AN: I don't own the show nor the characters. I hope you will enjoy the story. If you have a moment, please leave a comment. I would love to hear your thoughts :)
They had just a couple of days left. A couple of days to figure out a way to stop Savitar, to stop him from killing the most important person in Barry Allen's life. Time and fate were working against them like never before, yet they couldn't lose hope, especially not now.
Tracy had worked harder than ever before, but she still didn't manage to complete the Speed Force Bazooka project. HR tried to help her the best way he could, but even he couldn't erase the feeling of doubt and fear that the woman normally managed to squeeze deep inside of her. She couldn't really remember when was the last time she slept; there were times when she stumbled while standing still on her own two feet, HR's strong hands holding her up. They were running out of time.
Cisco watched it all from the side-lines. He pitied the other scientist but they didn't have any other options – well, they had but the option in question didn't make much progress either since the last time that Cisco had managed to vibe him. They split the work to save some precious time – Tracy was building part of the bazooka here and the schematics for the other part were sent to Harry Wells, who stayed on Earth 2; the other Earth had better resources for that piece of machine.
It's been two days since they had heard from Harry and Cisco was getting a little impatient. The other Wells double checked every equation made by Tracy and reached the same conclusion: the gun should work. It's wasn't a 100% thing but it was their last chance and they were all willing to risk it. Cisco watched as HR handed Tracy a cup of coffee and stood next to her, their shoulders touching. The woman leaned into the touch and rested her head on the Wells' shoulder. They were speaking softly and Cisco backed away not wanting to interrupt them. Just then the mutliverse comm-link in his pocket started to vibrate. He flipped it open and read a two word massage displayed on the screen.
Cisco took off to his workshop before he even finished reading it. He hid the comm-link back into his pocket and found his vibing goggles as soon as he entered the room. It wasn't long before he opened the breach an stepped through it.
The trip to Earth-2 always felt amazing to Cisco and he believed that he could recognise this place everywhere. From what he could tell, after his brief visit to Earth-19, every Earth had her own light. While HR's was more blueish, Harry's gave orange kind of glow that easily distinguished it from Cisco's own home. It also felt a little warmer and now, when Cisco had better control over his powers, he could feel the different hum of vibrations that was emitted from Earth-2 core. He didn't know why, but it was soothing, yet he couldn't waste time.
Harry Wells dressed in a black hoodie stood before him, arms crossed over his chest, while slightly leaning against the table that stood behind him.
"You finished it?" Cisco didn't bother with greetings – they both knew, that time was too precious at the moment. Harry nodded and moved aside to revile a weirdly looking circuit-like machine made of wires and metallic pieces.
"Took longer than I thought, but it's done," he picked it up with his left hand and turned to Cisco. "Your new scientist should be able to montage it wherever she pleases."
Cisco reached with his hand to grab the machine but the other man retreated his hand. Ramon frowned at Wells and opened his mouth to speak but Harry was faster.
"You know, there's no 100% chance that it could work, right?"
"Well, we don't have any other options available do we?" Cisco scoffed.
"You should make a back-up plan."
"Harry, we don't have a time for this –"
"If that gun fails –"
"It won't-"
"You don't know that –"
"Iris doesn't have time for us to argue now, Harry!" Cisco pocked Harry in the chest with his finger. There was silence between them and then without another word Wells moved his hand back in Cisco's direction. The younger man clasped his hand over the device, yet Harry didn't let go.
"I'm coming with you," he said and Cisco's eyes winded a little.
"What?"
"You've heard me – I'm coming with you," Cisco shook his head.
"No way, man. We need you here."
"Listen to me very carefully, Ramon: The gun –"
" - It's bazooka, Speed Force Bazooka," interrupted Cisco and Harry closed his eyes for a moment counting to ten backwords in his mind.
"- it doesn't matter how it's called! What matter, is that it could fail, yes the plan is to bring Iris here, but that too can be not enough. If all that fails, we need another plan." Harry looked Cisco straight in the eye, deadly serious, then let go of the device and took a step back.
Ramon swallowed then nodded.
"You have something in mind then?"
Harry moved to the table and started to sort through the papers.
"I thought about it while I was assembling the part you needed…" he said. Some of the blueprints fell on the floor but Harry didn't seem to mind them. "It's just a theory, but I think I will manage to build it in time, in case if something goes wrong."
"You are aware, that we have less than two days, right?" Cisco moved to stand beside the older man and watched as he rolled some of the blueprints then put them under his right armpit.
Harry took a sharp breath and nodded a couple of times still organizing his notes.
"I know, Cisco but…" he put his hands flat on the table and squeezed his eyes shut. Then he turned and locked his gaze with Ramon and swallowed. " I can't just sit and do nothing."
They looked at each other for a moment and then Cisco nodded.
"I understand."
Harry returned to his previous task and quickly organised his notes in a neat pile and then grabbed them with his right hand.
"What are these?" Asked Cisco as he followed Harry around the table.
"My concept notes, I want your new team addition to look through them, maybe she will have some more ideas."
"Is it your idea of asking for help?" Cisco put on his goggles but still caught Harry's irritated look and smirked slightly.
"I'm not asking for help, Ramon, just for an insight."
"There's no difference."
"Yes, there is. She knows how to use her brain and it would be a shame not to put it in use."
"You know she has a name right?" Cisco concentrated his energy to open a breach and soon it appeared right in front of them. Harry just shrugged.
"Doesn't matter, I would forget it anyway."
When Harry Wells stepped through the breach with Cisco on his heels, he didn't know how much he was mistaken.
Harry's feet landed on the floor with loud thud as he stumbled a little. His left hand moved to grab the blueprints that almost escaped from his armpit. He moved aside to avoid Cisco bumping into him. The room was cluttered, Cisco clearly was working on something before all of this. He didn't have time to muse about it however as he heard the unmistakable sound of breach closing behind and soon he saw Cisco walking towards him from the corner of his eye. The younger man shook his head to move hair from his eyes and removed his goggles.
"No place like home, right?" Cisco said and without waiting for Harry's reply, moved to place his vibe-gear on the nearest table.
"Ok, let's go. If you want those things to be looked at, we need to find Tracy. She should still be in her working room with HR."
Cisco went through the door, but Harry hesitated before moving. Something didn't feel right. All of sudden the feeling of dread overwhelmed him and something cold and nauseous settled itself inside of him.
"Tracy?" He asked, but Cisco didn't hear him as he already was beyond the door.
Harry moved his feet but he felt oddly detached. He moved through the corridor fallowing Ramon's steps but his mind wasn't really there, just as if he was moving through haze – each step more difficult than the previous one.
That name could belong to anyone, it didn't have to mean anything, what were the chances that it did? As he got closer to the door from which he could hear voices, one of them sounding like his, only less gruff, he forced his brain to think rationally and stop playing stupid games with him. He didn't have time for shutting down.
Yet it all went to hell as soon as he entered through the door and found his breath literally knocked out of him. She was standing with her back towards him, but he would recognise those back anywhere. That waistline, that wavy golden hair that reached slightly beyond her shoulders and her stance… Those things were imprinted in his mind. He suddenly got tunnel vision and found himself unable to breathe.
For that one moment he no longer was in the room on Earth-1. He was on a rainy street in front of his own S.T.A.R. Labs. He didn't wear hoodie, no. He wore a business suit and God he hated that suit. It didn't matter though, it was soaking wet now and clinging to his body, chilling him through the bone. There was a rumble above him and a lightning split the sky. A lone car disappeared at the corner. Before his feet laid a body. A broken, mangled and bloodied body of a woman with blond wavy hair that now were splatted with red.
The blueprints and notes fell from his now numb hands and scattered on the floor. As three startled faces turned towards him he didn't know that his mouth hanged open and he was gasping for breath as his chest was rising in a quick shuddering motion. He saw Cisco's mouth moving but he didn't hear his voice. The only thing, that Harry could hear was ringing in his own ears and a noise of blood pumping through his veins. Cisco's moved towards him, his arms outstretched but again, the only thing Harry could see were big azure eyes that looked at him with confusion. That hurt him more than anything else. There was no recognition in those eyes, those eyes that always crinkled at the corners while looking at him. He knew every shade of those eyes, every detail, but now they were looking at him as if he was a stranger. That felt worse than every torture that Zoom had put him through, worse than a feeling of bullet reaping through his flesh. The moment he locked his gaze with hers… He probably never wished so much to be dead than now.
He noticed something else then – there was an arm around her shoulder and that arm belonged to a man with his face. A man that was him, yet wasn't. A man, that in all probability Harry could have been and the most ironic thing was, that Harry remembered himself being close to that. Long before the war, when he was a too young student too much deeply in love with a woman with blond wavy hair.
Harry felt a sudden wave of range wash over him. It filled every inch of him, burning, demanding. All at the sight of that man's arm around his wife doppelgänger's shoulders. But in that moment she wasn't just the doppelgänger, no - she was so much more and Harry didn't think straight.
It was long time since his brain had fully stopped working and emotions took complete control over him. One moment he was standing still as a statue, hands trembling slightly, the next he darted towards HR and throw him over the nearest table. The equipment clattered on the floor as Harry's hands found HR's neck and clasped around it. HR didn't stay passive, his own hands curled around Harry's wrists pulling them down to loosen his chokehold. They were both of similar build and Harry found it difficult to keep the same pressure on the other man and even through his blind range, he noticed that HR stayed weirdly calm. He was even mouthing something calmly.
Harry could hear muffed voices and then there were hands, probably Cisco's, on his shoulders that tried to pull him back. He didn't budge, not until he felt a woman's hand on his nape while the other curled around his right biceps.
It all went away – the range, all emotions that filled him moments before… He just felt… empty. He blinked a couple of times and realised that his doppelganger was still pinned beneath him. He let him go in slight horror, realising what he could have done. The moment he did that, the pressure on his nape disappeared and blond hair brushed his cheek as Tracy rushed to HR's side. Harry took a couple of steps back.
"HR, are you all right? How many fingers do you see?" Tracy's hands hoovered over his doppelgänger as she helped him off the table.
"I'm ok, it's nothing. Just slight overreacting on our Harry's side, right?" HR smiled as if he wasn't just almost strangled by someone with his own face.
"Harry, what the hell, man?!" Cisco shook him by his hand looking at him with anger and disbelieve. Harry could only gape at him, his mouth working but no sound could be heard.
He didn't know what had gotten into him.
"Francisco, it's ok. No harm was done," HR brushed the not existing dust from his vest.
"What do you mean by no harm?! He could have killed you!" Tracy looked both scared and angry at the same time.
Harry's mind went blank. Cisco still looked at him waiting for an explanation, Tracy was scared of him and HR looked at him with strange sort of understanding in his eyes, even if there already were faint red bruises forming around his throat. Harry felt nauseous, he needed to get out of here. He shouldn't have come here in the first place.
He brushed past Cisco and out through the door. He could hear someone's voice calling after him and another saying something else, but he didn't care.
His feet carried him to the elevator and then up to the highest level. He climbed up the ladder and open the hatch leading to the rooftop. He moved to the edge and sat himself on the ledge, his feet dangling in the air. Harry removed his glasses and ran a hand through his hair making it even more messier than usual. He braced his hands on both sides of his body and slowly let out a ragged breath, his head fell down so his chin touched his chest. Slowly, silent tears started to run down his cheeks. He didn't make any noise. He didn't need to be heard by anyone.
Harry didn't know how long he sat like that with his eyes closed, even if he knew that he shouldn't have waste time like that, when he heard the hatch behind him being open. He didn't raise his head, even when he heard someone's steps making way towards him. He didn't open his eyes, when he felt someone sitting beside him on the ledge; he just kept breathing.
"Who I was to you?" His eyes snapped open and his head whipped to the side upon hearing that voice.
Tracy was sitting on her hands while dangling her crossed-at-the-ankle feet. She was looking at him with curiosity but also compassion, Harry couldn't find a trace of previous anger and fear. Well, maybe there was fear but it was well hidden.
He swallowed and averted his gaze looking straight ahead. Then chuckled slightly.
"What do you see in him?" He asked, not answering her question, not yet.
"You mean HR?" He nodded once. "Beside our common love for caffeine spiked drinks?"
He smiled at that and looked down. So much like his Tracy… The smile disappeared and he shook his head.
"He's not smart, he even has problems with reading the clock, so… what do you see in him?" He looked at her then. Trying to see the differences between her and the woman he used to know. She moved her hand up and stuck one finger out.
"He's kind, supportive, always thinks about others than himself… and well, he believes in me. You know, he may not understand the word of what my work is about, but he makes me feel that I'm not a crackpot as some would like to believe."
Harry huffed in annoyance and rolled his eyes.
"You're not a crackpot. You're weren't on my Earth, even if you were a bioengineer, and most certainly you're not here. Those who think otherwise are idiots."
Tracy laughed softly at that and he glanced at her. Their eyes locked.
"You're quite different than him - not in a bad way!" She quickly fallowed, seeing him opening his mouth." It's just, I would never imagine him calling someone an idiot. You're more like twin brothers or something."
He frowned at that and shock his head.
"I'm not kind."
"I doubt that, the other me wouldn't fall for someone who wasn't kind. We were close, right?" His short intake of breath probably gave him away. He closed his eyes and nodded.
"A girlfriend?" He kept silent." A fiancée?" He was afraid, that if he would speak, the emotions would spill out of him. "A…wife?"
She stuttered at that last question and before he could help it, he was nodding. She took a shuddering breath.
"Ok…right…" She cleared her throat and at the same time Harry felt his own throat tightening." Am I…dead?"
He couldn't help it – a stiffed sob partly escaped his lips. He shut his eyes and hung his head. He couldn't do it… It was getting to much for him. All the memories came floating back, but then Tracy put her hand on his and he found himself back. He knew what she wanted to ask him next.
"It was 17 years ago…Hit and run, they never found the driver…" He said after clearing his throat. Tracy squeezed his hand a little tighter.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"You weren't the driver." He answered and he never knew how, but he found the words suddenly leaving his mouth.
"We went to the same collage. I was rushing to my next classes already late when I bumped into you-her… Spilled my whole cup of coffee down the front of her blouse," he smiled fondly at the memory. "I had to repay somehow for that." He grinned at Tracy then and she smiled back.
"There...um… There was a war on my Earth… We married soon after I got back and we began our work to open S.T.A.R. Labs…"
"You mean on your Earth, I was the co-founder of this building?" She asked suddenly moving closer to him and for a moment he was afraid she would fell down. He nodded and smiled.
"Told you, you weren't a crackpot." They sat in silence for a moment when Tracy asked another question.
"Did you had any children?" Harry grinned broadly at that.
"A daughter. She's 20 now and a speedster like the Flash. Saving another Earth at the moment." He glanced at Tracy and she had a weird look on her face, one he couldn't really read. He ran a hand through his hair.
"Listen, Tracy… I'm sorry…" He picked up his glasses and put them on." I know you're not her. I'm not normally this short-tempered, no that's not true really… Not that much short-tempered sounds better. It's just…" He shook his head in annoyance. Why was he so bad at expressing himself…
"It's ok." Tracy interrupted him seeing his struggle. "I think, that anyone would snap after seeing his dead wife… " She smiled sadly, only a little bit unconfortable and he nodded. "Just try not to kill HR anytime soon, he was the one that threw some light on some things, like where to find you and all… Anyway, you came with some blueprints and equations, right? I looked through them…"
They discussed the math on that rooftop, exchanging ideas. It was dark when a hatch behind them opened yet again when Harry turned his head towards the noise, he found himself looking at his own face.
"You guys finished the science talk? Because I don't know about you, but I'm starving," said HR simultaneously twirling a drumstick between his fingers. Just then Tracy's stomach gave a loud rumble and she covered it with her hands. HR made a clicking noise with his tongue and placed the drumstick back in his back pocket.
"That would most certainly not do. No brain works on an empty stomach." He moved towards the sitting pair and reached his right hand towards Tracy. "A helping hand for my lady."
The woman beeped up on him and took his hand. In one swift motion HR had her on her feet, his other holding her steady by supporting her waist. Harry watched that with a pang of jealousy mixed with sadness. He swallowed the lump that appeared again in his throat.
"What's on the menu?" Asked Tracy still holding onto HR.
"All the best from the Big Belly Burger." He placed a quick gentle kiss on her lips. "Make sure, that Francisco won't eat the whole goods. Me and Other Handsome Me will soon follow."
Tracy glanced at Harry and soon disappeared throw the hatch. Two man with the same face were left on the rooftop. Harry glanced at HR who had his drumstick back in his hand and felt a pang of guilt upon seeing red marks on his doppelganger's neck. He looked away.
"I…ugh…apologise for that…" He waved his hand in the direction of HR's neck. The other man looked confused for a moment and then a realisation crossed his face.
"That?" He pointed the drumstick at his neck. "Don't worry about it."
Harry then remembered something. When he tried to strangle HR, the other man mouthed something. He didn't understand what at that time, but now… His head whipped towards the writer.
"You told her to put her hand on my neck. How did you know?"
HR shrugged and then grinned.
"I'm good at reading people. Now, Harry what you tell for a Big Belly Burger?"
Harry turned his gaze towards the city and sighed.
"I will join you in a moment."
HR didn't say anything, just moved towards the hatch. Harry slowly stood up.
"HR," the man in question turned his head around. "Hold on to her." HR grinned and saluted him with his drumstick and jumped down the ladder.
Harry sighed into the night. This Tracy wasn't his Tracy in the same way as Cisco wasn't Reverb, yet he was glad that he could hear her voice again.
Harry didn't manage to finish his plan D. There was too little time when Savitar discovered plan C, which was bring Iris to Earth-2. But as it turned out, Harry wasn't the only Wells with a back-up plan. HR thought about plan E. Harry just wished it didn't came at such a big cost.
As Harry stood on the graveyard and watched as the casket that contained HR's body was lowered into the ground. Another Harrison Wells claimed by this Earth, this time he wasn't a victim nor a murderer but a hero, yet it wasn't the most ironic thing.
17 years ago Harrison Wells had cried on a graveyard not so different from this one, as a casket had been lowered to the ground with a body of a woman with wavy blond hair. The name Tracy Wells had been engraved on the tombstone.
17 years later a woman with wavy blond hair stood crying as a casket containing a body with his face was lowered into the ground. The name H.R. Wells was engraved on the tombstone.
That was the biggest irony of it all.