Summary: Hartley's health hasn't been the greatest lately and he comes back from a week off to find a new guy on his project who is most definitely not a senior level mechanical engineer with several years of experience like Hartley'd asked Harrison to hire.

But it turns out Cisco Ramon is absolutely the guy Hartley wants around when an already bad day winds up going straight to hell.

Notes: An alternate first meeting for Hartley and Cisco where Hartley makes a better first impression and Cisco makes a bad health day for Hartley a little less stressful. And EoWells does, mostly, care about Hartley's wellbeing. In his own, weird way.

A Good Sign

"I know you don't have to justify your hiring decisions to me," Hartley said, shutting the door to Harrison's office behind him. "But let's pretend, for a minute, that you did."

"Hello Hartley," Harrison replied, sounding more amused than anything.

It just pisses Hartley off more. "I'm still sick, Harrison. Ulcers do not heal overnight. You promised me less stress."

"I know that, Hartley. I know Cisco Ramon isn't quite what we discussed, but I guarantee having him around will take a great deal of stress off your work. And if you need to take more time off..." Harrison gave Hartley a concerned look.

Hartley grimaced. Growing up perpetually stressed had finally bit him in the ass. No sooner than he got his PhD, but he started having back pain. Then irritable stomach problems. Then one night he woke up with a sharp pain in his stomach and wound up puking in his toilet. Tinged red, which wasn't a great sign.

It's a peptic ulcer, which is a relief. Hartley prefers that to cancer anyway, which he'd naturally scared himself worrying about before finally getting his diagnosis. But he needed less stress in his life, which was something he'd discussed with Harrison before taking a week off from work.

Harrison said he wanted to do whatever he could to make Hartley's recovery easier, including either hiring or promoting someone to take on some of Hartley's responsibilities so that he was less overworked. They'd agreed on a senior level engineer and Hartley had suspected he'd come back to find Ronnie promoted. That's... not what he came back to, however.

"Look, Ramon's CV is pretty impressive for a new grad. But he doesn't have the experience needed to take over leadership on any of the projects you have me managing. And now I have to manage his intake on top of every thing else." Hartley tilted his head to the side. "I'm not seeing how this is supposed to be less stressful for me. I do see how it's more stressful, however."

"With Cisco's help you'll have fewer projects because he'll be able to get three of them finished early in the next few weeks," Harrison promised. "And I won't be assigning new ones to you since, by then Ronnie will have finished the training course he'll be spending next week at and I can load him up with a few new projects. Which should fulfill your need for a less stressful work schedule, just like I promised. And while you are Mr. Ramon's new manager, Ronnie's been handling the intake for him. So that shouldn't be an additional stressor for you after all."

Okay, so that was better than Hartley'd thought it was. He's not exactly thrilled that Harrison's putting off Ronnie's promotion and, someone else handling Ramon's intake or not, settling a new guy into ongoing projects was still Hartley's newest headache.

His stomach churned uncomfortably, reminding Hartley he'd forgotten to take his antacids before driving to work. He did have a new bottle stashed in his office, though. So Pepcid here he came. Thank goodness it didn't interfere with the antibiotic he was on.

"I didn't expect you to have found a senior engineer already," Hartley said quietly. "And, like I said, Ramon's CV is impressive. What I'm upset about is apparently you never even attempted to interview anyone for a position you promised me you'd create. Instead you hired a junior engineer for a redundant position. I really, really hope he's as good as you think he is."

"I promise you, Hartley. Cisco Ramon is about to make both our lives a lot easier."

"He'd better or I'm taking another week off," Hartley grumbled. "I've got a meeting and I still haven't caught back up on my emails."

Harrison nodded and waved Hartley off. "I'll see you for lunch? My treat."

"Thanks," Hartley replied dryly, turning to let himself out of the office.


Hartley doesn't get properly introduced to Cisco until the afternoon. By then Hartley's got a tension headache, his stomach's dull ache has returned, and he's got tinnitus thanks to the headache. So even with his hearing aids in, he's struggling to hear anything. And he's about ready to head home early. As it stands, if he does work tomorrow it'll probably be working from home.

So when Snow brought Ramon into his office, Hartley can barely hear a word that she says before she walks out. And because she's so quick about it, Hartley doesn't even have a chance to ask her to repeat herself. Which is just so annoying.

"Look, I'm sorry. But I didn't catch any of that," Hartley admitted. "I've got pretty bad tinnitus today and Snow talks quietly as it is. So I'm not really sure which projects you've already started on even though I know she literally just said it."

"That's fine," Cisco said, his hands signing along with his words. A bit slow and awkward, like he was still a beginner. But, still... ASL. "I'm still learning, but If you know ASL then I can repeat what she said that way."

Hartley smiled, feeling a little of the day's stress lifting off his shoulders. "I do know ASL," he replied, hands moving to sign along too. His own movements more fluid and sure than Cisco's, but then he started learning back in his first year of college. "And it's nice to finally have someone else on the team who does too."

Cisco beamed.

And when Cisco's first act that afternoon after Hartley read him into the sensor project was to fix a design flaw that had been preventing the project from moving forward for weeks, well... Hartley has to concede that Harrison might be right about Cisco Ramon after all. The guy might not be the answer to Hartley's management related woes, but he was clearly a fixer in other ways.

And if Cisco's bright smile and nimble fingers were a little captivating, well... it was nice to have a warm feeling in his stomach that didn't hurt for a change.