Summary: Hartley's not quite sure how he went from fighting the Flash to allying with him. But he does know it's all Cisco's fault.
Somehow, he's okay with this turn of events anyway.
Notes: For Hartmon Bingo prompt B5 - Hartley joins Team Flash
Just to note, I'm taking the investigation into Nora's death out of order a little bit so that the visit to Barry's childhood home happens post Snart's kidnapping of Cisco. The narrative worked better that way.
Warnings: suicide mention related to a discussion of a work of fiction
Trust Is a Beautiful Thing
It's just quid pro quo, Hartley tells himself the first time he helps out Team Flash. They don't send him to jail for his vandalism or stuff him in the pipeline to protect their identities and he helps build the Patro-no. (Well, okay, they also helped him get a job at Mercury Labs too, but that's the very least of what Harrison owes him.)
It's supposed to be a one time thing only.
It's not a one time thing.
Hartley's picking up the last of his hidden electronics stashes he'd scattered throughout the warehouse district before luring out the Flash some months earlier, when he hear's Cisco's voice. It's muffled, distant, and Hartley wants to collect his tech before it winds up scavenged by someone else. Admittedly, he's pretty lucky the half-finished flute is there at all. He'd forgotten about it in the wake of learning about time travel and zombie-speedster dementers and then woke up that morning unable to think about anything else.
While he can't hear what Cisco's saying, Hartley does hear the note of panic in the other man's voice.
"One and done," Hartley reminds himself, shoving the last of his tech stash into his backpack. But Cisco's voice sounds again, panic and fear taking normal tones up a half step. "Not my problem," he insists to himself. Only he's already walking in the direction he hears Cisco from.
Eventually other voices start to register too. Low and melodious. Deep and gravely. Beautiful voices if not for how they were frightening Cisco.
Hartley had brought his gloves with him when he packed up for the bus ride and long walk that morning. Just in case he ran into trouble. Now he pulls out his gloves from his backpack and puts them on, priming them without a thought once they're each secured.
He never much liked Cisco... but a scared Cisco Ramon was just wrong somehow.
By the time Hartley's peering in through a boarded up window, he's got the gist of the situation. Leonard Snart and Mick Rory - more recently known as Captain Cold and Heatwave - had taken Cisco and his brother Dante hostage. In part to force Cisco to make them new guns, including one for Snart's sister Lisa who was currently making a brunch run, but most likely also to get the Flash's real identity out of Cisco. After all, Cisco wouldn't want to be gaslit into feeling responsible for someone else's choice to do violence to his brother, now would he?
Hartley has zero plans for how to handle this on his own. It wouldn't work and if Lisa Snart showed up with a regular gun to surprise him with?
Swearing under his breath, Hartley retreated to a nearby building, turned off his gloves, and called a phone number that he might've hacked STAR Labs to get before he walked out one last time a week or so earlier.
"Hello?" answers Barry Allen.
"You know, you should be more careful not to misplace your friends," Hartley told him, waiting for the accusation.
"What have you done with Cisco?" And there it was.
"Nothing. But from what I've overheard, it sounds like Captain Cold, his sidekick, and his sister have had a lot to do with him." Hartley texted his current location to Allen's phone while he spoke. "They've got his older brother too and are currently looking for firepower. Or ice-power, as the preference may be."
There's a rushing noise over the phone and then in the building as Hartley hangs up. Allen's suddenly just there, decked out in red. He gives Hartley's gloves a skeptical look while Hartley tucks his phone back in his bag. "What? I was squatting in these warehouses before you helped me become gainfully employed again. Forgot a few things I came to pick back up."
"And you needed the gloves for that?" Barry asked, skeptical.
"Well... no. Still in the habit of taking them everywhere with me. Better than a taser," Hartley responded mockingly. "So did you see where they're keeping the brothers Ramon?"
"Yeah. Thanks for the tip off." Allen prepares to run off, but Hartley stops him with a hand against his upper arm.
Very nice muscles on that one, but Hartley can't say he cares for the suit's texture. Not that it matters with his gloves on at the moment. "Cold's already got his new gun. Heatwave's isn't ready yet and Cisco hasn't even started on whatever Snart wants made for his sister. All Rory's got is a normal gun and that's not exactly a match for my gloves."
"Are you... offering to help?" Barry asks, bewildered.
"Nothing's ever free, but yes."
"For a price down the line, huh?" The eyes behind the mask narrow suspiciously, but Hartley just smiles prettily and mock flutters his lashes.
"You'll owe me a favor. Or Cisco will. I really don't care. It's not like I'll be able to make either one of you do anything against your consciences," he answers, half teasing and half serious.
"Whatever. Come on. Get Rory knocked out fast and then get Cisco and Dante out of there. I'll catch up and take you all to STAR Labs, alright?"
Hartley grimaces, but primes his gloves again. "I hate that place," he mutters under his breath, but nods anyway.
Barry's opening salvo is actually taking the normal gun away from Mick before dodging Cold's freezing weaponry, giving Hartley the freedom to knock Rory around while Snart's too distracted by Barry's perfect ass in that body-hugging suit to pay attention to his partner.
No one will ever convince Hartley that Snart wasn't massively ogling the Flash during that fight.
Hartley can't tell what Barry did with Rory's gun, but that mean's Hartley opponent is clueless too. And though Mick goes after what's likely another gun on the far table, Hartley flips the whole thing with one hand, then knocks Rory sprawling into a wall with the other. When Mick doesn't get back up, Hartley spares a glance over to Cisco, who is ripping circuits out of the heat gun casing in his hands.
Deciding to risk it, Hartley deactivated his gloves, pulled out a pocket knife, and cut Dante Ramon loose. Dante - the better dressed Ramon - sticks closely to Hartley without being told, and they head over to Cisco.
It takes a little cajoling and maybe Hartley should feel bad about leveraging Dante's presence to make Cisco leave the half-made heat gun behind, but he manages to get Cisco to start thinking rationally again and they book it out of there.
Dante disappears first, moment later joined by Cisco. Hartley has one, despairing moment as he hears an angry Captain Cold on his tail to wonder if the Flash will actually come back for him. Then the world blurs and Hartley's (relatively) safe at STAR Labs.
Cisco actually thanks Hartley afterwards. It's weird.
Hartley doesn't actually mean to finish the flute. It's just... he needs to keep his hands busy and he never liked leaving things half done.
He finishes it the night the Tricksters attack a gala Hartley's parents are attending. He'd been waiting for the nightly weather report when it got interrupted by breaking news about Tricksters one and two and...
His parents are there. Hartley doesn't need to see the guest list to know they're there. Osgood and Rachel Rathaway are some of Central City's who's who and they always attend these sorts of events. Which means they've been poisoned and if they don't get the antidote in time they'll die. Even with the antidote, they're probably going to get very sick before they get better.
And despite the way they treated him, Hartley's on tenterhooks the whole time the tv is on until the moment it's announced the Flash had won the day. Or night, as it were.
When it's over, Hartley looks down to see the flute needing only one last connector set. He doesn't remember picking it up or grabbing his tools. He makes the final connection and sets the flute up on the highest shelf of his built in bookcase, turns off the tv, and goes to sleep.
He dreams about Harrison standing in front of his wheelchair and wakes up swearing softly to himself. Hartley's relationship with his parents is non-existent and complicated but he's absolutely grateful to know they're alive this morning. He doesn't owe Team Flash anything for saving their lives, but he...
They deserve to know what he saw. Whatever the risk to him might be personally.
Somehow Hartley is roped into helping Cisco and Detective West investigate the childhood home of one Barry Allen. He's questioned at length, by both of them, about how sure he is that Wells can actually walk and Cisco probably thinks Hartley's lying.
The detective wants to believe Hartley, though, so that's something at least.
Then they uncover the images detailing the moments of Nora Allen's murder. Hartley hadn't honestly believed Cisco's little Fringe inspired mirror reader would work. But not only does it work, the images make it plain there were two speedsters in that house the night of the murder. One who tried to protect Nora and saved her son and one who murdered the poor woman the moment the other speedster vanished with the kid.
"When did she die?" Hartley asked quietly. "What was the date?"
Joe's answer is... kind of terrifying really. "That's just a week before Tess Morgan died."
"Wells' fiance," West fills in, having clearly done his homework.
"It cannot be a coincidence that there were two speedsters in this house the night Nora Allen died when her son has since become a speedster. We know time travel is possible," Hartley continued, "and you said that the speedster who killed her has resurfaced. That he claims to be a time traveler himself." He paused a beat, connections twining together in his brain faster than he can articulate. "So what happens to a time traveler who alters the past enough to make the future uncertain? What if he got stuck and had to take the slow path back to a point in the future where he could regain the ability to time travel? Assuming that ability comes from being a speedster and he damaged his own powers, he'd need a second speedster to go home. Which meant ensuring Barry became the Flash, but not on fate's time table.
"The Reverse Flash had to stack the deck. Which explains why Dr. Wells wouldn't admit to the flaws in the accelerator when it actually mattered. Sure, he could be cooperating only recently in return for whatever future tech healed his legs, but... what if he was promised his fiance back."
It made a sick sort of sense. If time was re-written so that Tess Morgan never died, then nothing that happened in this timeline mattered anyway. The ultimate 'rational' carrot for the Reverse Flash to dangle in front of Harrison to ensure his cooperation.
But it also meant that his relationship with Harrison had never been real. He'd never been Harrison's guy. Which explained why he'd never responded when Hartley would say 'I love you' and the little gestures of kindness he'd shown Hartley were never anything more than a way to guarantee his protegee would keep warming his bed.
Hartley wasn't expecting for Cisco to show him compassion, but there's a brief moment where the engineer took his hand and squeezed gently. It happens so fast that Hartley spends more time being hyper aware of the phantom feelings the touch leaves behind than the actual event itself.
"I've been having nightmares," Cisco tells Hartley quietly. "Ever since you and Barry rescued Dante and me from Snart."
"That's normal after a traumatic event," Hartley hedges, wondering just why Cisco asked him to meet for coffee.
"It's not normal for me to have nightmares about Dr. Wells walking into the lab and telling me I was like a son to him before he turns into the Reverse Flash and murders me with a vibrating hand through my chest," Cisco retorted shortly. Which... dude's got a point.
"This is about what I told you yesterday," Hartley realized quietly. "That Harrison can walk."
"Were you telling the truth about that?" Cisco demanded.
"I don't have any proof," Hartley tells him, regretfully. "If I'd known what I'd end up seeing that night, I'd have set up cameras. But all I can offer you is my word that it's the truth. Harrison Wells can walk."
They sit in silence for a long while, Cisco with his coffee and Hartley with his latte.
"I'm sorry about the nightmares," Hartley finally offered. "They sound awful."
"Yeah. They are." Cisco shifted the empty coffee cup from one hand to the other and back again. "Joe wants to investigate the scene of Dr. Wells and Dr. Morgan's car crash. It's out by Starling City. Or Star city, whatever. I'm going with him tomorrow."
"Good luck. I hope you find answers," Hartley paused a beat, then added, "if you need anything... you've got my number."
"Thanks, Hartley."
That's still just so fucking weird to hear.
Cisco calls. "The nightmares were real, Hartley. In a different timeline, Dr. Wells murdered me. He's the Reverse Flash. How could I remember that? Any of it? That timeline was erased!"
"You're not going to like my answer," Hartley warns.
"Say it anyway. I... can't. Not yet."
Hartley wonders if it'd be better to have this conversation in person. But it sounds like Cisco needs this from someone he knows won't beat around the bush. So he rips off the metaphorical band aid before Cisco can start spiraling into denial over this. "Cisco. You're a meta."
On the other end of the line, the noise Cisco makes sounds terrified.
"Where are you? I'll come get you, okay? We can run a blood test at Mercury Labs, so you can be sure Harrison will never see it. If I'm right and you've got powers, the tests will show that... and then you can decide what you want to do from there. Sound good?"
"Yes," Cisco replies. Voice small. Frightened.
Hartley tries to tell himself that he's not overly invested in what's going on with Cisco, but his pretense doesn't hold up well when he finds himself giving the other man a comforting hug half an hour later.
"I know you're scared," Hartley told him. "But you've got a lot of people who care about you. Whatever you decide to do about your powers, whether it's learn to use them or suppress them or search for a way to get rid of them... they will support you all the way. And so will I, okay?"
It's a little easier to deal with this time when Cisco thanks him.
"Oh, really? So if I hadn't saved you two from the time wraith that day, you'd be just fine handing me over to ARGUS to live the rest of my life in cell? And that's just the fate of the lucky ones who don't get a bomb injected into their bodies when they're conscripted into a suicide squad." There were just enough shadowy rumors about the agency floating around out there that Hartley knew he never wanted anything to do with them.
"I thought you people were better than that," he snapped when the various members of Team Flash shuffled guiltily. "You're supposed to be the good guys. Heroes. Well you need to start fucking well acting like it, then.
"You've been literally torturing those people in your pipeline just through the inhumanely cramped quarters and lack of significant human interaction alone. Let them go. You've done enough damage already." Unsaid is the implication that Hartley's crimes are petty and meaningless compared to what they've done. But he knows they all hear it from the guilty expressions all around.
When Hartley stalks out of the cortex, so fucking offended they asked him to be party to helping hand over their locked up metas to ARGUS that he can't even look at Cisco.
He isn't sure, later, why it's Cisco's complicity in Team Flash's bad behavior that bothers him so much more than everyone else's. Well... Hartley has guesses, but nothing he wants to look too closely at.
Hartley can't stay away. He doesn't know what Team Flash finally decided about the pipeline metas, but Hartley can't pretend nothing is happening at STAR Labs either.
He ends up sticking his nose back into their business just in time to flip Harrison, or whoever he really is, across a parking lot with his gloves. It's very, very cathartic.
It turns out that Hartley's arrived at a big team up event as the Arrow (Oliver Queen, Hartley damn well knew it) and Ronnie Raymond as FIRESTORM fight alongside Barry. And Harrison was holding his own pretty well against the three of them, clearly possessing both more confidence in his powers than Barry did and more experience with his abilities than any of his opponents.
But Hartley was taught strategy from chess games with Harrison himself and he knew the way Harrison liked to have plans within plans. So he keeps out of sight until the last second, popping up from behind a car while the Reverse Flash's back was turned and...
Hours later and the painful crunch Harrison made when he impacted with the pavement was still bringing vindictively pleased smiles to Hartley's face as he replayed it in his mind all over again.
Hartley doesn't remember the singularity. Not really. His memories are scattered, too full of pain for his mind to focus. Even on his worst day without his hearing aids, Hartley's never had sound hurt so much.
But the disjointed memories of the shrieking maelstrom speak of pain on a scale that Hartley would give anything to never feel again.
It's the aftermath Hartley remembers with clarity. The sound of Caitlin crying in the background as Hartley opened his eyes. The bloodshot look in Cisco's eyes that said he'd been crying too.
There's no cause for celebration in the wake of Eobard Thawne's final defeat. Just death and destruction born of a final act of vengeance. And a burning moment of shame as Hartley finally admitted he was more like that man than he was comfortable with.
Caitlin joins Mercury Labs and Hartley helps her settle in. The enmity that used to sit between them is gone now and when she actually laughs at one of his jokes, Hartley has this sudden, fleeting though that maybe they could be friends.
He's asked to join her and Barry when they watch Harrison's final message.
Hartley starts laughing at Harrison's last ditch attempt to get inside Barry's head. "He knew he was going to lose," Hartley insists. "The asshole just wanted to try and get the last word. One final manipulation to make you feel grateful to him and guilty for it all at once. Well fuck that. You, Barry Allen, are going to take everything he left you and do amazing things with it he was too selfish to ever conceive of.
"Happiness isn't some unobtainable destination, Barry," Hartley added, more seriously. "It's something you find again and again along the way from point a to point b. Nothing's meant to last. It'd be meaningless if it did."
Hartley probably shouldn't have been so surprised to be called in to join Team Flash's intervention, staged so that Team Flash can actually be Barry's team again. But he is utterly floored that they all want him there.
So he shows up. And there's something tight in his throat when he realizes... they all count him as one of the team.
It's not just Caitlin who ends up going back to STAR Labs. Hesitantly uncertain of himself, Hartley goes too.
He never regrets it.
"So, I might have a solution for your insomnia," Hartley tells Cisco, carefully getting the flute down from the top shelf of his bookcase. He hands it over. "Before I made the gloves, my initial idea was manipulating people with sound waves. A much more elegant a solution than the one I ended up going with, but also far too difficult to achieve on the level I would have needed. I'd have never been able to force Harrison to confess his misdeeds as I'd originally hoped.
"But the flute does mimic hypnosis to some degree, placing the listener into a suggestive state. I could tell you that when you listen to your favorite music before bed time, you'll sleep without dreaming. Reinforce the suggestion enough times and..."
"I don't know," Cisco said quietly, turning the instrument over in his hands a few times. "I've always been a little wary of hypnosis. You know that episode of Doctor Who where the... I don't remember what they were called. From the first Christmas Special with David Tenant. They brainwashed people to stand on the edges of buildings and, for all that the Doctor said that no one could be made to commit suicide via hypnosis..."
"Yeah, I've also wondered how many actually did in fact choose to plummet to their deaths because the Doctor didn't take people with bad mental health into account," Hartley agreed. "Anyway. It was just an idea." He reached for the flute, only to retract his hand a moment later when Cisco held onto it.
"I trust you," Cisco told him, quiet and determined. "And... it's a good idea. I'd just... want us to plan it out really well before we start planting post hypnotic suggestions in my brain okay?"
Hartley cannot help the giant grin that blooms on his face. 'I trust you' have to be the most beautiful words he's ever heard.