Kara paused in her work for a moment, leaning back away from her desk to lose herself in the familiar clamour of the bullpen- phones ringing, keyboards clattering, shoes clicking against the linoleum floor, people chatting with one another in low voices, all of the dozens of sounds that accompanied each cog in an information machine moving and working in tandem. Kara smiled, remembering, not for the first time, how lucky she was to be a part of this. She was just about to return to her work when the sound of someone clearing their throat cut through the background noise of the bullpen and into her musings. She turned her chair in the direction of the sound and was surprised to see Caitlin standing next to her desk.
"Caitlin," she said, her surprise creeping into her voice. "Am I needed at STAR Labs?" Even as she asked the question, she knew that she shouldn't have had to- Barry would have called or at the very least texted her if that had been the case. All the same, Caitlin shook her head in answer to it.
"No," she said. "I'm here because I need to tell you something. Is there someplace private that we can talk?"
"Yeah," Kara replied. "Follow me." Getting up from her desk, she led Caitlin to the file room, which hadn't seen much use since they'd started storing their and archives digitally.
"So what's up?" she asked once the door was closed behind them, turning to face Caitlin. "What is it that you need to tell me?" Caitlin hesitated for a minute, seeming unsure of herself.
"The pyrokinetic metahuman who saved Barry from the Reverse Flash," she finally said. "I saw his face."
"And?" Kara prompted.
"It's Ronnie," Caitlin said breathlessly, her eyes shining.
"Caitlin, that's impossible," Kara replied, shaking her head. "Ronnie's dead."
"He's alive," Caitlin insisted. "I know what I saw." Kara took a moment to mull that over. As impossible as what Caitlin was saying seemed, Kara knew that she was smart enough not to let her mind or her eyes play tricks on her and make her think she saw things that she didn't see. If she believed that Ronnie was alive, it was more than likely true.
"All right, say he is alive," she said. "Why did you need to bring this information to me, specifically?"
"Because I need to find out what happened to him," Caitlin explained, "how he became what he is now, and I'm not much of a detective."
"And you think I am?" Kara asked incredulously.
"You're an investigative reporter," Caitlin pointed out. "It's literally in your job description." Kara felt her mouth twist into a wry grin in acknowledgement of the truth of Caitlin's words. As much as she wanted to, there could be no refuting that statement.
"All right," she said. "I'll help you. However I can."
"Thank you," Caitlin replied. "Thank you so much." She pulled Kara into a hug that she was too startled by to pull away from.
"Don't mention it," she mumbled when Caitlin released her a moment later. "What are friends for?" Their investigation proved to be short lived, however- they had only just gotten into it when they discovered that, whatever had happened to Ronnie and whatever had caused it, the Army was covering it up. To complicate matters even more, whatever information they had, they were going to great lengths to keep hidden from the public eye, burying it beneath firewalls and encryption so intense that it made Kara wish that Felicity was apart of their team instead of Oliver's, because she was exactly the person they needed to overcome the obstacles currently standing in their way.
"We can always call her," Caitlin suggested when Kara brought it up. "She may be able to make the trip here and help us break through all of this."
"But what if she's too busy?" Kara countered. "I mean, we have no idea what's going on over in Starling City. She might have too much on her plate right now to come and help us."
"She could always do it remotely, from Starling City," Cailtin replied. "She doesn't necessarily have to physically be here in order to help."
"Hmmm," Kara said thoughtfully. "Maybe. Still, I don't know. It seems like a bit of a long shot." She turned the problem over and over in her mind in silence for another few minutes before she said, "Tell you what- why don't we split up for a bit and regroup once we've figured out the best way to tackle this obstacle? That way we have a backup plan." Caitlin nodded in agreement.
"Sounds good to me," she said. Kara nodded once in acknowledgment, and they went their separate ways.
Shortly afterward, before she'd really had a chance to think on the problem, Kara found herself being called to Doctor Wells' home, as he'd apparently been attacked there the night before. She arrived there at the same time as Cisco and Caitlin, and followed them inside.
"Hey, what took you guys so long?" Barry asked, approaching them after Caitlin had confirmed that Doctor Wells was okay and the latter had gone off to make hotel reservations.
"We… got lost," Cisco said, glancing over at Caitlin.
"We've never been here before," Caitlin told Barry.
"Really?" he asked. "Never?" All three of them nodded. Kara supposed it was more shocking that Cisco and Caitlin had never been here than that she hadn't, but she felt compelled to nod along anyway.
"He tends to keep his private life private," Caitlin explained.
"What about you?" Barry asked, turning to Kara. She shrugged.
"It took me a while to find this place," she said. "But it's pure coincidence that I arrived here at the same time as these two." She jerked her head towards Cisco and Caitlin.
"Uh-huh," Barry mumbled, then went to continue his work investigating the crime scene.
"Hartley Rathaway possess one of the finest scientific minds I've ever encountered," Wells told the group assembled in the Cortex some time later, after Barry had passed along the information that Wells had named the person he was now speaking of as the culprit behind the vandalism of his home.
"Any ties to Rathaway Industries?" Joe asked, thinking, as usual, like a police detective.
"His grandfather founded the company, his father expanded it, and Hartley was set to inherit the throne," Wells said in answer to the question.
"What happened?" Barry asked.
"He came out to his parents," Caitlin replied. "Old money, old values."
"They were estranged when we met," Wells said. "But… he was brilliant. I couldn't have built the particle accelerator without him."
"You guys have never even mentioned his name," Barry said, clearly bewildered.
"That's because Hartley had a… challenging personality," Caitlin explained.
"What she means is that he was mostly a jerk, but, sometimes, he could be a dick," Cisco put in. Joe chuckled in spite of himself at those words, and Barry grinned.
"Let's just say that Hartley, like many outliers, had trouble relating to his peers," Wells said, restoring decorum to the discussion.
"Yes, but he was always your favorite," Caitlin pointed out.
"The chosen one," Cisco remarked bitterly. When Wells gave him a look, he said, "He referred to himself like that."
"So, if you two were so close, why would he target you?" Joe asked, clearly still on an investigative track.
"Hartley left STAR Labs about a year ago after we had a… disagreement," Wells said evasively.
"About what?" Joe asked, clearly noticing, as Kara had, Wells' hesitance. There was a long silence, but Wells didn't answer the question.
"Look, don't worry," Barry spoke up suddenly. "We'll stop him. I won't let him hurt you." He locked eyes with each of them in turn as he added, "Any of you." Turning to Joe, he said, "Let's get back to my lab, alright?" Joe nodded and followed him out of the Cortex.
"I could have gone my whole life without seeing that jerk again," Cisco muttered after they had gone. Kara was definitely getting the impression that Hartley Rathaway was not a likeable man. She realized, however, that there really wasn't anything for her to do until they got some sort of lead on him or he struck again. With that in mind, she headed out of the Cortex herself, headed for the Sentinel and back to work.
She hadn't been there for very long when she got a call from Barry- Hartley Rathaway was attacking his family's company. She sighed in resignation to the fact that she wasn't going to get much work done today and rushed to answer Barry's call, changing into her suit on the way. She arrived to find Hartley, apparently pointlessly, smashing windows with sonic blasts he fired from his hands and using those same blasts to push back the cop cars that tried to get near him.
"Get on the ground!" one of the cops shouted through a megaphone as Kara hovered over the scene, waiting for an opening. Hartley fired a sonic blast at him, sending him flying. In the next instant, the scarlet blur that Kara knew to be her brother came racing onto the scene, resolving itself into the person in question and shoving Hartley to the ground.
"It's over, Rathaway," Barry declared, standing over him.
"You know my name," Hartley replied, sounding pleasantly surprised. "I know some names too- Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, and Harrison Wells." In response to Barry's shocked look, he elaborated, "I can hear the radio waves emanating off your suit, about 1900 megahertz. Is that them on the other end, listening? Are they going to hear you die?"
"No," Barry replied with a smile. "They're going to hear you get your ass kicked." Recognizing that as a single, Kara dove toward Hartley, her cape fluttering in the wind, acting as a drag chute to slow her descent enough to control it and slam directly into Hartley, knocking him sideways. He was on his feet in an instant, whirling around to fire sonic blasts at her. She managed to dodge most of them, but one struck her, and suddenly she couldn't move. She dropped to the ground, her knees striking the pavement so hard that it cracked, paralyzed by razor sharp needles of pain lancing through her head and stabbing her eardrums. She cried out, but even that was muffled by the ringing in her ears. She realized that her enhanced hearing must have been amplifying the effects of Hartley's attack, making them much worse than they would have otherwise been.
"Kara!" she heard Barry shout, but his voice sounded muffled and distorted, as if she were hearing it from underwater. A moment later, she felt hands on her shoulders, and then Barry was in front of her, worry alight in his eyes.
"You need to get out of here," he said. "I'll handle Rathaway."
"No," Kara replied, shaking her head. "I can't. I have to help." Her voice sounded pained, even to her own, admittedly not entirely working, ears, but there was nothing she could do about it.
"Go!" Barry shouted, shoving her backwards. "I've got this. Go!" Realizing that there would be no arguing with him about this, Kara went.
She lost track of how much time she spent alone in the medbay, recovering from the damage Hartley's attack had done to her and feeling guilt eating away at her for her failure to be able to help Barry, while the rest of the team dealt with Hartley's arrival and presence at STAR Labs. Consequently, she did not know how long it had taken or what had transpired during the process, and she could only react with surprise and confusion when everyone filed one by one into the med bay, Barry first, followed by Caitlin and Cisco, and lastly Wells, bringing up the rear.
"I assume you were all listening," he said, addressing the other three, besides Kara. She realized that something must have transpired between Wells and Hartley, something that the other three must have been in the Cortex listening in on. "Well, Hartley was telling the truth. I have not been honest with you. With any of you." There was a long, heavy silence before he spoke again.
"The accelerator," he finally said. "Hartley warned me that there was a chance that the accelerator could explode. His data did not show one hundred percent certainty, just that there was a risk, but it was a very real risk. And yet I made the decision that the reward, that everything we could learn and everything we could achieve, that all of that simply outweighed that risk. I'm sorry."
"The next time you choose to put our lives and the lives of the people we love at risk, I expect a heads up," Caitlin said angrily, and stormed out of the room. Cisco didn't say anything, just gave Wells a long look, before he followed after her.
"After the explosion, when everyone else left you, Cisco and Caitlin stood by you," Barry spoke up. "You owe them more than an apology."
"They might soon get more than that, what with Hartley so intent on sending me to the next world," Wells remarked emotionlessly.
"That wouldn't make it right with them," Barry replied. "You broke their trust. Our trust." With that, he too left the med bay.
"I notice that you're still here," Wells said, turning to Kara.
"Only because I can't move while my equilibrium is still messed up," Kara replied. "And I don't heal as fast as Barry, so I'm going to be stuck here for a while. But he's right, and you know it."
"I do," Wells said quietly, and then he left, leaving Kara alone once more.
Some time later, she heard alarm sirens ringing through the building. Something was wrong. She jumped down from the bed in which she was lying, but the moment her feet touched the floor, her head swam, and she fell to her knees.
"Damn it," she muttered, managing with no small amount of difficulty to get back into the bed. Whatever was happening, there was no way she was going to be able to help.
Later, after Cisco joined her in the med bay, recovering from a concussion, Kara learned what had happened- Hartley had allowed himself to be captured in order to gain access to STAR Labs, and then he'd escaped, and now Wells had gone off somewhere as well, after making some cryptic statement about earning back their trust.
"God, what a mess," Kara groaned, slumping back against her pillows. Everyone nodded in agreement. After that, they broke off, leaving Kara alone for the third time that day, to find a solution to the Hartley problem. Shortly afterward, there was a loud screeching noise that echoed through the building, and Hartley Rathaway's voice boomed out over the intercomm system.
"Nice gambit, Harrison," he said. "But this isn't over." There was a pause while he listened to Wells' response, then he said, "The city already hated you. You don't think I noticed that press conference was a pathetic bishop's sacrifice? No, no, no, I've played with you too many times to let you get away with that. This is between you, me, and the Flash." Kara felt a lightning bolt of fear jolt through her.
"Actually, I really do," Hartley continued after another pause for Wells' response. "What do you say? One last game of chess?" A third pause, then, "You're right, and I'm already at the board. So why don't you move your precious scarlet knight while I take out a few pawns?" There a second loud shriek, and then silence. Kara felt her fear turn to ice in her gut. She knew what was about to happen- Barry was about to go charging into danger, just as he always did, but this time without her there to help him. There was nothing she could do but wait and pray that he would make it back alive.
After what seemed like an eternity but was probably no more than an hour or so, Kara's prayers were answered. Barry returned to STAR Labs with Hartley in tow once more, injured and temporarily deafened but thankfully very much alive. As the team went about the process of locking Hartley back up in the pipeline and making sure that this time he wouldn't be able to escape, Kara vowed to herself that she would do anything in her power to make sure that something like this never happened again. She never again wanted to be out of commission while Barry had to face danger on his own.