Summary: It's Dante's birthday and Cisco would really rather not attend. But family obligations being what they are, he takes along Hartley who'd at least understand what Cisco's dealing with. Only... there's something else going on in Cisco's head because something about this day is giving him major déjà vu. And for some reason, he's a little afraid to let Hartley out of his sight...

Notes: For the Hartmon Bingo general card prompt - Free Space

Part of "The Pied Piper's Army of Rats" series: follows after the story "These Are a Few (Of My Favorite Things)"

Moments in Time

Chapter 1

"Cisco," Hartley turned away from the elevators. "Cisco, listen to me! You need to..."

"I'm so sorry Hartley..." and now that was Dr. Wells voice, but there was something wrong...

Dr. Wells was standing and Cisco was hiding behind something.

"You were dear to me, my friend. But from my point of view, you've been dead for centuries..."

Cisco jerked up, breathing harshly. His head was swimming and... what a damn nightmare. Dr. Wells standing on his own... that should have been a good thing, but the sight had terrified him. And Hartley... he'd been threatened by something? Cisco wasn't sure.

"Hey?" There was a knock on the doorframe, the door itself slowly gliding open. Hartley stood there in a faded set of green, plaid pajama pants and a t-shirt with the Rogue Squadron emblem on it that he'd snatched from Cisco's things.

Cisco hadn't called him on it because, well... he kind of liked the look of his shirt on Hartley. And Cisco didn't really want to look at that too closely. Not with everything else going on his life right now.

"You okay?" Hartley's voice was laced with concern.

"Yeah. Just... nightmare." Cisco scrubbed a hand over his face and then into his hair. "I need coffee."

"I'll go put on a pot for you." Hartley gave him a critical look before adding, "go shower first. It'll help you feel better."

Nodding, Cisco smiled wanly. "That sounds like a good idea. See you when the coffee's ready?"

Hartley disappeared back into the living room. For a moment, Cisco laid back in bed and just... took a moment to breathe. His heart was still racing and he needed to calm down before he got up.

It was so strange to think it'd only been two months since Hartley'd come back into Cisco's life. It started with Hartley waging a one man campaign against Dr. Wells and doing what he did best - annoying the hell out of everyone else. And now Hartley was technically doing unpaid contract work for STAR Labs - which Cisco planned on guilting Dr. Wells into remedying - and Cisco sympathized a lot more with Hartley than with Harrison Wells.

Case in point, Hartley was no longer living under 'house arrest' at STAR Labs. He was now camped out in Cisco's living room. And they were something rather like friends. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say they were friends who wouldn't admit it for pride related reasons.

Sitting back up, Cisco threw off the covers and got out of bed. A shower sounded good.

"So, still stressing over your brother's birthday?" Hartley asked as he handed over a cup off coffee to Cisco. They were both dressed for the day, though Cisco's hair was still shower damp.

It'd be time to head off to STAR Labs for another scintillating day of working on the Patro-No, getting glared at by Harrison, and trying to find time to upload his virus to the STAR Labs systems. And... debating whether or not he should take Tina McGee up on her offer of employment at Mercury Labs.

"Yeah, well, my parents think his stink don't stink," Cisco sulked into his coffee. "In their eyes, no matter how much Dante screws up, he can do no wrong. And they're quite fond of reminding me that I can do no right."

Hartley wondered if it was really quite so cut and dry. Abusive families took many forms and that... sounded like a very specific sort of emotional abuse. "So don't go."

"If I don't, my parents will give me shit about it on my birthday when they call. Because they insist on throwing parties for Dante, but I only warrant a phone call. And I... I guess I could just ignore their call, but I don't want to risk them showing up here and causing a scene. So..." Cisco shrugged. "It is what it is."

It's bullshit is what it is, but Hartley doubts Cisco would react well to Hartley even hinting at that behavior being abusive. He'll have to figure out how to ease into that idea some other time. For now... "I could go with you. Try and act as a buffer? I mean... I'd theoretically be a more enticing target for them. They can insult me in Spanish, secure in the knowledge I have no idea what they're saying."

"Except you do speak Spanish," Cisco countered, frowning.

"Exactly." Hartley grinned. "And they wouldn't need to know that until it's time for us to say goodbye. Which is whenever you want to leave. I just stun them all with the fact that I understood all their insults and smiled politely at them anyway and we get the hell out of Dodge before anyone recovers enough to figure out what the response in that situation would be. Besides, I could potentially convince someone to show me little Cisquito pictures. You were probably such an adorable child. I can wonder, loudly, what happened to change that."

"I swear," Cisco groaned, "you're really obnoxious sometimes."

"Well, give me a chance to use my obnoxiousness in your favor," Hartley offered. "So just say the word and your judgmental parents will be too busy insulting my parentage - in a language they think I don't understand - to pay attention to whatever ridiculous faults they've made up about you lately."

"They wanted two kids. A son and a daughter. Which they thought they had until I showed up unexpectedly. But having three kids only sort of threw off their groove until Armando came out to them and they realized they had three sons instead of two and a daughter." Cisco sighed. "Sometimes I really envy Armando's method of dealing with their bullshit. He moved out of state."

"That is one way to do it," Hartley agreed. "I think we both thrive on spite too much to take such a healthy option."

Cisco snorted in amusement, clearly in spite of himself. "No looking for baby pictures," Cisco said after a moment. "And I will consider taking you along as my plus one. Most of them are gonna think you're my shitty boyfriend."

"Who knows, maybe they'll try to tell you that you're wonderful and deserve better than me and redeem themselves a little along the way," Hartley retorted, trying not to think about the word boyfriend in conjunction with Cisco too hard.

That way lay dangerous thoughts.

Outright laughing now, Cisco headed over to the bread and toaster. "That'll be the day. I'm gonna make cinnamon toast. You in?"

"Sure."

The first time Barry parrots the words Dr. Wells is saying, as he says them, Dr. Wells turns around and stares thoughtfully at Barry. By the third time it had happened in general, Hartley was giving Barry a very similar stare.

"Barry?" Cisco asked hesitantly, "did you time travel again?"

"I... think I did? But, like, this is clearly the first time. For me. This me, anyway. Is anyone else still super confused by the last round of time travel we had to deal with?" Barry asked.

Cisco and Caitlin both raised their hands. After a moment, so did Hartley.

Dr. Wells let out the most put-upon sounding sigh Cisco had ever heard. "Are we dealing with multiple Barry Allens again?"

"No." Barry shook his head. "When I was headed towards the morgue this morning, the first time around, I saw a... another me. For a second. More like an echo in the speed force than anything real. You theorized it was some kind of speed mirage, Dr. Wells. Except I was on the other side of that when I accidentally ran back in time, about twenty-four hours. And there's still only the one me, so I don't... I don't understand how I took the place of the earlier me."

"It must have been a temporal reversion," Dr. Wells theorized. "It's a... limited reset of the time line and, technically, a closed paradox. You saw yourself reset the timeline before it happened, ergo you were always going to reset the timeline. How far back did you travel?"

"Only about a day."

"Well good, that means there's not much for you to mess up." Dr. Wells shook his head. "You can't change anything."

"Not even the -"

"Nothing."

"-city destroying tidal wave?"

There was a long silence.

"So, we're changing today's events, I take it?" Hartley asked, big smirk on his face.

"I don't even know why I bother," Dr. Wells huffed.

"To be honest, all I really need to do is find Mardon and drop him off in police custody before he creates the tidal wave," Barry said. "And since I've lived today already, I know where he'll be hiding."

"I guess that's one problem solved," Caitlin said, "so why do I get the feeling you're about to tell us changing the day's events will create all new problems?"

"Because it will. It's like... kicking a can down the road. So there's no tidal wave to threaten the city today, but there will be some other big disaster to take it's place in the near future." Dr. Wells gave them all a significant look.

"But if it's a closed temporal loop where Barry was always going to travel back in time, then doesn't that also mean that he was always going to change the events of the day?" Cisco asked. "Not changing the events would just... cause him to loop again."

"Ah," Dr. Wells hesitated. "Not necessarily."

"I don't think we're interested in testing that theory or in having Barry fight a tidal wave," Hartley interjected smoothly.

"Time is a fragile construct," Dr. Wells objected.

The headache thrumming in the back of Cisco's head picks that moment to spike and he reached up to rub at the bridge of his nose. Apparently the Tylenol wasn't cutting it today. In fact... he hasn't had this bad of a headache since the last time Barry time traveled.

"Are you alright, Cisco?" Dr. Wells asked, sounding very concerned.

Cisco frowned. When did Dr. Wells move over here? "Just a headache," Cisco said. "I'm fine. Well... I'm still dreading Dante's birthday party. Which I guess I'm not going to have an excuse to skip after all."

"Sorry," Barry said.

"Eh, well, Dante's party can't be worse than a city destroying tidal wave." Cisco glanced over at Hartley, who winked at him. And, despite his headache, Cisco smiled. Maybe it'd be worth taking Hartley along with him, if for no other reason than Hartley's company was growing on him.

Cisco was wrong. Dante's birthday party was worse than a city destroying tidal wave. (Okay, so it wasn't, but at least Cisco would have been running on too much panic and adrenaline to feel miserable and unloved.)

After much internal debate, Cisco did indeed bring Hartley with him. The results of introducing Hartley to his family and Dante's friends was... mixed.

Hartley himself was unfailingly polite. Cisco could not complain even the slightest about Hartley's behavior. Well... maybe the number of times Hartley put his hand on Cisco's shoulder which caused Cisco to become intensely aware of the heat of Hartley's touch, but it was a little loud in the house which might've been disorienting for Hartley, in which case Cisco didn't want to make Hartley feel self-conscious about reaching out for help steadying himself. (Certainly Cisco wasn't ready to consider just why he was so hyper aware of Hartley's presence and every touch...)

Most of Dante's friends had no idea Cisco was bi. And while Cisco wasn't closeted by any means, they weren't exactly people worth his time to come out to. They were Dante's friends, not his. But they seemed to think that because they didn't know Cisco was queer that he must have been a gay closet-case all this time now that he'd brought his boyfriend to Dante's birthday party and wasn't that brave of him, even though he was stumbling at the last hurdle by introducing Hartley as 'just a friend'. Though, brave or not, couldn't Cisco have waited until his own birthday to pull this kind of stunt? Really took the focus off of Dante on would should be his day.

There was good reason why Dante's friends were not Cisco's friends and likely never would be. Dante, at least, was willing to correct his friends when he heard them saying stuff, but the bisexual erasure was very real in the Ramon family house anyway since Dante only corrected their erroneous belief Cisco was in any way closeted. H didn't say anything about Cisco being bi and not gay.

Cisco's parents were not subtle about their disapproval of Cisco bringing a plus one to the party and, though polite enough to Hartley's face, were also speculating on whether Cisco had brought someone he was having sinful liaisons with into their house. So there were a lot of competing forms of queerphobia going on in the Ramon family house.

The rest of Cisco's family members - who only ever showed up for Dante's birthday but it was anyone's guess if they'd even remember Cisco's a month later - were trying to guess if Cisco meant boyfriend and not 'just a friend' when he'd introduced Hartley, but were surprisingly supportive if he had. And Grand Aunt Esperanza, who approved of no one, seemed oddly charmed by Hartley.

It actually wasn't the worst family gathering Cisco had been to at the time, but nothing seemed to shake his impending sense of dread or the urge to keep a very close on Hartley due to some unnameable worry. He wasn't afraid Hartley would do anything wrong, he was just... afraid something was going to happen to Hartley. Which was silly. They were safe from everything except humiliation and ridicule at the moment.

Though it didn't help that Cisco's headache was getting worse again. But Hartley's murmured play-by-play of the growing gossip in the house was, at least, amusing enough to make feeling alienated in his own childhood home slightly more bearable. But by the time the birthday cake comes out, Cisco's pretty much ready to bail.

He wants to stay through the present, though. See if Dante actually likes what Cisco got him this year.

Except that's when one of Dante's friends brings up meta-humans and the Flash and Hartley's hand on Cisco's shoulder tightens, just a little.

"Oh shit."

Cisco looked up to see Hartley staring not at the vision of the Reverse Flash in front of them, but the elevators behind them.

"You need to hide."

Cisco nearly stumbled as he came back to himself. Shook his head to clear it, but he felt fuzzy brained from his headache. And a little nauseous. What was that he'd... seen? Heard?

"You okay?" Hartley asked, concerned.

"Fine." Cisco smiled tightly. "But I think maybe it's time to go."

"Right." Hartley nodded.

"What do you think, Cisco?" Dante asked. "I mean, they're saying STAR Labs is the cause of all these so called meta-humans."

Cisco had not been following the conversation. At all.

But Hartley had been. "Considering I'm a meta-human, I rather doubt Cisco's the sort to tar us all with the same bigoted brush your friends are using," Hartley said sweetly, voice so calm and polite that butter wouldn't dare melt in there.

Dante's eyes went wide and the room went kind of quiet as what Hartley just said got processed.

This could be very good or very bad for Cisco, depending on what Hartley said next. But Hartley'd had Cisco's back so far; he'd trust that Hartley was about make this a teachable moment, not a 'get Cisco disowned' moment.

"You're a meta-human," Dante repeated, expression now wary. A few of his friends not-so-subtly edged away.

"Yeah. Nothing fun powers wise, though. Enhanced hearing. It's quite painful. But I was able to design some hearing aids to bring my hearing back down to relatively normal. I mean, I could still stand right here and be able to hear quite clearly two people whispering in the the kitchen or the master bedroom, but it's preferable to not being able to focus on the conversation in front of me because I can hear a car wreck three blocks away or someone playing moderately loud 80s music two floors below me on a Saturday night. And while my original design was good enough, Cisco improved upon it significantly when he made my current pair of aids for me. You must be quite proud of your brother, Dante. After all, not is he quite brilliant, but he's one of the kindest people I know too. Very forgiving."

Then, not even missing a beat, Hartley transitioned into Spanish. "Unfortunately, I still get migraines quite easily, so I hope you won't mind excusing your brother and I. And thank you so very much for allowing me to join in today's festivities. Since my parents disowned me for being gay, I haven't had the chance to experience this kind of... familial dynamics in quite some time." He turned to Cisco's parents. "It was lovely to meet you all."

If it weren't for Grand Aunt Esperanza's growing laughter, Cisco's pretty sure it would have been quiet enough to hear a pin drop.

"I hope you enjoy your present, Dante," Cisco said, deciding to take the opening Hartley'd just created and run for it while everyone was having the dawning realization that Hartley'd heard everything they'd said for the last hour and understood it regardless of the language they were speaking. "But we really should be going now." He made his goodbyes to his parents and then they were out the door.

Cisco passed Hartley the keys once they reached the car. "I'm going to need you to drive."

"Headache that bad, huh?" Hartley took the keys and then pulled open the passenger side door for Cisco. "Hot compress over your eyes and quiet might help."

"That sounds perfect," Cisco said, collapsing into the car seat with relief. "This day just needs to end already."

"Amen to that," Hartley agreed, shutting the door for Cisco before coming around to the driver's side to get in the car himself.

The hot compress helps. Cisco feels almost human again after dozing with the warm, damp cloth over his forehead for what had to be at least an hour. His headache isn't gone completely, but it's receded to a dull thud and that's good enough for him to be able to eat.

Cisco's clearly not in the mood to cook and Hartley doesn't seem particularly interested in cooking that evening either. So they call in a delivery order at the Chinese place down the road.

Just as it was getting to be about time for their food to arrive, Hartley said, "Cisco, there's something I think I need to talk to you about. Well... a few somethings, actually. If you're feeling up to it?"

"Sure. What's up?"

"Ah, well..." Hartley trailed off and looked towards the door. "Never mind, the food's almost here. I can wait."

Cisco took that as his cue and both of them stood up to head for the door. And suddenly Cisco had that feeling again. That something bad was going to happen to Hartley.

There was a knocking at his door and Cisco hesitated to open it. But he did, in the end, flip the deadbolt and undo the chain before pulling his apartment door open. The woman standing there is not the usually delivery boy - the owner's teenaged son. She's gorgeous and if she weren't setting off alarm bells in Cisco's head, he might've flirted with her a little. She was gorgeous, after all. Thick brown hair that cascaded over her shoulders. Picture perfect makeup and artfully manicured nails. Clothes better suited to clubbing than delivery work. Not at all someone Cisco would expect to find working for a small restaurant as a delivery girl.

"I've got a delivery for Cisco Ramon?" She asked, holding out the bag of food.

"That's me," Cisco replied reaching out to take the bag from her. "Thanks." He turned to set the food aside and grab the delivery tip for her... but in the space of those few seconds, the woman had produced a gun from... somewhere. She jammed it against Cisco's ribs and smiled prettily.

"Try anything and I shoot you. And you, roommate." She tilted her head to the side, "or boyfriend? Well, whichever you are, don't you try anything either. I'd hate to have to shoot the golden goose here."

"Golden goose?" Cisco asked, staring down at the muzzle pressed hard against his chest.

"You made my brother's favorite gun. And now you're going to make him another one. And I guess your boy-toy is coming along too. So he doesn't do anything stupid, like call the cops or the Flash."

Her brother's favorite gun.

Cisco had only ever made two guns in his life. The Cold Gun and the Heat Gun. Leonard Snart and Mick Rory...

Oh, shit...

They're taken to a car outside with Mick Rory in the driver's seat. Hartley is instructed to get into the front side passenger seat while Lisa gets into the back with Cisco. That way she can ensure there's no funny business.

Cisco doesn't have his phone or wallet. And he's pretty sure Hartley doesn't have either as well. Which means that even if Caitlin, Barry, or Dr. Wells realize they're missing... no one is going to be able to track their location. And neither of them can text an SOS either.

They're screwed. Worse, it's all Cisco's fault. He's the one who let Leonard Snart see his face. He's the one who bragged about creating the Cold Gun in the first place, putting on a false bravado and never considering the repercussions of his words and actions beyond getting Barry safe.

If it was just Cisco they'd taken, he'd be better situated to stall for time. But with Hartley as a fellow kidnap victim... they had a hostage to threaten to keep Cisco in line. The as of yet unnamed Snart sibling - because she clearly wasn't Rory's sister - had already threatened Cisco's well being to make Hartley comply. And the reverse would work just as well to make Cisco do as told.

They weren't dating, but they were friends now. Neither of them wanted to see the other hurt. Not anymore.

Rory drives them to the warehouse district and Cisco tries his best to memorize the winding path the car takes in case... just in case. His headache is back in full force now, though, and he keeps thinking about how his apartment is going to reek of Chinese food gone bad in the morning. It's still sitting there in the entry way.

The car finally comes to a stop in a particularly seedy looking area and Hartley and Cisco are removed from the car at gunpoint. Both of them this time because now there's Mick Rory's gun in addition to lady Snart.

Leonard Snart is waiting for them inside. And, tied to a chair, so is Dante.

Cisco feels himself go cold all over and he shivers. Hartley was a bonus grab - they'd intended to use Dante to manipulate Cisco all along. And as awful as their relationship was these days, it would work too. Dante was still Cisco's big brother. He still loved Dante... even if he didn't like him much. He'd do whatever they asked, as long as it meant Dante would go unharmed.

And now they had twice the leverage to keep Cisco compliant.

"Well now, who are you?" Snart asked, eyes flicking over Hartley. "Lisa, this was supposed to be a party for the Ramon brothers only."

"He was at Cisco's apartment," Lisa - apparently - retorted. "Could hardly leave him behind to sound the alarm, now could I?"

"Fair enough. So. Cisco Ramon." Leonard Snart smirked at him. "So good to see you again. I have a job for you and two very good reasons why you can't refuse."

Cisco swallowed heavily, glancing from Dante's terrified expression to Hartley's stony glare at their captors. "Yeah," he said, voice rough from his own fear. "I got the picture. You want me to make you a new Cold Gun."

"And another Heat Gun for Mick. So long as we're arming up, any requests, Lise?" Leonard smiled at his sister and it was painful how genuine their sibling bond looked. Criminals they might be, but they were clearly close.

Too bad Cisco had no idea if that was something he could use to his advantage or not. Better to keep his head down and build slow enough that... he could hope Barry might find them before Snart decided it was time to dispose of the three of them. Because how likely was it that they were getting out of this alive?

"Well a girl does have to defend herself, after all. Besides, I can't let you two have all the fun." Lisa Snart laughed and in any other situation Cisco probably would have found it an attractive sound. But here and now? It just makes his headache worse and he has to fight not to let his pain show through. "How about something pretty and toxic? Like me. Something... golden."

"R-right." Cisco's hands are shaking. He's got to hold it together. "I take it you've got supplies for me to use, then?"

"This way, Mr. Ramon," Snart gestures, mockingly, and Cisco exchanges a desperate look with Hartley before doing as told.

And while Cisco is lead to a work table covered in parts, Hartley's led to another chair to be tied up just like Dante.

To Cisco's dismay... everything he needs to build a Cold Gun is present on the table. Heat Gun too. For something gold related he'll need more parts, but no doubt that one'll be last. That way Snart can ice a hostage if Cisco even thinks about making the wrong move.

Shit, shit, shit... he doesn't have a plan. He needs a plan.

Picking up the first part for the new Cold Gun... Cisco has a very, very bad idea. But a bad idea is better than nothing... right?

Cisco's headache gets worse and worse the longer he works. And Snart actually has him stop halfway through, looking weirdly concerned.

Lisa Snart handed Cisco a Kleenex box. "You've got a nose bleed. Are you okay?"

"Had a headache all day," Cisco responded, pinching the bridge of his nose and pressing tissue against his nose to stem the flow. "I need to sit. For a few minutes. And then I can finish."

Leonard Snart nodded and Cisco found himself seated across the warehouse floor with Hartley and Dante a few minutes later.

"It wasn't Rathaway having the headache at the party, was it?" Dante asked.

"No, he was giving me an out," Cisco admitted.

"Maybe I should take over," Hartley said. "You look like you're about to pass out, Cisco."

He kind of felt like he was about to pass out. But... "you've never even seen the designs for their guns."

"Why did you make their first set of guns?" Dante hissed, interrupting any response Hartley might've made. "What the hell have you gotten me into?"

"They stole the first set," Cisco retorted. "I made them... in case the Flash turned out to be too good to be true, okay? And then he turned out to be a good guy and the guns were stolen."

"I've seen the blueprints," Hartley said quietly. "I... may have reactivated my old login and been poking around the STAR Labs systems, okay?"

"Of course you have." Cisco wanted to roll his eyes, but it wasn't worth how much it'd hurt. Everything was too bright and too loud and he was glad he hadn't eaten because he felt sick to his stomach from the pain in his head. "Hartley, you're not going to find what you're looking for. If there is proof that Dr. Wells knew about the flaw in the accelerator before turning it on, he'll have gotten rid by now."

Dante gave Cisco a sharp look. "You've gotten me into one shitty situation already. Don't drag me into another."

"Well I'm going to keep looking anyway." Hartley was clearly ignoring Dante. "But right now I can help. Let me, please."

And maybe Cisco might've let him. Maybe he would have told the Snarts and Rory that he needed assistance to finish and Hartley could provide that.

But he reached over and touched Hartley's sleeve right as the pain in Cisco's head spiked again.

His vision tunneled... and then everything went blue.