A/N: I'm sorry for the long wait in-between updates. I've been working on homework, been sick, and well life. Just know that I will finish this story, it just may take me a little bit, so please stick with me. Thank you to my reviewers, I am really glad that you're enjoying it so far. Don't worry, we're going to get through Central City (I am loving this storyline) and she's going back to Mystic Falls. Keep in mind that she's going to visit several places, but she will always keep going back to Mystic. So yes she'll finish out here, go to mystic, then she's going somewhere else. Please message me or review if you have a specific show you want her to visit and I'll see what I can do.

I hope you enjoy this update :)

Ryleigh should have known that Dr. Wells would have stayed as soon as he saw that she was there. His curiosity would have gotten the better of him. No one moved as they looked between the two of them and she was at a loss for words. She didn't want to tell him anything because he'd take credit for it and try to manipulate her or worse, put her in the vault. Dr. Wells was evil, and she'd have been afraid even if the implanted memories didn't make her be. She decided to be confident, so she squared her shoulders and placed her hands on her hips. She glanced at Barry who looked like he was utterly lost for words. When she faced Harrison Wells, she glared at him.

"My being here has nothing to do with you; Barry thought that Caitlyn could help me with a case I'm working on." He grinned and nodded as he glanced between Barry, Caitlyn, and her.

"Ryleigh, I'm not going to hurt you, despite what you might think, I just want to help. If you have side effects from our experiments together or the particle accelerator, including me, is in your best interest." She looked to Barry for support, but she could tell by his facial expression that he agreed with him. She opened her mouth to deny what he said, but Barry beat her to it.

"Look Ryleigh; he makes a fair point. I think we need all hands-on deck for this one, especially if it'll help you." Ryleigh felt two things at once, and she didn't have time to analyze them just then. She was fascinated by her response because she could see the logic in his statement, but her feelings were something completely different. She'd watched the show, she knew how smart Wells was so it made sense to have him help, but her implanted memories refused to even consider it as an option. She bowed her head because she didn't want to give anything away when she spoke.

"I didn't come here for his help, Barry, I came here for yours. Look, it's okay, I will figure it out on my own." She glanced up at Barry and saw that he looked hurt by her rebuff, but she couldn't dwell on that. She briskly walked out of the room and headed in the direction they came. She could hear them talking, but couldn't make out the words. She made it to the elevators when she heard someone call her name. She turned to see Cisco running up to her with a smile.

"Hey, wait up; I just want to talk to you for a minute." She turned to face him, frowning as she replied.

"They chose you as their spokesperson?" He laughed and shook his head before answering her.

"No one would ever choose me to be their spokesperson. I get that you have some reservations with Dr. Wells. He never talked about it, but he said that he regretted the relationship he had with you. I'm not here for that though; I wanted to take you down to my lab so I can check out your earpiece. Barry mentioned that it was deteriorating, so I thought I could at least look at that and see what I can do." Ryleigh loved Cisco on the show; he was one of her favorites, so she thought about his offer. She sighed heavily as she answered him; he needed to know before they did anything.

"I wouldn't mind you looking at it, honestly, but if I take this earpiece out…you won't be able to hide your thoughts. It's powerful; I'll be able to hear everything you think." He grinned and pressed the appropriate button on the elevator.

"That's okay; I think it's kind of awesome. I told the others to stay away because I got the impression that too many would be harmful, otherwise why the device?" She couldn't help but return his smile; it was infectious. She followed him down to his lab, and it took sheer willpower not to squeal. Once he was at his desk, he held out his hand to her. She took a deep breath and took the earpiece out and handed it to him. She was immediately flooded with this thoughts, and it was both refreshing and weird.

This is so cool, imagine the information you could get with this ability. Wait, she can hear me right now, crap. This design is pretty cool, but it must be annoying always to wear something in your ear. Maybe I could design it as an injection? No, that would be too painful. Perhaps it could pin and sit under her ear, how would that not be an injection though? It looks intact; maybe the frequency just needs to be amped up if it's dying out.

Ryleigh interrupted his inner monologue by laughing, and she couldn't help it. She sat down in one of the chairs available and laughed. He looked at her, his face red, but immediately went back to work. She tried to ignore his thoughts, but there didn't seem to be an off switch. She watched as he disassembled the earpiece and began to tinker. She grimaced when she heard a buzzing noise; it usually signaled when someone else was coming into hearing distance and sure enough before he even walked into the doorway.

She looked ready to bolt, I don't want her to leave, and I'll just have to convince her to stay. I've missed her more than I realized and she's just as beautiful as I remember. I want to ask her why she disappeared, but I'm afraid of the answer. She'll tell me what I already know, 'I just don't like you that way, Barry.' And it'll be embarrassing for both of us. Not to mention, how can I keep my secret? If she can read minds, it'll only be a matter of time before she discovers it. It's hard enough trying to keep my speed a secret from Iris; it would be even harder with her. What would she think if she knew? Would she be mad, scared, or proud? This is Ryleigh, and I don't want to screw it up like I had last time we were together. I want her to stay for good, but how do I convince her to stay?

Ryleigh couldn't intrude anymore, and it seemed as if he was sticking to the hallway while he tried to come up with an answer for all his questions. She was also hearing Cisco's thoughts on how to improve on her gadget when she groaned.

"Okay, you two have to slow your thoughts because it's giving me a headache. Barry, you staying out there with your skulking is making it worse because I now hear both of you and you're both so loud." Cisco looked up from his table with a raised eyebrow and Barry walked into the room with a sheepish expression. Barry was the one to speak as Cisco was too focused on the task at hand.

"Please tell me you didn't hear all of that." Ryleigh winced because she didn't want to lie to him, but she knew that he was feeling more than a little awkward now.

"I'm not going to lie; I heard a lot. It sounds like you and I need to have a conversation soon. I won't do it now because I can hear everything so it wouldn't be fair and it would make both of us uncomfortable…but I did hear a lot." Before he could answer, the buzzing got louder, and the pressure in her head got much more cumbersome. She looked up at Barry with a panicked expression.

"Please stop whoever is coming down here. Cisco has my device and…oh god; there's more than one." Barry ran into the hallway at her words, and she could hear him from where she sat.

"Caitlyn, you and Dr. Wells have to go back upstairs. She can't be around more than one person right now; it's hurting her." She didn't hear their responses, but the pressure eased, and it made her groan in relief. When she sat back up, Cisco was staring at her with his mouth open, and she knew his question.

"How did you concentrate long enough to make this?" Ryleigh sifted through her memories and answered him truthfully.

"I found a basement lab that I kept to myself. It has all the different prototypes to see which one worked. I couldn't leave my lab for months." Cisco stared at her for a few minutes, but she heard the words flit through his head right when it registered on his face that he knew she heard him.

Wow, she's pretty amazing.

Ryleigh and Cisco worked for several hours as he made improvements to her earpiece and she found that they had more than a little in common. Soon, they were laughing and discussing ways they could make improvements on not just her earpiece, but on how they could make a Meta reader to detect them. She was amazed that she could follow what Cisco was talking about, but it seemed that she was a mini inventor as well and almost as smart as him. It was well after 5 pm when he finally handed her the earpiece back with a smile. She took it hesitantly from him and then with a deep breath, put the earpiece back in. She clicked it on, and the silence that enveloped her was bliss that she actually laughed out loud. She stood up and without thinking, pulled Cisco into a hug.

"Oh, my goodness, thank you so much! The buzzing was getting so bad, and now it's just me and my thoughts. I just hope that I can replicate it if it starts to happen again." Cisco grinned at her, and she could tell that the two of them were going to grow to be very good friends. He shrugged and started to lead her out of the lab as he responded.

"I don't think it'll deteriorate any time soon, but I am going to work on something new for you. It's got to be annoying to wear that in your ear 24/7, so I'm going to see if I can make something smaller and more manageable." When they got back to the top deck, they found Barry in deep conversation with Caitlyn. Dr. Wells was nowhere to be seen, but Caitlyn saw them enter and smiled at her, causing Barry to turn around. He walked over to her and took her hand, his expression cautious.

"I take it that you two were able to fix your device? We can come back tomorrow so that we can talk about the other part to your newfound powers, but it's getting late so we should go and get your stuff so we won't be late for Joe's dinner." Ryleigh agreed with the plan and said goodbye to who she hoped would become her new friends. Once they were alone, outside of the building, Barry didn't immediately speak. Ryleigh sighed, knowing that his behavior was her fault she squeezed his hand and tried to reassure him.

"Barry, I'm sorry for snapping at you back there, I know you were only trying to help. Harrison and I are never going to have a good relationship; he makes me extremely uncomfortable. You brought me here to help me, and that's what happened. Cisco was able to ramp up the frequency on this device, and now it's just me…no more intruding on people's thoughts." He turned to face her fully; his face was a mixture of relief and something else she couldn't pinpoint.

"I just hope you know that you can trust me with anything, Rye. I love you, you're one of my best friends, and I'll never do anything to hurt you." It was such a genuine admission that she felt her throat tighten as her feelings gripped her. He smiled, trying to lighten the mood and pulled her towards a cab that was slowing.

"Let's go as I said, Joe is probably going to go all out for dinner, and I definitely don't want to miss that."

It didn't take long for them to grab her things from the motel and get over to the West residence. They just walked through the door when Joe was placing dishes onto the table. Barry told her to go ahead and sit down, that he was going to take her things up to Iris's old room. She walked over to the table where Joe was finishing up, and she smiled gratefully at him. The sense of family was strong here, unlike Mystic Falls where she'd felt like an outsider. She knew that Barry and Joe genuinely cared for her and she reveled in the sense of peace that settled over her when she was around them. It was a feeling that she hadn't even felt for a long time in her real life. Joe waved her offer of help away and told her to take a seat. Barry soon joined them, and they all sat down to the delicious dinner that Joe had prepared for her. When they'd all eaten their fill, Joe leaned back in his chair and sighed contentedly.

"I gotta say, this feels right with you being back here, Ryleigh. Barry and Iris have missed you terribly; they can't be the three musketeers without you." Ryleigh chuckled as his reference because she had a memory of the three of them dressing up as the trio for a Halloween when they were younger. Barry groaned and dropped his head back, laughing

"You know I think I still have my vest." This caused Ryleigh to fall into a fit of giggles. Joe stood up from the table and started to clear away the table, but Ryleigh stopped him.

"Oh, absolutely not, Mr. West, you cooked so I will do the dishes." He smiled at her and shook his head.

"I know you're not going to be here forever, Ryleigh, so take the time to spend time together. Oh, and I think you're old enough to stop calling me Mr. West, you can call me Joe." After making this statement, he took their plates and disappeared into the kitchen. Barry stood up from his chair and held his hand out to her. She accepted his outstretched hand and allowed him to pull her into the living room and onto the couch. Once they were settled, he positioned himself so that he was facing her.

"Okay, I think we need to talk about the elephant in the room. You heard my thoughts while I was standing in the hallway. I think it's only fair that you tell me why you've avoided coming home for so long." Ryleigh lowered her eyes, knowing he did have a right to know, but she didn't want to drive a wedge between him and Iris.

"Oh Barry, can we not dredge it all up? Iris seems to be over it, and I know I certainly am." He leaned forward, his face serious, and she knew that he wasn't going to let it go.

"I'd have let it go if you hadn't stayed away from me too. I've barely heard two words from you since you left…I deserve an explanation." Ryleigh sighed and closed her eyes for a brief moment. The feelings in this world were so much stronger than they were in Mystic Falls and she wondered if it was because she wasn't fighting them anymore. She allowed for it to happen naturally and it was real for her. When she opened her eyes, he was still staring at her, so she took another deep breath and answered him.

"Iris told me to back off because I was embarrassing myself and you didn't like me the way that I liked you." Barry's mouth opened slightly at her words and silence surrounded them. He sat back, a dazed look on his face before his expression contorted in anger.

"She said what?!"