Summary: There is, perhaps, a certain amount of inevitability in what brings them together. They've always been drawn to one another, unable to resist the pull into one another's orbit. They both have genius level intellects and opposing airs of misunderstood eccentricity and a love of learning for knowledge's sake. And they both have a need to be the smartest person in the room, though of course Hartley's was always the more pronounced of the two.
It made them rivals when all the ways they were too similar clashed. Enemies when they let that rivalry take them too far. Friends once they gave each other a chance to appreciate their differences. And now...
Notes: For Hartmon Bingo prompt O3 - Enemies to Friends to Lovers
The first part of this folds around the earlier story I wrote for the Bingo called "Closure" so you might want to check that one out first. Turned out I was interested in what happened next way too much.
Inevitable
Chapter 1
Cisco stared at the blank screen for a long moment. Uncomprehending. But he did not reach out to the mouse in order to replay the video.
He needed a moment. To process.
Cisco... the man had called him that in the video. Like a friend would. Like he had any right to...
Taking a slow, deep breath inward, Cisco made himself hold it for a few moments before, equally slowly, letting it back out.
Eobard Thawne was a manipulative fuck. Of course he spoke to Cisco in the video like they were still friends. Like their whole relationship wasn't built on lies. Because that was what Eobard Thawne did.
Getting up almost violently from his chair - it nearly flipped over but he righted in time - Cisco hunted around for some pen and paper before settling back down and pressing play again.
"Cisco," Thawne said, still wearing Harrison Wells' face. (How did he do that? How did he wake up every day and look his murder victim in the eye over the sink every morning? How did he...) "If you're watching this, then I'm gone. Hopefully back in my rightful time period in the future, but I can't ignore the possibility that it's because I'm dead.
"Fifteen years ago I had to rapidly change my plans when the Speed Force rejected me and the artificial Speed Force I'd created to augment my abilities as a speedster proved incapable of granting me the ability to time travel on my own. As you have probably discovered yourself, that is when I caused the car crash that killed Tess Morgan. Harrison Wells died as a result of the process I utilized to steal his identity. It's a rather fascinating piece of tech from my time that granted me the ability to over-write my DNA with his. I wish I could have brought you to the future with me. You would have loved it there.
"I told myself when I took Harrison Wells place that all I was doing was repairing the integrity of the timeline. What was important was keeping certain constants in place for myself and for the Flash and that in the end it didn't matter what extremes I had to reach for because... you'd all been dead for centuries from my point of view. But spending time with you, Caitlin, Barry... even Hartley... the time I spent with all of you was perhaps the most alive I've ever felt. Maybe that's what I'd truly been chasing the Flash for all those years over. A chance to... to feel this alive.
"In many ways... you showed me what it was like to have a son. And you probably don't want to hear this, but I'm proud of you. You constantly rise above and beyond expectations. And so I'm leaving you half of STAR Labs. I only ever used this place as an instrument of revenge. But I think that in your hands, it could become something that lasts far into the future.
"Even if it isn't STAR Labs anymore."
In the end Cisco's left with a notepad full of questions and no decisions save one.
Eobard Thawne left behind a myriad of problems. And Cisco was, first and foremost, a fixer. So it was time to start fixing.
In retrospect, starting off his 'fix it' spree by trying to track down Hartley Rathaway, alone, was probably a bad idea. Given that Cisco was now hobbling along on crutches with one foot in a boot due to a badly sprained ankle, Cisco was willing to admit it had not been among his better plans. But at least it was just a sprain and not broken and he didn't wind up concussed and Hartley had actually basically saved his life so there was that.
Barry had not been happy to have to carry Cisco out of that basement and even more unhappy when Cisco kept insisting that Hartley was not at fault for what happened. Which was completely true. Cisco fell through the floor of the building all on his own. Hartley hadn't shown up until later.
Unable to adequately explain why he'd gone to see Hartley, Cisco decided on a rather definitive change of subject. He showed Barry and Caitlin the video Dr. Wells' lawyers had sent him.
"I got one too," Barry admitted quietly. "Haven't watched it yet."
"Same here," Caitlin added in a small voice.
"I don't regret watching it, but maybe I shouldn't have watched it the first time alone," Cisco sighed, closing the video player program. "Anyway, the video automatically gave them - the lawyers - a notification I'd watched it and I'm supposed to come to their office on Monday. Listen to the will and sign some papers to receive my inheritance."
"Half of STAR Labs," Caitlin echoed.
"Yeah. Which means one, or both, of you have inherited the other half. And because Eowells was a manipulative asshole, we don't find out who gets what until the other two videos get watched." Cisco gave them both a pointed look. "STAR Labs started off as the dream of Tess Morgan and the real Harrison Wells. They don't deserve to have their entire legacy destroyed because their murderer stole it. And, quite frankly, I don't want to lose this place either. I want the chance to make something good out of it. I'd want that regardless of what that video said."
Barry sighed and nodded, disappearing for a moment before reappearing in nearly the same exact position he'd been standing in before. He handed Cisco a USB drive. "Alright. Then lets watch the rest together. No one deals with that man's last words alone anymore."
"Mine is in my office. Still in the envelope," Caitlin said, standing up and wiping at her eyes. "I'll just... I'll go grab it."
Cisco reached out and snagged her hand to give it a quick squeeze as she passed him. She squeezed back before letting go.
Once Caitlin was back, looking noticeably more composed than she had on leaving, they plugged in Barry's USB and brought up the video. Cisco hovered the mouse over the play button.
"Everyone ready?" he asked. When they nodded, Cisco clicked play.
Thawne's last ditch psychological attack on Barry is super obvious but Barry's the one who is going to have to find a way to beat his last words. But then on screen Thawne puts on his glasses, assumes his Wells persona... and confesses to the murder of Nora Allen.
And Cisco doesn't know if he's elated - Barry's dad can be exonerated now, it's wonderful news - or just exhausted and sad - because there goes the last of Dr. Wells' good name. The man who was murdered fifteen years ago will always be remembered as the perpetrator of his murderer's crimes.
It's not fair. But Cisco can learn to live with it.
"I've gotta... I've gotta show that to Joe," Barry says, reaching for the USB. Caitlin holds him back though, letting Cisco properly eject the USB from the computer instead of just yanking it from the slot.
"We watch Caitlin's video first," Cisco insisted, holding on to the drive.
Sheepishly, Barry settled. "Sorry, Caitlin. I... got a little excited."
"Trust me, I get it. It's what you've been searching for all these years, proof your dad is innocent. It's okay if you'd rather..." she trailed off when Barry hugged her.
"It can wait a little bit longer. Are you ready to watch what Wells left you?" Barry asked, pulling away. "We can take a break or something, go get coffee or watch cute cat videos..."
Caitlin snorted in amusement. "I'm fine. Let's get it over with."
"Caitlin," Thawne says, all smiles and... it'd be so easy to forget the monster hiding just beneath the surface. "Congratulations on your marriage to Ronnie. It hasn't actually happened yet, but I'm sure that by the time it does... I won't be someone you want attending anymore. I'm sorry that it took so much longer for the two of you to reach that moment than you'd planned, but... what happened with the accelerator was necessary. And your husband was always fated to become part of the hero FIRESTORM. I know the two of you will achieve great things together."
Cisco paused the video because Caitlin was sobbing in Barry's arms. "We don't have to finish..." he started to say, but Caitlin reached around him to tap the space bar.
"As you'll find out from my lawyers, I'll be leaving you some of my money, my house here in Central City, and my summer home in LA. It's a nice condo, though I can't say I've actually been there much in the last few years. Perhaps, if the two of you haven't gone on your honeymoon yet, it would make a good destination spot for you."
"He didn't know," Caitlin said, when she calmed enough to speak again. "He didn't know Ronnie would die."
"Seems like what he thought he knew outstripped what he actually knew a great deal of the time," Cisco muttered darkly.
Barry snorted in amusement and a watery smile attempted to make its way onto Caitlin's face.
"So I guess on Monday we'll all find out who gets the other half of STAR Labs," Cisco continued, setting aside Caitlin's USB, rather certain she wouldn't want it back. Certainly she made no move to take it from the table.
"He probably left it to you, Barry. Part of his weird gaslighting routine," Caitlin guessed. "I mean, who else would he have left it to?"
Cisco closed his eyes for a moment. In his final message to Cisco, Wells had said, "but spending time with you, Caitlin, Barry... even Hartley..." So there was, after all, one other person Thawne might've left the other half of STAR Labs to.
Probably best not to bring that up right now, though.
Cisco really hadn't expected to run into Hartley again so soon after the whole 'falling through the floor of an abandoned building' incident. So if he was being honest, asking Hartley to get him a brownie while at the counter - and offering the money to pay for both their snacks - had also been a way for him to sort of center himself. Remind himself that he had a plan for how to explain the story of Eobard Thawne the ultimate identity thief and that, perhaps, telling Hartley in the middle of a coffee shop wasn't the best idea.
It wasn't exactly an easy story and Hartley Rathaway was not the sort of person who liked emotional vulnerability on a good day. And certainly not in front of a crowd.
"How bad is it?" Hartley asked, sitting down with Cisco's brownie and a white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie for himself. "On a scale of one to 'I'm going to want to resurrect the bastard in order to murder him myself multiple times'?"
"The necromancy basically covers it," Cisco admitted. "Maybe it'd be better if we discussed this somewhere else. There's a park not far from here or... my apartment is walking distance, even with my boot and crutches." Somewhere Hartley'd only have an audience of one if he lost it and started crying or swearing in multiple languages or whatever.
"If..." Hartley halted. Took a bite of his cookie and a drink from his latte. "If you really don't mind me being in your space, then I'd rather your apartment. But the park is fine as long as we've got enough distance from other people. Because... time travel? Really?"
"Unfortunately, yes. Really."
"Yeah, I'd rather not have an onlookers giving me judgmental looks if I start swearing at any point during your explanation." Hartley wrapped up his cookie and then said, "I can carry some things for you while we walk."
So Cisco let him take his brownie and coffee as they got up and headed outside. "My apartment's this way." Hartley looked like he wanted to say something - maybe reiterate that the park was fine - but he stayed quiet and followed Cisco two blocks down and up an elevator to apartment unit 304, a roomy one bedroom apartment with a comfortable second hand couch for them to sit on.
Hartley's eyes lingered on Cisco's little craft corner with the sewing machine and knitting supplies in surprise, but he settled down on the couch without a single insulting comment and proceeded to put their drinks and snacks on the coffee table.
Cisco finally took a bite of his brownie. Delicious, if a bit too chewy. Jitters did better, but it wasn't close enough to Cisco's apartment for him to walk down there on his afternoon off work. It'd probably taste better dunked in milk, but it wasn't worth going to the kitchen for.
"So, time travel," Cisco finally said, breaking the awkward silence that had lingered since they left the coffee shop. "Eobard Thawne, otherwise known as the Reverse Flash, came to Central City in an entirely different timeline. At first because he idolized the Flash, or so he claimed. And yes, this is all relevant, so bear with me, okay?"
Hartley nodded and stayed quiet.
"Anyway, something went wrong and Thawne found out he was actually destined to be the Flash's greatest nemesis. And he took to the whole being evil thing like a duck to water. At some point he decided that the only way to defeat the Flash was to go back to when he was a kid, so... he traveled back in time to fifteen years ago. But the other timeline's version of the Flash followed him and they fought in the living room of Barry's childhood home, his mother caught at the center of this storm of light they created. When eleven year old Barry came down the stairs to investigate the loud noises in the middle of the night... the Reverse Flash tried to kill him, but his future self... alternate future self? Anyway... future Barry ran past Barry out of the house to safety.
"But in retaliation or petty frustration or whatever... the Reverse Flash murdered Nora Allen and framed her husband. Leaving Barry without his parents... and apparently no longer on track to becoming the Flash. Which had Eobard Thawne thinking he'd won right up until he realized his screwing with time had radically altered his own timeline and damaged his connection to the Speed Force. He couldn't time travel anymore as a result."
"Speedsters can time travel," Hartley interrupted. "Completely on their own?"
"Yeah. It's both cool and also probably a terrible idea. Eobard Thawne alone represents, like, a ridiculous number of cautionary tales as to why altering the timeline is the height of stupidity." Cisco grimaced and shook his head. "Apparently it's just a matter of running really fast and wishing really hard. But also I've been trying to work out the equations for it but I'm pretty sure I'm missing a lot of Speed Force related parameters right now because the math makes me want to scream. Math doesn't usually upset me like that."
"Can I... never mind." Hartley shook his head. "Forget I interrupted. Please continue."
Cisco bit his lip nervously because this was just... one of many parts of the story that were going to be particularly hard to explain. "This is where Dr. Wells comes in." He saw Hartley tense up. "He was, um... on vacation with his fiance. Dr. Tess Morgan. And there was the car accident. Except... Eobard Thawne caused the accident. So that he could murder Dr. Wells and steal his identity. It's... he..." Cisco reached for his coffee cup and had to stop. His hands were shaking.
"There was a video message he left me. His lawyers sent it after he died during the singularity. He... talked about the real Wells there some. But its... I left it at STAR Labs this morning." Cisco grabbed his coffee anyway. It had a top; his shaky hands weren't going to slosh his drink all over him. "He had some kind of device that... made him look like Dr. Wells. All he had to do was dispose of the... the body before..."
"Before the police got there," Hartley filled in, somewhat blankly, when Cisco hesitated. "That's... I'd say it all sounds unreal but meta-humans are a thing now. So I... we never knew Harrison Wells. We knew this... Eobard Thawne."
"That's right."
Hartley stood up and paced for a moment before just... staring out the window. Cisco's actually got a rather nice view of the city, but he's pretty sure Hartley isn't really paying attention to what he's looking at. Rathaway's hands open and close reflexively and there's an air of restrained energy to him.
Cisco should probably be uncomfortable with this. They haven't got the best history after all, especially considering it includes actual physical violence towards each other. But... he can't help but remember the way Hartley had sat with him, waiting for Barry to come get Cisco after he fell through the rotted floor. Hartley had put effort into helping Cisco move to a safer, more comfortable part of the basement, replacing Cisco's broken phone with a burner compatible with his sim card, and then waited with Cisco for the Flash - who'd taken Hartley into not so legal custody once already - with quiet patience. And Hartley didn't have his Piper gloves at the time either which would have meant that he couldn't fight back if Barry had gone back for him.
Cisco just can't... he can't see Hartley hurting him right now.
"Why them?"
It's not one of the questions Cisco was anticipating. "I think it's because they founded STAR Labs in the other timeline and, for whatever reason, he wanted to keep that consistent. They made the accelerator there and it probably really did cause an accident. Maybe their accelerator accident no longer affected Barry for some reason or... maybe there wasn't going to be an accident anymore. Or maybe he was just impatient. He said something about moving up the time table for creating the Flash."
"So then the reason he... he fired me was because what I found made me a threat to his plan to turn one person into a meta-human. I was just... collateral damage. As was everyone else whose lives were harmed by his vendetta." Hartley was still staring out the window.
"Pretty much. Yeah." Cisco held back the instinctive 'I'm sorry.' It'd sound too much like pity.
He wished he knew what was going on in the other man's head, though. Hartley and Dr. Wells had been close. There'd been times that Cisco had wondered if the two of them weren't just friends, but... sleeping together. Possibly romantically involved. But when Hartley supposedly quit STAR Labs overnight...
Cisco had thought that if they were involved there'd have been clear signs of relationship problems leading up to Rathaway splitting like that. Hartley was prone to melodrama and Dr. Wells was too, in his own way. So at the time, Cisco had assumed he'd been mistaken about the nature of their relationship after all.
Now the question came back. When Dr. Wells... when Eobard Thawne kicked Hartley Rathaway to the curb, had he been betraying a friend or a lover?
"I never mattered to him at all," Hartley said softly and Cisco rather doubted he'd meant to say that out loud. Then, louder, he said, "I was no better than him, though. Going after other people to hurt him back. Cisco... why would you let me know where you live, never mind actually let me inside your home?" He turned to stare at Cisco in confusion.
"No one Barry's fought has come closer to permanently harming him than you have," Cisco admitted quietly. "When you escaped, you could have turned around and pretty much ruined us with what we were doing at STAR Labs with the pipeline."
"You're not still..."
"No. They're all gone. Free actually." For all that it happened because Cold had, rather inevitably, betrayed them... Cisco couldn't regret their prisoners all gone free. Well, except for the one Cold had murdered to protect Barry. But that was a whole other can of worms that Cisco was not going into right now. "It was supposed to be temporary. A few days, a week tops. And then it wasn't. We all just let Dr. Wells keep talking us into... because it was easier than doing the right thing. So I can't exactly go throwing stones at you for what happened last year. But I can wonder why you disappeared. What happened to getting your revenge?"
"It wasn't worth who it was turning me into," Hartley admitted. "I never intended to try to kill the Flash. But I lost control on the bridge. And your friend's life wasn't the only one I endangered that night. I had a plan and the Flash's medical data was supposed to be the decoy. But what I was actually looking for was gone. Erased."
"The evidence that the accelerator accident happened by design," Cisco guessed.
"I lost control," Hartley repeated. "I guessed that Harrison was trying to create someone like Barry, if not him specifically. I wanted to... punish Harrison. Take his new toy away. But he wasn't a toy, he was a person and I..." Hartley shook his head. "Why am I even telling you this?"
Cisco kept quiet for a few minutes, giving Hartley a chance to regroup himself. Then, it was back to story time.
"He needed Barry not just to be a speedster, but one who was fast enough to time travel. Once Barry got fast enough, Wells would have been able to use Barry's running as a catalyst to trigger his own ability to time travel and return to the future. Whatever was left of his future anyway; pretty sure whatever he thought he was going home to wasn't really there anymore. Not the way he'd left it anyway. The singularity was the... stick, I guess. He'd programmed the accelerator to automatically turn on and create it; Ronnie and I couldn't stop it in time. And Eddie... Detective Eddie Thawne shot himself."
"Detective Thawne," Hartley echoed, turning sharply towards Cisco. "Eobard Thawne's ancestor, I take it?"
"Yeah. He survived... because his own meta abilities activated. Some sort of healing plasma. Looked kind of like blue fire. But the event was enough to destabilize Eobard Thawne's existence enough that he reverted back to his original appearance for a few moments before... it was like he shattered into nothing. But we still had the singularity to worry about." Cisco scrubbed a hand over his face. "Barry ran up there and was able to stabilize it; keep it from growing further. But he couldn't keep those speeds up forever and he couldn't get rid of it on his own. So FIRESTORM did. But it cost us Ronnie all over again."
"I'm sorry," Hartley said, sincerely. "It's gotta be shitty for Caitlin, loosing him twice like that." He shook his head and rejoined Cisco on the couch to finish his now cold latte in silence.
"They'd finally gotten married too. She's considering leaving STAR Labs; can't really blame her."
Hartley poked at his unfinished cookie for a few moments then leaned away from it and his empty to-go cup. "What about you? Going to start over somewhere else?"
"Wells apparently left half of STAR Labs to me. I'm supposed to go talk to his lawyers about it on Monday. Just guessing, but it's pretty likely the other half went to Barry. I have no idea what I'm going to do."
"Donate generously to charity?"
"Aside from that." Cisco shrugged. "I don't know the first thing about running a business... and I don't know what condition the Lab's finances are actually in because Wells was taking care of that. If I thought I was in over my head before, I am about to be officially drowning. And for all I know, STAR Labs is only a few months away from bankruptcy because Eobard Thawne didn't give a shit about anything that happened to the Lab once he reached the point of being able to go home. This could all be one last 'fuck you' from the Reverse Flash, saddling us with a sinking ship."
"I don't think so," Hartley said quietly. "Harrison was very... compartmentalized. Probably what let him get close to us as a friend and then turn around and hurt us so easily. He never understood why caring about someone or something should get in the way of achieving something important. He wouldn't have handed you a STAR Labs on the verge of bankruptcy, Cisco. You were his favorite."
Cisco rubs absently at his chest where he remembers Dr. Wells' hand vibrating it's way past skin and bone to... and he thinks about what Wells had said about Cisco showing him what it was like to have a son. But Cisco had gotten in the way of his vendetta against the Flash which meant Cisco had to die. "He told me... from his point of view, we'd been dead for centuries. As if that justified the awful things he did. None of it mattered. It was history to him. An easy lie to tell himself so he wouldn't have to admit he'd probably never really viewed other people as real compared to himself."
Hartley looked amused at that. "Is it really history if you're changing it? Thank you, Cisco. For telling me all this. You certainly had no obligation to after everything I did and you certainly didn't have to go so far out of your way for it," he added, eyeing the crutches off to the side. "I appreciate it."
"Do you have a phone number? In case I need to get in touch with you again?"
"Pen and paper?" Once Hartley had the requested items, he wrote down a number. "Send me a text later and I'll save your number."
Cisco figured he'd probably get listed in Hartley's contacts as 'Cisquito' but whatever. Contact info was progress. Next time they talked maybe Cisco could even sound out the possibility of helping Hartley get his reputation as a scientist back.
Monday afternoon at one o'clock, Cisco, Barry, and Caitlin filed into the law offices of O'Brien, Wade, and Tanning to hear the reading of Dr. Wells final will and testament. It was a very... surreal experience.
Cisco inherited half of STAR Labs and control of the STAR Labs patent portfolio which was apparently generating a ridiculous amount of money.
Caitlin received both of Dr. Wells personal properties and some of his money. There was a stipulation in there, however, that she should contact Hartley and allow him to retrieve certain items that belonged to him, along with any of Dr. Wells' personal items that held personal value to Hartley.
Barry received nearly the rest of Dr. Wells money, his personal investment portfolio, and one quarter of STAR Labs.
"To Hartley Rathaway, contingent upon his viewing of the video left for him in the event of my death, I leave the remaining one quarter ownership of STAR Labs, including the management of the STAR Labs investment portfolio and $50,000 from my personal savings account. Should Dr. Rathaway refuse his inheritance then it shall default back to Barry Allen." The lawyer who'd been reading the will then finished the concluding statement, basically just Dr. Wells reiterating the sound mind and body part from the beginning of the will. There was a moment of quiet and then he said, "I'm afraid we've been unable to contact Dr. Rathaway for providing the final video file."
"I know how to reach him," Cisco said, without hesitation, thinking of the number in his contacts list. "I have his phone number, anyway. Would it be alright if I delivered that to him?"
He ignored the sharp looks Caitlin and Barry sent his way. It turned out it was okay for Cisco to deliver the USB. For some reason that tiny little stick in his pocket felt way heavier than all the paperwork he carried out with him. And it was a lot of paperwork.
Hartley stared at the USB drive like he thought it might bite him.
"I'd rather not watch that. And I don't give shit about whatever I might've left at Harrison's house," he finally said. "But I also... don't want Caitlin finding some of..." he paused a beat. "I wrote some really awful poetry and I'd rather no one else read it. Certainly I don't want anything of Harrison's. Nothing of his has value to me anymore."
But it might have once. Cisco was fairly certain Hartley hadn't meant to imply that.
Hands shaking, Hartley actually picked up the USB drive and twisted it around in his fingers. "I don't want to give him another chance to get in my head. I don't want to hear his last words or chance I might..." he laughed, a broken little sound. "Too late I guess. He's dead and what I want still doesn't matter."
Quietly, Cisco pulled out his laptop from under the couch and unlocked it, handing it over to Hartley. "Do you want some privacy? I can go hangout in my bedroom until you're done."
"No." Hartley shook his head. "I shouldn't be alone for this or I might..." he didn't finish the thought. Just plugged in the USB and opened up the video.
"Hartley," and... wow. Cisco doesn't think he's ever heard that tone from Dr. Wells before. This... this is going to get very personal.
"I honestly... I don't know what to say. I thought I'd have something by the time I pressed record, but I just... I loved you. I don't expect you to believe that. But I did. I loved you. And I wish that it had been enough to stop me. That it wasn't shouldn't be taken as a reflection upon yourself. It was my failing, not yours." He said something then, in Latin, and Hartley flinched.
"I was broken long ago in a timeline that no longer exists. I wish I could blame what I've done on madness, but that's the easy way out. I can't say I didn't use our relationship to manipulate you because I no longer know where that line is. I crossed it so long ago that everything I do has some element of manipulation to it. Even this."
On the screen, Wells hesitated, seeming almost nervous. "If you call Dr. McGee, you might find you have a job waiting for you there. Offered to spite me, I have no doubt. There are others as well, but Mercury is where you're likely to be happiest. It seems that when my own reputation was called into question by the press conference I gave during your temporary stay in our pipeline; your reputation was at least somewhat restored as a result.
"That being said, I'm leaving you some funds and a quarter ownership of STAR Labs. By now you may have heard that I'm something of an identity thief. If not, I'm certain Cisco will answer your questions even though the two of you still cannot stand one another's presence. Suffice it to say that STAR Labs was meant to be someone else's legacy. And because I cannot give it back, I can only pass it forward. To Cisco, to Barry... and to you if you'll have it.
"I believe great things can still come from STAR Labs, but not by my hands. In truth I was only ever a fraud in this century. All my greatest achievements in the future from which I hailed did me no good in this time. My future knowledge meant every scientific breakthrough I made in this era came by stealing it from those who would have truly made them, five, ten fifteen years off from when I made them instead. Again, that will probably make more sense if you speak to Cisco.
"It's likely, if you're seeing this, that I'm dead. Or so far in the future that I might as well not exist. Had things been different, I would have liked to see you in my time." There was more Latin and more flinching on Hartley's part. "You and Cisco were both so bright, I'd have liked to see you catch up to and then surpass my peers from my time. But even were it possible, I know you wouldn't have come with me. After what I did to you, I deserve neither your company nor your forgiveness.
"I tried to balance the needs of STAR Labs against those I would name my heirs to achieve some sort of balance while giving you each the freedom to walk away. I have no doubt Caitlin and Ronnie will choose to leave, with or without the inheritance I've left Caitlin. Barry and Cisco will each stay. They need STAR Labs resources to continue their efforts as team Flash. Perhaps, when he's freed, Dr. Allen will take Caitlin's place as the team's doctor in caring for his son's injuries. Had I not needed to destroy the Flash so desperately, so personally... STAR Labs would have become ours, not just mine. And so I offer you now what I could not before. Even if you reject it, please know... you have always been my guy, Hartley. Always."
The screen went blank, not unlike Hartley's rather fixed expression.
"I need to hit something," he said, standing up and stalking out of Cisco's apartment.
Letting out a shuddering breath, Cisco leaned back on his couch. Eobard Thawne was such a bastard.
"He thought I would leave?!" Caitlin's voice went up an octave. "He... I..." she deflated. "I've been thinking of applying to Mercury Labs. But now I really want to spite him."
"Make the choices that make you happy and that you think you can live with," Cisco advised her. "I get the feeling that all of us doing our best to live well will lead to us each spiting him in the end."
"When did you get so wise?"
"Must have read it on a fortune cookie." Cisco grinned teasingly.
"My best friend, one smart cookie," Caitlin declared and then hugged him. Cisco buried himself in her arms and, for a short while anyway, all was right with the world.