In the weeks since the Flash had defeated one Leonard Snart and one Mick Rory, fighting crime had become a large part of Laura's life. On an almost daily basis, Laura found herself taking down criminals throughout the city alongside Barry, whether it was a simple breaking and entering or the occasional armed car chase. Cisco had returned her goggles to her eventually, now outfitted with a permanent clip for her earbud and a camera that helped him, Caitlin and Dr. Wells see everything in the field. He had also promised that he would get working on her bike soon, and even though she told him there was no rush, Laura had to admit that it would be nice to not have to jump into Barry's arms every time a call came in.
Her day job was also doing very well. It seemed that having an extra CSI working for the precinct now made work go by twice as fast, even with Barry's speed and experience. All too often she found herself chatting it up with either Eddie, Joe, or the other detectives when Barry was late, and she had to admit, it was fun to hear them rib him for his 'super tardiness'. Sometimes she'd even chat with Iris when she came to visit Eddie, although Barry never seemed to be around when she was. However, whenever he caught her laughing at their jokes, Laura almost always found herself being voluntold for the station's morning coffee run.
Which was exactly what she had been doing before the call came in.
Dr. Wells' home had been attacked.
Almost an hour later after she returned to the station, Laura was sitting in the back of Joe's car beside Barry, their kits in the trunk, as he drove all three of them to Dr. Wells' home. She couldn't tell much from the call, but apparently someone had vandalized it the night before while he was home. She felt a pang of worry for her former employer, but she knew from experience that he was more resilient than most people assumed.
By the time they got there, the place was swarming with police. As Laura followed Barry and Joe into the large – and boy, did she mean large – house, she couldn't help but wonder why Dr. Wells needed such a large place all to himself, and so far away from his work. He had always had been one for solitary activities, but this was taking it to a whole new level. However, those thoughts were pushed to the back of her mind as the doors pulled back on their own, and Laura was pleasantly surprised to see Dr. Wells himself waiting at the door, though he didn't exactly look happy to have his home invaded by police. He looked exhausted, actually.
"Laura, Barry, Joe – please, come in." They did just that, although as they made their way through the foyer, Barry seemed to be more focused on the house itself than anything. And with good reason. Even her apartment, no matter how high the rent was, didn't even come close to the standards of Harrison Wells' mini-mansion, with sleek glass partitions doubling as walls and high-quality marble shining under her feet. Somehow, they managed to not trip over their own feet as they stared around them in mild awe, and followed Dr. Wells into his home.
"I'm sorry for bothering you all like this; the police should not have been called. I already told the officers that I got a prank call before it happened."
"I hate to disagree with you, Dr. Wells, but this looks like more than just a prank." Joe was right, as usual. As Laura stepped out from behind him, she could see the shattered glass covering the floor; it looked like someone had smashed the sunroof above them, sharp edges of glass scattered across the black stone floor. Beside her, she could see from the look on his face that Barry was already analyzing the entire scene mentally, and she vaguely heard Joe talking to Dr. Wells as she followed Barry down to the scene.
"You should have called sooner. This kind of damage is serious business."
"Well, there are those who feel I did not suffer enough from the particle accelerator explosion. Sometimes, they act on those feelings. But, honestly, it's not worth your time."
"Come on. We should get started." Barry murmured to Laura, and she nodded, opening her kit just as Caitlin and Cisco came barrelling into the room. As Caitlin fussed over Dr. Wells, asking him over and over if he was hurt, Laura started to inspect the scene before her. Starting with the glass, Laura could almost instantly tell that something was off. The breaking pattern was odd, that was for sure. If she pieced it together mentally, it looked as if every single pane of glass had just dropped from its frame.
As the officers gradually left the building and returned to the precinct, Laura helped Barry cordon off any areas where they would need to search for more evidence. Most of the walls in the front part of the house were also glass, although one, thick and tinted green, had been shattered. The house was empty except for the three of them, so it wasn't a problem for Barry to use his speed to reconstruct the glass.
However, once he had most of the glass pieced together, Barry went silent. He was rarely silent at crime scenes, and only when the situation called for it or when he was deep in thought.
"Barry? You have something?"
"Yeah…can you take a look at this? I'm not sure if I'm seeing this right."
"Sure." Laura did as Barry instructed, and as she looked carefully, what he was trying to get her to see became very clear. Suddenly, however, they were interrupted by Dr. Wells pulling up to them in his chair, looking all too expectant but with just a hint of trepidation.
"Dr. Sanders? Mr. Allen? Do you have something?"
"Well, that's the thing. We don't really have anything. There's no impact point on the glass where it might have been struck."
"Which either means the glass fell by pure coincidence, or whatever caused the breakage wasn't solid."
"Exactly. It's like they just shattered themselves. I don't think any teenager would have been able to pull this off, Dr. Wells."
"…no, it was not."
"You said earlier that you didn't want to call the police. Why? Do you know who did it?"
"Unfortunately, yes – Hartley Rathaway." Laura almost choked as she inhaled sharply.
"Hartley's back?" Barry was looking between her and Dr. Wells, clearly confused, but that was to be expected. He'd never heard of Hartley, much less seen him; she had insider knowledge that Caitlin and Cisco were both grateful that Barry had never crossed the path of the man who had made their time at S.T.A.R. miserable. Unfortunately, that option was seeming less likely by the minute, now that it appeared that Hartley had returned after so long.
"Wait, hold up. Who's Hartley Rathaway?" Laura shared a look with Dr. Wells that spoke volumes. It had to happen sometime, and she watched with a growing sense of dread as Dr. Wells turned to face Barry.
"Hartley Rathaway is – was my protégé. And now he's back."
The next day, Laura stood in the control room, watching from behind the computer consoles as Dr. Wells recounted the infamous tale of Hartley Rathaway to Barry and Joe. She tuned most of it out; she'd known Hartley in passing before he'd left, but the rare situations in which they'd interacted were less than pleasant. Cisco was right when he said he could be a dick – almost everybody at S.T.A.R. Labs had hated Hartley, or as he called himself, the 'Chosen One.' That name became something of a joke among the other scientists, although she never really found the point in participating, even if she did agree with them. She could still remember the first time they'd met – almost three years ago.
She had just been accepted into S.T.A.R. Labs, and after being introduced to most of the other employees, Dr. Wells had made the decision to introduce her to Hartley. A terrible decision, really, although that revelation came only seconds after they met. He may have been the smartest person in that building, but he really wasn't that great of a human being. He'd ignored her the entire time, leaving her confused and more than a little affronted. From that day forward, Laura had eased into the collective mindset of simply staying away from Hartley to avoid his unbridled arrogance, just like all the other newcomers before her. She could sympathize with what it was like to be a disappointment to your family – she'd heard about his coming out through the grapevine – but his personality, caustic and condescending mixed with one heck of a Machiavellian complex, did nothing to draw any sympathy from her.
"Don't worry. I'm not going to let him hurt you. Any of you."
Laura felt as if she should butt in – she was Barry's partner, after all. But there was still the possibility that if Hartley was targeting Dr. Wells, then he might come after Cisco and Caitlin. And by proxy, her. Hartley was smart; he knew how to get what he wanted. If his endgame was Harrison Wells, then all three of them were in just as much danger as he was.
And for some reason, that scared her.
"Something on your mind?"
Laura almost got whiplash as she whipped around to face Joe, his voice quiet in the lab. He looked concerned, and probably for a good reason, since she'd been staring at the same screen for the past ten minutes. She'd hitched a ride back to the precinct with him, where Barry was working on demonstrating his theory on how Hartley had attacked Dr. Wells' home without having to touch the glass. She remembered that Hartley had been working with sonic technology before his departure, but she'd never understood why he would divert himself from working on the particle accelerator. Then again, she knew him as well as anybody else at S.T.A.R. Labs did, with the exception of Dr. Wells.
"Just…Hartley, in general. He was an absolute ass," Laura had to laugh alongside Joe despite the somber mood, "but he was also a genius."
"Did you know him well?"
"More than I would have liked to. He was arrogant. Condescending. But he wasn't reckless. He was a master of strategy, and that made it easy for him to get whatever he wanted."
"Well, now I feel inadequate."
"Don't say that. Hartley was – he was special; he had a gift. I just don't understand why he'd do something like this. He wasn't someone who resorted to vandalizing homes to frighten – he'd just work his way into your head until you'd do anything to get rid of him. Even beg."
"I'm guessing you had some first-hand experience with him."
"Not like that, not really. I tried to stay away from him when I could, but even that was hard to do."
"Hang on, didn't Dr. Wells say he used to be his protégé?"
"Well, protégé's a light word for it. Dr. Wells was the only person at S.T.A.R. Labs that Hartley interacted with who he didn't put down. They could have been father and son."
"Huh. But something happened between them to make Hartley leave, right?"
"Honestly, I never did hear much about it. One day, Hartley was working with Dr. Wells like he always was, and the next, he was gone. Nobody could find him, and he didn't bother to explain it to any of us. But, if anybody knew what was going on in Hartley's head, it would be Dr. Wells."
Joe nodded thoughtfully, but his mind was obviously elsewhere. There was an odd look in his eyes, and despite her better judgement, Laura went ahead and asked him anyway.
"Joe? Is there something wrong?"
"What? Nothing, it's nothing."
She wasn't convinced, but Laura let it slide, and she turned back to her work with a quick glance back at Joe, who didn't even so much as blink as he stared into the distance. They were silent for a while after that, each of them mulling over their thoughts individually. Although she couldn't tell what Joe was thinking, Laura was still completely at a loss. What on Earth would Hartley have to gain from attacking Dr. Wells? He'd been his mentor, and one of the few people in his life who hadn't pushed him away because of who he was. There was something going on, something they weren't seeing. The three of them stayed like that for a while, not speaking to each other at all and leaving each other alone with their individual thoughts, until Eddie burst into the room, looking just a little more than flustered.
"Rathaway Industries is under attack."
Barely five minutes later, both Barry and Laura sped through the streets of their fair city, Laura latched on to Barry like a limpet as the wind whipped past her goggled face. When they finally reached the building, police cars were already parked in front and officers were ordering the one and only Hartley Rathaway to put his hands in the air. Hartley was in full on super villain mode, using what looked like a pair of glowing gauntlets to shatter the windows on the cruisers.
It took her a moment to process what exactly was happening, but Laura acted as quickly as she could, throwing up a wall of ice between the officers and Hartley, as Barry knocked him to the ground in one motion. She was by his side as soon as the wall was finished, looking down on Hartley with a vague sense of irony, but her former colleague didn't seem fazed in the least.
"It's over, Rathaway."
"Huh, you know my name. That's not surprising – I know some names too. Caitlin Snow…"
Crap.
"Cisco Ramon…"
Crap.
"Harrison Wells…"
Crap.
"Laura Sanders."
Crap.
As he spoke her name, Hartley's eyes flicked to her face momentarily, and Laura cursed him mentally as a brief ghost of a smirk flashed across his own, before he turned back to Barry. Even with both of them looming above him, he still managed to emanate complete confidence as he climbed to his feet.
"Just so you know, I can hear the radio waves emanating from your earpieces. About 1900 megahertz? Is that them on the other end? Are they going to hear you die?"
"No, they're going to hear you get your ass kicked."
"Oh, I highly doubt that."
Before either of them could react, Hartley aimed his gloves at Barry, a high-pitched noise emanating from them before her partner was sent flying back into the Rathaway sign, falling through it with a shout of pain. Laura acted quickly; spikes of ice shot out from her hands as she blasted Hartley with just enough cold to burn, and the spikes surrounded him in a makeshift cage. However, always resilient, Hartley was on his feet in seconds, his green eyes piercing through her goggles, and Laura's shout of warning to Barry was drowned out by the blasts from Hartley's gloves as the spikes shattered. The force of the blast sent her to her knees, but when she finally shook the ringing from her ears, Laura looked up just in time to see Barry rush forward and rip Hartley's gloves from his hands.
Surprisingly, Hartley didn't fight back, even as Barry grabbed him by the collar and leaned in with a triumphant smirk.
"Looks like you're not as smart as everyone says."
"Maybe. But I am smart enough to know who Harrison Wells really is."
What?
"You see, I know his secrets – all of them."
Half an hour later, both Laura and Barry dragged Hartley, handcuffed but for some reason looking even smugger that the day she'd met him, into S.T.A.R. Labs. They didn't dare speak to each other on the ride up to the control room, unsure just how much Hartley would be able to pick up since he already knew that they were working with Dr. Wells. The way he looked at her, almost in contempt, however, led Laura to believe that he knew much more than that. When they finally stepped out of the elevator, Caitlin and Cisco were waiting for them in the adjoining room, looking just as miserable as Laura felt. Hartley stopped short as they shoved him forward, glancing between her friends.
"Looks like the gang's all here," God, she'd forgotten how much she hated that condescending tone, "you've lasted a lot longer than I would have thought, Cisco."
"And you didn't even last ten seconds against the Flash."
"Oh, is that what they're calling him? Now that you mention it, I was thinking of calling myself Pied Piper. And what do they call you?" He didn't even have to turn around, but it was quite clear that Hartley was talking to her. Before she could answer, however, Cisco did it for her, his eyes flaring up with an anger that Laura had never thought him capable of.
"She goes by Frostbite, if you haven't already guessed. And heads up, coming up with nicknames is my job. Though that one's not bad." Hartley smirked knowingly, and he turned to Caitlin. Laura had never seen her look so angry at someone, not even Cisco; her eyes were hard and her arms were crossed tightly in front of her, though years of perfecting defenses against harsh words had clued in Laura on her attempt to shield herself.
"You know, I never did get that wedding invite, Caitlin."
The effect was instantaneous. Barry almost shoved Hartley to the floor in anger, and Cisco, his eyes blazing, grabbed him by his collar and marched him towards the Cortex. Caitlin followed him without a word, although Laura was dismayed to catch a glimpse of the uncertainty on her friend's face as she disappeared from view. Hartley would definitely pick up on that. Finally, she and Barry were alone, and Laura had to take a moment to stop her hands from shaking – she hadn't been this angry for a long time.
"Man, he's an asshole."
"Well, don't say we didn't warn you."
"How on Earth did you guys put up with him?"
"Everyone just talked behind his back a lot. I'm pretty sure Cisco still has a file on his computer on ways to humiliate the 'Green-Eyed Devil'."
"You're kidding."
"Nope. Anyway, I should get changed before I head down there."
"Are you sure? He doesn't seem like the guy who needs the extra company."
"They're going to need backup on this one. Trust me."
Barry let out a sigh and nodded, looking just a smidge uncomfortable mixed with a healthy dose of lingering anger, and Laura knew that it was most likely because of his remark to Caitlin. She'd already suffered enough this past year by losing Ronnie twice; the last thing she needed was the king of jerks rubbing it in her face. By the time she had changed and located her friends in the Cortex, Hartley was already situated in one of the containment cells. In the past few months, she'd learned that every metahuman the Flash had ever encountered and defeated was locked in a private cell in the Cortex – just like the Reverse Flash had done to her.
When she arrived, Cisco was mumbling something in Spanish, most likely obscene considering who stood just a few feet away from him, as he flipped through the cell's screen, while Caitlin watched on from a few feet away. Each separate cell has a scanning unit consisting of x-rays and infrared sensors, as well as a system that allowed for adjustments in the environment, and a small alarm went off as the scans completed themselves.
"Scanners are detecting foreign metal objects in your ears. Take 'em out." Hartley's head shot up as Cisco gestured for him to comply.
"I can't. I suffered head trauma when S.T.A.R. Labs exploded. My hearing was severely damaged – without these, I am in pain you can't even begin to imagine."
"You're going to hurt a lot worse if I get my hands on you."
All three of them turned to face her, and Cisco and Caitlin relaxed visibly, even if it was minute, when they saw it was her. Hartley's trademark smirk grew even wider, if that was even possible, and Laura forced herself to maintain eye contact as she joined her friends.
"Laura," Hartley greeted her with false cheer, "I was wondering when you would show up. Good to see you finally woke up."
"How do you know about that?"
"I make it a point to keep up with all of my former colleagues. By the way, how are your psychrophiles doing?"
"They're extinct, but they appreciate the concern."
"Aw, poor things – looks like we all lost something that night."
To say that the silence that followed was tense would be an understatement, and Laura spared a glance at Cisco and Caitlin, her heart sinking a bit as she recognized the closed off looks on their faces. Hartley was working his old tricks again, and it was disgusting to see, to know, just how much he was affecting all of them. The Pied Piper just had to turn out to be a master of emotional manipulation, much less a psychotic evil genius.
"By the way, very clever, repurposing the anti-proton cavities into confinement cells. Wells' idea, I'm sure."
"Actually, that was mine."
"Cisquito…" Laura froze as she recognized the name that had followed Cisco around until the day Hartley had left S.T.A.R. Labs. As they shot insults back and forth at each other in Spanish, she could barely control the surge of anger building up inside of her. Finally, Caitlin stepped in, her voice controlled but on the edge of full-blown rage, leaving her voice cold and hard.
"Hartley, don't make this any harder than it has to be."
"Ah. J'ai oublié. Vous ne l'aimez émotions. Ils sont en désordre."
"Hartley." Now she had his attention. Hartley's green eyes bored straight through her, but Laura had faced down dogs more frightening than him. She waited, resisting the urge to frost over the entire cell, until he finally spoke.
"Es gibt keine Notwendigkeitzu schnappen, Laura."
Ah, yes. She hadn't had to speak her second language in years. She'd done it on a whim in her first year of university, and it had been hard to forget, especially with her memory. Her first week on the job, she'd mistakenly answered to Dr. Wells in a garble of German when he'd popped his head into her office, and since then, Hartley had always spoken to her like that when he didn't want others to hear what he was saying, mostly demeaning insults and taunts that left her doing her best to suppress her anger. She wondered if he had learned it for that purpose only, and she suppressed a shudder before summoning all of her existing knowledge of the language.
"Immer dieOpfer, nie der Sieger. Wie die mächtigen gefallen sind."
"Oh, sieht aus wie ich das Eis-Königin geweckt haben."
"Enough, Hartley!" The force in Dr. Wells' voice made all three of them jump in surprise as he made his way up to the cell
"Give us a minute." Laura hesitated to leave the two of them alone, but with a quick glance back to assure herself of his demands, Laura followed her friends out of the room. They didn't speak at all as they made their way back to the control room, where Barry was waiting, watching the live security feed of Hartley's conversation with Dr. Wells from the consoles. Even though she didn't even want to even hear his voice for the rest of her life, much less the rest of the day, Laura couldn't help but watch with morbid curiosity as the former mentor and protégé conversed. Apparently, Hartley was all too aware of the cameras they'd installed, and Laura felt him tense up beside her as he glanced up towards the four of them, his green eyes seemingly meeting her own.
"You know German?" Barry asked her quietly.
"I took a class in college."
"Why?"
"I was bored."
"Quiet," Cisco shushed them both, "I want to hear what they're saying."
"Feels great to have the great Harrison Wells behind you, doesn't it? Heed my words, everyone; one day, this man will turn on you and you won't even see it coming. I can only hope that he leaves you in better shape than he left me, but I doubt that. If you're lucky, you'll only be dead. Because every day I have to live with the agonizing, piercing, screaming in my ears."
"And all because of him."
"Jesus…" Laura muttered before she could stop herself. She hadn't known it was that bad. But a quick glance from Cisco reminded her of who was doing the talking. However, just as Dr. Wells was turning to leave the Pipeline, Hartley spoke up, his voice dripping with sarcasm and contempt.
"Harrison, I almost forgot. I told your newest pets something, about your deep dark secret?"
"Have fun letting them in on that one."
Nobody spoke for a while after that. They couldn't even begin to understand what Hartley had just told them, much less what they were supposed to do with that information, simply choosing to sit in silence and avoid each other's' gaze for the time being. Finally, after what seemed like ages, Dr. Wells made his way into the room, and looked at all three of them with a guilt-ridden expression, a look she had seen too many times in her life. They waited until he was ready to speak. And when he did speak, neither of them expected was came next.
"I assume you were all listening. Yes, Hartley was telling the truth. I have not been honest with you. With any of you." He hesitated, as if trying to find the right words to say to soften the blow, but Laura could tell that any chance of that happening was dying with every second he wasted.
"Before I turned on the accelerator, Hartley came to me. He warned me that there was a high chance that the accelerator could explode if we went ahead with the project. His data did not show one hundred percent certainty, just that there was a risk, but it was a real risk; he told me that if I went ahead with the accelerator, we would see catastrophic results. And yet, I made the decision, with the information at hand, that the reward – that everything we could learn and everything we could achieve from the accelerator, that all of that simply outweighed that risk."
"I'm sorry."
Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you know that there may not be another chapter for the next few days since I have to study for my midterms, but I will do my best to continue the story. Thank you all for reading and stay tuned!
