Harrison slowly woke up and positioned his body to stretch but his right arm felt restrained by something. It took a moment for the early morning conversation to come back to him and to realize Caitlin was currently asleep against his chest. He rolled his head back onto the couch and used his left hand to rub circles on his eyes underneath his glasses. He could only hope that when Caitlin woke up she wouldn't be disgusted with herself for falling asleep with him on the couch. He looked over to the microwave in the kitchen and saw that it was 7am. That was two hours later than what he was accustomed to waking as Eobard, but after the day he had yesterday and being in a coma for a month, 7am seemed a perfectly sensible time. He didn't have anywhere he needed to be, but also didn't know what time Caitlin planned to head to the laboratory. He looked down at her sleeping form and chose a soft approach to waking her up. His right arm curled toward her and cradled her head. Then he moved his left arm to her shoulder. Harrison gently shook her until she looked up at him, blinking many times. She pulled away and stretched her arms above her. Harrison saw a grimace when she rubbed her neck. She must have slept at a bad angle. He lifted himself off the couch and looked around the living room, recalling the layout of her apartment so he could find the bathroom.

When he came back out, Caitlin already had a pot of coffee brewing and had disappeared into her room, presumably to get dressed. He followed suit and opened one of his bags of clothing. Caitlin had just entered her room, so he had enough time to slip on a pair of clean pants before she came out but not enough time to get his undershirt over his head. He was facing away from her room when he heard her door click shut and pulled his shirt the rest of the way down. "Good morning," Caitlin greeted, slightly flushed. He turned around to look at her after picking up a dark blue, long sleeve button up from the couch.

He was pushing his arms through the sleeves when he responded. "Good morning Caitlin. Did you sleep well? It looked like you kinked your neck while you were sleeping." Concern etched his features. She smiled and poured two cups of coffee.

"Yes. Honestly, I slept better when I came in here. And my neck will be fine. Thank you for not freaking out at me for falling asleep on you," she finished with a false grimace and handed him his cup of coffee.

"Thank you for the same," he raised an eyebrow and grinned.

"While I was getting dressed, I was thinking about how easily Joe, Cisco, and I all trusted you yesterday. I don't know why that is, and that bothers me probably less than it should." She turned and placed her coffee on the coffee table before plopping down on the couch. Harrison took a sip from his own cup and set it on the table so he could button the top buttons of his shirt. That thought had crossed Harrison's mind as well, but he couldn't offer an explanation either. He most certainly appreciated it, though.

When he'd finished, he sat softly down next to her and leveled his gaze on her. The past 24 hours had been so far an interesting beginning to his new life. "Maybe we can mention that to Doctor Stein when we tell him about everything else. I'm sure that's crossed Cisco and Detective West's mind as well. Who knows, there may be a scientific explanation for it. Not much would surprise me anymore." He turned from her and lifted his coffee to take another sip.

"What plans do you have today while we're all at the lab?" Caitlin asked. He realized he hadn't thought about it. He supposed if Joe needed him to make an appearance he would oblige, but other than that he had no plans for the day.

"It hadn't crossed my mind. Do you have a laptop or computer here? Maybe I could catch up on some things I may have missed in the past month or two."

"Sure. Let me go get it for you." Caitlin retrieved her laptop for him and gave him the password to log in. They shared a few moments of silence. Before she left, Harrison sat up to kiss her cheek and wished her luck for the day.


A few hours passed with him engrossed in an article about gene splicing when his phone rang. It was Joe. "Detective West, hello."

"Doctor Wells. I've been talking to Captain Singh. He has his doubts as well, but he trusts my gut. And After these past couple months, he's willing to believe almost anything."

"So what does that mean for me, Detective? Are we going to be able to get my life back?"

Joe took a moment to respond. "I think we might. We're getting the DA on our side. She'll talk to your old lawyers and see if there's a way we can get around everything that's been filed after your death certificate. You do know the media is going to have a heyday if they catch wind about this, don't you?"

"I'm sure. I think those of us who actually know will be able to keep this extra piece of information quiet. At least long enough for me to get settled in. Please let me know when any progress has been made or if I'm needed for anything."

"Will do, Doctor Wells. I'll be there this afternoon when you guys talk to Stein as well. Keep me posted on what time you plan to meet."

"That reminds me, Detective. I've been thinking. I believe it would be wise if you talked to Barry about my reappearance privately, before I get involved. Maybe it would prevent an explosive reaction. We were planning to tell him after Doctor Stein was in the loop."

Joe thought for a moment. "I think I agree. When he found out before that you were actually Eobard, he didn't take it well at all. I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you, Detective."


A few hours past noon, Joe and Barry got called away to a case. Harrison made a sandwich out of a few things he found in Caitlin's kitchen for lunch and chose to take a quick nap before going to the lab later. His nap was cut short when Cisco texted him that Barry would be in his own lab for the rest of the night, and Joe was done with his case for the day. There was no meta-human involvement, so it was passed off to a different task force. Stein was already in the lab and updated on Harrison's story, so all that was necessary now was for him to get to the lab so they could run some tests.

Caitlin was already on her way to pick him up when he called requesting a ride to the facility. Harrison was hopeful that Doctor Stein, a renowned man that even the genius Eobard Thawne looked up to, would be able to give him some answers.

Harrison was looking out the window at the city he once dreamed of transforming while Caitlin drove them to his laboratory. So much had changed for him in such a short time. He was buried deep in his thoughts when Caitlin quietly interrupted him. "Hey. Are you okay over there?"

He pinched his bottom lip between his fingers before he turned to her and smiled, but it was a sad smile. "No. No, things aren't okay Caitlin. But hopefully they will be. Only time will tell." He turned away as he was speaking but looked back at her when he was finished, this time with a genuine smile. Caitlin glanced at him before looking back at the road. She grasped his hand that was resting on the center console and squeezed in encouragement. Harrison squeezed back. In moments, they had arrived at the lab.


Once inside, he found Doctor Martin Stein, Joe West, and Cisco Ramon waiting for Caitlin and himself. Doctor Stein stepped forward and offered his hand when Doctor Wells strode in. Harrison was pleasantly surprised at this man's tenacity and willingness to believe in the impossible.

"Hello Doctor Wells. It's nice to meet you."

Harrison gripped his hand and shared a solid handshake with the man. "Thank you Doctor Stein, likewise. Before Eobard, I had always been a fan of your work."

Doctor Stein beamed at him in response and suggested, "Why don't we get started then, eh? We would like to do a few tests. Hopefully we will find something to give us a clue as to how you're here. I already have a couple hypotheses, but I would like to check on a few things to confirm them."

First on the agenda was to take a blood sample, a cheek swab, and to hook him up to some monitors and watch his vitals. Caitlin and Harrison walked to the medical wing. He removed his shirts so she could connect the leads to his chest and back and laid against the bed. When she'd finished with the leads, he watched her prep his arm for a blood sample, Caitlin avoiding his eyes. The last time she had seen him like this, he somehow looked older and had been covered in bruises. But she was just noticing that Harrison looked like he could be at least 10 years younger than he was a couple months ago. Maybe 15 years to be exact. "Have you noticed that you look younger, Harrison? I only noticed just now."

"No, I haven't looked in a mirror much. That's a bit difficult for me, actually. Every time I do, I feel like Eobard is looking back at me." Sorrow flitted over her face.

"I'm sorry. I know that must be hard."

"Just one of the things I have to get used to." He strongly desired to change the subject off himself and shifted on the bed. "How was your day today? As uneventful as yesterday?" Caitlin changed the tube that was collecting his blood and put a new one in.

"Well, after I left work yesterday it got a little more eventful, wouldn't you say?" Her eyes hid the amusement she felt at her statement while Harrison donned a one sided grin.

"I would be hard pressed to disagree with you." As he tilted his head back to rest on the bed, an idea came to him. Once things settled down, maybe they could have a movie night somewhere to get better acquainted. At the very least Cisco and Caitlin could join him, but he would prefer if Barry were to come as well. He would wait for a better time to make the suggestion. Caitlin removed the needle from his arm with a cotton ball against his skin and wrapped a self-sticking bandage around his arm to keep the cotton in place.

"Well, your heart rate is normal, blood pressure, O2, everything. We'll have to test the blood samples and cheek swab I collected, but so far everything is actually better than average."

Cisco stepped into the room just as she finished. "We also wanna do an EKG and a scan to check you for any dark matter or any other kind of foreign particles."

"Alright Cisco, I'll be there in a minute." Cisco nodded and walked back out to let the two of them finish up. Since they would be using a different set of leads for the EKG, Caitlin started pulling the current ones off, doing his back first. She put her hand behind his shoulder and pulled forward, helping him sit up. "I wish the memories I have of the past few years with you were my own. All my memories, really. Eobard was a bit more eccentric than myself, and that probably knocked me up in popularity, but Tess and I had so many plans. Apparently if he hadn't interrupted, I wouldn't have launched the accelerator for another 5 years. I believe he was a hell of a lot smarter than me. But Tess and I-we were going to finish research and build the particle accelerator to explore a whole undiscovered world of science and innovation. We had dreams to fulfill. Together." Caitlin finished with the leads on his back and nudged his shoulder back to the bed to pull the ones from his chest. "I have to find a new dream to conquer. One that unfortunately doesn't include her, or the particle accelerator. Possibly not even this city."

Caitlin was done pulling the leads and handed him back his undershirt and button up. "I think you just need to give things time, Harrison. You are an amazing person. I may not have known you before, but I can see who you are inside. I can see your passion and your desire to learn, even if there's been a damper put on it because of Thawne. You are resilient." She paused, "And you've got me." Caitlin smiled softly and offered her hand to help him off the bed. He took it and before doing anything else hugged her to himself, his head atop hers.

"Your friendship means a lot to me Caitlin." His thumb rubbed up and down on her arm. He released her and reached for his shirts on the bed. Before walking out to find Cisco, he placed his hand around her head and leaned in to kiss her cheek. His lips lingered for just a moment before he stepped back and left the room.


Caitlin avoided pondering the affection her shirtless boss just showed her and went to the lab to test his samples. Harrison found Cisco in the equipment room waiting next to the treadmill. On his way, he'd passed Doctor Stein in the cortex working out problems on the dry erase board. "Cisco. You ready for me?"

"Ready and waiting, Doctor Wells," he replied, wearing a large grin.

Cisco watched Harrison run for 10 minutes and decided they got what they needed from that test. After removing the leads, he put his shirts back on leaving his button up untucked, and followed Cisco to a different room for the next test. He had created a device that looked much like a handheld metal detector, except this device looked for dark matter, tachyons, and other foreign particulate. He finished rather quickly. "Alright, I'm gonna bring the results to Doctor Stein and see if Caitlin's finished. You can chill wherever- you're familiar with the place," he remembered somberly that Harrison's memories of the facility weren't his own. "Or you could just go watch Doctor Stein while I check in on Caitlin."

"I'll head over there now. Thanks Cisco." Cisco nodded before walking out toward the lab. Harrison headed to the cortex, curious to see the theory Stein came up with.


It didn't take long to put together some of Stein's idea based on what was on the dry erase board. The older man turned around after hearing Harrison adjust his footing.

"I see you're done with your testing. I believe I've narrowed down the possibilities and formed a pretty concrete theory." Cisco and Caitlin chose the perfect time to walk in. Joe had been quietly sitting to the side of the room and stood up as well. Harrison realized he hadn't noticed him because of being so engrossed in Stein's work. "First, Caitlin mentioned to me that you looked younger upon examination, and I can confirm that by the cheek swab she collected. The DNA in your saliva showed that your cells are that of a Harrison approximately 15 years younger than you should be right now. Furthermore, Eobard was a speedster. He took your DNA, in addition to some other parts of you. Now, speedsters, from what we can tell, have tachyon particles imbedded in every cell in their body. That's what enables them to travel through time, or at the speed of light. Eobard lost the "speed force" as he called it, and could no longer travel through time. But he still had the tachyon particles in his system, they simply were not charged enough to use properly. That's not something that can just be removed from the body. You," he pointed at Harrison, "have no trace of tachyon particles in your system at all. You do, on the other hand, have traces of dark matter all over you, presumably from the singularity. Take Ronnie and I for example."

Caitlin flinched away at the unexpected mention of his name. "Forgive me Doctor Snow. But, Ronnie and I, using nuclear fission, become one. We could separate the same way. Picture you and Eobard the same way, except instead of nuclear fission, time! Time is involved," he said excitedly. "So when Eobard ceased to exist and the singularity was created, the rip in time spit you back out at the same place your body was last in existence. I would also dare to reason you were found naked, correct? Your cells don't contain a code for clothing." Harrison nodded and nearly blushed at the mention of his nakedness in front of everyone, but Martin was distracted by watching everyone else absorb the information. "The reason you were in a coma for a month is because your body was incomplete. You were working to build and repair the cells that were changed or destroyed by the unnatural split of your bodies."

Harrison was following along with relative ease, but one thing hadn't been explained. "Why can I remember everything?"

"Ah. That, I don't have concrete evidence to explain. But I suspect that the dark matter on you that spit you back out of the singularity and recreated you still had traces of Eobard. Namely, parts of his mind, his memories. So as your body was rebuilding, these memories remained embedded in the cellular blueprint of your brain."

"I have something else to tell you," he started again after giving them all a moment to reflect. "I was thinking about what Cisco told me. He, Joe, and Caitlin came to trust you very easily. They could tell something was different about you, even though they couldn't tell what was different. I've discovered that tachyon particles operate in a very similar way as pheromones. They radiate off your body and send subconscious signals to everything around you. Everyone in this room has only ever known you as Eobard, so for the first time, they don't feel the tachyon particles coming off you. Their subconscious is sending a signal to their conscious telling them something is different."

He stopped to take a breather and barged on. "You all might ask why you haven't felt them coming off Barry, but the thing is, you have. The only person that might be able to tell if he's different from before the lightning strike that's here tonight is Joe, since we all met him after. I did have a brief interaction with him in a train before he was struck, but I didn't interact closely enough with him to detect any difference in his biological chemistry. Joe, think about how Barry was before and after he was struck. Did you ever have a feeling that something was different about him?" They all turned to Joe, waiting for an answer.

Joe could barely follow along, but thought about what Doctor Stein asked him. "I…Yeah. I think I did. I don't think I realized it at the time."

"There we go. It's anecdotal evidence, but so is everything we've been experiencing for a long while. This is all unexplored territory. If anything, this should confirm to us all that you are indeed who you say you are." There was an imperceptible, but collective sigh of relief around the room.

Harrison announced the need to take a walk and swiftly left the room. Caitlin and Stein's eyes met with a silent understanding. When she left, Cisco and Doctor Stein shared bright smiles. Joe took a seat by the computers and placed his head in his hands trying to wrap his mind around all this new information. As she was walking out, Caitlin heard Cisco say, "That is so dope, man!"

She found Harrison above the accelerator explosion debris. It was becoming a familiar place for him. She waited a couple minutes standing many yards away to try and give him some privacy before interrupting the silence. He beat her to it by turning around and resting against the railing. "Hi," he exhaled.

"Lots to absorb." She looked downward and chose her next words. "But at least now you've got your explanation. Or course the public has no need to know about this, but maybe if Joe ends up needing more evidence to back your claim, they can just call in Doctor Stein to explain."

"I'm sure it won't come to that, Caitlin." Her steps echoed through the accelerator ring until she reached the railing and leaned back on it, inches away from Harrison. "Maybe Doctor Stein could be present when Detective West informs Barry of my existence, though. A scientific explanation might ease his concern that I would be lying."

Caitlin smiled and leaned over to bump his shoulder. "How does it feel to be an anomaly?"

"I imagine similar to the feeling of being meta-human. Except they don't usually have 15 years of baggage to come with it." He chuckled. "I guess the positive is that I've got an 15 extra years in me, even though public record will disagree."

"Oh, I can tell you've dropped a few years..." Caitlin looked him up and down before he saw her and they both laughed. It was the first time she saw him smile that brightly in a long time. "Eobard didn't often smile like you just did. I'm happy to see you smile."

"I'm glad I have a reason to smile, Cait."


Later that evening everyone had exited the premises, needing a good night's sleep to solidify in their mind everything they had learned. Caitlin and Harrison enjoyed a quiet ride to her apartment. When they stepped in the door, Harrison kicked off his shoes and Caitlin turned the deadbolt. She was caught off guard when she saw that he was unbuttoning the buttons of his blue shirt and removing it. She dropped the bag housing her paperwork by the door and removed her coat on the way to the kitchen. "Want anything to drink?"

"Do you have anything alcoholic?" he asked with a smirk. She grinned in return and pulled out a bottle of red wine. Caitlin wasn't really a drinker, but every once in a while she enjoyed a glass of wine with dinner. She poured them both a glass and handed Harrison his as she sat down next to him on the couch. "I was thinking earlier. I would like it if once Barry and Iris were in the loop, we could all have a movie night or something. Maybe even go out bowling. I think it would be a good way for us to get to know one another better."

Caitlin looked from his face to nothing in particular and rested her head on his shoulder. "I think that would be a good idea, Harrison." Something inside him fluttered at her reaction. He hadn't felt anything like that in many years. Furrowing his eyebrows at that thought, deciding to ponder on it later, he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and tugged her close. Night two of his new life, and he'd already found a friend he hoped would stay with him for a long time to come. He turned his face to her, kissed the crown of her head, and took a sip of his wine. "Why don't we watch a movie now?" she suggested.

She too felt the beginnings of a warm friendship bubble inside her. They seemed to be able to offer one another comfort, and that was something they both needed in that moment. She walked Harrison over to her shelf of DVDs and they inserted one into the player. When they sat back down, they quickly resumed their previous positions, this time with the remote in Caitlin's hand. The pair settled in with comfortable smiles on their faces.


By the time the movie ended, Harrison could hear Caitlin snoring on his chest. She fell asleep the same way she had the previous night. Chuckling to himself, Harrison softly placed his glass on the table where Caitlin's already resided and slipped his free arm under her legs. As quietly as he could, he stood up and carried her into her room. He laid her on the bed and pulled the comforter up to cover her sleeping form. The lamp beside her bed was on. Just before turning it off, he leaned over her and rested his nose against her temple. He enjoyed the contact just long enough before turning off the light.


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