"Hartley."

After the shocking – to be honest, it was just plain devastating – news that had been laid upon them, Cisco and Caitlin had both stormed out of the building after having a few choice words with their employer. Laura didn't know whether they'd gone to drown their sorrows or simply curse themselves somewhere for trusting Dr. Wells in some small dark corner of the building, and she was pretty sure Barry had gone back to the lab, but at the moment, she had no idea what she was going to do next. Laura's mind was a mess as she tried to make sense of the information she had just been bombarded with, and there was too much rage and confusion and disgust for her to think straight for one second.

So, as she always did in the midst of a crisis, Laura did the stupid thing.

She went to see Hartley.

"Laura. Glad to see you again. How's life working for Harrison Wells?"

"Cut the crap, Hartley. Cisco and Caitlin are devastated."

"You tell me that as if I'm supposed to care. But enough about them, Dr. Sanders - how are you?" The smirk plastered on his face was unbearable, and Laura had to fight to keep her anger and the cold brewing in her hands in check.

"You're not my therapist, Hartley."

"No, but I am your fellow. I know you were changed by the explosion that night, Frostbite. We both were. Tell me – how does it feel knowing that the great Harrison Wells could have prevented that explosion? That you could have had a normal life? That he knew, he knew the risks, and that he went ahead with it anyway?"

"Listen, Hartley. What happened was horrible, yes. Lives were ruined, and Dr. Wells was responsible for that, yes. He needs to face justice; I'm not going to argue with you about that. But the difference between you and me, Hartley, is that I choose not to let it consume me. I'm not going to be the person who makes Wells redeem himself. It's his choice if he wants to do that or not. All I can do is take his mistakes and make something good out of it."

It was almost funny that someone else had had to convince her of that same thing over seven years ago.

"And look where that's gotten you – blindly following his orders without a clue of his true agenda. He played all of you like fools."

"Go to hell."

As she stalked from the room, the frost forming at her fingertips just barely beyond her control, Laura missed the pleased smirk on Hartley's face, his eyes glinting in the darkness moments as the door slid shut.

"Glad I could help."


After her disastrous conversation with Hartley, Laura decided that the best way to work out her feelings was to punch something. As per the Arrow's recommendations, Cisco had set up a training room in the building for her and Barry to keep active, where she practiced the training that she received at the station. That was where she was now, working away at the punching bag hung from the ceiling by a chain with every ounce of strength in her body, the anger fading with each blow she made against the leather. When her muscles finally started to cramp up, Laura finally stopped to take a break, adding a few chunks of ice to her water bottle to let the cold itching behind her fingertips out.

However, as she slumped on the bench in the corner, the familiar sound of a motorized wheelchair sent Laura's head shooting up. Dr. Wells lingered in the doorway, the guilt-ridden look in his eyes betraying his stiff posture, and she reluctantly nodded her consent. When he was just a few feet away from her, he leant forward into his chair and spoke, his voice quiet.

"Laura – I must apologize to you. I know that I've disappointed you. I want you to know that it was never my intention to let the particle accelerator explode."

"– why didn't you listen to him? Why didn't you listen to Hartley?"

"I believed that the benefits outweighed the risks. I…I miscalculated."

"You trusted him. You trusted him, and you turned your back on him."

"I know."

"Seventeen people are dead because you refused to listen."

"And I have had to live with that for over a year!" The force of his voice caught her off guard, but he sank back into his chair, a heavy sigh following the small outburst. "I will spend the rest of my life knowing that those seventeen died because I made that choice. Even before you all found out, I blamed myself every day. Every day since the incident, I have come into this building, thinking about the fact that people died here, trying my best to make sure that something good can come from my mistakes. When the two of you are out there, I feel as if my mistakes are being erased. I feel as if the entire city isn't against me anymore." His eyes fell as his voice trailed off into silence, and Laura stood up, forcing him to look up at her. He'd kept something so vital, so important, from all of them, and it hurt right in her heart to think that she had once looked up to the man. But deep inside, she wasn't so sure that she was angry anymore.

Well, for now, at least.

"Dr. Wells, you – you were the one who convinced me to be a hero, to follow the path of good. Whether to actually do some good or to get rid of your guilt, I don't know. I'm not sure if I can ever trust you the same way I used to before. But I'm not Hartley. I'm not vindictive, and I'm not going to let someone else's mistakes dictate my life."

With a grimace, Laura stalked past him towards the door. However, as she reached the doorway, Laura looked back for just a moment. Dr. Wells was still facing the wall where she had previously sat, his shoulders slumped in what she could only guess was defeat. Still, she needed to say one last thing, and her hands shook at her sides as she did. "If you want Cisco and Caitlin to forgive you, you're going to need more than just words. You've made a lot of mistakes; they're not going to go away if Barry and I do it all for you. These are your mistakes, and they're yours to fix. It's your choice if you want to do that."

As she left, Laura could have sworn she heard him whisper 'thank you'.


After her conversation with Dr. Wells, Laura felt much better once she saw that Caitlin and Cisco had returned. However, it was obvious that they were still shaken by what he'd told them, so she let them be; she knew that Barry was probably blowing off steam somewhere in the city, so the best option she had to pass the time was to go for a run.

It was dark outside, and although most people would have brought a jacket with them this time of year because of the wind chill, she was not most people. There was a small trail by the river as part of a city-wide attempt to spruce up the land by the river, but it was empty this time of night, something Laura was immensely grateful for. By the time she stopped, her chest heaving and her lungs aching, the sky was dark, and Laura's mind switched from worrying about Barry and her friends to other things as she stared at the road ahead.

Things like Hartley.

Something about his capture, now that she could look back and think clearly, seemed too good to be true. From what she'd gathered from the gauntlets that now sat in Cisco's workspace, he could have done a lot more damage to his family's business than just a few broken windows. If he'd wanted too, she realized, Hartley could have used that sonic technology to destroy Rathaway Industries entirely and leave behind nothing but a pile of silicon dust in its place.

But he hadn't. He could have destroyed both her and Barry in a single blast if he'd wanted to. But he hadn't.

It was almost as if he wanted to get caught.

As soon as she finished her thought, Laura came to a stop.

Hartley had wanted to get caught.

Her mind kicked into overdrive as the events of the past couple of days clicked into place. Hartley allowed himself to be captured, letting himself be stored away in the Pipeline, because that was the only way he could get access to S.T.A.R. Labs. And now, they had given him that opportunity without even realizing it.

In a matter of seconds, Laura was gunning it back towards the main building, ignoring the heavy weight of dread that settled itself deep in her stomach and the burn in her legs as the wind whipped past her face. By the time she reached the main entrance, the familiar wail of the emergency alarms inside could be heard from a hundred yards away. The sound sent her mind jumping to her lab on the night of the incident, flames surrounding her and her entire body numb with pain. Other memories themselves known as well as, more unpleasant and painful than she remembered. For a moment, Laura almost turned away.

Not now.

Pushing aside the memories as best as she could, Laura ran for the Pipeline, blasting past the control room where she caught a quick glimpse of Caitlin standing over the consoles. When she finally reached Hartley's cell, however, Laura's heart seized at the sight of Cisco sprawled among the shattered remains of the door, his face sticky with blood. She was by his side in seconds.

"Cisco? Cisco, can you hear me?" When her fingers finally found his pulse, weak but steady and present, Laura let out a sigh of relief. However, her sigh quickly turned into a scream of agony as a high-pitched wail filled the room, and she collapsed besides Cisco on the debris-littered floor, clutching at her head until she could feel nothing but pain.

"You all fell for it. Unbelievable. I had thought that even you would have figured it out, Laura." Above her, Hartley grinned triumphantly in the flickering lights, and Laura screamed again as the sound grew even louder. His eyes glinted with glee, and Laura wondered through the haze of pain if he was truly enjoying this. It was clear now that they had all seriously underestimated how far he was willing to go to get his revenge.

"Hartley – please – don't, don't do this-" was all she could manage through the pain, but Laura could already tell that it wasn't enough

"I'll see you at the board, Frostbite."

And as Hartley's face faded away into the darkness, the last thing Laura knew was silence.


"God, that stings."

"Hey, hey, take it easy. He really did a number on both of you."

Laura shot Barry a grateful look as he pressed an ice pack against her pounding head, and sat back, watching as Cisco let Caitlin clean and bandage the cuts that littered his skin. By the time she had opened her eyes, Hartley was already long gone, as were his gauntlets. Cisco had apparently received a nasty concussion from being so close to the door of Hartley's cell when it had exploded, and Laura still had trouble hearing from the excessive amount of noise she'd been bombarded with, even though Caitlin had been quick to assure her nothing had been ruptured.

Apparently, Dr. Wells had called Barry once the alarms had gone off, but by the time he'd reached the building, Hartley was gone, and she, Caitlin and Cisco were all unconscious. Luckily, Caitlin had only been knocked out by their former colleague, but she was fairly certain that she could hear a faint ringing and Cisco was most definitely not coherent in any sense of the word.

"Should have seen it coming." Cisco mumbled as he tried to sit up, but Caitlin forced him to lie back down on the bed, and Laura felt a pang of sympathy for him as he complied. It was obvious to all three of them that he felt responsible for letting Hartley get away, and Laura knew that there really needed to be a group meeting about his massive guilt complex. His dazed eyes, which were somehow as clear as day, found hers for a brief second, and Laura could immediately tell that there were other things he felt guilty about; he'd panicked seconds after waking up, asking Barry frantically for both her and Caitlin with a terrified look on his face.

Frowning slightly, she stood and made her way over to him, ignoring the sudden wave of dizziness that overtook her, and smoothed down a butterfly bandage on his forehead, which forced him to meet her gaze.

"Cisco, it's not your fault."

"But-"

"But nothing. It's not your fault. Hartley's an ass, and I will repeat that until the day it gets into that thick skull of yours."

"It's on me too, Cisco. I shouldn't have left you guys here alone with him." Apparently Barry had decided to join the pity party as well, but the guilt in Cisco's eyes faltered nonetheless at the admission.

"This is no one's fault but mine." Dr. Wells' presence in the room surprised them all, as well as the anger in his voice. Laura felt Cisco tense slightly under her hands, but they remained where they stood as he faced them, his eyes distant and not entirely focused on any of them.

"I have earned the blame for this, and none of you should have to share it with me. Hartley doesn't believe that I've paid for my crimes, and he's right, I haven't. And he won't stop this rampage until I've paid for all of them." They stayed silent as he spoke in a grave voice that didn't fit him, but when he turned around to leave the room, Barry called after the man who had betrayed their trust in the worst way possible.

"Where are you going?"

"To fix my mistakes."


"Is this really going to help?"

"It's Dr. Wells's choice. If this is how he wants to do things, then we should let him."

Caitlin looked torn between marching down to the precinct herself and ripping off her own face as she and Laura watched the screens in the control room. The first news station they'd found was just one of many who had set a collision course for the precinct after being informed a few hours earlier of the impending press conference. Laura felt a bit relieved that Dr. Wells had decided to listen to her. It obviously didn't sit well with Barry, judging by his expression after Dr. Wells had announced his decision, but Laura had done her best to assure him that it was the right thing to do. Still, despite all the good Dr. Wells was trying to do through this press conference, Laura couldn't suppress the feeling that this wasn't going to appease Hartley at all. And it seemed that Caitlin was thinking the same way.

"It's just – we all know Hartley isn't the type of person to let things go. What if he attacks again?" Her teammate worried away at her lip with her teeth as she spoke, obviously nervous, and Laura knew full well that they all had a good reason to be. Everything they had seen so far told them Hartley was more dangerous than any metahuman they had ever faced, and the thought had her concerned for Dr. Well's safety.

"We really don't have any other options. By the way, how's Cisco doing?"

For a moment, Caitlin hesitated to say anything.

"He's…resting."

"Caitlin, I knew that. I meant, you know – about the other stuff?"

"I'm fine." Cisco's groggy voice filled the room, and together they turned to face him as he shuffled into the room. There were bags under his eyes, and he swayed a bit on his feet, but Laura held herself back as he approached them. It was more than obvious that he needed the space, so they stayed silent as he made his way to his desk. However, when he simply stood there, staring at the computer, Laura took the opportunity to walk up next to him.

"You want to talk about it?" Her voice was soft, to keep the concussion from causing him any pain, but Cisco's face still twisted in discomfort.

"Not really." His clipped tone shouldn't have surprised her so much, but for some reason, it did. Still, Laura pushed aside the momentary surprise; walking away now, when the wounds were still fresh and emotions were running wild, wasn't going to help any of them.

"Are you going to be alright?"

"I'm fine."

"Cisco…"

"I just need some time alone, Laura. Okay?"

"Alright. Just…just let us know if you need anything."

There were so many other things she wanted to say to him. To tell him that it was going to be okay, that they could get through this, but she forced herself to stand by and watch as Cisco made his way towards his workspace without another word. He was hurt; she could understand that, considering how much faith he had put in Dr. Wells over the years. She knew exactly what it felt like to put so much trust and faith in someone and then have that trust shattered to pieces. But now wasn't the time to push him; the healing process had to happen on its own. Now, it was only a matter of time.

Now, all they could do was wait.


"Has Hartley made contact yet?"

Laura's head snapped up so fast she almost got whiplash, as Barry and Dr. Wells entered the room, the voice of her former employer startling her from her thoughts. They both looked agitated, and now that she was no longer distracted, Laura was just a tad disgruntled didn't have anything to keep her mind off of her mounting anxiety.

"What makes you so sure that he will?"

"He's Hartley. He's always wanted the last word. This time will be no different."

Laura couldn't exactly disagree with that. Coverage on the press conference was broadcasting on all the stations in the city; Caitlin had been kind enough to turn off the news feed after the first half-hour. However, despite the response that Dr. Wells' confession had sparked, Laura couldn't help but wonder if Hartley would finally step down. She wanted to be optimistic, she really did, but Hartley wasn't really the type of person to let bygones be bygones. However, as Barry joined her and Caitlin at the consoles, Laura caught Dr. Wells heading into Cisco's workspace, where her friend had been holed up for the past few hours.

For as long as she had known him, Cisco respected and idolized Dr. Wells to the nth degree. To learn that the man he had trusted, the man who had taken him in, had put the lives of all of their colleagues in danger, must have been earth-shattering to Cisco. To see him hurt made her want nothing more than to comfort him, but she simply sat by and watched as Dr. Wells spoke to him in a tone she couldn't quite hear, his expression serious. There was a look in Cisco's eyes as Dr. Wells spoke, hesitant but not entirely closed off, that made her hope. Perhaps not everything was lost between them yet.

However, as the look on Cisco's face softened and the tension in his shoulders left, a strange, eerie whirring pierced the silence of the room. Laura flinched reflexively as a shower of white sparks shot from the ceiling. For a moment, nothing happened – and then Hartley spoke.

"That was a nice gambit, Harrison. But this game is far from over."

"What do more you want, Hartley? I already gave my mea culpa today." Dr. Wells' voice resounded throughout the room as he and Cisco joined them, looking more infuriated than she had ever seen him.

"Oh, Harrison. The city already hated you. You don't think I'd see that conference for the pathetic bishop sacrifice it was? I've played with you too many times to let you get away with that."

"This is between you, me, and those little metahuman pets of yours you call heroes."

"You don't want to play for those kind of stakes with me, Hartley."

"You know what? I really, really do. So what do you say, Harrison? One last game of chess?"

"You and I both know that the winner of this game is the one who makes the next-to-last mistake, and you clearly have a move in mind."

"You're right. And I'm already at the board. So why don't you send in your precious scarlet and cobalt knights, while I take out a few pawns."

And the line went dead.