Summary: "So, what did he do to you?"

It's an arrogant question from an arrogant man. Hartley doesn't really know why he expected the real Harrison Wells to be any better a man than the fake. "You don't want to know. And it's none of your business anyway."

Notes: Set during the canonical alt season 2 created after the episode Flash Back, where Hartley hasn't yet left Team Flash - after failing to learn his lesson when he stuck his nose into Cisco's trauma, Harry goes for round two with Hartley and finds out more about Eobard Thawne than he really wanted.

Past Hartley Rathaway/Eobard Thawne | Harrison Wells

Airing Out Ghosts

"So, what did he do to you?"

It's an arrogant question from an arrogant man. Hartley doesn't really know why he expected the real Harrison Wells to be any better than the fake. "You don't want to know. And it's none of your business anyway."

"Considering it's impeding your ability to work with me in any capacity, I'd say it is my business."

Hartley closed his eyes for a moment. Took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. "This may be difficult for you to process, Harrison. But it's not always about you."

"Of course it isn't. But whether you and I can work together should be about you and me, but right now it's about you and him. And that's the problem." He tilted his head to the side, like he was trying to figure out what made Hartley tick. "So why don't you just get it off your chest. Whatever he did to you that I'm getting to clean up after now. It can hardly be worse than killing Ramon in a defunct timeline, can it?"

He looks a lot less certain about that when Hartley laughed.

"What happened to Cisco was quite traumatic," Hartley drawled. "I wouldn't dream of comparing our experiences. Though one could say that he broke both our hearts quite thoroughly." Hartley watched Harrison through narrowed eyes. "How about this. I tell you the story of one naïve young scientist stupid enough to believe the lies of a man who called himself Harrison Wells and then you leave me the fuck alone from here on out? Sound good?"

Harrison crosses his arms and rolls his eyes. So certain that Hartley'd been crushed by a mere mentor.

Hartley takes it for agreement anyway. "Alright, so I had just completed my doctorate when I started working here. STAR Labs instead of Rathaway Industries because I didn't want to be around my parents homophobia and they didn't want me around because they're homophobic. And almost immediately I began catching my coworkers mistakes. Because I was young, they ignored me. So I went over their heads. Didn't win me any friends, as you might imagine. But it caught the attention of the Doctor Harrison Wells himself. He fast tracked me up the ladder and, since I was gay, jokes started floating around that I was trading sexual favors for my advancement. Because if you're not a cis straight man, you can't possibly succeed on your own merit, right?"

Setting aside the flute he was tinkering with, Hartley tilted his head to the side, watching this Harrison Wells for reactions. "We did become friends, though. He said I reminded him of himself. He made me feel special and started spending time with me socially after work. I learned to speak Latin from him and he treated me as his confidant. Not that he ever told me anything truly of import. A good manipulator never does."

Harrison's expression has started to grow uneasy. Good.

He should be uneasy. Hartley should have been uneasy. Should have seen Eobard Thawne's charms for what they were.

He hadn't.

"We'd have dinners together sometimes and he started taking me to nicer and nicer restaurants. Paying for my meal because it was expensive and his idea to come, after all. Treating me to nice wines to educate my palate in different tastes. Touching my back and shoulders more often. Nothing inappropriate of course, but something a young man with a star struck crush is going to take note of. He'd tell me I was his guy. The person he could count on the most at work. He started saying it wasn't just his accelerator anymore. It was our accelerator." That was about when Hartley'd first jokingly referred himself as the Chosen One.

And he'd loved the attention. Thrived on it. Never once considered that maybe there was something wrong there.

"Of course, everyone knew that Harrison Wells was still hung up on his lost Lenore. I knew I couldn't possibly hold a candle to that. But I still let him invite me home for drinks one evening. I still let him invite me into his bed." He can't say he was totally sober that night, but Hartley would've made the same choice without a drop of alcohol in his system. "I was his guy. His dirty little secret. Because obviously he was so worried about my reputation when people had thought we'd been fucking for months already. But I liked the feeling of danger that came with sneaking around with him. I was his guy. Right up until I did the same thing that originally caught his eye in the first place. Just on a scale he hadn't expected.

"I found the flaw in our accelerator. And when I told him... that made me a threat to his accelerator. Because it was never really ours. That was just a line. And like an idiot, I thought if I just went to someone else with what I'd found, it'd be worth losing my job and my boyfriend because at least the accelerator wouldn't turn on and destroy half the city when it exploded. Only everyone I went to laughed in my face because Harrison Wells warned them I'd be coming. I'd propositioned him and he said no, you see. Only thing worse than a woman scorned is a gay twink who's been told he doesn't get to suck the boss's dick after all. And Harrison... Thawne had done such an impressive job of invoking the predatory gay man trope. When I showed up to tell the exact same story that Dr. Wells had warned was coming, well... obviously everything else Dr. Wells had told them was true too. Trying to stop the accelerator turned rumor and innuendo into uncertain truth. I practically tanked my own career for him all because I wanted to do the right thing."

"That's... I'm sorry." Harrison Wells - the man Hartley'd known as Harrison Wells - had never looked as uncomfortable or... appalled as the man standing in front of Hartley appeared now.

"Oh, I'm not finished," Hartley said. "The accelerator wasn't quite the disaster I'd predicted, but only because Ronnie got himself not-exactly-killed to save the rest of us. And then nine months later a hero turns up in Central City. The Flash. And it's not exactly hard to trace him back to STAR Labs. Not with my enhanced hearing letting me listen in on his coms when I got close enough on a few occasions. Cisco really needs to remember to use code names. But that's an uphill battle I'm still fighting with him. And, well, Harrison's obsession with Barry Allen was pretty obvious. To me. I doubt Barry ever even noticed quite how he was being... groomed. Obliviousness could easily be another one of his super powers. But, well... I lived it myself. And here was the asshole who fucked me and then fucked me over moving on to someone pretty and shiny and new. Someone who was actually special whereas I was just convenient. I figured I'd take away my ex's new toy.

"Thankfully it didn't work out that way. Obviously. But the way things fell out, I was stuck working with the man who used me and a bunch oblivious dipshits who honestly thought they were saving the damn world or whatever. And I was too prideful to explain to them in exacting detail what kind of man their beloved Dr. Wells really was. All while he pretended I was the prodigal son he was trying to benevolently welcome back into the fold, if only I'd just humble myself enough to make nice with him. Acting as though he was just my mentor - a father figure. I might have daddy issues, but those sure as hell aren't what led me into his bed.

"But eventually everything came out. The truth has a nasty habit of doing so. Eobard Thawne had such fun throwing what he did to me in everyone's faces. I was just another pawn in his chess game against Barry, after all." Hartley smiled, but it was anything but nice. "So, curiosity sated. Was that as satisfying as you hoped, Harrison? Do you think now it'll be any easier for me to work with a man wearing the same face as the dead lover who manipulated me into bed, screwed my career, and treated me as the no better than the trash discarded on the street? Now that you know?"

"I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have..." and Harrison Wells is just so... flustered? Whatever is going on in his head, he's started stammering and literally at a loss for words.

Hartley's never seen Harrison - the man who'd once been his Harrison, anyway - act like this. It's... a sharp contrast to the man he'd known.

And suddenly Hartley can almost see this man standing in front of him separate from the man who'd used and abused him. "Look. Harry. I will do what I can to work with you while I'm still here. But it's very much not healthy for me to still be here at STAR Labs, after everything that happened with Eobard Thawne. And, honestly, it's not healthy for me to be around you either. That's not your fault. Not to say that your nosiness isn't absolutely a problem, but I guess it's an understandable one. But once I have employment elsewhere, I really look forward to putting this place and the ghosts of my past it represents firmly in the rear view mirror."

"He took advantage of you," and Harrison - Harry - sounds very angry about that. "You were his employee and..."

"There was a power imbalance in our relationship, yes," Hartley agreed. "A boss dating an employee or an age gap between two consenting adults isn't an indication of an inherently bad relationship, but in retrospect they were absolutely red flags in the context of my relationship with him. And I really neither care nor want to know about whatever objections or ire you might feel towards the person who did, yes, take advantage of me. Your self-righteous anger and pity aren't going to help me. Respecting my boundaries going forward will."

"Then I guess I'll get started on, uh, leaving you alone then." And Harry booked a quick retreat.

Hartley heaved a sigh of relief and then shook his head. Gave a sardonic little laugh and smiled. Funny... after saying all that out loud, he did feel a little better after all.


Notes: Over on Ao3 I suppose I could have also tagged this as a canon complaint over Hartley never getting to have closure regarding his relationship with Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne.

While Harry's right about it not being fair that everyone was taking their issues w/Eobard Thawne out on him, it was also not really his business to demand to know what his not-really-doppelganger did to Cisco and the others. But Harry's nosy and tactless and winds up learning more than he wanted to know. Every time he thinks the situation with Eobard Thawne couldn't get worse... and Harry prides himself on being a good employer - he's very proud of STAR Labs - so I'd imagine Eobard Thawne taking advantage of a young employee the way Hartley was would be particularly repugnant to him.