Summary: Cisco's still struggling to deal with accepting Dante's death when the next curveball comes his way. Dante's ex-girlfriend just died too, leaving behind a one-year-old little girl named Hadley. And with Dante's name listed on that birth certificate, that makes Cisco and his parents the little girl's next of kin.
And Cisco is going to do whatever it takes to ensure his parents never get their hands on Hadley.
Notes: Hartmon Bingo 2021 Card 2 prompt I1 - baby fic
Season 3 AU that ignores Flashpoint
Hello Hadley
She had Dante's eyes.
"That is not our grandchild," Sophia Ramon snapped angrily, not even looking at the little girl. Not seeing those eyes...
Mateo looks less certain, but he backs up his wife. He's not looking at the child either. Not really.
How could they have loved Dante as much as they'd claimed, but not recognize his child sitting in front of them? "She looks just like Dante," Cisco countered, walking over to the blinking, quiet one-year-old girl. "Hi sweetheart. Is your name Hadley?"
The little girl nodded shyly, clinging to the representative from children's services who'd brought the three Ramons together today.
He knelt down to try and look non-threatening. Or at least less scary to a little girl just a little over a year old. "My name is Cisco. My brother was your dad."
"He was n-" Cisco's mother shut up when he glanced sharply up at her.
"Well, Mr. and Mrs. Ramon, you've made your positions quite clear." Miss Grinnell sounded firm. "The two of you may feel free to leave now." Though stated as a suggestion, it was clearly an order.
Cisco doesn't pay attention to his parents walking out. He's used to their bad behavior at this point and it's Hadley who is important here. Hadley, who was giving Cisco a shy little smile.
He loved her already.
Looking up at Miss Grinnell, Cisco asked, "what do I need to do to become her legal guardian?"
So Cisco gets a lawyer and child proofs his apartment and gets temporary custody to bring his niece home, which will become official instead of temporary after a judge finally signs off on everything. Joe was instrumental in helping Cisco get that squared away. The situation with Hadley was different than what Joe faced when he sought custody of Barry, but there were enough similarities between the two that he'd been Cisco's first port of call after that first meeting he had with Miss Grinnell. Or Abby as she'd insisted on being called.
Abby was a godsend too. She wanted Hadley with family who cared about her and that was Cisco. Cisco who now had the sweetest little girl in the world sleeping on a toddler bed in his bedroom while he started looking for a bigger place.
And now Cisco had a new goal in mind. Hadley was safe with him, but his parents posed a potential problem down the road.
Dante had been the family's golden boy. Could do no wrong in their parents eyes. And yet here was Hadley, proof that Dante hadn't been quite so perfect. Hadn't been as careful with his ex-girlfriend Eliza as he should have been. Had been judged wanting as a potential father by a pregnant young woman with no living family. No immediate family, anyway. There were some cousins out of state, but Eliza had preferred to keep Hadley to herself than go to the Ramon family for help raising her child.
At least she'd still listed Dante on the birth certificate. If Eliza hadn't, when the motorcyclist pulling wheelies on the highway wiped out and caused a massive accident that killed her... Hadley would have gone into the foster system and Cisco never would have known she existed.
Sophia Ramon is still in the denial stage of things, anyway, if her angry phone call to Cisco that the 'slut's child shouldn't expect her to play abuela' was any indication of things. And, as always, Mateo Ramon just... passively went along with whatever his wife said. No matter how awful.
But eventually Sophia Ramon's ire will cool and she might start to see Hadley as a replacement goldfish for Dante. And Cisco is not letting that happen. He's not going to risk his parents taking him to court in an attempt to seize custody of Hadley down the road and he's definitely not risking them putting Hadley through that ordeal.
Which is why Cisco called Hartley Rathaway, who knew far more about the legal process of cutting one's parents out of their lives than Cisco did. And, thankfully, he agreed to come over and discuss things with Cisco in person. Help him make a todo list for the whole thing.
There's a knocking at the door while Cisco's got Hadley in her high chair for her lunch, which is smushed around on the tray and scattered to the floor some, but it's a learning curve encouraging her to eat and Cisco's improving. She had eaten far more than she smushed or dropped and was waving her hands all happily as she grasped another Honey-O.
Hartley grinned at Cisco and held out a bag of Big Belly Burger. "I brought an extra triple-triple, in case you hadn't gotten around to feeding yourself yet. Also hope you like rootbeer, otherwise it's more for me."
"I love rootbeer and you are a lifesaver," Cisco gushed, accepting the bag of food while Hartley held on to the drinks carrier and shut the front door behind him. "I can't concentrate on having my own food while also feeding her, yet anyway, so my lunch always comes after hers and, well, her lunch time always takes a little longer than I think it will. Still working on learning balance. I don't know how Eliza did any of this on her own."
"She was Hadley's mom?" Hartley asked, brightening and waving at Hadley when he saw her in the kitchen. "Oh my gosh, Hadley's adorable."
"I know, right? And, yeah, Eliza was Hadley's mom. She and Dante dated about two years ago and I barely knew her, but from what I've seen she was an excellent mom. And totally uninterested in ever reaching out to Dante about Hadley. I don't think she ever even knew Dante... died, before the car wreck that took her too." None of Eliza's friends had reached out to Cisco about Hadley either. He'd met a few of them at Eliza's funeral, which he'd wound up putting together since no one else was doing it, but every indication was that Eliza was a very private person. No parents, no siblings, and no truly close friends. Her life had likely revolved around Hadley, which Cisco could empathize with. His life revolved around Hadley now too.
"As awful as it is that she's lost both her parents," Hartley said quietly, "she's lucky to have an uncle who loves her as much as you do." He set the drinks down on Cisco's little cafe table next to where Cisco had left the Big Belly Burger bag. "Let's see what I can do to help you protect her."
Cisco rolled Hadley closer to the table where she burbled happily and gummed her cereal while Cisco quickly cleaned up the floor. Then, arming himself with a notepad and pen, Cisco joined Hartley at the table.
"Eat some first, okay?" Hartley was setting out the food, placing Cisco's down first.
"Yeah, thanks." Cisco grabbed a fry and just... savored it. Once he'd gotten some food in him, though, Cisco was itching to get started. "It feels so weird, doing this after..." Cisco pursed his lips for a moment. "I probably should have done this years ago, but it would have meant cutting out Dante too and I always hoped that I could fix things with him. And we were actually... finally doing that right before he... died."
"Hey," Hartley reached out and put his hand over Cisco's, squeezing gently before pulling back. "I'm sorry you're going through this. But you are gonna get through it okay. I promise."
"Thanks," Cisco said, feeling himself blush a little.
"Alright, so first steps are the easy ones. Anywhere you've listed your parents as your emergency contacts, change them to someone else. Dentist office, general practitioner, eye doctor, pharmacy, whatever... ideally you'll use the same person you give power of attorney to, that way if something happens to you it won't default to your parents. This is where things start getting tricky because there are actually multiple kinds of power of attorney. Durable power of attorney is the one that covers pretty much everything financial. Medical power of attorney covers all medical decisions - but as a caveat, if you appoint Caitlin then she cannot be both your doctor and the one making decisions for you in the case something happens to you."
"Oh. Okay..." Cisco had been jotting down notes for this and, well... he'd definitely been thinking Caitlin for power of attorney, but maybe he should be splitting this between multiple people.
"Then there is the one that is the most important to you - power of attorney for parental guardianship of a minor child. Something happens to you and you can't care for Hadley, that will ensure that your parents cannot get custody of her." Hartley grinned and pulled out a messenger bag that Cisco hadn't noticed. "I just happened to print off PDFs of those three since they seemed like the only ones relevant, though you should probably check out the other kinds of power of attorney just to be sure. But you don't have a car and I wasn't really sure about real estate and tax, but I think those two are probably covered by the durable power of attorney. Admittedly, you'll want to get a lawyer to go over all of this with you just to make sure there aren't any potential loopholes or legal issues."
Cisco nodded, accepting the print offs and skimming over them. "Okay. So I go over it all with a lawyer, get them signed by me and whoever I decide on, and have them notarized. Then do I file them or..."
"No," Hartley shook his head. "You hang on to them. Get a fire safe if you don't already have one. Make sure whoever you've assigned power of attorney to has access to your home and the safe."
"I do have a fire safe, has my birth certificate and social security card and a few other things in it. Now it's got Hadley's documents in it too." Cisco felt relieved that was at least one thing he could cross off the list already.
"Work benefits - make sure those are updated to include Hadley not only as a dependent on all your insurance but as the beneficiary of your life insurance." Hartley fiddled with a fry.
"You okay? I know this is probably bringing up bad memories..." Cisco asked.
"When my parents disowned me, I was already working at STAR Labs. When I told Harrison what was happening..." Hartley shook his head. "I gave him my medical power of attorney. And when he fired me and killed my career... I burned those papers. And I knew if something happened to me, my parents wouldn't come. They wouldn't care."
Hadley started fussing and Cisco cleaned up her face, took off her circuit board bib, and plucked her out of the high chair in order to change her diaper.
"Seems we're a lot more alike than different," Cisco observed quietly, once he came back to the table, Hadley sitting on his lap, bouncing his knees some to her delight.
"Yeah. Can I, uh... can I hold her?" Hartley beamed when Cisco nodded and stood again, carefully shifting the little girl over to Hartley's embrace. She frowned and eyed Hartley uncertainly. "Hey sweetheart. Is it okay if I hold you for a little while? If you'd rather your Uncle Cisco, I'll understand. He's a really nice person." Hartley bounced his knees a little, like Cisco had been, and she let out a giggle and smiled.
"She hasn't talked since she was taken into custody by children's services," Cisco said quietly. "She had a screaming fit, demanding her mom. And then when Eliza never came..." Cisco sighed and shook his head. "She's opened up a lot since I've gotten to know her and taken custody, but she still hasn't said a word. Not even 'no' and that's supposed to be a toddler's favorite."
Hartley chuckled and booped Hadley's nose. "You'll talk when you're ready, right Hadley? Bet one of the first things you say is your Uncle Cisco's name. He loves you very much, sweet thing. And I can see you love him too."
Cisco grinned at the thought of hearing her say something like 'unca sco' in the same voice that made her little baby babbling noises. "The court date to finalize my custody of her is supposed to be next week. Family court. Me, Hadley, my lawyer, children's services, and a judge. Should be straightforward and simple enough. And I'm terrified my parents will show up to try and screw things up for us. My mom is convinced Hadley isn't Dante's. And she'll continue to be convinced of that until Hadley gets older and looks more and more like a Ramon. Dad won't say anything to contradict her, so even if he thinks mom is wrong he's going to sit on his hands and do nothing for his granddaughter. Which I'd like to hope all works in my favor, but..." Cisco blew out a deep breath. "I know I need to remake my will on top of all the power of attorney stuff, because that's all only good if I'm alive but unable to make decisions for myself or for Hadley. With a will I can appoint a guardian for her if I die too."
Hadley already had two dead parents. Cisco hated the idea of becoming a third, but he had to plan for that possibility too. Hadley had to be taken care of and she could not, under any circumstances, go to his parents. He was not going to let them use parental favoritism to emotionally abuse this little girl with her own father's memory, the way they'd raised Dante over Cisco and Armando when they were kids. Except now Dante was truly untouchable, unassailable. He was, in Sophia Ramon's eyes, the perfect son in death in a way he'd never achieved in life.
"Would you like me to read you a book, Hadley?" Hartley asked.
Cisco grinned, watching as Hadley clapped her hands and giggled. "She likes books. Especially the ones with Snoopy. I've got mostly English books that her mom had already gotten her, but I've been buying Spanish kids books too. I'm going to raise her bilingual. There are a lot of things from my childhood I don't want her to have, but being bilingual is one of the good things."
"My sister," Hartley said, switching to Spanish and standing up with Hadley in his arms to go inspect the little bookshelf Cisco had set up for Hadley's corner of books and toys and play pen, "loved Snoopy too when she was your age, Hadley. I'm ten years older than Jerrie and I saw more of her than our parents did. She didn't like to talk either. Stayed quiet long past when all the other kids were babbling about princesses and ponies. But one day she started talking. Went straight to full sentences because she just needed to be ready to talk on her own terms."
There was more to discuss, but Cisco was glad for the break to get his head back in order. And to listen to Hartley read a Spanish book about Snoopy the Flying Ace and then an English book about the Grover being the monster at the end of the book. Hadley seemed fascinated by Hartley's voice as he read... and Cisco couldn't blame her. Hartley did voices and read with emotion and gasped at all the right places.
He must have been a pretty amazing older brother to Jerrie, before their parents forced them apart.
Hadley gets fussy after a few stories and then it's time for her nap. Hartley finishes going over places where Cisco's parents might be entangled in his life where he's not aware of it. Thankfully he did do some of this in college.
Cisco hadn't merely gotten his parents names off his bank account, he'd opened a new account in a different bank that had never had their names on it and transferred his savings and checking account. Cisco's car was entirely in his name. His credit card was used just enough so he could have something to pay off every month in order to build good credit and his parents names were nowhere near it since he'd started with a student card during his second year of undergrad. Cisco's apartment lease hadn't needed anyone to cosign thanks to that good credit, so his parents names were absent there too.
When they were done going over it all, Hartley offered Cisco a hug, which he accepted gratefully.
"Thank you for going over all of this with me," Cisco said, holding back a yawn and then failing.
"You're welcome. I know this has to be exhausting for you." Hartley smiled wryly. "I admit, though, I'm a little jealous. Your parents don't stand a chance of getting their hands on Hadley. I just wish I could have done the same for Jerrie. That I could have taken her with me when they disowned me." He hesitated a moment and then offered, "you ever want a babysitter who isn't directly involved in Team Flash but knows your involved in a superhero team..."
"Oh trust me, I will ask you to babysit at some point. Hadley likes you. She freaked out meeting Caitlin. I think maybe something reminded Hadley of her mom and it upset her. She does not like having Caitlin around right now. I'm hoping that she'll acclimatize to Caitlin over time, but... I'm down one of my best friends as a potential baby sitter. She like Joe, though. Iris, Wally, Barry..."
"Barry's noticeably last on a list I'd think he'd be first on." Hartley tilted his head to the side, raising an eyebrow as he did. Very Spock.
Cisco sighed. "Sometimes you being so observant is really annoying."
"Trouble in paradise?"
"No. Yes." Cisco sighed. "After Dante died I asked Barry to time travel. To undo his death."
"Which clearly didn't happen," Hartley filled in carefully.
"His dad just died too. It was a shitty, unfair thing for me to ask. And I know I was wrong to ask it." Cisco scrubbed a hand roughly through his hair. "And yet I'm still angry he wouldn't do it which makes me just that much more of an asshole. But if he did, then Dante would have gotten to know his daughter..." Cisco's voice cracked.
"And your parents - your mother - would have access to a child she's made it very clear she dislikes the very existence of," Hartley said quietly.
Cisco jolted, looking up at Hartley. He hadn't... he hadn't thought of that.
"Maybe he'd have realized that Hadley needed to be protected from your parents. Or maybe he wouldn't. But Hadley is safe with you right here, right now. And if being angry with Barry helps you deal with your grief right now..." Hartley sighed and shrugged. "Sometimes being a bitter asshole is how grief expresses itself. I think you're gonna figure out how to get over it a lot faster then I did."
And Hartley might have just been referring to the grief of being disowned, of being forced away from his sister... but Cisco wonders, from the way he said it, what family member died whose funeral Hartley was denied from to put that waver in his voice. But even though Hartley came today, they've barely spoken in the months since Cisco consulted him on the anti-Earth-2 sound wave. Right after Hartley's parents disappointed him again when their attempt to reconcile fell through. Hartley wouldn't talk about why, though Cisco suspected they hadn't really given up on their bigotry after all. Though whether it was continued homophobia or something else...
But if Hartley wouldn't discuss that with Cisco, then he certainly wasn't going to discuss a death in the family from years ago either.
Though after today, Cisco found himself wishing they were close enough - friends enough - that Hartley might feel comfortable confiding those things in him.
"Thanks," Cisco said, realizing he'd been a bit awkwardly quiet there and ought to say something. "I uh... I don't suppose you'd be interested in hanging out sometime? Despite the heavy topics, it was nice spending time together and... I think maybe we could be friends."
"I'd like that," Hartley replied, the smile on his face the brightest of the day by far. And the prettiest.
Which was a thought Cisco was not going to consider deeply at the moment because he did not have time to be... chasing after attraction at the moment. And Hartley was probably dating someone anyway.
He really needed to stop thinking about how pretty Hartley's smile was. Any second now.
"And it'll give me a chance to start making in-roads as Hadley's favorite babysitter." Hartley smile turned into a smirk and Cisco laughed. "I've got to get going but let me know when that court date is and when you come out of family court as Hadley's official legal guardian, I'll buy you whatever the next meal of the day is. And some fancy dessert for celebrating."
"Sounds wonderful." Cisco saw Hartley out the door after that and, as soon as he'd locked back up, Cisco collapsed on the couch, closed his eyes, and let his mind start to drift... Hadley'd nap for another hour and he was going to get his own nap in too.
And if he dreamed of a sympathetic friend with a gorgeous smile, well... Cisco deserved a few nice dreams these days.