" She tells me leading me out of the office and I nod.

Barry POV

I just stand there, staring after Caitlin, a little surprised by her outburst. Oliver walks over to me and sits on the desk across from me. He looks at me for a minute with his eyebrow raised, waiting.

"What was that about?" I ask him and he narrows his eyes. I sigh.

"Okay. Yes, I didn't tell her about the League. She would've freaked out." I tell him and he shakes his head.

"Why do you think that is?" He asks and I shrug. "She likes you, you idiot! Felicity is the same way when I go on patrol. They worry whether we tell them everything or not."

"Caitlin? No, Ronnie just left a few weeks ago." I tell them but they shake their heads.

"She was talking to Felicity about it. Apparently, Ronnie and her got into a fight about something huge and they couldn't get past it, so they broke it off, for good. Ronnie moved to Philadelphia with Dr. Stein and his wife." Oliver told me and I thought about it. Caitlin didn't talk about it other than Ronnie and her were done, and he left.

"Look, I know what I said to you that day in Jitters, it eats at you, man. Trust me, I know. Iris was different, Barry. She didn't know you're the Flash. She was safe and you'd have dragged her into it. Caitlin is already in it. It took me three years, three, before I understood that whether Felicity and I were together or not, she'd be in danger so I figured that we should be happy for as long as we can. You and Caitlin have that chance, Barry. So don't blow it by trying to protect her." Oliver tells me, and I smile shyly before getting up and flashing to Felicity's office downstairs. I hear Caitlin and Felicity talking loudly and laughing. I'm about to go talk to Caitlin when I hear Oliver on my earpiece.

"Sorry, man. It's going to have to wait. We found him." He says sympathetically, and I sigh.

"It's alright, I'll talk to her when I get back." I tell him and we head out.

Caitlin POV

Felicity immediately grabbed two glasses and poured the whiskey and started asking 'Barry related questions'.

"So why did you blow up at him?" She asks, taking a sip of her whiskey. I sigh.

"I worry about him when he's out there. I mean, you get it. I just- Lately things have been weird between us, ever since-"

"Ronnie left?" Felicity asked and I nodded.

"How did you know?" I asked amazed that she can always guess stuff like that.

"It's easy considering you and Barry are close, and Ronnie was gone a while. I know from experience that working that closely together, feelings start to change and the lines are bound to blur. It happened to me and Oliver."

"I guess I never really thought about how I felt for Barry because of Ronnie and Iris and everything."

"How exactly do you feel about him?" She asks me curiously, with a grin on her face before we hear Dig running down the hall, yelling for us to hurry upstairs. We run and hurry up the flight of stairs to the penthouse office and find the monitors showing Oliver and Barry in an alley with a meta-human we'd been tracking for a while. He can read minds and has telepathic abilities.

"What's going on, John?" Felicity asks worriedly. Diggle broke his arm on the last mission he was on so that's one of the reasons Oliver called Barry. The other is because Barry won't stop until all dangerous metas are in the meta prison under S.T.A.R labs.

"Oh, no. Look." Dig says and I look up at the monitor. Oliver is fighting the meta, seemingly immune ti his psychic attack, while Barry was on his knees with his head in his hands. I grab the headset and put it on. I hear Barry crying out in pain, and I feel tears in my eyes. I clear my throat.

"Barry. Listen to me, Barry. I don't know what's happening, but I need you to focus on me. Please, come back. I need you to come back. I need you, Barry. Please, Barry. I-I love you." I tell him shakily and I hear his sharp intake of breath and look at the screen to see him get up and flash over to help Oliver. I turn around and see Felicity and Dig gaping at me with wide eyes. I play with my hands. I hear a whoosh and see Barry standing in the doorway, with his mask off, looking completely blindsided. I start to blush, and Felicity giggles. Oliver walks in and looks around before shrugging and kissing Felicity's forehead and sitting on the desk.

"Um- I'm going to go down that bottle of whiskey now." I announce leaving quickly, praying that Barry doesn't speed after me.

Barry POV

I just lean against the doorway, frozen in shock. Caitlin told me she loves me. I don't know what to think.

"Shouldn't you be going after her?" Oliver asks me and I open my mouth and then close it.

"I think he's in shock. Someone go hit him." Diggle says and I shake my head.

"Barry Allen, I thought you were supposed to be smart. Go. After. Her.!" Felicity yells at me and I flash out of there and into Felicity's office where Caitlin was hiding with a glass of whiskey in her hand.

"H-hey, Barry. I-um needed a drink for this conversation." She tells me and I nod.

"I would too, if I could still get drunk." I joke, trying to lighten the mood, somewhat. She smiles shyly.

I look at her, really look at her. She looked beautiful, as she always did, she had her auburn curls loose and down around her shoulders. She was wearing a dark red blouse with a short black pencil skirt and black heels. I love it when she wears red, it's my favorite color. She notices me staring at her and blushes.

"So, um- about what I said.." She starts and I realize in that moment that I love Caitlin. I love everything about her, her laugh, the way she reprimands me when I do something stupid, the way she smiles at me when I joke with her, when she gets drunk and sings off-key. I love her kindness, her intelligence, and how she makes me want to be a better hero, and a better man. I walk towards her, until I'm standing in front of her and she looks like she's going to say something. I stop her by pressing my lips against hers, and she sighs, kissing me back, and I swear my heart beat so fast I thought it would give out. This was like nothing I ever imagined kissing Caitlin would be like. And I did imagine it, but not like this.

Caitlin POV

As soon as Barry's lips crashed into mine, I melted into the kiss and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer. He deepened the kiss and I moaned softly, allowing him entrance and his tongue massaged mine for what felt like forever. Finally, he pulled back when we were out of breath and placed his forehead on mine as we stood there panting.

"So, that was..." Barry said, smiling. I laughed and nodded.

"Yeah." I said breathlessly.

"I love you too, Caitlin." Barry says and I look up at him, grinning. He smiles back and I throw my arms around him and kiss him again. He smiles against my lips and pulls me closer, his arms wrapping around my waist. We hear someone clear their throat and we jump apart. Oliver and Felicity are standing there grinning at us. I'm blushing furiously and Barry chuckles and rubs the back if his neck the his hand.

"So, hate to interrupt this touching moment. I-mean that didn't sound right, but anyway, you guys need to head back, now. Cisco called and said that Joe and Eddie were in trouble." Felicity tells us sadly.

"We should be leaving then. Oh, and I expect an invite to the wedding, Oliver." Barry tells him, before picking me up, causing me to giggle. He nods a them and looks at me before flashing back to the cortex.

"So, how was your trip to Starling City? Anything interesting?" Cisco asks us from his desk.

"No, nothing weird happened." I said quickly as Barry winked at me and sped over to help Joe and Eddie.

"What's new with Oliver and Felicity?" Cisco asks me as I sit down next to him and grab a piece of pizza.

"He and Felicity are engaged!" I tell him and he whistles.

"Man, I never would have thought Oliver would get married." He says and I mumbled my agreement.

"Caitlin, I need some help." Barry says as he flashes in. I stand up and look at where he's holding his side, blood seeping through his fingers. I gasp and run over to him. He falls to his knees.

"Barry! Oh my god, what happened?" I ask him hurriedly as I'm taking the top part of his suit of and looking at his wound.

"G-got shot." He whispers. Cisco runs over with my kit. I pull out the forceps and look at him.

"This is going to hurt, a lot." I tell him before digging the forceps in his wound. He cries out in pain.