Summary: Hartley's really not sure trusting Cisco is a great idea. Just because the guy has had an attack of conscience over the unethical prison in STAR Labs basement doesn't mean he's going to be a reliable partner in Hartley's quest for vengeance against Harrison Wells. But if Hartley wants to make progress in shutting down the Pipeline Prison, then he doesn't really have a choice.
Meanwhile Cisco's trust in Dr. Wells has been shattered by the discovery that his mentor not only deliberately ignored the flaws in the accelerator, but has been secretly studying meta humans. Many of whom - like Cisco himself - haven't even manifested powers yet. But Cisco doesn't want to believe his trust in Caitlin and Barry has been misplaced, even as he commits to throwing in his lot with Hartley.
(For Hartmonfest July 2 - Trust)
Notes: So there are a lot of conversations about cop culture and abuse of power that can be had over much what happens on the Flash - especially season one. I'm not really sure how well I address those issues here, but hopefully I didn't make a complete mess of it either.
Series: "The Broken Pedestal" part 2; follows after "Unpacking the Accelerator (The Broken Pedestal)"
Trust Fall
Cisco wakes up with a crick on his neck. The couch he'd slept on really was not meant for sleeping.
Not that he could say Hartley hadn't warned him. But, well, Cisco hadn't really been in any shape to drive home the night before.
It had been a pretty rough night. Cisco's misgivings over the pipeline prison and their plans to forcibly depower the two criminals currently in their prison had crystalized over the realization that... good or bad, they were still people. Still victims of the accelerator's explosion. And while, sure, Nimbus and Bivolo had done some pretty monstrous things with their powers, but Tony Woodward? He'd been an entitled asshole and probably a sexual predator in the making, given how he'd gone after Iris, but... he'd deserved his day in court, instead of dying in STAR Labs, his body hidden away who knew where as a literal skeleton in their closet. And then there was Hartley himself. The worst thing he'd done was destroy a few windows. No one was hurt, either at Dr. Wells house or at Rathaway Industries. He'd deliberately baited them with his unusual sonic weaponry, giving himself the veneer of a villain the cops couldn't handle but the Flash could. Kidnapping him and locking him away in solitary confinement was...
Unjustifiable.
Yet they'd tried to do it anyway and patted themselves on the back for a job well done. It had to stop. They had to stop playing the parts of enforcers, judge, and jury. There had to be a line they didn't cross. Imprisoning criminals themselves without anything remotely resembling due process? That should have been the line.
Now Cisco was trying to find a way to get back to the right side of that line. But the question was how did they do right by the two prisoners they already had without getting killed by their prisoners or sent to jail themselves for what amounted to some pretty awful crimes. Well... that and... how did he sell Barry and Caitlin on whatever plan he came up with while collaborating with Hartley. And, uh... how did he keep Barry from imprisoning yet another person in the interim, thus compounding the problem yet again.
Which, okay, that was three questions. Three very big questions.
And all of that ignored the elephant in the room. Or on the laptop, as it were.
When Hartley escaped from STAR Labs, he'd made it look like he was gearing up for a fight against the Flash. There were some pretty big clues, in hindsight, that Hartley had other plans. He didn't search out his gloves - the weapons he'd need to fight Barry - behind. Though they'd assumed Hartley had something else in mind for fighting the Flash take 2. After all, Hartley wouldn't have sought out Barry's natural frequency without reason.
The reason had been distraction. A successful one. They were so focused on the potential physical danger that they'd overlooked the possibility of a virtual attack. Hartley was able to hack STAR Labs and steal data that proved there the accelerator had not only been flawed before it exploded, but that Dr. Wells had to have been aware of it for quite some time. He'd leaked the data online to multiple journalists and Wikileaks and the full implications of the information was still coming to light. But Cisco had understood it. What the employee turnover meant in conjunction with the mounting problems, skillfully hidden within the accelerator's walls. And, yet, somehow the proof the accelerator had been doomed to failure quite possibly from the moment of conception wasn't the worst of what Hartley'd found.
A secret partition on STAR Lab's mainframe had caught Hartley's attention and he'd downloaded a number of encrypted files. Hartley'd finally decrypted the files he'd stolen the night before only to find dossiers on over a thirty people. Including Cisco and Caitlin. Each file treating them as subjects and discussing whether or not they were metas and whether their powers - or lack thereof - were a deviation from some former timeline. While the alternate timeline mentions made no sense, it was clear that Dr. Wells had been spying on friends, enemies and strangers alike with no regard for personal privacy.
And Cisco still felt like he was reeling from the revelation that he was a meta. His powers were still dormant, so there was no telling if the abilities Wells had recorded about Cisco's 'alternate timeline' self were accurate.
"Do you have work today?" Hartley asked, walking into the room. "Because I do, so I'm gonna need you to head out."
"Yeah, I'm gonna call in sick," Cisco said, sitting up and reaching for his phone on the table. "I really don't think I can face Dr. Wells today. Not after..."
Hartley nodded. "That'll give you time to figure out how to get my gloves back. And how you're going to convince Snow and Allen to get rid of that prison."
Some things didn't change. Hartley had been fairly sympathetic while Cisco was mid panic attack the evening before, but now that Cisco was level headed again? Back to business only.
But Cisco had promised to get Hartley's gloves back while he worked on coming up with a plan to dealing with the pipeline. Someway to move Nimbus and Bivolo into legal custody, preferably without landing Team Flash in hot water too. Not that they didn't deserve it at this point, but...
"Yeah." Cisco grabbed his shoes and pulled them on before folding up the blanket he'd been slept under.
"Not to rudely kick you out, but..." Hartley walked to the front door, snagging his wallet and keys and toeing on his own shoes, "I'm rudely kicking you out. I'm running late for work and if I don't leave now I'm going to miss my bus."
"Right." Cisco retrieved his own wallet and keys, putting them and his phone back in his pockets as he stood up and let Hartley chivy him out the door.
Hartley still doesn't know what to make of Ramon. An attack of conscience does not a hero make and Hartley's pretty sure this is a scenario where there are no heroes anyway.
What happens when Cisco has to face his friends, knowing he's agreed to undermine them?
And how are they going to deal with the issue of the pipeline anyway? Hartley would love to just open the doors and let the two men trapped inside walk right out, but... then how much responsibility would Hartley bear the next time they hurt someone? Nimbus was practically guaranteed to go after Detective West again. But Bivolo might be reasoned with.
He turns these questions over and over in his head during the slow hours of the morning shift at Barnes and Noble. And because life is hard and there are no easy answers, Hartley hasn't reached any conclusions by the time he's free to grab some lunch and go home. He finds a missed call on his phone from the PI he's been doing freelance work for asking for him to do some hacking as part of a security penetration test the guy's been hired for. Hartley checks his schedule, but it doesn't look like it'll interfere either with his part time job or what he's up to with his personal vendetta against Harrison. So Hartley sends back an affirmative, changes into a nicer outfit than working at a bookstore called for, and catches the bus to the second of two Labs that had contacted him to interview for positions.
Proof, in Hartley's opinion, that his campaign against STAR Labs and Harrison Wells was succeeding. Just a few months earlier no Lab in Central City would have touched Hartley with a ten foot pole. Now he's maybe got an in on regaining his career and reputation as a scientist. And he wants that so bad. He wants to be respected as Dr. Hartley Rathaway again.
He wants back everything Harrison took from him.
Caitlin shows up at Cisco's apartment that evening with dinner in to go containers from one of Cisco's favorite Chinese places near STAR Labs. There's a big container of egg drop soup, combo fried rice, and a few other dishes that are a bit blander than Cisco would usually go for but still welcome and tasty.
"I was erring on the side of caution in case you really were sick," Caitlin told him, laying out the food containers on his counter much to Cisco's bemused appreciation. "I'm angry with Dr. Wells too."
"Did you ever read any of Hartley's blog?" Cisco asked, putting two plates and two bowls on the counter and then heading for the silverware drawer.
"Yes, I have. What he said about Ronnie..." Caitlin hesitated and then said, "I didn't realize I needed someone to say that until it was there on his blog. I didn't want him to be a hero, but he was. And I know we didn't talk about it because what happened was so hard for either of us to..." her voice cracked a bit. "I got contacted by a reporter who wants to do a piece on Ronnie for the anniversary of the explosion. I think I'm going to agree to be interviewed."
"Make sure you get to vet their questions beforehand," Cisco advised, sticking serving spoons next to the styrofoam containers and then pouring some of the soup into each of the two bowls.
"Definitely." Caitlin started serving food onto her plate.
They end up putting on an episode of Star Trek as they eat and it's comfortable and familiar. How many times has Cisco done this? Just hung out with his best friend having lunch or dinner, watching a show or a movie... it should feel normal.
Subject shows no signs of a meta-related gene in her DNA nor any lingering dark energy. While it's possible I had misidentified Killer Frost as a future incarnation of Dr. Caitlin Snow, it seems more likely that the source of her transformation into the platinum blonde, blue-eyed, ice-controlling meta may simply have not involved dark energy after all. There are a number of potential causes for a human to develop into a meta human and it's possible that the subject simply won't be exposed in this timeline. Further monitoring is advisable, but her threat status is considerably lower.
Maybe Cisco shouldn't have read what Dr. Wells had written about her. But after seeing the dossier Wells had kept on him...
Though even if he hadn't, after deciding to go to Hartley for help dealing with the pipeline and agreeing to help Hartley ruin Dr. Wells' reputation... Cisco wasn't sure anything was ever going to feel normal again.
"Are you okay?" Caitlin asked when the episode came to an end. "You barely quoted anything, so don't try to tell me everything is fine."
Cisco snorted in amusement. "Am I really that predictable?"
"A little. But it's sweet how much you love this show." Caitlin poked his shoulder. "Spill. What is it that had you playing hooky from work and too lost in your head to fully enjoy Star Trek of all things?"
"I think we made a big mistake with the pipeline prison," Cisco blurted out. "And I don't know how to fix it." He couldn't tell her about Hartley, but this... he needed to know he wasn't the only one who'd realized it was a terrible idea. Who believed they never should have done it in the first place.
Caitlin went quiet. Her hands went to her knees, curled tightly into fists as she stare down in silence. "When we started, I thought it was the right thing. And people like Nimbus made me so certain it was the right call. After all, how else are people who use their powers like that going to be contained? Iron Heights can't do it."
"Just because we can doesn't mean we have the right to," Cisco said when Caitlin's voice halted. "The way we're treating him and Bivolo is wrong, Caitlin. It was wrong with Tony Woodward and now he's dead. It was wrong with Hartley, but we excused it because he's an asshole. Turns out he was just playing us so he could prove that Dr. Wells isn't a good person either."
"Ruining Dr. Wells' reputation," Caitlin grumbled.
"Ruining? Or correcting?" Cisco countered. "When did we start treating people like they only deserved human rights if they were a good meta? I don't want to be that kind of person anymore, Caitlin."
"We're not bad people," Caitlin insisted.
"But that doesn't make what we're doing okay." Cisco hesitated. Not sure he was getting through to her. "We've kidnapped people, Caitlin. Deprived them of their rights. Put them in solitary confinement where they can't even see the sun. We're supposed to be rehabilitating them, but when is that actually going to happen? How can it happen when the way we're treating them is so inhumane?"
"I-" Caitlin sighs. Shivers like she's cold. "You're right. But I don't know how to fix it any more than you do."
"We can't let anyone else get put down there for starters," Cisco told her. "It's bad enough. We have to stop making things worse or we'll never actually fix it."
Caitlin nods.
Cisco wishes he could trust her resolve. But in an argument over this with Barry, he can't be sure she'd have his back. And Cisco's even less sure about where Barry stands in all of this than he was with Caitlin.
Having an alternative to the Pipeline would probably help. And... maybe Cisco can offer that alternative.
Maybe.
Cisco makes himself go into work. He's not happy with Dr. Wells and he can't entirely hide it.
There's a distance between them that his mentor is all too aware of. Thankfully Wells attributes it to the revelation of the flaw in the accelerator.
"I honestly believed the danger wasn't as great as Hartley said it was." The words are a lie and they sound like poison in Cisco's ears.
Maybe a few days ago Cisco would have bought them. Hook, line, and sinker. But today he knows just how easily this man was able to dehumanize the people he called friend.
The dossiers dated back to before the explosion. This man had never been Cisco's friend.
"I believe you. But I'm still..." the lie rolls easily off Cisco's tongue. "I just need time, okay? I've got a few projects we've put on hold that I'm going to work on today. Alone. I think I need time on my own."
"Of course, Cisco." The tone is charmingly conciliatory. "Whatever you need."
Cisco needs STAR Labs resources and access Hartley's gloves. He does not need Dr. Harrison Wells.
He doesn't voice that thought out loud.
The lab Cisco's been using doesn't feel as safe as it used to when he pulls down the anti-meta handcuffs that are about three-quarters of the way done. If these work the way Cisco intends, then they'll have a viable alternative to the Pipeline. A mobile method for restraining a meta's powers in order to take them into custody. Or bracelet versions for meta's who need help getting a handle on their powers, like Farooq Gibran had been.
If they'd been able to help Blackout with his powers, maybe they could have found a peaceful resolution to that situation. They could have helped him find healthier ways to grieve for his friends.
Or maybe not. Gibran's hatred for Dr. Wells had been driving him for so long, maybe nothing would have helped him find peace. But at least they could have tried.
They're not going to fail like that again.
He's lost to the world for the rest of the day, checking and double checking all the work he'd already done on the design and then moving forward in finalizing it. Cisco barely remembers to break for lunch and he's just started building the prototypes that evening when Dr. Wells appears in his doorway.
"It's nearly eight, Cisco, have eaten yet?"
"No. Lost track of time." Cisco sighed and set the prototypes aside. He could finish in the morning. "Explains the headache," he added, rubbing at his temples.
Wells smiled, a bit wanly. "I'm sorry."
Cisco shrugged. "A little Tylenol and I'll be fine."
"No, I mean... I'm bad at apologies. I usually don't bother. But you, Caitlin, and Barry..." Dr. Wells' expression turned pensive. "The three of you are worth the effort of trying to get this right. Of trying to make things right. I'm sorry, Cisco. For how much what happened with the accelerator hurt you. And how my keeping the flaw secret afterwards has shaken your faith in me. I hope that you'll give me the chance to earn back the trust I've lost."
The funny thing is, there's something surprisingly honest about his words. Cisco wants to ask how that jives with how he's been spying on them and keeping secret dossiers on their potential powers and apparently sees Cisco as nothing more than a subject in a city wide experiment.
He doesn't.
"I don't know that things are going to ever be quite the same," Cisco finally said, picking his words carefully. "But I think maybe I was..." he ducked his head, letting his genuine embarrassment shine through. "You were my science hero. Now I see you as a fallible person. And maybe that's healthier."
"I hope that when you're ready to work with me again, Cisco, we can collaborate on projects as equals."
Once upon a time, Cisco had wanted nothing more. Now he knows it's nothing but a pipe dream, even if part of him still wishes... "Me too."
"Go home, Cisco. Get some rest. I suspect you're going to have something truly remarkable to show Mr. Allen in the next day or so." Wells nodded towards the unfinished prototype on the worktable.
"Assuming it works, yeah. I will." Cisco just hoped he wasn't building something that would wind up used against him.
Hartley has no idea what to do with Harrison's files on various meta humans. It's an invasion of their privacy - Hartley's hesitant to even look at any beyond the ones he's already seen.
When he'd opened the first file - Subject 0033 - Hartley had no idea what he was even looking at. He couldn't process what it meant. So he'd opened Subject 0002 and Subject 0003. Which was when he saw Cisco and Snow's names. And things finally clicked.
Unfortunately that was also when Cisco finally looked up. The implications of the files hit him fast and Hartley couldn't blame him for getting physically ill from the revelation. Hartley'd been pretty nauseated himself.
But there might be a file on him in there. So two days after decrypting the files, Hartley waited until after dinner and fortified himself with the last glass of wine from the bottle in his fridge. And then he systematically looked through the files he had. None of the names were his and he didn't recognize any of the other names, though he only had a handful of files compared to what was in the hidden partition. Harrison had seemed surprised to learn about Hartley's hearing, but the man was a talented actor so it was entirely possible there was a file on him somewhere in the STAR Labs network.
After all, Harrison had convinced Team Flash, and the rest of the world, that he was paralyzed.
No sign of a file labeled Subject 0001, but Hartley suspects that one lists Barry Allen, the Flash. There's something about Harrison's interest in the forensic scientist that makes Hartley suspect it predated the accelerator explosion entirely.
There's no contact from Cisco either, but Hartley can't say he's surprised. It'll probably take a few days before Cisco can get his gloves. Assuming Cisco comes through for him.
Hartley's not totally sure what he'd actually use the gloves for, but he put so much effort into them that he hates the idea of leaving them in Harrison's hands.
The next morning, Hartley does not have work. It's one of the rare days where he's got an afternoon shift instead. So he's taking a chance to relax comfortably. Splurged on donuts and a chai latte and was writing up his next blog post with an apple fritter half finished on the table next to him when his phone chirped.
Frowning, Hartley checked his texts. There's a message from Cisco.
Is there a file on Lashawn "Shawna" Baez?
She just broke her boyfriend out of prison
Teleporter
Hartley grabbed the laptop. The name looked familiar.
Subject 0106? Or...
It ended up being the third file Hartley checked - Subject 0078.
He licks his lips and hesitates to actually read the file. It feels like an invasion of privacy because that's exactly what it is. But if it keeps Shawna from being imprisoned in STAR Labs basement...
Hartley reads the file and then texts Cisco back.
Boyfriend is Clay Parker? They've been on again off again last three years
She dropped out of school to become a nurse in order to pay off Parker's gambling debts
Volunteers at Freespace a lot
Surprised I don't recognize her from there
She was visiting the doctor a lot over the last few months, file doesn't say why
Harrison didn't think it was connected to her powers
She's been using her powers for the last several months - needs line of sight and travels by photon so light is important
Saved a kid who got trapped in a basement
Shawna was just acting impulsively out of love. And Hartley stares at her photo for a long moment before closing the file.
The Flash will not be putting this woman in the Pipeline. Hartley won't let him.
I need my gloves, Cisco.
He won't let Harrison Wells, or his pet speedster, put Shawna Baez in the STAR Labs hell closet and just forget about her down there.
Cisco's morning starts out fairly decent. He wakes up, has breakfast, picks up a Flash on the way to work, and comes up with - and discards - about half a dozen plans for sneakily retrieving Hartley's gloves and moving them into his car's trunk.
Once actually at work, Cisco manages to smile politely at Dr. Wells and gets back to work on his dampener tech.
Unfortunately he doesn't get very far before the morning starts going downhill, fast. Barry arrives with news of a meta who just broke her boyfriend out of jail. He starts talking about sticking her in the pipeline once they catch her and...
And Cisco maybe snaps a little.
"Oh fuck no."
Or a lot.
"We aren't putting anyone else in that pipeline. We never should have built that prison in the first place. I'm this close to having a working alternative so that the criminals you catch can actually be contained by the legal system and I'd have it already if it'd stop getting bumped in priority for other projects," Cisco said, pointedly not looking at Dr. Wells. Though he could practically hear the wince. "We're providing substandard treatment compared to actual prisons and did you know that prolonged solitary confinement is legally considered a form of inhumane torture? Because that's what we're doing, apparently. We're torturing people. Right now. And we're not adding a third."
"Cisco we don't have any other choice," Barry argued.
"We do. We absolutely do. We have the choice not to be worse than the people we fight. And we're ignoring that choice because it's inconvenient. That stops now. If you put Shawna Baez in the Pipeline..." Cisco hesitated and then shook his head. "I'm out. I won't be party to this anymore. I never should have built the damn thing in the first place."
Without waiting for a response, Cisco turned on his heel and went back to his lab. And then he couldn't go straight back to work because he was angry. Angry work was shoddy work; Cisco needed to be calm if he was going to make these things work.
"What the hell was that, Cisco?"
Apparently calm wasn't going to happen right now, though.
"You know, I got so caught up in the science that I forgot the most important thing. They're still human beings. Now I realize that vigilantism is illegal," Cisco said, turning to face Barry, "just like kidnapping and torturing people in our basement. But there's a line where we get to keep our ethics even as we do illegal things. And we crossed it. We've walked so far passed that line that... I don't know how we get back to the right side of it. We can't, as long as we have people in that prison. And as long as we do, we're not the good guys, Barry. We don't have the moral high ground, we don't get to sleep comfortably at night. We're actively hurting people and excusing it because they're bad people. Except they're not. Oh, sure, Nimbus is an assassin and Bivolo is a mind rapist, but Tony Woodward died saving your life. He wasn't all bad, he was just another entitled white dude in a long line of them. And Hartley? He broke a few windows and had fancy gloves and was a shitty coworker.
"If you'd done the right thing, Hartley'd be in jail right now. His whole plan hinged on us being unethical. On us treating him like he was less than human because he's angry - with good reason, apparently - at Dr. Wells and made his vendetta personal to all of us. And because he's a meta human."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Barry snapped back.
"It means that we're acting like you're the only meta human who still has the right to be treated like a person and that has to stop. I'm serious, Barry. There are potentially thousands of meta humans in the city and each and every one of them..." 'of us' he wanted to say, but he didn't dare. Not where Dr. Wells might hear. "We're responsible for them having powers. That makes it sound cool, right? Like they aren't victims. But they are. You are. Of a not so accidental-accident. I think I've helped hurt the people of Central City enough and I'm quite serious. Shawna Baez goes into the pipeline and I'm gone."
"Then what else am I supposed to do with her when I catch her?" Barry demanded. "She'll teleport right out of a regular jail."
"I notice you aren't trying to argue that what we're doing with the pipeline is in any way ethical," Cisco pointed out. Barry's eyes narrowed and Cisco moved on. "I'm building mobile dampeners that don't depend on the trace energy from the explosion in the pipeline. Which is what I should have done from the start. I'm close to having working prototypes." But probably not close enough in time to stop Baez.
"And will they be done in time to handle her?"
Cisco swallowed hard. "I guess they have to be, or you'll just use it as an excuse to make the easy choice instead of the right one. Again."
"Screw you, Cisco. You're not the one out there having to fight to make sure no one gets killed by metas like Nimbus or Bivolo."
"Do you know why I built the Cold Gun?" Cisco asked quietly.
"Because you didn't trust me," Barry's voice had gone about as chillingly cold as the gun still in Snart's hands, somewhere out there in Central City. "And that turned out so well for us."
"Yeah, you used it as an excuse to stop trusting me in return and nearly got yourself killed. That was a fun night," Cisco snarked back. "When I was twelve I was nearly arrested for shoplifting." Barry went quiet in confusion, but... he was listening. "I bought a new shirt, but the girl working the counter forgot to remove the anti-theft device attached to it and I didn't notice until the alarm went off. Security officer was a racist dick, all set to drag me off to jail. But the girl at the counter immediately came over and cleared up the mistake and I got to go home.
"And I couldn't wear the shirt. Ended up returning it a week later. I could barely look at it without feeling sick to my stomach and panicky and starting to cry. Took months before I felt safe going to the mall alone after school again." He took a deep breath and then kept going. "And, sure, a mall cop isn't a real cop. But more often than not they're usually either a wannabe cop who washed out of the bare minimum standards required for training or a retired police officer.
"But it was the actual police who arrested one of my best friends in high school for doing weed behind the school. Except he'd never done drugs. Wouldn't have known who to bum a joint off of, never mind buy his own. But there were reports of hispanic kids doing drugs behind the school and the officers who came decided they wanted to be seen doing something. To make an example of someone. And, well, here was a hispanic kid in the wrong place at the wrong time. So they shoved him to the ground and cuffed him. Banged his head on the concrete so there was blood everywhere, 'cause you know what head wounds are like. And while I quietly filmed the whole thing on my crappy little flip phone, I was afraid to say anything and get noticed because what if arresting two hispanic boys allegedly doing weed was better than one?"
Cisco remembered drowning in the guilt all that evening, feeling like he hadn't done enough when the truth was he'd been lucky they hadn't noticed him filming. If they had then he'd probably have gotten arrested too, for 'interference' or whatever.
"It was the police who pulled Dante over and arrested him for driving mom's car because they were sure he must have stolen it. Too nice for a kid who just had to belong to some gang or another, never mind the football jersey he was still wearing from practice. Dante had panic attacks afterwards and wouldn't talk to me about what happened. I just know it was bad." Cisco took another deep, shaky breath. "In my experience, the police are not there to protect us. They're there to abuse their power over us. And you are a part of that cop culture, for all that you're not directly a police officer. So how could I trust that, given so much power, you wouldn't end up abusing it. It's almost hilarious in retrospect that here I was afraid of you abusing your speed and yet I helped our team commit quite possibly the worst abuse of power possible, which had nothing to do with how fast you can run."
Barry looked like Cisco would've been kinder to have just slapped him, but he backed off a step. His expression turned distressed. "Cisco I... I'm sorry."
"Then fix it," Cisco retorted. "Start by not making our situation worse. Promise me you won't put Baez in the pipeline."
"I..." Barry hesitated. "I promise."
Cisco wondered how much that promise was really worth.
He waited until Barry left the room so that Cisco could get back to work and then pulled out his phone to text Hartley. Maybe he was making a mistake reaching out to Rathaway.
But... he needed a backup plan, in case he couldn't finish the dampeners and Barry decided 'he didn't have a choice' after all. Cisco didn't have time to both research Baez in order to humanize her to Barry and finish the tech. So he had to hope that Hartley would be amenable to finding that information for him.
Starting with Dr. Wells dossiers on the metas. There might be useful information there and Cisco hated to ask, but if it kept Baez out of the pipeline...
Cisco's never been more uncomfortably aware of the security cameras littered all over STAR Labs. There are three between his lab and the storage area where Hartley's gloves are currently located. Another one in the storage room itself.
Hartley wants his gloves now to try and protect Baez from Barry. The insistent text was a giveaway.
What happens if Cisco gives Hartley the gloves and he gets into a fight with Barry? If one of them gets hurt, that's on Cisco.
But... Cisco had wanted an alternative plan and Hartley's gloves are actually quite well thought out as far as sonic weaponry went. Hartley was a scrappy fighter too; with the gloves, he posed a genuine challenge to Barry. He could, teamed up with Baez' teleportation skills, defeat Barry in a fight and escape.
That'd be the end of Cisco's friendship with Barry, assuming his ultimatum and blow up at Barry that morning hadn't wrecked their relationship already.
What to do... what to do...
The answer would be a lot simpler if Cisco's powers worked. He was supposed to be a match for a speedster.
A threat to a speedster. (The very idea makes Cisco feel cold and he hates it.)
Not that he'd needed powers to be that, given what happened with the Cold Gun.
But more importantly, if Cisco had full use, or even partial use, of his abilities then he could breach Hartley's gloves right out of storage. But Cisco's powers aren't active, which means he's going to have to do things the hard way.
Hartley had - reluctantly - given Cisco instructions for how to reactivate the dormant virus in STAR Labs' system. He could use that to spin up a secondary login for himself with full admin privileges to the entire system. Including the security cameras. It wasn't difficult to set the appropriate cameras to loop once Cisco had that access.
His heart was pounding as he hurried down the curved hallway past one... two... three cameras. Then he used the access code generated for the dummy account - PiperOfHamelin, Hartley really had a theme going there - to enter the storage room unimpeded.
The idea of being caught terrified him. But no one popped out of the shadows to stop him from moving the high tech gloves from their storage box to his backpack. No one's waiting for him when he leaves the storage room, either. And so Cisco returns to his lab unimpeded and shuts off the loop, logging out of the secondary account and back into his normal login.
Mission accomplished.
So now the questions were... did he trust Hartley enough to give him back the gloves before things were settled with Baez? And did he trust Barry enough to risk waiting?
Caitlin insists on taking Cisco to dinner; she spends the whole time trying to convince him that quitting at STAR Labs over whatever ends up happening with Baez would be an over reaction.
She doesn't want to lose him. Cisco knows Caitlin well enough that it's quickly apparent that's what this is really about. They were each other's source of strength and comfort after Ronnie died. A solid friendship that Cisco hadn't thought anything could rock.
His footing feels shaky tonight, even as Cisco promises her that he'll always be there for her no matter what.
Afterwards, Cisco circles his apartment building's block three times before finally turning left instead of right. He heads for Hartley's apartment.
Cisco doesn't have any answers about trusting Hartley or Barry yet, but he does have a promise to keep. And maybe that's enough for now.
Ramon looks ridiculously uncomfortable when he drops off Hartley's gloves. He looks like there are a thousand and one things he wants to say, but he doesn't.
Hartley almost wished he would. Wished that Cisco would say something that they could argue over so that... honestly, Hartley just feels anxious and want's to argue. Knowing Team Flash is targeting another meta makes him buzz with frustration.
But Cisco doesn't ask Hartley not to hurt his friend and Hartley doesn't say that he's not going to let Baez wind up in one of those damned cells.
The handoff is short, quiet, and leaves Hartley utterly dissatisfied afterwards. There's too much going on in his head to write another blog post, so he monitors the police band channels instead, not sure of what he's waiting for. Whatever it is, it doesn't come that night. Which is probably a good thing. If it had, Hartley probably wouldn't have gotten there in time.
He doesn't have a car right now. The one he used to have broke down and he'd decided to cut his losses on it. Public transportation had been working just fine for him. It would not suffice anymore. But... he did have a valid motorcycle license from when he was dating Chip. Chip had the motorcycle, but he'd let Hartley drive it some. And a used motorcycle might just be within Hartley's price range.
By the time morning rolls around, Hartley's got a lead on at least four different used bikes in the area and already has an appointment to go check out the first one that afternoon.
The next day at work is quiet. Dr. Wells doesn't bother Cisco as he works and neither do Caitlin or Barry. He's heads down on the cuffs, trying to stay focused and calm.
And when the first cuff turns on, glowing a beautiful shade of blue to indicate it's active... Cisco has to go take a minute or fifteen to go decompress. He's halfway done. The current design requires two to make it work, creating an overlapping field that's stronger than a single field would be while utilizing less power.
It's a major step in the right direction. Finally.
Caitlin is in the break room when Cisco walks in. "Can we... can we talk?" she asked.
"Yeah, I just... need coffee first, okay?" Cisco waits for a nod and then goes to get his drink. After pouring the fresh, hot coffee into his "There's Coffee In That Nebula" mug, Cisco gazed at it for a long moment. It felt a little like the Cisco Ramon who'd bought it was completely different person from the one staring at it now. He shook off the feeling and added his usual amount of sugar and creamer.
"I, uh... " Caitlin began nervously, as Cisco settled down beside her on the beat up old couch. "I though about what you said about the pipeline and why you feel like you may have leave over it and... I told Barry and Dr. Wells that I stand with your decision. If Shawna Baez goes in the Pipeline, I'm leaving too."
"Good. Thank you, that's... thank you." Cisco felt a little more at ease. At least it wasn't just him anymore.
"I've been reading more from that blog, though. The one... you thought Hartley might be writing. I don't... I don't if you've been keeping up with it, but..."
"I have," Cisco said.
Caitlin pursed her lips for a moment and then said, "I'm don't... I'm not an engineer. How much of what he's writing is accurate? Or plausible?"
"Honestly? He's yet to get anything wrong on the blog. I've been double checking things against actual files and the parts of the original pipeline that weren't destroyed and... it's not good." Cisco tapped his fingers along his knee. "This is going to open up a new wave of civil suits. The documents and the blog can't definitively prove that Dr. Wells knew what was going to happen ahead of time. They're not going to be able to prove criminal liability. Probably, anyway. Barry'd know more about that side of things. But the blog is making a good case for saying that either Dr. Wells knew about the flaw and the likely outcome and didn't care or he's less intelligent - or less competent - than he's been billing himself. It's gonna put every single contribution he's made to the scientific community under scrutiny. And it's basically a slow death knell for what's left of his reputation in the scientific community. It's already starting - did you see Bill Nye's twitter rant the other day?"
"And it's not going to be a good look for our careers either," Caitlin mused quietly.
"No. It's not. Even if we want to stay a part of Team Flash, we might need to start working on our resumes anyway." Cisco shook his head. "Unlike Barry, we don't really have a job outside of Team Flash. He can distance himself from all this because he's still a CSI, but... we're stuck in the middle of this mess. And if we can't find a way to shut down the pipeline without the two people in there reporting what we've done... this could land all of us in jail."
Caitlin summed it all up succinctly, if a bit uncharacteristically. "So we're fucked."
Cisco shrugged. "Outlook is not promising." He sipped his coffee.
"I wish I could be angry with Hartley for this but... all he's really done is made us take a long look in the mirror and realize we didn't like what was there." Caitlin sighed. "I don't want to just abandon Dr. Wells, but everything he has to say about the accelerator has holes in it. If he intentionally caused the circumstances that got Ronnie killed..."
They both go quiet again.
Cisco stares into his coffee, feeling guilt rise like a living thing in his chest. He has to tell her.
"I'm the one who shut the door behind Ronnie."
"Cisco... what are you talking about?" Caitlin's voice is gentle and Cisco feels like he doesn't deserve it.
"When the accelerator... the door doesn't shut from inside the pipeline, Caitlin. He told me to wait two minutes and shut the door if he wasn't back yet. And I did. But I should have waited longer..." Cisco's voice cracked. "He'd be here if I'd waited just a little longer."
"Oh..." Caitlin took a shaky breath. "Cisco. You..." she shook her head and then took his coffee away from him, setting it aside.
And then Cisco found himself engulfed in a hug.
"Oh, Cisco," Caitlin repeated. Helplessly. "It wasn't your fault."
"It was. He's dead because of me, Caitlin." Cisco felt the tears well up and he let out a sob. "He should be here and he isn't and it's my fault."
"No, Cisco, shhh..." Caitlin stroked his hair as Cisco dissolved entirely into tears and sobbing. "Oh, sweetie, shhh," she murmured. "I've got you, Cisco. I've got you..."
When Cisco wakes up, head aching and eyes scratchy from the crying, it's been a lot longer than the intended fifteen minute break. He's fallen even further behind schedule and has no idea what he's going to do about it.
No choice but to keep working, though, and hope that maybe he'll still get the second cuff done before... things go terribly wrong.
And something is about to go terribly wrong. Cisco can feel it, like an ache in his bones.
Shawna Baez resurfaces. And the cuffs are not ready.
Cisco texts Hartley, but he honestly doesn't know what he expects the other man to do. Hopefully not make things worse.
"Okay, so what am I supposed to do with her if I catch her?" Barry demands, already more than halfway to the location of the break in. "The CCPD still don't have a way to hold her."
And that's Cisco's fault. Not that Barry would say it - or was even thinking it. But Cisco's thinking it. Maybe if he'd let Dr. Wells help...
"You have to talk her down," Caitlin said.
Cisco and Dr. Wells turned to look at her. Cisco with hope. There's no telling what's going on behind Dr. Wells' glasses, though. Not with the light reflecting off them like some anime.
"I've been looking through her Facebook page and the rest of her social media that I could find," Caitlin continued, "and she's had a rough few months since Parker went to jail. She had a pregnancy scare only to realize after she was confirmed not pregnant that she does want a kid. After that, she had a benign tumor that needed to get removed, but probably started off as a cancer scare. It looks like she might've discovered her powers either by saving a kid trapped in a basement, or shortly before. She's not a bad person, Barry, but she's lonely and desperately clinging to someone who doesn't love her - whose only interest in her is how he can use her. If you can break his hold on her, she'll let you have him and leave without a fight. But you have to be willing to let her walk away from this."
There's silence over the comms. "Yeah. Okay. So how do I convince her he's not the prince charming she's looking for?"
That, unfortunately, neither Cisco, nor Caitlin, have an answer for.
"Why the hell do you care what we do?" demands a voice picked up by the suit's mic. "Are you a cop or something?"
"Or something," Barry responded, voice distorted by his speed. "I'm not interested in you, Baez. Just in putting Parker back where he belongs before he gets anyone else hurt."
"He belongs out here, with me!" Shawna shouted and there was a pained grunt from Barry over the comm.
Cisco winced. And then something... shifted in Cisco's mind. He knew what to say.
"She gave up her nursing career for him. Dropped out of school to use her tuition money to pay his debts. But he's never there for her when she needs him." Cisco could almost hear the arguments they'd had in his head. Breaking glass and Shawna's sobbing. Clay apologizing and promising he loved her. "He's an abusive asshole and she's stuck in his cycle of abuse. She doesn't need someone to save her. She needs to realize she can save herself."
"If he belongs with you," Barry said, "if he loves you, then why doesn't he listen to you? Why is he using you to run jobs instead of getting out of town with you? You gave up on your dreams for him, Shawna, but what has he ever given you in return?"
"That's not... that's not fair. How can you know that?" Shawna sounds tired. She probably doesn't eat enough to fuel her powers for long.
And then Cisco knows - just knows - she passed out a lot at the start, when her powers first started manifesting. But while she's learned to take care of her changed needs well enough, she's not equipped for a prolonged fight. She'll exhaust herself before too long.
She needs to leave before that happens.
But Barry doesn't have the right words and Cisco can't find them either.
And that's when another voice sounds over the suit's microphone. "I bet Parker was charming when you first met him. Made you feel special."
It's Hartley's voice. And for all that this could be the worst possible version of events for the night... all Cisco feels is relieved.
Hartley can hear the voices on the comm, giving Barry directions and information about Baez, the moment he shuts off his new motorcycle.
Something about Cisco's words resonates with Hartley, though. "He's an abusive asshole and she's stuck in his cycle of abuse. She doesn't need someone to save her. She needs to realize she can save herself."
The Flash is almost on the right track if he wants her to stop protecting Parker's retreat. The question Hartley has to ask is what side is he stepping in on. Attack the Flash? Or take over talking Baez down?
The truth is... Hartley doesn't want to fight if he can help it. When he walks into view of the fight, his mind's already made up. "I bet Parker was charming when you first met him. Made you feel special."
"Who the hell are you?" she demanded, turning to face him, such that Hartley and the Flash were both in her line of sight.
"Mostly a thorn in the Flash's side," Hartley replied glibly. "Pied Piper will due for now. But seriously, the shittiest boyfriends are always the most charming at first, am I right?"
"He's not a shitty boyfriend. Clay's... he cares about me."
"He ran away and left you to clean up his mess. Again. He does that a lot, doesn't he? When it's not his fists you're dodging." Hartley remembered what that was like. Oh, it hadn't lasted long between them once Earl started getting drunk more often and his fists hit harder as a result, but it still took far too long for Hartley to stop telling himself that he could still fix Earl and start admitting that he was just scared of being alone. And even with it not lasting long, Hartley'd still made the mistake of taking Earl back once before accepting how little the man's promises were really worth.
"He doesn't mean it." Shawna's voice wavers.
"What he doesn't mean are the apologies. Guys like him never do." Earl never had. Neither did Harrison. Earl used his fists and that was easier to see as harmful. Harrison's words had been far more insidious. "Do you trust him to have your back? To be a safe person to have a family with?"
"Of course I do," Shawna snapped. But her voice wavered.
Hartley was certain she was already having misgivings. She just needed a push. "Then why doesn't he? Why did he leave you behind to fight the Flash on your own? Why is he always leaving you behind?"
And that breaks the dam. Shawna sobs and falls to her knees and the Flash is off like a shot after the missing Clay Parker.
Hartley goes and sits next to her. "The greatest lie he ever made you believe was that you needed him because he's stronger than you. It's the other way around. He needs you because you're stronger than he is. Smarter. Special where he'll never be."
"Why do I still love him when he's never loved me?" she asked.
"Is it really him you love, or just the person you wish he was? I told myself I could fix Earl and that didn't lead any place good." Hartley took a breath and then said, "it was absolutely terrifying, walking away from him. Letting him go. I went back to him the first time, because he promised he'd change. But he didn't. It didn't make leaving again any easier, even knowing he'd lured me back with lies."
"So, what, you're here to save me?" she sniffled.
"The only person who can save you," Hartley replied carefully, "is you. The Flash will put him back in jail. Are you going to just break him out again? Because with him you know what to expect. The cycle always repeats. It's when he isn't there you don't know what will happen."
"I was relieved, when he went to jail," Shawna said slowly, as if she'd forgotten. "But then I thought..." something sad crosses her face. "I wanted us to be a family. I thought if we could just get out of this city and go someplace... quieter. He'd be better. But it's all a pipe dream. He left me again."
"So what are you going to do? What's the best choice for Shawna Baez?" Hartley asked, curious which way she'd jump.
"To get out town. Go someplace else, alone, and start over." Shawna wiped her face. "Without Clay. Will I ever stop loving him?"
"Yes. One day you look back and you'll wonder how he ever had a hold over you at all." Hartley stood up and offered Shawna a hand up too. "Came here on my motorcycle. Somewhere safe I can drop you off?"
"Yeah. There's... there's a place the cops won't think to look for me. I can lay low for a while and then leave town when its safe." She takes his hand and stands up. "Maybe I'll finally become a nurse like I wanted. Can't afford the tuition right now, but... it's not like I can't rip off a few banks somewhere that doesn't have the Flash, right?"
Hartley snorted in amusement. "Just make sure you stay off the security cameras too."
When Barry goes back to check on Baez and Hartley, they're both gone and Cisco is relieved.
If Shawna shows up again, Cisco will have his cuffs completed - and tested too - and there will be legal options for what to do with her after catching her. And if she doesn't show up again, well... it's not like she wants to hurt anyone with her powers. Cisco would rather she stay free committing crimes than locked up in some dark cell in their pipeline.
Caitlin seems pretty pleased too, as she packs up to head home for the night, but Dr. Wells seems... unhappy as he goes to the pipeline to check in with their two prisoners.
Barry follows Cisco to his lab, though. "So, uh... do you want to test these out on me once they're finished?" he asked, tone a little awkward as he checked out the dampening cuffs.
"Yeah. I mean... it's not like anyone else on the teams' got active powers to test them with. If you're cool with it." Cisco shrugged. They hadn't really talked since Cisco had blown up at Barry the other day and while Cisco stood by what he'd said... he couldn't help but feel like he'd left the whole thing a mess.
"I, uh... I'm glad Hartley showed up and got Baez out of there," Barry finally said. "I wouldn't have been able to get Parker if he hadn't. Because I... I'd already decided that if I couldn't talk her down somehow then I was just going to... let her have the win." He ran a hand across the back of his neck and then upwards, further messing with the ridiculous cowl-hair the suit had given him. "You were right. About the pipeline and about us not having the right to be judge and jury and jailer. And I don't know what to do about the two people we've still got down there, but we need to let them go, one way or another." And then he swallowed, hard. "I'm sorry about how I acted after the Cold Gun showed up."
"Snart used it to kill someone in front of you," Cisco said quietly. "Of course you took the whole situation personally. And I really did screw that all up."
"It never occurred to me that the reason you'd have for not trusting me was because of my job." Barry shifted uncomfortably. "And you were right to, because I didn't even blink when Joe suggested alternate means of detaining metas. I should have. I'm a meta too and my dad is in jail for a crime he didn't commit and a private, secret prison like this should have been my worst nightmare. And sure as hell is now. I don't know if I can keep being the Flash and be a CSI. Not when I'm crossing lines like this. And I can't talk to Joe about it because he still thinks there's nothing wrong with sticking metas in prison without a trial first. Because it's 'temporary'."
"How long is temporary?" Cisco asked dryly. "I guess that means whatever we end up choosing to do about Nimbus and Bivolo, we're not going to have Joe's support."
"Nope."
"I don't think we'll have Dr. Wells, either." Cisco sighed quietly. "And did we ever find out what happened to Woodward and Gibran's bodies?"
Barry grimaced and shook his head.
"Great, so there's another wasp nest to look into with Dr. Wells. Lovely." Cisco sighed. The never ending nightmare continued. They had literal skeletons in their closet somewhere.
"What I'd like to know, though, is how Hartley knew where to find us tonight. And how he got his gloves back. He didn't use them, but he was wearing them."
Well shit.
"Uh..."
"But that's maybe not a conversation we should have here," Barry continued. "I was thinking maybe you and Caitlin and I could have lunch at, like, the park sometime soon. Maybe talk about some things we aren't comfortable discussing at work anymore."
Cisco nodded and wondered if maybe that was a discussion he could convince Hartley to sit in on.
Hartley's not too surprised when Cisco shows up at his doorstep late that evening. He lets the other man inside and has the door swing shut behind him.
"I'm surprised Allen let Baez and me go."
"We may have had a few difficult conversations recently," Cisco replied dryly. "He's reevaluating his life choices. We all are. At least, him and Caitlin and myself."
"I'm not going to hold my breath," Hartley muttered.
"We're going to be discussing our options with the pipeline soon and I thought... I dunno, I thought that might be a conversation you'd want in on. Barry thought maybe a park or something. Somewhere..."
"Somewhere Harrison won't be there and can't listen in," Hartley filled in, approving of the thought even if it did come from the speedy idiot himself. "I did promise to help you with the pipeline problem. So, yeah. I'd like to be there if I can. besides there's something..." he thought of what he'd seen the night he attacked Harrison's house. No one could move that fast. It wasn't humanly possible... except for the Flash. Hartley couldn't imagine what Harrison's endgame might be, but... maybe they could. "If Snow and Allen really are turning over a new leaf, then there's something I need to show all of you. And they should probably know about those encrypted files I found."
Cisco looked relieved.
Hartley rolled his eyes. "I don't trust them. Just to be clear. And I especially don't want them knowing where I live or my phone number. I'm trusting your judgement on this for now because you've been keeping your promises about my gloves and about not letting anyone else go into the pipeline. I've had plenty of assholes hurt me and then swear up and down I deserved it or promise to do better without ever making any attempt to change. Which..." Hartley hummed thoughtfully, "I suppose makes you the first person to try to apologize and actually make the effort to follow through."
That made Cisco look uneasy, though whether it was because he felt sorry for Hartley's rather shitty track record with other people's apologies or something else, Hartley couldn't tell.
"Something else is bothering you, though, isn't there?"
"Ah... I'm going to sound paranoid," Cisco muttered, looking down.
"Cisco, your boss has been using you as his personal meta-human lab rat. What could possibly sound paranoid when faced with that reality?" Hartley sighed and gestured to his couch. "Go sit down. Are you picky about beer?"
"Not really."
Hartley fetched two beers, popping the tops off and then settling next to Cisco on the couch, passing one of the beers over. "Talk to me. I won't make fun of you for whatever is going through your head. Promise."
"Some of the things in that file you found... I'm pretty sure the, uh... the only way he'd know it is if he's been spying on me in my lab or at my apartment." Cisco took a drink of his beer. "So now I don't want to go home. I've been thinking maybe I'd just sleep in a motel room or something tonight and figure out what to do about it in the morning. It's been bothering me these last few nights and I'm not sleeping well and..."
"And if you look and there are bugs in your apartment, then he knows you're onto him. If you don't look, you never know for sure. If you stop going home, then maybe you're wasting money on motel rooms for nothing or maybe he thinks something is up anyway."
"Pretty much."
They both sat in silence, nursing their beers. Hartley slowly turning the problem around in his head. "You could sleep here again tonight. If you want."
"No offense, Hartley, but this couch is not conducive to a good night's sleep."
Hartley snorted. "Fair enough. I've got an inflatable mattress somewhere, though. I can't guarantee the pump still works or that it'll be any more comfortable than the couch, but it'll be cheaper for you to stay here than a motel room."
"Thanks." Cisco nodded slowly. "I'd... like that. If you're sure you don't mind having me snoring in your living room."
"I'm sure. Let's see if we can find it and the pump before you get too grateful, though," Hartley said, standing up and offering Cisco a hand up.
There's no hesitation when Cisco accepts.