Chapter 2
"Do you think Hartley will accept his quarter ownership of STAR Labs?" Barry asks. "Also, can I just say, I'm kind of glad you got the most control over the Lab? If he'd given it all to me, I probably wouldn't think to use it for anything but Flash stuff and I like being a CSI too much to give it the attention it needs. And I wouldn't trust Hartley to have our best interests in mind. But you're probably the most kind-hearted person I know and you love STAR Labs."
Cisco blushes. "That's... um... thanks?" He has no idea, though, if Hartley will accept his partial ownership of STAR Labs or not. He was so pissed off when he left the apartment and hasn't spoken to Cisco since. For Hartley's sake, Cisco hasn't mentioned that Harrison... Eobard confessed his love for Hartley. It's not really any of their business.
So he changes the subject. "We really need to figure out what STAR Labs finances looks like. I know Dr. Wells was contracting the book keeping out to a third party and it'd be a good idea to stick with them for now, but... we need to know what kind of excuses he was making for our Flash related expenses so that we don't start looking suspicious for... well, for telling them a completely different lie than he was."
Barry grimaced. "Yeah. You're right. We'll need to make an appointment with them to go over the books. I took a personal finance class in college, though, and it nearly sent me to sleep."
"That's still more lessons in personal finances than I learned," Cisco admitted ruefully. "My high school gave us some booklets on the subject, but I think the only time we really had any 'applied lessons' on the subject was in my elementary school when we did our class trip to 'Enterprise City' and had assigned businesses to run for the day."
"Oh I remember that. My elementary did it too. And then we went again in Middle School. It was more fun the second time," Barry said. "We actually understood how it worked for the second go round and I got to run the jewelry store with Iris that time."
"Yeah, I got fined for walking on the 'grass' during my first break - which was just green carpet and I was totally against that stupid rule when we were making up the city laws in class - and later in the day couldn't afford this cool notebook set being sold at the general store," Cisco groaned. "I mean, I guess I could have if I'd known how to budget better, but we were sixth graders being handed fake money and I'd already bought some earrings for my mom's birthday and... something else. I don't remember what, but with all that plus the fine? I was, like, ten fake dollars short and it still bothers me."
Barry snickered, grinning widely for the first time in weeks. At least it's the first time that's Cisco's seen in a while. As such, Cisco considered the whole conversation a massive success.
"So, how's Eddie doing?" To Cisco's surprise, and amusement, Barry blushed. And then stammered a bit. Seemed like all that time he's spending with Iris and Eddie lately may be less third-wheel-y than expected.
Hartley does accept his inheritance from Thawne after all.
He shows up about a week after meeting Cisco to view Wells' USB video message, sitting in the Cortex, sitting in a rolling chair with his booted feet propped up on the desk, precariously close to the keyboard. It makes Cisco twitchy.
"The security here is abominable. If I'd known I could have just walked in and no one would notice for an hour, I wouldn't have bothered to blow out the windows on my parent's building." Hartley paused, then reconsidered. "Then again, that was really cathartic so maybe..."
"Hartley. Rathaway. For god's sake, get your feet away from the keyboard," Cisco hissed, paying attention to nothing else. It was a nice keyboard. Ergonomic. Cisco liked that damn keyboard.
Rolling his eyes, Hartley got his feet off the desk.
Cisco immediately felt better. Caitlin, quite clearly, did not.
"What are you doing here?" Caitlin demanded.
"Well, I do own about a fourth of the place. I've got every right to be here." He smirked at her. "And, as I was saying, the security here is awful. Not that it was ever all that good to begin with, but are the doors ever even locked now? What good are RFID scanners if no one uses their badges anymore? And why hasn't the part of the building that was damaged during the accelerator accident been repaired yet? Even if security get's fixed so that people can't just walk in the front door and straight to your little alter to the Flash you've got on display here, it's not exactly hard for someone to get inside where the walls are still gaping open to the elements."
Caitlin spluttered in outrage and dismay but Cisco just felt relieved. Because they do need better security, especially if STAR Labs is ever supposed to make something of itself again.
"He's got a point, Caitlin," were words that did not endear Cisco to Caitlin at all. "If our security were better maybe the janitor wouldn't have been able to walk out with my Cold Gun prototype and sell it to Captain Cold."
"You built that?" Hartley perked up, his slightly manic looking glee at tweaking Caitlin's nose - metaphorically - morphing into genuine interest.
"Yeah." Cisco's not proud of it, not after what Snart used it for, but he's not going to deny it either.
"From a scientific standpoint, that gun is a work of art," Hartley observed. "Rather impractical for Snart's use of it - he's a showman at heart and he'd make a spectacle out of throwing rocks at the Flash if he had to in order to get the attention he craves."
"Takes one to know one," Caitlin muttered, scowling unrepentantly at Hartley.
His smile turned a touch manic again. "Let's make sure no more janitors walk out with our tech again, shall we?"
"Then I guess we're all going to need new badges. Including Barry, Detectives West and Thawne, and Iris," Cisco said, giving Hartley a steady look in case the other man objected. He can't argue against a badge for Barry, who could just phase through the building anyway even if he weren't a partial owner entitled to full access to STAR Labs. But the rest... Hartley could object there. He'd get nowhere, not with Cisco and Barry's ownership of the building outweighing Hartley's, but...
"All Team Flash members, I suppose," Hartley sighed. "Whatever. Badges for everyone. But we're getting STAR Labs secure again."
"Fine," Caitlin responds tightly.
In reality step one is getting Hartley's work account reactivated, deactivating Dr. Wells work account, raising the clearance ratings on Hartley, Caitlin, and Cisco's accounts so they've all got the highest access allowed by the existing security system, and then issuing the three of them new badges. Then they have to figure out how to add new accounts and both Cisco and Hartley find themselves swearing at the human resource department's shitty software a few dozen times over before they finally figure out how to make new accounts.
By that point, Caitlin's already taken her new badge and returned to her office. Cisco has no idea if she's going to stay, but even if she doesn't that badge will always work for her. Always.
"I miss having an HR department," Hartley laments as they successfully print out a badge for Barry, whose picture comes from the STAR Labs CCTV footage.
"Yeah. Everyone basically either quit or got fired after the... well it wasn't an accident. The incident, then," Cisco told him. "It didn't happen all at once, but... by the time Barry woke up from his coma, it was down to Dr. Wells, Caitlin, me, our parking lot security guard, and a janitor."
"Who stole the Cold Gun."
"And the Heat Gun. That was mine too," Cisco admitted. "The janitor vanished afterwards, though, so he's either dead or living it up on a beach somewhere." Probably dead, knowing how Snart operated. "Wells hired a replacement who comes by on the weekends."
"We're gonna get to go on a hiring spree then," Hartley said, looking less than pleased. "I hate doing interviews. Either side of the hiring table."
"Maybe we can lure back someone who worked in HR here previously?" Cisco asked, half joking.
"It's a possibility. Someone who'd come back for a raise both monetarily and in position would be our best bet, but we'd need to reconfigure the security system first so that the cortex is the most inaccessible part of the building. Probably install a bunch more RFID readers all over the place to keep that section of the building compartmentalized. And the pipeline. Even if you hadn't turned it into a prison," and there is something clipped and angry sounding in Hartley's tone as he says the word 'prison', "it's not something any new employees should be allowed to poke into."
Cisco kind of has the feeling that Hartley's waiting to blow up over the pipeline when he's got a complete audience. And, surely enough, hen Barry arrives at lunch time, Hartley definitely wound up exploding.
"I promise to keep my nose out of the Flash business. You want to give someone clearance to the building because they're part your little entourage, whatever. I won't complain. But." Hartley's eyes narrow. "No more pipeline prison. I don't care if you think its an emergency, that Iron Heights can't handle whatever power, yada yada yada. I find out that you're keeping anyone down there for longer than forty-eight hours at the most and I will gleefully turn you into the authorities. I really don't give a fuck if that means I go to prison right along with you."
Barry moved to object, but Hartley just steamrolled right past him.
"You want to call yourself a hero? Fine. Then fucking well start acting like one. You can start by owning up to the fact that, legally speaking, every single person you kept in that pipeline was a person you were torturing. Forced isolation is considered a pretty nasty form of psychological torture these days. And you had no legal standing to incarcerate any of us. Not here any way. So find a better way of handling the metas who commit crimes from here on out. Because if you don't, then you're no better than the bad guys you fight."
There are red spots high on Barry's cheeks; Caitlin looks absolutely incandescent with rage, and probably shame, at having to be told off by Hartley of all people. Certainly Cisco's all flushed and angry too, but... what can they say? Hartley's right and objecting to being told they can't psychologically torture people any more would kind of make them monsters.
"We could donate the the time and equipment to upgrade a wing at Iron Heights to handle metas. The cells and one of the yards could be equipped with power dampeners." Cisco had floated the idea before, to Dr. Wells. No surprise in retrospect that Wells had said no.
"We donate to upgrade the holding cells at the precinct," Hartley countered. "Iron Heights we do for a discount. STAR Labs is totally dependent on patents, licensing agreements made prior to the accelerator incident, and stock options to remain afloat right now. This is one way to start bringing in a fresh revenue stream that the Lab is going to need to keep from running out of money a few years down the line."
"It's a good plan," Barry allowed, tense and angry. "You'll stay out of Flash business?"
"Yes." Hartley and Barry exchange silent glares for a long moment after that.
Then Barry nodded. "Sounds good to me. And I'll stay out of the way while you and Cisco get STAR Labs back in business."
Hartley nods curtly. "Caitlin, the biotech department is all yours. I'm sure you've no objections, Cisco?"
"Nope." Caitlin deserves to be head of that department, once it's an actual department again.
"We'll figure out our new salaries and budgets later." Hartley checked his watch. "I've got an apartment contract to look over, but I'll be back afterwards." Hesitantly, he asked, "Snow... when would be a good time for me to retrieve my things from Wells former residence?"
"We can do that after your lease signing today," Caitlin tells him, voice stiff.
As Hartley walked out, Cisco turned to Barry. "So, um, we're going to be working on getting building security back up to snuff. All the RFID readers are going to be coming back online soon. So, here's a badge for you. We'll need Joe and everyone else to come by later so we can have their pictures on their badges."
"Rathaway's idea?" Barry asks.
"Yeah, but its a good one. Right now pretty much anyone can get in. We need to repair the damage to the building itself too. It's probably been getting worse since the initial damage was done since it's been left alone for so long."
"I can do that. If you can get me the materials," Barry told him. "I've been repairing some of the buildings around Central lately, so I've had the practice in. Everything I've repaired so far has been up to code."
"Not that I want to advocate for you spending even more time not sleeping than you already are, but that's a really great idea. The last thing we want to worry about are contractors nosing around and finding your suit." That'd be a disaster and Cisco does not want to deal with it. At least he and Hartley should be able to install new RFID readers themselves.
"Are we really okay with Hartley just... taking over like this?" Caitlin demanded.
"I've got fifty percent ownership," Cisco reminded her. "If I think he's suggesting something bad for STAR Labs, I'll overrule him. But right now he's got a better idea of what STAR Labs needs than the rest of us do. I hate to say it, but... we kind need him."
"I trust you and Cisco to keep him in line and as long as he keeps to his promise to stay out of Flash business..." Barry shrugged. "I don't really see that we have a choice right now."
"Alright. I'll put up with him for now," Caitlin did not sounds happy at all to be saying that. "But if he goes off the rails again..."
"Then we'll find a legal way to toss him out on his ass," Barry promised. "He's right about the pipeline, though."
"Yeah..." Caitlin ducked her head, staring down at the floor. "I know."
The news that Hartley's working with them on STAR Labs related business goes over with Joe like a lead balloon. Cisco is very, very grateful that Hartley's still with Caitlin at Wells house because...
Rathaway may be an asshole but he really does not need to hear what Joe has to say about him.
"Look, I get it," Cisco finally snapped, butting into the argument Joe and Barry have been having where they've been basically arguing the same side at each other and badmouthing Hartley and Cisco's finding himself in the uncomfortable position of playing Hartley's advocate. "He hurt your son," he said to Joe. "But he's also got a point that we were all party to psychologically torturing people for the last year. We all fucked up. And none of us are in a position to be throwing stones at glass houses right now. Let's try not to be even bigger hypocrites than we already are, okay? So just lay off Rathaway; odds are you're rarely ever going to see him anyway."
They all should have known better, but both Joe and Barry worked in law enforcement. If anyone should have been shutting down the pro-pipeline bandwagon with a healthy dose of reality and ethics, it ought to have been these two. And thankfully that reminder, that they had no excuses and no room to cast judgement, shut both Barry and Joe down.
"Still don't like it," Joe grumbled, but it wasn't really in Joe to back down gracefully.
Not that Cisco cared, so long as Joe backed down. It wasn't his decision anyway.
Arguably it was Cisco's decision. And he wanted to give Hartley a second chance. Even if he had to drag everyone kicking and screaming back to the starting line to get it.
Cisco finds Hartley in his old lab the next morning. There are hand drawn sketches laid out on a table top and a laptop hooked up to a couple of monitors in one corner. It all looks rather hastily thrown together, like Hartley picked the room more for familiarity than functionality.
"What'cha working on?" Cisco asked.
"Branching out with your power inhibitor designs," Hartley said. "There's this girl at the building I've been... squatting in. Not really sure how old she is; younger than the twenty-two she's been claiming, though. Her powers activate at random in her sleep and I'd like to make her something that'll be easy to keep charged and give her peace of mind for sleeping through the night... but easily turned off if she needs to defend herself when she wakes up. Your cuffs make a good starting point, but those aren't finished yet and I'm not sticking her in something designed specifically for restraining criminals anyway."
Cisco swallowed hard because... homeless kids with meta powers. How did it never occur to him this was a possibility?
"What do you have so far?" Cisco walked over and started poking at the design plans Hartley's been working on.
There's a scribbled out necklace design with a hastily scrawled 'don't want her to strangle herself in her sleep' next to it. Two bracelets with a question mark on another page. Probably too much like the handcuffs design for Hartley's comfort.
"Does it have to be wearable?" Cisco asked, flicking to the third page, which had a nightlight concept but the math wouldn't hold up over the distance nor could the girl, whoever she was, turn it on and off easily enough even if the nightlight could be somehow made powerful enough to affect a meta from a distance. "Maybe something that attaches to the bed's headboard or can be clipped onto a mattress or sleeping bag... if she needs to have the on/off switch on her person there could be a control bracelet... or a smart watch maybe."
Hartley nodded. "I've been running into the same problem you have with the cuffs. They don't hold a charge long enough because the process of producing the dampening field takes too much energy. We'd need a decent sized phone battery to keep it up for a few hours, so it's better off plugged in. But then from an outlet, there's not enough oomph in a small device to blanket her powers unless she's sleeping on the floor right in front of it."
"So it'll need a long cord on it and the control mechanism is the only thing we'd need to worry about being wireless," Cisco opined.
They spend the rest of the morning working on the design and wind up with something more along the lines of dual clips - one at the head of the bed and one at the base. They'd both need to be plugged in, but a single trigger device would work to control both simultaneously.
It's probably the best working session Cisco's ever had with Hartley. They sniped at each other, sure, but it never got heated. Never got personal. Cisco can't help but feel proud at the idea that they've moved beyond the worst of their pettiness towards each other. But he also remembers Dr. Wells walking in on them working together in the past and his amusement at their bickering. The way he'd fanned the flames of their rivalry, egging them each on. He'd never thought of it that way before, but now it seems obvious.
"Penny for your thoughts," Hartley said, setting aside their project for later. They had other things to work on in the afternoon. Like deciding who from HR they were going to try to tempt back first.
"Barry volunteered to repair the broken parts of the building. If we can get the building materials, he's faster than any work crew and has memorized all the building codes for structural, electrical, and plumbing work." Better to bring that up than his actual thoughts concerning Dr. Wells.
Hartley hummed thoughtfully. "We really should have a building inspector come out first. Tell us what all needs to be fixed and what permits we might need from the city first. I'm sure Harrison had someone out at one point for insurance purposes, but it's only gotten worse since then. I think we're going to have to re-insure the building," he added grimacing.
Cisco had completely forgotten work permits were a thing. They'd need permits for any structural changes for certain. Whether they'd need further permits for the electrical and plumbing work depended entirely on what kind of work needed to be done.
"Being in charge sucks," Cisco decided.
"Definitely," Hartley agreed.
They exchanged hesitant smiles.
It becomes a routine with the two of them from there. In the mornings Cisco and Hartley work on the meta power inhibitor. In the afternoon, they work on everything else.
Hartley works on getting them a city inspection and the permits they need to start repairs, as well as the building materials Barry will need to make those repairs. Cisco installs new RFID readers and a few new doors too - with Barry's help - to separate the parts of the building dedicated to the Flash and the pipeline from the parts that will, hopefully, fill up with scientists once more. He starts looking into bio metrics based security too, though no decisions have been made on what the next step for building security will be yet. They sit down with Caitlin and determine which projects that were shut down before the accelerator blew should be scheduled to restart once they have the man power again. There are more than a few they determine aren't feasible and have too many ethical considerations for their comfort.
There are a few afternoons dedicated to installing the power dampeners at the CCPD, which Cisco does on his own. There were concerns that Hartley might be recognized as the Pied Piper - the police never officially connected Hartley to his alter ego but he wasn't exactly careful about concealing his identity either. Cisco would rather not push their luck and Hartley was in no rush to grace the cells they were supposed to be 'improving' as a guest rather than a technician.
Today, with the outer walls of STAR Labs completely whole for the first time in over a year and a half, would be their first interview.
Cathy Myers had formerly been part of the STAR Labs HR department. She'd left shortly before the accelerator incident due to a personality clash with another member of the department. There'd been no reports of harassment on either woman's part, but after Cathy left several others began to report difficulties working with the same woman she'd had problems with. It turned out Karen Fowler had a habit of taking credit for other people's work while doing very little herself. With Fowler gone and the promise of a pay raise and the chance to run the HR department herself, Cathy had been more than happy to be lured out for an interview to see if she was a good fit for STAR Labs' rebirth and change in leadership.
Cisco is waiting for her in the entry hall at eleven o'clock sharp with a visitor's pass for her. The RFID security has been officially active again for the last week and Cisco's rather proud of himself for getting even the secret nooks and crannies Eobard Thawne had built in for his Reverse Flash shenanigans covered. Barry and Caitlin are both impressed by how much thought he put into cordoning off which parts of the building. Hartley, of course, is as inscrutable as ever.
Cathy shakes Cisco's hand and grins at him. "So I hear you and Hartley inherited this behemoth and are trying to get it running again." She doesn't know about Barry; he's asked to stay more of a silent partner in all of this and Cisco and Hartley had their own reasons for agreeing to his request.
"That's right," Cisco said. "Dr. Wells had us doing some consult work for the CCPD. Trying to help make up for the accident, I guess. But that's not exactly going to keep STAR Labs going long term so that is where Hartley and I are trying to change things now. Re-start research and development and partner with companies like Palmer Tech. We're really hoping you're going to want to be a part of this." Cisco offered her what he hoped was a charming smile. "Honestly, this isn't going to be a traditional interview. We already know we want you for this job, Cathy. The question is..."
"Do I want the job?" She grinned. "Well, let's find out, shall we?"
Cathy Myers accepts the job and doesn't even try to haggle over the salary they offer her. Hartley's research, it seems, was right on the mark. She has to give two weeks notice at her current place of work and then she wants another two weeks before starting to take a vacation with her husband. They agree to her start date, get the contracts signed and filed, and then Cisco's looking forward to a slow afternoon for a change.
Hartley, however, has other plans.
"I want you to come with me when I set up the dampeners for Audra." Hartley looks nervous and it takes Cisco a moment to realize Audra must be the young homeless girl Hartley's been working so hard to help.
"Uh, sure. Okay. Will she be okay with me being there?"
"It'll be okay," Hartley insists, not exactly answering the question. But Hartley's the one who knows Audra, so... it's his call for now.
It's weird passing by the building where he'd fallen through the floor. He's pretty much all recovered at this point. His ankle isn't even in a boot anymore, though it still gets achy easily and he'll wrap it up when it does.
But they head into the building Hartley had been staying in. It's actually in fairly good condition inside, though Cisco wonders whether the electricity powering the lights is through an illegal tap or not. Idle curiosity rather than actual concern about the legality of the answer. Cisco gets some wary looks from the few people hanging around in the hall and stairwell, but Hartley gets smiles and welcoming nods so Cisco sticks close to him.
Audra is definitely not twenty-two. She's maybe seventeen by the look of her. But she's got a functional lock on the door which makes him marginally less uncomfortable that she's a teenager squatting in an apartment building that is officially condemned.
Cisco can't help but wonder how much of the building's improved condition is Hartley's doing.
"Someone is buying the building," Audra says when they walk inside, giving Hartley an accusing stare. "Everyone's worried we're gonna have to find somewhere else."
"That's not going to be a problem," Hartley tells her. "The person who has... is buying the building's contract has no intention of throwing anyone out."
Contract... Hartley had said contract that day, hadn't he? Apartment contract to look over... Caitlin was the one who'd called it a lease signing - assumed it was a lease signing - and Hartley just... hadn't corrected her.
"How much would this building cost?" Cisco asked curiously and Hartley suddenly looks like a deer in the headlights.
"It's condemned, can't be that much," Audra muttered. "We'll get kicked out or arrested for trespassing and everything you've been doing for us will be for nothing."
"Audra just... please calm down, okay?" Hartley patted the girl's shoulders awkwardly. "Can we just... talk about this inside?" As soon as the door closes, Hartley tells her, "I've already bought the building, Audra. So just, please, calm down. The power outage the other day was me getting the building swapped over to a legal source of electricity instead of just tapping the grid and hoping we don't get caught."
She stares at him. "Why... how..."
"I told you, I inherited a lot of money recently and have my old job back. I bought the building for the price of the land and land prices in this part of Central are ridiculously low. I didn't even have to get a loan." Which meant it had sold for under $50,000.
Homes sold as bank foreclosures often went as low as a few thousand depending on where in Central the house was located, but a lot big enough to hold a broken down apartment building would have still cost a good chunk of Hartley's inheritance. And the taxes on it...
"I didn't want to spread it around 'cause I didn't want anyone to think I'm gonna kick them out to renovate and gentrify the place. I bought the building so that no one can force us to leave. But... the place does need to get fixed up for the sake of everyone already living here and I don't know how I'm going to manage that without freaking everyone out."
Hartley could get Barry's help, but having the Flash running around fixing up the building wasn't exactly conducive to the whole 'don't freak out' vibe Hartley was trying to maintain. Something to talk to him about later, Cisco supposed.
"So, where do you want the power dampeners set up?" Cisco asked, defusing the situation. Temporarily anyway.
"This way." Audra has them hook up the dampeners to her bed. Well, she has Cisco do it while getting into a quiet argument with Hartley over him being a bleeding heart moron.
Hartley doesn't say another word as they leave the building. He won't even look at Cisco. They get into the STAR Labs van and Cisco honestly thinks the silence is going to last all the way back to the lab.
Even with Hartley owning the building now, it's probably still not legal for all those people to be living there. The building is still, technically, condemned. Though if Hartley were to hack city hall... and Cisco's not gonna speculate.
"Please don't ask. I have no idea what I'm doing," Hartley admitted quietly as Cisco put the van in gear.
"I haven't had lunch yet. And I know you haven't either. So... where do you want to go? I'm buying." Cisco smiled brightly and just... let it go for now.
"Audra reminds me of my little sister," is the most Hartley says about himself over the next week. Everything else is work related, for all that Cisco does try to change the subject a few times.
Cisco tries not to regret that the emitters are done now, because that means he no longer has a joint project to work on with Hartley in the mornings.
It's a weird week all around.