Chapter 2
The smoky smell that permeates the building makes Hartley very glad he got the new inhaler. Because he winds up needing it once gets to his apartment, having to go out on the balcony to use it. He had two chairs out there and he sat with Cisco while Joe and Julian Albert - PhD and very pretty indeed, he could understand why Caitlin had wished she'd liked him back - go over his apartment with a fine tooth comb.
The messenger bag was gone, just like Hartley'd thought. The work laptop nowhere to be found.
It's a shame; Hartley'd liked that messenger bag.
"Feeling better?" Cisco asked, clearly worried.
Hartley nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine. I shouldn't have come back so soon. Should've just left it all up to you. I guess I just... needed to see this place for myself. Rather wish I couldn't smell it, though." He sighed, "hopefully I can wash the smell out of my clothes, or I'll have to replace all of it. Can't wear clothes that set off my asthma." He'd have to find out if running his clothes through the wash would be enough or if he'd have to dry clean it all in an attempt to salvage at least some of it. He didn't even want to think about his furniture. Though maybe a professional cleaning service could help with the couch and chairs? How much did something like that cost, anyway? At what point did it become cheaper to just buy something new...
At least his mattress had been awful, so Hartley wasn't too concerned about replacing that particular item.
"If you want help cleaning it all up," Cisco tapped one of his feet against Hartley's, "I'm free."
Says the guy who looks like he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders.
"Thank you," Hartley said. "My parents said I can stay with them as long as I need, but it so weird being there again. Haven't figured out if it's a good weird or bad weird yet."
"Your mom asked me to look out for you," Cisco blurted out.
Hartley straightened up a bit in his chair, startled, before a pleased smiled made it's way onto his face. A warm feeling bubbled in his chest. "Having mother concerned about my well-being? That's definitely a good weird. But... maybe you could help me find a new apartment. I don't want to stay here, but I think if I stay with my parents too long it'll definitely become a bad weird."
"Sure, I can help with that," Cisco said with a relieved grin.
Hartley smiled back. It'd get Cisco out of the office and stop him from hyper-focusing on the situation with Barry so much that he overworked himself into a collapse, while getting Hartley a second opinion on the apartments he was most interested in. Win-win.
The balcony door opened and the detective walked out to join them. "Think you can come back inside for a little bit?" West asked Hartley while Cisco stretched and stood back up.
"For a little while, yeah. But then I really have to get out of here so I don't cough up my lungs." Hartley let Cisco give him a hand up.
"Think if I open a breach to STAR Labs anyone'll notice that two fewer people leave the apartment than came in?" Cisco asked.
There was that warm, bubbly feeling again. "I'd really appreciate that, Cisco," Hartley said, fondness in his voice. "Thanks."
While Hartley looks around with Julian to see if anything else was moved or otherwise stolen aside from the messenger bag and laptop, Cisco headed to the front door with Joe. Time for his own powers to come back into play.
Cisco touched the handle, closed his eyes and...
Hartley walked into the apartment, dropping his keys, wallet, and phone on the little table he kept there, the door swinging shut behind him. He turned to lock the door, not noticing that he wasn't alone.
It was wrong. So wrong. Hartley should have heard him... but there was nothing to hear. Not even for Cisco to hear in the vision.
Cisco had heard the door shut, the sound of Hartley's keys, the noise Hartley's phone made for what was likely an email alert given what little attention Hartley'd given the sound. But the man who's been crouched by Hartley's desk stood up and walked over to Hartley, smacking him over the head with what looked like a paperweight... nothing. No sound as he used the desk chair for leverage to stand up and the chair smacked into the desk. No noise from his footsteps as he advanced on Hartley, who was locking the front door. And there wasn't any visible indication of anything meant to dampen the sound.
Worse was that there wasn't a single sound from the impact of the paperweight hitting Hartley's face. He felt awful, watching Hartley drop like a stone. Even knowing Hartley was okay now, a little worse for wear but recovering fine. A blow to the head like that could've easily been fatal. He wanted the vision to end already so he could look over and see Hartley as he was now, with a few stitches on his forehead, but alive and well.
But Cisco made himself watch until the end as the intruder grabbed the messenger bag off of Hartley roughly, uncaring of the way the strap scraped across Hartley's face, getting blood on the fabric. He checked the bag's contents and then put the bag over his own shoulder, getting a smear of blood on his clothes. He took off the mask he was wearing then, shoving it into Hartley's messenger bag. Then he went out an open window in the back of the room...
Cisco blinked as the vision faded. "Julian, check the back window for a broken lock. That'll be how the intruder got in. He also spent some time at Hartley's desk and touched his chair."
"The lock's definitely broken," Julian called back. "I'll check for prints."
"Did you see the guy's face?" Joe asked.
"Yeah. He... nothing he did made any sound. Even when he hit Hartley. Nothing. I didn't see any obvious tech on him; he's got to be a meta." There'd been something eerie about the silence and Cisco restrained the urge to shudder. "He was tall... but not quite six-foot. White guy, kind of tan, with dark hair, brown eyes... clean shaven. He took off his mask before leaving."
Hartley started coughing hard again and Cisco started towards him, but Hartley shook his head and went back out on to the balcony on his own.
Cisco felt antsy and he wanted to follow along anyway, but he still had a few things left to do. "I'd recognize him if I saw him again."
Joe nodded. "You'll have to swing by the station after lunch, take a look at some mug shots."
"Got some prints off the window, desk, and chair, though we'll need Hartley's prints for exclusion purposes," Julian said, rejoining Cisco and Joe.
The balcony door reopened and Hartley poked his head back into the apartment to say, "I'll go by the station with Cisco this afternoon then."
"Thanks," Julian replied.
"So aside from my fingerprints," Hartley said, holding up his hands and waving his fingers, "anything else I can bring you? Coffee, tea... my phone number?"
Julian blushed and let out a startled laugh.
Cisco shifted uncomfortably, feeling suddenly too warm and his own chest went a little tight. Maybe the smell of the smoke was starting to get to him too.
"Just your fingerprints," Julian replied, shaking his head in amusement.
"Your loss," Hartley teased, shutting the doors again.
Swallowing hard, Cisco focused back on the other thing he was here for. "Where did the fire start? It'd be better if I try to vibe what happened at the source."
"It's down on the third floor." Joe turned to Julian, "anything else you need to check here?"
"No. Hartley didn't see anything else stolen and he said all he's taking with him when he leaves with Cisco is his wallet, keys, and cell phone. I think he needs the place to air out some more before he figures out what's salvageable." Julian led the way out of the room while Cisco waved at Hartley before following after the detective and CSI.
The elevators weren't working yet, so they had to go down two flights of stairs. It gave Cisco all too much time to contemplate the idea that he didn't like Hartley flirting with Julian. At all.
Wally bounced on the balls of his feet, feeling itchy energy in his legs. He wanted to go running. He always wanted to go running these days.
Sometimes he wondered how Barry could stand to stay still, to spend his days at work going at slow, boring, ordinary speeds. But then... Wally had always loved speed for the thrill of it, the rush of being the fastest.
Lately though... lately Wally felt, even when he was running, like he was always standing still. Whether he was chasing a teleporter or creating a whirlwind to suck the oxygen out of a fire...
At the moment, however, he was literally standing still, waiting for his girlfriend to arrive. She was running late. A bad speedster habit that Wally was trying - and failing - not to fall into.
Five minutes late, almost to the exact second, a breach opened briefly enough for Jesse to run through. She was getting better at that; running fast enough to breach between the universes. Wally could go faster than her in a straight up race, but he couldn't quite wrap his brain around the mindset needed to run between the folds of the multi-verse. When it was his turn to visit, he'd bring one of Cisco's inter-dimensional breach devices with him.
Wally wished Barry was there to work on it with him. Jesse tried, but she wasn't great at explaining things in ways Wally understood easily. She talked too much like her dad, sometimes.
"Ugh, I'm so sorry I'm late," Jesse buzzed over to brush a kiss against Wally's mouth. "Dad wanted me to run extra phasing drills today; I think he was deliberately trying to make me late."
Wally snickered. "That sounds like Harry."
"Well I'm ready for dinner. Absolutely starving for pizza, I hope you don't mind?" Jesse smiled, that absolutely gorgeous, slightly lopsided grin that never failed to make Wally feel all floaty and pleased.
"Pizza sounds..." he was cut off by the sound of a meta alert. "Like you may have to order without me," Wally sighed. "Catch up with you later."
"Yeah, I gotta have at least a couple of slices before I'm good to help if it turns out you guy's need an extra speedster. I'll order your favs," she promised, before they both disappeared in opposite directions.
Wally suited up and joined Cisco in the cortex where the other man was hastily pulling on his boots. "Hartley set off his remote alert on his phone," Cisco said, standing up and opening a breach. "Ready to go?"
Wally nodded and then was immediately through the breach. He was suddenly in a very nice hallway of house that had to be at least three times the size of his dad's place. And it wasn't like his dad's house was small.
He wasn't quite sure which way to go, but Cisco seemed to so he followed along while Cisco - no, Vibe, Wally needed to think in code names while on the job. Wouldn't do to accidentally give away anyone's secret identity.
Cisco was reaching for a door handle, right as an older man and woman came out of a room at the far end of the hallway.
"Hartley, what's... what are you two doing here?" demanded the man while the woman turned pale and tried to drag her husband back a step.
What were the elder Rathaway's names again?
That was when the door Cisco had been reaching for exploded outward. Silently.
Wally reacted a hair too slow, getting splinters all over himself and Cisco, but he still managed to pull Cisco out of the way before the guy Hartley'd apparently tossed through his doorway - oh, yeah, Hartley was the Pied Piper, wasn't he? Wally forgot that most of the time... - knocked him to the floor.
The guy on the ground went for a gun and Wally went for it too, speeding away with the weapon and ditching it safely out of the way before zipping back in time to see Cisco and Hart... Vibe and Hartley tag teaming the attacker in order to knock him out and slap some meta suppressant cuffs on the guy.
A sort of... ringing in the air immediately stopped. And it was so weird because... Wally hadn't even noticed it was there until it was gone.
"I thought you only brought your wallet, keys, and phone from your apartment," Cisc - Vibe muttered to Hartley.
"Well I'm hardly going to tell a detective or a CSI that I'm also bringing the latest version of my Piper gloves, particularly considering Joe thinks I stopped with the mark 1 version of them," Hartley hissed back.
It wasn't gloves on Hartley's hands, though. It was silvery piping that curled up his wrists and twined around his fingers. Wally caught a brief glimpse of some kind of emitter against Hartley's palms before Hartley brushed his hands together and each one retracted until all Hartley appeared to be wearing on his arms were a set of fancy wrist cuffs.
"Mother, Father, are you two alright?" Hartley asked, hurrying down the hall to check on his parents.
Wally wondered what he'd tell them about what just happened - they'd seen him team up with Vibe, so just how much about Hartley's brief foray into first super villainy and then super heroism were they aware of - and then decided it wasn't his business.
"This is the same guy who broke into your apartment before the fire," C-Vibe confirmed, not bothering to speak louder when he knew Hartley could hear him just fine. It took Wally a moment to realize that was who Vibe was speaking to, though. "I'm going to drop him off at the police department. You should go have your date with Quick, Kid," Vibe smiled tiredly. "Want a breach back?"
"Nah. I feel like running." Wally flashed a grin of his own and then raced off, phasing out of the house through the front door. Maybe he should pick up some ice cream on the way back to STAR Labs...
He doesn't hear anything.
That's what causes Hartley to hit the panic button. He doesn't hear anything. There's a sudden blank spot downstairs where there should be noise. It's there and gone and back again, but Hartley's been a little on edge since visiting his apartment that morning. So he notices when there isn't sound where there should be.
Hartley hopes he's just over-reacting and Cisco'll show up and they'll laugh it off.
He slips the cuffs back onto his wrists, just in case. He'd been tinkering with them on and off for the last year and they only have two frequencies compared to the full glove's large range, but one of them is specifically for Time Wraiths and the other is for fights where he needs to get the hell out of there fast. His actual gloves are still in the fire safe he keeps in the closet of his bedroom in his apartment and Hartley figured Cisco wouldn't have been too judgmental if Hartley had taken them with him that morning. But he hadn't wanted to talk about the anxiety gnawing at the back of his mind after hearing Cisco describe his attacker.
That was a real person. An eerily silent person. Who might come back if he didn't get everything he wanted the first time.
So Hartley had grabbed his cuffs and slipped them on. Cisco hadn't even noticed the addition to Hartley's outfit earlier that day - distracted by the discovery that the electrical fire had indeed been started by another meta, another face for him to identify at the station - and simply went on to absently lend Hartley a charging cord for his phone while ordering them lunch from a sandwich place near STAR Labs that delivered.
Hartley didn't take off his cuffs for the rest of the day... until it was time to shower off the lingering smokey scent from his apartment - the cuffs not exactly water proof yet - and didn't think to put them back on afterwards when he went for an early dinner with his parents. It'd been a long day and he wanted to turn in early. Except... there was that nothingness downstairs as he went to close his eyes.
So he hit the panic button, retrieved the cuffs, and listened to the silence as it moved through his parents' house.
When the silence opened the door to the room that shared the bathroom with Hartley's - and he couldn't hear the door open or the swish of the carpet, just the dead space slowly, inexorably headed towards him - Hartley decided it was time to be proactive. He rushed through the bathroom and out into the other room. There was a moment where Hartley registered the sound of a breach outside in the hallway and the realization that the silence really did come from a person and then Hartley was raising his hands and splaying his fingers.
Vibrations knocked the man through the door.
His attacker didn't feel real. He didn't have a heartbeat or make noise as he breathed. There were no sounds coming from his body at all - the hardest part of his hearing had been overcoming the sense of revulsion he'd initially felt at being able to hear all the gurgling noises a body made all the time - and it was like looking at a dead body that just... wouldn't stop.
Kid Flash took the man's gun, but that didn't stop his attacker from moving on to physical attacks. Hartley felt flat-footed, like the lack of sound from the other man somehow left him swimming through molasses, some part of him certain this couldn't be real. No living person should be so quiet.
Thank god for Vibe. He covered Hartley's weak points and then flipped the attacker - who had pulled out a knife from somewhere - hard into a wall. The drywall cracked and the guy slumped to the ground.
Hartley thought he ought to feel bad about the damage to his parents house, but he felt breathless and dazed and a little chilled. He probably needed to use his inhaler before this turned into an asthma attack. But his fight or flight mode is still too heavily weighted towards fight for him to be able to head into the bedroom to retrieve the medication. It's not until the dampener handcuffs go onto the meta and suddenly Hartley can hear the attacker's lungs and heart and process that this was all very real.
And also his parents just watched him fight a meta with two super heroes and Hartley doesn't quite know what to do with that even as he deactivates his wrist cuffs and quietly banters with Cisco before checking to be sure his parents are okay.
They're fine. Freaked out, but unharmed.
Cisco takes away the attacker and then returns moments later with Detective West and an officer Hartley doesn't recognize. They retrieve the gun for evidence and talk to Hartley and his parents to get their statements. Which is of course when Hartley's lungs finally decided it's time for an asthma attack because he never did grab his inhaler. He tries to talk his parents out of an emergency room visit.
Given his difficulty getting enough breath to talk even with the albuterol working its magic, it's rather unsurprising that he fails.
Cisco was pissed off the first time he called Caitlin's phone after she left and he was directed straight to voicemail. He didn't leave a message, just sent her 'you blocked my calls?' via text.
She'd sent back a rambling text about needing space and that meant she needed him to wait for her to call him first, not the other way around. But if he needed to leave her a voice message or a text, that was cool. Though the impression he got was that she'd prefer he used that contact sparingly.
His responding text that Barry had been forced to return to the speed force prison had, perhaps, been unnecessarily terse.
While Cisco was all for respecting the changes she felt she needed to her boundaries, he'd deserved to learn what those changed boundaries were before he'd smacked right into them. Especially since Caitlin knew that texting felt impersonal to Cisco. He had a thing about needing to hear other people's voices and had difficulty parsing tone from text-only conversations.
So Cisco had very little contact with Caitlin over the last month.
But tonight Cisco takes advantage of being allowed to leave voicemails. He calls Caitlin, feels his eyes get all watery at the sound of her voice on the greeting message, and then stretches out on the bed as he just... talks. "Hey Caitlin. Sorry to call at, like, one o'clock, but you're blocking my calls anyway so I'm sure this didn't disturb you." Okay, so he's still feeling a little passive aggressively miffed over how he found out she wasn't ready for phone calls. "So, um... someone is trying to kill Hartley. Well, multiple someones. I've had to save his life, like, twice in the last week. He discovered shady stuff happening at Mercury Labs, because of course he did, and so Dr. McGee is coming up with a pretext for sending him over to STAR Labs for his safety. It'll be on a joint project that's really just the 'rescue Barry from the Speed Force' thing I've been working on. Hartley's consulted a little on it, so it'll be nice to have a second brain working on it full time, but... yeah, it's been kind of crazy. And he's in the hospital right now because fighting off an attacker tonight triggered an asthma attack because his lungs were already weakened from smoke damage from his apartment complex being set on fire. And I... I think I kind of got jealous when Hartley was hitting on Julian earlier today. So I might have a teeny tiny little crush on Hartley." He'd also freaked out a little when Hartley'd asthma attack started, though not so much that he didn't automatically open a breach to the nearest emergency room when Rachel announced she was taking Hartley to the hospital.
She'd thanked him. Cisco's fairly certain she recognized him too; so much for secret identities.
"Anyway... I just needed to vent and I thought maybe you'd like an update on what's going on back home? And I miss you."
Cisco ended the call and tossed his phone back onto the night stand. Then he got out of bed to make tea. And grab his tablet so he could finish reading the ridiculous gay vampire erotica that he most definitely was never admitting to purchasing, even if it had only been about a dollar. (Sometimes a guy just wanted unrealistic biting porn, okay?)
It's after Jesse goes to sleep that Wally rolls out of bed. He likes cuddling with her; it's usually easier for him to sleep with her there for that very reason. But tonight all Wally can think of is that he hadn't really been all that useful in the fight at the Rathaway residence.
He feels like he should be doing more. Barry would've been able to end that fight all on his own, but instead of Wally having it handled it was Cisco who'd taken care of things. It had felt that way with the fire too. Cisco saved the lives and Wally stopped the fire. Which had definitely been the right call. He wasn't envious of Cisco getting to be the hero. But Cisco was the one who'd ultimately caught Peek-a-Boo too. Wally hadn't known what to do and kept trying the same thing over and over again. Cisco was the one who came up with the strategy that finally worked.
Wally had thought that he'd be stepping into Barry's shoes; they were both speedsters after all. And Barry had been able to handle the heroing all on his own since pretty much day one. And while Jesse had the benefit of Barry's mentorship, she was largely on her own over on Earth-2 and thriving. But Wally... felt like he was standing still. Instead of him doing Barry proud, it was Cisco who was stepping into Barry's shoes. And Wally was starting to wonder if becoming Kid Flash had been the right choice for him. He admired people who wanted to save lives and help others, but that didn't automatically mean Wally was cut out to be a hero. Or at least, not the same kind of hero that Barry and Jesse and Cisco were.
And if Wally didn't really fit in the Team Flash mold... then what did that even mean for him?
Glancing back at Jesse, asleep on the bed, Wally slipped out of the room and then took off on a run. Just around the block a few dozen times, to work off the anxious energy his worries and uncertainty brought him.
Just to block out the quiet thoughts in the back of his head that said he needed more space than Central City could give him.
Tina pressed the doorbell and waited patiently to be let in. The man who greets her at the door is not Hartley, it's Osgood Rathaway, whom she knows more by reputation than through business. Rathaway Industries attempted to do business with Mercury Labs about a year after the very public disowning of their son. Suffice it to say that she'd done the polite businesswoman version of telling him to get stuffed.
Osgood remembered. It was written all over the very stiff expression that showed up on his face. So Tina smiled pleasantly. "Mr. Rathaway, I'm Dr. Tina McGee."
"My son's employer," Osgood filled in.
"That's right. I heard about the attack last night and hoped to see how he's doing."
Osgood took a deep breath and then nodded, standing aside. "Please, come in. I'll let Hartley know you're here."
So she comes inside the house and takes a seat in a formal parlor room. There's a gorgeous baby grand piano that Tina's fingers itch to play, for all that it's been years since she last played. It's an older piano, probably a family heirloom. She probably shouldn't insult the poor thing by playing chopsticks on it.
Hartley comes down the stairs with Cisco hovering around him. She can't say she's surprised the young man arrived before she did.
"Dr. McGee," Hartley smiled brightly. "Thank you for coming to see me."
"I'm glad to see you're doing okay," she greeted him, reaching over to shake first his hand and then Cisco's. "It's good to see you too, Cisco."
Cisco smiled tiredly. "Thanks Dr. McGee. I can, uh... is there any tea in the kitchen that isn't fifty percent sugar?"
Hartley rolled his eyes. "Not unless you make it yourself. You don't have to go, Cisco. I think Dr. McGee is here to discuss why I'm being targeted and I'd rather you sit in on that."
"I think you may have stumbled across more than just embezzlement and insider trading," Tina said bluntly. "I brought copies of the printouts you brought me. After the theft of your laptop, I compared what you brought me to our current electronic copies of the same data. Everything is the same as far as the proof of the embezzlers and the insider trading went. But there were some differences in other parts of the data set." She held out the briefcase she'd brought with her, which Hartley took and popped open as he sat down on the piano bench. The briefcase went next to him and he popped it open, immediately picking up the first file to flip through it.
"Huh..." Hartley frowned thoughtfully. "You highlighted the differences?"
"And included the altered data. There's an NDA for Mr. Ramon at the bottom," she added. "I anticipated your presence and I'd appreciate your input, but... it is proprietary data for the Lab and some of it is highly sensitive."
"Anyone have a pen?" Cisco asked, settling in a chair and accepting the NDA when Hartley fished it out for him.
"There should be one in the table drawer," Hartley spoke up, still pouring over the files, frowning as he took in what McGee had found. "Father does crosswords and sudoku there on Saturdays. He's got a lot of pens in there."
"Thanks," Cisco said, retrieving a pen, testing it on his palm before turning back to the NDA. He read over the document carefully before signing, but it was a fairly boilerplate document. He would've signed similar documents doing consulting work for the various labs around the city. These days Cisco Ramon had a reputation for being the foremost expert on meta human powers and getting even a few hours of his time for consultation was highly in demand.
Once Cisco signed the NDA, Hartley handed over the files he'd already looked over.
"I don't get it," Hartley finally said. "None of the data altered was suspicious until after they altered it. All they had to do was keep their heads down and no one would have noticed."
"But they apparently thought that they couldn't take that chance," Tina replied. "They were fudging test data. But whether the original data was fake or the new data is fake or it's both fake..." She shook her head. "That's two projects I'm going to have to scrap and start over from scratch. The results are now invalid. But there must've been something else to this. Something they thought was on your laptop, but not part of what you'd presented to me. And they couldn't take the chance of you remembering whatever it was."
"So first they tried to stage my death via asphyxiation in the fire. And when that failed they tried something more direct," Hartley guessed.
Tina nodded, "my guess as well. Whatever it is, they must have thought it was pretty damning."
"But I don't have the first idea what it would've been." Hartley shook his head. "I looked through a lot of documents that I didn't present to you because I didn't think they were relevant. Great, someone wants to kill me over something I don't know... or don't know that I know."
Cisco reached over and squeezed Hartley's shoulder.
"You got the guy who broke in here behind bars, but there's still a meta who can cause electrical fires out there and as long as we don't know who is behind this then we don't know who else they may have hired." He took a shaky breath. "It's not safe for my parents if I stay here, is it?" He looked over at Cisco, a miserable expression on his face.
"Honestly?" Cisco sounded pretty miserable himself. "Probably not without someone here to protect all three of you."
Not exactly the news Tina had been hoping these files would uncover.
"Mother..." Hartley hugged her again, "I'll be fine. Detective West already has a safe house lined up for me. It probably won't take long to find out who's after me and I'll be back in your guest room looking for a new apartment before you know it."
"I know, I'm just worried," Rachel murmured, holding him tightly. When she finally let go, she added fretfully, "I can make you a pitcher of tea to go if you like."
"I'm sure that's not necessary, dear," Osgood cut in on Hartley's behalf. "Wherever Hartley's going, I've no doubt they're already well stocked with food and drink. Hartley... take care of yourself." He hesitated a moment before giving Hartley a hug too.
Hartley swallowed hard and let himself just enjoy the moment for what it was. Regardless of the circumstances, he was getting hugs from his parents. That wasn't something he'd ever be able to take for granted.
He didn't have much to load into West's car, considering he still hadn't been able to check on the stuff in his apartment. The longer it took, the more likely the smell of the smoke would set in. So Hartley had reluctantly given his keys to his parents and asked them to check on his stuff for him. Make sure his electronics still worked, get his clothes and other launderable items cleaned, and at least get the place aired out enough that Hartley could pack it up himself later. He'd just have to trust they wouldn't go snooping and discover his condom stash in the night stand. That would be... awkward.
"So," Hartley asked as Joe put the car in gear, "where are we headed, anyway?"
"Dr. Wells' former residence." Joe caught sight of the expression on Hartley's face and added, "it's been massively renovated since the time you blew in the windows. Barry inherited it after... the singularity. He was going to sell it originally, but it was on the market for a year and only got two offers, both of which were ridiculously low-ball offers. Barry finally took the place off the market and redesigned the interior, and some of the exterior, to make it a safe house they could use if something happened to STAR Labs. I think Cisco's running the team's shared Emby server out of there too."
Hartley snorted in amusement, but he still felt tense at the idea of going back there. He hoped the remodeling inside was extensive indeed. Shattering the skylights and the window wall wasn't the first questionable decision Hartley'd ever made at that residence. He'd rather not spend the entire time he was there thinking about Harrison.
Though he'd brought the briefcase full of paperwork that Dr. McGee had given him. And on Monday Hartley'd be issued a new work laptop, which Cisco had promised to take him to Mercury Labs to retrieve. So at least some of his time could be put towards trying to retrace his steps to figure out what it was that had placed him in danger in the first place. And since Cisco had signed an NDA, he'd be able to help out if Hartley ran into road blocks.
It was too bad Cisco couldn't just vibe who'd hired the attackers, but West said the guy they'd caught had lawyered up real fast and refused to talk besides. No luck interrogating him about his employer.
West took a meandering route to Harrison's place - Hartley couldn't quite think of it as 'the safe house' just yet - and the exterior, when they arrived, wasn't all that different from what Hartley remembered. The landscaping was plain and the house's lines were sleek and modern. Hartley remembered coming here with Harrison and feeling impressed by the man's style. But to an older, more experienced Hartley the whole thing just looks... empty. Boring.
He gets out of the car, grabs his stuff, and follows West inside.
Once inside, though, it might as well be a completely different house. Oh, sure, the window wall is still there, but it's hidden behind a steel covering. Same with the skylight and the windows on the front of the house in the kitchen. The only light inside the building is artificial. The kitchen was completely redone. Oh, the top of the line appliances are still there, but someone painted the cabinets a bright red with yellow accents. The Flash's color scheme... Cisco's idea, no doubt. The walls are all a warm gray and there's no hint of the stark white furniture Hartley remembers. There's an over-sized blue couch and ottoman set, a black lazy-boy recliner, and and absolutely ridiculous television. It's just huge.
Cisco, Wally, and a woman Hartley assumes is Jesse Wells - he'd met Harry, but not his daughter - are already there on the couch with a bunch of take out boxes arrayed on the ottoman.
"Hey, Hartley, Joe," Cisco greeted. "Come join us. We've got enough Chinese for everyone."
"My mother tried to send some iced tea with me," Hartley informed Cisco, taking a seat beside him on the couch while Joe took the recliner. He laughed as Cisco's nose wrinkled up cutely. "Father stopped her."
"Oh thank god," Cisco breathed out and that... that just made Hartley laugh harder as he, finally, relaxed.