Summary: Cisco just got Harry back and he'll be damned if he loses his Harrison Wells all over again. So when the newly restored - mostly restored - Harry insists on going back to Earth-2 to be with Jesse, there's only one logical thing for Cisco to say.

"I'm going with you."

Notes: The story is four chapters + an epilogue and is already completed over on Ao3. I'll be posting it up here on over the next few days.

Finding the Way Home

Chapter 1

"The program completed," Cisco said, snatching the Thinking Cap away from Harry's head and managing, barely, to set it down normally instead of throwing it far, far away. If something went wrong... he might need it, intact, to try again. So despite how much he resented the damn thing... "It should have worked." Cisco set a hand on Harry's shoulder, gently, and murmured, "hey, Harry."

Harry exhaled, loudly, his hands lowering away from his head. Then, slowly, he looked up at Cisco, eyes clouded with confusion.

"Hey, Harry," Cisco repeated. "Please tell me this worked." And if his voice cracked a little at the end there, well, no one was going to call him on it.

"Don't..." Harry hesitated. Licked his lips and blinked a few times, his gaze seeming to focus in on Cisco. "Don't worry." He put his own hand atop of Cisco's and began to stand as he continued to speak. "You have been, and always shall be, my friend."

Cisco beamed. "Live long and prosper."

"Peace and long life." Harry's smile was, quite possibly, the most beautiful thing Cisco'd ever seen.

There was too much joyful relief bubbling in Cisco's chest. It bubbled up as laughter and had him throwing his arms around Harry in a desperate hug. "Oh my god," he said. "You're okay."

"I'm okay," Harry echoed, rubbing Cisco's back. And it was like the whole world went away for a moment.

Sure, they were surrounded by friends, but for a moment - for just a moment - it was just Cisco and Harry. And Cisco wanted to stay in that moment forever.

"I can't believe it," Cisco breathed out, tightening his grip on Harry. He'd almost lost this, Harry's vibrancy had nearly slipped away entirely.

"You did it, you did it, you did it," Harry murmured, hugging him back every bit as tightly.

"Oh, I can't believe it..." Cisco looked down, pressing his forehead against Harry's shoulder for a moment before taking a step back because the heady feeling he had was... too much. Too much. Gesturing to the board he said, "it's not every day you translate symbols into binary programming polynomials."

"I, uh..." there's hesitation in Harry's voice. Uncertainty. "I don't know what that means."

And like that, the rug comes out from under Cisco's feet. That sense of success, that he'd done it, he'd given Harry back everything he'd lost... turned to ash. "What?"

"I think something short circuited up here," he said tapping his head lightly. "Because I, uh... I don't really understand the... poly thing you said. It's okay, though," Harry said quickly. "Because it did work. I'm back, Ramon, and that's... so maybe I'm a little more average than I used to be, but everything important came back. I'm back."

Cisco had known this was a possibility. The didn't make it hurt any less to know he'd messed something up somewhere. That Harry'd lost something because Cisco failed him.

"You didn't fail me, Cisco," Harry insisted and Cisco wondered if he'd said that last part out loud. "You brought back every part of me that matters. So what if I'm..." he swallowed hard. Putting on a brave face, but Cisco knew Harry too well and it was as obvious as an ill fitting mask. "My whole life, I've been defined by one thing. My IQ. But somehow you've given me, uh... a... a balance. Between my head and..." Harry placed a hand over his heart. "Thank you, Cisco. For teaching me to value more than just my intelligence."

And what was Cisco even supposed to say to that? All he could do was step forward and burrow into Harry's embrace again. There was so much Cisco wanted to say, but at the heart of it all beat the words 'don't leave me, don't ever leave me again'.

So of course the next words out of Harry's mouth are, "now I'm going to take that balance to my Earth."

Stumbling back a step, Cisco felt like he'd been sucker punched. Like he couldn't breathe and the whole world had slowed to a crawl. Harry was leaving. "Huh?" He can't seem to react as Harry walks away, moving so fast towards the door - headed for the exit and another Earth and out of Cisco's life and it's not...

It's not fair. He's losing Harry anyway and it's not... he can't do this.

But Harry stops and looks back and says something about needing to see Jesse. Jokes about not understanding the work that got him seven doctorates anymore, but he knows one thing quite clearly. Family matters.

And that... makes things very simple. Cisco wipes the tears off his face and says, "then I'm going with you." Decision made, Cisco feels lighter. Like he's put his foot on the first step of a path he can't see the end of, but it feels right.

"Cisco, you don't need to... you've got nothing to make up for," Harry insists, as though he can only think of one reason why Cisco want's to come along and it's to keep trying to fix Harry.

"I lost you, Harry. I lost you and I almost didn't get you back and I can't..." there's a vice around Cisco's chest as, suddenly, his footing starts to feel unsteady. "I can't lose you again. Don't tell me I can't... that I have to stay here and lose you all over again, after everything..."

"Hey, no..." Harry came back to him. "If that's what you want, then yes. Come with me."

Everything steadied and Cisco let out a relieved sigh. "Right, so I... sorry, guys, but I..." he looked at the others, finally.

"No, Cisco, man, we get it," Barry assured him, patting Cisco's shoulder and then hugging him, followed quickly by Caitlin and Iris.

"Do what you have to, okay?" Caitlin murmured.

Cisco packed lightly, shoving clothes at random into his duffel bag along with his toiletries - he wasn't going anywhere without his proper hair care items, his hair was a masterpiece and deserved proper maintenance - and his tablet which was loaded up with plenty of books on his kindle app. Everything else he could always come back for later. This was just to get him through, hopefully, the first week. Then he breached back to STAR Labs and both he and Harry told everyone goodbye one last time.

Ralph cried and tried to mask it by complaining about the whole multiverse thing only getting properly explained now, when his friends are leaving. He gets an extra hug because, well... Cisco could imagine it sucked coming back from being body snatched only to immediately lose two friends to another world. "It's not like we're gonna be gone forever, dude. We're only a breach-device away when it comes to visit, so whenever you miss us..."

"Maybe not whenever," Harry cut in. "Within reason. With advance warning."

Cisco snickered. Some things, thankfully, did not change.

"And I'm gonna keep working on helping you figure out how to bring Frost back," Cisco promised Caitlin.

"Thank you. I was so afraid of her when she started manifesting, but now... I never thought I'd come to love her so much." Caitlin looked so sad.

"She's family," Harry observed quietly.

"Exactly." Caitlin smiled, wanly.

Barry and Iris were clearly putting up a brave front, but Barry was leaning more on Iris for support than normal. And part of Cisco wanted to hesitate. Could he really leave his family behind like this?

But a glance at Harry was all it took to strengthen Cisco's resolve. His need to go with Harry outweighed his desire to stay. So Cisco hugged them both goodbye one more time. "Tell Joe and Cecile bye for us, okay? And that I promise we'll be back to meet the baby soon, even if I've gotta enlist Jesse's help in dragging Harry through a breach to be social."

Iris snickered and Barry laughed loudly. And Harry, who'd heard Cisco's comment, pouted visibly.

"I'm not that bad," he grumbled.

"You're allergic to socializing," Cisco retorted. "Ready to go?"

Harry nodded, a relieved and tired smile on his face. "Mind if we just breach straight to my home? I'd rather not deal with STAR Labs right now. And we can get you set up in the guest room."

"Yeah, okay. I'll need to vibe the location off you, though," Cisco warned. "Oh, before I forget, Barry. I need you to do something important for me."

"Of course, just name it," Barry replied, still leaning against Iris.

"All of the perishable food in my apartment is yours. Please eat it all."

"Oh, absolutely, just consider it all gone," Barry said with a grin while the others laughed.

Reaching out to Harry, Cisco felt a sort of calm fall over him as Harry took his hand. They'd come a long way from Cisco surreptitiously trying to vibe their suspicious new Harrison Wells shaped ally and Harry actively fearing and mistrusting Cisco's powers.

Cisco's eyes shut as he leans into this powers and he sees, for a moment, a blue tinted house just outside Central's city limits. But that's about all it had in common with the location of Eobard Thawne's home. The living room is painted in warm colors and the semi-open floor plan feels homey. And though everything is a little dusty from recent disuse, it still feels lived in. He can feel the echoes of the past in this place: Harry's deep and abiding love for Tess and Jesse, the happiness Jesse felt growing up in this home, a familial love that not even grief could truly mar in the end.

As Cisco's eyes opened again and he reluctantly let go of Harry's hand, Cisco thought that home was going to be an excellent place to help Harry recuperate. And help both of them come to terms with what they'd been through these last few weeks.

Hand raised, palm held out in front of him, Cisco opened the breach. Then he took a breath and followed Harry to Earth-2.

Without the blue tint, the colors of the living room are just that much more vibrant.

The room itself has huge windows overlooking the rather gorgeous property that faded into a lush green tree line behind the house. There's a swing set back there that was clearly entirely DIY-ed, with Harry's precision for detail written in ever line. It's been updated from two kid sized swing to a bench swing at some point, but the hooks for the old setup are still visible. Cisco's got no doubt that should Jesse have kids of her own somewhere down the line, the kid swings would go right back up.

The windows fill the room with light, making the rich green and mid-tone gray walls of the living and dining room look absolutely gorgeous instead of dark and oppressive the way they would in a near windowless box like Cisco's apartment. And there's a window seat alcove that Cisco's absolutely certain every member of the household must have sat curled up with hot chocolate and a good book, listening to the rain during a thunderstorm, at some point or other.

Cisco's rather looking forward to getting to do so himself.

"Your house," Cisco said with a smile, "feels really inviting, Harry."

Harry gives Cisco a fond, pleased look. "I'm glad you like it here. Come on, I'll show you to the guest room." He leads Cisco into a short hallway and then straight into a room painted pale blue with warm, dark cherry stained furniture. There's another huge window overlooking the back yard with dark gray drapes. Cisco has already spotted the perfect place to plug in his white noise generator for when he needs to sleep that evening and, thanks to Harry using his own electronics from Earth-2 with ease on Earth-1, Cisco already knows that the usb converters he brought will plug into the wall just fine. The only real difference is that the outlets are normalized over here to have the ground pin on top instead of on bottom like Cisco's used to. At least the two worlds weren't using entirely different pin configurations, though Cisco would have built his own converter if he had to.

For now, though, Cisco drops his duffel bag and follows Harry back out into the hall to see where the bathroom is.

"My room is at the end of the hall," Harry said, gesturing to a closed door just down from the bathroom. "And that is Jesse's room," he continued, pointing towards another closed door, this one just down from the guest room on the opposite side of the hall from the bathroom and master bedroom. "Jesse isn't really here much now that she lives on campus for college and I imagine she'll... be getting her own place once she graduates."

Harry stares at the closed door to Jesse's room for a long moment and then sighs. "I'm going to give her a call. Let her know we're here and ask her to pick up some groceries for us. Enough to tide us over until tomorrow, anyway." He sounds nervous, though, and Cisco wonders - not for the first time - just how much he told Jesse, or hid from her, about the effects of the Thinking Cap.

Cisco swallows hard as his own thoughts slide to that difficult conversation he'd shared with Harry in the Time Vault. The sharp crack of anger he'd felt in his chest at realizing that Harry'd broken his promise about the dark energy. And then the sick, sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach as he began to realize just what the ramifications were.

He'd almost lost Harry... no. No he had lost Harry. Felt Harry slip away in that final hug they'd shared before Barry's confrontation with DeVoe and subsequent rescue of Ralph in the depths of Ralph and DeVoe's shared mind space.

It was a miracle that Cisco had been able to heal Harry's mind even this much. That he was lucid and his memories seemed generally fine and he had a firm grasp of his favorite pop culture references. Cisco's desperate attempt to restore Harry had been, as Harry's insisted over and over again, a successful procedure. Not as successful as Cisco would have liked and Marlize had predicted, however, and that... made Cisco more than a little uneasy. Especially since Harry'd refused to let Caitlin take any scans of his brain.

According to Cisco's calculations, Harry should be stable now. But according to Cisco's calculations Harry's IQ should be back up to genius levels. Meaning there could be a problem with Harry's memories or his brain's ability to make rapid calculations or... there were a number of things that could have gone wrong which, if Harry is okay with living with those issues, could still ultimately be okay. As long as he's stable. Which Cisco can't guarantee because if he got one thing wrong then whose to say the other is still fine.

But Cisco's fairly certain that now is not the time to broach that subject. Tomorrow maybe. In the morning. When he can talk about this particular worry without having a panic attack over it.

Hopefully without having a panic attack over it.

While Harry makes his phone call, Cisco heads back into his new bedroom and starts unpacking. All his clothes go in the dresser for now and he takes his toiletries to stow away in the bathroom. White noise generator gets set up next and he put the charger for his tablet in easy reach of the bed so he can read there. Most of his games on the tablet are now useless, but he's got a couple of connect the dot type games that'll still be fine. And he can get his 3DS from his apartment later if he really wants to play a video game.

Finally, Cisco kicks off his shoes and sticks those in the closet. He won't be going anywhere for the rest of the day so he might as well pad around in comfy socks.

Cisco returns to the living room and, not really sure what to do with himself next, goes snooping around the kitchen. The fridge and pantry are largely empty, though there are a few things in there that indicate Jesse probably still stays here on the weekends sometimes even though Harry's been away. Mostly frozen stuff and food that won't perish quickly in the pantry. And a large stash of speedster power bars.

There's also ground coffee. The coffee machine seems fairly straightforward to use, so Cisco sets about making a small pot. Enough for him and Harry to have a cup or two, and Jesse as well if she wants some when she arrives. Then Cisco decides he's snooped enough for now and fetches his tablet in order to curl up and read on the window seat. There's a soft blanket there on top of the cushions and Cisco has to sink his hands into the fabric a few times before covering up his legs with it.

Harry finally rejoins Cisco in the living room as the sounds of percolating coffee are dying down and he heads straight through into the kitchen. A short while later, he's setting a mug of coffee down on the little table by the window. Made, Cisco suspects, exactly how he likes it. Though it's still too hot to check just yet.

"How did I know you were going to love the window seat?" Harry looked amused.

The words 'because you're a genius' thankfully do not come rushing out of Cisco's mouth. He manages to not say that, not hurt Harry the way he suspects reminding the man he isn't actually still a genius absolutely would. "You know me almost as well as I know myself," is what Cisco settles on instead after a moment of thought. Then he scooted his feet out of the way and gestured for Harry to take a seat too. "How's Jesse?"

"She's glad I'm back. A little surprised you came too. She's bringing groceries for tonight and for breakfast but we're going to have to stock up for more than that on our own tomorrow." Harry gave Cisco an amused, cheeky grin. "You can borrow one of my baseball caps so you don't get confused for Reverb."

"You'd think having superior hair to him would be enough of a disguise," Cisco huffed with a laugh. He pulled his hair back into a ponytail minus the hair tie. "Though pulling my hair back completely changes the shape of my face."

"Not so much changes the shape as it causes different features to become more noticeable," Harry corrected absently. "You're recognizably you either way. Which is why you'll still want a cap. Or sunglasses."

"Or both," Cisco conceded with a grin, releasing his hair to tumble over his shoulders again. "Does Jesse know why you're back?"

"I... uh... never told her. About what the Thinking Cap was doing to me. I didn't want her to see me that way."

Which meant that Harry was going to be in so much trouble when he did tell her. "You have to tell her now, though." Cisco and Harry stared at each other for a long moment before Harry sighed and stared at the room instead.

Harry took a tentative sip of his coffee and winced. Still too hot then. "I don't know where to even start. But she'll notice pretty fast that I'm not able to understand scientific concepts anymore."

"Tell her the truth. You were being out thought by someone whose intelligence was increasing exponentially and your family was in trouble. You took a risk to try and protect us in the way that made most sense to you."

"Now that's sugar coating things," Harry retorted. "I made a horrible, stupid mistake. I should have listened to you when you said it wasn't safe and kept the promise I made instead of breaking it when I got frustrated by my lack of progress. I ignored you even though I knew you were right. I gambled with my brain and scrambled it like an egg as a result."

Cisco reached over and took Harry's hand in his. "Maybe don't compare your brain to breakfast food, okay?" he gave the other man a lopsided smile that he only sort of felt at the moment.

Gently squeezing Cisco's hand, Harry gave him a... careful sort of look. Like maybe Cisco was the one here who needed to be handled with care.

"Grocery delivery!" Jesse sang out, having phased through the front door and gone directly to the kitchen counters.

Harry dropped Cisco's hand and stood up. "We're over here," he called, already moving to join Jesse in the kitchen.

Cisco taste tested his coffee. Absolutely perfect, just as he'd thought it would be.

"So, you going to tell me what brings you and Cisco to Earth-2 now that we're not on the phone, dad?" There's a teasing note to her voice that Cisco can't quite place, though Cisco likes how it causes Harry to make that hilarious little disgruntled noise he makes when he's embarrassed by something.

Cisco grins into his coffee as he takes another drink.

"I... I did something stupid," Harry said.

Sighing, Cisco set aside his coffee and shoved the blanket off, sliding his legs off the cushion so he can stand up and offer Harry support, or assistance, if this conversation takes a bad turn.

"What did you do?" Jesse asked carefully, throwing a confused look over at Cisco.

"The, uh, the Thinking Cap. I had promised Ramon I wouldn't enhance it with dark energy because he was concerned about the potential side effects." Harry hesitated and Jesse's expression narrowed.

Cisco decided to venture closer to the kitchen. It was partially enclosed from the living and dining area and he couldn't really see Harry from where he was. That needed rectifying.

"You broke your promise to him," Jesse filled in. Her voice has gone flat out of disappointment or anger. Or possibly both.

Probably both.

"Yeah."

Jesse's voice shakes as she asks, "what kind of side effects are we talking about?"

"Ah. Well." Harry fumbles for the right words. "First, I want to make it clear that a significant amount of the damage has been reversed. I'm fine now, okay. Completely fine."

"A significant amount," Jesse echoes. "Not all. What kind of side effects?" Only now she's looking at Cisco.

"He was experiencing a rapid deterioration of his intelligence and other faculties," Cisco filled in. "I was able to reverse a great deal of it. Less than hoped, he's... been having some difficulty with certain scientific concepts."

"Most scientific concepts," Harry corrected with a wince. "But in all the ways that really matter, I'm healed."

"He hasn't actually consented to a brain scan yet to see what's going on in his head post restoration, though," Cisco points out because apparently he's a sucker for punishment after all.

Harry scowls at him.

"And how long were you affected by this... this rapid deterioration. How long did I spend going about my daily life over here when I should have been over there at your side? How close did I come to... to losing you and missing out on my chance to... to..."

Jesse can't even finish the thought out loud. The idea of saying goodbye to her father too painful to articulate. Cisco can practically feel the hurt radiating off of her.

Reluctantly, but apparently realizing Cisco will tell her if he does, Harry tells her when he realized what his condition was. When he revealed it to Cisco.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Jesse snaps, well and truly angry now. "I deserved to know!"

"I know. I know and I'm sorry. I was... I told myself I was protecting you, but the truth is I was being selfish. I didn't want you to remember me like that. I was... I was a mess and my spatial awareness pretty much went AWOL and one point and I just... it was humiliating enough with everyone over there watching me fall apart, I couldn't bear... I couldn't bear the thought of you seeing me that way too." Maybe Harry had a point about there being a balance between his head and his heart if he was being this self aware about his emotions and motivations now.

"Okay, fine. I don't really expect better of you than that anyway," Jesse snapped and Cisco winced with Harry over that barb. "Why the hell didn't you contact me, Cisco?"

"Because I thought he told you himself. And I was busy dealing with one friend being dead and another having made himself sick and DeVoe trying to brain wipe everyone on the planet to remake us all in his image, so I didn't really have time to think through the idea that maybe Harry hadn't actually spoken to you about things after all. I'm sorry, though. It probably should have been obvious, in hindsight." Cisco ignored Harry's pout at that last bit.

"Who... who died?" Jesse asked, voice small.

"Ralph Dibny. He got better, though," Harry muttered.

"Ralph got body snatched by DeVoe which had killed everyone else that happened to," Cisco clarified. "It turned out Ralph's powers were actually protecting his brain from being completely overwritten by DeVoe's personality. Cecile was able to sort of... telepathically patch Barry into DeVoe's mind where he found Ralph and they were able to eradicate DeVoe from Ralph's mind completely. So, yes. He eventually got better." Cisco rubbed at his forehead, feeling a stress headache coming on.

And... he could smell Cynthia's perfume now. Great.

The perks of dating someone with the same powers as him as that they could sort of focus on each other to destress when they were apart. It wasn't even something either of them had consciously done, it was just... instinct. Of course, now that they'd broken up, it was an inconvenient instinct. Cisco concentrated on his breathing, focusing on what he could actually smell. The scent of coffee was strong in the air and the hint of perfume disappeared entirely.

"Are you alright?" Harry's voice jolted Cisco back to attention.

"Yeah, just... headache coming on," Cisco replied. "I'm fine. I'm gonna just... let you two hash this out, okay?"

The two Wells nodded and Cisco retrieved his coffee and tablet from the window seat.

"Aspirin is in the bathroom behind the mirror," Harry called as Cisco headed for the hallway.

"Thanks." Cisco sets his stuff down in his room first before meandering into the bathroom. The mirror slides out of his way into the wall itself, not unlike a pocket door, when he checks and there's a number of bottles in there with brand names Cisco doesn't recognize. But the labels are pretty similar to what Cisco's used to and a little methodical checking has him setting aside an expired cold and flu box that should probably get tossed, putting back a Benadryl equivalent and something specifically branded for period cramps, and settling on what looked like it might be a grocery store generic brand aspirin. The dosage was the same as Earth-1, so Cisco took two and cupped his hands in the sink for water to swallow it down with before heading back to his room.

He could still hear Harry arguing with Jesse in the living room as he shut the door.

Collapsing on the bed, Cisco buried his face in the pillows and tried not to feel guilty about it all. When Harry had asked him to be the one making his medical decisions when he couldn't anymore... Cisco hadn't even thought to bring up Jesse. And he should have, but he'd been trying to convince himself - and Harry - that it wouldn't come to that. They'd find a way to fix things before it went that far.

But it had come to that and Cisco had been forced to make those very decisions about the experimental treatment he'd developed with Marlize.

Cisco wasn't sure he'd made the right call. Sure, Harry was... lucid and no longer suffering from the worst of his symptoms. But Cisco had been trying to fix the problem as quickly as possible, afraid that if he waited too long then the damage would become irreversible. What if Harry's loss of his scientific skills - and probably proficiency with math too - was because Cisco had been in too much of a rush?

His cheeks were wet. Carefully, Cisco reached up and touched his face. Yup, those were tears.

Glancing around, Cisco found a tissue box on the desk under the gorgeous window. So he went and grabbed that, returned to actually get under the covers of the bed and, finally, just let himself cry. Harry wasn't watching right now and didn't need Cisco to stay strong for his sake. So... it would be okay to just... break down for a little bit.

Cisco wakes up to someone shaking his shoulder gently and he blinks a few times before looking over to see Jesse sitting on the edge of his bed.

It takes Cisco a moment to process why she'd be in his apartment, but then he remembers he's actually at Harry's house in the guest room. Which is now Cisco's room until... until he wears out his welcome, or whatever.

"Dad's making dinner," Jesse told him as he sat up slowly, shoving the blankets out of his way. "Chicken with pasta and some kind of sauce. He's not sure whether it'll be parmesan or bechamel yet."

"I guess we'll be finding out if he's still got his cooking skills," Cisco muttered, burying his face against his knees for a moment and regretting the comment as soon as he made it.

"Yeah. I made him name all the spices in the cabinet and talk through how to cook chicken on the stove without burning it before I came to wake you up." Jesse hesitated. "He seems fine. Mostly. But he's always been good at masking. Pretending to fit into a social situation even when he hates it."

Being neurodivergent himself, Cisco's radar for fellow NDs had always pinged pretty hard where Harry was concerned. But he'd never really asked. It didn't matter, not if Harry wasn't interested in volunteering the info. "I know a thing or two about that," Cisco admitted quietly.

"He doesn't really do it so much around Team Flash. And you especially. You have no idea how... delighted I was to see how close you two were when I first met everyone. He doesn't... he doesn't really get playful around people easily, but he was comfortable showing that side of himself with you. That's why I egged him on so much." Jesse shrugged, clearly unrepentant. "It was nice, despite the circumstances, to see him so happy for a change."

"It certainly wasn't an expected outcome," Cisco mused. "We both looked like people the other had reason to hate and fear. Now he's one of my best friends." He looked over at Jesse. "He scared the hell out of me this time. And I think I'm gonna need your help convincing him that he really should get his brain scanned a few times over the next few weeks, if for no other reason than to confirm he's stabilized."

Jesse nodded. "Absolutely. And I think I'm gonna play the clingy daughter card and stay here for the summer." She paused a beat. "Is Cynthia gonna be visiting while you're..."

"No. We, uh... we broke up."

"Oh. I'm sorry," she says, not sounding particularly sorry at all.

Cisco shrugged. "We wanted different things. And I... actually really hated her job. Which probably makes it a little ironic that Josh offered me placement there." On the fast track to be running the place, even, though Cisco wasn't going to mention that part. He still didn't know why Breacher had thought that was a good idea.

"Josh?"

"Cynthia's father. Who hopefully took the news Cynthia and I broke up better than he took the news we were dating in the first place. He's a little..." Cisco considered a few phrases like 'high strung' and 'over the top' and 'super fucking terrifying' and settled on "he makes Harry and Joe look reasonable in their overprotectiveness by comparison. Somehow I don't think my winning him over counts for anything anymore."

Teasingly, Jesse patted Cisco's shoulder. "There, there, I'll protect you."

He rolled his eyes and made a shooing motion. She was blocking him on to the bed by sitting on the edge, since it was was a daybed. Obligingly, Jesse stood up and made space for Cisco to do the same.

"I'm sorry, about earlier," Jesse said, fidgeting a little. "Dad's a grown-ass adult and you're his friend, not his keeper. It wasn't your responsibility to contact me when he didn't."

"All forgiven," Cisco responded. "Though, uh, what you said to Harry about not expecting better of him. You know that was kind of... awful, right?"

She winced. "Yeah, that was..." she sighed heavily. "I always thought he was perfect growing up. And sometimes I still forget he isn't..."

"Then he does something over the top in the way of screw ups?"

"Yeah. And then I get angry at him not only for what he's done but because... because I forgot to see him as a person. Which sounds horrible said out loud." Jesse looked embarrassed.

"Finding out our parents are only human is always gonna be tough. But it's not a bad thing that you love him so much," Cisco pointed out.

"How'd you learn that lesson for yourself?" she asked curiously.

Cisco shrugged. "It was a lot of little things." Mostly the way they'd played favorites with Dante.

Jesse took the hint and let the subject drop.

They both headed out of the room and to the kitchen, Jesse going to her dad and quietly apologizing, though Harry gently cut her off, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"This smells good," Cisco said, coming around to stand on the other side of Harry to peer at sauce simmering on the stove. "Need a hand with anything?"

"Oven just finished preheating, so if you'd put the rolls on the sheet..." Harry told him.

"Rolls..." Cisco muttered, zeroing in on canned roll dough on a cookie sheet off to the side. He cheerfully stripped off the outer paper covering of the cardboard 'can' and when that didn't pop the seal, Cisco thwacked it against the counter corner a few times, grinning when the seam burst open on the third try. It was short work to separate the pre-cut dough and pop it in the oven for about twelve minutes. "So are these anything like Pillsbury taste wise?"

"A little fluffier," Jesse said at the same time Harry said, "a little flakier."

"Well I'm just gonna stand here and watch these rolls bake until I can take them out and burn my tongue trying to eat one too soon," Cisco declared. Then, muttering, "rolls, rolls, rolls..." a smile curved at his mouth as Harry and Jesse laughed at him.

Dinner was delicious. Harry's cooking skills were, clearly, intact. A good sign, as far as Cisco was concerned.

Also the rolls were definitely fluffier and flakier. Cisco might be spoiled for pre-made rolls now.

Everyone was pretty much exhausted, though, so it wasn't too long after the dishes were put away that they'd all retreated to their bedrooms for the night. But thanks to Cisco's nap earlier, he found himself waking up in the middle of the night.

After tossing and turning for a short while, Cisco decided to go raid the kitchen for tea. Comfy robe on over his faded Star Wars pajamas, Cisco headed into the hallway. And, right was he was about to cross into the living, Cisco heard a crashing noise. Muffled. From behind the one door in the hallway that Harry hadn't pointed out during the mini-tour earlier that day.

Curious, Cisco headed over to that door and, carefully, pulled it open. There was a set of stairs leading downwards; the house had a basement and the light was on down there.

Harry was down there. Cisco just knew it. So he headed down there too.

There was another crash as Cisco stepped onto the bottom landing. Something shattered on the floor.

"Harry."

The man in question froze and turned to look at Cisco, a guilty expression on his face. The floor around him was littered in broken glass and metal. No doubt a certain frustrated cat had shoved the lab equipment off the tables. Because apparently the basement of the Wells family home was a lab.

"Harry?" Cisco tilted his head to the side and waited.

"I couldn't sleep," Harry finally said. "And I thought... this might be... I thought you might be interested in using this lab. I'd use this place when Jesse was younger. We'd do her school experiments and I'd bring my work home so I could watch over her doing homework. And before that... Tess and I would use it for personal projects." Harry took a shuddering breath. "I can remember doing the work here. But I don't... understand any of it anymore." He glanced at one of the few non glass and metal objects on the floor. A notebook. Probably full of equations and theories.

Probably all in Harry's handwriting.

"I should... I should clean this up..." his voice sounded as shattered as the mess on the floor.

"In the morning," Cisco told him firmly. "Come here." He held out his hand and waited for Harry to cross the room to take it. "Come on," Cisco said gently, leading him back upstairs and to the couch.

They sat down together on the comfy couch and Cisco drew Harry, gently, into a hug, holding the older man as he began to cry. Quietly at first, but eventually Harry's tears turned into heaving, snotty sobs. And Cisco could feel tears running down his face too as he rubbed Harry's back with one hand and gently ran his fingers through Harry's hair with the other.

"I've got you, Harry," Cisco murmured. "I've got you."

"S-sorry," Harry muttered, voice nasal, as his tears finally began to dry up.

"It's fine. So..." Cisco hesitated and then said, "not okay, then."

"Yeah." Harry's voice shook. "Not okay."

Considering that Harry'd been insisting everything was fine since he'd... woken up post treatment, Cisco suspected that admitting he wasn't okay was actually a good step for Harry.

Notes: Jesse was absolutely hoping to hear that Harry and Cisco were dating when she first arrived at the house. She didn't even remember Cisco was dating Cynthia until later.