Broken Together

Sixteen

"BARRY!" Caitlin screams as she wakes up from her sleep. She frantically looks at her surroundings and realizes where she is. She lets out a heavy sigh and buries her face into her hands. As the days have come and gone, she was starting to miss the presence of her husband. She leans her head back, reliving the nightmare and subconsciously starts rubbing her growing belly. "You miss daddy too?" she whispers with a slight smile.

"Are you okay?" Felicity yells as she bursts through the door. "I heard screaming!"

Caitlin half-smiles, "Sorry Felic, it was just a nightmare. I didn't mean to wake you." The blonde relaxes and slowly walks over to her. "You can go back to bed; I'm fine," she breathes.

Felicity shook her head, "You are not fine. This is your fourth nightmare this week. What's going on?" She takes a seat next to Caitlin on the bed and places her hand over hers. "You can tell me," she pushes, worrying about the mother-to-be.

A sigh leaves Caitlin's lips as she shakes her head with tears building in her eyes. "I miss him, Felicity." The blonde smiles at her and squeezes her hand. "It's been weeks, "she breathes then bites her lip as her free hand rubs her belly, "We miss him."

"Maybe it's time to reach out to him," Felicity adds and then gestures to Caitlin's phone. "Why don't you call him?"

Her thoughts circle the idea and nods at her friend, "I'll think about it."

Felicity sighs and shakes her head, "Caitlin, no. You need to call him. You just said you miss him," she snaps. "It's bad enough you are keeping the baby a secret from him; don't hide your true feeling from him too."

Caitlin shakes her head, "It's too hard!" she cries as the tears start to fall and Felicity pulls her into a hug. She pulls away and wipes some tears away, "I want to forgive him, I want to think I can forget all that's happened." She pauses and massages her forehead, "But, my heart still hurts..."

Felicity sighs and wraps her arm around Caitlin's shoulder. They rest their heads on top of each other as the silence fills the room. "I'm sorry Caitlin, I shouldn't push you into doing something your not ready to do." She sighs, "I just hate seeing you so hurt and unhappy." She pulls her head back and faces Caitlin, "After what happened with Ronnie and your dad, I didn't think I would ever see you happy again until Barry." Caitlin half-smiles and rubs one of her eyes as tears glaze over them. "He brought you back to life - literally," she breathes and bites her lip. "He saved you, Caitlin."

"And he destroyed me," she whispers and buries her head into Felicity's shoulder. The blonde rubs her back in comfort. "I thought I could handle it, I really did," her voice shakey with each word. She closes her eyes tight and whispers, "I just need the pain to be gone."

Thoughts and memories fill her mind as she slowly relives all the past events in her life that lead her to this moment of heartbreak.

Caitlin was sitting in class waiting for the professor to show up. It was her first day at CCU and she was very excited about her new adventure. The sound of someone clearing their throat caught her attention. She looked up to see a handsome young man. "Hi," she smiled as he smiled back.

"Is this seat taken?" he gestured to the chair next to her, his smile remaining on his face.

She bit her lip and shook her head, "no, not at all." She moved some of her things over to give the stranger room.

He sat down and turned his attention back to her, "I'm Ronnie" he smiled and extended his hand.

"Caitlin," she breathed and shook his hand.

As the class began, the pair would steal glances at each other and smile when they got caught by the other. When the class ended, they slowly packed their things away and followed each other out the door. They stood awkwardly, Caitlin biting her lip and Ronnie running his hand through his hair.