Chapter 5
Hartley finally takes the opportunity to call Cisco after dinner, when General Ellis has Ronnie and the Steins behind closed doors discussing their options in detail. Hartley's already been promised protection, but as he wants to keep the whole Pied Piper thing under wraps, he's already declined to testify. They don't really need him to make their case against Eiling and Eiling can't say with a hundred percent certainty that Hartley was the one who attacked him and his men to save Ronnie and the Flash. Nor can he say with certainty that Cisco was driving the getaway vehicle. The getaway vehicle could still wind up linked back to STAR Labs thanks to license plates, but that'll just mean Eiling will have Harrison and his lawyers to contend with. So Cisco is safe.
But it still causes something in Hartley's chest to unwind when he hears Cisco's voice over the phone.
"Barry's doing fine and we're leaving the van at Dr. Wells' place for now. He's dropping us all off out our homes after dinner. Barry's okay. We're all... shaken, but fine." Cisco paused a beat, then said, "actually, he's dropping off Caitlin at Mercury. She wants to see Ronnie."
"I'll let Tina know after we're done talking. But I think it's about time I headed out of here too. Guess I'm back to STAR Labs." He fingered the file on his lap. Tina had told him to take it with him. Re-read it as much as he liked before making his decision. He wasn't really keen on taking it back to STAR Labs, though.
Maybe... maybe Cisco would be willing to hold onto it for him?
"Or... you could crash at my place?" Cisco offered. "I, uh... my couch isn't that great, so if you weren't interested I'd get it, but... I really want to get you out of that locker room. And, uh, it's not just an offer for tonight. But as long as you want. I don't care what the others say. You came through for us today and you deserve a lot better than we've been treating you. So..."
"Well if the couch sucks then we just bring the air mattress from the locker room along," Hartley said, grinning when Cisco laughed. "Tomorrow anyway. I can live with the couch tonight. If you're sure I'm not putting you out?"
"I'm sure. Absolutely sure."
Hartley arranges to swap places with Caitlin when Harrison drops her off. He's not thrilled about catching a ride from the man, but it's the most efficient way to get him to Cisco's apartment at the same time as Cisco. Barry'll be there playing referee since Caitlin made him promise to wait a few hours before running again, to make sure his insides were a hundred percent healed after the damage the spines did to him. And, in a way, it's a relief that Barry'll be there just for the chance to see for himself that the bloody picture he'd made - moaning in agony - earlier that day was already mostly healed away.
Somehow, even the Flash seemed to be growing on him.
Cisco gets out of the van with Caitlin so he can hug her goodbye properly. It's not clear yet if Ronnie and the Steins are going to have to leave Central City for their safety. And if they do... that opens up the question of whether Caitlin will go with them.
This is absolutely not the last time Cisco is going to see her. That's... not even a worry. But Cisco's got a feeling she's about to be fielding some very difficult questions and he wants nothing but the best for her. And, well, Cisco still hasn't had a chance to ask Ronnie about... about closing the door to the pipeline.
That one is going to keep haunting him for a while, he supposes.
Then Caitlin heads inside and ambushes Hartley with a hug as he's coming out the door. It's absolutely hilarious. Hartley's eyes go all wide and he hesitantly pats Caitlin's back, visibly stiff and fighting the impulse to run away quickly. His gaze zeroes in on Cisco and he mouth's, quite clearly, 'help'.
Cisco does not help, largely because he's too busy laughing. It gets him glared at.
But Caitlin does, eventually, let Hartley go and continues into Mercury Labs. Hartley joins Cisco by the van and mutters, clearly, "traitor."
"I'm glad you're okay." Cisco grinned an added, "I'd give you a hug too, but you look like you're about to have an allergic reaction to feelings."
"By which I'm pretty sure he means anxiety attack," Barry added from where he was watching from the open window of the front side passenger seat. "You sure you're okay, Hartley?"
"Peachy." Hartley fiddled with his hands, drawing Cisco's attention to a file he was holding on to. He glanced nervously at Dr. Wells in the driver's seat and then sighed again. Shook his head and visibly steeled himself. "Good to see your porcupine impression is over, but you might want to remember that the spines are supposed to be a protective back covering."
Barry snorted and rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah, I'll totally keep that in mind for next time."
"So, my place next please," Cisco said, turning and giving Hartley a gentle push towards the van.
As prompted, Hartley got into the van. Cisco followed, shutting the door and handing Hartley the bag full of the Pied Piper gear. "Your stuff. I didn't think you'd want it left with the van."
"Thank you," Hartley said, adding his file to the bag and holding it all close.
It's probably one of the most awkward car rides Cisco's ever been on, but it's only a short while later that Cisco and Hartley are disembarking at his apartment. He see's Dr. Well's raised eyebrows over Hartley's bare wrists, but Cisco pointedly ignores the stare.
They can have that argument another day. Not today.
Much to everyone's surprise, however, the question of Hartley putting the cuffs back on is one that is basically just... sidestepped. Cisco puts them on a high shelf in his lab and Dr. Wells just... doesn't say anything. Barry moves Hartley's stuff to Cisco's apartment at super speed and Caitlin comes back to work with Ronnie a few days later with a court appointment to have Ronnie's death legally reversed.
Better news still, General Eiling was officially under arrest and, pending the completion of the investigation into his less than legal activities, was to be scheduled for both a court martial and criminal charges. Leavenworth was likely in that man's future and it couldn't happen to a nicer guy, as far as Cisco was concerned. The least he deserved for what happened to Bette, never mind the latest attacks on Ronnie, Caitlin, and the Steins.
Cisco's latest project is to get Dr. Wells to admit that he should be paying Hartley as a contractor. And then actually pay the man. It's a work in progress. One paused by the surprising delivery of mail.
A small brown box with Hartley's name on it showed up at lunch time. The return address had Clarissa Stein's name on it. Curiouser and curiouser.
"Hartley, mail call," Cisco sang out as he returned to the cortex, tossing the small box to Hartley, who caught it with barely a look.
When he saw the sender's name, however, Hartley started giggling. Actually giggling. Dr. Wells turned to stare incredulously.
"Come on, Hartley, share the joke," Cisco complained, wandering over to stand beside him.
"I didn't think she'd take me seriously," Hartley said and then used the nearest object sharp enough to pierce packing tape to pop the small box open. Within lay three small plush rats. One white, one brown, and one gray. And a note that read, 'three Ikea rats reporting for enlistment in the rodent army. Thanks again for everything, Clarissa.'
And Cisco really couldn't help himself. He started to giggle too.
Hartley had some things in a storage container. Not a lot - though certainly enough he couldn't bring it all to Cisco's apartment at the moment - but there were a few things that, as long as he was staying some place safer than an abandoned warehouse or STAR Labs, he wanted to bring out of storage.
So that first weekend after moving from the STAR Labs locker room to Cisco's living room found Hartley and Cisco at the storage facility where Hartley's remaining things were. A couple of blankets, some more clothes, his favorite pillow... all were obvious choices. He'd slept in here a few times, but the air mattress Cisco had gotten for him was a lot more comfortable than the cot he'd clandestinely slept on some nights when he couldn't get a place at Freespace and it was too cold for the warehouse. Technically it wasn't allowed to do that, but so long as a person didn't do it too often then usually the storage facility's security would look the other way.
And while Hartley did grab the blankets and the clothes and the favorite pillow, he also pulled open a box of trinkets. There was a glass rose in there - shimmering yellow - a gift from his grandmother on his mother's side, before she'd passed away. His first pride flag was carefully wrapped around it and the other potentially breakable objects within. On the not-so-breakable side is a purple necklace, gifted by his sister shortly before he'd been disowned. Much like the rosary Hartley had recently taken to wearing all the time, it was hand made by Jerrie and of excellent quality.
He'd been questioning if he might be asexual at the time and while he'd come to the conclusion he wasn't, Jerrie had made it as a subtle nod just in case his questioning had fallen out the other way.
The item Hartley had really been looking for, however, was a music box. A wind up shaped like a small sewing machine and covered by tiny mice. He had vivid memories of visiting his grandfather's house as a child and sneaking into one of the bedrooms - not so sneakily, but he had been allowed his illusions of stealthiness anyway - where he'd wound up the box over and over again, watching the little mice twirl around beneath the sewing machine's arm.
The first time he'd found it, no doubt little Hartley had expected it to play a song from Cinderella. But that particular memory was lost to time. Hartley might as well have always known about the music box mice and the song they played and danced to. Pulling it carefully out of the box and the bright colors of the flag wrapped around it, Hartley wound up the music box and let it sit on the floor beside him as it played, his legs pulled up and his arms around his knees as he watched with the same careful fascination he'd held as a child.
"Is that...?" Cisco came over and, quietly, settled down to sit beside Hartley with the music box between them. And then, in a soft, lovely voice, Cisco began to sing, "raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with string..."
Smiling at Cisco and feeling something warm and hesitant fluttering in his chest, Hartley joined in with the words, "these are a few of my favorite things..."