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"Caitlin, I'm glad to see you. I wasn't sure if you would come."
She released the handle of the food cart and, without acknowledging the greeting, pulled out a folding chair from the bottom of the cart and set it up.
"Are we eating together, then? Good, that will give us a chance to talk."
Her shoulders tensed but she forced herself to keep going. On the top of the cart were two bags bearing the distinctive logo of Big Belly Burger and she opened the nearest, taking out a wrapped burger, carton of fries and a large soft drink.
This part was harder. She had to look at him, she had to, or she would appear cowed and afraid, not confident and disdainful.
She raised her head and met his gaze directly, relieved that she only flinched on the inside. It had been a long time since she'd seen him standing but even that was a minor mental adjustment. The lack of glasses he obviously had never needed -- no wonder he was forever taking them off; she should have caught that, she was a scientist, why hadn't she been more observant? -- was another adjustment as well. But it was the unfamiliar expression on his oh-so-familiar face that disconcerted her the most.
Arrogance. Not that Dr. Harrison Wells hadn't had his own fair share of ego, of course, but it had been tempered by a desire to do right, by a heart. When she looked at this Eobard Thawne, she saw none of that. She saw brilliance without pity, without compassion, without decency or goodness.
Or was she simply casting her own feelings of betrayal onto him?
It doesn't matter, she thought. Stick to the plan.
"I assume you have an accelerated metabolism?" Again, she was glad that her tone was calm and professional, revealing nothing of the emotional turmoil beneath.
He studied her a moment, clearly evaluating her strategy. "Your assumption is correct, Dr. Snow."
He made a minute change in the way he was standing and all of the sudden he was himself again, he was Harrison Wells, her friend, her mentor, her partner in science, and it was as if this were merely some theory they were hashing over, bouncing ideas off each other until the solution could be found.
He put the mask back on.
The realization, the irrefutable proof that the man she had cared about for so many years was nothing more than a constructed persona, felt like a hole being carved into the center of her chest. Cold fury flooded into that wound and it was from that icy place that she found the smile she gave him.
"You must be hungry, then," she said, putting her hand on the second bag on the tray.
"I am, as a matter of fact," he said but he had observed the change in her demeanor and it pleased her that he seemed to not know how to interpret it.
"Good," she said and sat down in the chair and calmly unwrapped her food.
She ate in unhurried bites, keeping her eyes locked on him the entire time. His expression initially went blank, almost a predator's unblinking stare, but the longer she continued to eat, something began to bleed through the blankness.
Pride.
That makes no sense, why would he be proud of me for this?
But by the time she finished off the last of her fries, there was no mistaking the smile that curved his mouth and lit his eyes with an undeniably devilish glee.
"Why, Dr. Snow," he nearly purred. "Did you ever imagine you could be so... cold?"
It clearly was a joke she wasn't in on. Her lips pressed together briefly in a thin line as she stuffed her trash back in the bag then stood. She intended to walk away at that point but found herself striding stiffly over to stand in front of the containment cell.
"Maybe you don't know me as well as you think," she said, her voice tight from the effort it took to keep from shouting. Her hand pressed against the glass, fingertips scrabbling against the slick surface as if she could somehow reach through it to grab his collar and shake him as hard as she could.
He stepped closer in return until he was pressing back against the other side of the glass, arms wide-spread, as if offering himself to her phantom grasp. "Maybe I know you better than you'd ever guess," he said softly. "I'm from the future, Caitlin. Don't you think that I might know a few things as to how you turn out?"
Something about the way he looked at her with such sudden confidence made her uneasy. And, as she usually did when she felt uncertain, she fell back on science. "The future has too many variables. You can't be sure of anything."
He shifted, leaning down so near that, were they not separated by the cell, she would've thought he meant to kiss her. "True. But so many of those variables combine to one common truth: you and I are not done with each other just yet. We'll be together again one day, you'll see."
She pushed backwards, struggling to recover her equilibrium. "Enjoy your dinner," she said curtly and turned on her heel to walk away, pausing only to straighten the other bag so that the Big Belly Burger logo was as prominent as possible, so he couldn't help but see it sitting out of reach on the cart.
For a moment, she thought that she had seen an odd mark on the glass, like her hand had left a print of condensation, but she didn't want to ruin her exit by glancing back. And, of course, that was impossible at any rate: the cell wasn't refrigerated so it had to have just been some trick of the light.
She retreated to the lab where she found a place out of the way where she could hide from everyone else and sip a cup of tea and do her best to not watch him on the monitor. Exactly half an hour later, she sent Cisco down with an actual bag of food from Big Belly Burger, the one on the cart having just been a decoy -- not only was she against wasting food in general but wasting a perfectly good burger was more of a crime than she was willing to commit to prove her point.
He didn't even look at Cisco as he passed the food through to him; he kept his gaze on the security camera, smiling that same knowing smile the entire time. Then, as if he could feel her eyes on him, he winked and blew her a kiss.
She shivered and turned the monitor off, telling herself that the only thing she felt was disgust. She hurried back to join Ronnie and the others, too distracted in her haste to realize that she had left her tea cup behind.
It glittered in the light, frozen solid.